Real Life CSA: week 14

Once strawberry season has passed us by, the next best thing is blueberry season. And guess what we got this week? A pint!

The berries are from Dawson's Orchard, which also has a stall at our farmer's market. We get peaches from them every year, but sadly they lost their crop this season because of the harsh winter we had. I'm glad they still have blueberries! 

These will likely get eaten straight up - they're that good. Don't get me wrong, I love fruit IN things, like blueberry pancakes or cobblers. But sometimes I just love fruit for itself.

Cucumbers will be salad toppings this week, and might even be a snack, since I find cold, crisp cucumbers to be really refreshing. The onions go in everything - we never have a problem using them up, since they are the base of a lot of recipes.

This cheese. I have no idea what it will taste like, but it's called Temptation, so I'm assuming once we open it, we won't want to stop eating?

Parsley will likely end up in some dish - I often keep the fresh herbs in the fridge to pull from before I take from my outdoor pots (which is a good thing considering some of my herbs croaked).

I made a delicious version of zuppa toscana this week from last week's kale, thanks to recipe from my friend T who discovered the recipe after getting kale in her own CSA. It was so delicious and it made great leftovers. I'm pretty sure I was the envy of my office with the smell coming out of the microwave. That will definitely be put on the rotation.

As for this week, perhaps another soup - possibly the one that SOLE for the Soul left in the comments last week - miso soup with tofu and kale.

I'm no stranger to wax beans because my grandparents grow them and we typically can from their crop every year. But these little guys will make a good side dish this week.

What's in your CSA? Any recipes to share?

a day in West Virginia

It's kind of absurd that for as close as we live to West Virginia, we rarely visit. It's true - often it takes me longer to get to work than it does to get to West Virginia. But we spent last Saturday there and it lives up to its motto - Wild and Wonderful.

We have a Stone tradition of taking our birthdays off of work and spending the day just the two of us, doing whatever activities the birthday person wants to do. But because we were just on vacation, we opted to celebrate Mark's birthday with our outing on a weekend. And he couldn't decide what he wanted to do, so he asked me to surprise him.

Our first stop was Cabela's in Tridelphia/Wheeling. 

Mark's wanted to visit this hunting and fishing paradise store for ages, and we've passed it a few times on the way to Oglebay or to Lake Cumberland and he's looked longingly out the window. So we finally went. Hoo boy.

Behold, Taxidermy Mountain.

Oh wait, there's more.

Yeah, it was a veritable museum. I'll admit, there was definitely some cool merchandise and plenty that would interest Mark as someone who likes to hunt and fish and be outdoors.

Though this was taking it a bit too far. Under Armour pink camo running tank? Yeah, no.

From Cabela's it was on to Moundsville to tour the former West Virginia Penitentiary. 

This place looked like a fortress, and that's basically what it was until it closed in 1995. Our tour guide was a former guard and he wasn't too convinced about the stories of it being haunted. For me, there wasn't anything more creepy than the fact that this place actually housed human beings less than 20 years ago.

It's a tour worth taking for the interesting (and creepy) history of the place, though I wouldn't go so far as to do what the ghost hunter shows do and stay overnight in the place (which apparently the general public can do too). I'll spare you more photos of rusty toilets and peeling paint, but let's just say it was easy to see where WV tax dollars did NOT go.

We followed up the tour with a picnic in the shade at Grand Vue Park nearby.

Mark and I had never actually had a picnic before in all the years we've been together, so this was a nice change of pace. But man was it hot. After the picnic we tried geocaching for awhile but mostly managed to traipse through a lot of weeds and get frustrated. Good thing we'll get to learn more about geocaching at the Venture Outdoors membership event on Sunday.

Due to the heat making us wilt, we skipped the zip line and mini golf they have at the park and headed back home to watch the original Planet of the Apes and eat pizza.

We'll definitely be making more day trips to West Virginia - and can't wait to go back to Grand Vue Park in the fall, with proper hiking gear and another picnic lunch!

make it yourself: baked garlic croutons

I've mentioned in my CSA posts before that we eat salads on the regular. At least once a week we have salad night - and typically it's one of Mark's prep/cook nights. But last night he was otherwise occupied with 5 million errands, so I hopped in. I knew we needed more croutons and had him give me a quick phone tutorial on how he makes our homemade ones.

Making your own croutons is actually super easy. They were actually finished by the time I had all of the other vegetables prepped! Here's the basics of how Mark makes ours. (See the end of the post for an actual recipe.)

This week I used some leftover sourdough bread that Mark had made. When we have loaves of bread, we put the leftover slices we might not use in the freezer right away before they mold or get super hard. Sometimes we have enough for croutons right away, other times we stock pile until we have a few more slices.

Microwave the bread for a bit to make it easy to cube.

Cube it up and throw it on a baking sheet to toast for 10-15 minutes.

When the bread is toasted, toss it in melted butter, garlic powder and salt. (Though really you could use other seasonings if you were interested.)

Return to the cookie sheet and bake for another 15-20 minutes, stirring at 5 minute intervals. After you're done baking, let them cool and then chow down!

Croutons are super simple to make and help you waste less bread. We are typically a sourdough house, but you could make the croutons out of other types of bread, or mix and match. They also can save you money, since just a few slices of bread makes enough croutons for at least 6 servings (and I admittedly go heavy-handed on the croutons since they're so delicious).

Make it Yourself: Baked garlic croutons
Makes 4-6 servings

~6 slices of bread (can be frozen or just stale) 
4 Tbsp. butter, melted
Garlic powder and salt to taste

• Preheat oven to 350 F.
• If bread is frozen, microwave for 15 seconds to soften enough to cut easily.
• Cube bread into desired pieces. Place on a foil-lined baking sheet.
• Bake until bread is toasted, 10-15 minutes.
• Remove and toss in a large mixing bowl with melted butter and garlic powder and salt to taste. (Go ahead and taste them - they might be a bit chewy at this stage, but you'll know if you got the seasoning right.)
• Return to baking sheet and bake for another 15-20 minutes, stirring at 5 minute intervals until crunchy and golden brown.
• Let them cool and eat them by the handful. I mean, put them on a salad, like a classy, civilized person.

Note: This is a recipe that isn't an exact science. You might like to use more or less butter depending on how much bread you have or what type it is. This is more about the method than the specifics.

garden update: mid-July

This is the time of year where the garden seems to explode overnight and all of the sudden it's time to pick something. Like this, our first tomato of the season.

We've got a million green tomatoes and tiny peppers not far from ripening, too. 

Look at these tiny bell peppers. They look like peppers for a dollhouse kitchen.

Hot peppers are coming along nicely too. Just need a few more tomatoes ready to make some fresh salsa.

If the size of these tomato plants is any indicator, we should have a good harvest this year.

One thing we've already been able to harvest is swiss chard. We usually just eat the chard on its own, sauteed in garlic and chicken broth. It's one of my favorite vegetables, so I typically don't have to find ways to eat it or use it up! 

Cucumber plants are also going gangbusters, and Mark's been waging the war of attrition against cucumber beetles by smooshing them when he is out attending to the chickens.

The sweet corn was just about knee-high by the Fourth of July, and it's looking strong. It rebounded nicely from a nasty storm we had awhile ago where it looked like the stalks were keeled over.

The beans have also taken over their bed. At my last garden update, we were noticing the gaps where the chickens had disrupted the seeds when they got into the bed and messed around. But here you can barely see the gaps - it looks like solid beans from border to border! 

I don't have good photos of my herbs, because actually several of them died. They didn't get watered while I was on vacation and we had several scorcher days in a row (an accidental oversight, but still that's what killed them). I think I've been able to salvage the basil, rosemary and chives at the very least. Working on bringing the dill back to life, as well as the sunflowers. Hopefully by my next garden post, I'll have good news to report on that front!

How's your garden doing? Any harvests yet?

4 reasons why I am not a food alarmist

This is a bit of a soap box post. Fair warning.

I've talked before about online petitions and their effectiveness, as well as the hype over the "yoga mat bread" debacle. These things are all tied to what I call food alarmism. And it drives me nuts.

To me, food alarmism is taking a concept related to food (particularly health food) and then blowing it way out of proportion and abandoning all reason, just to advance your agenda or philosophical position (and in some cases, a business interest). It's often done in the name of advocacy - framed as public health crusaders trying to save the American people from themselves. 

But there are a few reasons why I will never subscribe to this type of advocacy and actually feel it's detrimental to the broader food movement. (Put another way, it makes people who care about what we eat look like psychos.)

#1 - "Chemicals" are not always the enemy. You could make water sound like a scary additive if you called it dihydrogen monoxide. Just because a substance has a chemical-sounding name doesn't make it dangerous. Everything we eat is made up of chemicals - even our bodies are made up of chemicals. (Trust me, having a thyroid disorder mine are often out of whack.) 

I used to be on the anti-chemical bandwagon pretty hard for awhile, but the more I read, the more I realize there are a lot of harmless chemicals out there and a few that actually ARE health hazards. So you've got to find out what a 'chemical' actually is, how it's used, what research is out there about its safety, etc. before you decide it's poison. That isn't to say we shouldn't reduce our exposure to chemicals that have been linked with health hazards. But be smart about it.

#2 - Junk food is junk food. The idea of trying to get a company that makes fatty, salty junk food to take an ingredient out of its fatty, salty junk food to make that fatty, salty junk food "healthier"? That's crazy. Here's a simple solution. EAT LESS JUNK. And don't expect companies that sell junk food to make that junk food healthier. When you do, all you get is health-washed food that looks healthy but actually isn't. (Raise your hand if you've ever eaten Sun Chips in your life because you thought they were "healthier" than Doritos? Yeah. My hand is up too.)

#3 - Hype is hype - whether it comes from Monsanto or a food blogger. Many people are in the business of getting people whooped up about very small issues. This is a good thing for companies and individuals who want people to be distracted from the larger picture (public health, access to healthy, whole foods for all people, the fight against hunger for starters) by starting crusades on the small stuff. What if all the energy spent on getting Budweiser to tell us what's in their beer was spent trying to get access to fresh produce for hungry people? Which brings me to my next point.

#4 - There are bigger fish to fry. The way I see it, there are really huge issues that we need to address as a nation that relate to our food supply. Namely, making sure everyone gets enough. And that they get enough actual, healthy food. Those of us who consider ourselves foodies (with all the good and bad that term carries) need to understand that the fact that we can even make the food choices we do is a privilege that not all of our fellow citizens have. 

Besides the availability of food in general, we have a really big and rapidly growing problem with antibiotic resistance. And it's not just food bloggers or animal rights activists who think that. The Centers for Disease Control has made it clear that the indiscriminate use of antibiotics in livestock has contributed greatly to antibiotic resistant bacteria. Even the FDA acknowledges that it's a problem (and they basically don't acknowledge anything as a problem). So if we want to get behind something that can really make a difference in public health (not to mention animal welfare, but that's another story), we should rally behind removing non-therapeutic antibiotics from our livestock. Rally behind the piles of scientific evidence that we are one major antibiotic resistant epidemic away from a true public health nightmare. 

So while Vani Hari (a.k.a. Food Babe, She of Many Petitions) rallies her army of disciples to expose the chemicals in a Budweiser, I'll choose to lend my voice to issues that might actually end up helping people - and are backed up by science, reason and common sense.         

Real Life CSA: week 13

As much as I loved vacation, I am happy to be back to eating food at home, and that includes the CSA! 

First things first - we don't like beets. So we're not dealing with them and instead giving them to Mark's co-worker who will appreciate them. There are very few vegetables that we don't really like (and to be fair, Mark likes them more than I do, but that's still not much). But when they happen to show up from time to time, we always find good homes for them.

But before I give them away, let's take a moment to acknowledge how cool beet greens look.

Okay, on to the stuff that we'll eat at Next Gen House this week. Lettuce and green onions will be for salads, as usual. Might use the green onions as enchilada topping this weekend, too. They are versatile AND delicious.

Speaking of salads, this cucumber will join the onions as a topper this week. Cucumbers are one of my favorite toppers. We typically cut up a bunch of toppings and put them in separate containers for easy salad fixing, both on salad night and through the week. Pro tip - when storing cucumbers, cut it in half and scrape the seeds out. Then chop it into pieces for salads. Will reduce the water content and also let it stay crisp and fresh longer.

Let's not forget the zucchini next to it. So excited for our first one of the season, so I'm not sure what we'll do with it, but there's a good chance it could end up on the grill tonight.  

Garlic scapes might end up in mashed potatoes or a pesto. We still have a few leftover from a previous share to use up as well.

I think I might make some kind of soup this week with the kale. I am thinking of a Zuppa Toscana Olive Garden knock-off - perhaps this one from Pioneer Woman (ugh).

Also pretty excited about this rhubarb jam. I wonder what it would taste like in thumbprint cookies and I wonder if I'll have time to find out this weekend...

Last but not least, when I see savoy cabbage, I immediately think of this amazing recipe for sea bass with a mango slaw. We might have to buy some Barramundi this weekend. (Barramundi is a type of sea bass that's responsibly and sustainably farmed in the U.S. It's one of Seafood Watch's "best choices". For more info on why we're trying to eat sustainable seafood, check out these posts.) 

What's in your share this week? Any ideas on how you're going to use it?

stones on a boat: Lake Cumberland, Kentucky

After a completely crazy week leading up to it, we took a few days of much needed vacation last week and headed off to Lake Cumberland in Kentucky. We were there for just under 4 days and I was reluctant to leave. I'm still in denial that vacation is over. I mean, who wouldn't, if you spent a few days waking up to this?

We rented a house boat with 6 other friends and spent our time tooling around the most gorgeous lake I've ever seen in weather that couldn't have been better. No rain the entire time we were there, and sunny skies with low humidity. 

Probably the best part about this vacation was how much of an actual vacation it was. Having a few days off of the internet and not using my phone was nice. I posted a few photos to Instagram, fully intending to record the vacation that way. But after the first sunrise I saw, I turned the phone off and forgot about it.  

We didn't even know what time it actually was most days, since we were in and out of time zones, bouncing back and forth between Eastern and Central. I read several books, got some sun, swam in the lake and even jumped off the top deck of the boat a few times.

Mark and one of our friends got to fish, but they released what they caught since none of them were "legal" size. Each night we moored in a different cove and got to watch the sun set on the lake.

While I'll mostly be back to regularly scheduled programming this week, I know my thoughts will likely often be at the lake. (It's taken me a couple of days to realize I'm not on a boat when I wake up in the night and think I'm swaying.) The houseboat was a fantastic idea and we are highly likely to go back. 

My preference would be tomorrow.