So I realize it's been a long time and that I keep making promises that I will write more and I never do. I think the CSA has been wonderful, amazing quality vegetables and getting to try ones that I have never even heard of. It is also VERY overwhelming when you are a single gal working full time. I have had a lot of waste lately and it's frustrating. I work Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday every week, second shift and it's starting to get to me. So, I am going to summarize some of the things that I have made over the past 3 weeks.

Corn, Soy Chorizo, and Sweet Potato Chowder

Roasted 6 ears of corn in the oven, browned the soy chorizo, added diced celery, onion, garlic and carrots. Put in a crock pot with enough vegetable broth to cover and turn on high. Once all the veggies are cooked, use an immersion blender to puree soup. Serve with a dollop of soy sour cream and lots of black pepper.

Bow Tie Pasta with Soy Chorizo, Artichokes, Sun Dried Tomatoes in a Cream Sauce

Cook pasta according to box. Drain and reserve a cup or so of pasta water. Brown chorizo and add about 1 C. plain soy creamer, 3 T. vegan cream cheese, 1 jar of marinated artichoke hearts and 3/4 C. sun dried tomatoes. Toss with pasta and add enough pasta water to make the sauce a little thinner. Season well with salt and pepper.


The Magical Loaf Studio

This is an amazing website. My loaf was delicious and I served it with vegan gravy and roasted red potatoes. Directions copied and pasted from the Magical Loaf Studio.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup walnuts
2 TB olive oil
One onion, diced
One large garlic clove, minced
One large carrot, peeled and grated
2 cups mashed firm tofu
1 cup uncooked quick oatmeal or oat bran
1/4 to 1/2 cup vegetable broth, as needed
1/2 cup cooked oatmeal
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. dried sage
1 tsp. dried basil
1/4 tsp. dried rosemary
2 TB nutritional yeast flakes
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 tsp. salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350º. Spray a loaf pan or 8x8 square baking pan with nonstick spray and set aside (an 8x8 pan makes a crisper loaf).

Grind the walnuts into a coarse meal using a food processor or spice/coffee grinder. Place in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

Sauté any vegetables you've chosen in the olive oil until soft. Add to the large mixing bowl along with all the remaining ingredients. Mix and mash together well, adding only as much liquid as needed to create a soft, moist loaf that holds together and is not runny (you may not need to add any liquid if the grains and protein are very moist). Add more binder/carbohydrate as needed if the loaf seems too wet.

Press mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until cooked through.

Let the loaf cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes, then turn out onto a plate or platter and slice. Serve with potatoes, vegetables, and vegetarian gravy, if desired.

Cold leftover slices of make a great sandwich filling.

Roasted Red Potatoes

Chop potatoes in to small pieces, they will cook while the loaf cooks and don't need high heat. Coat with olive oil, salt, pepper and rosemary. Cook for 30-35 minutes.

Vegetarian Gravy

The gravy was amazing! Such a great compliment to the rest of the meal!

I probably won't be blogging weekly anymore, but I would still like to put up some recipies when I am feeling inspired. Fall is here and it's soup season!

Week 12, meal 1

What does one do with kale? I thought about putting it in a vase with water and keeping it on the table. I thought about giving it away. Then i looked up some info about it and decided to make this soup, partly two receipes combined, partly my own creation.

Sweet Potato, Corn and Kale Soup

3 L good quality vegetable stock (I used better than bullion)
1/2 C. corn starch
1/3 C. water
1 C. chopped of each tomato, carrot, celery,leek, sweet potato (I used 2 C sweet potato and ommitted celery since I have a friend who HATES celery HI Stephanie!)
1/2 lb kale, chopped
2 cloves garlic
6 ears of corn
1 can canellini beans
3 bay leaves
1 t. dried thyme

Take every vegetable but the kale and bring to a boil with the stock. Reduce heat to a high simmer. Add bay leaves abd thyme. Cook for about 40 minutes or until the vegetables are almost tender enough to eat. Whish together corn starch and water and then slowly whisk into the soup. Add the kale and cook until the kale only has a slight bite to it. This is also when I added the tomatoes since I forgot about them in usual fashion until it was nearly time to serve. This is also when you would add the drained and rinsed beans. Season to taste with salt and pepper. While the flavors meld, you have enough time to make some delicious grilled slices of ciabata bread! Heat up a grill pan and drizzle a little olive oil on the bread. Place bread oil side down and grill until it browns and you have some good color. Flip over, toast for a minute. Rub a clove of garlic on olive oil side and lightly salt. So perfect with the soup!

This actually makes a TON of soup, enough for 10 people. I froze all my leftovers since Stephanie and I were the only ones eating it but I'm thinking I might pull it out at my next dinner party, soups only taste better the more time the ingedients have together. Highly reccomend trying this soup!

Week 12

I know that I've eaten, and I've eaten well over the last 10 or so days, but recalling what I had is proving to be quite difficult. I know that there was a huge pasta salad that I ate for 3 days and there was some corn on the cob. There were many tomatoes sliced with salt and pepper, tomato and vegan mayonaise sandwhiches. Nothing complicated or fancy to stand out, just simple food enjoyed at home. There was a recreation of my cherry tomato pasta sauce, this time with the welcome addition of some sun dried tomatoes I bought in a massive jar. So, instead of trying to test my already crap memory, I will say I did good, wasted little and enjoyed myself. Now on to week 12.

1 bunch radishes
6 ears of corn
1 bunch kale
1 eggplant
1 zuchini
basil
2 plum tomatoes
4 (5?) slicing tomatoes
huge bag of green beans
1 cubanelle pepper
1 green pepper
1 pint cherry tomatoes

I'm sure that I will edit this later with more additions to the list as well as to correct a riety of spelling mistakes that my phone doesn't care enough to pick up. I'll also be writing soon about my first adventure in canning! It's going to be happening soon, I really want to make tomato sauce and learn how to preserve beans and corn. I have the equipment ($40 from Tags in Porter Square!), I'm waiting for 2 things. One is a book telling me what the heck to do and the second it time .