Conversion

Since in a relatively short time my kitchen will be in shambles and my fridge needs to be emptied, I'm starting the process of clearing out the freezer. What I need to do is convert things that are currently frozen into shelf-stable items like soup or stews that are canned. Today I made stock with the chicken and duck bones stashed there, along with some onion peels I also kept in the freezer. I then took all the stock I made and converted it to soup by adding onion, carrots, wild rice and Swiss chard (the chard came from the farm share). After dinner there was enough soup left over to can in 3 quart jars. These can be opened and microwaved for a quick meal while we are kitchenless. 

I did find some bags of vegetable scraps so might make vegetable stock soon. Or not, if I run out of time. 

Tall Order

One of the last things left from the farm share was a bunch of swiss chard.  I mentioned that we would be eating it tonight and my husband said, "Can you make it taste good?"

Challenge accepted!

I made this:  Quick Caramelized Onion Swiss Chard.

He says, "I enjoyed the onion."

Whatever.  I thought it tasted really good.  Everyone ate it.  The 8 yo had a bite.  Just one.  You can't please everyone, I guess!

Farm Share Cooking

Just wanted to log in what I've done with last week's farm share. On Monday night we had friends over for dinner and I wanted to use my fresh veggies. We had a big salad, which boasted lettuce from the farm and radishes from my garden (whee!), swiss chard with a lemon and olive oil dressing (from the cookbook Vegetables Every Day by Jack Bishop), and quinoa with garlic scapes and spinach tossed in. For the latter, I cooked the scapes then toasted the quinoa (black and white) at the same time, then cooked in chicken broth. When it was done, I tossed in shredded spinach leaves and let them wilt. It was that easy. A little lemon juice on top finished it nicely. All of this went very well with the grilled salmon.

All I have left is snow peas and some garlic scapes. I will likely use them tomorrow for something. My sister in law gets the share this week, and then we start splitting. Oh, and my tomato plants, even the sad ones that aren't growing well, have tomatoes on them!

There is no way we can eat all this food!

My sister-in-law arrived this afternoon with this week's farm share. In anticipation, I had to freeze the bunch of bok choy and the bunch of joy choi because we just couldn't eat it all in time (if I hadn't been working so much and missing dinner we might have had a chance). Anyway, this week I received: 1 head of lettuce, 1 bowl of salad mix (again, arugula, mustard greens, mizuna, plus red leaf lettuce), 1 head of cabbage, 1/2 of a radicchio head, a bunch of baby beets, 7 small carrots, 3 small Hakurei turnips, more scallions, more garlic scapes, 2 pattipan squashes, and a large bunch of swiss chard. Leftover from last week, still: scallions and snow peas.

I am amazed at the sheer quantity of food we've received for our investment.

Tonight we're having a nice salad, with shaved romano cheese rather than goat cheese, and I'm cooking the beet greens and the chard together with some of the garlic scapes. This will be served with corn on the cob and leftover lamb shanks which have been simmering all afternoon to make them less leftovery. I'll use the squash, scallions, peas and the rest of the garlic scapes tomorrow, with another salad on the side. I have set aside the beets, hoping to have more in the next few weeks so I can make pickled beets, and I'll have to come up with something for the cabbage. I don't know how we're going to keep up! Especially once my tomatoes start to ripen. Then we'll be drowning in produce.