Night Owl's Garden

Can I say I had a rain delay in making this post? Actually, my rain delay started last Tuesday when I decided to take my screened-in porch metal furniture into the yard for painting. When I looked on the Weather.com app, Tuesday and Wednesday had very low chances of rain. I spent Tuesday scraping and sanding the furniture. Later that day the weather forecast for Wednesday changed to rain, rain, rain, and it didn’t let up until Saturday when I had an all-day conference. During the rainy days, I decided I should paint the screened-in porch and seal the slate floor. Of course, none of that could happen until the rain stopped. Anyway I knocked out all the work in three days, and now I’m ready for this incoming “tropical system,” and I’m caught up enough to make this post.

Here’s how I made use of my week #4 CSA goodies.

Asapargus – I tried to mimic the delicious asparagus tagliatelle dish I enjoyed at a fabulous restaurant in Pisa, Italy. I did not have tagliatelle, and I still have not used my manual pasta press, so I used angel hair nests. Whenever I can, I purchase pasta made in Italy. You can find real, dried Italian pasta at Liquor Barn in Lexington, KY. My angel hair asparagus pasta with garlic and shaved Parmesan cheese turned out great, and you can see it in the picture for this post.

Kale – I made kale chips in my dehydrator, and they were delicious. I used both cayenne pepper and nutritional yeast to season them, and it only took four hours to dehydrate them. Here’s the recipe I used. We gobbled them up!

Celery – I ate some of the celery with hummus. I chopped, blanched, and froze the rest.

Strawberries – We snacked on the strawberries all week.

Beets – I made roasted beets with cream cheese last night. I just peeled the beets, chopped them into wedges, tossed them in salt, pepper, and olive oil, and roasted them at 375 for a half hour. I topped them with cream cheese.

Peas – I made buttered peas. I shelled the peas, boiled them for a minute, and topped them with butter and salt.

Altogether CSA week #4 was a big success. Even though I was occupied with projects, we managed to eat or freeze all the veggies. I will update about week #5 pickup later today.

When I picked up our CSA basket last Tuesday, we were well on our way to making a big dent in the tasty offerings. We ate gourmet lettuce salad that night and the next several nights. We even mixed the gourmet lettuces with strawberries as part of a dinner salad. Here is a breakdown of how we utilized the week #3 basket offerings:

Strawberries – The strawberries made it into yogurt at breakfast, salad at dinner, and a side dish for smoked salmon scrambled eggs. The side dish was just the strawberries, perfect on their own.

Challah Bread – Graham ate the bread for breakfast several days in a row. I had a bit of it with my dinner salad.

Gourmet Lettuces – We used the gourmet lettuces for salads on several nights. I applied blue cheese dressing most of the time, but I did make and use the blue cheese vinaigrette (blue cheese dressing with balsamic vinegar and olive oil) on a few nights. One night, I made a big dinner salad with gourmet lettuces, strawberries, baked chicken, bacon, and the blue cheese vinaigrette dressing.

Spinach…oh no, it’s KALE! – I obviously do not know my greens. Normally when I pick up my basket, the volunteer tells me what’s in it. Last week I was chatting about other things, and people were coming in and out, so I failed to get the scoop on what was actually in my basket. What I assumed was spinach was actually a flat-leafed, young kale. Oh well, I fried some bacon in olive oil, sauteed the greens with garlic, and served it with a poached egg for lunch today.

Scallions – I chopped up scallions for two taco dips that I took to two different cookouts (Sunday and Monday). I used a variation of this taco dip recipe without lettuce and tomato and with scallions instead of green pepper. I plan to freeze the unused scallions for later use.

I’m looking forward to picking up this week’s CSA basket tonight. The picture for this post is my big dinner salad, which was a perfect summer evening meal.

Last night I picked up my third CSA basket. This week’s basket might be the best yet! I say that because it had fresh strawberries. These are not the giant grocery store strawberries. These are the perfect local farm strawberries that are small in size but big in flavor. The basket also contained poppyseed challah bread from Lacey Bread Co.! YUM! Spinach, scallions, and gourmet mixed salad greens rounded out this week’s share.

When I got home last night, I chopped up some mixed greens for salad. I had already planned to make a buffalo bacon Caulipower pizza (I use the Caulipower cauliflower crusts), and the mixed greens salad with blue cheese vinaigrette dressing made a perfect side dish. Yes, I swabbed the pizza in the dressing. Delicious!

I’m already making plans for the strawberries in yogurt, salads, etc. I plan to freeze most of the scallions. The bread made an appearance at breakfast for my husband this morning and at dinner tonight for me. We have both been snacking on strawberries. Tonight we enjoyed another salad. Obviously, we will blast through this basket in a matter of days.

I count my week #2 CSA basket as a success. I managed to make use of all the cabbage though some of it probably won’t be eaten. The last of the kale will be eaten tonight. I just chopped and blanched the celery, and it is now waiting in my freezer for another day.

Here is what I did with the cabbage and kale:

Kale – I made chopped kale salads. I mixed blue cheese dressing with balsamic and olive oil to make a tangy and creamy dressing.

Cabbage – The cabbage went further than I thought it would. I made three dishes with varying levels of success.

• Dish #1 – Low-carb Taco Cabbage Skillet – I covered this recipe and my modifications in-depth in my previous post. It was by far our tastiest use of cabbage!
• Dish #2 – Parmesan Garlic Cabbage – I made this recipe at lunch one day. I thought it would be wonderful, but it was kind of bland. The blogger who posted it described it as a good side dish, and I could see that. I ate it as a main dish, and it just needed something more. Maybe that something more needs to be a nicely spiced chicken or pork entree.
• Dish #3 – Asian Ginger Slaw – I made this slaw on Friday afternoon with the intention of pairing it with dumplings from a local Chinese restaurant. I think I should have chopped the cabbage more finely. The dish just didn’t seem right. The flavors blended well, and I was able to use the local honey from this week’s CSA basket, but it just seemed a bit off. I do think the chunkiness of the cabbage affected how well (or not) the dish came together. I will try this recipe again with a very finely chopped cabbage. The leftovers are in the refrigerator. I’m afraid my husband and I are not inspired to eat them. Of course, this is the one dish that I caught on camera, and it’s the photo for this post.

We are excited about our next CSA basket! I wonder what adventures we’ll find at pick-up tomorrow night.