Week Ten's Vegetables

FRUITING CROPS
Sweet Corn
Heirloom Tomatoes-2 or 3
Tomatoes-Hybrid
Peppers-Bells
Hot Peppers-jalapeno, Hungarian hot wax, and/or hot paper lantern; bagged with tomatoes
Eggplant
Melon-Asian sun jewel or muskmelon
STEMS
Fennel
ALLIUMS
Leeks
COOKING GREEN
Red Russian Kale or Pac Choi-young
HERBS
Basil
Sage-maybe
SALAD GREENS
Lettuce--A beautiful Jericho (green romaine) and New Red Fire (red leaf)

Week Nine's Vegetables

(I actually cut and pasted the list from our Angelic news letter. We may not have recieved ALL of the vegetables listed)

FRUITING CROPS
Melons- yellow watermelon.
Sweet Corn
Heirloom Tomatoes-maybe
Tomatoes
Peppers-Bells
Hot Peppers-jalapeno, Hungarian hot wax, and/or banana peppers
Eggplant
Cucumber
Zucchini & Summer Squash
STEMS
Celery
See last year's newletter for more information on our celery.
ALLIUMS
Leeks
Sweet Onions
ROOTS
Carrots
COOKING GREENS
Toscano (Dinosaur/Lacinato) Kale
Oregano
Summer Savory
SALAD GREENS
Lettuce--Heads of New Red Fire(a red leaf), Cherokee (a red summercrisp) and/or Two Star (a green leaf)

Week Eight's Vegetables

Tomatoes
Sweet Corn
Cucumbers
Zucchini
Summer Squash
Sweet Onions
Carrots
Parsley
Lemon Balm
Swiss Chard (yellow)
Eggplant (Italian)
Green Peppers
Lettuce

Cucumber Salad with Dill

I may describe the same kind of recipe but with varying ingredients countless times on this blog.

This is because I will be making cucumber salad as long as we are getting cucumbers. Tim likes it, I like it and dammit it's always good no matter what else you put with it. My cousin Patty makes a version by layering tomatoes and cucumber on a plate and topping with fresh dill, oil and vinegar and crumbled blue cheese. My version this week kind of riffs off that. I took the cucumber and peeled about half the skin off with a vegetable peeler (the skin on these organic cucumbers is pretty tough, I'm sure it's wildly good for you but I can't take it). Then I sliced it in half and with a spoon scooped out the seeds. Sometimes I keep them but if the salad is going to sit for a while removing the seeds will keep it from getting too watery. I made half moon like slices about a 1/4 inch thick and put them in a bowl. To that I added about 1 tsp. olive oil, 1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar, 1 tsp. chopped fresh dill, and a sprinkle of salt, pepper and garlic powder. The salad kind of tastes a little like pickles if you let it sit for a day. I took slices from this salad (day 2) and put them on a ham sandwich with yellow mustard. Tasted very "Cuban sandwichy."

Meatloaf and Confetti Squash

When I made this I looked at a few recipes to check oven temp and cooking time, but it got me in my head and I didn't trust my own version of meatloaf (which is a pseudo-version of my Mom's and Aunt's). I'm going to describe this recipe as I would make it NEXT time. The hybrid version I made was okay but I think I'll go back to my old version. Okay so take 1.5 lbs ground beef or turkey or a combo but don't use the super lean turkey unless you want super lean meatloaf-which translated means super DRY meatloaf. To the meat add 1 small onion, 1 small carrot, 5 or so mushrooms and 1 stalk celery that have all been super diced in a food processor (almost pureed) or grated or diced by hand super small. For spices I add about 1/2 tsp salt and pepper, 1/4 tsp garlic powder, a squirt or 2 of Worcester sauce, hot sauce, Dijon mustard, ketchup and/or BBQ sauce, fresh parsley is good if you have some as is a little curry powder if you like your food to bend that way. In another bowl put two pieces of bread (you can pulverize this in the processor too for bread crumbs but I usually just break up the bread when it's wet) or about 1/3 cup bread crumbs, pour a couple of tablespoons of milk on top just to wet it the bread but not so much that it pools, and an egg. With a fork mash up the milk-bread-egg, then add it to the meat-veggie-spice bowl and mix the whole thing gently with your hands until it's combined. It should be sticky but not watery and if it seems too dry add a little more milk. On a sheet pan lined with foil make a nice mound about two inches high and 8-9 inches long. Bake at 425 degrees for about 45 minutes until a meat thermometer reaches 160. Half way through the cooking baste with ketchup or BBQ sauce if you like and again just before it's done. DON'T BLINDLY TRUST my cooking times, my oven is a little wacky, so trust the meat thermometer. Serve this with mashed potatoes. This part is not negotiable. I made mine with boiled red potatoes which I mashed with chicken broth. This makes great potatoes that are not full of butter and cream (which also make great potatoes).

The confetti squash was two medium or large zucchini and/or summer squash cut into very small cubes a little larger than the size of a pea. I sauteed that squash with some olive oil, salt pepper and fresh or dried Thyme. The size of the squash doesn't matter at all, I just cut it up this small for Dorothy. But I will say it was super fun to eat, kind of like a yummier version of mixed vegetables, you know, the pea, lima bean, carrot cubes that haunted us all as kids. If you liked them you are weird but I understand.

Sauteed Arugula, Grape Tomatoes and Basil with Pasta

We really had a lot of arugula this week, which I love. But the week was slipping away from us and I wanted to use it up all in one shot. And I wanted to make some dinner for me and my mother-in-law Sally. She and Ed were visiting and unfortunately Ed had to be admitted to the hospital for a few days. To deal with all the stress and family issues I cooked and did dishes like I was the CEO of "Suzy Homemaker INC." If you scroll through you'll also see I made Meatloaf in an attempt to provide comfort.
This pasta was a bit of a risk to serve to Sally. She likes plain food, American food. So I had a jar of Marinara standing by.
In a large skillet I sauteed 1/2 of a sweet onion in about 1 tbsp. olive oil. When the onion was soft I added the arugula (it was a ton, maybe 4 cups?), it is going to cook down to almost nothing so use a lot. If you don't have arugula this works great with spinach too. I sliced a pint of grape tomatoes in half and added those just to warm up and a finely chopped clove of garlic. Then I added 1/2 cup Pinot Grigio (or any light white wine) and about 1/4-1/2 cup water. If you want you could use chicken broth. I let this bubble away to burn off the alcohol and then I added a sprinkle of salt and pepper (usually I would also add red pepper flakes but not for Sally) and about 1/4 cup grated Parmesan. Add 1/2 pound hot cooked pasta and let the sauce/vegetables/pasta meld together for a few minutes and serve with more Parmesan.

p.s.-I still have the jar of sauce in the cupboard because Sally really liked it.

Nachos con Dinosaur BBQ Sauce

Sweet-Sour Red Cabbage and Onions

Stuffing with Carrot, Celery and Onion

(image courtesy of, or as some would say "stolen from" www.tinyfarmblog.com, check out this site and my Bro's blog 25X50)

Arugula and Beet Salad

Week Seven's Vegetables

Red Cabbage
Green Peppers
Broccoli
Kale
Arugula
Lettuce
Zucchini
Summer Squash
Cucumbers
Basil
Dill
Cilantro
Carrots
Celery
Eggplant (a white one and two Japanese)
Sweet Onion