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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

The weekly challenge

Rosie Creek Farm is starting to intimidate me with their plethora of beautiful veggies. The CSA is supposed to be enough for four people, but I figured I eat way more veggies than most, not to mention that I just eat more, in general, than most, so it ought to be enough for two of me. And then approximately once a week I'll have friends over or go to a friend's house and bring something, and there are more than one of said friends, so I figured the vegetable quantity would all work out. But lately, I've been losing. AHH! Eat more! Eat more!

Inspired by BT's salad post, I decided to post this photo from a while ago that I had originally rejected due to poor image quality:


A good use of a veggie bounty! Lettuce, roasted beets, homemade mozz, homemade pesto, grilled zucchinis, etc, etc--use it all up! Throw it all in there! The nasturtium caught Mike's eye, and he said, "Wow! A garnish!" I (who as a rule eschew all forms of pretension) was quite embarrassed and felt the need to point out that the nasturtium was IN the salad mix when it was GIVEN to me, and furthermore, that it was EDIBLE, dangit, so it was NOT a frou-frou GARNISH! :D

Here is my haul for this week:


That is, like, a lot of stuff. My favorite is the fractal broccoli:


How long is the coast of Britain?


I got another bunch of these lovely, fragrant herbs:

What, precisely, are they, and what should I do with them? The only thing I can positively identify is the rosemary.

So last night I got busy. I will not let the CSA beat me this week! Especially after throwing in the towel last week and distributing (uncooked) vegetables to friends. (My completely nonsensical rule in the game is, having friends over for dinner or bringing a dish to a friend's house is okay, but giving away raw vegetables means I lose!) First, I cut up the fractal broccoli, sauteed it with garlic, and ate it ALL! Muwahahahahaha!!!

Then I grated up the last item from last week's pickup--a zucchini--and made bread:


Then, being Chinese and unwilling to waste oven heat on Just One Item, I baked up the spaghetti squash at the same time, then scraped out its flesh, mixed it with a sliced roasted onion from last week, some random herbs from the bunch about whose identities I haven't the faintest clue, salt, and pepper, then covered it with grated cheese and bread crumbs for a squash casserole:


So when I get home tonight, all I need to do is put that guy in the oven.

At the same time, I also roasted the beets, then peeled and sliced them for salad later this week:


Now the only item left in that pile that's something of a challenge is that mondo-celery. A friend is having a cookout this Friday. I think I'm going to bring... something celery-related! Any ideas? Anyone? Celery salad? Celery soup? I've never used large quantities of celery in anything; just in tuna salad and as a vehicle for peanut butter.

Edited to add: The sun is waking up!

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can always cut your celery stalks and fill them with cheese. My kids always like them filled with cream cheese and then liked to slice stuffed green olives to place on the cheese filled stalk. That idea will use lots of celery. But other than that, my brain is empty.

blip said...

i see sage in there. mmm, sage - it's the flavor that gives stuffing that "stuffing flavor"

sage leaves are the big fuzzy leaves

Arvay said...

Sage! Thanks! I should have put more of that into the casserole.

A celery stick platter's actually not a bad idea if I can get enough bacon and/or cheese-oriented dips to cancel out the appalling health factor. :)

blip said...

celery juice, especially mixed with other juices, like carrot or apple, is very refreshing!

Alaskan Dave Down Under said...

Firstly, the herbs. I'm seeing sage (in the upper right), a variety of basil (in the middle right), lots of oregano/marjoram (they're closely enough related that they cross pollinate) on the left (not sure on the variety though, looks like two varieties), and what could be a bit of thyme way down towards the front. Those 4 herbs are very commonly grown together in herb pots. Ummmmmmmm, I'm not seeing any rosemary though... is it hiding behind the sage in the photo?

Celery: loads of stuff you can do with it. Firstly, did you know that it takes more calories for a human to digest raw celery than the calories we get out of it? True.

Celery leaves make a great addition to any stir fry, add them at the same time you'd add other green leafy stuff.

Cream of celery soup! Easy and tasty. Slice up all that celery and add it plus 2 or 3 crushed garlic cloves and 1/2 minced onion to a dutch oven. Add a bit of olive oil and fry till garlic just starts to brown. Deglaze with 2 glasses of white wine. Cook till wine is almost gone, then add 1 diced spud (potato) and enough veggie stock to cover. Simmer till spud pieces are soft. Let it cool a bit, then blenderize it. Pour the soup puree back into dutch oven, and heat it till simmer. Salt n pepper to taste. Ground cumin also goes well in this.

Sliced celery also makes a good addition to chook or turkey stuffing. And it goes well in a waldorf salad.

You can also substitute the stems for any recipe calling for bok choy stem.

Oh yeah, makes a great stir stick for bloody mary's!


I LOVE THE FRACTAL BROCCOLI!!!!!! Never seen it before, cool.

Alaskan Dave Down Under said...

Hmmmmm, the leaves that at first looked like basil to me are fuzzy, never seen a fuzzy basil variety before. Shape is more like HUGE oregano leaves --especially when comparing them to the sage leaves behind them.

Sigh... I'd really need to do a rub and sniff test to tell.

So many new varieties of herbs nowadays.

Debs said...

I chop celery and use it in things like tomatoey pasta sauce. It also goes well in stew or casserole.

I expect our fractal brocollis will start to arrive in the next couple of weeks. They always seem to come in our veg box a week or two after you post yours!

Arvay said...

The rosemary is hiding! And no, no basil in there. But thanks very much for the other IDs. So the big fuzzy ones are sage, the little flowery ones are oregano/marjoram, and the other one is thyme.

I was totally thinking of cream of celery soup! Thanks for the recipe... does it really not have any milk or cream?

Biting Tongue said...

Arvay: on my blog, the time stamps hold the anchors for single post links. Apparently it's not that intuitive.

Dave: Thanks for the cream of celery soup recipe, I can't wait to try it. Awesome.

Arvay said...

Ah! Thanks! I'm fixing the link now! And... of COURSE a dairy-free cream of celery soup would appeal to YOU! :D

Alaskan Dave Down Under said...

No milk or cream needed. The potato takes care of making it thick and creamy. Obviously, you can adjust the seasonings to however you'd like as it's very versatile.

Alaskan Dave Down Under said...

I just realized that all the herbs in your pot are perennial! Get yourself a much larger pot and plant em in it with half high quality potting mix and half dried cow poop. You'll have great herbs year round!

Arvay said...

Ah, bad photo! Those aren't in a pot; they are in a ceramic mug. I got a bunch wrapped in twine from Mike Emers. :)

Anonymous said...

Give the celery to HRH Miss Mille B.