Pinot & Pineapple

Wow! Is it Week 16 already?? Holy Moly, that means we only have 6 more deliveries to go before the end of the Farm Share season!

Well, today we received some really nice peppers. I’m not sure what variety they are but they smell like they’ve got a kick to them. We also received some beautiful red onions, tomatoes (1 smooshed), a Napa cabbage (yay!) and some yellow Swiss chard. I’m really excited about the Napa cabbage as I really enjoyed them earlier this summer.

Here is a photo of our beautiful peppers, onions and tomatoes…

Good Morning All! As promised, I got my rump off the couch this week and did something with the vegetables we received. I made a really yummy, soul-warming Cream of Potato-Celery Soup with the potatoes, celery, 2 of the onions, thyme, chicken stock, butter and half-and-half. It was a great way to use multiple vegetables in one dish and a great way to get my husband to eat celery! Here are some photos:

As far as the other vegetables are concerned… I donated the beets to a friend who is recently on a beet-kick; the lone surviving tomato went into lasagna; and the mixed baby greens were donated to yet another friend just because I was feeling extra generous. Ah, yes, giving does feel good.

That’s all for now, folks. Check back tomorrow to see what goodies we receive.

Good Morning All!  I am excited to present to you this week’s featured link, Chantal: LiveStrong.  This is a line of signature yellow products benefiting the Lance Armstrong Foundation.  The line of serveware includes everything from travel mugs to tea pots and five to ten percent of all proceeds go directly to the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

My favorite items from this line are the LiveStrong Extra Large Plate, which is perfect for use as a platter at parties, and the LiveStrong Snack Plates, which coordinate perfectly along side the LiveStrong Extra Large Plate so that your guests may put their tasty nibbles on something other than a cocktail napkin.

Here are some images from the website:

Can’t you just imagine how strikingly lovely deviled eggs would look on this platter and these plates?

If you’d like your serveware to make a statement while also benefiting a very important cause, check out Chantal: LiveStrong today!

Good Morning Farm Share fans! Let me first acknowledge the fact that I did not do a wrap-up post yesterday telling you what I did with last week’s farm share. The reason is that I felt like total ca-ca last week and I did absolutely nothing inspired with the vegetables. Sorry, but it’s true.

This week, I’m sure I will find the energy and inspiration to do something fun with our delivery. Today we received a bag of mixed baby greens, 2 tomatoes (1 smooshed, 1 intact), beets, potatoes, onions and celery.

I was tired of the box shots, so I let my husband take artistic liberties and shoot his choice of vegetables any way he saw fit. I think the shots are very artistic, actually. I think I hear the MoMA calling…

The people who know me very well, know that I have a fixation on all things Iowa.  Everything from caucuses to cheese.  I’m just joking about the caucuses, but I am serious about the cheese.  My favorite American blue cheese comes from Maytag Dairy Farms in Newton, Iowa.

I first learned about Maytag blue cheese when I was in college (in Iowa) and I was watching Emeril Lagasse on the Food Network cooking with Maytag blue cheese.  I heard him say “…Iowa…” and I was shocked that Iowa made a cheese that I had not yet heard of.  So, the next time I went home for a holiday, my mom and I hunted down this cheese and made ourselves every recipe we could find that called for blue cheese.  I’ve been hooked ever since.  It is the only cheese I use in my traditional blue cheese dressing and Buffalo wing dip.  I also love to make Maytag blue cheese butter to dress up steaks.

You can find Maytag blue cheese in most specialty cheese departments but if you can’t, you can mail order it directly from Maytag Dairy Farms.  Now that football season is here, why don’t you make some homemade blue cheese dip to go with your Buffalo chicken wings?  But be careful, once people taste the Maytag, they’ll want to come to your house every time to watch the game!  That being said, Go Iowa Hawkeyes!

Good Morning! Our box this morning reminds me of Christmas, with all the shades of red and green. This morning was a bit chilly too, which really puts me in the spirit!

Today we received red Swiss chard, a bag of baby arugula, carrots, 2 red bell peppers, 3 red onions, and 3 red tomatoes (2 of which have been abused, as you can clearly see in the bottom photo).

Poor tomatoes. They didn’t stand a chance at the bottom of the box. I guess I have to accept my fate of receiving abused tomatoes. That doesn’t mean I have to like it, though. These careless box packers are standing between me and my Lycopene!

Well, this week’s farm share ended better than it started. As you may recall, my red tomatoes were smooshed beyond use and had to be sacrificed to the compost gods. Very sad. It took me a couple of days to get over the loss. But, I moved on to give the surviving vegetables the attention they deserved…

The yellow plum tomatoes were used to make yellow gazpacho. Of course, I had to go to the market to get a yellow bell pepper, a cucumber, cilantro and literally everything else necessary to make gazpacho, but the soup was really delicious. The mixed baby greens became a really yummy salad with sliced apples, walnuts, red onion and homemade honey-mustard dressing. The beets were thinly sliced and deep-fried to make chips and were served with a goat cheese/chive dip. Oh my, I am still dreaming about that dip. The Swiss chard was used in an impromptu dinner of shrimp and orzo all cooked separately then tossed together in a large saute pan with garlic butter. I don’t know what to call it, but it was super tasty. Last, but not least, the carrots and green bell peppers were used to make my Great-Grandma Hollingsworth’s carrot relish. Grandma used to always make this relish for big family meals and I always looked forward to it. It has a sweet and tangy dressing and is a great way to get kids to eat their vegetables. Here is the recipe (as well as a photo). I hope you’ll give it a try.

Carrot Relish

2 pounds carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can condensed tomato soup
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup cider vinegar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 small green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped

Boil the carrots in salted water until they are tender-crisp. Drain and cool.

In a medium saucepan, combine the tomato soup, oil, vinegar, sugar, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Heat until the sugar is completely dissolved and keep hot.

In a large bowl, combine carrots, peppers and onions. Pour hot sauce all over, cover and marinate for 24 hours in the refrigerator.

Serve cold.

This relish will keep for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!

Good Morning All!  Before you read this post, grab a cup of coffee or tea and make yourself comfortable.  I suggest some coffee or tea from this week’s Link of the Week, Taylor Maid Farms, a purveyor of organic coffee and tea, located in Sonoma County.  I first learned of Taylor Maid Farms while my husband and I were  honeymooning in Sonoma a couple of years ago.  The inn we stayed at served Taylor Maid Farms coffee with breakfast and we thought it was some of the best coffee we had ever tasted.  It was so lovely to sit on the inn’s terrace in the cool morning mist and sip our hot coffee and let it warm us from the inside out.  We loved this coffee so much I even surprised my husband with a huge bag of their Sonoma Roast blend for our 1 year anniversary.

Besides roasting some of the best organic coffee I have ever tasted, I appreciate the fact that most of Taylor Maid Farms’ coffees are shade-grown and fair-trade certified.  Additionally, Taylor Maid Farms is dedicated to supporting small family farms.

If you are a tea drinker, I recommend their Herbal Gardens blend.  This is the tea I drink when I’m soaking my feet in my foot spa.  Too much information, perhaps, but I wanted to convey the relaxed feeling this tea gives me.  It is so floral and aromatic, it is perfect for your own personal “spa day”.  It’s like aromatherapy in a teacup!

If you are looking to improve your coffee or tea experience, I highly recommend you give Taylor Maid Farms a try.  I simply love them!

It’s lucky Week 13! Unfortunately, some of the tomatoes were not so lucky as they were placed at the bottom of the box and were a bit smooshy by time I received them. It’s a real shame, actually. I would hope that the individuals packing these boxes would have more respect for food than the recent packing jobs I’ve seen would indicate.

Sorry for the negativity. I try to always be positive, but smashed produce offends my foodie sensibilities.

Today we received Swiss chard (mostly yellow with some white), carrots, yellow plum tomatoes, bell peppers, red tomatoes (the smooshy kind), red beets and mixed baby greens.

Those are some gorgeous yellow plum tomatoes, huh?!? I’m going to spend the rest of the day fantasizing about what I’m going to do with them

As we only received 5 items in this week’s farm share, it was super easy to get it all eaten in time for tomorrow’s delivery.

When my husband cut into the watermelon, we discovered it was canary yellow inside! What a happy surprise! One of my friends kept suggesting that I make margaritas with it, but I am not one to succumb to peer pressure. My husband and I simply ate the whole thing, by the slice, with our bare hands. It was so incredibly juicy, the sweet liquid poured out with every bite, rolling down our hands and all the way down our arms. YUM!!! Here are some photos:

The tomatoes and green bell peppers were used to make chicken cacciatore which was a perfect Sunday family (my husband and I, with our cat looking on) meal. One of the carrots was thinly sliced with a mandoline and topped a salad of mixed baby greens with a ginger-soy vinaigrette. The rest of the carrots were cut into sticks and were happily packed in my lunch throughout the week.

That’s all folks. Not a lot of cooking, but that was fine by me. It’s nice to be able to enjoy vegetables (and fruits) in the raw. Now, let’s see what we receive tomorrow…