This Week's CSA

This week's CSA contained green and red apples, spinach, lettuce, pears, sweet potatoes, carrots, and bread from the Breadery.

I think I'm going to make some apple butter. The carrots will become part of a stir fry or similar, the sweet potatoes into sweet potato burritos, lettuce in a salad, and I'm not sure what to do with the spinach. There are many options, but maybe I'll find something new to do.

Stuffed Squash

Note, fair reader, I am making a valiant attempt to post more regularly. I am attempting to pre-schedule at least one post a day during the week. Let's see how well this works. Onward!

I stuffed and froze some delicata squash on Sunday. Wait, that sounds bloody awful. Who wants to stuff and freeze squash? That sounds about as unsexy as humanly possible. Actually, it sounds gross and somehow industrial. Hmm, let me reword that. How about, Sunday I roasted some delicata squash with a savory bread dressing, the preserved the glorious fall flavors for later in the week, reminding me of the buttery, cinnamon-y scents that wafted through my sun dappled kitchen on that crisp October Sunday. Any better? The end result is the same, squash that can be reheated for a fantastic vegetarian supper, served along side a green salad dressed simply. This is also a great idea for a main dish for non meat eaters at Thanksgiving, though make enough for everyone, since it's likely to be gobbled by meat eaters as a side dish. I made this in a heart unhealthy fashion, using a good bit of butter and olive oil. You can cut the fat significantly if you substitute in some stock and up the amount of water. The squash was from Breezy Willow.

Stuffed Squash (serves 6)
Ingredients:
3 medium sized delicata squash (can use acorn or other similar small squash, I like delicata for a savory preparation).
Olive oil in a spritzable form or ready to drip onto a paper towel
Cinnamon to taste
Salt to taste
Cayenne pepper to taste
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium to large onion, minced finely
6 ribs celery, minced finely
2 shallots, minced finely
6 slices whole grain bread (I used Harvest Grains from the Breadery), cubed
Salt and pepper to taste
Water

Method:

Wash squash. I don't know why, I just do it.
Line pan with foil if not using a foil pan.
Oven to 400F.





Cut squash in half.



Scoop out seeds with a tablespoon. Get the stringy stuff too.
Spritz with olive oil, cinnamon, salt, and cayenne pepper.
Lay flat in baking pan.
Meanwhile, add your butter and olive oil to a large skillet. When its hot and the butter foams, add the veggies, and turn to medium-low.
Sweat veggies.
Add the bread cubes, tossing to coat.
Season with salt and pepper.
Add just enough water to moisten.
Stuff inside of squashes.
Bake until fork-tender, approximately 40 minutes.



I did freeze them, which might be a bit of a shame. They freeze decently, but I think the texture is better fresh.

This week's CSA

It's well after midnight, so I'm going to have this post tomorrow. I'm at least drinking a nice glass of wine, while holding my foot at an odd angle so this contraption can do its magic. So I figured I'd update.



This week's CSA share included carrots, green peppers, pears, broccoli, onions, potatoes, apples, delicata squash, and brussel sprouts.

I've already done up a lot of this. Most went into the freezer. The delicata squash was cracked open, stuffed, baked, and frozen for a night when some warmth will be appreciated. Many of the potatoes were oven roasted then frozen for the same reason. Carrots became brandied carrots, for the freezer. The sprouts were chopped in half, pulled apart, cooked with indian spices, then frozen. The bell pepper were cut for Human # 1's lunch, and gave me a massive allergy attack.

I feel bad about all this freezing (Gordon Ramsay's always going off about it on Kitchen Nightmares). But I'm a lousy homemaker.

This week's CSA

This week's CSA consisted of peaches, blueberry bread from the Breadery, some I believe delicata winter squashes, peppers, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, apples, red potatoes, basil, marojam, and thyme. And of course eight ears of corn.

We ate some of it today. The fruit is likely to be eaten out of hand. The rest is still a mystery.



Tonight's dinner used last week's CSA ingredients - the baby zucchinis. I made some easy stuffed zucchini. Omit the parm and this may actually be healthy.

Stuffed Baby Zucchini
Ingredients
6 baby zucchinis
1 small/medium tomato
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pepper
Parmesan cheese

Method
Oven to 350 F.
Tip and top zucchinis. Cut in half.
Remove inside of zucchinis with a melon baller. Roughly chop insides.
Place outsides in a baking dish.
Chop tomato.
Over medium heat, saute garlic in olive oil until it is golden. Add zucchini guts and tomato.
Cook until tender, season to taste.
Stuff zucchini halves with mixture.
Top with Parmesan cheese, to taste, if desired.
Bake until everyone's ready for dinner, say 20 minutes.




I made some lemon-thyme rice. Totally simple.

Lemon Thyme Rice
Ingredients
1 cup basmati rice
2 spritzes olive oil
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
Zest of 1 lemon
2 cups water
Juice of 1 lemon
About 2 teaspoons thyme leaves, after they are removed from the stem
Additional thyme to garnish

Method
Medium heat.
Add olive oil, garlic, saute until golden.
Add rice and salt. Cook about 1 minute.
Add lemon zest.
Add water.
Add lemon juice.
Heck, toss in a lemon if you like!
Add thyme.
Raise heat to high. Bring to boil.
Low heat, cover, cook 20 minutes or until done.
Add additional thyme to taste.



I boiled some corn. We're drowning in corn - and I'm the only one who likes it in this house.


Some butter was delivered today. It made a nice picture, though it sort of looks like vanilla ice cream here. Which I would sort of like for dessert. Which I don't think we have. Sad.



Okay, this picture sucks. But it's a simple mozzarella and tomato salad. The mozzarella is from South Mountain Creamery, delivered today.