January 2011
5 posts
7 tags
A Lesson in CSA Membership
I feel as if I have been MIA for too long, and for that I apologize. It has been an interesting last month or so for us, not necessarily in a life perspective but in a food perspective so I thought I’d share a bit what I have learned recently.
THE RISK OF CSA’S Given the holiday season, we did not get our usual veggie delivery the week between Christmas and New Years. That was to be...
5 tags
Winner Winner Whole Chicken Dinner
Whole chicken. What a wonderful thing. So far with each of our meat CSA deliveries we have gotten a whole chicken. While I know it is perfectly acceptable to break down a whole chicken while raw and do other things with it, I always feel as if I need to make an event out of it and cook the chicken whole.
Chicken #1 went to Tyler Florence’s Chicken and Dumplings with Chive & Buttermilk...
1 tag
In honor of the New Year - the best way to eat...
Years and years ago, someone decided eating black eyed peas brings good luck. Lord only knows how that came about, but with 2011 in sight, we might as well embrace it! I discovered this recipe last year while trying to find a recipe for black eyed peas that didnt taste like dirt. Okay, I’m sure there are plenty of recipes that are worthwhile and delicious, I just cant say I’ve had them...
December 2010
10 posts
1 tag
Inspiration to Execution: Butternut Squash Soup
I decided that perhaps the best way to document some of the meals we create is a new series I like to call: “Inspiration to Execution”
The combination of our 2 cooking styles means that I love to find recipes as inspiration for a specific ingredient but the actual meal never manages to follow it. The few times recently that I have actually followed an recipe to the T, I end up...
Holy Garlic Dracula!
Okay, terrible pun, but oh my lord do we have alot of garlic!
One of my favorite food blogs, Love and Olive Oil, recently had a giveaway of garlic from Singer Farm Naturals up in NY, which I of course did not win, but I did end up going a bit crazy on their website. I think my eyes (and fingers) were a little bit bigger than I expected, because we now have garlic to last us until the apocalypse...
1 tag
Pepper Vinegar
On a recent trip to the farmers market I came across these little peppers. For about 50 cents I came home with a few handfuls, cant beat that!
I decided to take most of them and make a pepper vinegar - similar to what they have in the little jar at Steak N Shake or other diners. The process is pretty simple, and probably took me less than 10 minutes.
First cut off the stems and cut a slit in...
3 tags
Meat CSA - Month 2
Meat time!
Our second round of meat includes the following
Ground Pork Ground Beef Beef Summer Sausage Goat Steak Whole Chicken Chicken Breast Beef Round Roast Beef Chuck Roast Beef Rib Steak and peppermint soap!
In addition we also purchased Bacon & Beef Stew Meat from the farmers. Since this week included snow and “ice” storms in Nashville, our original pickup day got...
3 tags
CSA Delivery #4
Well, we did okay with our last delivery - still have our diakon radishes, some carrots, some green onions, some lettuce and the butternut squash from Week 2.
I imagine that this delivery, as well as our leftovers from last week, will likely end up in the freezer since we will be traveling for Christmas. We just need to make it through the greens!
This week includes:
Potatoes Swiss Chard...
Farmers Market Bounty
This past weekend included a quick morning trip to the Farmers Market to see what seasonal items were overflowing from the farmers baskets that I could get my hands on. This time it was green peppers and tomatoes
In total 24 green peppers and 10 lbs of tomatoes! I could have come away with tons more, but unfortunately it was pretty apparent that these bounties had been sitting around for a bit,...
5 tags
Our favorite kitchen gadgets - just in time for...
With Christmas time upon us, we are surely all struggling with the annual question of “what to get Aunt so and so”. In an effort to perhaps solve a few of your gift recipes - I give you our favorite kitchen tools and gadgets!
1) Cuisinart Smart Stick Hand Blender
We received this gadget from one of our dearest friends for our wedding. It quickly became one of our favorite go to...
3 tags
CSA Delivery #3
First, I want to touch a bit on how we did with delivery #2. Given the Thanksgiving holiday and our travels, it was definitely a bit harder to use everything before it went bad. We still have our butternut squash and a couple of potatoes. Probably 10 carrots got chopped up and thrown in the freezer, along with the whites of a few green onions. We did have to toss one head of lettuce, but I guess...
1 tag
Maple Glazed Pork Chops & Roasted Beets
I know, I know…. I have been MIA for the last 2 weeks. I blame the fact that the holidays are now in full swing, although I cant really complain about that! To make it up to you, I give you this…..
Yeah, yeah, yeah - I gave away the prize before you had to take the time to receive the education - but now you cant wait to make this right? Thats what I thought.
Earlier this week we...
November 2010
10 posts
Companies and Farmers we support
In case you perhaps have not noticed - we’ve got a few handy links above! Today I just wanted to bring some attention to Companies We Support - a list of companies and farmers that we love. Most of these farms are in the Nashville area, but there are several great websites out there that can help you find farmers near you such as Slow Food USA or Local Harvest.
As we explore and learn...
6 tags
Grilled Goat with Roasted Turnips and Potato...
A little Saturday night cookin’ at home and we decided to dive into the goat! It came already cubed so we took the marinade & grill approach.
As usual, I do not know the specifics of Alan’s marinade, but hopefully the soldiers in the background should provide some insight. Whatever the combination, it smelled amazing.
The cubes were a bit too small for the skewer approach so...
3 tags
Spicy Pumpkin Seed-Pecan Brittle
One of my (many) favorite food websites/blogs to follow is Serious Eats.
I recently came across this recipe which I had to share. Having done the obligatory pumpkin carving before halloween, I had saved the seeds figuring I could find some use for them. THIS is the most delicious use I have found so far
Spicy Pumpkin Seed-Pecan Brittle
This post probably would have been more helpful before...
5 tags
Veggie CSA - Week 2
Week 2!
Look how big that cabbage is! Looks like we will be eating soup for a whole week!
This week includes: Beets Butternut Squash Nicola Potato (small yellow potato similar to Yukon gold) Carrots Savoy Cabbage Lacinato Kale Scallions Spinach Lettuce ( red and green) Sage
Now to manage to use it all while being out of town for Thanksgiving for 5 days!
Anyone have any fantastic beet...
3 tags
Meat CSA - Week 1
Yesterday was our first meat CSA delivery! Not gonna lie, we were pretty excited about this one.
The bounty was quite impressive!
2 shoulder roasts, 3 packages of ground beef, 2 packages of ground pork, 2 polish sausages, ground turkey, pork chops, ribeye, GOAT andddddddd
1 whole chicken!
Phew! Lots of options and lots to play with! We started off easy with a package of ground beef...
5 tags
Parsley Oil
My fantastic sister gifted me with the French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller for my birthday. I immediately sat down and began to soak it all in - got to this chapter and just had to jump right in. We had some parsley from our CSA delivery last week, which I was still struggling to find a better use for than as a simple garnish. This, was my solution - Parsley Oil.
First step is to cut the...
2 tags
Miel!
Well, as expected, our dinner at Miel was incredible! It is a tiny little restaurant, cozy and modern, similar to one of our other favorite restaurants - Avec.
We started off with an order of olives - always a great snack, but I have to give them props for the addition of some orange zest to brighten it all up. Brilliant!
While everything on the menu looked completely delicious, I settled...
How to Eat Local: Part 1 - The Farmers Market
In our journey towards eating locally and seasonally, we have had to alter not only the way we think about food, but also the practical application of where to get it from. The first step to eating locally is learning where to find it - and the best place to start is your local farmers market.
Nashville has the advantage of several great local farmers market - many neighborhood markets which...
