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CSA - Week 1

A friend of a friend recently posted on FB: "looking for contributors who are part of a CSA (different CSA's) and someone who can help set up a blog. Every week, we'd like to put a blog entry about what we got in our CSA box that week and what we made with it. The more farms, the better :) Ideas, suggestions, contributors welcome!" I'm not-so-secretly hoping this still gets pulled together, as I began thinking back in December about starting a family food blog. Ultimately I decided to incorporate recipes and ideas into this blog, but the CSA idea got me excited to be a part of such a great idea! I'm writing this post in hopes of inspiring Shal to still make it happen (in all of her free time) :)

We have participated in Allandale Farm's CSA since they started offering full and half shares 3 years ago. It's been fun watching them figure things out and grow and expand since that first season.

The newsletter for week 1 described the contents of last Thursday's box as follows:
spring garlic
kale
broccoli rabe 
lettuce
cilantro
dill
peppercress
radishes

The early heads of lettuce are always enormous, but this one seemed bigger than usual! Our weekly routine is to soak all the greens in a sinkful of cold water, spin them dry in a salad spinner, then wrap them in damp towels so that salads are easy to put together throughout the week.


Here are a few other things we came up with this week...

When Stephanie was here last week we used the fresh herbs in a version of Jamie Oliver's Mushroom Sarnie.

 

We ate the sandwiches on toasted challah bread along with kale and what was purported to be broccoli rabe, which we sauteed with garlic in a little vegetable broth. 


Having a Thursday share pickup, we have learned over the years that there are substitutions that sometimes happen toward the end of the week - they probably ran out of broccoli rabe and stuck some other mystery green in the box instead :) I also discovered that we didn't get any spring garlic in our box this week, even though it was listed on the newsletter.


On Sunday we had Teresa, Tim, Josie & Theo over for brunch. I made a mushroom, goat cheese, and roasted red pepper strata and served a big salad on the side. The little kids didn't love it, but I think the adults did!


On Monday night we had chicken pizziaola with salads topped with the peppercress (a cross between arugula and watercress - very peppery!). The peppercress is something we've never tried before, and to be honest I didn't particularly care for it.


Finally, I picked up some broccoli at the Farmer's Market on Saturday. I steamed it in our handy basket steamer so that I could use it in a big batch of fried rice.


While the broccoli steamed, I cooked up 2 bags of whole grain brown Success Rice (a good shortcut for busy mommies). I sauteed some chopped vegetables (carrot, red pepper, onion, and celery) in oil until soft and added an egg that cooked up on the side. Next I added the cooked rice and steamed broccoli and tossed with a few shakes of low sodium soy sauce. While I put the rice together I cooked up a bag of Trader Joe's Mandarin Chicken. 


Can't wait to see what we get in this week's box!

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