Zoodles

I'll bet you can guess what's been in my CSA box lately.  'Tis the season for zucchini.  Lots and lots and lots of zucchini!  Don't get me wrong; it's one of my favorite vegetables.  I love...

• slicing it horizontally into thin strips and marinating it in a little olive oil, garlic and lemon juice, and then grilling it ever so lightly.  Delicious!
• grilling skewers of round zucchinii chunks, cherry tomatoes and onion wedges.
• zucchini breads and muffins...

But what I really love is making zoodles,  Zucchini noodles.  Healthy, low-calorie, gluten-free... and really, really fun to make if you have one of these...

This is my spiral slicer.  There are many like it, but this one is mine.  My sprial slicer is my best friend.  It is my... oops.  Got carried away there for a second!

My slicer is a Paderno World Cuisine Tri-Blade Plastic Spiral Vegetable Slicer that I bought off of Amazon for about 35 bucks, as a matter of fact.  And I like it.  

You most definitely can make zoodles without one.  (But what fun is that, I ask you?)

I'm not going to belabor this.  You pop a zucchini into the slicer, turn the crank, and watch the magic happen.  Children love to help with this, and what better way to get them interested in eating a vegetable?  (Just keep little fingers at the handle end and away from the blades.)

In no time at all, you've got a huge pile of perfectly-sliced -- and may I just point out, really pretty -- zoodles.


So, how do you cook these things?  Well, actually you don't.  I've tried lightly boiling them like noodles, and they just go all limp and soggy.  I recommend "warming them" in a pan with a bit of salt and a little butter.  Maybe some sauteed garlic.  Some fresh basil is really good.  A sprinkle of Parmesan cheese or whatever.

And voila!  This just might be the healthiest, tastiest and prettiest veggie side dish ever.  No, really.  You have to try this.  Granny says eat your zucchini.







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Nifty Thrifty Sunday
Try a New Recipe Tuesday
The Gathering Spot
Twirl and Take a Bow
Wow Me Wednesday
The Wednesday Roundup
Work It Wednesday
Wednesday Whatsits
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Mizuna, Pack Choy and Green Garlic

So... rather than post yet another laundry list of all the fruits and veggies I got in my CSA box, let's just get to the good stuff.  Lately I have received several items that drove me to the internet in a semi-panic because I JUST DIDN'T KNOW WHAT THEY WERE!  (But isn't that what makes this whole CSA adventure fun?  Trying new things?  Remember those sunchokes, for example?)

Ever heard of mizuna?  Green garlic?  Pack choy?  Not me.  But I got a bundle, a bunch and a head, respectively, in my Happy Box.  Aren't they pretty?

So, here is what I learned:

Happy Box Week 2

Another week; another Happy Box!  Here are the organic goodies Fulton Farms sent me yesterday:

• more spinach (hooray!)
• a bag of Romaine lettuce
• a bag of carrots
• several potatoes
• several bananas
• two tomatoes
• two cucumbers
• a green pepper
• a mango
• a pile of monkey brains

Okay, they didn't really send me monkey brains, but they did (as they often do) send me stuff I've never seen before, don't know what it is, what it tastes like, how to cook it or how to eat it.  I LOVE THAT!  Seriously, I have discovered so many great things to eat through this program that I may never have tried on my own.

Anyway, the "monkey brains" are actually sunchokes, also known as Jerusalem artichokes.  They are not actually artichokes, but relatives of the sunflower family.  They were first cultivated by the native Americans, who called them "sun roots."  They are supposedly a great substitute for potatoes, with a similar taste and texture, but with far less starch/sugar.

Like potatoes, you say?  In that case I scrubbed them really well (since they also say not to peel them) and threw them in the crockpot with the brisket I made for dinner tonight.  They were good.  The best way to describe them would be, if a potato and a carrot got married, this would be their baby.  Okay, maybe that's not the best way to describe them, but it's one way.

Adding sunchokes to the list of things we like to eat...

Happy Box Week 1

And so it begins!  Yesterday I received my first weekly CSA “happy box” delivery from Fulton Farms.

Here is what my first box contained:

• 1 big bag of spinach
• 3 Roma tomatoes
• 1 head of lettuce
• 1 head of red cabbage
• 3 stalks of broccoli
• 2 green peppers
• 3 red apples
• 3 green bananas
• 2 oranges
• 1 mango
• 1 lb. of strawberries

Later in the season my deliveries will consist of 100% locally-grown organic produce, but right now in the Ohio Miami Valley, the only things growing are a few really hardy cold-season crops like spinach.  So my first few boxes will also contain organic produce from a trusted wholesaler.  (I would have been okay with an entire box full of spinach, but it’s cool.) 

My mission this year is to utilize every bit of produce that I receive in my CSA deliveries all season long.  I hate to admit that this was not the case last year, which was my first year with the program, but you live, you learn. 

So last night I made broccoli salad to serve with skillet pork cutlets and balsamic tomatoes...

• I blanched the 3 stalks of broccoli, boiling them until they were bright green and still somewhat crispy.  Then I plunged them in cold water to stop the cooking and retain the beautiful color and texture.  Then I chopped the broccoli into bite-sized pieces and threw them in a bowl.
• I added 3 slices of chopped, crispy bacon.  (Tip:  I use kitchen shears to snip bacon into small, evenly-sized pieces.)  I also added ½ cup of golden raisins and ¼ cup of roasted, unsalted sunflower seeds.
• I mixed up a sauce using 1 cup of homemade mayo, 2 tablespoons of citrus vinegar and 1 tablespoon of agave nectar.  (You can also use honey.)  Then I just tossed it all together. 

It was delicious.  I hope I get more broccoli in my happy box next week.  

As for the rest of the meal, I simply rubbed thick slices of pork tenderloin with my favorite all-purpose dry meat rub and browned them in a skillet.  In another skillet, I sautéed a large onion until soft, then added a 10 ounce package of grape tomatoes and a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and cooked on medium-high heat until the tomatoes burst and it all got a bit caramelized.  Yum!

I'd say things are off to a great start.

Fresh, Organic, Seasonal, Local.... This is why I started this blog!!!

Last year I participated in a community-supported agriculture program, aptly called "The Happy Box."  Throughout the growing season, I received weekly deliveries, straight to my door, of produce raised organically and fresh-picked by a local farmer.  And let me tell you, people:  there ain't nothing better than that!

"My farmer" is Milan Pajev, a Bulgarian horticulturist who first came to this country in 1998 through an international fellowship program at The Ohio State University College of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Sciences.  A few years later he was joined by his wife Tanya, and together they pursued their dream of building an organic agriculture program in Ohio's Miami Valley. Starting with only 6 customers, the Happy Box program of Fulton Farms began!

From the first week of March until mid-December, participants receive a weekly delivery of, well, whatever is ripe and ready!  Beautiful, fresh herbs, greens, fruits and vegetables, lovingly and locally grown.

Heck, yeah I'm signed up for the 2014 growing season, beginning the first week of March.  Every week I plan to share the contents of my box and what I do with it!  My goal this year is to cook, preserve or utilize every item with no waste.  (I admit, I lost a lot of my produce last year due to unfamiliarity: some things I didn't know what to do with; sometimes I didn't know what the dang thing was!)

Get ready for some good cooking!