Here’s what we received in our bag this week:

Here’s what we were expecting this week:

Winter Week 4:

• 1 smoked ham hock
• 2 lbs. black turtle beans
• 1 lb. kale
• 2 acorn squash
• 3 lbs. sweet potatoes
• Aprrox. 1 lb. onion
• 1 head broccoli (or 1 bag broccoli shoots…which are just smaller heads)
• 1 package chorizo or Italian sausage
• 1 bunch beets with tops
• 1 bag mixed salad or braising greens
• 1 stalk Brussels sprouts
• 1 quarter peck empire apples

I haven’t given much thought to how this week’s items would be used.  I’ll probabaly cut the sausage into pieces and bake it in the oven.  Although, a crock pot batch of Italian sausage with peppers and onions might be a great meal for a busy swim lesson night next week.  I’ll probably make soup with the ham hock.  I don’t feel the need to be extra creative in the kitchen since holiday time.  We haven’t even put our tree up yet.

Last time we got beans, I cooked them in the crock pot and then froze them in 1-2 cup portions.  That worked quite well and I haven’t had to buy canned black beans in ages.  We were out of apples, so these will go into oatmeal as early as tomorrow.

The sweet potatoes weren’t in the best shape, I’ll probably just make mashed potatoes with them.  Beets will go into Harvard beets.  It will be a smaller batch, but enough for one or two of us to have them for a side.

I haven’t stuffed acorn squash yet this winter.  I like to make a stuffing with squash, sausage, cheese and rice.  Yum!  The onions will get used in general cooking.

I can not get enough of the sprouts this year.  Love them!  This kale is some of the prettiest that I have seen all year.  I will probably make a quiche with it.

I never know what to do with these mixed greens.  They are bitter and tend to have lots of stems.  The broccoli on the other hand is always fabulous and will probably get cooked tomorrow.

It was nice to stock up on milk and yogurt at the truck.  Too bad I didn’t think to buy eggs.  There’s always next time!

Here’s what we were expecting this week:

• 1 bunch bok choy (approx. 8 oz.)
• 1 bunch leaf lettuce
• 1 bag mixed braising greens, approx. 0.75 lb.
• 3 count winter squash
• 2 lbs. onions
• 1 head broccoli
• 1 head cauliflower
• 1/2 lb. spinach or pak choy
• 1 bag corn chips
• 1 8-oz. wedge of Havarti or pepper Havarti from Mayfield Road Creamery
• 3 lbs potatoes, Yukon gold or Red Norland
• Approx. 3# beef roast (we’ll have an assortment available)

Here’s a group shot:

Both the ground beef and the roast were frozen, so I just popped them in the freezer.

I really like caramelized onions and haven’t made them in a while. I think I’ll be having them soon.  I’m also going to try a Shepard’s Pie with the potatoes.

We were supposed to get one head of cauliflower.  I’m guessing we have two due to the size.  They aren’t in the best shape, so I will be cooking them tomorrow.  The winter squash look nice.  We have an acorn, butternut and an orange Hubbard squash.

Bok choy has been being made Asian style for Stephen lately.  I’m not sure if we will try something different or not.

The lettuce will go into taco salad.  Fresh Fork posted a recipe on the braising greens.  I think we’ll try it out this week.  We get these weird mixed greens a lot during the winter.

These are two tiny heads of broccoli.  I’m sure they are tasty and will disappear quickly.  We had the return of the corn chips. We bought one extra bag ($3.5) not pictured.

This week’s share ended with local Harvarti cheese.  All of the cheese from Mayfield Creamery has been great and I’m sure this will be no exception.

As you may recall, we we short a few items from our Thanksgiving package a couple of weeks ago.  These items were delivered with our regular share today.

So, we have more of a few items and are glad to have apples back in stock.  I’ll probably be cooking/freezing the winter squash and pumpkin in the next day or two to have for recipes in the winter.

The holiday ham and other package order form came out today.  I’m not sure if we are going to order a ham this year.  I’ll need to check with my folks to figure out our menu for Christmas.

I’m off to put the rest of our share away and clean the kitchen from dinner.

Here’s a group shot of what we received.  It was hard to get everything in one photo!

We were expecting the following:

Package 1 Contents:

• Tom Turkey
• Apple Pie
• Sweet Potato Pie
• Beets
• Carrots
• Candy Onions
• Sweet Potatoes
• Red Norland Potatoes
• Shallots
• Garlic
• Dinner Rolls
• Turnips
• Cauliflower
• Lettuce
• Bread for Stuffing
• Eggs
• Winter Squash Mix
• Cornmeal
• Pie Pumpkin
• Frozen Ohio Sweet Corn
• Bacon
• Braising Greens
• Apple Cider
• Apples
• White Spelt Flour

Let’s take a closer look.

The pies look awesome.  The apple pie is made with Ohio apples and came from Humble Pie Baking.  It came with instructions for a little bit of additional baking time before serving.  We are taking it with us to my uncle’s house.  The sweet potato pie came from Lucky’s Café.  We didn’t need the pie at my uncle’s house and I didn’t need a whole pie here.  So, I sent it to work with my husband this morning sans a piece.  The kids and I shared a piece with lunch.  It is one of the best pies that I ever tasted!  I’m extra glad that it went to work with my husband today.

We hardly ever by grocery store eggs.  The farm fresh ones are so good.  We also like knowing where they came from.  We were almost out of eggs until our delivery.  We’ll use some in our waffles this weekend, my sweet potatoes for tomorrow, hard boil some and use some for regular everyday cooking.  The frozen corn is a new item.  This corn was frozen this summer when it was in season.  I just popped it in our freezer.  We probably won’t try it for a week or two as we make our way through our fresh items.

The bacon is always great.  I just put it in the freezer.  We’ll use some with our stuffing recipe and some with our greens.  If there is any left, we’ll crumble it on our salad.  We were out of apples and already have eaten some on our oatmeal for breakfast.  These won’t last long in our house.

We received whole wheat flour instead of spelt.  Either is fine with us.  We use almost all whole wheat flour in our house, so the change was welcome.   We tried a couple of rolls with dinner last night.  They were very tasty and buttery.  We put the rest in the freezer.  My kids love bread and these will be easy to give them with lunches.

Winter squash is one of my favorite foods.  It’s so versatile and delicious.  These should store well and are not on my immediate radar to use up.  This bread looks great.  It’s intended for stuffing, but I have a feeling it may become French toast or squash inspired bread pudding instead.  For now, it’s in the freezer.

The lettuce is super fresh.  Some went to work for my husband’s lunch.  The rest will probably be served with dinner.  These heads of garlic are HUGE!  We are in garlic overload this year.  I’m not sure why we have so much, but if I can’t get it used soon, I’ll chop and freeze it.  I mostly just need to remember to put it into dishes.

I enjoy cooking with shallots.  They have a milder flavor than onions and compliment other flavors well.  For now, these are being stored in our basement.  Turnips will probably go into soup.  I don’t have a great go to recipe for them yet.

Our local, pasture raised turkey came to us fresh from Martha’s farm.  This bird weighed in at 22.8 pounds.  They were just processed on Monday.  Since we aren’t cooking Thanksgiving dinner and I’m interested in trying a turkey sausage recipe, we are freezing our bird in several pieces.  I’ll be making some of it for dinner tonight and we’ll get many meals out of this big bird.  The braising greens will get sautéed as a side in the next couple of days.

The corn meal is a great pantry item.  Nick loves corn muffins and we haven’t made them much lately.  They’ll be a great use for some of this corn meal, eggs and whole wheat flour.  The carrots look super fresh.  Everyone in our house likes carrots and we’re having them for dinner tonight.

Cauliflower is so easy for us to use.  Everyone likes it.  I usually do it plain, with a few seasoning or in a simple au gratin recipe.  With a head here and in our regular pickup, maybe we’ll have it three different ways this week.  With the beets, I’ll make a small batch of Harvard beets.

We’ll be having our fill of mashed sweet potato casserole tomorrow, so these will probably get baked into fries for lunch one day next week.  The kids love them with Ozark blend and cinnamon spices.

After I got home and sorted out all of our goodies,

I realized that we were missing or short on a few items.  We were missing onions, potatoes, pie pumpkin and apple cider.  We were short some apples and cornmeal.  A quick email to the great guys at Fresh Fork and they’ll remedy it at the next pickup.  I was given an option to pick it up at another site today, but I’m in no rush.  We have plenty to last us for a while.

Our pick up was not the best yesterday.  It was extra busy with the regular shares, holiday packages, turkeys, pies and LOTS OF RAIN.  We had to wait for a while, but everyone in line was chatting and taking it in stride.  Even the kids just liked running around in the rain.

The food always tastes amazing and the people who work the truck are super nice.  I already can’t wait to see what they offer for Christmas.  Berkshire ham anyone?

I was super excited for today’s offerings.

Here’s what we were expecting this week:

• 1 whole pasture raised chicken
• 3 lbs. sweet potatoes
• 1/2 lb. baby leaf lettuce
• Quarter peck Winesap apples
• Choice of collards, Swiss chard, kale, or watermelon radishes
• 1 lb. krispy treat granola
• 1 lb. grassfed ground beef
• Approx. 1.25 lb. chorizo sausage links
• 1 pie pumpkin (for making your own pumpkin pie)

Here’s a group shot:

We got the braising greens for our “choice of”.  Apples are always welcome in our house.  I tried freezing chunks for use in oatmeal today.  I’m anxious to see how they turn out in the morning.

We love freezing pumpkin puree for use in pancakes and other dishes throughout the year.  You can never have too many pie pumpkins.  We’ll have salad with our mixed baby greens.

These sweet potatoes are good size and will probably end up in sweet potatoes fries for the kids for lunch one day soon.  They can’t get enough of them when I make them.  I just put the chicken in the freezer, but due to space, I’ll probably thaw it to cook on Sunday to make for a few easy meals to start the week.

The ground beef was starting to thaw, so I put it in the fridge.  I think we’ll make some fajita flavored for tortillas this weekend.  The chorizo is one of my favorite Fresh Fork products.  It’s frozen, but it won’t last long.  I will probably take it out of the casing and cook it ground for use in salad with quinoa, black beans and olives, etc.

In addition was bought 2 more yogurts ($5 each) since there isn’t a pick up next week.  Also, we were gifted a few watermelon radishes to try.  We’ve never had them before.

We didn’t get our granola and I’m not sure if it was on the truck, but we are checking on it.  It’s shelf stable, so we can get it later.   We’re actually out of granola, so I make make a batch this weekend since I’m in the mood for it.

I love that many items this week don’t have to be used right away.  It’s nice to have an easy week once in a while.