sweet potatoes » Life Lyn Style

Fresh Fork Market Winter CSA–week 4

Dec 062012

Today, we had our 4th winter pick up of our Fresh Fork Market CSA.

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!

Fresh Fork Market Winter CSA–week 2

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Nov 152012

Today was our second pick up. Again, we picked up in the dark. It’s definitely not my favorite time of year once the time changes. I took a couple of days off of blogging this week and it felt good to have a break. Life has been crazy busy and I love it like that.

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

Here’s what we were expecting this week:

Winter Week 2:

1 bone in pork shoulder roast, approx. 4 lbs.
1 half lb. bag hard neck garlic
1 bunch carrots with tops
3 lbs. sweet potatoes
1 head cabbage
1 bag broccoli shoots
1 bunch collard greens
1 bunch mustard greens

I’m going to bake the sweet potatoes and add them to my stash for Thanksgiving. We’ll get 4 pounds in our package, but I need more than that for our crowd. I’m adding cabbage to our stuffing, so some of this red head will be used for that. I’m probably going to braise the rest.

This is a ton of garlic. I still have plenty of garlic frozen. I’ll need to get more creative and/or remember to use it more often. The pork roast is a bit on the small side. I am planning on making pulled pork with it. I need an easy crock pot meal tomorrow. My in-laws are coming to visit and we aren’t sure of their arrival time, so I need something that will be ready and waiting.

I’ve been using the collards in fajitas or taco filling. It’s a good gluten free item, so I’ll be making that while my brother in law is in town this weekend. Carrots don’t last long in our house. The kids will probably eat these at lunch one day this week.

We’ll cook the broccoli as a side soon as well. The mustard greens worked well in quiche the last time we received them, so I’ll be doing that with them again.

This is my first time receiving broccoli shoots. We don’t get many new items since I’ve been doing CSAs for 4 years. I’m wondering if they are suppose to have some “mini” broccoli crowns. They look a lot like collards, but the photos that I’ve been looking at on line leave me thinking these are broccoli greens. I’ll probably chop them up with the collards since the greens cook down so much.

I seriously need to spend a few hours in the kitchen tomorrow. I need room to put the turkey away on Tuesday or Wednesday. I don’t even know what day I’m picking mine up yet. I don’t hate green weeks anymore, but they are bulky.

Hmmm…. I’m going to ask the guys at Fresh Fork about the last green. I’m now thinking the broccoli might be the shoots from doing more reading. More to come!

Fresh Fork Market 2012 Summer CSA–week 19

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Oct 122012

Today was a perfect autumn day for a CSA pickup. We had some logistical issues this week and at one point considered Solon, Mayfield, Beachwood, Hudson and Mentor as possible sites. We ended up making it to our normal spot at Mayfield. I was glad to visit with Kirsten and Robert for a bit during a slower time.

Here’s what we are expecting to receive:

1 dozen eggs
3# sweet potatoes
1 head cauliflower (some will be cheddar, purple, or green varieties)
1 head leaf lettuce
1 head baby Bok Choy
1 pint grape tomatoes
1 lb. chorizo sausage links
2# cornmeal
2 ct. red peppers
Red onion (s)
2 ct. zucchini
Approx. 1.5 lbs. tomatoes
2 ct. eggplant (or 1 if they are enormous)
1 lb. pumpkin sage linguini
1 quarter peck Cortland apples

They were out of slicing tomatoes. I was happy since I was offered spinach as a replacement. I have too many tomatoes in the freezer already. Everything else on the list was dead on!

I’m behind on egg use a bit. I see some hardboiled ones in our future. Maybe I’ll make a small batch of deviled eggs for Sunday’s pig roast. We’ll use the peppers in eggs and salads this week.

Last year, we found that either Andouille or Chorizo could be used in this recipe. So, it’s definitely on the agenda for this week. I remember it being extremely delicious.

I tossed the pumpkin sage linguini in the freezer since we have a busy few days ahead. I’m sure it will be tasty. I’ve never met an Ohio City pasta that I didn’t like.

I’m going to make a veggie lasagna this week. I’ll use the squash and eggplant in that dish.

We haven’t picked any tomatoes from our garden lately. I’m sure these will be welcome snacks.

I’ll sauté the Bok Choy for Stephen one day. He likes the Asian flavors. The apples will be great for our oatmeal. We made all of our other apples into sauce.

The lettuce will go for salads. The cauliflower will make a great side dish with some chicken we have ready to eat in the fridge.

To make make room for our 1/2 lamb, I’m making a pot of chili. Some cornbread will make a nice side to go with it.

I’m glad it’s cooler out and love cooking this time of year.

Fresh Fork Market 2012 Summer CSA–week 16

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Sep 212012

One of my favorite things about the Fresh Fork CSA is that we are permitted to take up to 4 weeks of vacation. I am definitely one who needs all 4 weeks. This week, I’m in Baltimore, so we aren’t going to be able to use/pick up our share. Usually, when I’m on vacation from my pickup, I am very sad to be missing one or two of the items. This week, I finally feel like I picked a great week to be on vacation.

Don’t get me wrong, I love most of the items on the list. But, many of them are either things we’ve been getting all summer or items that are just starting to appear. The only item that would have been new and fun would have been the mini Mira sweet corn. Maybe I’ll get lucky and still be able to obtain some of it.

I hope everyone enjoys their share this week. I’m hoping for lots of winter squash in the upcoming weeks.

Here’s what the large share is scheduled to receive this week:

1 whole pasture raised chicken
3 lbs. Yukon gold potatoes
1 bunch kale or 1 pint mixed color baby sweet peppers
2 ct. eggplant (1 if they are really large)
2 ct. red bell peppers
1 head green leaf lettuce
1-2 onions, depending on size
1 lb. dragon-tongue beans
2 ct. zucchini
6 ears mini Mira sweet corn
3 lbs. sweet potatoes
1-2 leeks
A handful Poblano peppers

Enjoy the change from summer to winter this weekend.

Fresh Fork Winter CSA–week 9

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Feb 162012

We had a productive day today. The kids and I went to story time at the library, cleaned two bathrooms, did the dishes, did 2 loads of laundry, went to the gas station, the post office and two stores. All of this occurred before lunch! After nap time, we took Nick to his swim lesson and then picked up our Fresh Fork CSA (where I put the cold items in a cooler with ice) before returning to the J so I could take a class. Whew! No wonder I’m tired.

Here’s what we were expecting to receive this week:

1 whole pasture raised chicken
1 pint frozen raspberries
1 quart farmstead yogurt
1 8-oz. piece gouda cheese
1 1lb bag of granola, either Krispy treat or spelt granola (vegan)
3 lbs. Yukon gold potatoes
1 bag mixed salad greens
1 quarter peck gold rush apples
1 package tofu

Here’s a group shot:

The chicken is in the freezer. I had just cooked our last chicken this week and we still have stock in the fridge. We’ll probably cook it soon since it takes up quite a bit of room. The greens look really good this week, so some more salad will be in the mix.

I am always glad to see yogurt. We’ve been buying this brand at Heinen’s whenever there isn’t any on the truck. I love that my kids eat plain yogurt with a bit of homemade honey sweetened jam. We’ll use the apples in our oatmeal for breakfasts. We were down to our last one today.

My kids were happily surprised to see “more raspberries”. We haven’t been getting them in our CSA, but we have been eating frozen ones from our summer picking for the past few days at home. They have been very popular, so I don’t expect these to last long. There was a problem with a truck this week, so we were given a choice of waiting until the next pick up for the Yukon gold potatoes or taking sweet potatoes. We love sweet potatoes and already had some white potatoes at home, so we opted for the sweet potatoes.

All of the local cheese we have received has been great. Gouda is one of our favorites. The tofu is a new product for the CSA. I’ve poled several people and everyone describes it differently. The best description that I have heard so far is that it’s really firm, but crumbly. I plan to freeze it and make tofu sausage crumble with it. I also heard that I need to freeze it for two weeks. So, that’s what I’m going to try.

The granola is one of my favorites. I bought an extra bag for $5 because it’s so good.

All in all, we have another great batch of local goods to work with. I’m going to do some meal planning in the next day or two so we can use our pantry staples and new products for some tasty dishes.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Andouille

Adventures with Nick and Sally, Recipe 1 Response »

Jan 152012

Hi, everyone. I’m back for another guest post. Today Nick and I had a fun morning skiing. We finally got enough snow for some cross-country skiing. Conditions were not perfect, but Lake Metroparks’ Chapin Forest Reservation was hopping as skiers released their pent-up urges to strap boards to their feet and have some fun. This was Nick’s second time, and he had a ball. He still shuffles in the skis. I haven’t persuaded him to glide yet. I did hear, though, all about how Curious George’s friend Bill said that skis were the most fun way to travel in deep snow. I didn’t get any pictures, though several people told me how cute Nick looked on his skis.

One great thing about Chapin Forest, by the way, is that they rent kids’ skis for $3 for the first hour, prorated for rentals less than an hour! Nick lasted about 35 minutes today, so I paid all of $2. I am grateful to the Lake Metroparks for making it so affordable. There are no other costs, by the way — the ski trails are free.

Being out in the cold weather also makes this a great time to think about heart-warming foods. This one is a doozy — a fabulous recipe that I’m definitely going to make again. As Lyn may have mentioned, I’m making an effort to give her a break in the kitchen by cooking a meal once a week or so. It’s a little intimidating, but I’m forging ahead. I think I was a reasonably competent bachelor cook, but my bachelor days are long past and my skills are a bit rusty.

Anyway, enough of that. A few weeks ago, our Fresh Fork CSA brought us andouille sausage. Lyn wasn’t sure what it was, but I’ve had this spicy pork sausage from Cajun country before and enjoyed it. If you don’t have andouille handy, chorizo makes a pretty good substitute. Andouille is fatty and flavorful. It is usually used as a way to add flavor rather than as a prime ingredient. We also had several sweet potatoes and a fistful of shallots, all stored from earlier weeks’ CSA shares.

With a goal of using up what we had on hand, I found Five And Spice’s recipe for sweet potatoes and andouille online. It’s kind of like a roasted hash. It would make a good side dish, though we used it as a light entree.

If there’s one cooking technique I’ve learned from Lyn, it’s to use recipes for inspiration, not as laws. Here is my version of the dish:

5 medium-to-large sweet potatoes
a handful of shallots
1/2-3/4 pounds andouille sausage (I used 1.3 pounds, but see below…)
some fresh baby spinach
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
paprika, smoked or regular (optional, see below…)

Instructions:

Peel the sweet potatoes. Remove all yucky parts. If they are late-season organic sweet potatoes, as ours were, you will definitely have some yucky parts to cut out. Cut the sweet potatoes into cubes about 1/4″ on a side.
Peel and chop the shallots.
Clean the spinach.
Preheat oven to 425 °F.
Put the andouille in a frying pan and sear it on all sides until a probe thermometer in the middle reads a safe temperature. I cooked ours to 160 °F. It coasted to above 165 °F after I took it off the heat, which was my target temperature for killing any little nasties that might be in it.
Toss together the sweet potatoes and shallots with the olive oil. I forgot the paprika, but this is where you would include it if you have a better memory than me. Put them in a roasting dish. (I used a 9×13 oven-safe glass pan.)
Roast the potatoes until they are starting to get tender, about 20-25 minutes. While the potatoes roast, let the andouille cool enough to handle, then break it up into 1/4″ pieces.
Stir the andouille into the roasted potatoes. Roast until the potatoes are deliciously tender, about 5 more minutes.
Remove from oven. Toss with the spinach, which will wilt.
Serve hot.

The flavor of the andouille melts all over everything and makes a wonderful savory-sweet mix with just a touch of zing. The small pieces of sausage and potatoes let the full flavor emerge in every bite.

I have a few things I would do differently next time. First of all, I used the full 1.3 pounds of andouille that we had. If you are used to lots of meat in your dishes, you would probably love it, but we, chez Lyn Style, have been gradually growing accustomed to vegetable-centric meals. I will use less andouille next time, such as the 1/2 to 3/4 pound I suggested above. Second, I might try leaving out the olive oil. Between the oil and the sausage, it was a bit too oily for my taste.

[I wouldn’t use less andouille. I would double the sweet potatoes instead. – Lyn]

Don’t worry about it being too hot because of the sausage’s Cajun roots. Nick and Sally couldn’t get enough of the sausage. I doubt they would have liked it straight up, but the veggies tempered its heat nicely.

Enjoy the snow, and try some sweet potatoes and andouille. Until next time, this is husband Stephen, signing out.

Fresh Fork Winter CSA–week 5

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Dec 212011

Today, we had another soggy Fresh Fork CSA pick up. I think Trevor should invest in Gortex running gear for the crew, and maybe some sand bags for the tent. It was really a smooth pick up. The kids wanted to wait with me, so they ran around in the rain while I waited in line for our goodies.

Here’s what we were expecting this week:

1 tub (4 oz.) goat milk feta
8 oz. jar of brandied cherry preserves
8 oz. mixed baby greens
1 sleeve of leaf lettuce
1 head of cabbage
1 bag of Mrs. Miller’s dried egg noodles
1.25 lb.s Andouille
2 lbs. ground beef
8 oz. pak choi
2 lbs. onions
1 lb. Brussels sprouts
3 lbs. sweet potatoes
1 24 oz. loaf of apple pound bread

Here’s a group shot:

I don’t have any immediate plans for the sweet potatoes, but I’m glad that everyone in our house likes them. I’m thinking of using the ground beef in a crock pot unstuffed cabbage tomorrow. I only got one pack of beef and I’m checking on that.

I’ve never used Andouille sausage in anything before. For now, it’s in the freezer and I’ll think of something later. My husband just found a sweet potato and Andouille recipe that sounds promising. The goat cheese will disappear on crackers and toast. Cheese never lasts long in our house.

Greens disappear without much effort and these will be no exception. We need to keep our veggie intake up to balance the cookies this week.

I have all of the ingredients for French onion soup and will make it in the next day or two.

The Brussels sprouts and pak choi will make good sides this weekend.

Apple pound cake is a new one for us. I’m sure it will be eaten quickly once we taste it. The noodles will be in the cupboard for a few weeks since they aren’t perishable. We still have turkey in the freezer, so some soup may be in order.

We aren’t cooking a ham for Christmas, but I’m sure these preserves will be tasty no matter how we enjoy them. I’m considering making homemade jelly doughnuts for Christmas. Maybe they will have cherry filling.

I also splurged on extras this week. We were out of eggs and still wanting to do some baking this week. The breakfast patties were so good when we had them before, so I couldn’t turn them down. I wanted to try some local eggnog. The bacon will be in the freezer for as needed in recipes. The spinach pasta was dinner tonight. I can’t remember the individual prices, but our total was $28.

I’m excited for the holidays this week and hope to enjoy cooking a few meals at home. Eating out really does get old, but sometimes it’s definitely the easy way out.

Geauga Family Farms–Winter CSA week 5

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Dec 102011

The kids and Stephen went up to St. Noel’s today to pick up week 5 of our Geauga Family Farms CSA. Next week is the last pickup for the winter share. Today’s pickup was particularly great.

Here’s a group shot of what we received:

Let’s take a closer look:

Butternut squash, sweet potatoes

Eggs (Yeah!), garlic

Broccoli, carrots

Red cabbage, beets

Two kinds of lettuce

Wheat bread

We have quite a few squash right now. I will be baking most of them tomorrow and making squash puree for the freezer. We also have quite a few sweet potatoes. The kids really like the baked sweet potato slices, so we’ll be making them again soon.

Eggs we use in everyday cooking and they are always welcome. We have quite a bit of garlic frozen, but this is our only fresh piece. I’ll be putting it in chili this week.

The broccoli and carrots both went into Shepherd’s pie tonight. It was delicious. I used local butter, potatoes, ground beef, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots.

I don’t have any immediate plans for the cabbage, but something will come to me soon. The beets will be combined with some others in the fridge for Harvard beets.

We had some of the lettuce in salad today and will probably use the rest in a day or two. The wheat bread is almost 1/2 gone. It made nice peanut butter and apple butter toast for snacks today.

I’ll be sad to see this CSA end next week.

A Fresh Fork Market Thanksgiving Package

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Nov 232011

While I picked up my regular share yesterday, I also picked up a Thanksgiving package from my Fresh Fork CSA. There were 3 to pick from and I choose package number 1. I debated whether to get a package since we don’t usually cook Thanksgiving dinner. We go to my uncle’s house. I discussed it with my husband and we decided to try it out. Let’s just say we will be eating well for a couple of weeks.

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?

Geauga Family Farms–Winter CSA week 3

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Nov 192011

Today was our pick up for week 3 of the winter Geauga Family Farms CSA. The truck was 45 minutes late! We had a full morning packed and had to rearrange our schedule due to the delay. The truck is supposed to get there at 8:30AM and pick up time is from 8:45AM until 10:15AM. The truck arrived at 9:15AM. I had gotten there at 8:45AM. I had a nice chat with the St. Noel volunteer Kathy. It’s a great pick up site, but I really miss my Tuesday pick up. We are just so busy on the weekends that we don’t have much flexibility.

Here’s a group shot of what we received:

Let’s take a closer look:

Small pumpkin roll, daikon radish

Pie pumpkin, parsley

Sweet potatoes, oak leaf lettuce

Leaf lettuce, broccoli

We enjoyed part of the pumpkin roll today. That will disappear quickly. I’m not sure what we are going to do with the daikon radish. I think I’ll make some pumpkin puree for smoothies and pancakes with the pie pumpkin. I’m going to try to make parsley potatoes with the parsley.

We were out of lettuce, so a few salads are in order. The broccoli will get used as a side with leftover chicken tomorrow. We still have a few sweet potatoes left, but we’ll be making sweet potato fries this week.

With the exception of the daikon radish, everything is common and will be very easy for us to use up. It’s a good thing since we get a regular and a Thanksgiving package pick up on Tuesday with our other CSA. I miss the eggs. The winter CSA was supposed to have eggs each week, but there’s been a shortage. Hopefully, we’ll get some eggs in the last couple of weeks. The Geauga Family Farms CSA runs for 6 weeks and we are half way done already. It goes so fast.

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