Week 2 and 3- lots of repeats and one new recipe

Got behind a little bit, but here's what's been in the CSA the past two weeks
Week 2: May 16, 2020

• 1 lb salad mix'
• 1 head lettuce
• 1 bunch carrots (tip: cut the greens off the carrots when you get them home.  You can use the greens like parsley, and the carrots won't go soft)
• 1 bunch kale
• 1 bunch collards
• 1 kohlrabi
• 1/2 lb spinach

Week 3: May 22, 2020

• 1 lb spicy mustard mix
• 2 heads lettuce
• 1 lb swiss/rainbow chard
• 1 buch radish
• 1 cabbage
• 2 cucumbers
• microgreens

I've cooked a number of things over the past two weeks, and almost managed to eat all the salad.  Fortunately since the lettuce we get from the farm is so fresh, it really keeps well.  I know I'm on lettuce overload right now, but I also know I'll miss it later this summer.

Haven't made too much new recently, but here are some good recipes I've repeated:

• kale pizza
• spinach pizza
• pasta with sausage and mustard greens
• lots of salad
• chimichurri, substituting carrot greens for the parsley

One new recipe I made with the carrots was Lemon Rosemary Chicken Thighs with Vegetables

It was pretty good.  I used the recipe as a starting point, and modified it a bit.  You need:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
•  2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
• 4 large garlic cloves, pressed through garlic press or finely chopped
•  Juice of 2 lemons
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt (Diamond Crystal)
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground Black Pepper
• 2 lbs bone in skin on chicken thighs (this was 4 for me)
• 1 bunch carrots, peeled and cut into relatively uniform pieces (about the size of the "baby carrots" you see at the grocery store).
• 1 lb yukon gold potatoes, cut into roughly 1" chunks (I did not peel them)
• 1 vidalia onion (or other sweet onion) cut into roughly 1" chunks

If you have time, season the chicken thighs w/ 1-2 tsp salt and store in the fridge overnight.

Preheat oven to 425°F (I used the convection feature on my oven)  Cover a sheet pan with Al foil and spray with olive oil.  Whisk together the first six ingredients ( olive oil through pepper).  Add the rest of the ingredients, tossing well to coat. Spread everything out on the sheet pan, making sure the vegetables are in one layer and the chicken thighs are skin side up.  Roast for 40 minutes, checking the chicken with an instant-read thermometer to make sure it's at least 165°F.

Still have the cabbage, cucumbers and kohlrabi to use up!

Ribbolita

This is a delicious soup that has many versions - the one I use is closest to the one Giada de Laurentis published on Food Network several years ago.  What do I change?

You can buy the pancetta pre-chopped.  I don't use the olive oil (or only 1-2 tsp).  What I do is put the pancetta in the pot, add about 1/2 cup of water and simmer.  That renders out some of  the fat so by the time the water evaporates you can brown the pancetta in its rendered fat. Take the browned pancetta out and saute the onions and carrots in the rendered fat (adding a little olive oil if you think you need it).  Add the garlic and follow the recipe more or less as written.  I also add extra veg, adding more onion and carrot (1-2 cups each) and two of the boxes of chopped spinach rather than a 1lb bag.  If you do that you'll need to up the chicken stock a bit, and canned is FINE.  To serve I don't pour it over a toasted cibatta, but rather usually cut a baguette into slices (or that cool new no-knead bread I just made), spray with olive oil and toast until browned, then rub them with a garlic clove as described for the cibatta. and serve them on the side.  But it's darn tasty w/o the bread and freezes well.
A couple of pics - I got none.  Just imagine.

Moar Pizza - and greens

So, I'm a big fan of pizza.  Also a big fan of anything that uses up the greens.  So both were on display in this recipe from Smitten Kitchen for Crispy Spinach Pizza.  Modifications I made:

• I used my usual pizza dough from Bittmann.
• I didn't have fresh mozzarella so I made do with the shredded stuff in the bag.
• I used 2 oz less of the mozzarella.
• I sliced the garlic, poured a Tbs of olive oil over and microwaved it for 30 sec, fished it out to put on the pizza dough.
• I cooked the pizza for 5 minutes on parchment, then pulled it out to finish.  

Yes, it looks like we "melted Oscar the Grouch" on a pizza, but it still tastes pretty darn good.

 Some pics!
Pull the stems off the spinach:

The dough with all the cheeses:

Pile up the spinach:

Melted Oscar:

Tasty!

Week 3 - the beets

Ack!  Keeping up with this blogging thing is a challenge.  I feel like I've done a lot of really boring stuff with the box this past week, for example - I made a salad with all the greens or I put x in a fritatta.  So, sorry for being boring.  But, I missed one recipe last week that I really enjoy and want to catch folks up on, and also let you know what we got in week 3 and  cool recipe that used up a ton of greens.

Week 3 box:
1.5 lbs broccoli
1 bunch garlic scapes
1 bunch mustard greens
1 bunch turnips
1 lb salad mix (may be spicy? not sure yet)
1 head cabbage
1 bunch swiss chard
1 head lettuce (looks like green leaf lettuce)
1 bunch beets

Gorgeous photo:

Once again, the beets and turnips come with the greens attached which I saved and added to the greens from last week I haven't done anything with yet. No pressure.

So the recipe I made last week that's awesome .... from Skinnytaste https://www.skinnytaste.com/asian-chicken-lettuce-wraps/

Couple of things I change up - I usually put in more water chestnuts (because you might as well use the whole can) and more shitake mushrooms (b/c they are tasty).  I also sub in a tsp or so of gochuchang for the pepper in the main recipe and the Siracha in the sauce.  If you've never had gochuchang it's a great ingredient to get to know, spicy and sweet and keeps forever in the fridge.  The other thing I change is to serve it on a bed of chopped lettuce rather than a wrap (b/c they just fall apart and are hard to eat).  Didn't take a pic of assembly, but here's the final product:

oh.  So I didn't take a picture.  Imagine if you will, a mixture of sauteed chicken, water chestnuts, and shitakes on top of some gorgeous green salad.  With rice.  Not beautiful but delicious.  Next time (because I'll make it again before this challenge is over) I'll remember to take a  pic.

Last night I made a recipe called "Garden Greens Pasta" http://www.cookinglight.com/recipes/garden-greens-pasta but I made a few changes.

1.  I used spinach  (last week's box, yay!) as well as changing up the second green, kale, for chard since surprisingly, there was NO KALE in this week's box (I know, right?).
2.   I subbed 2 tablespoons of toasted pine nuts for the walnuts
3.   I added some parmesan (about 2 ounces) because the recipe seemed to be screaming for it. 
4.   I only used 1 tbs of olive oil because 3 seemed like A LOT. 
5.   I used penne instead of spaghetti  

Here's my mise en place. I subbed garlic scapes for some of the garlic.

Once again not to many photos of the process, but here's the finished dish (minus the cheese for once!)

The verdict?  Pretty tasty, but the greens give my teeth that furry feeling that tells me they are underdone (to my taste). I'll cook them longer next time.  And the pine nuts and cheese were an excellent addition.

Oh, and the title of this post - well this week plus last week?  We've got the beets.

Yesterday was Mother's Day, and I made one recipe to use up the last vegetable in the box, that bunch of kale.  I'm late to the game of kale salads, but I've had at least one I've liked so I thought it would be worth a try.  Unfortunately, I didn't have the recipe for that one so I relied on the internet.  With a name like "Addictive Raw Kale Salad with Crispy Prosciutto and Parmesan Cheese" what could go wrong?  Well, firstly I wanted it as a side, so I didn't include prosciutto and a cut back on the parm a bit.  I also cut back on the oil by a tablespoon.  It takes a big pile of kale and makes it into a little pile of kale:

The results looked nice and tasted ok, maybe a little too much acid (note toasted pine nut garnish):

But I wouldn't say it's addictive, so maybe the title oversold a little. Or maybe the addictive part is the prosciutto and cheese.

Today I needed to use up the rest of the spinach (about 3-4 ounces?), so I made a quick frittata, a great way to use up stuff in your crisper.  This recipe is loosely adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home.   Serves 1.
Ingredients:
3-4 oz spinach, washed w/ some water still clinging to the leaves
roughly 2/3 cup sauteed peppers and onions left over from dinner Friday
1 clove garlic, minced
1 slice prosciutto, sliced into ribbons
1 whole egg
1 egg white
1 oz (1/4 cup) 6 cheese Italian blend
1/2 tsp olive oil

Heat the olive oil in a 10" nonstick pan over medium high heat.  Turn on broiler and adjust rack to the closest position.  Add the garlic to the pan and allow to sizzle until you can smell it.  Add the spinach and cook 2-3 minutes until it has wilted.  Add in the cooked peppers and onions and the prosciutto and stir things around until they are heated through. Spread the vegetable mixture evenly in the pan.  Beat egg and egg white together and season with salt and pepper.  Reduce heat to low, and pour the egg mixture over the vegetables and tilt the pan to spread it around evenly.  Sprinkle with cheese and cover and cook for 2 minutes.  Remove the cover and put the pan under the broiler until the cheese is browned.  Remove frittata to plate with spatula. Eat lunch.

spinach before wilting

after adding the egg to the pan

after broiling

Let's recap, given the pickup for this week's box is tomorrow:

• 1 bunch swiss chard
• 1 bunch kale still some of the "addictive" salad in the fridge
  
• 1 pound salad mix (mixed lettuces)
• 1 bunch spring onions used 1 to make dressing, the rest will keep.
• 1 bunch radishes
• 1/2 pound spinach
• 1/2 pound mustard greens
• 1 bunch mint used about half for pesto, have been putting it in my water, but still have a bit left over.  It's in a glass with water and starting to root, so I might put it in a pot outside.

Not too shabby.  We'll see what tomorrow's box brings! (Spoiler alert: there will be greens!)