Tantre Farm Share, week 3

From left to right, top row: Massive bunch of spinach, spicy greens, two heads of red lettuce, romaine lettuce, strawberries
bottom row: turnips, radishes, scallions, English peas, garlic scapes, lemon balm

Menu Plan:

• Some of the spinach, a few garlic scapes, and two of the scallions will be used to make foil-packet tilapia (see below).
• Garlic scape pesto to freeze and enjoy in the depths of winter
• Fresh peas and radishes will be tossed with toasted walnuts, feta, scallions and a mustard vinaigrette.
• The rest of the spinach will be blanched and combined into this salad with ricotta (and wheat berries instead of barley).
• My mom's birthday was yesterday so we consumed the strawberries with a lemon sour cream cake and whipped cream. I much prefer lemon cake to biscuity shortcakes as my strawberries and cream delivery device.
• The lemon balm will be made into herbal tea. I love infusions with fresh herbs--the flavor is much brighter than the dried.
• I haven't really decided what to do with the lettuce, turnips or spicy greens yet. Probably just salad, braise and stir fry respectively.

Now, about that fish in a foil packet. I really like making fish this way, partly because there is very little mess (no pan to wash, just rinse the used foil and toss in the recycling bin) and partly because it is easy and flavorful and eminently flexible. It works just as well in the winter with frozen vegetables as it does now with all this glorious produce.

Here's the general idea:

• First, crank up the oven to 400.
• Rip off a big piece of foil for each serving, probably about 18 inches long. Rub a little olive oil on the center and then pile on a portion of leftover rice (you can freeze leftover rice which makes this super easy. Just thaw the rice first.)
• Assemble a cutting board full of vegetables--you definitely want one or more members of the allium family: thin sliced onion, minced garlic, chopped garlic scapes, chopped scallions, you get the idea. Put half of your chosen allium(s) on the rice and reserve a few to top the whole pile so there is lots of pungent goodness throughout. Most vegetables work fine, just watch out for the ones that release a lot of water when they cook. Try combining any of the following: thin sliced carrots, sliced red peppers, steamed greens, thin sliced fennel, sugar snap peas, some cherry tomatoes. Whatever sounds good and is hanging out in the crisper drawers. Heck, even frozen peas and frozen broccoli works in the wintertime.
• Lay a tilapia fillet on top of the rice pile. Sprinkle on a little salt and pepper and any other herbs you want (dill, tarragon, fresh basil, whatever works with your vegetable pile).
• Pile on the vegetables and the rest of your chosen alliums.
• Top with some feta, another sprinkle of salt and pepper, a squeeze of lemon juice and a drizzle of olive oil. Then fold over your foil and seal up your packets, plop them on a baking sheet and chuck them in the oven for 15 minutes.
• Take out a packet and carefully open it up (there will be some steam); use a knife to poke around and see if the fish is cooked through. If not, seal up the packet again and leave it for another 5 minutes.
• Open up the packets and slide each one onto its own plate.

As I mentioned before, this recipe is flexible. You can splash on a little white wine if you are so inspired, you can smear the tilapia with some dijon mustard, or replace the feta with a blob of sour cream and a little lemon zest. I'm sure you could substitute a different fish fillet, just make sure it is thin. I use tilapia because it a) cheap b) mild and c) the US farmed tilapia is one of the best choices on the seafood watch guide. I usually get a bag of frozen fillets and pull out as many as I need the morning I want to make this.

Tonight's packet contained brown rice, garlic scapes, two big scallions, spinach that I had nuked until it wilted and chopped (the leaves were HUGE), feta and lemon and it was terrific--all the flavors melded together but it wasn't a big pile of fishy mush (which may be one of the more disgusting phrases I've ever written. Fishy mush=ewwww.) I neglected to photograph it before I gobbled it down, but here's a picture of a depths of winter version all piled up and ready to be sealed in its packet:
Let me know if you come up with any particularly tasty combinations that I can add to our repertoire!

Sunday Supper Sillies

By Sunday evening we tend to get a little nutso around here. Brian decided that his hakurei turnips from the farm share would make an excellent base for a little man, particularly since there was the opportunity to deck him out with orcchiette (the hat), rotini (for the arms) and peas (eyeballs) which could be scavenged from the rest of our dinner. Poor little turnip man never saw it coming...

On a more serious note, the garlic scape pesto that is topping the pasta and peas turned out much better this year than last year's attempt. Last year I left the flower part on the end of the scape and that left us with garlic breath for about a week. This year, I pinched off the flower portion and just used the stem which made for a much more pleasant garlic experience. This year's recipe also included some lemon juice and zest which turns out to be a great way to keep the flavor bright and spring-like. Tossing some peas in with the pasta--sauteed sugar snaps, blanched fresh shelled peas, some pea shoots or just a cup of thawed frozen peas--adds a nice sweetness and balances out the intensity of the pesto.

Garlic Scape Pesto
from Tantre Farm CSA newsletter

1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
3/4 cup coarsely chopped garlic scapes, the top flower part pinched off (or leave them on if you want a much more intense garlic experience)
Juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Combine the scapes, pine nuts, lemon juice and zest, salt, pepper and Parmesan in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse about 20 times, until fairly well combined. Pour in the olive oil slowly through the feed tube while the motor is running. Store in an air-tight jar in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks or freeze.

If you thought last week was green....(Tantre Farm Share, week 2)

From left to right: (bottom row) scallions, radishes, turnips, garlic scapes, arugula, thyme, peppermint, oregano
(top row) three heads of lettuce, two huge bunches of spinach, quart of strawberries

The green just keep on coming! Reporting back from last week's menu: the Turnip Greens Tart was a real winner--I liked it so much I made it twice (I also had some turnip thinnings from my garden to use up for the second tart). I tried it once with the cornmeal tart crust in the recipe, and once with a simple whole wheat pie crust (I preferred the latter). If you are trying to figure out what to do with your turnip greens this week, the greens from this bunch would make one tart.

Menu plan:

• Homemade pizza with mozzarella, garlic scapes and oregano, topped with arugula and shaved Parmesan when it comes out of the oven and drizzled with olive oil and balsamic.
• Spanakopita with the spinach, oregano and scallions, and a salad with the lettuce and radishes. It looks like a ton of spinach, but I know it loses volume when cooked down, so if I need more greens I'll toss in the radish tops.
• Garlic scape pesto on orecchiette pasta with sugar snap peas (recipe came in the CSA newsletter).
• Peppermint iced tea
• It's a little chilly out this week so I'm thinking that a big bowl of Pho-style noodle soup would be good with turnips, turnip greens and scallions in a star anise, ginger, lime broth topped with sliced jalapenos, cilantro and mint. No recipe yet, just an idea...
• Strawberries to be gobbled straight and fresh!
• Haven't decided what to do with the thyme yet...maybe I'll dry it if I don't think of something. Send suggestions if you have good thyme-heavy recipes!

Morning Buzz

I've been doing my story mapping and now have a much better plan for how to shape and pace what I've written. So today I woke up ready to do some major revisions on my book. In anticipation of a whole lot of desk sitting and concentrating, I set myself up for success by doing some yoga (I'm loving Yoga Journal's video podcasts) and then made myself something to eat that is sort of decadent (because I respond well to treats) and yet still pretty healthy (so I don't crash and burn out). These whole wheat ginger scones were just the ticket.


Scones don't have to be unhealthy if you resist the urge to slather them with copious quantities of butter. These babies are made with whole wheat flour, plain yogurt and a minimal amount of butter and while they might not be my first choice for a decadent afternoon tea in which clotted cream and homemade strawberry jam are featured, they are a great mid-morning sustaining snack with a latte. You can vary the degree of healthy-tasting-ness by using different types of whole wheat flour: white whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour will look and taste more like a traditional scone; all (regular) whole wheat flour will increase the nutty, toasty flavor, if that's what you're looking for, though the latter will also make the dough a bit more crumbly. I did a 50-50 split.

I paired mine with marmalade, but they would also be great with a small piece of sharp cheddar cheese. Or both if, like me, you are a fan of mixing your sweet and savory.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I have some marmalade to wipe off of my mouse before I get down to the writing part of my day.

Whole Wheat Ginger Scones
adapted from this recipe at Everybody Likes Sandwiches

1/2 C plain, lowfat yogurt
1 t vanilla
1 egg
1 C white whole wheat flour
1 C whole wheat flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 C cold butter
1/4 C candied ginger, chopped into small pieces
2 T white sugar
zest of one lemon
1-3 T milk

(optional)
1 T milk and some demerara sugar for topping

Preheat oven to 425.

In a small bowl, mix together yogurt, vanilla and egg.

In a large bowl mix together flours, baking powder and salt. Cut or rub in the butter until the flour is coated but still has some small pea-sized lumps. Add the ginger, white sugar, and lemon zest and give it a stir to distribute. Then stir in the yogurt/egg mixture with a rubber spatula until it sort of sticks together. If your dough is still too crumbly to clump up nicely (depending on the flour you use, it may need a little more moisture), drizzle over 1-3 T milk and that should do the trick.

Turn out onto a counter top and knead just until the dough is fairly uniform. As a friend of mine once said when making pie crust, treat it like a liver! (very gently) Pat it into a circle with a thickness of about 1/2-3/4 inch. If you are going to do the milk and sugar topping, do it now (brush with milk, sprinkle with demerara sugar). Cut it into 8 wedges. Put on a silpat or parchment covered baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown.

Green season is here again! (Tantre Farm Share, week 1)

From (vaguely) left to right: radishes, scallions, asparagus, turnips, spinach, garlic scapes, three heads of lettuce, spicy greens mix, tatsoi, black stemmed peppermint

Menu Plan

• Tonight I'll be using the turnip greens and a couple of garlic scapes to make this Turnip Green Tart and some of the green frilly lettuce, radishes and scallions will be assembled into a salad.
• I'll use the other garlic scapes (and add in the radish tops) to this garlic scape spaghetti carbonara. I like that it uses whole wheat pasta and I have some good eggs from the farmer's market too. Braised turnips will make a good side.
• Red and green lettuce, scallions, and radishes will be the base for a chicken Greek salad. I found some reasonably flavorful beets at the supermarket this week to add in. If I get my act together and remember early enough in the day (and if it isn't stinking hot out) I'll try and make some fresh bread to go with it.
• I'll assemble a bi bim bop-ish variation with stir fried spicy greens mix, scallions, beef, eggs, carrots and the spinach transformed into goma ae.
• I'll sub out the red pepper for tatsoi in this soba noodles with asparagus (and scallions) recipe.
• The peppermint will get hot water dumped over it to infuse for peppermint iced tea. It is infinitely more refreshing that making it from dried.

It is almost CSA time

This past weekend we went out to Tantre Farm's open house and while the kids played on the swing and visited with the chickens, I realized that I need to get my act together since the first share is only weeks away.

The first order of business is to dig through the freezer and see what is left. I'm pretty sure I used up all the packages of blanched kale and beet greens, but I think there are still some frozen green beans and roasted red peppers that haven't been eaten and maybe some more purple potatoes lurking in the bin of the "beer fridge" (or "beer and potato fridge".)

The other thing I just started (and hope will be helpful) is some recipe preparation for this year's share. Now that I have a better idea of what will be in the box each week, I need to get a selection of recipes prepared so that I don't blank out and freak out when I see the bounty piled on my table. Of course, I can always refer to last summer's Tantre posts and remind myself which recipes were real winners (and hopefully also remember which ones weren't...). But I've also started a Google Doc called "CSA recipe ideas" and have it organized by vegetable. I browse a lot of cooking blogs and now, whenever I come across a recipe that sounds interesting in the produce-consumption department, I add it to the document with a link to the recipe. So if there is an inundation of peas one week, I can be reminded of Sesame Roasted Snap Peas or Sauteed Radishes and Snap Peas with Dill.

I've been feeling a little guilty at how I seem to always turn to the internet for recipes these days so I'm also going to take a little time and dig through my cookbook collection and see what looks good in there--then tab it with a post-it note and add the recipe to the document. Maybe I'll also discover that some of my cookbooks have outlived their usefulness and I can liberate a little shelf space.

Are there any other suggestions people have to prepare for the CSA bounty that will soon be upon us?

Mapping

I don't head out into the wilderness without a map. Well, I did once in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and, despite having a good sense of direction, got totally lost and was lucky to find my way back before nightfall. I remember being confused, a little freaked out and yet still hopeful that I'd stumble across something familiar.

That one time was enough for me to learn my lesson about the importance of maps.

So why has it taken me so long to figure out that I need a map for my writing?

I guess I thought that I knew enough from all my years of endless reading and class attending. But plot structure does not come via osmosis and I'm discovering that the way I've been writing is the equivalent of a hand drawn map on the back of a napkin when heading into treacherous territory. Because really, is there any territory more treacherous than my thoughts? (For those of you who have happy relationships with your thought processes, more power to you. However, my thoughts and I battle each other regularly.)

I recently had this "ah ha!" moment and have put the brakes on the work I've been doing on my book. In the week or so before the "ah ha!" I spent way too much time navigating, getting lost, moving chapters around, questioning turns in the plot and screwing up.

It was not the most satisfying week of work. In fact, I was a big time grump.

But now I know it was because I was lost. And yes, the feelings were remarkably similar to what I felt when lost in the forest except for the fact that it was all happening inside my head and I had plenty of tea and cookies* on hand to help me feel a little better.

So I'm backing up. I've pulled a few books that I admire off the shelf and I'm mapping them.** I'm re-reading them for structure and charting their movements chapter by chapter. And then I'm going to use them as models to map my own book. I can now actually say that I'm looking forward to trying again with my map in hand. It's kind of like getting myself psyched up to climb a challenging mountain, but I won't be going up it empty handed this time.
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*Speaking of cookies, I thought I made good chocolate chip cookies, but the newest chocolate chip cookie recipe from Cook's Illustrated in which you brown the butter before making the cookie batter, is amazing.
**One really good side effect of the mapping project is that I've discovered the central idea for my next book and plan to have a map in hand for that one before NaNoWriMo rolls around.

Writing Goals

It's hard when you are working on your first novel* to know what is a reasonable amount of time in which to set your goals. There are people like Joyce Carol Oates who crank out amazing prose at a rate that makes normal humans just want to give up and crawl into a cave. There are other writers who taaake-theiiir-tiiiiime and either do or don't feel bad about it. I'm still trying to figure out where I fall on the writing speed continuum.

I had a hard writing month in April. Not sure why--the weather was glorious so I can't use the excuse of seasonal lethargy. But maybe I can blame the lilacs for distracting me! No, seriously. I went through a couple of weeks in which my writing self-esteem took a nose dive and I thought, with some degree of despair, that I'd have to chuck this baby out the window.

I'm still not quite sure how I dragged myself out of this pit. I cooked a little, I knit a little, I tried to remember that I'm not totally incompetent at everything I do.

Here's what I'm planning for the near future in the writing department:

Summer is going to suck as far as writing time goes. I'm looking forward to some of the stuff I have planned to do with my critters**, but realistically I'll probably only get one morning a week to really be able to write. That means that I need to have a good intact draft done by June 18th (the critter's last day of school and my 41st birthday) with an organized to-do writing list of stuff that could, conceivably, be done with half a brain while simultaneously officiating a super-squirter showdown (typing on the lap top through a clear plastic bag, perhaps). That means it is more important to crank out that missing chapter now than to dig through the first 10 chapters checking for contradictions. The latter is something I could conceivably do with the critters in the immediate vicinity--the former is not.

Also over the summer I am going to get over my fear that the first person who reads this will look at me with pity and say "This is how you've been spending your time?" So I'm starting safe with my dear husband whose continued gainful employment has allowed me the time to pursue this project (I am still in awe of the fact that he likes his job and they like him and, oh yeah, they PAY him too!). Then after him, I want to find some other people--critical readers, fellow writers--who can be my early readers. Anyone out there who is interested in reading and constructively commenting on my YA/Middle Grade (still not sure which) fiction with a fantasy bent?

After I spend the summer with the above two projects (working on the to-do list and absorbing feed back on the project) then in September and October I'll plan for a big overhaul.

Hopefully this will leave me with a submittable draft that I can shop around to agents and will leave my brain somewhat liberated so that in November I can do NaNoWriMo and work on a completely new book. Maybe a different genre or age range or even (gasp) non-fiction.

Aggg. It's scary just writing this stuff down because that means people will feel like they can ask me about the progress I'm making toward these goals. If you do see me, and venture to ask, and I turn pale and look like I'm going to faint, please administer beer. A nice hoppy IPA should bring me back around!

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*Well, the first novel that I actually think I'll finish and try and pitch. There are at least two that I've started and worked on, one for a considerable amount of time, and then decided to chuck.
**Which is the topic of another post in which I will be trolling for ideas to add to my "how to stay sane and maybe even enjoy yourself" list.

Fiona's favorite

Based on how much I bitch about my kids' lousy eating habits, what am I doing promoting anything that appeals to them? But the one area in which they don't drive me totally nuts is Middle Eastern food. We may have crap Thai and mediocre Vietnamese around here but the Lebanese food can not be beat (well, except in Lebanon...). When the boy critter was just a babe he sucked hummus (aka white velvet) off his pudgy little fist though, before you ask, sadly he no longer eats hummus...but he and his sister do eat copious quantities of lamb!

Since I can't afford to take them out for kofta and shawarma every week, I had to come up with a home version. Into the base of ground lamb goes some fine chopped onion, pine nuts, allspice and cinnamon, parsley, salt and pepper.
I make Brian squish it all together and shape it into patties. It's nice to delegate the icky part of the recipe.

Then I pop them in a non-stick or cast iron pan and cook away:

There's a lot of fat in most ground lamb*, but a lot of it also stays in the pan, not the patty.

Then serve it with your favorite Middle Eastern sides and accompaniments:

Tahini lemon sauce, chopped salad with sumac lemon dressing, red lentil soup, homemade pita and "Fiona's Favorite" lamb patties.

I couldn't stand the thought of going to the store (sometimes I suffer from severe retail aversion) and it was a good thing too because tonight I discovered that making your own pita is really easy and really good. I followed this recipe from the blog, Brown Eyed Baker, though as a lazy person, I let my Kitchen Aid do all the kneading. Since we were heading down to the FestiFools parade and this outing would interrupt the regular timing for the second rising, after I weighed and shaped the individual dough balls, I set them on a parchment covered baking sheet and loosely covered them with plastic wrap before sticking them in the fridge. When we got back, they rolled out nicely and puffed up when I baked them on the pizza stone. And the sensation of popping a lamb patty into a fresh, warm pita? Fantastic!

Fiona literally started jumping around the house with excitement when I told her I'd be making lamb patties for dinner tonight, and for a kid who is indifferent-to-hostile to most dinner foods, that is something to see.

Lamb Patties
feeds 4

1 lb ground lamb (can also use ground beef if you are not fond of lamb, though Fiona will think you are crazy)
2 T toasted pine nuts, chopped fine (or toasted almonds)
2 T onion, chopped fine (about 1/4 of a small onion)
1/2 t cinnamon
3/4 t allspice
1 t salt
1/2 t ground black pepper
1/4 C chopped parsley

In a bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well until evenly combined.

Take heaping tablespoons of the meat mixture and roll into balls, then flatten into patties (12 total, 4 per person). Or divide up into 8 larger balls (like Brian did tonight) and give out 2 per person.

Pan fry in a non-stick or seasoned cast iron skillet until browned on both sides and no longer pink in the middle.

To serve, stuff patties in a pita with tomato, cucumbers, lettuce and tahini lemon sauce or hummus.
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* The leanest ground lamb I've found has come from the folks who sell it frozen at the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market. They aren't there all weeks, but when they are I try to pick some up.

My head just exploded*

Both kids just ate red quinoa and a small bowl of lettuce** with their dinner. I'm squinting, but there may be a little light at the end of this hellacious crappy-eater tunnel.

*The boy critter's phrase for being flabergasted.
**ok so the lettuce was iceberg. Plain. No dressing. But I ate plenty of iceberg as a kid and I'm going to think of it as a "gateway" salad vegetable.