Local Box Meal Plan: Dec. 7-11

Now that I’m back, I can’t wait to start getting Greenling boxes again! I’ve supplemented with veggies from the Pearl Farmer’s Market, but there’s something to be said for local produce on your doorstep.

What I like about local, seasonal produce is how it seems like what you’re “supposed” to eat is what’s available. The first night of Hanukkah is on Friday, and this week we’re getting potatoes and onions (the key ingredients in latkes) and apples (for applesauce). Maybe it’s a coincidence, but I’d like to think otherwise.

This week, we’re getting red potatoes and yellow onions from Naegelin, sweet Italian peppers from Lundgren, apples from Top of Texas, beets and icicle radish from My Father’s Farm, cucumbers from Home Sweet Farm, Bibb lettuce from Bella Verdi, Louisiana scallions from Acadian Family Farm, rainbow baby carrots from Animal Farm, and Hachiya persimmons from Indian Hill.

For Hanukkah dinner on Friday, I’m making:

• Brisket with baby carrots
• Latkes with red potatoes and yellow onions (I’ve been sworn to secrecy so I can’t share my family’s recipe, but I’m sure googling will produce lots of recipes for you to try!)
• Applesauce
• Bibb lettuce salad with cucumbers, scallions and radishes

For the rest of the week, I’m making:

• Arugula salad with roasted beets and goat cheese
• Stuffed pepper casserole
• Persimmon bread (if the persimmons aren’t ripe enough, I’ll store them in a paper bag on the counter for a few days. They need to be quite ripe for baking.)

If anyone saw Top Chef last week, Kevin made what looked like a very cool puree from the carrot tops, so I’m going to try my hand at something like that under a panseared fish. Don’t want to waste good produce!

Local Box Meal Plan: Nov. 16-20

Happy Thanksgiving! I realize that I’m a week early, but we’re having some friends over for an early Thanksgiving on Sunday. Because it’s not the actual Thanksgiving day, I’m taking some liberties and veering from my family’s traditional Turkey Day menu (and let’s face it, who wants to have the same meal twice in one week?).

This week, we’re getting sweet potatoes, red onion, and collards or mustard greens from Naegelin, Eureka persimmons from Indian Hill (Texas A&M has a good breakdown of persimmon varieties grown in Texas here), Cameo apples from Top of Texas, pie pumpkin, green beans from Animal Farm, hot and sweet peppers from Green Gate Farm, escarole and Louisiana shallot-scallions from Acadian Family Farm, Bibb lettuce from Bella Verdi and herb from Pure Luck.

So I’m making:

Appetizer:

• Persimmon-cranberry chutney with water crackers and brie

Main course:

• Herb-roasted turkey
• Chestnut-apple stuffing (made with a red onion) served inside a roasted pumpkin – this only works if we get a pumpkin, not fennel. Here’s hoping for a pumpkin for the super cool presentatation!
• Roasted sweet potatoes tossed with herbs
• Roasted green beans
• Sauteed greens with garlic
• Louisiana shallot-scallion dinner rolls (based on this sweet dinner rolls recipe)

And because we still have to eat dinner on Saturday:

• Italian wedding soup with escarole
• Green salad with balsamic vinaigrette

I’m also retrying hot pepper jelly with this recipe, since it didn’t work so well last time.

Are you changing up some of your Thanksgiving staples this year, or keeping it traditional?

Local Box Meal Plan: Nov. 9-13

It’s the return of the corn! I didn’t think it would happen so late in the season, but I’m not complaining.

This week from Greenling, we’re getting corn from Home Sweet Farm, tangerines from Orange Blossom Farms, acorn squash from Massey Farm, gala apples from Top of Texas, red new potatoes from Naegelin, watermelon radishes from Ringer Farm, bok choy from Acadian Family Farm, grapefruit from G&S Groves, scallions from Lundgren Farm, yellow beans from Animal Farm, cilantro from My Father’s Farm, and (perhaps) mustard greens.

So I’m making:

Side Dishes:

• Radish salad with cilantro
• Bok choy slaw with Gala apples
• Jalapeno corn bread (since I still have a ton of serranos left from last week!)
• Garlicky yellow beans with scallions
• Balsamic-glazed chick peas with mustard greens

Dinners:

• Roasted acorn squash hollowed out and served with sesame chicken tenders in the middle
• Southwest corn and potato soup (which would also use the leftover serranos)

I’ll eat the tangerines and grapefruit as they are throughout the week for breakfast and snacks.

Slow Cooker Apple Confit

[Printable Recipe]

This recipe was sent to me last fall in a recipe exchange. When we started getting apples from Greenling this year, I was reminded about it again!

Ingredients:

• 2 lb. apples (I saved up our apples for 2 weeks and used about 8 of them.)
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/4-1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

• Peel the apples and slice 1/4 inch thick. This is a great use of an apple peeler-corer-slicer, if you happen to have one!
• Add the apples to the slow cooker. Add sugar and cinnamon to taste, and toss to coat well.

• Cover and cook until the apples are very tender and almost translucent, but not pureed, 2 to 2 1/2 hours on high or 4 to 4 1/2 hours on low.

This was after 2 hours and 8 minutes on high. They tasted awesome when they were hot!

• Stir in vanilla. Transfer to a bowl and let cool slightly. Cover and refrigerate until chilled.
• Top with vanilla ice cream and a sprinkling of toasted walnuts for dessert.

I skipped the walnuts and served with french vanilla ice cream and homemade caramel sauce.

Verdict:
I preferred the apples hot, right out of the slow cooker (but that’s apple pie not apple confit, haha). My husband preferred them cold after the flavors had married together a bit. The caramel sauce and ice cream were great accompaniments though! I would definitely make this again, especially for a dinner party where I needed a plated dessert with impressive presentation.

Local Box Meal Plan: Nov. 2-6

I’m beyond belief excited that we’re getting green tomatoes again. When we were planning our trip to wine country, one of my friends passed along a newsletter from the Visitors Bureau that had a few great green tomato recipes. I’ve been saving it until we get green tomatoes again!

This week, we’re getting serrano peppers from Lundgren; herb, arugula or watercress from Pure Luck; yellow beans and Thai eggplant from Animal Farm; Mars oranges from G&S Groves; beet leaves from My Father’s Farm; turnips from Hands of Earth Farm; butternut squash from Massey Farm; green tomatoes from Green Gate Farm; red or green lettuce from Bluebonnet or Bella Verdi; and apples from Top of Texas.

So I’m making:

Snacks:

• Pickled beans
• Oranges
• Tomatillo-serrano salsa (it’s for the PSU/OSU game, so I couldn’t bring a red salsa!)

Side dishes:

• Butternut squash and apple casserole with herbs
• Mashed turnips
• Wilted turnip greens with pecans
• Green salad with balsamic vinaigrette

Dinner:

• Pasta with beet greens
• Thai green curry with eggplant

Dessert:

• Green tomato cake with brown butter icing

Local Box Meal Plan: Oct. 26-30

The last okra of the year? Say it isn’t so! And I haven’t even made a stew in the slow-cooker yet. Now that it’s getting cooler, I think it’s about time.

This week, we’re getting bell peppers from My Father’s Farm or Walnut Creek, yellow/red onions and red potatoes from Naegelin, yellow/dragon tongue beans from Animal Farm, gala apples from Top of Texas, turnips, dill and red radishes from My Father’s Farm, Bibb lettuce from Bella Verdi, crimini mushrooms from Kitchen Pride, and okra from Walnut Creek.

So I’m making:

Lunch:

• Chicken salad with apples on Bibb lettuce

Dinners:

• Cheesesteaks with sauteed mushrooms, onions and peppers
• Slow-cooker beef stew with okra and tomatoes

Side Dishes:

• Turnip and radish greens with sauteed garlic
• Apple-turnip compote
• Mashed potatoes with buttermilk and dill
• Yellow beans with dill and quickly pickled onions

Apple Cake

[Printable Recipe]

Apples and honey are traditional when celebrating Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish new year). My favorite Rosh Hashanah food (aside from plain ole’ apples dipped in honey) is apple cake. It has the same flavors of apple pie, but in a dense cake that’s not too sweet.

Deb on Smitten Kitchen calls for this to be baked in a tube pan, but the last thing I need is another piece of bakeware (just last night, I opened the cabinet and a round cake pan bonked me on the head). Instead, I baked this in a 10″ springform pan. It worked perfectly. I probably wouldn’t use a bundt pan for this. The idea is that you can get it out easily without destroying the apples on top.

From Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 6 apples (Deb uses McIntosh apples, I used Galas.)
• 1 Tbsp. cinnamon
• 2 c., plus 5 Tbsp. sugar
• 2-3/4 c. flour, sifted
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 c. vegetable oil
• 1/4 c. orange juice
• 2-1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 4 eggs

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a tube pan (or a springform pan, like I used) with butter and set aside.
• Peel, core and chop the apples into chunks. Toss with cinnamon and 5 Tbsp. sugar and set aside.
• Stir together the flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, orange juice, 2 c. sugar and vanilla. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ones, then add eggs, one at a time. Scrape down the bowl to ensure all ingredients are incorporated.
• Pour half of the batter into the prepared pan. Spread half of apples over it. Pour the remaining batter over the apples and arrange the remaining apples on top.
• Bake for about 1-1/2 hours, or until a tester comes out clean. (Mine took closer to 2 hours. I’m not sure if it’s because I used a springform pan or what. I’d check at 1-1/4 hours, then at 15 minute increments thereafter. If your cake isn’t done and the apples are starting to brown — as you can see mine did in the photo below — cover the pan loosely with tin foil for the remainder of the baking time.)

Verdict:
Don’t feel like you have to be Jewish to make this recipe! It’s very similar to a coffee cake, but has a distinctly fall feeling to it with the cinnamon and the apples. Cory likened the dense, moist texture to that of zucchini or pumpkin bread, which is probably a result of using oil instead of butter. It’s a great fall dessert, but that didn’t stop me from having a piece in the morning for breakfast either!

Local Box Meal Plan: Oct. 19-23

This week, we’re getting: Corno di Toro sweet peppers, bell peppers, an assortment of herbs, cucumber, Meyer lemon, gala apples, Thai eggplant, lettuce, cherry tomatoes and either baby bok choy or sweet potatoes, depending on your delivery day.

So I’m making:

Lunch:

• Eggplant croquettes in a pita with lettuce, sliced cucumber, and tzatziki

Dinner:

• Roasted turkey breast stuffed with lemon, garlic and herbs
• Grilled shrimp with Romesco sauce (a traditional Spanish sauce made with garlic, chiles, almonds, tomatoes and peppers)

Side Dish:

• Roasted sweet potato with shallots and sage

Dessert:

• Apple confit with vanilla ice cream

Plenty of produce that’s perfect for fall!

Local Box Meal Plan: Oct. 12-16

Finally, some squash! I’m so excited. Even though it doesn’t feel like fall yet, I can tell cooler weather is coming.

This week, we’re getting sweet grape tomatoes from Pedernales Valley; red onion, butternut squash, and globe eggplant from Naegelin; microgreens and Bibb lettuce from Bella Verdi; either persimmon or pears; okra from either Bradshaw Creek Farm or Walnut Creek Farm; dragon tongue beans; and apples.

So I’m making:

Sides:

• Butternut squash salad with microgreens and bibb lettuce
• Okra and tomato casserole with onions
• Dragon tongue and green bean salad with sweet grape tomatoes

Dessert:

• Fried wontons with caramel-apple filling and chocolate-persimmon/pear filling

Dinner:

• Eggplant rollatini

I found that dragon tongue beans taste much like wax beans, so I’m excited to use them in a twist on bean salad.

Local Box Meal Plan: Oct. 3-7

Fall is finally here — apples have started to make an appearance in our Local Boxes. I’m so excited.

This week, we’re getting Gala apples; pears from Lightsey Farms; persimmon; Bibb lettuce from Bella Verdi; cucumbers, Thai eggplant and dragon tongue beans from Animal Farm, yellow onions, red potatoes and either patty pan squash or zucchini from Naegelin; basil from Montesino, grape tomatoes, peppers from Tecalote, and radish.

So I’m making:

Lunch:

• Chicken salad with apples and pecans
• Bibb lettuce salad with cucumber, tomatoes and radish

Appetizer:

• Balsamic-glazed pear and goat cheese crostini

Side Dishes:

• Steamed dragon tongue beans tossed with sauteed garlic and basil
• Herb-roasted potatoes

Dinners:

• Roasted patty pan squash and eggplant with herbed chick peas
• Ale-braised sausage with peppers and onions (for our Oktoberfest party!)

Dessert:

• Persimmon ice cream

I’ve been hearing folks say they’re not sure how else to use persimmons. You can use them in salads, in baking, or as a topping for a savory meat dish. Do you have any persimmon recipes you love?