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 Lookout, week of 04.06.2009

Here’s what to expect from next week’s Local Box. Remember you can still order up a Local Box until Saturday – and possibly later, depending on your zip code. Check out Greenling.com for details.

• lettuce
• herbs
• tomato
• French carrots
• strawberries
• spinach
• Swiss chard
• spring onions
• radishes
• arugula

Local Box Lookout, week of 03.09.2009

Here’s what to expect in next week’s Local Box:

• baby carrots
• red-leaf lettuce
• cilantro
• green shallots
• kale
• collards
• strawberries
• grapefruit
• baby arugula
• yellow onions
• herbs
• avocado

If you haven’t already, you can still order next week’s Local Box through Saturday and later, depending on your zip code. Click here to check it out!

Bulghur Bowls

Do I need a more appetizing name for this dish? It’s my latest favorite quickie: Heat up a little olive oil or butter in a sautée pan. Add garlic or onions. Add rinsed (but not spun) and torn greens – collards, spinach, arugula, kale, or whatever else you’ve got. After greens are wilted, sprinkle bulghur over them and salt. Cover and reduce heat to low for 10 minutes or so – long enough to steam the bulghur. Season as desired. I like soy sauce on mine, and chiles are nice, too. I thought my husband was crazy when he whipped out the salad dressing for his bulghur bowl the other night, but he insists it was an inspired choice.

What are your go-to tricks for eating – FAST – out of the Local Box?

Local Box, 02.18.2009

There’s lots to love in this week’s Local Box, with more kohlrabi and broccoli, plus ample bok choy and a few oranges to ward off those nasty colds everyone seems to be getting lately. (Note that arugula and beets are also very high in cold-fighting antioxidants!)

A word to the wise: The big bag of salad mix needs a VERY good washing. Whether it’s the dry weather that made lots of dust or the recent rain that splashed everything with mud, those greens are super dirty. My favorite method, adapted from one the head chef taught me in a kitchen I worked in many moons ago, is to pull out my biggest pot or mixing bowl, fill it with cold water, and dump the greens in, swishing occasionally but letting the dirt settle to the bottom. You may even want to repeat this with this batch. Then spin dry and store with something absorbent (like a paper towel or tea towel) until using.

And a question: Do you ever juice your Local Box produce? I recently enjoyed a juice blend made with beets from Daily Juice in Austin.  That made me wonder how I’d go about juicing my own.

Local Box Lookout, week of 02.02.2009

Here’s what to look for in this week’s Local Box:

• broccoli
• spinach
  
• arugula
  
• herbs
  
• green onion
  
• microgreens
  
• lettuce
  
• avocado
  
• oranges
  
• radish

Local Box Lookout, week of 01.12.2009

Here’s what to look for in this week’s Local Box:

• lettuce
• shallots
• turnips
• green cabbage
• cilantro
• carrots
• tomatoes
• arugula/spinach mix
• yellow onion
• herbs
• red Russian kale
• bagged baby lettuce

Report from Fearless Forager, week of 11.03.2008

Here’s what she’s got planned for this week’s Local Boxes:

• bibb lettuce or baby lettuce/arugula bouquets
• eggplant
• collard greens
• radish
• chard
• red onions
• yellow onions
• assorted herbs
• apples
• Meyer lemons
• zucchini
• sweet potatoes
• red potatoes

Report from Fearless Forager, week of 10.27.2008

Here’s what’s coming in this week’s Local Boxes:

• marigold bouquet
• butternut squash
• apples
• green beans
• bibb lettuce or arugula/baby lettuce bouquets
• eggplant
• assorted herbs
• Meyer lemons
• Key limes
• zucchini
• yellow granix onions
• red burgundy onions
• cherry tomatoes

Dinner of Local Boxes Past

Neither chard nor sweet potatoes were in this week’s Local Box, but they’d kept well from weeks past. So tonight, in need of an easy, warming dinner, I combined some old recipes to come up with this: Creamy Green Polenta with Roasted Sweet Potatoes. Here’s how:

• First, I rinsed the sweet potatoes, cut them into wedges, tossed in olive oil, salt, and pepper, and roasted for 40 minutes at 425°, turning halfway through. I laid these on cooling racks when they were done.
• While the sweet potatoes roasted, I brought a big pot of water to boil, then threw in stemmed, coarsely chopped chard and two peeled cloves of garlic. After about 5 minutes, I pulled those out of the water with a slotted spoon and liquified them with an immersion blender (though a food processor or blender would work fine, too).
• Next, I brought some of the cooking water from the chard back to a boil, this time in a medium pot, and added a couple of tablespoons of butter. When that boiled, I whisked in polenta and cooked until the polenta had a nice mouth-feel. Then I stirred in the whizzed chard, added some parmesan and other cheese we had around, and salted to taste.
• We served it up in bowls, as pictured, and followed it with a salad of Local Box Bibb lettuce and arugula in a flavorful vinaigrette.

What have you eaten out of your Local Box this week?