Berry, Berry Good

Yeah, bad pun, I know.

One of the benefits of living in SE PA is that there are a ton of pick-your-own places.  The local cooperative extensions do a pretty good job of publishing lists of local farmers, PYO, & markets.  It takes a little research to figure out which are worth a stop, but they're great research tools.  Here's Bucks, Montgomery (.pdf) and the Lehigh Valley's sites.  If you're in the area, you can occasionally grab printed ones at the library (if they still have them.)
Anyhow, these berries are black currants and red gooseberries from Tabora Farm and Sour and Rainier Cherries from Solebury Orchards.  It took about an hour at each place to pick all of them, so not bad time.  The Rainier were tougher because some rain the weekend before meant that a lot of the cherries had burst and finding ones that weren't bad took some time.  The Bings were already gone by the time I got there.  Darnitall.

I decided to make a chutney with the gooseberries, a simple sauce with the currants, and preserve the sour cherries in a medium syrup.  The Rainiers went to the kids.  I wasn't going to get a chance to put them up.

I realized that canning is a wonderful thing.  It's one of those things that takes a small initial investment, but is cheap in the long run, if you keep up with it.  Talk about the bounty of the season.  If you have good, cheap veggies, it only makes sense to save some for later.  Also, it doesn't require all the energy (or space) of putting stuff in the freezer and some things are better after being preserved for a while.  One note: consult a book or an extension service to make sure that you are doing it properly.  Nothing like a little Clostridium botulinum to ruin your day (or life).

You're Not Getting Many Pictures This Week

Since I've been doing repeats of earlier dishes lately, I didn't take pictures of them.  That might be short-sighted, but I don't want this to get too monotonous. 
Of course, that's one of the things about CSA's.  You can only get in so much of a rut before the season changes and you no longer get Kale, or Collards, or whatever.  It's funny how you'd think you'd miss the asparagus most, but really they aren't noticed too much since everything else is coming in right behind them.  Such a short season, that it's worth enjoying the bounty while it's here, but by the time it's over, you're ready to move on.  Nature's good like that. 

  So this week, we got shell peas.  They were a little on the starchy side, so I quickly blanched them.  I figured I'd use all three of the lettuces for this week's salad (well the first salad of the week).  Since there weren't all that many peas, they all went in, but that's fine.  Also, what salad is complete without bacon.  Really. 

  On a side note, one of the local, small pork producers sells the bacon ends at my small, local grocery chain.  I'd seen these before but wasn't sure what to do with them.  Then I thought about it and realized that about half of the time, I end up cooking strips and chopping/crumbling them up.  Well, if I just threw the ends in the freezer, I could slice off a bit and fry it up straight from the freezer.  It's not the "ideal" way to cook bacon, but I'm sure the bacon can cover for that.  It really works well, and a heck of a lot cheaper than pretty strips of bacon.  For that matter, one of the meat purveyors at the local all-year "farmers market" (less farmer, more purveyor) has double-smoked bacon you can buy by the whole-belly slab ($3.09/lb); part slab (~$3.34/lb); or sliced (~$4.19/lb).  It is good bacon, so the prices aren't unreasonable.  Of course, they also sell the ends for $2.09/lb.  For most of what I'm doing, that's too good to pass up.  The fact that it's sold dry, unpackaged (meaning no water added) just makes it even better, and it doesn't fry up with all that foam. 

Anyhow, back to the matter at hand.  The salad was really, really good.  Great combination of lettuces and tasty additions.  What's not to love about peas, bacon, feta, tomatoes, onion.  I think I need to throw some basil in next time to really punch it up. 

Apparently, I've Been Dropping the Ball

And now I need to use up a lot of produce.  looking...looking...looking... Ah, here we go.

Spinach gratin.  Throw in some kale and chard, and we have a winner.  Also, I put some of the parsley in the chicken roulade, along with a generous helping of other herbs and panko with butter to hold it all together.  Seared in a fry pan, then thrown in the oven to bring it to 165F, it was de-lovin'-licious, and pretty easy.  It's going to take a little practice to get the whole tying thing down, but this isn't too bad, and it held it all together. 

The gratin was pretty easy, too.  Once I figured that spinach wasn't that far removed from chard and the leafy parts of the kale, it just made sense.  The kale had to start first since it's a little more substantial than the rest, but it all worked out.

Week 5 - Nature's Bounty

I think we're going to need a bigger boat. 

Let's go over what we got this week.  Again, I had to do a little research to determine just what it is that I'm looking at, but I think I got it narrowed down:  Red Deer Tongue Lettuce, Red Leaf Lettuce, Curly Endive, Collards, Curly Kale, Radishes, Parsley, and Shell Peas.  Oh, and the ubiquitous tomatoes. 

Can't complain.  They really are good, though I never get around to making salsa's.  Capresse salad, though, is always good and easy. 

I'm thinking a lot of salads are in the offing.  I usually don't care for salad because I hate Iceberg Lettuce and Romaine doesn't do much for me.  The Deer Tongue was really good, a little nutty.  I also realized as I was washing it that it's a little fuzzy... kinda like velcro.  Not in a bad way, but the leaves really liked to stick together.  It's funny how little things like that have been conditioned out of our sense of normal. 

I also haven't been very good about cooking this past week, so I still have a little catch up to do.  I'm amazed that everything has kept so well in the fridge, but I know it's getting long in the tooth.  Let's see what we can come up with...

We Tried Traditional...

Now for something else.  Since I had some more collard greens in this week's haul, I went searching for something different to do with it.

This is what I found: Grits & Greens.What's not to love, cheesy grits, lots of bacon, and cheesy greens.  Further proof that the addition of cheese & bacon make everything better.  Even broiling for slightly too long (hence the blackened tips of the grits/cheese) didn't make a dent in the decadent flavor.  This is a great way to use a bunch of greens, and doesn't need to be collards.  Kale and Chard work, as would any other hearty green, though anything less hearty than spinach might wilt to nothingness.

 I plan on doing this again, and again, and again.

The Blogroll

I put up a blogroll a couple weeks ago (or maybe it was last week and just feels like a couple... whichever.)  One of the sites that I consider as foodp*rn is This Is Why You're Fat.  There are a couple others that fall into that category, lots of fun, but not very thinking-inducing.  Basically, it was a glorious exhibit of foods that will make you fat if you overindulge.  Things like the fast food stadium, bacon log, or bacon mug.  Yeah, a lot of what they posted had lots of bacon.  I think they may be a little prejudiced.
Anyhow, my little sister quite often commented, "How does that rate a post?  I'd make it."  That being said, we did have a lot of fun seeing what they could find, sometimes envious, sometimes just disgusted.

Well, this morning I noticed that my blogroll entry had this little message:

http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/

Blog Removed By Owner

15 hours ago 

 NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guess I'll just have to find somewhere else to get really dangerous ideas.  Actually, Tastespotting is a good place, though they often have really good and (shocking!) healthy stuff, too.  Maybe I'll have to try one of those recipes one of these days. 

UPDATE:  It's back.  You can now revel in the deep excesses of American culinaria... if your stomach is up for it. 

Week 4 - Now You're Talking

Ah, Spring has sprung.  I have to be honest that the first couple weeks of the CSA were a little worrisome, but It isn't too terribly surprising that the spring might be a little on the low side, quantity-wise.  That being said, this week the bounty has begun.
Let's see... what do we have here?  Chard, Pak Choi, Radishes, Red Deer Tongue Lettuce (love the name), Curly Kale, Tomatoes, Spinach, Collards, and Parsley.

This is going to be interesting.  I think I need to do some research.

$3,127,795,167

A new report from the Economic Research Service of the USDA estimates that that is how much illnesses and premature deaths from E. coli and Salmonella cost just the US every year. I know that it's a fuzzy number because of all the assumptions and guesses that go into it, but it's the best number we have to work with.
Also consider that there are a lot more bugs out there that make people sick. The CDC estimates that there are about 76 million illnesses, 323,914 hospitalizations, and 5,194 deaths (again, just in the US) every year caused by foodborne illnesses. Basically, you have a one in 4 chance of catching a foodborne illness every year.
A report earlier this year estimated that the total cost from these illnesses was something like $152,000,000,000 (yep, Billion).

What should this mean to you? Well, besides hoping that you won't be one of those getting sick, I'll talk a little about what you should do to avoid some of these bugs.

First thing, get a thermometer. You can get a decent one for about 10 bucks. You should get one you can calibrate so you know the actual temp and can check it occasionally. If you're cooking meats make sure you get it to the right temp. Chicken is 165 F. Ground meat is 160. Steak is 145.
Next, use different cutting boards and knives for meat and ready-to-eat foods. Cross-contamination is easy to avoid, if you're careful.

I know that it seems like there's a ton of information, but once you learn the basics, it's pretty easy to minimize your risks.