crocked pulled pork

1 1/2 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon dried thyme
½ cup honey
¼ cup black cherry balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, peeled and cut in half
3 to 3 ½ pounds pork shoulder

Mix together the first six ingredients (all of the spices) with a fork. Pour in the honey, vinegar, and olive oil and stir to form a paste.

Place the onion in the bottom of the slow cooker. Top it with the pork and then pour the honey paste over all sides of the pork pieces.

Turn the slow cooker on to low and cook for 7 to 8 (or 10) hours or until the meat is tender enough to be easily shredded with a fork.

Serve with collard greens and Bell seasoned mashed potatoes.

Adapted from 100 Days of Real Food

stewed collard greens with baby tomatoes

1 bunch of collard greens, washed, stems removed
1 pint of grape tomatoes, halved
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup water or cooking stock
salt and pepper to taste

Remove stems and cut collards into one inch ribbons.

Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add tomatoes to the pan and begin to heat. Add collard greens and a dash of salt and pepper. Add water to the pan, season to taste with salt and pepper, cover and simmer on medium heat for 20 – 30 minutes until collards are thoroughly cooked.

mi csa su csa: week 11

tomato

lettuce

eggplant

cucumbers

carrots

peppers

onion

potato

garlic

We went straight for the lettuce with a steak salad - a great way to start the week with fresh flavors while getting to use some of the items that might go bad faster. We did our usual skirt steak salad with balsamic brown sugar dressing cooked down with a small red onion. We also used a cucumber and the previous week's last 3 multi-colored tomatoes. Topped with pepper-coated goat cheese and a few dried cranberries the salad was bursting with fresh flavors.

After spending the week fighting a cold we wanted to get some fresh veggies back in our meals and a frittata sounded like a pretty good way to get there.

Cast Iron Frittata

1 tablespoon of oil

1 tablespoon of butter

6 eggs

2 tablespoons cream/milk

1 onion

1 garlic clove

2 japanese eggplants

1 -2 red peppers

1 small log of goat cheese

1 tomato

parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

Chop onion, red pepper, eggplants and red pepper and garlic. Heat butter and oil in a cast iron skillet until bubbling. Cook onion, red pepper, eggplant until softened. Add garlic and salt and pepper. While the vegetables are cooking, whisk the eggs and cream with a little more salt and pepper. Slice the goat cheese log into 1/4 inch pieces. Once the vegetables have softened, pour the eggs into the pan. Place the goat cheese slices evenly around the pan. Cook over medium high heat for 5 minutes. Very thinly slice the tomato and place on top of the goat cheese. Sprinkle generously with parmesan cheese and a little more salt and pepper. Place under the broiler for 3-4 minutes until golden brown and cooked through.

mi csa su csa: week 10

Tomatoes

Peppers

Potatoes

Beets

Zucchini

Melon

Lettuce

We got a ton of tomatoes again, and after not eating many of last week's tomatoes I needed something to use up a bunch. And even though it's as hot as it's been all summer I couldn't stop thinking about a tomato soup recipe I saw earlier in the week. So simple, and while it took a little longer to make than the recipe says, it was totally worth it.

With peppers leftover from the week before it was time for more stuffed peppers, this time with an italian twist. After the success of the tomato soup earlier in the week, I wanted to go in a similar direction. I cooked up some onions and tomatoes with some farm fresh ground beef (and some spices, egg and cheese) and stuffed it all into some pre-roasted peppers (the key to great stuffed peppers). The long, green and sweet green peppers (shaped like poblanos or anaheim peppers, but without the heat) were the best.

Tomato Soup

3 tablespoons butter
4 to 5 medium ripe tomatoes, halved
Flaky salt and freshly ground black pepper
⅓ cup cream
1 large sprig of rosemary or thyme, optional

Put the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. When it melts, add the tomatoes, cut side down, and season with salt and pepper. Cook until the tomatoes have released most their juices (but aren’t charred), 10 to 15 minutes. Turn the tomatoes over and cook until they begin to break down, 5 to 7 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat. After 30 seconds, add the cream and stir, scraping the bottom of the pot as you go. Use the spoon to break down the tomatoes to a chunky but spoonable consistency. Add the thyme or rosemary sprig, if desired. Taste and adjust the seasoning, and serve warm. 

Recipe from Slate.com

mi csa su csa: week 9

Lettuce

Carrots

Beets 

Melon

Peppers

Potatoes 

Tomatoes
Eggplant

The only thing we actually got to after eating out nearly every day this week were the beets, which we made into both chips and sauteed beet greens with garlic.

mi csa su csa: week 8

Carrots

Tomatoes

Cucumber

Zucchini

Beans

Garlic

Lettuce

Peppers

Eggplant

Onions

CSA share fail this week.

mi csa su csa: week 7

Rainbow Chard
Onion
Potatoes
Cucumbers
Eggplant
Peppers
Tomatoes
Lettuce

I wanted to get to the chard first, as it had the best chance to go bad before we got to it. It was beautiful - different colors, shapes and sizes. I found a creamed chard and noodles recipe that looked great, but I didn't have any noodles except for boxes of mac and cheese. I decided I could fake the creamed chard recipe, so I made the mac and cheese according to the recipe, chopped up the chard with 2 of the onions and pan fried them, seasoning with salt, pepper, Jamaican curry powder and ground ginger. Once everything was finished cooking I mixed it all together for a tasty twist on mac and cheese.

For an appetizer we chopped up a yellow and orange tomatoes to serve over a very fresh burrata with some cracked salt and pepper and a drizzle of balsamic.

Eggplant was next on the list - gorgeous dark purple, long, thin eggplants. We also got one more pepper this week so we decided to pick up some ground pork and make asian-style stuffed peppers. We made them similarly to our cabbage shumai, along with the dipping sauce, with the addition of the eggplant and onions to the stuffing. The key was roasting the oiled peppers a bit before stuffing them and then cooking them in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes. Served over some sushi rice, the flavors came together nicely.

We've had a beef roast from the other farm in the freezer for a couple of months and finally pulled it out to roast with some carrots and tiny potatoes from the farm, along with some parsnips and vidalia onions. The juices and scrapings from the pan made an excellent gravy.

Got through just about everything, just the lettuce and some of last week's zucchini. But we just got a spiral slicer and I can't wait to make some zucchini noodles with it.

mi csa su csa: week 6

Carrots
Onions
Potatoes
Green Pepper
Cucumber
Zucchini
Tomatoes
Garlic

With an abundance of zucchini and carrots we got to work making fritters. They were ok, but not the best version we've made. Other than that we didn't have a chance to get to much of the rest of it. But we did make up for it the next week.

mi csa su csa: week 5

From the farm share in week 5:

Dragon Tongue Beans
Carrots
Zucchini
Cucumber
Potatoes
Lettuce
Onion
Garlic
Mixed Tomatoes
Basil

We still had quite a few vegetables left over from the week before after not being home for most of the week, so when the new batch came in I roasted most of the vegetables from the week before, including carrots, turnips, lots of zucchini and onions from this week. The onions are so good they always go into meals quickly. I also peeled the rest of the previous few weeks' carrots just to have as a snack with some salad dressing. The only week 4 items I ended up starting week 5 with were the new potatoes, a ton of cucumbers and some beans.

By the end of week 5 I still had week 4's leftovers and nearly all of week 5's batch. Unfortunately the cucumbers and the beans didn't make it to the end of week 5 before going bad. I also only got through about half the basil before it turned, but I also grow my own, so it wasn't a huge loss.

The first day I made a salad of the lettuce, basil, tomatoes and some mozzarella with balsamic vinegar - good but maybe one too many items. I also used some of the tomatoes with my own basil, wrapped up in sliced Italian meat - a great little appetizer.

At the end of the week it was time to see if we could use up as much as we could before the next share comes in, and we made a perfect meal to do that. We started with a quick pickle to use up some cucumbers, though we found the previous week's batch had rotted already, but we still had plenty, and got to use the farm fresh garlic in it too. We refrigerated them until dinner and they turned out perfectly. We roasted both the new potatoes from last week and this week's red potatoes, which gave us the chance to really see the different flavor profiles of both. The new potatoes far outshined the red, though they are both very delicious. We also sliced up the rest of the tomatoes and salted them for a simple side dish. We rounded out all our great veggies with a perfectly cooked porterhouse from our meat farm share.

We got through just about everything this week, with just zucchini and carrots to go, and I should be able to find a good use for both at the beginning of next week.

mi csa su csa: week 4

From the farm share in week 4:

butter lettuce
new potatoes
zucchini
green beans
peas
carrots
turnips
green onions
cucumbers

I started the week with the peas, shelling them into mac and cheese and tossed with some of last week's scallions.

Next up was our favorite pork chop and peaches dish, this time with fresh peaches, which improved the dish greatly. We roasted the new potatoes with olive oil and salt—and they were some of the best potatoes we've ever made, even though we've made them the way dozens of times.

mi csa su csa: week 3

The third week of farm-y goodness includes:

zucchini
scallions
sugar peas
cucumbers
carrots
bok choy
lettuce mix
kale

There's always one item to catch up on from the week before and this week it was cucumbers, especially since we got two more in this week's farm share. So I made one of favorite childhood foods: chopped cucumbers in sour cream. Literally add some sugar to those two ingredients and you have a dish I can snack on for days.

I also went straight for the kale on night one. Mostly because it's not my favorite and likely to be one of the first things to go bad if I don't eat it right away. Also it was easy enough to just throw it in a frying pan with some sliced leftover kielbasa and have a meal ready to go in 15 minutes.

Been a little slow getting around to everything this week. Ate a bit of the lettuce mix, but wasn't as into it this week. Tossed the bok choy, zucchini and shucked the peas into a stir fry, which was probably a little overpowered by the sauce we used, but the bok choy was clearly very tasty. Saving the carrots to make a big batch of carrot latkes when we get more carrots next week. Scallions might be the only thing that don't make it into anything.