Dancing Away From Omelas

Before I Begin: A Few Quirks of My Menu Planning

2020-01-01T21:56:00.005-05:00

Here are the factors that shape my menus:

I have a small child. On the one hand, I work to broaden her palate; on the other hand, I try to have at least something in the meal that I know or suspect she will definitely eat!
My husband is lactose intolerant. These days, I'm either choosing dairy-free recipes or experimenting with dairy substitutes.
I try to cook seasonally when possible. This means my recipes tend to have ingredients that are all naturally available at the same time of year (though I do cheat shamelessly in service of quirk #1).
We are a meat-light household. I'd go vegetarian, but honestly, no one in my household can do without bacon. Still, my husband and I seem to prefer our meat servings at about half the size of those of most people we know. We eat at least one meatless meal a week, and I tend to do a lot of soups and stews to stretch the meat out - partly for savings, partly for the environment.
I am a solar oven hobbyist. Thus, I use a lot of crockpot recipes, and occasionally adapt an existing recipe to the solar oven.
I participate in a CSA. Every week in the spring, summer, and fall, I am smacked upside the head with a new box of farm-fresh vegetables. In CSA season, my menu planning is driven almost entirely by what's in the box, in good part because we've already paid for it!

That should about cover it.

CSA Weeks 2 & 3: Rhubarb Pork Chops and Stuffed Butternut Squash

2009-05-26T14:50:00.004-04:00

In week 2 of our CSA, we got:

scallions
radishes
rhubarb
head of lettuce
mint (we gave this to our share partners for their mohitos)
collard greens
spinach

In light of our Memorial Day travel plans, I kept this week's menu fairly simple:

Wednesday: Stuffed butternut squash, cooked in the solar oven (recipe to follow), with leftover green beans
Thursday: Leftover coconut curried tofu with rice
Friday: Leftover butternut squash, with green salad
Saturday: [travel]
Sunday: [travel]
Monday: Catfish parmesan with sweet potato and spinach risotto
Tuesday: Ditto

Because we'll be traveling this coming weekend and next week as well, I asked our share partners to take our whole box on Wednesday. Now we only have to concentrate on using vegetables from the previous box. Here's this week's abbreviated menu plan:

Wednesday: Rhubarb and pork chop casserole and citrus collards with raisins
Thursday: Ditto
Friday: [date night]
Saturday-Thursday: [travel]

Last week's stuffed butternut squash was a smashing success, from the adults' point of view, anyway - J turned up her nose at it, which was a mystery, since she normally loves couscous! I adapted it from a recipe in the Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker cookbook. I had about 1 cup of stuffing left over, which I froze; it will work its way into something else eventually. (I also omitted the cup of water in the pan - Wednesday was such a sunny day that my solar oven was at 350 degrees, so I figured (correctly) that the squash would cook quickly and remain moist even without the water.) I'll make this one again!

Butternut Squash Stuffed With Couscous, Apples, Raisins, and Pinenuts

1/4 c raisins
1 to 2 T margarine
1 sm onion or 1/2 lg onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 apple, peeled and cut into smallish dice
1/3 c pinenuts
1/4 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t ground allspice
2 c leftover couscous
salt and pepper to taste
1 butternut squash (or other winter squash), halved and seeded
1 c hot water

1. Put the raisins in water to cover; set them aside to plump.

2. Melt the margarine in a small frying pan. Add the onion and garlic, and saute a minute or two. Drain the raisins, reserving the water. Add the raisins and apple, and saute another minute or two; apple should still be firm. Add the cinnamon, allspice, and pinenuts, and saute another minute or two; pinenuts should be plumped and golden, but not browned or burned.

3. In a mixing bowl, fluff the couscous with a fork. Add the frying pan mixture (if desired, take a little of the raisin water and use it to "deglaze" the frying pan; add flavored water to mixing bowl as well). Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste and toss everything together.

4. If your squash is lopsided, cut a sliver from the bottom so it will sit flat. Place the squash halves, cut side up, in a slow cooker (or in the solar oven pan). Pack the stuffing into the squash halves. Carefully pur the hot water into the cooker (or pan) without disturbing the squash. Cover cooker (or cover pan and place in preheated solar oven) and cook on Low (or as the sun permits) until the squash is tender, about 6 hours (or less, if your solar oven temperature exceeds 200 degrees). Serve hot.

CSA Week 1: A Vegetarian Week

2009-05-19T20:52:00.004-04:00

Last week was the first week of the Sandy Spring CSA! In our boxes, we got:

asparagus
rhubarb
salad mix
a head of lettuce
spring onions
baby spinach
regular spinach
radishes
mint

The CSA pickup is now on Wednesdays, so my menu planning now starts midweek, rather than on a Monday the way it did last year. It's a little odd, but we'll adjust.

In trying to shave a little off our grocery bill this week, I made it an all-vegetarian week.

Wednesday - shell pasta and spaghetti sauce and green beans

I needed a quick dinner, and this let me use up the green beans, which were the last of the farmer's market veggies (had to clear the decks for CSA veggies!)

Thursday - Indonesian squash and spinach soup (Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant) with a dollup of sushi rice, plus some (vegan) sour cream

I had butternut squash cubes left over from an earlier dish. I halved the recipe, and saved 1/2 c of coconut milk for the curried tofu on Sunday.

Friday - [date night]
Saturday - asparagus, carrot, and egg maki, plus green salad topped with asparagus, egg, and strawberry slices

This used up the leftover sushi rice from Thursday, as well as 3 old nori wrappers that had been hanging out for far too long. Everything was a big hit with J!

Sunday - coconut curried shrimp with radish wedges, over white rice

I had no shrimp, so I used tofu, which I marinated for a half hour in 2 T olive oil, 3 T lime juice, 1 t curry powder, and 1 t soy sauce while I prepared the other ingredients. I didn't have quite enough radishes, so I sliced up a carrot, and threw in the last of the steamed asparagus from the sushi. It was tasty, but very lime-heavy; next time I'll add another flavor to the sauce - maybe fish sauce, or peanut butter, or mandarin oranges, any of which would fit the Thai-style curry. On the positive side, J ate the tofu and every radish piece we could give her - hooray for adding another vegetable to that slim repertoire of hers!

Monday - [preschool potluck]

I did make a greens quiche to take to our friends P and V, who just had their baby girl - that used up the scallions and the rest of the spinach quite neatly.

Tuesday - curry-spiced lentils and spinach topped with chopped tomato and mint and (vegan) sour cream, served over half a baked potato, with green salad

This is a crockpot recipe that I cooked in the solar oven, on Monday actually. I added in 2 oz. chopped fresh spinach at the end, rather than 10 oz. frozen spinach at the beginning, so it was a good deal less spinach-y than was probably intended. The tomato and especially the fresh mint changed the dish from ho-hum to extraordinary!

So, after working furiously to clear the decks for the next load of veggies (especially since we're travelling this weekend and next weekend), I have a little lettuce and salad greens left, and all the rhubarb, which hopefully will keep a little while. Whew!

Cossack Pie

2008-11-23T22:07:00.004-05:00

Here's the Cossack Pie recipe from the Moosewood Cookbook, one of my favorites - and it freezes well!

1 unbaked 9" pie crust
1 T butter
1/2 lb fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 1/2 cup chopped onions
1 1/2 cup shredded green cabbage
1 medium stalk thinly-sliced broccoli
1 cup thinly sliced carrot
2 finely chopped scallions
1 t salt
3 T butter
2 T flour
1 t ground caraway seed
1/2 t basil
2 t dill weed
1/2 c pot, farmers, or cottage cheese
2 eggs
lots of black pepper
3 medium garlic cloves, minced

In melted butter, saute onion, caraway seed, and salt over medium heat until onions brown, 10 minutes.

In butter, saute all the vegetables (except the scallions) and the dill until just tender, 8 minutes. Add black pepper and garlic, cook a few minutes more. Remove from heat and toss vegetables with flour.

Beat the eggs and cheese together. Add scallions, mix. Add mixture to sauteed vegetables. Mix well. Spread into crust. Dust with paprika.

Bake 40 minutes, or until set, at 350 degrees.

Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Sweet Potato Pie

2008-11-16T18:25:00.005-05:00

In honor of Thanksgiving, here's my favorite sweet potato pie recipe, adapted from this one at Allrecipes. I actually prefer it to pumpkin pie!

Sweet Potato Pie

Ingredients:

1 1-lb sweet potato (or a 1-lb portion of a larger sweet potato)
1/2 c butter, softened
1/2 c white sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c evaporated milk (or regular milk if you don't have evaporated)
2 eggs
1/4 t ground cloves
1/4 t ground ginger
1/2 t ground nutmeg
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1 t vanilla extract
2 T lemon juice
1 - 2 T flour
1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust

If using a whole sweet potato, pierce it several times with a fork and microwave 5-8 minutes until soft, turning over halfway through cooking time. Peel and mash. If using a portion of a larger potato, peel and cube the potato in 1/2 inch cubes, then steam a few minutes until soft. Mash with a potato masher.

To mashed potato, add butter, then mix well with mixer. Stir in sugar, milk, eggs, spices, vanilla, and lemon juice. Beat on medium speed until smooth. Add 1 T flour, then beat again; if mixture looks too liquidy, repeat with another 1 T flour. Pour filling into an unbaked pie crust.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 55 to 60 minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Pie will puff up like a souffle, and then sink down as it cools.

Recipe Smorgasborg

2008-11-09T15:33:00.006-05:00

Here are my favorite recipes from this week's recipe search, involving cabbage, cauliflower, turnips, and radishes. I'll expand on it a little later if I can.

Hearty country soup
Spicy ginger cauliflower cabbage and potatoes
Tofu, cauliflower, cabbage, and onion stir fry with coconut peanut sauce
An assortment of broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower recipes
Sweet and sour cauliflower and cabbage salad
Cauliflower and potato curry (crockpot recipe)
Cool and crunchy radish and spring turnip salad
Radish cabbage coleslaw
Pan-Fried Fish and Tomatoes With Cabbage Radish Slaw

For now, gotta take my little one to Sunday Dinner!

Tasty Root Vegetable Soup

2008-11-08T14:26:00.007-05:00

Hooray - the three CSA parsnips from the other week, and the half a CSA rutabega I had left over from a while back, have made it into hearty rutabaga, carrot, parsnip, and sausage soup! I first made this tasty soup for a dinner guest last year, and we all enjoyed it a lot. Sometimes root soups will have a very strong taste, but somehow this soup was just flavorful and good.

The herbs that I've moved indoors for the winter have officially started pulling their weight: I use fresh thyme in the recipe instead of dried. Fresh herbs can really make such a difference.

Weekly Menu

2008-11-06T08:58:00.002-05:00

Here's this week's menu:

Monday: the last of the vegetable enchiladas
Tuesday: [no potluck due to elections!] lentil-spinach soup with cornbread muffins and lettuce salad
Wednesday: stuffed cabbage leaves and mashed potatoes with gravy
Thursday: ditto
Friday [date night]
Saturday: sausage and root vegetable soup with cornbread muffins and salad
Sunday: ditto

I'll probably make gypsy soup to eat for lunches this week as well. I'll try to post some of these recipes later - the soups are really nice!

Hundred Mile Diet

2008-11-02T21:02:00.003-05:00

Here's a cross-posting of the Food For Thought article I wrote this week for our CSA ezine. The article deals with the fascinating idea of the Hundred Mile Diet, and at the bottom, I have appended the farm-by-farm, mile-by-mile results I found when I went looking for local staples within 100 miles of my house.

Food For Thought: The Hundred Mile Diet

What if you had to get all your food locally? Could you get by?

Alisa Smith and J. B. MacKinnon provided a fascinating glimpse into this world of local-food-or-bust when they gave themselves a challenge: the Hundred Mile Diet. For one year, they promised, they would eat nothing that they could not find within a hundred mile radius of their home.

When a friend sent me a link to their first article, I was hooked. Could they do it? Would such a thing be feasible for them? For me?

Their experience is now a book, a website, and a phenomenon: hundreds of others have signed on for their own versions of the Hundred Mile Diet. (Check out their website for some great local eating tips!) Just reading their first article ot me reading the food labels in my local supermarket: where did my food come from? I started shopping more and more at local farmers markets, and asking the vendors there where their farms were, and whether all their produce was local, and just where was this fish caught, anyway?

I also started thinking: if higher oil and gas prices would eventually necessitate a change in how food was shipped across the country (and the world!), what would that mean for my family? Being able to buy all our food locally might mean anything from lower prices to food security. Would moving to a Hundred Mile Diet now help guarantee that the small local farms and their food variety would be there when we needed them?

In case anyone is curious, the Local Harvest website lists 437 farms within 100 miles of my Silver Spring, Maryland zip code. Using their farm products search engine to search for food needs beyond just fruits, vegetables, meats, and milk (all of which I already knew I could get locally), I found whole wheat flour, wheat, corn, oats, dry beans, walnuts, pecans, peanuts, honey, maple syrup, and vinegar within the 100 mile limit. (I list specific farms and distances below for anyone who's interested.) For pressed oil, I would have to travel 120 miles, and for rice, 150 miles. And although the search engine did not list white sugar at all, I found out that I could get brown sugar and molassas locally processed (if not locally grown) in Silver Spring itself!

We live in an area of unusual bounty. What can we do to keep it that way? This is the question that continues to float at the back of my mind as I begin to bring my family slowly closer to the Hundred Mile Diet. I may never arrive there, but I am finding the journey itself fruitful - and delicious!

flour (whole wheat): Moutoux Orchard, Purcellville, VA, 52 miles
wheat: SC Burton Farms, Glen Arm, MD, 52 miles
rice: The Gardens, Prince George, VA, 151 miles
oats: Lands End Farm, Chestertown, MD, 75 miles
walnuts: Arcadia Farm, Chestertown, MD, 75 miles
pecans: Canning Farm, Dogue, VA, 83 miles
peanuts: Whipple Farm, Rixeyville, VA, 68 miles
pressed oil: Strattons Wynnorr Farm, Westtown, PA, 118 miles
vinegar: Dragonfly Farms, Mount Airy, MD, 46 miles
dry beans: Virginia Green Grocer and the Virginia Organic Co-operative, Warrenton, VA, 54 miles
honey: NakedBee Apiaries, Laytonsville, MD, 18 miles
brown sugar, molassas (processed locally; probably not grown locally): Panela Sweet Cane, Silver Spring, MD, 0 miles

Stuffed Cabbage Leaves

2008-11-02T19:44:00.007-05:00

This week at our CSA, we're getting:

Russett potatoes
Carrots
Sweet corn
Cauliflower
Broccoli
Apples
Green cabbage

Having consulted my husband for his choice of several tasty cabbage options for this week's dinners, he has elected one of our favorites: stuffed cabbage leaves, which I make with mashed potatoes that then receive the tasty sauce that goes with this recipe. It's important for us to make our cabbage determination early: now I know that I can't just split the head down the middle with our share partners, because we'll need whole leaves for this recipe. I'll either have to trade with them for it (maybe I'll swap them the cauliflower), or I'll need to take the outer leaves and offer them the inner ones.

I've adapted this recipe from one from RecipeSource, halving the original and integrating a few suggestions from other similar recipes until it comes out the way we like it. Sometimes I make the sauce listed with the recipe, and sometimes I just use the cooking juices as is - either way is delicious.

Stuffed Cabbage Leaves

Cabbage Rolls:
1/3 cup short grain rice
12 - 14 whole cabbage leaves
1 small or 1/2 large onion, finely chopped
1/2 Tbsp - 1 Tbsp olive oil
1 lb ground beef
1 egg
1 tomato, finely chopped
2 carrots, diced small
1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley (or 1 tsp dried)
1 1/2 tsp chopped fresh dill or mint (or 1/2 tsp dried)
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
sprinkling of salt and freshly ground pepper
1 cup hot stock or water
2 tsp butter, melted
chopped dill or parsley, for garnish

Sauce (optional):
1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
1 egg, separated
1/2 lemon, juiced, or 1 Tbsp lemon juice

Pour boiling water over rice and let it soak 15 minutes, then drain.

Blanch cabbage leaves in boiling salted water for 5 minutes until softened. Drain and cut out thick center of larger leaves (very large leaves may be cut in half); save trimmings for later. Set prepared leaves aside.

Gently fry onion and diced carrots in oil until soft. Mix into meat with rice, egg, tomato, parsley, dill or mint, cinnamon, salt, and pepper.

Place one portion of stuffing on base of cabbage leaf. Turn up base, fold in sides, and wrap firmly into a neat roll. Repeat with remaining leaves and stuffing until all are used.

Combine stock or water, butter, and salt and pepper to taste. In a deep pan lined with trimmings from cabbage leaves, place cabbage rolls close together, seam sides down. Pour stock or water mixture over rolls. Invert a heavy plate on top of rolls and cover pan tightly. Simmer gently for 1 1/2 hours, adding more stock or water if needed.

When cooked, drain off stock carefully. Either use as is, or make sauce, as follows.

For sauce: put drained-off stock into small saucepan. Reduce to 3/4 cup over heat and thicken with cornstarch mixed to a paste with a little cold water. Let it boil 1 minute.

Beat egg whites in a bowl until stiff, add yolks and beat thoroughly. Gradually beat in lemon juice, then boiling stock. Return sauce to saucepan, place over low heat, and stir constantly until egg is cooked - do not boil.

Arrange rolls on a heated serving dish and spoon some of the sauce over them. Garnish with chopped dill or parsley and serve remaining sauce separately. Serve with mashed potatoes.

Serves 4 (and if anyone's doing Weight Watchers, it's 5 points per serving with sauce, or 4 points without - if you're sparing with the oil for frying the onions. As for the mashed potatoes, I make no promises!)

Scallion Pancakes Ad Infinitum

2008-10-27T22:29:00.007-04:00

So, for the cooking adventure I'm about to narrate, the moral of the story is: never quadruple the recipe.

That being said, the potato-cabbage-scallion pancakes came out pretty well! (All 40 of them, or whatever ungodly number there turned out to be....)

It seemed like a good idea at the time. After splitting an enormous Chinese cabbage with our share partner, we ended up with a half a cabbage weighing a pound. (Did I mention "enormous"?) Paging through my binder of CSA recipes, I found one for potato-cabbage-scallion pancakes that called for a quarter pound of shredded Chinese cabbage. "Hey," I thought, "if I quadruple it, I'll use the whole darn thing up!"

Yah.

As a stay-at-home Mom riding herd over a 20-month-old girl who wants to spend every waking moment at the neighborhood park, the only uninterrupted stretch of cooking time I get on any given day is the hour and a half of naptime. Well, in an hour and a half, you can chop a pound of cabbage, a pound of scallions (do you know how many scallions that is???), and a pound of potatoes, and you can boil and mash the potatoes and crush the fennel seeds and prepare the rest of the spices. You can even put everything in the food processor and discover that there is NO WAY that all that and two eggs and the mere tablespoon of flour that the recipe calls for is going to cohere into a dough that is cohesive enough to roll flat. And you can even experiment with adding more and more flour, until you discover that 2 cups is closer to the necessary amount. But you can't finish the recipe. No, not even close.

It was not until after I had thrown together something entirely different for dinner (no small feat in my small kitchen, when most of the space is taken up by scallion pancakes in media res), eaten with my family, and cleaned up, that I had time to continue making the dough. By 9 pm (having put my daughter to bed), I was ready to roll out the pancakes. It was at this point that it hit me that I had quadrupled the recipe, and so had four times as many pancakes to roll out and fry than I might ordinarily have had, which is more than any sane person wants to do at 9 pm. At the same time, given the fresh dough staring me in the face, I was committed - I had to finish!

Suffice it to say that I would make this recipe again, but never again in such volume. On the bright side, I certainly have discovered several different ways to serve and eat these tasty pancakes! My favorite accompaniment to them (besides a tasty green salad) is applesauce - this sweetens the delightfully savory and fennel-y taste of the pancakes. I imagine that sour cream would also work very well with them. Not surprisingly, they also take well to soy sauce. To reheat the pancakes, I toss them in a 300 degree toaster oven and keep them there until the kitchen fills with a warm fennel fragrance.

Here is the recipe (originally from essortment), modified so you don't have to repeat my adventures with the flour jar and the food processor:

Ingredients:

1/4 lb. russet potatoes, peeled, boiled, and mashed dry
1/4 lb. Chinese cabbage, shredded
1/4 lb. scallions, peeled and chopped
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
1/4 cup sunflower oil

Using a food processor, combine mashed potatoes, Chinese cabbage, eggs, flour, salt, pepper, and fennel seeds until a dough ball forms. (Use the general-purpose chopping blade, rather than the dough blade.) Fold in scallions.

Heat sunflower oil in a frying pan. Divide dough into 16 balls (it will be a little sticky). Roll out balls in plenty of flour until 1/4 inch thick. Fry for 5 minutes on each side until golden brown.

Radish Curry and Greens Quiche

2008-10-14T15:26:00.005-04:00

This week in our CSA boxes, we got:

corn
sweet potatoes
Chinese cabbage
peppers
lettuce
apples
radishes

Ordinarily, I would be swapping with our share partners so that we can have all the radishes - but this time, there were enough radishes for my favorite radish dishes without having to keep them all! (Here's one I like: radish-potato curry - mmmm!) I think I'll "bank" the radishes, though - they'll keep, and I'll do something fun with them in weeks to come.

The radish greens, though, when put together with the mustard greens and Swiss chard from past CSA boxes, will make enough greens for my favorite garden greens quiche - a tried and true favorite that works with any combination of greens I have ever thrown at it. Even with a storebought pie crust instead of fresh, and cheddar and mozzarella cheese instead of Swiss, this is simply delectable - and it freezes!! If I manage to keep our paws off it, I will give it to my sister-in-law, who's moving to our area in a few weeks.

Sandy Spring CSA: Fall Season Begins

2008-10-09T22:58:00.006-04:00

The Fall season of the Sandy Spring CSA started this week. We got:

Swiss chard
Broccoli
Carrots
Turnips
Red Delicious apples
Mustard greens
Butternut squash

I gave our share partners the squash, in exchange for all the broccoli and carrots. This past spring, when we had put compost on our front flower beds, we got some "volunteer" vegetables growing due to lingering seeds in the compost - so we actually have a volunteer butternut squash that is ready for harvest now!

For this week's menu, I'm actually still working through some of the previous CSA vegetables.

Monday: baked chicken with lemon and herbs, with leftover rice and leftover veggie stir fry
Tuesday: [dish for our weekly potluck] beets and carrots with West Indian spices
Wednesday: the rest of the chicken, the rest of the beets, and mashed potatoes
Thursday: lima bean casserole (Joy of Cooking) and sweet potato stuffing (Vegetarian Times Cookbook) with tomato gravy (Vegetarian Times Cookbook)
Friday: [date night]
Saturday: ditto Thursday, with the addition of a green salad
Sunday: butternut squash and pear soup, either broccoli or salad, and tofu turnovers (Cooking with Tofu)

The sweet potato, the broccoli, and the salad greens are from last week's CSA box, and the potatoes, the tomatoes, and the pears are from the farmer's market this past Saturday.

As for this week's produce, I may make another greens quiche to freeze. I'm thinking I may do another stirfry with the broccoli and carrots. Then for the turnips, there's a wonderful recipe that my husband invented with turnips, pears, and sausages, that I'm looking forward to trying again.