Buying club fortnight one wrap-up, fortnight two start-up

You wouldn't know it because I'm a bit behind in writing up my posts, but I did a fair job of using my my first half-share despite going out of town for a few days. I've mentioned how I used the corn, potatoes and spinach. The bananas and broccoli are going to be in upcoming posts. The mango turned out to be rather fibrous so I decided to cook it down along with the blueberries. The original idea was to make a syrup, but, on a whim, I decided to throw in a banana which stayed kind of solid. It seemed a better idea to blend it all together and make more of a goop out of it. I can think of a few uses for that sort of thing, but it turns out that blueberries, mangoes and bananas aren't the best possible combination of flavors so I haven't done much with it. The rest I've used in bits and pieces, but I've got most of the garlic, one under-ripe tomato, and half each of the cucumber, squash and lettuce head left.

Since I've got more cucumber and lettuce in the new share, I'll probably consolidate. The new cucumbers--there are two hidden in that picture--seem the pickling sort so I'm leaning in that direction. [Which reminds me, the pickled beets from a few weeks back have been a bit disappointing, mainly texturally. I really should have boiled them instead of roasting. Also, since I added the onions to the pickling liquid when I boiled it, the onion flavor overpowered the beets a bit. On the other hand, the eggs I pickled with them were really great. The extra onion flavor really worked there.] I'm also thinking about a lettuce soup. I'm all out of chicken stock and don't have the accumulated bones and scraps to make more yet, but I do have the makings of shrimp stock which would make an interesting base for the soup. I just have to figure out what other elements work with those flavors.

The onions this week are plain old yellow onions so no need for any plans there. The potatoes, on the other hand, are a new variety called Klamath Pearl. The packaging says they're well suited to salads, roasting and grilling. I've had my share of potato salad recently and don't grill so I guess it's roasting. Or maybe, along with the squash and corn and maybe the spinach, some sort of Southwestern gratin.

The broccoli-esque item on the left is labeled "broccolette" which I think is the same thing as broccolini and a different thing than broccoli raab. I think that's destined for a simple side dish sauté.

The snap peas (in shadow in the center bottom of the picture), I think I'd like to stir fry. I wonder if there are any proper snap pea stir fry recipes where they aren't just substituting for snow peas. I"ll have to do a little research.

That leaves the fruit. There are a couple lemons which is good as I'm out of lemons. Another big box of strawberries which are still too pretty to cut up. The first grapes I've had in years. (I haven't had an apple since moving to Miami either.) Maybe it's from not having them in so long, but the grapes are really tasty. And finally, way too many bananas. I've got another idea for a banana ice cream (beyond the one I made yesterday and will post about in a day or two), but that will only use half. Maybe I'll do a banana bread, too.

To tell the truth, I don't know how much of these plans I'm actually going to follow through on. My kitchen is just so very hot and I have so little desire to get in there and cook. I'm also finding a lack of desire to cook bringing a lack of desire to eat a full dinner and the idea of cutting back and maybe losing a few pounds is tempting. My buying club experiment may be short-lived this summer.

Annie's Organic Buying Club - Week one

In an attempt to get back into the cooking groove, I signed up for a buying club this summer. Unlike the CSA, this has a pay-as-you-go system with no commitments. And also, unlike the CSA, most of these fruits and vegetables aren't local. They are all organic, though.

I only signed up for a half share every other week. I just want a little inspiration, not the weekly challenge the CSA gave me. That was good thinking as this half share is still quite a bit of produce. This cost me thirty-five dollars plus a couple bucks processing fee since I paid on-line.

I picked this up Monday after work so I've already used a bit of it. Corn loses its sweetness quickly and I had no idea how long these ears have been traveling so I wanted to make something with it right away. Chowder was the quick and easy answer, particularly with the potatoes and onions needing to be used too. I've done a corn chowder post before so I'm not going to bother this time around. I will mention though, that starting off with plenty of salt pork and hot peppers is a good idea, as is stirring in diced shrimp and salmon for the last couple of minutes.

A big salad yesterday used half of the lettuce and some of the sweet onion and cucumber.

And today I used another pound of potatoes for a potato salad to go with a pulled brisket. That's worth it's own post so look for that up next.

Using the potatoes first probably wasn't the best idea. The spinach is likely to start rotting any day now. I'm hesitant to use them in a recipe where a box of frozen spinach would do as well. And I haven't had greens this delicate to work with for a while so all my initial impulses are for methods that will turn them into mush. There's spinach salad, I suppose. Maybe eggs Florentine.

I might go with a simple stir fry for the broccoli. I've got some pork tenderloin in the freezer that would go well with it. Something more interesting may well present itself, though.

I have an interesting recipe for stuffed sweet onions I want to try. They'll keep fine so I think I'll put that off until next week.

I've already used the ripe tomato. The green one I've put in a paper bag with the green tomatoes I've salvaged from my tomato plants. I've definitely got the blight out there so I don't think I'm going to have any luck trying to ripen them on the vine. If they ripen in the pantry, I've got one plan for them, but I've got something rather more interesting in mind if, after a week, they're still green.

The squash is just one small squash, best used as a side dish and I never have to make an effort to use garlic so that just leaves quite a lot of fruit.

There are actually six bananas back there. Quite large ones too. I'm thinking ice cream. I've made plenty of banana ice creams before but I've got a new idea. I don't feel like shopping again right now so that's for next week too.

That's a full pound of strawberries in the back there and they've got pretty good flavor. The berries are big and photogenic so I want to do something that keeps them whole. Maybe I'll candy them or dip them in chocolate or some such.

The blueberries are getting a little over-ripe so I may boil them down into a syrup.

The mango. I don't recognize the varietal so I don't know quite what I've got here. Eh, smoothies work with the full range. That's a safe choice.

And lastly, the peaches. They came underripe, the better for shipping. And there's your major distinction between a CSA and a buying club. Only two of them so probably best to just eat them out of hand instead of trying to use them as an ingredient. In fact, let me go check...one's ripe already. Mmm, tasty.