Vegetable Alternatives

It's been a bit of an off week with our missing of the farm share pickup on Tuesday. However, when life doesn't throw you lemons, you go out and buy some damned lemons. Then you make lemonade!

This is America!



I was fortunate enough to stop by a farmer's market on 97th street this morning. At the 97th Street Greenmarket I picked up some fantastic tomatoes, green and yellow round zucchini, squash blossoms, peaches, red potatoes, and two great bottles of wine. I was fortunate enough to get a sample of these two wines. The rose was great and the chardonnay is quite honestly the first chardonnay I've ever tasted that I liked. The wines were both Treleaven wines from King Ferry Winery.

Any winery that can make a chardonnay that doesn't make me sad is okay in my book.



I made a quick beer batter and fried the zucchini blossoms then served them with a salsa I made with shallots, the Greenmarket tomatoes, and avocado. They were fantastic! The best three dollars I've spent on produce this year! Good on you, the State of New York!



For the main course I cooked up the zucchini and tomato with some garlic, shallot and mint from my mother's garden. I also boiled some of the potatoes (which weren't quite as good as the farm share potatoes) and drizzled them with olive oil, butter, and fresh chives from Mom's garden. As an unnecessary accompaniment I sliced up some chicken breast -- it was the lowest point of the meal.

Sometimes it feels obligatory to include meat into a meal even when it isn't necessary. It's like a crutch.

A meat crutch.

Jersey Fresh

As I continued to mourn the loss of our New York farm vegetables, I was left to think of creative alternatives for this week.

Today, I went to the best place I know to get farm fresh New Jersey produce: New York City! I stumbled upon some great corn and heirloom tomatoes from the Garden State at the market this afternoon and was eager to incorporate them into dinner.



First, I made use of some of the remaining farm beets with this herbed salad mix with a little Balsamic vinegar, some olive oil, and grape tomatoes.



For the main course: spinach fettuccine with New Jersey corn, heirloom tomatoes, garlic, bacon, shallots, white wine, butter, olive oil, lemon thyme (from my mother's herb garden), shrimp, and scallops.

I think I might be focusing a little too much on pasta lately. Partly it's because our I haven't been buying a lot of proteins lately. Mostly it's because I love pasta.

Now begins the part where I press my luck and make pasta continuously until Jen becomes wary of eating it. I can't help it, it's just my Italian heritage.

That's a-one a-spicy meatball!

The Vegetables of Yesterweek

Tonight I wasn't going to let a complete lack of vegetables ruin the beginning of our seventh week of the farm share this season. If life gives you lemons you make lemonade! If life gives you lemons but you don't get there in time to pick them up then . . . well . . . you don't make lemonade. But, you make something equally as good with whatever you can find in the fridge! (Feel free to use that quote!)



The AeroGarden is gettin a tad bit unruly. I am worried that one night I may return home to find a miniature pickup truck broken down in the front of it.



Tonight I started off by making this slaw out of napa cabbage following my latest trend of not sticking with solely Asian recipes for Asian vegetables (see here). I tossed it with horseradish, shallots, dijon, cider vinegar, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and sliced grape tomatoes with sliced scallion and basil.



For the main course: buttered turnips and potatoes with chives; roasted chicken breast, shallots, and celery; and steamed broccoli. Everything but the chicken and the chives (from my mother's garden) was from the farm.

The wine accompaniment was a sub $5 bottle so I won't even bother mentioning it. However, all told it was a very rewarding meal.

I hear rumors of a farmer's market on the Upper West Side. I may crash it this Friday to see if I can supplement my lack of vegetables for the week.

Is that like cheating on our farm share?

The Saddest Day

This week's farm share pickup can most easily be summed up by the following picture:



Yeah. I guess I misread the pickup email. I thought that the hours were from 4:30PM to 7:30PM. Apparently the pickup only goes until 7:15PM and volunteers are to stay until 7:30PM. Of course, this is probably not accurate since I rounded the corner at about 7:29PM and this is what I saw.

I was under the impression that after the share they left some of the remaining vegetables bagged for pickup. Apparently this was not the case. Apparently they also high tail it out of the area with a quickness.

I was quite shocked. There wasn't so much as a spare pea left behind after this week's farm share. It was a sad walk back home with no vegetables to speak of. Looks like I'll be hitting the reserve cache in the crisper for the remainder of this week's meals.

Who knows what marvels would have awaited us this week. I think I'll just assume it would have been a terrible assortment due to the horrible weather we've had all week.

It probably would have been like six radishes and a rotten potato. I don't think we really missed that much at all.

Of Magic and Pierogies

Mondays are always a little lean in the farm vegetable department. Combine that with returning home from a three day weekend trip and you have a perfect storm for not having much in the fridge. After work I had no options other than to roll up my sleeves (or pretend to roll up my sleeves, since it's July), dig my heels in (the heels of my flip flops), and use a little old fashioned ingenuity in creating a respectable meal this evening.



I started off by cooking some of the farm beets and serving them in a completely radical new way: with feta cheese and balsamic vinegar! My culinary experimentation knows no bounds.



For the main course: pierogies with grilled artichokes, grape tomatoes, garlic scapes, and sage (from my mother's garden) with a light white wine and butter sauce.



To accompany the pierogies we had a little of this magical Sacred Stone red wine.



If you don't believe me that it's magical, just read the label on the back. It says it's magical right on the back! It also says that it's racy, much like the stand up comedy of Bob Saget. (It says it's racy, it doesn't compare itself to the comedy of Bob Saget, that was me).

For a food pairing it suggests my favorite outdoor and other casual cuisine. I've never seen a wine paired with a food that was cooked in a specific location. It is good to note, however, that this wine would work equally well with a buffalo steak marinated in Worchestershire sauce as it would with a light and crunchy cabbage salad.

I guess that's just part of the magic.