-Lettuce
-Kale (2 bunches; I traded my cilantro for kale in the swap box: BEST SWAP EVER)
-1 turnip
-1 kohlrabi
-Zucchini
-Peas
-Eggs

It was crazy hot earlier this week, and I wasn’t feeling particularly prone to extended cooking sessions. I still had a handful of cabbage from a previous share, so I just quickly sauteed the peas, added in the cabbage to wilt, dosed them both with a bit of rice vinegar before pulling off the heat, and dressed with sesame oil and soy sauce. I think it took 5 minutes from start to finish, including heating the pan.

We ate the vegetables with Trader Joe’s “Bool gogi” (sic), which wasn’t half bad.

I know this is lackluster, but guys, I’m 8.5 months pregnant. Ben is lucky we’re not eating chinese takeout every night. (We did have that last weekend. It was luscious.) One fast/easy/delicious thing we ate this week was another Trader Joe’s product, their chile/lime chicken burgers. I hate chicken and turkey burgers as a general rule, but we tasted samples of these and they are really good. They come frozen; we grilled them and I mashed avocado with lime, salt and pepper, spread that on top, added pickles, and we were good to go. (Oh, on rolls. Obviously.) I would eat one of those right now, I think, and it’s 8 a.m.

The main news around here is the purchase of….wait for it….A VITAMIX!!! I have a LOT to say on this subject, and will try to get around to saying it early next week. Enjoy the long weekend, happy birthday America, etc.!

To win I need to get the most votes between noon on April 28 and noon on May 4. And I need your help, big time: I’m going to be out of the country for more than half of the voting, so it will be harder for me to spread the word towards the end.

Here’s my essay, which had to be fewer than 140 words and answer the the question, “What is one of your best moments or memories in nature?”:

I grew up in Oregon during the bitter battle to save the spotted owls from logging, and when I was 10 I was lucky enough to see the owls in the wild. We hiked deep into the forest, an emerald-green cathedral with a carpet of moss and ferns. When we stopped, the leader handed me a live mouse and I clambered to the end of an enormous fallen tree. I stood, holding the mouse out by its tail, and the owl swooped out of nowhere, so silent I barely registered it until the mouse had vanished. I never forgot that golden-green moment, the speckled owl whooshing past, the trees looming up overhead. I’m grateful that the logging trucks of my childhood–each holding one huge tree–have vanished, but that forest and those owls have held on.

—-
Voting is now!! Please share with as many people as you can. Email it around! I am not ashamed to ask for help, here!

Vote here:

PLEASE vote for me, and please ask your friends to vote? We didn’t think we’d make it to the lake this summer because of preparations for the baby, and it would mean so much to either make one last trip before he’s born, or to go up and relax with him at the tail end of the season. Thank you, thank you, and please excuse the re-posts I will be putting up until the contest ends…

And so you understand why I’m so excited, here are some postcards from our weekend at Deephaven Camp last summer:

You guys. I don’t know how many of you share my emotions on the subject of pastry, but I bet it’s a high percentage. I can’t get enough of good buttery pastries, mainly of the flaky croissant family, and pain au chocolat, with a good cup of coffee, is just one of those perfect foods. Ages ago I’d read somewhere that Trader Joe’s*, that home of genius food shortcuts, sells a good frozen croissant and pain au chocolat, ready to proof and bake at home. I always forgot to actually buy any, but last week they jumped out at me and I was eager to try them over the weekend.

Then I had an appendicitis scare, spent Friday night and Saturday in the hospital, and didn’t get to eat any real food for a little while. But that’s all in the past now! Everything is fine! I am a medical mystery! And I wanted to reward Ben for his frenzied trip home from a business trip to spend the night in the hospital with me, so before I fell into my own wonderful bed Saturday night I set the pain au chocolat out to proof. I was in no state to find my camera, and I failed to take photos of the little cigar-shaped frozen pastries or their box. Suffice it to say, the box warns that you need to leave four to five INCHES between them on the sheet, before leaving them out overnight to rise. I felt weird leaving them on the counter uncovered, as directed, so I popped the tray in the cold oven for a bit of protection from the elements.

Sure enough, when I woke up Sunday morning, the cigars were crazily puffy:

And after 22 minutes or so in the oven:

Wow, those were so good. REALLY flaky and light, very buttery, nicely bittersweet chocolate. In fact, they’d puffed up so much they were almost hard to eat! BTW, you can add an optional egg wash for added shininess. I forgot, and as you can see mine looked pretty much just like the box.

Here’s what the box looks like (thank you interwebs for filling in here):

Image via Just Insomnia, where the blogger actually met the baker who makes the croissants–apparently he does desserts for places like Dean & Deluca, too. This explains a lot.

*I swear, Trader Joe’s isn’t paying me, even though I’m pretty sure almost every post I tag “good stuff” talks about something from there. I just love them.

I have definitely noticed a shift in…not tastes, so much as food desires since I got pregnant. Well, in the last few weeks since I started eating again, anyway. I have never been a girl to turn up her nose at things like donuts (and I am famous for my love of fried food), but now I find myself fixating, even if I don’t end up eating the thing in question. I’m also really bothered by the food ads on TV, which for the first time ever are making me want whatever they show–McNuggets, Pepperidge Farm garlic bread, etc. I haven’t followed through, but it’s weird for me to sit on the couch and think, “Chicken Nuggets! Brilliant idea!”

The good news is that I also think “Kale! Best idea EVER!” So things aren’t too out of whack. In fact, the first real meal I cooked once I stopped resorting to premade pizza crusts and extra-simple pasta dishes was a gigantic stir fry. I got the idea in my head, went to Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, and came home with everything I had spotted that seemed remotely appealing or logical in stir fry. To wit:

Also some beef, which I froze for an hour or so and sliced as thinly as possible before marinating in a new TJ’s discovery:

I had planned to make my own marinade/stiry fry sauce, but I spotted this one and the ingredients were literally exactly the same as what I planned to use: Soy, ginger, garlic, sesame seeds, etc. Shortcut time! I found it a bit sweet, in the end, so I’ll cut it with rice vinegar in the future.

As with any stir fry, cutting up all the vegetables is the time-consuming part.

I cooked the beef about 80% first, and then set it aside. Then the vegetables: The general rule is to get your oil hot hot hot, cook your aromatics (garlic, ginger, red pepper) quickly, then add the hardest vegetables, which will require the longest time to cook. I’d been lazy and cut the zucchini a bit thick, so that went in first with the onion, before my very tiny carrot and pepper matchsticks.

Those were next, followed by the peas.

Then the bok choi stems:

Then I added the beef back in to finish cooking, and added in some of the sauce (obviously fresh, not what I’d used to marinate):

And finally the bok choi and napa cabbage, just to wilt for a second.

All done!

Probably about 5 minutes total, but timing varies depending on your stove, vegetables, etc.

We ate it with rice. Actually, I ate it with rice for about three days, because that was quite a bit of stir fry.

Yum. Maybe I should make another batch.

I truly, truly hope to get things back on track soon, but meanwhile how about a slice of pie, made by the genius pie fairies at the Agawam Diner in Rowley, MA up on the North Shore:

Oooooh yeah. That’s coconut cream pie, homemade, and the size of my head. Other options included, on Sunday, custard, chocolate cream, chocolate mousse (more like a cake), “squash”, banana cream, apple, strawberry-rhubarb, and enough others that once I’d fixed on coconut cream I sort of tuned out. In the past the crust has been so-so, but this time it was great.

The Agawam Diner is our favorite mid-ramble lunch spot–it’s a classic 50s shiny metal diner with classic diner food (Ben most recently had chicken salad on a buttered and grilled NE-style hot dog bun), service that varies from lovingly gruff to surly, and amazing prices. And pie. Michael Stern reviewed it for Road Food a couple years ago.

Highly recommended.

1. An older acquisition: Bridge gave me this awesome hand-printed towel as a birthday present, with a quote from Pride & Prejudice. (Oh, Mr. Darcy.) I couldn’t bear to use it as a towel so I tacked it up above the sink and I love the result. (It’s from the shop Brookish on Etsy, though I don’t see any more towels at the moment. Lots of other P&P stuff though!)

2. I had a lingering credit at Simon Pearce, up in Vermont, and while we were in NH last weekend we made the trip over to the main store. I totally scored! I got a salt pig on sale, and found fantastic Dwell placemats on clearance.

Even the little sheep likes the salt cellar:

3. I checked out Laurie Colwin’s “Home Cooking” and “More Home Cooking” from the library ages ago and I can’t bear to return them until my copies arrive from Amazon. Must make gingerbread. Adore Laurie Colwin.

4. Oh god, a couple years ago I became fixated on dark brown shearling-lined Bean Boots, but I resisted because they seemed like they’d get quite a bit of snow in around the laces. The L.L. Bean gods heard my excuse and now they taunt me with these beauties:

I have perfectly good snow boots. I will love them from afar. (And I do still really love the laced-up ones, too.) But they also have nice-looking Hunter-style wellies, complete with fleece liners! I want those. My rain boots leak a little.

5. In honor of fall, I washed out an old spice jar and filled it with cinnamon-sugar. Happy breakfast days for me.

(BTW, I found a roll of 100 of those round blue labels on clearance at Papersource a month or two ago, and I recently labeled the tops of all my spice jars. They are in a container, so I used to have to lift them out one at a time to find a specific jar. I should have labeled them ages ago, duh!)

6. I found a ring at Forever 21 and fell in love with it, but of course it’s, like, gilded plastic and is already starting to peel. I need to find a real-metal version of it, but somehow hollow (light) and sturdy (non-denting). Love love love.

Misc.
This summer I gave in and bought American cheese to use on burgers. Because, I’m sorry, cheddar goes greasy and I don’t like blue cheese much and American melts best. Anyway, the other place American cheese sort of takes the prize is when you want a plain, non-fancy grilled cheese. And burger season is over so guess what I had for lunch yesterday?

You know you’re jealous.

Finally, in crafty news, I found these earrings marked down to $4 at Kohl’s (don’t ask) and thought they’d be pretty cool without all the extra loops. So I took them apart and put them back together.

Things I must do this month:
-Cook something amazing with the mound of shallots I scored from the farm.
-Re-do my desk chair, which is in sad shape with old foam crumbling out of the bottom and onto the floor. (Ew.) My solution has been a plastic bag taped to the bottom of the chair but that’s stopped working.
-Make gingerbread.
-Walk Lola, the darling dog who now lives downstairs!

Last summer we kept talking about driving out to Belchertown, Mass., (about 80 miles west of our house), but we never managed to make the trip. This year we were lucky enough to go twice, once in early August and once last weekend. I’d like to share a bunch of my photos of the farm from both trips. Jarrett always teases me for being weeks behind on my blog posts about he weekly share distributions, so hopefully this will placate him.

August:

The barn holds offices, a kitchen, and the farm stand.

(I have always loved barns!)

Farmstand:

Neat and tidy greenhouse:

Some of my favorite vegetables, growing happily in the fields…

…and in the background, the poor, blighted tomato plants (agh):

Then I found the chickens. They have a lovely roaming coop, which is rolled to a new piece of field every week. The chickens peck up whatever is left in the field and fertilize the patch (adding nitrogen to the soil), then roll on over to a new area. There are three breeds, though I can’t remember the names. Jarrett told me next year there will be three new breeds, including the Araucana (Easter Egg) chickens Martha Stewart made famous for their pastel eggs!

I love chickens; I find them hilarious and charming to watch and I would have stayed for hours if the guys (Tom and Ben were with me) had let me.

Some of the ladies head my way while the proud rooster looks on:

Tail-feathers fluttering in indecision:

Each evening all the chickens march into their house to be safely closed in for the night.

I must say, watching the chickens was a delight. They were nibbling clover, wandering around a large fenced enclosure, strolling in and out of their cozy rolling house… Very happy birds in a very happy place.

September:

Jarrett sent out an email inviting CSA members to share in the work of the farm, in addition to the bounty. There were 1000 pounds of onions (plus shallots and 5000 bulbs of garlic, though we didn’t get to those) that needed to be trimmed and cleaned before being handed out in the weekly shares. All those alliums were curing on the floor of the greenhouse, and we drove out for a “Smelly Potluck” to help get them all prepped.

Ben gets down and dirty:

More helpers, including Jarrett’s dad, on the left. (His mom sent along a big pot of soup!):

Freshly harvested onions are laid out to cure, pulling all the juices from the stems into the bulb:

Once they are ready to be used, the stems get trimmed off:

The loose outer layers of skin (often dirty) are rubbed off, leaving a clean, tidy onion:

We did our best but there was still quite a long way to go when we headed in for dinner around 6 (you can’t see the stacks of crates that had already been moved out of the greenhouse!):

Jarrett took us on a tour of the varied “root cellars” and storage spots around the barn–including a room downstairs and a refrigerated stand-alone unit. It was fun to see all the deliciousness we will get in the winter shares, and we also got to grab some squash and spare shallots to bring home.

We gathered at a picnic bench by the barn to enjoy the last of the sunlight and eat a potluck while watching the barn cat torment the visiting dog.

My back ached the next day. I am a soft-handed urban wimp!

Brew coffee in a stovetop espresso maker.

Sweeten while hot with BROWN sugar, to taste (the coffee is strong and bitter, so I needed a goodly amount of sugar). Does anyone else out there besides me and Tom drink hot coffee with just milk, but iced coffee with milk and sugar? I’m sure this has something to do with bitter flavor compounds showing up when the drink is cold.

Chill, then serve over ice with milk. About a one-to-one ratio is good, or even more milk; again, the coffee is quite concentrated.

I make the espresso the night before and then I just have to add ice and milk in the morning when I can’t be trusted to do anything complicated, anyway.

Once we got home I soaked off the small label that was on the bottom section of the bottle, and I will use it as a water carafe this summer. Those embossed raindrops kill me—so simple and great. Is it weird that I brought back a mineral water bottle as my favorite souvenir?

——-

On a completely different topic, I am thinking a lot about my goals and wishes for this blog, and trying to figure out which direction to go with it. If you have time, do you mind telling me what you’d like to see more of, or what you enjoy reading about? CSA season starts in about 10 days, so I will have lots of produce to write about, and I’m considering a few more ambitious projects, as well. I would love your input.

*I am sad that Salome was kicked off Make me a Super Model while we were gone.

This bellini is made with what they call peach juice (obviously), but what I believe to be actual peaches, thrown in a blender with prosecco. They could almost be eaten with a spoon. They were ridiculous.

If you want to justify it, watch all the people roasting in gondolas a few feet away from your cool, well-shaded table, and think to yourself, “For the cost of a gondola ride, I will be able to drink many, many of these heavenly bellinis.” And take further comfort in the fact that for a mere Euro you can take a gondola across the Canal after your bellini, on the traghetto that ferries people from side to side in areas where the bridges aren’t close by. There is a traghetto stop outside the Gritti’s door–very handy.

PS: They also bring you snacks.

PPS: We loved our bellinis so much we immediately had to go try the ones at Harry’s Bar, where they were famously invented. No contest. Those were normal bellinis, not glasses of heaven.

PPPS: Ben had never had a bellini. He asked if he was allowed to order them in bars from now on, and I said no. Besides, he’d only be disappointed, as the Harry’s Bar experience soon showed.