Asian week

I found some beautiful eggplant at the market today.  We have Ramen on the menu, which has noodles and pork shoulder and we will serve that with last weeks bok choy which is still in the fridge.  The same 9 year old has requested her Thai aunt's noodle dish which has cilantro, ground pork, pickled garlic, lime juice and fish sauce.  Neither of these are going to put a dent in these veggies.  Her friend requested bi bim bop, which was a favorite in early spring.  For the fourth dish, I think we will use the eggplant to make a thai green curry noodle dish with green beans and summer squash.   Steak salad for lunch and maybe some chicken salad as well.  That will put a dent in that bag.

Ramen

Our 9 year old requested Ramen this week.   She says her mom makes great food but her dad makes really complicated stuff.  Ramen certainly falls into that category!  He makes the stock in a long process which involves simmering konbu (kelp) in water, removing the konbu adding mushrooms, removing the mushrooms, adding a chicken, removing the chicken, adding roasted pork bones, removing the bones and adding a pound of bacon, removing the bacon and simmering some veggies in there.   Crazy stuff, you would never find me making something that complicated.  But wow is it wonderful when he is done.

Blueberry pancakes

This week we had (among other things) blueberries and whole wheat flour in the bag.  The New Basics cookbook had a great blueberry pancake recipe with cinnamon,nutmeg, vanilla, lemon zest and brown sugar.   The pancakes were amazing with real maple syrup.  The 3 year old loved them.

Hey Mikey, he likes it.

Last nights dinner was a hit all around.  We roasted the New Creation Farms babyback ribs for 2 1/2 hours in the oven at 225 degrees, then sauced them with 1/2 bbq sauce, 1/2 teriyaki and finished them on the grill.   Yum, the kids loved them & it was much easier than my former boiling method. 

Sides were green beans and pasta.  I frenched (sliced lengthwise) the beans like my mom does.  It takes some time, but seems to be worth it.  I boil them, then do a quick saute with some kosher salt & butter.   My 6 year old eats platefuls with her fingers.

The best part was the pasta.  My friends picky 7 year old asked for 3rds.  A tomato, garlic & fresh parsley sauteed in some olive oil and tossed with fresh Ohio City Pasta and some asiago cheese.  Too bad there wasn't more.

peas, peas, peas

There were three kinds of peas in this weeks bag.  Shelling peas, snap peas and snow peas.  I had time to prep all of them on Saturday, so they are going quickly.  The shelling peas went into a paella and into chicken salad, the snap peas we grilled with a bit of olive oil & kosher salt & served with roasted potatoes (from the bag!) and yogurt marinated lamb.  The snap peas hopefully will go into Michael Ruhlman's braised peas and radish dish that he had on his blog last week.  It looked amazing.

Kohlrabi

This week in the bag there were two kohlrabi.  I've never eaten kohlrabi, to my knowledge and I don't really know what to do with it.  Last years kohlrabi made excellent compost material after it spent many days in our fridge. This time I was determined to discover just what kohlrabi actually is.  Some Internet research later, I learned that kohlrabi is a member of the same family as cabbage and broccoli.  Wikipedia describes it as follows: "The name comes from the German Kohl ("cabbage") plus Rübe ~ Rabi (Swiss German variant) ("turnip"), because the swollen stem resembles the latter. The same roots are also found in the German word "Kohlrübe", which refers to the rutabaga. . . .its origin in nature is the same as that of cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, collard greens, and brussel sprouts: They are all bred from, and are the same species as, the wild cabbage plant (Brassica oleracea)."

The leaves can be cooked like any other greens, but I'm saving that for next year, and decided to tackle only the bulb.  To cook kohlrabi, the bulb is peeled and usually chopped or sliced.    I sliced it in strips and put it into a mix of summer squash, carrots and onions that I grilled in a grill basket with olive oil, salt and thyme.  They were mild and went well with the other veggies.  No one would have known it was kohlrabi if I hadn't told them.

Most of the way

We took our greens, radishes, onions and cucumbers to a friends house & made a great salad with her chicken breasts on Tuesday night.  Wednesday and Thursday lunch the rest of the greens, onions cucumber, goat cheese & steak went into an amazing lunch salad.  Last night we had fresh perogies from the market and all of the broccoli!  That leaves green beans for tonight & two weeks worth of cauliflower.  

Last summer I actually began to like roasted cauliflower - olive oil, salt & cauliflower, roast it in the oven.  I may try that tonight.

Pasta

Four tomatoes, a zucchini, yellow squash, onion, fresh garlic, fennel and Tom's Kilbuck mushroom pesto plus rotini has created a beautiful pasta for my neighbor's party and has made a dent in the veggies.  I hope they like it.

Prep, prep, prep . .

I've found that when I prep the veggies on Saturday, I'm more likely to use them during the week.  This week, since things have been so hectic, I've even prepped the green onions and radishes.  I pinched the ends off the beans and peas too.  Let's see if that helps get these salads made and eaten.

Week Two in Your Family Bag . . .

with the fridge still full from last week, we have received currents, red and green onions, garlic, yellow and green zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, radishes, cauliflower, beans and peas.  Any ideas for currents?

All the children are home this week and hopefully we will spend some time in our own house to eat all of this wonderful produce. I couldn't resist and also bought fennel, basil and lettuce.  I'm planning on steak salad (again), chicken salad, salad salad and lots of fresh peas!  Can't wait. 

We have an out of town relative visiting, so it looks like dinner out on East 4th after the Bodies Exhibit, so tonight will not be the night for cooking.