Mixed Greens Salad

So much of what I have been eating in the past few weeks has been salad.  It's hard to blog about salad.

But I think I do a disservice to the world of CSA eating not to blog about it.  Eating salad is critical to making the best use of CSA veggies.  It's also critical to your health.  If you have any doubts about the necessity of eating outrageously huge quantities of dark leafy greens -- and eating them every day -- I refer you to "Eat to Live" by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.

Tonight's salad started out pretty standard: romaine lettuce, carrots, and radishes.  But then I got weird and added carrot greens and radish greens, as well.  They're very good for you and they're actually delicious!  I serve my "mixed greens" salad with chipotle-infused olive oil and a splash of white vinegar.

My picky husband ate his whole salad, weird greens and all, without complaint.  Greens are great!

Ah! End of the Week!

It's been a busy couple of weeks with work and the kids.  I haven't been making enough lunches to bring to work and have instead been spending lots of money and lots of empty calories on junk from my office cafeteria.

I found myself this morning with a 'fridge full of CSA veggies and the realization that more veggies would be arriving today.

It was time to get it together.

I made this "salad" right into a huge tupperware container so that I could bring it to work.  It's a whole head of romaine lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces, sliced red cabbage (yup, I've still got red cabbage from two weeks ago in my fridge, as crisp and delicious as ever), and pickled beets.  I brought a little container of balsamic vinegar with me to the office, but, truthfully, it didn't need it.  The beets were juicy enough to compensate for a lack of dressing.

This isn't so much a recipe; it's more of a reminder to myself.

Why do I ever NOT bring my lunch?!

An unexpected bonus of this meal: A co-worker noticed my GIANT bowl of salad and we got to talking about food.  It turns out he also gets CSA veggies and is really concerned about environmental sustainability, genetically modified foods, etc.

Yes!  It's catching on!

Beet and Feta Salad

The Cheesecake Factory has a lovely “Beets with Goat Cheese” salad that, in addition to beets and goat cheese, includes apples, arugula, and pecans.  That salad -- which I have had on many occasions -- was the inspiration for this dish.

I cooked the three beets I received from my CSA by placing them in a baking dish with about 1 inch of water, covering the dish with tin foil, and then putting it in the oven at 400 degrees for one hour.  After removing the beets from the oven and letting them cool, the peels slipped right off and the beets were ready to dice into a salad.  I used only one beet for this recipe, and put the other two in the ‘fridge for another use.

1 beet, cooked, peel removed, diced

Greens from one beet, removed from stem and chopped

3 large leaves of kale, removed from stem and chopped

3 leaves of romaine, chopped

1 green apple, diced

1 small handful of raw almonds

1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

olive oil, balsamic vinegar, cracked black pepper, to taste

Arrange everything on a plate.  Drizzle with olive oil, balasmic vinegar, and cracked black pepper.  Enjoy!

Pork Chops with Braised Vegetables

My grandmother's pork chops are the most moist and delicious pork chops anyone has ever made.  My grandmother doesn't do much cooking these days, but she shared her recipe with me several years ago.

3-4 pork chops
Black pepper, to taste
1 onion, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
1 green apple, chopped
1/2 very small head of cabbage, chopped
Teaspoon of olive oil
Water
Apple sauce and sage for serving (optional)

First, she puts pepper on both sides of each pork chop (she also puts salt, but I omit it).  Then she puts a teaspoon of olive oil in a skillet and browns the pork chops for a few minutes on each side, just until golden brown. 

[This usually involves a lot of grease spattering on the wall.  And my mother yelling about such grease.  And my grandmother telling her to relax.]

Then she removes the pork chops from the pan (they're still raw on the inside...) and sets them aside.

In the same skillet, she puts a chopped onion, which she cooks until the pieces start to turn translucent in the remaining olive oil and browned bits from the pork chops.  I added sliced cabbage, apples, and carrots, too, but the original recipe is onions only.

Once the onions start to brown, she returns the pork chops to the skillet and fills the skillet with water until the pork chops are just covered.  She puts a lid on the skillet and cooks it on low for an hour.

My grandmother serves it with plenty of the "juice" and all the onions (or onions and other veggies, in my case).  A little apple sauce doesn't hurt, either.  And I had fresh sage, so I threw some of that on top of it, too.

This is a plain dish, for sure, but it is comforting and delicious.  I totally reject the idea that "comfort food" has to involve heavy, fatty food like macaroni and cheese.  Comfort food is whatever has been cooked for you, with love, for your whole life.  Whatever stirs up your memories.

[In this case, my memories involve my mom scrubbing the wall behing the stovetop before dinner was even served.]

I paired my pork chop and braised veggies with a green salad (romaine, kale, olive oil, vinegar, and black pepper).  Maybe one day my kids will think of pork chops and braised vegetables with a green salad as comfort food, too.  I can only hope!

["Mama, what are those SPOTS doing on the wall?"]

Fall Harvest Dinner Party

My husband and I entertained friends for dinner last night, which is not something we do often.  It was easy for me to plan a menu, though, because I knew I wanted to start with fresh, seasonal ingredients.  I also knew I had a bunch of kale in the 'fridge that it was time to use.

The menu?

Butternut Squash and Green Apple Soup
Green Salad with Pomegranate and Walnuts [No recipe: Just romaine lettuce, pomegranate arils, and walnuts with apple-cider vinegar and dijon mustard mixed together as dressing]
Pumpkin and Kale Pasta with Sausage

Here are my ingredients.  Literally the only things I cooked with that are not pictured are olive oil, vegetable broth, and walnuts (forgot to put them on the table!).  I'm pretty sure this is what it means to eat a plant-based, whole-foods diet: The natural plants overwhelm the meat, cheese, bread, and pasta!