Vegetable report for the week ... :)

this weeks veggies:
Carrots Kohlrabi
Rubi Stripes Tango/Lola Rosa Mix
Spinach Endive
Cilantro Citrus

I still have veggies leftover from last week but I'm doing better at managing them all week by week. also, one solution to too many veggies is to give some to neighbors or friends. It keeps things from being wasted which is my main concern. Maybe it will introduce them to some new things as well.

One of my neighbors got a deal on some russet potatoes and wanted to know if I could use, like if I “ate potatoes”. So, now I have about 8 medium sized russets and I gave her some of my CSA share. She didn’t ask for the greens but I know that she really likes greens and she took spinach and a portion of all the other greens we had this week.

As for tonights dinner, its a potato, greens, cheddar cheese and onion casserole.
this recipe is from the Crooked Sky Farms Recipes is below. I'm not in Tucson but the recipes are on the Tucson site.
Crooked Sky Farms Recipes

Greens and Potatoes Casserole
Adapted from Cooks.com
8 cups water
2 bunches chopped greens
6 or more red potatoes, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 or more onions, sliced
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheese
1/2 cup vegetable broth
Preheat oven to 350°

Bring water to a boil in a large pot. Add greens, and cook.
5 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Drain; set aside.
Arrange potato slices in a single layer in oiled baking dish; top with single layer of onion slices. Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt; top with half of greens mixture.
Sprinkle with 1/2 cup cheese. Repeat layers once, ending with the greens. Cover with remaining slices of potatoes, and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup cheese.

Pour broth evenly over potato mixture, and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Cover with foil.

Bake at 350° for 45 minutes.

Uncover and bake 30 minutes or until lightly browned and potatoes are tender.

And I'm sure this can be done in the solar oven as well as my inside oven. Maybe the potatoes won't brown on top but it will be all cooked and taste quite good, I'm sure.

Peace, Shamba

Back to regular routine

Back to my regular routine as of today.

My brother came into town on Monday from San Diego. He was originally going to drive in today but changed his mind and came Monday. He didn’t stay with me this time, this was better!

We had to make some decisions about personal property of my parents, pictures and some other estate related material. That went well; we made some decisions and let others go for a while. We were invited out to meet some old friends of his from grade school! These guys have kept in touch for almost 50 years. :)

Then, of course, my brother wanted to buy me dinner out which we did and he also picked up some subways one day for us to eat. Subway day was the day I decided to make a rice dish and vegetable soup so when he arrived with the sandwiches we had a lot to eat that lunch and those leftovers for dinner.

He took off on Thursday about noon. We had a good time but my plans for my vegetables kind of went out the window.

So, today I had to take stock of what was leftover and what was in the CSA batch I picked up Thursday afternoon. Actually, Wednesday noon is the scheduled time for veg pickup but the people who handle the distribution also have a regular office for their regular jobs in the hospital complex. So, when we miss a pickup day we can pickup the veggies Thursday or Friday. They have them bagged and in the fridge for us. This is very nice of them, I think!

I tried something Chile suggested for last week’s veggies—I had sweet potatoes--and it is quite good! My friend, S., also took some of the green I got last week. She liked the fennel and the dill quite a bit. I had two fennel then to use in the recipe below. I had dehydrated a lot of the fresh dill. I hadn’t done that before and I also haven’t really cooked with dill before.

Anyway, Chile’s suggestion was:
If you have any sweet potatoes left, a member gave me a very tasty recipe. Dice the sweet potatoes. Cut the fennel bottoms into bite-sized pieces. Toss both with a little oil, salt & pepper, and some tarragon. Roast until tender. It was very yummy for lunch yesterday. And, yes, I cooked it in the solar oven. :)

If you don't have any sweet potatoes left, try it with the carrots. Then serve with some kind of starch like pasta, potatoes, or rice. I suppose you could substitute dill for the tarragon, too, to use some of the dill.

Thanks for the ideas, Chile!

Peace to all , Shamba

Veggies veggies, veggies !

I have been remiss in keeping up with my vegetables from the CSA. Actually, I just haven't felt very energetic this week. My cold seems to wax and wane with the rainy weather. The next week is up to 75 degrees so I'm hoping warmer weather will make me feel more energetic.

So, today is Roasting beets and Roasting Root Veggies. The roasted veggies are good with just about anything so they’re quite easy to eat. They’re also good enough that I want to eat them so they’ll be gone in a day or so.

I’m also going to have to think interms of whole meals being vegetarian instead of just side dishes. That’ll be new for or at least I haven’t done it for long time.

CSA stuff this week:

Arugula Mizuna
Fennel Dill
Spring Mix Carrots
Tokyo Bekana Citrus

the oranges are gone(!), some of the spring mix is eaten. I want to try braised fennel sometime this weekend. I'm always nibbling on carrots so they'll be gone by next CSA day. The greens are always a little more than I can eat raw so I'm going to have to cook more of them. S. would like some arugula and dill and I certainly have it to spare.

Enough sun is available on the back patio for solar cooking again back there.

cheers,
shamba

October 23rd

First of all: We've passed into the astrological sun sign of Scorpio. :) This is my sign and I love it!

Second, not much to report about the leftover food challenge this week: Had too many tomatoes earlier in the week and I dried them in the Tulsi oven. I sliced them in half this time rather than quarters. This worked well, I thought.

No real leftovers today, Friday, so I will be making a whole new meal or two for the next two days. I have fresh produce that I'm using up steadily now that the tomatoes are dehydrated.

Third, something I read the other day, it was this week:

Housing all over the country to go down more in value, according to this Yahoo link.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Homes-About-to-get-much-cnnm-699910894.html?x=0&ref=patrick.net

I quote the part about Phoenix in particular, since I live there. “In Phoenix values have already collapsed by 54% and could fall another 23.4%. In both cities, Fiserv anticipates the losses to continue into 2011, but they will be less than 5%.”

That adds up to: 82.4% I just added the whole 5%. I ‘m thinking of 2006 to 2011 as the peak to trough years that residential housing prices have fallen.

Peace, shamba

September 30th, Wednesday

At the last minute, like 15 minutes ago, at 12:55 p.m., I decided to cook in the Global sun oven. I have a pot of beef stew meat, canned stewed tomatoes, some minced onions, and some other seasonings and it’s out there cooking. It wasn’t quite unfrozen so it’ll need all the 3 ½ hours of sunlight it’s got left today to cook.

I don’t know what else I’ll eat with it but I’ll deal with that later.

Okay, it’s 30 minutes later and I’m using up the last ½ of brown rice in a glass jar. I’ll need to open a new package of rice after this. I will use water to cook it in, not broth this time. And it will go in the solar oven under the meat dish when I’m ready to cook it. It only takes an hour or so to cook.

Update Wednesday: Success with the beef stew meat by 4 p.m! I put it in a little after 1:p.m. still pretty frozen. The condensation on the glass door started about 3:30 and I could begin to smell the food cooking a little before that. I got the idea of putting the meat in even if still frozen from the Solar Chef who put some frozen meat of her own in her oven and it was done after 3-4 hours. Also had adjust the oven frequently, including moving the table it was on. If it's on the table it's higher to catch more sun after 2:p.m. Middle of the day is still fine for cooking.

I’m not sure about green stuff tonight I’m fresh out of most fresh stuff.

shamba

June 29 Quiet Sunday ...

Went to concert last night. S. stopped in afterwards and sampled solar baked corn bread and she approved of it. She's intrigued by cooking and not heating up house.

Note for next week: Managed Stores: Picked up extra dry cat food. I had some canned on hand for them; they like canned of course, but it's also wet and a treat in the heat.

Mom is holding her own still this week. Cats are doing okay. Going to San Diego next sunday, July 6 for business with K. I hope that will be the last trip for those reasons!

And I'm feeling a lot better than I was last summer at this time.

cheers,
shamba