Squash Invasion!

OMG! Look at these pictures! What is it?

I got this week's fruits and vegetables via 'Farm To You' a couple days ago, and I noticed that something is growing out of my squash this morning! It's kind of pretty, but creepy... The sensible side of me tells me that I must eat this squash as soon as possible...but the curious side of me tells me to let it grow further...

Hmmm... what should I do?

Herbs - Getting ready for the Winter

I love living in Seattle, it's such a beautiful place! I actually don't mind the fact that it rains almost everyday and gets really gloomy from October to May. But I know that my herbs and vegetables outdoor would rather live in sunny California... I decided to harvest a bunch of herbs today to start getting ready for the Winter before they go dormant (or die). I harvested two bucket fulls of rosemary, oregano, thyme, chive, and basil.

Rosemary, oregano and thyme dries well by simply hanging them upside down in a dry cool place. I made small bouquets and hung them inside of my pantry. I have to leave the pantry door open ajar to invite fresh air in, but the whole area smells so nice and fresh! I made many small bouquets instead of bigger ones because they dry faster and it's easy to give them as gifts to my friends.

Basil and Chives have higher water content and they don't dry well with the same method. The easiest way is to use a dehydrator, but I don't have one. I also read that I can oven-dry them, but I was concerned that they may lose flavor... So I decided to marinate them in olive oil to make flavored oil.

I chopped them into really, really small pieces. I suppose you can use a food processor to accomplish the same results, but I didn't want them to be grounded up. I also added finely chopped garlic in the mix.

This makes oil that is perfect for roasting vegetables. All you have to do is toss some vegetables in the oil, sprinkle a little salt, and bake them in the oven.

I baked onion, french green beans, squash and Brussels sprouts with this flavored oil as a part of the dinner. I was a little afraid that my husband was going to hate me... he's an outspoken Brussels sprouts hater and he really doesn't like squash either... Green beans weren't on his good-list last year, but he has opened up to green beans since I started using fresh french green beans from my garden. He actually liked this side dish!! Or maybe he was trying to be nice to me...?

I love cooking with fresh herbs! I can't imagine my life without them... I would buy an AeroGarden if I could afford one right now. (or move to sunnier place?)

'Farm To You' by Full Circle Farm

Last month I wrote a post about Full Circle Farm being my favorite stop at farmer's markets. Then I received a comment from Echo of Eve recommending their home delivery service. Thank you for your comment!

I received my first box of organic veggies and fruits this week from their 'Farm To You' service. I signed up for 'standard' size, which is 'perfect for a household of two adults, with just enough extra to accommodate a young child's appetite' according to their website. They also offer family size option, which is good for family of four. The cost for standard size is $35 for home delivery and $32 for pick-up. I opted for pick-up since the pick-up site is only a couple of minutes from my house. They have many pick-up sites around Puget Sound area and across the state of Alaska. I saved $3 by making a few extra turns on my way home from grocery shopping.

This is how the pick-up site looks like. It's actually someone's front porch. Even though they have been left outside, the box felt nice and cool in the shade. All you have to do is to find the one with your name on it and take it home. You can also drop off a cardboard box from previous week at the site for recycle/reuse.

The box was well packed with goodies. 

This is what I got for $32.

1 Celery

1 Yellow Onion

1 Broccoli ( =3 small ones)

2 Tomatoes

1 bunch of Baby Bok Choy 

1 bunch of Green Chard

1 bunch of Carrots (with leaves!)

3 heads of Mixed Baby Lettuce

1 Cantaloupe

3 Peaches

3 Yellow Nectarines

3 Fire Dapple Pluots

I'm very happy with the quality and quantity! The price is reasonable considering they are all organic. They are mostly locally grown except the tomatoes are from California (well that's closer than Mexico...right?) I will give myself a few more weeks to see if this is a good amount for us before deciding on a longer term commitment. I'm still flirting with this service. If I know for sure this works for us, I will pre-pay for 10 boxes in order to get a 5% discount.

Creative Gardening

A few weeks ago, I was walking through a residential area in West Seattle and I saw this vegetable garden.

It was in front of the house, on the sidewalk where you typically see grass, shrubs or trees. I don't know if that little patch belongs to a homeowner or it's public property, but I thought it was an interesting idea. I also wondered if anyone comes and steals vegetables from them.

I am fortunate to have a backyard to create a small vegetable garden where I can grow some herbs and my favorite vegetables such as tomatoes, eggplants, french green beans, etc. You probably noticed that I use a lot of fresh herbs in my cooking. You can always substitute them with dried ones, but I personally prefer fresh ones. Unfortunately, it's ridiculously expensive to buy fresh herbs at a store! That's why I started growing some at home. Even you live in an apartment or condo, I strongly recommend growing some herbs in pots. All you need are pots, decent soil, water and sun. Herbs grow like weeds, they are so hardy. I intentionally plant some herbs like mint, lemon balm and oregano in pots so that they won't take over my garden. Just make sure that you place your herb pots in the sunniest place in/around your house.

I will probably buy an AeroGarden if I move to a place where I don't have enough space to plant or a place with a bigger kitchen and a lot of counter-top space. It's a little pricey, but I'm sure I ended up saving more money than if I kept buying over-priced herbs from a store.

 

Zucchini Bread - Vegan

Last week we got some beets from our friend and I made a "Beet Rissoto (vegan)", which was outside of my cooking repertoire. This week we got some zucchini from the same friend and I decided to bake a "Zucchini Bread (vegan)".

I'm not much of a baker, I don't bake that often. But the zucchini must be eaten and they are not exactly my husband's favorite. Getting fresh vegetables unexpectedly pushes me out of my comfort zone for cooking and that's why I like getting free vegetables from our friends' gardens, besides the fact that they are locally grown and fresh.

 

What goes in your body (vegan) :

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 & 1/2 cups shredded zucchini (about 2 small)
• 3/4 cup apple juice
• 1 banana mushed
• 1/4 cup maple sysrup
• 1 tbsp canola or safflower oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp brandy
• 1/2 cup pecan, chopped and roasted

You are going to:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray 8 x 4 inch loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.
2. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon together.
3. Mix remaining ingredients, except pecans, in a separate bowl until well combined.
4. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients, mix them together until evenly moistened. 
5. Stir in pecans and spoon batter into the loaf pan.
6. Bake on center rack of oven for 50-55 minutes.

Secrets from the chef:

• If you are not a pure vegan, you can substitute maple syrup with honey. 
• I like eating mine warm with 'butter' on it. 
• I tweaked an existing recipe from the book. The original recipe can be found my recommended reading,  "Breaking the Food Seduction".

 Bon appétit!

Beet Risotto - Vegan

A few days ago, my husband came home with some beets from his co-worker's garden.

I like eating locally grown produce, and home-grown produce is the best. The only problem was that I had never cooked with beets and I don't recall ever having eaten them before either. What do I do? I looked up some recipes online, and decided to make a beet risotto loosely based on the food network's recipe.

What goes in your body (4 vegan servings):

• Beets (I used a bunch of small beets equal to about 2 medium sized beets)
• 4 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 2-3 cups of vegetable stock
• 3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
• 3/4 cup of Arborio rice
• 1/2 cup of Pistachio nuts

You are going to:

1. Wash beets well and wrap them in aluminum foil together with garlic. Roast them in an oven until beets are fully cooked. (Roasting time varies depending on the size of beets.)
2. Let beets cool until cool enough to handle, then peel and cut them into chunks.
3. Blend 2 cups of vegetable stock, beet chunks and roasted garlic together in a blender or food processor.
   
   
   
   
4. Heat oil in a medium sauce pan on medium heat. Add rice to the oil and toast it for a couple minutes.
5. Slowly add the beet puree to the pan and cook until rice is tender stirring occasionally. (If the rice looks too dry, add some more vegetable stock or water for desired consistency.)
6. Meanwhile, shell and chop Pistachio nuts. Dry roast them in oven or fry pan. (Or you can use 1/4 cup of shelled chopped and roasted nuts from a store.)
7. Mix Pistachio nuts into cooked rice and serve. 

Secrets from the chef:

• Wear a pair of surgical gloves while peeling beets if you want to avoid having your fingers becoming temporarily pink. 
• Avoid wearing light color clothes when cooking with beets as the deep color of beets can stain your clothes.  
• It makes a very eye-catching side dish. I served with Rosemary baked cod and stir flied okra & baby lima beans.

Bon appétit!

Full Circle Farm

Every time I go to a farmer's market, I have to stop by the Full Circle Farm's booth.

 

They participate in more than 20 farmer's markets throughout the Puget Sound area. You can also buy their produce at PCC and Whole Foods Market. I haven't really compared the prices between different stores, but as far as I can tell, the prices at the farmer's markets have been great.

Last week, I bought a huge head of lettuce (I mean huge), a big head of endive and a bundle of kale for $6.50. Each bundle/head of greens are $2.50, but they'll give you $1.00 off when you buy 3 of them. I think it's a great deal. And the quality of their produce is really good.

As I visited their website in the process of writing this post, I found out that they also do home delivery.  I used to use a service from Spud for local organic produce delivery. I stopped using their service since they raised the minimum order for free delivery up to $53 several years ago. It was just too much for two of us. I think I'll give Full Circle Farm's home delivery service a try. I will definitely let you know how I like it in a future post.

French Green Beans

I have a small but super sunny backyard. It's so sunny that it's hard to keep the grass green. I had grown some herbs and vegetables in the past, but I decided to dig up a section and create a vegetable garden this year. My husband worked hard on this project even though he wasn't particularly fired up about the idea of eating more vegetables.

I planted tomatoes, Japanese eggplant, French green beans, a variety of lettuce, kale, green onions, endives, peppers, thyme, oregano, chive, basil, Thai basil, cilantro, and okra. Unfortunately, it's been a cold summer here in Seattle area except for the last few days. It hasn't been a good season for my roses and vegetables. (My hydrangeas are doing wonderful though.) It's been fun watching what I planted grow everyday. I finally harvested some French green beans yesterday! Aren't they beautiful?

I like French green beans better than regular green beans. They are more tender and flavorful. I don't usually see them in a regular grocery store. Sometimes I buy a bag of frozen ones from Trader Joe's. Eating locally raised food is a growing trend because they are harvested when they are ripe and contain more nutritional values. You can't get more local than this! I don't have the time nor place to grow everything I need. I still need to make my weekly trip to a farmer's market and grocery store. But there's something magical about eating what you grow whether you are a vegan or not. I grew up in a big and industrial city where you don't see anyone growing anything. It's so fascinating to see how one seed can grow into so many fruits and vegetables.

Here's a picture of my green beans when they were babies. They are so adorable! Maybe I'm little crazy for taking a picture of them. I don't have any problem eating them though.