CSA Week 14

This week at the CSA we got 4 tomatoes, a big bag of onions, a pound and a half of potatoes-I chose the little ones, a bunch of kale, one bok choy, one bunch of basil, one bunch of carrots (yum), two peppers, 5 ears of corn and 10 peaches.

I admit. I am in the bottom of a food valley. I am stuck in a rut. I have made too much labor intensive food recently. I have too many kids that won't eat anything but bread and meat. I need some super quick recipes that utilise many veggies that I actually have. I have made the mistake of buying whatever I want at the farmer's market and now I am stuck with a ton of stuff that doesn't go together. It might be curry time again.

This week ahead of me I foresee a potato and sausage bake and possibly an onion pie (thanks for the recipe Agrigirl-I cannot think of a more fitting use for the lard I recently bought at the farmer's market). And you want to find out how that goes, you'll just have to keep reading.

Eataly Opens in Manhattan

On August 31st, Mario Batali and Lidia and Joe Bastianich opened a 'little' establishment in Manhattan at 23rd and 5th Avenue called Eataly. Billed as an Italian food Mecca, of course I had to go and investigate. I am a little embarrassed to say that I only heard about this nirvana of food the morning of it's opening. I mean, I should have heard about this as everyone and their brother knew it was coming to town. Even DH knew about it and told me it had been under construction for about a year! Eataly is a 50,000 square feet temple of food. There are 14 different areas to order food for immediate consumption. There is a counter for panini, pizza, pasta, there is a wine bar, a place for cured meats, and a full service restaurant among others. And if that isn't enough, tucked around every corner are Italian groceries. The 23rd street entrance, that I came in, is where you will find fresh vegetables. All manner of baby veggies and their adult brethren can be found, all elegantly displayed with leaves still attached though fully washed and otherwise trimmed. Next comes the dairy area. First you'll walk into a dairy case with your basic milks all labeled with their origins, and all top of the line, no antibiotics, mostly organic, largely local. To your right you will see self service cheese bins where you will find individually priced chunks of Parmesan, Grana Padano, softer Brie-like cheeses and many I could not identify (pedestrian that I am). I also saw a full bakery, meat counter and the most beautiful fish counter I have ever seen.

Now all of this you could have read in the NY Post along with all the other New York magazines or any food coverage, no doubt they have hired a lovely PR Director. But from the perspective of The Table of Promise, there are some other callouts that I noticed.

First off, Price Points. In every area I saw true opening price points. A bunch of baby carrots was $1.50. Not an intimidating price to see when you first walk in. In the cheese area you had both large and small chunks of cheese. I chose a piece that was a little more than a third of a pound and it cost me $7. That is pricey, but it is not like they stuck me and forced me into buying $15 worth of cheese. I probably would not have bought it had I had to buy more than half a pound. I saw this throughout the store. Olive oils and balsamic vinegars had high end options for sure, but you could also snag a good size bottle for around $7-$8. I appreciate that. It makes the whole thing much more approachable.

Secondly, Transparency. The meat are is nicely signed with origins of all the meats. I assume that they will be able to continue with their relationships with all the suppliers over the long haul. But they have initially committed to signage showing where all the meat is raised. The same with the fish which was impeccably fresh. I already mentioned the milk. I was impressed because it seems as though they had gone to great lengths to assuage the food conspiracy theorists like myself.

Thirdly, attention to detail. The veggies are artfully displayed. The fish were arranged just as though they were swimming (no long trays of pre-cut steaks here, it looked like they cut everything to order). The olive oils are separated out by region of origin. There is a separate display for Northern Italian Oils and Southern Oils, because they taste differently. The lovely young woman (who was also quite pretty) was a pleasure to speak with. She told my friend and I about the oils and her accent was pleasingly authentic. Even all the jars were aligned by label. This is what you get when you show up the first day. They also had fairly priced Barilla pasta, but with a lovely twist, they were all in Italian packages. I consider myself pretty immune to advertising, but I would feel pretty fancy walking home with an Italian box, even if it was the same pasta at my conventional grocery store.

Lastly, and sadly, I did not see any whole wheat pasta. Now, this is an Italian place. And I don't assume that the Italians respect whole wheat pasta all that much. I didn't expect a huge display, but one brand? A couple of shapes? Tucked into a corner? I didn't see any. I will go back and look again just to be sure.

Eataly is a lovely addition to the Manhattan food landscape. It was clearly created by a group that knows Italy and how to capture the energy and beauty of that land where I have never been. The whole establishment feels different than other places in Manhattan. I cannot think of any other place that it is like. It is a little Dean and Deluca, a little Chelsea Market, a little Balthazar. I can't quite describe it. I'll be back for sure. I can't say that it is a traditional grocery store, you can't buy tin foil there or even baking powder. But they do have all the real food Italian goods that you'd expect. Certainly everything you would need to make an amazing meal. I might not be stocking up, but a couple of nice oils and vinegars and a splurge on imported white pasta every now and then would be a gourmet distraction. I mean, there is no junk food there, it is all nice and slow.

Our Trip to Phillips Farm and Blackberry Cobbler

Last weekend, we took a lovely trip to Hunterdon Country, New Jersey. DH has some family there and we went out to see family, swim in their swimming pool and play play play. We decided to stay over and spend the next day at a pick-your-own farm. I have been wanting to go to a pick your own farm all summer. We love the country and I thought it'd be fun for the whole family. When we went to Columbia Country over Memorial Day weekend none of the fruits were ripe enough. We ran out of time through the summer, but this weekend it was perfect. Hurricane Earl even obliged and blew off to the East and left us with a practically cloudless sky and low humidity.

We chose Phillips Farm because we bought berries from them at the Union Square Farmer's market last week and they were close by DH's aunt and uncle's house. After having an amazing day hanging out there followed by another lovely morning with family we were off to Phillips Farm. The farm had raspberries, blackberries and apples for picking. We decided on blackberries and raspberries because we already had a ton of apples at the house. After finding a few raspberries we tried blackberries, but we couldn't find any good spots. Then DH went a few rows down and hit the motherload. We collected almost 8 pounds of berries, mostly blackberries. Here is what I did with them. Yummmmmmmmm.The berries themselves I just mixed with a little brown sugar. I cooked them in a 425 degree oven for 20 minutes and then placed the cobbler topping on top. I found the recipe in a great cookbook that I have called simply 'Pies' that lists no author, only that it's copyrighted by Paragon books. It consisted of:

1 and 1/4 cup of flour (I used some whole wheat pastry flour and some half white flour)

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

3 oz of butter (6 tablespoons)

1 beaten egg

5-6 oz milk

Combine all the dry ingredients. Then cut in the butter like you would for a pie dough. When the dough is a coarse crumb, make a well in the center and add the milk and eggs, which you have combined and beaten together. mix in the wet and the dry. It will be quite wet. Spoon the batter over the half cooked berries and cook for another 15-20 minutes or until the cobbler topping has browned. I haven't been buying ice cream, so I mixed some vanilla and honey into some heavy whipping cream and poured that over as a sauce. So good. Now only another 7 pounds of berries to go.

We definitely picked more than we can handle. I froze several pounds for jam later or more cobblers. I suppose we can always live off them for the entire fall. Thing 1 ate about a pound himself both in the field and on the way home. Thing 2 strangely enough doesn't care for them. Too bad, more for us!

I Love You Ugly Food...

Here is another item that would have never made it to the grocery store. But dear, sweet carrot, I will love you just the same.

Sunday Sauce

I am sorry to say that I don't have a good pic to share for this one. There really is no excuse. I should have a picture. We ate everything and I forgot.

Anyhow. I love to make 'Sunday Sauce' or, a tomato based spaghetti sauce that takes long enough to cook that you can only make it on Sundays.

I have for years been buying jarred sauce, even though no such thing was available in my home when I was growing up. My parents took turns cooking. My mother was in charge of frying pork chops and my father was in charge of spaghetti sauce. His version includes (and probably still includes) cans of tomato sauce and spices, and garlic and olive oil. Mine is slightly different, to include more organic and local ingredients.

My Sunday Sauce (meatless or not, you won't offend me...)
One pound of grass fed ground beef
2 cloves of garlic
One medium onion
3 large Whole peeled tomatoes, preferable a beefsteak or heirloom variety with less seeds and more meat
2 cans of organic whole peeled tomatoes
water
seasonings such as fresh basil or dried Italian seasoning, salt and pepper

I first saute my ground beef in olive oil. Grass fed beef is lower in fat and so there is not enough fat in my meat to simply heat in a dry pan. Omit the olive oil if you are using conventional beef. I also do not drain my beef usually because the fat in grass fed beef even with the olive oil is not so overwhelming that I need to drain it. And I like a little extra flavor (fat) in my sauce.

After the meat is cooked I will throw in the onions and garlic. I let all three ingredients brown and then I'll add the fresh tomatoes. Truth be told the fresh and canned tomatoes can alternate. If you have a ton of fresh tomatoes, just use more and if you don't have enough, use canned. It is not that big of a deal. But for me, tomatoes are in season right now and cheap so why wouldn't I use them. Just be sure to use more fresh tomatoes that you probably need. Fresh tomatoes have alot of water in them and will cook down considerably. If you are using half and half, fresh and canned like I did (the canned just have a good concentrated tomato-ey flavor, don't shun them simply because they are canned) . After you add the fresh and let them cook down, add the canned and be sure to crush the individual tomatoes between your fingers. I have a slotted wooden spoon that had a dangerous run in with a blender. It now has a lovely notch in it that is perfect for breaking up chunks of ground meat that are frying or whole tomatoes that get added to sauce because I forget to crush them with my hands (hey, it happens). But the hands are best.

Then season with salt and pepper and any dried seasonings you love. Taste it and make sure it's perfect. And then, cook it for like and hour and a half or two hours. I have tried to make this in 45 minutes and the pay off is never as good. When it becomes thick and rich and syrupy instead of thin and watery, then you know you are there.

This last weekend, I made about 2 dinners worth of sauce. It was more of a money and time investment than if I was buying jarred sauce. But Thing 1 kept saying how his belly hurt (because it was full) and Thing 2 looked like an Oomaloopma because he was covered in tomato grease and olive oil from shoveling it all in. There is nothing like a couple of happy kids to make you feel like a good cook.

My previously purchased jarred sauce costs $3.59 per jar and was conventional not organic. Considering the investment cost as follows:
$.50 for a farmer's market Onion
$2.59 for a 28 ounce can of organic Italian tomatoes (I bought two for a double batch)
$5.00 worth of heirloom tomatoes, red and pink varieties (maybe more)
50 cents for salt and seasonings-seriously, I am being generous here!!!
50 cents for farmer's market garlic (once again, being generous here)

My Sunday Sauce comes to a couple hours worth of labor and about $11.68 versus two jars of sauce that I still would have added to browned meat and further seasoned for $7.18. So yes. I did pay more. But did I eat more real food? Of Course. And I made two mostly organic meals for a family of four for less than 6 dollars (factor in the pasta, that's $5 a container from the non certified organic farm at the farmer's market, a grand total of $10.84 per meal or less than $3 per person per meal) And DH and the kids are fat and happy. And isn't that what it's all about? Plus I have another frozen meal to sustain me on one of those days where the train is running late. Cook once and eat twice. Now that it my kind of meal!

I have linked this post up to Food Renegade's Fight Back Fridays. Food Renegade is a cool blog about real food and how to switch over! On Fridays they allow other bloggers to link up their real food posts. Take a look at the link I provided.

Homemade Ginger Ale

Boy, I am bummed. Ever since I gave up HFCS, I miss soda. There is a certain craving that I get in the afternoon. I will start to feel like I need a little lift but I don't want to eat anything and only soda will do. My kids never even really got to drink soda, and even they miss it! What's a girl to do?

I recently found a great entry at a lovely gourmet blog called Spectacularly Delicious for a Homemade Ginger Ale. For all those who are limiting their refined sugar intake I altered the recipe slightly. But now I have a raving three-year old fan, and I kinda think that counts for something!

I took:
one cup of local honey
one cup of water and
one cup chopped ginger (I have never seen a local ginger, but I have to assume that's because my Northeastern climate isn't appropriate. I got mine at Whole Foods, not positive that it was organic, but I hardly think that matters considering that this is a post about homemade soda.)

I boiled everything together to get the honey dissolved. Since I am a lazy mama, I did not peel the ginger as the original recipe calls to do. And also since the intended audience was a three year little boy, I didn't let the syrup sit over night, I didn't want the syrup to be too spicy. I boiled everything together for only 3 or 4 minutes and let it cool and then chill in the fridge for about six hours. I mixed the syrup with a conventional seltzer to taste and made a "soda" that he was really happy with, without ever knowing the difference! Try it, it makes a great stand in for soda and my version has no refined sugar. (Please note that honey is not vastly different than sugar, I covered this in a previous post. Too much honey or sugar is not good for you, at least here I have control) I also like the fact that the flavors here are real, and the seltzer has smaller bubbles than normal ginger ale which I found refreshing. I also like that I can mix in as little syrup as I want to really control the flavors.Plus, drop in a shot of vodka and you'll have a nice cocktail. Mommy needs a cocktail.

CSA Week 13

Sorry about the picture, it seem to have spontaneously turned itself and I can't seem to right it!

The colors of the CSA fare started to turn today, From all green with one or two golden or red items, to now equal amounts of yellow and red and greed. Red, Gold and Green. But I am channeling Boy George now so I should stop.

To, seriously, there has hardly been a more beautiful week from the CSA. This we we got a gorgeous head of lettuce, one bulb of fennel (I still haven't eaten last week's fennel), one luscious bunch of carrots, two onions, a bunch of cilantro, a pound and a half of the first potatoes of the season, two golden peppers with the prettiest orange streaks, 3 habanero peppers (what the hell do I do with these???) a pound of Italian flat beans, three medium red tomatoes, one green stripey zebra tomato (how exotic) and 50, yes that's right 50 golden cherry tomatoes! Whoa. I am going to be eating tomatoes until kingdom come. We also got 12 nectarines.

The Things and I ate nectarines for dessert last night and they were glorious. They tasted like wine and sugar. More complex than a peach, juicy without being runny. They truly were perfect. I am speechless. And thankful. This summer between the nectarines, farmer's market grapes, strawberries and sour cherries among others, I have lived a life in fruit. I never knew the depth and passion of fruit. I might never be the same.