High Summer CSA

The first five or six weeks of our CSA here in RVA, we were up to our ears in green food. Chard, kales, green onions, leeks, beet greens, arugula, lettuce heads, zucchini. We began to grow tired of thinking of ways to eat green food, in fact. Thankfully high summer has arrived. It's hot and muggy, but the veggies are colorful!

This week we got 4 summer squash and zucchini, a great big bag of beets w/o their tops, enormous cukes, basil that's going to seed, fresh full-sized onions still on their stalks, kale, curving purple Chinese eggplants, green peppers, early tomatoes, and cantaloupe melon!

To celebrate the return of salad days we ate: salad. Specifically Greek village salad, χωριάτικι.We've also laid in a quart of black olives and 2 lbs of Dodoni Feta to enjoy all July.

Greek village salad, χωριάτικη, is simple food, and the recipe is simple too.

Serves 2
1 green pepper, sliced
1/4 onion, sliced so that the onion falls apart
1-3 tomatoes, quartered if small or cut into eighths if larger
1 cucumber, sliced into tomato sized chunks
a handful of black or green olives
One thick slice of feta cheese on top, to be divided by the salad eaters
crumbled oregano
Olive oil, vinegar or lemon juice, salt and pepper (optional)


Photo credit: Christos Proukakis flickr

We love this salad over here, and have some strong opinions about it. I've never been to a restaurant that actually serves Greek salad in the US.
Anything with Lettuce? Not χωριάτικη.
Crumbled up feta? Not χωριάτικη.
This salad really depends on the quality of its tomatoes, so we can only enjoy it during the summer time.
Want more protein? This isn't exactly Greek, but we often add a can of tuna. It's good, believe me! This salad makes the perfect summertime dinner with thick, crusty bread when you don't feel like cooking in the heat.

CSA week 4 and Spanakopita

This week we made quite a haul again at our CSA. We brought home curly red-tipped kale, basil, dill, rainbow chard, 2 zucchini, a cucumber, and a daikon radish.


The highlight of out cooking this week was a truly amazing chard and spinach spanakopita. P and I loved it so much we gobbled up two fat slices each. Traditionally, this pie is made with all spinach, but I think the chard and onion variation is even better, frankly, and I've had a lot of spinach pies. It's not exactly health food, but feta is much lower fat than most cheeses, and this is the sort of pie that makes you put your fork down, close your eyes, and take a deep, contented sigh about how good life must be that it offers you this pie. P prefers to beat his elbow on the table, while I prefer to simply exclaim "this is good" so often H now does it every night at dinner.
The phyllo is a kid-pleaser even if the filling may not be.


Recipe freely adapted from Diane Kochilas, the Food and Wine of Greece
One recipe phyllo dough
Oil, for pan
1 large bunch swiss chard, stems chopped, leaves split down stem and finely sliced
2 oz frozen shredded spinach
1/4 cup olive oil
1 largish vidalia onion, finely diced
1 large bunch dill, chopped
1 egg, slightly beaten
3/4 lb crumbled feta cheese
1/2 - 3/ 4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3/4 tsp nutmeg, ground
3/4 tsp cumin, ground
salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375. Lightly oil a 10 1/2 inch pie plate.
2. Wash and chop chard, and drain very well. Heat 2 T (or more) oil in skillet. Saute onions and chard stems for 5-6 minutes, until beginning to brown, over medium heat. Add chard greens and continue to saute, lowering heat to low-medium, covered, for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. After 5 minutes, add the frozen spinach. If this mixture is watery once cooked, press the liquid out in a colander. Set aside and cool.
3. In a large bowl, combine cooked greens, dill. Add egg, 1/4 cup olive oil, feta, parmesan, spices, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon.
4. Divide phyllo dough in half. Roll out first half of dough into a circle about 12 inches in diameter. Place in oiled pie plate. Brush with some oil. Spread spinach filling evenly over dough.
5. Roll out remaining phyllo dough into 12 inch circle. Carefully place over filling. Gently press top and bottom pastries together and cut away excess, leaving about 1/2 inch hanging over rim of pie plate. Roll top and bottom together to form your preferred crust. Make some incisions in the center of crust. If you wish, brush crust with beaten egg yolk and 1 T milk for a shiny crust. Bake for about 40 minutes.

Homemade Phyllo Dough (not nearly as hard as you'd imagine, or as layered)
2 to 2 1/2 cups flour, we use a mixture of 1 cup whole wheat, and 1 cup white bread flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 olive oil
3/4 cups water minus 1 T (if making ouzo variation)
1 T ouzo (if desired, it's very good with spanakopita)

Sift together 2 cups of flour, salt, and baking powder. Make a well in the center and add water and olive oil and ouzo (if using). Stir together until all ingredients are combined.
Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and silky to the touch, 5-7 minutes, adding remaining flour as necessary.
Refrigerate covered dough for 1 hour (up to 3 days).
Remove dough from fridge 30 minutes before use. To roll, divine into two equal balls. Keep it covered when you're not rolling it. Roll out onto lightly floured surface into circle. Brush bottom sheet with olive oil.

CSA Week 3 and Kale Chips

Memorial Day weekend our friends and their two year old daughter were visiting from Silver Spring, so P got sent to the market to pick up veg while I waited for our friends. He brought back: rainbow chard, kale, basil, broccoli, lettuce, and a bunch of beets. So far, we've made:
--braised chard (with oil and garlic) alongside Curry-Cajun Spiced Chicken breasts with orzo
--Thai Stirfried Turkey with Basil, Chiles, Garlic, and Oyster sauce. We forgot to take pictures, but it was quite like this, with ground turkey. We ate this with Broccoli stir-fried in oyster sauce and jasmine rice
--kale chips for snacking
--pesto for freezing
--Openface Tuna Melts with Pesto, Swiss and Mozzarella with beet green horta

I'm thrilled to report that H actually kinda likes Kale chips, and LOVES the stems of beet greens. She chowed a bunch of these with a yogurt dip, and my heart soars whenever she eats vegetables.

H and her friend over Memorial Day weekend.

I'm still contemplating how to deal with the beets. It has been HOT here this week, over 95 but less than 100, with high humidity. So our desire to roast the beets in the oven for 45 minutes is next to none.

Here's my pitch for kale chips. They've been all over the interwebs this past year, and making the rounds of my friends as well. You really should try them. A lot crispy, crunchy, and flaky, a little bit oily, and as salty as you wish. They're also one of the easiest ways to cook those leafy greens that tend to scare people so much.


Kale Chips.
1 bunch kale
1 tsp - 1 T (or more, olive oil is GOOD for you!) Olive oil
salt for AFTER you've baked them

Set oven to 350.
Wash Kale well, and slice leaves from stalks. Tear leaves into sections, and they don't have to be neat. H and P had a good time working together on this. Place the ripped kale leaves on cookie sheets, placing them close together, but in a single flat layer. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until they are deliciously crunchy. We like them so well baked they very nearly flake away as you grab one up to eat it and then they shatter in your mouth. Once they are baked, sprinkle with salt like popcorn and chow down.

CSA Week 2, Cobblery, and Strawberry Tart

Several weekends past we found a wonderful farm near RVA filled with easy to pick transitional organic strawberries for $1.50/ pound. We met some friends at the fields and got picking. We filled P's new shoe box, my new shoe box, and 1/2 a Costco sized box of Goldfish crackers with 20 pounds of strawberries.

Ruby reds like these babies required us to make all kinds of delicious treats.

First up, Strawberry shortcake with rectangular slightly sweet bisquits from Bittman.


Our whipped cream came from a quart we bought in February, and then froze in muffin cups. Once the muffin cups were frozen solid (overnight) we stacked them into a freezer bag, and have been able to take out 2 muffin cups of whipping cream for a dessert for 2 grown ups. In the past, our whipping cream has always spoiled in the bottle before we could use it up. This trick has kept us in whipping cream all spring from one bottle of Non-UHT whipping cream. Now, onto more strawberry-flavored happiness.

With our bounty, we made Strawberry Daquiris (virgin for the lass), and Strawberry freezer jam, and 3 gallon bags of frozen dry-pack strawberries.


AND the most amazing treat of all, fresh strawberry tart with vanilla pastry cream.

We also got bok choy, rainbow chard, leeks, and salad mix. Strawberries, roasted beets, salad greens, olives, feta cheese, and lemon and olive oil dressing make for a transformational salad. It unfortunately undergoes a different sort of transformation (from ethereal to abysmal) when you photograph it. But try it, and you won't be disappointed.

E's favorite summer shoes broke. We took them to two separate cobblers in RVA, and were told that they won't fix Danksos because of their single-piece sole construction. After deciding that it was either trash them or DIY, we, of course, Did it ourselves. E even thought of it! A quick wipe-down, a blob of shoe goo, and our trusty Staple Gun (See P, it's paying for itself already!), and my feet are back in style again.

The final touch-up isn't visible in this shot, but E took a brown sharpie to the staples, gave the entire shoes a good polish and all's well.


Next up, our trip to Phoenix!