Archive for January, 2009
Orchid Oogling
It’s Friday, and I owe you a real post with a tasty recipe and all. But thanks to my inane (that is not a typo) schedule, you’ll have to wait for that until tomorrow. In the meantime, I thought I’d share with you a couple photos I snapped yesterday at my place of employ, where we’re having an orchid extravaganza. Certainly nice to see so many fresh colorful and dewy “faces” when everything else around here is frozen solid.
A New CSA in Town!
Boy, have I got exciting news for those of you that live in Philadelphia and are looking for a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share for the upcoming 2009 growing season! Since CSA shares of all kinds sell out quickly in this city that is so passionate about buying local, having the brand new “Henry Got Crops” CSA is a welcome addition to the mix. This CSA is being organized/overseen by Weavers Way Farm, but it is anticipated that the majority of the produce in the shares will be grown by the great students at W. B. Saul High School along Henry Avenue in Roxborough (for those of you familiar with the area, it’s the unexpected little farmstead with the horses and cows on Henry just past all those big apartment complexes).
Weavers Way has been working with Saul students for awhile now in the greenhouse and this expansion to field production and a CSA seemed like a natural next step in helping educate and employ these ambitious kids. In addition to the weekly share of vegetables (large enough for a family of four), there will be opportunities for CSA members to pick their own flowers and herbs at the farm as well as buy additional local products such as cheeses and meats. Awesome, right? I think so!
You can join or get additional information by emailing henrygotcrops(at)weaversway(dot)coop [just convert the (at) to @ and the (dot) to . at the time you compose your email]. If you’re wanting more information about Weavers Way Farm and its staff, check out the Garden/Farm page here and the co-op’s webpage.
Tatties and Neeps, Anyone?
Have you ever noticed how trying a recipe for the first time is strikingly similar to going on a blind date? You might be a little nervous beforehand, worried about prepping just right so everything goes smoothly. Let’s not lie to ourselves: looks are important too so hopefully this new interest will be easy on the eyes. Then there’s always the big question mark about will you like it even enough to tolerate one meal together or will you just have to get up after a few bites and find something else. Maybe this one will be too exotic for your long-term tastes but it could be fun to live in the moment…a fling of sorts. But, as we all no doubt secretly hope, there’s always the chance this one will be the one and stick with you through thick and thin for the rest of your life, come lumpy gravy or runny fudge.
I admit I’m being a bit snarky in writing the above, but there’s also a note of seriousness in it since I do often take up a new recipe with the same nervous energy as I would for a date. When I saw this particular recipe in Eat Feed Autumn Winter, I was a little concerned because it would use up the last of my turnips for the season – a gorgeous bunch of baby white Hakureis that are so tender and sweet I even ate a few out of hand (which is saying a lot if you remember my semi-aversion to turnips).
I was also a bit bashful about trying a recipe called “tatties and neeps”. Funny how a name can put you off a little sometimes, and this Scottish designation for what we’ll just call Potatoes and Turnips with Bacon and Cream was not so appealing (though perhaps more colorful) to me for some unexplained reason. When I read the list of ingredients though, I knew I needed to overcome my unfounded prejudice because starchy potatoes, silky cream and salty bacon (soy in my case) could not, no matter what their title, be a bad combo. The fact that the turnips were in there just added to the interest and made me feel less guilty somehow about consuming the other three in large quantity.
Guess what? This recipe is a keeper! We’ll be seeing a lot of each other in the spring when turnips come back into season. If I had the supply in the root cellar right now, we probably would have been meeting over the dinner table at least five more times this past week. Ah, be still my bonny heart!
Roasted Root Vegetable Stew
This week finally felt like winter around here. Don’t get me wrong. It’s certainly been frigid for several weeks now, but the skies were gray and the ground dull brown. The epitome of winter, at least in my mind, is brilliant blue skies with blinding sunlight streaming down that makes a generous blanket of snow glisten as it crunches under your feet. That’s what this week has been in southeastern Pennsylvania. And the sunsets…ah, the winter sunsets are the most beautiful with hues of violet, crimson and orange that cut through the leafless trees. There’s another stunning one developing right this very minute as I type. I love that my window looks west!
I won’t bore you with a tired line like “winter’s the perfect season to snuggle up with a bowl of soup”. You know that already. What you might not think about though is making soup out of whatever is lying around your kitchen, rather than trooping off to the store to buy ingredients, or – gasp! – a can. Before we get to discussing today’s recipe for Roasted Root Vegetable Stew, I’m going to take the liberty to reprint here the soup “blueprint” I posted last January.
Baked Eggs for Brunch
Brunch is by far my favorite time to sit down at the table. It always feels so much like a luxury and like you’re somehow sneaking around the conventional dusty rules of three meals a day by combining two of them. Plus, I do love to sleep in when time affords, and brunch is usually the result of a long lazy stretch in bed that morning.
I also like how brunch bends the rules by putting sweet pastries, warmly spiced French toast, savory quiches, and even heartier fare like meaty sandwiches all on one table. There’s this place near me, Valley Green Inn, which serves an amazing (and generous) basket of homemade mini muffins, breads, and pastries to every table at brunch. It makes my heart sing. Somehow the sight of a slice of pumpkin bread nestled beside a blueberry muffin snuggled up with a hunk of sourdough truly tickles my fancy.
This recipe for Baked Eggs with Creamy Leeks is a quintessential brunch dish. It’s rich to the point of being just a little bit self-indulgent (just like sleeping in) and best eaten when you’ve got time to linger as the flavors demand being savored. The onion hints of the leeks and their bright color offset the eggs as only leeks can. The eggs, by the way, were some of those wonderful country brown eggs from chickens running around out in a pasture. It’s always amazing to me (although it probably shouldn’t be) that you can taste the difference between a caged-up hen’s white eggs and a free range hen’s brown eggs – you really can!
Recent Comments