CSA

In the absence of being able to farm one's own food, the idea of community supported agriculture has always held appeal for me. The way it works is that you subscribe with a farmer sometime in the winter for a set amount of money, and then throughout the growing season, you get weekly deliveries (or pickups) of produce from them. It's a great way to eat locally (and often organically) and to try items that you might not be predisposed to buy on your own. So why haven't I joined one yet? The main reason is that we often travel in the summer, which amounts to missing about a month's worth of deliveries. If it weren't for that, I'd probably get past my other hangups about CSAs and just join one--even if only for a year. Those other hangups are:
1) being a bit of a control freak about what I'm cooking; I like some predictability in meal planning
2) being afraid of not making good use of my deliveries (either because of the quantities, or just the weirdness, of the items in question)
3) worrying that I won't actually be getting items I find useful, and having to spend a lot more on produce outside of my CSA investment
But like I said, all of these concerns I would be willing to put to the test, if it weren't for the travel issue.
Now, a friend of mine who is a devout CSAer is doing some travelling this week, and asked if I'd like her produce for the week. So I got really offended and told her I wasn't waiting for people to feed me, and how dare she assume that I had nothing better to do than to go collect her unwanted veggies. Actually, that's not how that really went---I was thrilled. It was a good way for me to just dabble in the CSA culture ever so lightly. I tagged along with her last week when she went to do a pickup then, and I'll be doing a pickup today. Here are my favourite items that we got to try from last week's batch:

Adirondack blue potatoes -- the same substance that makes blueberries so good for you is what gives these potatoes their colour

Fennel bulb -- I know that fennel isn't extremely exotic by most standards, but in our household, it is. It was one of those "what the heck do I do with this?" items, but I'm so glad this creature found its way into our home! Here's what became of it:

Fennel salad! And we really, really liked it. So much, in fact, that I will probably start buying the occasional fennel bulb just to make this salad again. Here's the recipe:
* 1 fennel bulb (I had two very small ones) - shaved paper thin on a mandoline
* 1 tbsp lime juice
* 2 tbsp olive oil
* 1/4 tsp thyme
* 1 tbsp parsley
* 2 tbsp parmesan
* 1 tsp pesto (I used the Classico stuff)
It was such a refreshing summer salad. I can't wait to make it again. Now I'm looking forward to what "challenges" this afternoon's batch will present.
Do any of you CSA? Do you love/hate it?

KUI (Knitting under the influence)...

You end up knitting doubles:

You saw the right hand turtle before in a previous post. The left hand turtle is part of an ensemble I put together for a very dear someone-expecting. He comes with a matching blanket:

This brings the official UFO count down to 11...but I keep adding to the list without realizing it. We'll see how far along the list I make it this week!

How I know that Southerners are actually Egyptian

Our church, St. Tim's, is great about organizing activities to promote community among the congregation. One of those activities is the "Sinners Dinner" which involves putting your name in a lottery from which groups are drawn. You meet with your group roughly once a month for a year before the groups get switched up again. Brian and I did not sign up when the current season started in September, but we ended up getting adopted by some choir friends into their Sinners Dinner group. Ours is a really fun bunch. We've met with them twice so far, and will be meeting with them again tonight.
It had been suggested that this month, we keep the gathering a small affair by doing appetizers only. An email thread was started to give everyone a sense of who was bringing what. Reading the responses, I observed that each household was bringing 2-3 appetizers/dessert items--hearty ones at that...so my prediction is that we'll have more food than we've had at the actual dinners. My conclusion, therefore, is that for Southerners "keep it small" means "outdo dinner." Sound like anyone you know? Anyone who says, for example, "why don't you come in for a minute just to have a glass of water?" whereby a "glass of water" comes with a side of whole chickens, stuffed grape leaves, veal cutlets, lamb chops, and kebabs? That's not the only similarity I've noticed between Southerners and Egyptians, but I'll save my other observations for another time.
I thought I'd share pictures of our contributions (y'all getting sick of bread pictures yet?)
The bread made it to our list because the couple that hosted last time, Charlie and Rhea, requested it. Rhea pulled me aside at church last week and said, "Charlie said to me 'Do you think she'll make bread again? I sure hope she makes bread!' " which of course elevated them to favourite persons status (for nothing quite strokes my ego like being ASKED to make bread.)

Next up is an item I accidentally invented several months ago, which Brian requested I make again. This is a carrot and celery bruschetta:

We're also doing a warm brie melt (which we'll bake at our host's house) that features homemade cranberry sauce and toasted pecans--or p'CONs as they call them down here. L'assembly:

And tucked away into its little brie baker:

I would share a picture of the crackers that will accompany the brie melt, but they are not homemade. It'll be a while before perfectly uniform discs of amaranth, quinoa, chia, sesame and flax make it into my repertoire.
Good company and good food make for happy Pigotts!

Cheapening a Cheap Date (Ode to a Mason Jar)

At first I hesitated to write this post: I didn't want to be sending out the impression to our friends/family that we have one small bag of rice to live off of for the month, and that we are currently accepting donations. I just think there's a lot to be said for doing things frugally...and since we've decided to be ultra frugal this month, I've been enjoying the challenge of trying to be more creative in doing things.
One of our favourite cheap dates has been the cafe date. It is exactly what it sounds like: visiting a cafe. Inexpensive, entertaining, and often productive (since Brian brings work). But in this month of austerity, we have even suspended cafe dates. As such, I wanted to find a way to recreate the cafe date at home. Yesterday was my first attempt at it. In preparation the day before, I baked healthy cookies, procured a Putumayo album by the name of "French Cafe" and collected some espresso drink recipes.
One useful frugal tidbit I picked up in my research was that there isn't much of a point in buying coffee that is specially labelled as "espresso." Any high quality, dark roast bean will do. Espresso refers strictly to the way in which it is brewed. Typically, one uses a dark roast, very finely ground, but that's not what makes it espresso. It's all in the brewing. We use one of these stovetop espresso makers:

Now, just a couple of days before Cafe Date, my milk frothing gadget bit the dust. And even though I was going to Ikea with a friend shortly after, and even though a new frother was only $3, it was simply not permissible during the month of austerity. Consequently, I ended up preparing flattes (flat lattes), but Brian didn't seem to mind. He was great about playing along with the indoor cafe. He did complain about the French music, and I explained that I thought lousy music was realistic since we often dislike the music we hear at the cafes we frequent. He countered that this was one advantage of the home cafe date, and since he made such a compelling point, I consented to change the station. We weren't even allowed to "go home" if we forgot something "at the apartment." Despite that Brian missed the people watching aspect of a real cafe, I think we had fun with it. But I can't leave well enough alone...
In trying to find a frugal way to froth milk, I came across the idea of using a mason jar. It almost sounded too good to be true: fill the jar with whatever amount of milk you desire (but don't exceed half the capacity of the jar), cover it tightly, and shake it for a full thirty seconds. Then microwave it for 30-45 seconds to stabilize the foam. And you know what? It works. (As a side note, I should mention that some fancy brands of milk will not froth for anything, like the Smart Balance milks. I should also mention that I tried the food processor to no avail. It's all about the mason jar).
So of course we had to repeat cafe date so I could attempt this. I ended up with so much foam that a regular coffee mug wouldn't hold it all. So of course I served our drinks in a mason jar. Thus, the mason jar was twice useful to this cause. Here are today's not so flat vanilla lattes:

Latte Recipe (for one serving)
2 oz brewed espresso
3 tbsp vanilla syrup
8 oz milk, frothed and heated (skim works much better than 2% or whole milk)

Vanilla Syrup Recipe
3/4 cup sugar
3/8 cup water
1/4 - 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
(This made enough syrup for 4-5 drinks)






I like the cross-section view that the jars give as well. We needed spoons to get all the foam out! So, all in all, I was pleased. Of course, I will keep tweaking Cafe Date. Perhaps next time I'll aim for something along these lines:

But for now, the dining table will have to do...

2 Pigotts 2 Few

A couple of weeks ago, the Pigott population of our household was doubled, only to be reduced by half again shortly after. It was wonderful while it lasted though. I think I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

It was a blessing to have them with us.