June Fruits and Veggies


I found a batch of wild poppies in an alley behind my house this weekend.
I never cease to be surprised by what's hiding in the neighborhood!


My Fruit CSA with Wayward Seed Farms has finally started (yay!), and my first delivery was 3 quarts of some of the most gorgeous strawberries I've ever seen:


I froze some, turned some into a strawberry vinaigrette (pureed strawberries, fig balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, a little sugar, garlic, and oil), and put some into a strawberry tart for my dad for Father's Day:

The pastry cream recipe is from the Cook's Illustrated New Best Recipe Cookbook. I received it as a gift for my birthday one year, and it is a staple in my kitchen. I find it's a great resource for ideas when you're looking at a random ingredient and not sure how you want to use it. Also, they've done tons of leg work and have figured out the best methods and ingredients for making almost every classic/basic dish out there.

Also, I harvested my first batch of Rainbow Swiss chard this weekend and chopped, blanched, and froze it for future use. Quite colorful for a "green," n'est ce pas?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Strawberry Basil Shrub (aka, the Drinking Vinegar Craze)

Image
Drinking vinegars, or shrubs, are all the rage these days. Shrubs are fruit infused vingegars sweetened with sugar, and they are delicious mixed with some soda water or any given liquor. Shrubs have been around on the fancy-cocktail circuit for a while (I had a shrub cocktail at Nopa in San Franciso in 2009, and they're making a splash at Andy Ricker's Thai street food mecca  Pok Pok in Portland, Oregon.  His "Pok Pok Som Drinking Vinegars" are so popular that he's producing them for sale outside of his restaurant, and they're now available at Weiland's in Clintonville.  On the local blog scene, last week the lovely Rachel Tayse chronicled her creation of a rhubarb shrub on her blog Hounds in the Kitchen .  You should check it out. Over at the Ham Sandwich HQ, I had a dozen pounds of strawberries, courtesy of a seriously focused hour of picking at Schacht Family Farms last Saturday.   My freezer is not big enough for twelve pounds of frozen str...
Read more

Civility and Respect in the Workplace

It has been EIGHT years since I've posted anything on this blog. The name doesn't really make sense any more (it's a long story), but we'll deal with that later. I needed to put some thoughts down on paper and  share them, but LinkedIn only allows 1300 characters in a post. So, hello, and no, this post is not about food.  This morning, I attended a CLE training about improving workplace civility and respect as a means of preemptively managing sexual harassment and workplace bullying.  The speaker,  Fran Sepler , offered a powerful and though-provoking presentation, with a great deal more nuance and detail than I'm sharing. I had a couple big take-aways/reminders (I took six pages of notes!!), ones that weren't really about sexual harassment at all, but about the value and need for civility and respect in the workplace. Hopefully, this will resonate with you, and apologies to Fran for my attempt to (poorly) summarize her information-laden talk. Did you ...
Read more

Vice Presidential Debate Drinking Game

Image
I know everyone else is doing it, but here's another set of rules for tomorrow's VP debate. You can thank me on Friday morning, when you can't remember any of the drivel that was spouted the night before. Also, it looks like we'll be playing at Barley's on High St.---come on down and join! The Vice Presidential Debate Drinking Game (brought to you by Cliff, Ethan, myself, and of course, the internet): Take a drink if : Palin touches her glasses and/or becomes more “adorable” Palin says “hockey mom,” “Russia,” “9/11,” or “maverick” Palin just rephrases the question she’s asked in an attempt to make it an answer. (Two if she uses the moderator’s name repeatedly) Biden mentions taking the train to work or questions Palin’s experience. Biden makes a historically inaccurate reference. Biden makes a condescending reference or gives a condescending look. Either of the candidates says anything folksy. Two drinks if it's the actual word "folks." Either of the...
Read more