Week 4 Summary

Well, Week 4 came and went, and as I worried, it was not our best in terms of making good use of what we got. Here's a recap:

Bok Choy: we ate about half, and about half of it went to waste. The half we used went into this stir-fry recipe with chicken, and some broccoli and snow peas (which came in our Week 5 box).

Green Leaf Lettuce: we still have it. Didn't use any last week but had some last night and it's still in decent shape.

Cilantro: mostly gone. A bunch went into this dressing recipe, another bunch into some guacamole last night, and now there's just a little bit left.

Purple Mizuna: gone! All of it went into the pineapple rice recipe last week.

Rainbow Chard: Sadly, we let our whole bundle go to waste. Ugh. We had a frittata recipe picked out to try that looked great, but the week just got away from us and we didn't cook as many nights as we'd planned to. Of all the veggies we've gotten so far this year, chard seems to have the shortest life-span in the fridge, so we really need to make a note to use it up in the first few days after it's delivered.

Green Romaine Lettuce: we had to throw it out, totally unused. We cleaned out the fridge on Friday night and it just was not in good shape. Super sad.

French Breakfast Radishes: We didn't use any last week, but ate some last night and have something else in mind this week for what is left.

Young Broccoli: Tonight I have plans to blanch (or steam) and freeze what's left.

Scallions: They got about half-used up, here and there throughout the week. We have some left and they are holding up okay so we'll hang on to them. 

Strawberries: gone! Between salads, snacks, and the strawberry rhubarb crumb cake, we made our way through them easily. Yum.

Applesauce: working our way through it (less of a time-limit on this one, thankfully).

2 Chicken Breasts: ate one in the stir-fry, and the other is still frozen.

4 Chicken Thighs: still frozen

4 Chicken Legs: Steve roasted these with some Old Bay on Sunday night - very good!


Week 4 Links
Pineapple Rice (on a Bed of Mizuna Greens)
Strawberry Rhubarb Crumb Cake


So good, bad, or ugly, that is how the cookie (or the lettuce?) crumbled for Week 4. I feel pretty disappointed and guilty about the stuff that we had to throw out, but part of the problem was that we just got so much stuff in our Week 4 box - more than I think we really could have used, even if we had been more organized.

In any case, once we finally had the chance to stop and take a breath at the end of our busy week, cleaning out the fridge and taking inventory of all our produce was a step in the right direction to getting back on track. By then, we had already gotten a new CSA box, so cutting our losses and making a list of everything we still had (both old and new) was a huge help in making the meal plan for this week. And I feel like we're in much better shape so far this week. More about that coming soon!

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumb Cake

Is anybody getting sick of rhubarb? I am totally not... I had eaten it, but never cooked with it before this season, and I'm having a lot of fun! I also didn't know that the rhubarb window would be open this long. Each week I think, "This is probably the last batch of rhubarb we'll get." and then am pleasantly surprised and ready to accept the challenge with another new recipe the following week. This strawberry-rhubarb crumb cake constitutes the 3rd rhubarb recipe I've made this year and (spoiler alert) there is a 4th one in the works for this week. Just say yes to rhubarb.

My only problem with this cake (or maybe just an observation) is that is really was at its best the day after I baked it. It didn't serve well as a keep-it-around-for-a-week-and nibble-off-it cake; it's more like a make-for-a-party-so-it-all-gets-enjoyed-while-it's-fresh cake. After a couple of days the cake layer got a bit stale and the crumble topping lost its crunch because of the moist fruit layer beneath. So there's my recommendation: make it to share, or just eat a whole bunch of cake by yourself, all at once, while it's still super yummy. Either way.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumb Cake on my baking addiction

This was taken about four days into the cake's existence, so its optimum beauty is not captured here.

Used From Our CSA
rhubarb
strawberries 

Thoughts on the Recipe
I don't have much to say about this recipe, other than I over-baked ours a bit. I wish I had taken it out about 2 minutes before I did. That crumble topping went from perfect to too-brown in a very narrow slice of time. So keep an eye on it, and enjoy the strawberry rhubarb goodness!

Pineapple Rice (on a Bed of Mizuna Greens)

In the interest of full disclosure, let me clarify that pineapples do not grow in the Mid-Atlantic (unfortunately, because how cool would that be?) and the one that this recipe centers around was purchased at the grocery store. The CSA-item that was the star of the meal was the mizuna. All of what we had was used to form the bed of greens for this Hawaiian rice dish.

Mizuna was a completely new green to Steve & I. It's known for having a mild peppery taste, which reminded Steve of horseradish. I'm not sure how it would be on its own; I find the flavor to be pretty strong. But tossed in this pineapple dressing and paired with the rice concoction, it really rounded out the set of flavors and made for a great complete meal. Brown rice is not something I normally get excited about, so I was really pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this dish.

Pineapple Rice Recipe on 101 Cookbooks

Used From Our CSA
purple mizuna
scallions

Thoughts on the Recipe
- We didn't plate up the greens and rice on a big serving platter as the recipe suggests. Since we planned to have leftovers, we kept them separate until serving up an individual portion.
- We skipped the seitan, but agreed this could be good with some chicken in the mix, too!
- We ate the rice hot (vs. at room temperature)

Even though this dinner didn't feature as many CSA vegetables as I might have liked (especially for as many as we have this week!), I think I have to count it a win when we make a meal with a completely new vegetable that we had never even heard of before, and enjoy it this much. If nothing else, it's a starting point. Mizuna and I are no longer strangers.

Week 4 Delivery

Here is what we got last Thursday in our Week 4 delivery. The first week of our fruit share!

Vegetables
bok choy
green leaf lettuce
cilantro
purple mizuna (peeking out from beneath the radishes)
rainbow chard
green romaine lettuce
French breakfast radishes
young broccoli (bag in the middle)
scallions

Fruit
strawberries
jar of applesauce

Chicken
2 breasts
4 thighs
4 legs


Seriously? This box was overflowing with food. We're halfway through the week and I still don't know how we're going to use everything. I wrote last week that I feel less daunted by the box full of produce once I've made a meal plan (which usually happens on Friday night, the day after the delivery). This week though? I planned out our week of meals, and it didn't even account for the broccoli or chicken thighs or legs. Yikes!

The unused chicken is not really a big deal. It comes frozen and can stay that way until we have a use for it, even if that's not until fall or winter. In fact, it will be awesome to have some on hand and already paid for once our CSA is over. So no worries there, provided we have enough room in our little freezer. Maybe we should freeze the broccoli too - I bet it could be good in a soup this fall or winter. Hmm... we'd better clean out our freezer and make some space.

I already have a few recipes to share from this box, but I just have a feeling like this week may be a bit of a flop. I promise to keep it real whatever happens, even it that means we let some of our lovely produce go to waste. It happens, right? Is this a good problem to have, or just a problem?