Eat Local Wednesday! Our CSA

I'm super excited about our CSA portion this week.  It's the first week when we don't have mostly greens and instead we have some of my favorite things:

Squash ~ Cucumber ~ Green Beans ~ Carrots ~ Blueberries ~ Green Onions ~ Snap Peas ~ Potatoes 

We are headed to the lake this weekend so we will probably take most of this down there to cook and enjoy with friends!  Except for the blueberries, they will be gone by morning!! ;)

And a preview of tomorrow's post - Squash & Zucchini Pie

Dutch Oven Cherry Cobbler

We celebrated Father's Day last night and I made cherry cobbler for dessert. This recipe is so very easy and good!

Ingredients

4 cans cherry pie filling

1 box white or yellow cake mix

1/2 C brown sugar

Cinnamon 

1 stick butter

Dump cherry pie filling into a Dutch oven 

Top with dry cake mix.

Sprinkle brown sugar over cake mix.

Sprinkle cinnamon over top.

Cut stick of butter into 1 T slices and lay over the top.

Cook covered at 375 degrees for 45-60 minutes.  It is finished when the cake mix is a nice golden brown color.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

This can also be cooked over a camp fire.

Eat Local Wednesday!

I am super excited about this week's CSA portion because we got strawberries & Margaret's strawberries are soooo good!

This week we've got lettuce, kale, cabbage, asparagus, green onions, bok Chou & strawberries!  I'm not gonna lie I picked this up about 15 minutes ago and I've already had a strawberry snack.  Otherwise I'm excited for some fresh kale to go in my smoothies and who knows what the end result of the other stuff will be.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

We got rhubarb again in our CSA portion last week and I wanted to make something different since I have made strawberry rhubarb pie the last 3 times.  I happened to see this recipe on Skinny Taste and it looked simple enough so I gave it a shot.

Ingredients   1 lb strawberries, quartered 1 lb rhubarb, sliced 1/2 orange 1 T corn starch 1/4 C honey 1 C quick oats 1/2 C wheat flour 1/2 C brown sugar 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/4 C butter melted   Place strawberries and rhubarb in an oven safe dish.  I used an 8x8 square pan.     Squeeze juice of half an orange over pan and add orange zest.     Add honey and corn starch  Stir together for filling portion of crisp.     For the topping - mix oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and melted butter together in a bowl.     Top strawberry rhubarb mixture with oat mixture.     Bake on 375 for 40 minutes, until top is golden brown.
 

Most Popular Recipes of 2013

I thought I would recap some of the most popular recipes on the blog for 2013.   These are the top recipes by page views and pins on pinterest.   Far & away this was the most popular post...   Beef & Broccoli  

  Followed by my Crockpot Buffalo Chicken  

  Pesto  

  Pizza Rolls  

  Pumpkin Dip  

  Baked Ziti  

Pasta Primavera   

      NOW FOR SOME OF OUR FAVORITE DISCOVERIES OF THE YEAR... Strawberry Rhubarb Pie  

   Grilled Pizzas  

Shrimp & Grits

 Oven Roasted Butternut Squash  

Eat Local Wednesday 9.25

Today our CSA portion includes lettuce, assorted squash, assorted peppers, tomatoes, Asian pears, garlic, and cooking greens.

We've got another steak salad planned for teh lettuce and tomatoes and some of the peppers.  Otherwise, who knows?

 

Eat Local Wednesday 9.18 - Recipe Edition

We are at the beach this week so we skipped our normal CSA portion.  I thought I would just post some recipes that we have made with our CSA portions this year.  All of these things are things I never would have made if not for getting the ingredients in our portions.  I didn't have a clue what to do with rhubarb or leeks before this little adventure.  I would encourage you all to join a CSA if one is available to you.  You are able to support your local farmers, get the freshest produce available that week, and learn how to cook new things.   Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

  Cucumber Tomato Salad

Potato Leek Soup

  Fried Green Tomatoes

  Grilled Eggplant Pizza

  These are just a few of the many things we have done with our CSA portions this year.  You can find many others if you read through the archives or use the label buttons in the side bar if you are looking for something more specific. The only thing that these have in common is that I would NEVER have made them if it weren't for getting the CSA portions that we did.  Honestly, before this summer I didn't even like tomatoes, I had never bought eggplant or rhubarb or leeks, etc.  Try something new today!  

Eat Local Wednesday 9.11

  This week's CSA portion includes: lettuce, onions, potatoes, blackberry jelly, Egyptian spinach, fall tomatoes and bok choy.  We are having potatoes & onions with our burgers for dinner tonight and we will be using some of the lettuce and greens for our flank steak salad on Friday.   

 The potatoes and onions are just pan fried in a little olive oil and spicy adobo rub.

 

Eat Local Wednesday 9.4

  Today's CSA portion includes: garlic, celeriac, peppers, fingerling potatoes, watermelon, tomatoes, and tokyo bekana.  If you're like us you might say what the heck is tokyo bekana?  We don't really know but hopefully we'll figure it out.  

And just an added bonus...most people are excited about the return of the Pumpkin Spice Latte, but I was excited about my first Salted Caramel Mocha of the season!
   

Stawberry Shortcakes

I love to make desserts that showcase seasonal fruit so I decided to make individual strawberry shortcakes to bring to our friend's house for our little Big Brother viewing party.

Ingredients (makes 8)
 4 C sliced strawberries

1/4 C sugar

2 1/3 C Bisquick
1/2 C milk
4 T unsalted butter
3 T sugar

1/2 C whipping cream

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Slice 4 C strawberries.  Mix with 1/4 C sugar and refrigerate so they can begin melding together.

Mix Bisquick, milk, 3 T sugar & butter (melted) together to form dough.
Separate dough into 8 sections, loosely rolled, and place on baking sheet.
Bake on 425 for approximately 12 minutes, until the tops are golden.
Place heavy whipping cream in mixer and beat on high until cream consistency.

To serve, cut shortcakes in half.  Top with spoonful of whipped cream, generous portion of strawberries, another small spoonful of whipped cream and top of shortcake.

Eat Local Wednesday 7.10

Our CSA portions keep getting better and better each week.  Here's this week's portion...

 It includes: green beans, eggplant, cucumbers, several onions, carrots, new potatoes, a tomato, mint, blackberries, raspberries & blueberries.  Layla's favorite part of the CSA is riding along to pick up the veggies every week.

   

Eat Local Wednesday 7.3

I was especially excited about today's CSA portion because I love every single thing we were getting.  There's no surprises this week and we already know how to cook each item, so no research is needed...

 Carrots, white onion, red onion, garlic, green beans, cucumber, new potatoes, thyme, blackberries & blueberries.

I had only been home for 2 minutes with the portion when Eric decided he was going to cook the potatoes with the onion and thyme to go with tonight's dinner of grilled chicken.  We were going to have the green beans from last week's portion, but time is short before I have to head to work.  Now we have a double portion of green beans and I think we will take them to the lake for 4th of July weekend with all our friends.  We have a recipe set aside for how we want to prepare them that involves red pepper and onion, it's a Pioneer Woman favorite - surprise, surprise!