Week Nineteen: Samesies

I got to hang out with my favorite “other guy” this weekend while Dan was away. It was a tiring weekend – between getting up at the crack of dawn for walks, running around on the beach, and chasing the laser pointer (him, not me!), I was completely wiped out by Sunday night. Dan finally got home late Tuesday night, so now I’m happy. 

Totally wiped out. 

We’ve sort of gotten into a routine at the farm – we check in, ooh and aah over the things we haven’t used before, and get mostly the same vegetables week to week. It was actually pretty hard to pick our veggies this week. Aly had the excuse of being excited for Nationals this weekend, but I think I’m in a rut! But there’s just one more week to go, and I got some butternut squash… soup is on the menu this weekend for sure. We picked up a red onion, carrots, lettuce, peppers, squash, sweet potatoes, and regular potatoes.

 

My squashes. I call them Bert and Ernie.

I made chicken soup for dinner last night with my farm carrots and onion. We didn’t have any celery, though, and I wish I’d added some garlic – but it was well-received! As an almost-afterthought I added the rice part of a rice pilaf mix, which I think worked well (I’ll use more next time). Small pasta would work well, too: stars, alphabets, stuff like that.

 

Sweet potatoes. If you were curious, my attempt at gnocchi had .... interesting results. Details to come.

Chicken and Rice Soup (cobbled together from a few different sources)

3 chicken breasts*, trimmed of excess fat

1-2 carrots, cut into ¾” cubes (I used 1.5 of my carrots)

1 small onion, diced

2-3 cloves garlic, minced or sliced thin

2 quarts chicken stock, water, or a mix of the two (veg stock might also work well)

Veg oil for browning

1 cup long grain rice

Heat a small amount of oil in a big Dutch oven or stockpot over medium heat. When hot, add the chicken to the pan and cook until browned – you may have to do this in batches. Add in the diced vegetables and cook for a minute or two. Add the stock or water, cover and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Once boiling, add the rice and reduce head to medium-low. Simmer about 20-25 minutes, until rice is tender.

About 5 or so minutes before the rice is done, fish out the chicken and shred or chop small on a cutting board. Add back to the pot to rewarm through, and then serve hot with crackers or cheese croutons.

*You could also do this with a whole chicken, though you’d probably need to increase the proportions of the other ingredients to account for the additional meat. 

Week Eight: Purple Pickled Peppers

I’ve become only a little obsessed with those pickled veggies. I like to think it’s a healthy addiction, though, since vegetables are good for you. And vinegar has literally zero nutritional value, so the only “additives” are some sugar and salt… I say it’s a win. I made them for Steak Friday last week, and again Tuesday night with this week’s harvest.

We got a lot of good stuff this week. Aly got a pound of tomatoes, lettuce, corn (we split the 6-ear allowance), squash, and cucumbers. I got new potatoes, bell peppers (green and purple), gold zucchini, and carrots. I also grabbed some dill and Thai basil from the field (my plant seems to still be doing ok). I had a cucumber from the grocery store that I didn’t have a chance to use last week, so I made more dill-pickled goodness to have with lunch this week. The purple peppers start leeching a little of their color into the vinegar, so by the time I eat my snack I have white and purple streaked peppers… very pretty.

Gold zucchini and a bell pepper

I’m trying to find some new recipes to try, but this week has been really crazy and I haven’t been home at a reasonable hour yet this week. Maybe I’ll make a carrot cake this weekend? Mmmm, baking. I do have a master plan for some of the veggies, so hopefully we get another good harvest next week. I will definitely post about that!

Fresh corn... the beer did not, unfortunately, come from the farm!

Unfortunately, I was in such a hurry to make pickled veg this week I didn’t think to take a picture of everything all together – so all you get are fridge pictures.

Mmmm veggie goodness.

And a picture of my favorite dog ever.

Rupert aka Captain Fuzzypants.