CSA! CSA! CSA!

On days when I get my CSA I like to chant "C-S-A! C-S-A!" like the peeps do at sporting events (and military events?) when they chant "U-S-A!". It gets me excited, and tickles my fancy, and there ain't nothin' wrong with that.

But, seriously, I would like to take a moment to expound on the virtues of having a CSA. I know I've said it before, but then I talked to a couple people this week who'd never heard of a CSA, so I'm gonna say it again.

Here's how wikipedia describes a CSA, but the basic run-down is that CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and what the deal is that you subscribe to a weekly farm share from a local farm, you pay up front, and then every week (usually early June-ish through mid-Novemberish, in this part of the country) you get a delivery (in various drop-off points around the city) of fresh produce that the farm(s) have picked mere hours or days before. Some of them also offer meats, breads, eggs, honey, cheeses, etc. In Pittsburgh I've used both Kretschmann's and Penn's Corner. I've loved them both. This year I'm doing Penn's Corner. I know they still have slots open, as do many other local CSAs. Here's a good list of all the CSAs available in the Greater Pittsburgh Area, and you can check here for national listings.

To give you an idea of what one gets in a CSA subscription, here's what my last few boxes have consisted of (I split my box with eDawg):

Week 1 (6/18):
free-range eggs
strawberries
rhubarb
gourmet lettuce mix
head lettuce
baby beets
sugar snap peas

Week 2 (6/25):
new red potatoes
strawberries
sugar snap peas
shelling peas
romaine lettuce
red ruffled lettuce
spinach
green cabbage
zucchini
carrots

Week 3 (7/2):
free range eggs
zucchini
carrots
sugar snap peas
snow peas
baby beets
head lettuce
bibb lettuce
hydroponic cluster tomatoes (1st tomatoes of the season! i can't wait for the onslaught!)
chervil

Week 4 (7/9):
black raspberries
new potatoes
young onions
zucchini
patty pan squash
red cabbage
cucumbers
black seeded simpson lettuce
swiss chard

My CSA box paired with some goodies from the farmers' market almost covers all my eating! Also, when you subscribe to a CSA you're getting healthier food because it's freshly picked, and all the nutrients are still going strong. And, you're supporting your local agricultural community and local economy. And, you're cutting down on fossil fuel usage by choosing foods that don't have to be transported from all over creation to get to you. And, you're further helping the environment when you subscribe to organic farms that aren't using the pesticides that end up as run-off and the like. And, you're more in touch with seasonality as you see the growing seasons for various plants in your particular region. It feels good, do it!

So, don't you wanna go sign up for a CSA right now?

it was a long week

Hi folks.

Sorry for the lack of blog fodder last week. It was a hectic and tough week, and all the extras (like, bloggin') had to fall to the wayside. I got a very sad fatal diagnosis for my car--which just totally blows 'cause I'm not sure how it's all going to shake out, but it could be that I'll be car-less for a while. On the upside, it's winter, and my mental bumper sticker reads: "I'd rather be hibernating!". So, I may not have much choice. Eh.

This also means that I won't be traveling for Thanksgiving. I'm sad to miss cooking with my mom and seeing my nieces and nephew. But, I'll have it all figured out by xmas (right?!?), so I'll see them then. Savanah (my favorite!) is really bummed. She said that she made me a "special Christmas centerpiece for your table, and you need to have it before then so you can enjoy this whole time!". It was so weird when she told me that. She's five. And, obviously has been possessed by my mother.

the good news, however, is that I'm going to have Thanksgiving with some friends, and Leslie is going to be cooking up a storm. And, she's an incredible cook. I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to make those roasted brussels sprouts with cranberry brown butter I posted about a few weeks ago. Yum!

In other news, it was an action-packed week. On Wednesday I took in a show at the Warhol. My Brightest Diamond features one of my favorite peeps, bdub, on the skins. I hadn't listened to much of them before then, but they're really great. Shara, the gal behind My Brightest Diamond, has a truly gorgeous voice. Operatic, even. I went with my pal Tracey, and we'd tentatively plan to scoot out early since we were both feeling kind of exhausted, but it was too good to skip out. Good stuff. And, she's in Sufjan Stevens' band, and I LOVE SUFJAN!

On Thursday I went to the (not safe for workplace clickin'!) Girls Night In going-outta-business sale at Amani. I got some good stuff for not much scratch, and even won a special treat from the raffle! I hear that Karen still has stock to liquidate, so give her a holler!

The weekend was pretty quiet. I met up with the E-dawg parade for lunch at People's on Saturday. I'd also planned to hit up the E. Liberty farmers market, but didn't realize they closed at noon. That's okay, next week. The rest of the city farmers markets ended last week, but this one is indoor and stays open all year! I haven't been there yet. I can't wait to check it out. I was lamenting the long winter with no CSA and no farmers market, but it's gonna be okay. Also, the folks that run the CSA I subscribe to are having winter boxes. You can get on their email list here. The way it works is that they send out an email each week, and you choose whether to opt in that week (and get your delivery location). And, of course, the co-op will be there to supplement everything else.

Okay. It's Monday, and I actually don't even mind. I had a restful weekend, and it's a short week. (Work usually lets us out by 3:00 p.m. the day before a holiday, too!) Good times.

good eats

I love CSA day, which for me is Wednesday. This week we got basil, a lovely assortment of heirloom tomatoes, corn, green and banana(?) peppers, green onions, garlic, beets, green beans, potatoes, chard...I think that's it. E-dawg said she got zucchini and lettuce, too, instead of the chard. It's fun to pick up your veggies, too. Sometimes the woman that lives in the house where we pick up (on the front porch) is outside, and she's really friendly and sweet. And, you can tell the other CSA-ers coming up the street. Everyone's smiling and happy and full of good cheer. I freakin' love good cheer! All of us that normally may not go out of our way to chat with strangers belt out a hearty "Hello! How are you?" when we're picking up our CSA shares. I [heart] local agriculture!

Speaking of...

Sept 16-22 is Local Food Week! Check out these great events! (from http://www.buylocalpa.org/events.php)

PASA Western Region Local Food Week
Where: Local Food Week occurs in various locations in Western Pennsylvania
When: Sun Sep 16th 12:00 PM - Sat Sep 22nd 12:00 PM

Please call 412-697-0411 or email julie@pasafarming.org for more information. The list of events will soon be downloadable from the western regional page of this website. Here is the basic listing of events:

Sunday,September 16 SAVOR, SIP AND SOCIALIZE
Local Food Kick-Off Event at WYEP Studios with the Mavens.
5:30-8:00 p.m. $10 wyep.org

Monday, September 17 FARM FANFARE:
A Festival at East Liberty Farmers’ Market featuring cooking and music. 3:30-6:00 p.m. http://www.buylocalpa.org

LOCAL FOODS COOKING CLASS
East End Food Co-Op shows us how to make the most of the season’s local bounty with the cooks of the Co-Op Café.
7:00-8:30 p.m. http://www.eastendfoodcoop.com

CELEBRATE The PATH
Dr. Will Clower and Enrico’s Ristorante show us how local foods compliment the Mediterranean Habits of Healthy Eating. Reservations suggested. 6:30-8:00 p.m.
http://www.willclower.com or call 412-363-5201

EATING WELL WHILE DOING GOOD
PASA and the PA Restaurant Association team up to feature locally grown food at area restaurants from Monday-Thursday. For restaurants and times go to http://www.buylocalpa.org

Tuesday, September 18 PASA APPRECIATION DINNER
Enjoy a three-course local food dinner at the Pines Tavern from Tuesday through Saturday. Five dollars from each dinner benefits PASA and its programs. Reservations suggested. http://www.thepinestavern.com

Wednesday, September 19
EDIBLE SCHOOL YARD COOKS IN THE GARDEN
Join Executive Chef Bill Fuller and the students from Helen Faison Arts Academy in their school garden.
1:00-3:00 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday.
http://www.growpittsburgh.org

PASA APPRECIATION DAY
Shop at Whole Foods Market and their farmer’s market. Five percent of sales benefit PASA and its programs.
wholefoodsmarket.com

Thursday, September 20
HARVEST FEST:
A festival at the Washington Main Street Market featuring cooking and entertainment. Washington, PA 3:00-6:00 p.m.
http://www.washpa.net/FarmersMarket

HIKE AND EAT LOCALLY
Venture Outdoors will host a hike in Schenley Park with a catered meal from Café at Phipps. 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Venture Outdoors Members - $12, Nonmembers - $15 http://www.ventureoutdoors.org

CELEBRATE LOCAL FOODS IN PA WINE COUNTRY
Culinary Bounty and Five French Fusion Restaurant team up for dinner to highlight the best in Northwest PA food and wine. Reservations suggested. North East, Pennsylvania
814-725-5318

Friday, September 21
FARMERS’ MARKET FIESTA:
A festival at the Oakland Farmers’ Market featuring cooking and entertainment. 3:30–6:00 p.m. http://www.oaklandbid.org

FALL HARVEST DINNER
A seasonal, local feast to remember at the Carnegie Science Center. 6:30 p.m. Sponsored by Parkhurst Dining Services. For reservations call 412-697-0411 or visit http://www.pasafarming.org

Saturday, September 22
EVERY WEEK IS LOCAL FOOD WEEK
Farmers @ the Firehouse Market” with Slow Food Pittsburgh, 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. http://www.slowfoodpgh.com

GOOD AND LOCAL: BERRIES, CHEESE, TEAS, AND MORE
Taste a selection of local products at McGinnis Sisters, Monroeville and Brentwood locations. 11:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.
http://www.mcginnis-sisters.com

HOMEMADE SALSA CONTEST AT LIGONIER COUNTRY MARKET
Test your salsa making skills to win a prize.
Ligonier, PA 7:00-9:00 a.m. Call 412-697-0411 from more information.

ENJOY THE BEST IN NORTHWEST PA MEATS
Meadville Market House with Friends of the Market House
Meadville, PA 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. $20 http://www.buylocalpa.org

So, what'd I do with that beautiful produce you ask? I ate it! Well, not all of it--yet, but lots of it. I got three ears of corn, and ate them up. All three ears were awesome, two of them were so good I nearly cried. Sweet, juicy, tender kernels. That is what corn is supposed to taste like! Did you know that corn (and some other veggies like peas) starts to break down its sugars into starches as soon as it's picked? So, corn should be cooked immediately because the sugar in the kernels rapidly turns to starch and consequently toughness. So, that's what I did, as soon as I got home I started some water and shucked my corn. I'd only planned to eat two ears, but it was too good not to eat it all. I just brought some salted water to a ready-to-almost-simmer stage, plunked the cobs in, and cooked them for about five minutes. At which time these little lovelies were ready to oop with juicy goodness. I had that with some roasted green beans, adapted from a Mollie Katzen recipe in The New Moosewood Cookbook. Here's what I did:

Roasted Green Beans
(vegan; makes about four servings, but you'll want them all for yourself)

a bunch of green beans (usually around 1/2-1#?, but I didn't have that many last night), washed and trimmed and cut into bite-sized pieces
1 small onion, thinly sliced
about 10 cloves of garlic, peeled
extra virgin olive oil
1-2 T. balsamic vinegar (I used a black fig vinegar, which has a red wine vinegar base, but tastes sorta balsamic)
toasted walnuts, broken into pieces
sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Brush about 2 T. of evoo on a baking sheet, and scatter the beans, onion and garlic on the sheet and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for about 20 minutes, shaking the sheet occasionally. On another sheet, toast the walnuts for about 5 minutes, then shake, and cook for another 3-4 minutes until toasty brown and fragrant. Remove all from the oven, and put the bean/onion/garlic mixture into a serving bowl and drizzle with the vinegar, and sprinkle liberally with the walnuts. (This is seriously to die for. It's one of my very, very favorite dishes, and it's so easy!)

before:


after, as dinner:


Actually, I had two dinners, so maybe I'll call that one an appetizer. Because while I had the oven on, and a bunch of gorgeous tomatoes, I decided to make a slow-roasted heirloom tomato sauce. All in all, I cooked it for about four hours, but it was really easy, and just required some occasional stirring, and one mid-way addition of some ingredients, and it is amazing. Seriously, one of the best sauces I've ever had. It literally bursting with flavor!

Slow-roasted Heirloom Tomato Sauce
(vegan, and doesn't make nearly enough)

A lot of tomatoes (I'm not sure about weight, but I used a pint-size container of those little yellowy-orange pear-shaped beauties--from someone in my office, two romas, 1 small reddish pink (Arkansas Traveler?), 1 larger red, some red plum tomatoes (about 8?), two yellows (Italian Gold?). It sounds like a a lot, but it's really not. They cook down so much that there's hardly anything left of them.
1 small onion
1 handful fresh basil, torn into large pieces, plus more for topping when serving
5-6 cloves of garlic, peeled
a few dashes of cinnamon
a few grates of nutmeg
a little bit of honey (a scant tablespoon?)
a little bit of extra-virgin olive oil (1-2 T)

Basically, I started with a bunch of halved tomatoes, a little evoo and the garlic cloves. Put it in the oven (at 400 degrees, loosely covered), and stirred it (and tasted it) about every half-hour or so. A couple hours in, I added the onion, basil, cinnamon, nutmeg and honey, and about 3 cups of water (it needs it now; they've cooked out all their juices and are caramelizing) then recovered it, still loosely. Then just cooked it until it was the taste and consistency that looked good to me (and, um, I couldn't wait any longer because the heavenly smells were like to drive me crazy!).

I ate it over (here's where it gets non-vegan) egg noodles with some grated parmesan and sprinkled some fresh basil over the top. Oh. My. God. Utterly fantastic. It actually reminded me a little of the Arabian Stew that Kara made a few weeks ago.

before:


after:


as dinner (um, take two):


And, I have more for lunch today! Yay! I also have more QAF for tonight. Yesssssssss. I'm actually getting two discs, but I can't stay up so late watching them that I can't get up to walk in the morning. The first day we started walking I just kept thinking how much I hated it, but now it's one of the highlights of the day, it feels great, and all the deer are a fantastic bonus (we fed them more apples today, and have now identified some favorites as "our herd").

What's for dinner tonight? Who knows! But, I did get two gorgeous eggplants from someone at work, so we'll see...

please see my office hours

Yesterday evening I pretended that I was holding office hours at the Quiet Storm. It all started because yesterday was the first day that my CSA subscription started, so I was going to pick it up, and meet my friend Jen at the QS to divide up the booty and get her half of our payment (we're sharing a "small share" from Kretschmann's). I was to meet her there around 6:30 p.m., so I didn't want to go home, then have to turn around and come right back to Garfield, so I decided I'd just go after I picked up the veggies and read. But, then I made a plan to meet up with my new pal Jenn for coffee in the meantime (to take our palship from virtual to real world). She's a peach! So, we hung out for a bit, Jen came by to get her veggies and hung out for a minute, then Mags and her dad, Ani and Carol came to meet up for dinner. I wish my office was the Quiet Storm every day.

And, speaking of the QS, I had an amazing dinner there. I ordered the special: "crabcake" sandwich with macaroni salad and choice of green salad or soup. I chose the chilled green pea and mint soup. First of all, the "crabcakes"? Freakin' fab! Man, oh man! Better than many "real" crabcakes I've tried over the years. And, crab is one of those things that I really miss (along with toro and bacon). I emailed the owner/chef to see if I could get her recipe or a tip and begged her to add it to their regular menu. So tasty! And, the chilled green pea and mint soup was fresh and delicious, too. All in all, one of my favorite meals recently, for sure!

And, as for my CSA box. This week we got: romaine lettuce (or leaf?), butter lettuce (?), spinach, mixed baby greens, pea shoots (I've never tried these before and can't wait!), radishes, sage, rosemary, egyptian onions (look like big green onions with flowers like scapes), rhubarb and a loaf of multigrain bread. YUM! Picking up the CSA box and seeing what we get that week is one of my favorite things ever. I love surprises, and this is the best kind of surprise!


Since I had dinner out last night, I didn't do a whole lot with my veggies last night except admire them. But, for lunch today I made a green salad and an eggsalad sandwich. Eggsalad is one of my favorites, but I haven't made it in a while because I normally put a TON of mayo in it, so it's totally not healthy. But, I made some up last night that is definitely better for me than the old-style kind. I used five organic, free range eggs (these were from the Polish Hill bee guy, Deron Johnson) and hard-boiled them, then added about 4 T. of vegan mayo (I used Heidi's recipe from Super Natural Cooking--below), 2 T. real mayo, 1 t. yellow mustard and sea salt and pepper. I like my eggsalad straight up--nothing fancy, not too mayonnaise-y. I had it with a bunch of the butter lettuce and some of the multigrain bread (lightly toasted). I tried to wait until lunch time, but I ate it around 11:00 a.m. I could not help it.

Egg-Free, Dairy-Free Mayonnaise
(makes 1 1/2 cups)
[Super Natural Cooking, p. 200]

8 oz extra-firm tofu
2 T. freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 T. extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 t. fine-grain sea salt
1/2 t. dijon mustard
pinch of cayenne pepper

Wrap the tofu in a few paper towels, then press and gently squeeze to release excess moisture. Combine the tofu, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, mustard and cayenne in a food processor and blend until very smooth, 30 seconds or so. Thin with warm water to reach desired consistency.
[Ehrrin's note: this is a great base for any flavor you want to add. I've used it to make aioli, miso mayo and wasabi mayo. So easy and so good!]

Tonight I have a work dinner at LeMont. Ellen's going as my date, and we will be hooking up some serious old-skool "fancy". I've been there once before (for another work function, different job), and the view is magnificent, the decor bizarre, and the food was very much so-so. I already know what I'm having tonight because I had to pick my menu items last month: salad, pesto pasta (the token vegetarian meal) and creme brulee. It should be interesting. This will be the first time that my worlds have collided with work peeps and friends. And, my work peeps are...let's say...odd. They're all computer genius types, so they have various levels of social skills. I find them to be endlessly fascinating, and I'm really looking forward to seeing them all fanced-up.


I need to start brainstorming some recipe ideas for my upcoming beach trip. So far I'm thinking:
-find a good recipe for veg "crabcakes" (QS wrote back, but skipped the part where I asked for the recipe. darn.)
-Heidi's recipe for "Yucatecan Street Corn with Lime, Chile Powder and Grated Cotija"
-Heidi's recipe for "Wheat Berry Salad with Citrus, Toasted Pine Nuts, Feta and Spinach"
-SarahGrams's mom's crepes with some interesting fillings/toppings
-fresh rolls
-veggie sushi

Anyone have any other good (and impressive) recipes for my 9th(?) annual all-gal beach extravaganza?