Eat It

8/2 revision: I have let everyone down, especially Weird Al. How could I have forgotten "Addicted To Spuds" - especially given that the photo accompanying this post was of potatoes?!?!? I am off my A-game, people. There's no other explanation. Unfortunately I couldn't find the official "Addicted To Spuds" video, but here's a link to a live version on MTV from 1987. Luckily the search for that vid enticed me to rewatch Trapped In The Drive-Through which is blatantly amazing.


I recently found (Weird) Al Yankovic on Twitter, and he mentioned that this month marks the 20th anniversary of the landmark cinema classic UHF, which is one of my favorite movies of all time. With an all-star cast including Yankovic himself, Victoria Jackson, Fran Drescher, Emo Phillips, Billy Barty (as Noodles McIntosh), Kevin McCarthy and a pre-Seinfeld Michael Kramer, UHF is clearly one of the best movies ever. Unfortunately it doesn't have much to do with produce, and even Al's hit single Eat It barely mentions vegetables, though bananas figure prominently in one verse.

Today, we're teaching poodles how to fly:
1 pint Tristar strawberries
4 nectarines
3 peaches
6 apricots
1/4 lb. salad greens
1 bunch collards
1 bunch lacinato kale
1 bunch leeks
1 bunch celery
2 bunches carrots
1 1/2 lbs. mixed new potatoes
1 lb. wax beans
1/2 lb. peppers - Anaheim and jalapeno
2 lbs. zucchini
1 1/4 lb. Lima beans
3 plum tomatoes
1 box Sungold tomatoes
Total spent: $54

No big plans, although I clearly forgot to buy less food than usual because we're leaving Monday for Bloomington. I'll just have to use it all up before then. Tonight I'm planning to have salad, then a main course of succotash with the limas and corn, garlic-sautéed lacinato kale, and roasted new potatoes (patriotic red, white, and blue mix pictured in their farm-fresh dirty state), with some sliced Sungold tomatoes to garnish. At some point I'll use the peppers in a pot of black beans, the leeks in a frittata with the remaining potatoes, and the rest will get eaten as lunch snacks (celery, carrots, wax beans), and in as yet unplanned miscellaneous meals.

In jam news: my second batch of sour cherry jam turned out, though it was a lengthy process - had to add about six times the called-for amount of pectin. Apricot, peach, and nectarine jams are all on the schedule for my return, and possibly plum jam or plum butter. I also might try something with currants or gooseberries, just for the novelty.

Pickle update: Lots of white scum growing on the surface led me to reconfigure my pickling setup. Now it's more covered, but there's still white stuff growing. I'm a bit panicked because when I leave for Bloomington nobody will be skimming the stuff off my pickle crock...so I guess I'll just hope it stops, or allow that I might have to give up on at least the top layer of this batch. Who knew that making old-fashioned crock pickles was so difficult?

Technical difficulties continue

Oddly beautiful morning that opened an emotional roller-coaster of a day. Every year as winter begins I forget what seasonal affective disorder means...for about a week.

And my camera is still not working. I think I'm going to order a replacement battery, after I consult with my dad about it.

Not on a budget this time:
1 lb. shelled fresh Tarbais beans
1 bunch Swiss chard
1 bunch lacinato kale
1 bunch collard greens
1 bunch celery
1 head Red Oak lettuce
1 head French Crisp lettuce
2 1/2 lbs. Brussels sprouts
2 lbs. zucchini
2 1/2 lbs. soup carrots (big)
2 lbs. eating carrots (little)
1 lb. red tomato "seconds"
2 lbs. German butterball potatoes
2 1/2 lbs. apples (Macoun and Winesap)
1 lb. Mars purple seedless grapes
1 bunch dill

Total spent: $70

I've already used most of the soup carrots in an oat-thickened carrot cream soup, which I served for dinner, garnished with fresh dill; inevitably, we started with a big green (and red) salad. The carrot soup was the recipe we had to prepare for our midterm, and despite the practice runs and the stress of making it for the test, I still like the stuff. And my photo assistant, despite his disdain for carrots, lemon, and ginger - the soup's primary constituents - also finds it agreeable.

More carrots and onions, along with the celery, most of the fresh dill, and the beets I've been saving, will go into the season's first batch of homemade borscht. I'm going to use some of the fancy French Tarbais beans instead of limas.

Otherwise: Brussels sprouts for breakfast tomorrow, and lots of greens to eat this week. I feel good about this haul.

Minestrone fixings and grapes

It was an undeniably chilly morning at the USG; there's no turning back from this fall thing, people.
The budget was tight today:
1 bunch chard
1 bunch kale (the same fancy kind I got last week)
1 bunch beets with greens
4 lbs. carrots
4 plum tomatoes
3/4 lb. mixed greens
1/2 lb. Lakemont variety seedless grapes
5 lbs. Concord grapes
1 Osage orange

Total spent: $56

I got a bug to make minestrone with fresh cranberry beans, so I bought some tomatoes that looked perfect for soup (it's the tomato equivalent of having a face for radio), a bunch of chard...and made quite a serviceable minestrone with whole wheat rotelle.

The grapes are for another batch of homemade jelly, but I have to find some Pomona's Pectin, since Brooklyn Kitchen is out. I really have no idea where else to look, but I've got to figure it out soon.

Don't worry, baby

"We'll have them for awhile still," volunteered the man who grows the best carrots I've ever had, as I paid for my weekly three-pound ration of the hairy, knobbly, bright-orange jewels (pictured here). No doubt he saw the fear in my eyes, saw the wildness with which I clutched my bags of greens and tomatoes; as fall undeniably chugs in amidst mornings fragrant with mist and chilly evenings, harvest bounties dwindle, and I am left to dread my squash and sweet potato-laden near-future.
Late summer and early fall mix:
1 bunch chives
1 bunch dill
3 lbs. plum tomatoes
1 bunch fancy flat kale (can't remember the variety)
1 bunch green Swiss chard
1 1/2 lbs. Brussels sprouts
1 lb. crimini mushrooms
1/2 lb. mixed salad greens
3 lbs. carrots
1 1/2 lbs. zucchini
2 ears white corn
4 lbs. mixed apples
1 Bosc pear

Total spent: $57

Once again I forgot that my photo assistant is leaving town tomorrow, meaning this week's haul is all mine to eat. I should have bought broccoli!

The corn will join the lima beans I bought and didn't eat Monday in the last succotash of the year for dinner tonight, topped with red pepper coulis and served alongside crispy "crash" potatoes and eggs baked with butter, chives, and goat cheese. We'll start with big green salads topped with the handful of plum tomatoes that wouldn't fit on the sheet pan with the rest which are currently slow-roasting in my oven.

I bought the Bosc pear to poach in preparation for my upcoming midterm; today's order is studying after a bit of housecleaning and laundry. Living the dream, people. Living the dream. Speaking of which, to meet my loyal readers' furious demands for more kitten coverage, here's an outtake from the carrots photo session:

Quick summary - greenmarket demo, jam, dinner

Today, I was part of the Greenmarket, not just a shopper! The Natural Gourmet has students at Union Square demonstrating seasonal recipes every Saturday through November. We made sauteed eggplant with basil and balsamic vinegar, and sauteed red potatoes with parsley and fresh garlic. It was kinda fun, but mostly just uneventful. I went shopping beforehand and stashed my haul in the walk-in refrigerator at school during the demo.

It was a long day:
1 1/2 lbs. lima beans
3 ears white corn
1 bunch swiss chard
2 lbs. carrots
1 lb. onions
3/4 lb. salad mix
4 Empire apples
2 lbs. peaches
2 lbs. nectarines
half-flat of blackberries
Total spent: $61

I've already made the insanely flavorful blackberries from Fantasy Fruit into five gorgeous jewel-toned half-pint jars of jam - though after I tasted a couple I wanted to eat the lot. I used the same basic recipe as I used for the strawberry jam, but I used 1/2 cup grated apple and 3/4 cup agave nectar. I don't know if it was the increased apple or just that blackberries have more natural thickener than strawberries, but this jam set up in ten minutes. Next, I'll do apricot and nectarine.

The limas were boiled until tender (about five minutes), then sauteed into a pseudo-succotash along with the kernels from two ears of corn, one finely-diced onion and a couple pinches of cumin; I plated it topped with some of the roasted red pepper coulis I made a few days back (roasted red pepper, hot sauce, olive oil, salt, and lemon juice). We had salad with refrigerator-pickled beets and goat feta from Lynnhaven farms first, then the succotash with half a grilled Tofurkey sausage. It was a terrific dinner!