Provisions with Pekoe

Rather than another greens-heavy share, we finally got some more substantial veggies this week. New veggies from week 3: 1 large kohlrabi bulb 1 medium broccoli stalk huuuuge bunch of spinach I still had a big bunch of spinach from last week, so with both bunches, I made a favorite from last year (or the year before?), saag paneer. This time I found real paneer! Quite a step up in richness from tofu. Here's a recipe I pieced together from various other recipes: all the spinach (seriously, the more the better) 8 oz block of paneer (or tofu, in a pinch) 1 large onion, diced small chile pepper, minced (optional) 2 cloves of garlic, minced 1 Tbsp ginger, grated or minced 2 Tbsp butter, divided 1 tsp garam masala 1/2 tsp ground coriander 1/2 tsp ground cumin 1/2 tsp cumin seed 1/2 tsp turmeric 1/2 cup water 1/4 cup half and half or milk Brown the paneer on both sides in a frying pan. Blanch the spinach in a large pot of boiling water, then dra...

Well, I'm continuing the finish-last-week's-veggies-this-week trend. Lazy like Pekoe, these days. Remaining veggies from week 2: 3 large green onions small bunch of garlic scapes large bunch of spinach I pickled the garlic scapes, using this Serious Eats recipe . Instead of dill seed and black peppercorns, I used mustard seed and dill weed. Forgot to take any pictures, though. With the green onions and leftover sauteed kale from last week, I decided to make enchiladas to use up a few ears of corn, Cotija cheese, and tortillas in my fridge. Wegman's enchilada sauce is one of the better jarred red sauces I've come across, and even reminds me of the red sauces served in West Texas Mexican restaurants.  Here's my recipe: 2 ears of corn, kernels cut off the cob 2 cups of steamed or sauteed kale, chopped fine 3 large green onions, sliced 1/2 cup Cotija cheese, crumbled 8 taco-sized corn tortillas 1 12 or 16-oz jar of enchilada sauce, or...

I finished last week's share of veggies after this week's arrived. I hope that this won't become a trend, but based on past experience, it probably will. Remaining veggies from week 1: head of bok choy many kale With the bok choy, I made my favorite  stir fry  from Budget Bytes. I thinly sliced the bok choy, greens and stalks, and swapped it for the cabbage in the recipe. I also swapped the ground beef for some leftover tofu.  Also, I usually store ginger root in my freezer to keep it around for awhile. To thaw it enough for grating, I put it in the microwave for a few seconds. As I found out the hard way, one minute will lead to cooked ginger, which is very tough and largely useless. As a result, my stir fry ended up quite garlicky, which I enjoyed, but the garlic-ginger balance is one of the highlights of this recipe.  I ate it with the last few corn fritters from last week. Somewhat of an odd combination, but still very good. New v...

I've been wanting to get back into blogging about my food life for awhile, and I'm finally doing it! The blog's new name is dedicated to my orange tabby, Pekoe. I adopted her in early April of this year after arguably very little planning or deliberation. No regrets, though, she's an adorable weirdo who is slowly discovering that I'm not so bad to be around. My CSA started last Wednesday. This will be my third year of veggies for dayyys, aka, subscribing to the One Straw Farm CSA. While I love getting a pile of fresh vegetables every week, it can be really tough to use them all up in an interesting way (said everyone who ever did a CSA). This year I'm going to try my hardest to document what I do with every single item in my share each week. If I stick to it, I'll have a thorough record of what worked and what didn't for future vegetable reference. This week's haul: about 10 strawberries head of Salvonia lettuce half a bunch of ...

I'm not sure why I decided to make chili during the hottest weekend of the year (so far), but here we are. This was my first time kind of winging it with chili, and I think I've discovered that it's pretty hard to mess up. As long as you've got the basics (beans, tomatoes, spices), the end result will probably be tasty! First, chop up some onion, garlic, and sweet potato. Saute the onions and garlic for a bit in some oil, until the onions are almost translucent. I added the spices at this point and mixed them in with the onions and garlic. I was hoping it might add some extra level of flavor to cook the spices for a little while, but I'm not sure how much effect it had. Add the sweet potato next, and mix together with the onions and spices mixture. Cook for a few minutes before adding beans, tomatoes, water, and salt. I kept some extra water and salt on hand as the chili was simmering to adjust the sauciness and saltiness levels over time. ...

Finally a recipe that uses the namesake of this blog as an ingredient! This is another favorite recipe of mine, probably because of the tahini-lemon juice dressing. It's also surprisingly filling, which means there's potential for lots of delicious leftovers.  First, peel and chop up the butternut squash. I like to cut the neck/body of the squash into disks, then cut the bulb-y part in half to scoop out the seeds, and finally cut the bulb into rings. Cut each disk and ring into 1 inch (or so, I'm usually never as accurate as I would like to be) pieces. We're gonna roast the squash until it is nice and soft, so mix it with some olive oil, salt, garlic, and maybe cumin. The other two stars of this salad are chickpeas (who would have guessed?), and green onions. While your squash is roasting, drain and rinse your chickpeas and dice your onions. My baking sheet is rather tiny, so there wasn't much of an opportunity for the squash to brown nicely...