Green Bag Special

Archive for May, 2010

I just read a fascinating NPR article about how scientists are trying to bring the taste back to supermarket tomatoes.  Turns out, our current system has sacrificed taste for yield.  Indeed.

In the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (which I reviewed here), Kingsolver talked about the importance of heirloom seeds.  Her favorites were the Dolly Parton tomatoes.  I’ll let you imagine why they are called that.  Modern seeds for big farms don’t carry the attributes of those heirloom seeds.

While I have an enjoyed our spring greens, I am REALLY looking forward to the summer CSA veggies, especially tomatoes.  My favorite summertime sandwich is what I call “toast and tomato.”  You make some toast, butter it, add a bit of mayo, slices of tomato, salt and pepper.  Yum!  Just.can’t.wait.

So far, our experience with the CSA is helping us make the exact changes we hope to make.  In the book In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan promotes the manta: “Eat food, less of it, mostly plants.”  (I need to tattoo this to my forehead to force myself to follow it!)  Our CSA deliveries have definitely increase our plant eating.  Our first two harvests included mostly greens, so we’ve eaten a lot of salad.  Before the CSA, we would eat salad maybe once a month.  Lately, we’re averaged at least three times a week.  This week, I’ve made fajita salad and taco salad.  We’ve also had a simple green salad.

When we got this week’s CSA delivery, my oldest son asked, “I wonder if there’s any ruby-red chard in there.”  Ha!  How many eight-year-old boys know what ruby-red chard is?  We watched Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and were shocked by the class of kids who couldn’t even identify common veggies, so I was thrilled my boy remembered ruby-red chard.  Yay!!  Unfortunately, he liked the looks more than the taste (it IS a beautiful veggie with deep red veins flowing through the dark green leaves–which even I didn’t know until last week).  To answer his question, no ruby-red this week.  Instead, Swiss Chard, with leaves so gigantic they resemble elephant leaves.  It look so freakin’ healthy you just knew it had to be packed with nutrients!  On tap for tomorrow, sauteed chard.  Last week, the sauteed kale wasn’t a big hit, but I think the chard might be less bitter.  Keep your fingers crossed!  Here are some pics of our ruby-red and Swiss chard.

With another load of greens coming our way, I’m preparing for some great dinner salads.  Though I like vegetables, I’m not a big salad girl, and when I do eat salad, it’s with my dad’s homemade ranch dressing, which certainly negates some of the healthful benefits of the greens due to the creamy fat-filled dressing.  When we eat salads for dinner, we tend to like them topped with some kind of protein, such as beef brisket, BBQ chicken, or taco meat.  My family recently enjoyed this recipe from the Hungry Girl cookbook.   Hungry Girl is a great website that promotes yummy, healthful foods, and I have found dozens of great recipes from her, including Sliced ‘n Diced Fajita Steak Salad:

6 cups chopped romaine lettuce (we’ll use whatever greens are in season)

6 oz. raw boneless lean top sirloin steak, sliced

8 oz Coke (the recipe calls for Diet Coke, but I prefer real sugar)

Small onion, sliced

Yellow bell pepper, sliced

Red bell pepper, sliced

1 cup salsa

sour cream

8 baked tortilla chips, crushed (we left these out)

The recipe didn’t call for the following but we added these ingredients:

1 cup corn kernels

1 cup black beans

plus, you can add any seasonal salad veggies

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Marinate steak in Coke for app. 30 minutes–refrigerate meanwhile

Spray skillet with non-stick spray, and turn burner on med-high.  Heat pan, and add steak and marinade.

Cook until steak is brown (a couple of minutes).  Remove meat, but leave juices in pan.

Lower heat to medium, add onion to the pan, return to burner.  Cook a couple of minutes.

Add peppers, and cook for another minute.

Prepare individual bowls with salad greens; add steak and vegetables.  Top with salsa, sour cream, and crushed tortilla chips.

Makes two entree-sized servings.

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The results? The steak takes on a slightly sweet taste, which is a good contrast for some of the bitterer salad greens.  The salsa makes a tasty topping for the lettuce (and satisfies me without the fat of the ranch dressing), and I always enjoy the sweet pop of the corn kernels.  Leftovers can be used for great wraps, too!

I’ll try to post pics after we enjoy our Fajita Salad supper.  Edited to add:  I forgot the beans and corn this time!  I was so sad, too, because I bought a corn cob just for the occasion.  Here’s a picture of the finished product.  It was yummy!

My brother-in-law and sister-in-law have decided to only eat meat from local sources, so we ventured out for a double date to a fairly new local restaurant called Farmers Gastropub, which offers meals made from local ingredients.  The restaurant’s website said they decided to go local for “for health reasons, for social/economic reasons and for environmental reasons.”  Sounds good to me.

To find the best local produce, Farmers Gastropub has an employee visit farmers markets to buy fresh picked vegetables.  Because of the seasonal nature of their ingredients, the menu changes frequently to feature the freshest picks of the week.

If you visit Farmers Gastropub, know in advance that there are two seating areas: the Bistro and the Pub, with distinctive menus.  For our visit, we chose the pub, and we felt cozy in the dimly-lit wooded dining room.  In addition to the tasty foods, many visitors brag on the pub’s selection of beers.  We choose to eat on the pub side because the menu had familiar foods such as burgers and fish and chips.  In addition to the regular menu, diners can select from the daily specials.  Before visiting the restaurant, “friend” it on Facebook to see their current specials.

On our visit, I chose to try the daily special: chicken marsala.  The mushrooms were savory, but the teeny flecks of local tomatoes really stood out.  My sister-in-law had a burger, topped with the reddest tomato I’ve seen in a while.  We all envied her tomato.  Apparently, it came from a local source that used a greenhouse to get a headstart.

My husband had the fish and chips.  While the fish wasn’t a standout (not compared to my mom’s homemade catfish), it was good, but the definite favorite of his plate were the “chips.”  These were hand-cut french fries topped with the exact right amount of salt.  What made them especially delicious was the slight sweetness of the potatoes.  Yum!  I’m getting hungry just writing about them.

We all felt a tad sorry for my brother-in-law who had ordered a version of shepherd’s pie.  The serving just didn’t look like enough for a grown person.  However, he did say it was tasty.

Overall, it you are wanting to try a new experience and enjoy foods created from the bounties of local gardens, be sure to give Farmers Gastropub a try.  The servings are a tad on the lite side for the prices; however, you are supporting local farmers who are raising the meats and vegetables in human, sustainable ways.  Eat well and feel good doing it!

Corn on the cob is making its preview appearance on the grocery store shelves.  No, it’s not local, but I can’t help but grab a few ears.  When sweet corn is juicy and sweet (aided by a tablespoon of sugar added to the boiling water), you can’t eat it without making some satisfied grunts.  I can’t wait for the local stuff to become the star of the show!

YUM!

I’ve tried some local milk and started eating my local vegetables, but I haven’t ventured into local meat yet.  Well, other than at the recent wild game feast I attended with my oldest son.  His Cub Scout den has a wild game feast each year, with the meat provided by the hunting lads and their dads.  I like to call it the Beast Feast.  This year’s feast featured deer pizza, deer summer sausage, pheasant, and red fish, as well as side dishes.

As the buffet was introduced, our lovely host told which lad’s meat contributed to each dish.  I bet this made those little guys proud to provide food, not only for their families, but for their friends.  Having no hunters among us, our family took a spring green salad, made of course with the remaining veggies from this week’s CSA haul.  Even though we didn’t have any wild game to contribute, I thought the salad went well with the theme because it was local and hand made….and my oldest son HAD washed the lettuce.

As much as I talk about my youngest son being a picky eater, there are some areas where I am the one with food issues.  I wasn’t very adventurous in my eating of the wild beasts.  Instead, I took an extra serving of the good old mac & cheese.

I don’t remember where I saw these ideas, so I apologize for stealing them without acknowledgment.   If your family is in a rut of eating the same meals, you might consider adding these to your rotations:

Meatless Mondays

Fish Fridays

I’m going to try to get my family on board with these special menus.  I think we can, I think we can.