THINKLIA

Showing 76 posts tagged food

High-res CSA: Week 1 This past Saturday was our first CSA pickup of the year from Colvin Family Farm. Brandon and I joined the Colvin’s CSA program last year after getting a chance to “test drive” a friend’s share the year before and loving the experience (and the challenge).  So here’s what we got in our box (which is a large share): Two gorgeous, gigantic heads of lettuce A big head of bok choy Green onions Swiss chard Cauliflower Two heads of broccoli Garlic Strawberries (not pictured… because they were being eaten) In addition to supporting local farmers and getting to eat the freshest and most flavorful produce, what also excites me about our CSA is the chance to try out new veggies and recipes. I’ll be relying heavily on Food Network and Epicurious for inspiration. Our goal this year is to eat as much of our share every week as we possibly can, and to preserve (can or freeze) what we can’t eat. We did a pretty decent job last year, considering it was our first time. (But we did end up losing a lot of the vegetables that we froze when we lost power at our house due to the tornadoes that left us without electricity for several days.) I can’t even explain how excited we are about getting our first share for 2012. We’ve been counting the weeks until pickup day at the Market Square Farmers Market since the CSA season ended late last fall. And now it’s here! Is it weird to be this enthusiastic about vegetables? :)

CSA: Week 1

This past Saturday was our first CSA pickup of the year from Colvin Family Farm. Brandon and I joined the Colvin’s CSA program last year after getting a chance to “test drive” a friend’s share the year before and loving the experience (and the challenge). 

So here’s what we got in our box (which is a large share):

  • Two gorgeous, gigantic heads of lettuce
  • A big head of bok choy
  • Green onions
  • Swiss chard
  • Cauliflower
  • Two heads of broccoli
  • Garlic
  • Strawberries (not pictured… because they were being eaten)

In addition to supporting local farmers and getting to eat the freshest and most flavorful produce, what also excites me about our CSA is the chance to try out new veggies and recipes. I’ll be relying heavily on Food Network and Epicurious for inspiration.

Our goal this year is to eat as much of our share every week as we possibly can, and to preserve (can or freeze) what we can’t eat. We did a pretty decent job last year, considering it was our first time. (But we did end up losing a lot of the vegetables that we froze when we lost power at our house due to the tornadoes that left us without electricity for several days.)

I can’t even explain how excited we are about getting our first share for 2012. We’ve been counting the weeks until pickup day at the Market Square Farmers Market since the CSA season ended late last fall. And now it’s here!

Is it weird to be this enthusiastic about vegetables? :)

High-res Even though today was much cooler than the days before, the recent warm and sunny weather has put me in a “fruity drink” mood. So this evening I made my first pitcher of sangria of the season. I used a bottle of Gnarly Head Cabernet, some Paul Masson brandy, a bit of Triple Sec and cut up Granny Smith apples and sliced oranges. Dee-lish!

Even though today was much cooler than the days before, the recent warm and sunny weather has put me in a “fruity drink” mood. So this evening I made my first pitcher of sangria of the season. I used a bottle of Gnarly Head Cabernet, some Paul Masson brandy, a bit of Triple Sec and cut up Granny Smith apples and sliced oranges. Dee-lish!

I was craving cupcakes. Good thing there’s a great cupcake shop nearby.

Oh, and yes, that IS bacon you see on the first cupcake in the second row of photos. It’s a limited edition Maple Bacon cupcake from The Cup. Yum.

Here’s the full list of cupcakes I bought (with descriptions to make your mouth water):

  • Maple Bacon — maple brown sugar frosting + bacon-topped maple pecan cake + toasted pecans and candied bacon
  • Gold Rush — chocolate buttercream + golden yellow cake + chocolate disc
  • Raspberry Beret — raspberry buttercream + french vanilla cake + raspberry filling
  • Red Velvet — cream cheese frosting + red velvet cake + red velvet crumbles
  • Grasshopper — vanilla mint buttercream + dark chocolate cake + Ande’s® Mint
High-res Dinner at Harry’s I woke up this morning with a craving for Harry’s Delicatessen — a great Jewish/Italian deli in downtown Knoxville that serves amazing dishes made of mostly fresh, local foods. Thankfully it doesn’t take much to convince Brandon to eat at Harry’s with me (because he loves it as much as I do), so that’s where we headed for dinner. Tonight I had the cider braised pork with roasted Brussels sprouts and polenta. Delicious! Last week (yup, I went to Harry’s then, too) I had the sweet potato gnocchi with chicken confit and braised kale. I could eat at Harry’s every day. Local and yummy — can’t be beat.

Dinner at Harry’s

I woke up this morning with a craving for Harry’s Delicatessen — a great Jewish/Italian deli in downtown Knoxville that serves amazing dishes made of mostly fresh, local foods. Thankfully it doesn’t take much to convince Brandon to eat at Harry’s with me (because he loves it as much as I do), so that’s where we headed for dinner.

Tonight I had the cider braised pork with roasted Brussels sprouts and polenta. Delicious! Last week (yup, I went to Harry’s then, too) I had the sweet potato gnocchi with chicken confit and braised kale. I could eat at Harry’s every day. Local and yummy — can’t be beat.

We had another “Secret Ingredient” potluck today, but rather than have an ingredient we had a theme: Famous person’s famous dish. For example, Paula Deen’s famous gingerbread pumpkin trifle. Or Elvis’ famous peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

Today, I decided to make Sir Paul and Linda McCartney’s famous mashed potatoes. I came across this video a few years ago, and it still makes me smile. Sir Paul is truly the greatest!