To Support Community Agriculture: Marriage & The Weekly Meal Plan Edition (Week 1)

Usually, our meal planning is willy nilly. I go to yoga a couple times a week, so that means Michael is in charge of cooking those nights, and the other nights I'll cook. Usually, we decide what to make the day of, maybe we talk about it, but usually it's a solo effort.

But, when we signed up for our CSA we realized we'd have to switch it up, in order to ensure all of the goods were used. And, Michael said, we weren't just making stuff! We'd make new stuff! We'd make a but concerted effort to try new recipes. The bonus of our CSA is that it lets us choose our crops, but going into our first meal planning, we had no idea how much we would get of each item. Quantities unknown, eagerness nowhere in check, minds racing as if we had 20 minutes on the clock to impress Aaron Sanchez & Geoffrey with his glasses, we began.

Sitting together on the couch, we had dogeared magazines: 2 recent Bon Appetits, one Food & Wine. I had an inbox full of recipes I send myself to "remember." Michael had his imagination and a cookbook or two. We knew we'd be receiving:

• Strawberries
• Collard greens
• Pea shoots
• Lambs quarters
• Sautee greens (hearty mixed greens)
• Rainbow chard

We're homebodies, generally, but this week I had two work happy hours. So Michael would be on his own for two nights. How long would things last? What went with what? Would there be leftovers? Should we make separate lunches? What the f*** are lambs quarters? But, if I'm going out, and we're trying to save money, you should eat the greens! I might have said that. I might have suggested that I have all the fun and my husband should sit home by himself eating just the greens. EAT THE GREENS. 

Then, well, strawberries would be for lunch, an easy agreement. Collards, Michael's specialty, would be for dinner. But, wait, do we cook pea shoots? I have a recipe in my inbox for stuffed collards! But, I'm making collards. Rainbow chard is sort of like collards? Can I switch them out? [Googling: stuffed chard-- yes! Yes, okay.]

natural ombre.

Our marriage will survive meal planning, right? I asked. Maybe we should stop talking about this for now, I said. Then, I forgot about that BUT THANKFULLY remembered that there was a pea shoots recipe IN bon appetit! And, I could serve them with fish! Actually, not a bad idea. Things were coming together, and even though I was desperate to have the WHOLE. WEEK. PLANNED. Michael assured me we could go to the market again during the week and not just on Sunday and things would be okay. Spoiler alert: they were okay, great even! I mean, I did not make enough stuffed chards for the week because they were itty bitty. And we went to the grocery THREE times (compared with 5? 6?) But, we're alive to tell about it. In conclusion, Michael is planning this week alone. (It's not so dramatic; he has the week off of work, etc.)

So, here's what we ended up with:

the sautee greens are unaccounted for in photos too! michael sauteed them for me for friday lunch with my herby rice.

Monday: Roasted chicken & collard greens

Lunch for some of the days: Swiss chard stuffed with rice

including chard stems. + so many herbs. don't use basmati rice.

stuffed with this rice + made this way. next time, i'll insist on collards. unless the chard leaves are bigger.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: Lambs Quarter Pesto Pasta

Friday: Crispy pea shoots with gremolata + hake.

shoots with garlic & shallots. gremolata with the same + mint + parsley + lemon zest. 

To Eat Lunch: Brox Cakes & Cucumbers Edition

I refuse to do any lunch preparation in the morning. I wake up at 5 and depending upon the state of my hair am out the door between 545 and 6. So there's no brain space to be like, "ohhhh what should I eat at noon?" I also really like the rare treat when I can make a lunch once and not have to prep anything during the week. You're like what're you talking about this prep? Like a salad, you buy the ingredients and then every night have to prepare it so things don't get soggy or gooey or gross. 

Anyway, I made these broccoli fritters. EXCEPT, I used 12 oz of broccoli (she used like 7?) and I cut the flour down to 1/4 cup. I did that to use up the whole bag of broccoli and didn't want to dry them out. They're so broccoli-y! Which feels healthy and like the right move. I forgot to add the Parmesan cheese! So maybe they're lacking a little zing. Don't do that. AND, I grated TWO garlic cloves instead of mincing one, DO that. I made a yogurt sauce for the side. DO that, too! As a side dish I had:

I chopped up cucumbers, added some couscous from the other night and threw some cherry tomatoes into that adorable lunch pail my husband bought for me. MEANWHILE, the paprika on the couscous just keeps getting smokier as the days go by! Anyway, it's a nice filling lunch with some crunch, greens, smokiness, and coolness.

To Begin Anew: Duck Confit with Harissa Carrot Salad

We started a new thing this year. And I liked it, a lot. We made a fancy New Year's Day dinner that incorporated all new things: new meat to cook, new recipe to try, and new technique. Duck, carrot harissa salad, and confit-ing, respectively. It was all so new you guys!

by the way: this is not one serving. we are pigs, but within reason. #weddingplatter

This year, the idea to make duck confit came quite easily. We've never done any sort of confit-ing nor have we made duck.

The duck (which has a HIGHLARIOUS typo result; look to the right of the "d" key) came out perfectly tender. It was a little salty, but that's probably because the salt was too fine. The basic technique of confit-ing is probably a good one to know. PLUS, when you do it the half-assed way that we did, you end up with a bunch of left over duck infused oil. YUM.

More or less: dry brine the duck in salt & herbs over night. Then, cook it for over an hour in a LOT of oil. Then, roast it. I'm no expert on confit-ing. So, I'll just leave that to you. You can ask Mark Bittman. He helped us a great deal. (Actually, just go ahead and buy that book. You won't regret it.)

For a side, I knew we needed to have something with acid, definitely a vegetable, and maybe some greens. I picture restaurants serving duck confit over a pureed potato, or something, but doesn't that just make you think of warm brown on top of warm white and then gag a little? Too much warm neutral colored food. (Though, on second thought, I've had this dish and loved it. Confounding.)

BACK TO VEGETABLES, on Christmas I awoke to Yotam Ottolenghi's  Jerusalem. (!!) I first got to know of him when Lynne Rosetto Kasper (host of The Splendid Table podcast and most rotund, glorious, jovial of all the podcast voices) interviewed him. He focuses a lot on vegetables, and when I (and many) think of him it's like an explosion of flavors. So, there's two ways to look at his recipes:

1. Shit. I can't make this, there are too many spices I don't have/have never heard of!
2. OMG. Now, I can make a list of a million spices to buy and make my pantry a bazillion times better.

I feel the #1 way if I think about making his recipes on a random Tuesday. I feel #2 when I have the foresight to plan. And we had time to plan. So I chose to make his carrot salad. And it was so flavorful: acidic, warm, bitter, sweet. I don't think I've ever had harissa before, either. I bought it this time, but sometime this year I'll make it too. I may have cooked the carrots a little too much because GET THIS. When you use fewer ingredients than the recipe calls for, you might need to adjust the cooking time! I forget that an embarrassing amount of the time. Writing will help me remember.

It was a sumptuous feast and it's a really great tradition for us, I think. Next year may be a bit more challenging to invent all new things because Mauerbaker is convinced he'll cook something new every week. But, we'll cross that bridge on December 31st.

To Remember Eating

I like to cook.  I plan excitedly for weeks in preparation of visiting a new city; I try to find restaurants and any unique foods that city has to offer. I love planning menus for my friends and family to enjoy, whether at my house or as a guest somewhere else. Mostly, I love to eat and think about eating and remembering what I ate (this last part though, I'm pretty lousy at).

about to eat have barbecue sauce all over my face. ribs, detroit.

But which recipe did I use? I know I added something, but what was it again? Which restaurant in Istanbul had the amazing fried eggs and bread with a million jams? I know I made meatballs for the Chinese New Years party, but what else?

So, this blog is to help me remember, to help me learn. And, to share with you as I go. It's like a food journal, just not private and not to track what I eat so I can eat less.