Tuesday, May 31, 2011

The Song of Spring Onions & Asparagus


Let's all take a moment and bow our heads in admiration for the baby swing which makes the writing of this blog post possible...

If you read this week's ShoppingMama post, you know that I've decided to make an effort to eat better, but not to worry too much about my calorie intake. I can't remember a time in my adult life that I haven't been hyper aware of the caloric value of what I was eating, even if I was eating something with a ridiculously high amount of calories. Like counting my billable hours when I still practiced law, I have spent years doing the math in my head at every meal, adding up the calories and either being proud of coming in under the wire or pushing down the shame of exceeding my limits while enjoying something sinful. But too many of the women I trust most have told me that a strict calorie count could affect my precious breastmilk supply, so I'm going to try my hardest to stop doing the math and just enjoy a good, well-balanced pig-out for the next few months.

We used the lettuce and some of the spring onions last night when we grilled a nice piece of steak and sliced it over salads. I also added some pecorino cheese that came in our last winter CSA share. My favorite salad dressing is a simple homemade one of dijon mustard, white wine vinegar, olive oil, and salt and pepper. Always a winner.

I came across this recipe in my Google Reader, yesterday, and liked it because a) it had a dijon mustard dressing and b) it could be made in starts and stops, something that is helpful when you have a little one who likes to wake up and feed just as you start to get into some sort of non-baby-related activity. It used our asparagus and a few of our spring onions, plus I love anything pickled! I did the pickling early this morning when Charlie and I got up for the day. Then I boiled the potatoes and cooked the veggies during his mid-afternoon nap. After I got him fed and into the swing, I chopped and mixed all the components and made the dressing, to be added at the last minute, before we eat. We will be pairing it with some grilled salmon steaks and BEER. Yes, beer.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Aaaaand we're back!


In case you haven't been following my other blogging adventures over here, Charlie arrived on April 18. We've had our adventures so far, but all-in-all he's been amazing. The only unfortunate thing is that it's been awfully hard to cook a nightly dinner, so our diets have suffered greatly. Of course, I don't need to worry too much about how much I'm eating since I'm nursing Charlie, but I would like to see the quality of my food intake go back to what it was during my early pregnancy and before.

I'm hoping that our first summer CSA share, which Charlie and I picked up this morning (see picture), will put us back on track. We finally got into the summer CSA at Greensgrow, which is much closer to our house than last summer's CSA. I'll miss going to an actual farm to get our veggies, but the convenience of Greensgrow can't be beat, as well as the fact that we can purchase garden plants/flowers and other food goodies while we're there. Plus, the fact that Greensgrow sources their veggies, dairy, and meat from a number of local farmers means that we get alot more variety from week to week. Here's what we got:

Asparagus
Red Leaf Lettuce
Leeks
Sweet Onions
Strawberries (beautiful strawberries, I might add)
Rhubarb
Beets
Dandelion Greens
Misty Morning cheddar from Calkins Creamery
Eggs

The only item that I'm wondering about is the Dandelion Greens. I think we got them in last year's CSA, but they might have been one of the casualties of our first weeks when we were still trying to figure out how to use everything. With Greensgrow, half share members only pick up every other week, as opposed to going every week and just getting less stuff. I'm hoping that two weeks between pickups will make it easier to plan and use everything we get.

We did get a TON of leeks and sweet onions. Anyone have any advice for how we might cook and save those items to use in multiple recipes over the next couple weeks? I was thinking we could somehow saute them and then freeze portions. Any experience with this would be greatly appreciated.