Zucchini with Cilantro and Garlic: yum!

A fellow CSA friend told me she made a zucchini and cilantro soup -- don't have her recipe (yet) but got great results taking her idea and adding a handful of cilantro to my microwaved sliced organic zucchini (with a little water, butter, and dash of sea salt)-- this last time I added garlic: yummy. I imagine I could have pureed it and gotten a great soup because you certainly want to enjoy the buttery zucchini water. Maybe next time. In the meantime, my share partner gave me the lion's share of our box: 11 pounds of vegetables and fruit. Hey, neighbor, ya wanna zucchini, heh heh! [Is this a throwback to PRETZELS, a musical review by Jane Curtin and Fred Grande that I was in way back when? -- It may be.]

Pumpkin soup

Pumpkin soup
Originally uploaded by Kate Anne

Easy to make soup from CSA organic pumpkin: delicious!

I was inspired from Tassajara Cooking by Edward Espe Brown. "The way to be a cook is to cook." The recipes in the book are sketchy but even sketchy recipes work as a recipe depends a lot on the flavors, size (relative, unless measured, and even then preference matters more), and intensity of the ingredients. The CSA season has ended and I had two small pumpkins which my share partner ceded to me. (She was pleased to be gifted with some of the soup!) I took one and dived in:

Ingredients:
Pumpkin, onion, (sea) salt, (olive) oil, water, cinnamon, nutmeg

After removing seeds and stringy stuff, cut pumpkin (unpeeled worked) into one inch or so chunks. take a onion (mine was large not huge), and saute for two minutes, add the pumpkin and saute five more minutes. Then add 1 cup of water and simmer covered (stirring occasionally) for about 45 minutes until soft and watery. Puree in blender or food processor, add a little more water if necessary. Heat. Add a little sea salt, then kiss each serving with some grated cinnamon and nutmeg. Perfect for a stormy night -- or a sunny day -- whenever you have an extra pumpkin. Not just for jack-o-lanterns or pie!

CSA Pasta #1

CSA Pasta #1
Originally uploaded by Kate Anne

Kale, wheat fettucine, garlic, crushed red pepper, EV olive oil, oregano, sea salt, frozen veggie stock cubes to finish cooking -- yummy way to use up the CSA kale. Actually made something similar to use up swiss chard. Used rotini pasta -- fried garlic with some CSA onion in the EVOO but omitted oregano. Another version used some cherry tomatoes: nice touch.

Yummy CSA Food

Yummy CSA Food
Originally uploaded by Kate Anne

Breakfast included delicious CSA cantaloupe. Marion Nestle would approve. I am currently reading her book What to EAT: An Aisle-by-Aisle Guide to Savvy Food Choices and Good Eating. CSA = Community Supported Agriculture -- see SunnysideCSA.com.