During our laundry fest yesterday, Bridgett and I talked food too. Our conversation got me thinking about our food habits.
I've blogged about this stuff a lot. Seems I have a lot to say on the matter. Surprise.
First things first though. Things like this green egg among the brown ones give me a little lift. I know that there is a kind of hen that lays green eggs, but I can't remember which kind -- Mindy probably knows. Anyway, I made these whole grain pancakes for myself this morning. I get the mix and the eggs from you know where and the mix is way too healthy for the rest of my family. Too many oats and wheat berry chunks. They'll only eat it if I mix it with Busquick and even then, they notice.
Fine. More for me. I didn't use the green egg though. I saved it.
If I was a better blogger, you'd have a picture of a stack of slightly raggedy pancakes (this stuff does not make round pancakes) with a little bit of I can't believe this is not butter melting down the sides (I'm out of butter) and some Marble Creek Sugar Leaf Maple Syrup pooling on the plate. (More CSA stuff, this syrup, and it's worth every penny. It takes about 50 gallons of tree sap to make a gallon of this syrup. Stuff of the gods.) As it was, once the syrup was on the pancakes, all bets were off. ; )
Back to the food discussion. Memberships to the CSA to which we both belong (Community Supported Agriculture thingy) are about up for renewal. We both decided that we'd do it again this year. We both know people who've quit for various reasons: too much food (I get that); wanting to cook with different things and feeling pinned down to the seasonal fare (not so much.) Not judging, just disagreeing.
I love the fact that I come home with this random assortment of things and I love the challenge of fixing meals from the assortment. I'm looking forward to the spring greens season and asparagus season and tomato season. I don't much buy that stuff out of season here so I develop a hankering for it. It's kind of fun to wait for fresh tomatoes, for instance, and then to have the first one of the season and then to have way too many and have to freeze them.
I'm not really a recipe gal. I put things together and most of the time things work. I have a good cooking foundation (my mom and food network and lots and lots of cook books) and I've got adventurous eaters (for the most part) to feed. I've also got big eaters. A whole roast chicken lasts for one meal at my house unless you count using the carcass for stock. I keep a deep pantry too. Lot's of ingredients grouped in flavor or cuisine families -- italian, mexican, bistro style, comfort food from the 70's(although none of the ingredients for a tuna casserole come from the CSA... wait, potato chips and cheddar cheese...) -- you know. A kind of food.
Like, you can make a risotto with anything as long as you have stock and rice. Ditto a sauce for pasta. Any vegetable can be roasted as a side dish for grilled meat. Or sauteed with wine and bacon. Seriously. Carrots, onions, wine and bacon? Yep. Lick-the-plate yummy.
So the CSA appeals to me on a culinary level, but it also appeals to me on a justice level. On a planetary one. Less packaging, less travel, support local businesses. The CSA food is local (for the most part -- the coffee is roasted locally ...) and fresh. I like the discipline of using these things that are abundant right now. Turnips don't generally appeal to me or my family, but roasted and gravied up? They'll eat them. And ask what they are. We talked about the potato famine at dinner the other night as a result of eating turnips. Tatties and neeps... know what that is? Ok, not Irish, but Scottish ... British Isles anyway.
Bridgett and I also discussed the fact that we still shop at the local grocery store, but at about $50 a week, the CSA probably saves us money. I have to buy meat, because while the CSA has roasts and the like, they aren't usually big enough for our family. Bridgett had a deer to contend with each year so she doesn't buy as much of that kind of thing as I do. We both buy booze and junk food too. I probably buy more of that kind of thing than she does. She doesn't have teenagers yet. We both have milk delivered by a local(ish) dairy.
Another fairly regular (probably quarterly) source of food for my family is Time for Dinner. I go every few months with Amanda (of the comments) and some friends and while we fixed 12 dinners for the freezer, we discussed our CSAs. If you haven't done this kind of thing before, for about $200, you go in and they have all of the fresh ingredients for perhaps 18 different dishes. You choose what you want to make and then you make it and package it for freezing. They've chopped all the peppers and onions, they've skinned all the chicken. They've done the mise en place, basically. They clean it all up too (that being the best part of all).
I left with 12 six-serving dinners, many of which I split into 2 3-person servings -- perfect for when Hubster's traveling. My downstairs freezer is full, full, full. The kids ate several of their pizza calzones last night. Easy, peasy. And I made them -- no preservatives or packaging outside of the zipper bag I brought them home in...
Tonight? Time for Dinner vegetable lasagna with CSA roast chicken. Both are thawing in the fridge right now. Then we're off to see The King's Speech. Sound like the perfect Saturday? It does to me.
(Oh, and my Hubster and progeny will cart all those boxes up to the storage closet upstairs and I'll have my house back.)
(And another thing -- Hubster's doing some yard work outside wearing his sweater. That makes my heart sing. Life is good.)
I think the chickens that lay green eggs are aurocanias but I'm not sure I spelled that correctly. I love our CSA!!
Posted by: Carole | January 15, 2011 at 03:31 PM
You said everything I would say. Man I can't get words out these days! And oh my gosh that picture of my kid (on yesterday's entry, so lazy am I) is over achingly cute.
Posted by: Bridgett | January 21, 2011 at 08:56 AM