Tribute to the 2009 Season

Here's our tribute to the 2009 season. It's a picture book with a few of our favorite recipes thrown in to the mix. Click here to download for printing or watch in video form below.  We've also tagged our favorite entries for the season with 2009 to make them easy to find.

Special thanks to our CSAs:

Two Small Farms
Frog Hollow Farms
Hidden Villa

It has been an amazing, satisfying year!

Thanksgiving Dinner

WONDERFUL dinner tonight.  Thanksgiving with a twist -- Indian food.  Not "Indian" as in Pilgrims and Indians, as you might have guessed, but curries, gobi, naan, pakoras, onion bahjis.  Appetizers were multicultural and included our third pass at cipollini tartes tatin, this time with red cipollini.

Our dear friends Dave and Judes hosted a fantastic meal, menu as follows:

• Prawn Curry
• Turkey Curry
• Pumpkin and Spinach Curry
  
• Gobi
• Brown Rice & Naan

Dessert was spectacular too, chocolate croissant bread pudding and pumpkin pie, compliments of Laura.

Family Heirloom Recipes

Holidays like Thanksgiving are rich in tradition.  Many families repeat the same meal year after year, generation to generation.

One family heirloom recipe from my mother's side is "pink dip".  My grandmother, Nonie, made it often and it was a standard part of our holiday meals.  It's a chip dip recipe from the 50s that goes incredibly well with salty things, like pretzels and potato chips.

Careful, it is addicting.

Nonie's Pink Dip
Makes just over 2 cups.

4 - 3oz packages of Philadelphia cream cheese at room temperature
2T plus 2t milk
2T plus 2t red french dressing, like Kraft Catalina
1/2 cup ketchup
2t Reese onion juice
1/4t salt

Combine and blend till smooth.

What are your favorite heirloom recipes?

Dr. Weil’s Roasted Winter Squash and Apple Soup

This week's box contained:

• Mystery (carrots)
• Arugula
• Watermelon Radishes
• Purplette Scallions
• Beets
• Fennel
• Purple Cabbage (traded for more beets)
• Mystery (pumpkin)
• Apples

Hard to believe we've got one week left this season.  It has been a fantastic season.

Carrots: baked carrot oven fries.  It is that time of year...

Arugula: considering we've got fennel on hand, this arugula will be added to tartines later this week.

Watermelon Radishes: pickled for sure.

Purplette Scallions: likely another batch of Scallion Flatbreads.  We made these in September and they were great.  Our substitutions are listed here.  The recipe makes far more than two people can consume, so we froze the leftovers as a test case.  They were fantastic!

Beets: roasted and tossed with balsamic.

Pumpkin: along with squash from past boxes (delicata, Rugosa, and acorn), we roasted the pumpkin to make Dr. Weil’s Roasted Winter Squash and Apple Soup, which was good. The cilantro-walnut-jalapeno pesto included at the same link was amazing.

Apples: into the soup as well as used to make this Apple Walnut Gorgonzola Rustic Tart.  ...d.e.c.a.d.e.n.t...

Box Contents November 6, 2009

This week's box contains:

• Leeks
• Chantenay Carrots
• Romaine Lettuce
• Mystery (sweet potatoes)
• Curly Parsley
• Green Onions
• Gold Cipollini Onions
• Mystery (apples)

Sadly, only TWO boxes left this season!

Leeks:  I finally tried the braised leek recipe from the New York Times.  Very flavorful, but a bit rich.  Next time I'll cut way back on the olive oil.

Chantenay Carrots:   No idea at this point.  Maybe carrot fries, maybe some winter veggie stew...

Romaine Lettuce: prepped and ready for a salad, not sure we can actually make ourselves eat it, but...

Sweet Potatoes: I came across a recipe for Butternut Squash Crumble in this week's Boston Globe and made it for lunch Saturday, subbing diced sweet potatoes for the squash recommended. Very tasty!  Great the next day too.  Highly recommended as a Thanksgiving side dish.

Curly Parsley: with two bunches on hand, I have to go for sauces to freeze.  Research on parsley sauces led me to this: Fresh Corn and Shelling Bean Ragou.  Another good find.  We topped it with  gremolata, which was absolutely necessary based on the sweetness of the ragu.  The remaining parsley will turn into my favorite pesto.

Green Onions:  no idea on these either - maybe into that stew with the carrots...

Gold Cipollini Onions: we made another round of tartes tatin; this time around was not as successful as the last.  Recommendation: practice making these before serving them at a party...

Apple: I made this Apple Cake on a whim.  Good, but not great.  My mom used to make something spicier -- Ozark Apple Cake as I recall.  Mom, if you read this please post your recipe...