Snack

This blog and my knitting blog have been suffering from some serious neglect.  

I'm in a big decluttering phase right now and energy is definitely going towards unhitching myself, and my family, from environmental (and emotional) baggage.  I sense that as we get deeper into Fall, and certainly by Winter, that I will be more focused on nourishing through food and fiber.

Apple season has arrived in the Garden State.  Our CSA fruit orchard has plenty of apples and we've been enjoying a variety of flavors and textures.  Lately, snacks are an apple and something salty/crunchy.

Today, the kids and I cleaned out and reorganized the pantry.  We found the Chinese rock candy we picked up at an Asian market over the summer.  It rounded out the snack offerings nicely :-)

Tomato salad

Our good friend Mike is stopping in for lunch today.  He is in the midst of a cross-country drive.  He always brings with him his big laugh, shining eyes and rat-a-tat chatter about topics far and wide.  We're all excited to see him.

We're slapping together sandwiches with cold cuts and picking up potato chips to go on the side.  I decided to attempt a recreation of Red Sox Daddy's tomato salad from the other night.  It's nothing revolutionary and this is not a "recipe" per se.

But, doesn't it look good?  I'm letting the flavors marry a little before I take a taste.  With these ingredients it's hard to go wrong.  I think it's going to be delicious.

Here's what I used this morning:

4 ripe tomatoes from the farm: 2 large red and 2 small orange, cut into chunks

5 very small cloves of garlic from the farm, pressed (RSD chopped his)

8-10 smallish leaves of basil from the farm, chopped

salt and black pepper, to taste

my very best olive oil (Falconero), a very generous drizzle

Farm fresh

We're knee deep in tomatoes from the farm and peaches form the orchard (the veggies in my lunch all came from our CSA share).  

For lunch today, I tossed together some leftover corn (sliced off the cob), cut up tomato, finely chopped onion, salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar and Falconero evoo.  Toasted up some Udi's multigrain sandwich bread, spread it with mayo, and had me an open-faced salad sandwich.  Summer had a party in my mouth :-)

Greek tofu salad

I'm working the CSA shares with more ease this season. The mindful thing is kicking in a bit more organically with each new moon. With a lot of fresh dill on hand, I was inspired to make this simple, cheap and tasty dish. I had my salad over some leftover jasmine rice.

You can find the recipe here.

Pickled radishes

Delightful.

These are tasty, crunchy, colorful, and, easy to prepare. You can find the recipe here. (The link is wonky at the moment. If you are unable to access the recipe and are interested in acquiring it, let me know and I will e-mail it to you.)

I'd never had pickled radishes before. We received some in our CSA share last week and it was cool to be able to use them all.

Liquid gold

I'm making chicken stock today. 

I use the recipe from Nourishing Traditions.  I bought this book when we lived in Sacramento.  It was part of my Waldorf experience at the time.  The book is interesting and has a lot of recipes and information.  As much as I appreciate the philosophy behind these recipes, I haven't used it much except for this stock recipe which is my tried-and-true.

So, my morning began with, among other things, chopping celery, onion and carrots, and cutting up a whole chicken (with gratitude to the chicken and Havenwood Farm).  It was a meditation.  Especially cutting the chicken which I do not have down to an art yet.  It pulled me right into the moment.  Quietly alert, awake and aware.  Alone and yet connected.

I can still smell the celery, onion and carrot on my fingers.

P.S.  I think it's going to be quiet here this week.  I've been under the weather and not so much in the mood to test new-to-me recipes, am wicked behind in other things, and will be going away for the Easter weekend.