ah, that makes sense, imported from Georgia! Usually I haven’t seen corn at area farmers markets until late July or early August. I wish we were closer to Volante!
I thought there was a great farmers market in Somerville? I know it’s not the same (once weekly vs any day) but maybe it helps? Wilson Farm in Lexington might also be a little closer to you.
Oh yes in Somerville, the Union Square FM is large and excellent, on Saturdays, and one of our favorite farms, Kimball Fruit farm in Pepperell, is there and also at the Somerville Davis Square FM on Wednesdays, and in Cambridge at the Central Square FM on Mondays and at the Charles Hotel on Fridays and Sundays. Two Concord farms, Hutchins and Drumlin, also come to Union. All of these farmers markets are only allowed to sell what they grow, so no imports from Georgia and no corn soon!
Wilson Farm is closer to us than Volante, but we don’t make it out there often. We should plan a field trip with multiple stops when it’s not as hot as today. We love to spend time in Concord at the farms, the bookshop, the cheese shop, and at the historic sites, North Bridge and others. Walden Pond is nice in the winter, when you can actually park.
Greetings, People.
I’m craving Tex Mex and Greek Diner food, so that’s what we’re eating alot of this upcoming week. Using up leftovers or grilling on the Big Green Egg, it’ll be all about the right marinades, sides, and condiments.
Cooking for two adults in the PNW.
FRI: Carnitas with corn tortillas. Refried beans, and red rice. Pico de gallo. Avocado.
SAT: NYT’s Original Nachos (gift link). Tex-Mex chicken wings. Beans and rice. Pico. Guacamole.
SUN: Old-school, hard-shell chicken tacos. More pico & guac.
MON: Pork souvlaki. Scallion couscous. Raita. Greek salad.
TUE: Lamb kebabs. Pita. Raita. Greek salad.
WED: Chicken souvlaki. Pita or couscous. More Greek salad – yay!
THUR: Burgers on the grill. DH making his famous home-made potato chips.
Hi everyone
Back at mom’s for a bit, so menus and planning are more day-by-day.
Mix of actuals for the past week and ideas for the coming week (we’re entertaining more than usual):
Past few days:
— Sushi / kimbap bowls: spicy salmon, sesame carrots, wasabi cabbage slaw, avocados, furikake
— Mom’s roast chicken & potatoes, beet salad
— Porcini ravioli & farfalle (bec not enough ravioli) in a pesto cream sauce + asparagus salad with lemon and parmesan
— Goat biryani
— Indian Chinese: hakka noodles, fried rice, chilli chicken, paneer Manchurian, wonton soup, truffle edamame dumplings
— Chinese: mixed mushroom cheung fun, har gow, pan-fried noodles with vegetables and black mushrooms
Ideas for the week:
— Chicken quesadillas / veg quesadillas + tbd salad
— Chicken momos / veg-paneer momos (frozen) + veg soup
— Pork tenderloin pinchos morunos (milk st recipe) + beet salad + spanish tortilla
— Chicken / Paneer Satay Bowls (using TJs sauce) + cabbage slaw + rice
— Masala Fish Cakes (Gunpowder recipe) to use up the rest of the salmon from the sushi bowls + salad
— Spicy grilled cheese (Gunpowder recipe) with some potato added to the mixture + tbd salad
People coming over menus:
— School friend: Malvani chicken + green beans + millet rotis + rice (no dessert — she’s always on some insanely restricted diet, it’s a miracle I could put together a menu after the list she sent me )
— Family: Thai vegetable / paneer & shrimp curries + veg cutlets + pasta gratin + rice + carrot cake & custard
— NYC friend with her whole family incl parents: Mom”s fish curry + dad’s dry masala prawns + puris (incongruent but the kids & her dad love them) + potato bhaji (with the puris) + rice + kulfi & mangoes
I was going to bake but we are flush with bread and cake products at the moment — I brought croissants and bagels, plus there are 3 kinds of birthday cake we are slowly working our way through . So maybe in a week I’ll start working down the list of top faves here — focaccia, no knead bread, banana-chocolate bread.
Wish you all a stay-cool weekend and tasty week!
Voting is underway for Cookbook of the Month (Quarter):
The countdown is on - only 3 hours until my staycation starts! I am dealing with three toxic managers this week and my union rep isn’t responding to my emails or voice messages right now. I am trying to take deep breathes and hang in there until the end of the day then I will deal with things when I return to work. I’ve been in this situation before and the behaviour stops when the managers find out they are on the union’s radar but it’s stressful none-the-less. I’ve only picked out two or three activities to take in during my two weeks off so I will have to get on it this weekend. There is an exhibition of Canadian women war artists at one of the museums in town and there is a pop-up market I would like to go to on Sunday afternoon. I also hope to squeeze in a shopping trip to the west end (Merivale Road for those who are familiar with Ottawa). My menus for this week are as follows:
Today: My take-out lunch today was Korean fried chicken. I will have a salad for dinner tonight.
Saturday: Fridge and freezer cleanout day. I have been taking some food out of the freezer and adding others without updating my list so I no longer know what I have in there! Today is the day I deal with it! Dinner will be anchovy pasta with capers and some spring mix on the side.
Sunday: Off to a pop-up market. Dinner will be a shrimp risotto.
Monday: The agenda for today is to find out what exhibitions are on at the museums this summer and to find out what’s showing in the movie theatres. I will also find out what’s on during Canada Day this year although I will most likely watch the noon hour concert and evening show from the comfort of my living room I have never liked crowds much and covid has made my dislike of crowds even worse… I will have ribs for dinner which I have in the freezer now I just have to figure out how to cook them
As a side dish, I will have “As You Wish Vegetables” from the Woks of Life.
Tuesday: An Asian Chicken dish from one of my Anne Lindsay cookbooks. It’s like a wrap-and-roll dish using cooked chicken, and vermicelli noodles wrapped in lettuce leaves.
Wednesday: Beef stirfry with vegetables.
Thursday: Fettucine al pesto, spring mix on the side.
Have a nice weekend everyone and I hope you are all surviving the heat.
Good luck with the jerks. And enjoy your staycation!
Actuals for June 17 week, cooking for 2 in very wet MN. We seem to (at last) have enough -to- too much moisture. The rhubarb patch which looked so abundant for first 2 harvests hasn’t shown promise of a robust 3rd - we may get one more cake from it. Last weekend’s homemade buns went quickly - several used for BBQ pulled pork lunch sandwiches and one for a breakfast treat egg with diced peppers & cheese sandwich. More bun dough is rising now. Today’s planned dinner of Beef Satay (Paula Wolfert Unforgettable) got moved to Monday - my cubed beef didn’t thaw overnight, and I need to shop for lemongrass.
Mon: Oven roasted pork tenderloin w onions and BBQ sauce. Cheesy grits. broccoli
Tues: Shredded pork BBQ on homemade buns, chips
Wed: Orzo pasta Italian sausage soup w tomatoes and spinach. Cheesy breadsticks (commercial frozen)
Thurs: Reheat Orzo pasta Italian sausage soup w tomatoes and spinach. Cheesy breadsticks
Fri: Salmon, spinach souffle, baked potato, sliced orange. Later dessert – strawberries and ice cream
Sat: Ham with spirit glaze (frozen after Easter), sweet potato, Kings Hawaiian roll, steamed stir-fry mixed veggies.
Sun: Crab/artichoke spread/dip, homemade buns, stir fry mixed veggies, sliced orange, BAKE bread machine homemade buns
Wednesday’s soup looks good - thanks for the link!
Hi everyone, cooking for three in the Boston burbs. I’m sitting outside enjoying the breeze - a nice break from humid upper 80s after a few days of rainstorms. We had a pleasantly quiet weekend and are now gearing up for Summer Activities. DS starts working as a counselor-in-training at our town rec center camp tomorrow, and I’m curious to see how he handles the 4-6yo crowd
Sun (tonight): one-pan roasted fish with cherry tomatoes and shallots (NYT, using halibut). Fresh corn on the cob - just steamed, no futzing with it after last week’s disastrous orzo/corn mess - and fresh peas! I am not a pea person but I LOVE fresh peas. I’m also planning to make this carrot-quinoa salad for my lunches this week.
Mon: ground chicken (not beef) and broccoli ramen stir fry
Tues: I have an all-day work offsite, so shortcut of pasta with red sauce and frozen meatballs.
Weds: chicken souvlaki (original recipe from Real Simple magazine but I’ve tweaked it over the years)
Thurs: tentatively the SK garlic lime steak rice noodle salad which I didn’t make last week due to last minute outings
Agree! Will help put a dent in the pile of spinach that isn’t salad
Kinda all done spinach salad for the year
Every year I mention “smoothies” as a solution for CSA greens (credit a humerous article published by CH’er “The Dairy Queen (TDQ)” under her pen-name for the lament “We turned down dinner invitations with friends, saying - Sorry, we can’t. We’ve got lettuce.”)
Greetings, People.
Despite on-going gray skies, it will be a busy week in the garden as we reach peak pea and strawberry. Thus far I’ve put up a quart-and-a-half of shelled baby peas and over 10 quarts of hulled and cut strawberries. No time for project cooks at dinner time. To feed ourselves will be grazing in the yard, while at the same time hopelessly trying to work down the freezers to make way for this year’s incoming produce. Cherries and blueberries are not far out - a glimmer of actual summer, perhaps?
In the meantime, cooking for two adults under grey skies in the PNW:
FRI: Roasted salmon with herbs. Salad with the last of the Green Goddess dressing.
SAT: Shrimp, snow pea, carrot, and noodle stir-fry.
SUN: Mini wontons from the freezer (space hogs - good riddance!). Sesame asparagus. Rice.
MON: Chicken diavolo. Caesar salad.
TUE: Pork-and-sage pelmeni from the freezer. Squash mashed taters. Roast carrots.
WED: Steaks on the grill. Garden veg.
THUR: Pan pizza. Salad.
July is just around the corner - Here’s a new planning discussion Weekly Menu Planning - July 2024
Actuals for the last week of June, cooking for 2 in MN. Where 60-degree chilly mornings have spurred soup and oven-meal lunches, and warmer evenings have been celebrated with meals on the back deck. Some volunteer analysis work for my favorite nonprofit has me happily sorting, filtering, summing and formula-creating on spreadsheets this week. (yeah, weird, I know) and I’m hoping to finish this first phase today and tomorrow. It was good to make larger-batch meals to mix/match as leftovers, leaving time for other pursuits.
Mon - Wed: Beef Satay, coconut rice, varying side -mixed veggies sliced orange, kiwi, red grapes, tossed salad spinach salad.
Thurs - Sat : Copycat Wildfire restaurant Chopped Salad, guac in place of avocado - note timing on that recipe is AFTER all ingredients are prepped. I allow an hour.
Thurs dinner: Baked (commercial - Gorton’s) breaded fish, mixed wild rice, asparagus, tossed salad.
Fri - Sat: One pot white chicken lasagna soup This was a hit and a half-recipe made 5-6 very generous servings. My substitutions were using shredded rotisserie chicken, minced dried onion, full amount of beans and spinach, and skipping the flour roux.
Sat dinner: Steak Caesar salad, with added asparagus, tomatoes, h.b. egg. Sliced orange. The steak was a meat-counter-marinated black garlic beef sirloin, which is frequently on-sale in a 6 oz. portion. Perfect size for topping 2 salads, thinly sliced after cooking.
Sun (today): Sheetpan meal - smoked beef kielbasa coins, with potatoes, peppers, zucchini, onion. Caesar bag salad