Dining Out: Lucky Old Souls Burger Truck

Take a look at that cheese. 

CSA pickup means a busy evening.  Sous Chef Brian comes home with the foods and then we sort through the fridge and do what needs done.  This time, that meant making zucchini bread and salad dressing to make room for a giant cabbage.   Things get frozen, chopped, blanched.  There are dishes to do.  

So, in a brilliant business decision, there is a burger truck at our CSA pickup.  Because people who are bringing home pounds of amazing fresh local veg and don't want to face it all, those people want a burger.  We are those people. 

CSA Summer 2012 - The Goods - Week 3

Week 3, the reckoning.


I look forward anxiously to the summer CSA all year and its magical berries and veg, and then at some point it hits.  This was that week.  It's on.


The farm described this week's haul as "cornucopic" which is a word I'm going to have to bring into rotation.


This is the week where we weren't all that close to done with last week's veg and then it all came in.  The week I was afraid to look at the fridge.

Eating Seasonally and Whipped Jello

One of these things is not like the other. 

This is something called whipped Jello.  You take Jello let it set a while, and you whip it, then you let it set longer.  It is not food.

A friend of mine asked about a statement I made about having been eating seasonally for a few years.  We do, generally, eat our produce seasonally.  That means that while I buy tofu and chicken and mustard and couscous and kidney beans year round, I only buy tomatoes when they're here.  "Here" means that someone local (within a state or two) grew them and they're ready now.  

Sundried Tomato and Basil Crackers

My basil plant is thriving, which is a shock, because last year I killed a handful of them.  Looking for new uses for the abundance of sweet leaves, I thought back to crackers.  There's a cracker we've liked that's crispy and wheaty with sundried tomato and basil.  I can do that. 

I started with the flavor.  Dried tomato from Margerum's, via Winter Harvest and still fresh in my fridge, basil from the backyard and a bit of parmesan.   You can totally leave out the parmesan, just add a bit more olive oil and salt.  The crackers don't taste cheesy.  For cheese crackers, try something like the Mac and Cheesy Crackers I made last year.  These crackers are based on the recipe for the Thyme and Onion Crackers I wrote about more than a year ago (!) but they're tangier and almost spicy. 

CSA Summer 2012 - The Goods - Week 2

For years now, I've spearheaded this CSA thing at Saturdays Mouse HQ, and beyond the CSA part, the change in how we buy and cook food in general.  Sometimes I get all gender-role irritated about it, wife's gotta cook and shop and all of that, but mostly, I'm just glad we get such good food.  

This year, things have shifted.  The one drawback I see to our CSA this year is that Sous Chef Brian has to pick it up, so I'm never actually there.  Yesterday, he came home with the produce and told me it was, "magical."  Not the produce, which, from what I can tell, looks pretty magical, but the picking up.  Going to the farm and choosing the asparagus and interacting with other members and all.  I'm so jealous!

But it's especially awesome, because as I've hinted before, the farm market is wonderful until it's crowded and angry there and sometimes it's hard to go there on the weekend, knowing I'll be elbowing for asparagus.  Sous Chef Brian has opted out of that this season - he really hates it.  So if picking up the produce at the CSA gives him that wonderful farm market experience without the hate, everyone wins.  And I don't have to go to the market on the weekend. 

So yesterday, Sous Chef Brian went to the magical farm with the pig and the chickens and picked up all this gorgeous veg.  Honestly, the first time I saw the veg was when I was uploading these pictures.  Photo credit to Sous Chef Brian.