Kale, My Love

I know I have already shared with you our recipe for Bacon Kale, as well as my enthusiasm for it. With our giant head of kale this week, I insisted we make more Bacon Kale. So I don't have much to write about it. I do, however have a picture for you to ogle.

Think of it as bacon porn.

Also, this week we have actual photos of kale, so you can stop imagining what it looks like based on my extremely accurate illustrations.

Looks delicious, doesn't it?

Loot: Week 3 and How All These Weeks Are Running Together

This week at the farm stand we found more turnips, carrots, zucchini, summer squash, basil, more peas, lettuce, kale, and shallots.

You may have noticed that in the pesto pasta dish yesterday, there was fresh basil. Where did the basil come from, you may ask. It came from our week 3 loot. There are two possible explanations for this. One is that we're time-traveling vegetable-eaters, hopping week to week all summer to find the best ingredients for our favorite recipes. This is the cooler explanation, and the one I would prefer you believe.

The other explanation is that we're posting a couple of weeks after we are getting, cooking, and eating all these vegetables. And that some weeks, take-out sounds really good, so the vegetables are waiting (patiently, of course, because everyone knows that vegetables are patient) for us to get to them. Which gives rise to interesting combinations of vegetables that wouldn't be otherwise possible (you know, unless we went to the store and actually bought them).

For example, the garlic scapes from week 2 were photographed, mentioned in the loot post, and never discussed again. You'll see them pop up again in week 4, in a very tasty dish along with the shallots and summer squash from this week, and more garlic scapes and summer squash we have yet to get in week 4. So there you have it. Time-traveling vegetables.

Kale 2 Electric Boogaloo, This Time with Garlic

We picked up some kale again this week, although this time it was Russian red kale. I'm really not sure what the difference between regular kale and Russian red kale is, except that Russian red kale looks suspiciously like a kind of lettuce.

While regular kale, if you recall, does not.

Brian pointed this out when he got home that evening, and I swore up and down that I grabbed the bag labeled "kale" at the farm stand. In his defense, this wouldn't have been the first time I mistakenly grabbed the wrong veggie, but I was extra careful this time. "I swear I grabbed the kale. Like there was an arrow pointing to it with the word 'Kale!' With exclamation points and everything."

So we agreed to just cook it as if it were kale, and, lo and behold, it worked. Because it was kale.

To mix things up a little, we did not use bacon this time, but whipped up a delicious garlic butter kale. It also happens to be an Insanely Easy Recipe.

Butter and Garlic Kale:

Ingredients:
Kale
Garlic
Butter
Salt and Pepper

Steps:
1. Melt butter in pan
2. Add minced garlic and kale
3. Sautee, stirring frequently, until kale is wilted
4. Add salt and pepper
5. EAT

Loot: Week 2

Week 1 of our CSA experience went well. We ate well, had fun, and got through all our vegetables.

Week 2 was a little tougher. This is for quite a few reasons, none of which are particularly interesting, or related to the CSA. Jobs, small children, real life kind of stuff. We didn't feel much like cooking, so we took week 2 a little easier. Used simpler recipes, ordered some takeout (and wrote blog posts way after the fact).

Regardless of how we felt all week, the bounty from the CSA continued. We got fennel, beets, garlic scapes, red russian kale, cilantro, frisee, snap peas, cabbage, and of course a beautiful bouquet. None of these are particularly unfamiliar or difficult to prepare, so they're perfect for a lazy week.

Bacon delivery system

You have probably already heard of kale. It has been very popular of late. Some people like to bake it into a crispy chip-like snack food. Others like it sauteed, collard-green-style. Regardless of how you cook it, in our opinions it is a highly underrated vegetable. It's a dark leafy green, and despite our high-quality illustration, it looks nothing like broccoli.

Kale was no mystery to us, but we were damned excited about getting some. Already knew what we wanted to do with it. Because sauteed kale is an excellent excuse to cook bacon.

So one night, after we got The Kid to bed, Brian cooked the kale while I did something extremely productive and not at all a waste of time. A few minutes later, when the kale was done, Brian comes over and asks a question I always love to hear.

"Would you like a glass of wine?"

So we popped open a bottle of wine, one thing led to another, and not a shred of kale or crumb of bacon survived the night. I think Brian may have licked the bowl.

Sauteed Bacon Kale

Ingredients:
lots of kale, chopped
6 strips bacon
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/8 cup lemon juice
1 tsp-ish sriracha
generous pinch of red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste

Steps:
1. Fry up 4 strips of bacon
2. Remove bacon from pan, add last 2 strips of bacon, cut up into little bits, and fry 'em up until extra crispy
3. Eat first 4 strips of bacon
3. Add chopped kale to pan
4. Once kale has wilted, add vinegar, lemon juice, sriracha, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. Cover pan, and cook until tender (about 15 to 20 minutes)

The Loot: Week 1

Our vegetable share for week 1 was surprising.  Having never been a part of a CSA before, we were not sure what to expect.  More specifically, we were not sure how much to expect.  Certainly, it was not this much:

What a bounty!  We have green garlic and chives, kohlrabi and turnips, arugula, fava beans, a head of lettuce, and the biggest bunch of kale I've ever seen.  Granted, I've never cooked kale before, so it's possible that kale simply comes in very large bunches.

We also have a flower membership.  Every week we will bring home a bouquet of fresh-cut flowers.  (This may or may not be the primary reason that I wanted to do this in the first place.)  This week there are sunflowers, orange poppies, and a lot of unidentified white, yellow, and blue blossoms.  The photo doesn't do it justice.