What’s for Dinner
So we’re loving our new CSA box from J&P Organics. For two-thirds the price we were paying in San Francisco, we’re getting equally hefty boxes stuffed with beautiful veggies. This morning our box held a pint of beautiful cherries (yesss), two pints of jewel-like strawberries, four oranges, a bunch of carrots, a head of lettuce, a bunch of kale (Ah…my old friend…), three smallish heads of broccoli, four avocados (NUM!), five zucchinis, and eight little red potatoes.
I also have a cauliflower left over from last week, so tonight we’ll have cauliflower cheese and a big salad incorporating the broccoli and carrots, and maybe some bacon. Tomorrow night I’ll make the avocados into guacamole, and we’ll pick up chips and a roasted chicken from the awesome Mexican supermarket a few blocks done, Mi Pueblo. Mi Pueblo really deserves its own post, with pictures, so I’ll leave it at that for now. Tomorrow I also want to make one of the pints of strawberries into strawberry bread, because strawberries go off really quickly and I’m not sure that even Robin can polish off two pints in two days. Other than that we’ll eat all the fruit straight.
Monday we’ll have apricot-glazed chicken breasts with steamed and buttered zucchini on the side. We generally have leftovers from the apricot chicken recipe, so on Tuesday I’ll put those into a quick-and-easy rice dish with some sauteed onion, and maybe some more of the zucchini. Then Wednesday I’ll use the potatoes and kale in a pot of caldo verde. Thursday, I don’t know, maybe Louisiana-style red beans and rice. Then Friday will be for leftovers.
June 26th, 2010 at 7:45 pm
Hey, Sweetie, I forgot to thank you for sending the alegria (what you called an amaranth cookie) from Mi Pueblo. I’ve never seen them for sale in the U.S., so it was very exciting to receive one from Oakland. That place is amazing.
Nanita
June 26th, 2010 at 10:24 pm
Oh! Tell me about alegrias! They’re traditional?
June 27th, 2010 at 5:30 am
VERY traditional. Alegrias are survivals of the ancient tradition of making figurines or even large “idols” out of popped amaranth seeds. The Spaniards tried hard to squelch amaranth production altogether due to the big role it played in Aztec rituals, some connected with human sacrifice in which the blood was evidently used as a recipe ingredient. Even today you can find little skulls, especially around Dia del Muerto. But mostly they’re round or square confections widely sold as snacks. Amaranth seeds, like quinoa, are much higher in protein than corn, wheat or rice, so they’re more nutritious than a rice crispy bar, even when over-sweetened. Robin might be interested.
June 27th, 2010 at 9:13 am
That’s so awesome! Thanks for the info! I’ll see if I can get Robin to eat one…
June 28th, 2010 at 10:38 am
Shannon, I love your blog — it is entertaining AND educational. Thanks, Gail!
June 28th, 2010 at 11:09 am
Can you believe my mom was all like “I’m sorry for posting that boring comment in your blog, normally I would have sent it to you in email but I was short on time…”???
See, Mom? Everybody likes to get the chance to read your comments!
June 29th, 2010 at 7:59 am
MOER ETHNOBOTANY PLZ
not only is it interesting, but now I know that I should buy amaranth/quinoa snacks for Silas if I get the chance! I bet he’d like them. He likes most of that sort of thing: rice cakes, oat cakes, etc.
June 29th, 2010 at 8:05 am
I bought another of the alegrias for Robin, and he did eat about half of it!