CSA Week #4: How to Eeet Beets

It's Pesach in May!  Not one but TWO heads of romaine lettuce this week.  Not to harp too much on one thing but dudes, if you think checking romaine lettuce is hard, then you're a lettuce pansy.  Red leaf is darker and curlier.  Romaine is practically flat!  But it's all green and yummy.

You know how when you were taught to check strawberries for bugs (which, FTR, was not a thing that I heard of until I was at least bat mitzvah), you were told that if you cut off the top and there's a hole down the middle, you have to cut the berry in half?  It makes your chocolate-covered ones rather less attractive.  Well, with local-grown in-season berries, that won't be a a problem:

CSA Week 3: More Salad

In this week's box:

• Arugula
• Spinach
• Green leaf lettuce
• Boston lettuce
• Radishes
• Beets
• Scallions
• Chives
• Tomato
• A cilantro plant

Are you intimidated by all the leafy greens yet?  It definitely takes some work, but there are a bunch of reasons why it's worthwhile.

Things My Husband/Toddler Eat: Green Chips

So, QE and I had some fun making green chips last week.  Kale chips are the hottest healthy snack going these days, and for good reason - but lots of frum people are put off making their own because curly kale can be a pain to check for bugs.  But one of my CSA newsletters last year mentioned that you can make them with other types of sturdy dark greens, which, it turns out, is the solution to the whole thing.  Collards are as cheap and easy to come by as kale, but the leaves are flat - so rinsing and checking is WAY quicker than with more complicated veg!  They taste more or less the same as kale chips once baked (ie: like salt and garlic), they're just slightly less cute.

Even with reducing wash-and-check time, making green chips is a bit of a drawn out process because you have to put them in a single layer on the pan and watch like a hawk so they don't burn.  But the satisfaction of seeing QE snarf her leafy greens makes it all worthwhile.  (To be honest, if you call anything a chip, she'll eat it). It's a fun afternoon activity around here.  Here's what to do:

• 1 bunch of collard greens (Or kale if you got some in your CSA or feel like dealing with it.  Or chard or mustard greens if you feel like being creative - anything sturdy and green)
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder
• Paprika

Um, I don't really measure with this one.  I wash the leaves, cut out the thick spines, and slice/tear what's left into small-ish pieces.  I drizzle with oil, sprinkle with salt, and toss them around in the bowl til they're all more or less coated.

Ok, here's the chap: because collards are flat, they can be annoying to lay in a pan and they don't bake quite as nicely as kale.  So what I did the other day, to good effect, is crumple some aluminum foil and put it in the bottom of the pan.  Then I lay the pieces in a single layer over that, allowing some airflow all around.  Bake 'em at 350 for around 10 minutes til crispy, but check frequently.  I'm in the habit of letting them burn.  Remove crispy pieces from pan, add more, and put back in oven.

BSB is lucky if there are any left by the time he gets home.

Things My Toddler/Husband Eat: "Obalars"

I know you think your kid is stubborn, but most of you haven't met QE. If that kid doesn't want something, she won't eat it, no matter how many times she's liked it before. In fact, she will convince you that there's pumpkin in the chicken soup, even when she helped make it and knows darn well that there ain't no pumpkin in that there bowl. But if pumpkin is her kryptonite for the day...

On the other hand, BSB is happy to eat pretty much anything I stick in front of him, and has been good about my homemade experiments. He gamely switched to letting me make the bread, and adjusted to my meat-is-usually-too-much-trouble-during-the-week attitude. When I suggested replacing his daily Nature Valley bar with a homemade granola bar, he agreed - as long as I could maintain the supply and not put too much fruit in them.

I discovered Playgroup Granola Bars a while ago, and thanks to QE's adorable baby mispronunciation, my whole extended family now refers to them as "obalars." I fiddled with the original recipe to make it a bit healthier, and then fiddled with it some more when I realized just how versatile it is.