Due to the fact that we had about a pint of jam in a tupperware and then another 1/2 pint popped so that it had to go in the fridge, Kate declared that it was to be jam cookies.

This was basically a sugar cookie dough rolled thin, with a dollop of jam, then baked.  I am not good at shaping them.

They're tasty, distressingly tasty.  They're good for breakfast, lunch and dinner...

So...  blueberry jam!

My first canning in some time and definitely the first here in NJ.  The last time I made jam I put it in pint and quart jars that were way too big.  We'd open one and then throw a lot of it out (unless it was being used in baking).  So, this time:  1/2 pint jars.

Easy as, well, jam:
0) Pick through and wash berries
1) Berries, lemon juice and spices into the pot
2) Squish it all up with your potato masher
3) Add pectin & bring to a boil
4) Add sugar & bring to a hard boil for a minute
5) Off the heat, into the jars
6) Process for 5ish minutes (I did 10ish for kicks)
7) Stick in basement and eat as needed

I don't understand how one of the farmers at the Trenton market can make anything close to a profit.  Last week I bought 12 pints of blueberries for $20.  This week, I had a coupon for $15!  We're eating them much more slowly this week (only 3 pints so far! I ate 3 pints last Saturday by myself).

We also picked up a pint of plus, nectarines and sour cherries.  I sucked down the cherries in a 30-minute session of joy.  I'm such a fan, but I only knew of one sour cherry tree within 40 miles of us in NH.

My goal for Tues or Wed is to make some jam.  I'm thinking of making some blueberry spice jam.  It's basically blues, lemon, sugar, nutmeg, & cin.  Should be super easy and I'll can it up and be all happy in the winter with tastes of summer.

This week in the CSA:  chard, beets, cukes, zuch, corn, garlic, onion and scallion.  Nothing really on-tap for those things yet.  I'll probably do zuch bread, since that's fast, easy and tasty.

Cleaning out the fridge...

I knocked off 3 zuch with Zuch pie.  It was super easy and dang tasty:


4 cups chopped zucchini (chopped small)
A few cloves of garlic
1 small onion, diced
1 cup flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ cup Italian grating cheese (Romano, Parmesan, or Asiago)
½ cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
Salt & Pepper
Fresh parsley (optional)


Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Mix all the above ingredients together.
Pour into greased 8 or 9 inch square or round baking dish.
Bake at 375 degrees F. for 45 minutes (or until nicely browned).

Also...  lots of salad (I've started making honey mustard dressing because I love it)!  Plus, some grilled potato on the fourth when we also pounded out bulgogi and marinated tofu and carrot-apple salad.

Finally, there's been red-lentil, sweet pot, and chard curry going on in the house for a few days.  That was dang tasty and pretty easy to make.  I did it up early in the morning to beat the heat and then let it hang out for the day.

Summary:  most of the big leafy greens are gone and we're down to just 3 beets.  So, not bad right now, hopefully it's not another box with 3 heads of lettuce tomorrow.

CSA values...  We stopped being CSA members when we lived in MD for a couple years.  We signed up when we were moving after a year while in IA.  The IA CSA was amazingly cheap ($150?) for the summer and literally there was so much food we didn't know what to do with it.  I made tomato sauce like a maniac!

The MD CSA was something like tripple the price for one grocery bag of veg per week.  It was decent produce and I did like the fact that it was super-local, but there was an amazing farmer's market that was even closer and we went there every week anyone (partially?  mostly? for the scones).  So, it just didn't make sense (especially on our salaries at the time).

For 3 years in MA and 3.5 years in ME we had amazing CSAs, great prices, good selection of veg and super convenient.  We still went to the farmer's market with frequency, but often it was as a cultural excursion (and for pastry).  For example, Heron Pond Farm was $550 and we were working hard to eat it all, but (as an example) this week includes 2 tomatos, 2 zuch, 2lbs of potato, 1 pint of peas, 2 onions, 1 head of lettuce, 1 bag of greens, 1 bunch of chard, and a bunch of carrots (we looooove carrots, they are like orange crack).  See, it's a good mix, makes sense together and would be a good, but not unreasonable amount of anything for a week (turnips and rutabagas in the winter are a different thing, too many).

We moved to NJ and we got into a CSA that's about the same price (a little more, but NJ costs more, so that's fine), but has a MUCH bigger client base (2700 households, it's got to be one of the biggest in the country). It's certified organic which our two previous weren't, so that's probably a bit pricier too.  But, let's compare shares;

3 heads of lettuce (after getting 4 for the last 4 weeks)
1 bunch of beets
1 bunch of chard
1 bunch of onions (4)
2 heads of garlic
2 zuch

So, less diversity, more overwhelming quantities of one product (we're now turning into lettuce fairies), and less quantity in general.  What since rolling into the Trenton Farmer's market I'm strongly considering not renewing for next year.  I'm underwhelmed so far and can see easy ways to get my fill of local produce with better variety and balances, plus, we're almost certain to head to the markets a lot anyway...

I haven't written anything about food since we moved to NJ...  I feel like I should rectify that.

Today's food news:  (1) picked up the CSA box.  Inside I found chard, 2 enormous heads of garlic, a bunch of onions, 2 zuch (to go with the 6 already in the fridge, MUST do something with them), a bunch of beets (to go with the 4 in the fridge, gah) and...  3 heads of lettuce.

The heads of lettuce are becoming (really, have been for the last few weeks) a problem.  See, the CSA has been giving us 4 heads of lettuce for the past 3 weeks and heads of radiccio and other salad greens. 2 people just don't eat that much lettuce...  I'm trying to look out for the neighbors, offer them lettuce n'stuff.

In looking through the fridge I discovered a 1/2 pint of peas, so I ate them while driving about.  They were from the farmer's market a few weeks ago, so the outsides weren't great, but I opened them up and ate the tasty green goods inside.

It's hot enough here that I'm against cooking, but I've got to do something with the beets.  So, we appear to be at an impasse.  Otherwise, I may or may not have acquired 12 pints of fresh-picked blueberries from a local farm for $20 and eaten 2 pints so far today.

french fry disenchantment

So, four-fifths or so of us have moved to Princeton, New Jersey. How does that math work, you ask? Well, I'm here full-time, thanks to an unexpected job opportunity. So that's one half of us. Tim will be here more or less 60% of the time - the great majority of the summer, and about 3.5 out of 7 days during the school year. So, .5*1.00 + .5*0.60 = .8, or four fifths. Does math actually work like that? It really isn't the point of this post.

The point is: there are no good french fries in princeton, and this makes me sad. There were two very good places for fries in Portsmouth (though neither of them ideal): Coat of Arms for fatty steak fries and Portsmouth Brewery for decent hand-cut style fries (not to mention decent sweet potato fries by UNH at Young's, and Duckfat if I go as far as Portland, and many places in Boston...). I have had five different restaurants' french fry offerings so far in Princeton, and they all pale in comparison:

• Witherspoon Grill: overpriced, underflavored
• Efes: completely unacceptable -- limp, greasy, especially compared to so many good fries I've had at Mediterranean places (but I ate them anyway)
• Winberie's: average, boring
• Triumph: they're the double fried ones, maybe lightly battered. not a big fan
• Zorba's Grill take out: probably the best deal of them all for the price, but still nothing special

Honestly, the best fries I've had were at Rocky Dining Hall. I'm hoping that as I broaden the search over the summer, that I'll find something decent that isn't as far away as The Continental in Philly or Pommes Frites in NYC. I suppose it's not such a bad thing that it takes an hour to get good fries - it could mean I just won't eat fries that often... but, knowing me, it probably just means I'll eat bad fries and be sad. The search continues.

beet risotto

Beet Risotto--

1) take some small beets, skin and grate them.

2) Chop up an onion and some garlic (2T ish)

3) Take your fancy-pants risotto pan, put it on the stove-top on high-medium

4) Throw 4T of butter in, or whatever randome amount of butter that you've got, add some olive oil too.

5) Toss in the onion and let it soften until it's translucent

6) Add the garlic, cook a bit

7) Add the risotto (1C) and stir it about for a while (I wandered off and did something in the basement). While that's happening, warm 3C of water in your water-boiler and mix with bullion or whatever you're using (I do about 1.5C of bullion by the package dilution)

8) Add the beets and about 1C water. Then, as the water cooks out, add 1/2c at a time all the while stirring.

9) After adding all the water, add 1 slightly old lemon worth of juice and grated peel.

10) Add 1/2 c (ish) of nice cheddar cheese.

11) Add a splash of balsamic vinegar

12) Grate some parm on top...

Eat. Also, you can add some sort of greens.

Chicken Rama

I wanted Thai for lunch on Monday, but my co-worker who I was eating with claimed that because she was having Chinese food on Tuesday, she didn't want Thai on Monday. I decided that it wasn't worth arguing about the differences between the two, and had a very tasty chicken pesto sandwich and sweet potato fries. As soon as I got home, I searched for an easy Thai recipe to put together, and this is what I settled on. The chicken is poached in coconut milk - I like cooking braised/poached meats because it's harder to overcook them. The sauce comes together easily, and could be adjusted for spice levels easily as well.

Chicken Rama (adapted from food.com recipe)
serves 3-4

1 can coconut milk
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 -1 ½ lb boneless skinless chicken , cut in 1/2 inch pieces
1 tbsp chunky peanut butter
1 tablespoon red curry paste
dash of fish sauce
3 tablespoons brown sugar
½ cup finely chopped roasted peanuts


1. Add coconut and ginger to a medium saucepan over medium heat, and stir until well blended. Bring it to a boil, add chicken pieces, reduce heat, and simmer  5-7 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through (i.e., no pink remains).

2. With a slotted spoon, remove the chicken and transfer to a bowl; cover and set aside. If any coconut milk accumulates at the bottom of the bowl, just pour it back into the saucepan.

3. To the saved coconut milk, add the peanut butter, red curry paste, fish sauce, brown sugar, and chopped peanuts. Continue cooking over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 10 minutes or until the sauce is creamy and not grainy in appearance.

4. Add the chicken, and heat for another 2 minutes.

5. Serve with steamed white rice and broccoli.

Notes:

• The original recipe calls for a lot more fish sauce. I pick the fish sauce out of dishes really easily, and err on the side of extreme caution when cooking for myself. 
• The original recipe says creamy peanut butter, but all we ever have in our house is chunky. I upped the amount, too, and decreased the sugar slightly. I like my sauce good and peanutty.
• For curry paste, I used Spice House Thai Red Curry Powder, and just dumped it into the sauce without thinning with water. I love everything that Spice House produces. Using powder might have made the sauce's consistency thicker than it would've been if I used curry paste.

Apple pancake

1) Heat your oven to 450 or 425, whatever.

2) Chop up 3ish apples (4 if they're small or you like more apple)

3) Mix in a bowl: 1/2c flour, 2 eggs, a bit of salt, 3/4c dairy liquid (milk, half & half, not-yogurt)

4) Melt some butter (1T+) in a pan, throw the apples in and put some brown sugar in (maybe 1/4 cup, dark or light, I usually use dark because I like it more)

Sautee it all for a while, til the apples are nicely browned.

5) Pour the batter over it, I leave it on the stove for 30 seconds after that. Toss it in the oven, turn down the heat to 425 (if you had it above that) and let it cook for 17 minutes.

6) Take out of oven. Cut into pieces. Wait for it to cool.

7) Eat.