What I made with our CSA week 2

I always seem to start out each post talking about how I haven't posted in a long time. Maybe, just maybe, I have an excuse this time; we bought a house. No more tiny kitchen!! Whoo--hoo! I'm keeping the name though. It has a nice ring. Besides, our new kitchen is smaller than my dream kitchen so...

We started with our CSA again this year. This is week 2 of our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) from Bluebird Gardens. The CSA is the best money we can spend on food. We get fresh veggies once a week and we get to go pick veggies at the farm. I love it. Last year, at the end of the season, we picked so many awesome things; pumpkins, melon, mushrooms, brussel sprouts, beets, carrots, and tomatoes to name a few.

In this week's box we received turnips, spinach, green onions (my fav), romaine lettuce, garlic scapes, and cabbage. The head of cabbage this week was pretty small which is fine for the two of us. Last year when we went picking the heads were as big as a human head!

Last night we made grilled pork chops, hash-browns and sauteed spinach. I was able to use the spinach, green onions and garlic scapes for this yummy side-dish.



First I chopped up shallots, green onion, garlic scapes, and garlic and grated some lemon zest. This is what the fancy folk would call a mise en place (miz on plas) which is "everything in place"--it's your prep work where you chop, dice and prepare everything you'll need for cooking. This is my favorite part of cooking (except eating the onions whilst they saute in butter).

 

Once that was prepared I heated up my skillet with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil (give or take a tablespoon). I tossed everything in except the lemon zest and added salt (kosher) and pepper. I kept the heat around medium for a few minutes and then turned it down to low so it could sit and carmelize. 

After about 10 minutes it was time to add the spinach. I added the lemon zest first though--to the onion mixture. So--I added the spinach and about 1/4 cup of water and turned the heat up to medium. I tossed them around and then put the cover on. At first it always seems as though you have WAY too much spinach but quickly it reduces down (wilts) and what your left with is a tender, flavorful green. 

 

It didn't take long, maybe 4 minutes and the spinach was done. Make sure to check on it though otherwise you'll end up with green mush. 

The final plate (sorry for the blurry picture)

This was a great meal. The pork was from Amor Pork, the hashbrowns where purchased but the rest came from Bluebird. It was a healthy and almost items were local.