FOOD!

Check out this video featuring Sarah and Alex from the farm!

Here is a shot of our pick-up for the week:

Eggs, Squash (bigger and more varieties!), Cucumbers, Radishes, Chives, Tuscan Kale and Boston Bibb Lettuce.  A few new things…exciting!  The most exciting part of today’s pick up was the beautiful little bird we saw on our drive out.  It was the brightest blue I ever saw in nature. Between my dabbling in bird-watching and the powers of Google and Wikipedia…I’m taking a guess that it was an Indigo Bunting.

On to the food…Sarah had recommended that since the radishes this week were rather large, we should try braising them.  We had been planning to do this sometime soon anyway, so we went with her suggestion.  Now, the challenge - to build a meal around butter braised radishes.  We decided on D’artagnan Duck Breast with Red Wine Cherry Reduction and Rice Pilaf.  Simple, no?  I am not a huge fan of duck.  I don’t mind eating it, especially if it is served in a yummy sauce, but I would not typically choose to eat it.  Julie loves duck, so it’s kind of like the lamb, but the opposite.  I also threw together a salad with the Boston Bibb and Cucumber and some other veggies we had in the fridge.  This makes tonight’s meal the leader for number of ingredients used from Uncle Bill’s!

Here is the duck breast, fat side down:

Here it is flipped, after the fat had rendered off and crisped:

The red wine cherry reduction:

Radishes, pre-braise:

Radishes, post-braise:

Radishes, ready to eat:

My head and the head of lettuce (two heads are better than one):

La Salade (If it doesn’t look French, at least it can sound French to fit the meal’s theme!):

Bon Appetit!

Ingredients: D’artagnan Duck Breast, Red Wine Cherry Reduction (Shallots, Garlic, Red Wine, Chicken stock, Cherries, Thyme, Salt/Pepper), Butter Braised Radishes (Butter, Scallions, Radishes, Salt/Pepper, Sugar, Water), Rice Pilaf, Salad (Boston Bibb Lettuce, Cucumber, Grape Tomatoes, Yellow Bell Pepper, Carrots)

Ingredients from Uncle Bill’s Farm: Radishes, Boston Bibb Lettuce, Cucumber!

If you’ve been following, you should notice one big difference in this week’s goodies!

Yes, the first batch of pasture raised chickens became available today, and we were able to snag one before they ran out. (This is not part of the CSA, but at an additional cost.)  We put that right in the freezer and hopefully once our summer weekend schedule calms down, we’ll roast it for a cozy Sunday supper.  What else did we bring home this week?  More beets, chard, curly kale, radishes, baby bok choy, eggs, and a new addition - summer squash.  The squash are just starting to be ready, so the ones we got were teeny tiny and they are hidden in the bottom of the basket.  I was promised by Sarah’s brother that soon they would be bigger and so plentiful that I will be wishing I didn’t have so many. 

Tonight we had a plan featuring the beets and chard.  This was a recipe that Julie found a link to on Serious Eats, a food blog she frequents.  Here is a direct link to the “French Peasant Beets”.  I love the note from the original cook: 

Between our CSA and garden, we found ourselves up to our eyeballs in beets a few summers ago. I concocted this dish as an homage to a simple French peasant dinner. When I explained the concept to my husband, he riduculed me, “What peasants eat boucheron and drink Muscadet with their beets?” “Um, French ones?” - Amy_N-B

We pretty much followed the recipe, except we didn’t have any golden beets.  The chard this week was much larger than last week, which was good because we were afraid we would be short on greens.  Here is one leaf next to my knife just to show you how big!

I chopped the greens, Jules chopped the beets:

I think I’ve already said this, but what isn’t delicious when cooked in shallots and butter??

This dish was very simple, all in one pan, and came together so fast.

With the addition of the bucheron and a nice, crusty, warm slice of bread, dinner is served.

Ingredients: Beets, Beet Greens, Chard Greens, Shallots, Butter, White Wine, Bucheron Cheese, Bread.

Ingredients from Uncle Bill’s Farm: Beets, Beet Greens, Chard Greens!