Greetings,
It has been another pleasant week. Rain showers over the weekend are helping to germinate the seeds we planted last week - greens, lettuce, spinach, carrots........ Today, after picking your produce, we spent time cleaning up spent crop residue and weeding. It is always a challenge later in the season to keep up with weeding, but it is still important as weeds let go at this time of year will go to seed and leave many years worth of seed for us to tackle later.
This week we will also bring another group of chickens to the butcher. We have had a great response this year and as a result have been completely sold out for the last two weeks. If you are interested in a freezer order later this fall, please get your request in soon so that we will be able to fill it. Thanks!
In your basket this week.....
Carrots -
Tomatoes -
Cherry Tomatoes -
Cucumbers -
Lemon Basil -
Austrian Crescent Fingerling Potatoes - These are known as the "king of the fingerlings" and are a great salad potato. Also delicious simply boiled, steamed or roasted.
Zucchini -
Peppers - Sweet and Hot -
Swiss Chard -
I have once again found a great looking recipe on www.101cookbooks.com that I think you will enjoy. Please refer to the website for pictures and comments on this recipe. It was also suggested that you might use quinoa in place of the couscous.
Cherry Tomato Couscous
Keep your eyes peeled for whole wheat or barley couscous - either would work great here. You can easily make this vegan by leaving out the feta - maybe do some sort of harissa drizzle instead?
3 cups cooked couscous*
1/2 a basket of cherry tomatoes, halved
1 medium cucumber, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1 cup cooked chickpeas
1 lemon, cut in half
1 lime, cut in half
about 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
fine grain sea salt
freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup basil or cilantro, chopped
1/3 cup feta cheese, crumbled
Combine the couscous, tomatoes, cucumber, and chickpeas in a large bowl. Lori - squeezes the lemon and lime juice directly into the bowl, so start by giving a good squeeze of lemon and lime juice into the bowl, add the olive oil, and some salt and pepper. Toss well, taste, and adjust with more of the above until it tastes just right. Lori notes - this really needs a generous amount of salt, and the lemon and lime juices might need to be adjusted depending on how juicy the fruit is.
Add the basil and feta and toss gently until it is evenly dispersed.
Serves 4 - 6.
*To cook the couscous: Either follow the package instructions or bring 3 1/2 cups of water to a boil, stir in a scant 2 teaspoons fine grain sea salt and 2 cups of couscous. Cover and remove from heat. Steam for 5 to 10 minutes and then use a fork to fluff up the couscous.
101 Cookbooks http://www.101cookbooks.com/
Over the weekend we enjoyed some homemade pizza. Simple and delicious with fresh ingredients. Here is the crust recipe from my friend Glenda Bos. I whipped it up in my KitchenAid in no time at all and we went grocery shopping while the dough was rising.
Pizza Dough
1 1/2 cups warm water (110F)
1 (1/4 oz.) pkg active dry yeast (or 2 1/2 tsp.)
1 tsp. sugar
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup semolina flour
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. salt
Combine water, yeast, sugar and stir.
Let sit until foamy (5 minutes or so)
Add 1 1/2 cups of flour, the semolina, oil, and salt and mix until smooth. (I didn't have semolina, so I substituted some whole wheat)
Keep adding flour - 1/4 cup at a time with the mixer running until all the flour is incorporated but the dough is still a little sticky.
Knead until smooth, but still slightly tacky, 3-5 minutes, adding little bits of flour if needed.
Oil a large bowl and place dough in the bowl, turning it to oil all sides of the dough. Cover the bowl and set in a warm place until nearly doubled in size (1 - 1 1/2 hours).
Divide the dough and roll into 2 round crusts (or whatever shape you need to fit your pan).
Bake in a 475F oven
We brushed the crust with olive oil and prebaked it for about 10 minutes and then added toppings and finished baking. Toppings included, halved cherry tomatoes or thinly sliced regular tomatoes, cheese, basil (add this after you take it out of the oven), green peppers - use your imagination! You could probably experiment with this and try prebaking and wrapping and freezing the crust to use later.
Have a great week!
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