Using last week's food

Working backwards from this morning's breakfast, here are recipes I've used this week with my share of food from Fair Shares CSA.

Monday Breakfast :
My youngest daughter had hand picked eggs from Pilgrim's Acres Egg and a sausage patty from Hinkebein Hills. I love this descritpion from Pilgrims Acres about their pasture raised eggs. "Our hens are out in the pasture with our cows. They range around, finding delicious morsels all over the ground while pulling apart the cow patties, thereby spreading the fertilizing properties throughout the pasture without the use of fossil fuels! Synergies in God's creation are fully utilized to bring you farm-fresh, healthy eggs, from happy birds." And the info from Hinkebein Hills about their pigs is great, too, "All animals are raised outdoors in pastures and pens in sunlight and fresh air. The products offered by Hinkebein Hills Farm are all natural and the difference is in the taste." I have to agree. I tasted both the eggs and sausage and think they tasted wonderful.

I had a bagel with Triple Crown preserves (rasberry, strawberry and cherry) from Centennial Farms. This is a yummy combination, and one I highly recommend.

Sunday night dinner:
I wanted to make sure all the produce I had left was used in this meal to ensure anything with a short shelf life was used. That meant using the last of the mushrooms and two bags of lettuce. I opted for a meal of stir-fry lettuce, a fresh salad and pork tenderloin with sauteed mushrooms.

I used a recipe given to me by a friend from Cooks Illustrated magazine, March/April 2003, for a maple glazed pork. I used the maple syrup from Marble Creek, of Arcadia, MO. I missed a step and the pork didn't get much of the flavor from the marinade, but I did taste the marinade and it was wonderful. I ended up adding some of the marnade to the Ozark Forest fresh mushrooms I had sauteed with some butter, which gave them an instant punch. Overall I've been impressed with the maple syrup. The maple syrups I'd had in the past had a very strong, overpowering flavor, but this one has a mild, woodsy flavor.

I used a recipe from About.com for the stir-fly lettuce. The recipe called from iceburg lettuce, but I used a mixture of Ivan's lettuce in Ditmer and a spring lettuce mix from Yellow Dog in Warrenton. I know it seems like a waste to stir-fry such nice lettuce, but I wanted to make sure we didn't waste it and we can only eat so much salad. The girls and I didn't care from the warm lettuce but Scott liked the asian flavors and it all got eaten.

Which brings me to the salad. I used a combination of the above lettuces, added some feta cheese and made a dressing using the Triple Crown preserves from Centennial Preserves in Arcadia. The girls had seconds on the salad and it disappeared. I used a dressing recipe I found online from the Seattle times. Katie even used the dressing on the pork, which seemed like a good addition.

Saturday:
For breakfast I had granola I made with a recipe my sister and law sent me from The New York Times. It used the Marble Creek Maple syrup. I've been eating it with yogurt and blackberries. (I know, not local, but they were on sale and I couldn't resist.) I've enjoyed this granola so much that I have been giving sample baggies to friends and family to share the joy. I know I will be making more this week since, because in my generosity I am running out. I think roasting the pumpkin seeds and pistachios while it bakes gives it a toasty, slightly smoky taste.

The girls and I had the all-beef, grass fed hotdogs for lunch. They were yummy, too.

And that takes us back to Thursday when I made the Lemon Spinach pasta. This is the recipe I used. In the past we've used recipes that included yogurt, which made a creamier sauce, but I thought with the fresh spinach this one sounded lighter. The family loved it. As noted in last weeks message, I added asparagus and fresh mushrooms.


The only thing I didn't eat out of this weeks share was the black beans. They are in the freezer and will come out later. The package says cuban black beans and we love cuban food so this will be a great treat.

I still have some asparagus left and will be eating it tonight in a chicken and rice meal. I think it will be interesting to see if the flavor has changed since it has been in my refrigerator for 4 days. On Thursday it had a sharp, fresh flavor that I'd never experienced before.

Please share comments or questions about what I've done with my food. I'd love to hear how you would have used it.