Farm Direct Coop Recipesor. . . what you can do with your share!

Ooooh what a fun haul! We were super excited to see tomatoes! Really, there isn’t too much better than warm summer tomatoes. Except when you add a little salt. So. GOOD.

The goodies:

Week #5 was chockful of: black raspberries, blueberries, zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes, beets, carrots, walnut sourdough, basil vinegar and arugula.

I love the photos my husband takes!

It seemed to be a little cooler this week (or perhaps I have acclimated finally?) so I did more than just salad assembling. What did I do with this lovely haulage? Check it out.

Black Raspberry Bread with Whipped Creme

I was imagining a spongey, lemony, fluffy goodness of a bread. My husband pretty much wants everything with whipped cream (I am incredibly grateful for my KitchenAid stand mixer!) and I wanted something light and refreshing to accompany it.

I adapted it from this Lemon Blueberry Bread recipe over at All Recipes, which is a handy site (espescially if you’re wondering what to do with an ingredient you’ve got on hand. You can simply enter random ingredients into their search feature. It gives me lots of ideas when I get stuck.)

1/2 cup melted butter

1 cup sugar

juice and zest of 1 lemon

 2 eggs

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

1 pint black raspberries

Combine dry ingredients and set aside. Cream together eggs and butter for three minutes. Add milk, lemon juice and zest. Add dry ingredients. After washing black raspberries, toss in flour before adding to cake batter. This assures they won’t sink to the bottom of the bread. Which makes for prettier pictures.

Bake at 350 until it’s done. My oven took about 25 minutes.

For the whipped cream, I used about a cup of heavy cream (I prefer this to whipping cream as I feel it’s got too many unnatural ingredients and I don’t want monoglycerides in my food) and 2 tablespoons of organic powdered sugar. You can use a hand or stand mixer, or, if you’re looking to work your upper body, whisk it by hand! I topped the whipped cream with mint, because mint makes things look fancy. 

Caprese Salad

 I know, right? You can totally taste it. These tomatoes were HANDS DOWN pretty amazing. I wanted to really taste the tomatoes and make them the feature of the dish. I paired with slices of mozzarella, and farm share basil (from the potted herbs in week #1). I arranged in a circle, topped with extra virgin olive oil, cracked pepper and coarse salt. Suffice as to say, there was nothing remaining in short time. We loved it!

Roasted Zucchini and Summer Squash with Lemon Ricotta

Blogging pics of (mainly) everything I cook has opened my eyes a lot. I tend to make a lot of salad! I was trying NOT to do that this week. I decided to roast these up instead.

1 zucchini, diced into even pieces

1 summer squash, diced into even pieces

drizzle of olive oil

pinch of fennel seeds

pinch of cumin seeds

juice of 1/2 a lemon

Salt, pepper

ricotta

Preheat oven to 400. Add veggies and oil to a pan and roast for about 18 minutes. Remove from oven, add spices, toss, and return to oven for five minutes.

In a bowl, add a few spoonfuls of ricotta, and juice of the lemon half. Mix up, and plate next to the zucchini and squash. Add a wee bit more olive oil to the ricotta. They’re really good when you eat them together!

Roasted Beets with Rosemary

My girlfriend Anne and I could talk about food and recipes for days on end – and we sometimes do! So when she sent me a link for a recipe for roasted beets, I jumped right on it. We made the same thing for dinner that night. And when your dear friend is all the way in Kentucky, it’s a nice little feeling.

You can check it out right here: Roasted Beet Wedges

Moroccan Tagine

This is 1) a favorite in our house and 2) a total joke in some ways. I have “threatened” to make this on many a hot night, only to scrap it at the last minute. Hey, I always have the best of intentions. And while I can do lots of things, I can’t control the weather. So now “moroccan” is synonymous with “we’re-totally-getting-takeout-instead”.

I came across this recipe this past winter, and ohhhhh, I have been in love with it since. I used the farm share carrots for this little gem.

Moroccan Tagine from Bon Appetit is a great recipe. I make it exactly as it reads here. I think you could substitute ground chicken, turkey or ground meatless, for the vegetarians. It’s really REALLY good. I hope you make it and LOVE IT!

It was so hot during week 4, that on two occassions, we actually went swimming after work. When you’re driving to the beach, at 5:30pm, AC on high, there is not a lot of cooking happening. I was avoiding the kitchen like the plague!

And here’s what we hauled!

Week #4 meant: napa cabbage, cucumber, sugar snap peas, shelling peas, carrots, patty pan squash, black raspberries and raw cheddar.

Cucumber Salad

Super cool and refreshing – I love cucumbers in the summer! This was pretty simple and probably doesn’t warrant a recipe, but here’s what I put in there:

spinach

cucumber

grape tomatoes

avocado

scallions

chopped dill

raw cheddar

Assemble all in a bowl. Drizzle EVOO and balsamic over the salad. Top with kosher salt and coarse ground pepper to taste.

Salmon with Dill and Shelling Peas

This was a light meal that I made on the coolest day of the week! I roasted some asparagus in the oven (which goes really fast – less than 10 minutes). I shelled the peas and steamed them, then added a sprinkle of salt. They were pretty much perfect. The only item that might necessitate a recipe is the salmon. We used the dill from week 1, which is still going and growing strong.

1 pound of salmon (cut in half, feeds 2 people)

equal parts olive oil and lemon juice

2 tbsp chopped dill

salt, pepper

additional dill and lemon slices

Make marinade by mixing all ingredients in a bowl, save for the additional dill and lemon slices. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Brush marinade over fish, and if using rotisserie (like we did), assemble lemon slices and dill right before adding to basket. If you’re using a grill or oven, add lemon and dill before placing in foil. Wrap up, and cook.

Tempeh Salad

I have a soft spot for tempeh and tofu. I was vegetarian for 18 years of my life, and I still tend to lean that way. I usually eat these items for lunch (as to spare my poor husband from it!). So, I made a napa cabbage and mustard-marinated tempeh salad for lunch. Delicious.

napa cabbage, cut into ribbons

avocado

cucumber

tomatoes

scallions

raw cheddar

cilantro

3″x3″ block of tempeh, cut into cubes

equal parts dijon mustard and balsamic vinegar

EVOO

salt, pepper

Mix the dijon, balsamic and EVOO together. Cut the tempeh into bite sized pieces and pour 1/2 the mixture over the tempeh. In another bowl, assemble the cabbage, and top with layers of other veggies, and cheese. Put the tempeh on top, pour the rest of the dressing over the salad. Mangia!

  Blueberry-Lemon &  Black Raspberry-Lime Popsicles

Look, even the popsicles are melting fast!! And my husband is quick on the trigger with the camera.

Here, I just made one round of simple syrup and employed the use of my immersion blender. I blended about a cup of black raspberries with the juice and zest of one lime and some simple syrup, and poured into molds. In another bowl, I blended all remaining blueberries I had, along with the juice and zest of a lemon. Added the rest of the simple syrup and poured into molds. Freeze for about 4 hours before you try to wrangle them out. Hahaha, I have no patience and tried at hour 2. LOL.