weekly delivery 04/29

This week, we received the following delivery from FFTY:

2 cucumbers
1 stalk rhubarb

1 bunch chard
6 Cameo apples
4 grapefruits (uh, I don't know why I separated them in the photos.)

a bunch of mixed baby lettuces
1 pint strawberries
there's the other 2 grapefruits
2 zucchini

1 bunch asparagus
1 Nantes carrot
1 bunch broccoli

chard, collards and chick peas over couscous

The last thing we had to use from this weeks box was chard. This recipe started out with me googling "chard and chick peas," but it took on a whole new life when Kenny got home from work. I found this recipe and thought it looked good and simple, so I began prepping for it. I realized we had some collard greens in the fridge too. So I started making the dish following the recipe, but it was all a little bit bland. Kenny suggested adding tomatoes and explained to me that they would be the "umami" that elevated the dish. He also thought of serving it over lemon caper couscous which was the perfect accompaniment. We're such a good team - High five!

Ingredients:
1 bunch chard, roughly chopped
1 bunch collard greens, roughly chopped
1 can chick peas, rinsed and drained
1/2 can diced tomatoes (28 oz.)
2 Tbsp 2x concentrate tomato paste
1/2 an onion, 1/4" dice
2 Tbsp olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 pinch cayenne pepper
2 Tbsp chili powder
2 tsp red pepper flakes for heat
2 tsp garlic powder
salt to taste

lemon caper couscous:
2 cups whole wheat couscous
4 cups of water
2 pinches of salt
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp lemon zest
1 Tbsp capers
1/4 cup parsley, roughly chopped

Let's start with the stew, because this recipe has some timing issues. If you threw everything in at once, it would end up really mushy. But it only takes a few minutes, and some proper timing to come out perfectly. So here we go! Add olive oil to a saute pan over medium heat. Add in your onion and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Toss in the collards and cook just until the leaves are starting to decrease in size, about 4 minutes when stirring. Add in tomatoes, tomato paste, spice, salt and pepper. Cook for 2 minutes. Throw in your chard and chick peas and stir until chard has reduced by half and your chickpeas are warmed through. Taste and reseason with salt and pepper. Serve over lemon caper and parsley couscous. Oh, I didn't tell you how to make that yet. My bad. Here it comes.

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Add in lemon juice, zest, capers, and salt. Allow 30 seconds for flavors to incorporate and then add your couscous. Turn off the heat and cover for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork, and add parsley. Taste and reseason to your liking. Top with above stew and eat it up!

This is really awesome reheated the next few days and sustained me well during the following two workdays without losing any flavor.

quick and spicy spring vegetables

This dish is fast. Seriously, it takes like 5 minutes and is a total no-brainer. If you've been reading our blog, you must have noticed by now that we like our food spicy. Pretty much, we'll use any excuse to throw in some red pepper flakes. I'm trying to think of some interesting story to write about how this came into being, but honestly- it's just the type of thing you throw together when you're hungry.


Ingredients:
1 bunch carrots, 1/4" slice
1 zucchini, 1/4" slice
1 bunch snap peas
2 tsp minced ginger
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 Tbsp canola oil

Heat up the canola oil in a wok and saute everything together for about 5 minutes or until the carrots are heated but still crunchy. Great as a side or make it a meal by tossing with some ramen, like we did!

weekly delivery 04/22

This week we received the following from FFTY:

1 pint strawberries
1 bunch mixed baby lettuces
3 zucchini

2 big leeks
3 Navel oranges

1 bunch radishes
1 bunch Italian parsley
2 Meyer lemons

1 bunch chard
1 bunch Nantes carrots
6 Gold Blush apples

grilled sweet potato tacos

Another "hot" day. I put hot in quotations because it's not really all that hot. We San Franciscans tend to freak out a little bit if the temperature strays from our standard 65 degrees. Guilty as charged. Another day where using the oven seems like a terrible idea. So we lit up the grill again!

Ingredients:
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 can (28 oz.) diced tomatoes
1/2 red onion
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1/2" slices
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 bunch cilantro
3 Tbsp chili powder
pinch of red pepper flakes
8 corn tortillas
lettuce or spring mix

Similar to our last post, spray a large sheet of aluminum foil with olive oil and place the sweet potatoes and onion in the center. Season with 2 Tbsp of chili powder, a pinch of red pepper flakes, and a few pinches of salt and wrap it up and place on a hot grill for 40 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are fork tender. Meanwhile, simmer the beans and tomatoes together with the remaining chili powder in a small pot to incorporate the flavors together, about 20 minutes. You can finely chop the cilantro and stir it into the sour cream, or you can just throw it on in a food processor! Make sure to thoroughly rinse cilantro before using it, it's pretty sandy. Arrange the tacos with two tortillas on the plate, then some lettuce, beans, sweet potatoes and sour cream. Roll em up and eat, or use a fork if you're dainty.

grill-roasted curried potatoes and carrots

Read an article today on Bon Appetit encouraging readers to join a CSA. It's brief but I thought I'd share because I felt the writer did a nice job of expressing what it's really like to take part in a CSA. Plus, they included some links for spring-centric recipes!

"The selection varies from region to region and from farm to farm; consumers make a commitment to buy exactly what is produced; and it provides great lessons in seasonality and supply and demand (when there's no asparagus, you'll be pining for it, and when you've gotten kale six weeks in a row, you'll be giving it away to the neighbors). One of the best things about subscribing to a CSA is that you'll inevitably end up with ingredients you've never thought to buy or cook." -Molly Stevens, for Bon Appetit


If you live on the West Coast, you know just how beautiful the weather has been lately. The sun has been setting later and later and that leaves plenty of time after work for one of my favorite things in the world: barbecuing. There is something about grilling that makes me so giddy and excited, maybe I'm a pyromaniac. But there is the one big downer to lighting some coals ablaze and drinking some beer in your backyard- the mess that inevitably happens. I don't really know how it happens, but it seems that every time we cook out in the yard, magic dirty dishes appear out of no where and take over the kitchen. In the spirit of this early summer weather and the fact that its too hot inside to even think about doing a lot of dishes, I decided to make some tasty grilled meals with small amounts of clean up. So go grab some charcoal and get grilling! This recipe and the next are just the beginning of the summer!


Ingredients:
2 lbs baby Yukon gold potatoes, halved
7 medium carrots, greens removed, cut into 1 inch chunks
1/2 red onion, quartered
2 Tbsp canola oil
2 Tbsp curry powder
4 Tbsp fresh chopped cilantro
salt and pepper to taste
cooking spray

Once you have all of your food prepped, spray a large piece of wide aluminum foil with cooking spray (if you don't have large foil, use two pieces of regular foil layed out and crossed in a "+"). Add in the potatoes, carrots, and onion, and drizzle with canola oil. Sprinkle curry powder, salt and pepper on top and wrap and seal tightly. Toss them on the grill*, cover, and cook for 40 minutes while grilling everything else your going to be eating. Top with freshly chopped cilantro and chow down! We ate this side dish with our favorite veggie burgers, topped with red onion, cheddar cheese, lettuce and curry mayo sauce!

*This can also be done in a 350 degree preheated oven with the same cooking time.

crepes with chard, caramelized onion and shallot

You can make your own crepes, but we didn't for this recipe. We bought them pre-made. LeSter is the brand we used. They are even cut in half to make life easier.

Ingredients:
2 bunches chard, thinly chopped
1 shallot, thinly sliced
1 onion, 1/4" slice
1 Tbsp Earth Balance, or butter
4 crepes
1 1/2 cups shredded Coolea Irish Gouda (Another Hazel Rue home run!)
salt, pepper to taste

In a saute pan on medium low heat, melt the Earth Balance. Add the shallot and onion and allow to slowly caramelize stirring often, total time is about 12 minutes. This would also be a good time to preheat your oven to 350 degrees. When the shallot and onion are caramelized, add in the chard and fully cook, about 6 minutes, stirring frequently so they don't burn. Season with salt and pepper. When they are finished add the mixture to a 1/2 crepe on a lined cookie sheet. Top with cheese and another 1/2 crepe and bake in the oven for 15 minutes, flipping half way through so the bottom doesn't get soggy.


This recipe was enough to make two HUGE crepes, and man were they awesome. We have left over crepes, which we put in the freezer for later use. I have a feeling we will be doing something along these lines again soon. These were so tasty. Actually I am eating the leftovers as I'm typing, once I started thinking about them, I just had to eat it.

weekly delivery 04/15

This week we received:

2 lbs Yukon gold potatoes
1 bunch cilantro
10 Valencia oranges

1 bunch mixed baby lettuces

1 bunch Nantes carrot
2 red onions
1 bunch green chard
7 Braeburn apples

1 container strawberries
2 yellow onions
1/2 lb snap peas
3 blood oranges

p.s.: I know we haven't updated in a week but we have been cooking! We actually have 4 posts from last week that will be published tomorrow, when Kenny gets a much deserved day off!

sesame citrus rice salad

Ingredients:
2 cups long grain white rice
4 1/2 cups water
3 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp sesame oil
1 Tbsp minced ginger
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup fresh squeezed citrus juice (We used navel oranges.)
1/2 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
1 bulb green garlic, 1/4" sliced on the bias
1/2 cup roasted salted cashews
sesame seeds for garnish

Cook rice according to package directions, or in your rice cooker. When it is finish, fluff it with a fork so it doesn't get clumpy and allow to cool overnight. Mix your soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, red pepper flakes, and orange juice in your favorite dressing shaker and add to the rice. Toss to coat and then add your veggies and cashews and do the same. Garnish with sesame seeds.

chard and artichoke dip

These artichokes we have been getting are just so gorgeous, I had to photograph them!

Tonight we prepped the artichokes simply by chopping the first inch off the top and clipping away the sharp outer leaves. We then steamed them for 25 minutes using our steamer basket in a large pot with one inch of boiling water.

We attempted to make an aioli to dip the leaves but it was a complete failure. There are certain things you just can't take shortcuts with, and we learned the hard way that you can't make an aioli using the bowl attachment on your immersion blender! We snacked on the leaves and saved the hearts to make chard and artichoke dip!

mmm fattening...


Ingredients:
10 artichoke hearts (We only had 5 from the box, so we supplemented with some canned hearts.)
1/2 bunch chard
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup Veganaise
3 Tbsp grated parmesan
1 cup shredded mozzarella
salt and pepper to taste
3 Tbsp whole wheat breadcrumbs (optional)

Combine all ingredients except breadcrumbs and veganaise in your food processor and pulse until well incorporated. I like some chunks of artichoke heart so I left some in. At this point, depending on how juicy your chokes were (canned ones have a lot more liquid) your dip might be ready. If its not quite the right, add the Veganaise 1 tablespoon at a time, and pulse until the perfect dip consistency is ALMOST reached (remember, this is going to get hot, and the cheese will melt and help to goo-ify it). Season it with salt and pepper, and put it in an oven safe dish.

Now, I (Kenny) like breadcrumbs on top of baked things. I'm a crunch-oholic: if something is crunchy, I probably love it. So I put some bread crumbs on top to give it a little extra texture. Think its dip-blasphemy? Don't do it, and feel free to make fun of my condition!

Anyway, put this in a preheated 350 degree oven uncovered for 15 looooooong anticipation filled minutes, and when the timer goes off- chow down with some chips or pretzels. Make it for a party, or just for yourself while watching Lost. Speaking of which, OMG! I'm not sure if I can take the suspense anymore! I won't talk about in case anyone is behind, but gah!

shallot and pea risotto

Tonight we were prepping some things that we plan on making tomorrow, just to get some of the grunt work out of the way. It's weird to cook like that when you are hungry, knowing that you aren't going to eat the food you are making until the next day. After we had all our prep work out of the way, I had one of those moments were you just stand in the kitchen, staring at the pantry and refrigerator and have no idea what to make. Everything looked boring... I could make some pasta, but blah. I could make grits? Or heat up some box of frozen whatever in the fridge? Blah, nothing was appealing to me.

"Would it be ridiculous if I made risotto right now?"
It was already 9 o'clock at night. "Well yeah," Kenny said, "but let's do it anyway. We need to use that vegetable stock I made."

I was just going to like cook some rice and dump some cheese onto it, but Kenny (god bless him) suggested using the shallots we have from the box and the Piave that we had leftover from the spring greens.

Ingredients:
1 shallot, thinly sliced
1 quart vegetable stock
1 cup arborio rice
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic confit
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup Piave cheese, shredded
1/2 cup soy milk

In a large pot or sauce pan on medium low heat, saute your shallot and garlic confit in olive oil. Once the shallot is translucent, add the rice to the pot and toast, stirring to coat in the oil and shalloty-garlic goodness for 2 to 3 minutes. Add one cup of stock and continue to stir until almost no liquid remains. Add another 1/2 cup of stock, and do the same, continuing until you have about 1/2 cup left. When you get to this point, add your peas, cheese, and last 1/2 cup of stock. Keep stirring, and when the rice looks deliciously creamy, and there is just a bit of visible stock, add the soy milk, turn off the heat and stir for 1-2 minutes more until it is incorporated. Garnish with some extra cheese, and get ready to be in risotto heaven!

strawberry mint julep, the ginger tantrum

On Saturday afternoon, we were sitting at this bar that just recently opened in SOMA, The Bloodhound. It's pretty rad- owned by the people who also own Double Dutch. It's a great space with good design, a little bit of a kitsch and a whole lot of fully stocked bar! We often plan out our weekly menus this way- sitting in a quiet bar, writing ideas down on a cocktail napkin. We were talking about how great the lemon mojitos were and how that post is one of our most commented on. So Kenny mentioned wanting to come up with some more ways to incorporate the fruit we receive into cocktails.

Well the next logical step was to call up our dear friend Chris Lane. For those of you not in the know, Mr. Chris Lane is many things. He's a handsome and stylish fellow. He's an incredibly talented illustrator. And he's THE BEST at mixing drinks. A quick phone call later, we had some awesome ideas. Here they are! We made these with our neighbors on Saturday night, got thoroughly drunk and annoyed our whole apartment building with our superb Rock Band skills.

Ingredients:
Strawberry mint julep:
2 strawberries, sliced
8 mint leaves
4 oz. Maker's Mark bourbon
3 drops liquid stevia
2 oz. cold water

Add all ingredients to a pint glass, muddle, strain into rocks glass and add ice. We used a little stevia in this recipe only because the strawberries we received were not quite so sweet yet. It is just the beginning of the season right now, so if you get some super ripe berries, the addition of a sweetener would be unnecessary.

The ginger tantrum:
3 oz. orange juice, fresh squeezed (We juiced some clementines, tangelos and oranges we had)
4 Tbsp. minced ginger
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
4 oz. bacardi rum

This drink was amazing! Add the ginger, water and sugar to a small sauce pan on low heat. Stir until just boiling, when the sugar is completely dissolved into the water and your kitchen smells like a ginger paradise. Set this ginger simple syrup aside to cool. When it does, add 2 tablespoons of the syrup to 4oz. of rum and 3 oz. of fresh squeezed orange juice. Shake or stir to incorporate, and pour over ice. Sooooooo good!

** Update ** We decided to call this drink The Ginger Tantrum. What do you think?

orange quinoa with black beans and cilantro, spring salad with grapefruit shallot vinaigrette

Whole grains are awesome. Beans are great. Strawberry season makes life worth living. It is getting warmer outside (although not today in S.F.) and that means it's time for cold picnic salads to eat at... well, a picnic!

These two recipes use eight different ingredients from the box! Eight!!!


Ingredients:
Quinoa:
2 cups quinoa
4 cups water
3/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 can black beans, rinsed well and drained
1/4 cup chopped cilantro, tightly packed (1/2 of a bunch)
1 piece of green garlic, green parts only, sliced on a 1/2" bias (You could also use a green onion.)
2 tsp smoked paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Rinse and drain your quinoa several times with cold water. Quinoa has natural tannins (bitter compounds, like those in tea) that coat its exterior and you really don't want them hanging around. Add the quinoa and 4 cups of water to a pot, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. When the quinoa has finished cooking (no more water in the bottom), fluff it with a fork and set it aside to cool for at least ten minutes. You could totally do this a day or two in advance, just make sure its tightly covered in the refrigerator during storage. Toss the black beans, cilantro, and green garlic into the quinoa. Mix the citrus juices together with the smoked paprika and add to the rest of the dish. Toss together and season with salt and pepper. This dish has a ton of veggie protein, is super low fat, high in fiber, and not to forget- refreshingly good!


Stop. Salad time!

Ingredients:
Spring salad:
1/2 lb mixed baby greens
1 apple, sliced
4 big strawberries, sliced
4 red radishes, sliced

Grapefruit shallot vinaigrette:
3 Tbsp Olive oil
1 1/2 Tbsp red or pink grapefruit juice (these are the sweet ones, not the sour ones)
1 shallot, finely minced
salt and pepper to taste


In a dressing shaker (what we refer to as a dressing shaker or container is actually an old glass peanut butter or Veganaise jar) combine the grapefruit juice, shallots, olive oil, some salt and pepper. Shake it like you mean it, taste, adjust your seasonings. Combine all ingredients in a bowl, add dressing, toss and eat!

I have to admit that I was skeptical about this salad dressing at first, although I didn't let Katie know that. However, once I tasted it- oh my god, was I wrong! It was crisp, sweet, tangy, and just really made all of the ingredients in the salad mesh together so well. We will totally be making this again.

weekly delivery 04/08

Here's what we got from FFTY this week:

3 kiwi
1 container strawberries

2 Garnet yams
1 bunch radishes

1 bunch chard- half red, half white
3 Navel oranges

1 huge bunch mixed lettuces (That's only half of what we got!)
7 Cameo apples

1 piece green garlic
5 artichokes
1 bunch collards

grilled cheese with spring greens

It's transitioning from Winter to Spring, and in California that means greens are plentiful. They are seasonal year-round here, but we get an abundance of them in our box during the colder months. Sometimes there just aren't enough of each individual greens to make a recipe, so we combine them. This recipe is a combination of greens, but could be made with any one of them individually and still be awesome.

I was going to use Parmesan in this recipe, but I really wanted a different flavor. So I went over to the cheese counter at work and asked some suggestions. Hazel Rue immediately suggested Piave, and I totally agreed, and we are sure glad I did. Piave is an Italian cheese from the north eastern region of the country. While it does have some hints of Parmesan, it has a very robust and unique flavor all its own. Thanks Hazel Rue!

Ingredients:
1 bunch dandelion greens, roughly chopped
1 bunch red chard, roughly chopped
1 bunch Swiss chard, roughly chopped
6 Tbsp grated Piave cheese
3 spring red onions, cut in 1/2 inch pieces
2 Tbsp garlic confit oil
salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot over medium heat add your oil and spring onions. Saute for 5 minutes until the onions have released a good deal of their moisture, but aren't fully cooked. Add the chards and stir so that the greens cook evenly. When there is room in the pot, toss in your dandelion greens and continue stirring until all greens are fully cooked, about 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and top with cheese.


Now, this is an amazing side dish. I ate it totally on its own the next day. But, we really didn't have much else in the house this particular night that we felt like eating. Earlier at work, the owner of the company that makes our sandwich bread brought me a loaf of their new organic sourdough rye bread to take home and test out. So I thought, what is better than a grilled cheese sandwich? A grilled cheese with some awesome tasting greens! So I grabbed some slices of swiss, put some garlic confit oil in a frying pan, stuffed the sandwich with the greens and fried it up. It was so tasty!

vegetable stock

So we had a bunch of left over celery, onions, and shallots kind of hanging around from the past few deliveries. While the onions and shallots could have easily kept for another week or so, the celery was not getting along quite as well so I decided to make a quick batch of stock, because we were completely out of the aseptically packed stuff, and well, nothing tastes quite like homemade. I grabbed a few organic carrots from work and had at it. This recipe made 3 quarts of stock, and cost close to nothing to make. Properly storing it, you could have stock for a while. Heck, got a pot big enough and some recycled or reusable containers? Double or triple it!

Ingredients:
3 quarts + 1 cup water
1 large bunch of celery, chopped into 1 inch pieces
3 carrots, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
1 large shallot roughly chopped
1 white or yellow onion, roughly chopped
2 bay leaves
2 tsp dried thyme
1 small sprig dried rosemary (or 2 tsp dried whole leaves)
2 Tbsp canola oil
salt and pepper to taste
three quart sized or six pint sized heat safe containers

Put your stock pot to medium heat and add in the oil. When the oil is hot, add all the vegetables and saute for 6-8 minutes until the onions just start to soften. Toss in all of the herbs, a few pinches of salt and pepper, and continue to stir for 1-2 minutes to let the flavors mingle. Add your water and cover the pot. Once the pot reaches a boil, after about 12-14 minutes, turn the heat down to low and let simmer uncovered for 25-30 minutes.

Using a fine mesh strainer (want to put some cheesecloth in there- even better!), strain stock into another large vessel, like a pitcher. If you still see a lot of "floaties" strain again using more cheesecloth, or even a coffee filter if you have the time to wait, and get ready to store. Fill your containers of choice (Katie and I usually make pretty big batches of things, so I chose quart containers. Containers I have saved from the hot bar at work.) with stock, leaving about an inch at the top of each one. Let containers sit uncovered on the counter top to cool for about an hour. Transfer the containers of stock to the fridge, leaving them uncovered for an additional 2 hours. Once they have finished cooling and are at refrigerator temperature you can cover them with lids, and now you can transfer any stock you won't be using in the next week to the freezer where it will keep for a few months. It is important that any containers that are going into the freezer have that gap of about an inch at the top, or they may break the lid when the freezing liquid expands. Now you have a lot of awesome homemade stock!

It may seem like a long process and a lot of work, but it is totally something you can do while working around the house, hanging around your neighborhood, or watching an entire season of TV on DVD one evening.

green garlic mash, mushroom gravy

I know the blog was a bit sparse last week. Only two recipes, even though we had planned for four. We still have beets and artichokes to use up from the last delivery. We have our recipe ideas all planned out but for whatever reason we just weren't in the mood to make them. There's a million excuses: not enough time, not even hungry, just don't feel like it! Whatever.

Tonight we got home from work and we both knew we had to cook. No more putting it off. So we sat down and took a good look at the produce we got this week. I believe the conversation went something like this:

Katie: We could make green garlic mashed potatoes?
Kenny: Yeah... but no one needs us to write a recipe for mashed potatoes. We need to take it to another level.
Katie: What about using the cauliflower instead of potatoes? Like... make a cauliflower mash.
Kenny: [light bulb above head] I know what to do!


Ingredients:
2 lb Yukon gold potatoes
1.5 lb cauliflower, roughly chopped
6 pieces green garlic, first four inches only, sliced on a bias
2 cups extra virgin olive oil
1 cup soy milk

Mushroom gravy*:
6 ounces white button mushrooms, roughly chopped
4 Tbsp Earth Balance
6 Tbsp all purpose flour
4 cups vegetable stock
3 tsp dried thyme
1 1/2 tsp rosemary powder
salt and pepper to taste

Start the 2 cups of olive oil on VERY low heat in a small sauce pan. Add in the chopped spring garlic and allow to cook for 12-15 minutes, about the time when your kitchen smells nice and garlicky, but don't let them fry and get all brown and hard. We are going for caramelizing, keep the heat REALLY low. Strain garlic out and reserve oil for later use in, well, everything! We make this oil with regular garlic a lot, and reference it often on here. It adds really awesome roasted garlic flavor to any dish in a pinch.

Put a large pot of salted water on the stove. Add potatoes, and turn on the heat. When the potatoes are almost fork tender and have about 5 minutes left to go, add the cauliflower to the pot and finish both of them. Strain and add back to the pot. Toss in your spring garlic confit, the soy milk and beat 'em! (Use a beater, use a masher. Your choice. Make them kind of chunky, or super smooth- hey, your eating them. Do it just the way you like 'em.) Season with salt and pepper, and eat! Wait, I am forgetting something, gravy!

Melt the Earth Balance in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Add in the 6 Tbsp. of flour and stir until incorporated, making your rue. (I know. This isn't your regular rue ratio, but mushrooms give off A LOT of liquid, and you will need this flour later.) If the rue is not coming together as usual, add a few splashes of stock to help it along. Cook the rue for 5 to 7 minutes, until its golden brown in color and smells toasty. Whisk in the rest of your stock slowly to incorporate the rue. Add in the mushrooms and herbs, and stir regularly until they are cooked about 10 to 12 minutes. You will notice that the gravy is also thickening up now. Let it bubble, while stirring until it reaches that velvety gravy texture we all know and love. At this point you can leave it chunky and just smother your potatoes, or you could do what we did and let it go a couple rounds with your immersion blender. Season with salt and pepper, and go for it!

*A little side note about this gravy recipe: It makes a little more than a quart of gravy, which is usually enough for about 8 people, or 1 Katie. So if you want leftovers for biscuits and gravy in the morning, open faced tofurky (or turkey) sandwiches- or whatever, go ahead and make the whole thing, it will last for a good 4 or 5 days in the fridge if cooled properly, and it reheats pretty well. If not, I would play it safe and half the recipe.

weekly delivery 04/01

This week we received the following from FFTY:

8 clementines
3 red spring onions
1 head green leaf lettuce

1 big head and 1 little head of cauliflower
1 bunch dandelion greens

1 bunch cilantro
6 oz white button mushrooms

1 bunch green chard
1 package strawberries

2 lb Yukon gold potatoes
1 bunch green garlic