CSA Week One!

A couple of years ago we joined a CSA for the first time and loved the experience--so much awesome produce! (Too much in some cases--there is only so much corn you can eat, and I probably still have an ear in my freezer somewhere.) Anyway, after skipping last summer, I decided to join a CSA again, and this was the share from week one. (For those who aren't familiar, CSA stands for community supported agriculture and is a program where you basically purchase a share of a farm's output. It's great because you're directly supporting a farm and in return, you get many, many weeks of extremely fresh produce. It is not great if you don't like or are picky about your vegetables!)


Week one spoils: scallions, garlic scapes, cilantro, radishes (extremely peppery!), spinach, dandelion greens, mixed salad greens, and arugula. Plus two quarts of strawberries and an apple, from the fruit share. (As a bonus, you get to see my extremely cluttered windowsill where I take most of my photos. Unfortunately, that is also where most of my plants are now living...)


I am determined to make use of everything! The scapes have already gone into a stir-fry with some pork.


The dandelion greens, spinach, and some of the cilantro got turned into saag paneer (thanks for the suggestion, Jack); making paneer at home is the easiest thing in the world! The scallions will become scallion pancakes. And as you might have guessed, I will be eating a LOT of salad this week.

There are lots of CSA programs out there now; this is a good site if you want to find one near you. For those who are in NYC, Just Food is a good resource. And if you're interested in Chubby Bunny specifically (which is the one I've joined!), you can visit their blog. I'm looking forward to a summer (and fall) of vegetable goodness!

When Life Gives You A Strawberry

I mentioned a few posts ago that I bought a strawberry plant--and it's been producing strawberries! Hooray! However, there is one problem with only having one strawberry plant--it seems like only one strawberry wants to ripen at any given time. (Okay, it looks like two in that photo, but really only one of them was fully ripe.) So I had a dilemma--if I ever wanted to eat strawberry shortcake, I was either going to have to save and freeze strawberries until I had enough (boo) or I was going to have to make one tiny strawberry shortcake. I bet you can guess what route I took ;) (Also, I have finally named my strawberry plant--meet Margaret!)


I know people have different preferences when it comes to strawberry shortcake, but for me, it's not real shortcake unless it's got a biscuit base. (I mean, not that a cake based one wouldn't be tasty, but it's not the same!) Cream biscuits are great for shortcake and literally take 15 minutes to make from start to finish. You don't even have to cut any butter in, because the only ingredients are flour, salt, baking powder, a pinch of sugar, and heavy cream. Super easy! I cut out rounds with a small cookie cutter; these baked for about 8 minutes. Of course, after they're done baking you have more choices to make--butter or no butter? Sweetened whipped cream or plain whipped cream? Macerate the berries first or not?


My choices: no butter, sweetened, not macerated. Mostly because I was in a hurry. And here is my tiny shortcake, just slightly bigger than a quarter. One bite and it's all gone!


These are not from my plant, I bought these at the local farmer's market this morning. $7 a quart, can you believe it??? Too expensive for me to make jam from...I'll just enjoy these fresh.

Umaimono Fair at Mitsuwa

So I mentioned in Monday's post that I was home this weekend for serious zongzi production...well, there was also time to take a trip to Mitsuwa for their Umaimono Food Fair! I love their food fairs, they usually bring in different vendors from Japan and you can pick up some really neat things. Of course, the chirashi don above is just a regular one from the actual supermarket section...but it was really yummy and hit the spot!


And to go with that, we got a box of takoyaki as well. They had a stand set up and were making them on the spot, and all of the guys were really goofy and seemed like they were having a great time. I tried and failed to get a picture of them shaping the takoyaki--boy do they move fast!


I know this picture is a little messy looking, but that's because we didn't eat them until we got home, and they had gotten a little banged up in transit. Delicious, though!


And for dessert? (Restaurant dessert, to be precise.) Why, this mysterious box bearing the name of Hiroyuki Sakai...(that's Iron Chef French, my favorite!)


Containing this gorgeously wrapped green tea roll cake...


With a surprise core of pudding (yes, pudding!)! Exciting, no? I think this is totally cool! And it was quite tasty. I think I will try to replicate this should I ever summon the courage to try making a roll cake....

Alright, that's enough babbling from me, happy Wednesday!

Duan Wu Jie (aka Dragon Boat Festival)

Well, the last time I wrote about these was in 2009, and when I went home this weekend to help make zongzi, my mom said "What, you need to take pictures again??" Well yes, yes I do! So here is another post on one of my favorite foods ever!


I always refer to these as sticky rice dumplings, but I don't know if that's really an accurate name. At any rate, they are parcels of sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves, and either filled with pork or sweet red bean paste. The fillings vary by region (and by family) but in our family, we make them Shanghai style (so my mom says) filled only with pork. Other styles may include salted egg yolks or chestnuts or pure giant chunks of pork fat etc. But I like them our way the best.


Both the pork and the rice are marinated first in soy sauce (and other seasonings). The bamboo leaves come dried, so you have to soak them, boil them, and scrub them before they can be used. Fortunately, all of that hard work was handled by my mom, and I was just needed for the actual wrapping.


So you make a cone out of the bamboo leaves, add a spoonful of rice to the bottom, a big chunk of pork, and then top it all off with more rice, as my mom is demonstrating here.


You then fold the extra leaves down and to the side to seal in all the goodies, and then tie the whole thing shut and end up with...


This! A nice, neat bundle of deliciousness. This is one of my mom's--you can tell because she's tucked all the extra leaf away neatly.


And this is one of mine, after cooking. As you can see, I like to leave my extra leaf bits stick up--I think it looks nicer this way. And personally (and I said this last time too, haha) I think mine look better ;) But the really important thing is the taste, and that is always flawless, thanks to my mom's preparation.


Mmmm, sticky rice and pork....we made a mere 66 this year (plus another 20 sweet ones, filled with red bean paste) which means I will have to eat them sparingly to make them last. But I think I will go have one for breakfast, it is the day of the actual festival, after all....

Well, hello there (and a green tea cake)

It's been a while since I've posted with any regularity, I know. But I'm still here! And look--I'm embarking on a new project this summer, windowsill gardening. For some weird reason I woke up at the ungodly hour of 7 this morning (on a Sunday! on a long weekend! Sheesh) and rather than try to go back to bed, I got up, did yoga (!), took a shower, and went to the farmer's market a few blocks away just as it was opening. Believe me, that is far more productive than most of my weekends. And it was kind of nice, there was hardly anyone out yet so I could chat with some of the folks running the stands, which is how I got talked into getting this awesome strawberry plant. Look it ALREADY HAS STRAWBERRIES. I'm going to repot it into a bigger container and hopefully I'll have yummy strawberries to snack on this summer. I also picked up a geranium and had previously bought a lavender plant...we'll see who's still alive by the end of summer.


But wait, that wasn't the end of my productive spate--I came home to drop off my goods, and went back out for a long walk through the park, then read for a while in the sun (Game of Thrones, if you're interested--I'm loving both the book and the series. That Jon Snow is a cutie.) and when I came back, I made cake! Green tea cake, to be exact, using the last of my stash of good matcha (must get more). I l-o-v-e how this cake turned out and would be happy to eat it by itself, maybe with some iced green tea.


But I wanted something a little fancier, and filled the cake with some whipped cream and some diced alphonso mangoes (this combination being inspired by my new favorite bubble tea flavor, mango green tea). By the way, I have not eaten nearly as many mangoes this year as I did last year, but I'm getting an early start on the watermelon!


And here's my cute little frosted cake. It's just whipped cream, because it is way too hot to be eating buttercream. Also, I'm not really that big a buttercream fan.


And here it is sliced, and about to be eaten! It's not the prettiest cake I've ever made, but I'm very happy with how it tastes. And now I can officially say that I'm done celebrating my birthday (even though it was 2 weeks ago) because it's not a birthday without cake!

Which isn't to say we didn't celebrate it at all, of course--Pyota took me out for a very fancy dinner to Del Posto, where I did not take any photos (and it would have been too dark even if I didn't feel self-conscious) but the food was really good. I especially loved the pansotti and the spaghetti with crab--and the gazpacho! It was quite a trip having such formal service (I lost track of how many people served our table) and although I wouldn't want to make a habit of it, once in a while is nice.

And actually, it is Pyota's birthday tomorrow--we will have to have a delayed celebration in June, but in the meantime, happy birthday :) I promise a bigger sandwich.

A quickie post

No time to post lately! Work busy (boo)! Pyota visiting (yay!) But here are some pictures of what we've been eating (and drinking)....(starting with this drink from Angel Share.)


Duck appetizer from Robataya. They have a ridiculously good value tasting menu, but you should be really really hungry before you order it. I'll have to try to recreate their gyu daikon.


Sashimi, also from Robataya. Both photos (and the one on top) taken with Py's new camera.


We went for an afternoon tea at the Peninsula Hotel--it's definitely not as good as the tea at the Peninsula in Hong Kong, but still pretty good. Quieter, too (but no string quartet playing Kiss covers!)


Py had an incident with his scone, but mine was good :)


Mm, tiny pastries.


Maybe I should just have a tea set-up like this at home....

Well, that's all for now! I think after this week things will be calmer at work, and I'll probably sleep for about 2 days straight. And I'm really excited about our dinner plans tomorrow, because it's my birthday :)

Saturday Breakfast

Sometimes you just have to take out a little time to relax and take care of yourself, and that's exactly what this breakfast is. I woke up surprisingly early today so I took a walk over to my favorite neighborhood bakery and got some milk bread (I have mentioned before that I'm totally obsessed with this bread, right?). Some sliced strawberries, some iced coffee, and the new Raveonettes album (which is TOTALLY AMAZING, by the way)....an excellent start to the morning.