CSA Week 10: Tomatoes, Tomahtoes. And, the battle of the local mozzarellas!

It was an odd CSA week. They had a somewhat confusing CSA week where you had to pick 13 items out of a list of about 6 things, with limits on how much of each item you could take. We figured it out, but it wasn't all that easy while trying to keep two three-year-olds from jumping in mud puddles. Well, here's what we got:

• 6 ears of corn
• 3 cucumbers
• 4 squash
• 2 purple-y, greenish peppers
• 2 eggplant
• 2 bunches tatsoi
• 1/2 lb onions
• 6 lbs of tomatoes
• Plus you-pick stuff:
• 1 pint of cherry tomatoes
• 2 pints of the other you-pick tomatoes
• Green and yellow beans
• 4 hot peppers
• 2 Tomatillos (we could have picked a pint, but we couldn't really find any that were ready)
• Herbs: Basil, Thai Basil, Cilantro, Dill

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The scale at the CSA was kind of tilted...when you'd put things in it, they had a tendancy to fall out. One of the tomatoes fell out and broke its skin a little (the big purplish tomato near the tatsoi in the picture). So after we got the kids in bed, we threw together a late-night snack of insalata tricolore. Tomato, fresh mozzarella, and just-picked basil, with a splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. So yummy!

And this reminds me that I meant to post a review of two local mozzarellas. On Tuesday, I went a little cheese-happy (I made insalata tricolore that night, too). I picked up a ball of Fiore di Nonno mozzarella at the Lexington Farmers' Market and a ball of Maplebrook Farm mozzarella at Verrill Farm. TK and I used both to make our salad. We loved them both: chosing between them is like trying to choose between Fenway Fudge ice cream and coffee/chocolate swirl ice cream. However, we both thought the Fiore Di Nonno was slightly better. It has a little more resistance when you bite into it, and a slightly more buttery flavor. I think it might be the difference in that the Fiore Di Nonno was made the morning we ate it, while the Maplebrook Farm cheese came from Vermont. When we ate the leftover cheese last night (Thursday), the difference wasn't quite as noticable.

If you see either Fiore Di Nonno or Maplebrook Farm mozzarella, I'd recommend picking them up. But the Fiore Di Nonno is worth a trip to one of the farmers' markets where it's sold...

Tortillas! Tortillas!

So, if you've been reading you probably know that I like to cook. And since my kids don't eat, I figure cooking with them can't make things any worse...it can only make them more interested in food as it's impossible to become any less interested. Oh shoot, I'm off track again, thinking about the fact that my children subside on air and kisses. Anyway.

I decided today I'd make some homemade tortillas with the boys. There was a recipe in a recent Highlights High Five magazine (great magazine, by the way, for toddlers), so I thought I'd give it a try. We had a lot of fun, it wasn't too messy and didn't take too long, and the quesadillas we made were surprisingly good. I'm not going to lie to you...these tortillas weren't any better than store bought. Maybe not even quite as good as my favorite tortillas from Trader Joes. But we all ate them and enjoyed it! Here's what they looked like...not too bad, huh?


Here's the recipe, adapted slightly from the recipe in High Five:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt (original recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon, but I found the tortillas to be salty so I'll cut back in the future)
1/2 cup hot water (not boiling, just hot tap water)
1 1/2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

Directions:

Mix together flour and salt, then add hot water and vegetable oil. Stir until combined and mixture forms a ball (I had to use my hands, and let the boys knead it a bit, too).

Divide into 6 balls of dough.

Flatten slightly with your hand, then roll until flat and thin (my 2 3/4 year old boys could roll it out a bit, but then I had to finish rolling them thin). The dough should be fairly dry...mine didn't need any extra flour to keep it from sticking.

Coat a nonstick skillet with a small amount of vegetable oil and heat over medium heat. Add a tortilla and cook for 1-2 minutes, until the underside is slightly browned in places. Flip, and if you're making quesadillas, top with some cheese or other toppings and let melt with the other side cooks for approx. 1-2 mintues. Fold in half and enjoy. Or you could skip the cheese, just cook the other side, then use these to make tacos, burritos, whatever.

Random Unrelated Thought: Why does Massachusetts have such a stick up its butt about billboards off the highway? What, do they have to preserve ALL that view? Puh-lease! Connecticut is so much more fun to drive through. I mean, I feel like a trip isn't complete unless I see at least 10 billboards for some skanky porn related establishments. And you can count on Connecticut to deliver in the first twenty miles. I heart the Connecticut DOT, or whoever it is who lets them put up so many awesome billboards.

Even my cooking is due to my control freakiness?

I came across the following quote in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver:

A lot of human hobbies, from knitting sweaters to building model airplanes, are probably rooted in the same human desire to control an entire process of manufacturing.

She's actually talking about cooking, and I realized she's right, at least for me. That is a good part of the draw for me. I must control everything. And cooking is a great venue where I have at least a veneer of control.

Random related thought: I'm thinking of signing up for a class to learn how to make cheese. I'm going to give myself a few days to think about it first, to make sure it's something I'll really want to do. I am obsessed with eating cheese, so it'd only be natural, given my established control freak tendencies, that I'd eventually try to make it myself.

Thank you, Dr. Atkins

You know what would make the Atkins Diet more palatable? Carbs.

Seriously, though, there is one good thing that came out of that Atkins craze. It introduced me to mashed cauliflower. (Only one thing, you ask. Yes. What did you think I was going to say? That the best thing was the irony of the people who went into McDonalds and ordered a Big Mac, hold the bun, and thought it was a healthy choice? You're right. That was another good thing to come out of Atkins.)

But I wasn't kidding: I love carbs. So, tonight I decided to add some potatoes into my cauliflower. Oh my gosh, what a great addition. Normally, my only complaint about mashed cauliflower is that the consistency isn't quite right. It's a little too runny, a little too gritty. Well, throw in some potatoes, and it evens it right out. The garlic, butter, sour cream, and Parmesan cheese probably helped, too. Whatever, it was awesome. So thanks, Dr. Atkins, for banning carbohydrates and forcing people to find an alternative to mashed potatoes.

Random tangentially related thought: I'm a cheese fanatic. So get used to my cheese reviews! Two more local cheeses to review. The first is an herb goat cheese from Westfield Farm. Wow, this was outstanding. It was creamy and neither meek nor overpowering. I'm usually not a huge goat cheese fan...it's okay on things or in things, but I'm not much for eating it by itself. This one, though, yum! As an additional plus in its favor, I served it over my roasted veggie polenta. Yes, some eat local meal. I'm fully aware most of those veggies are completely out of season and were assuredly *not* local. But, as I said, small steps. At least the cheese on top was local. And the meal was outstanding. Worth the week-long polenta quest.

The other cheese was a blue from Great Hill Dairy. I love blue cheeses. They're definitely in my top ten favorite cheeses. This was an acceptable one. It had a bit of a bitter bite, if I can be alliteratively descriptive. Interesting, certainly, and quite good crumbled over a salad (with a great blueberry vinaigrette dressing). But not my favorite blue. Of course, if we're being honest, what I really love is a triple creme bleu, so I'm not sure any traditional blue can really compete.

I found both of these at Wilson Farms.

The Great Polenta Quest

Do you ever get something in your head that you just HAVE to eat? Well, for me, I'm in a polenta kind of mood. One recipe, specifically, where you roast all different veggies with balsamic vinegar and then place it over broiled slices of polenta and add some goat cheese on top. It's so good!

I made this once before with homemade polenta, and made a mess of trying to broil the polenta. My homemade version comes out good, but too sticky. The recipe was still delicious, but I wanted to try it again using premade polenta. You know, the kind you buy in a tube.

Well, apparently, premade polenta is no longer available. At least not where I'm looking. Four different supermarkets and one large farm stand before I finally locate some premade polenta. I found it at Roche Bros supermarket, where my boys proceeded to have a huge meltdown for some unknown reason. Oh, and compounding my problems, I had decided when we got to the store that since my boys didn't want to ride in a cart, they'd be fine walking along with me.

So, I've got a basket in one hand, a huge yearning for polenta, and two boys having tantrums. I get them reasonably comforted, and a very friendly employee finds the polenta for me. I throw it in my basket, pay, and head home. Later that night, I cook dinner: the polenta tube is ripped open and the polenta is hardened and discolored in places. It's obviously been open for quite some time...longer than just a few hours. So, I toss it and we eat plain ol' roasted veggies for dinner.

I still want my polenta. I guess I'll have to go on another grand polenta quest soon.

Random somewhat unrelated topic: Still trying to eat local on a small scale. Figured I'd give a brief review of a local product: gouda from Smith's Country Cheese. I found it at Roche Bros (just before the above mentioned double tantrum that occurred between the cheese section and the polenta aisle). I tried a regular gouda, which I found to have a creamy, mild taste with a faint bitter aftertaste. It was good...better on crackers than by itself. Even more delicious was a Herb flavored gouda spread, that tastes phenomenal. Yum! Roche Bros. didn't have any local cheddar, which is my true cheese love. I'll keep looking...

If a tree falls in the woods...

Pppssst. I have a secret. I haven't told anyone about my blog. Well, I've linked it in here and there, but haven't drawn any attention to it. Haven't told any friends or family.

What's up with that?

It's kind of like a journal I leave sitting open on a table in a coffee shop while I go to wait in line for 20 minutes to get a bagel and coffee. Sure, probably no one will read it, but maybe.

Random thought: The King and I always have cheese fondue for New Year's Eve dinner. This year we're trying to recreate a fontina/roasted garlic/date fondue we had at The Melting Pot. Wish us luck.

Bonus random thought: I think I'm going to try to take a photo a day in 2008. I'm not arty, nor am I an especially proficient photographer. But on the plus side, the chances of me taking a photo of my own disembodied eye, or anyone else's for that matter, are fairly low. What's up with all the people who take photos of just an eye, maybe a sliver of nose or eyebrow, but not the whole face. Odd. Says the girl who is the definition of odd.