Eating local Week 2

My CSA gave me rhubarb, spinach, cilantro, green onions, butter lettuce, red leaf lettuce, and radishes this past Tuesday.  I'm trying to be really efficient with the veggies so none go to waste, and so none carry over into the next week.  I've done a good job of planning, spending about an hour on Mondays to see what I have left, what I'm getting, and plan out a menu for the week.   That way I can grab a few groceries and spend some time on Tuesday cooking after I pick up the veggies (which I'm making myself run to instead of drive so I get in a nice work out since it is at the bottom of a huge ridge that I live on top of).  Somehow with about two hours of cooking on Tuesdays, I'm able to get set up for the week when I'm more busy.  I'm sure this will stop happening in the fall when school starts again, but for now it has worked pretty well. I'm sure you can tell that I love cooking, so this is fun for me.

Here's a list of what I made this week, and what ingredients it used up for me:
  spinach pesto-- spinach, parsley from last week, cilantro
  very green buttermilk salad dressing-- parsley, cilantro, spinach
  potato salad-- radishes and green onions
  strawberry rhubarb pie #2-- rhubarb
  salads-- leaf lettuce, butter lettuce

Spinach pesto is called Mando Bizzaro Sauce in the Moosewood cookbook.  Use one whole bunch of spinach in stead of basil in your pesto recipe, but add a few leaves of basil if you can.  Dave actually liked this better than regular pesto, but I prefer basil, which is why I have about 15 basil plants growing right now.

Very green buttermilk salad dressing was also from the Moosewood cookbook.  This was great, but next time I'll roast the garlic first to avoid garlic breath.

The potato salad came from a recipe I found online, here.  I love it!  Dave won't eat mustard (okay, that's putting it lightly, he actually won't even look at it, hates me when he sees it in our fridge, and I've witnessed him gag and nearly barf at a restaurant once when he tried some tartar sauce that had a dash of mustard in it) and he doesn't care for mayo.  He didn't even know what miracle whip was.  (I freaked him out by saying that it's not unheard of to make a Wonder Bread/miracle whip/bologna sandwiches in Wisconsin.)  So, I made this treat for myself and cut back on the number of potatoes.

Radishes, green onions, in potato salad

My pie this week used Bittman's Flaky Pie Crust recipe (don't tell my mom that I didn't have time to call her for her and aunt Darcy's mind-blowing pie crust recipe) and a gluten free oats crumble topping that I threw together after realizing Bittman didn't intend for the pie recipe to make a top and a bottom unless it was doubled.  I made the crust with Jules Gluten Free Flour and rolled it out between two pieces of plastic wrap, which made the process super easy and clean.  This week I had a significantly larger amount of rhubarb, but threw it all in the pie anyway.  It was definitely tarter, but good.  If I get more next week, I might try making jam instead. 

If you've ever tried making a gluten free pie crust, you might be tempted to give me an award for this one.

Tapioca is the best pie filling thickener.  Who knew?

Meanwhile, my garden has peas!  They will probably be ready to be picked next week.  I will have to share some pictures of my pea plant.  I've never seen anything like it, and since it's the first real thing I've grown without screwing something up, besides lettuce this spring and about 10 lonely cherry tomatoes last year, I have to gloat.