CSA Week 1: Reds, greens and a little bit of blue

I've always wanted to join a Community Sponsored Agriculture farm, call it one of my goals in my Culinary Bucket List. So I finally signed up for a CSA share through Clayhill Farms in Suffolk, Va. This past Saturday I received my very first delivery:

The delivery included four large cucumbers, 5 zucchini, half a pound of strawberries, half a pint of blueberries, two green peppers and two humongous red peppers. The idea with CSA's is that you invest in the farm and they return that investment with fruit and vegetables. This size share costs me $21 a week, which I paid upfront. I then receive 20 weeks of shares. Considering I'm supporting a local farm and I get access to some of the freshest and most delicious produce I've had in a while, this is pretty much a win-win.

Every week I'll share with you the price breakdown so we can really see if these shares are worth it. I'll price it all at Harris Teeter, since that is where I would normally buy my produce. Also, I'll price for organic (when I can), since Clayhill Farms uses an organic method called integrated pest management. They define IPM as "we work with nature ( Praying Mantii, ladybugs, bees, and butterflies) and use natural techniques (like crop rotation, companion planting, crop and pest scouting, and drip irrigation) to eliminate pesticide and chemical use on our fruits and veggies."

Price breakdown

• A pound of organic strawberries: $4.99
• 1 pint of non-organic blueberries: $4.99
• 4 organic cucumbers: $11.96
• 2 organic green bell peppers: $4.98
• 2 organic red bell peppers: $7.98
• 5 organic zucchini: $6.54
• TOTAL COST: $41.44

That's a bit steep. But I have to admit that I wouldn't normally go for the organic, since my wallet is currently more important to me (shame, I know). But here's the thing, even going for the cheapest versions (at Harris Teeter, that is), I'm still saving money. A similar price check, this time focusing on the cheapest choices, resulted in a total of $27. That includes a pretty awesome sale on strawberries, so next week it would be even more expensive. So, this week at least, I'm saving money and my health. 

I'll update later with a list of the delicious meals I've made out of my yummy veggies. 

Collard greens

I cannot recall actually eating a collard green. Oh, I know I have at some point. But it must have been so bad that I blocked the experience from my memory. So when my neighbor behind us (we have a common fence) offered up his huge collard greens that I had been intrigued by (see, I even snuck a pic of them a couple of weeks ago) since I noticed them in his garden plot (I want a garden plot!), I couldn't say no. It seemed it was time to face my fear of the repressed memory and see if collards are as good as everyone says they are. Now to find a great recipe. A quick google search reveals this:

• Classic saute
• Collards with bacon
• Citrus collards with raisins

I'll let you know which one we choose. With three large bunches, we'll likely be able to tackle at least two kinds (I'm thinking bacon and citrus). I'm actually already thinking of making the citrus collards and serving them with pork chops that were marinated in an orange juice based sauce (like this Asian-inspired one or even this spicy version).

Food is better when it's round

Obviously my love of pie belies a certain fascination with all things circular: Pancakes, pie and pizza. You name it, I love it; and I want to learn how to make it. Luckily I live with a bonafide "expert." OK, Travis only worked for a pizza place over the summer sometime before I met him, but he still makes a mean pizza crust, not to mention pizza sauce. Traditionally, because it's easier to make, we've mostly made deep dish in a rectangular Pyrex pan. But traditional really is better, and for us, traditional means circular. So that's what we did recently.
We made the dough in the bread machine, which gave us more time to get our errands done and a safe place for the dough to rise while we were gone. We threw everything in the machine before we went shoe shopping, and when we got back, we got down to business - pizza-making business. Have a look:

Travis did a fantastic job making a round crust. The only mistake was forgetting to buy cornmeal at the store. The final result came out a little more floury than we like, but it was still delicious enough.

We got the pizza paddle for Christmas from Dad. Apparently our fame as pizza lovers is well-known.

Travis also made homemade sauce. He loves doing it and believe me, he has perfected his recipe over the years. It's delicious. I know I've been saying this for years now, but someday I'll share it, I promise! Our favorite pizza for the last year or so has been sausage and pineapple. It's amazing!

The secret to the perfect crust is a pizza stone. The key is to put it in the oven as it preheats so the stone will be the same temperature as the oven and is able to cook the pizza evenly and quickly. This creates a perfect crust that's still chewy. By the way, that oven thermometer is great. Without it, we'd never know that our oven is exactly 25 degrees above the set temperature. I recommend getting one if you don't have it.

The paddle allows us to slide the pizza on to the preheated stone without it falling apart. I'd give you a finished picture, but as the case usually is, we had consumed the final product before I remembered to grab my camera.

A note on toppings: One of the things I love most about pizza is that the toppings can change according to what you have and what you are in the mood for. I had fried up Italian sausages last weekend for dinner and used the leftovers along with the last of the fresh pineapple from a tub of fresh cut fruit I had purchased from Harris Teeter's grocery section earlier in the week. Yum!

The great pie experiement, part 2: First thoughts

That's all I have to show you for my first pie experiment. Why? Well, never having made pie before I wanted to focus on the process and not worry about cleaning my hands between steps so I don't get flour all over the camera. Now that I have the basic steps down, I can go back, make another and share pictures of each step. I told you this would be a process.

I can sum up my thoughts on my first attempt in this way: OK. I mean, it was good overall but each component had problems that I want to fix. The crust with a biscuit-like texture, there was way too much liquid in the filling and the pie was pretty flat overall. All this came together to make an pretty good apple pie in flavor, but just an OK pie in terms of the textures I prefer. Luckily, this weekend my dad comes to town for our Thanksgiving and I will be making another pie. I'm pretty I've figured out what went wrong and I know this next one will be even better!

Culinary bucket list: The great pie experiment, part I

I began cooking when I was young. To be honest, though, I can't definitively tell you what the first thing I helped my mom make was or when I made my first complete meal. My memory is fuzzy from those times. I've read that divorce will do that to young people.

What I do know is that cooking has always been an escape for me. When I am stressed or troubled or tired, taking a few moments to cook something has always focused me and helped me solve my problems.

As time has gone on, cooking has become a way to challenge myself. So in the back of my head I've begun to list the things I want to eventually accomplish as a cook, call it my a culinary bucket list. The list includes things like making biscuits from scratch (check, though I think I really need to keep practicing to be a success at these), beating egg whites to stiff peaks by hand (halfway there!) and making pie.

I've never made pie by myself, though I LOVE pie. That may be my problem, though. I may love pie too much. My standards involving pie are so high and my ability to tolerate my own failures is so low that, until recently, I thought I might implode if I couldn't create a delicious version of my own favorite food.

But in every cook's life there's a moment in which you suck it up and make the damn pie. And that is what I did last night - I made pie crust. And today, after letting the dough chill in the fridge overnight, I will make my very first honest to goodness apple pie with pie dough that I made all by myself and if I screw it up, I have husband who will eat it anyway and pretend to love it.

If you feel like it's time to suck it up and make your own pie, I have collected a vast knowledge of pie tips. Much of the advice contradicts itself since it is coming from a wide variety of sources who have spent many a night crying themselves to sleep after ruining their pie. Luckily for me they didn't implode, but instead got back up the next morning and made pie again, thereby perfecting their recipes for the rest of us to try out. So here's my current base of knowledge. Read them all. Because food bloggers have a knack for being hilarious. And Alton Brown is just awesome, even if I'm not planning to do a shortening and butter pie crust (BUTTER ALL THE WAY!):

• Alton Brown, "Apple Pie," Good Eats (video)
• Smitten Kitchen, "Pie Crust 101," "Pie Crust 102: All butter really flaky pie dough" and "Pie crust 103: Rolling and crimping" (blog posts)
• Pastry Chat, "A pie crust tutorial" (blog post)
• Joy the baker, "How to make pie crust...do it" (blog post)
• The Kitchen Sink, "Open-face fresh blueberry pie" (blog post - scroll all the way through, there are two pastry dough recipes with instructions)

When I have my own experience, I will definitely be sharing with you what I've learned and I hope you will do the same.