this week’s veg box

Lovely stuff - rhubarb, asparagus, melon, broccoli, bananas, orange, tomatoes, pointy cabbage, courgettes. From Riverford.

So:

• asparagus and lemon risotto
• rhubarb rumble
• indian cabbage with rice
• stir-fried broccoli
• courgette and pasta bake

We can have the melon, bananas and oranges for breakfast.

Yum!

breakfast, before and after

Somehow, we have acquired a lot of fruit. We’re not good at eating it, and Riverford keep bringing it. We’ve been eating porridge for breakfast through the winter, mostly, but I think we must now attack the fruit backlog. Or possibly open a market stall.

And so - breakfast.

the mango

weekend 2/3 dec 06

Saturday evening was a tub of mutton and date tagine from the freezer, and X-Factor. Good riddance to the dreadful McDonalds, I say.

Sunday morning I made a batch of carrot and coriander muffins for breakfast, then faffed about for a bit before being Good, and taking the plastics to Sainsburys for recycling, and doing the shopping.

Made a pot roast out of a piece of topside and half a bottle of red wine that had gone over a bit, then out on the monthly Village Walk, yomping up very steep and very muddy fields and paths - I found this hard going, and my knees were Not Happy, but at least I did it. I think the glucosamine are helping quite a bit.

Home for a rest, and to consume the pot roast, with potatoes and cabbage from the Riverford box - it was utterly delicious; probably the best I’ve made evah. And then - astonishingly - the Jordans sallied forth to meet Pat and Dave (WANOLJ but are known to many of my readers) where we formed a team for the Quiz Night at the British Legion Club in the village. We had a whale of a time, although what inspired Dave to play the joker on the Classical Music round, ghod only knows. We called ourselves The Aliens, and we will be making a regular event of this, I’m sure.

what do you do with the veg in the veg box?

A very amusing article from Zoe Williams in the Guardian - and some nice recipe ideas in there too.

the peppers are taking over …

Astute readers will notice I’ve been posting a lot of vegetable recipes lately. This is because we have resumed our organic veggie box from Riverford, and are currently overrun with veg!

We have a *lot* of peppers; some from our own garden, some from a friend, and some in the veg box … and some left over from a jar of roasted peppers.

With the latter, I whizzed them up with the water that I soaked some shallots in (did you know that soaking shallots in boiling water for five minutes makes them easier to peel? - and that I’m too mean to throw it away? :). That liquid, with some finely chopped carrot, leek, courgette and a small green pepper, made a nice soup, with some chickpeas added for bulk.

And last night, I made a bitsa risotto, with peppers and a leek sauteéd in olive oil, and some cubed pancetta, vermouth, and a handful of chopped parsley thrown in at the end. Sometimes bitsa meals really work, and this one did!

Now then - what to do with two cauliflowers? …