The only new vegetable our fourth CSA box brought was cabbage. The rest we had had before, and by this point, we've had way to much of some of them (cough ... carrots ... cough). But spring is just around the corner here in Central Texas, so I look forward to seeing what interesting things our next boxes bring.

Continue reading "CSA Box Number 4"

I like pigs. They always seem to have a smile on their face, and not too long ago, I discovered that they wag those crazy tails of theirs. But I love more what pigs can become. Belly meat becomes bacon. Shoulder becomes tender carnitas. And now ... skin becomes pork rinds.

Continue reading "Power of the Pig"

Sean in particular was excited about our third CSA box because it was meant to include Brussels sprouts – a particular favorite of his. Again I was pleased to note that in addition to our sprouts, the box offered several new items we'd not yet seen during our admittedly brief Johnson's Backyard Garden CSA membership.

Continue reading "CSA Box Number 3"

These are, bar none, the strangest dumplings I've ever had the pleasure to make or eat. A couple friends recently organized a Thai-food dinner, and I was stuck for what to bring. In digging through cookbooks for inspiration, I happened upon Thai Tapioca Pearl Dumplings.

Continue reading "Pearls for Dinner"

Have I ever told you this? About a million years ago, I unwittingly captured Sean's attention when I fed him homemade crawfish etouffee, made from crawfish I had caught during a float trip (I don't know if this is true everywhere, but “float trip” in my corner of Missouri meant “canoe trip”). And so it was with equal parts interest and nostalgia that I prepared the etouffee recipe from the most recent issue of Saveur magazine.

Continue reading "Shrimp Etouffee"

One night, my friends Jeff and Sharon showed up at the house with a large item wrapped in a heavy-gauge trash bag, a highly entertained gleam in their eyes. They walked into the kitchen and thunked it on the counter and continued to grin at me, silently challenging me to open their strange parcel. I slowly peeled back the blanket of thick plastic and revealed the skinned but otherwise very recognizable hind leg of an animal – in fact there was still a bit of fur attached here and there. “It's deer!” they exclaimed with obvious delight.

Continue reading "Leg of Deer"

We picked up our second CSA box not long after the Hill Country had undergone a particularly vicious freeze (vicious for Texas, that is). To be honest, I figured it'd be a little light this week, and there was even an apology note from the supplier, Johnson's Backyard Garden, to that affect tucked in amongst the produce. That said, I felt like we got every bit the content we did last time, and maybe even a little more. An added bonus – there was a pile of organic citrus from G and S Groves as well.

Continue reading "CSA Box Number 2"

This is part of why I wanted to be a CSA member – to get random vegetables and have no immediate idea what I wanted to do with them, thereby forcing me to figure out new uses, new preparations. Part of our Box 2 offering was a big, beautiful 2-pound bunch of carrots. The weird freeze Austin experienced earlier this month managed to intensify their sweetness, and while we ate some of them as they were, I wanted to do something special with the rest. I picked up a random cookbook that I hadn't opened in years and found a lovely recipe for Carrot Garlic Soup.

Continue reading "Two Pounds of Carrots"

We've decided to try a CSA membership for a while to see if it helps us eat more fruits and vegetables. CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture, is a system whereby individuals pre-pay for a share of a given farm's bounty. The farm has a bumper crop, the CSA members get extra large shares. The farm suffers an unexpected hard freeze, members wind up with less. Through Johnson's Backyard Garden (who is currently accepting new CSA members, by the way), we've opted for an every-other week ration of vegetables. The following is sort of a note-to-self on what produce we've received, what recipes we prepared (or preservation methods we employed), and what we didn't manage to use in time.

Continue reading "CSA Box Number 1"

Last year, we made cookie plates for our families, but due to poor planning on my part, I only managed three kinds of cookies. This year, I got an earlier start and did a little bit better job. But for whatever reason, that just wasn't enough. Thanks to all the charcuterie fun I've had this past year, we decided to make gifts of meat for our families as well.

Continue reading "Gifts of Cookies and Meat"