Week 3 of Door to Door *Update*

Wow, something new to try this week! Here's what's in the box next Wednesday:

Broccoli (1.00ea.)
Kiwi (3.00 - ea.)
Spinach (1.00 - ea.)
Bananas (3.00 - ea.)
Grapefruit (3.00 - ea.)
Navel Oranges (6.00 - ea.)
Red Delicious Apples (6.00 - ea.)
Carrots (1.00 - lb)
Mizuna (1.00 - ea.)
Mango (2.00 - ea.)
Tomatoes (3.00 - ea.)
Yukon Gold Potatoes (3.00 - lb)
Jewel Yams (2.00 - lb)

I subbed in Kiwi, Bananas and Yams for Lettuce, Parsley and Butternut Squash. OK, have you heard of Mizuna? Well. I hadn't.

From foodreference.com (I love the internet):
Mizuna is a Japanese mustard green with dandelion-like jagged edge green leaves with a mild, sweet earthy flavor. It has been culitaved in Japan since ancient times, but most likely originated in China. Mizuna makes an excellent salad green, and is frequently found in Mesclun. It is also used in stir-frys and soups.

Then I had to look up Mesclun because I hadn't heard of that either. The same site yielded this definition:
Mesclun, also called Field Greens or Spring Mix, is a classic green salad mix originating in the South of France. It consists of a mixture of very young leaves and shoots of wild and cultivated plants, including endive, dandelion, arugula, lamb's lettuce, oak leaf, mache, radicchio, chervil, sorrel, frissee, purslane, etc. Sometimes edible flowers are included.

So I suppose I should put it in a salad but we really aren't salad folks, so I was happy to find this recipe instead. Yum.

Here are the recipes for next Wed-Wed.

Main Meals:

* Chickpea Broccoli Casserole p96 VWAV
* Chickpea & Spinach Curry p170 VWAV
* Marinated Tofu w/ Mizuna
* Aloo Gobi (from Bend It Like Beckham)

I thought I would put *Updates* on these posts to say which recipes were really worth noting. Some of them have been truly amazing (5 stars) and others only so-so. To make that easier, I'm going to create an "Eating Seasonally" section, on the right under Videos, with each week's post (with Update) to refer to. Hope this helps! (A friend told me today that my blog is turning into a food blog, so I guess I better start treating it as such!) I've also decided to start freezing one (if not more) meal per week, for the day when this starts getting old and I don't want to cook every night. It will be easy to downgrade to a Small Box to get less produce and I bet I'll appreciate having some meals stashed away! I had some extra potatoes and completely forgot all about the leeks from last week, so yesterday I made an easy Potato Leek Soup that I'll freeze. This week I think I'll freeze the Tomato Dal w/ Spinach.

*Update*

• Chickpea Broccoli Casserole-very easy and good. As she says in the book, it's a little bland, but comforting. Doctoring it up with spices (I'm thinking sage) would work, but it is really good as is. I should have sliced the onion thinner. I love easy dishes and this one is simple. Yum. 4 stars.
• Chickpea & Spinach Curry-DELICIOUS! I even messed up the recipe, adding way too much tomato juice and subbing lentils for chickpeas. It was fabulous. The smell of it cooking was just as wonderful as eating it. YUM. This one ranks highly and will be in the rotation for sure! 5 stars!
• Marinated Tofu w/ Mizuna-interesting. When I went to start the marinade, I realized that there are no measurements. So I winged it, and it was good, but something to be tweaked. Again I need to remember to do the 'press and squish' for the tofu. Now that I've had it that way, to not yields a squishy, too-soft texture that I no longer like as well. The mizuna was weird but good. It had the stringy texture of seaweed once it had wilted, but it was very good. Mizuna would be good in any Asian recipe I think. Yum. Glad to have tried it. I served it over couscous but I think brown rice would have been a sturdier choice. 2 stars for the meal, 3 stars for mizuna itself.
• The Aloo Gobi was a last minute switch because I just wasn't excited about potato soup. I found the recipe and put it on for next week's menu, but when I saw the cauliflower in the box I just couldn't wait. It was FABULOUS, even though I doubled the recipe (because I had a ton of potatoes) but didn't have double the cauliflower. It was still stupendous. A bit of work with the prep chopping, but nothing crazy. A definate keeper. YUM. 5 stars.