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Yesterday was interesting, just look at that bizarre mutant tomato! I think it’s related to Swamp Thing. But the rest of the box share was pretty tame: basil, lettuce, parsley, zucchini, squash, green peppers, purple peppers, garlic, potatoes, cabbage, eggplant, hot peppers and more tomatoes. All good stuff!
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Ugh! It hardly feels like summer this year with all the rain we've been having. If it wasn’t for my CSA box shares I think I’d pack up shop and move to California. Luckily, this week was a good haul. It cheered me up a bit.
As you can see, I got a whole box of tomatoes, plus cherry tomatoes, cabbage, corn, shallots, green bell peppers, garlic, potatoes, zucchini and yellow squash. After I split it with my buddy, I took home half the tomatoes, some potatoes, the squash, a few shallots and the garlic. Sweet!
Despite the rainy, depressing weather, yesterday’s box share brightened up my day. Tomatoes are one of my favorite vegetables, so I was stoked when I found two containers of cherry tomatoes, along with regular tomatoes, corn, cabbage, basil, shallots, zucchini, garlic, potatoes and onions.
Now, until my garbage tomato starts bearing fruit—no doubt it’s been delayed by the unseasonably cool summer—I’ll have to make do with these tomatoes. Okay, so after the split with my friend I got some potatoes, shallots, corn, onions, zucchini and of course tomatoes. Sweet!
I really didn’t want to leave the house yesterday. It was hot and sticky—I hate the humidity—but I had to. My CSA box share was waiting and even though I split the share with a friend. I’m the go-for. Luckily, it was a good haul this week: wild flowers, red onion, scallions, tomatoes, potatoes, parsley, garlic, cucumbers, zucchini and some sort of squash.
My friend just had a kid. So I let her keep the flowers. She looked like she went a few rounds with Mike Tyson. So they brightened up her day. Plus, she didn’t want much else. My friend only took a few potatoes and some scallions and red onions. I kept the cucumbers and gave the rest of the stuff to my mom. She’s a much better cook than me.
The CSA gods were good to me again this week. My box share did not disappoint. Yesterday we got red potatoes, red leaf lettuce, scallions, garlic, zucchini, cucumbers, red cabbage, tomatoes and basil. Splitting it with my friend was hard, but we managed.
After a brief fist fight—mind you, she is 9 months pregnant—we divided up the potatoes, scallions, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and lettuce and I kept the red cabbage. She took the garlic and the basil. I’m Italian. My mom grows enough basil to feed an army.
Looks like the summer harvest is in full swing! My garbage tomato is thriving and my local CSA box shares are getting better and better. This week the box was pretty heavy again. That’s a good sign! Means there’s plenty of good stuff inside.
When I cracked the lid, I found beets, onions, cucumbers, red and green leaf lettuce, zucchini, little gourds, garlic and a whole bunch of red potatoes. Awesome! The cucumbers didn’t even last an hour. I whipped up some avocado and destroyed them.
I feel like I say it every Saturday, but I’m wiped out! I have just enough energy to take a “trip” to California, because this week Eating to Live on the Outside is off to San Francisco to grab a bite to eat at Bombay Indian Restaurant. And at first glance it looks okay.
Now, I just finished sifting through the menu. Some stuff you want to avoid, like the lamb and cheese, but there’s plenty of good food too. Here’s a quick list of potential options:
Cucumber Salad
- Indian style cucumber, tomato and onion; you can never go wrong with tomatoes.
Mixed Salad
- Green salad, cucumber and tomato; nice and simple.
Bombay Vegetable Masala
- Mixed vegetables cooked with bell peppers, spinach, onions, cheese, ginger, garlic and spices; lot’s of great vegetables, but I’ll ditch the cheese.
Allu Bengan
- Eggplant and potatoes cooked with herbs and spices; I’m Italian, naturally I love eggplant.
Mixed Vegetables
- Vegetables cooked in a light curry; I wonder what veggies are in this.
Mushroom Mattar
- Green peas, mushrooms and spices with coconut sauce; its hard for me to pass up mushrooms.
Allu Gobi
- Cauliflower and potatoes in spiced gravy; looks like another good one.
Sag Allu
- Fresh spinach cooked with potatoes, herbs and spices; put spinach in something and I’ll probably eat it.
Allu Mattar
- Potatoes and green peas cooked in curry sauce; not too bad.
Bombay Vegetable Coconut Curry
- Fresh vegetables cooked with coconut curry sauce; I’m cool with this.
Bhindi Masala
- Okra cooked with chopped onions, tomatoes and spices; I still haven’t tried okra yet!
Chana Palak
- Fresh cut spinach cooked with garbanzo beans and spices; love that spinach.
Vegetable Biryani
- Saffron rice with fresh vegetables, nuts and herbs; looks okay.
Bombay serves up a lot of vegetables, and beans—lots of beans—you know what that means! Now, if I REALLY had to pick something the Mixed Salad or the Cucumber Salad are probably the safest bet, but I could be lured into ordering the Bombay Vegetable Masala.
Okay, time for you guys to get off your lazy butts. Flip through Bombay’s menu and tell me what you like. Oh, and if any of you ever go to any of these places, say so in the comments. If not, I’ll thrash you!
Image credit: Bombay Indian Restaurant
Yesterday was a big deal for America! We swore in a new president. And like all big parties. They served food! Not for everyone of course, just the guests of honor. And the 2009 Inaugural Luncheon featured a bunch of Fuhrman-unfriendly foods. Eek!
The menu included seafood stew, first. Followed by pheasant and duck served with sour cherry chutney and molasses sweet potatoes. And lastly, apple cinnamon sponge cake and sweet cream glace, for dessert. Each course was accompanied by wine or champagne from California; via The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies.
We’re all hoping for change. But that menu sure seems like more of the same. Barely a veggie in sight! Well, at least President Obama, like many presidents before him, is way into exercise and fitness. He likes playing basketball and lifting weights.
Image credit: Michael Foley Photography
You’d certainly be better off eating them, but here’s a time-lapsed look at what happens to various fruits and vegetables left to decompose for 74 days. It’s pretty amazing to see how quickly the strawberries fall apart and how durable the onions are. And the potatoes are certainly opportunistic! That growth you see towards the end is sprouting out of the spuds. I’m part nerd, so I find this stuff fascinating.
Now, for the opposite end of the plant lifecycle, check out the organic tomato I grew on a pile of garbage this past summer. “On the path unwinding. In the Circle. The Circle of Life.”
That spud weighs nearly 25 pounds! A 56-year old farmer in Lebanon unearthed the monster. Grown naturally, without any chemicals, the man hopes it'll get him in the Guinness Book of World Records; the AFP reports.
Actually, insane fruits and veggies pop up all the time, like 600-pound pumpkins, watermelons auctioned for over $6,000 and crazy people that think they’ve grown a strawberry inside a tomato.
