The VEGGIES are here! The VEGGIES are here!
The top layer of amazing fabulosity
Fresh off the truck, friends! THE VEGGIES ARE HERE! Remember yesterday when we talked about filling ourselves with foods that make us glow? Here we go!
Every second Wednesday, I get a HUGE box of fruits and veggies delivered. If I were at home instead of updating you all from the comfort of my office, I would be taking a million photos of the goodness as it was unpacked. This is still an option, so don’t lose hope.
This box has a million percent changed my life. Where dinner used to be standard and a little boring, it is now FULL of amazing new recipes that I find all over the internet (thank you, Pioneer woman for this amazing veggie lasagna, and to the most adorable little pink monster for the BEST BRUSSEL SPROUTS you’ll ever put in your mouth) and bring to the table with great panache. PANACHE IS IMPORTANT! If you’re going to do something, do it with panache. Unless that “something” is ceremoniously unsheathing a brand new pizza cutter. Do not, I repeat DO NOT try to panache that up. It will end with lots of blood and more bandages than you can imagine. Or so I’ve heard.
Having a seemingly endless supply of fresh produce at our finger tips has improved our cooking experience so immensely that it’s hard to put it into words. It lets you truly let go in the kitchen. Got a rutabaga? Perfect! Let’s steam it up a la my good friend (and knower-of-all-things) Sue and then top it with sauteed onions, garlic, and mushrooms! All this is already at your finger tips! Why would you just have eggs, when you could just as easily throw together an amazing spinach omelet? Or a frittata that is BURSTING with flavour and makes your kitchen (and your entire life, damn it!) smell amazing?
So go, kittens, go now! Fill your fridges with goodness and report back with all the recipes you come up with! Or Google produce delivery in your area and make it an automatic thing that just HAPPENS on a regular schedule.
Love your blog, what a great idea! :) You should check out our new veggie travel blog based in Madrid for some great veggie food ideas! Thanks!
http://vegetarianvenues.wordpress.com/
2 veggies
Fabulous! I followed you immediately. But now I reaaaaaaally want to go to Spain and I NEEEEEEEEEEEED to try all of that food.
Yum, I’m hungry now! I had fresh a veggie box delivered for a year and loved it. Now I go to Whole Foods and pick them out myself. But your post (and all of the fantastic summer produce that’s out there right now) have inspired to me to look into it again and, at the very least, find some new veggie recipes!
I could happily try a new veggie recipe EVERY DAY (as long as I could go back to the amazing Brussels sprouts on a regular basis…)
I discovered you via Truth and Cake, and I am glad I did! As a cook, I do not understand the hesitance too many people have with incorporating more and a greater variety of vegetables into their diets. More or less, one could prepare every single vegetable, using a single cooking method, and they would all turn out magnificently. Therefore, confusion about cooking cannot be the reason. Most vegetables are pretty cheap, excluding artichokes, leeks, fennel, etc. The breadth of flavors is staggering…(notice, I am avoiding the nutrition argument)
Anyway, my method for preparing brussel sprouts is a 4-tiered process, which can be stopped at any point, and the results will be wonderful. Simply boiling them just until you can get a knife through their core will result in the sweet essence of baby cabbage, which can be upped with just a sprinkling of salt. Continuing on, pull your sprout before they are fork-tender, shock’em in some ice water, split your par-cooked sprouts and lay them cut-side down in a skillet with some olive oil for a while, until they are dark brown and crusty…salt and Mmmmmm! The next stop goes down a similar path as the last, replacing the olive oil with rendered bacon drippings, and finishing with the sprinkling of the crumbled bacon on top. The final stop is how I was taught to make them at the French restaurant I worked at for a bit. Follow the third path, but just before evacuating the sprouts from the pan, drown them in bechamel sauce. The sweetness of the milk, and the spiciness of the nutmeg, an integral part of good bechamel, with the bacon sprinkled on top, takes the humble cabbage to new heights. I am confident you can convert anyone who supposedly does not like brussel sprouts, with any of these variations.
This almost made me cry. Tears of delicious desire. I could write a post, no…a BLOG about rendered bacon drippings. And I truly believe that the secret to a brussel sprout conversion is to get them nice and brown and crispy. A true sprout lover will appreciate all the states, but the crispy brown goodness would steal ANYONE’S heart.
Thanks for following! I’m checking you out immediately.
Yum!!! I would love to find a way to use more veggies – my husband is from Argentina and sometimes it feels like all we eat is meat – and lots of it! Found you through Truth and Cake and glad I did!
I’m glad you’re here! I feel like we get overcome with meat, too. But now that our fridge is always overflowing with veggies, they’re making more of an appearance!
Enjoy those brussel sprouts- I love love love brussel sprouts. broiled and charred up with goat chees yum! And thanks for the panache warning — I will be careful with the pizza cutter from now on! :)
I just started getting a vege and fruit box. It was exciting learning what to do with fennel hearts and bok choy, persimmons and beetroot. My husband has become a convert and the kids love unpacking the box to see what new and exciting forms of goodness are arriving this week! Lovely post – I found you from Truth and Cake!
I am visiting through Truth and Cake. I have always wanted to do our local CSA but the portions are a tad too large for the two of us. I’m afraid that too much would go to waste! That said, the farmers market has been making me happy… just wrote about it today!
http://theusualbliss.com/2012/07/12/mint-limeade-and-tie-dye/
I write a lot about food these days, too! I keep glancing above at the bacon drippings comment… distracted…
Thanks for writing!
Thanks for the post! I have been wanting to do this and I just don’t. I don’t know why…but I will order tonight! Can’t wait to get my veggies delivered to me :)
Oh yay! I love the veggie box so so so much. I hope you have so much fun with yours!
Mr. Whine and I were just talking about signing up for Co-op veg boxes just last night. You’ve convinced me – I WANT!!!
YES!!! DO IT!!! It’s AMAZING.
New veggie recipe for you – they are freakin awesome. We planted two zucinni plants, our not-at-all-green thumbs having no idea that this would produce like three-hundred-thousand GIANT zuccinnis! I can’t even spell it, never mind that we don’t like them all that much! But these, were demo’d by hubby and I – toddler was grumpy, but I think next time he’ll be all over them.
So I present …. The Zucchini Tater Tot (sans taters).
http://curiouscountrycook.blogspot.ca/2012/03/zucchini-tots.html
(why the heck is there an H in zucchini?!)
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