52 Weeks of Bread- weeks 19-22

I’m trying to make a different bread every week of the year. So far this is what I’ve got:

Week 1: Challah bread

Week 2: English Muffins

Week 3:Oatmeal Rolls

Week 4: Harvest Grape Bread (pull apart rolls)

Week 5: Potato Rosemary Bread

Week 6: Casatiello bread

Week 6 bonus: King Cake

Week 7: Focaccia Bread

Week 8: Italian Bread

Week 8 bonus: Plain soft pretzels/bites

Week 9: Pitas (x2)

Week 10: Pizza/Stromboli

Week 11: Irish soda bread

Week 12: Bread bowls

Week 13: Made with Love Bakery’s Hawaiian Sweet Bread

Week 13 bonus Bacon Epi(c) Bread

Week 14: Southern Biscuits

Week 15: Corn Bread with bacon

Week 16: Marbled Rye Bread

Week 17: Cilantro sesame rolls

Week 18: Garlic Scape, Pepper, cheddar bread

Week 19: Flour tortillas

These were super easy and very tasty. A little finicky- we made the second batch way too crispy. I would make these all the time except there are some great locally made ones for sale at the stores here.

Week 20: Vienna Bread

These rolls were really tasty! I will be making them again sometime. We used them for dinner rolls and sandwiches all week.

Week 21: Tuscan bread

Not my favorite bread. On a positive note- it took 21 weeks to get to one I didn’t like. This bread has no salt in the recipe and it was sorely missed. It also molded very quickly

Week 21 Bonuses: MORE pita bread and some carrot zucchini ginger bread for breakfasts

Week 22: White bread variation 1

I signed up to bring a couple of loaves of bread to the youth group for their week of service projects around town. I figured it was a perfect time to try out a white bread. I made a double batch and made some into hamburger/hotdog rolls too. Not so right on the shape for the hotdogs but pretty close on taste.

23. Bagels

I wanted some easy go this for breakfast and lunch. As I had already made English muffins and I trying to avoid major repeats, I went with bagels. This was a good idea.

* Unless otherwise noted/linked up, all of my bread recipes come from the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Book, which I would highly recommend.

No box- Scottsdale Farmer’s Market

So this is week one with no CSA box until summer crops start to come in. We were down in Scottsdale on Saturday (me to work and hubby to play) so I sent him over to the Scottsdale Old Town Farmer’s Market to see what we could find.

He reports that there was an epic line around the big veggie booth and he didn’t want to wait, but he did get a bunch of fresh tomatoes and also some bratwurst and goat steaks.

This will be our first time trying goat, but we’ve got a friend who says if you like lamb, goat is better…he’s going to make it in some kind of curry.

Also on the menu this week will be brats and onions on the grill. While we have the grill going were going to prep some other veggies for the week (squash left from the last box and onions for pizza). We’re also going to grill the pizza dough for this week so we just have to melt cheese on our pizza the next day and have the oven it for much less time.

I’m going to get some raw milk tomorrow and try again with the mozzarella cheese making.

We’re having French onion soup sandwiches today for dinner. So yummy and so much easier to eat than the real thing.

For the rest of the week were going to lean on some of our favorite go to meals: swai with quinoa, eggs and taters (man food night), and veggie pasta.

Oh and these strawberry grilled cheeses are definitely on my lunch menu. Hubby’s loss for not wanting fruit on his savory food!

Next week were going to check out the verde valley farmers market, which just opened this past weekend and see what kind of local fare they have around.

Now I’m going to drool over the other people who still have boxes over at In Her Chucks. Check it out! And have a yummy week!

Yum Yum Produce Box #12

Sad news. It’s my last box for a while, but the happy news is that we got a pretty good haul. Check it out:

10 baby onions
A pile of greens- Kale I think, maybe some collards, also chard
A bunch of wild spinach
A bag of sprouts (Surprise!)
A bag of white beans
2 Armenian cucumbers
3 squash/zucchini
A bundle of rosemary

So it should be pretty tasty this week. We’re going to use some of the zucchini (and some frozen carrots) to make a zucchini carrot bread. Located in my Eating Local cookbook:

The orange stickies are courtesy of my ladies, Carolyn and Alicia.

Also coming from this book this week will be radish feta flatbread and beet tops with feta, a beet tahini dip for snacking (raw beets- feeling adventurous!), and a 5 spice whole chicken on the grill.

The chicken that doesn’t get consumed on the first day will be added to a white bean chicken chili later in the week.

All those greens will afford us a salad night (with cucumber!)

Some of the radishes will also make it into the stir fry/Asian concoction we’ll be inventing.

Lastly, going to go for some Tuscan mussels and fries, to go with the Tuscan bread I’m making this week.

What are you making this week? I hope this all turns out as yummy as it sounds.

I’m linking up at In her chucks! Check out the other local CSA yumminess that is going on!

I found a farmers market in Camp Verde that opens in June- so hopefully I’ll only have a couple weeks with no local goodies to share.

Yum Yum Produce Box #11

It’s our eleventh box this week! Holy cow time flys! Here’s what we got:

Sweet Potatoes
Beets w/tops- still up for debate if we like these or not
Arugula
Lettuce
Squash
Cilantro
Chard
Sprouts- want some? I’ll share!

Whew! Quite a haul this week.

We’re planning another root vegetable and sausage bake with some of the sweet potatoes and beets (and turnips we still have).

We got a grill while garage sale-ing! So we will be grilling some steak and making a big Caesar salad. Going to serve these up with some homemade flour tortillas- which were a hit last week and are being made again.

Lentils and quinoa are still on the menu from last week-curry style. I hope we get to them!

Fried swai (fish) and spaghetti with some sautéed chard greens on the side is on tap for a little southern taste.

It seems the hubby is in an inventing mood- the menu board says squash gumbo with javelina sausage. I’m not are what that entails exactly but it should be yummy.

Also we’re going to roast up a bunch of squash and use it on a pizza (with a fresh batch of homemade mozzarella) and on some pasta for a lighter dish.

Sorry not any recipe links this week- we’re going with many of our invented classics. I’ll try to get some pictures and post some of them later perhaps.

In her chucks is back with a new CSA box after her move so check out the link ups of other yummies over there

Make Your Own- It’s Fun!

So I just thought I would share a few things that I have been making instead of buying these days. Some are still in progress so I don’t know if they will be successful or not. I generally will try to make anything at least once. Most things end up being easier than they look and it’s fun- and also healthier- knowing how your food is made and what is in it.

One Gallon of organic humanely raised whole milk yields about one pound of mozzarella cheese. The kit I bought will make up to 30 batches of mozzarella this size so I should be getting plenty of practice. Regular fresh mozzarella (milk source unknown) usually runs us about $6 for half this amount. $6 is what I paid for the top quality milk.

The growler is fermenting some homemade root beer (from extract). It started to explode in the house and is now living in the garage. The mason jar is home to wild fermenting strawberry vinegar. Currently it’s still in the wild yeast (wine) phase, but in a couple weeks it should start to turn to vinegar. My guess is this process may be shortened a bit by the heat.

I got a kit to grow mushrooms from a box. It says it will take 10 days. The first picture is about 3 days in. The second is about 6 days in. We plan to harvest some starting on Thursday. The box was $22- if we get about a pound of oyster mushrooms I think we’ll break even, anything over that and it will be free mushrooms.

Yum Yum Produce Box #10

Here is box number 10! Two more weeks to go after this.

This week we got:
Bag of sprouts (know that if you come visit me I might make you leave with some sprouts)
Rutabaga
Garlic scapes
Chard
Radishes
Beets w/ tops
Garlic chives
Baby bok choy

If you ask me, I’d say that’s a pretty good haul!

We’re keeping it pretty simple this week.

The bok choy will be halved and seared with some kind of Asian sauce we will probably make up on the spot, served with tofu and rice.

Some of the chard will probably make it into calzones later this week, along with the kale we still have from last week. (And homemade cheese and hopefully home grown mushrooms!)

The rest of the veggies will become part of our side dishes. We’re going to try our hand at some chipotle copy cat this week and make pork carnitas in the slow cooker. Going to use the beef recipe as a rough guideline.

My bread of the week is flour tortillas so how they turn out will determine if we make tacos or burritos.

The leftover pork will then become BBQ spaghetti, probably with a side of greens or roasted veggies.

If you want some sprouts, come and get them. I’m becoming sprouted out!

Have a yummy local week!

52 Weeks of Bread- Weeks 14-18

I’m trying to make a different bread every week of the year. So far this is what I’ve got:

Week 1: Challah bread

Week 2: English Muffins

Week 3:Oatmeal Rolls

Week 4: Harvest Grape Bread (pull apart rolls)

Week 5: Potato Rosemary Bread

Week 6: Casatiello bread

Week 6 bonus: King Cake

Week 7: Focaccia Bread

Week 8: Italian Bread

Week 8 bonus: Plain soft pretzels/bites

Week 9: Pitas (x2)

Week 10: Pizza/Stromboli

Week 11: Irish soda bread

Week 12: Bread bowls

Week 13: Made with Love Bakery’s Hawaiian Sweet Bread

Week 13 bonus Bacon Epi(c) Bread

Week 14: Southern Biscuits

Alton Brown’s biscuits are my go to recipe, although I didn’t have any shortening so I used straight butter. They were still good with our biscuit and javelina sausage gravy dinner.

Week 15: Corn Bread with bacon

We made corn bread to go with our chili. The hubby doesn’t like corn bread except straight from the oven. I froze the rest for next time we have chili.

Week 16: Marbled Rye Bread

We made a homemade corned beef and homemade sauerkraut and thousand island dressing- together for this bread to make Reuben sandwiches. Maybe soon we can also make the Swiss cheese for the sandwiches too!

Week 17: Cilantro sesame rolls

We got cilantro in our CSA box and were making a cilantro soup (as you can see I’m becoming much more brave about cilantro). The rolls were tasty. We took the leftovers to share with our church group on Cinco de Mayo.

Week 18: Garlic Scape, Pepper, cheddar bread

We got garlic scapes in our CSA box, and I found this recipe as I was trying I figure out what to do with them. It was a delicious choice and could almost be a meal by itself!

* Unless otherwise noted/linked up, all of my bread recipes come from the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Book, which I would highly recommend.

Yum Yum Produce Box #9

There was bounty in my box this week. Check it out:

Here’s what we got:
- 7 summer squash/zucchini
- 1 huge bunch of cilantro
- 1 bunch of kale
- 1 small bunch of beets with tops (chard)
- 1 large bunch of garlic scapes
- 1 bunch of spring onions
- 1 bunch of quinoa leaves/quioletes/wild spinach
- 1 large bag of sprouts

So the summer squash so early is quite a surprise, although there are places in the state that already feel a lot like summer. We’re going to make squash pasta- basically pasta with roasted/sautéed squash, some garlic and onions and some goat cheese- all made into a sauce with a little white wine. I’ll try to take pictures and post the recipe.

Our current favorite way to eat kale is inside of a frittata so I think we’re going to do that again with some various veggies added in to it. I’ve been basing it loosely on this sweet potato kale frittata.

Favorite ingredient of the week is garlic scapes. They are very strong so a few goes a long way. We added them to the top of our cabbage casserole on Thursday, and put some in our enchiladas last night. I think they will be in everything this week. However the specific plans we have for them is a scape and beet top pizza with Brie- combining this and this recipe.

My bread of the week will also contain the garlic scapes (and peppers and cheese). The bread will then be used for grilled cheese sandwiches for lunches and French onion soup sandwiches for dinner one night.

These sandwiches are one of our fall back staples but we haven’t made them in a long time. I’m really looking forward to them. We’re also making another staple in our house- quinoa burrito bowls which will use some of the cilantro and the quinoa leaves/wild spinach.

The beets themselves…ok. Here’s where I get nervous this week. We’ve tried them a few ways before and neither the hubby nor I have found them to be very tasty. More like they taste like clean dirt. Anyways were going to try roasting them along with some sweet potato as a side dish and see how they go. I’ve got about 6 different methods pinned on Pinterest so we’ll see!

Aside from that I am overrun with sprouts. I can’t seem to use them enough and I think I have about 3 weeks worth in my refrigerator right now! Eek! If you live close to me and want some to share please let me know! Also if you have any good ideas for using them, chime in! We usually put some on salads, stir fry, in egg wraps ect. but we still don’t seem to make a dent before the next box comes!

Have a yummy week!

Yum Yum Produce Box #8

It’s my 8th week of a CSA box from Yum Yum Produce. I feel like we are getting into a groove. We are able to tell which things need to be used right away and which can be kept over for a week or two if necessary.

Spring must really be in the air because we got a few new things in the box this week

Here’s what this weeks box had inside:
1 bunch of kale
4 carrots (no tops)
1 napolitos (cactus pad)
1 bag of sprouts (I will never run out of sprouts it seems)
1 small cabbage
1 large bunch of cilantro (which makes hubby very happy)
3 artichokes
4 spring onions
2 garlic chives

So as you can see by the spring onions, cilantro, garlic chives and artichoke (!) the days of only leafy greens are gone and spring is officially here.

So what to make this week?

I was semi-unsuccessful with my first preparation of napolitos. They were tasty, but slimy. I did some research and came up with a couple new ideas. I think we’re going to try them fried. My logic is that I like fried okra and its kind of slimy so fried napolitos might be good too. I thought originally that I cooked the last one too long but after reading some more I think it wasn’t log enough. Also I might forage some more on my own to freeze for these smoothies come summer cucumber season.

I’m thinking I will keep it simple with the artichokes as roast them. I would grill them but alas we do not have a grill yet. I haven’t decided what to have along with them yet. Traditionally my family eats artichokes and baby back ribs together (with a big bowl in the middle of the table to toss the leaves and bones into). As a kid this was awesome because the whole meal was “food you can throw.”

I like the looks of this stuffed cabbage recipe I found on Pinterest, but it has a ton of ingredients. We might try to simplify it up a bit.

I’m letting the hubby decide what to do with the cilantro which I was only convinced to even try consuming when I learned that it was a super food. It’s growing on me but still not my favorite. While I was looking for some ideas for my “trying not to hate cilantro” board on Pinterest I came across these flautas. I’m not ready for cilantro pesto yet, but I’m going to be trying them with regular pesto.

I still have some whey left, and potatoes and turnips…so I am hoping to try the soup that AnnieRie Unplugged made with her whey last week.

Yum yum produce box # 7

Well I made it through my first 6 week cycle of CSA boxes. And now here I am at the beginning of another cycle. This week we got another lovely box of veggies:

This weeks box has:
Napolitos (prickly pear pad)- these grow like weeds in AZ so it’d be awesome if I like it.
1 bag of sprouts
1 large bunch of carrots
1 bunch of Swiss chard
1 bunch of rutabaga
1 bunch of Russian red kale
2 extra large fennel bulbs

So my ingredient of the week is fennel. There is SO much of it and the flavor goes such a long way. My thought is that it will get to go in a little bit of everything. A few of my ideas are fennel pork potstickers, Caramelized fennel & onion pizza, and mussels in a fennel wine broth. I am hopeful that these three will use most of the fennel.

The newsletter that came with my box says that the cactus pads are often grilled and then added to eggs or as a tortilla filling. So I’m thinking we’ll go with that for a first attempt.

I still have a lot of canned pumpkin left and this kale and pumpkin lasagna looks like it will be pretty tasty. We’re bringing dinner to a friend this week too so we can split the batch of lasagna. I usually exchange cottage cheese for the ricotta cheese- I think the texture is a little better and it adds some extra protein.

At this point I am hiding carrots in anything and everything, so not making any special plans for those.

The rutabaga is just gonna hang for a while. It will last longer than everything else so it’s going to hang out with the turnip from last week until I hear of a great idea for these root veggies. Any particular ways you love to have rutabaga or turnips?

Also, the sauerkraut we made last week is ready to consume and we are nearly done with the latest batch of corned beef. The bread of the week this week will be marbled rye. Add those up and we’ll be having a Ruben night.

I venture into the raw milk world this week and sure enough it did not bother my tummy like regular pasteurized milk does. The only problem is that we can only buy it by the gallon at the store. Not wanting it to go bad, I used some of it and made farmers cheese.

This was my very first time making cheese. Having gotten past the hurdle of doing it once, I’m ready to get a kit and start making a variety of cheeses. (Maybe the next Reuben day will involve homemade Swiss cheese too!)

As always, you can check out some more CSA boxes at In Her Chucks’ link party.

Have a yummy local week!