[Note: In the process of reviving this blog from the dead, the photos from this post were lost]
First, the inventory:
- mixed greens
- carrots
- 2 zucchini
- 3 large mushrooms (they look like a hybrid of cremini and shiitake)
- 6 spring onions
- 4 roma tomatoes
- sugar snap peas
- cauliflower
- broccoli
- 4 yellow potatoes
- 3 mini head lettuce
- swiss chard
- asparagus
- microgreens
- pea shoots
Wow, this was quite the haul and we were really excited by a few items. First, the sugar snap peas. This is one of Matt’s favorite veggies and he started sampling them before I even got home from work. I was told I had to try them right away. And he was right. Beautifully crisp outer shell with big, juicy peas inside. I’m not sure we could ever go back to grocery store veggies shipped from California or Mexico anymore (I consider this to be a good thing.) Next, the spring onions. These smell awesome and I can’t wait to use them.
Last week, I was away in Houston for a few days, Matt and I are both busy with bicycling and football respectively, and I have been sick with a cold. End result? We didn’t cook much the second week and when we got our new basket of goodies, we still had leftovers from the basket 2 weeks ago. We still had potatoes, a full bag of pea shoots, a third of a bag of microgreens and most of the carrots. Potatoes will keep, so no problem there, but the microgreens/pea shoots were another story. Including our new basket, we now had more than 3 bags. What to do with them? We have mainly been using these as garnish, salad toppers and in sandwiches, but I couldn’t think of anything that would use a large quantity of them. So what does a modern gal do in this situation? Turn to the wonders of Google of course! Lo and behold, I found the answer – make a pesto with them! (Full recipe to come at a later date.)
I used up the old bags and one new bag of pea shoots, mixed with white wine, parmesan, garlic and olive oil, tossed onto pasta and ta-da! Dinner time! Next time, I think I would still use some basil in the pesto (at least one third basil), as I really missed the sweet basil flavor and smell. However, it still turned out great and we used it all up, instead of feeling wasteful and throwing it out.
While I was making pesto, Matt was busy making carrot cake with our leftover carrots. I’m not usually a big fan of carrot cake, but this recipe was full of cinnamon and quite tasty. He halved it and didn’t make the icing – it doesn’t need it in our opinion. He also swapped out the pecans for some chopped hazelnuts we had leftover from a homemade cereal experiment. Aside from grating carrots (we don’t have a food processor), he found this to be a remarkably easy recipe.