CSA Share Week 19: From our farm to your table this week…

Acorn squash

Basil

Onions

Potatoes

Sweet Corn

Tomatoes

Tips for using &/or preserving your produce…

Acorn Squash

This is, by far, my FAVORITE winter squash.  From the smooth green skin to the bright orange flesh, I like to eat EVERY last part of this vegetable (except for maybe the stem).  If the tough skin isn’t your style, you don’t HAVE to eat it, but if you want to, you can.  Rather than baking this one in the oven and filling it with brown sugar and butter as I would a butternut squash, I prefer to either roast it in wedges or make stuffed acorn squash.  The wedges are great to roast as you would sweet potatoes, but they are AMAZING if you finish them off with a mildly sweet glaze made by boiling orange juice with a bit of sugar and cinnamon until it gets just a little sticky.  Throw in some raisins or pitted prunes (yes – pitted prunes) and you have an amazing side dish.  If you love the look of beautiful stuffed pumpkin and squash main dishes, try the stuffed acorn squash recipe on the right.  It’s a creation I made up last year and it’s one of our favorite fall meals.

Stuffed Acorn Squash – 6 servings

3 small to medium acorn squash

3-4 cups brown rice, cooked

1.5 cups toasted walnuts, broken into small pieces

2 cups orange or pear juice
1 cup pears, peeled & chopped into small squares
½ to 2/3 cup light brown sugar

1 Tbsp REAL butter

1.5 cups raisins

1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Wash acorn squash remove stem or stem end and cut in half from the pointed end to the flat, stem-end.

Remove seeds and any stringy flesh inside.

Place cut-side down in a baking dish with about ½ inch of water and bake for 1 hour.

In the meantime cook your rice if you don’t have prepared rice on hand.  (I like to make big batches of rice then store it in the freezer for quicker meal preparations.) Set aside.

Toast walnuts in oven or microwave and set aside.

Combine remaining ingredients and bring to a boil on the stove while stirring frequently with a whisk.  (You don’t want the raisins to stick and burn.  You want them plump and juicy!)  Reduce heat but continue stirring until sugar is completely dissolved and mixture has thickened slightly.

Remove baked acorn squash from oven, remove any excess water from squash and pan.

Arrange squash, cut-side up, on a lightly greased cookie sheet or baking dish.

Combine the rice, walnuts and all but 3/4 cup of the liquid portion of the juice mixture.  Stir until ingredients are evenly distributed then fill the acorn squash.

Now put the stuffed squash back in the oven for an additional 20 minutes to let all the flavors blend.

In the meantime, return the ¾ cup remaining juice mixture to the stove and bring it to a boil, stirring constantly.  Allow it to get just a bit thicker but don’t let it turn into a sticky syrup.

Remove stuffed squash from oven and drizzle with remaining juice mixture.

Serve immediately!

This is great alone but a light salad of fall lettuce & greens balances out this hearty, vegetarian main dish.

Basil
Frost will steal this tender herb from our gardens in about 1 month so enjoy it while it lasts.  I prefer dishes with fresh basil this time of year to get me through the long months when all I have are tiny, dried flakes to remind me of the splendor of fresh basil.

Onions
Use this storage onions as you would typical supermarket onions in a wide variety of dishes.  We HIGHLY recommend the mix-and-match recipe this week if you aren’t sure how to use your onions

Potatoes
This fall I’m teaching evening courses twice weekly and I don’t make it home until late.  On days like that, it’s SOOO nice to put a healthy meal in the crockpot when I leave home and know that all of us will have a healthy, delicious meal when we walk through the door in the evening – no preparation required.  Even if Ford and Finley beat me home, I like knowing there’s something warm and tasty for them, and something that I’ll get to enjoy later.  Our mix and match recipe of the week is an adaption of one of my old favorites.  I think it’s a weight-watchers recipe that a friend of mine shared in graduate school and I’m sure I make it at least once a month when the weather is cool.

Mix and Match Recipe of the Week: Healthy, Homestyle Potato Soup

2-3 cups, peeled, cubed white potatoes
1/2 to 1 cup chopped carrots
1 small onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
16 oz chicken broth (or enough to cover up your veggies in the crockpot, add a little water if you have to)
salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbsp flour
1 cup milk
salt & pepper to taste
1 cup finely shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Optional variations on this basic potato soup to keep things interesting:
-add 1 cup diced, smoked sausage
-add 1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
-add a tsp of minced jalapeno peppers

Combine first 5 ingredients (through broth) in a large crockpot.  Stir in optional ingredients if using.
Turn on low for 10-12 hours or high for 6-8 hours.
Before serving, remove about 1 cup of liquid, stir in flour and milk then return to the crockpot.
Stir thoroughly, salt and pepper to taste, then serve, topping with shredded cheddar if desired.
This is so good with cornbread!

Sweet corn
Boil it, roast it, grill it or slice into fresh salads, raw.  You can enjoy this late summer and fall favorite many ways.  It’s a great mix in for soups like the mix-and-match recipe above.  There are also a lot of great corn chowder recipes that you might want to try when the weather gets cooler. 

Tomatoes
This is another delicate summer vegetable (okay, fruit) that will be gone in another 4-6, so enjoy it while it lasts!  Trust me, even if you’re had more tomatoes than you could eat this summer, you’ll be missing them when you get watery vegetables disguised as tomatoes at the supermarket this winter.

As always, please feel free to contact me for clarification, further information, or to share your own adventures in cooking local, USDA-certified organic produce.  amanda.waterstrat@gmail.com