AllanThinks

Our First CSA Share

Clicking the image will take you to its Flickr page. You can see a larger version there.

This is the haul for our first week's garden and meat shares from Elmwood Stock Farm. Elmwood is one of two (that we know of) CSA Farms in our area. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.

We've been talking about participating in this program for a while, wanting to do what we can to be more responsible consumers. And we found that we had been buying more of our food from local farms at the Farmer's Market.

So this year we finally signed up.

Included in our basket this week were:

Asparagus
Green Garlic
Spinach
A mixture of three lettuces
A quart of fresh strawberries
A pound of ground beef
A free-range roasting chicken

All of these are organically raised. The newsletter included in the box said they also had radishes, but they must have had limited quantities, as we didn't get any.  But that's okay.

We are very pleased with what we did receive. It was more than I expected this early in the season. 

We ate the lettuce last night, and today at lunch. We had strawberries for dessert. Tonight, Ali roasted the hen, and some of the asparagus. It was all great. We're going to eat very well this summer.

A tip for locals who like fresh, cheap, raw oysters.

A couple of months ago, our friend Agnes mentioned that a local restaurant, The Ketch Seafood Grill, had a special on oysters every Monday night. Fresh oysters at half their usual price.

It has been years since I dined there. Alison and I have been meaning to go for some time, but never made it until last night.

We shared a platter of a dozen oysters on the half-shell. You can get them raw, or steamed. We chose to eat them raw. The dozen oysters only cost $5.95, a real bargain around these parts. Alison noted that that is comparable to what you would pay in the city where she lived in France. With them, Ali had a glass of white wine, and I had a draft beer.

When we were finished, we decided to stay for dinner. We shared a pound of boiled shrimp seasoned with Old Bay, and an order of wood grilled oysters, both very good, and quite affordable.

I am really glad to have rediscovered this place. I have a feeling we will be dining there quite often.

Oh yeah, they also have free wireless internet.

Happy Thanksgiving

Ali and I are staying home for Thanksgiving this year. It's our first time to do that. Last year we drove to Pittsburgh on Thanksgiving Day, and returned to Lexington the next day. In 2005, Ali came over from France for a week, and we celebrated the day at Jo Ann's house.

We decided it would be nice to start a new tradition this year.

We will be joined by Mike, his daughter Justine, and a couple of good friends. We will be dining on roast duck, dressing, green beans, country ham on yeast rolls, and more.

I want to thank everyone who reads and comments on my blog, and I wish you a very happy Thanksgiving.

Here is my gift to you this day.

	Arlo Guthrie - Alice's Restaurant Massacree
	Found at skreemr.com

Peace.

Now is the time on Sprockets vhen ve dance.

Alison and I ate lunch at P.F. Chang's today. You can hear her review of it here. The food was good, but for some reason all I could think about was this 'show'.

Mmmmmm. Chocolate. I Love Chocolate.

Click image for a much better view. Really. Click it. You won't be disappointed.

Those of you who read Alison's blog know of her dilemma yesterday. She wondered whether she should go out in the pouring rain to buy chocolate.

Luckily she didn't have to, as our friend stopped by bearing a small box of Woodford Reserve Bourbon Balls.

Later in the day, I decided I was going to make a batch of vegetable soup for our dinner, but needed a couple of ingredients, so I decided to brave the rain and go to the grocery. Ali came with me. She was suffering from cabin fever as much as I was.

While we were at the store, we bought more chocolate. Not that we wanted to eat it. I just wanted to photograph it. Really!

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Reference

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Here I am doing some research for the dinner party we are hosting for a couple of friends tonight.

We spent yesterday afternoon shopping for it, visiting our local liquor emporium and gourmet food shop, the Liquor Barn. Yes, it is actually called that, and yes, it's huge.

We stocked up on wine and beer, some munchies for before dinner, and deli meats to cook on our raclette grill.

After dinner we are going to watch the Grammy Awards on television. The Police are opening the show!

Sweet!

Click image for a much better view.

 

À votre santé!

Click the photo to see it on Flickr.

I took this image late yesterday afternoon as we waited to hear from a good friend about plans to meet for dinner, I've gotten back into macro work since I built a makeshift light tent from a cardboard box and tissue paper.

The night before I took this, I ordered some new camera equipment, including a new wide-angle lens, a Nikon SB-800 flash, and a more sturdy light tent.

This got me all enthused about my macro work. So I set this up and took this photo.

As for the dinner, Alison and I met our good friend Agnes and a friend of hers for sushi at what is the oldest sushi restaurant here in Lexington. Neither of us had ever eaten there. It was wonderful. The best sushi I have ever had. And it was very inexpensive.

After we dined, Agnes accompanied us to a local pub where we met up with the members of the local chapter of Drinking Liberally for drinks, fellowship, and to watch the President give his State of the Union Address.

After that, we accompanied our friend to another local watering hole that is known for having the largest number of beers in the area. This place has almost 500 different brands of beer. It's an amazing establishment.

We had a blast.

Decision 2007: Vegetable and Black Lentil Curry

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I finally decided what to cook for dinner.

I found some crinkle-cut carrots, a red bell pepper, and a couple of stalks of celery in the fridge. I also had a couple of red onions and garlic on the counter.

Veggies were chopped, the four cloves of garlic sliced, and saffron was allowed to bloom in some hot water. This would be used to cook the basmati rice.

The carrots and celery were added to the pan first. A few minutes later, in went the bell pepper and the onion. Followed a few minutes later by the garlic, some gray sea salt, and fresh ground black pepper.

For the sauce, I usually use some good curry paste and coconut milk, but we were out of the coconut milk. So tonight I used a jar of Trader Joe's Curry Simmer sauce and a cup of water.

After adding them to the pan, I put a half cup of black lentils in, stirred it one more time, reduced the heat, and covered the pan. I let it all simmer for 10 minutes.

By the time it was done, so was the rice.

It was very tasty, and we even have leftovers for another day.

Decisions, decisions...

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About an hour ago, Alison and I asked each other, simultaneously, "What do you want to do for dinner?" We do that a lot.

We pondered the question, but neither of us could think what to do. So a few minutes ago, I headed to the kitchen in hopes of finding some inspiration. In the freezer, I found some ground lamb, a couple of tilapia fillets, some salmon fillets, and in the fridge, various vegetables.

Hmmmm. What to prepare? I got out our 5.5 quart Cuisinart sauté pan and set it on the stovetop. In it I could prepare the fish in some way. Perhaps with a glaze or a jar of Trader Joe's Mojito Simmer Sauce. Or I could make a curry. Lamb Curry? Or one with just vegetables and perhaps lentils. And what kind of lentils? We have red, black and green.

I'm still not sure what I am going to do.