Lettuce eat a lot of greens
A year ago I didn't know kale from maruba santoh. Our weekly CSA from Earthkeeper Farm (community supported agriculture - we pay a share upfront to receive a weekly supply of vegetables from the farm) just gave us both. This year I might even know what to do with them.
I'll admit I was a little overwhelmed when I walked into the kitchen and saw the counter filled with greens. You see, I had one of those rare mommy moments where I went to the hairdresser while Dino took the girls for the afternoon. To my surprise, I came home to find that he had washed and sorted everything. More surprising was that he thought I had a plan for this enormous load of greens.
Um, no.
What you see would normally take us a couple of weeks to eat and I now have a week before the next market day, so I have to finish this post quickly or I won't have time to research recipes that will satisfy our picky eaters.
Actually, our first-grader is a bit easier to please. She actually liked the maruba santoh dish with garlic, olive oil, onion, summer squash and roasted red peppers over farro. At least she said she did. Once she cleaned her plate she declared it was, "not that good." I don't know what to make of that. Our preschooler wanted chicken nuggets and carrots. She has amazing eyesight and clucks when she walks.
I knew the CSA would force me to work within a fixed menu, but I forgot about the kids. It's truly going to take some work to make these greens palatable for them. They think asparagus is exotic. Honestly, at their age I didn't like asparagus either, so they're light years ahead of me, but they're still kids who prefer green beans over broccoli.
I've been preparing mostly vegetarian meals for a while now, so I figured out everything from the CSA without help except for the maruba santoh, which I promptly used in last night's dinner so I wouldn't have to be afraid of it any longer. It's just Chinese cabbage, after all. Suffice to say we are eating a lot of greens this week. Dino says at this rate we'll all be photosynthetic by the end of summer.
So, one meal down, six to go. And true to my upbringing I'm trying to make sure nothing goes to waste. As my mom used to say, "What about the starving children in China?" I told her to send them my food. Thankfully, at least one child in the house likes Chinese cabbage.
