The “Tell” – Springdell Summer CSA Pickup #15

Hi everyone, Jess here. Happy Monday, and Happy October!  

You can feel the change in the air as autumn continues to roll in, and with it, lovely autumn veggies.  Let’s take a peek…

• Butternut Squash
  • Stored (checking regularly but so far, so good!)
• Honeynut Squash
  • Cubed, roasted and tossed with browned butter and sage, maple syrup would have been good for sweetness if it needed it (it did not)
  • Honeynut Squash Spiralized Noodles with Marsala Cream Sauce and Mushrooms
• Pie Pumpkin
  • Still on the counter, but slated for Old Fashioned Pumpkin Pie
• Cortland Apples
  • Slow Cooker Applesauce (peel, slice, add cinnamon sticks and slow cook until done)
• Cabbage
  • Cole Slaw
• Sugar Beets
  • Sliced, roasted with carrots, balsamic vinegar and a splash of maple syrup.  Served with crumbled goat cheese
• Classic Carrots
  • Sliced, roasted with carrots, balsamic vinegar and a splash of maple syrup.  Served with crumbled goat cheese
  • Cole Slaw
  • Shredded and sliced into salads
• Onions
  • Springdell Blade Steaks
  • Springdell Honeynut Squash Noodles and Shrimp with Marsala Sauce

• Lettuce
  • 2 salads (one for lunch, one for Nan’s party!)

• Honeycrisp Apples
  • All enjoyed as-is (so great for snacking!)

• Eggs
  • Some for Nan and the kid’s breakfastsThis week was a crazy one in the Anderson household, including two birthday parties to plan and execute.  Dinners were on the simple side, but quite tasty, with lots of cream and Marsala involved.  

You may recall my Monday quick lunch salad. Walnuts added a quick protein boost, especially when life’s moving too fast to stop and cook and egg.

This picture is of an afterthought side dish. Dinner was on the table, but I started craving beets and tossed some in the oven. I was chasing kids around the house to get their pajamas on before realizing I had left this dish on the table uneaten. Behold, cold (but still delicious) roasted beets with maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, and goat cheese crumbles. Some carrots were thrown in too, just because we have a bumper crop at the Community Garden. A perfect quick wolf-down treat for the beet lover in me, especially while asking the kids for the umpteenth million time to brush their teeth.

The Honeynut squashes were a hit around here this week!  I confirmed that though the skin is technically edible, it’s not quite as tasty as on a Red Kuri, Delicata, or other thin skinned squash.  Probably worth a peel.

The Honeynut squash noodles were a hit.  We’ll be doing this again for sure.  

Great with Jordan Brother’s shrimp and a Marsala Cream Sauce! This made short work of the shallots also.

Nan and my oldest enjoyed some baked Salmon and Haddock with the cracker crumbs, and the shiitake mushrooms were soft enough for her to enjoy some of the cream sauce as well.

One day this week I went with the slow cooker blade steak, which always comes out so tender. The recipe has you simmering the steak for an hour, but really, you can cook everything in the slow cooker together and it still turns out good, just brown the onions, shrooms, and give the steaks a quick sear before tossing in the slow cooker (even better if you have a “brown setting” right on your cooker!)

Meaty shiitake mushrooms, cream, and blade steak are a match made in heaven. My other half, who doesn’t like mushrooms, can’t resist this one.  I added some last minute corn, the last fresh one of the season.  Glad my freezer is stocked with some kernels to get us through the winter doldrums!

This reminds me of Nan’s cooking. It’s hard to know all of what’s going on in the dish, but when you taste it, it doesn’t matter.

The rest of the most perishable veggies went into an old fashioned coleslaw and salad for Nan’s 90th birthday party.  She was so surprised (by the party, not the coleslaw).  Good times!

That’s about it on this end. I had a wonderful weekend with all these birthday parties, but was sad to miss the scarecrow contest and the poultry harvest. Can’t do it all, I suppose (though I certainly like to try).  Hopefully some of you were able to make it to the farm stand this weekend for some of the festivities!  Meanwhile, see you back here in a few hours for this week’s “Show” of the Springdell Show and Tell!