Originally posted by Jess – May 6, 2015
I drove by the ‘Dell today and saw Jonathan and Samuel out in the fields, seedlings in the ground, and the sun in the clear blue sky. It’s almost time, my Fellow Springdellians! In the meantime, we are grateful to have some of last season’s bounty still available.
The wonderful thing about learning to preserve your CSA items (aside from not wasting food) is that you’ll likely have what you need on-hand when inspiration strikes, or a new recipe comes your way. Though spending time freezing a bushel of corn in the peak of the season may seem like work, the return on your investment is well worth it come the colder months. This was the case for dinner at the Anderson household!
I’ve long since exhausted my summer CSA pepper supply, with the exception of a few jalapeños. Though my other half and I both love spicy food, I don’t wind up cooking as much spicy food lately, as the kids like things to be more on the mild side. After flipping through Hannaford’s “Fresh” Magazine this month, I came across a recipe for Jalapeño Corn Muffins and happened to have just about everything I needed on-hand to give them a try. As the link to the recipe is available, I’ll share the experience in photos.
The buttermilk I made out of regular milk and lemon juice (vinegar works too). I substituted some minced garlic for the whole roasted garlic bulb (as I didn’t have one on-hand, nor the time to roast the bulb before making the muffins). The recipe still worked out a-ok. The spiciness of 2 jalapeños was milder than I thought, perhaps because they were frozen (though it’s been my experience that freezing peppers often makes them a little hotter). The jalapeños gave a zip without spice, and my boys even enjoyed one (with a pat of of Amish Roll Butter, of course).
For the main course, I made a slow cooker chili using on-hand Springdell ingredients. You’ve seen us make chili using sweet potato, quinoa, veal stock, and other ingredients here on the Show and Tell. Today, I’m going basic and bare bones, as this is the time to dig deep into the pantry and the chest freezer. I thawed a pound of ground beef from the Meat Subscription, diced up a few frozen jalapeños from the Summer CSA, and added about 1 tablespoon of chili powder and a tsp of cumin.
After things were browning, I added the juice from a jar of Springdell tomatoes, the remaining corn from last year’s Summer CSA, and some black beans. Baer’s Best beans are great for Chili, and are often available at the farm stand, but today I settled for a can as that’s what was in my pantry (I know, blasphemous!) Four hours in the slow cooker and I had this!
Chili, a dollop of sour cream, and jalapeño corn muffins – not bad for a chest freezer/pantry meal!