Lemon Ginger Yogurt

Snowville Creamery's lemon ginger dessert yogurt was extremely popular for several weeks through Fresh Fork Market, so it was unavailable unless special ordered. Perhaps a ton was ordered or many got their fill recently. To my surprise, we were able to procure a 16 oz tub without special ordering.

Lemon ginger yogurt + Ikea lilac Godta bowl

Silky in texture, the lemon ginger yogurt is subtly sweet with a subdued citrus-ginger flavor. The tang is pleasant, not jarring. I can see why this is labeled as a dessert yogurt.

If Snowville Creamery sounds familiar, perhaps you've had Jeni's ice cream? Their sweet cream is sourced through Snowville. 

- Cassaendra

Snowville Creamery
Pomeroy, OH (near Parkersburg, WV)
Available through Fresh Fork Market, Heinen's, Whole Foods, and select Giant Eagle supermarkets.

Snacks

To lose 25 lb, hopefully permanently, a nutritionist has suggested a 6-meal 900 cal/day diet to jumpstart the weight loss. The diet is an increase in protein and number of meals from my current routine.

Roasted tomatoes, asparagus, chevre, habenero cheese 

Each day's allotment includes 11 units of protein, 3+ units of non-starchy vegetables, 1/2 unit of starch, 1/2 unit of fruit, and 1 unit of dairy spread out across 3 main meals and 3 snacks. An example of 1 unit of protein is 1 ounce of chicken or lean red meat; 1 unit of fruit is 4 ounces, 1 unit of dairy is 1 cup of fat-free milk or 1/2 cup of yogurt.

A jar of Clark Pope Catering plump roasted tomatoes was recently included in one of our bags from our CSA (Fresh Fork Market). Packed with fig vinegar, thyme, oregano, basil, and lemon, they are a subtly sweet and summery addition to a salad or to pick out of the jar as a snack.

Of course, daily rigorous exercise is part of the weight loss plan. I haven't gotten to that part yet.

- Cassaendra

Koka

A much anticipated box arrived from a good friend of mine that included one of my favorite foods -- noodles! I tore open the box and discovered packets of Koka brand curry and mi goreng noodles from Singapore. These were high recommended by a local Singaporean while he was there.

The packet

Since we've signed up for Fresh Fork Market (CSA), we always have fresh vegetables and eggs. This was our first week receiving Brussels sprouts, Hungarian peppers, and yellow pattypan squash. Corn and eggs were part of our bag the previous week.  Leftover bamboo shoots and a sprinkle of shichimi togarashi, and I was good to go.

Steamy bowl of yum

The amount of noodles packed was twice as much as expected and not as temperamental as some instant noodles are, with an ample al dente window. For a powder only base, the soup had a rich curry flavor that was pleasing to my palate. Cumin was neither overpowering nor bitter, with a nudge toward the sweet curry spectrum. How fortunate I am to have such a sweet friend! He took great care in transporting this fragile cargo to the US evident by the noodles arriving in perfect condition. (Thank you!)

- Cassaendra

Last Copper

Breakfast was made up partly of leftovers from dinner last night; namely, the last of the Copper River salmon. The majority of the ingredients were from our Fresh Fork Market bag -- zucchini, beet greens, and tomatoes from last week; lettuce, radishes, and eggs from this week.

The pan-fried salmon was warmed on the stove with a teaspoon of shoyu and black pepper, then sprinkled with shichimi togarashi. The fried egg was dusted with shiso furikake for a bit of salted tartness. Crisp lettuce, peppery radish slices, sweet tomatoes, and seaweed salad satisfied my need for something cold and crisp. The sizzling zucchini and red peppers were sweet and crisp. Steamed beet greens (originally with sliced beets) were too beautiful a shade of maroon to not include. Its addition was also an easy way to serve 5 items instead of 4 (bad luck - some habits are hard to break).

Day 363/365

After breakfast, I had a taste for ayran, a savory Turkish yogurt drink. In our bag this week, we also received a quart of Velvet-View yogurt. With a much thinner consistency than most factory yogurts, this is best poured rather than spooned into a receptacle. Also, it is not as sour. Hooray!

I didn't feel like taking out our 64 oz carafe blender to make 1 cup of ayran, sacrificing the froth. Instead, I mixed a pinch of salt into my cup of yogurt. Additional water was unnecessary since the yogurt was already velvety. A wonderful cap to breakfast.

- Cassaendra

Fresh Fork Market

Black Berries

Week 4 of our bag from Fresh Fork Market includes a quart of farmstead (made on-site at the farm) yogurt from Velvet-View; pint of blackberries black raspberries (yes, there's a difference); peaches; zucchinis; radishes; lettuce; kale; and Italian sausage links.

After reading several articles online about blackberries and black raspberries, there are differences between the two unrelated to color -- blackberries can be red before they are ripe. 

Day 362/365

A very obvious cue between the two is the location of the fruit's central core (not the technical term) after being picked. Raspberries leave a whitish core with the shrub stem, which results in a hollow fruit. Blackberries retain them when picked, so they appear whole, not hollow.  Another visual cue is that raspberries are hairy, while blackberries are smooth.

Seasonally, its availability isn't obvious at the grocery store, price aside, since somewhere in the world these fruits are being grown. In the United States, raspberries are traditionally available in the early summer before blackberries. Also, black raspberries are grown only in the US. Although, with hybridization amongst these similarly appearing "aggregate" fruits, the seasons may extend as late as fall.

We ate a handful while processing our basket to go into the freezer so we would have available small serving size pouches when we make smoothies as a cool treat over the summer or as a dinner replacement.

- Cassaendra

Fresh Fork Market

Eggs

We have finally cracked into our eggs today, presented in our third bag from Fresh Fork Market nearly a week ago, since we had a carton of 18 eggs to go through first. I have a tendency to eat my eggs raw in soup, so it won't take too long to go through these even though we're swimming in grotesquely hot weather. Hey, coffee drinkers drink a cup o' joe in the middle of summer.

Day 361/365

Looking at these tan beauties from Scenic Acres, it seems a shame to boil these for deviled avocado-eggs or crab salad but I've been craving for a sandwich stuffed with crab salad, barbecue kettle chips, alfalfa sprouts, and cucumbers in sour dough bread with a steaming bowl of spicy miso ramen. My favorite snack-meal ever since I could stir a pot.

Day 361/365

My crab salad comprises of potatoes, crab, cucumbers, Best Foods or Hellman's mayonnaise, a little Kewpie mayonnaise, ±boiled eggs, wee bit of onion powder, salt, and pepper. It is a side dish my mother made as far back as I can remember. 

Oooh, there's always tres leches cake...we haven't had that in a while!

- Cassaendra
Will stop drooling now...

Fresh Fork Market

Pea Shoots and Leaves

Just playing with my food...

Day 357/365

I haven't quite developed a taste or care for the texture for pea shoots raw, but really enjoy them in soup and cooked with other vegetables. The spirals are really pretty but can get caught in my throat because I can't chew them well enough to break them down without either being swallowed in a wiry clump, reminding me of my wiry hair caught in a drain, or strands being partly caught in my throat.

Day 357/365

Even as I choke on them occasionally, I look forward to eating pea shoots each year in my ramen or Japanese mushroom soup. Now if I could get mizuna out here...

- Cassaendra

Fresh Fork Market

Kohlrabi

We have been diligently using up our Fresh Fork Market bag of vegetables and chicken that Bug roasted on Sunday. When we receive our share, it seems like a lot. After breaking everything down and storing everything in the refrigerator, freezer, and airtight containers, it doesn't seem like that much. Finally, when we begin preparing meals, we come full circle and notice we received a lot of food.

Day 352/365

For dinner, we had roasted chicken, a side of cooked sliced beets, and collard greens and kohlrabi cooked with Tony Chachere's Cajun seasoning.  Raw kohlrabi tastes like partially cooked cabbage. It's not my favorite, but I don't hate it. Cooked kohlrabi, however, is delicious and tastes like a cross between broccoli stem and daikon with a texture like cooked daikon, firm but not exceedingly fibrous. 

- Cassaendra

Fresh Fork Market

Nacho Tacos

Bug has been excited about this dinner for some time now using items from our first and second CSA bounty: pasture raised chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, and chorizo from Newswanger Meats from Shiloh, Ohio, ~1-1/2 hours southwest of Cleveland, just north of Mansfield.

I was woken up Sunday morning by Bug asking me if I would like to take Akemi out for a walk so he could start roasting the chicken early. What? I lifted my head to look at the time, then to him in glazed bewilderment to see if he was actually standing beside me, stumbled to the bathroom, complained about some things, then stomped back after I realized it was 05:30. He walked Akemi alone.

Day 350/365

After the roasted chicken was cooked, Bug dismantled it into two containers, separating white and dark meat. I love dark meat, he prefers white.

For tacos, Bug further seasoned the chicken with black pepper, sea salt, garlic, and onions. I could have eaten a bowl of that chicken as is. The taco to the left includes the chicken, lettuce, and salsa made with tomatoes and jalapeno peppers. The taco to the right is even simpler -- chorizo and queso blanco. Our taco shells were from Trader Joe, which were too thick for my preference and dry.

Nachos were made with some of the leftover chorizo, queso blanco, more of the salsa Bug made up, and corn chips. The chorizo is one of the best I've had. It was salty, nicely spiced for "medium" heat, and smoky. This would have been great to eat over rice, too.

Day 350/365

Bug also made a few flautas, which were gobbled up within a few minutes. His meal included all the cilantro. The FFM parcel was put together very well.

- Cassaendra

Fresh Fork Market

Tea Pea

Day 349/365

Hungry for some ramen, I cooked up some green tea soba. While the pea shoots and snow peas from our Fresh Fork Market bag were simmering in my favorite instant matsutake flavored broth, I grated some ginger. Red peppers were thrown in at the end. Add a raw egg and a few dashes of shichimi togarashi, 20 minutes later, breakfast is served.

- Cassaendra

Summer Snow

We haven't finished some of our vegetables and chicken from last week. It's time again for another bag of goodies from Fresh Fork Market (FFM). The more perishable vegetables that we received were consumed.

The strawberries were not used in a cake. They were quickly snacked on during drive-by visits to the kitchen. The last handful was part of a lovely velvety smoothie mixed with blueberries for dessert. On a different night, Bug made a filling and nutritious smoothie for dinner made with the kale, collard greens, radishes from our bag, as well as some leftover broccoli, tomatoes, pear, kiwi, oranges, chia and flax seeds, and plain soy milk from Costco. The combination sounds hideous, but the fruits really stood out, while vegetables were hardly noticeable.

Bug felt the garlic ramps we received were a bit awkward to eat raw, so he'll probably chop them up and try to cook them in a dish. He hasn't commented about the pea shoots, but he hasn't touched them since he tried them raw in a salad.

Day 348/365

This week, Bug will be making a Mexican feast with the pound of chorizo and tomatoes we received this week, along with the whole pasture-raised chicken from last week. In anticipation of this bag, we bought some fresh corn tortillas. The cilantro and green onions are all his. Since the black turtle beans are dried, he'll probably use them some time in the future, perhaps in a soup.

The white-stem and baby bok choy and snow peas will probably be used in a stir fry later in the week, along with the remaining pea shoots from last week - if I don't use them in a bowl of ramen!

It has only been our 2nd week, but receiving new vegetables has been a fun challenge. We aren't receiving 10 lb of one item, so it hasn't been oppressive, but quite a delight.

- Cassaendra

Fresh Fork Market

Warehouse + Local

Bug made a wonderful salad, fusing vegetables we regularly purchase at Costco and our bag from Fresh Fork Market (FFM). One can't really survive, rather we can't afford to survive, on either solely.

Day 345/365

From Costco:
cucumbers
mushrooms
red peppers

From FFM:
kohrabi
lettuce
radishes

The price and quality of Costco is difficult to beat. A bundle of 3 large and delicious English cucumbers, a container of nearly 2 lb of rather large fresh mushrooms, and a package of 6-8 bright, sweet red peppers all for $11 is remarkable.

This was our first time using kohlrabi. Raw, in this salad, it tasted much like the core of a cabbage. I don't hate it, but I don't feel the need to drive around town to buy another. We have half a bulb left, which we will cook.  

The lettuce was very crisp. I can't recall when I've had lettuce quite this crisp, especially after sitting in our bipolar refrigerator for several days -- randomly freezing and thawing. The radishes had completely frozen then defrosted by the time we ate them in this salad. I'm sure they were a good, crisp bunch before they froze. The lettuce managed to dodge the frost.

A simple dressing of olive oil with black pepper and sea salt was all that was needed for this quite filling and fantastically put together salad.

- Cassaendra

Costco
Fresh Fork Market

First Bag

We received our first bag of the summer season from Fresh Fork Market. It included items we were familiar with -- pea tendrils, collard greens, lettuce, radishes, and strawberries.

Being early in the season, the strawberries weren't the best ever, but they were juicy and delicious. I may chop a few for a salad tonight. When it cools down and if we have any left over later in the week, I may slice them thinly and place them between layers of a cake.

Day 342/365

The bag also included a few unfamiliar items like kohlrabi and garlic scapes. Also included was a bunch of red kale. We've had regular kale before, but not the red variety. A whole pasture-fed chicken (5-6 lb) was also included. Having never knowingly eaten a "pasture-fed" chicken, this will be interesting to see if we can detect a difference. Bug has his mind set on roasting it.

All of the items Fresh Fork Market delivers is grown locally by small farms. According to the FFM website, the items are not the same each year to promote biodiversity, as well as to introduce something different. When I reviewed the lists of bag contents over the years, what excited me most was the opportunity to step outside of my comfort zone to try new ingredients.

Bug is not easily impressed, but he was delighted to find the raw chicken in a plastic bag within a brown bag, sealed in another plastic bag, then separated by a plastic divider, the separate flat bag bottom, to reduce cross-contamination.

- Cassaendra

Fresh Fork Market

Baltic Chicken

Our neighbor belongs to Fresh Fork Market's winter program. Unable to keep up with the meat delivered, he gave us ribs, ground beef, a whole chicken, and Italian sausage, in addition to chicken sausage from Baltic Country Meats out of Baltic, OH.

Day 259/365

Addictive on its own, the chicken sausage has a flavorful blend with a wonderful blend of pepper, maple syrup, sage, and mustard stuffed in a natural casing. A failing of many sausages, at least to me, is a result of too much pepper, maple syrup, or sage, producing a pepper-hunk, too sweet sausage, or bitter sage-meat. The snap of a natural casing sausage means a lot to me, also.

Adding bird's eye chili peppers to the leftover cabbage from our corned beef dinner, gave our lunch a bit of a zing. On subsequent visits to the refrigerator, I was tempted to cook more up to snack on.

For dinner, I plan on chopping one sausage into small pieces to add to a spring mix of salad greens with artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, carrots, asparagus, and sunflower seeds. We have some oranges to make salad dressing.

- Cassaendra