Saturday, August 1, 2009

A week in review, meal plans, and the week ahead

I only hit up one farmers' market this week - on Wednesday. We had too much going on last Sunday to make it to Swartz Creek or Grand Blanc and that's ok because our garden is producing very well, so we're making up for it that way. Here's a recap...

Wednesday, I went to the Allen Street market in Lansing. I picked up:
10 pounds Blue Crop blueberries
4 purple kohlrabi
3 green kohlrabi
2 huge tomatoes
6 heirloom lemon cucumbers
2 huge heads of broccoli

I've frozen a good amount of the blueberries, we've eaten a good amount fresh, made some blueberry muffins, and I made a blueberry buckle with some, too. The blueberry buckle did not turn out at all. I'm going to give it another try, but in a larger pan, I think. The middle just never set up. The recipe said to use an 8x10 pan and bake it for 25-35 minutes. Well, I used that size pan and had mine baking for a total of 55 minutes and it still hadn't set up. I'm not sure what is going on. The flour isn't old and I've used it successfully in other baking recently. I went back over the recipe and didn't skip any ingredients or get the wrong quantities. The only thing I can figure is that my oven temp. was off just for that morning, for some reason... it was fine before that and has been fine since. So who knows... I'm going to try again, though. Anyway, back to the produce... the kohlrabi... we'll be using some this week and some in later weeks (it keeps a good month in the fridge). The tomatoes are for fresh eating, so are the heirloom cukes. And the broccoli has been blanched and frozen.

The garden is still going strong. I harvested tons of beans, zucchini, and cherry tomatoes again this week. And our first heads of cauliflower! I've either used them fresh in meals, or have frozen them already.

There are lots of things going on this week. We're not really sure what our plans for the weekend will entail... we're waiting to see what Jaime and Jeff are up to (they'll be back from Phoenix on Wednesday and then they are moving out there next Monday morning). So we'll see what their plans are before we really figure out what we're doing. Friday morning, Carson and I have another Toddler Science Day at Impression 5. And there are a few festivals that we wouldn't mind going to if we have the time... the Frankenmuth Farm Fest and the Great Lakes Folk Festival in East Lansing. We'll play those by ear... if we make it, we make it and if we don't, we don't. It won't be a big deal either way. Next Sunday, though, we really want to go to a Moto-X race out at one of the county fairs, so that may sway us to just stick around the ranch on Saturday instead of going to a festival. Anyway... on to the meals... which may change as the week goes on...

Sunday ~ arabic green bean stew, rice, blueberry muffins
Meatless Monday ~ kohlrabi, peas, and potatoes; leftover blueberry muffins... I know we usually do meatless meals on Mondays, but I need to use the salmon I picked up yesterday... so we're having salmon baked in foil tonight instead
Tuesday ~ since I didn't make it last week... crustless quiche with zucchini, beans, and goat cheese using up the fresh salmon before it goes fishy... asian grilled salmon, sesame braised pac choi
Wednesday ~ leftover green bean stew and rice, Ithink maybe I'd do a meatless stuffed zucchini
Thursday ~ I'll be in Detroit all day for meetings and there is a special ski show tonight that we're thinking about going to, so we'll leave it as TBD for now.
Friday ~ TBD... depends on what our plans end up looking like. If we're home, I think I'll just grill burgers, corn on the cob
Saturday ~ TBD... again, it depends on what our plans end up looking like. If we're home, we'll have grilled chicken, grilled zucchini, corn on the cob, and beans

Today, we're hoping to hit up both the Swartz Creek and Grand Blanc markets. There is an ice cream social at the S.C. market today. And G.B. has the organic produce farmers that I'm missing since I didn't get a chance to chat with them last week. So we'll hit both if we can. This week, I'm planning to do some more baking... zucchini-blueberry bread and maybe a blueberry pie. Our corn isn't ready yet, but Eichelbergs has some of their early corn in that I want to pick up this week. They have the best corn in the state, I think... its so good! I'm going to buy enough to eat fresh and to cut off the cob and freeze a gallon bag. I don't want to do too much of it right now since the best stuff is yet to come and we'll have lots of our own corn, too, once its ready. I'll also be working in the garden, as is usual... trying to keep up with the weeds. And we'll just have to see what the week brings before I figure out what other tasks I'll tackle.

1 comment:

The Voogts said...

Sorry to hear about the bb buckle. I'll double check that I wrote the recipe correctly. I always use a 7 1/2x11 pan. And I've never had any problems. I may have had to bake it a little longer, I don't remember. I just typed what's on the recipe card my mom gave me. I would try a larger pan next time. Even a 9x13 would probalby work...it will just be thinner. If I make some this week I'll let you know how it goes.

Looks like your garden is doing really well. We have a few tomatoes I think are ready to pick. I'm excited!! Have fun at the farmer's markets.