Tomatillos!

I'm back again!

I got a bag of tomatillos in my CSA box last week. I've never done anything with tomatillos. I was a little flustered by them, but I'd already planned for tortilla soup on Saturday evening. I just switched up my plans a little and made tomatillo soup.

Aren't they pretty? This is after Mr. Geeky removed the husks for me and I'd begun chopping them.

I'd already sauteed three flattened chicken breast halves in this pan. 

Then I cooked onion, jalapeno peppers, and garlic and added broth. 

I boiled the mess for about 15 minutes.

After it boiled, it looked like that above.

Then I pureed it with my immersion blender. 

I love my immersion blender.

The recipe I had didn't call for tomatoes or corn, but I had tomatoes from my plants and four ears of corn from the CSA box, so I cut the corn from the cobs and chopped up the tomatoes.

And Mr. Geeky cut the chicken into tiny pieces.

After I added the chicken and vegetables, I added my secret ingredient.

Now it's not a secret. Secret Aardvark habanero hot sauce. It is THE BEST. I have a friend in the Northwest US who supplies me with this wonderful stuff.

And, naturally, I have no pictures of the finished soup, but with a dollop of sour cream added, it's absolutely lovely. We were in a hurry to eat Saturday night since Mr. Geeky and I took the sprogs to their first symphony. We had the soup with tortilla chips, sour cream, and cheese.

Til next time!

Noms and a busy month

July has just been crazy. The weather, the amount of stuff to do, the new things that seem to come up at the last possible minute. Holidays, summer day camp events, golf outings, guests, surgeries, broken digits, motorcycle classes... seems like we've had it all in the last 30 days or so.

This Geeky Chick is ready for things to slow down.

We've continued getting our CSA boxes every Wednesday. They always look like some variation on this:

Beautiful, isn't it? 

That's a lovely batch of kale in the back left of the photo.  I really had no idea of what to do with kale, but I remembered a friend talking about kale chips. Sounded interesting.

This is my beautiful kale in the sink. Oooh and aaah with me.

 Here's my lovely kale all chopped off the purple stalks. Ignore the lovely purple beets on the right, although they were certainly delish.

My kale, cut into bite-sized pieces, on the baking sheet. I'd spread it on parchment paper and sprayed it with olive oil.

My handy-dandy Misto was useful.

Kale after baking at 350 for about 15-20 minutes. I watched it very carefully to be sure it didn't burn, because I read somewhere online that if it burns it smells like decaying yard clippings. I'm not saying I believe everything I read online, but I figured that was one bit of advice I'd listen to.

Mmmm... kale chips.

Corgis don't like kale chips.

They were really, really tasty the night I made them. I stored them in this airtight container, and they lost their crispness overnight. I didn't care for them quite so much the next day and got a slight whiff of the lawn clippings. I'd say make these if you're planning to enjoy them the same night. 

Or use them to scare away neighbors the next day.

 Mmmm... beets. I got a bunch of fresh beets in my box. Here they are, boiled and lightly salted.  I believe Mr. Geeky ate this batch.

I got this lovely zucchini off the vine that Sprog the Younger mutilated. I don't have much hope for the vines anymore. The tomato was the first one off my cherry tomato plant. 

For July Fourth, I made barbecued spare ribs. This was new for me, since I'm not actually a big rib fan, but thought I'd give it a try. I thought they were tasty, but probably won't go to the trouble again, since the sprogs didn't care for them. Sprog the Younger was funny though, he looked at the ribs and asked "How am I supposed to eat this?" I waggled my eyebrows at him and said "LIKE A CAVEMAN!!" Thus commenced the gnawing and growling.

Ribs. These baked in the oven for three hours before they went on the grill. I also made the barbecue sauce.

We had them with grilled corn on the cob, salad and biscuits.

And strawberry shortcake of sorts.

Mmmm... more beets. 

 

These are some cucumbers and beans from my CSA box, except for that sad, skinny little cucumber on the left. That came off my vine. Sad, but nom.

 

Here's a better look at the beans.

 

These were very cool looking. Sprog the Elder hates wax beans, but I loved them.

The following pictures are from a recent dinner. I made an Asian marinade for tuna steaks, grilled pineapple, and quinoa.

We love this sesame marinade.

 

Tuna! Such a lovely pink color.

 

I let the tuna sit in the marinade for several hours.

 

Fresh pineapple slices.

 

I brushed them with a glaze of honey, cherry preserves, and lime flavored rum.

 

Mmmmm.... RUM.

 

They soaked up the rum... errrr... glaze for an hour or so then they went on the grill.

 

And the complete meal! Om nom nom.

I'm making tomatillo soup tonight, with fresh tomatillos, chicken, fresh corn, and fresh tomatoes from my vines. I'm taking pictures along the way and will post them tomorrow, probably. The sprogs are going to visit with my parents for a few days (bless you, Mom and Dad) so Mr. Geeky and I can finish our motorcycle classes. We've got a couple meals out planned with friends (something we very rarely get to do), so I might not have anything very interesting until later in the week.