It's Easy Being Green

As some of you know, I am a bit of a foodie.  I am fortunate that my love also has an adventurous spirit, as well as, a voracious appetite for delectable nourishment. Our little ones, who are not so little anymore, have grown up sampling all of the various concoctions I create in my kitchen and have developed a culinary palette that makes me very proud.  Our food journey has taken us in many different directions.  There are times when we started off on a particular path and discovered or decided that it wasn't the best direction for us.  If I were writing a book instead of a blog, the chapter we are currently enjoying is, what we like to refer to, as the Qualitarian Localvore Chapter.

Over the past few years we have participated in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).  We purchase a share from a local farm and we enjoy fresh, local, organic produce for the season.  We made this decision based on the nutritional and ecological impact of food traveling long distances to land on our plates.  For a couple of years we enjoyed using Middle Branch Farm in New Boston. Roger Noonan is amazing and they deliver once a week to the Montessori School in Derry.  When we decided that we really wanted to extend our use of local, seasonal produce well into the fall, we switched to Farmer Daves.  A Simply Wholesome Life, right here in Windham, runs a CSA Program through Brookford Farm.  They have some wonderful options to assist you in sourcing your food locally.  To find a CSA near you, check out Local Harvest.  

The whole process has been fun, exciting, and challenging!  It has required a bit of imagination and a lot of flexibility.  My most recent trick is to google the ingredients we receive and seeing what links and recipes pop up.  Mark Bittman recently wrote an article in New York Times Magazine called: Spinach is a Dish Best Served Cooked.  Originally, when I saw the title, I assumed that the article had to do with food safety.  Instead, it contained a variety of ways to prepare spinach cooked.  Typically I just mix the raw spinach we receive in with the salad greens, make a homemade dressing and we are all set.  This week, having read Bittman's article and not receiving any salad greens, the wheels started turning.  I also decided it was too cold for raw spinach.

Then I found this recipe for Emeril's Spinach Cheddar Baked Potato With Avocado Puree.  It seemed a bit daunting initially, due to the minute size of the potatoes we received from the farm and I was missing a couple of ingredients but I decided to proceed anyway.

We didn't have any bacon and I wouldn't have used it anyway.  A bit of quality smoked gouda cheese can provide you with that scrumptious smoky flavor.  I also omitted the lime zest due to the fact that I just can't bring myself to shave pesticide laden citrus into my fabulous food.  I substituted veggie stock and I used fresh cilantro from our CSA Share in place of the scallions and sprinkled the finished product with some organic black beans.

Next time I will definitely use regular sized potatoes and save my farm potatoes for something else.  I will also entertain the idea of turning the black beans into a puree.

They were a huge hit and they were devoured with smiles!

Happy Earth Day!