Follow my adventures in finding out how my local CSA produce was grown, growing my own produce, and embracing my inner “homemaker goddess” in the Good Eats series.
Can you feel it?
Fall is coming.
Take a look at this bounty from the CSA and tell me you don’t think of Fall.
This week at the CSA we receive Good Natured Family Farms Skim Milk, 2 Good Natured Family Farms All-Beef Hot Dogs, Acorn Squash, Jonagold Apples and Tomatoes.
I love Fall. I love the local apples (including Honey Crisp) and the fall produce.
And I love squash – Acorn, Butternut, and Spaghetti.
And I love that it is CHEAP right now – at most stores you’ll find squash around the $.35 to $.50 a pound price.
Don’t they look so pretty in the store. Their pretty orange, green, and yellow colors all placed together in barrels.
And if you were like me, you used to dream of what kind of centerpiece you would make out of them and some corn husks. (Go on, admit it.)
It wasn’t until I became “frugal” that I really started exploring recipe possibilities with squash outside of baking acorn squash with brown sugar. So, I though I would share with you a “frugal” recipes that spins squash in a different way.
Moroccan-Style Stuffed Squash (Originally from Martha Stewart Living)
Ingredients
2 medium acorn squashes, halved and seeded
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 pound ground chuck or sweet Italian sausage (or 50/50% mix)
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons kosher salt (you are using kosher salt, right?)
1/2 medium onion, chopped fine
4 garlic cloves, minced
3/4 cup bulgur wheat (it’s in the weird food aisle)
2 cups of water
1 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped (optional)
2 tablespoons nuts (pine nuts, almonds, pecans)
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place squash, cut sides down, in a 9×13 dish and bake until tender. About 35 minutes. Also, at this time presoak your bulgur according to package instructions.
2. Heat oil in 4-quart pot with a tight fitting lid over medium-high heat. Add meat, nutmeg, cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon of salt. Cook until browned. Transfer meat to a bowl with a slotted spoon, reserving juices in the pot.
3. Add onion and garlic and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add salt and pre-soaked bulgur and stir to combine. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand for five minutes. Fluff with a fork and then add meat, raisins, parsley, and nuts.
4. Scrape out baked squash, forming 1/4 inch thick bowls, and fold flesh into bulgur mixture. Divide mixture among the squash halves and return to the oven. Bake until warmed and browned, about 15 minutes.
WARNING – there will be a “kid-gack” factor. At least at my table. 🙂
What about you? What do you like to do with squash? Let me know in the comments.
Yes, I love squash too, but I’m not willing to pay money and be given a weekly choice of a few items, no matter how good they might be. I have no reason to obligate myself to a weekly expenditure even on weeks I may not need anything. Finally, and no offense at all to local growers (I also buy at farmers’ markets), but I see no reason to support a grower only because they are local – I prefer to choose produce and other groceries based on cost and quality without regard to origin, because in the end I save money doing this. In other words, I’m not going to spend more money just because a grower is local – if they’re competitive in price, fine, but if not, I’m not buying.
In fact, it strikes me as a scaled-down version of the kind of protectionism that occurred in the Great Depression, where tariffs were greatly increased on imports to protect American workers – it didn’t work. What it DID do was drive the price up Americans had to pay for those products, and it hurt the average American. Now I don’t know about exactly what kind of value you actually get from this program, which is all the more reason not to participate, since the weekly selection of items is arbitrary.
I also don’t buy the ‘save the environment’ line they use – I’d love to see just one time someone actually quantify exactly what they mean that, but they can’t because it’s immeasurable. It’s just a ‘feel good’ line designed to sell ‘green’ products. Then they have the gall to say it contributes to the local economy by providing jobs locally – yeah, to the farmers – so why is it MY responsibility to direct my hard-earned dollars to them so THEY can spend it locally? Why are THEY such a privileged group as to ask people to commit to many weeks of purchases so THEY can benefit?
To conclude my long and windy comment, I have no problem with anyone doing this program, but it most certainly is not for me and while I do enjoy local produce, I pick it out myself when I want it, not when THEY want me to.
Holy crap. Overreact much?
First, the benefits of buying/ eating local (and, yes, each word links to a different article!).
My family loves the CSA. If there’s a food that we won’t eat, I trade it for something we will use. The produce is exquisite. It’s fresh, not covered in wax or a mysterious dusting of god-knows-what preservative chemical and it tastes wonderful. So much better than its Mexican/South American/ Californian counterpart that was picked before fully ripened, sprayed down with [insert chemical here] and began the journey to my grocery store weeks before it actually arrived.
Not only that but I LIKE supporting local businesses. We go to Reading Reptile instead of Big Box Books, enjoy eating at the numerous local restaurants in lieu of the chains, etc. because doing so makes our community better. Money spent local, stays local.
Your openly hostile attitude about the CSA baffles me. Why waste so much energy ruminating and stewing about a program that’s entirely optional? Not only that but you, without even participating, get the benefit! Our Hen House offers a ton of local produce alongside the usual fare, the prices are competitive and it’s a la carte which should be pleasing to someone like yourself.
Great post, Kel. I’m looking forward to trying this recipe.