wowieZowie!

Week 2, Dish2: Mango Poke Bowl
with Red Beans and Sea Lettuce Dressing

Wonderful textures and flavor... I love the seaweed flakes and tamari with mango, avocado, and cucumber.

Even though the fish taste in this poke is an illusion, you should probably still say ‘poh-keh’.*


For the remaining serving, I added sautéed fresh corn and jalapeño that I bought this morning from my neighbor, Bustamante Farm.

The edamame was even better the next day. I recommend marinating it earlier than the recipe calls for.

I'm loving TB12 Performance Meals; the kits are like getting a cookbook that shopped ;>} .

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* See "HOW TO PRONOUNCE POKE" by KaiKalaPro:

delishDish!

Week 2, Dish 1: Niçoise Salad
with Walnut Lentils & Warm Tarragon Vinaigrette


The kit made two 2-cup servings. The second serving was delicious served chilled the next day.


I used the mandolin slicer on the yams, rather than dicing them. I also sliced them into a steamer basket, rather than boiling them in water. Instead of draining the water, rinsing, and refilling the saucepan to boil the green beans, I simply removed the cooked yams from the steamer basket and replaced them with the green beans. After the yams and beans had been steamed, I reserved the steaming liquid for broth.

[Time elapsed from starting the lentils and slicing yams to a plated salad: 1 hour.]

Mealkit, Week 2

This week's TB12 box arrived at 5pm, and the ice packs were still cold. This time, I sorted and logged the delivery — all accounted for.



First dish up: Niçoise Salad...

OMG, it's all here!

Week 1, Dish 3: White Bean Keftedes
with Skordalia and Dill Sauce

Score!

1. These vegan 'meatballs' are very nice. When I make this again (!), I'll add carmelized onions for a meatier taste.
(One of my favorite sports: going to vegetarian potlucks with vegan dishes so meaty-tasting they fool everyone ;>}.)

2. The japanese-yam skordalia is under the dill sauce — and it's delicious! My keftedes aren't spherical — I mistakenly added liquid from the canned beans — but the mint, parsely, white bean mix is still brilliant.

3. Note: the time elapsed from the photo below to the finished meal in the photo above: 1hour 20min. Yeah, we're slow cookin' now!


4. I used a hand-held chopper instead of a food processor on both the keftedes and the skordalia.


5. The little faux meatballs fit nicely in a toaster oven — perfect for summer cooking.

6. This mealkit was a lovely introduction to foods I wouldn't normally buy. In spite of problems with two out of three of the kits I got this week, I'm looking forward to three new kits next week.

Where the hell is the kohlrabi?! *

Week 1, Dish 2: Quinoa Fried Rice
With Charred Scallion Butter and Kohlrabi Salad

Yikes! just the kind of stress I was trying to avoid when I ordered the TB12 Performance Meal by Purple Carrot. Only 2 mealkits in and I'm beginning to think subscription might not be the way to go...
maybe inventory-controlled limited editions which would be completely stocked, rather than delivered without some essential ingredients.

1. Without the kohlrabi, the kit made two 2-cup servings.

2. I had one serving hot, the second as cold leftovers the next morning — I recommend making this ahead to chill.

3. This meal came with an extra packet of sugar snaps, perhaps as a substitution for the missing kohlrabi... ?

4. Btw, the time elapsed between this and the photo of the serving above is about 1hour 10minutes.

5. In spite of the missing ingredient, the fried quinoa was nevertheless a reasonable diversion from my usual cooking rut.


* UPDATE 26 July 2017
Purple Carrot applied a $20 credit to my account for the two missing ingredients. I'm a very happy customer!

Apple- and Raisin-Sweetened Rice with Coconut Milk

A not-too-sweet dessert.


Serve, hot or chilled, in a small desert bowl.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup, Lundberg's Organic Brown Short Grain Rice*
• 1 1/2 cups, water
• 1/2 teaspoon, salt
• 2 teaspoons, oil

• 4 small green apples. (Mine were foraged.)
• 1 teaspoon lime juice
• 3/4 cup, raisins
• 1 teaspoon, crushed red pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon, cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon, nutmeg
• 11 ounce box of So Delicious Culinary Coconut Milk*
• 2 teaspoons, Madhava Organic Amber Raw Blue Agave Syrup*
• 1-2 tablespooons, peanut oil

(*not pictured below.)

1. Rinse rice. Add water, salt, oil. Cook as Directed.

2. While rice is cooking, quarter and core apples.

3. Put a drop of lime juice on each cored apple quarter.

4. Cover the bottom of a 3-quart pan with peanut oil.

5. With a mandolin slicer, thinly slice the apple quarters onto the oil in the pan.

6. Add raisins, crushed red pepper, ground cinnamon, and ground nutmeg. Stir well.

7. Cover apple-mixture. Heat on high; lower heat to simmer until apples are tender.

8. Add 11oz of So Delicious Culinary Coconut Milk.

9. Simmer mixture.

10. Stir in hot brown rice from step 1.

11. Stir in agave syrup. Serve hot or chilled.

Where's the bok choy? *

Week 1, Dish 1: Summer Ramen
with Coconut Lime Broth and Sweet Corn

Imagine the panic: no bok choy!
Fortunately, I had enough greens in my failing garden to make a substitution -- but, dAmN!

Next, I was reminded why I like to use frozen corn....

Of course, fresh-off-the-cob is absolutely the way to go. So... I found that a mandolin-slicer made de-kernelling the sweet corn a little easier. Admittedly, the texture is different, since the kernels aren't cut off the cob whole this way. Nevertheless, I suspect they're easier to digest, and maybe tastier.

The finished dish was delicious, but I'm wondering what it was supposed to taste like had I not had to make a substitution.

This first mealkit (out of three) made about 4 bowls this size. I had 2 1/2 bowls hot for dinner, and the remaining 1 1/2 bowls cold for breakfast this morning. Nice.

[btw, the time elapsed from the first photo (start of first task) to second photo (hot bowl of yummy): 1 hour and 13 minutes. but you are undoubtedly better in the kitchen than i am. :>)}]

* UPDATE 26 July 2017
Purple Carrot applied a $20 credit to my account for the two missing ingredients. I'm a very happy customer!

Sink Hole

This actually looks rather cavernous.

Rotting Timber Abatement, Phase I

Scary timber in the process of being removed by Javier Bonillo.

More Arbor Drama

It's rained heavily for a few days. The arbor timbers are soaked. The one directly over the back door is quite threatening.




[See also entry for 30.September.2016, tImBeR!

The Meal Kit

I hate to shop, so I've been curious about meal kits. I finally found one that's gluten-free and vegan: Tom Brady's TB12 Performance Meals.


One 14-inch cube weighing 22 pounds arrives at 2pm. It's not as hot as it has been, only 85° at 2pm, and fortunately I was home when it arrived.


A countries-of-origins list is exciting.
#eatlikeagoat, i.e., #stayLowOnTheFoodChain.


The box is insulated. The 3 big ice bags at the bottom had melted -- the contents were room temp, but not as hot as they could have been.


Inside the box: 6-dinners worth of produce and step-by-step meal-prep instructions for 3 different dishes. (See Purple Carrot's Plant-Based Recipes online.)

It's kind of nice having someone encourage me to cook ;) -- we'll see how it goes...

Organic Bug Zapper

A toad in my Thai peppers.

Fluid Dynamics

Morning sun glinting on irrigation water.