My son and I are flying to Houston in a couple days, so I’ve been trying to empty out the fridge before we go. This weekend I made several quarts of chicken stock with the assorted chicken necks, backs, and gnawed over bones in our freezer. This also got rid of a 5-lb. bag of organic carrots, a bag of ramp trimmings, and assorted onions. Then I had to figure out how to preserve two weeks of CSA veggies. I turned the broccoli, red onions, and kale into soups and will shred zucchini and kohlrabi for vegetable fritters. We have about three pounds of beets in the veggie bin: if I have time, I’ll turn those into beet jerky. (Don’t knock it — I can put away a pound of beets this way in about ten minutes, flat.)
Tonight I served up a humble meal. We had a pound of grass-fed beef in the fridge, which I mixed up with a pre-made seasoning mix for tacos (my 6-year-old’s favorite meal). These were served with shredded lettuce (from CSA), chopped beefsteak tomatoes (ditto), and shredded Mexican-style cheese (Trader Joe’s — cheese needs to disappear by Wednesday!). I boiled up four ears of corn (today’s CSA basket), and sliced up chilled watermelon and Asian melon, both from last week’s basket.
It was a simple meal, but delicious. The melons were sweet and juicy, the corn flavorful, and the tacos, well, what can I say, were beautiful because I didn’t have to slave over a hot stove for too long.
Sorry I haven’t posted much — I got another case of nasty strep, my third infection this year, and am only recently starting to feel back to my energetic self. My mother-in-law has some food-related sites mapped out for us while we’re in Texas, so I plan to blog during our trip.
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My boys LOVE tacos & taco salad – so simple to both throw together AND customize. I wish I could tolerate beets, b/c “beet jerky” definitely had me intrigued. Anything like those chips made from root veggies? (blanking on the name)
Toni, I’ll try to make/photo the jerky tonight. Just for you.
Seriously, it’s very yummy and if you don’t tell the kids the red comes from beets, they’ll devour it. I call it “Ruby Red Fruit Leather” myself.
By “very yummy,” do you mean “it tastes like beets?”
If it tastes like fruit leather, my guys would be all over it. Wondering if other veggies perform similarly? Radish jerky? Hold me.
To be honest, I’ve made this with beets I’ve bought at the store midwinter, and the Oyster has said, “Eww, this tastes disgusting.” But the small summertime beets seem to lack that earthy flavor beet haters revile. So for best results I’d recommend local seasonal beets. There’s also some honey and applesauce mixed in, too — it’s not 100 percent beet leather. Well, you’ll see when I post ….