contributing to Brotherly Grub

A month or so ago, my CSA made an appearance on another blog, Brotherly Grub. Brian, little grubby brother, and I joined forces to make a delicious, seasonal meal. As an added bonus, I got to use this amazing cookbook for the first time:






Lisa gave it to me as part of my birthday gift, and it is a beautiful book with vignettes about America's farmers and their favorite recipes. We made the squash and sweet potato puree. Delicious.

Transitions in the Kitchen

[I can't believe it's been over 2 months since I blogged - ugh. So much to say, so little time. Most of it goes into ranting e-mails to my sister - maybe I'll just start posting those here. Anywhoodle, here's some of what I've been up to.]

The farm shares keep coming in every other week, and a clear sign that fall has arrived is the contents of my CSA. Tomatoes are getting fewer and fewer and apples are staging a coup of the fruit portion. Here's what I got a few weeks ago:

• 1 head of lettuce
• 1 bag of mesclun (I keep saying "mescaline" accidentally, but my vegetables do not come from that type of tripped out hippie farm)
• 1 bunch of arugula
• 1 bunch of braising greens
• 1 bunch of beets
• 1 bunch of turnips
• 1 handful of green beans
• 1 sprig of soy bean pods (aka edamame, they're in the bowl on the right but come on a woody stem)
• 1 bulb of garlic
• 5 big tomatoes
• 1/2 pint cherry tomatoes
• 5 apples
• 5 pears
• 10 plums
• 1 bunch of sage

When I get fruit, I immediately think "how can I turn this into a baked good?" Heaven forbid I just eat the fruit. I had never baked with plums before, so I found a recipe for a plum clafouti (try saying that 10 times fast!).

You butter and sugar a pie plate and then place the halved plums cut side down, top them with an eggy mixtures, and an hour later you get this:

It was very yummy and would probably work well is other tart fruits like cherries.

I also made a glazed pear coffee cake which I brought into the office. Fall is definitely my favorite baking season (mamma needs some pumpkin bread!) so I have to take precautionary measures to not end up looking like a grisly ready for hibernation.