When it rains...

So I packed up to leave work today and then saw that it was raining. Downpouring. Big puddles.

It didn't seem like a good day to go to the farm. Luckily, The Food Project lets me pick either Tuesday or Thursday to pick up my veggies. So Thursday it is.

Elena and I went to the Strawberry Fest at Wilson Farm for a little while on Saturday. We had strawberry shortcake, strawberry soup, strawberry jam, and my favorite was strawberry rhubarb crumble. I had also eaten a chocolate chip cookie I bought at the bake sale for Obama in Davis Square, so by the end of it all I needed some decent protein. We made lamb chops with yogurt and mint leaves.

On Sunday, I took the Greek-spiced lamb sausage and cooked it with chard, turnip greens, an onion, beans, and spices in a mango simmer sauce. While simmering, I made paneer with a recipe that popped up in my iGoogle. It is one of the easiest new things I've tried in a long time, and a lot of fun because you get to watch milk curdle, and then you play with cheesecloth. It came out great with my sausage creation.

For the paneer, I used Shaw Farm milk for the first time. They are a local company that people seem to rave about, and yes, the milk tastes wonderful. They don't seem to like the idea of raw milk, and neither does my nutritionist sister. I still have to try it.

Elena and I made a bacon minestrone soup, which we adapted from a recipe from The Bacon Show. Minestrone is great, because once you have the beans and pasta, you can just keep throwing in all the veggies you have left from the farm. Chard, turnip tops, zucchini, and leeks instead of onions. I think that bacon and leeks make a wonderful broth. The soup ended with a bunch of fresh basil and mint from the farm.

I am so looking forward to my next meat share from Chestnut Farms. I only have the two beef rib Delmonico steaks left, in part because I am the worst at cooking steak. I seem to be much better at meting out the meat than the veggies.