Hi all,

Since so many of our customers are planning to vacation during the last few ‘official’ weeks of summer, we have decided to take some time off out of the kitchen. Therefore, there will be no meal deliveries until after Labor Day. During the next couple weeks we will be planning new fall menus and testing new recipes (OK, I guess we will be in the kitchen!).

If you find yourself at home, too, and in need of some simple meals, you’ll want to include the Eggplant Salad recently published in the NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/15/dining/151arex.html?ref=dining

It’s easy to prepare and surprisingly very flavorful. It’s a very simple recipe, so the key is to use the freshest produce you can find. If you use those bland ‘pink’ tomatoes from the supermarket, you won’t find the salad very satisfying. I used heirloom tomatoes and the tiniest baby eggplant I could find at the farmer’s market–they were very sweet and thin-skinned. I’m not a big fan of mint, so I substituted basil. Although I had hoped to have left overs, my family polished this salad off at one meal, so you might want to make a double batch!

Enjoy the rest of August, and we’ll see you in September!

Ellen

This week’s menus feature all the fresh Michigan produce that is plentiful now:

ingredients-for-august-15-2007.pdf

I thought you might also be interested in a cute little book I just discovered: Midnight Snacks (Broadway Books, NY) by Michael J. Rosen and Sharon Reiss (Copyright 2002 Michael J. Rosen and Sharon Reiss). It has recipes that you’ll find helpful when you want a quick snack or something easy for unexpected (or expected!) guests. The recipe for Peach Gazpacho caught my eye.

Peachy-Keen Gazpacho

Chop each of the the following in a food processor separately, taking care not to pulverize: 2 large ripe peaches, 2 larger tomatoes (seeded and juiced, reserved), 1/2 red or yellow bell pepper, 1 small onion, 1 English cucumber (peeled and seeded), 6 basil leaves. Combine everything and add 1T Grand Marnier and 1T olive oil.

The only real issue is getting everything as cold as possible, which can take a while.

Once the soup is chilled, add salt and pepper to taste and a dash of hot pepper sauce to taste.

I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks good. I’m planning on trying it soon. Let us know what you think if you decide to try it.

Ellen

Hi folks,

Below is a link to the ingredients used in this weeks menus. This isn’t final, just a hint of what you might find in your meal kit. I am thinking about changing the salad dressing–seems like too much lemon this week—so check back tomorrow for changes. And you never know what goodies I’ll find at the Farmer’s Market on Wednesday, so things could change again! Ah, that’s what’s so great about using seasonal fresh produce, you never know what you’ll be inspired to make until you see what looks good!

ingredients-for-august-8-2007.pdf

If you have additional questions or special dietary concerns, please contact us using our contact form. We will make every effort to address your needs.

It’s been a long time since I’ve written a post. While the kids have been enjoying the recent hot weather at the pool, I’ve been spending a lot of time trying new recipes and pulling together new menus for meal kits for late summer and fall. One of my favorite sources for interesting vegetarian recipes is Heidi Swanson’s website www.101cookbooks.com. This website is a terrific resource if you are trying to improve the quality of your diet and move toward more vegetarian foods. Browsing around you’ll find lots of valuable information, tips and recipes. Swanson’s first cookbook, Cook 1.0: A Fresh Approach to the Vegetarian Kitchen, has lots of simple recipes organized in a rather unique manner. She gives base recipes that can be modified with interesting ingredients and it’s all layed out in a table format. It’s also a very pretty book with nice food photography. From the website, you might want to try the recently posted recipe for a summer quinoa salad, it’s very good. We left out the goat cheese and added very salty black olives. My daughter loves olives. You’ll find all kinds of uses for the avocado dressing, too: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/quinoa-and-grilled-zucchini-recipe.html

You might also find it interesting that there was an article in the Utne Reader about Heidi Swnson’s website along with some updates on the controversy surrounding soy. You can check out all the articles online at: http://www.utne.com/issues/2007_142/features/12609-1.html

If this rain lasts all day, you can look for a posting very soon with all the ingredients for this weeks menus!

Ellen