A Veggie Feast

I cooked up a huge veggie feast this evening, nearly using up this week's CSA bounty. Guess what? I forgot to take photos of everything! I'll describe it as best as I can, and you'll have to use your imagination for a visual. I'll add some random vacation photos throughout the post for your viewing pleasure. :) We were in the Finger Lakes region of New York. It was beautiful, and there were organic farms everywhere! How awesome is that?

This is our view of Skaneateles Lake from the dock at the cabin were we stayed. Skaneateles Lake is the cleanest lake in the world! Cool, huh?


When going through my Grandma's recipes this past week, I found a recipe for baked squash. It was my Aunt Phyllis's recipe which she got from the Battletown Inn. It looked so easy that I knew it would be a great way to use the squash from the CSA. Here's the recipe:

Slice 6 squash and boil until done. Saute and onion in 2 TBS butter until soft, and combine with cooked squash and 1 cup crushed Saltines in a baking dish. Top with lots of butter and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Bake at 400 degrees for half an hour. (I used Earth Balance in place of butter, and probably didn't use as much as the original recipe called for. The squash was fantastic, but I think using more butter would've given it a crunchier topping.)

The kids posing with statues at the Women's rights museum in Seneca Falls, NY. It was really cool, and I actually felt a little emotional there. It kind of took me by surprise.

I also made some pesto using fresh basil, olive oil, toasted pine nuts, garlic and almesan. (Almesan is a vegan substitute for parmesan cheese. The recipe is in V-con.) It was really tasty spread on some great bread that Olives brought over.

What else? Oh, yeah. The Garlicky Kale with Tahini Dressing from VWaV. Very easy and really good. A nice change from plain sauteed of steamed kale. From the CSA we also had a nice bag of Rose Gold potatoes and also some white carrots. I chopped them up and tossed them in a little olive oil, balsamic vinegar and agave nectar then sprinkled with salt and some thyme. I roasted them at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. YUM! The rose golds were crisp on the outside, but very soft inside. A little sweet too.

This is the gorge in Watkins Glen state park. It took us just over an hour to hike through, and was probably some of the most impressive natural scenery I've experienced.

I think my favorite thing I made was the chipotle glazed haricots vert. Last summer, we got so many beans that I started creating new ways to cook them. This may have been the best way I came up with. I start by sauteeing half of an onion, finely chopped, until it's soft. Then, I add in the beans. When they're nearly done, but still nice and crisp, I turn the heat up a bit and add the glaze. The glaze is just a chipotle pepper, chopped fine, and about 1/4 cup brown sugar. To that I add a splash or two of water. Turning the heat up before adding the glaze makes the glaze really syrup-y and it clings to the beans better.

So, I'm guessing with that meal, we exceeded our daily recommendation of vegetables. We probably doubled it!


Fresh, organic vegetables at the Ithaca, NY farmer's market. All items there must be produced within 30 miles of Ithaca. It was the best farmer's market I've ever seen.