Carrots, carrots carrots. Enjoyed raw with dip. Oven-roasted. Stir-fried. Brown sugar glazed. Tossed into soups, fried rice or casseroles. It is a vegetable we go through a lot of in this household. Thanks to our CSA, we now have another simple method of preparing this bright orange jewels.
recipe courtesy of Driftless Organicsserves 4
The Ingredients:
2 lbs carrots
Salt & pepper to taste
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
The Process:
Clean the carrots and slice on the bias into 1/2-inch pieces.
Add the carrots to a medium saucepan with just enough water to cover. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce heat and simmer the carrots until almost tender, about 8 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Continue to cook another 6-8 minutes uncovered, until liquid is reduced. Drain any remaining liquid. Toss carrots with garlic, oil, and lemon juice. Cook another minute. Stir in cilantro and serve warm.The Review:
Simple. A little over cooked...but I fault the cook, not the recipe. I adored the bite of fresh garlic and crispness of the lemon on top of the carrots' natural sweetness. The cilantro I would not have missed much. I suspect the recipe would be equally as tasty with another herb sprinkle.
I had basically one of every vegetable in my crisper leftover from various other recipes I'd made all week. Luckily, the meal that came out of them was sooooooo delicious, easy, AND bonus: vegetarian! Hooray for forced creativity!
I chopped up all of the veggies to roughly the same size, browned and cooked them down until they were tender. Then I deglazed them with white wine and added in some good old marinara sauce and herbs. 
I reduced that down on a low simmer for about 30 minutes and had a fabulous, thick gardeny sauce ready to go in under an hour. I boiled some whole wheat spaghetti, drained it and dropped it into the Veggies to finish cooking. Oh and I added lots of cheese. You can never have too much cheese.
This is a method you can do with any veggies you have in the fridge. Broccoli would be great, as would different types of squash or even celery. Be creative. You'll save a trip to the store, not to mention, money!
I always have cherry tomatoes on hand (unless there is something completely wrong with me) because they are my absolute favorite. They are always slightly sweet and juicy and they go well in everything from salad to spaghetti sauce. I also happen to have a new pot of basil that I'm nursing in my backyard and praying that the snails don't find. Growing herbs is a great way to give yourself multiple meal options as it opens up the variety of flavor profiles you can create. And a leftover tub of baby mozzarella balls gave me the idea to make a caprese salad. But seeing as I can have caprese salad anywhere, I decided to spice it up and make it a Roasted Caprese salad. Since I felt like the salad would need a little extra weight behind it to make it a meal, I added the rest of the whole wheat Israeli (or Pearl) Couscous I had in the pantry. Instant classic.
I coated the tomatoes in Olive Oil, salt, pepper, italian herbs, a little garlic and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Then I broiled them....
And they came out like this, perfectly charred and caramelized.
I chopped up the basil and sliced the mozzarella balls in half. You don't have to halve them, but I wanted more cheese throughout the salad.
And here it is, a perfect summertime meal that took about 15 minutes to prepare. I added a few slices of grilled chicken over the top because my basketball playing husband needed some extra protein, but this would make an awesome lunch or dinner just as it is. You should probably make extra. 
This Coconut Honeybush tea from One Love Tea is probably one of the best things I have ever tasted! It is a highly fragrant, slightly sweet tea that tastes so much like coconut, it's crazy. I've enjoyed it hot and cold and can't decide which I like better. Either way you choose, a little goes a long way and it brews in a super quick 1-3 minutes. If you can't get this unique tea close to you, order it online!
The Chile Boys from New Mexico make this AMAZING salsa verde using chiles grown on their grandfather's farm. This salsa is about medium in heat and is incredibly fresh tasting, due to the flecks of cilantro and lime pulp throughout. I used it on grilled veggie tacos and with tortilla chips, soooo good!
How can you not want to just spoon this out of the jar? I adore honey, but there's something so special about honeycomb. I mean, bees made it. From nectar and wax...what??! I will be happily using this on everything from toast to cheese boards to who knows what else I'll come up with.
These organic, pesticide free blueberries were incredible! They were plump, juicy and just the right amount of sweet. I had planned on using them in some yummy baked good, but as you can tell from the past tense, they were already eaten by the handful.
Another fantastic fruit I found was this Flavoroso Pluot. A pluot is a cross between a plum and an apricot and the result is a super fresh, slightly tart flavor close to that of a plum combined with the creamy, soft texture of an apricot. These were so juicy i had to eat them over the sink! I can't wait to go back and get more.
I love buying all natural, handmade soap and these lovely bars came from Camlon Farm in Perris, Ca. They had photos of their goats at their stand. How could I say no? Plus, they had lovely mixtures that I haven't seen elsewhere, like the Rosemary with Coffee Grounds. The grounds act as an exfoliant and give off a slight scent, but you mostly pick up the fresh rosemary. The top bar is Rose Jasmine, which I am a sucker for. I bought a few of these to place around my house and so far, I'm in love!
Visiting S.F. doesn't mean you actually have to stay in the city. There are countless surrounding towns that are interesting and so much fun to visit. We actually ended up staying right at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge on the Sausalito side of the Bay in a hotel called Cavallo Point. The hotel sits inside of Fort Baker, where rooms are adorably refurbished military barracks. The morning fog rolls away to reveal a serene scene where birds are all you hear and dear are visible munching away at the grassy meadow that the rooms encircle. 
We spent a day across the bridge walking, eating and enjoying the beauty of the city. This amazing dessert of creme filled donuts with vanilla bean ice cream was a foodie highlight that we enjoyed at the Four Seasons Hotel restaurant on Market Street in S.F. Can you tell I like donuts?
If you're in Sausalito, eat at the Lighthouse Diner. This breakfast was so delicious and kept me full for hours, as if thats hard to believe! The huge raspberry filled, chewy, bubbly pancake was one of the best I've ever eaten. Somehow I will figure out a way to duplicate this treat. 
On our last day in the city, we headed over to the de Young museum in Golden Gate Park to view the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit, which was fantastic. Afterwards, we visited the Japanese Tea Garden, a tranquil collection of trees, flowers, koi ponds and pagodas. You can also have an authentic cup of tea inside a traditional tea house within the gardens. 
After a busy weekend in the city, we decided to stop off in Monterey on the drive down south. We had just enough time left on Sunday evening to make our way to the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium. My favorite part was the Jellyfish exhibit, with multiple species to gawk at. I highly suggest going to the Aquarium late on a Sunday like we did, when there is hardly anyone left and you have most of the exhibits to yourself. 
The nighttime view from Cavallo Point. Could it get any better??
