Some interesting things about olive oil

I did my first olive oil tasting* yesterday. These are my five takeaways:

1. Even children who hate 99% of the food on earth (aka mine) love tasting olive oil.

2. There is a huge difference between a lighter oil and a more intense one. This does not make it easier to choose a favorite.

3. Flavored oils can be used to make food that feels fancy and different, but only takes about 5 minutes to make. And it tastes awesome.

For example, chopped olives with garlic oil, which is perfect on toast,

fresh mozzarella with red hot chili oil,

and strawberries with orange olive oil and chopped mint.

4. Hungry two year olds can put away a LOT of orange oil strawberries, but will pick out all of the mint.

5. The hand print of an orange oil strawberry loving two year old can be removed from white shorts with a couple sprays of oxy-clean.

*Want to have an olive oil tasting at your house? Let me know in the comments and I’ll send you the info.

Columbus Local Pick – Green Bean Delivery

I’ve been getting deliveries from Green Bean (a locally focused grocery delivery service) for a few weeks now. Overall, I’ve been really pleased. There have been a couple missteps, like when they packed a jar of tomatoes on top of a carton of eggs, but they’ve been quick to correct them.

I have a standing order for a produce basket every two weeks. The minimum order is $35. Since my produce basket (they have a choice of sizes) is only $25, I have to add $10 more of items to my order each time. Since I often forget this, they just fill it up with more produce. I can live with that.

Since it’s kind of a grab bag, I’m going to start a planning post, just like I did with CSA last summer.

Here’s what we got this week:
Baby carrots - These are for my son. The only vegetable he will eat without fighting or gagging.
Braeburn apples – Also for my son. He eats them as a snack dipped in peanut butter.
Oranges - for eating plain
Romaine lettuce - Taco salad
Russian banana fingerling potatoes - roasted with olive oil and salt
Broccoli - soup
Asparagus - steamed and used as a dipper for hummus or white bean dip
Green beans - cooked low and slow with some bacon and potatoes, or barbecued – can’t decide which. Maybe both…
Strawberries - I’m freezing these, envisioning some strawberry daiquiris in my future.

What to do with CSA this week

Yay! It’s finally here – the first day of CSA pick up. Here is the first of what will be many weekly posts to help plan a use for every item in the CSA bag so nothing goes to waste. I always make a list of everything I get, then the way (or possible ways) to use it during the week.

CSA, Week of June 12:

• Strawberries (lots and lots!) – will freeze some for smoothies and frozen adult beverages, eat some mashed with yogurt, eat some plain, some with chopped mint
  
• Lettuce – Wash for salad, and eat with Oregano Mustard Vinaigrette
• Radishes – Wash and eat as a snack (but they are sooo good sliced thin and eaten on buttered rye with a little salt)
• Radish Greens – Slow cooked with bacon and onions to serve as a side dish for pork chops
• Swiss Chard  – This will go into a lasagne, frozen in small portions to eat all week
• Sage – Used in a brown butter sauce with cheese ravioli
• Peas -  Blanched and buttered, mixed with chopped mint

Yum!

Breakfast smoothie

I’ve been eating lots of smoothies for breakfast lately. They are also good for last thing at night snacks. Here is my favorite combination so far:

Orange Strawberry Smoothie

• 1 C frozen strawberries
• 1 C orange juice
• 1/4 C water
• 1/2 C plain yogurt
  
• 1 scoop protein powder (I’m using Whole Foods soy vanilla)
• 2 packets sweetener ( I used Truvia)

Combine everything in a blender and blend until smooth.