Free Soul Food

When I got to work, this CSA box I was eyeing that belonged to a coworker who left the company was still sitting there. Laura, at the front desk, said George said I could have it. Thanks George!! I didn't take everything, but I love free veggies.

I thought about what to cook all day, nothing new, but ended up coming up with a super ambitious list:

• Kale and Potato Soup
• Cornbread or Biscuits or Cornbread Biscuits
• Sauteed Collards, dried cranberries, vinegar
• Beans and Rice
• Fried Butternut Squash
• Grilled Pineapple Baked Tofu, (Southern Egg dish?)
• Poached Pears (w/ice cream?)

Of these things I made none of them.

I got home a bit cramped for time, and still had to clean the kitchen... so I just blindly threw the squash in the oven, with as many potatoes I could also fit in the dish. roasted a garlic too.

I decided to go with a recipe included with the veggies for the collards, spicy collard greens.

Basically slice up a pepper, add garlic, and an onion, saute them, add the collards, cover with water and simmer on low heat for about 2 hours.

I had to decide between corn bread and biscuits now... both are quick breads so it was a coin flip... I still had a bunch of "meat"balls in the fridge and decided that would be my protein so I thought I might make a little sausage biscuit sandwich... and thats what I did. I love how I actually have a pantry now and can whip stuff like this up on the fly... I used Alice's "cream biscuits" recipe.

Ok, now that's covered what the hell do I do with the squash? Puree is the most obvious at this point I think... but I just don't think it fits. Then I thought about what my mom does to kombucha, she smashes them and fries them. I could do this with the squash! only problem is that it is way too wet... so I put the smashed roasted squash in a pan and dried it out, shaped it into patties and dunked them in a batter made of milk, flour, egg, and cornmeal. Fried them in peanut oil... it was good, but the center was of course not stiff at all... I think I shouldve sliced the squash and battered it instead of roasting it first, but I did manage to sneak in some roasted garlic which helped the overall flavor of it. Something to experiment with again in the future...

So in the end,

Spicy Slow Cooked Collared Greens
Seasoned Fake-meat biscuit "sliders"
Roasted Potatoes with Thyme
Fried Cornmeal Battered Butternut Squash and Roasted Garlic

the only problem is that I'm still craving all that other stuff I actually planned on cooking...