I Can't Believe It! Garlic Scapes!

I will admit that when this season started I thought I was going to miss out on all my favorite strange veggies.  Gotta hand it to the farmers at the Midland Farmers Market!  They have come through for me! This morning, I found garlic scapes!  It's been a couple years since I have had enough scapes to make pesto and I ran out of my stock about a year ago, so you can imagine that I am thrilled to have found these.  As with any recipe I make, what I put into it depends on what I have available.  Since I didn't buy anymore greens this week, I had to rely on what I have growing.  So, this pesto turned out a little less green than the batches I've made before.  What I had available was basil (which I have never included in my garlic scape pesto before) and burgundy Swiss chard. I have always used spinach in the past which kept the green theme going.  The burgundy chard did not change the color THAT much, but you can tell it's not the same.  I also didn't have pine nuts this time, so I decided to try almonds.  It definitely gives a different flavor to the mix.

Garlic Scape Pesto with Swiss Chard and Almonds

• 1 bunch garlic scapes**
• 5 leaves burgundy Swiss chard**
• 1/4 cup basil leaves**
• 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1/3 cup roasted almonds
• Olive Oil

Wash the scapes, chard and basil leaves to remove grit.  Cut scapes into 2" pieces and add to the blender.  Break chard and basil leaves into bite-sized pieces and add to blender.  Add parmesan and lemon juice.  Place top on blender and process, on Puree, slowly adding olive oil until the mixture reaches the desired consistency.  Add the almonds and puree, adding more olive oil as needed, until smooth.  You may store in the refrigerator for up to a month or freeze.  I find it works very well to pour into ice cube trays to freeze as that size is about what you need for recipes.

**Farmers market ingredients

Where to Begin?

I just got back from picking up my first summer share.  Lots and lots of beautiful greens: collard greens, Red Russian kale, green leaf lettuce, pea tendrils, garlic scapes, radish greens, kohlrabi.  The sad part is that for the next month, I am still limited in the amount of these things I am allowed to eat each week.  Thankfully, I have someone to share them with.  Renee will pick up her portion tomorrow.  But I do believe that I will have to cook some of them and freeze them.

The first disappointment occurred today too: a very small batch of garlic scapes.  Since I have had them before and we are bound to get more (unless the early hot weather affected this crop too), I am going to give them to Renee this week.  So, I think the first thing that I am going to do is make a quinoa salad with steamed kale.  It's been a while since I have done that and quinoa has protein, so it will fit in my diet pretty well.  Rest assured, once I have made it, I will post a recipe and pictures.  So happy to be back to the CSA!!!!!!

Things To Look Forward To!

So the "fun" things included in our share this week will include garlic scapes, Russian Red Kale and pea tendrils.  I have missed the garlic scapes since I used up the pesto I made last year.  I remember that we got scapes for several weeks last year, so I will take the first batch to make another batch of pesto.  I used it in eggs and to roast a chicken last year.  I am thinking it might be good on salmon and other meaty fish as well.  I can't wait to be able to test these theories out.

My coumadin levels were high this week when I checked in with the anticoagulation clinic, which was a little disconcerting.  I am wondering if the Russian Red kale has as high of levels of Vitamin K as the green variety.  I will have to check that out.  I have missed kale all winter.  Buying winter kale that is imported just isn't the same as the fresh tender kale we get from the CSA.  I am going to make myself a quinoa salad with the kale since that seems the perfect way to cook it and gives me a fairly good protein source. The pea tendrils will serve as garnish.

I haven't reported much on my gastric sleeve stuff and I am truly contrite about that.  Not much has happened other than losing weight and getting stronger.  As I mentioned above, my coumadin levels were high this week.  They seemed surprised, but it was creeping up the last time I went in (up to 2.7 from two meetings at 2.5).  Since it had been 3 weeks since I had had it checked, I have to wonder if the dose is too high.  I cannot eat a full serving of greens in one sitting, so I can't be very sure that I am eating 2 full servings in a week.  They told me that they would leave the dosage for another week and have me come back to check again.  We are coming into the home stretch anyway, so I hope we keep it under enough control that I don't have a problem before then.  I make the appointment for a second ultrasound at the beginning of July.  I am excited that this has gone so quickly and look forward to being off the coumadin so I can have my chamomile and grapefruit again!

Now to the update.  I am now officially 60 pounds down.  I have had an ongoing frustration that most of this weight has come off the upper part of my body.  However, I am seeing things that indicate that I am losing down below.  For instance: when I went to a movie this weekend, I not only didn't touch the sides of the seat  when seated straight.  But even better, when I turned in the seat to give my legs more room (I hate stadium seating), I still had room in the seat.  It was a great feeling.  Below is a picture of my progress.  I find I have to do this because I, personally, don't see the changes.  It's very validating!

Garlic Scapes!!!

One of the biggest perks of getting CSA shares is the variety of vegetables that you could receive.  This week we got garlic scapes, yet another first for me.  Garlic scapes are the green shoots that grown out of garlic cloves.  They are curly and may have flowers on them.  And there is a variety of things that you can make with them.  They can be sauteed and used in place of garlic and/or onions.  But what intrigued me most was the idea of making pesto with them.  This is where another first comes in.  I have never made pesto before.  Being a bit Italian, I love a good fresh pesto and this sounded like a great idea.  Besides, I picked up some pignolia when I was at the market earlier this week, so there's another reason to give it a try!

The batch of scapes we received was less than what was called for in any recipe that I looked at (I like to look at many recipes and then create my own).  I also got a nice bunch of fresh spinach in my package, so I decided to supplement the scapes with spinach.  Here's what I came up with:

Garlic Scape & Spinach Pesto

• 1 bunch of garlic scapes (about 1/4 lb)*
• 4 large leaves spinach (or 1 cup baby spinach)*
• 3/4 C grated parmesan
• 1/2 C fresh lemon juice
• Olive oil
• 1/3 C pine nuts

Wash scapes and spinach; dry.  Cut garlic scapes into 4" pieces (including flowers); place in blender.  Break spinach leaves up into bite-sized pieces; place in blender.  Add parmesan cheese and lemon juice and begin blending.  Slowly add olive oil while blending until all vegetables have been pureed.  Add pine nuts and continue blending and adding olive oil until pine nuts are pureed and the pesto is a good consistancy.  Serving size 1-2 Tbsp.  May be used as spread on sandwiches, on pasta, or as a dip.

* CSA ingredients


This pesto has quite a bite to it, so it will probably be best used as a condiment, but not a bad first try at all!  Maybe I can find a way to use it with the chicken that is thawing in my refrigerator right now!