Green Options

My CSA box this week contained sweet potatoes…lots of sweet potatoes.  The ugliest sweet potatoes you’ve ever seen.

This is what a sweet potato looks like when it’s been damaged by voles.  Pretty ugly, eh?  But other than the obvious cosmetic damage, there’s no harm to the sweet potato — you can trim off the damaged parts and use it as usual.  Vole-damaged sweet potatoes even store just as well as perfect specimens.  But of course a lot of people would be put off by the visual and pass these up in favor of more perfect-appearing sweets.  So when you’re hitting the farmers’ markets at the end of the season, if you see some ugly sweet potatoes cheap, snap ‘em up!  They’re a bargain, and  you’re rewarding a farmer for using organic methods.

I also had some excellent-looking young spinach in this week’s CSA box, and a few onions.  I’d picked up some wonderful linguica from a local sausagemaker a few weeks earlier, and I always keep chicken stock in my freezer.  It’s a blustery day here in Southwest Ohio, with the first sleet of the season.  Soup seemed like the perfect choice.  So I made one of my favorite rustic autumn soups:  Linguica, Sweet Potato, and Spinach Chowder.

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When the summer heat breaks and the first cool days arrive, I feel melancholy, because it means the end of our local farmers market is nigh and the variety of summer produce will soon be gone.  While I savor the rest of our ripening tomatoes, my thoughts turn to fall’s produce, with its rich red and orange hues, mirroring the turning leaves.  Fall produce reminds me of rich, hearty dishes that fill you up during the harvest season.  Here are five fall fruits and vegetables (and meal ideas) that are great sources of nutrition and the basis of many delicious dishes.

Ah, comfort foods. Whether you’re snowed in with the winter blues, sick as a dog, or suffering from a sadness that only carbs can fix, comfort foods make us feel warm and relaxed. I had a painful run-in with the dentist this weekend, so not only am I craving a little comfort, but something soft and mushy… and potatoey, and buttery… Ok, I’ll stop drooling now. It’s mashed potato time!

And of course, what’s more comforting than knowing that you’ve bought local, quality ingredients to add to your dish as well? Comfort foods should be as easy to make, as they are pleasing to eat. The great thing about mashed potatoes is, there’s no exact science to it.

Peel your potatoes (7 russet potatoes makes about 5-6 servings) and cut them into medium sized chunks. Boil for about 25 minutes, or until soft. Add in small doses salt, milk product, and butter product (I use soy milk and Earth Balance margerine). Mash, and experiment with the ingredients until you’ve got the desired consistency and flavor.

While I tend to be a bit of a potato purist, I know that the same old thing can get a little bland after a while, so here are three mashed potato varieties: