Joy of Luck: Day 2 (and More Farm Fresh Fun with Spearmint)
For today’s Joy of Luck theme, I decided to try my hand at some food photography to take advantage of my farm share debut. When I brought my box home on Wednesday, I wanted to be sure everything was stored properly so it would last as long as possible. I have plans for this produce, and don’t want to lose any of it!
After taking stock, I pulled out my All-New Good Housekeeping Cookbook(2001) and turned to the Vegetables chapter, which is arranged in alphabetical order by veggie. With each group of recipes, they also include a brief description of the featured vegetable, what to look for when buying it, and how to store it.
That’s how I found out that butternut squash can keep for a couple weeks if stored in the fridge (it’s not an ingredient I often buy). And did you know that most herbs keep best when you place their stems in 1–2 inches of water, as if they’re flowers in a vase, and then put a plastic bag over them? I tried it, and my farm-fresh spearmint and store-bought parsley were both in great condition two days later.
To me, the spearmint bouquet is a perfect representation of my “green” luck—in addition to getting fresh, locally-grown (and thus, environmentally “green”) produce via my farm share, I’m also feeling energized in the kitchen as I plan creative menus around these theme ingredients and try new recipes & cooking techniques. Not to mention the fact I’m able to apply things I learned during the Joy of Love class to my fledgling food photography for this blog!
When I first got the spearmint, I couldn’t even identify it, much less figure out what to do with it. So, after consulting Twitter and the internet, I found this Martha Stewart recipe for Fresh Spearmint Ice Cream. I was psyched to have an incentive to use my ice cream maker for the first time since someone gave it to me eight years ago as a wedding gift. And, though the recipe didn’t turn out perfectly—too much of the spearmint flavor seemed to boil out during the blanching stage, and the ice cream tastes a bit eggy—the once-intimidating small appliance worked like a dream and the ice cream looked gorgeous. After eating my Slightly Spearminty but Mostly Quichey Ice Cream, I was inspired to print out a ton of frozen dessert recipes that do not include eggs in the ingredient list and don’t require quite as much prep time (and mess) as this one did. Stay tuned!