Whole Hog - And a Whole Lot of Potato Salad

Last Friday's produce bin from Whole Hog Farms included the following:

green beans, kale, broccoli, cucumber, beets, grapefruit, carrots, potatoes

Meal planning for the week was difficult. I don't think it was the bin selections. It could be that I wasn't sure how our evenings were going to look.  There was the possibility of a change in my work schedule. There were after-work appointments, and we had hoped to get to the Service Canada office to renew our passports. Whatever the reason, it took me three attempts to get our meals sorted out, and even then things didn't quite work out as I had expected. Actually, the plan unravelled pretty early in the week. Hubby participated in Snow to Surf on Sunday. (Running. He did really well.) By the time we got home, neither of us felt like eating the meal I had planned. Still, we were able to prepare the following delicious meals. Items in bold are from the bin.

• Potato, Green Bean and Tuna Salad served on baby spinach. Avocado and tomato salad. Potatoes and green beans.
• Pasta with Squash Pesto. Spinach, tomato and cucumber salad. Cucumber.
• Cannellini and Kale Soup. The Soup Sisters Cookbook. Toast. Kale.
• Potato Curry. Rice. Cucumber and yogurt. Potatoes and cucumber.
• Beet Salad with Sheep's Cheese and Olives. Food 2.0. Beets and lettuce. (The lettuce came in this week's bin.)

The carrots were eaten throughout the week as snacks, the grapefruit rounded out a couple of breakfasts and most of the broccoli was used last week. Each meal, with the exception of the beet salad, made enough for dinner for two with leftovers for lunch the next day. In fact, the potato salad made enough for a couple of lunches and then some. 

Potato, Green Bean and Tuna Salad

Note: Skip the tuna if you want to go all veggie. We have it that way more often than not. Yummy either way.

Also, this recipe is my adaptation of several long-forgotten recipes. I think it was one of Jamie Oliver's shows that first brought mixing warm potatoes with vinaigrette dressing to my attention. I haven't made creamy, mayonnaise-based potato salad since.

Dressing:

2 small cloves garlic, minced (about 11/2 tsp)
1 tsp dijon mustard
juice of 1 lemon (3 tbsp)
5 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

• Combine the above ingredients in a large bowl. Use the bowl you will be serving the salad in. That large. You'll want a bowl that can handle a bit of heat too, as you'll be adding hot ingredients next.

Salad:

6 (about 1 lb) potatoes, peeled if desired, and cut into 1 inch chunks
12 oz green beans, ends trimmed and snapped into bite-sized pieces
1-6 oz can tuna
1/4 cup chopped chives

• Steam the green beans until cooked to your liking. Cool and set aside. (I steamed the beans in the pot I later used for cooking potatoes. Hubby and I are the dishwashers here.)
• Boil the potatoes until tender.
• Drain the potatoes, and while they are still hot, mix with the dressing.
• Chill potato-dressing mix.
• Once the potatoes have cooled, add the green beans, tuna, and chives and mix well.
• Serve on greens of choice, or not, though more greens are always a good thing.

Whole Hog - Minus the Hog

Once upon a time, this was mostly a food blog. Then a terrible, horrible thing happened. My favourite local-food shop, Brambles, closed in October of 2010. When I look back I realize that my bloggish ramblings became less frequent for a long time after that.

Recently,  Angeline and Jim, formerly of Brambles, now owners of Whole Hog Farms, launched an organic fruit and vegetable subscription. I signed up as soon as the service was available in my area. Each week, for $25,  a bin of organic produce is delivered to my door.

When the service first started, Jim emailed a weekly list telling us what to expect in the bin. Often the contents didn't quite match the list. That may be why those emails have stopped. I don't mind. I'm quite liking the surprise. It's like I'm a contestant on Chopped or Iron Chef. I never know what to expect when I open the bin.

Last week's secret ingredients...

Once I unpacked everything I sat down with my cookbooks and planned meals for the week. I compiled my grocery list at the same time. 

The top cookbook is one my Mom made for me when I first moved out on my own.

Using the produce, the cookbooks pictured above, some kitchen staples and a few items from the grocery store I created the following meals. Items in bold are from the bin.

• Curried tofu and mango salad on mixed greens. Green pepper, mango and greens.  Roasted sweet potatoes with cumin, coriander and curry powder. Both recipes were from Moosewood Restaurant Cooking for Health. 
• Veggie rice wraps. Loosely based on Meghan Telpner's recipe in Undiet. Mango, green pepper, carrots and greens. 
• Pasta with zucchini and lemon. Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home. Zucchini! Duh! Tomato salad. Tomatoes. Again, duh!
• Chicken - Pineapple. Mom's. Green pepper. Salad. Greens and tomato.
• Shitake brown rice pilaf. Rebar Modern Food Cookbook Leeks. Steamed broccoli. (The broccoli came in this week's bin.)

Each of these recipes made dinner for two, and there were leftovers for lunch the next day. Oranges, bananas and remaining carrots were eaten as snacks.  

I realize now I could have made Mom's Chicken-Pineapple with oranges instead of pineapple to up the "Hog" content of the meal. Maybe next time, when I'm actually doing the cooking. Hubby was the Iron Chef for this one.

(Note: I'm quite certain this is not a Mom-original recipe, but I don't have any idea where it originated. Mom had been making it for years prior to including it in the cookbook above. As I've had the cookbook for more than 20 years, I'm hoping that there won't be any copyright issues. Should you know where this recipe first appeared, please let me know in the comments below so I can attribute the source. If it's your recipe, welcome! And thanks for years of tasty meals.)

Mom's Chicken-Pineapple

1. 2 or 3 chicken breasts cut in strips (Hubby used two chicken thighs)

2. Assemble: 

• 1 onion, halved and sliced diagonally
• 1 cup celery sliced diagonally
• 1 green pepper cut in strips
• 2 cups pineapple chunks, drained, reserve juice

3. Combine in Bowl:

• Pineapple juice
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons soya sauce

4. Over high heat, saute strips of chicken in oil. Sprinkle with salt. Cook until white.

5. Add onion, celery and green pepper and continue to stir-fry for about 2 minutes.

6. Add pineapple, then juice mixture. Stir and bring to a boil.

7. Reduce heat and cook until just clear. 

8. Serve over rice.