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DFW Local Box Meal Plan May 14-18

Due to the Texas weather, that testy mistress, we’ve had to make some Local Box changes to ensure only the best in local produce goes out in our friendly green bins. So, folks will be receiving either watermelon radishes or grape tomatoes in their boxes this week. Which means we have plenty of ingredients for a delicious week long menu.

Here’s what I’ll be cooking:

Meal One: I’ll start off with a pea salad made with those wonderful looking southern peas. The great thing is I can use one big radish or a few little tomatoes cut in half for this recipe and serve it over a bed of lettuce and microgreens.

Meal Two: Peaches have been in the Local Box for a couple weeks now, but I have yet to make a peach crisp. What have I been thinking? Our local peaches are a little smaller than the ones in this recipe, so I’ll probably half it and sub lime juice for lemon juice. So tasty!

Meal Three: Summer squash gratin is delicious and that’s really all you need to know! Just halve the recipe and throw in some thinly sliced spring onions and you wont regret it.

Meal Four: Pickles are one of my favorite foods, but I don’t like buying them at the store. Homemade pickles are really simple and yield much tastier results than their commercial cousins.

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Promise of Peace Community Garden

By Angela on May 14, 2012 in Greenling DFW

East Dallas is home to some important names like Deep Ellum and Fair Park, but nestled on Grand Avenue next to White Rock Lake is a little garden making a big difference. Promise of Peace is a community garden built up from a vacant lot in the middle of the city, but they’re doing far more than growing plants.

The folks over at Promise of Peace know that real change for a community has to come from the ground up, so their aim is to enrich the lives of Dallas’ little sprouts. On Sunday afternoons they hold the Junior Master Gardener’s Camp free for area kids; the camp classes cover all sorts of important topics, including cooking. Local chefs make guest appearances and demonstrate delicious ways to eat healthy and the importance of good food. On Sunday May 20th, Janice from the Dallas bistro, Parigi, will be at the garden cooking up some delicious treats.

On June 16th Promise of Peace will be hosting Okra Palooza, a festival celebrating a southern staple. There will be an okra recipe contest, as well as okra and home brew from Seven Summits, along with music by Douglass Fairweather on a solar powered stage by Mike Renner of the North Texas Renewable Energy Group, and Fingerless Ghost, kids activities and magical Hat Making by Desiree. Tickets can be purchased at the garden on Saturday mornings at 7446 East Grand Ave. or by emailing Elizabeth Dry at ejdry54@yahoo.com – the $20 ticker includes the okra tasting and beer tasting, while a $10 ticket is for the okra tasting only. Enter your own okra recipe into the contest for just $10, to register head over to the garden, the winner will receive the very first Promise of Peace Palooza Prize Package. Attending the palooza will not only liven up your day, but help the garden continue to enrich the lives of Dallas’ younguns.

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Central Texas Local Box Meal Plan, May 7-11

By Kathryn on May 8, 2012 in Central Texas Local Box

Can you believe it? Local peaches are here already!! It seems entirely too sudden to be getting peaches and tomatoes in the Local Box, but I suppose it’s time to concede that May has arrived and along with it the warm weather that these fruits love so much.

Peach season in our house is when summer really gets started. School slows down, traffic lightens up, and we spend more and more time hanging out on the porch drinking shandies or lemonade. The meals we’re cooking change, too. Fewer casseroles or oven dishes grace the table; instead I like to make raw salads or simple stove-top dinners that highlight the fresh flavors of early summer.

As blogger Melody mentioned last week, we’re posting all Gluten-free menu ideas in the month of May to celebrate Celiac Awareness Month. The dishes I like to cook during this time of year lend themselves really well to gluten-free preparation, especially if I round out the salads and other one-dish meals with baked goods from Wildwood, a local gluten-free bakery. If you have any favorite gluten-free baking recipes, please share them in the comments! I’ll be doing a dessert round-up next week with some more Local Box goodies.

Meal one: I’m a little bit obsessed with this Asian-inspired Zucchini and Snow Pea Salad recipe since it’s so tasty and easy to prepare! Make sure to use gluten-free tamari instead of soy sauce to keep it Celiac friendly, and serve it with fresh sliced peaches on the side. As you can see in the picture, the peaches from Lightsey are pretty small. The good news is that the skin is super tender, so you can either nibble the peaches with skin-on out of hand, or use a paring knife to peel them very easily.

Meal two: Adapt this Chickpeas with Chard and Tomatoes to fit this week’s Local Box by subbing kale for the chard, and grape tomatoes for the plum tomatoes. The chickpeas and brown rice in this recipe make it a nutritionally complete, vegan, gluten-free, one-dish wonder! (It tastes great, too!)

Meal three: This recipe for Romain Lettuce Salad with Cilantro Dressing looks like a quick and easy way to knock out the romaine, cilantro, and part of that yellow onion. Serving up Quinoa with Caramelized Onions will be a great way to use up the remainder of the onion, and offer a warm side dish to complete the meal.

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DFW Local Box Meal Plan, May 7-11

By Angela on May 8, 2012 in DFW Local Box

The peaches are here, the peaches are here! And my goodness, they look delicious. Peaches and tomatoes are just the first signs of the summer harvest, soon our boxes will be overflowing with local fruits. The seasons are changing and so are our meals. I don’t want to be tied up in the kitchen when I could be poolside, enjoying this beautiful weather. So this week, it’s all about easy prep and light meals.

Meal One: A salad made from that gorgeous chinese/napa cabbage will be a great way to begin my week. I’ll omit the walnuts and instead,throw in some chopped spring onion to add extra crunch and flavor.

Meal Two: I love tomatoes. Absolutely and unconditionally. But slow roasted tomatoes? I could die for! Along with a delicious local orange, they make for a great snack while enjoying yourself outside.

Meal Three: Quick doesn’t have to mean raw, stir frying is a fast way to heat up veggies. You really can’t go wrong with stir fried squash and snow peas.

Meal Four: Okay, I admit it. A roasted red potato and radish salad might not seem like easy prep, but trust me, it’s worth it. And while your veggies are roasting, you can make the Barefoot Contessa’s fresh peach bellini. Enjoy!

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Pit Stop: Local Peaches are Here!

By Kathryn on May 6, 2012 in Greenling Central Texas

What does summer in Texas taste like? Juicy, local peaches! We got the first peach harvest of the season from Lightsey Farms in Mexia, Texas last week, and they taste great! Lightsey grows 15 varieties of peaches each year, and the first to come in this year was Spring Crest variety.

These peaches are small, about the size of a raquetball. If you’re not a fan of peach fuzz, this is the one for you – its beautiful color and very light fuzz make it a lovely peach to eat out of hand.

The Spring Crest Peach’s small size makes it just right for tucking into a lunch, or eating as a morning snack. Bakers and canners may opt to wait for a larger variety later in the summer, though, since the Spring Crest’s small size means it will take several peaches to yield enough flesh for a pie or jar of preserves.

We’ll keep you up to date as we receive additional varieties of peaches when the season deepens. After all, summer without peaches is the pits!