Iron Chef: Produce

My friend Anna sent me an email last week to try out a produce (and more) delivery service, Greenling.com, for free.  I immediately signed up to try a Local Box.  Basically, they deliver hand picked produce from farms around Texas based on what is in season.  I've enjoyed the forced creativity of preparing all the food I've been harvesting from my own garden so this would just up the challenge.  Thursday night, as promised, my Greenling box showed up on my porch.

I had seen a list of what was going to be in last week's box but I was still blown away by my bounty.

My delivery came with a list of the contents, including what farm each item came from.  The back of the list had several suggested recipes.  Anna and I had our own little version of Iron Chef over the weekend, cooking our way through the food and texting our results.  The first challenge I tackled was fresh pinto beans.  Prior to this weekend my only experience making beans involved a can opener.  I have never even attempted dried beans. 

Now these aren't much to look at but they tasted amazing.  I cooked them with garlic and chili powder and then added a little sriracha before eating.  The next day I made the suggested Watermelon and Cucumber salad with a balsamic vinegar and oil dressing.

Another success!  As a matter of fact I'm having leftovers with my lunch today.  After all that healthy eating, I decided to really dive into this and use Greenling's recipe for Fried Green Tomatoes.  While I was in the frying mode I added in some of the okra from my garden.  I also winged my own stuffed portabello mushroom recipe after reading several recipes online and just going with whatever I had on hand (cheese, bread crumbs, garlic, onion, jalapeno).  It might not have been the healthiest meal but boy was it tasty!

Tonight I plan to grill some pork and my fresh peaches and then grill up a little zucchini to go with it.  It has been fun forcing myself to cook (and eat) things that I don't usually buy when I grocery shop.  Not to mention everything probably tastes 100x better than what I would buy in a grocery store.  Thanks to Anna for sharing this site with me.  Hopefully I'll be able to get fresh produce delivered once a month or so.  I might even branch out and try some of the fresh meat and dairy Greenling offers as well.