My poor, poor husband. I don’t think he really knew what he was in for when I joined our local CSA farm. He’s a meat and potatoes kinda’ guy, who will eat well-hidden veggies (i.e., smothered in cheese sauce, stir fried in sweet & sour sauce, casseroled with cream of mushroom sauce) when pressed. Last week, he had some issues with the beet greens with scallions, even though he did manage to gag most of them down.
I honestly didn’t think that greens were such an unusual food, but then, what do I know? After all, I was raised in the south, land of all greens smothered in various forms of heart-clogging oils, fats, and lards. However, you’ll be pleased to know that folks raised on farms in Minnesota also eat all things green — such as my fearless, trip leading friend M. When I told him about the beet green incident last week, M. exclaimed (okay, maybe that’s overstating it) that he loved beet greens and that he’d take any extra greens off our hands. So, when I saw that bundle of beets in my bin this week, I knew what I had to do. Yes, the beet greens when home with M.
That didn’t let The Coach completely off the hook though. There were other strange and wonderful foods in my bin, things like kale and garlic scapes (left). Sure, we had lettuce, radishes, and scallions, but kale isn’t the kind of thing that my MIL would have ever thought of cooking. And the scapes? Honestly, I’ve never seen them before, but the CSA Farmer – and the internet — tell me that the scapes can be used in stir fry. Guess what we’re having Monday night? If you guessed beef and broccoli stir fry, you’re a damned psychic. 
After working all day at orientation (while working on the BAPC between advising appointments), I went in search of kale recipes. My normal inclination would have been to saute them in olive oil with a little garlic, but I wanted to be sensitive to The Coach’s special needs. A quick search turned up a recipe for kale that kids — and food phobic hubbies — were guaranteed to love. Click on this link … I dare you. No, I double dog dare you. It’s not a soup recipe, or a stir fry recipe. You’ll never guess what it turned out to be, never, never, never, not in a million, zillion years.
So, for dinner tonight, The Coach grilled some nifty pork chops, some asparagus – fresh from the farm of one of his track kids — marinated in Italian dressing, and a combination of roasted potatoes and beets with rosemary and thyme, fresh from the pots on my front porch. On the side — roasted kale. The Coach ate it all, with minimal complaint, adding that the kale “tasted just like potato chips.”
I didn’t tell him that it tasted like salty seaweed to me. And when he asked for more (I only gave him a tiny amount, thinking he’d hate it), I gave him half of mine. That’s not to say I didn’t like it, because I did. I was just so shocked that The Coach, hater of all things that resemble leaves, actually wanted more!
We’re going to have other interesting meals this week because I need to clean out my fridge/freezer before we head for the beach. One night, we’re going to have beef stir fry with broccoli, garlic scapes, the rest of the kale, and the remains of the asparagus. Another night we’re going to have BLTs with the lettuce from my backyard. Or rather, I’m going to have a bacon, lettuce, and fried green tomato (my early ‘matoes are coming in) sandwich. The Coach will have bacon and lettuce, sans tomato. And several nights will feature a fruity, lettuce salad — mandarian oranges, cranraisins, and lettuce. I still have to find a way to get him to eat the radishes, two of which were grown in my backyard. He won’t eat them raw, so I’m going to try this recipe for cooked radishes that I found on the ‘net.
