Auntie Em's Kitchen, Catering and Local Organic Produce Delivery

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Produce for Feb 20th

The baskets this week include:

Black Carrots
Yellow Carrots
Fennel
Leeks
Cauliflower
Broccoli
Cabbage
Kale
Acorn squash
Spaghetti squash
Butternut squash
Romaine lettuce
Blood oranges
Tangelos
Navel oranges
Fingerling potatoes
Rutabagas

Enjoy the delicious colorful produce!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

White Beans with Black Kale and Savoy Cabbage

Here's an awesome vegetarian dish I am preparing tonight, mostly because the produce baskets are loaded up with half of the ingredients. The recipe is similar to a minestrone without the water and stock. It looks like total prep time should take 6 hours, but active cooking should be more like 40 minutes.

This will be a nice hearty, healthy dish prior to having large portions of dark chocolate for valentines day. I'm going to serve it under sourdough garlic bread as bruschetta, paired with a chardonnay.

The recipe comes from Local Flavors by Deborah Madison.

"White Beans with Black Kale and Savoy Cabbage

Ingredients
1 cup dried cannellini, navy beans or Gigantes, soaked for 4 hours or overnight

sea salt and freshly ground pepper

1 large onion, finely diced

1 bunch black kale, the leaves stripped from the stems and slivered

1 small Savoy cabbage, quartered, cored, and chopped

2 plump garlic cloves, minced or pounded w a pinch of salt

1/2 cup chopped parsley

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra to finish

1. Drain the soaked beans, then put them in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, add 1/2 tspn salt, lower heat and simmer until the beans are tender. about 1 and 1/2 hours

2. While the beans are cooking, chop all the vegetables. Rinse the leeks, kale and cabbage, but don't dry them.

3. Warm 2 tablespoons of the oil in a heavy wide skillet. Add the onion and leeks and cook over medium-low heat until the onion is soft but not browned, about 12 minutes. Add the kale, cabbage, garlic, parsley, and 2 tspns salt. Cook on low with the pan covered until the vegetables are soft and the volume greatly reduced, about 30 minutes.

4. When the beans are done, add them, along with a cup or two of their cooking liquid, to the pot. Simmer until the greens are completely tender. Taste for salt and season with pepper. Serve with, or over garlic toast drizzled with olive oil."

Produce for Feb 13th

The produce in this week's baskets includes:

Carrots
Leeks
Fennel
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Kale
Yukon Gold Potatoes
Butternut Squash
Red Onions
Yellow Oniions
Garlic
Romaine Lettuce
Blood Oranges
Satsumas
Grapefruit

Enjoy, Happy Valentines day!

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Produce for February 6

The produce this week includes:

Broccoli
Cauliflower
Leeks
Fennel
Black or Yellow Carrots
Kale
Red onions
Yukon Potatoes
Butternut squash
Butter Lettuce
Tangerines
Grapes

Enjoy!

Monday, January 30, 2012

Produce for Jan 30th

This week's baskets include the following delicious produce:

Red Carrots
Yellow Carrots
Kale
Leeks
Lettuce
Cabbage
Fennel
Broccoli
Yukon Potatoes
Red Onions
Yellow Onions
Butternut Squash
Red Flame Grapes
Satsuma Mandarins

Enjoy!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Produce list for 1/23/12

This weeks produce basket contains:

Black and yellow carrots
Leeks
Red torped onions
Cabbage
Kale
Broccoli
Fennel
Lettuce
Carnival squash
Mandarins
Naval oranges
Grapes
Beets

Enjoy!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Produce list for 1/16/12

This week's produce baskets contain:

Yellow and black carrots
Pea tendrils
Kiwis
Oranges
Leeks
Red torpedo onions
Cabbage
Kale
Broccoli
Fennel
Carnival squash

Enjoy!

Why I Started Auntie Em's Organic Local Produce Delivery Service

You might have already figured out that these produce baskets are my passion. I opened the restaurant 8 years ago, and have been doing the catering for 12 years now. I hit a point a couple of years ago where the restaurant and the catering pretty much ran themselves. I have the best staff in the world (all friends). I found myself in a place where I didn’t have that much to do anymore. For months and months I tried to come up with something to do. Another restaurant-no way! If I were 20 again, I might have the energy to do it all over. But as you probably know, it is really hard to start a restaurant. I didn’t want to have to do it all over again.

While visiting New York last year I came up with the idea for the produce baskets. Everything in New York City is delivered! Dry cleaning, groceries, sheets, furniture, plants-everything. I would sit in cafes sipping coffee and watch chefs from all of the local restaurants wheel carts of food to office buildings. This really got me thinking. I would bring the beautiful produce from the local farms to my customers who cant get to the farmers markets. This, I knew was not reinventing the wheel, but I wanted to personalize my service. Give recipes, let customers know what farms their food is coming from, pick all of the produce myself, and really inspire people to start cooking again and get them excited about food. Most importantly, the service would give back to the community. It would support local, small sustainable farms; it would keep the money local, giving it to small local farms rather than a big corporation. Which also means that there are less people in our area having their food shipped in from who knows where. Less demand for food that has no taste, that is sprayed with pesticides, that is grown by giant corporations that only have regard for making money and don’t have a passion for what they are actually doing. Less demand for it means they sell less, produce less and ship less!

I also wanted the service to offer “cute” boxes, and not crummy grocery sacks; something that could be re-used over and over. This, to be honest, was the hardest part. I searched and searched high and low for an appropriate box. I finally designed and had made the boxes that you get today.

I wanted a grass roots company. Not a giant company that needed backers with lots of money to start it. That is how I started my restaurant. When we got more customers I would get more boxes made, and so on. I am happy to report we have a new space to pack the boxes. We grew out of the space that we used in the back of the restaurant. We have tripled the amount of customers that we started with. We have not taken out any ads. Yes, my team has grown from one (me) to Tommy (your delivery person), Elissa (my right hand gal), Michelle (handles new customers and billing) and Fabian (helps pack the boxes). The farms and farmers that I buy from are ecstatic. I am helping bring their hard work to more people.

Most of all my customers are happy. I get so many emails about what you are cooking, how much your kids love it, how this produce has totally changed they way you and your families eat and how you are introduced to produce you have never had before.

I set out to do everything I wanted and much more. I have a little community of healthy eating foodies, more friends that I am employing, happy farmers, and my little contribution to a healthier society.