Adventures of a healthy-ish pseudo-foodie

I made those! When the CSA box hands you radishes, you eat one. Then you try to give the rest to the neighbors. Then, left with no other option, you pickle them. Then you discover that the pickled radishes are really good. I followed  this super-simple method from My Korean Kitchen . I picked it because it had good reviews on Pinterest, but mostly because it was easy, and I wasn't willing to dedicate a lot of time and effort to these things that none of us really liked. But it turns out that they are delicious.  As is clear from the original recipe, these are good with Korean food. They are also good on Vietnamese rice bowls. And they are PERFECT on salad with hard boiled egg and honey-mustard dressing. And the toddler ate half of them in one sitting, just as a snack. We might actually need to buy more radishes. The Recipe: 1 bunch radishes 1 c water 1 c sugar 1 c white vinegar Pinch of salt Thinly slice the radish bulbs and place them in gla...

Addictive. I hadn't heard of shishito peppers until they showed up in our CSA box. I searched Pinterest, and it was clear that the right thing to do was to blister them in a pan with some seasoning. I was intrigued by  this simple recipe from Gimme Some Oven , and I followed it exactly. I thought that maybe I shouldn't make the whole container of peppers at once, but the original recipe author claimed that they could easily be eaten in a single sitting, so I made the plunge. I ate more than half of them in about 10 minutes and I forced myself to stop only so Jess could have some when he got home. Otherwise I could have happily eaten them all myself. I will be looking for shishitos again. The Recipe: 6 oz shishito peppers 2 tsp canola oil salt and pepper 1/2 tsp sesame oil 1/2 tsp soy sauce 1/2 tsp sesame seeds Heat oil in heavy-bottomed pan (I used my dutch oven) Add peppers and a generous pinch of salt and pepper Saute for 3-4 minutes, to...

These got eaten very quickly. I rarely buy green beans, because I've so often gotten ones that were dry and flavorless. But when we got some in our CSA box, I was excited to make something good with them. And since I was missing the good ones at a recently-closed Chinese restaurant that we loved, I thought I'd try my best imitation. I worked from  this recipe from Fine Cooking . I made no changes, except for making the sauce directly in the pan (rather than combining those ingredients in a bowl first), and eliminating water from the sauce.  The Recipe: 12 oz green beans, trimmed 1 tb soy sauce 1 tb honey 1 tb butter 2 tb olive oil 1/2 tsp kosher salt 2 garlic cloves, minced In a saute pan, heat butter and olive oil When butter is melted, add green beans and salt. Cook, turning the beans occasionally, for about 7 minutes until they are slightly browned and tender. Reduce the heat to low. Add garlic and stir for 15 seconds. Add soy sauce...

THAT SAUCE. I've been making a lot of seafood since we started getting our CSA boxes. Mostly we've been eating solely vegetable-based meals, but when some non-vegetable protein is required, it seems like the best way to honor the amazing vegetables is to pair them with some really fresh seafood. For this meal, I knew I would be making green beans , and I was thinking of Asian-style sticky green beans, so crispy Asian-style shrimp was a good balance to the texture of the green beans. I like this recipe because it's baked, not fried, and because the sauce is SO delicious. How can one go wrong with honey and butter and soy sauce? I followed the recipe exactly, except that I halved the quantities and slightly increased the amount of panko (because it wasn't enough to cover all of the shrimp). I also simplified the corn starch step and it worked out just fine. The Recipe (serves 3): (from  Creme de la Crumb ) 3/4 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined  1 eg...