Grey Day Work-From-Home Fashion and Three Ways to Eat your Veggie Box Greens
Veggie Boxes and What Shall I Wear today?
Grey-day-fashion
I have much greater interest in homemaking and tablescaping than fashion. Choosing between a new linen tablecloth, a rattan tray or a knit throw would be preferable to deciding upon a layered animal print, a ‘Peggy’ or a midi shirt dress. However, that being said, on a gloomy stay-in-bed kind of Tuesday morning in semi-permanent Covid lockdown, I had to embrace dressing up or there was no going forwards.
My alarm buzzed horribly at 6am. The cat started to squawk in anticipation of food o’clock. I lay, curled under the duvet, deciding how I would use my hour of ‘Me time’ before waking the children and hitting school mode. On mornings like this, I know that if I lay there long enough, the hour of ‘Me time’ will quickly dwindle to ten frantic dithering incomplete minutes and I will feel disillusioned with myself and my inconsistencies.
Cardio or Strength training, an hour of writing or painting, or an extra hour of work to get ahead of the day. These are my current options. Do you like to get up early, before anyone else, and savour and hour or more of personal development? I heard about this on a podcast, read a book about it (twice), laminated positive sayings and motivational quotes on the wall of the shower (except the print is too small to read without my glasses - silly rookie error), wrote it into my planner and set my alarm for 5.30am. Mostly, when I am being a solo Mummy, while Dad is away earning some dollars, 6am is the best I can do for an extended period of time. I fail on the other end of the scale - the going-to-bed-early side. There are so many distractions and I have an incredibly annoying person inside my mind, telling me that I deserve to watch a movie or scroll through the depths of Instagram. Obviously, one never deserves these things and should operate with military precision. I am so mad with myself that I still don’t wear those stripes with pride.
I decided to sit up in bed with my laptop and do an hour’s mind boggling through Google Analytics for work. It seemed awfully dark for a mid-April morning. I glanced up from the graphs and keywords periodically to spot the sunrise. Somedays the sun arrives without any ceremony, no bugles serenading nor fire dancers limboing. Today is one such day, it was dark and then it became Pavilion Grey No.242 in Estate Emulsion merging to Cabbage White No.269 (thank you Farrow and Ball for naming your paints with such dedicated thoughtfulness to a muddy Irish spring morning). There was no drizzle nor dampness but a general feeling that the sky was tired holding it’s tummy muscles in and was relaxing it’s girth towards us.
Oh what to wear? I pulled open the drawer with the jeans and jumpers, all badly chosen in a mixture of colours that belong on said morning, dancing in the fog - where one begins and the other ends, no-one shall ever know. The beautiful new ditsy print red dress with puffed sleeves from H & M winked from the wardrobe with it’s broken door. “Definitely not” I shook my head. Who would wear a dress to Work From Home in their pretend office, that is really a desk in the bedroom (or kitchen, if that is catching the sun, on those days that the sun manages to get those pesky clouds in order)? But perhaps a snappy green dress with a cardigan, tights and leather jacket? And scarf? At last, I feel like I can fight back at the weather and the lockdown and the virus AND bonus points for looking slightly snazzy, like I might have somewhere to go, at the school gates where I insist on getting out of the car to wave at the children.
Veggie box surprise
In other news, as those of you that know me know, everything evolves around food, I ordered another veggie delivery box from Harvest Day last week. It was almost as exciting as unboxing a package that has taken 3 weeks to get from post-Brexit UK to Ireland and you can’t quite remember what you ordered (and pray that it is right as you can’t send it back with the cost of international postage). In a Piglet to Owl sort of conversation with my Instagram Stories I excitedly opened the box to discover that there were two vegetables in there that I didn’t actually know what they were, but had to pretend that I did as I was making a silly video to try and get noticed. The things actual grown-ups do for a social media world that we didn’t grow up in.
I later googled ‘oca tubers’ and also what to do with ‘pea shoots’ (my husband suggested planting them). Much to my wonder , there were a lot of greens (three bags of them, no less) that I knew I would have to eat alone as my children seem to think that green things will give them a horrible allergic reaction, even if they come into contact with their plates or other foods at all. Luckily there were carrots and potatoes for them and I planned to feel extraordinarily virtuous in a week’s time.
In essence, I took some pretty pictures of dishes that I was quite impressed with. The children ate one that had pasta in it, not prawns. I ate everything, felt like I was saving the planet, giving organic farmers a chance, supporting local, improving my immunity and learning a little more about the possibilities of seasonal vegetables in Ireland. In fact, I was probably doing a little of all of these things. I can highly recommend it to anyone in the delivery area (or to hunt down similar options in your own area) - you may be pleasantly surprised at how you can adapt and eat things that someone else chooses for you and tells you are good for you, a bit like being a child again - except that you have to do the cooking and the dishes (and pay for the food, of course).
Harvest Day
The Farmer Box from Harvest Day costs 25 euros, with a 6.50 euro delivery charge (or 5.50 euros, depending on which county you live in).
You can go all out with a Harvest Box for 40 euros, if you will manage to get through a wider selection of veggies or have more people to feed than I do.
They deliver nationwide in Ireland. The email communications are very precise and a lovely delivery driver arrived exactly during the specified times.
The boxes are accompanied by an email with links to recipe suggestions, a couple of printed recipe pamphlets and a newsletter explaining what is in the box, where it is grown,what to do with it, and some friendly company updates about how they are evolving.
Here is what I made from a seasonal Irish veggie box in April
Risotto with Kale and Mushrooms
This was the very best lunch at home for one, consumed with vast quantities of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society (second time round with this book - read more about the first time round here).
Risotto features regularly on our menu, it is one of my favourite things to eat. This recipe is more of a guideline as nothing is weighed nor measured.
In a large saucepan, sauté one finely chopped leek, one finely chopped stick of celery, one diced carrot, one diced parsnip (or similar quantity of turnip). Next add about a cup of washed Arborio rice (use the best quality you can get). Stir for a few minutes until it starts sticking to the bottom of the pan. Add about half a cup of white wine and stir well. Pour yourself a glass of white wine and enjoy whilst stirring for the next twenty minutes or so. You may also need a good book here, or to do the dishes and keep chopping for the next section.
Once the white wine is absorbed, add a cup of hot homemade chicken or vegetable stock (or a cube dissolved in boiling water of course). Stir. Keep doing this until the rice is cooked al dente.
Meanwhile in a small frying pan, melt a knob of butter and add one chopped tomato and sauté until softened. Then add a good grating of cheddar and parmesan cheese. Stir this mixture into your risotto and put the lid on the pan and set aside for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, wash the kale and mushrooms. Remove the stems from the kale and chop the leaves. Dice the mushrooms. Sauté these together in the frying pan.
When everything is ready, plate the risotto in a shallow bowl. Top with the kale and mushrooms. Decorate with pine nuts and pea shoots.
Herby Prawns and Lentils (from Bill’s Sydney Food)
I can’t credit this recipe as my own, however, I did make it and photograph it and eat it. It is perfection on a plate and in your tummy. I suggest that you try this at home!
Spiced Lentil Salad with Prawns and Minted Yogurt Dressing
From Bills Sydney Food by Bill Granger
1 cup du Puy lentils
¼ cup finely sliced scallions
½ cup olive oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 green chili, finely chopped
Sea salt
Fresh ground pepper
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
¼ cup coriander leaves
1 tsp turmeric
20 raw prawns, peeled and deveined, tails intact
To Serve
1 cup spinach leaves
3 1/3 oz green beans, blanched and refreshed
Mint yogurt dressing (below)
Place lentils and 1 ½ cups of water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Drain the lentils.
Place warm lentils, scallions, 4 tbsp of olive oil, vinegar, chili, salt, pepper, ground coriander, cumin, and cilantro in a bowl. Stir to combine, and set aside.
Place remaining olive oil, turmeric, salt, and pepper in a bowl and stir to combine. Add prawns and stir to coat with oil.
Heat a non-stick frying pan over high heat for 2 minutes. Add prawns and cook until just opaque, shaking pan frequently.
To assemble the salad, divide lentils among 4 plates, top with baby spinach leaves, green beans, and prawns. Finish with a drizzle of yogurt dressing. Serves 4.
Mint Yogurt Dressing
1 cup yogurt
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tsp fish sauce
4 tbsp finely chopped mint
Place all ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine.
VegEtable Broth with Pasta and Pea Shoots
Photos by Jennie Ritchie
This is a much loved family recipe in our house, with the addition of the pea shoots from our veggie box delivery this week, but any micro greens would work equally well, as would wilted kale or spinach.
In a saucepan, add 1 chopped leek, 1 diced carrot, 1 chopped celery stick, 1 chopped parsnip (or an equal sized quantity of celeriac or turnip). Sauté for about 5 minutes, stirring. Add about 500mls of vegetable stock and leave to cook until the vegetables are soft (about 15 minutes).
Add a packet of fresh tortellini (I like spinach and ricotta filling) and cook for 5 minutes more until the pasta is ready (according to packet instructions).
Serve in wide shallow bowls and top with torn mozzarella and fresh pesto and greens.
Jennie Ritchie, 28th April 2021.