abracanabra | CSA Delivery #23

I had some trouble trying to get a good picture using flash. Click through to see what's what. Contents: Garlic, Yellow Onion, Carrots, Cheddar cauliflower, Broccoli, Tomatoes, Peppers (Red Roasters, Mini Sweet, Senorita), Head Lettuce, Delicata squash, Bok choi, Spinach, Tomatillo Salsa Pack (contents: onion, tomatillos, and [ick!] cilantro). This is about when I realized I was going to have to figure out how to cook large amounts of squash.

When I said that the leaf lettuce was shaped like a hat, well, Gaea took that and ran with it!

Better (?) pictures of the vegetables.

Tomatillo salsa - Followed Harmony Valley Farms recipe, minus cilantro and with a couple of extra jalapenos. So delicious. From the CSA: tomatillos, onion, garlic, jalapenos.

Chicken and Broccoli Pasta Dijon - Not horrible (thankfully, considering the amount it made) but not very good. From the CSA: broccoli.

BLTs - A standard Sunday-post-party breakfast/lunch. From the CSA: tomatoes, lettuce.

Winter Squash - Cooking winter squash: Heat oven to 400 degrees. Stab squash repeatedly. Place in oven for 10-15 min. Remove and let cool slightly. Peel, seed, and chop. Place in cooking dish with some broth and season with pepper and thyme. Bake for 50 minutes or longer. Might work better if covered to bake and/or stirred around partway through. Also worth noting is that most winter squash can be substituted in any recipe calling for sweet potatoes. I served this with salad and German country-style sausage. Yum.

Indian curried cauliflower with peas and potatoes - Instead of curry paste, used 1 Tbsp. curry powder + 1 tsp garam masala + 1 Tbsp butter. Good. Wouldn't really need to be served on rice--could be served alone. From the CSA: cauliflower.

And I froze the peppers for later use.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The PowerShot A720 IS appears to have a similar flash as my SD1100 IS. Clearly, you're limited in what you can do compared to an SLR, but I have found a few tricks that give some measure of flexibility.

* The biggest problem is light fall off at close range, because the point source of the light is so small. You can hold a piece of kleenex over the flash and it serves as a diffuser.

* You can also cover part of the flash with your finger (at an angle hovering above it). It casts a reddish hue, but can act as a bounce and simulate off camera flash.

* If you actually place your finger directly on the flash, you can alter the power output, which allows more outside light to bleed into the exposure. This can balance out the exposure at the cost of adding colour problems.

Of course, if you have access to scotch tape, aluminum foil and wax paper, you can get really freaky and creative with it, but then you're spending a lot more time playing with light than a simple shot of produce likely requires. When I need to get that nuts, I generally just get out my SLR. :)

Thanks for the tips! (Can't imagine why I didn't think of using a diffuser....)

My dear, you best be writing up a recipe book on all this, because my memories page is about 75% comprised of "awesome recipe by Abra." SERIOUSLY. I am in awe of your culinary talents and aspire to such myself! ::applaud::

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK!

Heh. If you had to eat what I cooked every day, your opinion of my culinary talents would drop! Sometimes my experiments go awry.

Hmm. Come to think of it, I do have enough good quality photos and recipes to make something--or I will after next year, perhaps. But the market is glutted with these things, unfortunately.

Must ponder angles....

I say you put together something now, then disseminate it through your friends. We can test recipes and rate them, or suggest alternative ingredients (like vegetarian versions, or a spice swap, or something), and in the end you'll have your most PROVEN selections all ready to be book-ified. I say GO FOR IT! :D

CSA Delivery #23

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