Creme de Laitue, or what to do with all. that. CSA. lettuce

You know what I'm talking about. Every week you get your CSA share and there are at least 3 or 4 heads of lettuce. We barely got through last week's share by making lots and lots of salad. On Saturday we got more lettuce. I realized yesterday that it was Wednesday and we hadn't even touched any of the lettuce.  There was no way we could eat enough salad to finish it before getting the next share. I remembered listening to a recent radio broadcast about Thomas Jefferson's garden.  He really loved his veggies, apparently. Lettuce, it seems, was a favorite of his. It came up that in Jefferson's time lettuce was frequently cooked.  Other than wilted lettuce salad I don't think I've ever had lettuce cooked. I'm so glad that I heard that little tidbit about cooking lettuce because it led me to Creme de Laitue, or cream of lettuce soup.

I did a little internet search for "cooked lettuce" and found a fair number of unappealing recipes.  Braised lettuce, for one (apparently it turns gray-ew).  Fortunately, I stumbled across a Martha Rose Shulman recipe in the N.Y. Times for Lettuce and Green Garlic Soup http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/07/health/nutrition/turning-up-the-heat-on-lettuce-lettuce-and-green-garlic-soup.html.  I changed it quite a bit since I didn't have green garlic and wanted to some herbs from our CSA (are you seeing a pattern here?).  I followed Ms. Shulman's recipe but used 4 garlic cloves minced, added chopped dill and basil at the end of cooking.  After blending the soup with an immersion blender I added a bit of cream (I had half and half but heavy cream would be very nice), maybe half a cup.  I sprinkled some cayenne pepper in and served the soup with some shredded parmesan.

The soup is a lovely spring green color and has more flavor than I expected from soup made from lettuce.  It reminded me of Marcella Hazan's escarole and rice soup in flavor.  It's elegant and delicious and I used up most of my Romaine and Buttercrunch lettuce.  I would definitely make this again when I am confronted with a surfeit of lettuce.  Which will probably be next week.

Wooster Square

Today we are getting our first CSA share.  When we lived in Buffalo I tried several times to get on a CSA share waiting list but they were always sold out.  As soon as we moved to New Haven we found a CSA with a few shares available.  The farm is http://www.barberryhillfarm.com/ out of Madison, CT.  It looks like the quintessential New England farm.  Maybe we'll visit the farm with our baby girl, E. this Summer.

We go to the City Seed Farmer's Market http://cityseed.org/in New Haven's Wooster Square in to pick up our farm share. Wooster Square is famously home to Pepe's Pizza, where there are lines out the door even in the morning.  I'm not kidding.  The park in Wooster Square is very pretty.  When we first moved here the cherry trees were blooming and I went over there one day to take photos.  I think I waited a little too long.  We'd had some windy days and many of the blossoms have fallen off the trees.  It still was quite pretty.  Here are a few of shots from that day.

Newbie

Ok, I finally broke down and started a blog.  Who knows how long I'll be able to keep it going.  I am, after all, the mother of an 8 month old baby girl who has just learned to crawl.  A little about that; I'm a first time mom and over 40 (just a little bit over) ;-)  My husband, M, and I just moved from Buffalo, NY to New Haven, CT. for his new job.  I was self-employed as a decorative artist in B-lo but currently I am staying at home with our baby until she's old enough for daycare and I can get back to work.


It's pretty nice here but the thing that stands out for me is the food. There is so much good food here! I love to cook and, of course, eat. I'll be writing about restaurants, food trucks and meals we make at home.  Also, we just bought a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share since moving here and we are excited to see what we get and what we can make with the fresh produce.  Some of that produce will go into homemade baby food.


Occasionally, I may write about my mosaic artwork or painting.  I miss working and being creative so this blog is a bit of an outlet for me.


I'm going to see where this takes me.  I hope you'll come along with me.