1st week of my CSA Produce from Calvert Farm May 26, 2010

For about a month now I have been looking forward to my 1st year of participating in the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) produce program through Calvert Farm  .  I signed up for the Summer program that includes 20 weeks of fresh farm produce from their farm.  The farm is located almost 2 hours away from me in Rising Sun, Maryland so luckily they have various produce pick up locations that are much closer to me.  My location pick up is at Montgomery General Hospital located in Olney, MD which works out great since it is about 20 minutes from my work.

Basically, the CSA produce program works by asking for a particular fee prior to the beginning of the 20 weeks.  That money goes towards investing in your food share for the summer.  Then each week you go and pick up a box of  “surprise” fresh produce from your particular location.  It seems as though individuals that live closer to the farm can pick which items they would to have for the week.  Since I am so far away from the farm that was not an option for me.  I do not mind since I like the “surprise” and challenge of figuring out recipes to make with the items that were hand picked for me.  Each week we should receive about 6-7 vegetable and/or fruit items that would cost around $20.  Here is what I received for my first week!

Daring Cooks May Challenge:Stacked Green Chile and Grilled Chicken Enchiladas May 16, 2010

I was very excited this month when the new daring cook challenge was revealed and it was enchiladas!  Two things that would be new for me was making our green chile sauce from scratch and the option to make tortillas.  I ended up making a yummy tasting and suprising not spicy green chile sauce and the tortillas needed work.  Luckily, my parents decided to come into town and help with my challenge.  It seemed to have taken forever…perhaps because I had my heart set on making two sauces, a green chile and chocolate mole, as well as a mexican flan.  The chocolate mole sauce was too spicy for me but we used it as a dipping sauce.  I am not going to post the recipe but I linked it above.  Since the tortillas turned out okay I decided not to post that recipe either and will have to find a better recipe.  All in all it got done and the taste was worth all the hard work that went into it.   

 Our hosts this month, Barbara of Barbara Bakes and Bunnee of Anna+Food have chosen a delicious Stacked Green Chile & Grilled Chicken Enchilada recipe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo! The recipe, featuring a homemade enchilada sauce was found on www.finecooking.com and written by Robb Walsh.