I carry no phone An aspiring Luddite In a wired world. Mastodon Verification Link	Jeff Berry is an early adopter of the Internet and the Web, a late adopter of Twitter, and declines to adopt Facebook. With the death of Google+, he migrated to the Fediverse. He admins a medievalist Mastodon instance. He hates cell-phones.

While we were living in NYC, we were members of a CSA, which we loved. We'd get our share and every week was like a combination of Christmas and Iron Chef. We've not found the same thing here in the UK, at least not where we live. What we have found is the idea of the 'organic veg box,' which is quite similar. We don't pay for a share, we pay by the week, but the selection does vary with the seasons, and we don't have any real say over what appears in our box. Our current provider, Riverford Organic Farmers, provides more flexibility than the one we had in York, Goodness Farm. With Goodness, we basically chose a size of box. With Riverford we have a few more choices, and have gone with the 'less roots' option. Not that we dislike root vegetables, far from it! We just are not potatovores in the way that some people are. And we like salads. And leafy greens.

I've found that, whatever the scheme, come the end of the week, dinner consists of whatever left-over veg we've got made into ... something. Kitchen-sink soups, or omelettes, or frittatas, or noodles and peanut sauce, or ... something. What the something is depends on what hasn't been used. Usually the remaining veg is fairly sturdy, since we eat the more delicate stuff first. At this time of year we often have carrots, cabbage or kale, onions, and the like. In the last month or two, 'something' has often been skillet dinners of some kind. One of the nice features of the skillet dinner is that, as long as you have more than one skillet, the dinners are customizable! Here are two variations from last week's kitchen-sink dinner - one for my wife, and one for me.

• left over vegetables that need using up. I had:
  • kale
  • carrots
  • 1/2 a bell pepper
  • a leek or two
  • some tomatoes
  • olive oil
• variation one included
  • an egg or two
  • some cheddar cheese, grated of finely chopped
• variation two included
  • an egg or two
  • oats

Take a portion of the vegetables and put it into a smaller skillet and set it aside for a moment. Mix the rest of the vegetables with a healthy amount of oats. (That's healthy in two senses of the word, of course.) Maybe as much as a cup. Stir it up a bit, then add two eggs and some water, around a quarter of a cup. Mix that all together to make a batter or dough. Add some more seasoning if so inclined. Add a bit more olive oil to the first skillet, get it up to temperature, and scoop in the batter. Pat it down and let it cook. I usually cover it for most the of the process. You'll also want to flip it over after a few minutes.

Once the vegetable oatcake is cooking, return to the other skillet. Put it back over a low to medium-low heat and gently crack an egg over the top. Carefully add the cheese on top of that, trying to avoid breaking the yolk. Cover and let cook.

The vegetable oatcake is done when it's relatively firm and dry. I say relatively since the veg will keep it from drying out completely. Essentially, you want the egg cooked through. The other skillet is done when the cheese is melted and the egg is cooked to your liking. Top one or both with tomatoes, and serve.