A Menu for Spring

Created by Sara Woodward in 2011...

For over 10 years, when my company was a farm to table home delivery service in LA (it is now a very different type of company!), every week we curated a new box of local farm to table ingredients paired with recipes using everything up.

Based in LA at the time, we were blessed with abundant California produce and an amazing culinary scene to draw from. Over the years we worked with a diverse range of creatives to create the meal plans —from LA-based cookbook writers and bloggers, to chefs and restaurant owners, home chefs and more.

Sara Woodward was one of the first people to create a series of meal plans for us — just a few months into this adventure back in the spring of 2011. A protegé of Suzanne Goin, Sara had just moved from LA to NY to join the team at Le Bernardin, Eric Ripert’s acclaimed 3-star rated Michelin restaurant in NY, voted best restaurant in the world various times over. After starting as a line cook, a decade later, Sara is now the Chef de Cuisine of Private Events at Le Bernardin — and also worked with World Central Kitchen during the pandemic, providing 2000 meals per week to New Yorkers in need. A sensitive and creative chef, and a particularly lovely human, Sara created this meal plan featuring the hit parade of spring veggies, with simple but beautiful recipes perfect for celebrating spring.

Click to the respective recipes:

• Braised Chicken with Fava Bean Pesto, Green Salad with Shaved Asparagus and Tangerines

• Lamb Kebobs* with Spiced Chickpeas and Roasted Tomatoes, Green Salad with Cucumber and Radish!

• Top Sirloin Steak Salad with Escarole and Radicchio, Salsa Verde

• Fresh Pasta with Sunburst Squash, Brown Butter and Cherry Tomatoes

• Soft Eggs with Cumin-Scented Potatoes, Avocado and Cilantro

• Steamed Halibut with Sugar Snaps, Pea Sprouts

• Roasted Apriums with Honey and Raisins

The below grid shows everything included in the farm box we delivered the week of May 21st, 2011 to cook these recipes! Even the farmers are listed and many of them are still at SoCal farmers markets. Wherever you live, you can use this list like a shopping list if you want to cook the entire meal plan. Or, if you were one of our early customers, this might bring back some happy food memories.

Indeed, in the PDF of this meal plan, which I found buried in a long lost file somewhere in the chaos of my computer, I found a letter that one of these early customers had sent us, and which we included in the printed Box Insert of the week under the Moniker: “Report from the Front Burner”. I had totally forgotten about this lovely gesture, but it was hearing about moments like these that really made all the crazy lengths we went to, every week, worthwhile:

Report from the Front Burner: Edition 1

The latest adventures of the Emerling-Torres family with the Out of the Box Collective farm box:

I must admit I was borderline distressed when I unpacked two large zucchini from my farm box on Wednesday.

Historically, I loathe zucchini, haven’t eaten it in years. However, I was prepared to be moderately open- minded, because of a faint memory of our success with the sunburst squash that was in the box a few weeks ago.

We followed Shaheda’s recipe –more or less—of sautéing the squash with spring onions and then serving it with poached Corvina. I actually enjoyed the squash and the Corvina--two foods my husband is drawn to, and I'm often repulsed by. (My family was in the meat business, and I confess, I’m unskilled at fish, so that dinner was a triumph. I came away feeling like a wide-ranging, open-minded chef.)

BUT, since we maintain a "Sam I am" rule in the kitchen that compels all family members to take at least one bite, I thought, “Let's get it over with, and cook the zucchini.”

I sliced the zucchini length-wise into 4 long slices, and divided them onto 2 plates. I poured some olive oil into a small bowl and handed the plates of sliced zucchini, the oil, and a pastry brush to my 4.5 year-old-twins, and asked them to paint the olive oil on both sides of the zucchini and sprinkle them with salt. They sloppily, but happily obliged. I then grilled both sides of the zucchini on a hot griddle, and wrapped them into a foil pouch to steam in their own heat, while the kids made their own hamburgers with the Rancho San Julian ground beef, and I sliced potatoes for roasting.

They were impatient to try to the zucchini before the rest of their dinner—I know, cook the potatoes first and the zucchini last, but as I said, I’m unskilled--so I started them each with one slice. Allegra chowed down on the zucchini undeterred by the steaming heat, and pronounced the product of her labor, "very flavorful" and asked for another slice, which I gave her. After a bit of coaxing, Asher plucked his way through his first slice and then asked for a second, which he ate promptly. By that point, Allegra was done with hers, and asked for more. I denied her. Instead, I negotiated to keep my own portion and that of my husband, and moved them on to the burgers (no ketchup, no condiments) and the potatoes. They loved both, cleaned their plates. Next, they slurped half the carton of Persian mulberries off their stems, and went off to bed with full tummies. (They slept through the night without wandering, a victory in and of itself.)

As I watched my twins eat, I thought, “It is nonsense to resort to stealth nutrition by hiding and masking vegetables in their food.” Just buy good food, and let them help cook.

An hour later, Tommy and I dined on the zucchini (and lamb chops and potatoes and mulberries.) And yes, I enjoyed the zucchini. Go figure. What do I know?

Happy Cooking!