CSA Week 1

I am so excited to finally have started my share of the CSA I joined. CSA is short for community supported agriculture. The idea is that you buy a share of a farmer's crop for the season. You give the farmer money for your share in the winter, so they can plan for the upcoming season, and it helps the farmer out in a leaner time of the year. In return for this investment, you get a box of veggies every week for a predetermined amount of time. My CSA starts this past week and goes until Thanksgiving - so while I have been salivating over everyone else's CSA boxes, I think mine might last a touch longer. This box of veggies is designed to feed a family of 4+, so I was lucky to find a place that will do half shares. That being said, I still get 10-15lbs of fresh veggies each week. This will definitely put my planning skills to the test! Even with a half share, this is still too much for just 1 person, so a friend from work and I are sharing a half share...and cooking it all together.

Here's what was in the box this week:
6 ears corn
14 red potatoes
2 sm heads broccoli
1 red onion
1 yellow onion
1 pint blueberries (eaten within 1 day)
1 pint raspberries (eaten within 1 day)
2 tomatoes (yum, yum balsamic)
1 zucchini
1 yellow squash

I also had some veggie odds and ends to use up:
large baking zucchini
baby bok choi
daikon radish

We decided to make:
Corn Chowder (this was the same recipe in an earlier post, Best Corn Chowder?)
Bulgogi with grilled squash and brown rice
Miso Butter Grilled Bok Choy
Broccoli Salad
Zucchini bread
Bulgogi Bahn Mi

Corn stock for the corn chowder - pretty great idea really, use those cobs, they have lots of flavor!

Corn chowder late lunch, need something to keep the body fueled for all this cooking! See my previous post on this soup for the specifics.

Carrot-Broccoli salad. Ideas taken from a few recipes but leaning in the traditional broccoli salad way. I don't like big chunks of raw broccoli and I wanted a raw salad, so I decided to shred up the veggies, then I added a handfull of pumpkin seeds, a handfull of dried cranberries, a few slices of cooked, crumbled bacon then topped it with a yogurt based ranch dressing.

Zucchini pre and post grill. Just simple - oil, salt, pepper.

I think this may be my favorite dish of the day - equal parts miso and butter slathered on the chunkier ends of the bok choy, while the leaves are shredded and dressed with a simple lemon-olive oil dressing. You put the hot bok choy on the salad and it all just wilts so nicely.

The end product of an afternoon of cooking and chatting. The meat was pretty simple - a store bought Bulgogi marinade. Bulgogi is a Korean dish of a sweet soy marinade on thinly sliced beef. It's either grilled or stir fried - then it's put in many dishes. I knew we would be grilling so I opted for Flank Steak. I think it turned out really well. With the left overs, we are going to make Bahn Mi. This is a Vietnamese sandwich served on a French bread roll with a pickled daikon and carrot slaw, cucumbers, cilantro and hot sauce. I have some Korean chile paste that I will mix with some mayo and this will be a great work lunch!

Of course, some zucchini bread. These are loaves 2 and 3 so far for me this season and will probably make many more. This recipe is from America's Test Kitchen - they are sometimes hard to get online. Message me and I will send it to you.

We cooked at my friend's house, since she has the larger kitchen and the grill. Here's what I got to take home! I'm sure the allure of all this planning and cooking will wear off soon, but I'm happy to cook away for now...can't wait until next week!!