CSA Week 8

Well the veggies keep coming. Seems to be a good variety so far, so I'm very happy about that. In the boxes this week are:
potatoes
bell pepper
jalapeno
cherry bomb peppers
corn
broccoli
onion
zucchini
yellow squash
cucumber
grape tomatoes
red tomato
green tomatoes
leeks
carrots
1/2 loaf rustic loaf
lots and lots of herbs (thanks to a friend for these)

It seems I now have a reputation for making anything into something delicious, thus the extra green tomatoes and the large bundle of herbs (sooo thankful for abundant herb gardens!). I decided to pickle the tomatoes using the left over brine from my pickled chard stems (a huge hit at work, by the way), with some added salt, vinegar and spices. Most of the herbs went into a mixed herb pesto that will be delicious in the coming weeks.

I had some lovely scrambles for breakfast this week with the tomato, a green pepper and one of the ears of corn. The grape tomatoes and cucumber didn't last long either - I just love a cucumber and tomato salad with vinegar.

The potatoes, corn, leeks, bell pepper and a jalapeño were made into a spicy chowder. I made a favorable broth using chicken stock, the corn cobs, rosemary, thyme and oregano. I whizzed it up with my stick blender and it's nice and smooth. Good thing I only used the 1 jalapeño, it has a kick!

The zucchini and summer squash were turned into zoodles and made into a broccoli, cheese and zoodle bake. What a great idea! The recipe calls for kale but I used the leaves from around the broccoli instead, gotta improvise!!

I think I'll use the carrots in a salad when I get more cucumbers.

CSA Week 7

Since I was out of town last week, my CSA sharing partner had the whole box. This week my second box started, so I'm going to have to start getting more creative!!

So in box 1, I got:
2 yellow squash
1 bunch broccoli raab
herb bouquet

box 2:
3 ears corn
1 red onion
2 large and 3 small cucumbers
1 ripe tomato
1 green tomato
1 zucchini
1 yellow squash
3 red potatoes

I was really looking forward to the corn! I will soon get sick of it - the last time I had this CSA, we had corn every week for about 6 weeks, I am trying to be better prepared this time around.

My sourdough starter needed some love, so I made a batch of dough with the intent of using it for pizza. I made a pizza with thinly sliced zucchini, corn, tomato jam and a local cheese. So lovely!

I got some fun new containers for meal prep, so I used them this week. I made oven baked chicken - the sauce was a mix of the leftovers of the dressings from my salads a few weeks back, the green tomato (using it kinda like a tomatillo), olive oil and all the sage from the herb bouquet - everything went into the blender and on top of the chicken. This is a really easy way to cook chicken and it was pretty quick to put together.

I made parmesan zucchini and corn saute with the rest of the corn and squash. The recipe called for dried herbs but I used the fresh herbs from my bouquet.

The last thing I made was the grain side - it's a farro, white bean and broccoli raab gratin. The recipe is from America's Test Kitchen and you bake the farro, what an interesting idea. This may not have been the best weekend to keep the oven on for a few hours (it's in the 90s+ here), but you do what you have to do.

I made a cucumber and tomato salad one night. 

I didn't use the potatoes - if I get more next week, then I will have enough for meal prep. I also didn't use the onion, in favor of using other onions in my pantry that were going bad.

Meal prep!

CSA Week 5

I'm on vacation this coming weekend so I'm trying to cook up the CSA before I go. We are also in the time of year that our new residents start and so we have a lot of welcome parties - some we bring food and some we don't. Also my friend that shares my share with me is out of town this past weekend, so I had the whole share to myself.

What's the the box this week:
snow peas
chard
broccoli
herb bouquet

The chard was made into a salad with millet, chickpeas and frozen corn. The herbs went into my dressing. This will go to one of the picnics - it's vegetarian and gluten-free, so a crowd pleaser. Some of the salad I kept for me for lunches, but added pulled pork for protein.

I also pickled the chard stems. It's pink due to adding Sriracha.

With the broccoli, I wanted to make a broccoli salad but I'm not a huge fan of raw broccoli, so I roasted it. I added in the snow peas for crunch and used some of the herb dressing mixed with yogurt for a creamy dressing. It's also destined for the picnic, so now I have a few salads to share.

CSA Week 3/4

Happy Independence Day America! I spent most of this holiday weekend laying low, recharging after a very busy weekend last week.

Here's what's in the box for these weeks:
week 3 -
snow/sugar snap peas
garlic scapes
cucumbers

week 4 -
snow/sugar snap peas
herb bouquet
summer squash
kale

The scapes were turned into butter - I found last year that making a compound butter like this at the beginning of the season was a great way to add some garlic flavor to dishes (and I think it lasted at least until Thanksgiving, individual results may vary). The compound butter had 2 sticks softened butter, garlic scapes, zest and juice of 1 lemon, salt, pepper, parmesan cheese. Put in food processor until smooth. I store mine in the freezer and just chunk off a bit until I get enough for my recipe.

My CSA offers an herb bouquet, which i think is a great idea - you get just enough to add to recipes, not a ton that you don't know what to do with it all. I've been wanting to make my own herb vinegar for a while and made extra white wine vinegar a while back and basically forgot about it. So, I took the chives, thyme and sage from the bouquet and started flavoring the vinegar. From looking around the interwebs it looks like this needs to sit for about a week then strain...will report back on that one.

The herbs also went into a pea salad - parsley, basil, and mint. The peas were mostly snow peas with a few sugar snaps thrown in. I found this great recipe in one of my new cookbooks, where you cut the peas lengthwise. Then you make a lemony dressing and add in the chopped herbs...it's pretty delicious - nice and fresh with the lemon and crunchy peas.

The kale was turned into caesar kale salad - it's pretty much my favorite way to eat kale. And you can make a big batch, dressed, and it keeps - does not wilt like a lettuce salad. I've made the slaw exactly as the recipe suggests in the past, but this week I knew I needed the salad to last, so the egg was out.

The cucumbers were pickled in an Asian-style pickle with rice wine vinegar, ponzu soy sauce, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, chile-garlic sauce...they will keep for a while.

I'm planning on just sauteing the squash, just simple.

I think I'm finally getting the hang of this CSA thing - I think the key is highlight the veggie in a way that's not too complicated. But also choose something fun to do with your share when you have a little extra to play with!