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!