CSA Week 11

The summer is flying by! I have still been cooking, however haven't had much time to write about it! This past week, I had a helper so that makes getting through the bounty a bit easier. I was also out of town earlier this month, so that threw me off with my cooking.

This week, I had this to deal with:
zucchini
artichokes
cherry tomatoes
bell pepper
corn
eggplant
leeks
jalapeno
cabbage
kale
carrots
green beans
parsley

The zucchini was turned into zoodles and was topped with a pan roasted artichoke sauce.

Last week, I made a version of succotash with my box and had some of that left. I simmered it with the cherry tomatoes and a bell pepper (I forgot to add it in the first time around). Then it was whizzed up with the immersion blender, added some milk and topped with the mixed herb pesto I made a while back.

The cabbage was made into sautéed cabbage, very simple.

The eggplant was turned into an eggplant bake with leeks, ricotta and toasted bread...it was so good, that I have extra ricotta and I might make it again this week!

The green beans, corn, carrots, and jalapeño were turned into a raw salad based on a recipe out of a new cookbook - the CSA cookbook (appropriate, no?).

Another great idea I got out of this book was to use the kale stems to make pesto. I never thought about this...and I am a person that really hates to throw out anything! It has walnuts, parsley stems, kale stems, and lemon. I added in a smoked gouda chunk I had in the fridge, and I am looking forward to topping some pasta with this masterpiece.

The rest of the kale was turned into my favorite shredded kale caesar.

We also made jalapeño spoon bread with corn, but we didn't get a picture of that as the directions said "serve immediately" and thats exactly what we did!

It was such fun to cook with friends, it makes me think back to when I started cooking my CSA box a few years ago...it really makes an afternoon fly by with good conversation and you get to split up the work!