CSA 2016: Week 7 – Week 10

I. Am. So. Far. Behind. I’d blame our busy summer schedule, but since I say the same thing ever year, I don’t think that’s a good excuse. Whatever the reason, I am just now getting around to talking about weeks 7 and 8 (even though we are eating the goodies from week 9 10 as I write this). We’ll be lucky if I even get a post up about week 11, since I plan to pick it up on my way home from work tomorrow, throw it in the cooler and drive it across the country. Veggies on vacation! (That sounds so much healthier than our other vacation staple, ice cream.) 

We picked up week 7 during EAA Airventure, which meant that most of it ended up in produce saver bags to wait until  the airplanes flew home. Except the blueberries, of course. We ate those by the handful until the pint was gone, which, as you can probably imagine, didn’t take long. Here’s what we received:

• 3 tomatoes
• 1 pint of blueberries
• 1 cucumber
• 2 red onions
• 4 ears of corn
• 1 kohlrabi
• 1 1/4 lbs. of green and yellow beans

For week 8, we received:

• 2 yellow onions
• 3 red onions
• 4 tomatoes
• 4 ears of sweet corn
• 1 cucumber
• 1 lb. of snap peas
• 2 heads of broccoli
• 1 eggplant
• 1 bunch of beets

Neither of us were overly thrilled about eggplant. However, I think I found our preferred method of eating it, thanks to Cook’s Illustrated. Eggplant involtini (especially with the homemade tomato sauce) isn’t half bad.

Here’s week 9:

• 4 ears of sweet corn
• 1 bunch of Swiss chard
• 5 red onions
• 1 head of broccoli
• 4 jalapeño peppers
• 1 bag of cherry tomatoes
• 1 bag of baby red potatoes
• 6 tomatoes

I did lots of typical stuff with a lot of this: corn on the cob (boiled to perfection thanks to Cook’s Illustrated), pico de gallo and caprese. It may not be fancy, but it was all delicious.

OK, week 10. (Not only is my writing getting shorter, but my pictures are getting worse. Some blogger I am!) 

• 2 pints of cherry tomatoes
• 3 leeks
• 1 head of cauliflower
• 1 head of broccoli
• 4 ears of sweet corn
• 1 bulb of fennel
• 1 bunch of beets

The cherry tomatoes ended up in another batch of caprese, and I caramelized the fennel with some onions. I roasted the cauliflower and the broccoli. Thank goodness beets keep well in the fridge, since most of our CSA beets are still hanging out in the crisper drawer. When we get back from vacation, I’d like to use a bunch of them in this beautiful tart. We ate half of the corn on the cob. I used the last two ears of corn (along with the leeks and some Swiss chard from our garden) to make this tasty flatbread / pizza for dinner last night.

Whew! I think we’re all caught up now… or at least until tomorrow’s pick up. 🙂

Catching Up… CSA Week 13 & 14

So it’s been a while since I’ve written anything. We’ve been busy! Labor day brought a camping trip with great friends, and then we jumped right into vacation prep. We spent six days in Ontario at Lake Superior Provincial Park, and then two days in the Upper Peninsula, at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. (Hands down, this is my favorite place to visit. You must go there. And when you do, get ice cream at the Frozen Flamingo in Munising.) 

Anyway. Back to the food. That’s why we’re all here, right? (I’m assuming someone is still reading…) 

A few days before we left for our road trip, we picked up box 13 of 20 from our CSA. Enter produce-induced panic. Here we are, headed for Canada, and I’m faced with this:

Lucky for us, we had dinner with friends planned before we left as well. We enjoyed the corn on the cob with them, and I turned the cabbage into coleslaw. The tomatoes went into soup and spaghetti sauce, which was packed into the cooler and made for great fireside dinners. Believe it or not, the squash and the pepper were stowed in the crisper drawer, with the hopes that they’d be in decent shape when we returned. (And they’re still good! Thanks in part, I’m sure, to the produce saver bags from my Grandma.)

That took care of week 13, and since we were going to be out of town for the next week, I asked my friend Bethany to pick up our box. She loves food as much as I do, so I knew that she’d get some good use out of the goodies. And she even took a picture for me, so you can see what we received! 🙂

Bethany tells me that they grilled the corn and enjoyed the cherry tomatoes with balsamic vinegar, fresh mozzarella and basil. The regular tomatoes became part of this amazing sounding pizza-roll-up type dish, with proscuitto, basil, garlic and Parmesan. She described it as a savory cinnamon roll. How fantastic does that sound?

The eggplant, squash and tomatilloes found their way back to my fridge, with the eggplant making its way into tonight’s dinner. I’d really like to stuff the squash and bake them. I’m thinking a sausage/bread crumb/cheese/celery/onion/apple filling would hit the spot. (Can you tell that I’m in a “fall food” mood?) 

Now for the real treasure, the tomatillos. I’ve wanted to try them forever, but I’ve never bought them because, frankly, I wasn’t sure what a “good” tomatillo would look like in the store. And since we have TACO NIGHT coming up this week (can you tell I’m pumped?), I think it’s a good chance to use them. Salsa verde, perhaps? I am busily scanning the internet for the best ways to use this bag of green goodness.

So there you have it. I’m caught up with “what’s in my box” just in time to get another round tomorrow! And speaking of boxes of goodies, check out the link party at InHerChucks. Lots of produce possibilities!

CSA Week #10 (better late than never!)

So it’s been nearly a week since we picked up our week 10 CSA box, and I’m just now getting around to blogging about it. That’s what happens when you have weekend house guests, I suppose!

Our haul this week included one watermelon, four ears of sweet corn, a pint of cherry tomatoes (this has been my favorite variety of the cherries so far), two green peppers, two zucchini (more fritters, anyone?), four cucumbers, a small bag (I forgot to weigh it) of wax beans and our newbie for the week: an eggplant.

We ate the watermelon straight up, spitting out the seeds as we went. I steamed some of the beans with dinner last Thursday night, and we’ll finish those tonight. The corn was grilled, then cut off the cob and added to my dinner experiment (which Andy rated as a five star experiment) last night. (I did take a picture, so I will try to blog that one sometime in the not-too-distant future.) We’ve been slicing and eating the cucumbers, either as plain cukes or as quick pickles, and the tomatoes and peppers are making their way into various meals and snacks.

The real question is, what do I do with the eggplant? My current plan is to use my grandma’s eggplant casserole recipe and try it that way first. After all, if Grandma says it’s good, it must be, right? She’s smart! 🙂 I think that will only use about half the eggplant though, so I am open to suggestions!

In fact, I think I’ll go check out the links at InHerChuck’s “What’s in the Box?” link party to see if anyone there has an idea for my eggplant. You should check it out too, even if you’re not trying to find a home for an eggplant. 🙂