the Olden Produce CSA share continues to be NOMNOMNOM!
(i know this entry is a bit late. i got distracted by vacation days, Independence Day, and a certain Lego Star Wars Millennium Falcon.)
last week, i picked up: eggs, more garlic scapes, zucchini, kohlrabi, kale, and lettuce.
since we were on vacation most of the week, we ate a lot of eggs for breakfast. i love love love the farm-fresh eggs. they taste better. i can taste a difference. my new favorite breakfast is a couple eggs scrambled with a bit of grated sharp cheddar and fresh basil, oregano, and thyme stirred in.
the garlic scapes are still sitting on top of the fridge. i have no idea what to do with them. but here’s a photo of the pesto i made the week before:
delish!
kohlrabi is a weird vegetable. the CSA newsletter called it “space cabbage”, and i laughed. that’s exactly what it looks like. Saturday night, i decided to take one of them and give it my usual root vegetable treatment – cut into wedges, toss with olive oil, sea salt, and pepper, and roast. first, i had to cut it up. i struggled a bit at first. how does one get the outer skin off? it was too tough to tackle with a veggie peeler. i cut it into quarters and as i was picking at it i realized I COULD PEEL IT. hooray!
roasted, it was simply delicious.
Sunday night, i decided to grill up the other kohlrabi, the zucchini, and some carrots. the zucchini we got was young and tender and delicious. the grilled veggies were fantastic.
kale was a bit of a stumper for me. i tried it raw and i didn’t like it – it was too bitter. i found two recipes i wanted to try – kale chips, and the Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana soups. mid-summer soup didn’t sound like the most fun, so i tried this recipe from The Novice Chef, Jessica. they were surprisingly delicious! i could only eat a few at a time, though – again, a little bitter. the lasted most of the week. Justin hated them.
crispy and salty!
the lettuce was a Jericho romaine. it looked like it had been pulled out of the ground an hour before, and there’s a good chance it was – the roots were still attached, wrapped in a little plastic bag, and it was dirty. Justin and i love salads for lunch and dinner, and it was a hot week that did not lend itself to cooking a lot, so we had salads with grilled chicken and salmon a couple nights. the lettuce was delicious!
i’m learning this about a CSA summer: you have to be willing to put in time to research, clean, and prepare the food. this is a lot different from pulling a bag of pre-shelled, frozen peas out of the freezer, or dumping out a bag of pre-cut Dole lettuce into a bowl for salad. it’s worth it, but it’s taking up 2-4 hours a week of prep, cleaning, and cooking.
up next: eggs, MORE GARLIC SCAPES, blueberries (noms!), zucchini, cucumber, and pattypan squash!
p.s. we got a present this week: a brand new shiny food processor! i will be making basil pesto tomorrow. i’m already drooling.
