CSA 2010 - Week 5

As with our previous citrus, these grapefruit had the flesh cut away from them, the excess juice consumed in a glass (tasty), were tossed with a shot of brandy, sprinkled with a few tablespoons of brown sugar, and broiled. It's a great, simple way to dress up citrus, and a healthy dessert to boot. These nectarines are, as I type this, being converted into a butter. The process is basically to make a puree and then simmer the heck out of it to reduce the moisture content. It smells like it is going to taste amazing, and it keeps for a year in the freezer. Sold! Wow. Look at all these avocados. This is not an ingredient that we seek out, though it has grown on us over time. We have a great taco salad that will consume one, then we will probably make a whole mess of guacamole. I love guacamole, and hopefully Mary comes around enough on it to help me with the consumption, or I am going to get real sick of it. These rainier cherries are slated for a pie as are...

...these plums. The recipe we are following (from Cook's Illustrated) uses a mix of sweet cherries and plums to simulate the flavor of sour cherries. It seems like a great idea, and we are excited to try it. Plus, it's a twofer. Some of these white peaches found their way into the nectarine butter, and some will get eaten with lunches. More grapes, more lunch snacks.

While we love sage, most of the dishes we use it in are more suited to the winter. This is also going into the turkey meatloaf mentioned in the previous post, and if we have some left we may make a pasta dish we love (which also has tons of garlic.) The first corn of the season has arrived! We love corn, though since our deck is still being worked on, we can't grill it. We will probably cut this off the cob and hold on to it for later, probably for use in our creamed corn with bacon and leeks. Mmm..... Oh zucchini, you need to stop being so eager to please and learn to play hard-to-get. If you'd just be a little less available, maybe folks would like you more. So yeah, more zucchini. Some will get steamed, some will probably get en-breaded, some will sit in the crisper, begging us to love it. This kale and the beet greens from last week will be used in soup along with...

...this cabbage. That's right cabbage, we were ready for you this time! It is even a small enough head that we can use it all in one dish. We actually have a startling number of cabbage plans this year, from a Barefoot Contessa stuffed cabbage recipe, to me using a few leaves to kickstart a sourdough starter (apparently it's full of wild yeasts, who knew?) These small heads of lettuce seem likely to be the last we see for a while. They're getting turned into taco salads with the avacado. The first carrots of the season will likely get used here and there, but primarily as snacks. We have reached the point in the season where I have nothing new to say about onions. Three, count 'em, three cucumbers. These are quite large, though not as big as the first one we got this summer. I plan to make another attempt at Cucumber Mojito sorbet this year. The first time I made it I was shocked at how aggressive the cucumber flavor was, so I'll be adjusting up the mint and lime this time. We'll see how it goes.