CSA 2010 - Week 17

Typically of me, I get caught up on the blog and then immediately fall behind again. We are in the middle of the Chicago International Film Fest, which while fun has a tendency to suck up spare time. Add to that some recruiting trips for work and condo business, and we barely have time to cook the share, not to mention writing about it.

These apples are slated for a skillet apple crumble from Cooks Illustrated that sounds absolutely delicious. It also uses seven or eight apples, so score! A small container of kiwi berries. These are a variety of kiwi that are very small (larger than a grape but still bite-sized) with edible, furless skin. They pretty much taste like slightly tarter kiwis, and I liked them quite a bit. Mary is not a huge kiwi fan, so I (and some coworkers) ended up snacking on the bulk of them. This pineapple is going into our favorite fruit salad, which has mint, basil, and crystallized ginger as well. Tasty!

More pluots for snacking. These were very sweet and juicy when we got them and disappeared quickly. Black seedless grapes added to the streak of varieties they have sent us. These were larger than most grapes and had a very firm texture. I liked them quite a bit. Anjou pears went into a pear and cranberry pie as well as onto a pizza. We have a few left that we plan on using in a chicken dish with sage and pears. Bartlet pears were primarily used for snacking. These came to us very ripe, and we had some trouble keeping ahead of spoilage on them.

On the vegetable side of things, this felt like a final blowout before the first frost. We got two sprigs of sage, which will go into the aforementioned chicken dish; a small head of lettuce, which was about a salad-and-a-half's worth; and a tiny head (stalk? bunch? bulb?) of fennel that looks to really only be good for the fronds. These leeks are destined for risotto. We have an 'almost no-stir' recipe that we are going to try out as a side, so we'll see how that goes. These green bell peppers were actually a bit larger than the ones we have been getting. They'll get used here and there. More hot peppers that we will put in a bag and forget.

I didn't consciously divide the pictures into end of summer/beginning of fall categories, but I might as well have. Late season produce is going full tilt, and this was the first share that really blew us away with that fact. Butternut squash is one of our favorites. It stores well, tastes great, and is pretty easy to prep. I always end up with an orange second skin when I do so, but it's a small price to pay. Potatoes Spinach Arugula was supposed to go on our pizza with pear, but we discovered that we did not have prosciutto, so we used it on sandwiches with goat cheese and thyme instead. They ended up being quite tasty, so it was a nice surprise. Plus we got to make the pizza the following week, so it was win/win. This cauliflower got roasted and dressed with brown butter and a little salt and pepper. Dumpling squash is the shorter, squatter cousin to delicata squash. It's pretty odd to see them side-by-side, just because we've gotten used to the coloration of the delicata, but to see it on such a different shape is strange. These are a bit harder to prep than butternut given the unevenness of the skin, and they tend to yield less flesh for that work. Way to stink, delicata squash.