CSA 2011 - Week 13

Last week's share went fairly well, and we even managed to use up the many peppers. We stuffed the poblanos and made an insanely spicy (but addictively delicious) salsa with the serranos.

Half of the watermelon got frozen and blended into margaritas where it takes on a pretty mild flavor. Since it's got more solids than ice at room temperature, the drinks keep their thickness even partway through drinking them. Next big thing, mark my words.

I did make the basil syrup for ice tea. It's actually pretty mild, and blends in pretty nicely with the tea flavor.

Summer squash is an item that we have been buried in by every previous CSA. We love it, but we are used to getting several a week for many weeks in a row. We have all sorts of savory and sweet dishes that use it, and we are fond of all of them. I wouldn't say that we look forward to the tenth week of it, but I will say this: We feel a little shorted this year. These guys (a mix of pattypan and odd little globular fellas) went into a dish with some leeks and feta cheese. These daikon radishes are getting split. Part will be shredded and added to slaw (with this blessedly small head of cabbage.) Part will be subbed for turnips in a root vegetable stew (our second foray into cooked radish!) Ah celery. You are a divisive vegetable. I like your crunch and your tang. Mary, less so. This went into a lentil soup that we love (as if we could not love anything with six slices of bacon) and will otherwise get snacked on. Though we got these potatoes, Mary still purchased yukon golds for the root veggie stew. Madness! These guys will go into our old standby, the Rosti (along with some shredded daikon.)

These tomatoes went all over this week. In pie with some of the corn. on Pizza with some of these peppers. Sliced and sprinkled with sea salt. Diced and tossed into salads (again with the peppers, I think there might be some kind of fling going on there.) Our carrots went into the lentil dish. When life gives you apples, you make apple sauce. Given that we will be grilling this evening in high-60 degree weather despite it being labor day, I fear we must admit that autumn is upon us. The good side of that is that we can finally feel good about making apple cake, which is what we'll likely do with the batch of apples we are sure to get in the next share. Radishes went in salads and got taken to work as snacks. This year's challenge veggie is definitely the peppers. We always get more than we need since we don't use a ton of them in cooking, but this CSA seems mad for them and sends a ton of them each week. They freeze very poorly (the texture breaks down) so we can't even fall back to that. Who would have thought that I'd be missing the cucumber onslaught from the last place?