CSA, week 12 -- cooking for one
Last week we were both out of town, so my favorite brother Eric picked up the box. I was out of town the week before, so only saw what was left when I got home (the potatoes were unexpectedly wonderful, 2 kinds too). This week and next, B is at Pennsic, so I'm going to be a veggie-eating fool.
This week's box was notably heavier than the ones from May and June. When I picked it up, I put it down to the lack of leafy greens and the relative density of midsummer produce. Oh, yes indeed, but that wasn't the half of it -- there's an eight-ball zucchini the size of a child's head. My current plan is to slice it & broil it with garlic (we're still getting great garlic) & maybe some Parmesan. I hope it reheats ...
There are also
- string beans, both green and purple. It never ceases to amaze me how much better fresh beans are than frozen.
- po-ta-toes -- a brown-paper lunch bag very full. Deborah Madison's Local Flavors has instructions (barely a recipe) for "salt potatoes", an upstate New York treat which involves boiling tiny potatoes in brine and slicking them with butter. I'm out of butter, but that's easily fixed.
- a regular zucchini. I may try a recipe I found recently for making ribbons with a vegetable peeler, and treating it like pasta. Assuming I can find it again. But how hard can it be?
- radishes -- these little devils are HOT! Much more peppery than the ones at the supermarket. Man, they're good, but even I (who did hot-sauce shots in Key West) can only eat one at a time.
- basil, enough to make a decent amount of pesto for freezing.
- a quart or so of tomatillos. I've got a very interesting recipe for tomatillo-avocado soup; all the ingredients are on hand except jalapenos, but I can get them when I get the butter.
- onions -- 4 cute little ones. I think I'll roast them with the ...
- 3 or 4 small turnips, and a head of the ...
- garlic; I love having this very fresh garlic available at any time.
Plus I had already stocked up on my "B is out of town" provisions. I've eaten the artichoke hearts, two of the avocados, and the cioppino, and done a "hobbit fry-up" of mushrooms, onions, and bacon. The asparagus and scallops remain, and the other two avocados will go into the soup. I ate a couple of the peaches, but they were getting ahead of me, so I peeled & chopped them and sprinkled on a tiny bit of sugar; they sit in the fridge now ready to go on top of cereal or just be eaten as dessert. I'd gotten some blueberries for B, which he didn't have time to eat before he left, so they'll go into muffins, but I need eggs. There's a grocery run in my future.