CSA Wednesday, Week 9

Theeey're Heeere... There are many things that come to mind when thinking of summer produce, but the top two that pop into my head are always tomatoes and peppers. We've received peppers in two of our shares, but today we have our first tomatoes. Being a new tomato eater, I'm proud to say I'm quite excited!

In this week's share...
1.5 lbs white peaches
1.5 lbs nectarines
1.5 lbs heirloom tomatoes
1 bag snow peas (in July? Nice...)
1 (large) head Romaine lettuce
1 bunch savory
1 bunch chard or kale (I chose kale)
1.5 lbs summer squash (I chose zucchini)
1 lb cucumbers
Ratatouille focaccia bread

Occasionally there is a bonus box, and this week it was a very large cooler full of a few overripe/damaged tomatoes, and loads of sweet peppers and eggplant. We were encouraged to take what we wanted. Not wanting to be overly greedy, I took this small bowl of yum yums.

The tomato weighed in at 1 lb 5oz. It's pretty ripe, and slightly bruised on the under side, but I doubt that will hurt the sauce I plan on putting it in!

Today I picked up 8 lbs of super fresh Driscoll strawberries from Costco that I'm going to try hiding long enough to preserve (I already gave in to DH's demands of testing out our new blender by making strawberry smoothies). The strawberries are so beautiful, I couldn't help myself! Plus, after two years of living in CA, I still can't get over the fact that I've been eating Driscoll's berries for forever while living in VA, and now I live within driving distance of where they're grown! What was my point in telling you that? Oh, yes... I'm hoping to find a small batch canning recipe to use the nectarines and/or peaches in, and hopefully one that includes some strawberries. I need to warm up my newbie canning skills before taking on canning tomatoes (crossing fingers).

Hmm... Ratatouille focaccia bread... The bread was... different, but amazing, as has been the case from this particular bakery. I know, I say it every week we get their bread, but I love it. It's topped with the farm's peppers, eggplant and squash, and cheese.

Challenges: There was some spoilage the past two weeks, mostly due to my lack of stamina and non-willingness to get down and dirty with my pots and pans, but I'm feeling more "normal," (whatever that is) and with pretty standard fare this week, there shouldn't be any spoilage.

I'm not a big fan of snow peas, but hey. I said that about tomatoes and onions, and now I can't seem to get enough of them!

Last week's meal highlights...
As I said, there was some spoilage. I never got around to that bok choi from week 7. DH got burnt out on dinner salads really quick (I could eat them every day), and so last week's lettuce spoiled, along with some of week 7's lettuce. I'm certainly not blaming him, but there's a lot of prep work involved in dinner salads, and I wasn't going to go through the trouble if he wasn't going to enjoy participating in the consumption of my hard work! I let him know we received Romaine lettuce this week, and there will be salads, and he has requested Caesar dressing. Hmm... I'm more of a vinaigrette gal these days so I'll have to think about it. ;-)

Oh yes. Last week's food... Sidetrack central over here tonight!

We tried eggplant for the first time. I marinated it in a parsley and basil marinade (minus the oregano, and used white balsamic) along with onion and crookneck squash before removing and marinating chicken in the mix, then grilling it all...

The onion and squash tasted great, although crookneck squash isn't the best grilling squash, I've learned. The eggplant? DH and I took one bite of it and both agreed under our breaths that we wouldn't make the boys eat more than a taste of it. Blegh! None of us liked it. It was cooked well, but the flavor of it! Yuck!

Oh, the delicious, creamy fingerling potatoes... I quartered, coated in olive oil and kosher salt, roasted, then garnished with chopped parsley. So simple. So tasty. I love potatoes...

These were served with grilled Magda squash and tilapia that were both marinated in that Spicy-Lime-Cilantro Sauce I keep mentioning. Can you tell we love the stuff? I've used it on squash, steak, chicken, shrimp, tilapia, as a salad dressing, and veggie "dip."

It dawned on me yesterday that it's been a really long time since we've had tacos or ground beef for that matter, so I defrosted two pounds of ground beef I purchased through our CSA (I don't think I shared that with y'all, but our farm purchased two grass-fed cows from a client, and they were butchered to sell to CSA recipients), and cooked it up with onions and peppers, and divided in half. I made half of it into tacos, and the rest will be made into sloppy joes for Friday's dinner because there's celery floating around somewhere in my fridge that needs to be used.

Sorry the picture isn't very appealing. It's imperative that tacos be eaten while the meat is hot, cheese unmelted, and lettuce crisp (not that that ever happens with children around, lol).

Hey, if you have a good small batch canning recipe involving any combination of peaches, nectarines, and strawberries, please share it in the comment section. My peaches and nectarines are white-flesh, in case that matters.

I'm off to bed!