Trying new recipes

Well, getting a box of fresh produce every week has certainly inspired me to try some new recipes. And, it has made my 5 year old interested in tasting all these new foods. So far, he hasn't liked many of them, but at least he is tasting them!

Thought I would share what we have received in the past three weeks of our subscription and what I made with it all. Don't expect greatness here; I'm a newbie!

Week 1:

-Head of Romaine lettuce: Made a tossed salad, nothing special there

-Cucumbers: Some went into the Fennel Cucumber Salsa (see below), some went into a pasta salad (see below)

-Fennel: Fennel Cucumber Salsa

-Spinach: Ranch Spinach Pasta Salad - found the recipe on the back of a box of Suddenly Salad

-Green Garlic: Chopped it and made spaghetti sauce and garlic bread

-Leek: Still in my frig, thinking it's probably not good any more :-(

Week 2:

-Bag of garlic scapes: Did not know what to do with these - they are WEIRD looking, have you seen 'em?? So this bunch went bad, but I redeemed myself the next week!

-Cucumbers: Waited too long to use them and they went bad - ugh!!!

-Big old heirloom tomato: The 2 yr old and I just ate it - he ate it in chunks and I put a couple slices on a fried egg sandwich

-Pint of strawberries: Made spinach salad with strawberries, red onion, mandarin oranges, almonds, and poppyseed dressing

Week 3:

-Another bag of garlic scapes: I made something GREAT! Garlic Scape and Almond Pesto! Yum-o!

-Cucumbers: Cilantro Cucumber Slices using some Homemade Gourmet spices I have

-Another big tomato: BLTs!

-Head of butter-leaf lettuce: BLTs (see above), salad

-Bag of sugar snap peas: Nothing yet... what should I do??

-Carrots: Still needing to use them - I have some great veggie dip in the frig, so maybe we'll just eat 'em raw

-Kohlrabi: This was new for us. I peeled and sliced it and we ate it raw. Seemed like a cross between a radish and a potato. Wasn't our favorite thing to eat. If we get another one, I'll do something more with it.

In three days we get our next box. I've had a few glitches in letting some of the food go to waste, but overall I am pleased. What will I make next??

CSA - here we go!!!

Well, we decided to join a local CSA this summer. This decision was not made hastily given that 1) a half share costs $350 (for 20 weeks) and 2) I was (still am) anxious about actually using what we get every week (kale? what the heck do you do with that??). Having addressed those concerns, we "plowed" ahead (get it??).

Some of you may be wondering what a CSA is. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. By buying a share or half-share you get super-fresh, organic fruits & vegetables every week and you build a nice relationship with a local farmer. In other words, you know where your food is coming from. That's not the best explanation, so go here for more complete info:

http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

Our first half-share box contained: head of Romaine lettuce, 2 cukes, fennel complete with its fluffy fronds, bag of spinach, bunch of green garlic, and a leek.

My first order of business was figuring out what to do with that fennel. I found a terrific recipe online for Fennel Cucumber Salsa. Follow the link for the recipe. It was yummy *and* used two of my veggies at once! I discarded all the fronds from the fennel plant, but my friend Linda says those are edible, too. She chops them up and adds them to egg salad and such. Maybe next time... I'm just impressed that I figured out a way to use the fennel, period.

I am excited about this CSA experience. I'll post more as the summer progresses!