csa eats: week five

For week five, it was nice to see some color in the bag...even if I knew that at least some of that color would not be something I ate. (As much as I enjoy salsa, tomato sauce, ketchup, etc., I have never enjoyed plain tomatoes.) Still, I was looking forward to using the tomatoes, onions, turnips, beets, lettuce, and rosemary.

 
I can't begin to explain how good that lettuce was! We made two chef salads this week, which included not only the lettuce, but also hard-boiled farm eggs, carrots and radishes from the farm; and they were so delicious. (Wildcat Guy also had some of those tomatoes on his.) I forgot to ask the farm what kind of lettuce that was, but I liked it a lot.

For some of the produce that we've received (such as onions), it's always fun to figure out what dishes those ingredients will become part of. In this case, I used one of the onions in turkey black bean burritos, a standing favorite in our house.

Originally, I had planned to use one of the other onions in a saute with a green bell pepper and some kielbasa sausage; but then I found a couple of squash left from a couple of weeks back. First, let me pause on that - I had squash in my fridge from a couple of weeks back, and it was still fresh. That alone makes me really appreciate the opportunity to purchase produce that is harvested just a few days before I pick it up.

Finding them, though, led me to change our meal for that evening to have plain kielbasa, with a side of zucchini and summer squash "chips." They weren't delicious enough that we'd plan to eat them; and I was disappointed that they didn't really crisp up. But as a way to use up some lingering squash, this was a valuable recipe.

Something I believe I've mentioned previously is that the farm provides a recipe each week that uses some of the produce that will be in our bag. This week's recipe was for roasted vegetables - specifically, the turnips and beets we received. The recipe also called for carrots, which we had on hand; and I added the last couple of new potatoes that we had from week three. Tossed in olive oil and that fresh rosemary, the vegetables were (mostly) delicious. I discovered that I don't particularly like turnips (especially their after-taste); but the rosemary lent a lovely flavor to everything. Served with a simple grilled steak, this made an ordinary Saturday evening seem a little bit special.

This week, using our bag ingredients felt less intense, which was a nice break. Now on to week 6...