July- week 3

This week was the first time since starting the CSA back in March that I ever made a trade. I usually just go with what they provide, but I've discovered we are not fond of eggplant. We adore their little new potatoes so this week when I opened my box and found two big eggplants, I kindly requested a trade which they quickly granted. I love that they are flexible in this way.

So we ended up with more little hot peppers, a big bunch of basil, the potatoes, several cucumbers, assorted sweet peppers, a few small zucchini, yellow squash, plum tomatoes, onion, okra, acorn squash and a bag of beets.

Last week I tried my hand at canning and made some plum jam and fig preserves from some extras I had bought at the market. I also made a jar of mixed pickles and peppers. Still waiting to taste those. I found I don't have a large enough pan to actually seal large quart jars so I need to pick up some pint jars or a bigger pot. I found a recipe for bread and butter zucchini that sounds good. I'm going to try to pickle the little hot peppers for future use or gift giving as well since we like hot but not enough to use them all before they go bad.

I used the basil the first night on Wed in a summer pasta dish with tomatoes, squash and onion. Thursday we had corn on the cob with hamburgers so I didn't use anything out of the obx and last night we ended up at Mama Fu's for dinner after working late and running kids around.

So today I have a bunch left and only a few days to fit it in. Here's what I'm planning. The cukes I'm slicing up for snacking. Tonight we're grilling steaks and I'm going to make a corn/zucchini casserole from Leanne Ely of Saving Dinner.com.  We're also going to try some peppers stuffed with feta from the Aug/Sept issue of Saveur magazine and I'll steam the little potatoes.  While I've got the oven hot I'm going to roast the beets for use tomorrow and I think I'm finally going to roast the tons of garlic I've been collecting. Once roasted I've heard it'll stay good in the fridge.  I'm going to shred up any zucchini and yellow squash that's left after the casserole along with what's left from last week and get them into the freezer in 2 cup portions for use in breads and muffins. The extra sweet peppers I'm going to chop and freeze for use in future casseroles, omelets and pasta sauces.

Tomorrow we'll have some pasta carbonara with fresh green beans and the roasted beets. Monday night I'll make some chicken and have the okra with tomatoes and some garlic bread made with the freshly roasted garlic from saturday. Tuesday I'm planning on something easy like a tuna casserole and I'll bake up the acorn squash to have with it.

My goal this week is to use up what's been accumulating and get it all either eaten, preserved or frozen as I've ended each week this month with some leftovers. Luckily squash and zucchini are hardy and last for awhile so they aren't getting wasted.

I read a great post from one of the many blogs I read, The Bitten Word, about using a chalkboard to list the produce on hand as it goes in the fridge and then marking it off as it gets eaten as a way to avoid having things turn into science projects before you've had a chance to enjoy them.  Great idea, I think we'll start that next week as I'll hopefully have an empty fridge on market day :)