CSA - Week 6

I'm still here. A lot of fun happens in the summer and I have fallen behind. Since I will receive the Week 7 delivery tomorrow night, I guess this is my last chance to write about Week 6. Because of storms, they were unable to harvest kale last week, so we will receive a larger veggie share in this week's box.

Cabbage - 4 pounds

Yellow Scallions - just over 1/2 pound

Beets - approx. 3 pounds

Cucumbers - 2 1/2 pounds

Again, I forgot to take a picture. We went on an outing that day and left pretty early, so everything was a little off.

Last week, I had the entire cabbage for myself and I knew I wanted to make coleslaw. I decided on Bobby Flay's recipe, and it was really good. It was even better the second day, and my daughter ate it up! If you're looking for a good vegan coleslaw recipe, I recommend the recipe found in Appetite for Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. The recipe can be found here, but I really recommend the book! Of course, if you're using fresh cabbage instead of coleslaw mix, you'll also need to add shredded carrots. You can even throw some radish in if you're feeling funky, or anything crunchy, really! I'd bet kohlrabi would be really good in there also.

Speaking of kohlrabi, here is what I did with this newfound love:

1. Cut off kohlrabi bulbs.

2. Peel bulbs with a knife. A peeler will most likely not do the job.

3. Slice, then cut into half-moons.

4. Toss around with a minced clove of garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

5. Bake at 450 for about 10 minutes, flip, bake another 5, top with Parmesan cheese, and bake another 5.

I really wish I didn't love cheese as much as I do.

Another option is to just do this:

(image courtesy of www.simplyrecipes.com)

CSA - Week 5

I love my CSA. Here we are at Week 5 of 26 and I feel like it's only getting better and more exciting. Even though I was really psyched to have beets for two weeks and snap peas for one, I'm okay with them being left out of this week's box. That's the whole point, after all. I'm trying new things and this week is no exception.

Yellow Scallions - 3/4 lb.

Baby Collard Greens - 3/4 lb.

Cabbage - 2 3/4 lb. (1 head)

Kohlrabi - over 2 1/2 lb.

Mizuna - under 1/2 lb.

I have been a vegetarian for about half of my life. I will be the first to admit that for the first couple years, i was doing it all wrong, as many do when they first start out. Here I am nearly 15 years later and I'm still discovering new vegetables. The first I heard of kohlrabi was last night, and then it showed up on my doorstep a few hours later. I feel like that must have some kind of significance, but since I can't play kohlrabi in the lottery, I'll just go ahead and hope that it's tasty.

The cabbage came at a good time because I can make a nice fresh coleslaw for the 4th of July since I already have organic carrots on hand. I also plan to do something different with mizuna since I've repeatedly made the same dish since discovering the green a few weeks ago. I have leftover spinach from the Italian Wedding Soup, so I'm thinking of making this, but with vegetable broth. My daughter picked out some organic whole wheat letter-shaped pasta and thinks "green sauce" is weirdly excellent, so I feel like that's a dinner waiting to happen.

Have a fun and safe holiday weekend! Yay America!