Week 13 Overview

I am going to try something new to share about CSA Week 13 (which I will repeat for Week 14). This is in part to help me get caught up with these two CSA weeks that I've fallen behind on. But also, as I mentioned in my last post, we've been repeating a lot of recipes recently, most of which I've already shared about in the past. So since I don't have much to say right now, this will hopefully be a good way to chronicle a couple of weeks and share what we've been up to with our produce. Here is what we received in our Week 13 box, and how we used it!

Heirloom Tomatoes: I am super sad to say that we did not make use of these particular heirlooms in time (and look how pretty they are! *sob*) We did use a few in Week 13, but they were carryover from the previous week. Together with our eggplant, we used them to make one of our very favorite standby summer dishes: a tomato eggplant bake. It's reminiscent of the vegetable gratin we've been coming back to all summer as well, but different enough that we can consider it to be its own thing. This is a dish I would definitely recommend, and it makes awesome leftovers too.

Italian Eggplant: gone! Also went into the tomato eggplant bake.

Tomato eggplant bake. How lovely are those yellow tomato slices in the middle?

Rainbow Carrots: we didn't use any of them in Week 13, but they were still in good shape heading into this week.

Green Zucchini: once again, we made some good progress on our zucchini stash, but we are nowhere close (yet) to using it all up! Repeating the ratatouille accounted for two of them. I also finally got around to making this Glazed Lemon Zucchini Bread that caught my eye several weeks ago on a friend's facebook wall. It is very tasty, and definitely a recipe I will hang on to. I'd love to make it again sometime as muffins. But it only used up one more of them. We'll see how it goes this week. So far this summer we have not had to throw away a single squash, even when it's taken some time to make use of them. Thank goodness for hardy vegetables.

Malabar Spinach: so here's what we learned about Malabar spinach: we don't like Malabar spinach. Okay, actually, we probably didn't really give it a fair shot. It never got incorporated in our meal plan but Steve did use some of it one night to whip up some quick omelettes for us (with tomato, feta, and some of the spinach leaves). But it turns out it's not really spinach - read a little more about it here. We felt like it was a little too fleshy (kind of slimy), both raw and cooked. Honestly, we'll have to give it another try sometime, and since it's supposed to hold up in soups better than regular spinach, that might be the way to go. But this time around, only a small portion of the leaves we had went to use.

Bicolor Sweet Corn: gone (kind of)! We had corn on the cob with dinner one night and cooked up all six ears. We obviously could not eat more than about three of them between the two of us, so the rest got sliced off the cob and frozen. We will have no trouble using it in the next few months. Like last time (Week 9) this batch corn was just okay, a little tough and not super sweet. Hrm. 

Green Beans: gone! We repeated the green bean salad from Week 10 (with actual green beans this time instead of the burgundy beans). Yum! That took care of them all.

San Marzano Roma Tomatoes: gone! And man, I did NOT think that would happen. It was a huge bag, and since I didn't have plans to do any canning or preserving (maybe someday), I was just sure that many of them would go to waste. Salsa to the rescue! I took what didn't get used in the 2nd batch of ratatouille we've made this summer up to my in-laws this past weekend and we were able to finish them off by making a double batch of this Chipotle-style pico de gallo. I even had to dip into my mother in-law's bowl of garden grown tomatoes, which made us all happy. We also got some cilantro in our Week 14 box, so that went to good use here too.

Peaches: gone! We are still loving these great summer peaches. Steve keeps saying that he wants to make a baked peach w/ custard recipe that he loves, but in the meantime I am not complaining about eating them as-is.

Red Seedless Watermelon: gone, but only as of today. It was pretty large and definitely took some time to get through, but it was tasty! We have a second one (from Week 14, in the background of the above picture) that we haven't even cut into yet. Yikes.

Chicken Breast & Whole Legs: We used the breast (and another bag that we'd already had), to make some of the crock pot pulled BBQ chicken (mentioned in my Week 8 Summary) that we love. Legs are still frozen. On a related note, we cleaned-out and inventoried our freezer last night. It is a chicken-parts party in there! We're working on it ... :)

I've been feeling like such a CSA failure lately, but really when I look back over this list, it is not too bad. I have similar thoughts about Week 14, so maybe when I write out that overview I'll be similarly encouraged. Also, last night we unpacked our Week 15 box, and are super excited about some of the new things that showed up in it. More to come, but let's just say that my wishes for fall fruits and veggies are starting to come true!