csa haul: week six

For the past month and a half, it’s been all about the vegetables. So, unleashed at the farmers’ market last weekend, we lunged greedily at the berries and stone fruits with outstretched arms. Some people may have found all the lunging a little bit intense—awkward and socially out of place, perhaps—but we were okay with that, since our greediness was rewarded handsomely. Apricots, three pounds of sour cherries, a quart of sweet cherries, a ripe cantaloupe? Procured. And taking into consideration the quart of blackberries and the huge bag of peaches we picked in Purcellville immediately thereafter, the people may have been right in deeming us a tad overeager. But guess what? All of that fruit is either cooked up or residing in our bellies, save for two pounds of pitted sour cherries that lie chilling in the freezer, awaiting their sentencing (which will likely include significant pie time). And we still had room for the contents of our CSA share. Never fear, dear readers! Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

This week was all about food-blog inspiration, as we eschewed cookbooks and magazines in favor of some delicious things that Kristin, Andrea, Shannalee and David have all waxed poetic about. So I guess you could call this a shout-out to my homies, although I’m too much in awe of their talents to elevate myself to fellow-homie status. I am failing to hatch a more appropriate and deferential slang term, so maybe I’ll just quit while I’m ahead. Yeah, likely a good idea. And then I’ll make some more of their featured recipes, because they made my on-hand ingredients shine, fruit and vegetable alike.

Ahem. Stream of consciousness aside, here’s where all the veggies went.

- Cabbage: The foundational element of David Lebovitz’s chicken and mango slaw. So…chopped chicken breast, crisp cabbage shards, peppery radishes, sweet chunks of mango, toasted cashews, grated carrots, sesame-and-soy vinaigrette, and a dusting of chives. That’s all I have to say about that.
- Cucumbers: Munched on. Constantly. I know I should make a cucumber salad, but what’s the point when they taste this revelatory on their own?
- New potatoes: Sliced decoratively, coated with oil, butter, salt and pepper, then baked until all we could do was shower them with a confetti of chives and devour them with pockets of melty roasted garlic draped on top. Also known as Shannalee’s Hasselback potatoes.
- Green garlic: Remember those pockets of melty roasted garlic I was just talking about…?
- Onions: I want to talk about these onions so I can talk about something else. They were roasted in a pan, with chicken that Ted coated with his own spice rub, and really were a fine accompaniment to said fowl. But even better was the salad we had alongside. A Molly Wizenberg creation that Andrea described so wonderfully, it involved arugula, goat cheese, garlicky homemade croutons, and fresh sweet cherries. I think you should make it tonight.
- Roma beans: Sautéed, as last week, until they started to taste like soft, salty French fries.
- Beets: The last time my mom made these, the kitchen looked like a murder scene, but I found that roasting them in foil prevented any serious bloodletting. Then I turned to Kristin’s beet salad suggestions, and found that those familiar faces—arugula, goat cheese, and radishes—were appropriate foils for the roasty sweetness of the beets. (Toasted walnuts didn’t hurt, either.)

So thank you, blog friends, for making this week’s meals shine. Friends? Actually, that sounds like an appropriate term—certainly more appropriate than “homies”—for a group of people whose recipes have made your kitchen a source of comfort and inspiration for the past seven days.

Until next week, my fellow CSA aficionados!