Adventures in CSA (2012): Week 6 Wrap-Up

Let me refresh your memory before I get to the good part (the eating part). 

Week 6's CSA produce was:

1 bunch dill

1 zucchini and 1 yellow squash

1 cabbage

1 head lettuce

1 kohlrabi

1 broccoli

4 pickling cucumbers

1 bunch carrots

1 bunch cilantro

3 pints organic blueberries

Already in the fridge -- leftovers from previous weeks:

2 heads broccoli
3 yellow pickling cucumbers
1 kohlrabi
some lettuce
1 bunch mustard greens -- I think these might have gone bad while I waited to buy Ritz crackers for a gratin. Curses!

With all this, we made and ate up, greedily:

1. Blueberry Scones (CSA blueberries). For these, I tried a Martha Stewart recipe, but with orange zest instead of lemon. I only had medium eggs in the house, so I used 2 1/2, to try to approximate 2 large eggs. Don't worry -- I didn't throw out that other half egg.  Instead, we scrambled it (with some of the leftover cream and a couple more eggs) and ate it while we waited for the scones to bake. 

Ultimately, Martha's recipe didn't produce as tender and moist a scone as I would have liked, but they were perfectly good, flaky blueberry scones. It's just that I was trying to recreate some incredible, rich and tender blueberry scones we ate at Nick's parents' house over the July 4th holiday, and these were not them.




2.  Kohlrabi Slaw (CSA Kohlrabi and cilantro). I was really trying to feel inspired by kohlrabi this week -- especially with two in the house that I didn't want going to waste. I read through the comments on this New York Times blog post about kohlrabi and discovered a commenter raving about a slaw made with equal parts kohlrabi and Bosc pear, plus cumin, cilantro and lime. It sounded perfect -- a little unusual, but made of good flavors. Dan and I both like cumin. Well, we made it, and it tasted weird. I didn't like the cumin in it at all, and Dan thought it was merely okay. The next day, it was even worse, as the pear released its juices and turned everything slimy, and neither of us could bear to finish the leftovers. Boo, NYT commenter. Boo!






3. More, more, more pickles (CSA cucumbers and dill). Keep on picklin'! We added the dill flowers that came in the share this week.






4. Cabbage slaw (CSA cabbage and carrots and cilantro). Dan's a bigger fan of coleslaw than I am, but even I enjoyed it. And the baby beat us both on consumption of this particular batch. It was that good. What do you like to do with cabbage? I'd love some non-slaw ideas (beyond soup and cabbage rolls).






5. Bacon salad (CSA lettuce). Homemade croutons, avocado, tomato, onion ended up in the bowl, too. Blue cheese dressing finished it off well.





6. Squash quesadillas (CSA squash). This week's summer squash was sauteed with onions, and the quesadillas were filled with refried black beans, tomato and raw onion, cheddar cheese, avocado, and hot sauce. Delicious!






7. Broccoli and cheese soup (CSA broccoli). Dan said he looked at the pictures in a Pioneer Woman post before making this soup, but he never actually made it to the words of her recipe, so he clearly didn't follow it exactly. He chose to partially blend it with the immersion blender, so it was chunky rather than smooth. This soup was a great way to use up three heads of broccoli -- the finished product featured big cheese flavor and only a slight broccoli stinkiness.





8. I had thought about making homemade blueberry doughnuts with the blueberries left at the end of this week, but I couldn't find a recipe online that looked just right. I thought I was settling when I happened upon one for Blueberry "doughnut muffins" double-dipped in lemon glaze (using CSA blueberry), but I think that it was actually the superior choice. Here's the recipe for these muffins; you should make them. They are remarkably tender and the lemon glaze (I used a tablespoon lemon juice instead of the water) was extra-tart, just the way I like my lemon glazes. What a treat!




Current Leftovers:
2 cucumbers, waiting to get pickled. Not too shabby!



Lost, lost, lost (gone bad and tossed into the trash during week 6):
1 bunch mustard greens 

I'm happy with how this week went. Let us not weep for the mustard greens lost, but rejoice for all the produce found. And let us welcome week 7 with open arms. 

What's cooking at your house?