CSA Meals - Week 2

Summer traveling is probably going to interfere with the amount of cooking I do in the next few months, but getting produce on Tuesday is helpful.

I went through the two small heads of lettuce pretty quickly by eating them with some leftover Greek nachos for dinner on Tuesday and with the rest of my steak from Wednesday night for lunch the next day.

On Wednesday I cut the heirloom zucchini and yellow squash into strips, then marinated them in a little lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. They were grilled with several shitakes and two beautiful strip steaks from the Belmont Butchery. I threw together a barley risotto with the mushrooms, zucchini and squash, a shallot, fresh basil, lemon juice, and homemade chicken stock. It was a much faster process than regular risotto because I used instant barley, and the result was a light and summery side dish.

For dinner on Thursday I took two turkey sausage links out of the freezer, squeezed the meat out of the skin and sauteed it with olive oil. I added the sausage and more chicken stock to the leftover risotto to revive it, and it was just as enjoyable as an entree as it was with the steak.

Since Friday involved some car travel, we transported the turnip greens, collard greens, and some chard I bought at Ellwood Thompson's for a late dinner. The greens, which we cooked according to a Dave Lieberman recipe, could have used a little more time but were still wonderfully flavored with bacon, sugar, garlic, and vinegar.

Tonight I plan on sauteeing the rest of the garlic scapes stir fry-style with some broccoli and chicken. We get eggs again tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to a frittata in the next few days, as well as making chimichurri sauce later in the week.