The Eleventh Week

corn

peaches

cucumber

eggplant

red skin potatoes

tomatoes

honey

herbs: basil, mint, thyme

various summer squash (including a round one this week!)

hot peppers

sweet peppers

Zucchini: Round Two

I said I'd give zucchini other try, and I kept my word. Last night we tried it breaded and fried. Now, I know breaded and fried zucchini isn't exactly health food, and I know breaded and fried pencil erasers would probably be tasty too, but at least I didn't give up!

Mmmm, smelled good. We found Italian-seasoned panko at the grocery outlet the other day, so that's what we used. Good stuff.

I ate the three pieces lickety split, and didn't make faces or gag or anything! This was a huge improvement over the first time. Maybe if I keep eating it this way, I'll eventually get used to it enough to try it other ways.

You Say Yellow Squash...

Okay, this has been bugging me for a while now. Is it still a zucchini if it's yellow? Someone commented that they've always called the GREEN stuff zucchini. Did I screw up?

Well, Googling seems to suggest that there's both green and yellow (or gold if you want to be fancy) zucchini. Of course you can call it all summer squash too. Or you can call them courgettes, like they do in Ireland. That doesn't sound as funny as "zucchini" does it? I guess if you want to be a real wiseguy, you could call them swollen flower ovaries. 'Cause that's what they are. No joke.

Indulge Me

I didn't want to flood the blog with pictures of Isabella eating her greens, so I held off on these pictures for a whole week! Looks as if Is likes swiss chard even more than beet tops!

Tuesday Night's Dinner

With fresh corn on the cob and peaches in the bag this week, nothing else was even a consideration. Just delicious summertime food.

Ten Things for Week Ten

sweet corn

peaches

tomatoes

sweet green peppers

cayenne pepper

cabbage

summer squash

potatoes

cucumbers

dill

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

Man! I had no idea tomato plants could get so tall! Gerry is over six feet tall, and those things were just towering over him. I asked him to stand next to one and act like a tomato.

Left Over From Last Week

Sweet Sesame Cabbage and Radish Slaw. We found this recipe a few weeks ago when we were deciding what to make with the arrowhead cabbage, but we used red dynasty (and a little bit of regular green) cabbage instead. Also, inspired by one of the recipes we received with our share, Gerry threw in some chunks of apple.


The verdict: Gerry likes it, but said he would use less sesame oil next time, because it's kind of overpowering. He thought the apples were a nice addition. Me? Well, I got as far as trying a little of the oil and vinegar mixture. The sesame taste and smell is just way too much for me. I have got to stop ruining perfectly good cabbage and just eat the next one raw!

Better Late Than Never!

OMIGOSH! I forgot to post this week's picture! I started, but I kept getting interrupted, and I guess I never hit the "publish" button!

beets

summer squash

tomatoes

cucumbers

hot peppers

dill

red potatoes

swiss chard

Biscuity Goodness!

One of the recipes we received with out share this week was for a zucchini frittata. Gerry thought it sounded good, and a lot like some of his previous egg creations, so he was all set to try it. But then we made another stop, at Brumbaugh's Farm, to pick up some plums. I spotted some recipe cards from the PA Department of Agriculture's "Simply Delicious" program. One was a recipe for "ALA Zucchini" and included both zucchini AND tomatoes, another vegetable we received this week. (We added a one more squash from Brumbaugh's, too.)



2 c. zucchini
1 1/4 c. tomatoes
1/2 c. onion
1/3 c. parmesan cheese
1 c. milk
3/4 c. biscuit mix (like Bisquick)
3 eggs
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a ten inch pie pan. Sprinkle chopped/sliced zucchini, tomatoes, onions, and cheese into prepared pan. In a medium bowl, beat milk, biscuit mix, and eggs by hand for one minute. Pour over vegetables. Season with salt and pepper. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or when knife comes out clean when inserted. Let stand for five minutes before cutting. (Ger's did take a little longer than 30 mins.)

Gerry also added some sausage he had picked up on the way home at Bolton's Farm Market. This is how it looked before he added the biscuit mixture.



The verdict? He says he's very pleased with it. The one thing he didn't like about the frittata recipe was the lack of pastry (he usually uses either tortillas or a Pillsbury pie shell to line his pan), but he's enjoying the biscuit element of this dish. He says it's a really thinned down biscuit mixture, so it isn't too heavy or overwhelming.

Pretty in Purple

Okay, I have looked, and the info out there about Red Dynasty cabbage is all pretty boring (early maturing...yawn), but it is getting its own post anyway, because it's so pretty!

This is how it looked in the field, about a month ago. Hey, my feet!

PA Salsa Ain't CA Salsa

The salsa got a bit of a workout this week. Gerry said it wasn't hot enough, but nothing ever is for the California boy. I suggested he mix the hot peppers into it, and that punched it up enough to be avocado-worthy.

Note: I will not be trying avocado anytime soon.

Gad Zukes!

So, zucchini. We had a big garden when I was little, with lots of zucchini, and I remember many nights when there was breaded and fried zucchini on the table. Breaded and fried is something I'm very familiar with, so I wasn't too worried about trying zucchini.

Except...then I started asking questions. Ger has no zucchini-cooking experience, so this was new to both of us. How did mom do it? What's the right way? I looked up summer squash in the Cook's Illustrated Best Vegetable Recipes cookbook, which usually has some really good information. There was lots to read about getting the water out of the squash before you cooked it, which I wouldn't have known, so I was absorbed by that and forgot all about any previous plans.

The book said to slice the squash into quarter inch rounds and cover it with salt to draw out the water. I was doing my usual hovering and thought a) the slices should be thinner and b) there should be more salt. In any event, after a half hour, there was some water in the bowl, but not very much.

Then we threw some in a pan with garlic and olive oil to see what happened. It browned pretty nicely, looked okay. Time to try it.

Umm...it was on a level with plain oatmeal for me. Not much to taste and kind of mushy. The first couple of pieces went down okay, but then I stalled. I wasn't enjoying this at all.

Gerry dumped some of the Myerov salsa on the rest and enjoyed it that way, but we all know I'm not a tomato person. So, what next? How can we make this better? Shred it? Add carrots? Find out how mom did the breading? Help!

Isabella Eats Her Greens

Isabella's eyes lit up when we set the bag of goodies down on the floor today. Seems she likes to gnaw on beet greens! Clicking on the picture above will take you to a few more shots of her with her new favorite snack.

Week #8 is Pretty

A colorful week!

tomatoes

beets

sugar snap peas

red dynasty cabbage

North Dakota potatoes

green beans

yellow summer squash

cayenne and jalapeno peppers

basil

The peas were a surprise--last week was supposed to be the end of them. And I'm just starting to really like them!

Failure!

Remember that mashed potato and beet recipe I found? We tried it. Gerry, for some reason, asked me to choose the potatoes to go into it. I figured we'd use up some odds and ends.

Um, I don't cook, remember? I had no idea those were not good potatoes for mashing! The results were a gluey mess. I don't even want to show this picture. Warning: Cover your eyes if you're easily offended.

--shudder-- I ate some, and they tasted fine, but I didn't join Ger for leftovers the next day! Technically, I ate some beets, but this probably shouldn't count!

A Quiet July 4th

Well, Gerry's at work today, so I independently made myself a red, white, and blue snack and ate it at the picnic table! Black rasperries (and the red ones last week for that matter) are a new food for me. It's not that I was scared of them or thought they'd taste bad--they're just always so expensive! The red berries last week were a little more tart, but these black ones are so, so good. I could get hooked on these very easily! They remind me of the mulberries I used to eat straight from the tree when I was little.

Tomato Inspiration

This week, the recipe that caught Gerry's eye on the way home from the farm was for a tomato-basil tart. Of course, following the recipe isn't Gerry's style, so here's where he went with it!

Instead of making pasty, he used a Pillsbury pie shell we've had in the freezer since apple season. He cooked up some peppers and onions and added them to a bowl of beaten eggs. All this went in the dish, and then the tomato/mozzarella/basil came into play.

As I hovered over him, I bugged him about the mess in the middle. "Why didn't you make another nice circle inside the other one?" I don't know how he puts up with me!

And the finished product. Surely nothing like the original recipe!

Week Seven Share (Happy 4th!)

black raspberries

tomatoes

broccoli

beets

red potatoes

English peas

sugar snap peas

basil

homemade salsa

Here's hoping that Gerry and I have better luck getting together for dinner this week!