We've got a little seasonal dissonance going on here and the produce isn’t giving me any clear answers about what to cook.
In the CSA box we got the first of the season’s peppers and two little Sweet Dumpling squash. These I'll just cut in half and roast cut side down with a little olive oil. There are also some crisp Asian pears which are nice cut up in the morning yogurt with a little honey or maple syrup.
Here’s where it gets kooky. We also got a watermelon, (surely the last one this summer) some zucchini, a small bag of green beans and tomatoes. Come June, I won’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m kind of over the tomatoes. They’re still good, but their skins are starting to get a bit thick and they look kind of…tired I guess. This weekend’s farmers’ market revealed the same seasonal confusion. Tons of crunchy, sweet grapes and perfect little snack size Gala apples, the first of the winter squash, lots of sweet peppers. The broccoli made its first appearance, but none of this looks right next to the bins of yellow peaches.
I’m ready for fall. I guess the only thing to do is to snack on some watermelon while the tomato sauce simmers, and the peppers and squash roast in the oven. What are you cooking this week?
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
Saturday I was off to the farmer's market and bought some red and purple peppers and some broccoli and a few other ingredients, but I know what you mean be confusion, we still have some stuff that I wasn't expecting to be there and yet still is, mainly strawberries.
I made a yummy and easy pasta salad with the goodies. On Sunday we were in the kitchen all day, made homemade chicken stock, about 12 cups worth. Froze half and used the other half to make minestrone. We reserved the chicken breasts and put that into the soup along with all the usual ingredients, onion, carrot, celery, zuchinni, potatoes, canelinni beans, fresh herbs, etc. It was delish and perfect last night for supper as it was a little overcast.
We used some of our extra tomatoes to make tomato chutney and, holy cow, I LOVE IT. Spicy and sweet and perfect with bread and cheese. Click on my name for a picture, and a link to the recipe we used from the Readymade blog.
i've been experimenting with roasted veggie lasagna. haven't quite gotten all of the proportions right, but the fun is in the process!
I'm a bit farther north - Nova Scotia - and the fall crops have started to come in with a passion. I'm up to my eyeballs in all sorts of wonderful apples and squash. The squash I've been baking, mashing, and freezing all week, but I'm at a bit of a loss of what to do with all these apples. Does anyone have any good freezer-ready apple recipes they could share? We've got loads of honeycrisps and galas going completely unappreciated at the moment. Cheers!
Andrew,
Growing up, we always made gallons of applesauce for freezing (in heavy-duty zip top freezer bags) and several dozen apple pies every fall.
For the pies, just follow your favorite apple pie recipe but don't bake them. Cover them in foil and pop-em in the freezer. You can bake them almost exactly to your original directions. They go in the pre-heated oven frozen and unwrapped...just add a few extra minutes to the baking time. Impress your friends by bringing fresh-baked apple pie any time you're invited to dinner. You'll get invited over often, once they know.