Use the Food

I’ve had so much on my mind here, been running around doing errands to prep for my surgery, working out like a fiend . . . and still, the CSA share just keeps.on.coming. It’s been loaded these last couple of weeks: cukes and zukes and tomatoes and the sweetest sweet corn EVAH. Squash – summer and pattypan. Fresh basil and dill and oh, just lovely, tasty stuff. But the abundance!? It can overwhelm even the most veg-lovin’ mama. So I’ve been throwing stuff together and seeing what works.

There hasn’t, interestingly, been a ton of lettuce. And maybe I’m a philistine, but when I think “salad,” I most often think “lettuce.” But somehow, I’ve gotta use up this stuff, so I’ve been chopping cucumber and zucchini and tomatoes and red onion and adding black or kidney beans and dressing it up and eating THAT as a lunchtime salad.

Tonight I combined chopped tomatoes, snipped dill, fava beans (conveniently pre-steamed from the fridge section at Whole Foods), feta cheese, a little EVOO and the juice of one lemon . . . a little black pepper and SHAZAM! a Greek-inspired salad that could benefit from cucumber, if your people like cucumber (my kid won’t touch them and my husband hates them). We had this on hot-cooked orzo, but you could throw it on top of baby spinach leaves.

Last Saturday night, D. fired up the grill and I cubed up some of the squash, tossed it with a little EVOO, Kosher salt and pepper and some Italian seasoning blend. Put it on the charcoal grill (we have this mesh basket thingy so that it makes this easy) and in about 10-15 minutes (toss is once in a while) it was delicious. I haven’t used my eggplant from last week yet, but I have a mind to have D. grill that this weekend – tossed with some fresh tomatoes and basil and some EVOO, it could be a great pasta topping.

Let’s not forget basic basil pesto with pine nuts and Parmesan, or the old standby salad with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil. And for the zucchini, I’ve been getting lots of good feedback on those zucchini fries I posted the other day – and if you haven’t tried the muffins, yet, why not make something special for breakfast this weekend?

I have beet greens this week – anyone have ideas for those?

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