Welcome to the newest installment of Serving Suggestions.  This week we have suggestions from Shana:

It is already week 8 of the CSA! I hope you are enjoying the shares so far. This week was by far my favorite in size, variety and quantity – just perfect! Some recipe ideas below:

Zucchini Brownies (VEGAN!)
These brownies are courtesy of Zest, a great Vegan restaurant in Fairfield. I am not a vegan but these are tasty and delicious and contain some more nutritious ingredients in addition to the sugar!

Tabbouleh/Bulgur Wheat Salad
Theresa often uses the plethora of parsley we get for tabbouleh salads.  This week was perfect for that with the cucumbers and tomatoes that we got. You could also add in some other veggies and make a fun, creative salad with the bulgur wheat!

Ratatouille
We got everything we needed for a delicious Ratatouille and I couldn’t resist making it (I think I post this every year). I use Julia Child’s recipe, but if you don’t want to be cooking for over an hour, there are tons of other simpler recipes that are also great! This one from the Kitchn looked great too.

That’s all for this week, check back again soon for more Serving Suggestions!

Serving Suggestions is a recurring article that will be posted weekly during the CSA season featuring photos, tips and recipes. Content is provided by Jessica, Shana and Bob. If you would like to submit your own photos or recipes, please email Bob at robertfcowper@gmail.com. To read through previous Serving Suggestions articles, click here for an archive. You can also use the handy search feature at the top of the right hand menu bar to search for the name of a particular ingredient you need help using.

Welcome to the newest installment of Serving Suggestions.  This week we have a suggestion from Bob about his go-to recipe when we get a CSA share like we did yesterday:

Yesterday was possibly my favorite CSA share ever.  I typically do a half share so there are weeks when I miss some of my favorites but this week was perfect.  Peppers, onions, eggplant, squash, herbs, oh my.  I had a flashback to last year when the CSA gave me all of the ingredients for one of my favorite recipes: America’s Test Kitchen’s Walkaway Ratatouille.  I knew I had to make it last night even though it feels more like a hearty Fall dish.  Luckily, I had no other plans for dinner so it was fun to meal plan on the fly.  Since we didn’t have any tomatoes yet, I stopped at the Caldwell Marketplace on the way home for some canned tomatoes, garlic and a loaf of french bread.  I still had some Wrong Direction farm salted butter in the fridge which was perfect on top of the crusty bread.  I went from a potential takeout dinner to a wonderfully local homemade dinner.  (To view my post from 2017 with a link to the recipe, click here.)

Bob has another suggestion for the beautiful carrots we received last night:

Fans of the aforementioned America’s Test Kitchen might also know about Milk Street, the next project from Christopher Kimball.  Coincidentally, yesterday’s free recipe from Milk Street was for a French Carrot Salad which would be a great way to enjoy these fresh carrots without cooking all the flavor out of them.  The recipe is only free for a limited time but essentially it’s a shredded carrot salad dressed with white balsamic, tarragon, parsley, shallot, cayenne and olive oil.  It’s simple enough to make as a weeknight side dish and since it’s not mayo-based it would hold fine for outdoor Summer dining as well.

That’s all for this week, check back again soon for more Serving Suggestions!

Serving Suggestions is a recurring article that will be posted weekly during the CSA season featuring photos, tips and recipes. Content is provided by Jessica, Shana and Bob. If you would like to submit your own photos or recipes, please email Bob at robertfcowper@gmail.com. To read through previous Serving Suggestions articles, click here for an archive. You can also use the handy search feature at the top of the right hand menu bar to search for the name of a particular ingredient you need help using.

Welcome to the newest installment of Serving Suggestions.  This week we have suggestions from Shana and Alyssa.  First up, a note from Shana and her new grilled cabbage recipes:

Hope you are enjoying Week 6 of the CSA – time is flying! Maggie Konner mentioned grilling cabbage with butter at pick up yesterday and I found these delicious looking recipes! Good use for the Napa cabbage (if its still in the back of your fridge like mine is) or the new green one we just got.  Grilled Cabbage from Taste of Home  Grilled Cabbage with Spicy Lime Dressing from Kitchn

CSA member Alyssa Casazza chimed in this week with a suggestion for swiss chard which can sometimes be hard to use up:

This is our go-to recipe for Swiss chard. We use the Field Roast apple sage veggie sausage and it’s amazing.  Gemelli, Swiss Chard and Sausage from Martha Stewart

That’s all for this week, check back again soon for more Serving Suggestions!

Serving Suggestions is a recurring article that will be posted weekly during the CSA season featuring photos, tips and recipes. Content is provided by Jessica, Shana and Bob. If you would like to submit your own photos or recipes, please email Bob at robertfcowper@gmail.com. To read through previous Serving Suggestions articles, click here for an archive. You can also use the handy search feature at the top of the right hand menu bar to search for the name of a particular ingredient you need help using.

Welcome to the newest installment of Serving Suggestions.  This week Bob explains how he used this week’s lettuce and basil to make a flavorful summer salad:

Basil is such a familiar ingredient but rather than making another batch of pesto, I simply wanted to add it to my lettuce to make a flavorful salad.  After washing my greens, I thinly sliced the basil and added it to my chopped romaine.  Then, I considered my toppings.  I didn’t have any traditional salad toppings (i.e. tomato, cucumber, onion, etc) but an untouched package of strawberries was staring at me when I opened the fridge.  I immediately thought a strawberry basil salad would be great on such a hot summer evening.  Luckily I also had some feta and walnuts which I crumbled on top to add some salt and crunch, respectively.  I sliced the strawberries super thin and tossed everything with a simple balsamic vinaigrette (balsamic vinegar, olive oil, dijon, salt, pepper).  It was great and by far the best part of Tuesday’s dinner!

That’s all for this week, check back again soon for more Serving Suggestions!

Serving Suggestions is a recurring article that will be posted weekly during the CSA season featuring photos, tips and recipes. Content is provided by Jessica, Shana and Bob. If you would like to submit your own photos or recipes, please email Bob at robertfcowper@gmail.com. To read through previous Serving Suggestions articles, click here for an archive. You can also use the handy search feature at the top of the right hand menu bar to search for the name of a particular ingredient you need help using.

Image courtesy of Cedar Circle Farm

Welcome to the newest installment of Serving Suggestions.  This week we’ll be tackling… garlic scapes.  Garlic scapes may be a difficult ingredient for CSA members to use since it’s not something you regularly see at the supermarket.  Bob found himself wondering what exactly a garlic scape is so he did some quick research and found this helpful description from Cedar Circle Farm:

Garlic scapes are the flower bud of the garlic plant. The bud is removed in late June to encourage the bulbs to thicken up.

Scape newbies may also be unsure how to store them.  Cedar Circle offers these tips to get the longest life out of your garlic scapes:

Garlic scapes keep well in a plastic bag in the fridge for two to three weeks. They will keep for a few days (and will look beautiful) in a glass with a little cool water in it, on the counter in a cool room. Change water daily.

Once you’re ready to cook with them, Shana suggests trying a pesto:

I love garlic scapes and thought they’d make a great pesto with all the greens we’ve been getting.  Lo and behold, if you google it, there are several recipes already out there for it!  I am substituting the basil with the spinach and arugula since we have so much. Pesto also freezes really well.  Here are a few I found from NY Times Cooking and Epicurious.  Happy cooking!

That’s all for this week, check back again soon for more Serving Suggestions!

Serving Suggestions is a recurring article that will be posted weekly during the CSA season featuring photos, tips and recipes. Content is provided by Jessica, Shana and Bob. If you would like to submit your own photos or recipes, please email Bob at robertfcowper@gmail.com. To read through previous Serving Suggestions articles, click here for an archive. You can also use the handy search feature at the top of the right hand menu bar to search for the name of a particular ingredient you need help using.