Welcome back readers!  Sadly, tomato season has passed us by but hopefully you’re excited for all the great produce in today’s share.

A few weeks back, Shana shared a recipe for a ratatouille.  Bob was inspired and used a recipe he had just seen on an episode of America’s Test Kitchen for their Walkaway Ratatouille:

I was given a Le Creuset as a gift a few months ago and have been trying to find every excuse to use it.  I found this recipe as the perfect way to keep using it during the Summer.  The portions received in today’s CSA pickup are perfect – two eggplants, two squash, a few peppers and plenty of onion.  If you have a big enough pot, don’t by shy and make a double or 1.5 batch – the pot will be super full when you put it in the oven but it’ll cook down.  I have served it a number of ways from fresh, leftover and even frozen: mixed with leftover rice, served over pasta as a chunky sauce or served plain with bread and an over-easy egg.  No matter how you serve it, it’s great.  I have made it with both fresh tomatoes and canned and honestly I would rather use the canned and save any good late tomatoes for another use.  The original recipe is behind the America’s Test Kitchen paywall but a free version is available here.

Do you have hot pepper plants in your backyard or on your porch?  Or maybe you load up on the hot peppers from the extras box and aren’t sure what to do with them all?  Bob has been finding himself in the same spot throughout the Summer:

The answer to my pepper overabundance is obviously hot sauce!  I have so many random bottles in the fridge and thought why not just make my own?  Here’s a simple and ingredient-light recipe from The Pioneer Woman.

Shana’s daughter had a special request this week:

My daughter requested that we get the purple cabbage this week so I had to oblige!  So I tossed it with the arugula, red peppers and salad turnips and made a quick salad as a side to my BLT.  Bacon courtesy of Wrong Direction, lettuce from this weeks romaine share and tomatoes form my garden. It was delicious and easy!

Below are a few awesome recipes from one of my favorite food blogs that incorporate many of the CSA ingredients (jalapeños, cabbage, red peppers, onions, cilantro). Enjoy!

• Coconut Slaw
• Quick Quesadillas
• Mexican Green Salad

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 back readers!  Sorry Serving Suggestions had a brief hiatus this Summer but we are back with some great recipes for you today.

Shana has been pairing her Wrong Direction Farm orders with her CSA veggies:

I’ve been having a lot of fun cooking ground pork (or sausage) from Wrong Direction Farm with onions, cabbage and peppers from our share for a comforting meal that makes great leftovers. The cabbage cooks down a lot, is low- calorie and adds a nice crunch to the meal to oppose the soft ground pork. I even toss in tomatoes sometimes for more acid.

For hotter days (not to be found this summer!) I love a crunchy cabbage salad, but sometimes feel unsatisfied with a typical vinegar dressing. This recipe uses a yummy Thai peanut dressing that nicely compliments the cabbage!

Need a new salad recipe?  Try this one for a Mexican Green Salad with Jalapeno Cilantro Dressing.

Speaking of jalapenos, Bob has been making use of some from the CSA “extras” box as well as a prolific pepper plant on his front porch.  The number of peppers was a bit overwhelming so he decided to try something new:

I have purchased jars of pepper jelly in the past and found it to be a versatile condiment.  It’s good with some cream cheese and crackers as an easy appetizer (and was a hit at a recent family party).  Or for an easy one pot meal, brown some boneless cubed chicken breast, add in some sliced bell pepper near the end, add in a hefty tablespoon of pepper jelly and a heavy squeeze of dijon, stir to combine and let heat through, serve over leftover rice or with a salad.  The recipes I found for pepper jelly varied widely but this one seemed to be the easiest.

Since it’s a cool and rainy Summer night, you might also want to try a soup, here’s a suggestion from Bob:

Whenever I get leeks in my CSA share, I like to cut, clean and freeze them right away.  I slice them in half, keeping the root end on so it’s easier to handle, and cut them into inch wide semi-circles.  Then, I rinse and soak them repeatedly, at least three different changes of the soaking water, and then dry in my salad spinner.  I bag the cut leeks and put in the freezer so I have a quick base for my favorite Potato and Leek Soup. Bonus points if you use CSA potatoes too!

If you’re looking for an interesting way to use your corn, Shana has two ideas:

I’ve been making salad with raw corn since I first started doing CSA’s many years ago. Fresh, organic corn is sweet and has a delicate texture and adds something special to salads. I tossed it this week with kale, tomatoes, peppers and carrots.

I also did a “grill pie” with the corn which came out beautifully. I love using a bechamel garlic sauce on a pizza- it’s different and lighter in flavor so the csa veggies get to shine. Grilled dough has a certain crispness that I don’t find with oven cooked pizza. This weeks’ pie included grilled eggplant, peppers, corn, Wrong Direction’s fuet, and mushrooms- it was yummy!

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.

Another great mid-Summer share this week with tomatoes and peppers taking center stage.  Shana decided to use some of her peppers on a grilled pizza:

If you haven’t tried it yet, grilling a pizza is the closest I think to real brick oven taste and texture and it takes literally a few minutes to cook (so be careful and on top of it when grilling!!). I used our peppers, onions, garlic and herbs for this pie, but eggplant on pizza is also absolutely delicious (I know it sounds weird but trust me- cook it first- grilled or roasted). Enjoy!

Bob was going away on vacation shortly after the CSA pickup so he decided to do some Tuesday prep work that would pay off after vacation when nobody wants to go grocery shopping:

The tomatoes and lettuce were easy to use up before vacation but I knew the peppers, zucchini and beans would be tough.  Luckily the potatoes, garlic, beets and cabbage would keep just fine until we were home.  I chopped the peppers and zucchini into bite-size pieces and froze them; same with the beans, I snipped off the ends and cut in half.  I plan on using the frozen veggies, some broth from the pantry, tomato paste and leftover pasta to make a quick soup the night after we come home from vacation.  There’s nothing worse than that first day back home when nothing is in the fridge and you don’t want to go grocery shopping – hopefully this solves that problem!

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.