Pickup 12

We have been doing surprisingly really well with eating all of our fruits and veggies up!  We only have 2 summer squash from last week and some herbs left.  And somehow we, well Nick and Logan ate 33 plums (I don't really like them). Logan also enjoys peaches and he often "helps himself" to a peach at the share pickup site.  We just weigh the peaches and then take one out in exchange for the one Logan takes.

Yesterday we picked up:

1 head lettuce
1.25 pounds tomatoes
1 bunch large purple scallions!
1 bunch carrots
1 very large bunch of basil!
1 bunch swiss chard
2 large zucchini/squash
5 pounds peaches/nectarines
2 pounds plums

Looks like salad, chard pasta (a new favorite), margarita pizza, tomato-basil pesto, maybe some basil salad dressing and zucchini on the grill!

Short and sweet post today, but I do have a really good scallion dressing recipe to share with you in another post!

Zucchini and Cabbage Soup (yum!)

Okay, this is one of my best recipes, and I'm giving it out!  Alright, it's actually not mine, but I found it and use it a lot during the fall and winter.  The actual recipe is called "Minestrone Soup like Carrabba's".  So  it's actually a white minestone soup.  Wow, I'm using the words actually and actual a lot, aren't I? Anyway, it's good.  So good, that my grandma always asks for us to "save" her some.  And my grandma is a picky eater (sorry Grandma!).  It calls for a variety of veggies, but I always make it with different ones based on what I have etc.  Although I always put green cabbage in it.  Last week we got some green cabbage with our share and had a ton of zucchini to use, so zucchini and cabbage soup is was... Plus the weather has been on the cooler side.  Some times I add the beans, this time I did not.  I also never use the prosciutto ham, but you could if you wanted.  But the secret is in the romano cheese rind.  You have to use this for flavor.  I made it once without it, and it wasn't as good.  You can get it in the specialty cheese section.  It's not really expensive; the rinds put me back 90 cents.  And for some reason we only find it at Wegmans.  It also calls for a bay leaf.  So after the soup is done simmering, you have to fish out the cheese rinds and bay leaf before serving.  I also like to add a splash of cream, just because.  But just a splash.  Enjoy!

White Minestrone Soup

Parsley Pesto

Another one for the freezer...these days I'm just cooking to keep up with the vegetables.  It will be nice later on when I just take something out of the freezer and walah!  I think Zucchini and Cabbage Soup is up on deck!

This recipe is actually Parley-Walnut Pesto, but I used almonds:

Parsley Pesto

Garlic Parsley Butter

I just made this and froze it for later to use as a vegetable butter... I did a double batch and only made a small dent in the parsley I had!

Garlic-Parsley Butter

Pick up 11

Yesterday was pickup number 11 of the season!  We are halfway through the summer share already!  I really have to get cooking. We haven't had a lot of time to just cook lately due to a variety of reasons.   I have a ton a zucchini to eat from both the share and our garden.  It's time to start making big batches of stuff to freeze for the winter.  I'll get to that a little later... Anyway here is what we got...

1 head red leaf lettuce
2 heads cabbage
1 sweet red pepper
hot red peppers
1 bunch carrots
1.5 pounds potatoes (weird for summer, but we'll take them!)
4 tomatoes (yay for tomatoes!)
2 large zucchini/squash
2.5 pounds peaches
5 pounds assorted plums (this equals 33 plums!)


As I mentioned we also have a ton more zucchini, some corn, herbs, scallions and some endive.  I plan on making salsa, zucchini and cabbage soup, zucchini with tomatoes and peppers in big batches.  Plus just eating the other stuff for dinners..I feel like I'm being attacked with zucchini! Oh well, let's get cooking!

Pickup 10!

Here we are ten weeks into our summer share! I can't believe it!   Next week will be at the halfway point for the summer-then on the to winter share!  But let's not think about that yet....

This week we picked up...

3/4 pound purple, yes purple green beans!!!
1 head endive
1 bunch cilantro (told ya I liked cilantro!)
6 ears corn
4 summer squash/zucchini
1 bunch carrots
1 bunch scallions
5 pounds peaches -yay for doughnut peaches, my favorite!
2 pounds nectarines

Ideas:  salads, peach salsa, scallion dressing and maybe stuffed zucchini?

Creamy Swiss Chard Pasta

I've been looking for a good recipe for swiss chard.  This was excellent.  It calls for sour cream or greek yogurt and some milk instead of cream, so it's a little on the lower fat side.  I used sour cream. It's very creamy and actually heats up really well.  I used up two bunches of swiss chard I had in my fridge so it also served that purpose!

Swiss Chard Pasta

Vegetable Frittata

This was pretty good...I used cheddar instead of asiago since that's what I had.


Frittata

Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos-Crock Pot Style!

This was very good.  And it was so easy!  Add ingredients to the crock pot, let the crock pot do its job, enjoy the aroma in your house, shred chicken and enjoy! The chicken was so tender that shredding was barely any work.  I used my homemade salsa recipe too.

Cilantro Lime Chicken

Homemade Salsa

Share Pickup 8 & 9

I know, I've been slacking!  Here's a recap of the last couple weeks:

Pickup 8:
1 pound green beans!
2 heads lettuce
1 bunch scallions
1 bunch cilantro (I love cilantro!!!)
2 large zucchini/squash
1 bunch carrots
3 pounds apricots/plums
4 pounds peaches!


Pickup 9:
1 pound green beans
1 bunch chard
1 bunch sage
6 ears sweet corn
4 large zucchini/summer squash
1 bunch escarole
1 bunch carrots
4 pounds peaches
3 pounds nectarines

I have a few good recipes to share from these last couple of weeks..I'll share those a little later!  We were doing pretty well keeping up with everything, but then we harvested a whole bunch of basil, lettuce and zucchini from our own garden...plus my mom bought us 12 ears of corn which overwhelmed us a little.  Nick's been eating the greens beans and carrots raw at work.  As of right now, we have some herbs in our fridge and well as scallions, zucchini, corn, lettuce/escarole and some peaches and nectarines...And we are picking up our share TOMORROW! If it weren't for having our own garden, we would only have herbs, scallions, escarole and some fruit left. Oh well, let's enjoy the fruits of summer while it's here! I might make some peach salsa since we can't keep up with the peaches/nectarines. Other ideas include garlic parsley butter (I still have parsley to use from a few weeks ago), pork chops with sage/butter sauce, stuffed zucchini and breaded zucchini.