Week 2: Renewed Love for Turnips

Another week down... Each week just keeps flying by. Again I was hoping to post sooner than Wednesday night but didn't have much material until tonight. This week was a little boring. I did some repeat recipes from last week and gave a few items away because we were out-of-town this weekend. The highlight of the week though was tonight...baby turnips! The item that opened my eyes to the CSA and made me realize I need to give each and every vegetable a chance. Even if I have tried it before.

Baby Turnips:
The biggest challenge with the turnips was finding the same recipe that I used last year. I remembered it was simple and involved lemon but that was about it. After a lot of googling and putting in random words, I finally found it on a blog. Super simple but absolutely wonderful and so worth the effort. They were just as delicious as I remembered. Somewhat like a little potato but BETTER! Juicier and more delicate. They almost burst in your mouth. I hope I inspire someone to go out this week and try baby turnips. Obviously, there are many ways to eat them, even raw. But I like them braised. Trim off the tops but leave a little stem. This part is edible and delicious because it soaks up the lemon. Put the tunips in a baking dish with olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper and herbs. I used thyme, rosemary and oregano. Cover the dish and put in the oven for 40 min or until soft. I'm drooling just writing this. We are supposed to get more turnips this week and I'm planning on just making this recipe again. It's so good I don't even want to try another.

http://www.sassyradish.com/2008/06/braised-baby-turnips/

Strawberries:
We just ate them raw, but this time I was better at sharing. I brought some of them to Minnesota with me over the weekend when I was visiting my family. They all loved the taste but we realized they were smaller than the Costco blueberries that we're also on the table.

Lettuce:
Basically, I have been trying to eat a salad everyday for lunch. Nothing too inspiring. Just your basic veggies with ranch. Or today I spiced it up by making a taco salad which just means use salsa and sour cream instead of dressing and tortilla chips instead of crutons. I have had 3 salads out of the bag already and probably have about 2 more left. When lettuce starts coming weekly, we have to eat salads all the time.

Scapes:
Well, again I struggled with eating the scapes. I brought some to MN and made the same dip as last week for my family. I really like how the dip has a spiciness to it but it's all from the garlic. I also used the scapes as a pizza topping. It was good but not my favorite. I think I need to cut the pieces smaller next time.  Finally, today I took two scapes and diced them as small as I could and mixed them with some mayo for a spread. I used the spread on a BLT. It was actually quite good. Even with all of this, I am still not through this week's batch and we are getting more tomorrow. I may need to make pesto and just add to my supply in the freezer.

Beets:
I'm going to have to write about these next week. I gave some of them away to my best friend who absolutely loves beets. The few I have left I am planning on roasting. I had no idea how long they took until I started looking up recipes. 1-2 hours!! Well, I am hoping to cook them up tomorrow. I really hope I like them more this time.

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/roasted_beets_with_balsamic_glaze/

Zucchini:
Actually, I haven't eaten this yet. I am sure it will get roasted, pan fried, grilled or steamed tomorrow.

Since, I am late in this post again, I know what we are getting this week! Swiss chard (which is a tough one for me), fennel, more garlic scapes, grape leaves, kale (another tough one), turnips!, and zucchini. -- this is going to be a challenging week for me.  I will post a picture of it tomorrow.

I will leave you with one last image. Over the weekend, my mom and I attempted to make my grandmother's doughnuts. They were wonderful! Light, fluffy with a finger-lickin glaze. And basically the opposite of the CSA.