Last weekend I attended my absolute favorite event in Madison, The Great Taste of the Midwest. Tickets are kind of hard to come by since you have to buy them in May by either a lottery or standing in line. In past years we got the tickets through the lottery but this was not our lucky year. But, as always, a week before the event plenty of tickets go on sale on Craigslist and we snatched some up. For those of you who have no idea what Great Taste is, its a huge beer festival with around 100 breweries and over 500 beers. Its actually fairly overwhelming, especially your first time. This is my 4th year going so we have started to get a routine down. Eat a nice sized lunch while waiting in line to get in...Once in, go directly to the middle or far tents...then start consuming. And always remember it is a marathon not a sprint. I realized this year that we have started to pick our favorites and stick to those. Though I love IPAs and stouts, by the end of the day they start to all taste the same. This year though we tried some beers that were really out there. For instance, one brewery had a Peanut Butter Stout. Yea, I know that sounds horrific but we all still tried it because its only a taste. It was actually quite good! It didn't really taste like PB but more smelled like it. Definitely a novelty beer but still fun...maybe paired with a chocolate dessert. Another hit amongst our group was a Jalapeno beer. The style was basically a typical Mexican lager but it had a kick. Something a little different and I would probably buy it. Finally, one I was really stunned by was a beer infused with tea that was made by Milwaukee Brewing Co. They actually have a couple beers that were made with tea but the one I liked the best was called Weekend at Louie's. It was an amber base with a hint of hibiscus. So unusual but very good. When I lived in Milwaukee, the brewery was just a brew pub in the 3rd Ward. Now they have started to bottle and distribute. It will be interesting to see what kind of crazy beer they come up with next. It also looks like I have a new brewery tour to go on the next time I'm in MKE. Yay!
After Great Taste I started thinking about how the same idea would translate to food. I guess we already kind of have it with food festivals and farmers markets. But wouldn't it be interesting if you gave a bunch of chefs the same veggies/ingredient and then tasted all of their different creations. Its kind of like the show Chopped on the Food Network or even Iron Chef but not some sort of elimination. More the idea of trying new ways of putting things together and getting inspired! I definitely needed some inspiration this week with the CSA. Everything I made only used 1 or 2 items so I didn't get through last week's share...and then we got this weeks. Another huge week to add on the the stuff I already have. Hence the title for this week....there will definitely be a few veggie avalanches when I open the fridge this weekend. They are just jumping at me to be used! Luckily I have all weekend to figure it out.
ZUCCHINI:
Still eating zucchini! Luckily its slowing down but now with two week's worth it is starting to pile up. This week I did make an amazing dinner with one of them. It was a no bake lasagna with sauteed garlic, zucchini and cherry tomatoes. Super fast and actually tastier than I thought it would be. I will definitely make this again. Maybe even this weekend. I ended up licking the plate!
http://www.marthastewart.com/334102/no-bake-summer-lasagna?center=276955&gallery=274270&slide=332288
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| No Bake Lasagna -- I am not great with presentation but this was super tasty |
EGGPLANT:
I decided I had to try to use the eggplant this week otherwise it would probably get pushed to the back of the fridge until it went bad and was thrown away. I looked through tons of recipes but decided I should maybe just go traditional, Eggplant Parmesan. I used a recipe that you bake the breaded eggplant on a pan coated with oil. This method worked great. I did throw them under the broiler for a couple minutes just to get a little brown since I have a gas stove. I also added garlic powder, oregano and red pepper flakes to the breading mix just to spice it up. I have to admit though, I didn't love this. I think it was just too much eggplant for me. If I only ate one slice on the side with other stuff, I think it would have been fine. But after I had one, I was done with it. I guess eggplant is still not my one of my favorites...
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| Right after taking them out of the oven. I liked this baking method better than frying. Also look how huge these slices are! |
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| Layered with cheese and pasta sauce. I also threw in some slices of tomatoes. |
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| My dinner!
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TOMATOES:
MMmmm....delicious delicious tomatoes. God these are so good but it so hard to get through them. I ended up making another batch of salsa this week with LOTS of our hot peppers. I was hoping to make a salsa hot enough for B. I put in around 12 peppers both jalapeno and our mysterious hot peppers but it still came out fairly mild. Well more like medium. I love it and actually B does too but still wasn't that hot. I used the same recipe as last week. Other than the salsa, I have just been slicing the tomatoes and eating with salt and pepper or using them as taco toppings. Oh, and last night I had a BLT. Num!! Nothing makes a BLT better than a perfect heirloom tomato. Well, I guess avocado helps too.
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| Beautiful sliced tomatoes. This is one of those really dark purple ones. They are unbelievably sweet. |
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| My BLT!
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CUCUMBER:
I made the Cucumber Salsa from a few weeks ago again this week. Last time I brought it to work and it was gobbled up so fast I only had 2 bites. I decided to make it again so I could really enjoy it. Very refreshing!
PEPPERS:
Since I made salsa again, the red peppers once again went into the salsa. Nothing too exciting there. As for the yellow bell pepper...first of all, it was delicious! We had friends over on Sunday for barbacoa tacos and we used the pepper for a topping. I hope we get some more of these in the upcoming weeks.
LETTUCE:
In the newsletter from the farm, they said that the lettuce may be a little bitter and it would be best to use in sandwiches. Sadly, I only had one sandwich this week; the BLT. So, we will have to finish up the rest of the head this week (along with another one we got yesterday).
CORN:
This week we boiled the corn and again ate it off the cob. It was a great side dish for our tacos on Sunday. We still had 3 ears left after the meal. I cut the kernels off and I am thinking of making a corn chowder this week.
WEEK 11: Like I said, another big week on top of the green beans, zucchini, tomatoes, lettuce, etc that we didn't finish last week. I think I will have to make some big meals this weekend and start freezing some items. If anyone has some good ideas for green beans, please send them my way! We got a HUGE bag of them this week. I have a lot of work on my hands this weekend. We have to finish this all up by Tuesday because both B and I are going on trips next weekend. For next week's blog I will probably end up writing about my trip to San Francisco and the food I ate. I will try to have whoever takes our CSA next week keep track of their recipes so we can see what someone else might do. And maybe we can see what B eats on his vacation in Vegas this weekend! I have a feeling it will be a lot of the Flamingo Champagne Brunch Buffet.
Corn, Onions, Butter Lettuce, Cherry Tomatoes, Broccoli, Green Beans, Zucchini, Cucumber, Garlic, Red Fryer Peppers, Red Bell Pepper, and lots of tomatoes!!
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| Week 11 -- LOTS of food! |
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