Week 8: Cooking Extravaganza and an Olympic Obsession

Along with the rest of the world this week, I am Olympic-obsessed.  I love seeing people's hardwork and dreams come true.  How can't you not be moved by seeing the Women's (more like girls) gymnastic team win gold?!  They have been working at this since they were 3!  Or seeing Phelps become the most medaled Olympian ever...so amazing!  But what I enjoy the most are the unusual the sports.  The ones they didn't use to show on TV when I was little, so I wasn't aware that if I would have tried them, I may have been an Olympian.  Like white water kayaking through gates, synchronized diving and hot air ballooning. OK...Hot air ballooning was only in the Olympics one year and it was a long time ago.  But you get the gist.  I guess the equivalent of the Olympics for cooking is shows like Top Chef and Hell's Kitchen-- but it doesn't seem the same.  Maybe its because they are so commercial or maybe it because everyone on those shows is already fairly successful.  Anyway, I am having my own cooking Olympics this week and, looking at this week's share, it will continue into next week.  Last weekend, we decided to take a mini-vacation and go up-north to my in-laws place.  I saw this as an opportunity to cook up some of our veggies and use a nice, new, big kitchen!

ZUCCHINI:
We had 12 zucchini last week.  I knew I needed to make something BIG to get through them.  Luckily, I had volunteered to make dinner Saturday night for 5 people and (as I said last week) that is the best way to get through food.  I found a squash casserole-type dish to try and planned the rest of the meal around it.  It turned out quite delicious but I kept thinking to myself "hmm...why doesn't it look like the picture on the blog?".  I ignored my thoughts since everyone commented on how good it was. -- Until I woke up in the middle of the night..."I forgot the SOUR CREAM!"  Well, I still think it was good, but it would have been better if I would have followed the recipe.

http://www.mykitchenescapades.com/2012/07/feta-parmesan-zucchini-bake.html?m=1

Zucchini Feta Bake -- without the sour cream

CUCUMBERS:

Its hard for me not to make my favorites but I decided it was time to make some refrigerator pickles.  Sadly, I can't find the recipe I used but I can give you an idea.

First, cut the cucumbers and mix with some coarse salt.  Let sit in the fridge for 1 hour, rinse and drain.  This helps get out some of the excess liquid in the cucumbers  In a 2 qt container mix 1 cup vinegar and 1 cup water with a couple Tbsp sugar, some pickling spices, sliced garlic and dill.  I also added some onion and turmeric.  Add cucumbers and let sit in the fridge for a few hours or up to a week.  These were good but mine were a little too vinegar-y after 2 days.  I think I will try a new recipe next time.  Maybe some Bread and Butter Sweet Pickles.  Num!

Fridge pickles

EGGPLANT:

I am not really a fan of eggplant.  It has always been a little too mushy for me.  And then I realized that I formed this opinion when I was 13.  That was a long time ago.  So I decided for the reintroduction of eggplant into my live I was going to fry it.  I found an easy recipe for eggplant fries and bought all of the ingredients.  The nice thing about this recipe is you can either bake or fry them in oil.  I decided to go all out and fry them. Why not?  Can't hurt, right?  These actually turned out quite well.  I would recommend serving them shortly after cooking because they can get a little soggy.  I didn't really mind the mushiness though because of the contrast of the breading.

http://acozykitchen.com/cornmeal-crusted-eggplant/

Frying some eggplant

Final product

SWISS CHARD:

I wanted to try a new saute recipe for the swiss chard this week.  After a little bit of searching online I found one that seemed simple and had great reviews.  Lemon, parmesan and wine.  How could it not be good?  Well honestly, I hated it.  I had to throw out my leftovers.  I'm not sure if it was because I put in too much lemon or if I wasn't in the mood to eat something I'm not quite sure about but this wasn't for me. Now, I am not saying that the 300+ people that gave it a good rating are crazy.  I am just discovering that I need to walk a cautious line with swiss chard.  Stick with the recipes I like for a while before I really step out.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sauteed-swiss-chard-with-parmesan-cheese/

Swiss Chard stems sauteeing in wine


FENNEL:
Another vegetable that I am not too fond of yet.  Last time I hid it in a pasta dish.  This time I featured it a little bit more in a tomato soup.  I liked this soup because I had almost all of the ingredients on hand.  Fennel, onion, garlic, thyme.  The only thing I had to buy was canned whole tomatoes.  This was fairly easy and I loved the color.  A bright red-orange!  The first night I had it I liked it but it was too salty, as is with most things with canned tomatoes.  Since then I have been adding a pinch of sugar and a dollop of ricotta to my bowls.  MUCH better!

http://simmerboston.com/tomatofennelsoup.html

Tomato Fennel Soup, Cheddar and Green Apple Grilled Cheese and Swiss Chard



And this week's box!  Lots of great food again.  You would never think we have been going through a drought.  Our farm is amazing!

Corn, Red Onion, Squash, Basil, Cherry Tomatoes, Big Tomatoes, Red Peppers, Garlic and Purple Beans.  Looks fantastic but I have a lot of work ahead of my this week.  Looks like some salsa for the freezer!

Week 9!

And I will leave you with some pictures of a dessert I made on Saturday.  Grilled peaches (covered with cinnamon and brown sugar) with vanilla ice cream and pound cake.  Delicious!

Dessert!



Peaches off the grill

I hope everyone is getting out to their local Farmer's Markets this weekend.  Almost everything is in season right now.  So fresh!  And I hear that the second round of raspberries may be starting. YAY!