Food Fest

I'm not a great cook, but I do love cooking. One of my best new things in spring 2010 was to join a CSA. Since then, I've been loaded down with fresh, locally grown, organic veggies from May to October. Consequently, I've had to turn into a recipe creator and regular cook. Here's this week's cache of veggies, minus the ton of tomatoes and stalks of basil leaves they doled out.



I ate well this week. Too well, I'm afraid! After last Saturday's trip to Findlay Market with my friend, Paul, we got together to grill the fresh lamb and cherry sausages we'd picked up and had it with good corn on the cob and a nice CSA grown salad. I grilled some zucchini I had to get rid of, too. On Monday, I had a totally impromptu diner with my friend, John. We grilled steaks, and I made a yummy salad from CSA tomatoes, basil leaves, chunks of fresh mozzarella, and balsamic vinegar and olive oil. On Tuesday, I made a blueberry-peach crisp. I'd bought a ton of peaches over the weekend--a half peck of them from a great grower in Northern Kentucky. I was going to freeze them, but I'd had some rolled oats hanging out in my pantry for a long time, so a crisp it was. Tasty. Here it is. Wondering who ate this thing? I did...I decided that this low sugar crisp was nothing more than oatmeal, nuts, and fruit, so it became the week's breakfast food. Yep. I'm a pig.



I made a terrific chicken salad last week out of left over chicken, low fat mayo, dried tart cherries, and a little onion and green pepper from the CSA. Last night, I used the rest of the CSA peppers and scallions, along with the rest of the leftover chicken to make Chinese noodles. I'd bought some rice noodles at an Asian market at Findlay last Saturday, and I knew they could sit in the pantry until I threw them out next summer if I didn't use them right away. I made the recipe up, mostly, and my Chinese friends would certainly laugh if they saw the end result, but I thought they were great. Good thing, too. I ended up making about four meal's worth. Last night, I ate them with chop sticks, of course, and I was horrified to see how my skills have diminished. Use it or lose it, right?

I need to find something to do with the eggplant and greens today or tomorrow, and I have a giant load of gorgeous tomatoes that need a great recipe. Actually, my friend Karen gave me one for them: a tomato and cheese tart. If I eat a whole tomato pie myself, though, I'll explode. We'll see. Anyway, I ate well this last week. I also overexercised myself into a big plantar fasciitis relapse to make up for the food intake. As I've said before in this blog, balance isn't my thing.

One last thing: a shout out to my friend, Karen, who needs to post her first food blog entry. She's a cook you want to hear from, so come on, girl. Get writing!

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