WIAW 24 – and First CSA Pickup

Vegetables! We have vegetables! Now that it is June, we had our first CSA pickup. Lettuce, several kinds of greens (inlcuding bok choy and lamb’s quarters,) radishes, and some storage root vegetables – onions, a beet, and carrots. (Because we know I haven’t had enough carrots… LOL – but at least one of these will be grated into salad. MMMmmm…)

Anyhow – yesterday’s food. For breakfast, I had egg muffins made with sausage and spinach, and oatmeal. I’m getting to the end of oatmeal season… I don’t really like the warm cereal when it’s hot (not that heat stops me from having my tea…) so I’ll be making some granola, soon. There should even be fresh fruit to have with granola, soon… I’ve heard rumors of strawberries, but haven’t seen any, yet. (Sorry that picture’s fuzzy. I really do need a tripod when I’m shooting with natural light – my kitchen isn’t bright enough for a quick shutter speed… And I keep being lazy, and thinking I can get away without it.)

We’ve hit salad season for lunch, though. Even before the CSA started, I’ve finally been able to get some salad fixings at Greeenmarket – and it is finally warm enough (though that’s still bouncing around – 80s one day, high 50s the next! It’s not that I want real heat – my body doesn’t do well in it – but please, make up your mind!)

One of the local farmers, at this time of year, sells big bags of many small heads of lettuce. So I have both red and green leaf lettuce, in several varieties, and also bought some arrugula. Radishes, scallions, bean sprouts (I sprouted these) are enough to start a salad – and then I had some cooked chicken breast, from a chicken I roasted on the last cool day, and feta cheese. RIce cakes on the side, with a bean spread.

I was so excited to eat that bok choy, I nearly forgot the picture… so this is a half eaten plate of dinner. I sauteed half an onion, and a few potatoes until they were nice and brown, then added chicken broth to cook them. Chopped and washed bok choy, and added it towards the end – stirred it all until it was done. (I kept wanting to add garlic – I don’t have any garlic. I clearly must remedy that – spring garlic and scapes should be around, soon.) We ate that with more of the chicken breast, and it was delicious.

For the next six months, my menu planning will totally work around my CSA pickup. I love it – we get different vegetables all the time, it’s never boring, and it challenges me, as a cook, to keep on my toes.

(Lamb’s quarters. What will I do with the lamb’s quarters?)And, as always, joining Jenn…