Week 2 (June 11) and Week 3 (June 18)

I am posting these two weeks together, since I am trying to catch up.

The Week 2 share contained: salad, hakurai turnips, sugar snap peas, red russian kale, and tzan garlic. The salad and peas, I once again ate raw. It was such a treat to have the peas for my last few days of work... just what I needed to give me a little burst of fresh energy (I don't know if that is a real scientific thing, but I definitely felt it).

My feature recipe for week two involved the kale. Let me start by saying I have had kale before. My mom makes an amazing zuppa toscana with winter kale in it. However, I have never used it myself, so there was a bit of a learning curve. I put some of it in my smoothies (just rip them up, sans stems, and toss them in the blender). I could taste it a bit more above the fruit than the spinach (it also didn't grind down as small), but it was still a nice addition.

With the rest of the kale, I made kale chips. A former college dorm-mate suggested I do so, and I loved it! Just cut or rip the leaves into pieces (again, leave the stems out), then toss it in olive oil. Lay out in a single layer on a cookie sheet, and bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them, though, they cross over into burnt pretty quickly. When you take them out, sprinkle them with seasoning (I did half with salt and half with Johhny's Seasoning Salt). Don't put this on before baking, since it will dry the chips out too fast. And be careful not to over season them... they are not very substantial, and it is easy to overdo it.

The verdict: These are a tasty treat! They are good for fulfilling a salty tooth (is there such a thing?), without the extra unhealthy bits you get from chips. The husband loved them too, and even took some to work to share! These will be fun to experiment with and try different seasonings. I don't think that it matters what variety you have either, though the red russian kale has a very pretty shape. I was also thinking that it would be good to saute some of the garlic from this box to toss with the olive oil, to give it a little extra kick.

Week 3 contained salad, carrots, radishes, chard, and strawberries. 

I LOVE fresh strawberries! With many of these, I indulged in a weekend treat, strawberry shortcakes (my first weekend of summer I always have ALL this energy, so I put it into baking not only these shortcakes, but also an angel food cake to share with my family). The recipe is nothing special (taken from the Bisquick box), and I used Cool Whip (much to my mom's shame), but it was tasty. The strawberries I just sliced and mixed with a little sugar. And I took pictures, so enjoy!

Next, the chard. I didn't actually cook this, but my mom did, and she threw in some of the chard. I think that chard would be great in any sort of stir-fry situation... it sure was yummy in this (and added a pop of color!).

Note that my sister grew those pea pods... because she is awesome like that! Anyway, if you are interested, you can find it here, on my mom's blog: Soy Sauce Lime Chicken. As far as I know, she just chopped it up and threw it in with the other vegetables. It cooked down pretty far, so put in more than you think would make sense. 

And finally, radishes. This is another root vegetable that I don't remember ever eating before. I didn't have very high hopes, after my struggles with the turnips. HOWEVER, I used a simple recipe suggested in one of my sister's farmer's market cookbooks. Apparently this is the French way to eat radishes. I sliced them thin and put them between pieces of buttered bread, with a little bit of salt. I thought it was really good! The radishes give a little crunch, and had a mild enough flavor that it didn't overpower the rest of the sandwich. If anything, I would put less butter on it. It was a refreshing sandwich to eat yesterday, when it was about 85 degrees inside the house. Unfortunately, no picture for this one... but just picture radish slices with bread and butter. 

That is all, and gets me officially pretty close to caught up! My sister will be guest posting for the next blog entry-- she picked up my Week 4 box, since I was out of town for a work training. She made some tasty stuff, so I can't wait for her to share the recipes!