CSA Week 5

I should have posted this earlier in the week; I might leave out something.

Our haul this week:

• Two heads of lettuce
• Two garlic stalks (the whole thing--bulb, stalk, scape, and bud)
• One pound of broccoli
• Three pounds of summer squash
• One bunch of kale
• One head of cabbage (I picked red)
• One bunch of parsley
  

For the meat share, we got:

• One pound of ground beef
• One pound of sirloin

Jessica asked last week how we use the vegetables. We have lots of salads. This week, I made coleslaw (LW calls it "coldslop") to use up the cabbage. With broccoli, I can make cream of broccoli soup, or steam it, or chop it into a salad, or just serve it plain for a snack.

Summer squash are a problem. We allow each of the older kids to pick three foods they don't have to eat. Summer squash made all three lists. Michael and I eat it sauteed with parsley or cooked with tomatoes and herbs. Sometimes I can get the kids to eat a bit if I chop it raw into a salad. NB is not fooled by this, however, and carefully picks out each piece. Anyone have clever recipes that disguise summer squash? Can you substitute yellow squash for zucchini in zucchini bread?

Another problem food is kale. I'll be honest--we've never actually eaten the kale. All last year, each time we got kale, we brought it home, put it away, stared at it guiltily every time we opened the vegetable drawer, and finally composted it when it became too wilted. This year, I vowed to eat the kale, but we've composted two week's worth already.

But this week we were victorious. We ate some of the kale. I made Toscano Soup, with sausage, potatoes, a bit of cream, and kale. The good news is, everyone in the family ate it. (Well, except LW, but he never eats anything we serve for dinner.) In fact, I should have doubled the recipe. And Michael decided I could easily double the kale within the recipe. With those changes, I should be able to use up a full week's worth of kale with that one recipe! Can you feel the excitement?

Of course, I still have three-fourths of a bunch of kale left for this week. I found a recipe for roasted kale. Dare I try it?