CSA Week 9

Here's Week Nine!

We've had some cold weather over the last two weeks, and it's hit South Florida farms hard. Our house is by the coast, so the temps don't get as cold as they do inland. Even still, some cucumber seedlings I had going didn't make it. So like last week, this one was a little sparse. Still, gives time to catch up and finish off any leftovers.

• Corn - Two ears

Probably will go on the grill sometime later this week. Maybe a sortof mixed grilled veggies with four large sardines we have in the freezer.

• Bok Choi - Two
  

Small guys, and a bit hard traveled. Still, will likely be grilled or quick stirfry as a side this week.

• Green beans

These will be a side tonight. I'll make up some compound butter in a serving bowl with some of the parsley, some lemon juice and zest, some shallots, salt, pepper. Boil the beans, then drain and into the bowl. The leftover heat will melt the butter and dress the beans!

• Parsley

Will go into various things, such as the compound butter. We're making Red Beans and Rice sometime this week, so some will go in there. The rest will go into salads using the rest of last week's lettuce.

• Cilantro

Some will go on the grilled veggies. Some will go in salads.

• Black Sapotes

When these are ready in a week or so, they'll probably go into muffins again. See below. They're awesome!

• Monster Red Bell Pepper

Is huge. Will form part of the trinity for the Red Beans and Rice. The other half will probably go on the grill.

• Green Tomato

We got a tomato that is completely and totally green. Probably will be sliced and pan fried to go with the Red Beans and Rice.

• Strawberries

Weren't fuzzy yet! Hooray! And I won't make the same mistake as last week... So they are becoming tonight's dessert: Strawberry Short Cakes. Right now they're sitting in a bowl, sliced, with some sugar poured over and a healthy splash of Clear Creek Distillery's Kirschwasser that we brought back at Christmas. It's a traditional cherry schnapps made with Oregon and Washington cherries, and that's it. Any cherry or other flavor is whatever made it through the distillation. And it tastes like burning. (It's high-octane stuff!) But once that subsides there's a pleasant cherry finish. Once the strawberries are all macerated they'll be served with some of the awesome scones Meredith made yesterday, with a little whipped cream. Should be delicious.

LEFTOVER WRAPUP

• "Slimer" Cupcakes (Black Sapote Muffins with Avocado Frosting)

So the sapotes were ready to be used, all browny-black and mushy. I find that black sapotes can be substituted in pretty much anything you bake persimmons in. So earlier this week Meredith made a batch of muffins using the sapotes based on this recipe. Minor changes were that she used heavy cream instead of milk because we were out of milk, so they were deliciously rich and really quite awesome.

Friday rolls around and we're having a dinner party. And I didn't feel like making dessert, on top of everything else I was doing. And the canistels that were supposed to be dessert weren't ripe yet. But I did have a very ripe Monroe Avocado. And an idea. Alton Brown had an episode where he was using avocados to make ice cream and various other sweet things. So I made this icing.

All I can say is don't leave the lemon extract out, it's deliciously lemony but that's about it flavor-wise.

Oh, and it is bright green and has the consitency of snot.

So it was immediately dubbed "Slimer" icing and thus, Slimer Cupcakes. I garnished them with some chopped nuts, just out of a sense of decency. The verdict: they were super delicious, just not the most attractive baked good I've ever produced. Still, any kid would love the snot icing!

• Kale Chips

I made Kale Chips with last week's Lacinato kale. Sorry, no photos. Camera was out of batteries. Still they were really good, crunchy and yet sortof etherial, salty, and peppery. The outer bits instantly crumbled to nothing in your mouth, while the inner stem had a nice crunch. Just wash the kale, and dry. Heat the oven to 250. Lay the kale out on cookie sheets. Spray down lightly with oil, then flip and spray the other side of the kale. Sprinkle with kosher salt and cracked black pepper. It took about 20 minutes I'd say, then let them cool. Served them standing up in a pint glass as a snack on the table. You can use any kind of kale, but if it's big and has a big stem, cut it in half and remove the stem.