Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Christmas in July (and August, September...)

I absolutely love my CSA and eagerly await each new box, often calling my husband several times a day on Wednesdays to see if he’s picked up our goodies and to learn what’s in the week’s shipment. And when I arrive home on Wednesdays, I try to see how many veggies I can cram into meals that night and for the next few days. While that anticipation hasn’t waned, I’ve experienced a couple of culinary setbacks forcing me to get a bit more creative with my cooking methods: 1) the hottest temperature ever recorded in Seattle and 2) a hand injury making chopping, dicing, peeling (and even typing, for that matter) virtually impossible.

When the mercury tops 100 degrees in Seattle and you find yourself without air conditioning, cooking indoors becomes a no-no. While salads of deliciously crisp and earthy farm-fresh greens and vine ripened tomatoes are always a summer treat, protein is essential as well. Certain vegetables scream to accompany salmon on the grill (few things are better to me than asparagus or squash topped with a bit of EVOO, salt, pepper and crisped a bit on the grill), but others may not seem as obvious. One of my biggest surprises this season was how wonderful turnips tasted when tossed with garlic, onion and EVOO, mixed with fresh and dried herbs, and wrapped in foil for roasting on the grill. Charred greens can be a nice accompaniment to meals when mixed with some oil and vinegar, and peppers, onions and even tomatoes can be wonderfully grilled, either with direct heat, wrapped in foil or cooked in a grill-friendly pan.

My other conundrum – and one that will impact my summer CSA experience more than the heat – is my injured finger making cutting and preparing vegetables difficult and dangerous (it's pretty hard to cut through anything firmer than butter when you can't use your left middle finger; I've tried). Luckily it’s a short-term setback with the stitches coming out next week, but in the meantime, I’ll be relying on my husband to serve as my sous chef and whip up tasty meals on his own – Will, the kitchen’s all yours! – or I’ll have to get creative with cooking entire heads of broccoli and cauliflower and eat my fresh tomatoes and zukes whole and raw. Feel free to share your favorite fun and easy recipes for summer veggies here as I bet all of our partners would like to take care of their favorite KD lady once in awhile; fully functioning hands or not!

1 comment:

  1. You need to invest in a food processor! Perfect back up for injured hand. :)

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