Share Twelve

Howdy! Summer veggies are in full swing.
Good year for tomatoes and melons :)

Tomatoes. We hope you have been enjoying the heirlooms. Great for slicing and salads. Check out past emails for lots of simple preparations. Chopped Tomato, Cucumber, and diced onion with some basil, feta, balsamic, and olive oil is a really nice summer salad and can make a light lunch if tucked into a pita with some hummus.

Cantaloupe. You can just have it chopped up. Make a fruit salad with some other local fruits. Mint is a nice complement to melon. A little chopped mint along with cubes of cantaloupe is extra refreshing. Grammie and I tried a slice of melon with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top for dessert. yum!!! There are chilled soups you could look up, too. One of our wonderful work-for-share helpers suggested a chilled soup of melon in the blender with lime juice, OJ, and lemongrass. Prosciutto and melon (salty and sweet) is another gourmet combo. Wrap cubes in thin strips of prosciutto and fix with a toothpick for a fancy premeal treat (how do you spell hors d'hourves???)

Sugar Baby Watermelon. The little cannonball of joy. These guys are juicy and have seeds. Perhaps it is a chance to get messy outside and spit those seeds. Or you can butcher that melon and make dainty slices or cubes for easy snacking. One of the restaurants we deliver to in PVD had heirloom tomato and watermelon salad with feta and a little mint. it must be good . . .

One Cucumber. from the newest planting. Finally the traditional All-American salad trio in one share: Lettuce, Cucumber, and Tomato.

Sweet Peppers. All shapes and sizes. The ones that were in the box are all sweet. We decided to keep the hot peppers outside so you don't have to guess. Same as last weeks, if they are only partially colored, leave them on the counter and they will continue to color up. Sweet peppers and onions are such a brilliant smell cooking in the kitchen. They are great for a stir fry, alongside grilled chicken or sausage, in a burrito, part of a curry. Or just snacked on with a fresh herb dip or Ranch :) Roasting peppers is another way to maximize their flavor. You can sear their skins by actually putting them in a flame until blackened or broiling and turning once one side is blackened. Remove the skin (once they've cooled a bit is more pleasant) pull out the core and wipe out all the seeds. At this point you could even slice strips, pack into a little artichoke jar or something and cover with olive oil. this treat will last in the fridge for months. If you don't put them on a sandwich, pizza, calzone, or little toasts with goat cheese. Feta whipped with Roasted Peppers is another excellent spread.

Eggplant. What a change from last year! These are perfect for dicing and sauteeing alongside some onions, peppers, and zucchini for the base of a tomato sauce for pasta or any stir-fry, Thai-style dish, or Indian-style curry. Of course they are excellent on the grill or good old breaded and fried. You could probably do a cool sort of fresh casserole with fried or roasted eggplant in a baking dish along with big slices of tomato, basil and olive oil, maybe some mozzarella. I think I would cover with foil or a lid for the first 20 minutes or so and then remove the cover and add a nice layer of grated parmigiano. Serve with salad and bread, buttered noodles if you need more substance.

Basil. A mini-bouquet. A little pesto could be made with this. Dry, clean basil leaves (and a little parsley if you want) in the food processor, plenty of olive oil before you turn it on (you don't want the blades to cut and bruise the basil, turning it brown, before the oil is there to protect the basil). So get that down to little pieces,  then add salt, chopped or pressed garlic (not too much - this will be raw), whiz that up. Finally, you can add a little richness by adding toasted pine nuts (or walnuts or pecans) and some grated parmigiano. Taste. Adjust for salt and pepper, maybe more oil. Enjoy this as a spread for a sandwich (perhaps with grilled veggies and roasted peppers), even on a bagel with cream cheese or goat cheese and a sliced tomato, on pasta, bruschetta, pizza, drizzle on a sliced tomato salad.

Cherry tomatoes. The little orange ones are named Sungold. They are my personal favorite. Sweet! Great for salads. I tend to halve them in a salad just so you can get a little of everything in the same bite. Great for the cucumber, tomato, feta combo. The larger, oblong plum tomatoes are named Juliet. That's Chris' favorite "cherry" - they taste more tomatoey than sweet and are great for slicing in half lengthwise and drying. We were given a dehydrator, so the Snackmaster Jr. has been cranking dried Juliets for the past week or so. So we just slice them, sprinkle generously with Kosher salt and dry. We sometimes stop the dryer before complete dehydration, pack them in freezer bags and freeze. These will be wunderbar for pastas, pizzas, bruschetta, sundried tomato pesto, whatever in the winter. You can also dry tomatoes on a cookie cooling rack, placed over a baking sheet and placed in a 200-250 degree oven (convection if you have it) for several hours - maybe four or five. Use a toater oven if they fit in there - then you don't have to heat a whole huge oven. They can also be preserved by packing into a jar and covering with olive oil and throwing into some dark corner of the fridge. You can use the oil in cooking when the tomatoes are gone - perfect for a salad dressing or on a pasta or risotto. If you want to use them fresh, they'd be perfect in a fresh pasta. perhaps with a pesto drizzle and some goat cheese. 

Beets with pretty nice greens. You can sautee those greens with garlic and olive oil or steam 'em up for those long lost greens of springtime. The beets can be roasted as usual. Look up beet and potato salad for something different.

A couple zucchini. They are slowing down. I still put them in everything. I love to slice them thin and raw and put in a quesadilla with sharp cheddar, fresh herbs, and maybe some other raw veggies (yesterday I did sweet pepper strips and some sweet corn cut off the cob). serve with fresh salsa and sour cream. perfecto. Do a side of rice and beans with some veggies to make it a full meal.

Yellow Beans. These are very productive plants!!! If you are tired of them, try blanching in salted boiling water until they are a desired tenderness (maybe 4-5 minutes) Then plunge them into ice water to stop the cooking. Then they can be frozen (just drain completely first). But they can also be thrown into a chopped salad, potato salad, a marinated homemade three bean salad. You could do some pickled beans. Look up dilly beans. They could probably stay in the fridge since there aren't enough to make the canning process worthwhile. They could also be sauteed with garlic and served as a side. Or roasted in the oven, or tossed with some oil and grilled - whatever is happening that night.

I think that is all. Hope you enjoy this summer's bounty!