How I Used My CSA: Week 4

Week 4: collards, kale, portobello caps, garlic scapes, pea tendrils, and strawberries.

It seems like there was a slight interest in what I do with the contents of my weekly CSA from Lancaster Farm Fresh (I'm subscribed to a half share), so I guess I'll write about it. You're forewarned that nothing fancy is going to go on here in terms of cooking; that's just not how I eat at home. I guess you can use these posts to feel better about yourself if you thought food bloggers were doing great things at home in the kitchen (some are, I'm sure).

Posts will be a week (or more) after the fact, since I have to have time to use the produce in the share. Duh!I was lucky enough to use the swap box to trade out scallions (still had some left from the week before) for an extra share of strawberries. Locally grown strawberries are so much sweeter than those grown in California that you get from the grocery store! These were gobbled up in maybe two days, either straight out of hand or on my morning cereal. I eat cereal almost every morning. I actually googled recipes for pea tendrils, but didn't like the most popular suggestions — stir fry (had a stir fry in mind for later in the week), or braised in butter (sounds delicious, but I try to eat healthier at home, and leave the butter-drowning of vegetables to restaurants). So, the pea tendrils were just thrown on top of homemade pizza. What was left of the pea tendrils was eaten on another day as a side salad.Ooh, I was really looking forward to the garlic scapes! I like to cut them up into 1 to 2-inch pieces and stir fry them. They have the shape and snap of green beans, but a garlic punch. This stir fry also used a few things from past weeks' CSA shares — scallions, dandelion greens, and bok choy (dandelion greens and bok choy had not been added yet when the picture was taken).
This bowl of leftover rice topped with collards is a perfect example of how I eat when left on my own. Rice is one of my desert island foods; I could eat it every day! I cooked up collards Southern-style then just threw it on top of the rice. I briefly thought about cubing up some tempeh to throw on top, but was too lazy, so just sprinkled on some nutritional yeast, as I will sprinkle nutritional yeast on almost anything savory.

There are no pictures of how we used the portobello caps and kale, as we were too distracted with a friend's cute-as-a-bug toddler running around our house with a fudge popsicle in one hand while the other hand kept grabbing our glasses of sangria. You can barely think around kids, much less snap a picture! Nonetheless, the portobello caps were marinated and grilled, and served alongside a raw kale salad very similar to this one.

How did you use your CSA?