Yes, last week was week 13 of my CSA box.  Yes, I’ve missed a few weeks of telling you about my CSA boxes… but, per your suggestions, I’m back and more interesting than ever!  (Well, don’t get your hopes up too much.)  Every week I’m going to do a post on how I used the previous week’s box of produce — you know, once I’ve actually used it all.

Week 13:

• Cantaloupe
• Cucumbers
• Onions
• Tomatoes
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Green bell pepper
• Lettuce (every week with the lettuce… ugh)

Let’s start with the boring stuff:

The cantaloupe was eaten as is — why do anything fancy with a fabulous, ripe cantaloupe fresh from the farm? 

The cherry tomatoes are rinsed in a little colander and put on the counter “to be used for dinner one night.”  Inevitably, they are always eaten as we each grab one when we pass by.  They are ridiculously delicious.

One of the cucumbers was peeled, sliced and put into a pitcher of water with a sprig of rosemary.  I set it in the sun for a couple hours and then into the fridge.  The cucumber and rosemary infused water was so refreshing.  I loved it.

One night I did my usual quick I-don’t-have-the-energy-to-make-something-more-interesting dinner — I sliced and browned some chicken sausage in my cast iron skillet; sliced and sauteed one of the onions and the green pepper; diced and added one whole tomato.  The tomato juices mixed with the oil from the sausage and made a nice sauce.  This dinner is so quick and easy, and pretty darn good. 

Now, hear me out on this… while some of the lettuce was used to make a salad or two along with some of the cucumber and tomato, I used about half of the lettuce in my morning smoothie.  WAIT, don’t leave! Along with some milk, fat-free yogurt, a banana, and some all-natural peanut butter (the kind you grind yourself at Whole Foods — this is my new favorite thing — the grinder is so cool), I couldn’t taste the lettuce at all.  REALLY.  But it was there as was the nutritional benefits of having it there. It is even more nutritious with kale, spinach, chard or other dark leafy green.  Just try it.

Now for the two highlights of my week:

First up… grilled chile rellenos.  They were stuffed with a delicious barley salad that included this week’s tomatoes and one of the onions along with the previous week’s corn.  These babies were delicious.  You’ll have to check back tomorrow for the full story.  (This is like when you’re watching the finale of a reality competition show and the jerky host keeps going to commercial and you go “NOOO!  COME ON!  JUST TELL ME ALREADY!”  It is like that.  Right?  Right.)

Second… Vietnamese style summer rolls that went along side cold sesame noodles.  There will be a post on this fabulous dinner on Thursday. The summer rolls were filled with some of the cucumber, some red pepper from the farmers’ market, shrimp, Thai basil from my garden, and some thin rice noodles.  Dipped in some homemade sauce… well, you’ll have to read on Thursday for the rest of the story (RIP, Paul Harvey).

Just because it was one of my all-time favorite recipes, I also want to mention that I made pasta with fresh corn and sage brown butter(corn was from the previous week’s CSA box and the sage was from my garden).  This is a great summertime recipe.  Not the healthiest thing ever, but super delicious and very quick.  AND if you’re interested, the Silver Spring Whole Foods (and maybe others in the area, I don’t know) has the Severino ricotta cavatelli in stock now!  Well, they have some… I may have bought 4 boxes to store in my freezer.  Ok, 5.  Ok, FINE.  I bought 7 boxes total.  Don’t judge.

We were without power for one full day thanks to our weekly super-storm.  Our power wasn’t out long enough to put any of our fridge food in danger, but it did get warm enough in the house to put some of the produce that stays on the counter in jeopardy.  One morning in a fit of panic, I forced my husband to take a whole tomato that was on the brink of compost-death in his lunch.  (It was still good, no mold.  I wouldn’t force-feed him moldy tomatoes.  Or I would at least cut the moldy part off.  I’m a good wife.) The cantaloupe required immediate eating as well.  Luckily, I don’t think we lost anyone.  It was touch and go there for a minute.