Biscotti Bites - A CSA Box Recipe

Biscotti Bites

Zucchini bread, banana bread, applesauce bread, pumpkin bread - you name it!
Honey

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Slice the zucchini bread thinly (no more than 1/4” thick) and place in a single layer on the baking sheet, with no less than 1/4” between pieces.  Drizzle with honey.  Bake for 45 minutes.  Turn off oven and let cool in the oven.  Store in an airtight container.  I used a half-gallon Mason jar.

This is a great way to use up leftover zucchini (or similar) bread.  My zucchini bread recipe makes two fairly large loaves.  I’m the only one in the house who eats it, and I hate to waste it.  One of the ladies in my church’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) group shared this recipe.

My Sixth Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Box - What I Got

This week, the CSA distributed tomatoes, red onions, more new potatoes (YAY!), radishes (meh), carrots, cherry tomatoes (again, meh), and assorted sweet peppers.  I really enjoyed my new potatoes last time - I roasted them in the oven, and they were delicious! 

I left the cherry tomatoes and radishes to be donated to a local food pantry.  Radishes and I don’t get along very well, and I just can’t bear to eat another cherry tomato!  I’m all cherry tomato-ed out. 

I have lots of my own tomatoes, too, because my five volunteer plants have kept pace with the three intentional plants’ production, so I’m pretty well covered up with tomatoes!  I've given away several bags of the red scourge, and I’m considering making and canning stewed tomatoes.  That would use up the tomatoes, some of the onions, and some of the peppers.  I’m definitely going to chop up the onions I don’t need for the stewed tomatoes and freeze them.   I use chopped onions all winter for chili, soups, sloppy joes, and other yummy stuff!

Caprese Salad - A CSA Box Recipe

Caprese Salad

Tomatoes, sliced
Olive oil
Salt
Fresh mozarella cheese
Fresh basil leaves, chiffonade (about 10-15 leaves)
Balsamic glaze

Arrange tomato slices on a plate or platter.  Drizzle olive oil over the slices.  Lightly salt all the tomatoes.  Arrange the cheese pieces and basil leaves over the tomatoes.  Drizzle balsamic glaze over all.

This is a great way to use up the late summer tomato explosion, and it's quick and easy to make.   

Tomato Sandwich - A CSA Box "Recipe"

Tomato Sandwich

1 Tomato, thickly sliced
Bread, white
Duke's mayonnaise
Salt

This isn't much of a recipe, is it???  But plenty of people have never heard of, much less had, a tomato sandwich!

First you need is a large, ripe, slicing tomato.  Slices should be about a half inch thick.

Next you need white bread.  Squishy white bread.  Something along the lines of  Wonder Bread or Sunbeam Giant Bread.  Don't cheat and toast it!

What really makes it is the mayonnaise.  Now, until recently, I was NOT a fan of mayonnaise.  I didn't like the taste.  I preferred (gasp!) Miracle Whip.  Then I discovered Duke's.  Oh.  My.  Gosh.  I've read several books set in the south, and anytime mayo is mentioned, it's Duke's.  Never just mayonnaise.  DUKE'S mayonnaise.

Anyway, slather it on.  Don't be stingy!

Salt that tomato!

Assemble that sandwich!

Eat it!

YUM!!!

My Fifth CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Box - What I Got

Here's this week's haul from Teter Organic Farm!

Slicing tomatoes, onions, assorted sweet peppers, carrots, cherry tomatoes (traded for an additional slicer), and (wait for it)...NEW POTATOES!

I am SO EXCITED for the potatoes!  I will probably do something wonderful with them tomorrow - maybe roasted...YUM.

I still have so many onions that I'm going to chop them all up and freeze them.  I use a lot of chopped onions when I cook, but right now, I'm not cooking much because it's hot outside, and raw onions and I don't see eye to eye most of the time.  So, they will be chopped up and put in cold storage.  Sounds like Mafia hit to me.

I also have an abundance of tomatoes from my CSA boxes, PLUS my backyard tomato plants are on the verge of ripening.  There are boatloads of huge green tomatoes, but three of them have started to get a little blush to them.

You know what that means.

Soon those plants will bury me in mountains of tomato-ey goodness.  I've already been eating tomato sandwiches and Caprese salads (watch for them to be featured on upcoming Wednesdays), but I won't be able to keep up just by doing that.

Most of them will end up canned.  Tomatoes are easy to can, and they are pretty in the jars - like red jewels on the shelf.  I sometimes have a hard time bringing myself to open them because it seems such a shame to spoil the display, but I manage to overcome my aesthetic sense, raid the larder, and actually USE THEM.

I'll give some away, too.  I've already had a couple of requests, so...!

How do you use up a bumper crop of tomatoes?  Let me know in the Comments!

Refrigerator Pickles (Sweet) - A CSA Box Recipe

Refrigerator Pickles (Sweet)

2 or 3 cucumbers, sliced thinly
1 small onion, sliced thinly
1 1/2 c vinegar
1 1/2 c sugar
1 t salt

Put the sliced cucumbers and onions in a non-metallic (plastic or ceramic) bowl.

In a saucepan, bring the vinegar, sugar, and salt to a boil.

Pour the vinegar/sugar/salt solution over the cucumbers and onions in the bowl.  Place a small plate or similar item in the bowl on top of the cucumbers and onions to keep them below the surface of the liquid.  Cover the bowl and refrigerate 24 hours.  At the end of that time, you can transfer the pickled cucumbers and onions and liquid to a jar or other container.  Keep refrigerated.

The pickles will be good for about 3 weeks, but they'll probably be gone by then!

Ratatouille (A CSA Box Recipe)

Ratatouille

Sauce:
2 T olive oil
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 bell peppers (not green), diced
salt/pepper to taste
28 oz canned tomatoes, crushed
2T fresh basil, chiffonade (8-10 leaves)

Saute onion,garlic, and peppers.  Add tomatoes and heat well.  Add basil.

Vegetables:
2 eggplants
6 roma tomatoes
2 yellow summer squash
2 zucchini

Slice vegetables about 1/8” thick.

Herb Seasoning:
2 T fresh basil, chiffonade (8-10 leaves)
1 clove garlic, minced
2 T fresh parsley, chopped
2 t fresh thyme
Salt/pepper to taste
1/4 c olive oil

Mix all together.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

To Assemble:
In a 9”x13” baking pan (or a 12” round pan), spread sauce even and level.  Arrange vegetables in an alternating pattern (squash, eggplant, zucchini, tomato) on top of sauce, slices on their edges.  Pour the herb seasoning over vegetables. Cover with foil and bake 40 minutes. Uncover and bake another 20 minutes.