August weeks 1 & 2

August has been really busy and I had a week with no internet at home so it's taken me a bit to get it together here. Nonetheless I've had two weeks of the usual bounty. Here's what we got the first week this month: a big bunch of basil, some mint, onions, acorn squash, garlic, okra, bell peppers, hot peppers, zucchini and assorted other summer squashes, some beets (grabbed those in place of the eggplant) and sweet potato greens. I'm hoping that further in the fall we'll be getting actual sweet potatoes :)

I didn't keep track of how it all got used up as it's been a crazy couple of weeks. I've been working on a big project at work that's taken a lot of time and my brain has been drained each night by the time I get home. I've taken to using cukes and mint to make pitchers of "sassy water" to keep in the fridge. It's refreshing and helps me to drink water. Plain water is just so bleh. It's really easy, slice a lemon and cuke, add some mint leaves and sometimes fresh ginger slices to a pitcher, fill with water and leave in the fridge to steep overnight. I have a handy little strainer that I use to just strain it directly into a glass. A little kick of Tito's makes it even better. 

We roasted the beets and made a great salad with spring greens, beets, candied pecans and goat cheese. The family ate it with commercial vinaigrette but I made a simple turmeric dressing for me that I really liked. Olive oil, yogurt, turmeric and a hint of cayenne that I found web surfing one day. 

I made pesto and we did homemade pizza one night inspired by some I had at a friends house in Denver a couple months back, alfredo sauce mixed with pesto as the sauce and topped with provolone and parm.   It was really good. I made homemade crust from How to Cook Everything, my favorite cookbook.

Made those cheese stuffed peppers from a few weeks ago again with all the hot peppers we've been getting. The hubby really likes that recipe.

Before I knew it it was Wed again! Last week we got more acorn squash, a butternut squash, basil and mint, more sweet potato greens, some purslane, garlic, lots of onions, more okra and peppers, cucumbers and zucchini.

That first night I had to use some okra since I had some left from the week before. I knew I had to try this great sounding salad from one of my favorite blogs, The Bitten Word. I picked up some corn on the way home from the market and grabbed a couple of cans of beans. Couldn't find the cranberry beans it called for so I used mayocoba beans because they looked interesting and were on sale. I used spinach and the purslane from the CSA instead of the lambs ear. I used white balsamic vinegar because that's what I had and this salad was awesome. The fried okra was so delicious. I cut them in quarters lengthwise like they say and it was really great. Better than last time when I cut them in disks. This will be our go to okra prep for the rest of the season I believe.  My 13 year old was impressed, stating "I thought this was going to be gross, but it's really really good!"

We made some more sassy water and then ate out the next two nights. Tonight I'm going to make the sweet potato greens and a butternut squash risotto. Tomorrow I think I'm going to make cucumber/onion salad since I have several of both. You know the one, with mayo and vinegar that everyone's had at least once. It goes great with BBQ chicken!  We'll probably end up with pesto fish monday or tuesday since that's a favorite of ours. And I'll bake the acorn squash to have with pork chops or something.