My Earthboxes are producing lovely lettuces. Every week I harvest a really large bowl of red and green and mixed leaf lettuces and share them with some of my neighbors. They taste very tender and spicy and delicious.
However, I know they will “bolt” soon, so I need to have an idea of what to plant next in the boxes! Anyone have any ideas? I live in Chicago. What can one plant in July?
None of this is from my CSA, but its one of my favorite recipes.
Get a huge plate of fresh, washed and chilled frisee.
Saute a couple of strips of bacon, cut up into a large dice.
When bacon is crispy, remove from pan to bed of frisee.
Pour some of your favorite vinegar into the pan and mix with rendered bacon grease. (I love Trader Joe’s Orange Muscat Champagne vinegar)
Add dressing to greens and devour.
Fresh from the CSA garden came some golden zucchinis and tender aspargus. I decided to saute them with some of the summer butter I bought made with milk from grassfed cows. Wowza. Henry laid on the table and insisted I feed him bite after bite. He ate about half my plate!
A couple of weeks ago I had a bowl of soup at a restaurant that really blew me away. It was a creamy zucchini and swiss chard. My most recent CSA box had some of beautiful zukes and chards, so I attempted the soup.
I shredded the zucchini and de-stemmed the chard. Sauteed them together with some olive oil and then added chicken stock and simmered until everything looked very tender, about twenty minutes. Cooled it for a bit, then put it in the blender. Added salt, pepper and a smidge of nutmeg. It was really, really delicious. Mine was thicker than the restaurants, I could have thinned it out, but I liked it. It would even make a very interesting sauce for a pizza or even on noodles.
Our friend Bonnie introduced me to this salsa. I had it for the first time at a party at her house. I had never had anything like it, but I got her recipe and have been making it ever since. These flavors just go together so perfectly, and I love it best on El Milagro corn chips, which are thick and crunchy.
I think it tastes perfect when the amount of chopped mango equals the amount of all the other ingredients. This time I used 2 large mangos, which gave me around 2 cups diced fruit. Then you need about 1 1/4 cups diced cucumber and 3/4 cups diced red onion. Add a few squirts of lime juice and then as much jalapeno as you like. To be honest, sometimes I dont even put any jalapeno. But if I was making it for a party, I would. And, if you like cilantro you can put some in. Yum.
I found some really pretty drapery samples at the Ravenswood Manor garage sale. I used one of the panels to make my friend Hilde a set of market totes. I even made a small drawstring bag to put them all in. She could reused that to wrap another present or to carry something small.
I also made a tulle tutu for my mom to give to her step granddaughter. Zibby tried it on to see how long it was. I used this tutu-orial
This was my first attempt at making a baguette from the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day recipe. Ive since made several, and they all turned out delicious!
I like mine best with some Earth Balance soy and dairy free spread and some warm-from-the-crockpot roast. My roast came from our CSA, and is grass fed and pastured. I put the roast in the crockpot with some homemade chicken stock, some carrots and celery and 21 season salute from Trader Joes. One of my favorite meals to eat.
