I have at least three critical CSA deliveries awaiting blog fame, so let’s not waste any time!

Two weeks ago, Kate was out of town and left me responsible for the full share:

I made it to the pickup just in the nick of time and had to tearfully beg for my share until the powers that be acquiesced. I made out with loads of salad greens (romaine, arugula, baby bok choy) and salad veggies (broccoli, kale, eggplant, green peppers), big tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, jalapenos, peaches, and donut peaches:

Every Saturday is like Christmas with this bounty! I fell in love with an eggplant:

So I broiled it after a quick soak in balsamic, evoo, sea salt, and coriander and then layered it in the bottom of a baking dish with balcony basil:

I threw some sliced CSA tomatoes on top along with cheddar and homemade parm for a roast, and the end result was surprisingly gourmet! It tasted like eggplant a la vodka, mmmmmmm. I also roasted the rest of the CSA veggies and steamed the reject greens (broccoli and kale stems, wilted lettuce, etc).

I froze about half of that food so that Kate could experience this delicious share when she got back. I ate the rest pretty close to immediately 😀

I didn’t get to pick up last week’s CSA from Kate until about mid-week due to the Buffalo trip and ensuing chaos, but I was thrilled that Kate saved everything for me:

This share conveniently had a ton of arugula, basil, and romaine, as I needed to replenish my salad supply because I’d had no time to shop since getting back from Buffalo. In addition to the greens, the share also had corn, tomatoes, nectarines, crenshaw melon, and watermelon (!!!).

Finally, this past week’s share was brilliantly exciting … but soooo heavy to carry!

We got a big eggplant, red/green bell pepper, finger eggplants, cherry tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, baby turnips, garlic, braising greens, crenshaw melon, and watermelon.

Beautiful! Most of the fruit has been making its way into fruit salad form along these lines:

But plenty has worked perfectly well in whole fruit form, such as this glowing peach:

And I’ve been keeping aside a crop of veggies each week for daytime finger snacks at work:

(baby turnips, green beans, tomatoes, bell pepper, cucumber …)

Por ejemplo, this snack baggie of grape tomatoes and green pepper strips:

I’ve also done some wild things with my produce supply. Remember the steamed reject greens from the beginning of this post? I immersion blended them and then mixed them into some Stonyfield raspberry white chocolate chunk ice cream, along with a square of unsweetened baker’s chocolate and frozen grapes:

It looks (and sounds!) scary, but I love broccoli … so I thought this was scrumptious.

The CSA eggs have been working out well for breakfasts in crepe form (and occasionally topped with guacamole or hummus, depending on whose leftovers have made their way to me each week):

And there have obviously been loads of salads! Some are heavy on the roasted CSA veggies:

(topped with homemade guac again)

Others are heavy on the greens:

I love bringing these salads to work for lunch since they are light enough to allow me the wiggle room of snapping up tastes of all my coworkers’ home-cooking, such as Belkis’ Dominican rice, beans, and spaghetti:

Finally, thanks to the loads and loads of eggplant and tomatoes in the most recent CSA (and the loads and loads of basil growing on my balcony as a result of several scorching days followed by several rainy days), I’ve been able to recreate my “eggplant a la vodka” from a couple weeks ago (aka the beginning of this post) with double the layers! I layered broiled eggplant in the bottom of the dish and topped it with balcony basil and heirloom tomatoes:

(Sorry for the blur — I was feeling lazy!)

Layer #1 went back in the oven for a roast until the tomatoes got wrinkly, signaling that it was time for layer #2 to come out and play.

I layered the broiled finger eggplants over the tomatoes with more balcony basil:

And topped it with the beefsteak tomatoes for another roast.

Once those tomatoes got tight and wrinky, I shredded some cheeses that I located in the back of the fridge and gave the whole dish a broil until the cheese got bubbly and brown:

Seriously, this dish is criminally delicious and ridiculously easy.

Pleeeeeeease make it immediately while eggplants and tomatoes are still in season. You will thank me, I promise!

I am so sure there were other exciting things I’ve done with my produce over the past few weeks, but they’re escaping me at the moment. I think I’ve covered the most important things anyway. Today’s take-aways: (1) steam your leftover greens and puree them into ice cream (I dare you!) and (2) make this eggplant-basil-tomato-cheese mess immediately!!

Have you ever gone through a vegetable-less period of time and, if so, which vegetable do you choose to mark your return to the world of produce?