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?

Hehehehehe, who loves puns?!

So, we know that Buffalo shuns veggies and loves cake, but I should also mention that Buffalo boasts quite the happening restaurant scene. What else would you expect from a city that has given its name to an entire culture of chicken wings?

To prepare for our first night on the town, Erin Gunn and I tried out some fancy make-up specifically designed for blue eyes that Siobhan provided … all in the name of wedding testing, of course.

As usual, I look scary and Erin looks elegant.

I decided to pose with Lily instead, but her baby blues knocked mine out of the water, too! Hmph, leave it to the babies to show you up.

For dinner, Erin, Mike, Siobhan, Kevin (Siobhan’s husband), Lily, and I headed out to Pearl Street Brewery, clearly the most hopping place in Buffalo since we had to wait 45 minutes for a table!

(Side note: Lily and I were the only sober ones by the time we left the house, so I was elected designated driver. I hadn’t driven in three years!!!! I felt so honored to have the trust of the Gunns! And I got us there in one piece :-D)

We ate popcorn while waiting for a table:

And some very special guests were able to join us. Emily, one of my former partners-in-Park-Slope-crime, recently moved to Buffalo with her husband, so they met up with us for the Brewery feast.

Also while waiting for a table, Lily made her Irish ancestors proud. Watch this sequence of events carefully:

Yes, you saw it here first: baby dips goldfish in mom’s beer and then devours it. It was a proud moment for all involved 😀

I saw two items on the menu that I had to have:

So I obviously combined them and ordered the chicken fajita salad with some of the stout-marinated portabella mushrooms on top.

It was a brilliant move and worth every last cent of the extra mushroom fee.

Almost as exciting as the stout-marinated mushroom was the potato pancake with cherry-wheat stewed apples, ordered by Emily’s husband’s friend who also joined us:

I am definitely not a fan of beer, but I consistently love everything that has been cooked in it!

Other nibbles included some of Lily’s pasta and homemade potato chips:

As we all know, I hate potatoes, but these chips were delicious. I feel like I’ve been saying that about potato-related products quite a bit lately. Hmmmmm.

And a bite of Erin’s pearl street pizza with pepperoni, sausage, banana peppers, mushrooms, onions, and black olives:

It’s not a combo I would ever order myself, but OMG was it delicious!

While I sipped my water and ate off everyone else’s plates, the rest of the table ordered this crazy beer contraption:

This 100 oz. tower was affectionately called the Widow Maker Tube, but it vanished pretty quickly amidst the likes of this bunch:

Hours of enjoyment:

Needless to say, I drove us all back home at the end of the night 😛

Our other geographically appropriate restaurant venture led us to Anchorbar, the debated “home of the original” Buffalo chicken wings:

The decor inside was wild and sporty as one would expect from the chicken wing capital of the world:

The crew ordered cheesy bread with marinara for the table, and I enjoyed it immensely:

Since we were in a wings joint and all, beer and wings were on the agenda. Not being a big fan of either, I chose the road less traveled and ordered a mug of tea:

(See the nearly empty beer jug #1 in the background?)

And a slice of key lime pie 😛

Granted, I ate some wings just to say I did. We were in Buffalo, after all …

But I mostly hung out in my corner in heaven with my afternoon teatime:

The key lime pie was increeeeeeeedible.

Our last restaurant hurrah in Buffalo took place in this joint when we stopped by to pick up subs for a pre-odyssey meal before we left on Sunday afternoon:

While we waited for our food, I dropped a quarter in the candy machine for this handful of peanut m&ms to share with the table:

We got back to the house and dove into our lunch. I put together a montage of eating action shots, much to the great pleasure of my companions.

Siobhan:

Mike:

Kevin:

Erin:

Let’s hear it for great sports!

I ordered the chicken fajita wrap, which was significantly smaller than everyone else’s subs, but I was sooooooooo stuffed from eating half of that darn pumpkin cake for breakfast!

It hit the spot. Here’s the inside:

I also had a few bites of Erin’s chicken finger sub which came with buffalo sauce and blue cheese:

Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

And before we left, I convinced Erin that we needed to have some local death by chocolate ice cream (with chocolate-covered almonds, chocolate truffle pieces, and fudge chips!) that I had been eyeing the the freezer all weekend:

Left me speechless.

Around 3pm, we finally left for the 6-hour drive back to NYC. I drove the first leg — two whole hours, whaaaaaaaaat! — through three torrential downpours that limited visibility 100%. I did not even come close to getting us in an accident!!! Maybe I should start a chauffeur service?

The beauteous scenery kept us company for the journey:

As did our leftover wings, which somehow seemed much more appetizing in the car than they had in the restaurant:

And that concludes the Buffalo story. Erin and Mike dropped me back at the subway. The subway was under construction as usual, and I had to take 5 vehicles over the course of two hours to get back to Brooklyn just after midnight, but it was worth it. I had an excellent and relaxing weekend, Erin Gunn was productive with wedding tasks, Siobhan and Kevin were stellar hosts, and Mike was the voice of reason through it all. Thanks for a brilliant weekend, crew!

Is your town known for any specific cuisine?