CSA Weeks Three and Four, Inspirations, And a Recipe

 

Before they ripen, blueberries are the prettiest shades of pink!

Hello, My Lovelies!  How is your summer progressing?  Did you enjoy Father's Day with friends and family over the weekend?  Mr. Bookish had a wonderful weekend: His girls saw to that!

Today I want to share with you weeks three and four community supported agriculture (CSA) boxes, a few things that are inspiring me, and a recipe.  I'll start with the CSA produce.

The highlights of week three's box were the pole beans, Chilton County peaches, mushrooms, and sourdough bread.  The highlights from week four were the onions, herbs, and not one but two dozen eggs.

We are enjoying our fresh produce delivered to our door weekly.  I would say that we are eating about ninety to ninety-five percent of everything so far, and what we aren't eating we're sharing with friends and neighbors.  Today I will share links of a few of our favorite recipes from the past couple of weeks.

Cabbage Steaks with Balsamic Dressing

Fried Okra

Summer Squash Casserole

Sour Cream Pound Cake

Swiss Chard With Garbanzo Beans and Fresh Tomatoes

Classic French Quiche Lorraine 

I have too many other photos to post, but I wanted to share a photo of at least one of the recipes I made.

This is the Quiche Lorraine, a family favorite.

The pound cake recipe is the exact way my grandmother made it.  I can fry okra in my sleep, but I thought that this recipe would be good for those of you who haven't tried it yet.  It really is a great one!  Because of our bumper crop of eggs, I chose to bake the pound cake, quiche, and squash casserole.  I usually bake a squash casserole or quiche if I have lots of eggs on hand.  Eggs also remind me of my grandmother's pound cake.  :D

Although we've been promised melons in the boxes, they aren't quite ripe yet.  It wouldn't surprise me if we didn't get a few in today's box.  I know Mr. Bookish loves them!  We did buy a couple of watermelons over the weekend, and with the leftover melon I made one of Mr. Bookish's favorite summertime salads.  I know you've probably seen watermelon salads all over Pinterest, and the first recipe I tried was from the Anthropologie blog several years ago.  I've had a little bit of time to perfect it (in Mr. Bookish's eyes, anyway).

Mediterranean Watermelon Salad

Serves 4

Ingredients:

3 cups seedless watermelon cubed 

1 1/2 cups sliced cucumber peeled and seeds removed (I usually buy one medium size cucumber, and it's usually right at 1 1/2 cups once sliced.)

1/2 cup feta cheese crumbled

3 tablespoons olive oil

Juice of one lime (at least 1 1/2 tablespoons)

salt and pepper, to taste

Fresh mint thinly sliced, to taste

Procedure:

Place the watermelon in a large serving bowl.  You can easily use the same bowl for preparation and serving.

Peel the cucumber with a vegetable peeler and slice in half.  Use a spoon to scoop out all of the seeds.  

Do NOT skip this step!

Slice into one quarter inch slices and add to the watermelon.

In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lime juice and salt and pepper.

Drizzle the dressing over the watermelon and cucumber mixture. Carefully toss to coat.  Sprinkle with feta and serve.  Garnish with mint, to taste.

Notice that the mint is separate.  Chop the mint right before serving and add it once it's been served.  You might have leftover salad, and mint doesn't age well.  Only add it at serving time!  

What's currently inspiring me:

Blueberries

Last weekend we went blueberry picking at Blueberry Havens.  Professor Havens, a retired professor from Auburn University, owns a blueberry farm and second hand bookstore.  He is truly living his best life!  And I must say that the combination of two of my favorite things made a perfect late afternoon/early evening for me.  We went late in the day to avoid the heat!

The blueberries were ripe for the most part.

Trip and I each picked a gallon of blueberries.  I froze most of them because we also got some berries in the fourth box.

Check out the Alabama red clay in the background.  Who knew that blueberries love growing in it?  

I've already cooked a blueberry crips, and we've had blueberries over homemade ice cream.  This week I'll probably make a blueberry fool.  If I do, I'll post that recipe.  Its a very refreshing dessert for summer!

Children's Fiction From My Childhood

These are the books I purchased at the used bookshop.  Both are children's books, and I remember reading both as a child!  The Tide in the Attic is a middle grades historical literary novel surrounding the actual events during the February 1953 flood of Holland that killed 1794 people and cost $280,000,000 in damages.  It was first published in Dutch in 1961.

The Figure in the Shadows is Book Two in the Lewis Barnavelt Series (the first one is The House with a Clock in Its Walls).  There are a dozen books in the series, and all are written in the Gothic style.  I liked scary things when I was a little girl!  I also liked the scarier Nancy Drew mysteries, too.

Flowers

Last week I participated in a link party, and I was inspired by everyone's centerpieces.  

I've started painting again, and although my current painting isn't floral, my next one might be.

Once the hydrangeas were past their prime, I brought in some sunflowers.  Now our table is decorated with primary colors.

Don't primary colors remind you of the nineties?

Christopher and Shanley Belle

Last weekend, Shanley Belle went to the Detroit Tigers' Pink Out Baseball Game.  They sent me tons of photos.  I am one blessed mama!

Make sure to check back on Fridays as I share my Summer Reading Challenge.  I'm challenging myself to read fifteen books between June 1st and September 1st.

I know the graphic says 20 Books of Summer.  We also had the options to read fifteen or ten.

;P

Thanks for reading my blog!  Please let me know if you're interested in reading more about our Adventure Eating project.  If not, I'll post about other things!  What would YOU like to read here on my blog?

Until next time...

Blessings!
Ricki Jill