Salsa? Gazpacho? Smoothie?

Love all the purples!

The most impressive colors arrived this week - lavender peppers, purple scallions, red and yellow tomatoes and look at those plums! All that fruit begs to be made into pie or jam. But they're too juicy and flavorful to ruin by adding sugar or crust. I threw two or three in my backpack every morning and by the time I got home they were gone - eaten at the park, the office, a cafe table on Broadway, the theater, the subway and just about anyplace else I happened to be. By the end of the week our basket was empty and we were ready for a refill.

The beautiful yellow (summer) squash got sauteed with mushrooms and an onion (Brenda's recipe- I just modified by leaving out the cheese, which I have to admit makes it a tastier concoction) for easy to pack box lunches. The zucchini turned into bread and everything else ... well, that's the title of this post.

Okay, I had my first vegetable disaster this week. For months I've had visions of making my own salsa and presented with all the ingredients I took a turn with the new Blendtec. Add onions, pepper, tomatoes (which I brought from Arkansas), crushed red pepper (my first mistake), cucumber (my second mistake), herbs, salt and spin (my biggest mistake!). 

Everything looked supple and lovely thrown in together. I selected "whole food", then "pulse" on the blender (perhaps I should have consulted the instructions but this seemed logical to me) and pressed "start". Before I could press STOP it was smashed beyond salsa and frothed an ugly brownish-pink. "Gazpacho!", I thought, not wanting to admit immediate defeat. So I added cherry tomatoes and cucumber and pressed "soup". Wrong again! It stared gyrating in a 4-minute cycle and I quickly aborted, gave up on further blending and poured. It had some resemblance to gazpacho but not a very good one. I tried to pawn some off on Benedicta but she couldn't take the crushed red pepper. So for three days running I drank salsa smoothie for lunch. It wasn't terrible, and with every swig I reminded myself how healthy it surely was, but I've never been so happy to empty a bowl. 

I'm not cured of my desire to make homemade salsa. But next time I'm going to use an old-fashioned chopping knife!

Started off right with onions, peppers, tomatoes and herbs.

Instantly it turned frothy.

So I added to the problem with more cucumber.

Way past gazpacho texture.

Not even recognizable as a salsa.

Fruit and Rat Tail Radishes

The fruit has arrived! One week prior to when we expected. Sweet cherries, blueberries and red currants. We polished off the cherries before last night's pasta reached al dente. The currants made their debut atop the shredded wheat this morning. And the blueberries graced our pomegranate paradise smoothie. That was easy, now what to do with all those vegetables?

Once again, we strategically calculated our cache. Since I'm leaving town tomorrow, the escarole and chinese cabbage were out. These require my expert cooking skill. Benedicta has become quite the expert at scoring treasures from the swap box and made it home with two extra bunches of beets and one extra of Rat Tail radishes in place of the escarole and cabbage.

Have you ever seen a Rat Tail radish? It looks like a stalk of green beans but tastes like a radish. Delectable! I'm told it's good slivered and tossed in a vinaigrette. Ours may not make it that far. I'm taking them to a family gathering in Arkansas along with squash and beets. I have a feeling the radishes will be a surprise to unsuspecting tasters who think they're chomping down on a fresh green bean - though they look like a pathetic, undernourished green bean. Perhaps I'll post a warning sign.  

And here's what I cooked last night. Spaghetti Sauce. So easy in the blendtec I can't imagine buying it in a jar. Just add a can of chopped tomatoes, a can of tomato paste, garlic scapes, dried italian herbs and for the special ingredients of the day: fresh scallions and oregano from our weekly haul. Blend, heat and eat!

Red Sorrel Salad with Escarole and White Beans and Zucchini and Sugar Snap Peas

Did you read that title? Yes, that was all at one meal!! The Friday before the 4th of July weekend the office closed at 2:00. That gave me four hours before I had to leave for the theater. What to do? Cook all those vegetables.

Start it off with Salad: Red Sorrel, Green Solix (lettuce), avacado, oranges and almond slivers topped with oil, rice vinegar and little sqeeze of fresh orange. Freshest, zestiest salad I've ever made. I hope there's more Red Sorrel growing up at Stoneledge Farm.

For the main course: Sauteed garlic scapes, escarole, white beans, salt and thyme. Tada! 

And now the side dish: Zucchini, a tad summer squash, sugar snap peas, red sorrel, tarragon, almond slivers and toasted sesame seeds. Crunchy goodness.

Looking so fresh just as it's about to be devoured.

The good news: We have more garlic scapes!!! These are definitely my new favorite cooking item. This was the last week for garlic scapes but fortunately they last a long time and Benedicta was manning the distribution table. Results: We scored 3 bundles, or 24 garlic scapes. 3 down, 21 to go.

Oh and I steamed spinach for freezing. Nothing left but the garlic scapes. And leftovers!!