These couldn’t be any easier – and they’re pretty tasty! The trick here is to use “younger” zucchini so the skin is still tender. Once the skin gets too dark, that is a sign that it will be tough and the seeds will be too mature to enjoy in this form.

INGREDIENTS

2 medium to large zucchini, with light green to green skin
olive oil for brushing
italian seasoning
fresh cracked black pepper

DIRECTIONS

Preheat gas grill over medium-low heat. Slice ends off zucchini. Being careful with your cutting tool so you don’t chop off part of a finger, slice zucchini into “planks” (long cross sections, instead of the circular cross sections) about 1/4 wide. Arrange planks on foil lined cookie sheet in single layer. Brush lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with Italian seasoning and black pepper. Flip planks over and repeat.

Grill 1st side until char marks appear and zucchini comes easily off grill surface, about 5-6 minutes total on first side. Flip to other side and cook for another 4-5 minutes and enjoy!

If you do this over charcoal, just put the planks down on the outer edges of the fire so you don’t burn them. You can also roast the planks in the oven – I haven’t done this recently, but I’d guess you’d need to put them in a 425 degree for about… 10-15 minutes a side? Has anyone done this before?

I got about a pound of asparagus from my CSA this week, and also found another half-handful at the back of my fridge that I needed to eat up. I used a recipe I found in Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse Vegetables and I must share it with you – it was so simple and so delicious.

Depending on how fresh the asparagus is, there is a woody part at the bottom of the asparagus that you will want to break off – if you bend the spear, it tends to break at the right point. If it is really fresh asparagus, when you push on the cut end, liquid will squeeze out and the woody part may not be there; if it is not so fresh, the cut end will be dried out, and the break point will be further up the spear (much further if it is really dried out).

In addition, I peeled some asparagus for the first time. My asparagus spears were of varying sizes, and to let the big ones cook a little faster, I peeled them by holding the tip and using a potato-peeler along the length of the spear. It seemed to work okay – you want to peel the spears which, if you bite into them raw, the fibers get caught in your teeth.

At this point, you can steam or boil the spears whole, or grill them over some coals, or roast them in a little oil the oven, and drizzling some balsamic vinegar over them at some point is delicious too.

But the recipe I want to share with you is this one: prepare the asparagus spears (break off the woody end, and Waters says you can use the ends for soup stock but I’m not sure how; peel if you’re going to) and slice into 1/2 to 3/4 inch slices, leaving the spear tips intact.

Then take a knob of fresh ginger (I know this isn’t seasonal to spring, but I keep a root or two in a ziploc bag in the freezer for when I need it throughout the season), peel off the skin (a potato-peeler works for this too, especially if the ginger is frozen), and slice first into 1/8 inch slices and then julienne.

In a frying pan over high heat, melt a knob of butter (clarified if you have it, but I didn’t), and sautee the ginger until it becomes crispy and golden brown. Before the butter starts to brown too much, add the chopped asparagus, and sautee until bright green (usually about 2 minutes) and tender. Add a little salt and pepper to taste, and Waters says to pour off any extra melted butter, but I didn’t have any (and might think it a waste, especially if you serve the asparagus over mashed potatoes or rice!).

This was really marvelous. All my asparagus reduced down to enough for 2 people (or dinner, and leftovers for tomorrow). And with my leftover risotto and some more of the swiss chard from yesterday, and a square of dark chocolate for dessert… mmmmmmm….

Tuesdays are CSA days, and in my haul today included a huge bunch of swiss chard, a head of lettuce, a bag of mesclun, a handful of asparagus, and a kohlrabi. I thought I would tackle the swiss chard tonight, leaving the lettuce for a good lunch tomorrow, the asparagus for steaming or roasting, and the kohlrabi for sauteeing for dinner tomorrow.

Swiss chard is pretty easy to deal with – wash the leaves thoroughly, cut out the ribs (leaving, essentially, two halves of the leaf and the rib), and, keeping the leaves and ribs separate, chop into pieces as thin as you like. (I slice the ribs about 1/2 thick, and I roll the leaves and slice the roll across the circle bit thinly into a chiffonade. It seems to work.) Sautee the ribs in some oil over medium heat, and after they soften, add the chopped leaves. Cook until bright green, and eat. Yum.

But this can get dull, especially because chard is so prolific and you can end up eating it all summer. So I dolled up my usual recipe.

I used butter instead of oil (a couple of tablespoons for a large bunch of chard), I sauteed the chopped ribs with half a large onion, and just before the leaves were done, I added a handful of raisins and the remaining capers I had in the fridge (probably 1/3 c, I confess). When it all was done, I sprinkled some balsamic vinegar over the mixture and some toasted sliced almonds (toasted in a dry skillet on the stove top, stirring frequently until brown enough).

I’m quite pleased by the result! And have some chard for leftovers. This recipe, made with a large bunch of chard, looks like it would do for 2 veggie people (the leaves shrink drastically, like spinach).

Sorry for the long blogging absence!

We are members of two CSAs(=”Community Supported Agriculture“), one in Illinois and one in Indiana. The one in Illinois, Henry’s Farm, is fairly infamous for its fabulous variety of vegetables, and its servicing of Chicago restaurants. The one in Indiana we’re new to, ECO/TwinCrooks, which works with an Amish farmer in Montezuma, IN.

We love our CSA relationships, and look forward to pickups on Tuesdays. This is the third year we’ve been members of Henry’s CSA, and we’ve learned so much about seasonal eating, and completely different fruit and vegetables than you might find at a supermarket. We love the fact that our money (paid in the depths of February, to help the CSA farmer buy seeds at a time when he/she has little other income) goes straight to the farmer with no middleman, and we love knowing who picks our food and that it comes from less than 100 miles away. In general, CSAs are also organic, although many are not certified because of the huge cost that comes with government certification which is too much for small farms to bear.

We decided to join both CSAs this summer because we don’t know where we’ll be most of the time, Illinois or Indiana, or traveling. The Illinois share we have to ourselves, and we give it to friends when we’re out of town; the Indiana share we have split with 2 other folks, which means really none of us get enough veggies when we’re all in town but most of the time we only split with one other person. Or, like this week, I get them all to myself. And because we’re vegetarian, we can totally eat through 2 shares of veg, although this week with all the salad we got, it might be a bit harder. But I’m okay with salad for two meals a day, especially when the greens are as good as they are.

This week, in the Indiana share, we got:

• a bag of mesclun
• a head of some lovely kind of lettuce
• 2 rhubarb spears
• a pound of very long asparagus
• a bunch of radishes, greens attached and looking fab
• chives and apple mint
• STRAWBERRIES, with extra quarts available for purchase. Needless to say, I bought one and would have bought more, but didn’t want to be too piggy.

With all the good lettuce stuff, and me not feeling all that well last night, I had a huge salad for dinner. But what to use as a dressing? Since we’ve been CSA members, I’ve stopped buying salad dressings and started buying more cookbooks with dressing recipes in them. If you have a blender or cuisinart, they’re so easy to make, and so much better than the store-bought ones, and I’ve converted completely. Here’s the dressing I made last night (halved), with an end of blue cheese I found in the fridge.

Best blue cheese dressing
from Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special, p. 318, and annotated by me

3/4 c canola or other vegetable oil (I used grapeseed as I was out of canola)

1 c crumbled Danish, Maytag or your favorite blue cheese (I used Stilton. What a waste, you might say! But it makes for great dressing.)

2 tbsp cider vinegar

3 tbsp fresh lemon juice (I even had a lemon in the fridge! Callou-callay!)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 to 2 tsp sugar

2/3 c 2% milk (I used skim, and it worked fine).

Pour the oil into a blender/cuisinart, add the crumbled blue cheese (or just stick in a big block of the cheese and pulse the blender until crumbled ). Add the vinegar, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and 1 tsp of the sugar, and puree for a few seconds. Pour in the milk and puree until thick and smooth. Add more sugar to taste, if needed. Pour the dressing into a serving container, cover tightly, and refrigerated. Yields 2 cups.

So salad with green onions, pine nuts, and this dressing, a few sesame sticks, and strawberries – sounds like a great dinner to me.

Hope you’re enjoying the beginning of summer wherever you are!