The Revenge of Veg Friday

[the pics depict holden's first kite flying adventure. much more entertaining than a still life of veggies, methinks.]

The sun has only just peeked it’s bright face here in Portland these past few days, and I don’t want to scare it away by being overly optimistic, but we’re planning a teensy tiny smallest of small summer solstice celebration this evening. Really, no big deal Sun, so if you retreat, we will not cry. Well, maybe just a little.



We’ll build some fairy houses, kiss the trees, maybe sing one song and attempt to eat the entire contents of this week’s CSA bin (plus last week’s spring onions and garlic scapes) in preparation for leaving town on Monday. I don’t want any sad veggies left pouting alone in the crisper next week. So that’s the plan.



Here’s what last week’s veggie adventure looked like:

We ate lots of quinoa salads using the zuchinni, cabbage, arugula and spinach. I love this salad because it welcomes any orphan veggie that I don’t have a recipe for (BTW, quinoa is pronounced “Keen Wah,” I should’ve mentioned that, sorry. Also, you need to use seasoned rice vinegar, not the regular unflavored kind. And did I mention quinoa likes to be sung to? Just a little ditty or limerick, it has quite a sense of humor. Hee)

My favorite bin item was the cabbage. So crisp and sweet, it replaced our regular green salad for a few nights. I added thinly sliced apples and the sugar snap peas and made a vinaigrette using seasoned rice vinegar, sesame oil and olive oil. Yum.



I cooked the rhubarb with the strawberries, lots of ginger and some mint into an ice cream-topping compote. Brian won’t go near strawberries so the kids and I are still working through our jam jar of this. Yum again.

And as I mentioned, we’ll be MIA next week, getting spoiled visiting the grandpeeps. I was trying to decide between bringing my laptop or my sewing machine, and decided to bring neither. None. Nilch. Nada. I’m bringing some hand sewing and the pile of books I’m reading and zero pressure to finish either. So have a lovely solstice, weekend and week, my friends. I’ll be back here sometime next week! xo