CSA: week 2

Much more stuff this week: 3 boxes of strawberries, more rhubarb, chard, leaf lettuce, broccoli, Italian parsley and a marigold plant. Lots-o-green.

The strawberries were ultra ripe. Had to use them tonight or lose them. We each had a bowl of ice cream with the berries for dessert and used the rest to make a few small batches of jam.

Instant Berry Jam

1 1/2 cups berries, whole

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon butter

Wash berries, remove stems or hulls, and crush evenly in a bowl. You should have 1 cup crushed berries. In a 3 qt. casserole or pyrex bowl, stir together berries with remaining ingredients. Cook uncovered in microwave on high for 8 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes. Serve warm or cool. Store in covered jar in refrigerator.

Nat and I made one batch of the jam with just strawberries, and one with 1 cup of strawberries and 1/2 cup of finely chopped rhubarb. Yum. It will definitely be a PB&J day tomorrow.

My other plans for the week are to make an artichoke dip using the chard (subbing for spinach), and a salad with roasted beets, goat cheese and candied walnuts. I'm sure I will use the broccoli in a stir-fry of some kind, and the parsley in about everything (maybe a minestrone that will also use the chard?)! I cut the rhubarb into small pieces and threw it in the freezer so I can add it to recipes later on. Natalie is researching rhubarb recipes for me... I told her it had to be something that she would eat. I'm thinking rhubarb muffins would be good.

Really excited about this whole CSA thing right now. It is definitely keeping me out of the grocery store which is saving us money. It has really forced me to be creative and healthy with my cooking.