Plum picklings!

I cannot remember what we cooked on Saturday. I will skip to Sunday. We were busy, busy.

Sunday lunch:
In the afternoon, for a late lunch, Matt made a sort of tofu-vegetable-leftover-grain hash. It was hearty and satisfying.

Sunday pickle project:
I made some quick-pickled vegetables. The recipe was supposed to make 3 quarts, and I did use 3 quart-sized canning jars, but none were filled to the top. For the basis of my recipe, I turned to The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen by Peter Berley. My modifications were relatively minor. I chose to use coriander and fennel seeds, instead of mustard seed and turmeric. And I replaced the dill with rosemary from my porch herbs. For the vegetables, I used the rest of my string beans and carrots, some zucchini and pattypan squash, and the lonely kohlrabi. The jars were not "processed" in hot water, so they must be refrigerated and consumed within 3 months or so. It seemed like a lot of pickles to me -- I'm not accustomed to consuming a lot of pickled and vinegary things -- but after a couple of samplings (24 hours later), one jar is nearly done. The vegetables are crisp and fresh, with an appropriate amount of salt/vinegar flavor, and mild garlic/spice notes. They are not excessively pickly-tasting. I am very pleased with how this has turned out. I can see that we can easily consume all of these vegetables, and I am thinking forward to when school starts again. These will make a nice addition to school lunches, particularly the bento box that I pack for our oldest.

Sunday dinner:
One of our standby easy dinners: Harissa spaghettini recipe, made with our homemade harissa. From this recipe on 101 cookbooks. We used all of our leftover kale and collard greens, so it was heavy on the greens, which is just the way I like it.

Sunday treat:
Vegan chocolate-chip cookie bars.

Pickles on the horizon

Tuesday we picked up our full share -- again. It consisted of:
4 heads of lettuce
1/2 pound salad mix
1 large bunch scallions
1 large bunch basil
1 bunch carrots
1 bunch gorgeous, leafy celery
1 bunch lacinato kale
1 bunch toscano kale
1 bunch collard greens
4 pounds zucchini and summer squash (mostly pattypan)
3 pounds red potatoes
1 head garlic
10 cucumbers
I forget how many green peppers
PYO: 30 stems flowers (black-eyed susans, snapdragons, yarrow, my favorite funky weird ones), 1 small bunch parsley, 2 boxes green beans (about 2 pounds, maybe?).

Tuesday dinner - using up leftover veggies from last week:
Matt made a huge amount of risotto, with carrots, zucchini, beets, kale. It wasn't the prettiest, because the beets turned the whole thing pink, but it was very good. And enough leftovers for lunch the next day... and day after.

Wednesday lunch:
Lazy me served whole wheat pasta with some of the basil-parsley-walnut pesto I made on Monday. It needs some marinated portabellas or something. Still, it went over well.

Wednesday dinner:
Matt made some baked marinated tempeh, which he served on bread with some lettuce and kimchee. It was alright. He also made some baked tofu, to be saved for later. I ate a large amount of lettuce with leftover dressing.

I am definitely making pickles of some kind this week. I don't think I have the "right" kind of cucumbers, but I'll give it a try... plus I will use up that lonely kohlrabi from last week.