Farm Box, Here We Go

The beautiful mess above is what I picked up from the OB farmer's market on Wednesday:

That's right. What. the. cuss.
It's so much food!

I immediately panicked at the thought of how much food I might be potentially wasting. Then I stopped cussing my pants and turned on the oven. I decided to start with the kale.

It's a flat leaf variety and good for making kale chips out of...at least that's what my teacher friend Patti does. She makes it sound easy enough, So why not? thought I. I washed and dried the leaves, massaged them with olive oil, dusted them with Himalayan Pink Salt Crystals (from Trader Joe's of course), laid them on the baking sheet and popped them in the oven. This was the first batch going into the oven:

This was it coming out of the oven:
Cuss.
Turns out you need to watch them like a hawk or they'll burn to a bloody crisp. (And believe me, bloody crisp is not tasty.)

Second batch turned out a bit better and much more tasty, except I think I ate too many of the burned ones because I started to feel sick at this point. They were crispier than they look in this pic.

While the first batch of kale was burning in the oven, I was staring at the little, yellow watermelon, the massive tangle of basil, two stalks of fennel and a box of yellow tomatoes on the counter. I decided, why not? and combined them all into a "melon fennel salad." I added a little fresh ginger and white balsamic vinegar and... it was OK. The basil added some freshness, the melon was seriously delicious, and the ginger and white balsamic vinegar were a surprisingly good combo. However, I realized that I don't like fennel. It tastes like black licorice--if you've never had it--and it just made me want to take Yager shots. Plus, what do you do with all the stalky ferny stuff at the top of fennel? There has to be a use for it, right? (do you know?) Please share a good fennel recipe if you have one-- preferably one that involves cooking it somehow.

So, Day One Assessment of My Cooking Abilities and Farm Box Contents are hereby rated as "Pathetic but Promising"

The next day, I tackled the ridiculous amount of green and wax beans, bell peppers and eggplants. After cutting into, what I thought was just an elongated red bell pepper, and taking a nice big slice to chew on, I slowly and painfully began to realize that I was not chewing a bell pepper, but one of either the padron peppers or Hungarian hot wax peppers...I'm leaning toward the Hungarian variety. This stuff doesn't come with labels or stickers on it...so novices like me have to be careful. Granted, I'm a weakling when it comes to spicy, but I also took a big honkin' bite.
Carefulness: Noted.
Tomorrow: Buy more milk. (Chugged it all to stop the burning.)

After the tears, I chopped the real bell peppers and the garden beans and a small, white eggplant. I decided that I wanted to cook them, of course, but I also wanted to taste them in their most natural form. I'd been planning all day to use Soyaki (my fav!) to saute them, but I changed my mind at the last second, put my faith in the freshness of Suzie, and used just a little Extra Virgin Olive Oil, sea salt, pepper and sesame seeds. I sauteed until they were softish and some were browned on one side, then put this mishmash over some black and pinto beans I'd made in the crock pot a couple days ago.

Fresh veggies really are more delicious and flavorful than the genetically modified or shipped-from-across-the-world versions. (Except the eggplant. That tasted like cuss.) Go figure.

Day Two Assessment of Farm Box Contents and My Cooking Abilities: Rated as "Proficient but still Pathetic"

List of all contents in Farm Box #1:
Radish Bunch
Eggplant (apple green 4-3, Italian 1-2, Thai 2-4 or Rosa Bianca 3-4)
Head of Lettuce
Yellow Cherry Tomato Basket
Armenian Cucumbers
Fennel
Tejas, Nardello, Corno di Toros, Double Up, and Red Antohi Peppers (Sweet)
Kale
Hungarian Hot Wax Peppers
Melon
Basil Bunch
Green or Yellow Wax Beans
Summer Squash
Padron Peppers
Micro Arugula