I am mentally working on some posts about my adventures as of late, but for now a few recipes that make me happy.

The last few weeks, our CSA box has brought us lots of herbs, sweet onions, carrots, kale, beets, lots of lettuce, and today...summer squash and zucchini!

This is a recipe I watched Jamie Oliver do with zucchini. Penne pasta with bacon, zucchini, and a rich carbonara sauce. I really like watching him cook--measuring by handfuls and pinches not cups and teaspoons. We ate it too quickly to take a photo, but here is the foodnetwork version which is, admittedly, much prettier. Click on the picture for the link to the recipe.



And here is another recipe from the week. I have never had beets in any version but pickled (which I remember from my childhood being yucky), so I have a list of different recipes to try with this newfound veggie. This is a delicious cake, a little like carrot cake. If I made it again, I think I'd add some walnuts to the batter before baking. And don't forget the cream cheese frosting. Yum! I've posted the recipe below - click on the title for the original. I wish I had snapped a picture, because the batter goes in the oven bright red and comes out a speckled caramel color.

BEETNIK CAKE
INGREDIENTS:

1 cup vegetable oil 2 cups white sugar 4 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 cups shredded beets 1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple, with juice

3 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice 1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.
2.	In a large bowl, mix together the vegetable oil and sugar until well blended. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the shredded beets and pineapple with juice. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice and salt; stir into the beet mixture until just incorporated. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.
3.	Bake for about 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean. When cool, frost as desired, or eat plain.

My Favorite Kitchen Gadget, and Other Epicurean Musings

My favorite kitchen gadget. Oh, but there are so many to choose from, you say. The tea press is indispensable, and what about the fine grater that zests lemons and limes in seconds, and please don’t forget the food processor! These are all wonderful things, my friends, but for the summer at least, I have to go with practicality over finesse. As long as our CSA keeps delivering large boxes full of leafy greens, the revered kitchen gadget of the summer will be the salad spinner. It is unglamorous for sure, but when you hate washing lettuce as much as I do, it makes life a little simpler.

CSA pick up day every Thursday has become both like a culinary Christmas and a solemn challenge: How much lettuce can you eat in one week? No kidding. We currently have 5 bags of lettuce and 2 bags of spinach in our fridge. As the season continues, we are seeing more diversity in our produce, but salads of all kinds will likely be a staple of every meal for weeks to come. I have been trying to make some different dishes highlighting the organic local produce we get each week. Unfortunately, I am a better cook than food photographer, so you will have to live with descriptions and second rate photographs.

Grilled chicken salad with warm bacon dressing and crispy polenta cakes. I tricked Doug into eating radishes with this dish by grating it into the dressing.

Herbed spinach dip with crudites. Just add some yogurt, lemon, and lemon zest to a handful of spinach and fresh herbs (I used basil, parsley, and garlic scapes).

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie. One of my best (and more attractive) pies to date. Mark Bittman has a great recipe for an all butter crust for those who don’t like to use shortening, and I think substituting a fruit liqueur like Grand Marnier for some of the water in the crust makes it delicious. I used fresh CSA rhubarb, but used grocery store strawberries, since it wasn’t quite strawberry season here.

Crunchy herbed chicken, lemony risotto with peas, and a garden salad. One of my favorite things about cooking is the chance to put together meals with friends and make dinner a community event. Anne provided from her garden tomatoes for the salad, and the thyme and oregano, which flavored both the risotto and the batter for the pan-fried chicken. The CSA provided the onions and peas for the risotto and the lettuce and radishes for the salad. I don't think I've ever had peas that weren't frozen, and these were delicious. Which leads to your fun food fact for the week: Peas, a legume, have been cultivated for about 9,000 years. Legumes were so well regarded in the ancient world that the four major legumes known to the Romans became names for prominent Roman families: Fabius from fava beans, Lentulus from lentils, Piso from the pea, and Cicero from the chick pea. Now don’t you feel smart?

Ever wonder what my kitchen looks like in the aftermath of these experiments? I absolved Doug of his dishwashing duty this night:

Should we as Americans (and especially those of us responsible for educating today's youth) be concerned that it requires multiple signs and fences to keep people from stepping into an active steaming geyser?

Well, we've done it. 3 National Parks, 13 Days. 2,400 Miles. 5 Showers. After a few days of unpacking, doing laundry and dishes, airing out tents and sleeping bags, etc. it feels like we are home. Doug is doing a fantastic job chronicling our trip here, so take a look if you are interested. I still feel very fortunate that we had time (and the benefit of a relatively fuel efficient car) to explore some of the most beautiful parts of our country. While planning, we were a little disappointed that we planned the trip so early in a year with such heavy snowfall, as we weren't able to access all the places we wanted to see. But we were thoroughly rewarded with some early season perks, such as pleasant weather, an astounding display of wildflowers, and waterfalls that would knock your socks off. Doug compares my awe of waterfalls like a child's love of unicorns or rainbows. And it's probably a fair comparison. I will add a video from one of my favorite hikes, to Osprey Falls in Yellowstone. For a comparable effect of the power of this waterfall, place your computer on the bathroom counter plugged into some large speakers, and aim your shower head (cold water of course) on your face as you watch this.