The colors of summer

My colorful haul for the week: wax
peppers, cucumbers, summer squash,
tomatoes, eggplant, onions,
herbs & spaghetti squash

Today was my first time back at the farm myself in over two months.  What a treat to see the bins of veggies and pick out my produce.  As I moved around the room from cooler to cooler, I noticed a trend in my bags: one was full of greens & yellows, and the other was full of reds, purples, and oranges.  When I make a salad or think about what to serve for dinner, I often try to eat a variety of colors.  I guess I've gleaned information from the FDA over the years that different colors of fruits and vegetables indicate different kinds of vitamins and minerals, so you get more of a balance by eating different plants.  But it was a real treat to see the variety in one week's worth of produce.

Back in the saddle

Adorable tiny graffiti eggplant!

After quite the hiatus, I'm back to cooking with the amazing produce from my CSA.  Soon I hope to write a bit about my food life while I was in Russia, but in the meantime, more seasonal Jersey veggies.  Since I only arrived on Friday after a 32-hour journey home, my roommate was kind enough to visit the farm for me.  This week's haul: eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes (unlimited pick-your-own!), onions, bell peppers, jalapenos, Hungarian wax peppers (and some rather similar looking sweet peppers, but we quickly discovered you can distinguish them by smell), cucumber, butternut squash and a mix of herbs.  This is an entirely different ball game from the greens of June.

Another take on bok choy

Spicy rice noodles with
bok choy & salmon

So I didn't post about this recipe before I left for 9 weeks in Russia, so the details are a little fuzzy.  I know that I used salmon instead of steak, and that the results were AMAZING.  As usual, the fish sauce adds a lovely depth to the dish.  One day, I'd love to know when to add it without having it called for in a recipe.  But for now, I'm happy to use it whenever I see it listed in the ingredients!