So I decided to get crazy. (I’m on the 4th night of my husband being away, after all.)

I started with this. (looks pretty good, huh?)

I split it in half, dropped a little bit of oil on each side, and sprinkled salt and pepper. Then off to the grill it went.

Success! It was easy and yummy.

side note: Beside the eggplant is a ground turkey burger I pulled out of the freezer. I stole this recipe from Whole Foods. One day they were grilling these burgers in their parking lot. And they are so nice about listing the ingredients for everything. So I got out my pen. To the best of my memory, it’s:

• ground white meat turkey
• green curry paste (about 2 T. per pound)
• coconut milk (to keep it moist)
• cilantro
• green onion
• lime juice

I over-cooked the turkey burger, so I poured some left over pesto over it.

This is one of my favorites and is totally easy! I marinate the salmon in:

• soy sauce
• rice wine vinegar
• garlic
• ginger
• lime juice

Next, I grill it, skin side down. (let’s face it, I grill everything!) Meanwhile, I cook some jasmine rice. I quickly sauté some veggies in a skillet (sometimes I steam them by throwing them on top of the rice 1/2 way thru cooking.) This time I did broccoli, carrots and green onions — all from the farmer’s market.

When the veggies are 1/2 way cooked, I pour some coconut milk in the pan with them. While stirring, I add about 2 Tbs of curry. I usually toss in a few dashes of cayenne to my curry since it’s from the grocery store and doesn’t have much kick.

Last, but not least, I cover it with salt before I eat it. I’m not sure why, but I feel it needs it. mmmm, so good!!

The batter should NOT be whipped as much as you would at lower altitudes.

The final product looks like this:

Using cake flower is important:

The first thing I did was stop by some cherry trees I’d noticed earlier in the week on a bike ride. I’d talked to the residents and they’d said I could grab as many cherries as I wanted. These were not as sweet or as big as cherries you’d get from the store, but still very edible.

After that, I got a cherry pitter and some scissors. I took the scissors to my garden and cut most of my normal basil (I have some cinnamon basil with which I’m still trying to figure out something to do). I made pesto:

• basil (stems are fine as long as you can chew them)
• olive oil
• parmesan cheese
• pine nuts

Stick it all in the food processor, chop it up and pesto you have! I forgot to put in some garlic, but it was still pretty good. You can see I only got about a 1/2 pint, but now it is in the freezer for some winter day when I want to spread it on toast.

After that, I made breakfast from some things I’d gotten from the CSA. This is stir fried zuchinni and onions, with some chard remnants tossed in at the end.

For lunch, I made pizza-dillas.

• tomato sauce
• shredded cheese
• dried salami
• tortillas

Place all ingredients on tortilla, heat in toaster oven until cheese is melted. Mmmmm.

I also tried a recipe from the CSA handout–baked kale:

• kale
• olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees wash the kale. Remove the stems. Mix enough olive oil with kale in bowl to coat kale lightly.  Spread kale on a ungreased baking dish. Make sure that the kale is only one level thick–I burned my kale because I put too much in it (some pieces were not crispy, so I left it in too long). Stick it in the oven, checking every 3-5 minutes for crispiness. At the end, it tastes a bit like a healthy potato chip. My SO suggested mixing the kale with bacon, which would of course make it taste better.

And finally, I pitted all the cherries. Originally, I was planning to dry them, but laziness got the better of me and I stuck them in jars in the freezer, to be enjoyed in a pie or on ice cream in the future.

What a day!

romaine lettuce with mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, dried cranberries, cucumbers and feta cheese. rosemary sourdough bread and salami on the side. (the cranberries are a nice balance to the salami)

mixed lettuce with cucumber, tomatoes, feta and beets (also from my garden). alongside a sort-of-panini with grilled chicken, pesto, roasted red peppers, mozzarella and basil.

I actually saw this on Food Network. Tyler Florence made something similar. I made the dough in my bread machine (easy!), which took an hour. Then I pressed the dough out into an oblong shape and painted it with olive oil that I had warmed some garlic in. I sprinkled Herbs de Province on top. It went on a hot grill, oil side down. I let it set for a couple minutes, then flipped it and topped it with more oil, left over marinara, mozzarella, mushrooms and prosciutto. yummy! It was quick and easy easy easy! Be careful not to let it burn.

Ingredients:

• white potatoes (1 large)
• sweet potatoes (1 medium-large)
• hard boiled eggs (2-3)
• mayo (2-3 tbs) — I use Hain’s Safflower mayo, which is dairy-free.
• brown mustard (1 tbs)
• fresh chives (1 tbs)
• fresh parsley (1 tbs)
• capers (1 tbs)

Directions:

1. Peel potatoes. Cover with water, boil and cook until soft.
2. Drain and set aside to cool.
3. Hard boil eggs. (I place eggs in boiling water, cook for 12 minutes. Remove and immediately place eggs in ice water.)
4. Chop herbs. Put herbs, mustard, mayo, capers in a mixing bowl.
5.  Add potatoes to the herb mixture and mix well.
6. Chop eggs (in quarters or eights), add to mixture and lightly mix.

This is tasty when warm, or after refrigerated. You can easily double or triple this if you’re taking it to a picnic or family reunion.