CSA adventures, week 1

I decided to subscribe to a CSA this year.  If you're not familiar, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.  Basically, you buy a share in a farm and get a box of produce each week in exchange.  I've been toying with the idea for a couple of years, and when a friend offered to split a share so neither of us would be overwhelmed, I jumped at the chance.

The trick, of course, is working it into your meal plans.  Week one, I received:

Asparagus
Collards
Rhubarb
Parsley
Strawberries

There were also two gorgeous heads of leaf lettuce, but since I have lettuce taking over the garden, I let my friend take those.

When it comes to asparagus, my husband is pretty set in his ways (actually, my husband is pretty set in his ways about most things, but once in a while, I can slip something new to him and he'll eat it.  He won't always eat it twice, but he'll almost always eat it once!).  He wants it either roasted or grilled.  So I drizzled it with olive oil, sprinkled it with kosher salt, and grilled it on a night when I was making grilled chicken.

The collards came with a grilling recipe, but I didn't have all the ingredients on hand.  So I went googling and came up with this recipe for creamed collards.  I knew hubby wouldn't want it, and there wasn't much since I'd split the bunch with my friend, so I made it for lunch.  I didn't have cream, so I used half and half.  It was divine!  My daughter wouldn't eat it, but I happily ate her share.  And the leftovers were excellent cold, I have to say. 

The rhubarb and strawberries are living in my freezer, waiting for the right opportunity (we're getting a ton of strawberries off of our plants right now, so we have plenty to eat fresh). 

I've used the parsley in a few things - mixed some into a boxed couscous mix, put some in salad, things like that.  I'm probably going to just chop the rest and freeze it in ice cubes for use in recipes later on.  It was quite a bit of parsley.  I should make tabbouleh, but I think I'm the only person who would eat it!

Looking forward to seeing what the rest of the summer has in store!