CSA Bounty

If last night's CSA share wasn't the best yet, it was at least the most colorful pick up I've made!

The tomatoes have come in like crazy! They are beautiful and juicy, in all shapes and sizes. I've got a cherry tomato caprese salad for lunch today: a handful of cherry tomatoes, small chunks of fresh mozzarella, some torn basil, thrown into tupperware with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and salt and pepper... mix up before eating for a fresh and delicious salad!

Since the larger tomatoes are right at their peak of freshness, and I'm going out to dinner tonight, I decided to just go ahead and freeze them. Tomatoes can be frozen whole - do nothing, just stick them in the freezer - and then used for sauces and soups when brought back to life. It's best to do it right when they are at their juiciest and tastiest moment, so that come January, you will have unbelievably flavorful tomato soup at your beck and call. (The texture once defrosted is a little odd, so you wouldn't want to freeze tomatoes and try to eat them on their own.)

Summer squash mix of patty pan, zucchini, and yellow. Not sure yet what these will be turned into. I spent hours last week making multiple eggplant and squash parmesans to freeze for the winter (I am in squirrel mode), so I know I will at least cross that off my list!

Can you believe the color of these peppers? I promise, it's not some weird photoshop action set that made them that beautiful, they really do look like that! I think a fresh salad will be a must for these - perhaps with the ears of corn I also got in the CSA! (Not pictured.)

I can't wait to try these fantastic beans - blanched and thrown together with a creamy lemon vinaigrette and some of those cherry tomatoes... yum!

One thing that came in last night's share that I did not photograph was a watermelon. (Don't ask about the walk home carrying all this; it was treacherous.) Since my watermelon lemonade supply was starting to run dry, I bypassed a photography session and immediately chopped it up and juiced it to make more (of course, it was so juicy and delicious that I ended up putting half right in my mouth instead of into the blender...). I also had a leftover cucumber from last week's share, so I peeled that and put it into the blender with the watermelon. Highly recommended to make the watermelon lemonade even more refreshing!