Happy Saturday John!

I started planning for this week on Wednesday, after we received the predicted contents email. Thursday I was focused on doing the things in the kitchen. Yesterday, as you just reminded me, I was too busy looking up bike parts for you.*

So here we are, easing into the weekend. Me planning meals and you debating which dessert we should make for tonight. Later we’ll go kayaking and bike to an open house. Sometimes, having three bikes actually feels reasonable.

And now for some bean sprouts

Last week we stopped by the garden store and picked up a packet of dried soup beans. Our first intentionally planted beans in this plot! The packet said 7-10 days to germinate, and here they are.

The carrots, planted on the same day, have not yet appeared. But we’ll keep trying to plant those every few weeks until frost is nigh.

Meals for now…and for later

• You just said that the apricot pistachio squares look interesting. Though we may still do a peach tart from Flavor Flours or Baking. That is, if I can remember what I baked when Kathy stayed with us two years ago.
• The smashed cucumber salad was a hit last week. We did not try the other cucumber salad recipes. And I do believe we are going to be eating it again.
• Slicing cucumbers are the ones we’ll use to actually go back for the celery and cucumber salad in Six Seasons
• More green bean pesto potato salad! Or the green bean fennel salad!
• Purple bell peppers, huh? I think the idea of stuffing them is the right idea. I’m not as big a fan of bell peppers, so I don’t know what to do with them beyond top salads or pizza or stirfy. Especially when we don’t yet have tomatoes. There is the roasted pepper panzanella in Six Seasons that would use some pepper and red onion and some oregano. Which may make it enough of a winner right there.
• My memory of the malabar spinach is I didn’t love it raw. Let’s cook it with some rice and beans and use it to stuff the bell peppers. Maybe with some roasted centercut squash.
• Oh! I bet we can dehydrate zucchini for backpacking. For a pasta recipe. Maybe something like this or a peanut noodle dish? Actually, maybe we toss the rest of the cabbage in the dehydrator while we’re at it. I’m sure we could use it in a stirfry this week, but maybe let it be a backcountry experiment. [Edit: dehydration complete!]
• Especially since we can slice the kohlrabi for another salad this week. Saute the last of the kale and you’ve got my old favorite.
• Speaking of the kohlrabi, see all those leaves in the picture? I cooked them up with some lentils, garlic, onions, and spices. Squeeze of lemon, handful of raisins. Served on rice for dinner on Thursday. Leftovers are already dehydrated for us to use as a cold soak salad for a backpacking lunch.
• Our other dehydrator experiment this week was a smoothie. Yogurt + peach + a little bit of banana + frozen mango + some fresh ginger = My delicious breakfast this week. Poured into the dehydrator the fruit leather it turned into was yummy. Crumbled into the spice grinder and turned into a powder that smells divine. We’ll see next month how rehydrating on the trail actually fares.
• The eggplant is beautiful. Dining In has a recipe for fried eggplant with harissa and dill and honestly, that sounds like it could be amazing. And we have dill that needs to be used.
• If we buy an avocado, we could probably make a green gazpacho pretty easily
• Watermelon by itself. Watermelon with feta and pickled red onions and basil. Mmmmmm watermelon.

I have no plans for the cherry tomatoes. They are already half eaten. They are summer’s gift and my belly is happy.

~s

* It is a sign of how much Covid messed up supply chains that the bike shop told you that they don’t expect to get the part for you bike for a year. My internet sleuthing suggests they might be overly optimistic–the supplier’s website says the inventory system is wrong and that they expect more of this $30 part in 2023.