CSA experiment #4: In my pickinic basket

Inspired by this recipe, on Friday I made a summer salad with feta.

Summer Salad with Feta

4 generous servings

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 large cucumber, seeded, quartered and sliced 1/4 inch thick
1/4 c red onion, chopped (mine was a full super tiny one, half of a normal small one would be about right)
20 or so chopped kalamata olives
salt and pepper
2 T sherry vinegar
1/4 c olive oil
1/2 c crumbled feta (I used Trader Joe's fat free feta, and I couldn't tell the difference)
1/4 c fresh mint, chopped

Toss together the tomatoes, cuke, onion and olives. Mix vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper and toss with the veggies. Add the feta and mint and toss again. Adjust seasonings to taste.

This salad was delicious! My normally anti-vegetable husband was so taken with it that he had seconds, and I caught him standing in front of the fridge eating leftovers out of the bowl.

Tonight, we decided to have a picnic in the park, so to the leftovers of this salad, I added 1 1/2 cups of chopped leftover cooked chicken. I put big leaves of green leaf lettuce in whole wheat pita pockets and stuffed them with the chicken salad mixture. It was divine! The boy noted that it tasted so good that one might have thought that I made the salad for this purpose. I served the pita sandwiches with leftovers of this chilled cucumber soup made with mint instead of basil.

We had a great time. The food was refreshing and light, the park was beautiful and remarkably empty, and it was a perfect end to a relaxing weekend.

Summer in a bowl, or CSA experiment #3

Okay, so I've actually done more than three experiments with my lovely CSA produce, but I've been dreadful about recording them for posterity...

I've been really grooving on my Culinary Artistry book since it basically has lists and lists of flavors that mesh well. I got more cucumbers this week when I still had one left from last week, and as I've got a full container of cucumber onion salad marinating in the fridge, that was out. I checked the pantry and found a can of light coconut milk and I thought--ooh, a cold cucumber soup would be perfect for a hot July evening when I got home from work after 7pm. The recipe below chronicles the experiment.

Chilled Cucumber Soup

2 medium cukes, chopped (I left the peel on)
1 can light coconut milk
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1 fat doobie of basil, minced fine (about 1/8 c.)

Put cukes, milk and garlic in blender. (Nothing fancy is necessary. I use the Osterizer Galaxy that my parents got as a wedding gift in 1975.) Puree for a minute or so until pretty well blenderized. Add basil and a little salt and blend. Taste.

It still needed something so I added:

1 T lemon juice
4 good shakes of white pepper
more salt

Blend. Taste.

At this point it still wasn't quite right, so I added a little more salt and pepper.

There was still a place in the back center of my tongue that the soup was missing. I decided it needed something tangy, so I added:

1-2 T. white wine vinegar
a couple more shakes of white pepper
a touch more salt

Blend. Taste. Perfect! Chill for a few minutes (or more) before serving--in retrospect I probably should have added a couple of ice cubes to help with the chilling process. But it was still good only a little cool.

Makes about 3 servings, 2 generous servings.

The boy called this "the best cucumber I've ever eaten." It was crisp and cool and the flavors meshed really well. I'm not always that into cold soups, but this was excellent, and also super easy and quick.