dinner - yum

Lots of good fresh food lately, supplemented by a raid on the grocery store for a few out-of-season, non-local items I was craving.

We've been eating salads nearly every night. I'm starting to think of them as "kitchen sink" meals because we load them up with just about anything we can think of -- lots of farm lettuce, leftovers, various cheeses, steamed and cooled vegetables, and so on. Salads around here are not boring.

One night, we had a tiny salad with farm cucumbers, farm carrots, and a store tomato, with a dressing of vinegar, soy sauce, and toasted sesame oil. Very tasty.

It's been fairly cool, so we've also been cooking. One night, we had alio y olio -- pasta with olive oil sauteed garlic (store bought but organic) and farm peas, topped with romano cheese.

Tuesday, farm day, Mr. P made string bean thoren, that delicous south indian dish that includes shredded coconut and sauteed rice and mustard seeds.

A few nights ago, we had summer squash canoes -- hollowed out summer squash, topped with sauteed onion, garlic, and multigrain bread, then roasted for a short while under tender but not mooshy. Mr. P thought they were delicous, despite his antipathy toward zucchini and its ilk.

Last weekend, we attended a potluck party to which we brought a salad (natch) and a dish made of cubed watermelon, blueberries, feta cheese, and fresh mint. Although some people were a bit cool to the fruit dish, a few people raved about it.

Today, we're off to a party to which we'll bring cole slaw, mostly because we have a head of farm cabbage in the fridge and after getting no carrots at the farm, I bought a bunch, only to get a load of farm carrots this week. I think I've found a decent recipe for dressing that is vegan, so I'll give that a try (oil, vinegar, sugar, mustard, celery seed, salt, chopped onion).