6.14.17 Wisconsin Grown | Part 7

It feels as though, in the last week or so, the weather has transitioned from rainy, cool, balmy spring, to hot, humid, full-on summer. While we’ve been coping with the heat by spending lots of time in or around water, enjoying the AC, and eating our fair share of ice cream, I can already tell that our vegetable garden is loving this warm, wet summery weather. I know we still have a while until we can harvest, but I can’t help but get excited. Luckily, we have another CSA haul this week to keep us well stocked with other vegetables. Here’s what we’re cooking with this week:

I’m getting my hands on as many Strawberries as I can these days; I’ve gotten them from the farmers’ market, taken Leo strawberry picking, and now we’ve got more from the CSA this week as well. Besides eating them plain, we’ll probably whip up several of these Strawberry, Balsamic, and Lemon Thyme Smashes to help beat the heat. And if we’re feeling fancy, this Strawberry Oatmeal Cookie Tart seems like a good option as well.

Arugula happens to be one of my favorite pizza toppings. Throwing a handful atop a hot, freshly made pizza really adds a nice crisp balance to the copious amount of cheese you know is going on my pie. These days, I’m opting to grill my pizza, and I highly recommend you do the same.

The first Carrots of the season are tender, thin skinned, and so sweet and tasty, it seems a shame to eat them any other way but raw. I’ll be adding them to salads this week; salads like Minimalist Baker’s Thai Carrot Salad with Curried Cashews, along with some of this week’s Spinach.

And speaking of Spinach, any that’s left over is getting tossed into this Soy Citrus Soba Noodle Salad along with plenty of Radishes for some seriously good lunches this week.

In addition to the usual suspects in the greens department this week, we also got a big bunch of Amara Mustard Greens, also known as Ethiopian kale. Therefore, it seems only fitting that we use them in place of collard greens to make Gomen Wat, a dish of spiced Ethiopian greens.

I normally dread trying to figure out a good way to use up Kohlrabi, but having stumbled across Food and Wine’s Whole Roasted Kohlrabi topped with feta and jalapenos, I’m honestly a little excited to eat my kohlrabi this week.

We got a seriously gigantic head of Lettuce this week, so we’re definitely going to be eating our fair share of lettuce salads as well, whether simply dressed in Epicurious’s Garlic Vinaigrette (but we’ll use our Green Garlic of course, because we have plenty more this week) or in a more complex salad form, like this Thai Style Fried Egg Salad, a definite favorite of mine

Last, but certainly not least, we have more Hakurei Turnips this week. Turnips that are most definitely getting pickled, ala Serious Eats. They’re going to be great for snacking or adorning our cheese plates.