7.12.17 Wisconsin Grown | Part 10

The last couple of weeks have been a blur. In a good way, of course, but a blur nonetheless. It started with a trip to South Carolina to spend a few days on the beach with my extended family. Most of my mum’s side of the family lives out east, so we don’t get to see them as often as we’d like. To remedy this, every few years, we all get together somewhere on the coast; usually someplace involving a beach house. This time, we stayed in Pawley’s Island, SC. Leo, who’s obsessed with water, took one look at the ocean and the huge beach with plenty of space to run on, and was basically in heaven. We spent time with family, built sandcastles, ate plenty of seafood, and even managed to find some time to relax.

Of course, being so close to Charleston, we had to make a stop there for a day before the end of our trip, because, I love Charleston. We explored the historic downtown area, ate plenty of great food, and took Leo to the aquarium, which he absolutely loved (the tank in the lobby alone occupied him for a good 20 minutes).

We had a blast in SC, but our travels were far from over. We arrived home, only to turn back around the next day and head up to northern Wisconsin for some cabin time over the 4th of July. As usual, the cabin involved plenty of boating, swimming, grilling out, fireworks (much to the dog’s dismay), and time spent outdoors. We’re finally back in town, which means we’re also finally back to our regular CSA boxes again, something I definitely missed while we were travelling (although I can say that our veggies went to a good home while we were gone). And so, without further ado, here’s what we’ll be cooking this week:

Last year, I planted cucumbers in my garden and ended up completely drowning in the sheer quantity my plants produced. This year, I’ve learned my lesson and am only getting cucumbers from the CSA, which means we have a much more manageable quantity on our hands. And in light of this week’s muggy summer weather, I’m thinking our CSA Cucumbers are going to end up as Bowen Appetit’s Cucumber Mint Agua Fresca.

Kohlrabi has made an appearance this week, and while I’m often tempted to go the slaw route when it comes to kohlrabi, this week, I think I’ll be following Dishing Up The Dirt’s example and make them into these Curried Kohlrabi Fries instead.

Over the past week, we discovered that our generally super picky eater of a son actually seems to like jerk chicken (maybe there’s hope for him yet?). So while we’re obviously going to be grilling up some jerk chicken this week, our Collard Greens and Walla Walla Onions are going to make for the perfect side dish.

I feel like hiding Zucchini inside grilled cheese is something I should have thought of ages ago, but leave it to Smitten Kitchen to beat me to the punch. One thing I do know is that we’ll probably be eating this for lunch all week long. Probably with a side of those Kohlrabi Fries.

I also can’t wait to whip up some of Pok Pok’s Stir Fried Chicken with Hot Basil, because, well it’s amazing. Also because Garlic and Basil this week.

And you know what goes great with stir fry? Spicy Pickled Carrot Salad, that’s what. And we’ve got plenty of Carrots to make that happen.

It seems to me that with Parsley and plenty of Carrot Greens, we should probably make this Chickpea Tabbouleh with Carrot Greens as well, don’t you think?

Our backyard Raspberry bushes are producing like gangbusters, and as luck would have it, even more raspberries showed up in our CSA box. I’d like to think I’ll be making them into this Raspberry Peach Galette, but honestly, I think there’s a far better chance we’ll just be stuffing our faces with them. They’re that good.