Another Day, Another CSA...

Yay for Fridays! Like I said before...I never get tired of picking up our CSA bag and snooping through it to find all the wonderful goodies.

I figured you'd want to snoop through it as well! Today we got 3 cucumbers. We will be snarfing those up raw this weekend! There is a nice bag of ripe and ready red tomatoes, 3 summer squash, a bowl of peaches and a big ole bunch of kale! The peaches will be gone by morning. Now, kale is all the rage these days. You know that, right? It's famous for juicing and all it's amazing health benefits. It's a funny veggie. It is kind of a weird texture and acquired taste. I have tried a few different kale chip recipes. I haven't loved one well enough to share with you. I do like chopping it up coarsely and adding to my "light broth summer soups". My daughter brought a kale salad to one of our shindigs and that recipe is worth sharing. Everyone loved it! That's saying a lot when it comes to kale.

Superior Kale Salad
1 cup crusty French bread torn into pieces
1 large bunch kale (stems removed and chopped into pieces)
2 TBSP lemon juice
1/4 cup + 1TBSP olive oil
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Chop bread in a food processor until crumbly. Heat 1 TBSP olive oil in a small pan and saute crumbs
until lightly browned. Remove from heat. In small bowl whisk well the lemon juice and olive oil. In a large bowl toss kale, dressing, bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese. Fresh black pepper is a nice finish.

Not only was today the exciting CSA day, but...I got a nice surprise from the FEDEX guy. I have been having a dilemma. I have to drive to 2 or 3 destinations to get my groceries. This summer the heat has been pretty crazy and I have wondered how to keep my perishables safe on my drive. I have gone without meat and cheeses several times because I didn't think it would survive the temps. I like picking up yummy local cheeses at the farmers market but then have to go to the grocery store for butter and fish and meat. The town I happen to live in hasn't quite embraced the food movement and clean eating yet. This means I have to drive to a larger town about 20 miles away to get what I need.
I was randomly surfing the web the other day and came across a solution!

I got pretty excited when I saw this "get up". It fits in the trunk of a car and has 3 compartments. Then, it also comes with the insulated cooler bag. The cooler bag is portable but fits inside the middle compartment. Ohhhhh...I thought this might just be the answer. I hurried and ordered it. It said it wouldn't arrive until next week sometime and then BOOM, it showed up today as I was on my way to go shopping!

I think I'm in love with it! There is still plenty of room for grocery bags and I liked being able to stuff my reusable bags inside it on the way to the market.

I was really happy because I desperately needed butter and Greek yogurt this week and I haven't purchased meat or fish for several weeks because of the heat issue. Wild caught Coho salmon was on sale today for a really good price and I also wanted a few chicken breasts. I hadn't had time to freeze one of those blue ice things yet, so I asked the butcher if he could give me a small bag of ice to throw in the cooler. So glad I asked! Even better, he said they are now "recycling" the ice packs they get with their shipments and I was welcome to take a couple. I loved that! Wow...is it weird how excited this made me feel?

That's my salmon on top! Dinner tomorrow night with a kale salad and fresh cukes.

I think this is a pretty sweet set-up...

Oh, and speaking of kale...one of our adorable sprouts wearing her "eat more kale" shirt at the "March Against Monsanto" a couple months ago...she's cool.