Week 8 – Bounty at the Beach

This week’s box

2 Zucchini

a bag of apples (can you believe we get apples this early!)

a bag of Nectarines

a bag of Peaches

a bag of yellow beans

1 head of lettuce

1 large onion

1 pint of cherry tomatoes

a bag of potatoes

Today’s question is relatively simple…what do you do with your box when you go away on vacation?  Ideally, you take as much bounty with you as possible.  Some items like potatoes and zucchini travel long distances well.  After all, this is how most grocers get their produce.  It can be grown half way around the world and shipped.  Items like berries and other fruit are more delicate, and require more TLC to make a long journey intact.

Fortunately, if travelling with fresh food isn’t your thing, Great Country Farms allows for vacations.  You can defer delivery of your box, and get two for a later week.  You just have to call or fill out the online form.  Which we didn’t do…which raises the question…What do I do with this box when I am on vacation.

So here I am in Westerly Rhode Island.   Why, you might wonder? Well, I make an annual pilgrimage to the Newport Folk Festival.  Most years I make the trip and leave the family at home.  This year we all went together, including our daughter living in Ohio.  As I drove the I-95 speedway, I was thinking about what I wanted to make with the produce that had been so carefully packed away in the trunk of my car, and exactly how I would balance writing, watching music, and sitting on the beach!

Summer salads are one of my favorite things to make.  A grilled vegetable salad is a great way to use summer squashes and my family just loves it.  This salad travels well (it can easily be taken to the beach), goes well with lots of different main courses (like sandwiches at the beach), and is really easy to make (especially when your beach house doesn’t have the same things in the pantry that you have at home). 

There are almost an infinite number of ways something like this can be prepared.  Use whatever vegetables you have, or whatever vegetables that you like.  A dressing can be made from scratch, or if you’re at the beach with a limited pantry, use a prepared dressing.  Add cheese if you like.  I use feta, a firm goat cheese would also be good.

Grilled Vegetable Salad

2 medium or 1 large zucchini or yellow squash

2 medium or 1 large onion

about 20 kalamata olives (Greek olives) get the pitted ones it is so much easier!

6 oz Feta Cheese

a bunch of fresh basil (if  you can get it)

olive oil

salt (the best you can find…sea salt or something nice is better Morton’s only if you have to)

freshly ground pepper (if you can)

Prepare the vegetables for grilling by slicing the zucchini length wise.  You want it to be about half an inch thick.  So if your zucchini is normal thickness, this is probably in half length wise.  If its really thick you might get three slices out of each.  Slice your onions in half so that you get rings.  Lightly oil the veggies and sprinkle both sides with the salt and pepper.

Prepare your grill.  If you have a gas grill, turn it on and let it get nice and hot.  If you’re using charcoal, let the coals go until they are completely white and at their hottest point.  Place the veggies on the hottest part of the grill.  You want char marks and a little black on the veggies.  Cook the veggies for about 6 minutes and turn them over.  Be careful turning the vegetables.  This is where (especially the onions) tend to fall through the grates and turn into unusable and inaccessible bits of nasty.  Cook for another 6 minutes or so, until the squash and onions are just cooked through.  The veggies should retain some firmness.  It helps the salad stay together. 

Let the grilled veggies cool.  Once they are cool enough to handle, slice the squash into half inch slices, and the onion into quarters.  Put them in a large bowl.  Chop the Feta into small pieces and add that to the veggies.  I like slicing the olives lengthwise into quarters.  Circles also look nice.  Whole olives I think are a little jarring to eat, so be sure to chop them is some way.  If you have fresh basil, chop the bail and add that as well.  If you don’t that is fine too.  I would not recommend dried for this recepie.

For the dressing….at the beach, I would find a nice vinaigrette at the local grocery store and use that.  Balsamic vinaigrette or a decent Greek dressing would do this salad justice.  You can dress this well in advance.  In fact, I think the longer it sits in the dressing the better it is.  Once you have added the dressing, put the salad in the fridge.  It will last several days (if your family doesn’t eat it all by then)

Enjoy