CSA Adventure, Week 14

So the Chinese cabbage was a total bust. Yesterday I made Asian style beef short ribs, in the crockpot (a Real Simple recipe). We'd gotten the ribs from our CSA a few weeks ago, and I thought I could sub the cabbage for the regular green cabbage the recipe called for. Wrong. I took one bite and spit it right back out on my plate. Bitter! I don't know what else to do with them, so I will probably just end up throwing the other two bunches out. I'm glad I didn't chop them up and ruin a whole pot of fried rice with them, as I'd originally intended to do.

The ribs, for what it's worth, were not great either. The sauce was fine, but that was the saddest cut of beef I've ever seen. I don't know what beef short ribs typically cost per pound, but the cost per pound of edible meat must be astounding, because after fighting through all the fat and cutting off the huge bone, I ended up with about five bites of meat. Good grief.

I couldn't help but remark how small everything is this week. The eggplant is tiny and the green peppers are miniatures. Steve said, "Well, there's a reason people use all those nasty fertilizers and such...they work." Hmm.

This week's bounty:

• tomatoes--one regular, six cherry, and two mysterious purplish ones that are sort of like a cross between a Roma and a cherry
• three small eggplants (and I do mean small)
• cucumbers (oh joy)--one regular, three lemon
• about 3/4 pound green and purple beans
• five banana peppers
• three tiny green bell peppers
• basil
• thyme
• six farm-fresh eggs
• two pounds grass-fed ground beef