Recipe From The Farm Box: Infusions

This Week's box brought forth an abundance of Veg fit to be consumed. But once again, nothing in particular screamed "make a recipe with me." Most of it was just "useful". Here's what I got:

• Curly Kale
• Tomatoes
• Lemon Cucumbers (Looks like Lemons, is a Cucumber)
• Alexandra Heirloom Zucchini (is what that big ugly thing from last week was)
• Mixed Potatoes (Red, White & Blue)
• Eggplant (long and thin)
• Chives
• Lemon Basil
• Lime Basil

So we're in the swing of Zucchini season, which is nice because it adds well to most basic dishes disappearing into the background but adding some texture and fiber where needed. Also fun are the Mixed Potatoes, which will sit until I am ready to use them. Everything else. I mean useful, but nothing really screaming USE ME. My only problem is that Lemon Basil and Lime Basil don't exactly stay. They tend to go bad immediately. I knew I needed to do something with them to capture those truly amazing basils but I wasn't really sure what. Until I remembered something I had consumed in a fancy rooftop bar in washington DC... Infused Liquors. I remember the bartender talking me up about his own PERSONAL infusions as he served me a cucumber gin martini. It was delicious. The flavor breaking highlighting the gin. And so I thought, if you can do that with cucumbers, could you do it with herbs? Could I infuse The Husband's booze of choice, gin, with the basils and make my own unique PERSONAL infusion.

Week 15 Box 15

This week The Box was lovingly delivered to me by The Husband and I had about 5 minutes to look it over, take a picture of it and then run out to a hearing that lasted till 12:00am. Wonderful. Not to mention that I then did the exact same thing on Tuesday, quick PB and J dinner and then back out to a hearing that didn't end till 10:00pm. Welcome to my life. I'm exhausted and in desperate need of a full day of TLC but I don't want to pull a last week and forget to post anything about this week's box so here it is:

Week 13, Box 13

Last week was a disaster, not only was The Box unforgiving minimal, forcing me to work with Beets (ick), but that week, my kitchen also made the untimely decision to FALL INTO A MILLION PIECES. First the dishwasher, then the sink, and of course I was on a mini-break visiting my two very good friends and trying to get some culture/history. Meanwhile The Husband was dealing with the mess that was my kitchen appliances circa 1967. Luckily between himself and my amazing uncle, things were, for the most part, fixed by the time I got home. and BONUS, new dishwasher!!!!!!

Anyway, for what lacked in The Box last week, this week more than makes up for it. I guess you could say I have an over abundance of.... interesting:

Week 9 Box 9

We had a very productive weekend. Not only did we bake Zucchini Bread, we cleaned and organized our office which it desperately needed. See, when we moved in we unpacked, but we didn't really think about where things were going. It was kind of a, let's just get everything AWAY so we don't have to look at it any more and we will deal with it later. Now, 1 year later, we've dealt with it, the office feels neater and my life less chaotic. Bonus: organizing the office freed up the giant tea storage box we had been using as a junk drawer and suddenly we could condense the 5 boxes of wedding gifts into one box, getting rid of the clutter! Think of all we could do if we just put in some shelves (hint hint).

In addition to the cleaning, we took apart the old entertainment stand in preparation for a Brand New (also ordered this weekend) Wall Unit. We drove the old broken down Subaru up to the MIL house for final disposal,  opening up the garage for our needs. We watched Identity Thief, drank way too much Port AND, to top all that off spent a wonderful morning with our Friends Amy and  Ben, breaking in their new home. It was busy, busy, busy but HEAVEN. I love when The Husband has weekends off.

In the Chaos The Husband, who does so much so that I don't have to and who loves me and is amazing, brought me home The Box. I was very excited and hopeful after last week's berry surprise. However, there wasn't too much exciting in this week's box.

Let me walk you through it:

This is NOT my Eggplant Parmesan Recipe

If you know me, in real life, and IF you've ever eaten my food, and IF you've ever asked me what my really, truly best dish is that I make. I will tell you that it is my Eggplant Parmesan. I will tell you that this Eggplant Parmesan has been painstakingly molded into the BEST Eggplant Parmesan anyone has ever made and it only took me 6  years. It started with a day of Food Network watching back in college back when the Food Network was all cooking shows (do you remember that?) I was watching somebody, somewhere make Eggplant Parm and I thought to myself, I can do that better, and I did.

Over the years the recipe was perfected, mostly benefiting my beloved roommates on days when I would skip out of class and just cook because I felt like cooking. I break it out only when begged and I have enough time (can't play hookey from work just to cook). It takes at least 2 full days of cooking. I am PROUD of that recipe and there is no way, NO HOW, NOT EVEN A SINGLE CHANCE that I will give it away.

But, beloved reader, I am not cruel and when The Box gave me Eggplant I could think of nothing better to do then make Eggplant Parmesan. And so, today, for the very first time I am writing down an Eggplant Parmesan recipe, and I will tell you that this recipe will produce a decent Eggplant Parmesan. In fact this Eggplant Parmesan will likely be better then the vast majority of Eggplant Parmesans out there. But rest assured, this is NOT my Eggplant Parmesan Recipe.

If you want that you will have to find a way to extract it from my brain after death.

Week 7 Box 7

After the disaster that was The Box last week. I was anxious to replace the rotting produce in my fridge with a fresh clean start. This week The Box was delivered to me by The Husband while I was at my Parents' house waiting for our wedding photographer to bring us our pictures (EEEEEEEEE!) and it was, un-ironically, delivered  in a box, which, because of my experience with the sp-sp-spider, I promptly made The Husband remove from the apartment as soon as we got home.

I have to honestly say this week The Box is giving me a little bit of a head scratch-er. This is not because there are any particular ingredients in it that are unusual or difficult to work with, but for precisely the opposite reason. It is going to take some thought to try and make the ingredients interesting.

Play your guessing game before looking at the list below: