CSA Monday! Tons o' Tomatoes Edition

Wowza. This week I got a ridiculous amount of tomatoes from the CSA. Add onto that the tomatoes I've gotten from my own garden this week and you've got approximately an *insane* amount of tomatoes. To be honest, I'm getting a little tired of basil at this point. I'm getting tons of it from the CSA and, thanks to giving the plants in my garden a hard harvest about one a month, my garden's basil plants are producing like crazy. I've made and put up a lot of pesto and a whole freezer bag of it chopped up & frozen into ice cubes.

I'm also getting a little burned out on tomatoes. This is a good thing as it is my goal every year to get sick of strawberries, tomatoes and peaches when their season ends here. But, man...the season has just started!

Thus, while I have enjoyed my CSA thus far and would encourage everyone to try it out, at the midway point of our growing season, I'm not sure I'll continue it next year. I mean, next year my garden will be a bit more diverse and fully planted. It'll be producing quite a bit of food if all goes marginally well and most of it will be a duplicate of the CSA offerings. I'm starting to think next year might be the year of the Weekly Farmer's Market Visit. That way I could just buy what I want to supplement my garden.

We'll see. I'm going to have to think through this more...

Anywho, here's the haul:
Eggplant (1), heirloom tomatoes (6!!!), a bunch of basil, a bunch of peppermint, tomatillos (7), blue potatoes (7), and a big honkin' cucumber.

Here's the plan:
Caffeinated peppermint iced tea: Since it's officially hot as hell in the DC area, nothing could be better than some refreshing iced tea. And mint gives it just a little kick.

Panzanella: This is an Italian bread salad. Cut up some day old bread into chunks & toast it if it's still really moist. Add in some chopped tomatoes, cucumber, basil, rosemary and olives with a bit of homemade vinaigrette and you've got something totally delicious.

BLTs: The best way to use a tomato. And, it just so happens that bacon was on sale last week so I stocked up. This my friends is what I like to call "fate." Slather on some chipotle-garlic mayo (Chop up some chipotles in adobo and a clove of garlic & mix with some of your favorite mayo. You'll thank me later.) and you've got yourself the best lunch after a morning of gardening.

Chicken, Mushroom, Spinach Enchiladas with Tomatillo Salsa: I talked about this in my salsa verde recipe although this week I'll be adding some leftover grilled chicken into the mix. Honestly, I don't know what to do with tomatillos besides salsa at this point and this is an easy, healthy dinner to throw together. It also makes great leftovers.

Potatoes Provencal: We'll see how this goes. It's a Mark Bittman recipe. I'll use the blue potatoes for it and add in some tomatoes, eggplant, thyme (from my garden) and artichoke hearts. I'll report back. Should be colorful to say the least!

Are you finding yourself with an over-abundance of tomatoes? What are YOU doing with them?!