Ancient Chinese Secret, Huh? Sauté the Scapes!

KELLY * June 24 * Dinner

Well, I totally feel like the housework I did today was repaid tenfold. We were making it toward the end of the week and we were starting to panic about eating all of the stuff. AAAAHHHHH!!!!! So many greens, peppers, and squashes (is that a word?)! What are we going to do?! I voted for a noodle stir-fry. I must say that my vote was not wasted. Liz is hurrying off to complement our lovely dinner with ice cream eaten straight from the container (but we won't judge). In short, tonight's veggie noodle stir-fry kicked some serious butt and has perhaps officially apologized for the entire bag of stale kettle corn that I ate this afternoon. I finished eating about 10 minutes ago and mouth is still burning slightly. I call that a good day.

ELIZABETH * June 24 * Dinner

Yup, it was good. Red Ripe Jalapenos from Visser's (Holland Farmers Mkt), Yellow Squash, Green Onion, Garlic Scape, Bok Choi all from Angelic CSA, seasoned with a Thai Black Pepper Sauce, with an Egg and Chinese Noodles, topped with Fresh Basil. It was hot, especially as I cannot leave Siracha out of anything because it is so delicious. Saveur Magazine (Thanks Beth!) suggests that a super hot and uncrowded pan is the only way to stir fry, so I did it up two veg at a time in the cast iron skillet, which I will say truly tops any other stir frying vessel in our house! I got tiny crispy edges on the squash and peppers, and no soupy water in the bottom. Saveur suggests a heavy flat-bottom steel wok for American stoves, which don't put out as much heat as Asian home stoves. Christmas list!

Just invented a summer cocktail too, which I like but no one else will, as I seem to be the only person I know who actually likes the taste of vermouth... Three parts vodka to one part dry vermouth, over ice in a tall glass, soda to the top. Voila - martini spritzer! Refreshing... if you like vermouth.