You're Not Getting Many Pictures This Week

Since I've been doing repeats of earlier dishes lately, I didn't take pictures of them.  That might be short-sighted, but I don't want this to get too monotonous. 
Of course, that's one of the things about CSA's.  You can only get in so much of a rut before the season changes and you no longer get Kale, or Collards, or whatever.  It's funny how you'd think you'd miss the asparagus most, but really they aren't noticed too much since everything else is coming in right behind them.  Such a short season, that it's worth enjoying the bounty while it's here, but by the time it's over, you're ready to move on.  Nature's good like that. 

  So this week, we got shell peas.  They were a little on the starchy side, so I quickly blanched them.  I figured I'd use all three of the lettuces for this week's salad (well the first salad of the week).  Since there weren't all that many peas, they all went in, but that's fine.  Also, what salad is complete without bacon.  Really. 

  On a side note, one of the local, small pork producers sells the bacon ends at my small, local grocery chain.  I'd seen these before but wasn't sure what to do with them.  Then I thought about it and realized that about half of the time, I end up cooking strips and chopping/crumbling them up.  Well, if I just threw the ends in the freezer, I could slice off a bit and fry it up straight from the freezer.  It's not the "ideal" way to cook bacon, but I'm sure the bacon can cover for that.  It really works well, and a heck of a lot cheaper than pretty strips of bacon.  For that matter, one of the meat purveyors at the local all-year "farmers market" (less farmer, more purveyor) has double-smoked bacon you can buy by the whole-belly slab ($3.09/lb); part slab (~$3.34/lb); or sliced (~$4.19/lb).  It is good bacon, so the prices aren't unreasonable.  Of course, they also sell the ends for $2.09/lb.  For most of what I'm doing, that's too good to pass up.  The fact that it's sold dry, unpackaged (meaning no water added) just makes it even better, and it doesn't fry up with all that foam. 

Anyhow, back to the matter at hand.  The salad was really, really good.  Great combination of lettuces and tasty additions.  What's not to love about peas, bacon, feta, tomatoes, onion.  I think I need to throw some basil in next time to really punch it up.