Riverford veg box: Week two

Well, last week's veg (with the exception of the pears) have lasted really well. I'm using up the greens tonight, the tomatoes and cucumber are going strong in packed lunch salads, and the mushrooms are waiting to be used up. What for I'm not entirely sure, I had some kind of inspiration about polenta cakes or something yesterday but can't remember where that was. I blame the meds as I'm trying to head off another migraine, and it's leaving me a bit groggy.

Excitingly I had no idea what to do with the gooseberries, so decided to live life on the edge and try making some jam - whilst entirely unsupervised. It was a success, set beautifully, tastes gorgeous and is a glorious colour. Photos to follow with excitable post. I did tweet throughout the process, and if you fancy being party to the occaisional overexcited rambling, click the follow me on twitter button to your left.

The aubergine was another matter entirely. They are still the work of the devil, pretty much ruining my gorgeous pasta bake surprise last week. The surprise is a middle layer of mozzarella. Pantry tip by the way - if you're cooking with mozzarella, then buy the cheaper options as in blind taste tests consumers can't tell the difference between the fancy and bargain when it's cooked. For tomato salads and the like, get as good as you can afford.

So this week, we have no aubergine - Hurrah! but we do have broad beans, which I know for many people are comparable to my loathing of aubergine. I'm actually quite excited, and utterly undecided about what I'm going to do with them as yet. Suggestions would be very welcome.

Bunched carrots - will probably be scrubbed and eaten raw with moroccan houmous. I love this, and actually the only thing I will voluntarily eat aubergine in is my houmous recipe.
Courgettes - so courgetti spaghetti will feature on next week's meal plan
Onions - I have to do something with onions, I feel like they're breeding in the veg drawer
Nectarines
Apples
Tomatoes
Peppers
Melon, I'll blatantly eat this for breakfast and will do nothing of any interest with it.

So another lovely box, save for one damaged nectarine and despite spending much of Tuesday in a darkened room being poorly I managed to have a lovely chat with my veg man. Apologies for no pictures of my produce, I can't make the camera turn on or find the charger.

So, lets see what next week shall bring - well I know actually - as I've still got so much veg to use up, I'm just getting a fruit bag. Fingers crossed for lots of fruity goodness. Or something.