Week of July 13

I went berry picking this week. A nearby farm, Smolak Farms, had pick-your-own currants and gooseberries (in addition to raspberries). I had never cooked with either fruit, but I was excited to try.

I packed up my water, my sunhat, and other berry-picking paraphenalia and headed on out. Here's my pickings. I would have picked more, but they were charging $6.00 per pint. Yeouch.

In my basket are Bianca (white) currants, red currants and gooseberries. The bushes are prolific: it took me barely 15 minutes to pick three pints. It would take two to three times as long to pick that many raspberries!

I ended up making two types of jam from the currants (using this easy method from David Lebovitz) and am still trying to figure out what to do with the gooseberries. Any thoughts?

Menu for the Week
Sunday
Pasta with tomato sauce
Salad

Monday
Vietnamese chicken and cabbage salad wrapped in rice paper (inspired by the September issue of Fine Cooking)
Green bean salad

Tuesday
Black bean burgers (also inspired by the September issue of Fine Cooking)
Corn bread
Avocado salsa

Wednesday
Grilled flank steak
Millet and roasted vegetable salad

Thursday
Capellini with lemon basil pesto and squash blossoms
Salad

Friday
Grilled pizzas