Mushrooms, Arugula and Strawberries?

It’s a challenge to try and use the entire CSA box every week. It’s only the second week, the boxes are still small and I’m already slightly overwhelmed. The weather is unseasonably hot here in NYC and I want to stay away from my kitchen as much as possible. Last night was Friday and I wanted to make something special, but what to do with mushrooms, arugula and strawberries?

On hot nights a sandwich is really the way to go. While Storkbite sat in her bouncy seat in the middle of the kitchen, I cleaned the mushrooms and coated them in a garlic, olive oil and white balsamic vinegar marinade. Then Storkbite started to loose it, and Papa was running behind schedule so I had to abandon our dinner preparations and restart the process later.

During bath time I was able to get myself back to those mushrooms and grill them on a very hot stove top grill pan. It didn’t take long until I was called away again so I turned off the stove and let the mushrooms carry-over cook on the grill.

Finally we got Storkbite in bed and we were free to open the bottle of Rose I was saving for the weekend. I sliced a loaf of bread, layered it with the grilled baby bellas, arugula, orange and yellow tomatoes and smeared on some goat cheese. With a nest of argulua leaves on the side covered in lemon, olive oil and slivered Parmesan cheese it hit the spot on a hot night.

I really like to make an event out of Friday nights and make a special dessert. Sometimes it’s nothing fancy - just a scoop of ice cream. However, this week our CSA came with these sweet little strawberries which were the first of the year’s crop. I almost ate the whole box when I got them on Thursday, but instead I came up with the idea of making a pavlova after seeing the meringues at the bakery earlier that morning. I had seen a picture of this extravagant dessert in a magazine not long ago and decided that I will never have the patience to make it. What I didn’t realize at the time is that the meringues are available at bakeries and all I have to do it whip cream and cut strawberries! Any berry can be used and it’s simple, delicious and a real crowd pleaser.

Meringue for Pavlova - $1 each