This was our third week of farm camp, which is a wonderful but exhausting experience. I left most of the meals this week unplanned, and just allowed the wealth of produce guide them. Not planning led to much simpler endeavors, and just about every dinner this week was made in under an hour (who am I?!?!). It was great to let the veg do most of the work, and spend the rest of my evenings recuperating and preparing for another day of excited campers.

Roasted corn, zucchini, and black bean enchiladas. It was in the 90s when I turned on the oven to make these. During the cooking process I questioned my sanity multiple times. But once they were on the table, all the sweaty cooking was forgotten. Still one of my favorite zucchini dishes.

Pesto pasta with green beans and tomato salad. I followed the pesto recipe from The Art of Simple Food, threw on some pasta, and in the last minute of cooking added in a pound of halved green beans. The tomato salad was a simple affair of basil, olive oil, mozzarella, salt, and pepper. This whole meal felt like summer done right.

Frittata with sauteed collards, roasted cherry tomatoes, and feta with buttermilk biscuits. This was a develop “dinner idea that requires no shopping on the 3-minute drive home and execute in an hour” situation. I halved the cherry tomatoes and roasted them at 400F for about 30 minutes (basically as long as it took me to pull the biscuits together and harvest, wash, and chop the collards). The collards went into the bottom of a cast iron pan, were covered, and sauteed for about 5 minutes until wilted. Then I scattered the tomatoes on top, covered that with 1/2 cup crumbled feta, and then poured 6 eggs that had been beaten with a dash of milk, salt, and pepper over everything. That went into the oven (still at 400F) for 10 minutes.

Tacos with black beans, corn, zucchini and feta. This was yet another dinner made without shopping. I simmered a large can of black beans with onion and garlic which the corn broiled. Then I used this taco seasoning to coat the corn once I cut it off the cob. Inspired by this other corn taco recipe I made a quick slaw with zucchini and lime, then topped the whole bit with feta and hot sauce.

Grilled chorizo verde with grilled zucchini, summer squash, and peppers, and cilantro slaw. The real star of this meal was the sausage (as usual). I made a quick green sauce with chopped cilantro, lime juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper to brush over the veg before they went on the grill (and saved more for after too). The slaw was red and green cabbage, sliced tomatoes, a handful of cilantro, lime juice, salt, and pepper. As was the surprising trend this week, this was all pulled together within an hour (with a little chopping help).

Spicy tomato and pepper dip (ezme), yogurt with cucumber, dill, and garlic (cacik), Eastern-style focaccia, and stuffed eggplants with lamb, garlic, and tomatoes (karniyarik). All from Persiana. Each of these items was fairly simple to put together, and collectively made for a lovely summer meal. I love just about any version of a yogurt dip, and this one went nicely with the bread. I forgot I only had wheat flour on hand, which made for a heavier focaccia but it was still warmly spiced and a good vehicle for for salads. I should have left the eggplant in the over for longer, because even with the frying they weren’t fully cooked through. This made for even better leftovers once the eggplant was reheated.

BLTs. With Short Creek 7-spice bacon, Potter Hill tomatoes and lettuce, and my sourdough, this was everything I dreamt of in February. Worth the wait.

Zucchini turkey burgers with nectarine and tomato salad and leftover Eastern-style focaccia. So much summer on a plate!! I roasted the burgers instead of frying and then roasting them. They weren’t nearly as pretty that way, but so much easier. The slightly sour yogurt sauce with these is so good.

Lo mein with roasted tofu, broccoli, cabbage, and carrots. I didn’t have a real dinner plan, then saw this on Instagram and knew I had a way to use up some random veg in the crisper. I loved the easy lo mein from Serious Eats and had all the ingredients, so I went with that plus some roasted tofu.

Green scrambled eggs. Good thing I have a food blog, otherwise I might have forgotten about this delightful summer breakfast.

Nectarine and sour cream pancakes. When I made these, Will said “sometimes I think you spoil me.” Maybe true, but I also get to eat these pancakes…so it’s not selfless. The batter comes together quickly, but they take a little bit to cook. Totally worthwhile.

Beer brats with beer mustard (leftover from our Oktoberfest party) and sauteed red cabbage. This dinner felt like a cop out, even though I technically did cook it. Great sausage made things ridiculously easy. I’ve made this cabbage recipe a few times before. If you love the flavor of kraut and pickles, this dish is a delicious shortcut to those flavors.

Saag paneer with sauteed beets (from Vegetarian India) and brown rice. This was not technically saag paneer, because instead of spinach I used a mix of collards, beet greens, and tatsoi. I’ve made this recipe many times with all different varieties of greens, and it is always delicious. The beets had chili powder and tomatoes. I didn’t get quite enough beets from the garden to make a full recipe, but it was the perfect amount to be a little side dish. Next time I would use a little more chili to cut the sweetness of the beets, but I would still make it again.

Summer squash pizza and kale salad with feta and dried cranberries (adapted from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook) This didn’t feel like pizza. I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, and used parmesan instead of the gruyere and no bread crumbs. It was pretty good, and certainly an efficient way to use a lot of summer squash at once. But if I was going to make another summer squash pizza soon, I would go for this goat cheese version instead.

Hash browns with collards and an egg. Yet another iteration of my breakfast favorite.

Potato and bacon fritatta (from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook). There were a few steps involved, so I would reserve this for dinner or weekends, but it was a delicious all-breakfast-items-together dish. Along with a salad it would make for a perfect fancy brunch.