This turned out to be a pretty good way to use a lot of dill at once. The recipe, which calls for ¼ cup fresh dill, isn’t overwhelmingly herbal, but the bread itself baked up a little dry. I might take a hint next time from my friends and their super simple beer bread recipe: add a little sugar to the batter, and bake with some melted butter on top.

Once out of the oven and cooled, we spread sweet, unsalted butter on slices of the bread and topped them with briny smoked salmon. The balanced combination of salty, sweet, and herbal – with a hint of hops from the beer – harmonized well in this Scandinavian-esque snack.

Dill Beer Bread

from an about.com recipe

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2½ tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. ground mustard seed
• ¼ cup minced fresh dill
• 12 oz. porter or other dark beer

Heat oven to 400F. Grease an 9 x 5 loaf pan.

Mix all the dry ingredients together.

Add beer and mix until just blended, then spoon into pan.

Bake for 50 – 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry.

In this week’s share:

• Raspberries
• Basil
• Dill
• Eggplant
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Zucchini
• Red Tomatoes
• Cantaloupe Melon

I’m looking for a creative way to use the dill… a lot of dill. I’d thought we were going to get fingerling potatoes and was hoping to make some form of dilled potatoes, but none showed up in the box this week.

Really, this vegetable has me stumped. When the CSA distributes it, they distribute it in massive quantities – and most recipes I’ve seen only ask for a few teaspoons of the herb. Any suggestions to cook/bake away a lot of dill (and preferably in one go) are welcome.

In this week’s share:

• parsley
• fennel
• arugula
• cabbage
• dill
• carrots
• collards
• white salad turnips

I’ve never cooked with fennel before, and am excited to experiment with it this week! No idea what to make yet, though.

I’m also looking for some inspiration for the dill. The collard greens might simply be sautéed in bacon drippings. As for the cabbage, I’ll admit I find it intimidating, and have no idea what to do with this massive leafy sphere. (Hopefully one of my friends will “adopt” it and make good use of it.)