Cooking Local

Mmmm, cookies!

2012-01-14T17:26:00.003-05:00

Not just any cookies, fancy time consuming checkerboard cookies!

I used to subscribe to "Fine Cooking" magazine and one year they had a spread on Christmas cookies. I saw the checkerboard cookies and really wanted to give it a try myself. They were time consuming to make but turned out very well. The problem with the recipe the way it was written is that there is chocolate cookie dough left when you're done, a waste of perfectly good cookie dough. I knew I could take care of that problem.

The checkerboards in the recipe are a 3x3 configuration as such:My solution to the problem was to turn them into 4x4 squares instead of the 3x3 squares. It worked! I ended up with logs of dough that looked like this:

Slice and bake!

A very happy mishap

2011-11-07T20:48:00.003-05:00

I like shepards pie. It's easy to like with all those lovely mashed potatoes, ground beef, and corn. I have a bunch of freshly dug potatoes as our potatoes grew very well this year so shepards pie seemed to be a perfect Sunday dinner of comfort food with friends.

Alas, I had no ground beef, just ground turkey which, let's be honest, doesn't have a lot of flavor. And I had a few leeks from the garden that were getting a little old and it's not acceptable to waste leeks! So I did what I often do, I improvised. This creation turned into a dinner that was addictive, none of us could stop eating. So while it was bad for the waistline, it was terrific for the tastebuds.

Luckily, or unluckily, it made a huge batch and I froze some for a future dinner.

Potato Leek Shepards Pie

Amounts are approximate

1 lb ground turkey
1 large diced onion
2 cloves of garlic, minced
Seasoned salt to taste

3 leeks, cleaned and sliced thin
4 tbl butter

About 2 oz cream cheese

Milk

About 2 lbs potatoes, peeled, cooked, and mashed

salt and pepper to taste

Frozen corn

Grated cheddar cheese

Brown the meat with the onions and garlic and season it to taste. Sautee the leeks in the butter until soft and sweet. Use an imersion blender to mix the leeks, butter, some milk and the cream cheese. Stir the leek mixture into the mashed potatoes. Salt and pepper to taste. Put the meat mixture into a casserole dish, layer corn on that, then top with mashed potatoes, and grated cheese. Bake at 400 until the cheese is melted and the dish is hot, about 30 minutes.

Try not to eat too much.

Very Awesome Blueberry Cornmeal Cake

2011-10-02T21:46:00.003-04:00

This was in the Burlington Free Press and is originally from the Huckleberry Bakery and Cafe in Santa Monica, CA by way of Bon Appetit, May 2010. I've made it three times. It's that good.

Blueberry Cornmeal Cake
325 F, about 1 hour and 15 minutes

1 1/3 c flour
2/3 c corn meal (I liked the coarse stuff better than the finer stuff for this)
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
6 T vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp honey
10 T butter (room temp)
3/4 c + 3 T sugar, divided
1 tsp salt (the recipe calls for 1 1/2 tsp but that seems like a lot)
1 c ricotta cheese
1/3 c plain yogurt (I subbed half milk, half lemon juice)
3 cup blueberries

Prepare grease 10" springform pan (I used parchment on the bottom too). Whisk flour and the next 3 ingredients. Whisk oil, eggs, vanilla and honey. Beat butter, 3/4 c + 2 T sugar and salt until creamy.

With mixer running, slowly add egg mixture. Beat in flour mixture, just to blend. Add ricotta and yogurt to blend.

Pour half of mixture into the pan. Cover with half the blueberries. Pour remaining batter in and top with the rest of the blueberries. Sprinkle with remaining sugar.

Bake until top is golden brown and tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about one hour and 15 minutes, longer if the blueberries are frozen. Cool in pan on rack.

Barley and Black Bean Chili

2011-02-19T10:47:00.002-05:00

Barley and Black Bean Chili

olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
6 cloves garlic
1 T chili powder
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, minced - a little goes a long way! To taste
1/2 lb black beans, soaked and cooked
1 28 oz can tomato...crushed, pureed,or mini dice
2 cups cooked pearled barley
dash sugar
Salt & pepper to taste

Heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion, pepper, garlic, chili powder, cumin, oregano, salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 5 minutes. Add beans, tomatoes, chipotle to taste, water. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 25 minutes.

Stir in cooked wheat berries and heat through.

I loved this stuff! Mmmm.....

What to do with leftover pie crust

2010-11-22T16:19:00.002-05:00

You make pie crust pinwheels!

And don't blame me if you begin to make pie crust just for the "leftovers."

Fennel Mashed Potatoes Oh MY!

2010-07-27T07:22:00.002-04:00

Fennel is a very tasty vegetable but one with which I've had little experience. We got some in the share the other day and I didn't have anything in particular in mind when I realized we also had fresh potatoes from both the share and our garden.

Fennel Mashed Potatoes

About 2 lbs potatoes
1 bulb fennel, sliced thin
Shallot
2 T Butter
4 oz cream cheese
Salt to taste

Start the potatoes boiling. Saute the fennel and shallot in the butter until soft, about 20 minutes. Drain and mash the potatoes, add the cream cheese and fennel.

Sam couldn't stop eating these -- he had them for a pre-dinner snack, dinner, and for breakfast the next day. What's not to like? Fat, fat, and more fat. They tasted like sour cream and onion potato chips.

Zucchini

2010-07-27T07:07:00.002-04:00

We've been getting zucchini and yellow squash in our share lately. I gave some away but it just keeps on coming so I decided to try something new and different. I read, somewhere, about using the zucchini as pasta and while I didn't really believe that anyone who loved pasta would be impressed, it seemed to be worth a try.

Pesto over Zucchini and Chicken

1 medium/large zucchini
Mix of fresh herbs (I used dill, parsley, basil, thyme, cilantro from the garden)
Olive Oil
Shallot
Juice from half a lime
Salt to taste
Cooked diced chicken

Use a mandolin to cut the zucchini into long spaghetti-like strands. In a food processor, make a paste of the herbs, shallots, olive oil, lime juice, and salt. Mix everything together. Enjoy.

It was a cool and refreshing and very very tasty dinner. Who knew that Sam would ever give zucchini a thumbs up?

A nice bright salad

2010-05-26T18:26:00.002-04:00

Why are things that taste good so labor intensive? Not everything of course, but this certainly qualifies. My mom found the recipe and we made it twice while I was in WI visiting. I made it today to go with a Mexican-inspired dinner.

Fiesta Salad

1 (1 1/2 pound) jicama, peeled
1 medium zucchini
1 red apple, cored, quartered
2 green onions cut into 2 inch pieces
6 sprigs fresh parsley
1 (1/2 ounce) package fresh cilantro
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 c (2 ounce) pine nuts, toasted

Cut jicama, zucchini and apple into 2 X 1/8 inch julienne strips; combine in bowl.

With blender or food processor running, drop onion, parsley and cilantro through feed tube, processing until minced. Turn machine off; add lemon juice, mustard, salt and pepper. With machine running, slowly add oil through feed tube, processing until thick. Pour dressing over salad; toss to combine. Refrigerate, covered, 1 to 2 hours.

To serve: Drain excess dressing; sprinkle with pine nuts.

Makes about 8 cups.

Artichoke Dip

2010-05-10T17:50:00.002-04:00

From The All New, All Purpose Joy of Cooking. Very rich and delicious and very difficult to stop eating.

Baked Artichoke Dip
(About 2.5 cups)

Preheat oven to 400

Stir together in medium bowl:
1 C mayo
1 C grated Parmesan
1/2 C finely chopped onions

Pulse in a food processor until finely chopped:
One 13 3/4 oz. can artichoke hearts, well drained

Stir into the cheese mixture along with:
1 T fresh lemon juice or dry white wine
1/4 to 1/2 t ground black pepper

Scrape into a small baking dish or ovenproof crock.

Combine and sprinkle over the dip:
3 T dry unseasoned breadcrumbs
1 t olive oil

Bake until top is browned, about 20 minutes. Serve with crackers or toast

The next week

2010-03-03T19:24:00.010-05:00

Sunday: Pesto with leftover chicken, salad

Monday: Beef stew, Valentine radishes

Tuesday: Hot Italian Sausage and Squash over pasta, cauliflower. I just made this up but it was good.

Italian Sausage and Squash

1 lb hot Italian Sausage
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 quart winter squash puree (sweet potatoes would probably be good too - I used stuff we'd gotten in the share)
Salt
Pepper

Remove sausage from the casings and break into chunks, then brown the pieces. Add garlic and cook until soft. Add the squash puree (and water if necessary) and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for a bit. Serve over pasta.

Wednesday: Julia Child's Chicken Fricassee (I'd frozen the leftovers) over noodles (although Sam had it over leftover mashed potatoes), salad.

Thursday: Take out pizza. Logging this is a good reminder of how much we eat out. Apparently a lot.

Friday: Red Lentil Dal (modified from this recipe) by doubling the spices and using about a tablespoon of fresh ginger in place of the dried. I also quickly cooked the spices in oil prior to adding the other ingredients. I served it over chickpea pancake with a side salad. As always when I make a vegetarian meal Ben says "Needs meat!" but Sam ate this right up.

Saturday: Spicy pork cubes over brown rice, cauliflower.

Spicy Pork Cubes

2 T oil
3/4 lb lean pork cut into 3/4" cubes
2 T sugar
1/2 c chicken broth or water
2 whole star anise
3 T soy sauce
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 T minced ginger root
1 clove minced garlic

Brown meat in oil, add remaining ingredients. Cover and simmer until tender, approximately 90 minutes. Remove heat and stir until most liquid has evaporated.

Oops

2010-02-25T09:31:00.005-05:00

Missed last week but that's the way it goes. I just forgot about posting.

Sunday: A lunch for friends - Beef brisket, salad, pie (my mom's cheesecake cherry pie topped with leftover pavlova elderberry/strawberry/blueberry mix I'd frozen)

Monday: Homemade pizza, salad

Tuesday: Ham steak, salad, Kerry's baked beans

Wednesday: Tomato sauce (one 28 oz can crushed tomatoes, one onion sliced and sauteed in olive oil until soft, salt, lots of black pepper, a can of butter beans, about a tablespoon of fresh chopped oregano added at the end) over chickpea pancake, broccoli. Sam and I both loved the tomato sauce/pancake combo. Ben lamented the lack of meat.

Thursday and Friday: Ate out both days - one night Indian food, the other Vietnamese

Saturday: Roast chicken (I cheated and got a "flippin' chicken" at the store, mashed potatoes, spinach salad

Fattening week

2010-02-08T20:33:00.012-05:00

The share gets replenished for the last time this session on Wednesday. Prior to Wed. we're eating nice fattening foods with fewer veggies. Opps!

The share:

Green Cabbage, 2 lbs Purple Top Turnips, 2 lbs Orange Carrots, 1 lb Valentine Radishes, Shoot/Claytonia Mix, Pesto (just basil and oil), 3 lbs Frozen Tomatoes, Elmore Mountain Bakery Flax Bread, Pa Pa Doodles Farm or Gopher Broke Farm Eggs, Dreuxmanna Crackers, Lazy Lady Oh My Heart Cheese

We have officially decided not to take this late winter share. We have more jams and jellies and various other oddball things than we can use. Instead, I'll try to attend the winter farmers market for the rest of the winter and I've signed up for a different farmshare for the string that does only vegetables and not the localvore items. Change is good, right? We'll still buy some of the localvore items we discovered though the share but only the ones that fit our lifestyle. It also costs about half as much. A big change but hey, I'm up for something new! The new share will start in the middle of June and run through October and then maybe we'll pick up a fall share with Pete's Greens again.

Superbowl Sunday: Chicken fricassee and salad. Of course we couldn't be snackless though so I also made guacamole and salsa which we ate with chips.

Monday: Sam's request day -- pizza of course.

Tuesday: Refried bean burritos with guacamole and salsa, salad.

Wednesday: Cheese and crackers from the share, Keilbasa and Share soup - not an official name but I made a soup from many of the vegetables we got in the share this week. Simple and tasty.

Kielbasa and Farm Share Soup

1/2 lb kielbasa, cut into small pieces
1 onion, diced
2 large turnips, diced
4 carrots, sliced
1/2 head cabbage, cut into small pieces
2-3 cups corn
Chicken stock
Salt
Pepper, lots of pepper to taste

Brown the Kielbasa. Add onions and cook until soft. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for about 45 minutes.

Thursday: Sam's school was doing a lunch for dinner program to show parents the types of fresh and local foods that are used for the school lunches. We were treated to a variety of foods. Shepards pie, soup, salad bar, fresh bread, apple crisp. It was all much better than any school lunch I've had before.

Friday: It was my birthday and I decided that I really wanted to go to the original Flatbreads in Waitsfield. Mmmm. Sam gets his love of pizza honestly. Alas, we got there at 5:00 and there was a 2.5-3 hour wait which we just couldn't do. We ended up going to a different restaurant where I got a mediocre burger and excellent sweet potato fries.

Saturday: More Julia! I made Boef Gourguignon from the Julia Child cookbook for Ben for an early Valentines Day dinner. I served it over egg noodles with a side salad. He made German Chocolate cake for me.

Ben loved the Boef Bourguignon and I thought it was....fine. It's just not the type of thing I love. It was easy but with all the separate steps, it made a ton of dishes. Oh, and I figured out why she has you boil bacon before frying it - it renders the fat without any pieces of other stuff in it so when I browned the meat in it, I could take the temperature way up. What a mess that made, even with a spatter screen! Post cooking cleaning was substantial.

Chicken Fricassee

2010-02-06T19:17:00.004-05:00

Ben and I rented the move "Julie and Julia" a couple of months ago and Ben, being his usual impulsive self, immediately went out and bought Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." It's not a book I'd have bought but since it was here I glanced through it and saw that most recipes were 4+ pages long. I just don't have the patience for cooking with Julia but there was one recipe that didn't require me to boil pork fat and was for something I just love so I decided that a perfect Super Bowl meal would be....Chicken Fricassee! Hey, there are wings!

There were, however, challenges. First the recipe calls for a fryer. There weren't any chickens labeled as fryers in our supermarket, there weren't even any cut up chickens, only separate packages of breasts and thighs and drumsticks. I refuse to run around looking for a specific chicken so I just bought a whole "natural" chicken and cut it up so I at least had a whole chicken.

The recipe moves along nicely although it also required me to make two additional recipes, one for small white onions, the other for mushrooms. I think the real secret to French cooking is cooking everything separately and making lots dishes. However, it does mean that all the parts are cooked appropriately rather than having some over and some under cooked.

The combined three recipes call for more than a full stick of butter, an impressive quantity. But near the end she has you skim the fat off the sauce and I think I removed at least half of the butter. Wonder if it was really necessary? I also forgot to buy whipping cream but just substituted milk which seemed to be just fine. It's still extremely rich. The recipe says to strain the sauce at the end but I didn't bother because I don't mind having little pieces of onion, celery, and carrot in there. What can it hurt?

Final verdict? Excellent flavor, too much work. It's not difficult but it required me to pay attention to what I was doing for longer than I'd planned. It might be more worth the time if I could double the recipe but I really can't unless I work in batches which doesn't save much time. Will I make it again? I don't know...

Elderberries?

2010-02-03T15:08:00.002-05:00

I'm not sure of the appeal of these little things. They're cute and all but they have very little flavor. They're tiny and have seeds in them and I decided to try to remove the seeds and concentrate the flavor to see if I could increase their appeal. As they boil down the smell is yeasty rather than berry-like and I'm not sure what to make of that. I suspect that I'll be using blueberries in place of the elderberries for the pavlova I'm making.

Straying from the share

2010-02-03T13:35:00.005-05:00

An off week for the share. I've been looking for someone to share the share with for the upcoming session Feb. 17 - Jun. 7 and haven't found anyone who is interested. One of our friends described the share as "tyranny" and I can totally understand that feeling as it really does dictate what you'll eat for the next week and how much time you'll spend cooking. We may bypass this round of the share and pick it up again in the spring, perhaps from a different farm.

Sunday: Ben cooked. We had pheasant (yes, you read that right - Ben went pheasant hunting on Saturday morning) that had been breaded and pan fried, rice and beans, and claytonia/sprout salad.

Monday: Indian take out! Channa Masala, nan, paneer pakora, lamb saag. YUM! We could easily eat this every week without complaint.

Tuesday: Pesto with leftover pheasant cut up and added. Glazed parsnips. Spinach salad with the rest of the sprouts from the share.

Wednesday: Ham, sweet potatoes, spinach salad.

Thursday: Friends came to dinner. We had beef/moose stew made like the beef stew from last week, salad, bread, with pavlova with elderberry, blueberry, and strawberry sauce for dessert. I ended up manually removing the juice from the berries and then concentrating it to get a bit more flavor from it. The color is dramatic and made it hard to distinguish the blueberries and strawberries. I sweetened and thickened it slightly with a mix of sugar and corn starch and served it over the pavlovas.

Friday: Cheese ravioli with marinara sauce (I'll sometimes buy one of the gallon cans of whole tomatoes and make a bunch of sauce to freeze - this was from the freezer), salad.

Saturday: Leftovers. We often eat the leftovers for breakfast or lunch over the next couple of days although eventually we get to the point where the refrigerator is bursting with leftovers and then we'll have them for dinner. That's where we were today.

Sam told me the other day "I never get to decide what we have for dinner!" and it's true, we rarely ask him. When we do, his answer is predictable -- pizza! We were going to have that on Saturday evening but we really needed to clear up some space in the refrigerator.

Cupcakes!

2010-01-29T19:12:00.004-05:00

Just for fun - pictures of cupcakes I made for the bake sale at Sam's school. The next holiday is Valentines Day so in honor of that I made these.

For those recently burned by love:

Underutilized blog

2010-01-29T07:33:00.012-05:00

We've been doing the share for long enough now that I'm not experimenting with new recipes nearly as much so I've decided to change the focus to what's for dinner. I often use leftovers to build new meals both because I'm lazy and because it's efficient. It will also shows how I use the share stuff throughout the week. We're still getting the share every other week rather than every week because, well, there really is such a thing as too many root vegetables and there are times I really really want a meal that includes fresh salsa and guacamole in the middle the winter. I made that last week at some point and it was spectacular. Ben said "It's better for my diet to not have this stuff because I don't eat nearly as much of the root vegetables as this."

I don't plan out our meals in advance although I do generally contemplate what we can do for dinner that night while I'm going about my business during the day. My goal is to cook from what we have at home because going to the store constantly is a bit of a waste of time. Some nights we have leftovers, some nights we go out to dinner or get carry out. Ben sometimes cooks but his philosophy of cooking is different than mine; he decides what he feels like eating, goes shopping, and then prepares the meal.

Our share this week:

2 lbs Banana Fingerling Potatoes; 2 lbs Sugarsnax and Chanteney Carrots; 2 lbs Parsnips; 2 lbs Yellow Onions; Shoot/Claytonia Mix; 1 Bag Frozen Zucchini; Elmore Mountain Country French Bread; 1 Dozen Pa Pa Doodles or Gopher Broke Farm Eggs; Vt Soy Tofu Scramble; 2 lbs Frozen Elderberries

Elderberries? Something new and different. I don't think I've ever had them. I'm not so thrilled about the tofu scramble because I'm just not a tofu fan. But hey, a week with nothing in the cabbage family! Yay!

Sunday: Potato, celeriac*, and greens soup, bread. I added greens I'd blanched, chopped, and frozen this summer to increase the nutritional value. It really doesn't seem to add much flavor.

* I discovered that the easiest way to peel this vegetable with many dirt-laden nooks is to cut it into rings and then cut the peel off each ring individually. Takes a little time but leads to less waste than other methods I've tried.

Monday: Chicken and Biscuits, savoy cabbage and carrot salad.

Tuesday: Sloppy joes on whole wheat buns. Winter squash from the share I'd prepared and frozen earlier. Leftover cabbage and carrot salad.

Wed & Thur (this was a big batch so we had it two days in a row - I often freeze some when I make a lot but I needed something easy for Thursday): Bread, Beef stew with carrots and fingerling potatoes. Ben liked it so much he ate the leftovers for breakfast and asked if it was a "real" recipe or something "in my head." Er, this was another one I just made up but here are the approximate measures.

Beef Stew

2 lbs cheap cut of beef, cubed about 1 1/2"
1 large onion, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
Oil
1 lb fingerling potatoes
1 lb carrots, cut into largish pieces
1 quart stock (I had lamb stock in the freezer but anything will do)
Salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, herbs de provence to taste

Sear meat in oil, then remove. Saute onion and celery. Add everything into the pot and simmer for about an hour, maybe more, until everything is tender. Adjust seasoning. It got better on reheating.

Thumbs up from Sam and Ben. Me? I'm not much of a beef stew fan. Thursday before and after dinner I made cupcakes for the Kindergarten bake sale.

Friday: Pizza, claytonia and spouts salad. Claytonia is an interesting green, very small leaves, that our CSA grows in their greenhouse even during cold Vermont winters. It's quite sweet. The sprouts were already mixed with the claytonia and included at least radish and sunflower, I'm not sure what else. Quite a tasty mix.

I make my own pizza dough based on a recipe from Cook's Illustrated. It's a very thin crispy crust, a favorite around here.

Pizza Crust

2 c flour
1/2 tst salt
1/2 tsp dry yeast
1/2 tsp honey
3/4 c 100 degree F water
1/4 c olive oil

Put flour, yeast, salt, and honey in a food processor. At slow speed, add water until just mixed. Then add olive oil slowly. Remove dough (it'll be wet and soft) from the bowl and toss it onto the counter about 10 times. Place dough in a sealed plastic bag in the refrigerator overnight or at least 10 hours.

Approximately an hour before cooking, place pizza stone on the bottom oven rack and preheat oven to 500 F. Split dough into two parts. Place each on a 15" wide parchment paper. Cover with plastic wrap -- you'll probably need two since this is going to make 15" very thin pizzas. Roll between the parchment and plastic wrap until it is a 15" circle.

Note: since this crust is so thin you can't top these heavily or they'll get soggy. Each pizza uses about 5 oz of grated cheese. I prefer the simple combination of sauce, cheese, and pepperoni or else I'll use some of the pesto sauce I made and froze this summer as a topping.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the crust is crisp and the cheese begins to brown. Watch closely because it can go from perfectly done to burned in a very short time.

Saturday: Veggie Barley Soup, bread. Similar to this recipe but I didn't have any meat of any sort so I just added more beans. I used a large can of red kidney beans, a can of butter beans and one of small white beans. I also tossed in the package of frozen zucchini from the share and a package of greens I'd previously frozen. It made a nice big pot of food and I freeze leftovers for lunch at work. These are the types of leftovers I look forward to eating...

Leek and white bean soup

2009-12-03T17:25:00.001-05:00

I just learned that kale and brussels sprouts can hang out on their stalks for a good long time in the fall. I've never grown either so I had no reason to know that but it does explain why we're still getting so much kale in the share. We're not overly fond of greens in cooked form where they're easily identified but I'm finding them to be very useful and unoffensive when used in soups and stews.

Leek and White Bean Soup with Kale

1 lb dried small white beans, soaked and cooked
1 bunch (3 medium) leeks
1/2 bunch kale, cleaned, blanched and chopped small.
1/4 c butter
water
3 chicken broth cubes
pepper
1/2 tsp dried tarragon

Saute the leeks in the butter until they're soft. Add the cooked beans and enough water to cover. Puree with immersion blender at any point in the process if you're so inclined. Add the remaining ingredients.

My kale was some sort of purple kale so my soup looks like a blueberry smoothie. Very tasty!

Cooking Day

2009-11-13T12:35:00.003-05:00

There are days when I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and today is one of them.

First, I made a huge pot of marinara sauce to use up some of the onions from the share. They just don't last as long as the ones we get at the store.

Next, a modified version of the classic seven layer bar. I used craisins in place of butterscotch chips and mmmmm! It brightens up the flavor a bit.

Seven Layer Bars
350 F
25 min

1 stick butter, melted
2 c graham cracker crumbs (about 1.5 packs)
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 c chopped walnuts
1 c craisins
2 c chocolate chips
1 1/3 c sweetened coconut (I think unsweetened might be better here)

Mix melted butter and graham cracker crumbs. Press into 9" x 13" pan. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over the crumbs. Pile on the rest in the order given. Press everything gently down into the condensed milk. Bake, cool, and try not to eat too many.

Then I made some coleslaw using cabbage, apples, carrots, apple cider vinegar, and mayo. Had to use up the stuff from the share and everything except the mayo were share items.

Lastly, I decided to make Portuguese White Beans and Sausage after reading the recipe here. Time consuming so it's a good thing to make while doing other things in the kitchen. I had to use ordinary (no dry-cured smoked Spanish) chorizo because that's all I could find at the one store I checked.

Portuguese White Beans and Sausage
From the book The New Portuguese Table by David Leite

½ lb. thick-sliced slab bacon, cut crosswise into ½-inch pieces
¾ lb. chouriço, linguiça, or dry-cured smoked Spanish chorizo, cut into ¼-inch coins
~
Olive oil, if needed
2 large yellow onions, diced
1 Turkish bay leaf
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp. sweet paprika
1 lb. dried Great Northern or navy beans, picked over, rinsed, and soaked overnight in water to cover by 3 inches
½ tsp. crushed red pepper flakes, or more to taste
¼ cup double-concentrate tomato paste
~
Kosher salt
~
Freshly ground black pepper
~
Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, for garnish

Steps

Heat a large pot over medium-low heat. Add the bacon and cook, stirring often, until the fat has rendered and the meaty bits are crisp, about 15 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels.

Bump up the heat to medium, add the chouriço, and sear until lightly browned, 7 to 10 minutes. Transfer the chouriço to paper towels.

Pour off all but 3 tablespoons of fat from the pot. Or, if the pot is dry, drizzle in some oil. Add the onions and bay leaf and cook, stirring frequently, until deeply golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes; adjust the heat as necessary to prevent the onions from burning.

Add the garlic and paprika and cook for 1 minute more. Drain the beans and dump them into the pot, along with the chouriço, red-pepper flakes, and 3½ cups water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover, and let burble gently, stirring occasionally, until the beans are tender. Begin checking at 45 minutes, but it may take as long as 1½ hours, depending on your beans; add more water if needed.

Fish out and toss the bay leaf. Stir in the tomato paste and bacon and simmer for 10 minutes to thicken the cooking liquid. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Let the beans sit, uncovered, for 10 minutes to absorb any excess liquid.

Scoop the beans into a serving dish and shower with parsley.

It was good, not great although Sam ate it without complaint.

Potato Celeriac Soup

2009-11-08T18:53:00.003-05:00

In our share this week we got a bulb of celeriac about 4" in diameter. Our newsletter gave us a good hint for peeling it -- it holds a lot of dirt so it's sort of a pain. They suggested slicing it across into rings and then peeling each ring so you can cut out all the dirt. Worked like a charm!

I started with a stock I made of one chicken carcass, some soggy celery, two onions, water, and a few pepper corns. Simmered it for about an hour and a half.

Potato Celeriac Soup

1-4" bulb celeriac, diced into 1/2" squares
5 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
Stock as described above - makes about 4 cups
3 T sunflower oil
Salt to taste

Saute the celeriac pieces in oil until soft and just beginning to brown in places. Add stock and potatoes. Simmer until tender. For smooth soup, blend with immersion blender, blender, or food processor. Add salt and water to get to desired texture and flavor.

All three of us liked this soup!

Squash Spaetzle with Maple Glaze

2009-10-22T18:25:00.002-04:00

We're still getting the share but it's the same stuff as last year so I haven't been taking the time to take pictures. This week we got three winter squashes and I baked them all up right away. Today I used the leftovers to make Bill Telepan's Squash Spaetzle with Maple Glaze.

I think I've only had spaetzle on one occasion and that was at a chain restaurant and honestly, it wasn't very good at all. But looking at the recipe I figured it couldn't be much different than pasta so I gave it a shot.

I followed the recipe for the spaetzle although of course I modified the serving mixture due to refrigerator contents. It was still good. I used leftover diced chicken and the pan drippings from the chicken in place of the bacon and used leftover squash with it.

Sam and I weren't thrilled with the glaze but Ben enjoyed it very much. Make of that what you will.

Squash Spaetzle with Maple Glaze

For the squash spaetzle:
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
1/3 cup milk
2/3 cup roasted butternut squash bottoms
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt

For the maple glaze:
2 ounces white wine vinegar
2 ounces white wine
2 ounces maple syrup

For bacon-squash-apple mixture (my modifications):
8 ounces diced chicken pieces
1/4 c chicken drippings
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cup cooked squash
1 apple, peeled and diced small

Go look at the website for pictures of the spaetzle being made

1. Mix together the eggs, yolk, and milk. Add the squash and blend together with a hand blender or in a blender until smooth. Whisk in flour and salt and let rest a few minutes.

2. Set up an ice water bath. Place a colander over a pot of lightly salted boiling water. Scoop in half of the mix and press through the holes into the water using a rubber spatula until all the mix is in. Remove colander and when the water returns to a boil, cook the spaetzle for one minute.

Note: don't fill the pan of boiling water too full or the bottom of the colander will end up in the water....

3. Remove spaetzle from the water into the ice bath and chill for a few minutes. Repeat with remaining batter. When fully chilled (5 to 7 minutes in the water) drain and drizzle with a little vegetable oil to hold.

For the Chicken-squash-apple mixture:
5. Mix all ingredients together until hot.
6. Serve - drizzle with glaze if you're so inclined.

The spaetzle was very tasty and I can see where it could easily be used in place of pasta in many things. The downside is that it is dish-intensive. Worth it? Sure, if you've got the time.

Kielbasa Corn Chowder

2009-09-03T20:38:00.002-04:00

This week's share contained: Head of Lettuce; 2 lbs Mixed Potatoes; 1.5 lb Mixed Tomatoes; 1 European Cucumber or 2 nice Slicing Cucumbers; 1 lb Mixed Zucchini, Patty Pan and Summer Squash; 1 lb Mixed Pac Choi; 1 lb Walla Walla Onions; 1 lb Romanesca or Mixed Cauliflower; 1 Cayenne or Jalapeno Pepper; Sweet Corn (6 ears); Elmore Mountain Country French; BreadVT Soy Maple Ginger Fried! Tofu; Les Aliments Massawippi Tamari

No picture this time! I'm finding I don't have the time lately.

But I did make a soup using some of the ingredients that was just wonderful. I don't remember ever cutting the corn off the cob and using it in soups and such -- it's such a treat that we always just ate it in corn on the cob format. But we've had it fairly often lately so I decided to try something a little different with this simple soup.

Kielbasa Corn Chowder

1/2 lb kielbasa cut into very small pieces
oil
2 medium onions, diced
corn cut from 5-6 ears
3-4 medium potatoes, diced about 1/2" cubes
bok choi or other greens, cut into very small pieces
6 c or so of stock (I used turkey because that's what I had)

Brown kielbasa, add onions and remaining ingredients. Cook until potatoes are tender and flavors are blended.

Last week's share

2009-08-07T10:15:00.001-04:00

Yeah, I'm running late on things.

We received: Mesclun Greens, 1 Bunch of Celery, 1 Head of Napa Cabbage, 1 lb Zucchini, Garlic, Mixed Beans, 1 Pint Strawberries, Tomatoes, Jalapeno Pepper, Cauliflower, Bread, Eggs, and Maple Syrup.

More and more green!

2009-07-09T18:41:00.003-04:00

Potatoes, carrots, lettuce, broccoli, Swiss chard, kale, kohlrabi, Napa cabbage, scallions, cilantro, fennel, Red Hen potato rye bread, unbleached white flour, sunflower oil.

I forgot to put the bread in the picture. Oops! But with all the greens I'm not sure it would fit anyway.

We've had so much rain I'm amazed we're getting anything at all. Our vegetable garden looks pretty bad so obviously they're much more successful at coaxing food from the ground.

I processed some of the greens for the freezer again.

Fewer greens, more veggies

2009-07-01T15:14:00.004-04:00

Tomatoes, basil, red bore kale, bunch of carrots, parsley, garlic scapes, Napa cabbage, scallions, Easter egg radishes, dill, broccoli, Elmore Mountain bread, eggs, Dancing Cow Minuet Cheese,
Castleton crackers, and cheddar we were supposed to get last week.

Lots of herbs this week so I'm going to make lemon, dill, broccoli pasta for dinner tonight. I'll add some goat cheese or whatever cheese I have floating around that might make it taste good. No recipe, just toss and go which seems to be my normal cooking mode.

I tried roasting kale this week, just because I like to use the greens first because they're refrigerator hogs. It's easy, 350 oven, remove stems, wash, spin dry, coat with olive oil and seasoned salt and bake 10-15 minutes until crispy.

They were okay right out of the oven but they rapidly moved to a texture that is somehow equivalent of fingernails on a chalkboard. I don't think I'll try that again.

June Share

2009-06-25T20:55:00.003-04:00

We're sharing the share with different people this time around so it's going to be a bit more sporadic. We'll have three weeks in a row starting this week but there will be a couple of times when we're without the share for two weeks.

This week we have mesclun, lettuce, French breakfast radishes, 2 lbs Nicola potatoes, green kale, dill, garlic scapes, beet greens with little beets attached, scallions, dandelion greens, tomatoes, Red Hen mixed northeast grain bread, maple cream from Echo Hill Farm, and chicken stock. We were supposed to get 1 lb Grafton Village farm cheddar but it didn't make it onto the truck. I noticed the tomatoes didn't make it into the picture -- there were two of them.

I processed some of the greens for the freezer, cooked the beets for salads, made a lemon dill potato salad, cleaned the radishes for easy eating, and made dinner, all after picking up the share as if it's not convenient, we don't use it in a timely manner.

Chickpea, Italian Sausage, and Greens

3 Garlic Scapes, chopped
1 onion, diced
olive oil for sauteing
2 Italian Sausages, sliced
2 cans chickpeas (the medium size cans), drained
3 tomatoes, skins removed, diced
1 bunch beet greens, blanched and chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the sausage. Add olive oil and saute garlic scapes and onion until soft. Add remaining ingredients and allow to simmer for an hour or so adding water if necessary.

What to do with a bunch of cilantro

2009-06-13T17:53:00.005-04:00

I love the flavor of cilantro. We got cilantro in the last share and I still hadn't used it so I went on line and looked for a cilantro pesto recipe. I found one on the foodnetwork website.

Of course I made some changes as reflected below.

Cilantro Pesto

1 clove garlic, crushed
1 bunch cilantro, cleaned
1/2 tsp hot sesame oil
1/2 c. pecans
1 lime, juice and zest
2 inches fresh ginger
1/2 c olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 lb pasta

Cook pasta. Mix all remaining ingredients in a food processor. Mix together.

Asparagus!

2009-06-04T20:37:00.003-04:00

We don't get it in the share but it's wonderful stuff even with the less pleasant side effects. I found a recipe adapted from Bon Appetit to use it with pasta.

Asparagus, Goat Cheese and Lemon Pasta

1 lb pasta
1 lb asparagus, cut into 1" pieces
1/4 c olive oil
Juice and zest from one lemon
1/4 c chopped fresh dill
5 oz fresh soft goat cheese

Cook pasta until about 2 minutes from done. Add asparagus to the water and cook until firm-tender, about 2 minutes. Keep some of the water to thin the sauce.

Combine olive oil, crumbled goat cheese, and other ingredients to a large bowl. Add pasta and asparagus and mix together, adding water as necessary to get to to the texture you want. Add salt and pepper.

I also made an asparagus and Jarlsberg tart that was quite quite good.

Asparagus and Jarlsberg Tart

1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
1/4 c chopped fresh dill
2 c shredded Jarlsberg cheese
1 lb asparagus - leave long
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 F. Score a line along the outside edge of the puff pastry, about 1" from the edge. Bake for about 10 minutes until the pastry has puffed. Spread dill evenly, top with cheese and arrange the asparagus spears on the top in a single layer. Bake for about 15 minutes until cheese is melted and pastry is browned.

Shareday

2009-06-04T20:25:00.004-04:00

Mesclun greens, lettuce, Nicola potatoes, basil, sweet salad turnips, beet greens, sorrel, wild arugula, Easter egg radishes, pac choi, cilantro, red giant mustard, Vermont Cranberry Company balsamic vinegar, Vermont Butter and Cheese fresh goat cheese, and Elmore Mountain Bread pizza dough.

Lots and lots of greens today! Too much for the refrigerator so I blanched, chopped, and froze five bags of assorted greens for future use. Two bags of beet greens, three bags of a mix of turnip, radish, mustard, and arugula. We like greens just fine in soups and such but we don't really appreciate the plain old cooked greens.

I struggle with the pac choi as well. We've gotten in in the last three shares and I've ended up composting most of it.

I made potato and sorrel soup with a recipe from the share newsletter and it's pretty good although a tad thick. I used sour cream in place of the cream because that's what I had. Very rich and tangy soup.

Sorrel & Potato Soup

The recipe below is adapted from a classic French sorrel soup recipe. It is also good cold, particularly with some plain yogurt swirled in. Serves 3 or 4.

1 bunch fresh sorrel
4 cups water
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2/3 pound potatoes, cubed
1 large egg
1/4 cup crème fraiche or heavy cream (or more to taste)

Wash the sorrel and de-rib the leaves if necessary. Put it in a saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring, until the sorrel has melted into a purée and nearly all of its liquid has evaporated. Add the water and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil. Add the potatoes and cook over low heat until the potatoes are cooked through — about fifteen minutes. If you prefer a creamy rather than a chunky soup, put the soup into a blender or food processor and then return to the saucepan. Combine the eggs and crème fraiche in a warmed serving bowl. Mix until well blended. Add a ladle of the potato and sorrel mixture and blend well. Pour in remaining potato and sorrel mixture and serve immediately.

This week's share

2009-05-21T22:40:00.002-04:00

Green pac choi, 2 lbs frozen strawberries, scallions, Easter egg radishes, cilantro, Norland and Nicola potatoes, baby spinach, Vt Soy maple ginger baked tofu, Maine sea salt, pink turnips, some sort of greens that could have been, sorrel or red giant mustard, Pete's chicken stock, European cucumber.

I wasn't sure what to do with all the greens so I made up a recipe to use some of them and then blanched and froze the turnip and radish greens for future use.

White Beans with Cilantro Pesto

Amounts are approximate

1 small bunch of greens
1 bunch of cilantro
1 jalapeno pepper (including seeds and ribs for some zip)
1/2 onion
Olive oil
Juice and zest of one lemon
Juice and zest of one lime
Salt

1 can small white beans.

Mix all ingredients except the beans in food processor to desired texture. Drain and rinse the beans, then mix in as much of the pesto as desired. Serve over salad greens.

I had a lot left and froze it for future very easy dinners on hot days. Ben and I each rated it as a thumbs up dinner. Too spicy for Sam though.

Ben's birthday bash

2009-05-08T21:06:00.004-04:00

Today was Ben's birthday and he wanted a party and I aim to please. It was a good week of preparation here and there with most of Wednesday and all of Friday spent on party-related stuff.

Beverages were easy: Beer, Soda, Seltzer, Juice, and people brought wine.

Appetizer: Cheeses from the share and crackers

Dinner:
Marinated grilled steak from Epicurious
Peppers and onions for fajitas - I just cut them and cooked them at high heat in a little oil
Tortillas (I bought these, I'm not completely insane)
Refried beans (Just followed the directions on the back of the pinto bean can)
Guacamole
Grated cheese
Fresh salsa
Green chile salsa
Corn chips
Cilantro potato salad from Epicurious
Baked beans
Fresh pineapple (it just looked good)

Dessert:
Carrot Cake from Epicurious
Rice Krispy Treats (recipe from the box)

The recipes: Marinated Steak from Epicurious

Grilled Tri-Tip Roast with Tequila Marinade

1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup tequila
7 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 teaspoons grated lime peel
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 2-pound beef loin tri-tip roasts, trimmed

I followed the recipe for the marinade pretty much as is. I couldn't find tr-tip roasts so I subbed two flank steak and 4 lbs of some other steak. I marinaded it for about 24 hours even though the recipe calls for only about 2 hours. I outsourced the grilling to a more capable person and this was terrific. Many thumbs up!

I'm not giving the recipe for the potato salad because I won't be making it again. It was ok, but not good enough that I'll make it again. Part of the problem was that the potatoes I used were from the share and they were red all the way though. People thought it was ham or some other type of meat.

Guacamole

This started as a recipe in Mark Bittman's book "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" but I didn't really measure anything and it's different than his recipe. This went over very well and sadly, there are no leftovers.

6 ripe avocados, peeled, pitted and diced
1 clove garlic, minced
About 1 c minced red onion
Juice and zest from 2 1/2 limes
1 jalapeno pepper, seeds removed, minced
salt

Mix well.

Fresh Salsa

No real recipe on this but here is it, approximately

8 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeds removed, diced
1 jalapeno pepper, minced
1 bunch cilantro, cleaned and chopped
1/2 large red onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
Juice of two limes
Salt

Mix well

Green Chili Salsa

I completely made this one up and it was pretty good. I didn't like it as much as the other salsa though.

2 small cans fire roasted diced green chilies
1 minced jalapeno pepper
3 cloves minced garlic
1/2 c minced red onion
1/2 c chopped cilantro
Salt to taste
Juice from 1/2 a lime

Mix well

Kerry's Baked Beans

1 lb dried beans (I used white beans)
1 tsp baking soda
1 c maple syrup
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1/2 lb bacon (I subbed ham since I had it)
2 tsp dried mustard
1 tsp salt

Retain the cooking water from the beans

Clean and pick over the beans. Soak overnight in water with the baking soda. Put chopped onion on the bottom of a pan, add all the other ingredients, top with the bacon/ham, cover with the bean cooking water. Bake at 325F for 8 hours, adding more water if necessary. I actually made this in the crock pot on high and finished it in the oven as directed.

Triple-Layer Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

The only changes I made were 1) I added about half a can of drained pineapple to the cake 2) Eliminated the raisins because I don't really like them in baked goods and 3) Added an extra cup of powdered sugar to the icing so there would be a little more icing since I remembered that it doesn't seem like quite enough for the cake when I made it in the past. Procedurally I made the cake layers about a week in advance and froze them wrapped in plastic wrap. I made the frosting a couple of days in advance and kept it refrigerated so all I had to do today was assemble the cake.

Cake
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
4 large eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 cups finely grated peeled carrots (about 1 pound)
1/2 cup chopped pecans (about 1/2 ounce)
1/2 cup raisins

Frosting
4 cups powdered sugar
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
4 teaspoons vanilla extract

For cake:
Preheat oven to 325°F. Lightly grease three 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch-high sides. Line bottom of pans with waxed paper. Lightly grease waxed paper. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and vegetable oil in bowl until combined. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg into sugar and oil mixture. Stir in carrots, chopped pecans and raisins.

Pour batter into prepared pans, dividing equally. Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean and cakes begin to pull away from sides of pans, about 45 minutes. Cool in pans on racks 15 minutes. Turn out cakes onto racks and cool completely. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Wrap tightly in plastic and store at room temperature.)

For frosting:

Using electric mixer, beat all ingredients in medium bowl until smooth and creamy.

Place 1 cake layer on platter. Spread with 3/4 cup frosting. Top with another cake layer. Spread with 3/4 cup frosting. Top with remaining cake layer. Using icing spatula, spread remaining frosting in decorative swirls over sides and top of cake. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Cover with cake dome and refrigerate.) Serve cake cold or at room temperature.

Lots of people raved about this cake it's nice and moist with a nice balance of flavor.

Overall verdict on the menu: Very tasty but a whole lot of chopping!

Spring greens

2009-05-06T22:32:00.002-04:00

Basil, bag spinach, purple and green pac choi, spring dug parsnips, Adirondack potatoes, European greenhouse cucumber, lettuce, VT Butter and Cheese Bonnie Bouche cheese, Red Hen maize bread, mizuna, and Elmore Roots plumberry jam.

We're getting a backlog of jams as we rarely use it. What are some alternative uses? I've used some as a glaze on cake. Cupcake filling?

Pesto for dinner tonight, with a nice side salad.

Spring is coming

2009-04-22T19:17:00.003-04:00

Today we got a basil plant with our share. I like to tear off a few leaves, tear them up, and add them to a salad.

This week we've got: Nicola potatoes, carrots, European greenhouse cucumber, pac choi, mesclun mix, 8 oz of Pete's onion puree, eggs, 1 pint Bonnieview ewe's feta, Champlain Orchards red delicious apples, and one basil plant.

I decided to use a lot of these ingredients in dinner tonight but it also had to be a quick dinner since I worked today. I decided to make the chickpea pancake again but this time add some potatoes and pac choi. I sauteed the potatoes for a bit, added the onions, then added the pac choi. I didn't use a lot of any of the vegetables, just enough to give it a bit of body. I also tossed in some fresh thyme from my yard although I can't say I could really taste it.

When it was done it looked like this:

I served it with a salad of greens with basil, pine nuts, cucumber, and feta cheese.

Three thumbs up! Sam finished it off even though right before dinner he ate a banana, an apple, and 1.5 slices of bread. I think both legs are hollow.

Cherry Nirvana! Oh my!

2009-04-12T20:42:00.003-04:00

I love cherries. Cherry pie is my favorite variety of pie. But I needed to branch out a bit. Our friend Dicky picked some cherries last fall and gave me a bag of frozen cherries. I've been waiting for a special occasion to use them and Easter dinner fit the bill. I used a combination of two different recipes from Epicurious. The cherry mixture, with my changes in brackets, is from a cherry cobbler recipe. The topping is from a plum cobbler recipe. Combined they are NIRVANA! I didn't need to bother with dinner. And I know what I'm having for breakfast tomorrow too!

Cherry Cobbler

For cherry filling:
1 cup sugar [I used 2/3 c because I don't like it overly sweet]
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
6 cups fresh or frozen pitted tart cherries (about 3 1/2 pints fresh, picked over) [I had 6 c of frozen strawberries. By the time I'd pitted them, I was down to about 5 -- I kept all the juice I could]
1 tablespoon Frangelico or Di Saronno Amaretto [I used about 1/2 tsp almond extract]
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice [I skipped this, didn't have it]

Topping
2 cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons whipping cream
1 large egg

Make filling:

In a large heavy saucepan whisk together sugar and cornstarch. Add fresh or frozen cherries, liqueur, vanilla, and allspice and bring to a boil over moderate heat, stirring occasionally. Simmer mixture, stirring, 2 minutes and transfer to a shallow 2-quart baking dish.

Meanwhile, prepare biscuits:

Whisk flour, 3 tablespoons sugar, baking powder, salt, and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon in large bowl to blend. Add butter; rub in with fingertips until coarse meal forms. Whisk whipping cream and egg in small bowl to blend. Stir cream mixture into flour mixture just until blended. Gently knead in bowl until dough comes together, about 5 turns.

Drop topping by rounded tablespoons onto cherry filling (do not completely cover it) and bake in middle of oven 30-40 minutes, or until topping is golden and and tester inserted into center of biscuits comes out clean. Transfer cobbler to a rack to cool slightly.

Eat, enjoy. Ahhhhhh!

Easter Appetizer

2009-04-11T20:45:00.004-04:00

This is from Epicurious. I made it in advance to simplify things for tomorrow and of course I had to sample it. Excellent. Although I admit I didn't actually measure anything and I used fresh thyme in place of fresh rosemary because that's what I had on hand. Oh, and I just used oyster mushrooms since that's what I had.

Mushroom Crostini

36 1/3-inch-thick baguette slices

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup chopped shallots
2 1/4 cups chopped oyster mushrooms
2 1/4 cups chopped stemmed shiitake mushrooms (about 6 ounces)
1 1/4 cups chopped chanterelle mushrooms (about 4 ounces)
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 cup grated Fontina cheese
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (about 1 3/4 ounces)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Arrange baguette slices on rimmed baking sheet. Toast in oven until golden, about 9 minutes. Cool. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Store in airtight container at room temperature.)

Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallots; sauté 1 minute. Add all mushrooms; sauté until beginning to brown, about 6 minutes. Stir in garlic; sauté 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir in cream, rosemary, and lemon peel. Season with salt and pepper. Cool. Mix in both cheeses. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

Preheat broiler. Top each toast with about 1 tablespoon mushroom topping. Place on 2 rimmed baking sheets. Working in batches, broil until cheese is melted and begins to brown, watching closely to prevent burning, about 3 minutes. Transfer to serving platter. Serve warm.

Oops, almost forgot the share!

2009-04-09T21:26:00.002-04:00

My Wednesday was a little more crazy than usual and it just slipped my mind. I ended up picking it up on Thursday morning at 7am. Thank goodness for understanding hosts!

Red onions (for some reason these struck me as particularly pretty), carrots, parsnips, mixed greens and shoots, frozen strawberries, Japanese style miso from Les Aliments Massawippi, mushrooms from Amir Habib, Butterworks Farm cornmeal, Butterworks Farm buttermilk, and Grafton Classic cheddar ends.

Squash Soup

2009-04-06T18:57:00.003-04:00

We've gotten a couple of quarts of frozen squash puree. It's sort of problematic because a quart of squash that can't easily be split up is too much for a meal as a side so I decided to explore some soup options.

I saw a recipe on Epicurious for a butternut squash soup with a chutney mixed in when it was done. I didn't have the stuff for the chutney but the soup sounded good although of course I had to modify that too. So by the time I was done, it was a different soup.

Butternut Squash Soup with Chimichurri Sauce and Creme Fraiche

Soup:

2 onions, diced
2 T butter
2 T oil
1 quart butternut squash puree
4 c chicken stock
Salt to taste
zest and juice of one orange
4 cans of drained beans -- I used pinto and chickpeas but whatever you have would work

Cook onions in butter until soft. Add the squash and puree the onion pieces in a blender or food processor (my immersion blender seems to have died...the motor still goes but somehow the connection between the blender and the accessories seems to be missing. Very annoying!) Add remaining ingredients and simmer for about 15 minutes.

To serve, top with chimichurri sauce (I imagine pesto or cilantro pesto would also be good) and a couple of spoonfuls of creme fraiche.

I think it would be just fine without the orange though as it goes well with the jalapeno and heat of the chimichurri sauce but without the chimichurri, the orange overwhelmed the other flavors.

We've got leftovers and we intend to enjoy them...

Chickpea Pancake

2009-04-03T19:52:00.003-04:00

Awhile ago, we had dinner with friends and they made a chickpea something or other, I never got the official name. But it was excellent and my friend said she got the recipe from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian." I've since bought that book, found the recipe, and tonight I made it for the first time. Mmmmm

Chickpea Pancake (Socca)
450 F

1 1/2 c lukewarm water
1 c chickpea flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper, more to taste
5-6 T extra virgin olive oil
1/2 small yellow onion, thinly sliced (optional but I used it)
1 tbsp fresh rosemary leaves (optional -- I didn't use it because I didn't have it)

Pour water into a mixing bowl and sift the chickpea flour into it. Add the salt, pepper and 2 T olive oil and wisk together. Cover with a towel and allow to sit for a least a few minutes and up to 12 hours.

Preheat oven to 450. Put 2 T olive oil in a well-seasoned or nonstick 12" pizza pan or skillet. Caramelize the onions in the oil and then add the batter. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the pancake is firm and the edges are set. Preheat the broiler and brush the top of the socca with another tablespoon or two of oil.

Set the pancake a few inches from the broiler for a minute or two, just long enough to brown it spottily, but not long enough to color it evenly or burn it. Cut into wedges and serve.

Seeking the perfect cornbread recipe

2009-03-29T18:58:00.003-04:00

I've tried making cornbread many times and I've never yet found one that really makes me happy. I have to admit that I'm comparing it to the cornbread from a now-defunct Mexican restaurant but they had a sweet, moist, cornbread that was excellent...as long as it was fresh.

My most recent attempt is from this blog. I halved the recipe below but increased the sugar a bit.

CORN BREAD
Adapted from Magnolia's Southern Cuisine, by Donald Barickman

2 c. coarse stone-ground yellow cornmeal
1 1/4 c. plus 2 T. all-purpose flour
1 T. plus 1 t. non-alum baking powder
1/2 t. kosher salt
5 T. sugar
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 c. buttermilk
5 T. unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 T. safflower or peanut oil, for oiling skillet

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the rack in the top third of the oven. If you are using a cast iron skillet, as soon as the oven reaches 425, place the skillet in the oven and let it preheat. This is what makes the wonderful brown crust.

In a large bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Whisk the eggs into the buttermilk, then pour the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients. Using a rubber spatula, stir gently to combine. Stir in the melted butter.

Carefully remove the skillet from the oven. Using a paper towel carefully oil the skillet with the safflower or peanut oil. Pour the corn bread batter into the skillet and enjoy the wonderful sizzling. (If using a 9" x 13" pan, do not preheat it. Just oil it and pour in the corn bread batter.)

Bake for 25 minutes or until the top is brown, the center is firm and a knife or skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove the corn bread from the oven and let it sit in the skillet for 8-10 minutes to cool slightly before cutting and serving.

Verdict: Bland. It needs more salt and sugar. I liked the texture quite a lot. But slathered with butter and honey it was good. Sam loved it. Hmmm, wonder if there is a cornbread recipe that uses honey as a sweetener?

March 25 Share

2009-03-26T20:48:00.003-04:00

I realize I've never talked about what it's like to go get the share. The share is being hosted by my neighbor, about 2 houses away. It's all kept on the porch so when I walk in, this is what I see.

From Share Mar 25

The porch is just packed with goodies! This week we got bread and that's all packed in a nice big box.

From Share Mar 25

Most of the veggies are packed all together in one bag. In the summer these bags are often overflowing with greens.

From Share Mar 25

There are coolers full of various things. This is frozen butternut squash.

From Share Mar 25

And this one has cheese!

From Share Mar 25

Boxes of jars of honey.

From Share Mar 25

There were also big boxes of totes of apples. This makes for a lot of stuff to carry so I bring a bag so I can get all of it in one trip.

And this is the share.

From Share Mar 25

This week we got: Potatoes, celeriac, carrots, onions, valentine radishes, baby spinach, shoot and mesclun mix, Red Hen whole-wheat bread, empire apples, honey, and Blue Brebis cheese from Bonnieview Farm.

In honor of St. Patricks Day

2009-03-14T19:26:00.003-04:00

We went to a St. Patricks Day party today. Yes, it was a bit before the holiday but better before than after, correct? This year I hadn't done any planning prior to the party so I was scrambling for something to bring and found "Irish Potato Candy." I thought it would have potato but no, of course it didn't! The real advantage to that is that I'd bought a coconut this week because Sam was very curious about them. This morning we drilled a hole in it so he could try the coconut milk (an unpleasant surprise for him) and I tried the trick I saw on Alton Brown's program about tossing the coconut into the oven at 350 for 30 minutes in order to make it easier to take off the shell. It worked great! I used fresh coconut in this recipe.

IRISH POTATO CANDY

1/4 c softened butter
8 ounce package cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 c powdered sugar
2 1/2 c flaked coconut

1 T cinnamon
1 T cocoa
2 T powdered sugar

DIRECTIONS:

Cream butter and cream cheese, add vanilla and 4 c powdered sugar and coconut. Mix the cinnamon, cocoa, and powdered sugar. Take small pieces of the coconut mixture and drop into the cinnamon mixture. Roll into potato shapes.

I found this to be very sticky and soft. I don't know if it was partially because of the fresh coconut (the recipe didn't say if it should be sweetened or not either) and perhaps the coconut should have been pressed into the measuring cup. At any rate, these had the texture of frosting rolled in cocoa which is not a bad thing but not the best thing for a party. I stuck them in the freezer to make them a bit more finger friendly.

They tasted great but looked too unappealing to be a big hit. If you make these, label them! I fear them may have gone to waste which given their flavor would be a damn shame.

Share - Mar 11

2009-03-14T19:14:00.005-04:00

Carrots, onions, garlic cloves, mix of shoots, baby arugula & mustard greens; mixed potatoes, frozen strawberries, wheat berries, tamari from Les Aliments Massawipp, and mushrooms from Amir Habib.

Sam ate the strawberries immediately. Yes, in their frozen state.

Celeriac and potato puree

2009-03-08T10:18:00.003-04:00

Sometimes I have a recipe and none of the ingredients so I end up making something with just the tiniest bit of the original thought. This recipe started out as a celeric and apple recipe but I had just one sad little apple. And you know? This ended up being very very good.

Celeriac and Potato puree

Peel and cube a celeriac about 5" in diameter
Peel and cube about an equal volume of potatoes
2 good-sized shallots, diced
1 apple, peeled and diced
1/4 c butter
Water as needed.
Salt
Pepper

Preheat oven to about 375. Melt butter in a dutch oven. Toss in all the remaining ingredients and just a little water to make sure it doesn't dry out. Bake until celeric and potatoes are soft. Puree (I used the immersion blender) the mixture and add salt and pepper as desired.

Sam of course didn't like this but Ben and I did which was a very good thing because it made large batch.

Feb 25 Share

2009-02-25T11:51:00.004-05:00

I'm not posting many recipes lately because over time, it's gotten easier to use the various things I get in the share so it's not such a high priority to post them. I'm still posting share pictures though!

I'm also very happy that there are no radishes in this share....

Carrots, potatoes, celeriac, beets, garlic cloves, mix of pea, sunflower & radish shoots (they're trying to decrease the portion of radish - yay!), sprouted beans; Red Hen pain au levain; Champlain Orchards apple butter, and Cabot clothbound cheddar.

Feb 11 Share

2009-02-12T18:50:00.003-05:00

This is the last share of this session. We've signed up for the next one and will be sharing once again as every other week is plenty for roots. More than enough!

Mix of sunflower & radish shoots, carrots, daikon radishm, beets, cabbage, garlic, squash puree, Butterworks Farm yogurt, Vermont Soy maple-ginger baked tofu, Champlain Orchards apple cider, mushrooms from Amir Habib.

Jan 29 Share

2009-01-29T19:30:00.004-05:00

Cooking is getting more repetitive now that I'm getting more familiar with working with all these root veggies so I'm not posting much. I've made more of the stuffed bread, some baklava, lots of stew derivations with beef and barley a favorite of mine. We're still getting the share although we're nearing the end of this session.

This picture isn't very good because I wasn't using my usual camera so things are less yellow than they appear.

Today we got parsnips, cabbage, mixed colored potatoes, garlic, sunflower and radish shoots, rutabaga, frozen tomatoes; Sweet Chai Maple Syrup from Butternut Mountain, Vermont Butter & Cheese Creme Fraiche, and a Champlain Orchards Apple Pie.

I'm curious about the syrup but haven't yet tasted it. The pie. Oh how I wish we wouldn't get the pies. I'm not a huge fan of pie in general and I don't like whole wheat crusts very much even when they're freshly made and by the time we get them they're soggy. Ben and Sam aren't all that interested in it either and I suspect we'll end up tossing most of it.

The brown share

2009-01-14T17:53:00.003-05:00

It's hard to get excited about the share at this time of year. It's all roots and we get similar items each time. It's not that it's bad, it's just that I replaced potatoes with potatoes, carrots with carrots, etc. The localvore stuff is more interesting. We ate all the cheese curds immediately and made good headway on the bread. The stock goes in the freezer with other stock I make -- I love having a nice stash on hand.

This week we've got: potatoes, carrots, daikon radish, purple top turnips, garlic, shallots, black Spanish radishes, Red Hen sprouted wheat levain, Vermont Milk Co cheese curds, miso from Les Aliments Massawippi, and Pete's chicken stock.

The radishes are back to challenge us. I wish I could find a way to serve them that we all love but, no, we've never found one. We tolerate them best raw after peeling, slicing, and salting.

Turnip and Orange Salad

2009-01-08T10:02:00.003-05:00

I'm always trying to find good uses for the root vegetables. This is an excellent way to use sweet salad turnips. The goal is to have approximately the same volume of orange as turnip so number of turnips to use will vary greatly.

Turnip and Orange Salad

4 sweet salad turnips - cut into bitesized pieces
1 large orange - bitesized pieces
1 shallot, finely chopped
Sunflower oil
Apple Cider vinegar
Hot sauce
Salt
Pepper

Mix and let sit for a bit to allow flavors to meld.

Bubble and Squeak

2009-01-02T18:20:00.004-05:00

This was in our newsletter for this week's share and it sounded interesting...or it at least sounded like something I could do with cabbage that was a little different than usual. I followed the recipe as written.

Bubble and Squeak

This dish is said to be named after the sound that the vegetable mixture makes as it fries. (But really, it didn't squeak.) Adapted from Epicurious.com.

Serves 4

1 lb yellow potatoes, peeled (optionally) and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces

3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter

1 lb red cabbage, cored and thinly sliced

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Cover potatoes with cold salted water by 1 inch and bring to a boil, then boil, uncovered, until tender when pierced with a sharp knife, about 18 minutes. Drain in a colander.

Heat butter in a 10-inch heavy nonstick skillet over moderately high heat until foam subsides, then sauté cabbage with salt and pepper, stirring frequently, until tender, about 5 minutes. Add potatoes, mashing and stirring them into cabbage while leaving some lumps and pressing to form a cake. Cook, without stirring, until underside is crusty and golden, about 10 minutes. Serve immediately.

Ben and I gave it two thumbs up and Sam said "It tastes like potatoes" which is high praise for something with cabbage.

Last share of 2008

2008-12-31T13:19:00.003-05:00

A full year of the share! Lots of cooking, lots of eating, and a freezer full of good stuff. I've learned a lot about cooking with local ingredients this year and it was also the first year I've had any sort of garden since our second summer we lived in this house. It's so nice to be able to go to the freezer to build different meals with much less effort than having to make everything from scratch. For instance, I made a beef and barley soup using beef gravy from the freezer and leftovers in the refrigerator on Tuesday and on Wednesday I pulled out greens, cilantro pesto, and cilantro to make two types of stuffed bread for a potluck party last night. I'm now out of greens which is amazing to me since that's one of the things I sort of dreaded getting during the year.

The variety of foods we've eaten here over the last year is much wider than we've eaten in the past and I've discovered I really lots of things I didn't expect to like. However, I'm still struggling with radishes.

I hope to continue with the share, probably every other week as it's just too much food for us every week, and expand my garden for next summer. I'm hoping that Sam will eventually start eating more of it rather than tastine a "no thank you bite" and declaring "Yuck!"

The share this week: yellow potatoes, carrots, onions, sweet salad turnips, red cabbage, curly parsley, Butterworks Farm black turtle beans, Vermont Cranberry Company cranberry juice, Pete's Greens Kitchen frozen pureed squash and sunflower oil from State Line Farm.

Cranbury Curd Pavlova

2008-12-21T09:49:00.004-05:00

Today is my mother in law's birthday and we're going there for brunch. I'm bringing a quiche and dessert, a fruit dessert that of course I've never made before. It was inspired by the cranberries in our share and stumbling across this recipe. I followed the recipes as written, strange as that may be. We'll assemble them right before eating.

Cranberry Curd

350 grams cranberries, fresh or frozen (this is the size of a package of cranberries in my supermarket–probably about 3 cups)
140 mL water (1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon)
70 grams unsalted butter (5 tablespoons)
350 grams granulated sugar (1 1/3 cups)
4 large eggs
a food mill or, if you’re me, a fine-mesh strainer

1. Combine the cranberries and water in a saucepan, and cook over medium-low heat until the cranberries split open.

2. Push the cranberries through a fine-mesh strainer with the back of a wooden spoon, or if you’re lucky and have a food mill, pass them through that. Return the seedless puree to the saucepan.

3. Add the sugar and the butter, melting them into the puree at low heat.

4. Next, add the eggs, which you have beaten in a separate bowl. Make sure the sugared puree isn’t too hot, so you don’t cook the eggs on contact (it’s a good idea to remove the cranberries from the heat to cool slightly while you beat the eggs).

5. Cook slowly over low heat, stirring constantly. Do not allow the mixture to heat up too quickly, and never allow it to boil, or your eggs will curdle. Your curd is ready when it coats the back of a spoon. Cool slightly before transferring to jars to keep in the fridge. This recipe makes about 3 cups of curd.

Since I'd never heard of the dessert before, I did an Internet search and found this recipe for the meringue portion and followed the instructions here because, well, there were pictures and it used fewer egg whites than in the original recipe.

Pavlova Meringue

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar OR 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar OR distilled white vinegar
1 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup (6 ounces, about 6) large egg whites, preferably room temperature
Pinch salt

1 Place rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 275°. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Pour the vanilla and vinegar (if using) into a small cup. Stir the cornstarch into the sugar in a small bowl.

2 In a large bowl of a heavy-duty mixer, fitted with whisk attachment, whip egg whites, cream of tartar (if using) and salt, starting on low, increasing incrementally to medium speed until soft peaks/trails start to become visible, and the egg white bubbles are very small and uniform, approximately 2 to 3 minutes.

3 Increase speed to medium-high, slowly and gradually sprinkling in the sugar-cornstarch mixture. A few minutes after these dry ingredients are added, slowly pour in the vanilla and vinegar (if you didn't use cream of tartar.) Increase speed a bit and whip until meringue is glossy, and stiff peaks form when the whisk is lifted, 4 to 5 minutes.

4 Pipe or spoon the meringue into 8-10 large round mounds that are 3 inches wide on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicon liner. With the back of a spoon, create an indentation in the middle of the mound for holding the filling once meringue is baked.

5 Place baking sheet in the oven. Reduce oven temperature to 250°F. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until the meringues are crisp, dry to the touch on the outside, and white -- not tan-colored or cracked. The interiors should have a marshmallow-like consistency. Check on meringues at least once during the baking time. If they appear to be taking on color or cracking, reduce temperature 25 degrees, and turn pan around.

6 Gently lift from the baking sheet and cool on a wire rack. Will keep in a tightly sealed container at room temperature, or individually wrapped, for up to a week if your house is not humid.

7 Served topped with your favorite filling - lemon curd, raspberry or blueberry sauce, and freshly whipped cream.

Makes 8-10 pavlovas.

Sam and I had to do a taste test of the meringues and he gave it a huge thumbs up although he wasn't impressed with the curd. I was. It's lovely.

Now I'm hoping the snow will allow us to actually get there...and home again! Over a foot predicted for today. Here's the quiche! No, I didn't follow a recipe.

Cookie tips

2008-12-14T11:53:00.002-05:00

These were from an email from, er, Cook's Illustrated I believe. I'm putting them here as reference.

By adjusting key ingredients, you can change the texture of any cookie recipe.
If you want chewy cookies, add melted butter. Butter is 20 percent water. Melting helps water in butter mix with flour to form gluten.
If you want thin, candy-like cookies, add more sugar. Sugar becomes fluid in the oven and helps cookies spread.
If you want cakey cookies, add more eggs. Yolks make cookies rich, and whites cause cookies to puff and dry out.
If you want an open, coarse crumb and craggy top, add baking soda. Baking soda reacts quickly with acidic ingredients (such as brown sugar) to create lots of gas bubbles.
If you want a fine, tight crumb and smooth top, add baking powder. Baking powder works slowly and allows for an even rise.

Bountiful share

2008-12-10T18:42:00.001-05:00

Orange storage carrots, parsnips, garlic, mars onions, curly parsley, red and green Cabbage, mesclun, bright lights chard, Butterworks Farm maple yogurt, pearled barley, mushrooms from Amir Habib, Red Hen squash bread, two red kuri squash, and purple top turnips.

The squash and turnips are making up for the share before Thanksgiving when they were originally scheduled to appear.

Tonight I cooked a pulled pork loin (cooked covered at 275 with shallots and apple cider) and made the chard and one of the squashes to go with it. I almost always try to use the greens first because they take up so much space in the refrigerator. I'll likely use some of the pork to make a mushroom and barley soup too.

Stuffed bread

2008-12-06T18:27:00.006-05:00

I love bread in most all of its bready forms so this wasn't a stretch for me. It's just a no knead bread recipe rolled into two separate rectangles and filled. One has turkey, cheddar and greens (stuff I'd frozen from the share, well drained) and the other has pesto, mozzarella, and greens.

I put the filling along the middle of the piece then cut the sides where there was no filling from the middle to the edge on either side with a pizza cutter. Think of a feather where the spine is the filling. Then I coated the cut parts with egg and folded the edges, one then the other. Hint: do both ends first then go along one side. Coat the whole mess with egg wash and bake.

Enjoy.

Turkey leftovers

2008-12-05T19:19:00.003-05:00

We had turkey left after Thanksgiving of course but within two days Ben had pretty much polished them off and expressed a desire for more. Turkeys were on sale after the holiday so I picked one up and cooked it the same day since it was fresh and I assumed it was leftover and unsold and was possibly on the way out.

Two turkeys in 4 days!

But now I've got real leftovers! I made stock from the carcasses and then made soup with some of the leftovers and the odds and ends I had from the share and other sources. Use the amount you've got floating around - my measurements are approximate

Turkey, Lentil and Barley Soup

1 onion, diced
oil
1 c dried lentils
1 c barley
2 large carrots, diced
6 small turnips, diced
1 bunch kale, chopped
turkey stock
white pepper
Water and herbs as needed

Saute onion. Add remaining ingredients. Cook until lentils and barley are done. Very good the next day.

Excellent stuff! Healthy too. I froze a bunch of it in individual containers for meals.

Dessert first, right?

2008-11-26T15:55:00.004-05:00

Pies for tomorrow. I made three, an apple and a pumpkin for us and a pumpkin pie to donate for tomorrow's community meal at a local restaurant.

I was playing with crust edges. These are pretty but brown very quickly compared to other types of edges. They should be covered in foil for the entire bake time.

Thanksgiving share

2008-11-25T17:18:00.007-05:00

Potatoes, shallots, onions, parsnips, brussels sprouts, greens (claytonia and tatsoi, also looks as though there is a bit of kale in there), 2 mini decorative pumpkins, Butterworks Farm Early Riser cornmeal, and Vermont Cranberry Company cranberries and hot Italian sausage.

Delivery and capacity glitches meant that the kale, squash or pumpkin, and turnips planned for the share this week didn't make it for delivery.

The on-stalk brussels sprouts are so pretty - I very rarely see them in the store this way and I can understand why. They take up too much space! I'm going to cook these as part of our Thanksgiving feast on Thursday.

Digging through old recipes

2008-11-24T15:23:00.003-05:00

Looking for ideas for Thanksgiving and I found the menu I made for our "TBS" party. See if you can figure out what "TBS" means from the menu. Hint: The invitation included pictures of Bambi, Mother Goose, Donald Duck, and Bullwinkle.

TBS Menu
11/19/2005

Appetizers:

Smoked gouda, bacon and caramelized onion quesadillas
Duck Elles - Ground cooked duck and shitake mushrooms in phyllo dough
Venison sausage

Sides:

Vermont baked yellow eye beans
Butternut squash
Stuffed baked potatoes
Pumpkin bread
Four bean salad
Winter vegetable salad
Corn bread
Baguettes

Main courses:

Moose stew
Goose meatloaf – includes ground chicken and Italian sausage
Grilled moose & venison steaks
Venison & antelope roasts

Desserts:

Orange cream cheese brownies
Lemon Chess Pie
Peanut butter cookies

Beets!

2008-11-13T23:00:00.002-05:00

I cooked them all. The colors area amazing!

November 12 Share

2008-11-12T17:21:00.004-05:00

It's another big share!

Red kuri squash, russet potatoes, mixed beets, 2 stalks brussels sprouts, torpedo onions, bag mixed spinach and claytonia, pac choi, cilantro, sweet salad turnips, rolled oats from Quebec, Butterworks Farm whole-wheat pastry flour, Red Hen pain au levain, and a dozen eggs.

I don't think I've ever seen brussels sprouts sold on the stalk so they were fun to get that way but I immediately cut them off since refrigerator space is always at a premium.

I tossed the oats and whole wheat flour into the freezer since I've still got some from before. I need to remember to use the whole wheat pastry flour when I'm baking! I'm sure the green tomato cake I made yesterday would have survived it very well without being dry or overly heavy.

We had the spinach/claytonia mix last week and it's a very nice mix. I never even heard of claytonia until it showed up in the share but it's a sweet and tender green, excellent for salad. I much prefer this mix than the mesclan mix we've been getting.

Squash Ravioli

2008-11-11T20:13:00.003-05:00

Ah, leftover squash! What to do what to do. I was reading something that suggested making ravioli with it so I decided to give it a try. But of course I have to work with whatever I've got in my pantry because I don't generally shop for a meal, I forage. Amounts, as usual, are approximate.

Squash Ravioli with Sage Butter

Wanton or Eggroll Wrappers
1 c cooked red kuri (or other) squash
2 oz goat cheese
2 oz grated mozzarella
salt, pepper, other herbs to taste
2-3 T Butter
Sage
Beaten egg for sealing the edges of the wrappers

Mix the filling. Brush wrapper with egg, spoon about 1 T filling per ravioli. Seal. Heat butter, add dried sage (fresh would likely be better). Fry the ravioli in the butter until hot.

Very very tasty. Would make a very good appetizer since they get crispy in the butter. This made a lot so I froze about a dozen and a half. It'll make a good Thanksgiving appetizer!

Green tomato cake

2008-11-11T18:58:00.003-05:00

Yes, you read that correctly. Cake. With tomatoes. And you know, it was good, very good. No one had a clue that it had tomatoes.

Green Tomato Cake

350°F
30 min for cupcakes, about 45 for cake

Blend these together in one bowl:
2 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 c oil
1 stick butter, melted
3 eggs
2 t vanilla

Sift these together in another bowl:
3 cups flour
1 t salt
1 t baking powder
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg

Add the sifted stuff to the wet stuff gradually. Then add:
1 c chopped nuts
1 c craisins
2-2 1/2 c diced green tomatoes (about three)

Add to greased pan and top with:
coconut

Bake until a tooth pick comes out clean.

This made 16 cupcakes and a 8x8 cake pan. It would make one 9x13.

Three big thumbs up. Come try one and see if you can tell there are green tomatoes in it!

Surprise share

2008-11-09T19:11:00.003-05:00

On Thursday night my neighbor, the person hosting the share, called and said that someone hadn't picked up their share and asked if I'd like it except for a couple of things she'd already used. Turn down a share? Of course I didn't! But no pictures. Too late in the evening to bother with it I guess.

We got: Red kuri squash, acorn squash, garlic, Walla Walla onions, head lettuce, green tomatoes, bag mixed spinach, baby tatsoi and claytonia, sweet salad turnips, kale, bunch sorrel, oyster mushrooms from Amir Habib.

I spent a lot of the day on Friday cooking. I made chicken and biscuits for friends with a side salad (the lettuce, some salad turnips, and the sorrell which I'd never had before and it's a very citrusy and tasty green), and squash. I cooked the squash from this week and last and froze some and made the butternut squash into a squash, bacon, kale, barley and white bean soup. The soup was only okay so I'm not bothering to write it down.

What do you do with lots and lots of cabbage?

2008-11-03T08:15:00.002-05:00

We got three heads of savoy cabbage in the share on Wednesday and honestly, that's a daunting volume of cabbage. Who uses that much in a week? I knew I needed to get creative with it and my ultimate goal is to find a cabbage recipe that will convince Sam cabbage is edible. I didn't succeed in that mission but I did find things that Ben and I really liked. One is very quick and simple and the other is a bit of a pain to make but they are both very good.

Cabbage, Kielbasa, and White Bean Stew

2 small or 1 large head of savoy cabbage, shredded
1 large onion, diced
1/2 lb kielbasa, diced
2 cans of white beans, drained
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
Olive oil

Saute the kielbasa until browned, add the onion and cook until clear and soft. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for about 20 minutes.

The other recipe is Cabbage and Mushroom Galette with Horseradish Sauce from the Smitten Kitchen. I followed the filling recipe quite closely except I just used my own pie crust recipe in place of the one on the recipe. I have to admit I was somewhat doubtful about this recipe but I shouldn't have been. It was terrific...well for people who like vegetables. I served this to a friend that is not fond of either mushrooms or dill so this didn't go over as well with her. Oh, and the horseradish sauce was a nice touch and would be good on various types of meat as well.

Since I was making pie crust, I also made an apple galette for dessert and a pumpkin pie for good measure. Just what we needed as a follow up to Halloween, right?

Very large share

2008-10-29T22:08:00.006-04:00

It's huge! We got kohlrabi, sugarsnax carrots, leeks, daikon radish, savoy cabbage (3!), red kuri squash, delicata Squash, red mars onions, bright lights chard, bull's blood beet greens, cilantro, Butterworks Farm plain yogurt, Champlain Orchards liberty apples, and a frozen chicken.

I always like to attack the greens first as they don't keep very well and take a lot of space in the refrigerator. Today I cooked the chard in butter and used it in some baby quiches.

Chard Quiche

425 degree oven
Makes about 16 mini quiches

Recipe for 2 crust pie

(amounts are approximate)
1 bunch chard, cleaned, chopped, cooked in butter
1 small onion, diced, sauteed in butter
6 eggs
1/2 c milk
4 oz assorted cheese, grated (I used aged cheddar and jalapeno cheddar)
salt and pepper to taste

Make the pie crust and roll out as usual. Cut into 4" circles and fit the circles into muffin tins.

Mix all filling ingredients. Spoon filling into the crust. Bake 20-30 minutes until firm. Remove from pan to cool.

Verdict: Sam loved these! He ate 3 1/2 of them. I thought they were really good too but isn't anything good when encased in pie crust?

Oh, I also made myself a salad using the beet greens in place of lettuce. Excellent. Very similar to spinach but with a much more interesting color.

Frosted Halloween Muffins

2008-10-25T13:20:00.003-04:00

Party muffins! They're pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting and decorated based on the whims of a four year old.

Mid October Share

2008-10-15T19:20:00.003-04:00

Bunch Leeks, mustard greens, peppers, brussels sprouts, garlic, spinach, celery, pie pumpkin, salad turnips, Champlain Orchards macintosh apples, Red Hen whole-wheat bread, Deborah's eggs.

This was a pretty big share! Since I'm going to be gone this weekend and I know Ben won't eat them while I'm gone I processed the mustard greens and turnip greens for the freezer. I also trimmed the celery and leeks and used those to make chicken stock. I can deal with the pumpkin when I get back. In hopes that Ben and Sam eat veggies of some sort while I'm gone I cut up a bunch of raw veggies - carrots, salad turnips, celery, peppers -- and put them in plain sight. Any bets on if they'll still be there when I get back?

I made BLT's (well, BST's - spinach - and tomatoes from my garden) for dinner then cooked up the brussels sprouts in the bacon grease. Very tasty!

This is the last week of the summer share and now we begin splitting a share with friends so I'll just be getting the share every other week. But I'll still take pictures.

Chicken and biscuits

2008-10-13T15:43:00.003-04:00

I love chicken and biscuits! I'm forever trying to find a perfect recipe although I'm sure there is no such thing. I was inspired to make this because we'd invited friends over for dinner and then Ben informed me that there might be two people or possibly four people and I just didn't know if the chicken would go that far so I decided to change the menu plan. I baked the chicken in preparation for the rest of the work but alas, instead of eating at our house they invited us to their place. And I had cooked chicken all ready to be made into various dinners.

Baked Chicken with Vegetables

1 large roasting chicken
5 white potatoes, skins washed and halved
1 onion cut into eight pieces
2 stalks celery
handful of fresh thyme sprigs
3 large carrots, peeled
Salt
3 T Butter
pepper

Place the carrots in the roasting pan to act as a rack for the chicken. Place the potatoes, cut side down, in the pan. Rub the cavity with salt and stuff with the thyme, onion, and celery. Rub butter on the skin and put any remaining butter into the bottom of the pan. Salt and pepper generously.

Bake at 375 until done - depends on the size of the chicken.

Later remove all the chicken from the bones, dice pieces, and make stock with the carcass. I used a two hour simmer time this time around and I think it made a nicer stock than I get with my usual 45 minutes although I'm not sure if it's due to the quality of quality of the bird or to the increase in time. I got about 5 c of very flavorful stock from this.

Cut all the veggies from the bottom of the pan into bite size pieces.

Chicken and Biscuits

2 T butter
2 T flour (more if you like thicker sauce)
1/2 diced onion
4 cups chicken broth
2 to 3 cups diced chicken
3 to 4 cups diced cooked carrots and potatoes
1 c frozen corn
1 c frozen peas
Salt
Pepper

Saute the onion in butter until soft. Add the flour and cook until flour is lightly browned. Stir in chicken stock and heat to a simmer. Add chicken and all the veggies and bring to a simmer. Cook until flavors have combined nicely. Adjust seasonings. With the cook method above and a condensed stock additional seasonings weren't needed.

Biscuits

I don't have any southern in me and I never seem to make great biscuits. Since that's my history, I decided to try something very basic, Betty Crocker's standard buttermilk biscuits and I wanted to make them drop biscuits because at this point I was on day three of making this dinner. Of course I didn't have buttermilk in the house so I added a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice to make a cup of milk for the recipe. The dough tasted awful and the biscuits were light and tender and wonderful although a tad flat. I think a little less milk might have been helpful.

1/3 c shortening
1 3/4 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
1 c buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cut shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks like fine crumbs. Stir in milk. Drop by large tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.

Verdict: How could it not be wonderful? We all ate too much. Sam finished the biscuits today.

Of course I've got leftover chicken and leftover stock as well. Those are now residing in my freezer awaiting my next need for comfort food.

I used some of the chicken to make a chicken salad that was simple and very good. I didn't measure anything but here are the ingredients:

Chicken Salad with Craisins and Pecans

diced chicken
Sliced green onions
Craisins
Pecans
Mayonnaise

Mmmmm

October 8 share

2008-10-08T14:09:00.003-04:00

Red kuri squash, fennel, tomatillos, Walla Walla onions, sweet peppers, spinach, Bolero carrots, tatsoim, Champlain Valley Creamery cream cheese, Elmore Mountain apple cinnamon bread, chicken.

I think the kuri squash is just about my favorite winter squash! I just cut it in half, bake it, cut side down until it's soft. Scrape out the seeds and mash it with bit of butter and salt and enjoy.

It's nice to have some spinach for a change. We have gotten surprisingly little of it through the season.

A bushel of apples

2008-10-04T18:56:00.004-04:00

Is a heck of a lot of apples. I processed it into about 3 gallons of applesauce and enough sliced frozen apples for two pies. I don't want to think about apples for awhile.

But I did find a good trick. If I start the applesauce on the stove in my Le Creuset dutch oven then cover it and move it to the oven at about 350 it acts as a little pressure cooker and cooks the applesauce a bit faster and requires much less attention than the stovetop method. I love shortcuts!

Share picture

2008-10-01T15:44:00.003-04:00

Mesclun, sweet peppers, red shallots, mizuna, green tomatoes, torpedo onions, purple potatoes, scallions, curly parsley, Blythedale Farm brie, Pete's Greens Kitchen chicken stock.

We were also to have gotten Lacto-Fermented Dill Pickles from Pete's Greens Kitchen but for some reason it was crossed off the share list at the pickup point.

It seems as though our shares have been fairly small lately. I don't know if this is because the farm has been having a tough season with all the rain or if it's related to increased costs there or if I'm just wrong about the share size.

We have decided to split the next share with another family because it's hard to use a lot of root veggies that will be coming in the next share. I've also found that if I don't cook it, it doesn't get used as Ben never plans any meals around what we've got in the share; he prefers to decide what he wants to eat and then go to the store to buy the ingredients. Our freezer is full of stuff I cook just to use share veggies up as well as tomato sauces of various types from the garden. I find I'm a bit overstocked on some things so lately I've been chopping onions and freezing them for future use because we've been getting so many of them in the share and I don't want them to go to waste. It's time to clear out the freezer a bit and we can do that over the next couple of months.

I wish we could continue to get the share weekly but it turns out that I just can't do all the cooking and keep doing everything else I've got on my to-do list so this is what I'm going to let go for now. I've also found that it's nice to have a bit more flexibility in the menu than I've got when I need to use what's in the share.

Our first missed share will be Oct 22.

The pictureless share

2008-09-26T12:46:00.002-04:00

I picked up the share on Wednesday between running down to Montpelier and going to look a at a bicycle I was thinking about getting and didn't have time to take a picture of this week's share.

Here is what it included:

Broccoli, carrots, French breakfast radishes (why are they named breakfast radishes? I wouldn't eat them for breakfast), dale, cippolini onions, mars onions, edamame, garlic, pac choi, tomatoes, rosemary and sea salt focaccia from Elmore Mountain Bread, Champlain Orchards apple cider and ground beef from Shadagee Farm.

Maple Sugar Cookies

2008-09-20T09:11:00.006-04:00

We've gotten maple sugar in our share twice and I haven't used it for much of anything. I tried putting some in a smoothie and found it doesn't dissolve as easily as regular sugar and it made the smoothie gritty. I didn't want gritty cookies so I threw the maple sugar in the food processor for a good long time and then sifted the results with a fine mesh tea strainer because I wanted the particles to be small. It took a long time but in the end, I'd say it's worth it.

Update: An easier way to make the sugar particulate size smaller is to use a coffee grinder. I didn't bother to sift it afterwards which sped up the process significantly.

Maple Sugar Cookies

350 degree oven
8-10 min
approx. 7 dozen small cookies

1 c maple sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1 c butter
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
2 c flour

Cream sugar and butter. Add the egg and beat until fluffy. Mix in the baking powder and flour. Separate dough into two pieces and roll each one into logs in plastic wrap (the dough is extremely sticky) - mine were about 1" by 2" by 8". Refrigerate until firm. Slice pieces to 1/8" and place 1" apart on a cookie sheet. Bake until light brown. Allow to cool a bit before removing from cookie sheets.

Verdict: Oh my! Try not to eat them by the handful. They're crispy around the edges and just a little soft toward the middle making them both somewhat chewy while still melting in your mouth. They're probably a touch sweeter than they need to be if that is possible so maybe it might be a good idea to decrease the sugar slightly, maybe to 3/4 c of maple sugar.

Pear sauce

2008-09-17T19:30:00.004-04:00

My neighbor has two pear trees in her backyard and left an open invitation to come and pick them any time. I took her up on it and picked about 10 lbs of pears today. Some were very large and the others were tiny. What to do with them? Pear sauce, ever single pear. What is pear sauce? It's like apple sauce made of pears. A simple concept.

Pear Sauce

Lots of pears
A good slug of maple syrup (about a cup if I had to guess - vary based on sweetness of pears)
Water

Peel, core and slice the pears. Add a little water and maple syrup just to get the pears to start releasing their juices. Cover and simmer until pears are soft. Puree with immersion blender. Cool and enjoy.

I froze some of it for the winter but we ate some right away because it was so good. It got the thumps up from one of the neighbor kids as well as Sam -- he asked to take some home but forgot it of course.

Mmmm, pizza

2008-09-17T19:18:00.004-04:00

But different. Try apple, rosemary, blue cheese, and walnut pizza. Sounds odd, tastes great. This is based on a recipe in our share newsletter a couple of weeks ago.

Apple, Blue Cheese, and Walnut Pizza

The original recipe appears in Dishing Up Vermont by Tracey Medeiros. I've modified by not measuring and using a different crust.

Pizza dough (I used 2 c white bread flour and 1 c whole wheat pastry flour that made 2 pizzas, this and another more traditional pizza)

1 large apple, unpeeled, cored, and cut into 1/8 inch slices
3/4 cup crumbled blue cheese (3 oz)
1/2 - 3/4 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (2-3 ounces) - I used mozzarella
1 1/2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary, or 3/4 tsp dried
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 500F and place pizza stone into bottom of the oven.

Roll half the dough to a 13-inch circle on parchment paper. Bake the crust for approximately 10 minutes, or until it just begins to brown. Cover the crust with apple slices, cheeses, rosemary, walnuts to taste. Bake an additional 10-12 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned.

Ben and I loved it, Sam tried it and ended up waiting for the more traditional pepperoni pizza.

Look! I remembered to take a picture.

The overeaters share

2008-09-17T19:09:00.004-04:00

Bread and butter! Yum! I'll just eat that thank you, forget the rest. But of course there is more.

Mixed colorful beets including red, chioggia, gold and/or white, bunch mizuna; bag layered with spinach and arugula; Ailsa Craig onions; peppers; beefsteak tomatoes;sites that received cherry tomatoes last week will receive all beefsteaks this week, Red Hen Pain au Levain; Champlain Orchards ginger gold apples; Butternut Mountain maple sugar; Vermont Butter and Cheese butter.

Tomatoes and Basil

2008-09-16T08:18:00.002-04:00

I've been overwhelmed with tomatoes and basil lately but to clarify, I don't necessarily consider that to be a bad thing. I've been looking at recommendations for tomato sauce they all say to remove the skin and seed the tomatoes before making sauce but frankly, that sounds like a waste of time and nutrients to me.

My basil is still going strong and I've also got some fresh oregano out in the garden and I want to preserve those flavors of summer for the long winter ahead. I've got pesto in the freezer as well as some chopped basil I've frozen in water in ice cube trays to see if it holds up for future use.

I have only a few tomato plants so I pick them every few days but I like to have enough tomatoes to make the processing time worthwhile so I toss the whole tomatoes in the freezer until I have enough to make a good sized batch of sauce. And why make plain old tomato sauce when I can make marinara sauce and derivations of marinara instead? That saves work when I need a quick dinner.

Tomato, Basil, and Summer Squash Sauce

2 medium onions, diced
4 large cloves garlic, minced
Olive oil for sauteing
Approximately 10 good sized tomatoes, diced large, centers removed
3 small summer squashes, diced
1 large bunch of basil, washed and removed from stems
handful of fresh oregano, washed and removed from stems
Salt
Pepper
Cayenne Pepper

Saute the onions and garlic in olive oil. Add squash and saute for a few minutes. Add tomatoes, salt, and pepper and cook until the sauce is to the desired consistency at medium heat stirring frequently. Remove from heat, add the fresh herbs and cayenne, then puree the sauce (I use an immersion blender).

I'm hoping this will freeze well and not lose it's fresh herb flavors over time. The fresh sauce is very good. I bet it would make a spectacular lasagna.

Tomato share

2008-09-10T18:42:00.005-04:00

Tomatillos, cherry tomatoes and beefsteak tomatoes, mesclun, sweet salad turnips, zucchini, eggplant, sweet peppers, basil, cilantro, Maplebrook Farm mozzarella, Elmore Mountain bread, and Butterworks Farm yogurt.

Whew! Not an onion in sight! It's a bit of a relief given the share over the past several weeks.

When I get the share I usually try to process some of the veggies right away to make room in the refrigerator for other things. Today, I made salsa with the tomatillos and cilantro, cleaned and sliced the turnips for quick snacking or use in salads, chopped, blanched, and froze the turnip greens for future use.

I also used some of the veggies to make dinner. First I followed my neighbor's recipe for zucchini which is shred it, squeeze out all possible moisture, chop some garlic and cook in olive oil for a minute, add the zucchini and cook until the moisture is gone. I liked it but Sam didn't.

I also fried eggplant...dipped in egg then cornmeal and fried in sunflower oil. Not a hit.

Then, in order to use the tempeh we got ages ago I cooked it with hot sesame oil, soy sauce, and ginger and we all hated it.

It was a dinner of misses. No one really liked anything. Ah well, live and learn.

The orange red share

2008-09-03T19:44:00.010-04:00

Beefsteak and heirlooms tomatoes, Ailsa Craig sweet onions, sugarsnax carrots, garlic, chard, leeks, mesclun, raspberries, oyster mushrooms, eggs.

I'm swimming in onions! Those Ailsa Craig onions are huge and we got four of them. We like onions but that's a bit much.

The raspberries were gone within 15 minutes of picking up the share. Yum!

We were supposed to get tomatillos today but they forgot to load them on the truck. We got cherry tomatoes this week because we were supposed to have raspberries last week that weren't there. Oops.

And of course we got carrots because we hadn't had any for so long I bought some last week. Now I've got plenty but those we'll use.

I like to use the greens up right away because they take up so much space in the refrigerator so I made this recipe from the share tonight:

Sauteed Greens with Tomato and Chickpeas

2 TB sunflower oil or bacon fat
1 leek washed and sliced thin
1 bunch chard or kale, washed and chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 tomato, seeded and chopped
1 cup pre-cooked chickpeas
squeeze of lemon or lime juice

* If using chard, chop stems separately. Add the stems to the skillet about 2 minutes before the greens.

Heat oil in a large heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat. Add leeks and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add greens, salt and pepper and toss to combine. Cook uncovered for 2 minutes, tossing occasionally. Add tomato and chickpeas and toss to combine. Cover, reduce heat, and cook for 3 minutes. Remove from heat, add the squeeze of citrus and serve immediately.

Verdict: I liked it, Ben and Sam didn't. Ben said he just doesn't like chard but truthfully, I think he just doesn't care for greens in general as he's never enthusiastic about anything based on greens.

Blogger apparently doesn't like to put spaces between paragraphs today. I don't know why.

Roasted Pepper and Cherry Tomato Sauce

2008-08-29T16:43:00.003-04:00

My neighbor gave me some tomato seedlings this spring and I planted them in what used to be one of my old flowerbeds that was so overgrown I pulled everything out. I gave the bed a nice dose of compost and planted the seedlings. Then we had rain, rain and more rain and then the tomato plants ate the tomato cages. I'm not kidding. They knocked them over and I can't find them any longer. One of the plants is growing up a lilac bush and that section is now over my head.

The most impressive plant is producing cherry tomatoes at a nice pace and today I picked a bunch of them and decided to try something a little different.

Roasted Pepper and Cherry Tomato Sauce

1 quart cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small onion, cut into pieces appropriate for roasting
4 cloves garlic peeled and cut in half
3 sweet peppers
olive oil
salt
pepper

Roast the peppers under the broilers until skins are bubbling and brown. Place peppers in a paper bag for 10 minutes. Remove, peel off skin and cut out core.

Meanwhile, put tomatoes, onion, & garlic in a roasting pan and toss with olive oil. Roast at 450 for about 20 minutes, checking and stirring frequently, until somewhat browned, soft and fragrant.

Combine with peppers, puree until smooth, add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve over raviolli.

Verdict: Ben and I liked it a lot. Sam didn't.

Guess what we got today?

2008-08-27T19:10:00.003-04:00

The share of course.

Bag of mesclun on top with arugula on the bottom, mix of potatoes, torpedo onions, kale, spicy bush basil, beefsteak tomatoes, mixed colored peppers, Champlain Orchards apples, Bonnieview Mossend blue cheese, and Elmore Mountain Bread.

It was nice to get the potatoes today so I made a kale and potato soup for dinner and served it with a mesclun salad and grilled cheese sandwiches. The soup was a fairly good way to use the kale although it seemed like it was missing something. I started with a recipe from the share newsletter but it turned into something somewhat different.

Kale and Potato Soup

1 bunch kale, cleaned, stemmed, chopped

5 medium potatoes, diced

1 medium onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

chicken fat and drippings

chicken stock

salt

pepper

white pepper

red pepper

milk

Saute kale in a bit of the chicken fat until it's bright green. Remove from pan. Add remaining fat and saute the onions and garlic. Add the potatoes, then the stock to cover. Cook until potatoes soft. Add the kale back in and puree everything. Add milk and seasonings to reach desired flavor and texture.

Verdict: Decent. Sam ate it.

Pizza!

2008-08-20T18:52:00.006-04:00

Who doesn't like pizza? I love the stuff and could probably eat it about three times a week without complaint. I usually go for a nice pepperoni but sometimes I like to experiment and today was such a day.

We had some leeks left from the share and a bit of the bacon as well. Why not get creative?

Bacon and Leek Pizza

1/4 lb bacon

3 leeks, cleaned, cut into 1/8" or so slices.

4 oz sharp cheddar, grated

4 oz mozzarella, grated

Pizza Dough

A note about how I bake pizzas - I use a pizza stone on the bottom shelf of the oven and set the oven at 500 degrees. Allow the stone to preheat for about 45 minutes to make sure it's good and hot. I roll out the dough on parchment paper to allow me to slide the dough onto the pizza stone easily.

Make the pizza dough. Cook the bacon then remove it from the pan and cut into very small pieces. Cook the leeks in the bacon fat.

Roll 2/3 of the dough into a 15" round. Spread the leek mixture evenly across the dough, top with the cheeses then the bacon. Bake about 12 minutes until nicely browned.

But what did I do with the remaining 1/3 of the dough?

Blueberry Dessert Pizza

Amounts are approximate

3 oz cream cheese

1/4 c sour cream

3 tbsp brown sugar

1 c blueberries

Roll dough approximately 10". Bake crust only on pizza stone for about 6 minutes, until lightly browned. Meanwhile, mix the cream cheese, sour cream, and brown sugar adjusting the ratios as you like.

Remove the crust from the oven and allow to cool. Spread the cream cheese mixture on the crust and have Sam top it with blueberries.

Verdict: Thumbs up on both all the way around. I ate too much....

Stuffed Roasted Tomatoes

2008-08-20T13:29:00.003-04:00

A friend of Ben's family was in Vermont and made this for everyone. I made a variation using the fennel from the share in place of the olives and the tomatoes I had (about 5 and some cherry tomatoes as well) instead of the plum tomatoes.

Slow roasted Tomatoes with Feta, Olives & Pine Nuts

12 medium plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise and seeded
1 1/4 tsps. salt
1/2 cup pine nuts
2 cups crumbled feta cheese (about 8 ounces)
1 3-ounce package cream cheese
2/3 cup pitted, coarsely chopped Kalamata olives
2 tsps. dried oregano (I used fresh)
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

Sprinkle tomatoes with salt and turn, cut side down, to drain for 30 minutes on a wire rack set over a cookie sheet with a rim. Meanwhile, warm a small skillet over low heat. Add pine nuts; saute, stirring constantly until golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes.

Adjust oven rack to center position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Mix feta, cream cheese, olives, pine nuts and oregano in a medium bowl. Turn tomatoes cut side up and fill with about 2 Tbs. of the feta mixture. Bake until tomatoes are soft but still hold their shape, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and brush with oil. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.

Verdict: The filling is tremendous and would make a great spread for other things. They were good hot and warm but really, these were best as leftovers, cold out of the refrigerator and I don't really know why that is. But if I make them again, I'll make them the day before and serve them cold. Hmm, an appetizer.

August Wednesday Share

2008-08-20T10:44:00.005-04:00

Mesclun, tomatoes, zucchini and patty pan squash, Ailsa Craig onions, garlic, celery, Romanesca cauliflower, curly parsley, Vermont Milk Company smoked cheddar, Maine sea salt, Dwight Miller Orchards organic apple cider vinegar.

We now have a half a gallon of cider vinegar from the share and another quart from before the share. Any idea what to do with three quarts of cidar vinegar?

The cauliflower is very dramatic but overall, this seems like a small share for the middle of August.

I'm running out of share headers

2008-08-14T18:30:00.003-04:00

Nappa cabbage, red cabbage, head garlic, fennel, bunch leeks, sweet peppers, tomatoes, basil, eggplant, Champlain Valley plums, Elmore Mountain bread, and Vermont Smoke and Cure Bacon.

I was amused that there was a nice little blurb on the newsletter about saving bacon grease for cooking as though that was a radical new idea.

Why toss all that wonderful flavor?

I made pesto and fried eggplant for dinner and have stuffed tomatoes on the agenda for some time soon.

Quick, Easy, Yummy

2008-08-07T19:35:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I just throw things together and I'm very happy with the results. Tonight was one of those nights. Sam helped cook!

Tomato, Zucchini, Bean and Basil Sauce

1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
Olive oil for sauteing
4 tomatoes, diced
3 small zucchinis sliced or diced (or any other summer squash)
1 c basil chiffonade
2 cans beans - I used small red beans and dark red kidney beans at Sam's request
Salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion and garlic. Add tomatoes, zucchini, beans, salt and pepper. Cook to desired consistency. Add basil shortly before serving.

Serve over pasta.

Thumbs up!

Summer Share

2008-08-06T16:06:00.005-04:00

Now we're getting into the commonly recognized vegetables. I'm surprised to get corn on the cob but I'm certainly not complaining about it.

Sam wanted to be in the picture with the share so here he is.

Corn on the cob, mesclun; celery; mix of purple, yellow, and green snap beans, cauliflower, green garlic, Alisa Craig onions, beefsteak tomatoes, zucchini, shitake mushrooms, tempeh, feta cheese.

I think I'll be making some stuffed tomatoes soon.

Blueberry bars

2008-08-03T19:39:00.003-04:00

I've been picking blueberries and freezing blueberries and this week I made the bars I saw over at Smitten Kitchen. Two thumbs up! Or three. Or four. I can't remember who we gave them to but no one refused and everyone liked them.

The difference between here and there? A helper and sprinkles.

Share time again

2008-07-30T12:56:00.003-04:00

Yellow Potatoes, Alisa Craig Onions, Sugarsnax Carrots, Bunch Green Kale, Flat Leaf Parsley, Savoy Cabbage, Garlic Scapes, Radicchio,Green Peppers, Gleason Grains Whole Wheat Pastry Flour, Eggs, Pete's Kitchen Pickles.

I've got onions coming out of my ears at the moment. I use lots but I'm not sure if I can just leave these out and have them develop a skin so they'll keep a little longer. I wish we'd get more onions in the winter because that's when I use them in just about everything I make.

More parsley means more chimichurri sauce. Yum!

Eggplant Tests

2008-07-30T06:47:00.005-04:00

Eggplant isn't something I've commonly used in cooking. It's a pretty plant but, eh, just not my favorite. I tried two different recipes with the ones from the share this week with mixed success - one excellent, one mediocre.

First the excellent one...we had it as a side but it would make an excellent pasta sauce. I had 4 yellow squashes and two patty pan squashes in the share so I used all of it in this. I put the patty pan squash in the microwave for a couple of minutes to make them easier to cut

Summery Eggplant and Summer Squash with Basil

1 large onion, diced
2 large cloves garlic, minced
Olive oil for sauteing
1 Japanese eggplant, diced about 1/2"
6 small summer squashes, diced about 1/2"
3 medium tomatoes, diced
1/2 c basil chiffonade
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil. Add the remaining ingredients with the exception of the basil and cook until the vegetables are soft. Add the basil.

Verdict: Excellent! Put some freshly grated Parmesan cheese on the top and enjoy. Ben discovered that reheating the leftovers in butter added a nice touch too.

Eggplant Gratin

Olive Oil
1 Japanese eggplant, peeled, sliced into pieced 1/2" thick
1 small onion cut into quarters
1/3 c milk
1 egg
4 oz grated misc cheese (we had cheddar, goat cheese and something I can't remember)
1/2 t minced fresh rosemary
salt and pepper to taste
breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 450. Break apart the onion pieces and coat that and the eggplant with a thin layer of olive oil. Roast in the oven until the pieces brown a bit, about 20 minutes. Meanwhile mix remaining ingredients except the bread crumbs. Grease a very small casserole dish. Reduce oven to 400. Put eggplant and onion (chop this smaller first if you wish) into the dish, pour egg mixture in and mix it around a bit. Top with breadcrumbs. Bake 30 minutes until top is browned.

Verdict: I just didn't like this very much, the flavors just didn't seem right and I didn't care for the texture. Sam liked it a lot. Ben liked it too.

Oh, I was fairly accurate in my prediction that most everything would still be uneaten when we got home. The only vegetables Ben had eaten were the beets.

Pictureless Share

2008-07-24T09:57:00.002-04:00

I'm out of town and Ben had to pick up the share this week. But I know what the newsletter says we'll have and I bet every single thing on this list will still be there when I get back on Sat so if I were so inclined I could recreate the usual Wed. photo but I alas, I won't.

Napa cabbage, summer squash, bunch beets, bunch basil, mixed green and purple peppers; broccoli -or- bunch red bor kale, tomatoes, Alisa Craig sweet onions, pickling cucumbers, escarole, mesclun -or- Japanese eggplant -or- fennel, Champlain Valley Apiaries honey, Vermont Milk Company cheese curds (these just aren't the real thing - I'm from WI and I know my cheese curds -- they need to be so fresh they squeak!), and Champlain Orchards plums.

Braised Kohlrabi

2008-07-18T17:52:00.003-04:00

I'm trying to use up as many vegetables as possible before Sam and I head out tomorrow so they won't go to waste. This recipe was included in the share newsletter so I gave it a try. The only change I made was to omit parsley since I don't have any.

Braised Kohlrabi

Braising kohlrabi in white wine really brings out the sweetness of this vegetable. Makes a wonderful accompaniment to grilled chicken or fish. Serves 4.

1.5 lb. kohlrabi, peeled and chopped into 1" pieces

2 garlic scapes, chopped into 1/4" pieces
2 TB butter
1.5 teaspoon fresh tarragon, finely chopped (or 1/2 teaspoon dried, crumbled)
salt & pepper to taste
1/4 cup white whine
chopped fresh parsley

Melt butter in a medium-sized skillet set over medium heat. Add the kohlrabi, scapes, tarragon, salt and pepper, and toss to coat with butter. Pour in white wine. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat and cover. Continue to cook, adjusting heat to keep pan contents at a slow simmer, approximately 10-15 minutes, until slightly tender. Uncover and turn the heat up a bit. Cook until the kohlrabi is slightly colored. Remove from heat and transfer to serving dish. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Verdict: I really liked it, Ben called it so so, Sam took a no thank you bite and announced he didn't like it. I'm always surprised to find a vegetable dish I like that Ben doesn't as Ben is much less picky about food than I in general but now I've found two, this and parsnips.

I'm gone all next week

2008-07-16T16:31:00.004-04:00

Sam too. That means that Ben will be on his own for meals and that generally means a steak with few or no sides or Chinese food so I'm trying to do something with almost everything we got in the share before I leave. Ben will pick up our share next Wed. and I expect that he will have eaten very little of it by the time we get back.

I took the pickling cucumbers and just cut them up and soaked them in a mix of water, salt, vinegar and fresh dill. Those are always tasty and he might eat them while I'm gone because there is absolutely no prep work necessary.

I also made bread with some of the squash.

Yellow Squash Bread
Based on KAF's Whole Grain Baking - Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread

350F
1 hr 10 minutes
1 large loaf

2 c whole wheat flour (1 used 1 c ww pastry flour, 1 c ww bread flour)
1 c bread flour
3/4 c sugar
1 T baking powder
1 t salt
1/4 t nutmeg
2 large eggs
3/4 c milk
1/4 c vegetable oil
1 1/2 c (12 3/8 oz ) shredded yellow squash (or zucchini)
1/2 c raisins
1/2 c chopped walnuts (I omitted)
1 T grated lemon zest (I didn't have it, subbed 1/8 t lemon extract)

Grease the pan. Mix the dry ingredients. Mix the wet ingredients. Mix them all together. bake for about 1 hour 10 minutes until tester comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes, remove from pan.

I simplified the instructions, check the book if you're looking for more detailed information.

Verdict: Very good, Sam and I both enjoyed it. Ben hasn't tried it yet.

Easy summer hummus dinner

2008-07-16T11:58:00.003-04:00

We had our first delivery of a selection of summer veggies appropriate for dipping today so it inspired me to make hummus. I love the stuff and it's very expensive in the store for no apparent reason because it's so easy to make. Here is a basic hummus recipe but I'm sure there are plenty of others out there that are just as good.

I made hummus but added about 3 T of chimichurri sauce to half of it so I have two different flavors for dipping. We'll be dipping summer squash, cucumber, blanched broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, tofu (experimental use of tofu -- I'll be pressing it to drain out the extra moisture and may give it a little saute to add some flavor), and toasted chips I made by cutting up some tortillas and browning them in the oven while the bread was baking.

Leftovers will make great lunches for tomorrow.

Sam and I have already been taste testing the chimichurri hummus and it gets two thumbs up!

Not a green in sight

2008-07-16T11:49:00.004-04:00

The first week in ages with no greens and here I'd counted on getting some sort of lettuce to make a salad for Sam's school. Oh well, off to the store we go! We need milk anyway and that's one thing we don't get through the share.

Today we've got summer squash, cucumbers, pickling cucs, broccoli, cauliflower, Alisa Craig sweet onions, Garlic Scapes, Kohlrabi, Elmore Roots Vermont Blueberry Jam, tofu from Vermont Soy, and Champlain Orchards raspberries.

The raspberries are good snackables along with the blueberries we picked yesterday.

Cheesy Eggplant

2008-07-15T16:51:00.002-04:00

Sam's been interested in trying new fruits and vegetables lately, something I'd hate to discourage. On our most recent trip to the store he was fascinated with eggplant, yet another vegetable I haven't normally cooked or eaten but of course I was willing to give it a try.

Cheesy Eggplant Casserole

1 eggplant, peeled and cut into 1/4" pieces
1 T salt
3/4 c breadcrumbs
1-2 eggs, beaten
olive oil for pan frying
1 lb ground turkey
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
28 oz can whole peeled tomatoes in juice
1/4 c fresh oregano
1 T fresh thyme
salt
pepper
6 oz mozzarella cheese, grated

Rub salt on the eggplant slices, place slices in a collander and set aside for 30 minutes. Rinse and dry the eggplant slices, dip in eggs, and then into breadcrumbs. Brown the slices in olive oil, about 2 minutes per side at medium high temperature. Place slices in the bottom of a pan or casserole dish (I used an 11"x7" because I had a small eggplant).

Drain tomato juice and grind up the tomatoes (I used my immersion blender for this)

Brown turkey in a little oil if necessary. Add onion and garlic and cook until soft. Add tomatoes, herbs, and salt. Pour the sauce over the eggplant. Top with cheese.

Bake about an hour at 350 until the eggplant is soft. I assembled this two days in advance then baked it and that worked just fine. It made about 8 small servings.

Verdict: Sam loved it and wanted it in his lunch the next day. Ben liked it but thought it would be better with noodles - he thought it should be lasagna. I liked it but thought it might be nicer with a bit more kick, perhaps a little cayenne.

It's blueberry season!

2008-07-15T16:46:00.003-04:00

Sam and I picked for awhile today after he was sent home from school for having a fever...hey, he seemed to be well enough to be out and about or I'd have brought him home pronto! We went to a local organic berry farm and picked about 6 lbs of blueberries and a token pint of raspberries. Guess which are my favorite? The berries are huge this year so they made for relatively fast picking even with my unexpected helper. Most are already in the freezer preparing for a future as pie, crisp, pancakes, smoothies, or just plain frozen blueberries. I plan to go out picking a few more times this summer, hopefully alone so I can concentrate on volume instead of entertainment so my winter will be filled with these little luscious bits of summer.

Barley Salad Version Two

2008-07-13T12:46:00.004-04:00

I love barley and there is a salad a like a lot but I wondered if I could make something I liked as much if not more. I think this has potential but do NOT add garlic. I did, and the flavor is too overwhelming but if it wasn't there, I think I'd love this salad totally and completely.

Basil and Barley Salad

1 c. dry barley, cooked and cooled
3/4 c chopped pecans or other nuts
1/3 c olive oil
1 c basil chiffonade
2 c frozen corn
1 large tomato diced (more would be better but I just had one)
Lemon juice - about 1/4 c or to taste
Salt to taste

Cook the pecans in the olive oil until lightly browned. Cool. Mix all the ingredients together. Do NOT add garlic, particularly two finely minced cloves even if they're small. It's possible that onion would be good in this.

Radicchio?

2008-07-10T14:22:00.003-04:00

I've never purchased radicchio. I've heard the word, remember seeing it on restaurant menus and have likely eaten it in salads but I've never held a head of radicchio in my hands until yesterday. I can't let it go to waste but a quick taste was enough to know that I had to do something with it because eating concentrated amounts of raw radicchio wasn't going to make me happy.

CSA newsletter to the rescue!

Grilled Radicchio with Balsamic Glaze
This recipe comes from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian." It would be delicious sprinkled with some blue cheese. Mark also suggests using the grilled radicchio in the Mediterranean Slaw recipe below. Serves 4.

1 pound radicchio, cored and quartered
1 TB sunflower oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 TB honey
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your grill to a moderately high heat. Brush the radicchio with the oil, taking care to keep the wedges in tact. Stir the honey into the vinegar and set aside. Place the radicchio wedges on the grill, cut sides down. Grill for a minute or two, then turn and brush (or drizzle) with the vinegar mixture. Cook until just starting to crisp and char around the edges, another couple of minutes. Transfer to a platter and sprinkle with salt and black pepper. Serve warm or at room temperature. Sprinkle with blue cheese, if desired.

And I, uh, followed the recipe as much as I could without actually measuring the ingredients. Just a warning though, it's quite difficult to keep the wedges intact during the grilling and turning process.

Ben and I gave it a thumbs up but Sam found the balsamic vinegar flavor a bit overwhelming at first but he ended up eating a little piece in the end.

Wednesday of plenty

2008-07-09T12:43:00.008-04:00

Large Bunch of Basil, 1 Onion, Head Napa Cabbage, Bunch Purple Scallions, Radicchio, spring dug potatoes, Tomatoes, Bag of Arugula topped off with Mesclun, Pete's Eggs, Butterworks Farm Maple Yogurt; Maple Wind Farm Breakfast Sausage.

We also got a bonus bunch of flat leafed parsley which unfortunately I don't like very much so I went looking for recipes on Epicurious and found a recipe for Chimichurri sauce. Sounds a lot like a pesto actually, pesto with a kick. I've got some moose or venison (who knows what -- Ben didn't label things well) thawing and we can put this over it.

Chimichurri Sauce (Epicurious Recipe)

My variations are significant and are listed below.

1 c flat leaf parsley

1/2 c olive oil

1/3 c red wine vinegar

1/4 c fresh cilantro

2 cloves garlic, crushed

3/4 t crushed red pepper

1/2 t cumin

1/2 t salt

Mix in food processor

The Anne Version of Chimichurri Sauce

2 c flat leaf parsley

4 cubes of Cilantro Pesto

1/2 c olive oil
1/3 c fresh lime juice
4 cloves garlic, crushed
3/4 t crushed red pepper
1 t cumin
3/4 t salt

Mix in food processor

It tasted good to me! It's not too spicy and that's intentional because I'd like Sam it eat it. We ate it over steak and have a lot left for another round of spicy goodness.

Update 10/13/08: I froze some of the chimichurri sauce and today I mixed a half a cup of it with a pint of tomatillos for an excellent salsa!