Beet and carrot slaw

This one came from our farm share newsletter. They've often got some good ideas for using lots of local ingredients.

Beet Carrot Slaw
4 servings

2 Beets, peeled
3 Carrots, peeled
1 c sprouts
1/4 c oil
1/4 c cider vinegar
2 tbsp maple syrup or sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
Blue Ledge Chevre

Whisk together oil, vinegar, maple, garlic, salt and pepper to make a dressing. Grate beets into a small bowl. Grate carrots into another bowl, mix in sprouts. (Keeping them separate for now will preserve their colors.) Toss 1/2 the dressing with the beets, 1/2 with the carrot & sprouts. Set aside to marinate for a bit. Combine just before serving, with some of the goat cheese crumbled over the top.

I actually followed the recipe pretty much as it's listed above (unusual for me) although I served it over some regular salad greens just to increase the green factor.

Verdict: I liked it, I liked it a lot. I served it with the butternut risotta that was pretty mediocre so at least something I made was good...

Beware the unknown root vegetable

I'm not too up on the various types of root vegetables because I've not eaten a wide variety of them in the past and some are very similar in appearance to others. The share a week and a half ago listed five lbs of "rainbow roots" and when I recognized some beets, some radishes and rutabagas. I've had those "rutabagas" hanging around for a bit so I found a recipe for rutabagas and carrots that sounded pretty tasty and decided to make it this morning. The first couple of rutatagas I peeled and sliced looked normal but then I started on these:

So these aren't exactly rutabagas, they're valentine radishes! Oops! That means they gave us about 2 lbs of radishes in this share and all those monster daikon radishes in the most recent share...oh, and radish sprouts too.

Did I mention that I'm not overly fond of radishes?

I decided that since I'd already started my rutabaga and carrot purée I should just punt and see what I could come up with. I subbed a small cabbage (only one left of the five now) and some potatoes for the remainder of the rutabaga and you know? It tasted terrific.

Approximate recipe:

1/2 lb rutabages peeled, diced

2 small potatoes, diced

5 carrots, peeled, diced

3T butter

3 T brown sugar

1 tsp salt

(I don't know why blogger insists I double space that, sorry)

Simmer veggies about 30 minutes until tender. Puree in food processor (thank goodness I've got it back!) and add remaining ingredients.

Rating: Mmmmm

Share and share again

Sweet storage carrots, Adirondack red and blue potatoes mixed with yellow, Daikon radish, shallots, radish sprouts, popcorn, frozen tomatoes, Butterworks Farm yogurt, cheese curds, Patchwork Farm Organic Rye Speckle Bread, and oyster and shiitake mushrooms.

Look at the size of that Daikon radish! It's nearly a foot long and as Ben said, it looks like a sex toy.

I tried the cheese curds immediately of course but they weren't squeaky fresh and didn't live up to my beloved fresh WI cheese curds. I can't seem to get them here despite the large number of cheese makers in the area. If they're not fresh they're just plain cheese which isn't bad, it just isn't curd.

I made an excellent local dinner tonight. Omlettes with last week's eggs, mushrooms, last week's local mozzarella, and shallots with a side of shredded fried potatoes (I tried my new mandolin and it rocked!) It's not such a unique dinner but it was one that everyone loved and I need to remember to do it more often.

I also made some carrot soup for tomorrow night, some coleslaw to use some of last week's cabbage (I've still got two small heads of cabbage left...I think the stuff is endless), and soaked the monster Daikon radish in salt water to pull a little of the sting out of it for a radish salad either tomorrow or Friday.

Oh, and some cranberry orange muffins to use the last of the frozen cranberries. Of course I modified it to include more local ingredients. I subbed half the flour for whole wheat pastry flour, added about 1/2 c of oatmeal, subbed 1/4 c honey for 1/4 sugar, and added some pumpkin I had in the freezer. Sam liked them a lot (I can't taste anything much because of my cold) and I froze them for his lunches.

Parsnips and Carrot Salad

This is a quick and easy one that can be made in a food process if indeed I had one that worked. It's the food processor's last offering.

Parsnips and Carrot Salad

Shred parships and carrots, whatever ratio you'd like

Dressing:

White vinegar
Vegetable oil
Salt
Sugar
A nice dash of hot pepper sauce


No raisins! Why do people put raisins in carrot salad? I just don't like it!

Rating: Excellent! And easy

Making dinner for friends

Apple Pie

Today I made and apple pie using the vodka crust method. It does seem to make the crust more flaky. And why do I start the day making dessert rather than working on the main event? Oh, dessert IS the main event.

Crust:
2/3 c butter
2 c flour
1/2 t salt
Water/vodka mix

Filling:
Apples
1/2 brown sugar, a couple T white sugar
1/4 c flour
cinnamon
nutmeg

Grade: Excellent. Butter crust didn't got soggy this time.

Looks beautiful! Extra crust turned into piecrust pinwheels. They're dangerous.

Applesauce
Buttload (at least 7 lb) apples, peeled, cored
Apple cider (mine is on its way to turning hard)
Maple syrup

Boil - I'll need to throw it in the food processor because even after simmering for over an hour it still has pieces of apple.

Made only about 2 pints of applesauce which is depressing for as much work as it is. Tasted great though.

Grade: Good

Moose whatever - it said shoulder on the bag

Ben shot it, butchered it with a friend. It's moose but mystery moose parts and probably at least 5 lbs.

Brined meat in salt, juniper berries, crushed garlic, water, bayleaf, peppercorns about 4 days earlier. Brining really decreases gaminess.

Rinse brine off (the peppercorns and juniper berries were stuck in the meat like buckshot), add rosemary & onions & water (or whatever flavor profile you'd like) Roast covered at 300 for hours and hours. Cook until it pretty much falls off the bone - about 5 hours this time.

Grade: Very good...keep in mind that my rating is based on my general blah feeling about large pieces of meat. Everyone ate it and liked it, even the kids.

Glazed Carrots

About 2 lbs carrots cut to preferred size/shape - simmer to preferred tenderness

Mix 2/3 c brown sugar, 1/4 c butter in pan. Add cooked carrots, sprinkle w zest of one orange

Grade: Very good

Smashed local mulit-color potatoes.

I put cream cheese in the potatoes to keep them smooth even though they were done early.

These potatoes don't make nice fluffy mashed like Idaho potatoes. They taste good but are kinda heavy.