Week eleven- I'm down with O.P.V.

I did get beans this week, but I also made a trip up to Fort Wayne. My CSA beans were parboiled then pickled in the quick pickle recipe I posted earlier this summer. The beans I got from my mom's paired wonderfully with the fresh corn I got from my blog buddy MSG. I love green beans prepared pretty much any way, but this is a really, really good way.

Make some bacon, parboil some beans, dice a couple of potatoes. Cook the potatoes in some of the bacon grease, when they are almost done add the beans. Put a lid on it, let it steam and cook, add the bacon back in and use whatever seasoning you like. I used to use part of a packet of Good Seasoning Italian salad dressing mix, I've used Greek seasoning, but this time I think I just used salt and pepper.

Week eleven- pizza

I walked into my Dad's house one evening and an incredible aroma threw it's arms around me. My step-mom was making pizza sauce, and I refused to leave that night without the recipe. Like a year and a half passed, and I finally made the sauce.

The sauce works best with roma tomatoes... I've made it a couple times lately and had to add a little tomato paste at the end when I used other-than-roma tomatoes.

Combine 2 lbs quartered tomatoes with 1/2 c. chopped onion (in this case CSA shallots), 2-3 cloves garlic, 1 t. salt, 1/2 t. crushed red pepper, 1/2 t. sugar. Mix it up with 1/4 c. olive oil and bake at 450 for 40 minutes.

This smells a-mazing! Add 1/4 c. fresh basil and puree using a stick blender or old-fashioned blender, and it smells even better.

Put it on a pizza and freeze the leftovers.

We use a 450 degree oven, Trader Joe's pizza crust, and a pizza stone. In about 15 minutes, we have dinner!

Week Eleven

It's getting to be autumn!

Tomatoes, tomatoes, zucchini, beans, and acorn squash!

Week ten- roasted peppers

It's hard to use all this fresh stuff sometimes, so I look to my mom for advice on how to store veggies for the winter. I've seen her roast peppers and have done it once myself, but this time I was trying to be careful and keep track of the steps.

First I set the oven to broil, placed the peppers on a cookie sheet, and turned them so all sides got nice and black. Then I put them in a bowl, covered the bowl with a towel, and let the whole thing sit for 20 mintues or so, till the skin was loosened and the peppers were cool enough to handle.

The skins peel or rub off easily, then I used a spoon and my fingers to clean out all the seeds. This is what they looked like then:

Packed them nicely in freezer bags, and I have roasted red peppers for the winter!

Week ten- tri-colore pasta

Is this kind of a rut? I dunno, but I really love to just cook tomatoes with olive oil and have it with pasta. Look how pretty this variety of tomatoes is.

And after cooking for a little bit, this is what it looks like. Look at all the garlic!

And this is what it looks like in the bowl. Fresh pasta from the local fresh pasta place, sprinkled with flat leaf parsley from the share. I'm running out of things to say about cooked tomatoes with pasta. It's good!

Week Ten

Week ten is a beautiful week. Various heirloom tomatoes, bright red peppers, vibrant flat leaf parsley, coppery little shallots.

The little yellow tomatoes are kinda fuzzy, like a peach. As soon as we got them we had to slice one up and marvel at it's uniqueness.



Phil declared them wonderful.

Week nine- tomatos two ways

We've had lots of tomatoes in the house all summer, and with these little cherries Phil and I each got to have tomatoes our favorite ways.

His favorite way is raw, so I cut up several cherries, diced a cucumber, halved some pitted olives, and mixed it up with a little Italian dressing and fresh dill. Phil says it's the dill that made this quick salad out of this world. Oh, he also said a little feta cheese on top made it out of this galaxy.


My favorite way is cooked, so one night I got home way late, so I did the old sautee of olive oil-garlic-smashed tomatoes that I so love. Used the rest of my orzo which I'd boiled a day or two before, then added some shaved hard cheese-- something from Trader Joe's, of course. This dinner was the best of the week, if you ask me.

Week nine- zucchini bread revisited

I posted a zucchini bread recipe earlier this summer. It's a recipe I totally love, but have been experimenting with throughout the summer to see if there was any way to health it up. Mostly I was interested in seeing if I could reduce the amount of oil and/or white flour. I tried to substitute half the white flour with whole wheat flour, but the bread was too chewy. I made a batch with 1.5 c. white flour and .5 c. whole wheat, but I don't know if it was worth the trouble. What did work out well was subbing apple sauce for the oil. There's 1/2 c. oil in the recipe, so I did an even switch with apple sauce and it resulted in a great tasting, way healthier bread.

So, if you tried the zucchini bread from a few weeks ago, try it with the apple sauce substitution. And if you haven't tried it, try it. It's so good.

http://imacsablogger.blogspot.com/2011/07/week-five-zucchini-bread.html

Week nine- beets with orzo

I've been looking forward to this experiment all summer! I love roasted beets, and have been thinking about orzo-beet salad for weeks, but could never find a recipe that sounded great to me, so I just kinda winged this, and was pretty happy with the results.

First off I roasted the beets. These were medium-sized beets, and I rubbed them with olive oil, wrapped them in foil, and roasted them at like 375 for about an hour. After that, the skins just slip off, and the knife (and your hand) get very red.


I diced the beets and tossed them with some orzo pasta, which is awesome (it's also awesome how it got beet-stained). I really like orzo. I made a citrus vinaigrette and chopped up some dill and tossed it all together. Topped it off with some great Vermont-made goat cheese that I got at Fresh Market. I loved this salad; it was different and beautiful.

Week Nine

Week nine!

Zucchini (yay, 'cause I'm working on changing up that zucchini bread recipe I have)

Summer squash

Beets

Cantaloupe

Cherry maters

Various sweet peppers

Week eight- sausage with peppers and onions

As soon as I saw the peppers and onions in this week's share, I knew we had a bad a** batch of sausage with peppers and onions in our near future. I like to have a package or two of Trader Joe's chicken sausages in the freezer... they keep in there a long time, and there are lots of different flavors. For this dish I used the Zesty Italian (or something like that) sausages. I sauteed a sliced onion in olive oil for a few minutes, then added the sliced and seeded peppers. Stirred that around for a few minutes, till the veggies started to soften, then added the cut-up sausages. Poured in a little beer, put a lid on it, then let the whole thing steam for a few minutes. Took the lid off and stirred occasionally till the liquid evaporated. These peppers and onions were so sweet with just a hint of zing... we were surprised at how great this meal was.

As good as the dinner was, I was really excited to use the leftovers for an eggy weekend brunch. Chopped up the sausage and veg, diced a mozzarella cheese stick (ok, it was a thing of string cheese), and scrambled it all up with a few eggs.

Week eight- dragon tongue beans

Somehow, these beauties were left out of the group picture for week eight. These are dragon tongue beans.

We very much love the beans with tomatoes and Greek seasoning around here, but I wanted to do something different with the beans this week. We'd just eaten at St. Elmo's, where they have very garlic-y green beans, so I wanted to try to get my beans to taste like theirs.

I steamed the beans for just a few minutes. While the beans were steaming, I put a tablespoon or two of butter in a fry pan and added some finely diced garlic-- about 3 cloves. Stirred the garlic around in the butter while the beans steamed, then added the beans. Sprinkled some salt and pepper onto the beans, stirred it all around for a moment, and voila! Beans that are just as good as the ones at the fancy steakhouse.

Of course, like many fancifully striated veggies, once cooked the beans lost their stripes.

Week eight- freezing tomatoes

Between what we're getting from the share and what we're getting from our (former) backyard, we've had lots of tomatoes this summer. My mom also has lots of tomatoes, and a couple of weeks ago I was talking to her while she was prepping tomatoes for freezing. What a great idea!

I brought a large pot of water to boiling. While waiting for the pot to boil, I filled a large mixing bowl with ice and water. Once the water boiled, I spooned in whole tomatoes. After about 40 seconds, I removed the tomatoes and placed them in the ice bath, so they didn't get totally cooked.

After ice-bathing the tomatoes, I put them in my colander over the sink. I took a whole tomato, quartered it, slid the skin off (the quick-boil process helps loosen the skin so it's easily removable), then scooped out the gooshy innards.

Packed the quartered tomatoes up in a freezer bag, got as much air as possible out of the bag, and now they're way in the back of the freezer, waiting for soups and stews and pasta dishes this winter.

Week Eight

Week eight. The first week in our new house! Peppers, onions, cherry tomatoes, basil, and regular tomatoes (which did not make it onto the counter for the picture)

Week seven- pesto

I was very excited to get the bunch of basil this week, because what better use of my new food processor than making pesto! My mom has a recipe she likes that uses walnuts instead of pine nuts which is great if you have a pine nut allergy like my friend Matt. Also it's great because walnuts are cheaper than pine nuts. Anyway, this pesto is wonderful, and everyone I know who's tried it cannot tell there's been a nut substitution.

I like to put pesto on grilled cheese or with eggs, but my favorite way is just tossed with some pasta. Little cherry tomatoes add great color.

Mix in the food processor till they are finely chopped:

1/2 c. walnuts

3 garlic cloves

Add in:

2 c. or 2 ounces basil leaves

and a pinch of salt

Then add:

1/2 c. parmesan (I used a parm-romano blend, because it's what I had)

While continuing to blend, drizzle in:

1/3 c. olive oil

That's it!

Week seven- grilled zuke

Lots of zucchini this summer!

These grilled slices were really great, and so simple. Rubbed them with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and threw them on the grill. They only take a couple of minutes per side. I like them sliced thinly in this longitudinal way... I think they look neat.

And we stumbled upon this awesome trick to make grilled zucchini even better-- after you cook your steak on the grill, put the zuke on the same place on the grill where the steak just was. You will have steak-flavored zucchini. I guess it sounds kinda weird, but I'm telling you, we all loved it.

Week seven- roasted veg with fish

Week seven was the week right before we moved, so we were trying to use up as much food in the house as possible so we wouldn't have to move it. I found these mahi mahi fillets in the freezer, so we decided to do a simple fish and veg bake.

Before making dinner, Crystal and I had gone over to the neighborhood bar for our Last Time Going to the Bar as Neighbors. Knowing I was going to roast some fish, I asked the bartender if I could have or buy a few wedges of lemon. He said the next day was their re-stock day, so he gave me an entire lemon! Score!

Anyway, I sliced up an onion and zucchini, hit it with seasoning of some kind, then put the fish on top. Baked according to the fish packaging instructions, then a few extra mintues... all the veggies in there added to the cook time.

Week Seven

Week Seven

salad mix

basil (!)

romano beans

green pepper

zucchini

Week six- sunshine tomatoes

This was one of my favorite dishes of the summer. I am not usually too fond of raw tomato, but I ate a couple of these little guys one day, and when Mom asked what they tasted like, I told her they taste like sunshine. Really, they do. I could think of no other way to describe it.

Anyway, I thought the best way to use these little gems would be in a simple pasta dish. Sauteed some garlic and tomatoes in olive oil.

Tossed with some fun-shaped pasta, mozzarella, and basil from our back yard. Pretty much the perfect dinner.

Week six- grilled veg

It seems like a lot of our veggies around here get grilled, but that's ok, because it's very delicious. We have this great grilling tray... I rub some olive oil on the veggies, season to my liking (usually just salt and pepper), and hand the tray to Phil.

He brings me back a tray with tender, smoky vegetables. I put them in a bowl, toss with some chopped fresh herbs, and voila. I think we had this batch of veggies with grilled chicken, then put it all in soft taco shells.

Tragedy Resolved

Found my camera in a bowl on the top shelf of a cabinet.

Of course.

Week six- romano beans

This was very simple and very delicious. Do you know those green beans at a Greek restaurant that are so yummy? These are pretty much like those. The romano beans taste just like green beans, but the bean part inside is a little bigger than the bean part inside a green bean. As far as I can tell that's the only difference.

I sauteed some garlic in some olive oil, then added some quartered tomatoes-- seeds, skins, and all. Let that cook for a few minutes on medium, then started smashing up the tomatoes. Added some salt and pepper. Then added the green beans and a few shakes of greek seasoning, reduced the heat a smidge, put a lid on the pot, and basically let the bean steam until they were done.

Just like Santorini's! I think the second time I made these I added in a bit of lemon zest. I liked that a ton, but I think Phil preferred the beans sans zest.

Tragedy

My camera is lost. This move has not been as breezy as we were hoping for, and now, the icing on the cake. I just had it out a few days ago. I have seen it in the new house. And now it's nowhere.

Blog on hold until camera is found.

Week Six

Moving right along...

Week six brought us

A big green pepper

A big cuke

Romano beans

Onions

Beets

But wait, there are beautiful little tomatoes pictured, too... if those weren't part of the share, how did I get them, right?

This is how: during week 6 I spent a hot but really fun day volunteering at the farm.

I started by helping harvest zucchini, squash, and cukes. Then we were told to move to the dreaded bean plants! It was a really hot day, and several times during our hour or two in the bean rows I heard apologies and thanks from the farm staff for doing such an un-glamorous job on such a hot day. I will concede that picking beans is probably not the most fun one can have on a farm, but it was really neat to get to meet some of the people who grow and bring food to the markets. There was a very nice and cute farm dog named Copper, and we traveled from field to field by sitting in the back of a pick up with the tailgate down. I felt great afterward, after having worked kinda hard at something I've never done before. I have a few more work days scheduled in August, and I'm looking forward to getting back out there.

Oh, and those little tomatoes taste like sunshine. I don't care much for raw tomato, but I ate two of those little pearls on my way home from the farm. What I did with the rest of them will be a blog entry soon enough.

Week five- pea shoots

This is a quick and easy one. Put pea shoots on a cream cheese-smeared bagel. Mixed greens works as well.

Also, posting may be erratic for the next week or so, as we are trying to get settled in to our new home. Our first day here the air conditioning broke, but it's cool in here now, so let the unpacking commence!

Week five- zucchini bread

I am totally in love with this zucchini bread. I got this recipe out of Food and Wine a couple of years ago and have made a few adjustments along the way. I still want to make some changes to the recipe to reduce oil and sugar, but this is how it is for now, and it makes a mean loaf of bread.

Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour a bread pan.

In a large bowl combine 2 c. all-purpose flour and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Add 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon if you're into that.

In a medium bowl mix 3/4 c. sugar, 2 eggs, 1/2 c. vegetable oil and 1/2 c. fat-free greek yogurt.

Add wet ingredients into dry and mix till moistened. Stir in 1 c. walnut or pecan pieces, 1/2 c. dark chocolate chips, and 1 c. coarsely grated zucchini (about one medium zucchini's worth).

Scrape the batter into the loaf pan and bake about 65 mintues, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool on a rack 30 mintues before removing from the pan and serving.

Week five- zucchini pie

Have I mentioned how much I love my new food processor? Look at all those sliced onions and zucchini and squash!

And look at what it turned into! Zucchini pie!

Usually I don't like taking shortcuts like using crescent rolls in place of real pie crust, but this is really yummy, and I think it's ok to eat Pillsbury crap once in awhile.



4 c. thin sliced zucchini
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 c. parsley, chopped
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
1/2 t. garlic powder
2 T fresh basil
1 t. fresh oregano
2 eggs
1 T flour
2 c. cheese, shredded
8 crescent rolls
2 t. mustard
2 T olive oil

Try to press out some of the liquid in the zucchini-- just take a paper towel and press it into the sliced zuke to get some of the moisture. Cook onion and zucchini in olive oil in a large skillet on medium 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the spices and herbs. In a large bowl combine the cheese and eggs and flour, then add the zucchini mixture. Separate the crescent rolls and press them into an ungreased pie pan to form a crust. Spread the mustard on the crescent rolls/crust, then pour in the zucchini mixture. Bake at 375 for about 12 minutes, then bring the pie out and cover the crust with foil. Return to oven and cook an additional 12 minutes or so

Let sit a bit before serving, but the first slice might be a little runny. Just a little.

Week Five

Ok, I feel like I'm almost to real-time... today we're picking up week seven's vegetables. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I can be caught up.

So, for week five we got
chard
parsley
lettuce mix
cukes
a variety of zucchini/squashes

Week four- pickles

These easy, delicious pickles are a great way to use the millions of cucumbers that invade each summer. We've received a few from the CSA, and our backyard plants are going gangbusters. There are a lot of cucumbers around our house right now.

As a nice side benefit, if you have to cut an inch or so off the cuke for it to fit in the Ball jar, you can slice a couple cuke coins and place them on your tired, hot eyes.

This recipe came from Food and Wine magazine a couple summers ago.

Spicy Dill Quick Pickles

3 quart size Ball jars

veggies

3 T kosher salt

2 T sugar

1 1/4 c. distilled white vinegar (5% acidity)

2 T coriander seeds

6 cloves garlic, halved

4-6 long red or green hot chiles, halved lengthwise

16 dill sprigs

Pack veggies into 2 clean quart jars-- this takes 5-6 cucumbers. Combine the salt, sugar, vinegar, coriander and garlic in the 3rd jar. Shake to mix until salt and sugar are dissolved. Add 2 cups of water, then pour the brine over the veggies. Tuck the chiles and dill between the vegetables. Add enough water to keep the veggies submerged. Close the jars and refrigerate overnight or for up to a month.

helpful notes...

*After I shake up the brine jar, I use a spoon to scoop and evenly distribute the garlic and coriander seeds.

*I got canning jars at Meijer, and saw them at Marsh, too.

* Other veggies can be used. Zucchini perform well here, as do green beans. When using green beans, blanch them before canning. I would think broccoli and cauliflower could stand to be blanched, but carrots can be raw.

Week four- fried kohlrabi

This is a great, hearty dish that my mom told me to try. It's diced potato and kohlrabi fried with green onions in a bit of bacon grease. The bacon was added back into the dish before we ate it. It's basically just a little twist on fried potatoes-- the kohlrabi adds a unique flavor, and potatoes and onions fried in bacon grease is hard to resist.

Week four- salad dressing

I'm here to tell ya, this salad mix from the CSA is second to none. It is absolutely delicious and lasts forever in the fridge. We grilled a steak, steamed a couple red potatoes, and made this great vinaigrette to top our steakhouse salad. In addition to the salad greens we used some fresh parsley and sliced cucumber for the salad base.


Herby Vinaigrette

puree 1 hard boiled egg yolk with 3 T white balsamic vinegar, 1 T brown mustard, 1 T water, a crushed garlic clove, and a bit of salt and pepper. Using a immersion blender or magic bullet or something keep blending the vinegar mixture while slowing adding 5 T extra virgin olive oil. Stir in 2-3 T fresh herbs.

This vinaigrette was great on a big salad, but especially delicious over steamed red skin potatoes.

Week Four

Alright! Looks like week four brought us

green onions
kohlrabi
a big cuke
broccoli
cilantro
salad mix

It's been hard to use the cilantro because we don't have any tomatoes from the share or our backyard yet.

Week three- zucchini and squash

These are some dee-lish zucchini pancakes with a horseradish dill sour cream. I used a zucchini or two and that weird looking squash as well as a couple of green onions. Oh, and the cheese I used for these is from our local dairy place, Trader's Point Creamery. That's a really neat place and their cheeses are great.

Here's the recipe, because these are pretty easy and really yummy:

1 lb zucchini, shredded

1-2 green onions, chopped

1/2 c. shredded cheese

1/4 c. flour

2 eggs, beaten

salt and pepper

fresh herbs

butter and/or cooking oil

sour cream

dried dill

raw horseradish

Mix zucchini, green onions, cheese, and flour. Add the beaten eggs and salt and pepper. Add some fresh herbs if you want. Cook in a medium high skillet that has a couple tablespoons of butter and/or oil in it. Use a quarter cup measuring cup to spoon the batter into the skillet. Cook about 3 minutes a side, till browned and done.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream that you've mixed with a little bit of dried dill and raw horseradish.

Week three- cabbage and green onions

These veggies just look beautiful. We got a great head of cabbage and some wonderful green onions from the share, and since I had an extra kohlrabi I used that in my cole slaw, too. The carrots I got at (gasp) Meijer. So, I took all that stuff and.....

Pushed it all into my brand new food processor! I've been wanting one of these for a long time, and came across a great deal on one at Costco the other week. This is the best time of year to have one, of course, with all the fresh veggies that need to be sliced and grated. It made very quick work of prepping my cole slaw ingredients.

The finished product! Looks good! The only bad thing is that it gave me an overwhelming desire to eat KFC fried chicken. So one night I stopped by the KFC on my way home. The KFC was kinda gross, but the cole slaw was yummy. Maybe I need to work on a fried chicken recipe for my next batch of cole slaw. I used the America's Test Kitchen recipe for cole slaw, if you care.