Leek and Shitake Mushroom Quiche

My Enchanted Broccoli Forest cookbook list the formula to create quiche = vegetable + custard + cheese. I made this one with leeks, shallots, and shitake mushrooms from our Open Oak CSA, which turned out to be quite similar to the mushroom quiche recipe in the Moosewood Cookbook (one of my favorites). It was really tasty!

Leek and Shitake Mushroom Quiche

Crust

6T butter

1 1/2 c flour

1/4 c milk

Blend ingredients in the food processor and press into pie pan. The pour in filling.

Filling

3 leeks (from Open Oak CSA)

10 shitake mushrooms (from Open Oak CSA)

2 shallots (from Open Oak CSA)

1/2 t thyme

4 eggs

1 1/2 c milk

2 T flour

1 c shredded swiss cheese

Put cheese on the pie crust. Saute vegetables, and pour over cheese. Mix eggs, flour, and milk and pour custard over vegetables and cheese. Bake 350F for 40 minutes. Eat warm or cold at any time of day.

Escarole, Orange, Filbert Salad

After several attempts at cooking escarole this winter including in soup and pizza, I decided to try one more buch from our Open Oak CSA raw in a salad. I found this lovely salad recipe for blood organes, escarole (from Open Oak CSA), and filberts (from Thistledown Farm) (I left out the cheese included in the original.)

For the dressing I used juice from an orange, olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic (from Open Oak CSA), salt and pepper.

It was a very refreshing salad on a winter day, and stored well in the refrigerator for a few days.

(Not nearly as fancy as the picture from the original recipe, but delicious nonetheless.)

Whole grain bread

Fresh baked bread. Yummy! My brother shared this recipe with me. It's very adaptable depending on the ingredients that the baker has on hand. My favorite commercial bread that we buy includes sprouted grains. I didn't have the patience to wait and let them soak a few days, but I decided to try adding cooked wheat berries and purple barley.

As it finished baking, I was just keeping my fingers crossed that it would taste okay, because the house had that wonderful fresh bread smell.

The bread had a really nice flavor and texture except that the barley was a little too chewy (even crunchy for those kernels on the outside). I would experiment again with the cooked grains, but probably soak them longer next time.

Sam's better bread

Part I

2 1/2 c scalded milk

1/4 c oil

6 T molasses (or other sweetening honey, brown sugar)

1/4 c warm water

1 T yeast

3/4 c rye flour (from Open Oak CSA)

2 c Red Fife wheat flour (from Lonesome Whistle CSA)

1 c white flour

Scald milk, then let it cool. Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add molasses and oil to cooling milk. When milk cooled, add in yeast mixture. Stir in flour until thick. Mix on medium/high in mixer for 10 minutes. Let rise 50-60 minutes.

Part II

2 T salt

1/4 c dry purple barley cooked (1/2 c cooked) (from Lonesome Whistle CSA)

1/4 c dry wheat berries cooked (1/2 c cooked) (from Open Oak CSA)

2 c Red Fife wheat flour (from Lonesome Whistle CSA)

2 c white flour

Cook purple barley and wheat berries together on stove top with 3:1 water ratio until soft and water is absorbed. Switch mixer to dough hook. Fold in salt. Fold in flour and mix until dough comes away from the bowl. Transfer to oiled bowl. Let rise 50-60 minutes.

Punch down. Divide into two, shape, and transfer to prepared bread pans. Let rise 50-60 minutes.

Bake 350F for 50-60 minutes.

Slow Cooker Bean and Pasta Soup

I am finding it very challenging to find recipes where I can use all of the ingredients from the vegetable CSA and serve something that my non-adventurous-food-eating-four-year-old will eat without a fuss. I thought this minestrone-like soup that I adapted from my Slow Cooker Revolution cookbook to leave out tomatoes and onions would work; I was wrong. We did eventually convince him to eat the beans and pasta by removing them from the offending broth. Sigh. He continues to try new foods, but expanding his palate is surprisingly difficult.

The soup was ok, but it would have been better as a real minestrone with onions and tomatoes.

Slow Cooker Bean and Pasta Soup

1 t onion powder

2 cloves garlic minced (from Open Oak CSA)

2t oregano

2 T grape seed oil

3 c chicken broth

1 beet chopped (from Open Oak CSA)

3 small carrots chopped (from Open Oak CSA)

1 c rio zape beans (from Lonesome Whistle CSA)

1/4 c pasta

1 bunch escarole chopped (from Open Oak CSA)

salt and pepper

grated cheese

Microwave onion powder, garlic, grape seed oil, and oregano for 30 second in the microwave. Transfer to slow cooker. Add in dry beans, beet, carrots, and chicken broth. Cook on high for 4 hours.

Add in pasta and escarole and cook for 30 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Baking cookies is a good afternoon activity at our house. And, really, chocolate chip cookies make life better.

This is a recipe adapted from my childhood. I have been really interested in the changes that the author of the Sneaky Chef makes to recipes by adding in vegetable purees and ground nuts. My favorite of her additions are what we call "orange plops," which are a mixture of cooked carrots and cooked yams/sweet potatoes that are then pureed. I freeze these in 1 T portions in my ice cube trays, store them in the freezer, and then add to almost anything with eggs, tomatoes, and lots of cookies. The plops I used in this particular batch of cookies only had yams, which we're also using for baby food.

The wheat flour from our Lonesome Whistle CSA has such a great flavor, but a completely different texture from white flour which certainly changed the character of the cookies. I love this description of the wheat from our farmers, "Farmer David Fife first cultivated this variety in Canada in 1842 from a few seeds he brought over from Scotland. This wheat is considered a landrace variety and can adapt to many climatic conditions. Artisan bakers consider this the premier whole grain bread flour for flavor and texture."

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

1/2 c butter

1/2 c brown sugar

1/2 c white sugar

1 t vanilla

1 egg

1 c Red Fife flour (from Lonesome Whistle CSA)

1/2 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

2 T yams cooked and pureed (aka orange plops)

1 c oatmeal

1 T flax seed ground

1 c chocolate chips

1/2 filberts chopped (from Thistledown Farm)

Cream butter and sugar. Add in eggs and vanilla. Add remaining dry ingredients. Spoon dough in 1t of dough portions onto cookie sheet. Bake 375F for 10 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Five Spice Chicken and Wheat Berries

My friend Renee wrote a blog post about the delicious and much appreciated dinner delivery of Five Spice Roast Chicken and Ginger Scented Rice from our friend Katharine. I also was delighted when Katharine arrived at my door with this wonderful meal when my daughter was born.

This week, I finally got around to attempting to make it on my own. The original recipe calls for 8 pieces of chicken, but I had only 2 chicken breasts and scaled the marinade down accordingly. It was the perfect amount of food for my family with a little chicken left over for quesadillas the next day.

I have also been thinking about how our Open Oak Farmers have mentioned that wheat berries (from Open Oak CSA) are a bioregional alternative to rice. I thought I'd give it a try with this recipe. The original calls for grated fresh ginger, but 1t of ground ginger was a reasonable alternative. The wheat berries take longer to cook than the jasmine rice, but it was great!

We also had some bok choy (from Open Oak CSA) so I sautéed some onions and garlic (from Open Oak CSA) in grape seed oil and wilted the greens with some more of the five spice powder.

I'm going to put this recipe in my dinner rotation because it is so tasty, enjoyed by everyone, and easy to make! Yum! Thank you Katharine and Renee!

Monkey Bread

While I was working over the weekend, my husband and son decided to step in as guest bloggers to make Monkey Bread from America's Test Kitchen. There is a great step-by-step guide and recipe on the America Test Kitchen blog for this gooey pull apart sweet bread.

I came home to the wonderful smell of baked goods.

They followed the recipe precisely, but when they coated each of the 64 dough balls with cinnamon sugar also added filberts (from Thistledown Farm). So beautiful and delicious!