Scorzonera Brunch Fritters

After a long blog hiatus, I am excited to try several new recipes for our Christmas weekend celebration using an extra large weekly CSA share from Open Oak Farm.  Today, I'm starting with using scorzonera to make fritters with a recipe recommended by our farmers from The Guardian for Sunday brunch. 

Scorzonera Brunch Fritters
6 scorzonera roots peeled and chopped (from Open Oak Farm)
1 clove garlic minced (from Open Oak Farm)
2 T butter
dash cayenne pepper
1 t coriander
1 egg
1 T flour
salt and pepper
olive oil

Cook scorzonera in butter.  Remove from heat and add to bowl with other ingredients.  Add olive oil to pan and pour batter into 5-6 fritters.  Bake approximately 4 minutes per side until golden brown.

 
They were delicious, easy to make, and a fun way to try this novel winter perennial root.

Kohlrabi Slaw

Our Open Oak Farmers recommended making a slaw recipe from the Washington Post out of the kohlrabi included in our CSA bag this week.  My aunt, who was visiting, graciously volunteered to grate all of the vegetables as we rushed to get dinner made before my children had swimming lessons.  And of course, I didn't have several of the dressing ingredients recommended in the original recipe (I was so glad that my mom and aunt, who are both great cooks, acknowledged that they make spur of the moment substitutions in the kitchen all the time), but the dressing turned out nicely.  I think this might now be my favorite way to eat kohlrabi.

Kohlrabi Slaw (adapted from a recipe by Cynthia A. Brown)

1 green kohlrabi and 1 purple kohlrabi shredded (from Open Oak CSA)
2 carrots shredded (from Open Oak CSA)
15 stems parsley chopped (from Open Oak CSA)
3 green onions chopped (from Open Oak CSA)
1 T toasted sesame oil
4 T balsamic vinegar
1 T honey
1 t chili powder
1 t ginger powder 

Grate vegetables and place together in a bowl.  Separately combine the dressing ingredients and then mix together. 

Pesto Twist with Gnocchi

We've been talking about how handy it would be if there was a website where you could type in the ingredients in your house and it would produce menu ideas for the whole week.  In absence of that, I typed in a search for "basil and beets and kale" which produced several interesting recipe ideas.  I was particularly intrigued by this recipe on Moderate Oven website for Kale & Beet Green Pesto.

It seemed like the perfect way to use some of the kale, beet greens, and garlic scapes from our Open Oak Farm CSA.  I liked the idea of blanching the greens before blending them.  I made a couple of modifications to the recipe (not toasting the walnuts and adding a handful of parsley).  It is simple but delicious. The adventurous eaters in our house ate the pesto over store-bought whole wheat gnocchi (and the non-adventurous eater had the gnocchi with Parmesan Cheese but he liked helping with the food processor).  The greens had just a fabulous color!

A few days after preparing this, I also made a small batch of basil and garlic scrapes pesto and added it in with the leftovers.  The two types of pesto went really well together.  And I was inspired to make my own gnocchi.  This is a recipe that I have tried many times over the last 15 years.  The first time I made it, they were delicious.  However, the next several times that I tried the recipe the gnocchi were just terrible.  Fortunately, this time I had success!

Potato Gnocchi from The Compassionate Cook
4 c potatoes peeled, cubed, and boiled
2 c white flour
1/2 t salt
2 T olive oil.

Boil potatoes and then drain off the water.  Dry mash the potatoes, then add in flour, salt and olive oil.   Boil a large pot of water.  Kneed dough until well mixed using extra flour if necessary.  Divide dough into 4 portions.  Kneed each a bit more and then roll into a 1-inch diameter "snake."  Cut into approximately 1-inch pieces.  Drop gnocchi into boiling water.  Once they float to the suface, boil them for 2 minutes.  Remove from the water and drain.  

Serve with fresh pesto.  It tastes like summer!

Mezza Dinner

Despite the 60-degree, rainy weather summer is coming, and we can see it in the change of local produce that is available!  I was inspired to start making dinner with some basil that I had in the refrigerator and fresh garlic scrapes from Open Oak Farm.  But then I realized that for several years I have wanted to make a mezza dinner with many of the recipes identified in the Moosewood Cookbook.  The pesto was just a start.  I also made tabouleh, walnut-green bean-egg dip, and hummus (made with rio zape beans from Lonesome Whistle Farm).  Each recipe was very easy to make and they all went well together especially served this with fresh bread from Eugene City Bakery and with fresh strawberries for dessert.

Pesto
1 bunch basil (from Eugene Local Foods)
3 garlic scrapes (from Open Oak Farm)
Olive oil
2 handfuls parmesan cheese
2 handfuls walnuts

Put everything in the food processor and blend until well mixed.  Serve over pasta.  The pesto was just a gorgeous brilliant color and so amazing!

Tabouleh

1 c hull-less barley (from Lonesome Whistle Farm)3 c water
1 bunch parsley (from Open Oak Farm)
2 garlic scrapes (from Open Oak Farm)
lemon juice from 1/2 of a lemon
1/3 c olive oil
1 tomato chopped
salt
pepper 

Cook barley in water.  Chop parsley and garlic together in the food processor, and then mix with olive oil and lemon juice.  Fold in barley once cooked and added in tomato, salt and pepper to taste.  Cool before serving.

The last item I made was a Walnut Dip from the Moosewood Cookbook that I have been wanting to try for years...but never seemed to have all the ingredients at the same time.  I don't think that it tasted like chicken liver pate (like the description says it would), but it was very tasty.

Walnut-Green Bean-Egg Dip 

1/2 onion chopped
Olive Oil
1 1/2 c green beans (from Thistledown Farm)
2 hard boiled eggs peeled
2 t lemon juice
1/4 c walnuts
handful parsley
salt and pepper  

Saute the onions in oil and then add green beans until softened, and then put them in the food processor with rest of the ingredients

Everything can be eaten together like this on a plate.

Or it can be eaten all mixed up like this mixed up on a high chair tray.  She seemed to especially like the pesto pasta.  However, dipping her fingers into all of the dips was great fun too!

Pan Bagnat

I love it when we manage to drive in our car on Sunday evenings so we can listen to  The Splendid Table on OPB!  I always turn off the car in my driveway inspired to try something new in the kitchen! I am so glad that we got to hear Melissa Clark describe her Pan Bagnat Recipe from her book In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite.  This time, I'm equally glad that my husband loved the idea too, rounded up all the ingredients, and orchestrated the sandwich creation.  Calling Pan Bagnat a sandwich does not really do justice to this tuna, basil, cucumber, tomato, garlic, anchovy, olive oil, mustard, onion, red wine vinegar, olive, hard boiled egg deliciousness.

On the bread, layer cucumber and onions in vinaigrette.  Then add tomatoes.

Next, add slice hard boiled egg.

Followed by basil leaves.

Next, add in olive halves.

Put the cucumber-onion vinaigrette on the other half of the bread.

Lastly, add canned tuna.

Carefully roll in foil and balance a heavy cookbook on top.

The best part of her description of making the sandwich is that it needs to be smooshed by 7-year old child or heavy skillet for 7-10 minutes on each side.  We substituted our 4-year old. 

It really does flatten!

And all the juices mix into the bread.

Served with fresh local cherries, strawberries and artichokes.

Next time, oh and there will be a next time for Pan Bagnat in our house, we will use a more substantial bread than the hoagie roll that we used that just didn't stand up to the smooshing.   But there is no denying that the flavor was amazing!  I can't wait to try this at the height of our local tomato and cucumber season!

Spanakopita

Our first Open Oak Farm CSA bag of the season included beautiful spring spinach.  This year we have been enjoying cheeses from Ochoa Cheese Factory in Albany, Oregon including a very mild feta cheese that they produce.  These two ingredients seemed like a perfect paring to make the spanakopita recipe in the Moosewood Cookbook.  I like that the mini title is "Heavenly Greek Spinach Pastry."  This is a great description!

It has been years since I made this recipe, but I have always remembered that it was well worth the time investment to work with the filo dough.  Unfortunately, there was not quite enough spinach from our CSA to make the right ratio to cheese for the filling so I included one 10 oz package of frozen spinach from Stahlbush Island Farms.  The garlic that I was fortunate to include was unbelievably fresh--the skins around the individual cloves were still soft.

The recipe was well worth the effort yet again.  It made a nice dinner for the whole family and has been delicious heated up or cold as leftovers with salsa on the side.

Spanakopita

Olive oil
1/2 onion chopped
1/4 t salt
1 T basil
1 T oregano
~ 1lb fresh spinach chopped (Open Oak Farm) 

10oz frozen spinach
3 cloves garlic (Eugene Local Foods)

1 lb crumbled feta (Don Froylan Queso Fresco)1 c cottage cheese
Olive oil
1 package whole wheat filo pastry (18 sheets) defrosted. 

Heat olive oil and saute onions until soft.  Add in salt, basil, and oregano.  The add chopped spinach and garlic and steam until garlic spinach is wilted.  Remove from heat and mix with cheeses.   

Oil a 9 x 13 baking pan.  Place one sheet of filo and drape over the edge of the pan.  Brush on olive oil. Repeat until there are 6 layers of filo on the bottom.  Spoon in half of the cheese-spinach filling.  Add 6 more layers of filo.  Then spoon in the remaining filling.  Cover with the last 6 layers of filo.  Fold the edges over and oil well.
Bake 375F for 40 minutes.  Serve hot or cold.

Strawberry Shortcake

For the past month, I have been buying groceries from Eugene Local Foods. It has been such a nice bridge between the end of the winter and the start of the summer CSAs.  However, when I am selecting the vegetables for myself, I tend to only buy staples (lettuce, carrots, collards) and do not experiment with a wider variety of offerings.  I do think that this is a great way to continue to buy local produce year-round, but I am so excited that today was the first day of Open Oak Farm summer CSA.  

It is so wonderful to come home with the cloth bag bursting with a variety of fresh produce including items I wouldn't self select.  (Can you hear me cheering?)  I'm looking forward to cooking with the garlic scapes, mustard greens, spinach, and bok choi on another evening.  But tonight I started with strawberry shortcake.  

I have so many memories revolving around strawberries, family, and friends.  Picking them, eating bowls of them, making jam, and eating strawberry shortcake. Yum.  I've requested strawberry shortcake as my dessert of choice for birthdays (even though my birthday is in late summer), a baby shower, and really any time we have fresh strawberries.  I think strawberries are best enjoyed in the company of people that I love.

I still have lots of buckwheat flour from our winter Lonesome Whistle Farm grain CSA, so I experimented with making my Grandmother's Biscuit recipe with some buckwheat flour.  Topped with a little whipped cream, milk, and of course strawberries it was delicious--especially shared with my family on a sunny Tuesday afternoon.  Maybe we can have strawberry shortcake for breakfast tomorrow too.

Grandma Marjorie's Strawberry Shortcake 

4 T butter
2 T sugar
1 c buckwheat flour (from Lonesome Whistle CSA)
1 c mixed wheat/white flour
2 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
3/4 c milk
2 pints strawberries (from Open Oak Farm and our garden)
1/2 pint heavy whipping cream
2 T sugar
2 t vanilla 

Mix butter and dry ingredients in a food processor.  Slowly add in milk and mix until dough hold together.  Place on floured cutting board and flatten.  Cut out biscuits and place on a greased baking sheet.  Bake 425F for 12-15 minutes.


Cut strawberries into quarters and sprinkle with approximately 1 T sugar and let stand to allow juices to run. 

Mix whipping cream, sugar and vanilla and whip until soft peaks form. 

Plate biscuits with strawberries and whipped cream.  Serve with soy or cow milk.  

Buckwheat Pancakes

My mom calls these the "best buckwheat pancake recipe" that she has ever found.  I really enjoy the taste and the texture of the buckwheat flour from our Open Oak CSA.  It's not as coarse as buckwheat flour that I have bought in the store so the pancakes feel more like a buttermilk pancake.

I was having a very difficult time getting my cast iron skillet on the right temperature for these pancakes.  On medium they were burning on the outside and were still gooey on the inside.  When I turned the temperature down just one "notch" the pancakes were cooking very slowly, not browning up on the outside and still gooey on the inside.  Unfortunately, I burned more pancakes than were cooked to a perfect golden brown color.  (In retrospect, I think I should have used small amounts of butter in between batches rather than cooking spray.)

The non-burned pancakes were delicious.  Even the burned one with blueberries were good to eat!

This recipe makes a huge amount of pancakes.  For my family, next time I think I'll halve the recipe.  I think I now have more in my freezer than we ate for our meal!

Buckwheat Pancakes 

1 c buckwheat flour (from Open Oak Farm CSA)

1/2 c wheat flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 c buttermilk (or sour milk)
3/4 c milk
1 T honey
2 eggs
2 T oil
1 banana mashed
1 c blueberries (optional) 

Mix dry ingredients together.  Mix wet ingredients together separately (including mashed banana), and then add to the dry.  Mix thoroughly before cooking. 

Buckwheat pancakes

Sunday Yumm! Bowls

My friend Jessi introduced me to the best "fast food" in our community.  We are lucky that Cafe Yumm! serves the most tasty Yumm! Bowls which are both healthy and delicious.  The bowls have rice with a variety of bean and vegetable toppings--and are always topped with Yumm! sauce. Fortunately, the restaurant also sells their Yumm! sauce in large take-home containers.

My son and I had created our own Yumm! bowl (for me) and plate (for him) for a sunny afternoon picnic.  We used beans (they weren't labeled so I don't know the variety) and purple barley from our last Lonesome Whistle Farm CSA grain share of the spring.  I am trying to get into the habit of cooking up large batches of these so we can use them throughout the week.

My four year old son says about his lunch, "I loved it!  I liked everything.  I had apples, barley, beans, cheese, and broccoli."   He was able to eat all of the ingredients separately just how he likes them.

I took those same ingredients and added Yumm! sauce, salsa (from local Salsa de Casa), cilantro, and garlic stems.  The garlic stems came from our Open Oak Farmers, and we purchased them at the Springfield Farmers Market last week.  I have been missing our CSA vegetable pick-ups so I was very glad to see them at the market.   I mixed everything together so each bite had all of the wonderful flavors.

Our picnic was even complete with a crawling ear whig, which we moved far away from the picnic.

Mushroom and Barley Veggie Patties

We regularly eat frozen veggie patties for a quick weeknight meal.  They taste good; however, they come in a box which is packaged far away and are rather expensive for an individual patty.    I have been thinking about how to make my own veggie patties with all of the grains that we have from our Lonesome Whistle CSA and have explored a few recipe possibilites (including my friend Karen's Salmon and Barley Cakes--it's next on my list!).

While I have been contemplating making veggies patties, throughout the Willamette Valley communities are thoughtfully trying to address hunger and find creative solutions to use our farm resources to help. Food for Lane County has started contracting with local growers to grow more whole grains including high protein lentils.  Marion Polk Food Share has developed a Protein Patty which has 10 grams of protein and can be produced for only 10 cents per patty.  (There is a cute video of the production.)  These stories are inspirational, and provide a good reminder of some of the reasons that my family is trying to eat and cook many of our foods from local sources.

I therefore thought it was so timely when Eugene Local Foods recently posted a New York Times recipe for Mushroom and Grain Cheeseburgers from Martha Rose Shulman and suggested making them with purple barley.  These little patties have 14 grams of protein each and tasted great.  The patties are a little fragile, but I was able to carefully flip them in the pan and move them to our plates.  It was more time consuming that turning on the microwave for 3 minutes with the frozen pre-prepared patties (particularly because the barley needed to cook for about 45 minutes).  I would have liked to use some of our local beans, but I did not have any cooked so relied on a can of beans as in the recipe--next time!

The actual patties were easy to assemble, have fresh ingredients, and we all enjoyed them (toppings included ketchup, provolone cheese, and Yumm! sauce).  With one recipe batch, I was able to make nine patties, which means I will be able to put some of these into the freezer for another future quick weeknight meal.

First Asparagus of the Season

I was so thrilled when we bought our house to learn that it came with a mature patch of asparagus.  Every spring, I eagerly anticipate snapping off the asparagus shoots as they emerge.  Last weekend, we could just see the tips of the first shoots, and I was disappointed to see that some slugs or snails also seemed to be enjoying MY asparagus.

Today, four asparagus shoots (ranging in length from six to twelve inches) were slug free and ready to harvest--the perfect amount to add to our dinner.  It was also great to have my son help snap the shoots in the garden and talk about how they were going to be part of our dinner.

Then, I committed a cooking foul.

I burned the asparagus.  

Gasp!

After a moment of panic, I realized that since the shoots in our yard are really fat I could easily cut away the burned parts and still have enough to eat.

Gigantic sigh of relief.

The asparagus was so delicious.  Tender, melt-in-my-mouth delicious.  I LOVE fresh spring asparagus.

Skillet Asparagus 

Fresh asparagus
Grapeseed oil
Salt
Pepper 

Heat skillet with grapeseed oil on medium high.  Add asparagus (either whole or like today broken into bite sized pieces) and a little salt and pepper.  Cover and cook just a few minutes until asparagus are bright green (not black!).

And look, there are more shoots in the strawberry patch waiting to grow just a bit bigger this week! Yum, yum, yum!

Arikara Bean Hummus

Our recent Lonesome Whistle CSA included Arikara Beans.  I cooked them in the slow cooker like I have with Calypso and  Rio Zape Beans; however, I found that these are very mild and even a little bland in flavor when eaten plain.  We ate them in soup and burritos, but my favorite way to eat these beans was in a delicious batch of hummus I made.

Everyone in my family eats and enjoys hummus--especially immediately after it has been made.  We ate it on tortilla chips, carrots, bread and just plain by the spoonful.  My recipe is adapted from the Moosewood Cookbook for the ingredients; however, I never measure any of the ingredients--just add them to taste--and the recipe varies each time based on what we in the kitchen.

Hummus 

2 cups cooked Arikara Beans (from Lonesome Whistle CSA)
1 lemon juiced
cumin
4 cloves garlic
salt
parsley
tahini
olive oil 

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until the beans are completely mashed and mixed with the other ingredients.

Cinnamon Buckwheat Waffles

We have several bags of buckwheat flour from our CSA boxes. We could easily have buckwheat pancakes or waffles every weekend for the next six months and still not run out. It's delicious but not a grain that I'm used to having in such large quantities in our house.

Sometime ago when we first came home with fresh buckwheat flour, I found this recipe online, and adapted it just slightly to use straight buckwheat flour rather than a pancake/waffle mix.

It's always a good idea to check the ingredient list before starting to bake or cook. I know this, but I often forget this simple rule. Thank goodness that we have very nice neighbors who we can call on a Saturday morning to borrow baking powder and cinnamon. Without baking powder the waffles are much too dense--just a little bit of baking powder makes a big difference so they were nice and fluffy.

We ate the waffles with vanilla yogurt, Nutella,

Greek yogurt,

butter, and maple syrup.

Yum! I think that it is okay that we have enough flour to make waffles or pancakes every weekend.

Cinnamon Buckwheat Waffles

1 3/4 c buckwheat flour (from Open Oak Farm)

2 c oats

1 T baking powder

1/4 t salt

2 T brown sugar

2 T cinnamon

2 eggs

1 3/4 c milk

1/2 c butter melted

Mix dry ingredients together. Melt butter. Mix milk and eggs together. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix well. If the batter is too thick, add more milk. Bake according to waffle iron directions.

Hearty Brownies

On a rainy day recently, my son and I wanted to make brownies. I decided I also wanted to see how many different types of grains from our CSA we could use, and if I could add in some additional fruits and vegetables like a Sneaky Chef recipe. My son and I thought they were chocolatey and good--and also very hearty.

Hearty Brownies

1 banana

1 c walnuts

1/4 c Scottish oats (from Lonesome Whistle CSA)

1/4 c yams

1/2 c cocoa powder (from Euphoria Chocolate)

3/4 c Red Fife whole wheat flour (from Lonesome Whistle CSA)

1/4 c rye flour (from Lonesome Whistle CSA)

1/2 c brown sugar

6T butter melted

1/4 t salt

2 eggs

2 t vanilla

Mix banana, walnuts, yams, and oats together in a food processor until walnuts are pulverized. In a separate bowl, mix together flours, cocoa powder, sugar, and salt. Then, stir in banana mixture. Melt butter then add with eggs and vanilla. Mix thoroughly. Pour into a 9x9" oiled pan and bake 350F for 20 minutes.

Butternut Squash and Bean Enchiladas

I am still trying to find recipes for the many pounds of dry beans we have from our Lonesome Whistle CSA. It is a good challenge to find a recipe that has ingredients that the adults, preschooler, and baby will all eat and enjoy. This one worked pretty well--it was more sweet than savory. Both the beans and butternut squash I dug out from the freezer. I adapted a recipe from the Moosewood Low Fat Favorites cookbook, which has a whole giant section on beans. I'm going to be spending much more time with this cookbook.

Butternut Squash and Bean Enchiladas

1/2 onion chopped

2 cloves garlic chopped

chili powder

cumin powder

coriander powder

salt

2 c cooked rio zape beans (from Lonesome Whistle CSA)

1 c cooked butternut squash (from Thistledown Farm)

flour tortillas

cheddar cheese grated

salsa

avocado

Saute onion with garlic and spices to taste. Once the onion is cooked place in food processor with beans and butternut squash and puree.

Place filling on tortillas, roll up, and place in oiled baking dish. Cover with grated cheese.

Bake 350F for 20 minutes until cheese is melted. Serve with salsa and avocado.

The beans, squash, and avocado all made a good baby meal too.

Chimichangas with Beef, Beans, and Barley

One of the new challenges of using dried beans from my Lonesome Whistle Bean and Grain CSA is that I have to plan ahead a bit more. My pre-schooler told me that his favorite dinner was burritos with beans and purple barley. That's super exciting! However, on this particular day, I didn't have any beans prepared. However, he helped me get the slow cooker and beans ready. It was a good reminder to cook up a large batch (3 c dry beans and 6 c water) in the slow cooker and then freeze the cooked beans in 2 c portions.

About every 5 years we make our friend, Tom's Chimichangas. They are delicious (fried food is always great) and freeze well, but they are just a little bit more preparation work than burritos. However, I had beans prepared and barley on the stove and prepping the little delicious packets was a very nice afternoon activity. With this recipe it was also easy to vary the ingredients inside (i.e. onions vs no-onion) to make everyone happy. I froze most of them and we have been diving into the freezer for lunches.

Tom's Chimichangas

1 lb ground beef cooked

1+ t cumin powder

1+ t chili powder

2 c cooked rio zape beans (from Lonesome Whistle CSA)

1 c (uncooked) purple barley (from Lonesome Whistle CSA)

1 small can chilis

1 onion diced

olive oil

medium sized whole wheat tortillas

grated cheese

lettuce

salsa

Cook 1 c purple barley with 3 c water until soft (40-45 minutes). Saute onion with olive oil and set aside. Cook ground beef with cumin and chili powder. Mix cooked meat, beans, barley, onion, and can of chilis together. Fill tortillas with the filling and fold into a packet using a tooth pick to hold the packet together.

Heat vegetable oil in a pan (I do enough to cook one side at a time--not deep fry the whole thing) and cook chimichangas on each side until browned and "flaps" stay closed without the toothpick. Serve with grated cheese, lettuce, and salsa.

Honey Berry Bread

We have lots of rye flour in our freezer from our Open Oak and Lonesome Whistle Farms CSAs. I thought it would be worth while experimenting to see if I could substitute it into a quick bread without anyone noticing. I adapted this recipe from the Fanny Farmer Cookbook for this test.

It was quite tasty and the rye flour worked just fine with both texture and taste in this recipe. It made it a little more "earthy" than white wheat flour, but everyone liked the bread for dinner and with cream cheese for breakfast the next morning.

Honey Rye Bread

2 c rye flour (from Open Oak CSA)

1 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1 t cinnamon

1 t ginger powder

1/2 c honey (from Thistledown Farm)

1 egg

1 c milk

1/2 c blueberries (from our garden)

1/2 c Marion berries (from our garden)

Combine dry ingredients and then mix in wet ingredients (except berries). Beat in mixer on medium speed for 10 minutes. Stir in berries. Pour into butter bread pan and bake 350F for 40 minutes.

Day Three with Chicken

When I started with the Roast Chicken and then made soup stock, I had in mind that I wanted to make chicken tetrazini. It was well worth the wait and effort! I think it was a good as my mom's!

Chicken Tetrazini

1T butter

2-3T flour

1 c milk

1 c chicken broth

5 mushrooms chopped

1 green pepper chopped

chicken cubed (Either left over from another meal or cook and then cube two boneless, skinless chicken breasts)

1 onion chopped

2 cloves garlic (from CSA)

1/4 c parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

1/2 lb pasta

Boil water to make pasta. Drain and put into oven proof pan. Melt butter and add flour to make a roux. Slowly add in milk and chicken broth to make a white sauce stirring constantly to prevent lumping. Turn off heat and stir in parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste. In another pan, saute onions until translucent. Add in green pepper, mushrooms, garlic, and chicken and cook until peppers and mushrooms are softened. Mix vegetables in with pasta and pour white sauce over the top. Bake 350F for 20-30 minutes.

Day Two with Chicken

After we ate our roasted chicken dinner, I removed the meat from the bones and saved the carcass to make a soup stock.

Vegetable and Chicken Soup Stock

Beet peels (from CSA)

Carrot peels

Potato peels

Celeriac (from CSA)

Onion skins

Kale stems (from CSA)

Garlic cloves (from CSA)

Chicken bones (from roasted chicken)

Put everything in a soup pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and let simmer for a few hours. Remove from heat, drain our liquid and put in the refrigerator until fat is solid. Skim fat off and use stock.

I froze most of the soup stock in 2 c containers, but saved some to make chicken tetrazini and potato leek soup.

Day One with Chicken

I love getting many meals out of one simple chicken! I started with a roasted chicken, then used the bones to make soup stock, and then made chicken tetrazini.

Roasted chicken is very easy to prepare, and I love how the chicken tastes on the flavors of the herbs inside.

Roasted chicken

1 lemon

4 cloves garlic (from Open Oak CSA)

1 inch of ginger root

1 t each of oregano, rosemary, parsley, thyme.

1 whole chicken

salt, pepper

Olive oil

Place chicken breast side down in oven proof pan. Mix the herbs, salt and pepper together and put inside the chicken with the lemon, garlic, and ginger root. Cover the outside of the skin with olive oil. Bake 425F for 15 min/pound + 10 minutes (this one was 75 minutes).

After we ate dinner, I removed the meat from the bones and saved the carcass to make a soup stock.

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!