You ever hear the saying, “when it rains – it pours”? Well, I’m afraid my whole month has been like that. Whenever I felt like I was starting to get a handle on one thing, the rug would be pulled out from underneath me and whoopsy I’m lying flat on my behind. Maybe it had something to do with the Mercury Retrograde we’ve had recently, I don’t know – but whatever it is has kept me from actually making it to the computer to… well, heck, actually it’s kept me from even getting to the CAMERA, to take pictures, to do posts. Some people have expressed concern, and I can honestly say that a lot of what we’ve been dealing with here at home isn’t really public blog material, but I’m hopeful that we’re on an upswing now, so yeah – hopefully things will be better. Apologies again for being such a lame poster lately.

While I’ve been dealing with all my crappiness, the seasons have been marching on by – it was with great pleasure that I spotted the first fresh fava beans at the Farmers Market recently. Shelling Fava beans can be a little time intensive. First you have to remove them from the big outer pods (I didn’t happen to get a picture of them this time), and then they have a second, inner shell that needs to be removed. As a first pass, I like to sit down with several pounds of pods, a big bowl, and the compost bin, in front of the Tee-Vee, and let my hands do the mindless, repetitive task while enjoying some relax-time with Mr. Man and Miss Thing. Sometimes Miss Thing will even help, if she’s feeling generous. For the second round of shelling though, I usually work in the kitchen. First, I take the shelled beans and blanch them for 1-2 minutes (depending on size and age), then drain them to an ice bath. The thin, inner shell, should pop off fairly easily at that point. A pound of Fava Beans in pod can yield a disappointingly small amount of shelled beans though, so I recommend buying atleast 1-2 more pounds than you think you’ll need. I don’t know about you, but fresh favas NEVER go to waste in our house. lol

I’ve really been enjoying the recent sun and warmer weather where we are. Since I’ve been working harder at becoming an early riser, I’ve been able to make more time to head over to the Farmers Market on the weekends, which has led me to order less from Planet Organics or Farm Fresh To You, and has sent me searching in other directions for purchasing eggs, meat and poultry. Recently I became a member of a Poultry products CSA called Soul Food Farms. They offer various chicken products, fresh eggs, and occasionally a small batch, locally produced olive oil (that I used in this salad!). The only downside is the closest pick up location is about twenty to thirty minutes away from me. Boo. It’s been really rewarding – I find myself kind of constantly poking around, looking for the new and interesting, searching for small farms and producers.

Mr. Man and I also went to a lamb butchering demo for Bay Area Bloggers, hosted by Hank Shaw of Honest Food. I found the whole experience very inspiring, and we will soon be attempting the process ourselves, probably with a pig. Not only did we both learn a lot about butchering, Hank’s home-made artichoke hearts were a revelation, and I made some new friends with other bloggers, including Stephanie of Wasabimon!, Luna Raven of Luna’s Kitchen, Jennifer of Foodbat, Biggie of Lunch in a Box, Heather of Heather in SF, Holly of NorCal Cazadora, and Anne of SF Tao of Pao. I also briefly met Elise Bauer of Simply Recipes, who showed up towards the end of the event. It was amazing to be surrounded by so many talented people that I’ve admired for so long. Hopefully, Hank will do more classes in the future.

As I’ve mentioned recently, I’ve been working on incorporating whole grains in to my diet. Whole grains are a great part of any healthy diet, and we were already using them frequently, but as I’ve been trying to lose weight they became especially important. They can be a really great alternative to starchy sides, and pack a great nutritional punch. For me, I have been trying to make everything I put in my body count – ie, no more empty calories, so I’ve been using alternative grains in place of white rice, white flour or potatoes. So when I saw local Wheat Berries from Massa Organics at a recent trip to the farmers market, of course I had to pick some up. Although they look similar to rice, wheat berries are very different in terms of flavor and texture. They are nuttier, with an even chewier texture than is typical in brown rice, and they tend to be much looser and less starchy, making them perfect for grain based salads or as a last minute addition to a soup. Unlike rice though, you want to cook them in extra liquid, similar to beans – I typically use a 4:1 ratio of Liquid to Wheat Berries, and then drain when at desired level of tenderness.

If you’re lucky enough to find it – some Green Garlic is also a great addition to soups and salads. It’s one of my favorite spring harbingers, sweeter and milder than it’s older bulbous brother, I typically use Green Garlic anywhere and everywhere that I would normally use Green Onions. Every time I’ve gone to the farmers market recently, I’ve picked up a bunch or two – sometimes adding to a saute, but usually just sliced and served raw.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole Wheat Berries
• 4 cups Stock or Water (I used 2 cups chicken stock, 2 cups water)
• 2 cups Blanched and Shelled Fava Beans
• 1 Stalk Green Garlic; bulb and tender greens, sliced thinly
• 1/4 cup Feta Cheese; crumbled
• 2 tbs Fresh Italian Parsley; finely chopped
• 2 tbs Fine Quality Olive Oil (or to taste)
• 4 tbs White Wine Vinegar (or to taste)
• Kosher Salt (to taste)

Method:

• Rinse and pick over Wheat Berries to remove any dirt or debris
• Place in a Heavy pot with a tight fitting lid (recommend: Dutch Oven)
• Add the Stock/Water and a generous pinch or two of Kosher Salt.
• Cover and bring to a boil
• Reduce heat to a simmer, stirring occasionally until tender (appx 45-60 minutes), adding more liquid as neccessary
• Drain and allow to cool to room temperature
• Stir together the drained Wheat Berries with remaining ingredients, adjust Salt, Vinegar and Olive Oil to taste
• Serve at room temperature

Other Fava Bean recipes by Delementals:

• Bacon and Fava Beans
• Fava and Baby Potato Gratin
• Fava Bean Pancetta Salad

Other Green Garlic recipes by Delementals:

• Green Garlic Yukon Gold Potato Salad
• Green Garlic Farro and Collards Salad
• Green Garlic and Spring Onion Soup
• Broccoli and Green Garlic Quiche

As part of my healthy eating plan, I’ve cut out most of my favorite breakfast foods. I mean, I’m pretty much a sweets breakfast kind of girl. Waffles, muffins, french toast, etc… And yes, pancakes. Which means most days for breakfast, I now have eggs, some kind of grain (like brown rice), and veggie for breakfast. I’ll admit, I’m starting to warm up to the eggs for breakfast thing. I’ve never been much for eggs usually – so it’s a work in progress. But I can see making pancakes like these every so often.

Because I’ve eliminated white flour and sugar from my diet, I had mostly written off most of my favorite breakfast foods. Atleast, I had until I came back from the farmers market last Saturday to Miss Thing having some kind of meltdown because she wanted Mr. Man to take her out for Pancakes. Apparently there’d been this whole thing where she was really in the mood for pancakes, and had been thinking about it all day. The dietary changes have been hard for her to accept – we all have had to make sacrifices. Most days are fine, but this one wasn’t really one of them. She didn’t end up getting her pancakes, through a combination of poor behavior, lack of available breakfast joints (it was 3PM), and my lack of desire to drive further than -/+ a mile. However, the next day as a sort of peace-making enterprise, I decided to get up the next morning and attempt a whole wheat pancake.

What I ended up with turned out to be pretty good. I looked at a few different recipes online, trying to find a recipe that fit my needs – ultimately, I ended up mashing together a few different recipes to come up with my own version. However, these should be considered a first-pass. Don’t get me wrong, they’re pretty good – but Mr. Man and I were talking, we have a few ideas on how to improve them, so there will probably be a Whole Wheat Pancakes Version 2 before long.

For those who are interested in keeping up with my progress, I’ve lost twenty-four pounds, and I think it’s finally starting to get better. I still have to force myself to get on the treadmill in the morning, but once I’m on and going it’s been good, and meals are getting easier. I even went out to eat a couple of times recently. I’m starting to learn where my limits are.  With my restricted carb intake, these pancakes are definitely not an every day event – but as a once in a while treat, it’s nice. They were more satisfying and filling than conventional pancakes. I had them for a ‘dessert’ after a breakfast of eggs, bacon and veggies, and they even went over well with Miss Thing, who usually turns her nose up at whole wheat things.

Making pancakes also gave me the opportunity to play with Agave syrup again. I’m starting to feel a little more confident of Agave. This is only my second attempt at using it, the first time I didn’t have a chance to take pictures, but I adapted a Banana Cake recipe from Whole Grain Baking by King Arthur. It turned out very well – I made it to take to a Diablo Valley Pagans Meet & Greet, and everyone was very surprised that it was ‘healthy’. I have a hankering to try and tackle something chocolate with it next. We’ll see how that turns out.

Back to the pancakes – As you can probably tell from the pictures, the batter for the pancakes came out very thick, making it difficult to pour. Although I liked the convenience of mixing it in the blender, I think next time I might use a ladle or something to get the batter in to the skillet – if only because it was impossible to get nice round-ish pancakes when the batter fell in to the skillet in big globs. lol. The other tip I would share is cook them slower and lower than you would conventional pancakes. I ended up burning a couple because the whole wheat took a little longer to cook than I expected, so the outside was a tad overdone by the time it was done in the middle.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
• 4 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/4 tsp Kosher Salt
• 2 cups Buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 4 tbls Butter, Melted plus additional for cooking
• 3 tbs Agave Syrup
• 1 tsp Vanilla

Method:

• In a bowl, stir together the dry ingredients
• Place all wet ingredients in blender and bzzz bzzz until combined
• Add the dry ingredients to the blender and whizz until just mixed, batter will be thick and may be lumpy – and you might need to scrape flour mixture down to get it fully combined
• Set aside for about 10 minutes to allow the whole wheat flour to absorb moisture
• Heat a skillet to medium-low. Melt butter in the skillet.
• Pour batter in to hot pan and cook until surface begins to look bubbly all across and is beginning to dry out a little bit, or bottom is golden
• Flip and cook until golden
• Serve with Maple Syrup, Fresh fruit, or Agave Nectar

Tangy and Fresh, this salad is probably one of my favorite dishes I’ve made lately. It has a great flavor, and is easy to make.

I’ve had a jar of Farro sitting in my pantry for a while now. I kept meaning to make it, but I kept forgetting. Finally on Sunday, I managed to make some time to try it, and now I’m kicking myself for waiting so long, because it is really that good. Farro is an ancient grain, considered to be the grain that most others are descended from. It’s kind of a specialty grain, so if you don’t have it available, you can probably use wheat berries or barley, with similar results, but I have to say – I’ve had both before, and Farro has them beat by a long shot. The Flavor is nutty, with such a great texture. I’ve been trying to incorporate more whole grains in to my meals (see here if you’re interested in the backstory), and farro is one of those grains that makes the process so easy, because it tastes so good.

When were in Boston last year, we went to a restaurant called Hungry Mother a couple of times, and it was delish. On the second night I went, they had a Collard Green Salad, the most that I was able to drag out of the server (whether from his lack of knowledge or a disinclination to reveal the chef’s secrets) was that the leaves were blanched and then chopped and tossed with the dressing – which is what inspired me to include them and the chard in this salad. I think it might actually be my new favorite way to make greens. Although it is a little fussy, (I mean, you are standing over a stove dipping leaf after leaf in hot water), the resulting leaves were tender, and less bitter than other cooking methods. I imagine you could do it with more than one leaf at time in a basket or some such, but I wanted each leaf to have some freedom to move around, and honestly – each leaf only needs to blanch for a couple of seconds, so it goes really quickly.

I do have a confession to make though. A week ago, I was an olive-hater. I know, I know… shhhh! I’m so ashamed. I think I had just accepted as established fact that I didn’t like olives, so I never bothered to try them again. And to be fair, I’m still not keen on black olives – especially on pizza. But I’m opening up to the possibility of reds and greens. I had decided to give them a try when Mr. Man made focaccia last week. They had been buried in the pantry for who knows how long, waiting for me to give them a chance to prove themselves. I opened the jar, and tentatively took a little nibble, and decided that I might be able to get used to them.

Although, now as I’m taking little baby steps in to Olive-World, I do need to remember to get pitted when I need pitted… But just in case you’re someone who is not me, and you accidentally got the wrong kind of olives, and found yourself wanting chopped olives for a Farro Salad… you might be interested to know that a Cherry Pitter does a halfway decent job of pitting olives, too. Not that I would know from personal experience or anything. <cough> Ahem. Moving right along. We served this salad this morning for breakfast with some lightly blanched Asparagus from my recent FFTY Box, and a scrambled farm egg, and it was perfect together.

Ingredients:

• 5 cups Water
• 2 cups Whole Farro
• 1 bunch Collard Greens
• 1 bunch Chard
• 1 stalk Green Garlic; finely chopped
• 1/4 cup Coarsely Chopped Mixed Green & Red Olives
• 1 lemon; juiced
• 1/4 cup Good Quality Olive Oil
• Kosher Salt

Method:

• Rinse and pick over Farro
• Place Farro in a heavy pot with a tight fitting lid
• Add Water and several generous pinches of Kosher Salt
• Bring to a Boil, then cover and reduce heat to a simmer
• Cook for 45 minutes or until tender, checking frequently
• Drain and Set aside to cool
• Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil
• Blanch each leaf of collard greens and chard by dipping in to the water for 5-10 seconds, or until bright green and tender
• Remove Stem and finely chop Greens
• When the Farro has cooled to room temperature, stir in the Greens, Garlic, and olives until well combined
• Add the Lemon Juice, Olive Oil, and Kosher Salt to taste, stirring together until well combined
• Serve at Room Temperature

Well the holidays are over – and I can’t really say that it’s a bad thing. It’s probably been both one of the best and one of the worst holiday seasons ever for me. For the first time I was able to host a celebration with a large group of close friends for the Solstice, and I also got my techy-foodie bankai on with some friends for New Years. (Even if I did feel like a moron next to all the super smart people there)

However, it’s also been the last couple of months of the year, where Mr. Man has been working like crazy trying to meet a pushed up deadline. Sometimes pulling twelve or fourteen hour days at work and essentially pushing aside some of the other activities we might have wanted to do. We’ve spent much of the last couple of weeks decompressing from that – which would account for the (very) delayed holiday January cards… that I still haven’t sent out. Or written up. Or the family pictures that I still need to get done. Or presents that need to be sent out. I know, I suck. The fact that decompressing ended up involving Me, Mr. Man, the couch and us restarting Final fantasy XII from the beginning might also be a factor… Mr. Man and I both tend to get sucked in to video games, pretty much until we beat them. So I’ll try to get those cards out soon, loved ones. Maybe while Mr. Man is grinding for some phatz lootz. lol

So I’d like to claim that I haven’t been posting very much lately due to busy-ness, but the truth is that it’s just the opposite. I haven’t been posting much  because of supreme laziness. I made up a big ol’ batch of soup a few days back which we leftover’d on for couple of days, I dug some things from the freezer that I’d put aside over the summer and we had some quick and easy meals from there, etc… Truth be told there’s been a lot of “Let’s quickly make something easy to eat so we can go back to playing the video game” going on. lol

But I did want to start getting shtuff done, so yesterday I mustered up some gumption and got in the kitchen to try making spätzle. Originally I was thinking of making Gnocchi, but ultimately I decided that would probably be a better … ah… family… activity. Assuming Mr. Man and Miss Thing manage to clear up those ‘scheduling conflicts’ that occur whenever I bring up making gnocchi together. Strangely, they seem to become inexplicably busy and/or occupied whenever I mention it. It’s très bizzarre.

Spaetzle seemed like a simpler one-person project to try out – and I’d been promising Mr. Man that I would make him some homemade Spaetzle for ages. Whenever we go to our favorite German restaurant in the city we always get a big heaping plate of Spaetzle – it’s one of our favorites. Usually served up with a big slice of Schnitzel and some mushroom gravy. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the foresight to put pork or veal on my last Planet Organics order to make a themed meal of it, but I don’t think Mr. Man or Miss Thing will be complaining, because this dish really shined on it’s own merits – no Schnitzel required.

My original plan, to make gnocchi, had stemmed from a desire to use up some Pumpkin Puree that I had leftover from making the Pumpkin and Collard Pasta a while back. Squash gnocchi is particularly common in the fall, and it seemed like it should be a simple enough swap – squash for potatoes. And it’s still on my list, methinks. I’ve managed to develop quite a backlog of squash that needs to be eaten. I imagine Mr. Man and Miss Thing are going to probably get quite full up on it before too long. Somehow I’ve managed to stock pile 3 butternut squash, 1 kabocha squash, 1 spaghetti squash, and several smaller squash. I’m not sure how that happened. Fortunately, they don’t go bad quickly – but that really isn’t an excuse, and I want to use them up and enjoy them – it’s one of the reasons I’ve taken a little bit of a FFTY hiatus the last couple of weeks. I figured not having more perishable produce would motivate me to use up the squash.

When I made the switch to Spaetzle instead of gnocchi, I decided that I still wanted to use the pumpkin puree – so I started looking around to see if anyone else had ever made spaetzle with squash puree before. I came across this post over at Serious Eats for a Squash Spaetzle and used it as kind of a proof of concept. Yes, you can use squash in spaetzle. However, I didn’t really use their recipe – opting instead to make my own, since it didn’t really seem like a complex set of ingredients. I started out by seeing how much squash puree I had, and then working the other ingredients around it. Originally, I thought it would be more complex, but honestly, I think that as long as you don’t throw the entire bowl of batter in to the cooking water at once, it’d be pretty hard to mess these up.

For hardware, you probably already have everything you need – I didn’t use any specialized tools to make them. I used the steaming insert for one of my smaller pans as my colander, because I liked that it had larger holes, but a regular colander would do just as well. Although it was fine with the colander, next time I make spaetzle, I think I’m going to try using my potato ricer. Pushing the batter through the colander resulted in very short, small spaetzle. They were yummy, don’t get me wrong – but I think that if I were to use the ricer I might get something more resembling longer strands. A lot of the recipes I looked at specified using a wooden spoon to press through the colander – which you can use, don’t get me wrong – but I had a much easier time when I switched to my silicone, heat resistant spatula. The batter didn’t stick to it as much, and it was a little easier for me to use. But whatever you have on hand should be fine. In fact, if you don’t have a colander, I saw several posts where people would just flick little dollops of batter straight from a spoon. I don’t really think there’s a ‘wrong’ way to make spaetzle.

If it’s your first time making it, set aside about two hours to get the feel for it. Next time, I think it will go much faster for me since I know a little better what I should be doing, and it won’t take as long. But I also made a pretty big batch. I wanted to have enough for (atleast) two meals. Fresh from the cooking water, the spaetzle were delicious – tossed with a little butter and a light sprinkling of salt, I would say they were highly nom-worthy. However, they really went to the next level when I did a little pan-frying to brown them up a little bit for dinner. They were amazing, and I can see homemade spaetzle making it in to the regular rotation of meals around here, especially with a little practice to cut down on the preparation time. They will also keep for a couple of days in the fridge, so if you need to, you can make them up before hand and then trot them out for guests or something – they’ll be all impressed and give you lots of kudos. Just don’t tell them how easy it is – it’ll be our little secret.

I would also add a couple of things – the pumpkin puree I used was pretty liquidy. Many, if not all, of the spaetzle recipes I saw called for milk. I skipped the milk because I felt like there was enough liquid in my pumpkin puree. If your squash puree is thicker and harder to work with, feel free to add some milk back in a little bit at a time. My batter was like a very thick muffin batter – sticky, and viscous – but holding together well enough to stick to a spoon when lifted out and not terribly drippy. But remember, it’s pretty easy to make up a test batch and add more flour if you want to. It’s a little harder to try and take the flour out if you decide there’s too much.

Spaetzle Ingredients:

• 5 eggs
• 2 and 1/2 cups Pumpkin (or other Squash) Puree
• Appx 3 cups Flour
• 1 tsp Kosher Salt
• softened butter

Spaetzle Method:

• Whisk together the eggs and the Pumpkin Puree until well combined
• Stir in the kosher salt and a scant cup of the flour, whisk to combine
• Continue adding flour, a quarter to half a cup at a time until batter reaches a thick muffin batter consistency. (Sticky, viscous and holding together well when a spoon full is lifted out of the bowl)
• Set batter aside to rest for a few minutes while bringing a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil
• If using, place colander over the pot of boiling water
• Working in batches, press the spaetzle batter through the holes of the colander (if using – alternatively ‘flick’ drops of batter from a spoon in to the water or use a ricer) until the top of the water is full of bobbing spaetzles
• Allow to cook for 30-60 seconds (depending on size) then scoop out the spaetzles and place in a bowl.
• Repeat until all batter has been used up – refreshing cooking water as neccessary.
• When all the spaetzle has been cooked, drain again to remove any excess water, then toss with a little bit of butter
• Refrigerate until ready to use

After I made the spaetzle and chilled it – I had to decide on something to do with it. Bacon was of course, the obvious choice – since everything is better with bacon… Plus I had some thick slices of Fatted Calf bacon that I’d picked up last time I went to the Farmer’s Market. But if you’re anti-bacon, you could just sub the bacon grease for a little butter, and skip it. They’ll still be delicious, I promise. I was also thinking of tossing it with cheese and baking it, but to be honest – it didn’t end up needing it. In fact, it probably would have overwhelmed the spaetzle. Instead, I just did a light sprinkling of cheese on top and baked it just long enough to brown – and it was perfect. Both Mr. Man and Miss Thing also dubbed it a huge success. Miss Thing didn’t even realize it had <gasp> squash in it until I told her. At which point she kind of shrugged and said “So? I can’t taste it.” I think we’re making progress there. Of some kind. Not really sure if that response was on the positive or the negative side though. lol

Spaetzle with Bacon Ingredients:

• 1/2 a batch of Spaetzle (recipe above)
• 3 slices thick cut bacon
• 1 small onion; finely diced
• 3 cloves garlic; minced
• 1 sprig of Rosemary; finely minced
• 1/3 cup shredded Gouda

Spaetzle with Bacon Method:

• Cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crispy
• Remove bacon to a paper towel to cool
• Pour off all but a teeny bit of bacon grease
• Add the onions and saute until translucent
• Clear a space (or transfer onions to a bowl)  and add the garlic and rosemary
• Heat the garlic and rosemary until fragrant, then add to the onions
• Working in batches if neccessary, lightly brown the spaetzle in residual bacon grease (can add more if pan starts to dry up or spaetzle starts to stick)
• Cut the bacon in to thin ribbons
• Toss spaetzle, bacon, onions and garlic to combine
• Spread in to an oven safe baking dish and sprinkly lightly with shredded gouda
• Place under broiler for 2-5 minutes or until cheese is golden and bubbly
• Serve immediately

It’s hard to believe that it was only recently that we started having Polenta around Casa la Del, because it’s quickly become one of my favorite dishes to make. It’s such an easy, simple and hearty dish to make. The first time I made it, I just kinda glanced at the ‘basic’ directions on the side of the package and jumped in feet first, and the results surprised me. It was so good. Since then, we’ve had polenta quite a few times, and I’ve been slowly tweaking my way around to find my favorite method of preparation.

When I first made Polenta, I was surprised at the liquid to cornmeal ratio – I mean most rices and grains typically stop at a 2:1 … maybe 2.5:1. A ratio of 4:1 seemed awfully high, but having never made it before I just went with it, thinking I could drain it if neccessary. But it ended up working out – in fact the first time I made polenta, I ended up with quite a bit of leftovers, because I made a double batch, thinking it wouldn’t make that much. Although, sometimes I’ll make a double batch on purpose now. It is very handy to have some cooked grains ready to be warmed up in the fridge.

The Delicata Squash had been sitting on my counter for a couple of weeks now. I had picked some up when they first started showing up at the Farmer’s Market, but just hadn’t had an opportunity to use it yet, although I’ve been kicking around some ideas of what to use it in for a while. (Incidentally, a melon baller seemed to make an excellent pulp-scooper.) Anyways, the inspiration for part of this dish came from a post I saw on another site where someone had sliced and roasted the Delicata – they had sprinkled theirs with spices and feta cheese, and it looked lovely. Sadly, I forgot to bookmark them so I don’t have the link handy anymore, but thats somewhere on my agenda to try sometime, too. However, for this dish, I wanted to use up some of the greens that I had in the fridge. In our FFTY box this week, we received sooooo many Greens – Rapini, Kale – and of course Arugula. It’s definitely one of the challenges you face when you eat seasonally. At some point you become inundated with one or another type of fruit or vegetable and you have to get creative. lol

I’ve also found myself in the unfortunate predicament of having more of the types of fruits that we don’t tend to eat as quickly – such as apples and oranges, so I (sadly) decided this week that I would need to switch back to the smaller ‘regular’ box – atleast until I come up with a better method for using them. (or until other fruits come in to season) Fortunately, I’ll be able to supplement with Planet Organics and Spud – both of which are quickly becoming near and dear to my weekly shopping experience. Planet Organics is starting to edge out Spud, I think, but I haven’t made a true decision yet. When I do though, I think I’ll post a blog about it. I think it’d make an interesting post to compare them.

I already had the lentils cooked and waiting in the fridge to be used, which made this dish go together quickly once the Polenta was done. I’ve tried to make it a habit to have atleast two to three (mostly) vegetarian meals a week, and I’ve found that it’s frequently easier to do that if I have cooked beans sitting in the fridge. This week, it was lentils, which you can probably guess – considering I also used them in the Browned Butter and Pumpkin Lentil Pasta dish I made a few days ago. If you don’t have lentils though, you could easily use any other cooked (or canned I suppose) bean instead. Although, I like the lentils here so I recommend that if you have them available that you use them.

Like many other vegetables that I’ve tried since joining a CSA, Winter Squash has truly joined the ranks of my favorite veggies, and Delicata Squash is leading the charge. When we had this for dinner the other night, I only made up one squash, but I know next time I’ll have to make more. I had my timing off a little bit the night I made this, underestimating the time the squash would take to cook. So it was ready well before the polenta. While it sat out on the counter, waiting for everything else to finish cooking, I ended up sneaking a couple of slices to snack on while I was making dinner, and thinking that this would make a lovely snack to have ready to go in the fridge. If that doesn’t convince you though – even Miss Thing owned up and said that the squash “wasn’t that bad”, which considering her long standing and deep rooted hatred for all winter squashes, is very high praise indeed. As for Mr. Man and myself, we both adored this dish. For my part, I was quite frankly stunned at how delicious it turned out. I highly recommend eating it all together, as I’ve shown, because eating them separately just doesn’t provide the same melding of flavors. The tangy vinaigrette perfectly complements the sweetness of the squash, the meaty lentils – I mean, it all just WORKS.  It’s in the top ten meals I’ve made in the last few months. Seriously.

Ingredients:

• 1 Delicata Squash; halved, seeds removed and sliced in to 1/4″ slices
• 1 bunch of Arugula; torn in to bite size pieces
• 4 cups Broth or Stock (I used Scrap Stock)
• 1 cup Coarse Ground Cornmeal
• 1 cup finely shredded Parmesan Cheese
• 1 cup Cooked Du Puy Lentils
• ½ cup Milk
• 3 tbs Good quality Olive Oil
• 1 tbs Champagne Vinegar
• 1 tbs Cooking Olive Oil
• 1 tsp Coarse Ground Mustard (I used Homemade)
• Kosher Salt

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350°
• Toss the squash slices with the cooking olive oil and sprinkle liberally with kosher salt
• Spread in to a single layer on a roasting pan
• Bake for 20 minutes, or until tender and beginning to brown
• While the squash is roasting, cook the polenta
• Bring the broth or stock and a couple pinches of kosher salt to a boil
• Pour the cornmeal in to the broth in a steady stream, whisking constantly
• Reduce heat and simmer, stirring often, until polenta is nearly tender
• Add the milk to the polenta and continue to simmer until polenta is cooked through, and just beginning to set up
• Stir in the Parmesan. Cover and remove from heat until ready to serve
• Whisk together the mustard, vinegar and good quality olive oil, along with a pinch or two of kosher salt (to taste)
• Toss the vinaigrette with the Arugula
• To serve: spread the polenta on the plate, top with arugula – then Lentils and the roasted Delicata Squash slices

I can’t really believe how busy the last couple of weeks have been – and the next couple aren’t looking much better (again). Vet appointments, doctor appointments, running around, sports stuff, fund raisers, parent nights, yadda yadda yadda. It has just been crazy. I’m so ready for a break it’s not even funny – unfortunately, it’s probably going to be a while. To that end, I think I’m going to suspend (hopefully) temporarily the weekly box updates in favor of concentrating on getting recipes posted and just sprinkle in life stuff amongst the daisies… Which makes me sad, but until things settle down a little bit again, it’s probably for the best.

But as if all that wasn’t enough to keep us frantically running around, things at Mr. Man’s work have busied up – a project he was involved in had the deadline moved up, and it’s thrown a teeny monkey wrench in everyone’s plans, so he’s been super busy and working some long hours… Oh! And the Disqus Comments system that I was using on the website decided to bork – and we had to disable it. So comments should work again … yay. I don’t think I’ll be reenabling Disqus even if we do figure out what is wrong with it though – it wasn’t terribly user friendly. Hopefully we can port over the old comments as we part ways with Disqus. We’re still not sure what we’re going to use to replace Disqus – I’m sure it will be a process as we work on getting the kinks out.

Anyways, although the busy has kept me off the computer and out of Photoshop, I did have a few spare moments to whip up this little salad for dinner the other night – and it gave me the opportunity to use the new Corn Zipper I’d picked up a few weeks back. I’d bought it because, although I’m a ginormous corn on the cob fan – the last few times I’ve served up some corn on the cob, Mr. Man has grabbed a knife and cut the corn off the cob. Which creates a huuuuuuuge mess all over the table. So I picked up this gadget to try out and it actually does a pretty decent job. It still sprays juice a little bit, but the corn kernals don’t go popping off and flying as much – which is definitely an improvement over a knife. (Plus, it has a smiley face – what’s not to love about that?)

Unlike the last time I made a corn salad, this time I happened to have grilled corn – one of the fringe benefits of the Heap-Big grilling session I had Mr. Man do recently (along with grilled beets and carrots that I used here). Although I think if I’d had fresh corn, it would have been equally good in this salad. This recipe kind of fell together when I had received my most recent FFTY box and realized that I still had some green beans left from the previous weeks box… and that a couple of the tomatoes that I’d just received absolutely had to be used that day. I saw the corn in the fridge – and a lightbulb went off in my head, spawning this little love child. Knowing that the remaining days of fresh tomatoes this season are numbered – I’ve been trying to use them fresh, rather than cooking them, so a salad seemed like the perfect plan. This made a fair amount, but I had quite a few veggies to use up. It’s actually hearty enough to be a meal unto itself – and is vegetarian to boot. Although I’ll own up and admit that we served it with a side of steak.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Green Beans, trimmed and snapped in to 2″ lengths
• 2 cups Grilled or Fresh Corn
• 2 cups Chopped Tomatoes
• 4 oz Mozzarella di Bufala (or other fresh mozzarella); cut in to 1/4″ cubes
• 3 cloves Garlic; minced
• 2 tbs Good Quality Olive Oil
• 1 tbs Brown Rice Wine Vinegar
• Kosher Salt

Method:

• Blanch the green beans in well-salted water until tender-crisp (or desired tenderness). Approximately 2-3 minutes depending on preference
• Transfer green beans to an ice bath to stop cooking
• Drain and pat dry
• Stir all ingredients together and add Kosher Salt to taste
• Serve Immediately

This summer has been an unusual one for us – I think the trip to Boston really kind of threw our schedules a little out of whack and we’re still trying to kind of play catch-up. Normally when the weather is nice, I can get Mr. Man to grill a couple of times a month at least, but I think he’s barely fired up the grill twice this last six months. It’s getting to the point where I might just have to pull on some “Man Boots” and go figger out this grillin thingamajig for myself. (but thats a seperate issue). Last week, after only a little bit of whining, I got Mr. Man to do a big-big grill session. I had about a million things I wanted to grill, mostly because it had been so durned hot lately that I didn’t want to use the oven – and he was a sport and spent about 8 hours grilling. (Well – to be fair, it was more like roasting – so it wasn’t like he had to babysit it the whole time…)

I suppose you’re wondering where I’m going with all of this… Well, in addition to corn on the cob, and lamb spareribs (which are another post), I had him grill-roast some beets and carrots, for later use. They ended up getting a lovely smoky flavor, and when it came time to use them, I really wanted to let them be the stars of the dish. So I used them in this rice dish with some other flavors that I feel really complimented them well. Especially the blue cheese. The next time I make this, I will definitely use more blue cheese. I had picked up a lovely block of Point Reyes Blue Cheese a while back, and I was down to the last little bit. If I’d had more, I’da used it.

If you don’t have Blue Cheese though, I imagine Feta would probably be nice in here – or really any other sharp or pungeant, cheese – I’m sure there are lots of choices. But you would want something that can stand up to the strong flavor and sweetness of the beets and not be overwhelmed. I ended up having a lot of flavors going on in this dish – and while I really liked it (and surprisingly – Miss – Ewwww Beets – Thing didn’t hate it). She’s actually been a lot better lately about trying new things – I even got her to eat a couple of figs yesterday when we had a light dinner of fresh figs, cheese, and bread. She had loaded up on Cupcakes at her team practice because one of her teammates had a birthday – which I was really un-thrilled about, but there really wasn’t anything I could do about it after the fact except give scathing glares.

When I started mixing everything together, the beets dyed everything the lovely magenta color, which is why my brown rice looks like a nice shade of magenta – which I thought really made it look cooooooool. There really isn’t enough vibrant PINK food. I think if our next kid is a girl, and she’s half as girly as Miss Thing was when she was little – I will have no problems getting her to eat beets. Sadly, I didn’t offer beets to Miss Thing when she was small so she can often be a little uppity about them now. I probably should have – but to be honest, I’m not like a huge Beet Fan either. I mean, they are okay – I like them well enough. But before we started getting the FFTY box, I can count on one hand how many times I’ve made beets. Actually – I can count with one finger. lol! I had a rather failed attempt at making beets many moons ago in the before-csa time. I think I will definitely have to explore that whole blue-cheese and beets combo again though – it might make a believer outta me.

Anyways, on to the actual prep-talk. I recommend cooking up the beets and carrots in a background process a few days-to-a-week before hand, since the beets in particular take for-freaking-ever to cook. If you don’t want to grill them, you can roast them in the oven (I’ve extolled the virtues of roasted carrots before here, and grilled carrots are very similar – just with added smoky goodness).  In fact, this dish could easily be made in to a weeknight easy-peasy meal, simply by cooking up the rice beforehand as well. And for you veggies lovers out there, make it vegetarian by swapping out the chicken stock for veggie and skipping the bacon.

Ingredients:

• 3 Beets
• 1 lbs Carrots
• 1 small onion; diced
• 1 cup Long Grain Brown Rice
• 2 cups Chicken Broth
• 2 strips of thick cut bacon; cut in to thin ribbons
• 2 tbs Blue Cheese; crumbled
• 1 tbs Butter
• 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp Ginger
• 1/2 tsp Paprika
• 1/4 cup Pecans; chopped (optional)
• Olive Oil
• Kosher Salt

Method:

• Several Hours, or days before Grill the Beets and Carrots. (To grill, coat them in olive oil and sprinkle liberally with Kosher Salt – cook over indirect heat until tender – alternatively can roast in 350° oven)
• In a heavy pot with a tight fitting lid, bring the chicken stock, butter and a generous pinch or two of kosher salt to a boil
• Add the Brown Rice, cover and reduce heat to low
• Peel the Beets and cut in to 1″ x 1/4″ slices.
• Cut the carrots in to 1/4″ discs
• In a skillet over medium heat, fry the bacon until crisp
• Add the onions and saute until onions are translucent and slightly golden
• When the rice has finished cooking, stir in the cinnamon, ginger and paprika until well combined
• Add the sliced beets, carrots, bacon, onions.
• Top with Blue Cheese and Chopped Pecans, if desired

This has been a pretty rough week for me. Miss Thing went back to school on Monday (boo) – and then I subsequently had a doctor’s appointment, which resulted in stitches (don’t ask), and as if all that wasn’t bad enough – I’ve been feeling pretty run down and oogey overall… Oh – and I think that the gums around my recent root canal have become infected. Feel free to shoot me now. On the plus side though, so far this week, Miss Thing has taken to heart the lessons learned over the summer and has been putting forth a real effort to be responsible for both her chores and her homework without being asked (and with minimal arguing). We’ll see how long it lasts. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping for the best – but realistically I have to remember that she’s a teenager.

The result of all my general oogy-ness and toothe achey-ness has been that we’ve had pasta atleast three nights the last week. My poor family. They’ve been pretty good sports about the whole thing – I mean, I’d put my I’m-feeling-oogy-Pasta up against any prepared food item at your favorite supermarket or fast food restaurant. Just the same, I’m sure they’ll be happy when I’m feeling better. I know – not exactly a rousing endorsement of this pasta recipe… but I’m getting to that. In spite of the “Pasta again?” place that I’d put Mr. Man & Miss Thing – they both said it was delicious. The Carmelized Onions and squash worked together as well as I’d hoped. I’d set aside the squash from this week’s FFTY box specifically because I wanted to try pairing it with the carmelized onions

Initially I had intended to do a creamy sauce. Some white wine, maybe a glug or two of cream… but the day that I went to make this. We were having 90+ degree weather and a heavier cream-based pasta dish didn’t sound nearly as appealing as something with a slightly lighter touch, so I tinkered around with my plan to be a little bit lighter. I also ended up being a little pressed for time when I made this – pulling it together just barely before Miss Thing’s practice that evening. Her and Mr. Man had been bugging me for a couple of hours to make dinner, but in addition to being oogey, I was also in the middle of working in photoshop, so I didn’t actually get started until about 45 minutes before Miss Thing needed to leave. Which wasn’t too terrible though – I finished the pasta in just over 30 minutes, leaving her about 10 minutes to eat and get out the door. Okay – so I won’t be winning any Donna Reed Mother of the Year awards – but hey, dinner in just 30 minutes. Rachel Ray would be so proud.

Like most dishes though – to pull this together on time required some pretty decent coordination. (If I do say so myself.) I was simultaneously carmelizing the onions, broiling the squash and boiling the pasta, all while chopping up basil, juicing a lemon … well, you get the idea. If you aren’t rushed or don’t feel as confident at multi-tasking, feel free to do the recipe in stages. It’s actually fairly simple and straight forward.

Ingredients:

• 16 oz Pasta (any shape will work – I used Whole Wheat Spaghetti)
• 2 lbs Squash; cut in to strips (for spaghetti) or chunks (About 3 cups)
• 2 Onions; sliced (about 1 cup)
• 4 cloves garlic; minced
• 1 lemon; juiced
• 4 tbs Butter
• 2 tbs Basil; finely chopped
• Olive Oil
• Kosher Salt
• 3-4 slices Proscuitto; minced (optional – omit for vegetarian version)

Method:

• Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil (for cooking the pasta) and begin preheating the broiler
• Melt the butter in a skillet over medium-high heat
• Add the onions and saute until carmelized. Stir in the garlic and remove from heat.
• Drizzle the squash pieces lightly with olive oil and kosher salt, until evenly coated
• Spread out in to a single layer on a baking sheet and broil until tender and beginning to brown
• Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook to al dente
• Pasta should finish cooking just as the squash does (roughly)
• Drain pasta and toss with squash, carmelized onions, chopped basil, Lemon Juice and Kosher Salt to Taste. (Also add the Proscuitto if desired)
• Serve immediately

I’ve mentioned roasted carrots a couple of times in various posts, but to be honest – they were always devoured too quickly for me to get a good picture of them to post about them. I came across this method for making roasted carrots on a blog called Pottery Monster a while back, and since the first time I’ve made them it’s become my absolute favorite way to eat carrots. Every week that we’ve received carrots in our FFTY box, I’ve made this recipe – and it always leaves me wanting more, and is likely the reason that there haven’t been nearly as many carrot inspired dishes floating around, since in the dark times, before roasted carrots, I didn’t think that carrots were that special. But I’ve learned the error of my ways now… They may not look like much, but they are durned tasty.

It’s been hard to make anything in the oven lately – it has just been ridiculously hot lately. We’ve had the air conditioning on and the house locked up tight for most of the last week. It’s been a big de-motivator for cooking, even if it hadn’t been such a busy week. I’ll get motivated… sooner or later. Of course, next week isn’t looking too terribly calm either… Miss Thing goes back to school again, (booooo!) and then I have a doctor’s appointment, and I need to get Leeroy & Jenkins in for another vet visit… Nevermind Team Practice every night – although thankfully they drop to only three times a week soonish.

With all the busy-ness going around – these carrots are a perfect thing to have on hand – assuming they last very long. (when I make them they seem to disapear in about two seconds) While they do take a while to roast, the prep is super easy and the ingredient list is very, very short. And the results? Delish. Even Miss Thing, who hates all carrots and everything to do with carrots, admitted that these carrots are ‘okay’. In fact, if I ever manage to make it down to the farmer’s market again this season (I’ve had the last couple of weekends get completely hosed, what with the teenage invasion and everything else thats been going on…) You’ll notice though, that I don’t give specific measurements for this dish – mostly because you don’t need them. You can pretty much use however many carrots you happen to have on hand. They do reduce a bit in size when cooking, so it might be good to keep that in mind.

Ingredients:

• Carrots
• Olive Oil
• Kosher Salt

Method:

• Preheat Oven to 400°
• Wash the carrots
• Lightly coat the carrots with the olive oil
• Sprinkle liberally with kosher salt
• Spread out in a single layer on a baking sheet
• Roast until thick ends of the carrots are soft (about an hour)
• They will keep in fridge for atleast a couple of days – assuming they aren’t devoured immediately like they are at our house.

The last few days have been much cooler here than has been the norm this month – go figure… Hot? In August? No way. But it’s been cool enough the past few days that we’ve been able to shut the A/C off, open up the windows, let the house air out, and maybe do a little bit of baking.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been receiving some of my favorite fruits and veggies in my weekly FFTY box, tomatoes, zucchini, peaches, nectarines – and this week is no exception. We’ve had a lot of the usual suspects for enjoying them… Cobbler, Pasta, Pizza, etc… But the other day I realized that I hadn’t done anything new or special lately with Tomatoes and Zucchini lately, and that just wasn’t going to fly. So I pulled on my apron, got out my thinking cap, and went to work.

Initially, I had intended to make a sort of Gratin style dish, using a nice Double Cream Brie that I’d picked up at the store, and some toasted Panko Bread Crumbs. Unfortunately, when I finished prepping all the veggies and such, I went digging in the pantry and discovered I was out of Panko Bread Crumbs. :-/ So I’ll have to try that another time. Assuming I don’t just make this again of course.

My first thought upon realizing I was out of bread crumbs was to maybe make a savory streusel type topping, but as I started pulling out ingredients to do that – I had an Aha! moment and came up with the inspiration for a savory cobbler. I had kicked the idea around in my head before… kind of a ‘you don’t really see many savory cobblers… I should make one!’ but I hadn’t gotten around to it yet. This was the perfect opportunity to try it out.

Because I was just kind of winging it, I didn’t do anything too fancy with the cobbler dough. Next time I might try mixing in some shredded cheese and/or fresh herbs. I had made Mr. Man and Miss Thing wait a while for dinner and it was starting to get late, so I didn’t want to take the extra couple of steps this time to include them. If I’d been planning on doing it all along, it would have been easier – since I could have chopped up the herbs while I was doing the other veggies, etc…

As it stood, though – it was incredibly delicious. This dish is definitely going to be making it in to my regular  rotation for veggies dishes. The roasted veggies, the brie, the biscuit topping – all combined to make one of the best veggie dishes I’ve come up with in a while. It also happened to be vegetarian and hearty enough that you could probably serve it as an entree for veggie eaters. Okay, so I served it next to some sausages – but you know, it really outshone the meat by a fair margin. So, seriously – go make this dish! You won’t regret it.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups Tomatoes; cut in to 1″ chunks (5 medium)
• 4 cups Summer Squash; cut in to 1″ chunks (I used Zucchini – 2 large)
• 1 cup Sweet Bell Pepper; seeded and cut in to 1/2 ” chunks (2 medium)
• 1 onion; diced (about 1/2 a cup)
• 4 cloves Garlic; minced
• 6 oz Brie Cheese; cut in to 1/2″ chunks
• 2 cups Flour
• 4 tsp Baking Powder
• 2 tbs Butter
• 2 tbs Shortening
• 1/4 tsp Kosher Salt, plus extra for salting veggies
• 1 cup Buttermilk

Method:

• Preheat the Oven to 375°
• Butter a 9″x13″ Baking Pan
• In a bowl, stir together the veggies and brie, and a liberal sprinkling of Kosher Salt
• Spread the veggies evenly in to the buttered baking pan and lightly press down in to the pan
• Set aside
• In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and 1/4 tsp Kosher Salt
• Cut in the butter and shortening until crumbs form
• Gently stir in the buttermilk until just combined to form a soft dough
• Drop the dough by spoonfuls over the veggies in the baking pan
• Bake in the oven for 45-60 minute, or until veggies are bubbly and crust is golden brown
• Serve immediately