Chickpea Deliciousness

This dish, from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, ranks as one of the most delicious stews I've ever made. Every bit of it disappeared from our bowls with unanimous approval. It was involved, but not difficult, and while I made my chickpeas from dried, canned may be used. I made a big pot of chickpeas and divided them between this recipe and a Mark Bittman bowl of chickpeas, their broth, homemade bread crumbs, garlic, and toasted almonds. Also delicious.

I didn't stray far from the original recipe so I could get a feel for the dish, and I won't next time, either. There are three parts to this dish: the stew, the Romesco sauce, and the picada. No major orchestration required as far as timing, just the usual organized prep, then proceed. 


The recipe is written to serve four. I thought I'd make it into five servings and send someone off with lunch the next day, but it turns out it really is four. At least, if it is a main dish for hungry vegetarians!

Potato and Chickpea Stew

1 pound waxy-fleshed potatoes*

3 tbsps extra-virgin olive oil

1 large onion, diced

2 large cloves garlic, minced

2 generous pinches saffron

2 large red bell peppers, diced

1 large yellow or red bell pepper, cut into 1 inch wide strips

1 heaping tsp sweet paprika

1/4 cup chopped parsley

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1/2 cup medium-dry sherry

2 cups crushed tomatoes with juice

2 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (or two 15-oz cans, rinsed)

3 cups chickpea broth, stock, or water

1 1/2 tsp salt

freshly ground pepper

chopped parsley for garnish

*If using fingerling potatoes, halve them lengthwise. Large round potatoes can be cut into thick rounds or quartered.

Warm the oil in a wide pot with the onion, garlic, saffron, peppers, and potatoes. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring gently every now and then, until the potatoes are tender-firm, about 25 min. Add the paprika, parsley, and red pepper flakes, and cook 3-4 minutes. Add the sherry and cook until the juices are thick and syrupy, about 12 minuntes.

Add the tomatoes, chickpeas, and broth, stock or water to cover. Season with salt and plenty of freshly ground pepper; cover and cook over low heat until the potatoes are completely tender, about 20 min. If the stew is soupy and you plan to serve it right away, stir in 1/4 cup picada (or more if necessary) to thicken it. If you don’t plan to serve the stew for 1 hour or more, it may not need the bread crumbs since it will thicken as it stands. Serve in soup plates with any additional picada sprinkled over the top along with the extra parsley. Add a spoonful of the Romesco sauce to each bowl and pass the rest.

Soaked and cooked chickpeas; I also spent a quick minute rolling them between a towel to remove the skins. 

Gorgeousness

Romesco Sauce

2 red bell peppers, roasted, peeled, and seeded
1/4 cup almonds, roasted
1/4 cup hazelnuts, roasted and peeled
1 slice country-style white bread
olive oil for frying
3 cloves garlic
1 1/2 tsp ground red chile or red pepper flakes
4 small plum tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1/2 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper
1 tsp sweet paprika
1/4 cup sherry vinegar
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
This Catalan sauce is utterly delicious served with chickpeas, roasted potatoes, or grilled vegetables.
To roast the peppers, place them under a broiler or over a gas flame until the skins are charred. Put them in a bowl, cover with a plate, and set aside for 15 min. Peel and seed the peppers.
Roast the nuts in a 350°F oven for 7 to 10 min., or until they smell toasty. Let them cool slightly, and then rub the hazelnuts between the folds of a towel to remove loose skins. (The almonds don’t need peeling.)
Fry the bread in a little olive oil until golden and crisp. When the bread is cool, grind it with the nuts and garlic in a food processor or a mortar until fairly fine. Add everything else but the vinegar and oil and process or work with the pestle until smooth. With the machine running, or your arm working if you’re using a mortar and pestle, gradually pour in the vinegar, then the oil. Taste to make sure the sauce has enough salt and plenty of piquancy

The excitement of roasting a pepper over the stove's flame!

Deborah's picada, which I didn't use because the stew looked just the way we'd like it, is as follows:

Toast 1/4 cup peeled almonds until pale gold. Slowly fry one slice of white country-style bread in 2T olive oil until golden on both sides. Grind bread, almonds, 2 cloves of garlic, and a pinch of salt in a food processor to a crumbly paste.

Drying Herbs in the Microwave

A few days ago the weather service was warning us of a freeze here in southeastern Pennsylvania, so I cut the last of the marjoram and thyme and brought the big pot of rosemary indoors. (That was optimistic, since the rosemary will simply die a slow death in the house instead of a fast one on the deck, but one of these days I may succeed in overwintering one.) It's a very good thing I cut then, since this is what my herb pots look like this morning:

I didn't cut the parsley because dried parsley is, well, dried parsley. It's easy enough to buy a bunch at the market and leave it in a glass on the sink, like a vase of flowers. The basil, chives, sage, mint, and cilantro are long gone but I had a huge amount of marjoram, and while the thyme will hang on, it was time. Sorry.

Sometimes I hang lovely bunches of herbs in the window of the laundry room, where they dry in days and look good while doing so. These jars are full of herbs that I dried that way, that we'll use for teas over the winter.

This time, however, I didn't have carefully cut and arranged bunches of herbs tied with twine. I had three large tangles of herbs, sopping wet from the rain.

I read about flash-drying herbs in the microwave in the September issue of Cook's Illustrated. A few weeks ago I tested the method on a few sprigs of marjoram, rosemary, sage, basil, and thyme. The kitchen smelled amazing but the only herbs that retained their scent and flavor were marjoram, thyme, and rosemary. Using their method, then, I wrapped a "single layer" (messy tangle) of herbs in a layer of paper towels and microwaved on high for 90 seconds (thyme) and 120 seconds (marjoram).

Marjoram, looking cozy.

Marjoram, looking crumbly.

The herbs cool quickly and are then easily removed from the stems, although I am careful not to crush them. This is easier with the larger leaves of marjoram than with thyme, of course. I had to remove a few stems that were still a little damp after microwaving simply because of how wet they were going in, and gave them another 30 seconds. That step was unnecessary when I first tested this method.

In the end it's a few minutes, a great smelling kitchen, and a few more herb jars for the cupboard. Quite nice.

Even though I welcome all the seasonal changes, even this unusual early snow, I always miss having a huge variety of culinary herbs just a few steps away from the kitchen. There is rarely a day of cooking that doesn't include something from the herb pots, and my cooking changes without them during the winter. I have, however, just planted herb pods in my Aerogarden, which was a new process for me last winter. Progress reports to come!

How to Eat Supper

Do you know NPR's The Splendid Table? If yes, then you must know about the How to Eat Supper: Recipes, Stories, and Opinions from Public Radio's Award-Winning Food Show cookbook. If no, then go find a copy. It has all the qualities a cookbook, or any book, should have: nice binding, great pictures, solid writing and strong opinions, and a pretty cover. Then there are the recipes, which haven't let me down yet.

I took their recipe for Sweet Roasted Butternut Squash and Greens over Bow Tie Pasta and turned it into Here's What I had in the Fridge Instead Pasta, and it was delicious. Instead of greens I used brocolinii, a delicious cross between broccoli and Asian broccoli, and substituted a different pasta and cheese.

Following their recipe I tossed butternut squash, broccolini, onion, basil, sage, and garlic with olive oil and a bit of brown sugar. 

Everything was roasted for about 25 minutes and then the whole sheet had a quick broil to caramelize the squash a bit.

Meanwhile, since my husband really thinks every meal and snack should include bread and I have him convinced that polenta is the very same thing, I started some spears crisping on the stovetop.

I had some really nice pappardelle left from a whole package. My ratio of pasta to vegetables is usually quite heavy on the vegetable side, much to my husband's dismay, but gives me less of a twinge nutritionally and financially when I buy a fabulous imported pasta. 

Finally, the drained pappardelle went back into the pot where it was tossed with the vegetables, a little half and half, and Parmigiano-Reggiano (another substitution). 

It's going into the recipe journal, by unanimous decision. The crisped polenta was a nice accompaniment, as would be some white beans with sage. Next time. 

Breakfast Failure

Minnie pretty much sums it all up this morning.

After cooking a dinner that was heavy on prep (white bean cassoulet) and then cooking and packaging a week's worth of dog food (!) my final act was to set up breakfast. I don't do this all the time, since everyone here is quite capable of making their own damn breakfast, but it's lovely when I do. I put a mix of barley, wheat berries, and cracked whole grain cereal into the rice cooker and set the timer for 6:00 a.m. I set everything out...

Pumpkin seeds, honey, agave nectar, Vietnamese cinnamon, cinnamon & white sugar, dried cherries, brown sugar, and slivered almonds. A perfect topping bar.

Picture it: Wake up early (blame the moon?) and feed the dog his freshly made and balanced meal, complete with a powdered vitamin/mineral supplement. Make a latte with skim milk and a bit of powdered cocoa (flavanoids, anyone?), turn on the laptop and go check on the ... uncooked grains. Open the lid. Peer inside. Check timer and discover that the time is now 19:05.

Apparently while I was away this summer I lost the ability to correctly program the timer on the super-smart fancypants rice cooker. It was 9:00 p.m when I set it, I asked it to be ready at 6:00 a.m., and I absolutely pushed the start button and hummed along to the little tune that plays. (Those crazy guys at Zojirushi and their tunes.)

Push start again, and make a small pot of steel cut oats for the next person awake, who is expecting a healthy bowl of grains this morning. 

Make another latte.

Butternut & Pecans; Potatoes & Onions

Last night's dinner was a combination of a favorite potato and onion tart and a box of organic frozen butternut squash ravioli. Not sure of the squash ravioli's reception, I planned to plate a piece of the sure-to-be-devoured tart with a few of the ravioli topped with a pecan sauce and a side of fresh green bean gremolata. I killed the green beans - the pan is still soaking - but our vegetable-less meal was still delicious. After facebooking the menu and lamenting the loss of the green beans, the recipes are now in order for a few friends. 

No pictures, but trust me. That picnic tart has been served for friends at home, carried to potlucks, and eaten as leftovers for breakfast. 


French Picnic Tart with New Potatoes, Red Peppers, Sage, and Gruyere
Mollie Katzen’s Vegetable Heaven

1 10-inch unbaked tart crust (easy recipe below or buy one!)
1 lb small red potatoes
1-2 T olive oil
1 large onion thinly sliced (2 cups)
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 C grated gruyere or emmenthaler cheese (1/4 lb) shredded
2 T minced fresh sage (or 2 tsp dried)
1/2 medium red bell pepper, finely sliced

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Place potatoes in saucepan, cover with water, and boil for 10 to 15 minutes until tender but still intact. Drain. When potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel if desired, and slice thinly. 
Heat oil in a skillet for the onions, add onion and salt, cook on low heat until tender (10-15 minutes)or continue and caramelize.  Remove from heat, sprinkle with pepper, and set aside.
Assemble the tart:

• Spread one cup of cheese into bottom of unbaked crust. 
• Spoon onion over the cheese, and sprinkle with sage.
• Arrange slices in overlapping concentric circles over cheese.
• Arrange bell pepper slices over potatoes in ring. 
• Sprinkle with remaining cheese and black pepper to taste.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, on a tray unless you really trust your springform pan, or until crust is golden around edges. Move to lowest rack for last 5 minutes to ensure the bottom is cooked and crisp. Remove tart from oven and let cool for at least 10 minutes. Serve sliced into large wedges either hot, warm, or at room temperature. 

My additions/changes: 

I don't use the red pepper, but I have inserted a layer of cooked spinach under the potatoes.

I sometimes splash a bit of balsamic vinegar into the onions.

I use more potatoes and more onions, since this is often the main dish and I want everyone to have one hearty piece on their plate, surrounded by vegetables.

Last night while preparing this I thought about a layer of pureed white beans, which I think I will try next time.

PERFECT 10 TART CRUST: A great 10-inch crust in 10 minutes

Also from Vegetable Heaven

(Can be used for a savory or a sweet tart. Super easy.)

1.5 C unbleached flour

pinch of salt 

1 stick of cold butter

1-3 T cold water

Place flour and salt in food processor, buzz once or twice, slice the butter into the bowl and pulse to crumbs. Continue to pulse as water is added one tablespoon at a time. As soon as the dough adheres when pinched stop adding water, turn it out, and push into a ball.

Roll into an 11 inch circle and lift into a 10 inch pan. Form an even edge all around. Wrap tightly and store in the fridge or freezer until ready to use.

Note: I always double this recipe. I use one in the tart pan for the recipe and flatten the other into a small disc and hold it in the fridge. When the pan is free I roll out the extra disc and place it in the pan, then freeze the whole pan. The frozen dough can be removed and frozen separately. No need to defrost when using. 

Butternut Squash Ravioli with Pecans and Sage

Pecans and sage are a classic combination with butternut squash, for good reason. Look for a quality brand of frozen ravioli, or be my hero and make some from scratch, and top the cooked ravioli with this:

Brown Butter, Pecans, and Sage

3-4 T butter (yes, you can use a lot more butter and get a more "saucey" product, but let's not!)

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2-3 T chopped fresh sage

2-3 T chopped fresh parsley

2 -3 tsp chopped fresh thyme, or less, dried

1/2 C pecans, toasted, chopped coarsely

sea salt

Melt the butter in a small nonstick skillet and add the garlic and herbs. Cook over low heat until the butter begins to brown; remove from heat and stir in pecans. The lower amount of butter will disappear leaving you with a lovely topping to spoon over the ravioli, and sprinkle with a bit of sea salt. Delicious, and not just on ravioli!

Got Tomatoes?

What do you do when you return from a long midsummer in Colorado to find a lot of tomatoes from your CSA? Marinate them, and eat them as many times a day as possible!

Beyond tomatoes drizzled with oil and vinegar and spiked with salt and pepper, which is also delicious, marinating produces a dish with a little more complexity and possibilities, as well as something that will hold for a few days in the fridge. A search will provide several good jumping-off recipes; I prefer one that doesn't use olive oil or garlic and includes fresh basil, red wine vinegar, a bland oil, and parsley. 

A variety of cherry, heirloom, and red tomatoes with diced onions, basil, and parsley.

My dressing based on red zinfandel wine vinegar and canola oil.

• Have it as a salad with fresh bread on the first day, or as a topping on grilled slices of bread. 
• Spoon it on your baked tofu, or broiled chicken.
• Remove some of the liquid (there will be a lot of it by the next morning) and marinate cooked beans (white? fava?) in it. Top penne pasta with tomatoes and beans for dinner. 
• Sticking with the penne idea, top a healthy serving (which means not a lot of pasta!) with a saute of fresh green beans, garlic, and matchstick zucchini, adding tomatoes at the end just to heat through. Parmesan and olive oil required.
• Add a spoonful of tomatoes off to the side of the pan in which you are cooking breakfast eggs. Really.

I store mine in a glass container in the refrigerator, and they last two days. They might be able to store longer, but we'll never know.

  

Yogurt Straining Awesomeness

Yogurt is yummy. 

For me it's plain or, less frequently, vanilla, and it might be the base of a granola bowl, a fruit topping, a soup dollop, or a dip. I've strained yogurt in various messy ways and was happy when Greek yogurt became readily available, but I do prefer organic yogurt. (Or even better, yogurt from Seven Stars, which is organic and locally produced.) Enter the Cuisipro yogurt strainer. It's actually called a "yogurt cheese maker" but that sounds wrong. It's yogurt, not cheese.

Here is a two pound container of lowfat plain yogurt, in the strainer. It overflows a bit but that's not a problem, I just snap the lid on and it's fine. The yogurt is sitting in a mesh filter, which fits into the square container. 

It all goes into the fridge for a couple of hours...or until dinner...or until the next day...depending on how thick you want it be. An astonishing amount of liquid strains out of the yogurt. Here's my container after more than a day, considerably reduced.

Here's the liquid...kind of surprising.

The yogurt is as thick as cream cheese.

A few times a week breakfast is a scoop of thick yogurt with granola and a drizzle of honey. Good morning!

CSA Box Breakfast

My youngest son has been working evenings, necessitating a quickly packed peanut butter sandwich or a slice of pizza for dinner. I noticed that his breakfasts and lunches haven't been all that substantial either, so I decided to make a good, healthy, sizable brunch plate for him today.

As I was rummaging around pulling things together, I realized that with the exception of garlic and orange juice, everything was from our CSA (Community Sponsored Agriculture, specifically the Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative) and my collection of herb pots. On today's menu:

Scrambled Eggs

Asparagus

Red Potatoes tosssed with Dill and Parsley

Toast and Orange Juice

I used Mark Bittman's awesomely good scrambled eggs method, without the cream, which gives the cook a little more time to prepare everything else. Steamed asparagus was set aside when the potatoes took their place in the steamer, while roughly chopped garlic and onion was softened (not browned) with olive oil and water to toss with the asparagus. A bit of butter and olive oil carried the chopped dill and parsley onto the potatoes, and we were ready to eat. The working boy had the lion's share, which, it turned out, was a potato or two too many. 

Hooray for bunch, local food, and hungry sons!

Seitan, Raspberries, and Avocados

Gorgeous day, can't wait to get outside, have just a few housekeeping chores to do....and I'm experimenting in the kitchen. Almost done.

My family likes seitan, even the carnivores. It's available in nearly every local grocery store, frozen, fresh in a tub, or vacuum sealed, and sometimes available from local producers. The problem is that we have a vegetarian with a soy allergy (I know, right?) and technically seitan is wheat gluten made with soy sauce. What I'm after is a vegetarian "wheat meat" ingredient, similar to the awesome products from Field Roast. Their Apple-Sage Sausage is delicious whether or not you eat meat sausage, and the original Field Roast makes a great sandwich. That said, I really need a plain, versatile, not-too-seasoned ingredient to use in a variety of recipes. Periodically, I experiment. I have high hopes for the version in the oven now. It is kneaded, rested, rolled into a log and wrapped in foil. I took good notes and measurements and if it works, I'll share!

Raspberries are simmering on the stove, for a sorbet later. The experiment here is to use agave instead of sugar syrup. I mixed a half cup of agave nectar with 12 oz. of raspberries and the juice of half a lemon. I'll cool and strain and see what happens after it freezes. (A splash of balsamic vinegar will pick it up if needed.)

That's just my lunch. I thought it looked pretty.

How Fresh is that Bok Choy?

This fresh.

Kale Chips. Trust Me.

Nobody ever believes this until they try it, then they eat the whole bowl. Kale chips are easy to make, amazingly good, and kale is the kind of dark leafy green you are supposed to eat. Every. Day.

Just trust me, trust everyone who has written the same thing, and make them!

Preheat the oven to 350.

1. Take a head of kale - curly kale is super for this recipe but I've made them with other (flat) varieties as well. If you are new to kale, or to greens that need to have the stem removed, separate the stem by folding the leaf in half, holding the stem in one hand, and pulling the leaf away with the other. If the leaf doesn't come away in pieces, then pull into into smaller pieces. 
2. Toss the kale pieces with olive oil. You can do this by putting about a tablespoon of oil into a bowl and tossing the kale around with your hands, or by arranging the kale in a single layer on a baking sheet (or two sheets, depending on how much you are making) and then spraying the pieces with olive oil, if you use a sprayer. Turn them over, spray again. Toss with salt and pepper - not too much on your first batch, because the kale does shrink and concentrate the seasonings.
3. Pop the sheets in the oven and - no matter what other recipes will tell you - check them after just 10 minutes. If some of them are crispy, take them off the sheet and return it to the oven. The are done when they scatter along the sheet, are crispy but still mostly dark green rather than brown.

Serve them warm at the table with a burger, warm or cooled with a beer, packed in a container with a box lunch, whatever. These are seriously good.

Mushroom Miso Omelet

I love miso, especially miso from South River (still shipping through May 25, if you can't buy locally or want more selection) and use it as a seasoning in lots of recipes. I was making a basic spinach & egg white omelet and remembered I had fresh mushrooms in the fridge. When I pulled them out the jar of Dandelion Leek miso jumped out with them, and a really tasty omelet combination was born.

4 - 6 egg whites (I use organic liquid whites if I have them, fresh if not)
pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper
a handful of baby spinach
fresh basil, if available
1/3 cup of crumbled chevre
3/4 cup sliced mushrooms
1 small yellow onion, chopped
1.5 tsp of dark miso

Begin browning the onion over medium heat in a small skillet that has been filmed with olive oil. When they are golden, add the mushrooms. Stir frequently and add small amounts of water to prevent sticking as the onions and mushrooms brown.

Prepare a second small skillet or omelet pan with cooking spray. Add salt and pepper and a splash of cold water to the egg whites. Beat until soft peaks form, preheat the skillet for just a minute, pour in the whites. Cover the pan, turn to low, and cook until the egg whites are set in the middle.

Uncover and top with crumbled cheese, spinach, and basil. Either fold the omelet in half and cover for another minute or pop it under the broiler for a minute to melt the cheese slightly and lightly wilt the spinach. Take the mushrooms off the heat and stir in the miso.

Top the omelet with the mushroom-miso mixture and serve.

Vegetarian Breakfast Skillets

Two breakfast diners, two skillets:

Both have onions, peppers, vegetarian apple-sage sausage from Field Roast, and a handful of packaged broccoli slaw. An egg for DS2's and leftover peas & mushrooms for mine and we were good to go -  - with the addition of a few slices of leftover baked tofu and blueberry/mango smoothies.

 

Yum.

Why Haven't I Made This Before?

Vanilla roasted pears in their own caramel sauce served with goat cheese and walnuts....

This was delicious! I'm sorry for the glare on the picture, but seriously, I just wanted to hurry up and taste it!

As DH pointed out, this would make a light meal with some salad greens, a very nice start to a meal, and yes, a great dessert, as served. He was thinking ice cream, I am thinking about tomorrow morning's bowl of steel cut oats. The recipe is here, and you could absolutely do it without the vanilla bean, although your house won't smell like mine does right now! You're all going to thank me.

I'm going to try a balsamic roasted pear with honey and pepper next time, but I'll definitely repeat this.

AeroGarden Happiness

I love this!

I started the herbs in this AeroGarden on January 15 and in the last few weeks have been judiciously harvesting here and there, but  today...look!

They are big - perhaps as much as 8 or 9 inches for the tallest.

I generally enjoy something about every season (except the Season of Humidity, but even then I try to be grateful for "indoor project" time.) but I really miss gardening and fresh herbs. I grow many herbs in pots right outside the kitchen door and find the lack of herbs-at-hand during the winter distressing. While this can't count as gardening, it certainly is delightful to have something edible growing right in the dining room. (I think this is why I sprout seeds and legumes, too.) I will pay the price for herbs in the winter market but can't always have exactly what I want on hand in the kitchen. There comes a time, too, when there aren't big bunches of herbs in the stores but sad little stems in plastic boxes. No.

This herb garden has three kinds of basil as well as thyme, dill, mint, and oregano. The whole hydroponics setup is neat, and when researching whether or not to buy one I found that people have multiples of them set up over the winter. Some people, of course, build their own hydroponic systems because they are clever & handy people who have figure it all out, but I have not. All I have to do is add water when the indicator light is on, and add liquid nutrients when the other light tells me to. Next fall, around the beginning of October, I will start another set of herbs that will be ready by the time a freeze really really takes my herbs. 

I ordered mine from Amazon and found that they are not nearly as expensive as when they first appeared on the market. After this initial set of herbs that were included, I'll buy ala carte and choose the ones I want.

Fun, and it smells like summer in the dining room. 

A Different Christmas

I've made good use of this longest night by spending it in my kitchen since the sun went down many hours ago. I am having two dinners, for both sides of our family, but it's a different Christmas this year. A young man we've known a long time, just a freshman in college, lies in a coma after a car accident 10 days or so ago. My mother's sister lost a cruel battle yesterday and left us much too soon. I cannot attend her funeral, at the other end of the state, because one of my children is under a careful health watch this week. So I spent this solstice evening baking and thinking about my friend's son, and my aunt, and what to make for dinner(s), and acknowledging that we have moved into winter. 

 But mostly, I baked. DD made her favorite chewy chocolate cookies from this Martha Stewart recipe. I made peanut butter tastycakes, a family favorite (and the second batch of the season) and molasses cookies. The shortbread turned out, as always, to be something that should be locked in a vault. The dough for piparkakut, which sounded delicious in a New York Times cookie article, is resting in in the fridge until tomorrow, along with a batch of good old sugar cookies. I ground whole cardamom for the first time tonight and the scent brought people into the kitchen from all parts of the house.

This, my friends, is a purely gratuitous picture of chunks of chocolate about to be melted.

Peanut butter tastycakes. Can't beat 'em. They are the disappearing treat around here.

Everyone will be happy about the shortbread, which was just scored here, before being returned to the oven for a long bake.  Hopefully I will have another baking session in the next few days, but if not I will bake some other things next week. 

The things that are unfolding around me are way beyond my control. The sadness of a death, the uncertainty of an injury, and the concern over a puzzling illness are realities on this longest night of the year. I have prayed, and helped, and nursed, and planned, and administered, and cried, and remembered...and then I baked. I took comfort in the peace and calm of the kitchen. I would have gathered everyone into it, if I could have.

Maysies, Part Three

Ah, CSA day. I've posted Maysies in other years, and this one has some beautiful pictures of and August harvest. At Maysies most of the food is already picked and waiting inside the barn. There is a whiteboard listing what each share is worth - how many carrots, bunches of greens, heads of cabbage, etc. - to take. (We use one family share but if you are a larger family you can buy more shares.)

The big board on the left is detailing the week's food, and there's a sign-in sheet on the table. There are two pickups per week (you choose which day you want) and enough food is picked throughout the day to account for the number of shares expected.  

Below, the board on the left is listing which herbs are available to pick and where they are - in the Hoope House, between the barn doors, at the rock pile, or in a bed. The middle board is a map of the farm with numbered/named beds. The last board has notices of relevant events or workshops at the farm or in the area.

Up first, Chinese cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, zucchini, cucumbers, carrots, and beets.

We are also able to order from a variety of local producers for items like chickens, dairy, eggs, coffee, and bread. (Of course the coffee is not grown here but sourced responsibly and roasted here. I figured I'd qualify that before someone called me on it!) Keep in mind, the word dairy, for example covers ice cream and milk, and bread can mean amazing granola, whole grain bread, or cookies. Some items must be ordered a week ahead, and others are available for impulse purchasing.

CSA's are a good idea all the way around, from supporting local industry and protecting the land to providing all of us with just-picked healthy food for our families. Yes, my family has learned to eat, or at least try, some unfamiliar vegetables but let's face it, it's a vegetable. There are differences in each CSA, they have varying levels of involvement (read: working in the beds), may or may not be organic, may have an orchard, or may partner with other farms to offer even greater variety. 

A google search will result in lots of information, but Local Harvest is a good place to start. There's a CSA search by zip and a lot of good information. If you are local, you've probably seen the pretty Buy Fresh Buy Local logo on bumper stickers and store windows. Their website lists "1555 (and counting) places to find local food" and is a good source of restaurants, farmer's markets, grocery stores, csa's,etc. If you can get your hands on a bumper sticker they really are gorgeous.

Writing this post reminds me that I have added a few good vegetable books to my cookbook shelves, and I will review them soon. In the meantime, I'll share a greens suggestion. The "green leafy vegetables" referred to everywhere actually mean big leafy greens like kale or chard, and not a salad of Iceberg lettuce. (Sorry.) Having the greens in the fridge does not guarantee their consumption, but I have found that having a container of cooked greens does. 

For this you will need:

A large skillet with a lid
Onions, garlic, olive oil (or other, as you like)
A couple of bunches of greens

• Wash and tear as many greens as you have on hand. I combine the longer cooking ones (collards, spinach, and kale, for example) or the more tender ones (Swiss chard and beet greens) into one batch. It is a good idea to fill a large bowl or the sink with cool water, soak and swish the greens, then let everything settle before lifting them gently from the water. There's no need to spin them or blot much before cooking, just shake them over the water and make a lovely pile on a clean towel.
• Depending on your taste, either start an onion/garlic/olive oil saute, or soften an onion/garlic mixture in a half cup of water and a splash of olive oil by simmering for a few minutes. The saute will produce a stronger taste while the simmer will take the bite out of the garlic. Try both and you may find that one method suits a bitter green, and one a milder type. 
• Add the damp greens, a handful or two at a time, and stir. They will quickly reduce in volume, allowing you to keep adding the rest of your pile. 
• Cover the pan and simmer for anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes, depending on the greens. Your goal is a forkful of tender greens. Add water to the pan as needed, and be careful to keep them from burning. 
• When they are finished add salt and a lot of freshly ground pepper. A splash of balsamic vinegar is nice if you want to serve them right away, otherwise, store them covered in the fridge.

 Over the next several days you can use them in sandwiches, add some to eggs, toss in with pasta, top a pile of mashed potatoes or vegetables...all you have to do is remember that they are in there, waiting to be used.

 





 

Maysies CSA, Middle

Colorful Swiss Chard; not something we pick ourselves. The folks at Maysies harvest enough of whatever is ready each week and place it in the barn for us to pick up. Most crops are picked for us, but usually there is something we can pick ourselves, in varying amounts - - beans, shelling peas, berries, flowers, herbs, and peppers come to mind, but there are many others. 

If you are picking, there had better be a  post like this one at the end of the row, or you are not picking the right vegetable!

I want to point out the pleasure, as someone who has vegetable-gardened a little bit and flower-gardened a whole lot, the guilty pleasure, actually, of harvesting something that you didn't plant, weed, or water. Nope. You didn't get out there and sweat in the sun or nurse those seedlings along, but you do get to just stroll out to the bed and harvest away. Nice.

This picture is of the row-end supports for the blackberries. Oh, the blackberries. The supports are spaced a few yards apart and the berries form tunnels, shady tunnels humming with bees. On berry days you enter with your basket or flat container and pick the ones that just jump into your hand. Yum.

 When I took the picture below I said aloud, "I'm waiting for you" and then realized what I'd done and looked to see if anyone was around. Really, if I noticed some lady crouching in the bushes with a camera and muttering vaguely creepy things, I would call 911.

When I entered the barn, compost was being sifted. I love compost. We compost at my house, and I look forward to the day when I dump the bins onto a screen and sift through what was once banana peels, eggshells, and the discarded root ends of vegetables or otherwise unusable parts. Coffee grounds, tea bags, apple cores, pistachio shells - all of it turns into a rich, moist, black, amazing addition to the soil. It's perfect. 

Next, and last, Maysies post: Actual food.