Thursday, July 21, 2011
How about plastic?
While Jordan was putting Leah to bed, she said "hell." We tell her that is a bad word and she responds "but I didn't say hate." We agree hate is a bad word too. Her next response: "How about plastic?"
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Avocado Pesto
Avocado and pesto are not two words that are usually used in the same sentence, unless that sentence is I love avocado and pesto. Yet, by subbing out the nuts in pesto for avocado, you get a wonderfully creamy sauce that is completely dairy free (and vegan for that matter). Even better, this sauce is so easy to make that you can make it before you can even get your pasta ready!
I had been dying to try this recipe for ages and the opportunity finally arose when I had a little more than half of an extremely large and perfectly ripe avocado sitting on the counter after Leah at dinner.
While the original recipe comes from a vegan website, I decided to add shrimp to my pasta, since I hadn't had much protein during the rest of the day. I used frozen shrimp that I defrosted under running water and peeled (they were already deveined). Since I was only making shrimp for myself, I melted about 1/2 tbs butter in a small skillet. I added about 1/2 clove of minced garlic and sauteed for 30 seconds, until fragrant. Then I added my prepped shrimp. They don't take long to cook, 2-3 minutes or so per side. At the very end, I squeezed the juice from 1/2 a lemon over the shrimp.
This recipe makes enough pesto for about 2 servings. In a food processor, process the juice from 1/2 lemon and 3 cloves garlic until smooth. Then add 1 pitted medium avocado, 1/2 tsp kosher salt, and 2 tbs olive oil, and 1/4 cup fresh basil. (I only had dry basil, since my basil plant was still regenerating its leaves from the last time I used it. I used about 3/4 tbs dried basil.) Process again until smooth. Pour the pesto over the cooked pasta. Top with shrimp, season with salt and pepper, and enjoy.
Since Jordan was very skeptical about this recipe, he elected to have red sauce with his pasta and meatballs. Once I made it, he liked it and since I had leftover sauce, we decided to put it on our steamed broccoli. It was good! We will definitely be making this recipe again, but with fresh basil next time. This really is addictive. We had some leftover broccoli. While this recipe will not reheat because of the avocado, the leftover broccoli tasted great cold the next day. There is enough acid in the pesto to keep it from browning. I wouldn't save leftovers much longer than one day though.
I had been dying to try this recipe for ages and the opportunity finally arose when I had a little more than half of an extremely large and perfectly ripe avocado sitting on the counter after Leah at dinner.
While the original recipe comes from a vegan website, I decided to add shrimp to my pasta, since I hadn't had much protein during the rest of the day. I used frozen shrimp that I defrosted under running water and peeled (they were already deveined). Since I was only making shrimp for myself, I melted about 1/2 tbs butter in a small skillet. I added about 1/2 clove of minced garlic and sauteed for 30 seconds, until fragrant. Then I added my prepped shrimp. They don't take long to cook, 2-3 minutes or so per side. At the very end, I squeezed the juice from 1/2 a lemon over the shrimp.
Since Jordan was very skeptical about this recipe, he elected to have red sauce with his pasta and meatballs. Once I made it, he liked it and since I had leftover sauce, we decided to put it on our steamed broccoli. It was good! We will definitely be making this recipe again, but with fresh basil next time. This really is addictive. We had some leftover broccoli. While this recipe will not reheat because of the avocado, the leftover broccoli tasted great cold the next day. There is enough acid in the pesto to keep it from browning. I wouldn't save leftovers much longer than one day though.
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| Steamed CSA Broccoli with Avocado Pesto |
Thursday, July 14, 2011
What Do You Do When Kale and Other Greens Take Over Your Fridge?
After reading about how our household successfully worked through our own weekly deliveries of kale and other greens, a friend sent me a request for some recipes since she has also received a bounty of greens from her CSA. Before I start in on the recipes, I'll apologize for the lack of photos. We made most of these recipes before I officially started this blog.
Kale/Chard with Pickled Onions
This recipe is adapted from Amanda Hesser's Essential New York Times Cookbook, a book Jordan bought me last winter, and which has quickly proven that it is "essential" in our kitchen. Jordan actually picked out this recipe early in the CSA season, having been sold by the author's description of it as her "pint of cookie dough ice cream."
You'll want to start with the onions. The original recipe calls for 2 large onions to be pickled to serve with 4 pounds of greens. We made the onions per the recipe and had a lot more than we ever could have used in one sitting. We simply kept the onions in their pickling liquid in the fridge and brought them out each time we made greens. (They also taste great on top of veggie burgers and mock-chicken sandwiches). While pickling sounds intimidating, it takes about 15 minutes and the taste only gets better with time.
1. Slice 2 large red onions into thick rings and separate them. Place in a colander.
2. Bring a kettle of water to boil and pour the boiling water over the onions.
3. In a large non-reactive bowl (I used a pyrex mixing bowl), combine 1 1/2 cups white vinegar, 2 bay leaves, 2 tsp thyme or 4 sprigs, 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper, 1 tbs sugar, 2 tsp bruised peppercorns. Stir to dissolve the sugar.
4. Add the onions to the pickling liquid. You'll want to submerge the onions entirely in the liquid. You can squish the onions down using a plate. I found I needed a lot more liquid to cover my onions, even after I pressed them down using the plate. Add equal parts vinegar and hot water until you get enough liquid in the bowl.
5. The onions will be done in 15 minutes, when they turn bright pink. (I really wish I had a photo of how pretty they looked).
6. To save the pickled onions. Keep them in their pickling liquid. If you take them out, they won't last nearly as long.
The treatment of the kale or chard is pretty simple. We made this recipe using both. I prefer it with chard, but it works well with both.
1. Weigh the greens. You'll want to know about how much you have to determine how much seasoning you'll need.
2. Clean and trim the greens. I cut the stem out of each leaf, up to the point where the stem is the same thickness as the veins in the rest of the leaf. I roll up a bunch of leaves and slice them into strips about 1/2 inch or so thick. The stems I separately cut and slice.
3. Bring a pot of salted water to boil. Add the sliced stems first. Cook for about 3 minutes. Then add the sliced leaves. Cook another 3 minutes or so, until the leaves are tender. Drain or remove with a spider. I prefer using the spider when I don't have too many greens in the pot. It's easy to add the greens to the pan for the next step.
4. In a large frying pan or wok, heat 1tbs olive oil for each pound of greens. Add 1/2 clove crushed garlic for each pound of greens and saute for 30 seconds, until the garlic is fragrant. Add the drained chard (leaves and stems) to the pan. Coat evenly with oil and season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a serving dish. Serve topped with pickled onions.
Baked Kale
This dish is similar in its texture to creamed spinach. I adapted this recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. I purchased this book and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian (let me note that there's a lot of overlap between the two books) just before the holidays last year as part of a slew of new cookbooks. With a week off, I knew I would have time to read and cook. I've had mixed results from this book. Like most of my recipes, I adapted it to be dairy-free so that Jordan could eat it. You can use regular milk and Gruyere cheese if you like. The night I made it, I only had vanilla soy milk available. Believe it or not, the sweetness did not kill the dish, in large part because of the bitterness of the greens. The original recipe suggests using chard when you have mostly stems. I think kale worked really well for this, even though it wasn't mostly stems, because it's a bit tougher than chard.
1. Preheat the oven to 375. Spray a 9 x 9 pan with cooking spray.
2. Cook 2 slices of bacon. Drain on paper towels.
3. Clean and trim the greens. I believe I used about 1 pound, but I had so much kale that I cooked that night, I'm not completely sure. You want enough to layer in the greased pan. If you have less, just adjust the amount of sauce that you make.
4. Bring a pot of salted water to boil. Cook the sliced stems for about 3 minutes. Add the sliced leaves. Cook for another 3 minutes or so, until tender.
5. Drain the chard and put it in the greased pan. Set aside while you make the sauce.
6. Melt 2 tbs butter in a small saucepan over low-medium heat. Add 2 tbs all purpose flour to the butter. Use a whisk and stir constantly, until the mixture turns tan. This takes about 3 minutes.
7. Add 1 cup soy milk, about a tablespoon at a time, while constantly whisking. Whisk until the mixture is thick. Add 1/2 cup soy cheese (I used mozzarella) and whisk until incorporated. If the mixture is too thick to pour, add more soy milk, one tablespoon or so at a time, until it reaches the right consistency. Crumble the bacon and stir it into the sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Add 1/4 tsp cayenne (or more if you like spice) and a pinch of nutmeg.
8. Pour the sauce over the greens. Sprinkle the top with bread crumbs, about 1/2 cup.
9. Bake 12 to 15 minutes, until the bread crumbs brown and the sauce is bubbling. Serve right out of the oven.
Pickled Kale Salad
The night we made this, I was in a cooking frenzy. We had received our last batch of greens from our CSA and they practically filled our entire bin with kale. I washed a ton of it and filled a colander. I blanched two containers of it to freeze and made the baked kale above. I still had a ton left. I jokingly said to Jordan that I wondered if there was a pickled kale recipe out there. One quick Google search later and he found one. We had just enough raw kale, so we went ahead with it without too much thought. We were really pleased with how this came out, which is a darn good thing, since it makes a huge amount. It's a little sweet and I find the texture to be similar to tabbouleh, but without bulgur. We still have a ton in our fridge. As with many pickled foods, it just gets better with time.
1. Clean and trim the kale. Peel and trim a couple of carrots, about 8 ounces. Finely dice 1/2 cup red onion. Seed and thinly slice 1 red bell pepper and 1 yellow bell pepper.
2. Using a food processor, shred the kale and carrots. Transfer to a large non-reactive bowl and mix in the onion and the pepper.
3. Make the dressing in a small saucepan. Combine 1 cup white vinegar, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp tumeric, 1 tsp celery salt (or 1/2 tsp celery seeds and 1/2 tsp salt), and 1 tsp dry mustard. Bring to a boil and boil for 1 minute.
4. Pour the hot dressing over the vegetables and mix thoroughly. Leave salad stand on the counter for a couple of hours. Stir it again and then transfer to the fridge.
Quiche
I honestly don't remember the recipe I adapted this from originally, but I do know I used asparagus, leek, and Gruyere (Jordan wasn't there). I've made quiche so many times now and with so many different vegetables that this recipe is truly my own. Again, my version is dairy free for Jordan's sake. I make 2 quiches at a time and freeze one. I use 2 pre-made deep dish crusts, since I don't usually have time to make my own.
Kale/Chard with Pickled Onions
This recipe is adapted from Amanda Hesser's Essential New York Times Cookbook, a book Jordan bought me last winter, and which has quickly proven that it is "essential" in our kitchen. Jordan actually picked out this recipe early in the CSA season, having been sold by the author's description of it as her "pint of cookie dough ice cream."
You'll want to start with the onions. The original recipe calls for 2 large onions to be pickled to serve with 4 pounds of greens. We made the onions per the recipe and had a lot more than we ever could have used in one sitting. We simply kept the onions in their pickling liquid in the fridge and brought them out each time we made greens. (They also taste great on top of veggie burgers and mock-chicken sandwiches). While pickling sounds intimidating, it takes about 15 minutes and the taste only gets better with time.
1. Slice 2 large red onions into thick rings and separate them. Place in a colander.
2. Bring a kettle of water to boil and pour the boiling water over the onions.
3. In a large non-reactive bowl (I used a pyrex mixing bowl), combine 1 1/2 cups white vinegar, 2 bay leaves, 2 tsp thyme or 4 sprigs, 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper, 1 tbs sugar, 2 tsp bruised peppercorns. Stir to dissolve the sugar.
4. Add the onions to the pickling liquid. You'll want to submerge the onions entirely in the liquid. You can squish the onions down using a plate. I found I needed a lot more liquid to cover my onions, even after I pressed them down using the plate. Add equal parts vinegar and hot water until you get enough liquid in the bowl.
5. The onions will be done in 15 minutes, when they turn bright pink. (I really wish I had a photo of how pretty they looked).
6. To save the pickled onions. Keep them in their pickling liquid. If you take them out, they won't last nearly as long.
The treatment of the kale or chard is pretty simple. We made this recipe using both. I prefer it with chard, but it works well with both.
1. Weigh the greens. You'll want to know about how much you have to determine how much seasoning you'll need.
2. Clean and trim the greens. I cut the stem out of each leaf, up to the point where the stem is the same thickness as the veins in the rest of the leaf. I roll up a bunch of leaves and slice them into strips about 1/2 inch or so thick. The stems I separately cut and slice.
3. Bring a pot of salted water to boil. Add the sliced stems first. Cook for about 3 minutes. Then add the sliced leaves. Cook another 3 minutes or so, until the leaves are tender. Drain or remove with a spider. I prefer using the spider when I don't have too many greens in the pot. It's easy to add the greens to the pan for the next step.
4. In a large frying pan or wok, heat 1tbs olive oil for each pound of greens. Add 1/2 clove crushed garlic for each pound of greens and saute for 30 seconds, until the garlic is fragrant. Add the drained chard (leaves and stems) to the pan. Coat evenly with oil and season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a serving dish. Serve topped with pickled onions.
Baked Kale
This dish is similar in its texture to creamed spinach. I adapted this recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. I purchased this book and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian (let me note that there's a lot of overlap between the two books) just before the holidays last year as part of a slew of new cookbooks. With a week off, I knew I would have time to read and cook. I've had mixed results from this book. Like most of my recipes, I adapted it to be dairy-free so that Jordan could eat it. You can use regular milk and Gruyere cheese if you like. The night I made it, I only had vanilla soy milk available. Believe it or not, the sweetness did not kill the dish, in large part because of the bitterness of the greens. The original recipe suggests using chard when you have mostly stems. I think kale worked really well for this, even though it wasn't mostly stems, because it's a bit tougher than chard.
1. Preheat the oven to 375. Spray a 9 x 9 pan with cooking spray.
2. Cook 2 slices of bacon. Drain on paper towels.
3. Clean and trim the greens. I believe I used about 1 pound, but I had so much kale that I cooked that night, I'm not completely sure. You want enough to layer in the greased pan. If you have less, just adjust the amount of sauce that you make.
4. Bring a pot of salted water to boil. Cook the sliced stems for about 3 minutes. Add the sliced leaves. Cook for another 3 minutes or so, until tender.
5. Drain the chard and put it in the greased pan. Set aside while you make the sauce.
6. Melt 2 tbs butter in a small saucepan over low-medium heat. Add 2 tbs all purpose flour to the butter. Use a whisk and stir constantly, until the mixture turns tan. This takes about 3 minutes.
7. Add 1 cup soy milk, about a tablespoon at a time, while constantly whisking. Whisk until the mixture is thick. Add 1/2 cup soy cheese (I used mozzarella) and whisk until incorporated. If the mixture is too thick to pour, add more soy milk, one tablespoon or so at a time, until it reaches the right consistency. Crumble the bacon and stir it into the sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Add 1/4 tsp cayenne (or more if you like spice) and a pinch of nutmeg.
8. Pour the sauce over the greens. Sprinkle the top with bread crumbs, about 1/2 cup.
9. Bake 12 to 15 minutes, until the bread crumbs brown and the sauce is bubbling. Serve right out of the oven.
Pickled Kale Salad
The night we made this, I was in a cooking frenzy. We had received our last batch of greens from our CSA and they practically filled our entire bin with kale. I washed a ton of it and filled a colander. I blanched two containers of it to freeze and made the baked kale above. I still had a ton left. I jokingly said to Jordan that I wondered if there was a pickled kale recipe out there. One quick Google search later and he found one. We had just enough raw kale, so we went ahead with it without too much thought. We were really pleased with how this came out, which is a darn good thing, since it makes a huge amount. It's a little sweet and I find the texture to be similar to tabbouleh, but without bulgur. We still have a ton in our fridge. As with many pickled foods, it just gets better with time.
1. Clean and trim the kale. Peel and trim a couple of carrots, about 8 ounces. Finely dice 1/2 cup red onion. Seed and thinly slice 1 red bell pepper and 1 yellow bell pepper.
2. Using a food processor, shred the kale and carrots. Transfer to a large non-reactive bowl and mix in the onion and the pepper.
3. Make the dressing in a small saucepan. Combine 1 cup white vinegar, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp tumeric, 1 tsp celery salt (or 1/2 tsp celery seeds and 1/2 tsp salt), and 1 tsp dry mustard. Bring to a boil and boil for 1 minute.
4. Pour the hot dressing over the vegetables and mix thoroughly. Leave salad stand on the counter for a couple of hours. Stir it again and then transfer to the fridge.
Quiche
I honestly don't remember the recipe I adapted this from originally, but I do know I used asparagus, leek, and Gruyere (Jordan wasn't there). I've made quiche so many times now and with so many different vegetables that this recipe is truly my own. Again, my version is dairy free for Jordan's sake. I make 2 quiches at a time and freeze one. I use 2 pre-made deep dish crusts, since I don't usually have time to make my own.
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| Quiche with beet greens, green pepper, spring onion, and dill |
1. Preheat oven to 350 with rack in lowest position.
2. Trim greens and any other veggies you want to use. With greens, I've used scape, spring onion, and regular onion, depending on what I have on hand. You'll want about 1 1/2 to 2 cups cups of cooked filling for each quiche.
3. Bring a pot of salted water to boil. Cook the sliced stems for about 3 minutes. Add the sliced leaves. Cook for another 3 minutes or so, until tender. Drain.
4. In a large skillet, melt 2 tbs butter over medium heat. Add onion to butter and cook until the onion is translucent. Add the drained greens. Season with salt and pepper and cook about a minute or so longer. Take pan off heat.
5. In a large bowl, whisk together 6 eggs, 4tbs melted butter + soy milk to make 2 cups (or 2 cups half and half), ½ tsp salt, ¼ tsp pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg.
6. Place 2 deep dish pie crusts on a baking sheet. Sprinkle bottom of the crusts with soy cheese (or Gruyere), using about 1 cup total. Next add the vegetable mixture, splitting evenly between the two crusts. After adding the cheese and vegetables, the crust should be about full. Pour egg mixture on top of everything, again splitting it evenly between the two quiches.
7. Bake for 30 minutes and rotate pan. Bake another 20-30 minutes until the center is set and a knife comes out clean. Let stand for 15 minutes before serving.
To reheat the quiche. Put frozen quiche on cookie sheet, covered in aluminum foil, in 350 degree oven. Bake for an hour to an hour and a half, until hot. I usually take the foil off for the last 20 minutes or so, so that the crust doesn't get soggy.
These recipes will cook up a lot of greens. I still have those two containers of frozen kale in my freezer. If I can talk Jordan into it, I want to try Kale Pancakes, an adaptation of a Chard Pancake Recipe in Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table.
To reheat the quiche. Put frozen quiche on cookie sheet, covered in aluminum foil, in 350 degree oven. Bake for an hour to an hour and a half, until hot. I usually take the foil off for the last 20 minutes or so, so that the crust doesn't get soggy.
These recipes will cook up a lot of greens. I still have those two containers of frozen kale in my freezer. If I can talk Jordan into it, I want to try Kale Pancakes, an adaptation of a Chard Pancake Recipe in Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table.
For Grandma
Last week, my grandmother passed away at the age of 88. In the end, she wasn't in any pain. She went to sleep in the hospice one evening and never woke up. Although I had anticipated she would never meet Pumpkin in person, the confirmation of that fact was still acutely painful.
I wasn't able to travel to Southwestern Ohio to be with my family because of the vertigo and vision problems I have. I spent many hours on the phone with family, but on Friday, the day of the visitation, I felt the need to do something in her memory.
I ended up in the kitchen. I spent a lot of time with my grandmother in the her and my parent's kitchen over the years, so it just seemed like the right place to be. Now that Leah has soccer and ballet on Saturday mornings, I decided to make some breakfast items that we could use to stock up our freezer. Grandma would have approved. In her basement, she had a well-stocked pantry. The shelves contained shelf stable items - canned goods, bottled sauces, box mixes, and the like. She loved to get a good sale at the grocery store. She also had an old refrigerator stocked with drinks and an old freezer with all sorts of goodies in it. That freezer usually had at least a few baked goods in it when we would come to visit. I also had a bunch of fruit that was nearing the end of its usable life. Leah had been sick over the prior weekend and refused to eat just about anything but strawberries and applesauce. That left me with some bananas, blueberries, and cherries that we would not be able to finish before it went bad. Grandma hated throwing out good food. Luckily, these fruits are perfect for making freezable breakfast foods - muffins and baked oatmeal. It is also fortunate that these breakfast foods are so simple to make that they would not bother my vision. The muffins require a simple mixing of dry ingredients, then wet ingredients, then folding them together, scooping them into the muffin pan (I use an ice cream scoop), and baking. Baked oatmeal is even easier. Add everything to one bowl, mix, pour into greased pan, and bake.
I started with banana muffins. I only had two bananas, about one cup mashed, so that dictated the recipe choice. I ended up using a basic Mark Bittman How to Cook Everything recipe. In an attempt to make a healthier muffin and per his suggestion, I used honey instead of sugar and half whole wheat flour. Now the tricky thing is that I don't eat bananas, so I have no idea how they taste. Jordan isn't a big muffin fan and is definitely not a big whole wheat fan. And trying to get a good sense from Leah of how they taste was like trying to make a pig fly. She ate it, while dipping in applesauce. Grandma was a big fan of dipping (although she preferred coffee), so that seemed like praise.
Next up was blueberry oatmeal muffins. These came out perfectly. They rose beautifully and their tops were decorated with little blue rivers. The recipe has some vanilla in it also, which was a good addition. The minute Leah saw them when she came home from school, she started begging for one. It was clear she loved them.
The final dish was baked cherry oatmeal. I normally make baked peanut butter oatmeal, but I poked around on the internet and adjusted a few recipes to make my own. I added a touch of almond extract and the end result is pretty darn tasty. By the time the visitation was starting several states away, I had 12 banana muffins, 15 blueberry muffins, and a 13" by 9" pan of baked oatmeal.
Recipe for Baked Cherry Oatmeal
Ingredients
3 cups old fashioned oats
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
1 cup milk (I used soy because Jordan cannot have milk)
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup pitted and chopped cherries
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13" by 9" pan with cooking spray. I usually use a pyrex pan for baked oatmeal. In a large mixing bowl, add dry ingredients and then wet ingredients. This recipe is extremely forgiving, so if you add something out of order, it isn't a big deal. Use a spatula to combine the mixture. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes or so, until a knife in the center comes out clean and the top is nicely browned. Allow to cool completely before cutting or else your bars will fall apart. (It does taste great right out of the oven though). I always refrigerate or freeze the baked bars.
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| Grandma, me, and Leah in April 2010 |
I ended up in the kitchen. I spent a lot of time with my grandmother in the her and my parent's kitchen over the years, so it just seemed like the right place to be. Now that Leah has soccer and ballet on Saturday mornings, I decided to make some breakfast items that we could use to stock up our freezer. Grandma would have approved. In her basement, she had a well-stocked pantry. The shelves contained shelf stable items - canned goods, bottled sauces, box mixes, and the like. She loved to get a good sale at the grocery store. She also had an old refrigerator stocked with drinks and an old freezer with all sorts of goodies in it. That freezer usually had at least a few baked goods in it when we would come to visit. I also had a bunch of fruit that was nearing the end of its usable life. Leah had been sick over the prior weekend and refused to eat just about anything but strawberries and applesauce. That left me with some bananas, blueberries, and cherries that we would not be able to finish before it went bad. Grandma hated throwing out good food. Luckily, these fruits are perfect for making freezable breakfast foods - muffins and baked oatmeal. It is also fortunate that these breakfast foods are so simple to make that they would not bother my vision. The muffins require a simple mixing of dry ingredients, then wet ingredients, then folding them together, scooping them into the muffin pan (I use an ice cream scoop), and baking. Baked oatmeal is even easier. Add everything to one bowl, mix, pour into greased pan, and bake.
I started with banana muffins. I only had two bananas, about one cup mashed, so that dictated the recipe choice. I ended up using a basic Mark Bittman How to Cook Everything recipe. In an attempt to make a healthier muffin and per his suggestion, I used honey instead of sugar and half whole wheat flour. Now the tricky thing is that I don't eat bananas, so I have no idea how they taste. Jordan isn't a big muffin fan and is definitely not a big whole wheat fan. And trying to get a good sense from Leah of how they taste was like trying to make a pig fly. She ate it, while dipping in applesauce. Grandma was a big fan of dipping (although she preferred coffee), so that seemed like praise.
Next up was blueberry oatmeal muffins. These came out perfectly. They rose beautifully and their tops were decorated with little blue rivers. The recipe has some vanilla in it also, which was a good addition. The minute Leah saw them when she came home from school, she started begging for one. It was clear she loved them.
The final dish was baked cherry oatmeal. I normally make baked peanut butter oatmeal, but I poked around on the internet and adjusted a few recipes to make my own. I added a touch of almond extract and the end result is pretty darn tasty. By the time the visitation was starting several states away, I had 12 banana muffins, 15 blueberry muffins, and a 13" by 9" pan of baked oatmeal.
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Ingredients
3 cups old fashioned oats
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
1 cup milk (I used soy because Jordan cannot have milk)
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup pitted and chopped cherries
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13" by 9" pan with cooking spray. I usually use a pyrex pan for baked oatmeal. In a large mixing bowl, add dry ingredients and then wet ingredients. This recipe is extremely forgiving, so if you add something out of order, it isn't a big deal. Use a spatula to combine the mixture. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes or so, until a knife in the center comes out clean and the top is nicely browned. Allow to cool completely before cutting or else your bars will fall apart. (It does taste great right out of the oven though). I always refrigerate or freeze the baked bars.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Meeting the Challenges of our CSA
My friends I talk to regularly are probably tired of hearing about our CSA membership. We purchased a half share from Great Country Farms in Bluemont, VA. We receive a bin of fresh fruits and vegetables every Wednesday for 20 weeks. This is our second year with a share and it's been great fun to teach Leah about all the fresh produce as it comes in.
We've really tried to embrace all the new vegetables that come in from the farm each week. This of course means trying lots of new recipes. I love cooking, so this is not really a problem for me, and I drag Jordan and Leah (mostly willingly) into the kitchen with me to help. I recently signed up for a membership with Eat Your Books, so searching for recipes has gotten a lot easier!
There are a few complicating factors in deciding what to do with our wonderful produce. First, most nights Jordan and I eat dinner after Leah goes to sleep, so we can't usually make anything that takes hours. As much as I try to meal plan, it never works out for more than a few days. Second, Pumpkin has decided I need to be a vegetarian. Third, I have had problems with vertigo and blurry vision for the past two and a half months (a condition the doctors insist it isn't related to the pregnancy although it started as I hit the second trimester). Consequently, recipes have to be fairly straightforward so that I can focus my eyes long enough to see what I am doing and not give myself a tremendous headache. Decorating a cake would not be a good idea right now, for example, unless I went for the Jackson Pollack approach. Finally, Jordan cannot tolerate dairy, so all of our recipes have to be dairy free. If there is dairy in the recipe, I usually replace it with a soy substitute.
Thus far we've used 6 bins and we've made some pretty interesting dishes. We've made quiches with all sorts of great ingredients, my favorite to date being asparagus, spring onion, and garlic scape. Jordan has grilled many spring onions, some fresh summer squash, and some peaches. We've had lots of salads with many different types of lettuce. The kale? We baked it with soy cheese and a soy bechamel sauce (a so-so Mark Bittman How to Cook Everything recipe, though that might have been because I only had vanilla soy milk available that night), blanched and froze it, made pickled kale salad (lots in the fridge still - tastes similar to coleslaw but has a texture almost like tabouleh without the bulgur), and sauteed it with garlic with pickled red onions on top (thank you NY Times Cookbook; the pickled onions lasted through several weeks worth of kale and other greens). I made cabbage and mushroom pierogies (tasty, but my dumpling-making skills could use some work) and a thai-style tomato soup where I subbed green cabbage for napa cabbage (needed more seasoning, was too Americanized). Finally, I made an Asian almond slaw with the last of the cabbage (totally simple, totally awesome - the addition of almond butter made the dish).
The latest of our challenges has been beets. Amanda Hesser's Essential NY Times Cookbook has a great recipe for borscht, but it takes hours, requires beef, and is much too heavy for the hot DC summer. The beet greens have made it into a couple of the quiches. (I usually make two and freeze one.) Last week, the beets got a tartar treatment, also courtesy of the NY Times cookbook. This was the closest to meat I've gotten without getting sick in months! This week I made a raw beet-carrot salad from a Mark Bittman How to Cook Everything recipe, one I would use again. This recipe did require me to get the food processor out on a weekday night, but it was worth it. Peel the beets (I had 4 small), peel the carrots (1 large did the trick), peel a shallot. Throw it all in the food processor and pulse until broken up into small pieces. Mix with the dressing - 1 tbs ginger, 2 tsp brown mustard, 1 tbs peanut oil, 2 tbs lime juice, salt and pepper. Sprinkle with minced cilantro, and voila, a super-easy and super-colorful side dish for a weekday night.
This is week 7 of our share, and we'll be in more familiar territory with summer squash, corn, peaches, and plums. Plus, there is some purple basil to plant in our burgeoning herb container garden. I wouldn't be surprised if you walk by our house and smell grilled corn on the cob at some point this week.
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| Our empty bin, waiting to be returned. |
We've really tried to embrace all the new vegetables that come in from the farm each week. This of course means trying lots of new recipes. I love cooking, so this is not really a problem for me, and I drag Jordan and Leah (mostly willingly) into the kitchen with me to help. I recently signed up for a membership with Eat Your Books, so searching for recipes has gotten a lot easier!
There are a few complicating factors in deciding what to do with our wonderful produce. First, most nights Jordan and I eat dinner after Leah goes to sleep, so we can't usually make anything that takes hours. As much as I try to meal plan, it never works out for more than a few days. Second, Pumpkin has decided I need to be a vegetarian. Third, I have had problems with vertigo and blurry vision for the past two and a half months (a condition the doctors insist it isn't related to the pregnancy although it started as I hit the second trimester). Consequently, recipes have to be fairly straightforward so that I can focus my eyes long enough to see what I am doing and not give myself a tremendous headache. Decorating a cake would not be a good idea right now, for example, unless I went for the Jackson Pollack approach. Finally, Jordan cannot tolerate dairy, so all of our recipes have to be dairy free. If there is dairy in the recipe, I usually replace it with a soy substitute.
Thus far we've used 6 bins and we've made some pretty interesting dishes. We've made quiches with all sorts of great ingredients, my favorite to date being asparagus, spring onion, and garlic scape. Jordan has grilled many spring onions, some fresh summer squash, and some peaches. We've had lots of salads with many different types of lettuce. The kale? We baked it with soy cheese and a soy bechamel sauce (a so-so Mark Bittman How to Cook Everything recipe, though that might have been because I only had vanilla soy milk available that night), blanched and froze it, made pickled kale salad (lots in the fridge still - tastes similar to coleslaw but has a texture almost like tabouleh without the bulgur), and sauteed it with garlic with pickled red onions on top (thank you NY Times Cookbook; the pickled onions lasted through several weeks worth of kale and other greens). I made cabbage and mushroom pierogies (tasty, but my dumpling-making skills could use some work) and a thai-style tomato soup where I subbed green cabbage for napa cabbage (needed more seasoning, was too Americanized). Finally, I made an Asian almond slaw with the last of the cabbage (totally simple, totally awesome - the addition of almond butter made the dish).
The latest of our challenges has been beets. Amanda Hesser's Essential NY Times Cookbook has a great recipe for borscht, but it takes hours, requires beef, and is much too heavy for the hot DC summer. The beet greens have made it into a couple of the quiches. (I usually make two and freeze one.) Last week, the beets got a tartar treatment, also courtesy of the NY Times cookbook. This was the closest to meat I've gotten without getting sick in months! This week I made a raw beet-carrot salad from a Mark Bittman How to Cook Everything recipe, one I would use again. This recipe did require me to get the food processor out on a weekday night, but it was worth it. Peel the beets (I had 4 small), peel the carrots (1 large did the trick), peel a shallot. Throw it all in the food processor and pulse until broken up into small pieces. Mix with the dressing - 1 tbs ginger, 2 tsp brown mustard, 1 tbs peanut oil, 2 tbs lime juice, salt and pepper. Sprinkle with minced cilantro, and voila, a super-easy and super-colorful side dish for a weekday night.
This is week 7 of our share, and we'll be in more familiar territory with summer squash, corn, peaches, and plums. Plus, there is some purple basil to plant in our burgeoning herb container garden. I wouldn't be surprised if you walk by our house and smell grilled corn on the cob at some point this week.
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| Week 7 Produce - Straight from the Farm |
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
The Three Harolds
One of the first gifts Jordan ever gave me was a large stuffed bear with cream colored fur, brown eyes, and a blue plaid ribbon. We were in college and, for whatever reason, I named the bear Harold.
Harold has followed the two of us through all of our moves after college. He hung out in Providence, lounged on my futon and then our first guest bed in Cambridge, and has been a fixture in our guest rooms in Arlington. Harold also bears an uncanny resemblance to our dog Cory, especially when Cory was a puppy.
In preparation for Pumpkin's arrival, we recently turned the guest room in our house into Leah's big girl room. That's Harold on the nightstand.
When Leah moved into her new room, Harold was still in there. I hadn't intended to give Harold to Leah, but she had decided that he was hers. She started sleeping with Harold every night (along with the rest of her bedtime ensemble, but that's another post).
Being an excellent husband, Jordan started scouring the internet for a new Harold. Harold was originally purchased at FAO Schwarz, so he measured Harold and started trolling Ebay.
When the first intended replacement arrived, the ribbon was the same. But he was the wrong color. He was too fat. His legs were too short. He just wasn't Harold. Leah didn't take to him, although she did note that there were now two Harolds.
So, back to Ebay Jordan went. He found an exact copy of Harold, but with a pink ribbon. Pink being Leah's favorite color, I had a feeling that the substitution would be successful. The third Harold arrived today and Leah has given me back my Harold (right in the photo below). Leah now has Girl Harold or Pink Harold (left). Pumpkin will be getting Brown Harold (center) upon her arrival in October.
Harold has followed the two of us through all of our moves after college. He hung out in Providence, lounged on my futon and then our first guest bed in Cambridge, and has been a fixture in our guest rooms in Arlington. Harold also bears an uncanny resemblance to our dog Cory, especially when Cory was a puppy.
In preparation for Pumpkin's arrival, we recently turned the guest room in our house into Leah's big girl room. That's Harold on the nightstand.
When Leah moved into her new room, Harold was still in there. I hadn't intended to give Harold to Leah, but she had decided that he was hers. She started sleeping with Harold every night (along with the rest of her bedtime ensemble, but that's another post).
Being an excellent husband, Jordan started scouring the internet for a new Harold. Harold was originally purchased at FAO Schwarz, so he measured Harold and started trolling Ebay.
When the first intended replacement arrived, the ribbon was the same. But he was the wrong color. He was too fat. His legs were too short. He just wasn't Harold. Leah didn't take to him, although she did note that there were now two Harolds.
So, back to Ebay Jordan went. He found an exact copy of Harold, but with a pink ribbon. Pink being Leah's favorite color, I had a feeling that the substitution would be successful. The third Harold arrived today and Leah has given me back my Harold (right in the photo below). Leah now has Girl Harold or Pink Harold (left). Pumpkin will be getting Brown Harold (center) upon her arrival in October.
Joining the Blogging World
Hi! Our family is growing and I've been prodded by friends, so I thought I'd get with the times and start a blog to share funny stories, pictures, and our kitchen adventures. (I wouldn't expect too much from the pictures though. I'm incredibly behind on downloading pictures from my camera.)
Our cast of characters includes
Jordan
Leah aka Leah-belle, Lee Lee, The Panda, Honey Bunny, and Sweet Pea.
Cory
Me, Kirsten
And Pumpkin expected to arrive in October 2011.
Our cast of characters includes
Jordan
Leah aka Leah-belle, Lee Lee, The Panda, Honey Bunny, and Sweet Pea.
Cory
Me, Kirsten
And Pumpkin expected to arrive in October 2011.
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