Dirty Rice

1 pound ground beef
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 rib celery, diced
1 large carrot, cut in 1/2 inch dice
1 small sweet potato, cut in 1/2 inch dice
4 cups chicken stock
1 3/4 cups long grain rice
1 tablespoon cajun seasoning
12 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
1 dried red chili
handful of fresh parsley, chopped
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

Season burger with salt and pepper and brown in a large pot or dutch oven.  When its cooked through, remove it with a slotted spoon to a plate.  Add olive oil to the pot then saute the onions, celery and carrots until soft.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add the sweet potato, chicken stock, rice, cajun seasoning, thyme, bay leaves and chili.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer and put a tight fitting lid on the pot.  Let cook 20 -25 minutes over medium-low heat. 

Remove bay leaves, thyme and chili.  Top with a handful of fresh, chopped parsley and serve in large bowls.

Fast Steak Dinner for Two

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 8 - 12 ounce steak, 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick, ours was top round

2 slices bacon, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium Yukon gold potatoes, cut in 1/2 inch dice
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 cup chicken stock
2 cups small brussel sprouts, cut them in half if they are medium or large
2 tablespoons malt vinegar

1/2 fresh lemon
1/4 cup olive oil
2 large handfuls arugula

kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

Get a pan nice and hot and add about a tablespoon of olive oil and the bacon.  Cook until the bacon is crispy.  Using a slotted spoon, remove the crispy bacon and reserve. Add the potatoes, onions and thyme to the bacon fat and olive oil and fry until they start to get brown and crispy, 4-5 minutes.  Add more olive oil if needed.  Add the chicken stock and brussel sprouts and cover to steam for 8 minutes.  This will cook the sprouts and finish cooking the potatoes.

Meanwhile, get another pan very hot and add one tablespoon butter and one tablespoon olive oil.  When the butter starts to foam, season the steak well with salt and pepper and cook 3 to 4 minutes on each side.  Move to a plate and tent with foil.

Remove the lid from the potatoes/sprouts and let the liquid cook down a bit.  Remove from the heat and add the vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.

Squeese half a lemon into a bowl, whisk in 1/4 cup olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.  Add the arugula and toss to coat.

Slice the steak and divide between two plates.  Mound dressed arugula next to the steak and scoop on the taters and sprouts.  EAT!~

Spicy Asian Slaw

More cabbage from the farm this week and I finally have figured out how to not destroy it in my food processor. You'd think it'd take less than a year to figure out which blades to use for what, but not so. My deteriorated mental state (baby brain) doesn't help, of course, but now that I've got it down, more slaw! I took the sweetheart cabbage, a couple of carrots and a cucumber for a shred and came up with this. Plain old cole slaw is boring and this is reminiscent of some of my favorite sushi rolls.

1/2 head cabbage, shredded
2 medium carrots, shredded
1 medium cucumber, shredded (squeeze out excess water)
1 1/2 cups snow peas, chopped in one-inch pieces
Dressing:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tbls spicy Asian mustard or dijion
1 tbls low-sodium soy sauce
1 tbls Sirracha Sauce
1 tbls rice wine vinegar or lemon juice
1 tbls toasted sesame seeds
Sesame chili oil to taste (I used a lot as I like it hot!)

(NOTE: Use Kewpie Mayo if you've got it, which is a Japanese mayonnaise made with rice wine vinegar, otherwise regular Hellman's. There is never a good time for Miracle Whip, which is NOT mayonnaise, but a bastardization that they even refer to as "salad dressing." Ick. But, I digress.)

Yummy Things from the Farm

I've been remiss this Spring in posting about our adventures in CSA eating. Actually, we've been remiss in our adventures in CSA cooking, as well, as the pregnancy and the toddler have taken a backseat to cooking on many nights. Its not that I'm less excited about the fresh veg we've been getting from Harmony Valley Farm, its been spot on, I just haven't had the muster. So! Knowing full-well that I've got a whole new box of veg coming tomorrow, I pulled everything out of the fridge today to survey what we've got and to ponder how to use it/store it before it goes bad. So, into the food processor go a number of things to create a pesto of sorts for some whole wheat pasta...

3 garlic scapes, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 bunch pea vine, tough stems removed
3 Egyptian (green) onions
3/4 cup toasted walnuts
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup shredded Parmesan
1/2 tsp kosher salt
fresh ground black pepper

In the food processor, pulse the first four ingredients until minced. With the motor running, slowly pour in the olive oil until a thick paste forms. Add the cheese and pulse just to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Pack into a plastic container and cover with a layer of olive oil (about another 1/4 - 1/2 cup) to preserve color. At this point you can store it in the fridge or freezer until you're ready to use. When you are, cook some pasta until al dente, drain, warm a big spoonful or two of the pesto in a pan (cook for a minute or so) and toss the pasta in. Top with lots of Parmesan cheese.

In Last Week’s Box from the Farm
Green Onions
Garlic Scapes
Pea Vine
All of the above went into the pesto.

Strawberries
Rhubarb
I made a strawberry-rhubarb cobbler

Yukina Savoy
Bok Choi
Still in the fridge, but destined for a stir fry.

Asparagus
Simply steamed and eaten with broiled chicken breasts

Salad Mix
Ostergruss Radish
Baby Broccoli
Greenleaf Lettuce
Baby Red Romaine
These last five all gotten eaten raw in a couple of big salads!

The Return of the Veg-eh-tables!!!!!!

Spring means CSA time again!!!!! We love the farm we buy a share in Harmony Valley and are thrilled to be getting weekly deliveries again. It was hard to live off supermarket produced (sad, sad stuff) all winter long. This week marks our fourth delivery already this spring and we've been basking in the early spring goodness.

What's Cookin'?

We invited our friends over this past weekend for a holiday "cookie summit." We asked everyone to bring one batch of holiday cookies to exchange so everyone could leave with an assortment. Some made their cookies in advance, some brought dough and baked them here and some brought the raw ingredients and started from scratch. The oven was rocking all day. It was also Nathan's birthday so everyone was able to hang out all day, toast his 43 years and have a nice big bowl of chili and some Gosser Dark (a favorite of ours) from the kegerator. Good times. The result at the end of the day? Cookies! Cookies for all! Here's a list of the types of cookies made, consumed and frozen for later: almond spritz, snickerdoodles, Russian tea cakes, triple chocolate espresso, chocolate waffle cookies, chocolate mocha, sandbakkelse, Kris Kringles, bird's nests, peanut butter balls, brandy balls, gluten-free almond, frosted sugar cookies, caramel layer cookies and Ann's rhubarb cookies! I have many left over, so stop over if you need a sugar fix :)

In other food news, this week is our last regular season delivery from our farmer. We are down to the root and storage vegetables and will get more of those in our two extended season deliveries in January. Then we are on our own for veggies until May, which seems so far away. So! What to make? How about chicken and brown rice stew with assorted root veg? This is excellent. The sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips and rutabaga are all mildly sweet making for a nice contrast to the heartiness of the chicken thighs and brown rice. I seasoned with thyme and a bay leaf and, my, its tasty! Warming soul food for below zero nights.

One week in a CSA Farmshare – How do you use all those veggies?!

I thought I’d give you a glimpse into just one week in my kitchen as I diligently try to use all of the veggies from our Harmony Valley CSA share. Here’s the deal, it’s a lot of food. In addition to everything we recieved this week, we also had a few things left over from last week including edamame, potatoes, a couple ears of sweet corn and some orange peppers. Now, what to do with it all?!

In this week’s box:

Italian red garlic

Gunnison Yellow onions

Red Wing onions

Peppers: Orange Ukraine, Red bell, Señorita Sweet

Pimentos & jalapeños

Heirloom Tomatoes

Black Cherry tomatoes

Raspberries

Edamame

Broccoli

Satina Gold Flesh Potatoes

Yukina Savoy

Salad mix

Green Top celeriac

Green Savoy Cabbage

French Breakfast radish

Thursday

The box arrives. I hurriedly take our share and wash, wrap and store everything so that it has the best shot as staying good through the week and stash it in the fridge. We’re hungry and its already getting late so I decide to make a stir-fry with a block of tofu I had on hand. Into the stir-fry goes the sweet peppers from last week, some broccoli, half our green savoy cabbage, a red onion, several cloves of garlic, the tofu, some ginger, hoisin sauce and rice wine. Served over leftover basmati rice with an appetizer of steamed edamame, its not half bad. The baby gets steamed carrots from last week’s box as well as some edamame and tofu.

Friday

Lunch is a huge salad composed of the bounty including greens, cherry tomatoes, shelled edamame, radishes, leftover sweet corn cut from the cob as well as leftover boiled baby red potatoes tossed with kalamata olives and vinagrette. Henry also enjoys potatoes, corn and carrots. He likes veggies!

Saturday

Those raspberries won’t last long and are so fat and juicy, I decide to make raspberry scones for breakfast. I use a recipe from The Joy of Baking that uses plain yogurt in the dough and top them with a bit more of the yogurt sweetened with a little honey. YUM.

While Henry’s napping this afternoon, I go to work on the celeriac. I had celeriac soup last fall at a favorite local restaurant and loved it, so I have been wanting to try my hand at it. I talked Amy and Sarah into letting me have their share of this somewhat odd veggie in exchange for the completed soup. I sauté a small Gunnison yellow onion, the last of the carrots from last week and a leek in some butter and olive oil. I then dice and add one of the small Satina potatoes and all of the celeriac. I cover it all with 4 cups of chicken stock and let it simmer away while I fry 4 slices of bacon to a crisp. I then slice up some of the Italian garlic and fry that in the remaining bacon fat until crispy and sweet. When the celeriac id tender, I puree the soup and add a half cup of cream as well as salt and pepper to suit my taste. Topped with shards of crispy bacon and garlic, its better than I expect! It turns out smooth and creamy, pale yellow in color and tastes earthy and rich. The celeriac’s flavor is more subtle than regular celery and is complimented very well by the leek.

Here’s what I did in recipe format:

1 tablespoon salted sweet cream butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small yellow onion, diced

1 large carrot, diced

1 leek, roughly chopped

1 small yellow potato, diced

2 celeriac roots, diced

4 cups low-sodium chicken stock

½ cup half and half

Kosher salt and white pepper, to taste

4 slices bacon, fried crisp and crumbled

3 large cloves garlic, sliced thin and fried crisp in bacon fat

Sauté onion, carrot and leek in butter and olive oil until soft

Add potato and celeriac and sauté a minute more

Add chicken stock and bring to a boil

Reduce heat and simmer until celeriac is tender

Remove from heat and puree with hand blender or in regular blender

Add cream and mix well

Top each bowl with some bacon and garlic

Sunday

I love a good BLT and the heirloom tomato and salad greens are screaming BLT at me. The addition of thick cut bacon and organic whole-wheat toast make this one of the best I’ve ever had. A bowl of celeriac soup to go with it and it tastes like an excellent lunch to me!

Organic hotdish?

It seems criminal to use good quality organic ingredients for a casserole-type meal, but for dinner I wanted comfort food and by comfort food I mean hotdish. No recipe is required for hotdish as it can be anything thrown together in a casserole dish. I use the standard Lutheran hotdish template #3. Not familiar with the rules? Well, first there’s tomato-based hotdish, then tomato soup based hotdish (a subtle, but important distinction) and finally cream soup based hotdish. I go with the latter. I start by browning a pound of ground beef. In this case, it is locally raised (Stillwater, MN) grass-fed beef. Then, I dice and add an onion from the CSA box. Next went in all of the leftover veggies in the fridge – some sweet corn, some beans and some frozen organic peas. Cream of mushroom soup (low sodium) is the glue the binds the whole thing together as per template #3 (see above). This all gets layered in a casserole dish with slices of the Satina gold flesh potatoes from the CSA and then baked for an hour at the standard 350 degrees. When it is bubbling up a storm and the taters are tender, I top it off with some grated cheese and pop it up under the broiler to melt and form a golden crust. It was passable for a meal and since Jr. is moving right along towards eating mostly real food (and I used very little salt in the preparation), he gets to have his first hotdish. He loves it. He makes little baby mmm, mmmm, mmmm sounds as he shoves fistfuls of it in his mouth. Go figure.

Monday

Leftovers, leftovers, leftovers. So. Many. Leftovers. Breakfast, lunch and dinner = leftovers. It’s not so bad when the leftovers include celeriac soup and BLTs. It would be a sin to waste slices of heirloom tomato. Or bacon, for that matter :)

Tuesday

So, I went to the farmer’s market in Falcon Heights this morning. Am I insane?! What am I thinking adding more produce to this house?! Well, two things actually. One, you can get really good deals on herbs this time of year and two, it is the first day of fall and to me that means one thing: APPLES. I love the taste of home grown MN apples and this article in this morning’s Star Tribune proclaiming that our wacky summer weather was great for the apples spurred me on. I’ve been dreaming about apple pie, crisp, etc. for awhile now. But, I have a rule about the farmer’s market. I never go with more than $20 in my pocket. If I spend more than that, I most certainly will not use whatever it is that I bought. Unless I’m getting meat and the meat folks take plastic J I spent $16 today and I got a giant bunch of fresh mint (mojito, anyone?), a giant bunch of fresh basil, two kinds of apples (Honeycrisp and Wealthy) and some fresh feta cheese from Eichten’s in Center City, MN.

Hank loves the farmer's market! Here he is inspecting the giant bunch of mint we scored for $1

For dinner tonight, I made a pasta salad with orzo, which is little rice-shaped pasta. From the CSA box I used the bell and pimento peppers and a red onion. I also added the feta and some basil and mint from this morning’s excursion. I have some kalamata olives left over from a trip to the Holy Land deli last week, and I pull it all together with some red wine vinaigrette. I serve the orzo salad with broiled chicken breasts and Nathan and I open a bottle of Conundrum, a favorite wine of ours. It is a white table wine from California that is a bit pricey per bottle but really, really yummy and perfect with this meal.

As for Henry, he dines tonight on plain orzo with a bit of olive oil, some chicken, the remainder of the CSA broccoli, lightly steamed and a Honeycrisp apple that I diced and cooked for him. Lucky baby!!

Wednesday

It’s Wednesday morning already? I hurriedly ate the little cantaloupe from last week that’s still good for breakfast. We also have an abundance of leftovers including enough orzo salad for our whole block, so that makes for a no-brainer lunch. Now, what to make for dinner? I spy two bunches of radishes with their greens in the crisper and begin to ponder the possibilities. I’ve been eating radishes my entire life, but I’ve only ever eaten them raw with a touch of salt or in salads. How would one even cook them? I search the web and the consensus seems to be to roast them. I heat up my cast-iron skilled to blazing and add some olive oil, the washed, trimmed and quartered radishes and some salt and pepper. After a couple of minutes I put the pan in the oven next to the pork I’m roasting for dinner. 15 minutes later I take the pan back out, put it back over the burner, add a pat of butter and the radish greens, which wilt in no time. I finish it off with a splash of white wine vinegar. They are really good. They lose some of their bite and sweeten up a bit after being roasted which is true of most veggies!

For dessert, I dig into the apples from the farmer’s market and make an apple crisp. I use the recipe for “Farmstead Apple Crisp” from the “All-American Dessert Book,” with two additions. I like a bit of salt and vanilla in my crisp this recipe doesn’t call for either! It turns out perfectly and is delightful with a dollop of vanilla ice cream and the last glass of the Conundrum.

Thursday

Okay, what’s left in the fridge? I start digging and sadly, a few things have gotten away from me. The watermelon from a couple of weeks ago has begun to ferment. I have to toss the rest of the salad greens, too, as they’ve turned to mush and the ¼ head of cabbage is starting to look brown and funky, so it goes too. Still good is three jalapeno peppers, a bag of edamame and the Yukina Savoy – hmmmm, I don’t know quite what to do with that assortment… and another box arrives from Harmony Valley this afternoon!

Taking part in a CSA farmshare has has been a joy for me (this is my third time). It is hard to be consistently creative and forward thinking about using or preserving for later use all of those veggies every week for thirty weeks. Truthfully, some weeks are better than others and this week was a particularly good week. I feel massively guilty every time something goes bad on my watch and has to be pitched, but each week is a chance to start over. I am very thankful for our farmers and the hard work they do to keep us fed all summer. Farming can be both heartbreaking and rewarding, not to mention backbreaking, and I'm glad to reap the rewards of all of that work.

Summertime and the livin' is busy!

Nathan pointed out to me this morning that I haven't updated the blog in almost a month. We've been busy!!! Now that Henry is mobile, there is less time for me to leisurely sit about with the computer and we've been outside, enjoying the summertime while we can. In fact, with the sudden heat wave this week, we are investing in a kiddie pool today. I suspect that when Henry is not in it, I will be, perhaps with a gin & tonic... Hmmm.... So, here are the highlights from the last month!

Henry had is 9 month check up and got a thumbs up from his pediatrician. He is right on track developmentally and changing in leaps and bounds. They say that babies experience a leap forward in cognitive abilities around 9 months and we are certainly seeing that to be true. In addition to crawling, he pulled himself up to stand for the first time on August 9th, he is clapping and sticking his tongue out and pretending to drink from a cup when he's playing. He's putting blocks into boxes and chasing the cat mercilessly. Fortunately, Fela is a good sport...so far. He is getting quite the headful of wispy light brown hair and loves to sing and babble and bang on things. Ever the mimic now, he tries to whistle and blow and is king of "so big!" He is nearly weaned and is eating a ton of *real people* food. He likes shredded organic chicken, cheddar cheese, Cheerios and new to his repetoire last night, black beans. Here are the latest stats:

21 lbs (55th percentile)
29 inches tall (75th percentile)
18 3/4 inch head (90th percentile)

Henry's Auntie, Lis, and his two cousins were here from Oregon for two weeks. We spent several days at our friend's cabin in the Wisconsin north woods. It was some pretty awesome family bonding.

Hazel (4) Henry (9 mo) Dahlia (8)Playing with GrandmaEnjoying the warm morning fire

Just hanging

We have done a lot of camping and hiking this summer in addition to lots of walks and general outside time. We hiked to the top of St. Peter's Dome in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forrest:

We also took Henry on our annual pilgrimage to Madeline Island in Lake Superior where we hiked at Big Bay State Park and saw our friends play at Tom's Burned Down Cafe. Both Nathan and Henry sat in with the band:On the Mad Island Ferry

Bellied up to the bar at Tom'sDancing with MommaWatching the band intenselyPlaying drums with Pachanga

We are also continuing to enjoy our summer bounty of vegetables from our farmshare and I have found many creative uses for numerous vegetables. We also have been taking part in various local food events and last week attended a dinner at the Garden Farme where three of our friends our living and working this summer. It was a beautiful night, with great food and time with our friends. Henry got to hang out with his buddies Miranda, Lukas and Tobin!

One of my favorite local, sustainable foods is Izzy's ice cream. They use solar power to make their ice cream and run their shop as well as use as many local ingredients as possible. Henry is tasting the banana flavor, one of my favorites. It somehow tastes like fresh, hot banana bread right out of the oven... but cold. It's magic.Ahhhh, summertime!

Hot Pink Pasta

What to do with all those summer beets? Try this!

4 red beets with stems and leaves
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbls extra virgin olive oil
1/2 lemon
1/2 lb pasta
salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese

Wash and dice the beets into 1/2 inch cubes, cut the stems into 1 inch pieces, wash, dry and chop the leaves into inch wide ribbons. Heat the olive oil in a saute pan, add the garlic and the diced beets. Season with salt. Saute until starting to soften, add the stems and cook a few minutes more until everything is soft but not mushy. Add the leaves and wilt. Squeeze lemon over the beets and greens, salt and pepper to taste, remove from heat.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions, until al dente. You want the noodles a little undercooked so that they soak up the beet sauce.

Drain pasta, but do not rinse, and immediately toss with the beets. Add more olive oil, salt and pepper to taste and top with cheese. Eat!

The pasta will soak up the beet sauce and turn bright pink/red. Kids think this is cool. Try serving it to your pink-obsessed little princess. Use whole wheat pasta for more of a nutritional punch. Beets are loaded with folate and potassium as well as fiber and are very, very good for you. Just don't tell the princess that...

This week in the CSA - Yummy Stir Fry

It's no secret that Wednesdays tend to be stir-fry night at our house. It's is the night I throw every veggie that is left in the fridge into the pan in an effort to clear the decks before the next delivery on Thursday. Last week: Lemon chicken with snap peas, carrots, etc. This week: Tofu with baby bok choi and summer squash in oyster sauce!

What to do with Garlic Scapes

Half the fun of getting a farmshare is trying things you've never had before or things you've never had in mass quantity. There was the summer I learned what to do with an entire box of beets, as well as the endless possibilities of "gazpacho" when you use the term loosely. I've learned that you can make soup out of just about anything and Wednesday is often "Stir Fry Day" as I use up all remaining vegetables in the fridge before the next load comes on Thursday. So, what to do with garlic scapes? These were new to me last summer and I had a whole handful in the veggie drawer today, collected over the last two weeks. I chopped them up, sauted them in a knob of butter with some kosher salt and then I put them in the food proccessor with two more sticks of unsalted butter and more kosher salt. The result is a huge frozen log of the best garlic butter ever. I look forward to using it on fresh baked bread, melted over steak and for sauteing all those other veggies that I won't know what to do with as the summer progresses.

Parsnip and Sunchoke Soup

We received more sunchokes and parsnips in this week's farmshare (CSA). Last week I boiled the parsnips and tossed them with orange juice, zest and honey. They tasted great. And, so far, my favorite way to eat the sunchokes is to boil them with an equal amount of baby red potatoes and some garlic cloves and mash them with butter and milk.

Today, I decided to take the bounty of last week's box and make a pot of soup. I sauted the green garlic, spring onions and a couple of carrots in olive oil and butter then added vegetable stock, dired thyme, sunchokes and parsnips. Once everything was soft, I pureed the whole works in the blender, returned it to the pot and added some cream and seasoning.

The verdict? Pretty good. The flavor of the sunchokes is dominant and is accented well by lemon and thyme. The consistency is that of a potato soup as the sunchokes are starchy. I topped the soup with a bit of finely shedded mozzerella also from Harmony Valley's cheese share. It would also be tasty topped with a bit of truffle oil or you could render some bits of bacon to saute the veggies in at the start and top the soup with the crispy bits.One note about parsnips: they smell bad. I mean, they taste great once they're cooked but during cooking they smell like death. Or like you forgot to take your garbage out before you left for a two week trip in the summer and something died in there. It's unpleasant. Open a window if you can.

Spring Goodies from the Farm

Hooray! Our first box from our CSA farm arrived yesterday full of spring goodies including ramps or wild leeks, overwintered spinach and parsnips, black radish, chives, sunchokes and burdock root. AND the season's first rhubarb! So, as required by my marriage vows, I have to make Nathan's favorite cookies. Here is his Grandma's Rhubarb Filled Cookie recipe:

Rubarb Filled Cookies

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Filling:
1/4 cup water
3 cups chopped fresh rubarb (if you use frozen, thaw and drain it first!)
1 cup sugar

Dough:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions:
Cook filling in heavy saucepan until thick, then cool
Cream butter and sugar together
Add milk, eggs and vanilla
Blend dry ingredients and add
Roll out dough on floured board
Cut out circles with a 2 1/2 inch diameter cookie cutter
Place one teaspoon of filling the center of each circle
Dampen edge with water or eggwash, place a second circle on top and seal.
Pinch edge with fork and prick top to let steam out
Place circles on parchment paper lined cookie sheet
Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees or until lightly browned

*Use parchment paper if you've got it as the filling might seep out and burn
*Alternately, you can cut 4 inch circles and fold them in half over the filling