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!~

More Pancakes

I've spent a few months experimenting, trying to get an oatmeal pancake that I like.  After some tweaking, here it is:

Oatmeal Pancakes
Dry ingredients:
1 1/4 c. unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. oat flour
1/4 c. rolled oats
1/4 c. oat bran
4 tsp. baking powder
2 tbls. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. table salt

Wet Ingredients:
2 eggs
2 c. milk
2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 c. canola oil

Whisk dry ingredients in one bowl.  Whisk wet ingredients in a second bowl.  Add wet to dry and mix just until combined.  It will be lumpy and some streaks of flour are okay.  I make them on a screaming hot griddle, about a 1/4 cup of batter per pancake.  I like to add chocolate chips to these as they cook.  They taste like oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!

Chef Henry

Despite a lack of classical training, Chef Henry is a bit of a culinary prodigy. He is a proponent of using fresh, locally sourced ingredients and, in particular, a fan of organic broccoli and fresh strawberries. Chef Henry's whisking skills are particularly good, so he whipped up some heavy cream, powdered sugar and cream cheese yesterday to make an airy and lovely frosting for his new favorite dessert, a poppy seed-strawberry cake. It's heavenly, Chef Henry!

Who doesn't love to lick the beaters?

The finished product, in a word, delicious!

Billowing Strawberry Poppy Seed Layer Cake
From Dishing with Kathy Casey

Cake
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tbls baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
8 tbls (1 stick) salted butter, softened
1 cup whole milk
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbls poppy seeds

Frosting
8 ounces cream cheese
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar
2 cups cream

Filling
1/2 cup strawberry jam
1 pint strawberries, sliced very thin

Topping
1 pint strawberries, cut in half

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour three 8-inch round cake pans and set aside.

In the bowl of a standing mixer or other large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the softened butter. Using an electric mixer, mix on medium speed for 1 minute. Add half of the milk and mix for 2 minutes more to cream the batter. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and add the remaining milk, eggs, and vanilla. Continue mixing on medium speed for 2 more minutes. Stir in the poppy seeds.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared pans and bake for 20 minutes to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and cool in the pans on a rack for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of each cake layer and turn in out onto a rack to cool thoroughly.

Meanwhile, make the frosting: Using an electric mixer, beat the softened cream cheese and vanilla on medium speed for 1 minute. Turn the speed to high and mix for 1 minute. Stop the mixer, add 1 cup of the powdered sugar, and mix on low speed for 1 minute. Repeat twice, until all the powdered sugar had been added, then increase the mixer speed to high and whip for 3 minutes.

In another bowl, whip the cream until stiff, then fold it gently into the cream cheese mixture until just incorporated. Refrigerate until ready to frost the cake.

To make the filling: In a medium bowl, stir the strawberry jam until smooth, then gently fold in the strawberries. Set aside until ready to fill the cake.

To assemble and frost the cake: On a large cake plate, place 1 layer of the cake. Spoon one-half of the strawberry filling in the center, then spread it out to 3/4 inch from the edge. Top with 1 cup of the frosting and spread the frosting to 3/4 inch from the edge. Place another layer of cake on top and repeat. Place the final layer of cake on top, then press down gently on the cake layers to stabilize them.

With a large rubber or cake spatula, mound half of the remaining frosting on the top of the cake. Spread the other half around the sides of the cake, covering up all cake and swirling the frosting decoratively. Smooth out the frosting on top of the cake. Let the frosting dry a little before garnishing the cake.

Stem the garnish berries, and cut them in half lengthwise. Place, cut sides down, around the top edge of the cake. Arrange any extra strawberries in a small pattern in the middle of the cake. Refrigerate the cake until ready to serve.

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!

For the Love of Pancakes

I love making pancakes and perfected my version of them a long time ago. I make a number of variations based on the same basic recipe and am always experimenting. I am currently thinking of grinding my own oat flour in the food processor and creating an oatmeal-raisin pancake.

Homemade pancakes are so easy that I never used boxed mix. I've even made my own mix and stored it in a zip-lock for making while camping. Here's my basic recipe, based on an old Better Homes cookbook recipe. I always use half whole wheat flour, but you could use all unbleached all-purpose.

Whisk together the following dry ingredients in a medium bowl:
1/2 cup unbleached all purpose
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tbls granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Whisk together in a 2 cup measuring cup:
1 cup milk
1 egg
2 tbls canola oil

Stir the wet into the dry just until incorporated. It will be lumpy - do not overmix.
Let batter stand for 10-20 minutes while the griddle heats up. Spray the griddle or pan lightly with non-stick spray.
I turn the oven on to 200 degrees and put the pancakes in there as they are done to keep warm while I'm making them.
Always serve with real maple syrup!!! Fake maple syrup, which is just maple-flavored corn syrup is a crime.

Here are a few of my favorite variations. Really the options are endless and Henry loves them all!

Banana Pancakes:
Add one mashed overripe banana and 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract. Great topped with toasted walnuts and slices of fresh banana.

Sweet Potato Pancakes:
Add 1/2 cup cooked and mashed sweet potato (I use leftovers, usually) and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. Top with toasted pecans and a sprinkle of powdered sugar.

Blueberry Pancakes:
As the batter cooks on the first side, sprinkle with a small handful of fresh or frozen blueberries, then flip as usual. I like these with vanilla or lemon yogurt on them.

That's it. I love pancakes.

Black Bean Tacos

These are really, really good. Just had to share.
http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/fasteasyfresh/2009/02/crispy_black_bean_tacos

Pretty Awesome Turkey Meatloaf

This was originally a Williams-Sonoma recipe that's been tweaked several times. Its yummy.

1 tbls butter
1/2 tbls olive oil
1 small onion, diced fine
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 stalk celery, diced fine
10 fresh sage leaves, chopped
1 egg
1 tbls tomato paste
1 tbls Worcestershire sauce
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp ground white pepper
1 lb ground turkey
Ketchup

In a small frying pan, heat butter and olive oil. Saute onion and celery until soft, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and sage and saute 1 minute more. Remove from heat. In a small bowl, whisk together egg, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Mix everything together with the ground turkey until well combined. Pat into a loaf pan that's been sprayed with non-stick spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Remove from oven an top with a slathering of ketchup. Return to oven for 5 minutes or until the sugar in the ketchup has begun to carmelize. Cool slightly, slice and serve. I served it with potatoes, beets and carrots that I roasted with rosemary and olive oil in another pan alongside the meatloaf and a mixed green salad.

Happy Solstice!

To celebrate the Winter Solstice, we had a lovely little candelit dinner at home. I made a spicy squash soup that had garam masala and red chili pepper in it. Yum. Warmed us right up. We also had a lovely organic roast chicken with couscous and green beans. And, then, cake! Solstice cake! Chocolate on the outside to represent the dark days of midwinter and yellow cake on the inside to represent the sun and the return to light. Only six more months until summer... >sigh<

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.

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.

More Rhubarb

Everyone in my family loves my mom's rhubarb crisp. She makes it in a 9 x 13 pan because if there is a kid, grandkid, neighbor kid, niece, nephew, cousin or husband anywhere in the vicinity, it disappears in hours, if not minutes. I fondly remember the days when I'd come home from school to find a freshly baked crisp cooling on the counter. What mom probably doesn't know is that I'd always immediately dig out a spoon and go after the whole pan in front of the TV. I've witnessed at least two of my nieces/nephews do the exact same thing and I swear they didn't learn it from me :D Wipped cream and/or ice cream on top is totally optional and I like it best the second day (if there's any left) out of the fridge. For the simple fact that I will eat the whole pan in one sitting if given the chance, I only make an 8 x 8 at a time.

Carol Mae's Rhubarb Crisp

Daughter Four Variation

Filling:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 heaping tablespoons flour
3/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups rhubarb, chopped
1 cup fresh raspberries, sliced fresh peaches or quartered strawberries (optional)

Crumble:
1/2 cup, plus two tablespoons oatmeal
1/2 cup, plus two tablespoons flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup cold salted sweet cream butter

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8 x 8 inch pan with non-stick spray.
Combine granulated sugar, flour and water in a saucepan. Heat over medium-high heat until thick and bubbly. Add rhubarb and cook until the consistency of pie filling. Remove from heat and add vanilla and optional fresh fruit.

In a medium bowl, whisk together oatmeal, flour, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon. Cut in cold butter until you have a crumbly mixture. Pour filling into pan and top with the crumble.

Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Cool completely (if you can) on countertop. Serve with or without whipped cream or ice cream. Refridgerate leftovers (if there are any). I would have posted a photo, but I already ate it all.

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

Easter Dinner

Henry's Easter Chicky SweaterHoney Bunny

Spring Dinner Menu - An Ode to the Bayport Cookery

English Pea Soup with Applewood Smoked Bacon and Goat Cheese Fondant

Seared Halibut with Sauteed fiddle heads, asparagus and morel mushroom risotto
Topped with classic Bearnaise sauce

Carrot CakeWould you eat something cooked by these two?

Cake in a Cup

I was forwarded a recipe for chocolate cake that is "baked" in a coffee cup in the microwave and supposedly five minutes start to finish. Being extremely skeptical of anything that is cooked in the microwave, I had to try it.

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
a small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts (high). The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.

The recipe encourages you to mix everything right in the cup. I felt that that would lead to lumps and inconsistency in the batter so I whisked the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another bowl and then brought them together quickly with the chocolate chips and then poured equal amounts of the batter into two 8 ounce size coffee cups. I nuked them for 3 minutes on high. They bubbled up over the top, but did not spill (you could put them on a plate just in case) and then settled back down into the cup.

As I predicted, the chocolate chips settled to the bottom of the cup, but once turned out onto a plate, this made a kind of frosting of top. It comes out of the cup easily when its still hot, but you'll want it to cool for a bit before eating. It does end up looking like a traditional cupcake that's baked in a muffin tin, minus the paper. Since it is microwaved and not baked, the consistency is weird - more like a pudding than a cake - and bordering on rubbery. This improved as it cooled somewhat.

This is NOT cake. Think of it more like a pudding and then, perhaps, you won't find the texture so disturbing. My recipe tester (Nathan) couldn't get past the texture thing. He described it as "spongy" followed by a negative look. He also could taste the egg, which he didn't like. I didn't think it was that bad, but it is really more of a chocolate eggy pudding rather than a cake.

I want to experiment with this some more. I may try different cocoa powders and extracts. In the future, I would just put the chocolate chips in the bottom of the cup to increase the frosting-like result. You could use different flavored chips or chopped chocolate or maybe even a spoonful of peanut butter. If you want the chocolate chips in the cake, you can toss them with a little flour to prevent them from sinking. I will try using only whites to lessen the eggy taste. If you experiement with it, share your results with me.

Bottom line: if you need some chocolate like right now. This certainly will do. True to the claim, it does only take five minutes. It is easy and it would be a great kitchen project to do with kids who want to learn to cook. Have them do all the measuring and stirring themselves! Also good for the lazy bachelor type. I mean, chicks are usually impressed when guys try to cook anything ;)

Cinnamon Buns

I made these cinnamon buns this morning. This is a quick version that uses a dough that is more like a biscuit dough than the traditional yeast dough. When my grandma used to make cinnamon rolls she used the "cheater" method of using frozen bread dough. These are even easier. They come out with a nice chewy texture and good flavor. They would be great with toasted pecans or walnuts. I can also envision them with toasted almonds and a bit of almond extract in the icing. Yum. Melt all 8 tablespoons of butter at the beginning and measure it out as needed. Those not suffering from butter lust like me could make these a bit healthier by cutting the butter content, but healthy sticky buns seems to be too much of an oxymoron to me! If you wanted to make these in the morning for overnight I company, I'd suggest measuring and whisking together the dry ingredients and the filling the day before and packing them in separate ziplocs or air tight containers so in the morning all you have to do is bring everything together in a few quick minutes while the coffee is brewing :D

From Cook's Illustrated:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

1 tablespoon melted unsalted butter for greasing the pan
Use a 9 inch round cake pan

Cinnamon - Sugar Filling
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon melted unsalted butter

Dough
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups lowfat buttermilk
6 tablespoons melted unsalted butter

Icing
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) cream cheese
2 tablespoons lowfat buttermilk
1 cup (4 ounces) powdered sugar

Mix the filling ingredients together with a fork, set aside.
Whisk together dry ingredients for dough in one bowl and whisk wet ingredients together in another bowl. Bring together quickly then turn out onto floured surface and knead briefly just to bring together. Pat out into a 9 x 12 inch rectangle. Brush with 2 tbls butter then spread filling out on top, leaving a 1/2 inch all the way around. Roll up starting on long side using a pastry scraper if you've got one. Cut into 8 rolls, place one in the middle and the other seven around it. Coat with remaining butter.

Bake for 1/2 hour at 425 degrees

Whisk icing together until smooth.

When rolls come out of the oven, invert onto a plate and then invert again onto another plate so they are right side up. Hit them with the icing and eat immediately.