Eating Locally -- August 9, 2010

Monday night, and I'm always trying to figure out what to make for dinner. I was out of town this past weekend and haven't been to the store yet. So, last night, I went pilfering through the freezer to see if I had anything worth defrosting. I found a package of ground turkey. In the fridge, I found 6 green peppers, mushrooms, squash, and a few other things. Hmmm.. I'm never going to eat 6 green peppers on their own, so I need to do something with them. I decided to improvise a recipe for stuffed peppers. So, here we go, Stuffed Peppers a la Spice.

I grabbed a rectangular baking dish, preheated the oven to 375 and spread a thin layer of marinara sauce in the bottom of the dish. I cut the tops off 6 green peppers, seeded them and placed them in a baking dish. I discarded the tops.



I took the three small spring onions, a couple of hungarian (or maybe banana) peppers (whatever was in my farm share) and a couple of cloves of garlic and chopped those up. Side note, I wasn't paying too much attention after cutting up the peppers before scratching my nose. I spent the next 20 minutes googling remedies for pepper burns and remedies. I'll spare you the visual. It's been almost an hour, and there's still a slight tingling on my nose from my ill-fated sneeze earlier. So, please, kids, learn from my mistake.



I sauteed the aromatics in a couple of glugs of olive oil over medium heat, about 15 minutes, while I chopped up half an 8 oz. package of sliced mushrooms and a yellow squash. When the onion, pepper and garlic mix was done, I added the veggies and a nice pinch of salt and pepper. I tossed in some of my favorite multi-purpose seasoning mix (one by Penzey's called Tuscan Sunset) and cooked the veggies until they were done. I put them in a large bowl. I added one package of ground turkey and browned it until it was no longer pink in the middle. I drained off the fat, and added it to the veggie mix in the bowl.

For a binding agent, I didn't want to use eggs, and I didn't feel like cooking up some rice or anything. I eyeballed a 1/2 cup or so of plain, dried breadcrumbs, sprinkled on some grated parmesan cheese, and added about half of a 15 oz. container of low-fat ricotta cheese. I mixed things up thoroughly and filled each pepper with the mixture (and had just enough mix for the 6 peppers). I topped each with a spoon or two of marinara sauce and a little fresh parmesan for the top.



I baked the peppers for about 25 minutes (altho truthfully, they could have gone another 10, the peppers were still a little raw). I paired this one with a glass of King Family Vineyards 2008 Chardonnay. The filling has nice flavor, so I think this one will be a keeper! And, once again, most of the ingredients came from my farm share.

Eating Locally -- July 15, 2010

OK, I'm behind schedule on my blogging. I don't get paid for these little ramblings, so unless someone wants to throw some cash my way, the updates will come after I've taken care of my day job and other responsibilities. It's also been really. flipping. hot. I live in a house that's almost 100 years old and it doesn't have air conditioning. As much as I love roast chicken, the thought of having my oven on for 90 minutes when it's literally 85 degrees in my house just isn't appealing. Fortunately, the weather has eased a bit, so I got back in the kitchen today. I've been wanting to make a derivation on salad nicoise for some time now. I finally had everything together to make my own variation.

I got some gorgeous stuff in my farm share last week. Beautiful red potatoes, yellow beans, blueberries, tomatoes, etc. This whole thing probably took 90 minutes to put together, but it's me, myself and I in the kitchen. It might have gone faster if I'd had an extra set of hands to help me out.

Basic components of tonight's dinner -- hard-cooked eggs, red potatoes, beans, tomatoes, olives, fish, dressing..

I cooked the eggs by putting them in a pot of cold water, added a little salt, brought to a boil, then simmered for about 10 minutes. I ran the eggs under cold water until they were cool, then peeled them and set them aside. I also boiled the new potatoes for about 10 minutes, until they were tender. I removed them from the water and put them in a colander. I covered them with a dish towel to let them steam a few minutes and, because I'm lazy, used the same water (which was already salted) to blanch the yellow beans.



I also learned today that farm fresh eggs are a pain in the ass to peel. If anyone has any tips for that, let me know, or I may have to remember that for next time and buy a few conventional eggs.

I made a quick little vinaigrette using a tsp of dijon mustard, a splash of white wine vinegar, some salt and pepper and whisked in some olive oil.

I grabbed my grill pan and seasoned my salmon with a little salt and pepper and grilled until it was done the way I like it..


I assembled my dinner on a plate and added a half a tomato and some picholine olives (I didn't have the traditional nicoise olives). I drizzled some vinaigrette over the salmon, potatoes and beans. Grabbed a glass of a 2007 viognier from one of my favorite Virginia wineries, King Family Vineyards and had a great dinner.

Eating Locally -- Farm Share Week 2

Week 2 and it's another day to pick up my share of locally-grown organic produce. I still have a few things left over from last week (perishables like salad greens and onions and I still have some eggs, bread and popcorn). I'm really diggin' this CSA. I feel like I'm getting my $16 worth each week, that's for sure. In this week's bounty, my take ended up being:


Strawberries, pac-choy (like bok choy, just all green), spring onions, beets, kohlrabi, swiss chard, garlic scapes, some blackberry jam, a tomato, and of course, more lettuce -- beautiful red leaf and green lettuce this week. The heads were huge, so Robin and I just tore them apart to split.

I'm already plotting my grilled salmon with sauteed mushrooms and the pac-choy (sauteed with sesame oil, soy sauce and garlic) and a fantastic salad with roasted beets, goat cheese (or blue, whatever I have) and some toasted pecans (or walnuts, whatever I have in the freezer). I will say, tho, I've never bought, stored, prepped or eaten kolhrabi, so I'm looking for ideas there. I'm also not sure how I'll fix the red chard. I'll figure it out, tho.

In the meantime, anyone want some salad?

38-year-old virgin.... for rhubarb

Rhubarb is one of those mystery vegetables that just sounded weird to me as a child ("Roooobarb?! What the heck is roooooobarb?"). No one in my immediate family ever cooked with it. In my head, it was red celery. Stringy. Freak vegetable.

I also know that my palette has evolved considerably over the years. I also used to hate mushrooms, mustard, scallops, salmon, ahi tuna, etc. I still can't quite get on board with aspic, but at some point, I'll end up at a fabulous restaurant where I'll try it, then extol its virtues to anyone who will listen.

Since I'd gotten some rhubarb in my farm share this past week, I wanted to give it a whirl. How do I cook it? Do I peel it? I spent some time looking up rhubarb recipes that also used strawberries. I settled on a recipe for Rhubarb Strawberry crumble. I scrubbed my rhubarb and chopped it into 1/2 in chunks. I added 4 cups of strawberries (using up all the rhubarb and the strawberries from my farm share, plus some extra berries) that I tossed in 1/2 a cup of sugar and 1-1/2 tsp of my new favorite thing -- Vanilla Bean Paste (just vanilla seeds in liquid -- cheaper than buying vanilla beans and great flavor). I made a crumble topping with 3/4 c. flour, 2/3 c. sugar, 1/2 c. rolled oats, and 1/2 c. pecans. The recipe called for hulled hazelnuts, but I didn't have any of those. I have tons of pecans in my freezer from last year. I toasted these and chopped them coarsely. Put the rhubarb strawberry mixture into a greased 8x8 glass baking dish and topped with the crumble. Baked for 40 minutes at 375, until the topping was browned and the filling was bubbling.


I will also be the first to tell you that the equation of fruit + sugar + vanilla +
crumbly topping (equal parts butter and flour) + 45 minutes of heat = one of my favorite desserts. Peaches + gingersnaps and some lemon juice? Yummy. Blueberries and a biscuit topping? Nirvana. Apples + cinnamon? Proof that God loves us. So, I expected to like the strawberry rhubarb crumble, bubbling away in my oven. My house soon had the comforting smell of baking fruit and I couldn't wait for it to be done.


Really, all you need is a big spoon and a blob of vanilla ice cream. Rhubarb, I think you and I are going to be friends. With benefits.

A Tale of Two Eggs

I got a little ambitious this morning and decided to try a Zumba class followed immediately by a kickboxing class. Talk about sweaty! But, suffice it to say, I've gotten my exercise for the day and came home, ravenous. I stopped at the store to get some more strawberries (the quart my friend and I split doesn't quite give me enough for the rhubarb strawberry crumble I plan on trying) and headed into the house, thinking about fixing a big breakfast. I had chopped up about equal amounts of potato and onion and cooked them over medium heat in a few tablespoons of butter for about 20-25 minutes, stirring about every 5 minutes. I used a slice off my loaf of whole wheat bread from the farm share for a piece of toast and decided to conduct an experiment.

I had 6 conventional eggs and 6 of the eggs from the farm share. You always read articles telling you that organic eggs are better, they have more color, etc. Not often I have the chance to do a side-by-side comparison.

Well, here you go, a tale of two eggs:



The egg on the left is the conventional egg. The egg on the right is the organic egg. Please note yolk size and color. I also noticed the white on the organic egg was not as watery as the conventional egg (and for the record, my conventional eggs have a sellby date of next week). I have been working on my egg-frying technique for a while. I've decided the real trick is to have the right spatula to flip the darn things. I have one that works, but I feel like there's probably a better one out there.

So, the eggs are fried, and added to my plate of homemade hash browns (garnished with some spring onions from my share this week) and the slab of wheat toast. Dang. Looks good, and I'm starving.



So, which is the conventional egg and which is the organic one? Once they've been fried, it was harder to tell (yes, I knew which was which in the pan, but my point to the photo is that you can't judge a book by its cover). However, as soon as I cut into one the answer was quite clear.



The egg on the left is the organic one. The egg on the right is the conventional one. Seeing the two colors side by side really does make you wonder. Tastewise, yes, they taste different. The organic egg had so much more flavor! I usually buy organic eggs, but sometimes, I decide that conventional ones will be just fine. Conducting my little experiment today means that I really do prefer organic eggs. Psychologically, I'd like to think the chickens are treated better. From a sheer cooking standpoint and taste standpoint, they just taste better.

Eating Locally -- Farm Share, Week 1

For the last three years, I've been participating in a CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture). I was really impressed when I found that Lakewood, Ohio, offers a lot of choices for CSAs through several different cooperatives. City Fresh, Covered Bridge, and Geauga Family Farms are a few of the offerings through the Lakewood Earth and Food Community (LEAF). My friend Robin and I last year split a full-share and decided to do that again this year. We selected the Geauga Family Farms, LLC. They are a cooperative of 10 Amish farmers east of Cleveland in Geauga County, offering certified organic produce along with some conventionally grown fruit. They also offer things like eggs, breads, cheeses, meats, etc.

We prepaid for the season back in April. They offer a 20-week season and it ended up boiling down to about $32 a week for a full share ($16 each). We got our first bounty today. If today is any indication, I think I'm going to like this CSA.

Here's my share from this week:

I've got 2 heads of red leaf lettuce, a head of romaine, some spring onions, rhubarb, radishes, strawberries, and half a dozen eggs. Not pictured: half a loaf of homemade wheat bread and half a pound of popcorn.

My goal this summer is not to waste any of this gorgeous produce! Next step -- find a recipe for a strawberry rhubarb tart or crisp or something.

A little lemon makes everything work...

Potlucks are big business at my office. I've never had to participate in so many potlucks in my life! I seem to have developed a "reputation" for making delicious things for potlucks, so I'm feeling a little pressure to produce something special for the birthday potluck. We had a potluck last week I couldn't bring anything for (not enough notice) so I was chastised a bit for NOT bringing in something "fabulous."

The theme for tomorrow's potluck at the office is "healthy foods" so I decided to come up with a fruit salad as my contribution. I hit the legendary West Side Market in Cleveland and for about $12, I ended up with a pineapple, a giant mango, some blueberries, strawberries and raspberries.

I chopped everything up and then tried to figure out what to add to spice it up. I threw in one tablespoon of sugar and 2 tablespoons of limoncello to macerate the fruit.





For a sauce, I took a container of greek yogurt and had planned to add a jar of lemon curd I had in the pantry. Um, yeah, so the lemon curd had gone bad (ugh -- talk about gross), so I went to plan B. I zested a lemon and added the juice. I added a splash of vanilla and about 2 tablespoons of honey. End result -- the limoncello and sugar really bring out the sweetness in the fruit and the lemon zest and juice add a nice complement to the tanginess of the greek yogurt. The honey helps to mellow out the acidity. This is a really refreshing salad -- hope everyone likes it!

A little heat, and a theme emerges

I've noticed two themes that have emerged in my cooking as of late. 1) Orange things (butternut squash, pumpkin, sweet potatoes) and 2) heat. I have used various chile powders, cumin, and pepper in a lot of different things lately.

I made some honey-chile glazed roasted almonds (recipe courtesy of my dear friends, the Hart-Davidsons). Mine didn't turn out as well as the ones I received from Bill, and I think I know what I did wrong. Will have to make another batch and try again. I also think I may have been a little heavy-handed with the chimayo chile powder. Yowza. Warm heat to start, but WOO! a bit of a bite to the finish. But, they're addictively good and very satisfying.

I made a triple-threat squash soup, adding cumin, roasted garlic and cayenne pepper to spice it up a bit. The soup was delicious, but I did get a bit fussy when I strained the entire batch through a one-cup strainer.

Tonite, I had a couple of salmon fillets to cook. I seasoned them with cumin, and pan seared them, 2 minutes each side over medium-high heat. Really nice sear, I was very pleased with myself. I also managed to not cook the fish to death, which is something that I always worry I will do. The salmon was just barely cooked through in the center and finished with some fresh lime juice. Very nice. To accompany, I microwaved a sweet potato (don't judge me, I'm busy, and sweet potatoes take forever to bake) and then did a roasted cauliflower dish (recipe courtesy of weight watchers) that used more chiles and smokey spices. Separate one head of cauliflower into florets. Toss in a glug of olive oil and then 1/2 tsp each salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder. Roast at 400 for 10-12 minutes, stirring halfway thru, until tender.

And, since I have an insatiable sweet tooth, a couple of ginger snaps for dessert.

Caving to Public Pressure

Ever since I started my facebook account, I would start to include status updates that told everyone what I was up to in the kitchen. The world of social media is interesting. Many people use Twitter, sending out little blurbs about various things, some informative, some inane, some just trying to solicit a click-through to another site. But I found that anytime I posted a status update that talked about what I was cooking, I had people asking to come to dinner, asking for leftovers, or asking for recipes. Over a year later, someone suggested that I should start a weekly blog and include recipes. So here I go, diving head first into the blogosphere, starting a blog about my travails in the kitchen.

I've spent the last few weeks cooking, thanks to the holidays. I'm trying not to waste food as much this year (I tend to go shopping and my eyes get really big and I end up with crazy things in my cart that I never use), so I'm trying to cook strategically.

It's New Year's, tho, and for many, that means a traditional meal of something. I grew up with the black-eyed peas, country ham, cabbage camp. I moved to Ohio and discovered the pork and sauerkraut tradition. I used to hate black-eyed peas. I assume my taste buds have evolved and I really should give that another shot, but I also tread carefully around the world of sauerkraut (stemming from a summer as a prop master for a play and dealing with raw sauerkraut -- I grew to hate the stuff. I like it now, but only on reubens). So, my compromise is kielbasa and cabbage.

I used fresh kielbasa (but you can use the pre-cooked kind, too). If using fresh, brown the kielbasa in a pan, then add a bottle of beer, bring to a boil and cook for about 15 minutes until the kielbasa is cooked through.

Ingredients
1 medium onion, sliced thin
4 large potatoes, quartered
1 can beef broth
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp each -- fresh pepper and dried thyme
1 package kielbasa

Put all ingredients in a large skillet, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

To cook the cabbage, take a large pot and melt 3 tablespoons of butter. Chop up the cabbage (removing the core) and sautee in the butter and season with salt and pepper.