Sunday Night Dinner -- Posh Squash

Sunday night dinner growing up meant dinner at my grandparents' house. Dub and Brownie were married for 60 years and we went to dinner there almost every Sunday that I can remember. That's also where I remember having birthday dinners and holiday dinners until my grandparents were well into their 80s. My grandmother died in 2004 and my grandfather died in 2007. I am so grateful that I had them in my life for so long and miss them terribly.

Over the past few years, I've been digging around the family tree. I got hooked on that show "Who Do You Think You Are," signed up for an ancestry.com membership and started snooping around. The last couple of months have brought great dividends from this research. I'm now connecting with cousins I didn't know I had and we're sharing all sorts of information on my grandmother's family line.

Tonight, I was trying to decide what to make for dinner and staring into my fridge, I saw several yellow squash that had come from my CSA share. I could only think of one thing to do with it -- make my grandmother's Posh Squash. This is a great way to use up a few of those leftover squashes before they get squishy and gross. It's a nice, homey, satisfying casserole that will work well with just about anything. I roasted a few boneless, skinless chicken pieces to have with my dinner.

You'll need:

2 cups cooked yellow squash (I used two squash, sauteed with 1/4 of a large onion that I'd diced and cooked in olive oil).
2 T sugar
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 beaten egg
1/2 stick butter, melted
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
salt and pepper (small pinch of each)

Preheat oven to 350. Cook squash. Mix together other ingredients in a bowl.  Once the squash is cooked, add it to the mixture and toss to combine. Pour into a greased casserole dish (I used an 8x8 baking pan, sprayed with cooking spray) and bake for 25 minutes.

Optional topping -- top with 1/2 cup toasted pecans. Now, if I were to embellish this a little, I think it would be good with either a bread crumb or a ritz cracker topping of some sort. Maybe I'll try that next time.

Tonight's dinner -- roasted chicken, steamed green beans and posh squash. This one's for you, Brownie.

In the canner (but not really), Refrigerator Pickles

Farm share season is in full swing and this week, we got pickling cucumbers! My friend and I split a full share, so we each ended up with 7-8 pickling cukes, just enough for me to make a small batch of my favorite pickles -- bread and butter chips.





You'll need:

thinly sliced vidalia

8 small pickling cucumbers, unpeeled and cut into 1/4 inch slices
1 medium onion, sliced in half and then thinly sliced (I used half a large vidalia onion)

sugar, spice, and everything pickly

3/4 cup sugar
1 cup cider vinegar
4-1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp chile flakes
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp celery seed


Place all ingredients into a large saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Boil for 1 minute, stirring frequently. Let cool for about 15 minutes and then pour into a large bowl and let cool completely.

Boiling pickles

2 half pint jars (almost)

Note: As refrigerator pickles, they'll keep for about a month. I'm pretty sure I could put these through the canner and store them for later. Maybe I'll try that for the next batch.

In the canner, Strawberry Jam

Strawberry season always seems so short to me. God forbid you have a hectic few weeks in June, because it severely limits your ability to acquire strawberries to be able to make jam. In past years, I've hit a local farmer's market and was able to score some "jam" berries for about a third of the price of the regular quarts. These berries are super ripe, slightly less than perfect and great for making jam. This year, I offered to help a friend learn how to make strawberry jam and we decided to "farm to table" on this one and pick our own strawberries.

We headed out east of Cleveland to Patterson's Fruit Farm and hit the strawberry patch. Word of advice -- go early. We were able to pick a nice bounty of berries, but even getting there a little before 10 a.m., things were already a little picked over.

The recipe for strawberry jam that I've used the last couple of years also requires a little organization, time-wise. Plan accordingly.

Basic recipe for a small batch:

4 cups halved or quartered strawberries
2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice

Mix berries and sugar and let stand for 8 hours, stirring occasionally.

Place berry mixture in a medium stainless steel or enamel saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Add lemon juice, return to a boil and boil rapidly for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for 24 hours.

Bring berries to a full boil over high heat and boil rapidly for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

Ladle into hot jars and process for 10 minutes.

Makes 2-1/2 cups.

(NOTE: I usually make a bigger patch, using 4 quarts of berries which gives me roughly 12 cups of berries and will yield about a dozen 8 oz. jelly jars, give or take).

Recreating a favorite restaurant dish

I spent ten wonderful years living in Chicago. I don't get back there now as often as I would like. I have lots of friends still living there that I don't get to see nearly enough (seriously, peeps, I miss you all like crazy). A weekend ritual the last five years I lived there usually meant at least one brunch at M. Henry (and yes, I'm one of those restaurant snobs who prides herself on having discovered this place before you had to wait 90 minutes for a table for 2). I credit this restaurant for showing me the magic of poached eggs, amazing variations on french toast and pancakes, and a lunch item I've been trying to recreate ever since -- the azteca black bean bowl.

I loved this dish. It was satisfying in so many ways and there was always a ton left over, which I'd eat on for a couple of days. My recipe holds similar to the restaurant version, but I added a few embellishes.

1 c. short grain brown rice (uncooked)
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can Ro-tel, diced tomatoes and green chiles, drained
1-2 ears of corn, kernels removed (optional)
1 onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and diced
olive oil
Chili Lime Rub (purchased at Williams-Sonoma)
Chicken tenders
Shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Sour cream

Prepare rice according to directions -- set aside.

Remove kernels from the corn (if using), dice up the red and yellow peppers and place into a large bowl (I also had a small zucchini I needed to use up, so I chopped that up, too and added it in there).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat chicken tenders with the chili lime rub and place in a baking dish coated with non-stick spray. Bake the chicken tenders for 25 minutes, or until fully cooked.

While the chicken is cooking, put 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large saute pan. Saute onions for 5-10 minutes until tender. Add the bowl of veggies and saute until the veggies are tender (another 5-7 minutes). When all of that is done, add the drained cans of black beans and ro-tel along with the brown rice and cook everything through until hot.

Slice up the chicken tenders, serve with a big spoonful of the brown rice mixture and garnish with shredded cheddar cheese and sour cream.

M Henry, I still think yours is better, but this is the closest I've ever gotten and it will do until I can get back to Chicago to have the real thing.

In the canner, Blubarb jam

Summertime means enjoying some of the freshest food you can get your hands on, especially if you live in the Midwest. Weekend farmer's markets, CSAs and the stuff from your own backyard gives you new opportunities to appreciate how delicious fresh food really is and you start wondering how you can capture that summer taste when it's mid-February, it's dark at 4:30 p.m., you haven't seen the sun in DAYS and your only cardio workout consists of shoveling the snow from your driveway.

Over July 4th weekend, I was in my hometown of Lewisburg, WV. We went to the local farmer's market on Saturday morning and scored some GORGEOUS blueberries. I've had a recipe I've been sitting on for years, hoping to finally make it and grabbing some of these beauties was just the inspiration I needed to get started.

When I got my CSA this week, it was a sign from the gods. I had more blueberries and some fresh rhubarb. FATE! I had everything I needed to make this blubarb jam. The recipe comes from my current favorite canning book "The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving".

Ingredients:
3-1/2 cups chopped fresh or frozen rhubarb
1/2 cup water
2-1/4 cups coarsely chopped fresh or frozen blueberries
1 T lemon juice
1 box dry fruit pectin
5-1/2 cups granulated sugar

Place rhubarb and water in a very large stainless steel or enamel saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring often.

Add blueberries, lemon juice and pectin; mix well. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Add sugar, return a full boil and boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Ladle into hot jars and process for 10 minutes.

Makes 6 cups (I may have used a few more blueberries and ended up being able to get 6 8-oz. jelly jars and 2 half-pint jars out of this batch). Darn, one of the jars didn't seal correctly. Guess that's the one I keep :)

Dessert Improvisation #1

To put things mildly, the last couple of months have not been great for me, personally. I won't go into too much detail here, but if you read the preceding post, you'll get the end of what was a really shitty couple of weeks for me. I just haven't been doing a lot of cooking. When I get hungry, I pick through my pantry or the fridge and nothing really goes with anything else.

After Sid died, I spent some time cleaning out the pantry. One, I needed to get rid of an ant problem (I hadn't had ants in years, but this year, those little brats were everywhere, including my pantry). Two, there was stuff in there that I know had gone bad and it was just time to throw things out. I decided if I couldn't remember when or why I bought something, it was time to throw it out. I've reorganized my pantry and the exterminator had to come and take care of the ants, but now I'm left with a much more organized pantry. I've also organized my spices (and am not allowed by buy anymore, but that's another post) and thanks to a bad switch on the compressor of my big freezer, have a nicely cleaned and organized freezer (which has been replenished after losing everything in it).

Over July 4 weekend, I went to WV to spend time with my family. Weather was gorgeous and we spent most of our time on the new deck that my mother and her husband had put on the back of the house. My cousins were coming to visit and we were looking forward to a houseful of people and just enjoying some premium family time.

After the holiday, my cousins were going to spend a few days at my house, visiting family (including me). What a great motivator to get back in the kitchen and make a few things! My cousins have two children who are impressively good eaters, so I didn't have to restrict myself too much in my menu planning. First night they were there, I planned a nice roast chicken, mashed potatoes, and steamed asparagus.

Hmmm. I needed something for dessert. It's summer. Fruit. Fruit would be good here. What did I have? I had some black plums in the fridge that had been there a few weeks, but still seemed ok. OK, I can work with that. I love fruit crisps and had some vanilla ice cream in the freezer, but needed more than just plums to make the crisp.

Digging through my newly organized freezer, I found a bag of frozen blueberries from last year's farm share along with a bag of frozen blackberries from the same farm share. A ha! Time to improvise.

Dessert Improvisation #1 -- Plum, blueberry, and blackberry fruit crisp

For the filling:
6 black plums, peeled, pitted and cut into chunks
1 quart sized bag of frozen blueberries (maybe 1 cup or so)
1 quart sized bag of frozen blackberries (again, maybe a cup or more)
1 lemon -- zested and juiced
1 tsp vanilla paste
2-3 T flour
3 T sugar (I used a raw sugar, but granulated sugar is fine)

For the crisp:
1 stick of butter, cold, cut into small chunks
1/3 c light brown sugar
1/3 c white sugar
1/2 c rolled oats
3/4 c flour
pinch of kosher salt

Preheat oven to 375.

In a large bowl, place cut up plums, blueberries and blackberries. Add zest and juice of one lemon, the vanilla paste, the sugar and flour and toss to coat. Place in large baking dish.

For the topping, mix flour, oats, sugars and salt into a bowl. Put in the butter pieces and with clean hands, mush everything together until you have a nice crumble topping.  Place the topping over the fruit filling and bake for 45 minutes.

Serve warm with some vanilla ice cream, if desired.

Five Lessons From a 20-Year-Old Cat

Anyone who has pets knows that there will come a time when that adorable pet of yours will break your heart. As an adult, I have had a total of three pets. The first two, I adopted in 1993 -- kittens that I named Sid and Nancy. Nancy broke my heart in 2000, having been diagnosed with cutaneous hemangiosarcoma. She developed a big tumor; it was taken out; it grew back; it started spreading; she stopped eating. I made the very difficult decision to let her go in April of that year (she had just turned 7). I don't remember driving home from the vet's office. Sid wouldn't come near me for a couple of days and then spent a week, wandering around my 600 square foot apartment in Chicago, looking for her. I cried for days.

In 2009, a sweet little cat appeared on my porch and stayed there. It took six months to gain her trust and I finally got her to come inside. Porch Kitty became Pique and she was a lovely maine coon, with lynx tip ears and tons of personality. She was very skittish with everyone but me. I didn't know anything about her, but less than 2 years later, she stopped eating and started hiding. She turned out to be significantly older than the vet and I had first thought and was about 15 years old. She was now riddled with cancer, so Pique broke my heart in March, 2011 (the day after my birthday). Ironically, when Pique appeared to me, I thought she was there to cushion the blow over what would be my biggest pet heartbreak to date, which happened today.

Sid, the other half of the Sid and Nancy pair I adopted in 1993, has been with me through a lot. He's been with me for 20 years -- half of my life (give or take). Sid has been slowing down in recent months and I have been worried about him for at least a year. Regular vet visits and daily medication and on paper he was in really good shape for an old man. I had been out of town for a few days and my neighbors were taking care of Sid for me, giving him his daily tuna and dose of meds. I'd checked on him while I was gone, and they'd told me he was being Sid, doing fine.

When I got home yesterday, I noticed something was wrong. His back legs weren't working very well. As always, when I would come home, he'd want to get up from his chair and come and talk to me. He struggled to get out of the chaise. I sat with him and snuggled him and he eventually got down and wobbled his way to follow me to the kitchen. I noticed a significant change in his gait and noticed his back legs were splaying outwards and he was dragging his feet. I called the vet, made an appointment for the next day, to see what was going on. I had dinner plans with a friend, so I got Sid a drink of water and headed out to meet up with my friend. When I came home later, Sid had changed again. In addition to his back legs splaying outward, his right front foot looked broken. It was flopping around and no longer able to bear any kind of weight. He could barely walk. I carried him to the kitchen for a drink of water and got him settled back on his chair. I realized what was happening. Sid was breaking my heart. His chirps and purrs to me were telling me that it was time to go. He tried to get up again and got down off his chair. He kept falling. Meowing. Looking at me. I couldn't just sit there and watch that, so I scooped him up and off we went to the emergency vet. To make a long story short, Sid's health had been significantly compromised. Suspected blood clots, a known heart murmur, loss of mobility with 3 out of 4 limbs and blindness (in addition to the fact that he'd been deaf for 2 years and that he was 20 years old) and the vet said I had some decisions to make.

This is the part of a pet owner's life that everyone dreads. I cried a lot, realized what I had to do and started the process of saying goodbye to my sweet baby, the cat that had been with me for 20 years. He stayed in my arms and went very quickly and peacefully. I managed to get the car home without hitting anything and then allowed myself the freedom to cry. In many ways, Sid's passing is more than just the loss of a pet. He represents the first part of my adult life. I adopted him going into my senior year of college. To help in my grieving process, I wanted to look at the lessons that Sid has taught me, beyond the years of unconditional love and trust that he gave me.

• Take a risk -- Sid was with me when I got my first "real" job out of college. A job that would take me to three different offices and two different states. When I was promoted and asked to move to Chicago, Sid fearlessly sat in the carrier as I loaded up my 24-year-old life into my 1990 Honda Accord and drove to Chicago for the first time. He slipped out the window of my new apartment the first night and I completely freaked (a stunt he also pulled as a kitten, falling out a third story window and not getting hurt). I found him wandering around our new backyard and he came trotting up the stairs as soon as I called him.
• Share -- Sid was all about sharing. He loved to share my spot on the couch. He loved to share the bed (and slept against my foot until about a year or so ago, when he was no longer able to jump onto the bed). He loved to share my food and felt completely entitled to sample whatever it was I was eating or drinking. I learned to never leave my coffee cup unattended or a glass of water. One paw in the cup or glass to get a closer look and I'd hear a "thunk" and have to go get the paper towels. 
• Try new things -- As part of Sid's sharing campaign, I learned that he liked chicken, steak, fish, any kind of bread, but especially pizza crust, most any kind of cheese, balsamic vinegar, tomatoes, potatoes, and most any kind of dairy (including, but not limited to yogurt, milk, sour cream and whipped cream). 
• Love without agenda -- Sid had no great agenda for me. All he cared about was that I came home each day and gave him his tuna every morning, turn on the tub for a big drink of water and provide ample cuddles and snuggles whenever he wanted. In return, I had a little presence in my life that never judged my waistline, or what kind of day I had. Sid was just happy to see me and tell me about his day. 
• Decisions are hard -- When it comes to decisions, ultimately, it is YOUR decision. No one can make choices for you. And in the end, you need to be at peace with the decisions you make. This was Sid's hardest lesson for me. He told me in his own way that he was ready to move on. He waited until I got home from my trip and then showed me how hard it was getting for him. But, it was up to me to make the decision I had to make in his best interest. I have a feeling I will be crying for quite a while over my rumply little cat, that sweet soul that wanted nothing more from me than unconditional love. In time, my heart will open to another sweet soul, but there's a spot that Sid will always occupy and I know he'll never be far away.

Is it Spring yet?

March 27. It's March 27. Wednesday. Snow on Monday. Snow on Tuesday. Today, the sun is out and I'm staring at the forsythia bush out my living room window and trying to see if new buds are starting to break. Once those break, that's when I'll know it's actually spring. I've been woefully remiss in updating this blog. Not that I haven't been experimenting in my kitchen. Recent culinary triumphs include Nutella Pie (yes, it is proof that God loves us) and Ginger Apple Pear Marmalade. It's one of the many projects on my list -- sharing with you all of the goodies I've been creating in my kitchen. Soon, my friends. Soon.

Spice, Spice Baby

One of the darling things I loved about my 99 year old house was the herb garden the previous owners had planted underneath the windows in the kitchen. Now, to be fair, I do not have the greenest thumb out there. Whatever is in my yard is survival of the fittest. I do well with containers, but actual yard? I'm still learning. The herb garden has sage, oregano, chives, and thyme. I added a lavender plant the first year, which started blooming a couple of years ago. This makes me deliriously happy. There's also a nice corner spot where I can stick a tomato plant every year that seems to do well.

Well, it seems that my general neglect of this herb garden is exactly what it likes. The sage bush that was so sweet and tame had grown to hip height and was covering the sidewalk. The oregano is choking out almost everything else. One year, I could barely even FIND the chives. The thyme was starting to spread into the driveway. So, of course, now I'm on a harvesting kick.

Last summer, we harvested a nice sized jar of thyme and two big jars of oregano. This year, we decided to tackle the sage. It was completely out of control. Someone suggested I make smudge sticks, but then I learned that this is the WRONG type of sage for that purpose. So, I started looking up how to make my own dry rubbed sage. Seemed simple enough, so my mother and I last weekend started hacking at this plant.

When we were done, we had rediscovered the sidewalk and I had a huge basket of sage leaves to pick through and get to drying. My sister came up and brought her food dehydrator to go along with the one that I bought. We cleaned and cleaned the sage, got it really dry and added it to the racks. Two days later, we had dried sage leaves. To turn that into rubbed sage, all you really have to do is push them against a sieve. It's taken me the better part of a week to get through it all (about 13-14 total trays of the dehydrator) and get it pushed through the sieve to store. But, I ended up with a beautiful jar of fresh rubbed sage to use. Since I have a plethora of oregano and thyme, I'm thinking it might be time to play around with my own type of blend -- I think it would be great to use to season a roast chicken. Pictures to follow..

A little nosh

I got a call that my sister was planning to visit me for the weekend. The weather in Cleveland has been BEASTLY hot. I started to plan what we could have for a little nosh. She was arriving a little late, so I didn't really want to do a lot of cooking (two reasons, didn't want to have a big meal very late and, mostly, it was too frippin' hot in my house to cook). I started digging through my fridge and freezer and looked for a few things to prepare.

1 -- Ol' Faithful -- Stinky Cheese. Can't go wrong with a nice, stinky blue cheese. Procured a wedge of a nice buttermilk blue.

2 -- Carb element -- Stinky cheese needs a carb delivery element. Procured some sea salt pita chips from Trader Joe's and got a loaf of french bread out of my freezer (which I bought during a church bake sale -- fundraiser for the parlor renovation). I grilled the bread on my grill pan, using a little olive oil for some extra flavor.

3 -- Salt element -- Olives. My particular favorite is picholine. I'm not a big black olive fan, but I adore these little picholines.

4 -- Veggie options -- Took a few minutes to consider my options. I had some pretty radishes, which I dolled up with butter and sea salt. I'd actually never had that before until about a month ago and my world has been changed. Cherry tomatoes, yellow ones, from my farm share, would look nice on my cheeseboard. I wanted a dippy thing of some sort, so I made a pea dip using english peas (one bag of peas I'd frozen, supplemented with a bag of frozen petit pois from the grocery store), ricotta, lemon and mint. (recipe courtesy of Michael Symon). I liked this dip, although next time, I would try making my own ricotta (which doesn't sound difficult) and I would prefer fresher peas. There was a real difference between the batch I froze on my own and the ones from the megamart.

By the time my sister arrived, I had assembled a nice little nosh for us to have with a glass of wine and start our sisterly weekend.

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.