My Roommate Helped!

The weeks of getting delicious produce from a local farm are beginning to wind down; soon all I will be eating is food from the grocery store…bummer! Since the days are getting colder, I have been getting fall foods such as carrots, cabbage, potatoes, beets, and squash. This week, I got a massive head of cabbage that could feed a family of four for weeks! So, the logical thing to do is give the cabbage to my roommate (mom) and let her do the cooking!

Cabbage Rolls was the first meal that popped into my mom’s mind when she saw the massive head of cabbage I brought home. We had Cabbage Rolls for dinner the next night and they were a stomach-warming meal perfect for a chilly fall evening. Take a look at her recipe, try the rolls out, and enjoy them by a warm fire on a cool evening!

Week 12, recipe 12: Cabbage Rolls Ingredients: 1 lb hamburger 8 large cabbage leaves 1 tsp salt ¼ tbsp pepper 2 tbsp onion – chopped 1 cup cooked rice (or ½ cup dry minute rice) 1 egg beaten 1 10.5 oz tomato soup ¾ to 1 cup water Preparation: Pour boiling water over cabbage leaves, let stand for 5 minutes. Drain. Season meat, add onion, rice, and beaten egg. Roll a portion of the meat into each cabbage leaf. Wrap and close with toothpicks (if desired). Place the rolls in a rectangle pan. Pour tomato soup with water over the rolls. Cover with tinfoil and bake in oven for 1 hour at 350 degrees. Enjoy!

The best part of this meal was enjoying it with my roommate…who of course…is my mom. This is not a typical menu item for our dinners, so it was a unique evening. The food tasted good and the company was even better! Get out there and cook some meals with your family.
Have fun!

These Carrots Remind Me of Thanksgiving

This week’s recipe was a quick, easy, and tasty side-dish. I made baked carrots! This was the first week that carrots were included in my batch of produce. It was a nice surprise; home-grown carrots are delicious! Other veggies I got included jalapenos, green pepper, beets, red potatoes, celery, and white radish. I’ve never had white radish before – so that is next on my list to cook with.

My baked carrots turned out great. They were tender, juicy, and flavorful. The seasoning I used even reminded me of the holidays – like Thanksgiving – because that is typically when I eat the most baked carrots (the spice nutmeg is also used a lot around the holidays). This recipe was easy to make and all I had to do was sit back and wait for it to cook. In the end, the wait was worth it!

Week 11, recipe 11: Baked Carrots Ingredients: 2 cups of carrots – sliced ¼ cup water 3 tablespoons butter 1 tablespoon sugar ½ teaspoon nutmeg ½ teaspoon salt Preparation: In a casserole dish, mix the sugar, nutmeg, and salt with water. Add the carrots and dab them with the butter. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes or until carrots are tender. Mix the carrots occasionally. Allow to rest for 3 to 4 minutes and serve.

Next week just may involve the white radish I got…that will probably be a more difficult vegetable to cook with! Let me know if you have any ideas!
Cook on!

Busy Schedule Challenge

Well, I took a few days (or weeks – but who’s counting) off from cooking. I found myself busy, not feeling well, or just too tired to cook up my delicious fresh produce. It’s a part of life to be lacking time to do the things a person wants to do; delegation is key! So, I picked myself up, delegated my day to have the time to make some fresh vegetable recipes, and ended my hiatus!

What are some of the vegetables I have gotten recently? I have gotten a lot of the usual – swiss chard, radishes, green pepper, beets, cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, and zucchini. One vegetable that I got which I have not gotten yet is cabbage (except Napa cabbage). Needless to say, I picked cabbage as my vegetable to cook with.

 

Week 10, recipe 1: Skillet Cabbage Ingredients: ¼ cup butter ¼ cup chopped onion ½ teaspoon salt 1 small head of cabbage - shredded 1 small sweet pepper - chopped 2 small stems celery - chopped 3 medium mushrooms - sliced 1 tablespoon sugar 3 tablespoons vinegar Preparation: In a large skillet over medium heat, melt butter. Add onion and salt and mix thoroughly. Add shredded cabbage, sweet pepper, celery, and mushrooms. Cook covered, over medium heat, for 10-15 minutes. Stir frequently. Blend vinegar and sugar; add to cabbage mixture. Stir gently to blend; cook cabbage 5 minutes longer.

I found this recipe online and it originally called for just cabbage. I wanted to add some more veggies, so I added some of my favorites: mushrooms, celery, and sweet pepper. The celery and sweet pepper both came from the Kellner Back Acre CSA produce as well! The results of the dish were pretty good. The flavor was excellent and the texture was “OK”. I thought the cabbage was a little chewy for my taste, but overall, it was a successfully made recipe.

My next recipe was thrown together fairly quickly. I wanted a tomato side-dish for my meal, so I made tomatoes and fresh basil (both from the CSA). It was a quick-fix and it tasted pretty good too!

 

Week 10, recipe 2: Tomato and Basil Ingredients: 2-3 small to medium tomatoes – chopped 3-4 leaves fresh basil – shredded Olive oil – to taste Parmesan cheese Preparation: Chop up the tomatoes and place in a bowl. Shred/slice 3 to 4 fresh basil leaves – sprinkle over tomatoes. Drizzle the desired amount of olive oil over the tomatoes and mix. Sprinkle your desired amount of Parmesan cheese over the mixture. Serve.

I may have gone on a small summer break from cooking fresh vegetables…but, I’m back! Tune in next week!

Beet It!

This week was a difficult one to get much cooking in. I was busy, busy, busy! It’s not unusual for me (and everyone else) to be busy this time of year. The weather is nice, there are plenty of outdoor activities to participant in, and cookouts are more fun than eating indoors. So, I don’t have an exciting recipe this week. But, it was still an interesting week for my food adventures; I tried my first beet!

The produce this time of year is great – besides beets, I got: radishes, celery, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, watermelon, garlic, potatoes, and green peppers. Most of the food I got was (and is) turned into salads. But, beets don’t really fit into a summer lettuce salad! So, I had to find another way to prepare the beets.

I’ve heard that beets can be roasted, baked, and boiled. I’ve also heard that they taste great in combination with other ingredients, but they taste good solo as well. The easiest route for me to get a good taste of beets was to just throw them in some water and boil them. So, that is exactly what I did!

To prepare the beets, I filled a small pot with water and threw the cleaned beets into the pot. The website I was using for guidance suggested to boil the beets for at least 30 minutes or until tender. I ended up boiling them for at least 30 minutes (and it was probably more like 40 to 45 minutes…I wasn’t paying close attention). I stuck a fork into each beet and thought they felt tender enough, so I took them out of the boiling water. Next, I let them cool for a while and then later peeled the skin off. The skin was fairly easy to peel; it just rubs right off (but be careful, the juice turns your fingers red!). When the peeling was complete, I sliced each beet and put into a container for storage.

Of course, before I put the beets in the refrigerator, I tried several slices. I actually enjoyed the flavor of the beets quite a bit (I didn’t think I would). I thought the flavor was very familiar and similar to the flavor of another vegetable, but I could not (and still cannot) put my finger on which vegetable. I can describe the flavor as being that of a potato, carrot, and onion all rolled up into one. The onion flavor was mostly an after-taste; but not overly strong.

I will eat boiled beets again, and I will hopefully find some time to create a dish with beets and other ingredients as well! I can proudly say that I can add beets to my list of “enjoyable” vegetables.

 

Week 9, recipe 1: Boiled Beets Ingredients: Beets Water Salt/pepper (optional) Preparation: Bring a pot of water to a boil and place clean beets in water. Boil the beets for about 30 minutes or until tender. Remove beets from water and let cool. Peel the beets, slice, and serve.

Boiled Beets

Sliced after boiling

An Eggplant Does not Taste like an Egg

I’ve learned a lot the past few weeks and months of this summer. I’ve learned what kind of vegetables I like a lot and what kind of vegetables I don’t like so much. I’ve also learned what vegetables do well during certain types of weather; cucumbers love rain! This summer’s many rain showers have helped the cucumber crop greatly. We have had a lot of cucumbers waiting for us at the CSA pick-up this year! And, I have no problem with that, because I really like cucumbers.

Another vegetable I’ve gotten large quantities of this summer is zucchini. I’ve made several recipes with zucchini recently. However, I’m finding that I’m not that big of a fan of zucchini. I enjoyed the stuffed zucchini on the grill and the zucchini bread. But, if I eat much more zucchini this summer, I may turn into one.

Now, eggplant is the most recent vegetable I’ve tried that I have never eaten before. The jury is still slightly out on this one…but, I’m pretty sure I do not like it. I made eggplant on the grill as a side dish for dinner. The skin was slightly chewy and the consistency was much like a cooked mushroom (but without any flavor). So, I am not opposed to trying eggplant again sometime in the future, but a person won’t find me creating a dish with it on my own any time soon.

If you are living life on the wild side and would like to test the eggplant recipe yourself, here it is!

Week 8, recipe 1: Eggplant on the Grill Ingredients: One eggplant – cut lengthwise in quarters Two cloves garlic – finely minced 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar Preparation: Warm your grill to a medium heat. Slice the eggplant into 4 lengthwise sections. Mix together minced garlic, approx. 2 tablespoons olive oil, and 1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar. Brush the mixture onto the eggplant and let sit for about 5 to 10 minutes. Place eggplant on the grill and cook for about 15 to 20 minutes or until tender (flipping/rotating occasionally).

If (or when) I decide to cook with eggplant again, I will create a dish that has more ingredients. I have a feeling eggplant would be much more enjoyable with some additional ingredients to give it a kick!

Stay tuned for more recipes! Beets may be on the horizon!

Well, I have a lot of zucchini

 

Week 7, recipe 1: Zucchini with Peas Ingredients: Butter-flavored vegetable cooking spray 2 green onions 2 cloves garlic 2 medium yellow squash – sliced 2 ounces peas (or snow peas) 2 tablespoons finely chopped tarragon Salt and pepper to taste Preparation: Spray a large skillet or wok with cooking spray (add butter if you do not have butter flavored cooking spray). Heat spray over medium heat until hot. Sauté the green onions and garlic for about 2 to 3 minutes. Add squash, peas, and tarragon and spray with cooking spray. Cook the veggies over medium heat until they are tender (about 5 minutes).

This dish definitely had an interesting flavor. The tarragon gave the veggies a flavor similar to black licorice, with some earthy qualities…not exactly something that I would eat on a regular basis. But, it was great fun finding a recipe and creating a dish with this herb that I have never tried before. So, it was an overall good experience – even though I don’t think I will cook with tarragon much anytime soon. If you would like to try this herb yourself, find Dave Parsons, a fantastic YMCA member. He supplied me with my first taste of tarragon; maybe he can do the same for you!

 

Week 7, recipe 2: Zucchini Bread Ingredients: 2 eggs, beaten 1 1/3 cup sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla 3 cups grated fresh zucchini 2/3 cup melted unsalted butter 2 teaspoons baking soda Pinch salt 3 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 2 teaspoons cinnamon 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional) Preparation: Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Mix in the grated zucchini and then the melted butter. Sprinkle baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour, a third at a time. Sprinkle in the cinnamon and nutmeg and mix. Fold in the nuts. Divide the batter equally between 2 buttered 5 by 9 inch loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour (check for doneness at 50 minutes) or until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes. Turn out onto wire racks to cool thoroughly.

I’ve always enjoyed carrot cake and pumpkin bread, and now….I enjoy zucchini bread! This recipe took a little more effort and time to make. Grating the zucchini and adding the ingredients together, a little at a time, was time consuming. But, the payoff was in the end! My results were good – two moist loaves of a (somewhat) healthy bread. I say (somewhat) because there is a stick of butter in the recipe. But, a little butter here and there won’t hurt (too much).

Stop! Zucchini Time!

What a great time of year…warm weather, fun weekends, and yummy food! This week’s share of produce included zucchini, cucumbers, green beans, lettuce, and summer squash. It’s a great week for eating veggies!

When I got all my produce home, I decided that I wanted to make a dish with zucchini. So, I searched for some stuffed, grilled zucchini recipes. I found a few that sounded pretty good, but I didn’t have all the ingredients needed. I also found a few that involved stuffing the zucchini with beef, and I didn’t want to do that. So, I decided to do a spin-off of the vegetable based recipes. Many of the recipes had mushrooms, tomatoes and/or tomato sauce, and other vegetables. So, I made a zucchini stuffed with mushrooms and tomato sauce! It turned out delectable, and here it is:

Week 6, Recipe 1: Grilled Zucchini with Tomato and Mushroom Ingredients: 1 medium zucchini (I used a “pumpkin” shaped zucchini, but a long zucchini would work too) 3 medium mushrooms – sliced 8 oz. tomato sauce 1 clove garlic 1 shallot – chopped Preparation: Cut the top off of the zucchini and scoop out the insides. Mix together your sliced mushrooms, tomato sauce, garlic, and shallots. Fill the inside of the zucchini with the mixture. Place the stuffed zucchini on a baking sheet or pie tin and put onto a warm grill. Watch the zucchini carefully for 20-30 minutes. Remove from heat when zucchini is tender.

I was happy to find that my own recipe for stuffed zucchini was delicious! I was a little nervous to see how it tasted because I did not use an “actual” recipe. But, I have always liked the combination of mushrooms and tomatoes, so my hope was that adding them to a zucchini would be a great touch!
As an addition to our dinner, my roommate and I grilled corn on the cob and pork. YUM! The pork was barbequed and the corn was soaked in salt water and then grilled with the husk still on. The three dishes created an excellent meal. And, a pretty healthy meal as well!
I’m glad I have had a pretty good summer with my vegetables so far. I had a little mishap with a kale chip recipe – but I my heart wasn’t into that dish. So, who cares! I am looking forward to getting more veggies and making more dishes. Stay tuned!

 

Side-Dish-Mania

Greetings fellow cookers! I hope the summer has been treating you well. Some of you may have noticed I had no journal last week. Unfortunately, there was no CSA produce for that week. The weather (although we had rain) prevented the farmer from picking produce. The problem was actually too much rain. The fields were too soggy and muddy to have healthy lettuces and other leafy vegetables. And, the beans, peas, and cucumbers were not ready to be picked.

The good and bad weather we have each summer is part of the risk a person takes when making the decision to be part of a CSA. A growing season can be wonderful and a person could get all the produce he/she invested in at the start of the season. Or, the season could be a bad one and produce low quality and/or quantity of produce. If we were living in the days of being sustained off of your own garden…I would have been hungry last week! But, patience pays off because this week I received a bounty of produce.

This week I received: kale, bok choy, swiss chard, lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini, kohlrabi, and raspberries. I almost didn’t have enough room in my bag to bring it all home! Of the produce I got, I had never tasted kohlrabi before, so I created a dish with that in it. Here it is!

Week 5, recipe 1: Quick Kohlrabi Bites Ingredients: 2 to 4 small kohlrabi bulbs, trimmed, peeled, and cut into 1/2" cubes Dash of olive oil Dash of Rice vinegar (Not sweetened, available in Asian grocery stores and some supermarkets. If you don't have rice vinegar, you could substitute something rather mellow - white wine or sherry vinegar, or even white vinegar with just a pinch of sugar added) Kosher Salt Fresh Black Pepper Preparation: Place the kohlrabi chunks in a bowl of a lidded, airtight container. Drizzle with a touch of olive oil, a good splash of vinegar, and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Replace the lid and shake well. Taste and adjust seasoning. Place in fridge, shaking occasionally. They are best after they have marinated for a few hours, and will last about a week, becoming more intensely flavored but still largely retaining their lovely texture.

The Quick Kohlrabi Bites are good tasting, healthy snacks. I would describe the flavor and texture of the kohlrabi to be a mixture between a radish (without the strong “spicy” flavor) and an uncooked potato. It still tastes pretty similar to a radish/onion with the seasoning added – but I feel that the strong odor and after-taste of an onion is lacking with kohlrabi (thankfully). These little bites could even be a side dish to a hamburger or other typical “cook-out” foods.

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With the other produce I had for the week, my roommate (mom) and I made other delicious side dishes. We made cucumber salad and zucchini on the grill. We even had fresh dill from our CSA to throw into the cucumber salad. YUM! I do not have pictures for these particular side dishes, but if you would like to make them at home, the recipes follow:

Week 5, recipe 2:
Sliced cucumber salad

Ingredients:
1/2 c. buttermilk
2 tbsp. 
2 tsp. mayonnaise
1 tbsp. chopped fresh dill
1/8 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
2 c. sliced pared cucumbers
1/4 c. red onions

Preparation:
In small mixing bowl; combine buttermilk, mayonnaise, dill, salt and pepper. Stir until smooth. Add cucumber and onions.

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Week 5, recipe 3:
Grilled Zucchini:

Ingredients:
Zucchini
Olive Oil
Sea salt

Preparation:
Slice the zucchini into long French-fry length pieces. Rub with olive oil. Sprinkle with sea salt. Place on warm grill for approximately 5-8 minutes or until tender.

Do you think this is cabbage?

Another week of summer has flown by! Where has June gone? But, with the passing weeks comes a different variety of CSA produce. This week, I received Napa Cabbage, bok choy, kale, zucchini, and lettuce. I haven’t gotten any cabbage or zucchini up until this point, so I thought I would make a dish with those ingredients. However, when I got my produce home, I wasn’t even sure if I had cabbage!

When I brought my produce home, I sorted the different vegetables on the kitchen table. I had a large bunched vegetable that looked like a type of lettuce, but it didn’t taste lettuce-like. I should really start paying more attention to what I am getting when I pick up my produce! 

So, I did some investigation work online. I had a hunch that the bunched vegetable was cabbage, but I have never seen cabbage that looked like this before. Like I said earlier, it looked more like lettuce (romaine lettuce to be exact). So I googled “different types of cabbage” and looked through the images. I found an image that looked very similar to what I had and clicked on it. It turned out that I did in fact have cabbage! The cabbage I had was not your typical “grocery store” cabbage. It was a Chinese cabbage called Napa Cabbage. This cabbage tastes different than the type of cabbage I am used to. When I bit off a chunk of a leaf, it tasted pretty bitter.
I knew it was something I didn’t really want to eat raw. I could probably add it to a salad mix and hide the “bitter” taste, but I decided to look for a recipe that cooked the bitterness away. When I found a recipe that cooked the cabbage and even included cayenne pepper, I knew I would like it. So, here it is!

Week 4, recipe 1: Stir Fried Spiced Cabbage Ingredients: 1 lb Napa Cabbage 2 tbsp sugar 2 tbsp white vinegar 1 tsp salt ¼ tsp cayenne pepper 1 tbsp oil (olive, vegetable – your choice) Preparation: After washing and drying cabbage; chop each cabbage leaf into approximately 1 inch x 1 inch pieces. In a small bowl, combine sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, salt, and cayenne pepper. Leave the oil out to put into your wok. Pour your oil into the wok; heat your wok and oil (swirl the oil in the wok). After about 30 seconds, turn your heat down and add the cabbage to the wok. Stir fry the cabbage for about 3 minutes (no longer than 5 minutes). Remove the wok from heat and stir in the soy sauce/vinegar mixture. Transfer the cabbage into a serving bowl and let cool to lukewarm before serving. Or, if you prefer, serve chilled.

This dish was pretty tasty, but the cabbage was a tad on the chewy side. But, I would prepare this recipe again because it was a good tasting, healthy side dish. I even mixed up the dish by throwing in some ingredients not listed in the recipe! I added zucchini and mushrooms. I love stir fried mushrooms, and zucchini tastes better cooked than raw (in my book), so I knew they would be a good compliment to the cabbage.

I stir fried the zucchini and mushrooms separately from the cabbage. I threw the chopped zucchini and mushrooms in a wok with some olive oil and stirred them around for about 3 minutes. I removed them from the heat and added them to my cabbage dish. The results were even better than just cabbage alone!

The refrigerator is empty; blues

Well, this week has started out a little tougher than the last two weeks. I don’t have any food at home to prepare along with my CSA produce! So, I will have to be creative…or just super simple. This week’s produce included more kale, bok choy, and spinach. The new additions were radishes and lettuce – yum! It was also a nice change of pace to not have to pick up my produce in the pouring rain. This time around, the sun was shining and it was very warm out – perfect weather in my opinion.

So, what to make for dinner? I did some searching in the kitchen and found that I had no chicken or other protein to compliment my vegetables. I also had very little other ingredients around to make a fancy vegetable salad. Needless to say, I need to do some serious grocery shopping (or gently persuade my roommate…mom…to do it for me). I decided to just create a salad out of the few ingredients that I did have – the CSA lettuce, spinach, bok choy, and radishes.

Week 3, recipe 1: The Refrigerator is Empty – Salad Ingredients: 8-10 medium sized lettuce leaves ½ to ¾ cup spinach 2 leaves of bok choy 2 radishes Salad dressing Preparation: I took about 8-10 medium sized lettuce leaves and tore them up – placed them in a large bowl. I threw in a handful of spinach leaves. To add a little different flavor, I chopped up two bok choy leaves (stems included) into the bowl. And finally, I threw in two chopped radishes (which also added a nice red color to the mix!). To top off my salad, I added blue cheese, French dressing. But, of course, a person could add any type of salad dressing.

I enjoyed my simple little salad. It did not take long for me to create and it is definitely a healthy dinner. It’s also great to know that I can throw together some ingredients and have them turn out tasting good. I don’t have to follow a recipe all the time – and that feels nice! Who said cooking was hard? On to the next dish!
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Week 3, snack 1: Asparagus on the Grill Ingredients: Asparagus – your desired amount (I had about 5 spears) 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (more or less depending on amount of asparagus) 1 tablespoon olive oil (more or less depending on amount of asparagus) Sea salt Preparation: Warm your grill as you wash and dry your asparagus. Mix together balsamic vinegar and olive oil in a bowl. Brush or rub asparagus with the balsamic vinegar/olive oil mixture. Place asparagus on clean, warm grill. Cook asparagus for 5 to 10 minutes or until the stalks look bright green. Asparagus should be tender. Remove asparagus from the grill and sprinkle your desired amount of sea salt over them. Your asparagus is now ready to be eaten!

I made this snack without a recipe – just like my salad. I have seen recipes for grilled asparagus in the past, but I could not remember what was all in them. So, I threw together some ingredients that I’ve seen in grilled vegetable recipes before – and it ended up working out! The asparagus was warm and tender. The olive oil and balsamic vinegar gave the asparagus a nice flavor. And, the sea salt added an extra burst of flavor – I would highly recommend buying sea salt if you have none.

My grilled asparagus tasted even better considering how I enjoyed it – in the sun! I used the grill on our back patio, sat in the sun while I grilled, and then enjoyed the view while eating my healthy snack. It was a great afternoon!