Here's a nice coleslaw recipe that doesn't require carrots. For some reason we haven't been getting any carrots from our CSA so it's nice to have an alternative. We are getting green peppers and can still buy last year's apples from a local orchard. I find myself going to the farmer's market for onions and garlic lately because our CSA is also not providing those cooking staples either. My most recent purchase on that score were beautiful bunches of scallions with the most enormous and perfect greens. The greens were so tall that I actually had to use less than 1/4 of a bunch of greens in the recipe, but I think that this variety of scallion is unusual. ;-) Enjoy!
1/2 medium red cabbage, shredded
1 green pepper, chopped finely
1 apple, chopped finely
1 small onion or a bunch of scallion greens chopped finely
combine in a large bowl
1/2 cup rice vinegar
2 Tbs honey
1/2 tsp dill
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp corriander
Combine in sauce pan and bring to a soft boil
Pour over vegetables
Toss well
let sit 30 minutes before serving
We actually haven't eaten this yet, but I tasted the utensil I used to toss it before I stuck it in the fridge and it was good. It's always a good sign when you don't want to let your coleslaw sit for 30 minutes but would rather eat it right away. :-)
Two nice things about this slaw. 1) Red cabbage is full of anti-oxidants and is very good for you. 2) It's very colorful and unusual: purple, green, and pink (the apple gets stained by the cabbage and turns pinkish). Very appealing to the eye.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Pork and Beans, 2 Ways
I LOVE pork and beans. It's a good thing Jesus said that it's not what goes in that defiles, but what comes out because I don't think I could give up pork. I make Mexican flavored pork and beans and I do it two ways: either as soup or as a main dish. Both recipes are cooked in the crock pot. In order to have a good pork and beans you have to have good pork. It must come from a "happy porker", as Miss Bates would say. ;-) If you live in the Charlottesville area I recommend getting your pork from Babes in the Woods or Polyface Farm.
My first try at this was making Chalupas from Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook. It was good, but called for Pinto beans. I prefer black beans so that's what I use. You can use either kind, but I wouldn't recommend trying anything other than those two kinds.
Here's the main dish recipe:
~ 1 pound pork (a roast of whatever cut). You can brown it if you want but you don't have to.
1-1.5 cups dry black beans soaked over night in 3 cups of water, or if you forget to soak them you can put them in a pot covered with about an inch of water, boil for 2 minutes, then cover and let sit for 1 hour.
The bean water
1 large onion or 1 bunch of spring onions with greens chopped.
2 garlic cloves or 4 garlic scapes minced or chopped finely
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt
1 tsp chile powder or 1 jalapeno pepper seeded and diced
1 small can of green chiles
Optional ingredients:
1 small green pepper chopped - I hardly ever have these anymore because they're only in season in the summer
tomatoes - any amount. I've use one 14 oz can or 1/2 a 14 oz can. You can add fresh, chopped ones. Whatever.
cilantro - you can add this dried while cooking or chop fresh and sprinkle it on top when serving.
Combine in crock pot and cook on low ~8 hours.
Before serving, remove pork and shred. Return to pot and mix.
You can serve this over rice or just on your plate with homemade bread. We recently had this with homemade bread and grilled asparagus and zucchini marinated in Newman's Own Balsamic Vinaigrette. Yum! You might like cheese or sour cream, too.W
~~
Here's how you do the soup.
You combine the necessary ingredients for the main dish as stated above. Then add the vegetables and water/broth called for in a minestrone soup recipe. You are not adding minestone soup spices or beans or barley or anything else...just the veggies.
For example, maybe you would add the following:
The bean water plus water or broth totaling 6 cups. I would wait until you add everything else to add the additional water or broth, just so that you don't accidentally overflow your pot.
2 carrots, chopped
1 additional onion, chopped
3 ribs of celery, chopped
1 small zucchini, chopped
fresh greens, chopped (as many as you want: chard, kale, spinach, etc.)
28 oz can of diced tomatoes or ~7 fresh tomatoes chopped.
Combine with other ingredients and cook the same as above. Don't forget to shred the pork. You can serve this soup over rice or with fresh bread.
You can make substitutions depending on what you have in the house. For example, keep celery in the fridge in the winter (because it's a cheap vegetable), but not in the summer (because there's some much else available). You can substitute Swiss Chard stalks for the celery, then chop up the leaves and add them, too. I think sweet peppers would work in this soup, any color. You could leave out the carrots and add the peppers, or use both. I have a feeling that okra would be good in this soup, too. It will make it kind of slimy looking, but that's just what okra does. I also bet that you could add winter squash to this and it would be tasty (I might add some cinnamon with winter squash). Green beans would be fine, too. Hmmm...maybe eggplant, but I'm not sure. If you try that and it's bad, I'm sorry!
I would NOT add broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, peas, asparagus, radishes, cabbage... that's all the veggies I can think of.
Enjoy!
My first try at this was making Chalupas from Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook. It was good, but called for Pinto beans. I prefer black beans so that's what I use. You can use either kind, but I wouldn't recommend trying anything other than those two kinds.
Here's the main dish recipe:
~ 1 pound pork (a roast of whatever cut). You can brown it if you want but you don't have to.
1-1.5 cups dry black beans soaked over night in 3 cups of water, or if you forget to soak them you can put them in a pot covered with about an inch of water, boil for 2 minutes, then cover and let sit for 1 hour.
The bean water
1 large onion or 1 bunch of spring onions with greens chopped.
2 garlic cloves or 4 garlic scapes minced or chopped finely
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt
1 tsp chile powder or 1 jalapeno pepper seeded and diced
1 small can of green chiles
Optional ingredients:
1 small green pepper chopped - I hardly ever have these anymore because they're only in season in the summer
tomatoes - any amount. I've use one 14 oz can or 1/2 a 14 oz can. You can add fresh, chopped ones. Whatever.
cilantro - you can add this dried while cooking or chop fresh and sprinkle it on top when serving.
Combine in crock pot and cook on low ~8 hours.
Before serving, remove pork and shred. Return to pot and mix.
You can serve this over rice or just on your plate with homemade bread. We recently had this with homemade bread and grilled asparagus and zucchini marinated in Newman's Own Balsamic Vinaigrette. Yum! You might like cheese or sour cream, too.W
~~
Here's how you do the soup.
You combine the necessary ingredients for the main dish as stated above. Then add the vegetables and water/broth called for in a minestrone soup recipe. You are not adding minestone soup spices or beans or barley or anything else...just the veggies.
For example, maybe you would add the following:
The bean water plus water or broth totaling 6 cups. I would wait until you add everything else to add the additional water or broth, just so that you don't accidentally overflow your pot.
2 carrots, chopped
1 additional onion, chopped
3 ribs of celery, chopped
1 small zucchini, chopped
fresh greens, chopped (as many as you want: chard, kale, spinach, etc.)
28 oz can of diced tomatoes or ~7 fresh tomatoes chopped.
Combine with other ingredients and cook the same as above. Don't forget to shred the pork. You can serve this soup over rice or with fresh bread.
You can make substitutions depending on what you have in the house. For example, keep celery in the fridge in the winter (because it's a cheap vegetable), but not in the summer (because there's some much else available). You can substitute Swiss Chard stalks for the celery, then chop up the leaves and add them, too. I think sweet peppers would work in this soup, any color. You could leave out the carrots and add the peppers, or use both. I have a feeling that okra would be good in this soup, too. It will make it kind of slimy looking, but that's just what okra does. I also bet that you could add winter squash to this and it would be tasty (I might add some cinnamon with winter squash). Green beans would be fine, too. Hmmm...maybe eggplant, but I'm not sure. If you try that and it's bad, I'm sorry!
I would NOT add broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, peas, asparagus, radishes, cabbage... that's all the veggies I can think of.
Enjoy!
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Spinach Quiche
We got a bunch of spinach from our CSA yesterday. I wanted to do something different with it. Spring is a healthy time of year - greens, greens, and more greens - but I get sick of eating greens. I've been trying different recipes this spring that mask the fact that I'm eating greens, while enabling me to actually cook and eat them all. Today I decided to make spinach quiche. I've never made quiche before and really had no idea what I was doing. I made two mistakes: 1) I started too late so we ate an hour later than usual, 2) I used a pizza crust instead of a pie crust (I had an extra unopened Pillsbury pizza crust from my Pampered Chef party and I thought, why not try it?). The pizza crust wasn't bad, it just stuck to the pie pan and only Brett can get any pieces out. But it tasted good, so maybe it wasn't really a mistake. Would I use it again? Probably not. It tasted fine, but pizza crust is not as easy to manipulate at pie crust. Anyway, my recipe is a combination of three recipes. The quiche recipes in Joy of Cooking and the America's Test Kitchen cookbook, as well as this one: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/spinach-quiche/detail.aspx. I had to use all three because I couldn't find one for a simple spinach quiche.
I'm convinced that the cheese you use will make or break this recipe. Be sure NOT to buy wax posing as cheese. Ask the cheese specialist at your store which of the cheddars, etc. is worth buying. For this we used Romano cheese that Brett bought in Germany and 365 sharp cheddar.
Spinach Quiche
Crust:
Brush your pie pan with olive oil.
Insert pie crust.
Prick and make the edges pretty (something you can't do with pizza crust).
Brush with olive oil and minced garlic.
Pre-bake 7 minutes or less at temp for pie crust.
Remove from oven.
Set oven to 350.
Filling, etc.:
Cube 1/2 cup strong cheese (Romano, feta, etc.) and 1/4 cup sharp cheddar.
Saute together olive oil, one bunch of spring onions chopped, ~10 oz fresh spinach (stems removed) chopped until the spinach wilts and the water cooks off. Remove from heat.
Beat together 2 cups milk, 4 eggs, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, some nutmeg, a little chopped fresh parsley.
Mix cheese with the spinach and immediately spread the mixture on the bottom of your pie crust.
Open oven and pull out your middle rack. Place pie pan on rack.
Rebeat custard mixture (because all the pepper will have sunk to the bottom) and poor evenly over spinach until 1/2 in from the top of the crust.
Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until golden brown and a knife can come out clean 1 in from edge of quiche.
Allow to cool at least 15 min.
Enjoy!
By the way, when I made this I had a whole bunch of custard mixture left over. I poured it into my mini muffin tin and added a chunk of garlic to each cup. Then I baked them at 350 for 20 min. I haven't tried them yet. I just didn't want to throw away any food. I'm thinking I could put these little cups on a salad or something.
I'm convinced that the cheese you use will make or break this recipe. Be sure NOT to buy wax posing as cheese. Ask the cheese specialist at your store which of the cheddars, etc. is worth buying. For this we used Romano cheese that Brett bought in Germany and 365 sharp cheddar.
Spinach Quiche
Crust:
Brush your pie pan with olive oil.
Insert pie crust.
Prick and make the edges pretty (something you can't do with pizza crust).
Brush with olive oil and minced garlic.
Pre-bake 7 minutes or less at temp for pie crust.
Remove from oven.
Set oven to 350.
Filling, etc.:
Cube 1/2 cup strong cheese (Romano, feta, etc.) and 1/4 cup sharp cheddar.
Saute together olive oil, one bunch of spring onions chopped, ~10 oz fresh spinach (stems removed) chopped until the spinach wilts and the water cooks off. Remove from heat.
Beat together 2 cups milk, 4 eggs, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, some nutmeg, a little chopped fresh parsley.
Mix cheese with the spinach and immediately spread the mixture on the bottom of your pie crust.
Open oven and pull out your middle rack. Place pie pan on rack.
Rebeat custard mixture (because all the pepper will have sunk to the bottom) and poor evenly over spinach until 1/2 in from the top of the crust.
Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until golden brown and a knife can come out clean 1 in from edge of quiche.
Allow to cool at least 15 min.
Enjoy!
By the way, when I made this I had a whole bunch of custard mixture left over. I poured it into my mini muffin tin and added a chunk of garlic to each cup. Then I baked them at 350 for 20 min. I haven't tried them yet. I just didn't want to throw away any food. I'm thinking I could put these little cups on a salad or something.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Spring Is Here!
Hello again!
It is spring and spring means ASPARAGUS! We are avid asparagus lovers, but decided a couple of years ago only to eat it when it is in season locally. It appears at the farmer's market for about a month when it's in season. It is so delicious! Barbara Kingsolver, in her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle convinced us to wait until the spring to eat asparagus. It's better for the earth: since it hasn't been shipped from South America or California we are not paying for shipping. In other words, local, in-season asparagus (or any food for that matter) is not gas-guzzling, carbon-monoxide emitting food. Plus, it tastes better fresh. There's nothing like it!
Barbara Kingsolver also taught us to cook asparagus with mushrooms, something we had never thought of before. Wild morel mushrooms are available at the same time as the asparagus. Morels are AMAZING! However, if you don't know where to forage for them yourself, they are very expensive. You can substitute crimini or shitake for them.
Mark Bittman wrote an article called The Flavor of Spring in the Wednesday, May 13, 2009 New York Times (D2). He wrote, "In an ideal world, here's what a spring dish might look like: you take morels from your foraging trip, cream and butter from your cow, and asparagus, shallots and herbs from your garden. You combine them in any way that makes sense to you, and then you thank the forest, the cow and your backyard for providing such amazing bounty." In our case, we thank the farmer's market. We adapted the recipe found in the article. Here's how we combined these spring delights!
Asparagus and Mushroom Stir Fry
2 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs butter
1 bunch chopped spring onions or leeks, chopped
1 pound of mushrooms, trimmed and sliced (or more, you could never have too many): crimini, shitake, morel, porcini, etc.
1/3 lb chicken cut into stir fry strips
1 clove garlic, sliced
1 bunch of farmer's market asparagus (~ 1 lb), trimmed and cut into 1.5in pieces
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp flour
~1 Tbs chopped fresh cilantro, tarragon, or chervil
salt and pepper to taste
1. Heat butter and olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions/leeks, mushrooms, and chicken. Cook until mushrooms have released their liquid and it has cooked off, about 10 min. Add the garlic ~half-way through. Be sure to flip the chicken often until it has cooked through. Feel free to break up the chicken as it cooks. The chicken will cook through before the mushroom juice cooks off.
2. Add the asparagus and the chicken broth. Bring to a boil, cover, reduced heat, and simmer for 2-4 min.
3. Whisk together milk and flour in a cup. Add to the skillet with the herbs. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Continue cooking uncovered until the sauce thickens slightly and the asparagus is tender, about 4 min.
4. Serve over angel hair pasta.
It is spring and spring means ASPARAGUS! We are avid asparagus lovers, but decided a couple of years ago only to eat it when it is in season locally. It appears at the farmer's market for about a month when it's in season. It is so delicious! Barbara Kingsolver, in her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle convinced us to wait until the spring to eat asparagus. It's better for the earth: since it hasn't been shipped from South America or California we are not paying for shipping. In other words, local, in-season asparagus (or any food for that matter) is not gas-guzzling, carbon-monoxide emitting food. Plus, it tastes better fresh. There's nothing like it!
Barbara Kingsolver also taught us to cook asparagus with mushrooms, something we had never thought of before. Wild morel mushrooms are available at the same time as the asparagus. Morels are AMAZING! However, if you don't know where to forage for them yourself, they are very expensive. You can substitute crimini or shitake for them.
Mark Bittman wrote an article called The Flavor of Spring in the Wednesday, May 13, 2009 New York Times (D2). He wrote, "In an ideal world, here's what a spring dish might look like: you take morels from your foraging trip, cream and butter from your cow, and asparagus, shallots and herbs from your garden. You combine them in any way that makes sense to you, and then you thank the forest, the cow and your backyard for providing such amazing bounty." In our case, we thank the farmer's market. We adapted the recipe found in the article. Here's how we combined these spring delights!
Asparagus and Mushroom Stir Fry
2 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs butter
1 bunch chopped spring onions or leeks, chopped
1 pound of mushrooms, trimmed and sliced (or more, you could never have too many): crimini, shitake, morel, porcini, etc.
1/3 lb chicken cut into stir fry strips
1 clove garlic, sliced
1 bunch of farmer's market asparagus (~ 1 lb), trimmed and cut into 1.5in pieces
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp flour
~1 Tbs chopped fresh cilantro, tarragon, or chervil
salt and pepper to taste
1. Heat butter and olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions/leeks, mushrooms, and chicken. Cook until mushrooms have released their liquid and it has cooked off, about 10 min. Add the garlic ~half-way through. Be sure to flip the chicken often until it has cooked through. Feel free to break up the chicken as it cooks. The chicken will cook through before the mushroom juice cooks off.
2. Add the asparagus and the chicken broth. Bring to a boil, cover, reduced heat, and simmer for 2-4 min.
3. Whisk together milk and flour in a cup. Add to the skillet with the herbs. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Continue cooking uncovered until the sauce thickens slightly and the asparagus is tender, about 4 min.
4. Serve over angel hair pasta.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Lentil and Kale soup
Modified from Real Simple's Winter Lentil and Kale Soup
Micah ate his whole bowl the first time I made the above soup, although I didn't follow the recipe. You can substitute any kind of greens for the kale (except collards - they take too long to cook). You can also substitute any kind of winter squash for the sweet potato. We used spaghetti squash once, cut into chunks. It was surprisingly good. Leeks work for onions and onions for leeks. Be sure to use brown lentils. Others will fall apart too much. OK, that's it for this one. Maybe one day I'll make this post better!
Micah ate his whole bowl the first time I made the above soup, although I didn't follow the recipe. You can substitute any kind of greens for the kale (except collards - they take too long to cook). You can also substitute any kind of winter squash for the sweet potato. We used spaghetti squash once, cut into chunks. It was surprisingly good. Leeks work for onions and onions for leeks. Be sure to use brown lentils. Others will fall apart too much. OK, that's it for this one. Maybe one day I'll make this post better!
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Chicken and Portobello Mushroom Stir Fry
I just made up this recipe tonight.
Chicken and Portobello Mushroom Stir Fry
some olive oil
1/3 pound chicken sliced into stir fry pieces
2 large portobello mushroom caps, sliced in half, then into strips
2 medium size tomatoes
5 cloves of garlic, sliced
1/4 chopped, fresh basil
Put a liberal amount of olive oil into a large fry pan and heat on medium heat.
Add chicken and mushrooms. Saute until all mushrooms release juices and turn brown (not until they are browned, but until they turn brown). Chicken will cook through first, but wait for the mushroom to finish turning brown (~10-15 minutes)
Add tomatoes, garlic, and basil. Cook until the tomatoes start falling apart (~5-7 minutes).
Serve hot.
We ate this by itself, but it would probably be tasty over pasta.
Chicken and Portobello Mushroom Stir Fry
some olive oil
1/3 pound chicken sliced into stir fry pieces
2 large portobello mushroom caps, sliced in half, then into strips
2 medium size tomatoes
5 cloves of garlic, sliced
1/4 chopped, fresh basil
Put a liberal amount of olive oil into a large fry pan and heat on medium heat.
Add chicken and mushrooms. Saute until all mushrooms release juices and turn brown (not until they are browned, but until they turn brown). Chicken will cook through first, but wait for the mushroom to finish turning brown (~10-15 minutes)
Add tomatoes, garlic, and basil. Cook until the tomatoes start falling apart (~5-7 minutes).
Serve hot.
We ate this by itself, but it would probably be tasty over pasta.
Scrambled Eggs
Scrambled eggs sounds simple, but we have a few ways of making them that are very tasty. Most of these are a-la-Brett. :-)
The most important thing is to have high quality eggs. It is better for the earth and the chickens and your body, but it is also much better for your taste buds! High quality eggs taste so much better. You know an egg is high quality when the yolk looks dark yellow or even orange. Check your local grocery store for organic, local, cage free, eggs. Whole Foods or your local farmer's market or CSA are great places to get them. If you live in Pgh I recommend the eggs from "Food Glorious Food" on Bryant St. They are open on Saturdays at 10am. Get there as early as possible because the eggs sell out fast.
Scrambled Eggs with Spices
We like to add spices to our scrambled eggs. Brett is the one who started it and most of these ideas are his.
Crack eggs into a bowl and beat. Mix in one of the following spice combination with the eggs.
- Southwest Seasoning from Penzey's
- Spicy Salt from Penzey's
- Brett's concoction: Basil and Ground Coriander
- Salt, Pepper, Grated Cheese (cheddar or colby jack) (Sarina's combo)
Fry in butter, preferably, Pasture butter made by Organic Valley.
Additions to the above:
- Add capers (I did this I think to Southwest Eggs and it was tasty!)
- Saute onions in olive oil or butter until cooked, add eggs and 1 chopped tomato, saute until finished (best with the Basil and Coriander)
The most important thing is to have high quality eggs. It is better for the earth and the chickens and your body, but it is also much better for your taste buds! High quality eggs taste so much better. You know an egg is high quality when the yolk looks dark yellow or even orange. Check your local grocery store for organic, local, cage free, eggs. Whole Foods or your local farmer's market or CSA are great places to get them. If you live in Pgh I recommend the eggs from "Food Glorious Food" on Bryant St. They are open on Saturdays at 10am. Get there as early as possible because the eggs sell out fast.
Scrambled Eggs with Spices
We like to add spices to our scrambled eggs. Brett is the one who started it and most of these ideas are his.
Crack eggs into a bowl and beat. Mix in one of the following spice combination with the eggs.
- Southwest Seasoning from Penzey's
- Spicy Salt from Penzey's
- Brett's concoction: Basil and Ground Coriander
- Salt, Pepper, Grated Cheese (cheddar or colby jack) (Sarina's combo)
Fry in butter, preferably, Pasture butter made by Organic Valley.
Additions to the above:
- Add capers (I did this I think to Southwest Eggs and it was tasty!)
- Saute onions in olive oil or butter until cooked, add eggs and 1 chopped tomato, saute until finished (best with the Basil and Coriander)
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