Cherry Bounce

Up here in the Northeast, we have a really short cherry season, it is about a week long. I had one day free to pick cherries so I rushed out the door and picked a flat. It came out to a little over two pounds each of sour cherries, red cherries, and yellow cherries. With all the other fruits and vegetables in my kitchen, plus a birthday party going on, and a toddler bent on destruction, the only safe place to keep the cherries was on top of the washing machine.

With the sour cherries I decided to make Cherry Bounce. I put a little over a pound in each jar, un-pitted, and added 1 cup of sugar. I let it sit for about 20 minutes while I worked on the jams that I made with the other cherries. I added 6 cups of bourbon in one jar and 6 cups vodka in another. I really wasn't sure which one would be better, so I thought why not do two batches. I stirred the cherries and sugar to dissolve and a swished the jars once a day for a week. Now they are sitting in my basement, where I will shake them once a month or so. They will be ready just in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I will have an update and review then, so look forward to reading it, and if you are well-liked or worth bribing, expect a nice gift from me this Christmas.

Brown Butter and Pesto Pasta

This is an incredibly simple recipe but one that I find myself making when I am in a hurry.

Ingredients:
1 lb spaghetti, cooked
1/2 cup pesto (recipe below)
1 stick butter
1/2 cup ricotta
your favorite cheese for grating, Parmesan, Romano,etc.

Boil pasta, allow to drain over sink in colander. Meanwhile, melt and cook butter over medium heat in pasta pot until it foams and begins to brown. Don't burn it! Switch off heat, and stir in pesto and ricotta, add pasta. Serve with your favorite grating cheese and maybe some crushed red pepper.

When I make pesto, I put a bunch of basil, and about 3-4 ounces of Parmesan, cubed, in the food processor with about 2/3 cup pine nuts. I add salt and pepper, plus olive oil as I pulse. I freeze it in portions in a cupcake tin and use as needed.

Summer Vegetable CSA Week 6 -- Fruit CSA Week 1

Week 6 was a beautiful week for weather and vegetables. We received basil, green leaf lettuce, mint, 3 green onions, 2 bunches of radishes, 8 cucumbers, 6 squash, 2 swiss chard, 4 ears of corn, a missing pint of grape tomatoes, and two bunches of carrots.

The fruit share contained 2 pints of blueberries and a 1/2 pint of raspberries.

I'm still catching up on life after the breakage of our stove, the internet constantly dying for no reason, and my beautiful dear child dumping a drink on my laptop. I've also had lovely weather to distract me, but I've also been busy preserving and making jam.

Most of these things are long gone, I can tell you what I made:
Blueberries were went into a salad and a few jars of small batch jam.
Raspberries were frozen for future misdeeds.
The basil made sauce, meatballs, and bruschetta.
Green onions were frozen and used in bruschetta along with tomatoes.
Lettuce, cucumbers, and radishes were for salad.
Other cukes are being made into pickles.
I roasted most of the squash for lasagna or side dishes.
Swiss chard was a side dish.
The corn was used in my First Time Grilling Corn Ever.
The carrots last forever, so they are stored in my fridge.

That's what happens to a week's worth of vegetables! It is kind of neat to look back and say how everything was used and to see how little waste we made, I think it was a successful week in the kitchen.

Beginning of Summer White Lasagna

I love this lasagna, it is a change of pace from traditional lasagna. It is so flexible that it tastes great with almost every kind of vegetable. It has a lot of small steps, but it is well worth the time.This recipe makes a 9x12 pan.

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts, roasted in olive oil, salt and pepper, chopped
1-1.5 cups broccoli rabe, blanched and chopped
1-2 cups zucchini or summer squash, sliced, roasted in olive oil, salt and pepper
2 cups ricotta
9 lasagna noodles, boiled
2.5-3 cups shredded mozzarella
2 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup flour
1.5 cups milk or half and half
1/4 cup onion, diced
1 cup white wine
salt and pepper to taste

Prepare chicken, vegetables, and pasta. Make the sauce in a sauce pan, starting with the butter and onion on medium heat. Sweat the onions, and add the flour to make a roux. Add the milk and the wine, whisking to combine and thicken. Set aside. In the pan, layer a bit of sauce, noodles, a little mozzarella, and vegetables. Add another layer with a little sauce, chicken, and ricotta. Add the top layer of noodles (each layer has 3 long noodles that fit in perfectly in the pan), pour the remaining sauce over the top and the remainder of the mozzarella. Bake at 325 for about 30 minutes, covered, remove the cover during the last 20 minutes or so of baking to brown the top.

Summer Vegetable CSA Week 5

Week 5: 2 Kohlrabi, 2 beets, fennel, 8 assorted squash, 2 basil bunches, arugula, peas, 2 bunches radishes, 6 pickling cucumbers, scapes and lettuce. I'm planning on baking with the zucchini and roasting what I don't use as a side dish. The arugula will become pesto as well. The beets are already chips. Kohlrabi isn't my favorite vegetable but I was thinking I might make a cheese sauce and serve it as a side dish, since it tastes somewhat like broccoli. I am hoping to make and can some relish this week with the cucumbers. Here is where the season really begins to pick up and I dedicate a lot of time to preserving, which is always appreciated in the late fall and winter.

Summer Vegetable CSA Week 4

This week we had a new vegetable, a big leafy green bunch of escarole. I can't remember if I've ever taken escarole in the past three years or if I've ever received it in my share. Anyways, it made a lovely Italian wedding soup. We also got beets, which I always make into chips, green onions, basil, sugar snap peas, fennel, scapes, red and green lettuce, and various squash. I was sure to pick up some pine nuts and I've made a ton of pesto to freeze, though I am certain it will probably not last past Christmas. Again, the food has been flying out of the kitchen but I've been so busy, with internet problems, stove problems, and any other problems that can be problemed, all I want to do is eat, otherwise I'd have more pictures an recipes. The beginning of July is always insanely busy, better to be busy before fruit season though!

Summer Vegetable CSA Week 3

Week three brought us more sugar snap peas, kousa and summer squash, beets, swiss chard, chives, lettuce, radishes, scapes and broccoli rabe. My favorite thing to do with the sugar snap peas is to put them in salads but I also love to just wash them and take them with us as a portable snack. The squash was roasted and along with the broccoli rabe, it made a great lasagna. The scapes were made into pesto and the chives packed away for another day. It really amazes me how quickly everything goes. I never have a lot of kitchen waste but I think this has been my best year yet.

Four Allium Risotto

If you've ever received garlic scapes in your CSA share, or bought any at the farmer's market, you know that they can be made into a lovely pesto. A risotto is a delicious way to use your pesto, but I thought it would be even more fun to use some of the other members of the same genus, Allium.

Four Allium Risotto:
1 small-medium sweet onion, about 1 cup, medium chop
2 shallots, diced
3 tbsp. butter
1 1/2 c. Arborio rice
4-5 cups chicken stock
1/3 c garlic scape pesto*
1 12 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 cup grated Parmesan
1/4 c. heavy cream
1 tablespoon chives, chopped fine
salt
pepper
crushed red pepper

In a large skillet over medium high heat, melt butter, add onions and shallot, cook until browning begins. Add rice and cook until translucent. Adding 1 cup stock at a time, reduce to a simmer and stir constantly, until rice is nearly cooked, add tomatoes and scape pesto. The rice will be somewhat translucent with a milky white part in the middle, but not crunchy, when properly cooked. Add Parmesan and season. Stir in heavy cream, allow to cook on low 5-10 minutes. Adjust seasonings if needed and add chives.

*Recipe coming soon, I promise!

CSA Pickup Week Chicken Soup

I started the day thinking I would just be making my normal chicken soup with carrots and barley or pasta. I had and still have a good supply of carrots but then I thought it didn't make much sense to have all these other wonderful vegetables on hand and just use carrots. When I make soup, I don't mess around. I usually make a soup big enough for those who like stuff and those who like broth to have dinner and leftovers for lunch.

For the broth:
In a stock pot, cover with water: a whole chicken, a peeled onion or two, 3 big peeled carrots, the center of your celery (you know the leafy part in the middle that you aren't going to eat) or 2-3 ribs with leaves, 2 big cloves peeled garlic, 10 peppercorns, 3-4 bay leaves, a tbsp salt, and a Parmesan rind, if you have one.

Start it on low, and gradually turn it up over the first hour to a simmer. Simmer for 2-3 hours or until your chicken is almost falling apart. Remove chicken and strain, discarding all the broth flavorings. Set aside the chicken for de-boning.

Soup:
You can add any vegetables you like, you can even sautee them in a little butter first, but be sure to add them incrementally according to how fast they cook. Carrots, potatoes, root vegetables, first. They usually take 20-30 minutes longer than other vegetables to cook.

Here is my soup in order of things added, everything cut into a medium dice: Carrots, Swiss chard, including stems--cooked 25 minutes, 2 summer squash, a can of diced tomatoes, a medium onion sauteed in butter along with 2 cloves of garlic (minced), and in the last ten minutes I added some frozen green beans that I had on hand, some dried thyme from my share, 1/2 cup Israeli cous-cous and the deboned meat from the chicken. I adjusted my seasonings with salt, pepper, and some balsamic vinegar at the very end.

Pound Cake with Strawberries and Whipped Cream

We picked a major load of strawberries at Rogers Spring Hill. Immediately, I spent the entire evening dreaming of wonderful thing  to make, as I stuffed every other strawberry into my mouth.
My husband suggested a pound cake with strawberries and I thought that sounded pretty good, so I looked up a recipe and decided to make a quick run to the store for a bundt cake pan. If I had to do it all again, I would have bought a different one. I've been baking a long time, I've never had a cake stick until now, even with cooking in an inexpensive pan.

For the cake, I use Elvis Presley's Favorite Pound Cake Recipe. I didn't have a chance to verify the truth of this claim and I was worried about some of the reviews saying it was bland. It wasn't bland, it was moist and tasted like a pound cake. I was a little worried about overflowing the cake pan so filled my pan about 3/4 of an inch from the top and put the remaining batter into a small loaf pan. The cake baked for me at for about 55 minutes and the small loaf was done at about 45, starting with a cold oven on 350.

I made the whipped cream in my stand mixer and garnished with berries. You don't have to buy whipping cream, heavy cream will do. In a mixer, add 2 cups whipped cream, 1/4 c powdered sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla. Whip it with a whisk attachment until it is fluffy. Make sure to watch it so that you don't accidentally make butter instead. I never measure, so this is approximate, feel free to omit the sugar, increase, or reduce it.

Summer Vegetable CSA Week 2

Week 2: Two bunches each broccoli rabe and rainbow chard, a bag of spinach, a bag of snow peas, two tomatoes, a head of romaine lettuce as well as Boston lettuce, two bunches of chives, two summer squash, and garlic scapes. I loaded all into my vegetable ark and brought it home in the pouring rain.

Now that my oven is again working, I'm hoping to have a productive week in the kitchen. Whenever we get romaine, I know we're going to have salad. I do have a few odd-ball type recipes on deck that use cooked romaine but I'm waiting for a week where I'm swimming in lettuce. I love using Boston lettuce in place of bread, so I will keep it on hand as long as possible to use as a wrap or a taco shell. if not, there is always salad. The squash, spinach, and chard are all in just the right amount for a side dish. As usual, I will chop and freeze the chives. For the broccoli rabe, I am thinking about a ricotta cheese sauce with sausage meatballs or a white lasagna. As for the scapes and the peas, I just don't know, they are both great in salads. For this week, scapes are definitely my wild card. I will either make a pesto or incorporate them into a meal in place of garlic. I'd say the biggest challenge will be using the peas before they go bad, I may have to review my notes from last year and give myself a refresher course on peas.

I'll put this question to both of my readers: What should I do with the peas? If I make your recipe, I'll post a photo and give you credit! How amazing would that be?! Almost on par with a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer giveaway, right?

Vegetable CSA Week 1

This was the first day of a twenty week vegetable CSA. This has probably been my favorite first week out of the last three years. 2 bunches of thyme, oregano, garlic chives, 2 bunches broccoli rabe, a cucumber, 2 bags of spinach, beets, 1 bunch kale, a head of Boston lettuce and a tomato that is not pictured because it is in protective custody.

Thankfully, beets will keep a long time in the fridge because I have a repairman coming sometime this week. I cannot make beet chips until he looks at my oven. That's a pretty major setback so I'm planning on doing most things on grill or stove top. The thyme will be hung and dried for another day and the oregano will be frozen in an ice cube. I'm not sure about the garlic chives yet, whether I want to make a compound butter, a pesto, or just freeze them. The lettuce will make a great bread substitute or will go for a salad, while the spinach will end up as a pesto or dip. I'm not sure about the broccoli rabe, maybe a pasta or sausage dish. We often use the cucumbers as a substitute for crackers or chips, our 4 year old loves them this way. As for the kale, I'm still not certain. I wish I could find one go-to recipe that I like for kale but until then, it continues to defeat me week after week. Kale is my biggest nemesis.

Braised Goat Chops

Last time I went to my favorite butcher, Blood Farm in Groton, MA, I saw these in the case and picked them up. I'm not an exotic food fanatic, but I am tired of chickenbeefchickenporkchicken, well I'm not really tired of beef. Cows are my favorite animals. Yes, I know about bacon, but I also know about oxtail, brisket, beef ribs and short ribs. I also know about goat. Very little before the other day, but I decided I had to learn. So picked up a package of goat shoulder chops and kept them in my freezer until I had a day to experiment. If I know one thing about meat it is that braising nearly always works when you have no clue, so that was my plan.

Braised Goat Chops:
2 chops
1 tsp garam masla
1/2 tsbp Chinese five spice powder
3-4 large carrots, peeled and sliced
1 small onion sliced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 cup kale
1 can diced tomatoes
salt
pepper

Pre-heat oven to 325. Heat a cast iron skillet on high. Season chops with garam masala, five spice powder, salt and pepper. Add to skillet browning on each side. Remove from skillet and set aside. Add carrots, onions an garlic to skillet. Cook 3-5 minutes on medium-high, careful not to burn the garlic. Add the can of diced tomatoes to skillet and cook 2-3 minutes. Add kale and chops to an oven-safe dish, pour contents of pan over the chops and bake on 325 for about 1 hour 30 minutes or until tender. Serve with cous cous.

Week 12: Final Spring CSA Week

This is the last week of the my Spring CSA share. Next week is the first week of summer shares. I was so happy to see tomatoes! Even though they are greenhouse-grown, they are leaps and bounds beyond whatever is in the grocery stores right now. This week also included kale, parsley, cilantro, 2 bags of spinach, two bags of lettuce and a bag of joi choi with nasturtiums. I originally had some tatsoi but I traded it for an extra bag of lettuce in the swap box.  One bag isn't enough for my family for a week!
We had our usual Taco Salad, so as of now, we're one bag of lettuce, one tomato down and the cilantro is gone. I'm thinking of spring rolls on Friday with the joi choi, carrots, and some shrimp. The kale is going to be in a chicken, kale and carrot soup. The spinach will be a dip or spanakopita. I'll still have enough extra to make a great salad and the parsley will probably end up in a compound butter.

I'm so glad we signed up for the spring share, and I'm looking forward to my third bountiful summer share.

Tatsoi and Chicken Stir Fry

Normally, most people don't think of green in a stir fry but Asian greens, like tatsoi are perfect for a dish like this. I find tatsoi, when it is fully grown, to have stems somewhat like celery and the greens to be fairly mild. I make this for my family, if you are wondering why the portions are ginormous. I also have to use two separate skillets or cook the protein first. We don't normally eat rice so the amount of food reflects that as well.

Tatsoi and Chicken Stir Fry:
Chicken:
3 packages boneless thighs, cubed (about 15 thighs)
1/4 c tamari
1 tbsp ginger grated
1/4 c honey
sesame oil
olive oil

Heat pan with oils, about a tbsp of each. Add chicken and other ingredients. Stir until chicken is cooked. If a lot of water cooks out of the chicken, you can drain some of it or reserve it to thicken or thin the final sauce. I set the chicken aside once it is cooked and do the vegetable in the same pan.

Vegetables:
Any combination of vegetables, you probably need about 1-1.5 cups per person
I used carrots, mushrooms, tatsoi, peppers, and onion
2 tbsp peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1/3 cup tamari
3 cloves garlic, sliced
2 tbsp ginger, grated
olive oil and sesame oil
cornstarch
water

Add garlic and ginger to hot pan with oils. Cook 1-2 minutes. Add vegetables in order of how long they take to cook, I usually start with carrots, then peppers, mushrooms, and onions are usually last. Don't add greens until the end. Add other ingredients, tamari, honey, peanut butter, and tatsoi. When the last vegetable goes in, get ready to thicken the sauce and adjust the seasonings, add more honey, peanut butter, tamari to suit your tastes, even some chili paste for those who like spice. Mix 1/4 c cornstarch with a minimal amount of liquid, either water or the liquid from the chicken. Pour in pan and cook until it thickens. Sometimes I find I need more or less cornstarch, it really depends on the water content of the vegetables

Chive Butter

Chives are amazing. They can be used many ways but compound butter for steak is definitely one of my favorites. The steak doesn't need to be fancy, just well seasoned with salt and pepper, the butter does the rest of the work.

Chive Butter:
2 sticks butter, softened
2-3 tbsp fresh chives, sliced thin
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
juice of half a lemon
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 clove garlic, minced

Mix everything up and chill. Use on bread, radishes, steak, or whatever suits you. Also, yes, the chive flower is edible but you can use it to make your butter look fancy when you serve it. They are pretty, delicious, and have a concentrated chive flavor.

Sausage and Spinach Dip

We had just come home from an evening of errands, popcorn, and ice cream. We needed something hot for a light dinner and I was thinking snack foods. I took my favorite spinach dip recipe and went from there. We ate it with peppers and some dipping chips and went to bed happy. This is a one-pot meal.

Sausage and Spinach Dip:
6 links Italian sausage, casings removed or 1 lb of loose Italian sausage
1 generous cup cooked, chopped spinach
1 shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt
crushed red pepper
3 cups shredded cheese
3 packages of cream cheese
2 tablespoons fresh chives, chopped

In a large oven-proof skillet, cook sausage with shallot. Drain excess oil. Chop briefly in food processor if it doesn't break apart. Before adding sausage, wilt spinach in pan. Pre-heat oven to 400. Add garlic, sausage and crushed red pepper (to taste), with spinach allow to cook 1-2 minutes. Add cream cheese a little at a time and stir. Add chives and shredded cheese. Allow cheeses to melt and combine well. Place in oven for 10 minutes on 400, serve with crudites or crackers. This makes a ton, so you might even reheat it for lunch the next day and it can most certainly be made ahead. Enjoy.

Sort of Chicken Confit

This is my take on a recipe I found a long time ago. You might enjoy the original better but I like that this is simple, the herbs can be changed according to what I have on hand and it goes great with a salad or a vegetable made on the stove top. Best of all, it turns an affordable protein into something special.

Sort of Chicken Confit:
12 bone in thighs
4 tbsp salt
5 cloves garlic crushed
4-6 bay leaves, broken apart
1 tsp thyme

Pre-heat oven to 300. Line two rimmed pans with parchment paper. Mix garlic, salt and herbs in a bowl. Rub on chickens. Bake chickens 3.5-4 hours, flipping chickens and rotating pans every 30 minutes. Serve with a salad, risotto, or green beans.

Spanakopita

 I've made spanakopita so many times that I don't even use a recipe any more. You can make any size based on what is in your share, as long as you have a few ingredients and do what I say.

I split my cooked my spinach, which was three bags pictured in my share, and divided it. Part was for spinach dip and the other was for the dish pictured above. I didn't bother measuring it but it must have been, in total 4 cups cooked.

Spanakopita:
2 cups spinach, wilted, cooled, squeezed of excess water
8 ounces feta, crumbled with into large pieces
1 bunch green onions, sliced
1 package phyllo dough
1 egg beaten
salt
pepper
1 stick butter, melted

Pre-heat oven to 375. Prepare your spinach. Wilt it well, cool it, get the extra water out and chop. If you try to add it to the other ingredients while the spinach is warm it will dissolve the cheese and more water will come out making your dough soggy.

Mix the chopped spinach with cheese, green onions and season to taste. Some people don't add salt, I don't always, because feta is saltly, but sometimes it needs it to bring out the flavor of the spinach. Add beaten egg and mix gently so as not to break down the feta too much.

Use melted butter to grease a 9x12 baking dish. Open phyllo dough and cut to fit baking dish, brushing butter lightly between each layer of dough in the dish. After about 10 layers, add filling and repeat layering with phyllo dough and butter.

Bake at 375 for 40-55 minutes (ovens can be crazy) until golden brown on top. Remove, allow to cool about 5-8 minutes and brush top with any remaining butter.

Spring CSA Week 11

 

What a week! I was really surprised to find tomatoes and chives with flowers in my share. My son had to carry one bag of spinach because I should have brought two bags this week. We ended up with three bags of spinach, kale, tatsoi, nasturtiums, lettuce mix, carrots and a lovely bunch of oregano. No swaps this week for me, but I really had a hard time deciding between cherry tomatoes and a big, ripe whole tomato.

I've mostly been making things that I've made before as I tend to do when I am busy. I made a whopping bowl of spinach dip last week and will probably make another this week. I like spinach almost every way so it isn't hard to use up three bags. It looks like salad with the lettuce this week and I might have all the ingredients for a nice dressing. The tatsoi will be for an Asian dish one night and I am thinking about making a kale and feta pie. I feel like the carrots don't get attention but I can't make enough of them when we have a roast, so they are always great to have on hand. The oregano is enough for some herb butter, and then some, probably two batches for the freezer. The tomatoes and the chives might be components of a salad dressing or just part of a salad with edible flowers. If we're grilling, I might even throw the tomatoes on the grill.