Beet Greens with Rice Vinegar

Beet greens and spring onions sautéed then seasoned with rice vinegar--an excellent side dish to accompany Asian meals

Ya'll may think I'm crazy, but part of the seven (7!) different edible greens we got in our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share last week was a double amount of beet greens. I'm happy to have them, and I completely understand how something that caused a tummy upset in the past is something to be avoided in the future--which is what caused my benefactor to bequeath her greens.

A few weeks ago, for the first time in 15 years, I made sesame peanut noodles.  I thought I was ready for them, but no--memories of the tummy bug we caught the night of my son's first birthday party were still too strong. At least my folks liked them this time around.

When I've got double the greens--and not a lot of solo breakfast opportunities because everyone is constantly underfoot--I needed to think past my beloved beet green breakfast into something the whole family may get excited about.  When I saw mandu marked down at the grocery store I decided to make a slightly Asian twist on my beet greens.  It worked out well enough that I made this side dish a second time this past week.

I think this recipe would also work well with Swiss chard, and probably spinach too. We've been drinking up kale lemonade smoothies so much that there's no really any kale left for cooking, but perhaps that would also sauté well.  Especially after a massage.
I'd be happy to sauté well after a massage, come to think of it.

Rustic Roasted Carrots

Roasted carrots, simply seasoned with salt and a buttery spread, make a vegan addition to your holiday or Spring table

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Getting my family to eat cooked carrots can be a challenge.  Sure, they don't mind if I stretch our tacos or meatloaf with diced or shredded carrots.  Eating raw carrots as a vehicle to convey dip into the mouth is also no problem around these parts.  But every cooked carrot dish I've tried has been politely attempted and then untouched.  Until now.  This is too easy and too basic not to share.  I'm becoming enamored with side dishes that let the fresh flavor of the vegetables shine through--without overpowering sauces--and this is a good example of that.

I first made these carrots when I was overwhelmed with carrots from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share, which is a testament to the wonderful soil our famers are creating.  When we first joined this CSA most of the carrots were stubby and deliciously sweet--not really useful for much in the way of a meal, but delicious to snack on.  After consistently amending the soil with a wide variety of organic materials, from manure and compost to donated straw and old hay, our farmers grow still delicious but now fat and long carrots, in large amounts. Which leads to me being overwhelmed with carrots.

Getting bulging bags of fat carrots each week--and not eating an entire bagful in between pick-ups--meant that our crisper was on carrot overload.  The composting guinea pig was thrilled with the tops and tips.  I saved out the largest carrots for eating raw.  I shredded and froze the smaller carrots for adding to all sorts of meals over the winter, like my Thai Turkey Cold Busting Hot and Sour Soup.  That left the medium sized carrots, and since I was roasting beets and radishes I figured I'd try roasting carrots, too.

I lined them up like I'd seen young carrots served at a restaurant in Atlanta in a previous life, gave them a drizzle of oil and a pinch of salt, and secured them in a foil packet.  When it came time to serve, my daughter grabbed some parsley to tuck into the sides for the photo--but this pretty dish never made it to the table.  We ate this with our fingers while standing in the kitchen and called it our appetizer.    Then I had a hankering for it again--inspired by some marked down carrots at the grocery store.  This time I roasted them on a rimmed baking sheet. The results again never made it to the table--or even a serving tray! We ate them off the baking sheet. Simple.  Rustic.  Good.

Since I had fun with HashtagOrangeWeek last month, where I shared a week's worth of recipes using the fresh Florida citrus from the Band Fruit Fundraiser, I thought I'd do it again.  With Easter coming up, I've decided to have HashtagCarrotWeek.  I'll start with this rustic side dish, continue on Friday with some sushi, and finish up the 'week' with muffins on Monday. So a week's worth of recipes using carrots, but stretched over more than a simple calendar week.  I wanted the savory squash pie linked up well before April Fool's day, you see.

For more recipes using carrots, please see my Carrot Recipes Collection. It's part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, the garden, the neighbor's garden, and great deals on ugly produce at the grocery store.


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Roasted Asparagus with Chicken Jelly Noodles

Roasted asparagus served over noodles in a rich creamy chicken stock gravy.

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I'm seeing asparagus all over the store now, tender thin sticks of what my spouse and I refer to as 'spargel' since we fell in love in Germany [do not picture us getting all Lady and the Tramp with asparagus, because that would be silly and untrue].  I will undoubtably buy some spargel soon, because it's nearly Spring and Spring makes me think of asparagus, even if I won't get any until our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share gets harvesting in May.  Locally, the asparagus is no where near harvest time--shoot, my daffodil leaves just peeked above ground 2 days ago.


I discovered roasting asparagus 8 years ago thanks to Alanna and last year discovered roasting asparagus for breakfast thanks to Aimée.  I'll be doing both techniques this year.  This recipe uses roasted asparagus, and on Friday I'll share a pizza using leftover roasted asparagus.  It's a terrific preparation method to have in your asparagus arsenal. [That's weird, right? Asparagus arsenal?]


This is not a vegetarian meal, but it is one without meat on the plate.  If you're looking for a light but flavorful Spring supper, read on.  After I posted how I make chicken stock I learned from Meghan at Whole Natural Life to keep on cooking down my chicken stock until it was very concentrated, and when I do that I get jars of chicken jelly.

This particular batch may have been extra concentrated due to excessive time spent surfing the internet (no, I was not on Pinterest).  I'd safely say it simmered a good 4 hours.  I was checking on it, but I just let it keep on going.  The resulting stock, when chilled, is solid and spoonable.


On my FB page, Karen suggests mixing this chicken jelly with flour and frying it in butter for a decadent treat. Sounds divine to me, and I appreciate the suggestion!


If you have concentrated chicken stock and children, your kids will dub this Chicken Jelly and the name will stick.  Then, when you want an easy weeknight meal, pick up some asparagus, head over to Alanna's to learn how to roast it, and start the pasta water.

For more recipes using asparagus, please see my Asparagus Recipes Collection. It's part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, the garden, the neighbor's garden, and great deals on ugly produce at the grocery store.

I'm sharing more recipes on my Pinterest boards, follow me there. If you like a good peek behind the scenes like I do, follow me on Instagram. Need a good read? I'm sharing articles of interest on my Facebook page, follow me there. Want to know How to Use This Blog?


Note:  This involves making a sauce starting with a roux.  My friend Sheri taught me that I need to let my butter and flour get nut brown, not just lightly tanned, for best flavor.  So I do--while watching carefully so it doesn't burn.  The stock can simmer for an extra hour, but a roux?  Heck no.  Constant vigilance!  The sauce comes together pretty quick, so I was kinda roasting/boiling/sauce making simultaneously.  This could almost be a Fast from the Farm Share dish, and I will load it under the Quick Take section of the Recipe Index by Category along the right side bar (---> if you're reading this on the website.  If you're reading this via email . . . well just picture it).

Hoisin Sesame Swai with Hoisin-Roasted Radishes

Hoisin sauce and a crunchy ginger-sesame seed blend coat this firm white-fleshed fish, served with tender roasted radishes and Asian-seasoned sautéed beet greens

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Do you ever wear matching clothing? Complete track suits?  Do you wish for Adult Garanimals with coded tags that help you decide if your top and your bottom clothing choices coordinate?

Where am I going with this?

It's not very usual for me to have all the foods matchy-matchy on the plate.  [Heck, the plates don't even match each other.] Apparently I tend to get all matchy-matchy with Swai.

Like I said the first time I posted a Swai recipe, "Swai is a white fleshed fish in the "Good Alternative" category on the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch website.  Protein that is a Good Alternative, that is a great price, is good for me." That remains true today. In addition to the beef in the freezer (link to my beef recipe round up featuring 106 recipes from 66 bloggers) and the wild sockeye salmon from Seldovia Point, AK, the fish we eat the most is Swai.  It's useful in a variety of preparations, I've shared some related links below.

We often like to eat fish with rice, so I wanted to try an Asian preparation for this Swai.  I picked up this sesame seed blend at a TJMaxx/Marshall's, taking a page from Heather's shopping tips, and thought it would be good rolled around inside out sushi as a coating for fish.  From there the idea of coating the fish in hoisin sauce was a no-brainer.

Since I also had radishes from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share to play with, I opted to give them a similar coating and see how it played in Peoria the dining room. The result was surprisingly good.  Roasting brings out the sweetness from the radishes and the hoisin provides them with a nice tang.  We all enjoyed this meal, and to get the entire family to enjoy radishes is an accomplishment worthy of a Week In Review post.

On the plate you'll also see beet greens.  Specifically, Asian Beet Greens.  This bonus recipe is up on my FB page and my G+ page if you'd like to check it out.


For more recipes using radishes, please see my Radish Recipes Collection. It's part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, the garden, the neighbor's garden, and great deals on ugly produce at the grocery store.

I'm sharing more recipes on my Pinterest boards, follow me there. If you like a good peek behind the scenes like I do, follow me on Instagram. Need a good read? I'm sharing articles of interest on my Facebook page, follow me there. Want to know How to Use This Blog?

Red Cabbage, Leek, Brat and Beet Skillet Supper

A hearty satisfying skillet supper of cabbage, leeks, apples, and beets seasoned with bratwurst, maple syrup, apple cider and spices. I could say 'low carb' and 'real' if you like those words.

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If you're a regular visitor to the blog [thank you!] you know all about the Strategic Winter Squash Reserve in a cold corner of my breakfast nook.  That's where I store the pumpkins, acorn squash, butternut and buttercup squash from the Fall farm share, as well as the shorter-storing onions, potatoes, garlic and sweet potatoes. Corn gets blanched and frozen, summer squash and carrots get shredded and frozen, and beets get roasted and frozen. Turnips just get refrigerated until my spouse convinces me to make pasties again. This way I feed my family from our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share twelve months of the year, even though we only get fresh vegetables seven months of the year.**

Simon and Vincent (Oliver and Crystal the pig are missing) showing off the initial SWSR.

Even though I enjoyed a week of sunshine in Florida, last week during HashtagOrangeWeek, winter has its grip on my home and I still want crave hearty fare. This recipe is a hearty skillet supper combining many of the items in a typical Fall CSA share that can be found throughout the winter.  I was inspired by this CSA Cookoff segment done by Jennifer of Homegrown.org. I thought it would be a great way to stuff beets a bunch of veggies and a sprinkle of meat into my kids.  Score!  Today I'll share a skillet full of flavor we affectionally dubbed Hot Pink Mess.

Boy, if I were a young hip blogger, this would be the name of some over-the-top decadent dessert or fried appetizer that I'd make and eat after stumbling home in the wee hours. In reality, a humble fried egg sandwich appeals to me in the wee hours, more so than chocolate. Though Meghan's granola comes a close second for nighttime snacks. 

For more recipes using beets, please see my Beet Recipes Collection. For recipes using cabbage, please see my Cabbage Recipes Collection. For more recipes using leeks, please see my Recipes Using Leeks Collection. These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from their farm share box, or from what's at the farmer's market, or on sale at the grocery store, or what grew best in the garden. I'm pinning more recipes on my Pinterest boards, follow me there. I'm sharing a carefully curated look at the world's most handsome Basset hound, Robert Barker behind the scenes on my Instagram feed, follow me there. Interesting articles get shared on my Facebook page, follow me there. Want to know How to Use This Blog?

Butternut Squash and Prosciutto Pizza

Cubes of roasted butternut squash and strips of salty prosciutto turn a simple cheese-and-red-sauce pie into a warming winter pizza

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I'm finally starting to work on the Strategic Winter Squash Reserve in the cold corner of my breakfast nook (down to 50 degrees Fahrenheit during the recent Polar Vortex).  This is where I stash the more shelf stable of the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share vegetables during my weekly Vegetable Triage, and I appreciate how a cool, dark place can store fresh local vegetables for me to enjoy when I've run out of fresh greens and the more perishable farm share produce.
I've had some winter squash last as long as 3-4 months, but I prefer not to play fast and loose with my SWSR.  The vegetables I've canned (tomatoes, tomatillos, tomato salsa, tomato sauce, salsa verde, green tomatoes, tomato jam . . . did I mention I canned a whole bunch of tomatoes?) and frozen (corn, carrots, leeks, zucchini, yellow squash, roasted peppers, Hatch chiles, celery, . . . and I am sure something else) will stay in good condition longer than the winter squash, so winter squash is next on the chopping block.  Literally!

This pizza is a subtle way of including winter squash into our meals, and though my kids picked the squash off their slices, my spouse and I enjoyed it.  [In fact, instead of saving the extra roasted squash that didn't make it onto the pizza, I stood over the stove with a fork and snarfed up squash while chatting with my spouse.]  Yum!  There's something about roasting that brings out the sweetness of vegetables--be they mushrooms or squash or potatoes. Coming up in the next few weeks I've got roasted squash in hummus and roasted sweet potatoes in salsa . . . but for today, because my family likes our Friday Night Pizza Nights, please enjoy a pizza!

For other ideas on how to use butternut squash, please see my Butternut/Buttercup Squash Recipes Collection and my Winter Squash Recipe Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. For other pizza ideas please see my Friday Night Pizza Night board in Pinterest, and my Visual Pizza Recipe Index. For how to Use This Blog, please click here.

Easy Celery Rice Soup (with Slow Cooker option)

A comforting soup of simply celery and rice, flexible for multiple eating styles and cooking styles

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Want to add more vegetables to your daily life? Do you think celery is underutilized in your kitchen? If so, read on for an easy soup--including a slow cooker option if you'd like to use that. This can be a vegetarian or omnivore soup--I've made it with vegetable stock as well as chicken stock--and appeals to my kids in a way that ants on a log never did. [Um, that's our term for a celery stick spread with peanut butter and dotted with raisins, just in case you were thinking I'm feeding my kids ants deliberately. Accidental ants I'm not responsible for.]

I'm not a huge fan of celery, so when my regrown celery resulted in an overabundance in the garden plot [shown below with one of my garden assistants, Simon] I scrambled around looking for ways to enjoy it.  Sure, I'm happy to stretch meat by adding chopped celery (and onions, carrots, peppers, or shredded squash) into my recipes for tacos, burgers, or meatloaf.  But I wanted to try some other ideas.  After all, celery from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share--or in this case from my garden--actually has a delicious CELERY flavor that I've never really tasted with store bought celery.  Who knew? While scanning the cookbook shelves at the library I saw a recipe for celery rice soup.  I didn't have any of the ingredients, other than celery and rice, so I didn't take note of the cookbook name, I re-shelved and moved on, but the recipe idea stuck with me.

Later in the week we were feeling run down, and celery rice soup seemed like a comforting idea.  It was good enough that I made it again a week later.  I've tried this with both yellow onions and leeks.  I bet it would also be good with shallots, so any alliums you've got on hand--use them.  We preferred this with chicken stock and chopped cooked chicken, but I could see taking it in a different direction--soy chorizo for vegetarians?  It's fairly . . . I won't say bland, but I will say it's not crazy seasoned like Ma Po Tofu [I got a jar of Ma Po Tofu sauce in my Christmas stocking and I'm looking forward to trying it--with celery].  This soup is just nice, basic, easy, and no frills--good for warming your belly on a cold day. And good for using up an abundance of celery.  Speaking of abundance . . . here's what I was dealing with when I made it:

For other ways to use celery, please see my Celery Recipes Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. For ways to Use This Blog, please click here.

Fennel Pizza with Chicken Sausage and Roasted Broccoli

Italian-flavored chicken sausage and roasted broccoli on a fennel pizza dough

I have fennel seeds drying on a baker's rack/computer stand in my dining room, and I owe it all to Alyssa of Everyday Maven.  She showed me how to crush fennel seeds to add Italian sausage flavor, and it looked so easy I knew my daughter could do it picked up a bag of fennel seeds during my next Penzey's run.  I handed the mortar and pestle to my girl and the result was delicious.  

Then I bought a couple of fennel plants, and (in addition to feeding the Black Swallowtail caterpillars, can you see 4 in the photo above, and one wee Oliver?) I saved the seeds which are now drying on the baker's rack.

Did I use the fennel bulbs?  Um, no.  When I was ready to harvest the fennel and add it to spaghetti sauce there were 6 caterpillars simultaneously munching away, and I couldn't be that cruel.  I can harvest strawberries--leaving the poor varmints chipmunks to find something else to eat, but to deprive the world of 6 butterflies?  Not my style.  The fennel bulbs are now buried under snow and some of the descendants of those caterpillars are overwintering in cocoons nearby.  Perhaps there will be more fennel next year--enough to share.

I've been sticking these fennel seeds in soups, in ground meat, in bread . . . and now pizza dough.  This was a very versatile spice purchase.  Thanks, Alyssa!

Black Eyed Pea and Kale Salad in Salumi Cups: A New Year's Day Good Luck Appetizer

A bite size appetizer of black eyed peas and kale salad, served in salumi cups. A terrific bite to ensure good luck in the New Year.

Why is it considered good luck to eat black eyed peas on New Year's day?  Since I didn't learn about this tradition until I lived in the South as an adult, do Northerners/East Coasters/ Westerners/Midwesterners not have good luck ever?  What about folks in other countries?  Not everyone eats black eyed peas, you know.
Heavy questions for a busy time.  All I know is in addition to jumping into the New Year (from a stair, not a chair) I like to eat black eyed peas this time of year.  I'm good with these traditions--one's silly fun to do, and the other's tasty.
Sometimes I like to make Hoppin' John, sometimes I like to change it up a bit.  Here's a bite size appetizer way to get your New Year Good Luck, and if meat is not your thing, there's a bonus recipe below to an alternate salad/leftover remake.
Updated Note:  My mom emailed me that she knew salumi was not a typo but she didn't know what it was.  Salumi is the name for a category of dry cured meat.  Salami and prosciutto are examples of salumi.  I'm thinking pepperoni may be as well.  Learn something new?  I try to each day!

Chicken Spaghetti Pizza

Shredded, cooked chicken and chunky spaghetti sauce topped with fresh mozzarella

I've been reading about comfort foods recently.   Jen's round up at Savory Simple  and Julie's round up at Texan New Yorker have me drooling and plotting what to make with and without my Strategic Winter Squash Reserve.  The weather is cold, it's icy out (the wiener dogs are ALL BUSINESS on walks, whereas Simon the Lab mix is prone to frolicking) and it just feels good to cocoon at home.  Who am I kidding?  I always like to cocoon at home!

It's funny, when I reflect back on the foods I liked growing up, how many of what were 'frugal' meals (we called them 'cheap night' dinners), are the ones I remember fondly.  In fact, a dish of sautéed beet greens is my version of mom's Swiss chard side dish.  We probably ate it because we grew Swiss chard in the garden and therefore it was less expensive (and more delicious, and nutritious) than buying vegetables in the store--but to me it's pure comfort food.

One of those memorable meals is Chicken Spaghetti.  I haven't made it in years--but Mom emailed me the recipe . . . um, twice (I'm a bit distracted) . . . and I will.  Before I do, though, I can share this pizza.  I was looking through the fridge for something to top our Friday Night Pizza Night when I realized we had both leftover chicken and leftover spaghetti sauce.

My friend Miho once said I had a fridge like Aunt Dorothy--you could find such a variety of leftovers.  Although I'd never met Aunt Dorothy, I do have an astonishing variety of leftovers almost all the time.  I even sent a full--leftover--Thanksgiving meal to folks who unexpectedly ended up in the hospital during a vacation in our city.  In April.  No, the leftovers were not 6 months old, nor was I blogging and shooting photos ahead of time.  I'd fixed a Thanksgiving meal for the spouse after a deployment.

Back to pizza.  Why not a Chicken Spaghetti Pizza?  It's a comfort food that tastes wonderful and uses up leftovers as well.

Everything Bagel Focaccia Bar (Pizza Night!)

Chewy focaccia seasoned like an everything bagel, topped with your favorite bagel toppings

There are foods that I like to splurge and treat myself to now and again.  One of them is a good everything bagel, toasted under the broiler then spread with cream cheese, topped with lox, red onion, capers, and--if they are in season in my garden/the farm share--a slice of tomato.  Like Albert in the book Bread and Jam for Frances (Amazon affiliate link) I set my meal up just so, and it makes me happy.

The first time I tried to recreate my treat on a pizza, one year ago's Potato Smoked Salmon Red Onion and Caper Pizza, the pizza, while tasty, missed the mark of what I wanted to capture.  When I first made a focaccia I realized what I'd wanted was the chewiness of the crust, and made a mental note to find Everything Bagel seasoning and try it out.

Fast forward to summer.  While at the beach at a spice store steps away from the boardwalk (I'd think that wasn't a great location, but they got my business) I found it.  As I drove back to Ohio I had my daughter take notes of all the recipe ideas in my head.  The first one I tried was Everything Bagel Focaccia.  It was good--but still needed some tweaking.

First try--too thick, and not "everything" enough.

Third time was the charm for me (and for you!), and I present you with a focaccia flavored like an everything bagel yet not so messy (I hate all the crunchy bits that fall off, though they are tasty scooped up and secured with cream cheese), safe to eat if your parents have invested much money in your mouth and don't want you to screw up your braces, and the perfect set up for a late brunch bar with assorted toppings.

For my birthday I'd like to share a Friday Night Pizza Night version of one of my favorite foods. Enjoy!

Spicy Kale Pizza Dough with Mushrooms and Cheese

Sautéed mushrooms and kale with cottage cheese on a spicy kale pizza crust

Food takes time.

Food requires relationships.

Food requires connections.

When Sherry Chen of the BW Greenway said the above words at a recent local foods summit those words struck me.

Food takes time.

Feeding my family from our CSA farm share [yeah, I was part of the choir at that local foods summit. I don't have the raw data, but I know we're eating more than the 10% locally sourced food we were to pledge to eat.  100% of the beets, turnips, fresh figs and radishes for sure] means, for the most part, I am the one taking the time to make the food.  And when that food is not necessarily enjoyed by the entire household it can be hard to justify taking the time for just me.

But--I'm worth it.  And you are, too.

This is a convoluted way of saying that the pizza I'm sharing is more of a personal-sized pizza.  I did not consume the whole pie in one sitting, but if I'd been hungry enough I would have.  I made it knowing I'd be the only one to eat it, and that's fine by me.  It gave me a satisfactory answer to Sherry's question:

Who is fixing your dinner?  Someone has to grow, harvest, and prepare each meal.  

Even if it's not you.

Roasted Winter Squash Tacos

Strips of winter squash, roasted with peppers and onions, for a seasonal, vegetarian twist on the classic Taco Night

I wish I could be more precise about the kind of winter squash I used for these tacos.  It looked like a cross between a pie pumpkin and an acorn squash, so I am positive both of these types of squash will work.  Ditto butternut or delicata squash, as they'd roast up the same way (and you wouldn't need to peel the delicata). I just got a buttercup squash in the farm share but haven't taken time to play with it yet, so the jury is still out on that one.  If you have a spaghetti squash, I recommend you try Julie's Spaghetti Squash and Black Bean Tacos, as that recipe inspired me to look at the Strategic Winter Squash Reserve with an eye to making a vegetarian/vegan and bean free taco night dinner.

This is a Play With Your Benriner meal.  After laboriously halving, deseeding (more fun in next year's compost!), and peeling the squash, I thinly sliced it with my Benriner (link to Alanna's tutorial, or use a mandoline, or a sharp knife).  I gave the ends to the worms in the worm bin in my son's closet, as the composting guinea pig is not a fan.  Nor do pigs like the onion I thinly sliced next.  However, guinea pigs do like peppers and cilantro, so this meal wasn't an entire waste in a composting pig's eye as those were used in abundance.  Putting your seasonal abundance to work, that's what I'm all about.

I chose to roast the squash slices because I wanted a fajita strip shape (since I was using a bag of fajita size tortillas) and it was fun to layer the jalapeño, onion, sage and peppers on top of the squash to finish the whole thing under the broiler.  Only one pan to clean up, which I appreciate!

NOTE:  I created this recipe to be gluten free through my choice of ingredients. Check labels to confirm that your products are also gluten free. Good sources for determining that your products are gluten free can be found here:

http://knowgluten.me/2012/03/31/other-names-for-gluten/

http://glutenfreedoctor.com/gluten-free/

http://www.celiac.com/categories/Safe-Gluten%252dFree-Food-List-%7B47%7D-Unsafe-Foods-%26amp%3B-Ingredients/

Roasted Winter Squash Tacos

3 small winter squash, peeled, gutted, and sliced ~ 1/8 inch thick (about 7 to 8 cups loosely packed)

1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground cumin (depending on how spicy you like things)

1/2 to 1teaspoon ground coriander (ditto)

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon chili powder (as above)

1 onion, peeled (skins to the soup pack!)

1 Tablespoon finely chopped jalapeño

1 teaspoon fresh sage leaves, sliced into ribbons

2 cups sliced bell pepper, colors of your choice

Arizona Dreaming or other taco seasoning, a few shakes worth (probably 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon)

tortillas

Optional

1/2 cup packed cilantro leaves

guacamole

shredded Mexican blend cheese

sour cream

salsa verde

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Toss squash slices with seasonings, then spread out on a piece of parchment paper on a rimmed baking sheet.  Roast for 30 to 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes, until soft and tender.  Add onion, jalapeño, sage and pepper strips on top of squash.  Shake a bit of seasoning (Arizona dreaming, or a taco seasoning) on top of the onion and peppers.  Turn on broiler, and broil for 5 to 8 minutes, about 4 inches from the heat, until the vegetables get some color.  Gently combine all vegetables in bowl to distribute the seasonings evenly.

One of the things I like about Taco Night is how everyone can customize their meal.  I liked to spread the tortilla with guacamole, then layer the roasted vegetables, cilantro, cheese and sour cream.  My spouse preferred to add salsa verde on his roasted vegetables for more spicy flavor.  The kids had some squash with their cheese and sour cream.  How would you top your taco?

This post is shared on the Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Tasty Tuesdays, What's Cookin' Wednesday, the Wednesday Fresh Foods Link Up, From the Farm Blog Hop

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Sausage Spinach Mozzarella Ball Pizza

Crumbled Italian sausage, fresh spinach, marinated mozzarella balls and artichoke hearts top this welcoming pizza

The subtitle on this pizza is Homecoming Pizza, and not the dance/football game kind.  If you're interested in the reason behind the subtitle, enjoy the recipe and meet me on the other side.  But first, here's how to make this yummy pizza.

Pumpkin Cranberry Maple Kugel

This cross-cultural mash up of fresh pumpkin, cranberries, and maple syrup with noodle kugel makes a lightly sweet (without sugar) dessert--and a terrific post-holiday breakfast!

This post is part of the Thanksgivukkah Food Blogger Potluck hosted by Stefani of CupcakeProject.com.  You can read all about it here, and scroll down for links to many more recipes!

I think it is a natural tendency, when you embark on a new endeavor, to look to those experienced in the field for guidance.

When I became a mother I looked to the women around me who were a few months/years ahead of me on the motherhood journey.  From the practical (my oldest friend took one look at the giant convertible carseat I was lugging in and out every day and loaned me her snap-in infant carrier) to the more intangible (while fretting about the lower percentile my son doggedly stayed in on his growth chart, another friend reminded me that when he gets to college, no one will remember or care where his height/weight fell on the chart at age 6 months). The help I received from those women who have gone before me made a huge difference in my life.

As my children grow into their teens, I continue to look to those ahead of me, and I'm especially interested in the interactions of mothers and their now-adult children.  I avidly observe my friends who have adult children with Spina Bifida, watching and learning the steps of the complicated dance that is supporting yet not directing another adult's life.  It is fun to see photos of a friend enjoying a day at Disney with her daughter who now works there.  It's gratifying to see another friend's daughter drop in to see her mom at work, just for a little Mom time (and not money!).

Why am I going on about mothers and adult children?  It was Molly, visiting her mom during sled hockey practice recently, who gave me the idea for this recipe.  See, while I was brainstorming Hanukkah/Thanksgiving mashup ideas, all I could think of was latkes.  Over the years I've been over to my oldest friend's house many times to make--and eat--latkes, but they were the star of the meal.  While I was chatting with Molly and her mom about other Hanukkah dishes, like brisket and roast chicken, Molly suggested kugel.
I just happened to have my copy of Melt: The Art of Macaroni and Cheese (Amazon affiliate link) because I was working on this post and wouldn't you know it, there's a recipe in Melt for Sweet Potato Kugel. [Put this book on your holiday wish list, unless you're local to me, then check it out of the library or borrow my copy--I keep finding more recipes I must try, and each one I've made is well-written with delicious results.]  Obviously from the title of this post I didn't make that recipe (I used pumpkin not sweet potato, fresh cranberries not dried, maple syrup in place of sugar and changed up the spices) but since Stephanie Stiavetti and Garrett McCord have gone before me into the world of autumnal vegetable kugels I am glad to follow their guidance.

Just like I follow others who have gone before me.

Vegetarian Antipasti FFF-a-boli Rolled Pizza on Sweet Potato Dough

A cheesy mix of mushrooms, artichokes, pickled peppers, pesto and olives rolled in a sweet potato crust

It's been a while since I've shared a rolled pizza.  I started with a Basic FarmFreshFeasts-a-boli, then later a Beef and Mushroom FFF-a-boli.  Coming next Friday I'll have a tasty turkey 'boli using Thanksgiving leftovers.  But today, I am all about the vegetables.

The base of this rolled pizza is a Roasted Sweet Potato crust I shared here. [Can you tell that I make multiple batches of dough in one go, so I can play around with the toppings?]  Since I usually have an antipasti bar going on in my refrigerator door I grabbed a bunch of jars for pizza topping ideas.  I put back the grape jelly, peach jam, sriracha and lemongrass but kept the stuff you see below.  Starting with a base of sautéed mushrooms, I added some pickled peppers, then olives and artichoke hearts, with pesto to tie the whole thing together.  Three cheeses make this extra gooey and yummy.

If you eat turkey for Thanksgiving, but will be serving vegetarians in your post-Thanksgiving Eat All The Leftovers period, keep this pizza in mind.

Cranberry Chicken Meatballs with Cranberry Gravy

Cranberries, sage, and red onion flavor ground chicken in meatballs served with cranberry gravy

My spouse used to buy CDs and books based on the covers (you know, in the days pre-online shopping, when you'd physically scan the shelves and pick up what caught your eye).  He discovered Willy Porter's Dog Eared Dream (Amazon affiliate link) that way (cute dog on the cover).  He also found a cooking with fruit cookbook (which, sadly, has been lost in the many moves).  I always intended to use that book to add more fruit to savory dishes, but it never really caught on with me.

I have a taste memory of a wonderful chicken schnitzel melba (chicken, peaches, brown gravy) from Restaurant Paltzer in Spangdahlem, Germany that is my Gold Standard for a savory, fruit-and-meat entree.  I'm still working on the recipe for that (though my German coworker is helping!), but since it's getting on to cranberry season and I'm all about eating with the seasons (or putting up produce while it is in season to eat later) I'll share these cranberry chicken meatballs.

Even though I tend to stock a lot of local ground beef in my freezer, I am not immune to a good deal on ground chicken at the grocery store.  I had chopped cranberries (from these muffins) and some red onions and sage from the farm share.  The family was pretty pleased at the thought of chicken and noodles for dinner.  Perhaps they were happy about a pink meal that didn't contain beets. Even though I had 2 burners and the oven going, this meal wasn't that much plate-spinning effort.  I threw the meatballs together and chucked them into the oven, freeing up my hands to make the gravy while the noodles and meatballs were doing their own thing.

Beef and Cheddar on Pumpkin Pizza Dough

A hearty pizza of roast beef, mixed with barbecue sauce and topped with cheddar, on a roasted pumpkin pizza crust

I realized that despite the large amount of cow in the freezer, I rarely share very meaty pizzas.

I think it stems from a desire to Use All The Vegetables from the farm share, plus a desire to decrease the amount of meat per serving, but regardless of the desire, the end result is that we rarely eat a (homemade, at least) very meaty pizza.

This is a very meaty pizza.  I had leftover shredded beef (Sarah at Imperfect Kitchen's Perfect Pot Roast sounds like a good way to have some leftover shredded beef) as well as a pumpkin pizza crust, and I wanted the opposite of the Pumpkin and Black Bean pizza I shared last week.

It worked--this is nothing like that pizza, though if you gave me a slice of each I'd eat them both real fast.  I'd finish with this one, though, because the BBQ beef and cheddar flavors want to linger on my tongue.  [I like my last bites of a plate of food to be my favorite ones.  Strange, I know.]

Pumpkin and Black Bean Pizza on Roasted Pumpkin Dough

A hearty vegetarian pizza with pumpkin, black bean, and maple topping on a roasted pumpkin dough

Once you've shredded butternut squash and made pizza dough out of it, or roasted sweet potato and made pizza dough out of it, or steamed spinach and  made a pizza dough out of it, pumpkin pizza dough is not much of a stretch.

Roasted beet pizza dough?  A stretch.  A vibrantly-colored-yet-amazingly-found-in-nature stretch.  And a tasty one, to boot.  Where was I?  Right, roasted pumpkin in a pizza dough.

With this non-stretch of a pizza dough, I wanted to go a bit wild with a meatless topping.  I'd read Aimée's account of tapping her maple trees and making syrup (I love the photo of her daughter 'nursing' on the tree) so I was primed to include maple syrup in the mix.  The black beans and pumpkin flowed from there.  This is a hearty, filling, cold weather pizza that left my belly quite satisfied.  The kids proclaimed it "strange" but finished their pieces anyway.  I used too much filling in my pizza, above, and I have adjusted the amounts below accordingly.  This filling is quite tasty, and would be tasty in a rolled pizza, folded into puff pastry, or in a quesadilla as well as this pizza.

We have Friday Night Pizza Nights around here, but if you do Meatless Monday this recipe lends itself to weekend prep/weeknight cooking.  Fix the dough and topping on the weekend.  Have the kids take the dough out of the fridge when they get home from school (or tuck it with your lunch at work and take it out--put it by your house keys--an hour before you're due to leave work).  In the time it takes to preheat the oven you can stretch the dough and spread the toppings.

Squash, Mustard Greens, and Chick Pea Curry (Fast From The Farm Share)

A quick vegetarian stew of sautéed zucchini and yellow squash with mustard greens and chick peas in a prepared masala sauce.  Bring the farm share home and have supper on the table quickly.

For other recipes using Mustard Greens, please see my Mustard Greens Recipes Collection. For other recipes using Cooking Greens, please see my Recipes for Cooked Greens Collection. For other recipes using Summer Squash, please see my Summer Squash Recipes Collection. 

These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share. For other Greens recipe ideas from around the web, please follow my Greens board on Pinterest.

I've categorized fast recipes on this site as Quick Takes, and before I discovered some wonderful Wednesday link ups I used to post fast recipes on Thursdays, because Thursday is one of the days that I'm running kids around right up until suppertime.
However, I've been kicking around the phrase "Fast from the Farm Share" in my head for a while, so I'm going to share an occasional series of recipes that can get on the table quickly using ingredients from the CSA farm share (or your garden, or the farmer's market, or grocery store).

You'll notice I'm relying on a prepared sauce for this stew.  Sure, I can make my own masala (with chicken and chick peas here, or with patty pan squash and ground beef here, or with sweet potato, chicken, and chick pea here) but those are slow cooker recipes which don't fit with the fast theme.

This recipe is for those nights when you've got fresh vegetables that you need to eat and no time/desire to think about what to do with them or make some elaborate concoction.  It comes together quickly (cooking the rice takes longest, so if you've got the option, I'd set up the rice cooker before work, or have a kid start the rice cooker after school, or buy precooked rice) and tastes wonderful. And my kids snarfed up the mustard greens very quickly this way (magical naan, that is) so that's a win in my book.