Grilled Korean Chicken Thighs with Squash and Peppers

A flavorful meal of Korean-seasoned farm share vegetables and chicken thighs, grilled and served with bok choy and rice. Told ya I was throwing the farm share on the grill!

I may not be superstitious but I do believe in signs.  When I read a recipe for bibimbap and learn that the secret is a spoonful of Korean hot pepper bean paste (gochujang) which keeps for a while once opened, in the fridge my brain makes a mental note "get gochujang". When I read an article calling for gochujang to make sweet & spicy grilled vegetables and chicken thighs right when I've got the veggies from the farm share--I just go for it. Even with a too small grill (this was last year).

This recipe makes a pretty snazzy meal, a departure from my usual simply seasoned & grilled goodies. This complex flavor is deceptively simple--you throw some stuff in a bowl, whisk it together, pour it into 2 bags, dump prepped veggies and chicken into those bags, throw them in the fridge and walk away. When you're ready to cook, fire up the grill and the rice cooker, do a bit of work on the stove (or use your grill as a summer kitchen) and you're sitting down to a flavorful meal pretty quickly.

For other recipes using patty pan squash, please see my Summer Squash Recipe Collection. For other recipes using peppers, please see my Pepper Recipe Collection. For other recipes using bok choy, please see my Bok Choy Recipe Collection. These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me looking for ways to enjoy the produce from the farm share, farmers market, or generous gardener.

Grilled Napa Cabbage and Chicken Skillet--Using the Grill as a Summer Kitchen

Too hot inside? Power out? Use your grill as a summer kitchen to make this Napa cabbage and chicken skillet supper.

I could start off by saying my kitchen is hot.

I could make innuendos about how hot my mattress feels. [In my opinion, Tempuerpedic sleeps hot.]

I could whine about my 80+ year old windows and their lack of insulation [what they lack in insulation they make up in charm?].

Grilled Zucchini with Feta

Tender chunks of zucchini grilled and tossed with feta cheese for a simple side dish to accompany a variety of meals.

Let's talk about volunteering. I come from volunteers (my extended family calendar even had a theme one year about how we all volunteer). My daughter volunteers with the gardening program of the local historical society and my son volunteers at the library. My spouse volunteers at community clean ups and when someone is deployed. I volunteer on the base, at the school, and in the community.

Volunteering is a value for our family. It boosts our community and ourselves. 

In the garden, squash plants volunteer. They come from our compost. They come from Halloween pumpkins, nibbled by squirrels. They grow in the front yard flower bed, in landscaped areas of the back yard, and in the middle of the patio.

The thing about volunteers is that we need to feel valued. We need to feel our efforts are making a difference in the community, and we want validation for the work we have done.

Grilled Kohlrabi Leaf Chips on a Stick

Kohlrabi leaves, massaged with oil and seasoned with salt then grilled until crispy. You can eat these.

If you like kale chips and you've got kohlrabi, you should like this.

I'd been thinking that kohlrabi leaves could be grilled and eaten like a kale chip and I tested the concept last week. It works. Don't eat the 'stick'.

Yes, I also grilled the kohlrabi chunks. This bowl made quick work of the leaves.

I feel like that's a no-brainer, but my spouse missed the pre-dinner briefing [why yes, we are a military family, why do you ask?] and manfully chewed through his kohlrabi stems before I noticed.

Don't do like he did. Compost the stem instead. Or feed it to the dog. He may puke it out later.

Just nibble on the leaves while holding onto the stem.

It's like when you're at a summer festival in Japan and you get squid on a stick.
Manfully chew through the squid and leave the stick uneaten.
Don't ask me how I know.

Perhaps obesity in America would be helped by replacing chocolate-covered deep-fried twinkies on a stick with . . . squid. Or kohlrabi.

Grilled Green Beans with Garlic Scape Pesto and Parm (side dish and appetizer)

 Fresh green beans, grilled until nicely browned, tossed with a garlic scape pesto dressing and buried under a dusting of Parmesan cheese. Use the leftovers for an appetizer wrapped in salami.

I have been all up in my grill for the past two months. Ever since my spouse assembled the monster, the grill became an never-ending source of inspiration for side dishes and planned overs aka repurposed leftovers. Now that I type it out, my farm share box is often the same sort of inspiration, albeit perishable inspiration.

I started a Grill Life List with a slip of paper, documenting all of the vegetables and meats I've grilled so far. Then I misplaced the slip of paper. I'm switching to notebooks. Speaking of, although I have not tried this system, I know a few folks who use it and it looks cool: Bullet Journal.

Today's recipe was made in that window of time after I've used up all the winter farm share stores, emptied the freezer of bulk frozen vegetables [Garlic Scape Pesto and Green Tomato Bacon Jam remain at the ready] and have to actually shop for vegetables in the store until the farm share starts. I asked my spouse what veggies he felt like eating and he wanted green beans. Green beans can give me something to work with, are good blog fodder, so I picked up a massive bag of the tender fresh ones at Costco.

I'm sharing this recipe both as YET ANOTHER NUDGE to make and freeze garlic scape pesto [my previous nudge is Grilled Garlic Scape Pesto Smashed Potatoes] but also because it fits in with my summer eating plan [more about that in the future when I have space to sit and write]. In a nutshell, though, when you're cooking, cook extra to use on nights when you don't have time/it's too hot to cook. This is not rocket science. I mean, I can come up with plenty of reasons not to cook--it's too hot, too rainy, I get home too late, I'm out of ______ (insert name of key ingredient). This reminds me of Matt Scott's Nike commercial. Point is, when I do cook I may as well cook as many things as I can, and figure out ways to use them later.

After enjoying these beans as a side dish I turned the leftovers into a savory appetizer. I wrapped 3 to 4 beans in a slice of thin salami and served the bundles alongside other leftover vegetables, cheese, and crackers. The pairing of crunchy grilled green beans with salty salami is a good one, and way too easy to make.

For more recipes using green beans, please see my Green Bean Recipes Collection. For more recipes using garlic scapes, please see my Garlic Scape Recipes Collection. These are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. You can find more vegetable appetizers on my Pinterest board, Awesome Veggie Apps and Snacks. Want to know how to Use This Blog? Click here.

Grilled Bok Choy (A story of a picky eater reformed by the farm share)

I'm throwing the farm share on the grill this summer, starting with Bok Choy. This easy and versatile side dish of tender stems and smoky crispy leaves is great with fish or chicken.

In honor of my formerly picky eater's 17th birthday, I thought I'd share a story about picky kids and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm shares. 

Ten years ago we set off on our first CSA adventure filled with loads of idealism (farmers! local food!) and a smattering of technical skills. Our kids really didn't have a say in the decision, but being resilient military kids they were used to going with the flow, living in a variety of settings and being offered a variety of foods. 

The kids were not big on a lot of vegetables, however. Sure, my daughter would eat raw broccoli stems for a snack and my son (a carb and cheese lover) would eat the occasional baby carrot under duress, but mostly they'd eat corn or potatoes. [One glaring exception was Yakisoba.] When a box full of vegetables comes into the house, and then another and another and another every week, though, you have to figure something out or you'll end up wasting food.

I hate wasting food. It's a waste of my money and our farmers' time. If the food came to us all packaged it would be an even bigger environmental waste, but in this case my compost bin doesn't complain.

After the massively steep learning curve of the first year farm share I picked up a few tricks [and shared some of them in a post written during the slow winter months]:

• Make familiar foods with additional vegetables added.
• Perform Vegetable Triage to identify and use what is most perishable first.
• Think outside the salad bowl.

Every season some new-to-me vegetable will throw me for a loop, but eventually I find a way [or fake one, our motto Peary high] to love it. Or at least tolerate it. I've had plenty of failures, some shown on my FB page, but the one that is family legend is Grilled Radicchio. I tried some recipe years ago and we hated it. [Like, straight into the compost bin don't even pretend to eat it for the kids'  sake hated it.] The only Good Thing about grilled radicchio became the story.

When you take your kids to the pediatrician they'll get asked "what fruits and vegetables won't you eat?" I'm sure it's a roundabout way to gauge a child's nutritional status. My kids will always answer without hesitation "Grilled Radicchio!". This usually shuts down that line of questioning. I can only assume it's because a kid who has an opinion on grilled radicchio has probably been exposed to more than just baby carrots, corn, and potatoes.

When I picked up the first farm share the other day I was delighted to see strawberries, spinach and salad mix and unsurprised to see additional greens. It's Spring, after all. I decided to grill some bok choy partly because I had the grill out for tilapia and salad turnips and partly to try and change our family's perception of grilled leaves. I loved how the edges of the leaves got all crispy like kale chips, and was pleased at how tender the stems became so quickly. I kept the seasoning simple--a splash of soy sauce--because we ate it with fish and rice, but I think you could go in a variety of directions. Maybe some lemon pepper seasoning, or hot sauce, or a balsamic vinegar reduction.

For more recipes using bok choy, please see my Bok Choy Recipes Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. For other ideas using greens, please see my Greens board on Pinterest.

Grilled Garlic Scape Pesto Smashed Potatoes

Crispy grilled potatoes smashed and seasoned with garlic scape pesto.

Subtitle:  Yet Another Reason Why You Should Put Up Garlic Scape Pesto This Year

I will shamelessly admit that this post is a Call to Action. I want you to find garlic scapes (if it's not too late in your neck of the woods) and make pesto with them. Make lots and lots of pesto, then freeze some of it because pesto lasts a long time and can be enjoyed in so many ways.

Here is my garlic scape pesto (GSP) recipe, using pistachios, parsley and basil for that whole Green on Green action, but use the recipe that appeals to you the most. There are many pesto options in my Garlic Scape Recipe Round Up and on my Garlic Scapes Pinterest Board. If you get enough scapes, you could try them all!

I use a bit less olive oil in my recipe so the result is a thicker pesto, easy to scoop (Amazon affiliate link to my scoop) onto a tray to freeze. [I prefer not to use my ice cube trays since I use them to make ice and never have enough ice in the summer.] I often whisk thawed scoops of GSP with additional oil before using, like I did in today's recipe.

The first time I heard about smashed potatoes was while skimming through a Pioneer Woman cookbook in the bookstore. I failed at my first attempt to make them [I was too vigorous with my smashing] but they still tasted good. I tried them again on our old grill, but when your grill is optimized for portability and powered by a creme brûlée torch-sized can of propane, you learn not to expect much. The third time was the charm for these spuds--I didn't crash too vigorously and the grill was big enough, and hot enough [and gosh darn it, people like it] to make this concept work.

These were rounds 3 and 4 for the grill--I'd already grilled green beans and zucchini for later use.

My daughter filled up a 3 quart saucepan with potatoes because I know that no matter how they are prepared, my family loves potatoes. I only grilled what would fit on my grill sheet because I didn't want overcrowding, and because we can always find a use for cooked & cooled potatoes. [In this case, some went onto a pizza, some went into a spinach and potato quesadilla, and some were fried up with onions and eggs for breakfast.]

For other recipes using Garlic Scapes, please see my Garlic & Garlic Scapes Recipe Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. I've got a Pinterest board of Garlic Scape Recipes here, and a Round Up of 28+ Food Blogger Recipes Using Garlic Scapes here.

Grilled Steak & Vegetable Wild Rice Salad

A hearty main dish salad of grilled steak, zucchini, mushrooms and peppers tossed with wild rice and topped with olives, artichoke hearts, and feta cheese.

If you've been on my FB page lately, you'll see evidence that my motto is Grill All The Things. I don't know if it's because I'm so stoked about having a decent grill or because I can't stand to see a hot cooking appliance (NOT in my kitchen) underutilized or what. I just know that I've been routinely grilling some vegetables, fruit, and perhaps a protein or a pizza each time I fire it up. I've learned how to get the propane tank refilled, and I'm really looking forward to playing once the summer bounty of the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share is arriving in my kitchen.

Grilling often means that I've got extra grilled stuff to use on the off days. Following that 'cook once, eat twice' philosophy, I've got a main dish spring salad to share with you today. This hearty salad is for the days when you've worked hard [weeding, pruning, mulching, planting, doing a marathon 5K instead of reading the Sunday paper--pick your reason for a hearty salad]. It's satisfying and can be customized to suit your tastes with optional toppings. I went with a Mediterranean theme because I'm sort of stuck on artichokes, olives and feta cheese these days.

A warm day followed by a cool evening is a great time for a filling salad such as this. We enjoyed it slightly warm, tossing all of the previously grilled items with hot rice. My daughter preferred the leftovers served at room temperature, with plenty of cheese.

For other recipes using mushrooms, please see my Mushroom Recipes Collection. For other recipes using Zucchini, please see my Zucchini Recipes Collection. These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. Want to know how to Use This Blog? Click here.

Grilled Butternut Squash & Peppers--a side, a main, or a meal.

Chunks of grilled butternut squash and bell peppers as a side dish, tossed with grilled sausage for a main dish, and/or combined with pasta for a complete meal.

Just because school is back in session and the leaves are turning it's no time to put away the grill. In fact, grilling winter squash when it looks like Fall and the calendar says it's still summer seems like a good idea. If you want to get all-season about it, I even made this recipe in the Spring, using the tail end of my Strategic Winter Squash Reserve.

What's a Strategic Winter Squash Reserve? I'm glad you asked. It's one of the ways I feed my family from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share all year long. During the season (approximately late May-ish to early October-ish) we eat some of the share and put up the rest for later. One of the easiest vegetables to put up is winter squash. Winter squashes (acorn, buttercup, butternut, pumpkin and spaghetti are most common) are terrific long-storing vegetables. In a cool dark place (the cold corner of my breakfast nook once it stops hitting 90 outside) the squash will keep for months. Many months. Just be sure to look over your squash every few days and use them in a timely manner.

I've revamped my Visual Recipe Index! For more ideas on what to do with your butternut squash, click here.

This recipe follows the Bus Stop method of cooking I've used in previous posts, such as the Potato, Beet and Leek Soup (and How to Make Vegetable Stock). Depending on how far you take this 'bus', you'll make a vegan side dish, a paleo/grain free main dish, or a complete meal for omnivores. Or all three--with a single cooking session.*

Grilled Mushrooms (Full Metal Basket)

Mushrooms simply seasoned then grilled--followed by your choice of seasonings to jazz up the flavor. Simple, easy, keeps the house cool in summertime.

I'm very fortunate that some committed folks made a weekly Farmer's Market happen in my little city.  I can't say I used it much last year--having my hands full with the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share and all--but I did enjoy the visits I made.  Since my spouse hadn't seen it, we did a recce [that would be a reconnaissance mission, it's pronounced wreck-ee if you'd like to co-opt this jargon for yourself] the other week to check out the new and improved sophomore year offerings.  I picked up some eggs, some blueberries, and then I spied the man selling mushrooms.  Woot!  Now I know where I can go for local mushrooms! Once I get into the groove with the farm share I will partake, because we love our 'shrooms.

Mushrooms = at home date night to me. What can I say? I'm easy to please. My spouse and I both love mushrooms and our kids don't, so anytime I'm making a mushroom side dish or appetizer it's guaranteed to be a date night treat.

So far on this blog I've shared mushroom appetizers that are sautéed [my Skillet Mushroom Dip for Two] and roasted [my Soy Sriracha Roasted Mushrooms].  Since the kitchen is heating up by virtue to the east-facing 86 yr old windows [and without my turning on the stove or oven] I figured it was time to get my grill on.  To do that, I bring out my new BGF (Best Grill Friend)--the Full Metal Basket.  I'm purposely not doing an Amazon affiliate link here because 1) the whole affiliate thing seems utterly pointless and 2) I don't know what brand this could be.

This new-to-me basket is large--9 inches square at the base, flaring out as it rises up 3½ inch sides to an upper opening of a square foot. It's perfect for grilling vegetables such as peppers, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, squash, turnips, kohlrabi, beets and mushrooms. I can stir in it without everything flying out [if you've ever seen my stovetop you'd understand].  Since I picked it up at the thrift shop a few months ago I've used it each time we grill.  That's a darn useful tool!

Green Tomato Bacon Jam Burgers

A simple burger with a little something extra--green tomato bacon jam mixed into the beef makes each bite juicy and full of flavor

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There's just something about the flavor of these burgers.  Mixing in the Green Tomato Bacon Jam adds such richness to the meat that they deserve their own post.  And if I get this up before Memorial Day?  Well, let's just say that I'm so happy to be enjoying these burgers hot off the grill that I can't wait longer to share with you all.

In a way I feel like I'm recycling a post here, which is I'm sure not cool for a relatively new blogger to do.  I did it for me, though--I didn't want to wade through my Green Tomato Bacon Jam recipe for the burger recipe, nor did I want others to do so.  Even if you don't make your own Green Tomato Bacon Jam--and I just made a batch the other day through the magic of canned green tomatoes since my own plants are 3 to 8 inches tall--I think the jam flavor is so terrific in the burgers I must share now so you can try this over the summer months.  [Can you buy green tomato bacon jam?]

Making your own Green Tomato Bacon Jam is easy--if you can chop or use a food processor, and stir a bunch of stuff together in a pot for an hour.  The ingredients are not hard to source, and it keeps in the fridge or the freezer--no scary canning required.

[I freely admit to continuing the brain washing I started last month about canning tomatoes and freezing assorted pizza toppings.]  Each time I open up my freezer or pantry during the winter and grab something yummy I put up over the summer, I feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment.

I want you to feel that sense of accomplishment, too.

For more recipes using green tomatoes, please see my Green Tomato Recipes Collection. Not one of them fried! This collection is 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?

Pasta Salad with Grilled Fruit and Goat Cheese {Recipe from MELT}

A sweetly savory summer side dish or light vegetarian supper--pasta combined with grilled fruit, goat cheese, herbs and nuts. From MELT: The Art of Macaroni and Cheese

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I want to talk about barriers to successful grilling.

[Those of you with your grills hooked up to your natural gas line, skip ahead to the recipe. Lucky ducks. The rest of you, read on.]

See, for 9 of the past 10 years we have tried--key word--to be successful at grilling.  Our grill is the largest tiny portable one there is, and it has a nice loop to hold a tiny propane tank (the kind a restaurant might use for creme brûlée). Each time we wanted to grill out, we'd carry the grill out of the shed, set it up, preheat, put the food on the hot grill, and then . . . when it was time to turn the meat, the small propane tank was empty and the grill was cooling. When this scenario is played out often, it makes you want to just crank up the oven and heat up the house!

Last summer I decided to tackle our grilling barrier head on.  We got a standard size propane tank, one that has to be carried separately from our little grill. Finally I could trust that when I started the fire I'd be able to see the cooking through, and with that our grilling changed.  We do store our grill in the garage (because we've since moved to a house with a garage) so once it's hauled out and set up I like to grill anything handy and used the grilled items in future meals.  I've used this technique in my Grilled Veggie Ciabatta Pizza, but now I'd like to share a terrific picnic side dish or light summer supper:  Pasta Salad with Grilled Fruit and Goat Cheese.

At its heart this a recipe for macaroni and cheese, so it's no surprise that I got the recipe from MELT: The Art of Macaroni and Cheese (link to the author's website).  I received a copy of this terrific cookbook last fall and have made several recipes with it, including Macaroni and Cheese in a Pumpkin and Pumpkin Cranberry Maple Kugel.


One of the first recipes that caught my eye was an orzo salad with Humboldt Fog goat cheese and grilled peaches. Since I eat seasonally I figured I'd need to wait until peach season to try it--but first I found myself with some fresh figs at the same time  I found Humboldt Fog marked down at the fancy cheese counter.  Score! This tasted so yummy that the name--Humboldt Fog--stuck, so since then I'm always on the lookout for it in the marked down bin.

The next time I came across the cheese coincided with cored pineapple selling for the same price as whole pineapple.  I prefer not to pay for the parts that just go into the compost anyway, so I picked up a container of prepped pineapple. While we had the grill going for steaks, I whipped up the marinade and tossed the pineapple in to coat.  I was out of orzo, so I subbed in elbow macaroni.

This savory-sweet pasta salad is a refreshing addition to summer meals. We prefer it served freshly tossed or at room temperature (do not microwave to reheat the leftovers).

For more recipes using figs, please see my Fig Recipes Collection. For more recipes calling for fresh peaches, please see my Peach Recipes Collection. For more recipes using pineapple, please see my Pineapple Recipes Collection. These collections are 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?