Swiss Chard Hash

A skillet supper of Swiss chard, potatoes, mushrooms and sausage served with an egg on top.

"There should be a Sausage Monday"

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I fixed this on a Monday night, after getting the idea from a similar 'throw in whatever's handy' supper the week before that turned out surprisingly good. I was going to leave out the sausage and serve the hash with an egg on top. My spouse came in and asked what was for dinner. After I shared my vision he commented "that would be good with sausage". I replied "I was going for a Meatless Monday meal". He said, "there should be a Sausage Monday". So, sausage it is. Feel free to adapt to your Sausage or Meatless Monday needs by doubling the mushrooms in place of the sausage.

For other recipes using Swiss chard, please see my Swiss Chard Recipes Collection. For other recipes using potatoes since I have 25 pounds of them from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share, please see my Potato Recipes Collection. Same thing for the Mushroom Recipes Collection (not 25 pounds, just check it out), all part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient--a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share. I'm also contributing to The Spiced Life's Mushroom Mangia board on Pinterest, have a Potatoes board on Pinterest, and interesting chard recipes that catch my eye live on my Greens board on Pinterest. Want to know How to Use This Blog? Click here.

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.

Potato Sauce--a Fast & Easy Holiday Recipe

A quickly assembled sauce of crème fraîche, mayo, roasted garlic and pepper. Great on many types of potatoes--boiled, roasted, or baked.

I've got a fast recipe today. It uses 4 ingredients--and if you can't find the main one, you can always substitute or even make your own. How easy is that?

We eat potatoes to celebrate so many things.  If it's not my Make Ahead Irish Mashed Potato Casserole alongside a Thanksgiving turkey, it's a baked potato, roasted potatoes, or boiled new potatoes from the farm share cuddled up with Swedish Meatballs.

Our family's favorite way to enjoy these potatoes is with Potato Sauce.  I know the name is boring--I thought about trying to jazz it up by calling it Crème Fraîche and Røastéd Gårlic Pøtatø Saüce, but in the end opted to keep it simple. It's just a sauce for potatoes, after all.

I first had this sauce in Copenhagen when my sister in law whipped it up. I was blown away at how delicious something so simple could taste! I'm not sure if it was the exoticness of the crème fraîche or the comfort of home cooking after travel or what--but I was smitten.

If you are fortunate enough to encounter some magically marked down containers of crème fraîche you're good to go. If not--you can make your own. Here's a recipe. If you don't have time for that--just use some sour cream. It's all good.

What if you didn't roast your garlic crop last year? No worries, finely chop some fresh garlic, or stir in some dehydrated minced garlic if that's all you've got handy. [Don't tell me you didn't even grow garlic--it's pretty easy. If you live in a place where tulips and daffodils flourish in the Spring, you live where garlic will grow. Plant some in the fall and harvest it--along with amazing garlic scapes--in early summer.]

For other recipes using roasted garlic, please see my Garlic Recipes Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient.

Braised Turnips with Potatoes and Sausage

Turnips and potatoes, braised with sausage in broth.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

When I lived in Germany I attended many outdoor festivals. I loved the winter markets the best--what an experience! New-to-me sights, smells and foods. Once, when my folks were visiting we went to an outdoor market in Cologne. My mom walked up to a group of Germans who were sharing a paper cone of freshly roasted nuts and asked for a taste.

I was mortified. My mom enjoyed her spiced nut.

Now I've turned into my mom. While shopping at the base commissary* I got in line behind a cute little old lady buying turnips. I'd never seen anyone buy turnips before. We frequently get them in our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share, so I was intrigued. Channeling my mom, I asked the lady how she liked to eat her turnips. She said she braised them with potatoes and sausage in a bit of broth. Here's my take on that conversation.

For other recipes using turnips, please see my Turnip Recipes Collection. For other recipes using potatoes, please see my Potato Recipes Collection. These are both part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. For even more ideas, I've got an assortment of boards on Pinterest you're welcome to check out if you need a time suck!

5 Tips to Feed Your Family From the Farm Share {Roasted Celeriac and Potatoes}

What do I do if my kid/spouse/guinea pig* won't eat _______ [insert name of vegetable]?

I hear from folks who join Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm shares that a prime concern is family members not liking particular vegetables. When we started eating from a farm share my kids were 6 and 8. The older one liked potatoes and occasionally tolerated baby carrots and apple slices [unless he absolutely loved them or abhorred them. It changed. A lot. Since his congenital brain malformation--Chiari, if you're wondering--comes along with a wicked gag reflex, he'd lose the contents of his stomach when forced to 'eat just one bite'. We learned to cut our losses. Probably TMI.] The younger one ate broccoli stems for fun and hadn't met a fruit she didn't like. My spouse? He's spent a year eating in Korea, a year eating in Iraq, and has been eating my cooking for nearly two decades. Awww . . . we've got an anniversary this year . . . but the point is he'll eat anything.

You'll notice only green things are left on his tray. He didn't like green back then.

When we started getting cabbage (a typical early season green) it went smoothly. Sautéed with a little salt and pepper, shown in my Simple Sautéed Chinese Cabbage, it was a hit with my girl and tolerable to my boy. Then the eggplant appeared. How on earth was I going to get that into them? In desperation I roasted everything roastable [is that a word?] from that box (NOT shown below, I wasn't blogging way back in 2006) and made spaghetti sauce. It worked! They ate it!

a typical late summer box

That recipe--the first one I ever posted on the internet [you can see it here at tastykitchen] opened my mind to the possibilities of produce. I could add some sort of pun thinking outside the farm share box, but I won't. In the ensuing years--I've just signed up for our 10th season--I picked up a couple of tips through friends, relatives, and trial and error. No tricks, though--I've always been aboveboard with my family about what we're eating.  They don't even ask if there are beets in the smoothie anymore, they just drink it. 

A few lessons learned (and then a recipe):

Turkey, Cranberry, and Mashed Potato Pizza

Thanksgiving leftovers as pizza toppings--mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce dotted with turkey and topped with feta and cheddar cheeses.

I'm going to share two Thanksgiving Leftovers Pizzas this month. One is for folks who don't want to make a special pizza dough, and the other is for folks who are game to try another of my new concoctions. Let's start with the easier one.

I knew I wanted a layer of mashed potatoes as the base, and after Thanksgiving I made several attempts using my Make Ahead Irish Mashed Potato Casserole. But none of my efforts with actual Thanksgiving leftovers really thrilled me, so I waited until I saw some turkey marked down, threw some other sides in my basket, and tried again.

For this particular combination I made 3 different pizzas--one without any cheese, one with cheddar, and one with feta. The pizza really needs cheese [this Beef & Broccoli pizza works without cheese, though]. I found I preferred the duo of feta and cheddar together.

You know, I don't think I'm going to type any more on this post. As I sit typing it up our newest addition, Robert Barker, is resting at my feet for his first night in his new home. I will share more of his story as I get to know him, but it's enough to say that he needs TLC more than I need to prattle on about pizza.

Colorful Roasted Butternut Squash with Potato, Pepper and Leeks

Cubes of butternut squash and potato roasted with pieces of pepper and seasoned with leeks. A colorful side dish for a holiday meal or for a simple family supper.

The other day I talked about my Appetizer recipes, tooting my own horn about my ever-growing list of vegetable (and now meat and fruit) appetizers. Today I'm focused on side dishes. I can could make meals out of side dishes. Back when we lived near a Boston Market restaurant I was happy to skip the chicken or meatloaf and instead feast on greens, squash, stuffing, potatoes, corn, beans . . . whatever looked good and could be plentiful on my plate.

The suck part of desiring a variety of colorful side dishes is having to make them all. For this recipe I decided to combine a few veggies--the most colorful ones on hand--and roast them together. One cooking session that would result in a plentiful pile of color on my plate. It not only looked good--it tasted terrific, especially alongside a roasted chicken.

Over the past few weeks I've been gathering all the ingredients for a repeat of this side dish (first made--and photos shot last winter). Fall crops from our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share generally keep well over a long period. In a cool dark place you can store winter squash, potatoes, and onions for months. Peppers and leeks hang out in the crisper for a few weeks--and can be frozen to use in soups and stews as well. So even if you're getting the fresh local produce in October [and you celebrate Thanksgiving in the US in November--I won't rant this time] with proper storage your produce will be ready when you're ready to cook.

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

Hatch Chile, Egg & Potato Casserole

Breakfast casserole of eggs spiced with Hatch chiles in a mashed potato crust.

I'll admit years ago I thought all the Hatch Chile Madness was a bunch of hype, but sheer laziness compelled me to try them after we moved here. See, my local grocery store fires up a round roaster in the parking lot each August and sells quarts of freshly roasted Hatch chiles. [Um, if I don't have to do anything more than walk the dog a mile down the road to buy a quart of already roasted chiles . . . why would I expend more energy? Laziness!] Then I found out they taste really good, too.

I must point out that I've not been compensated to rave about these chiles--I bought mine on my own dime because I was curious and lazy. Simon came along for the ride--and because he likes to get a drink halfway through his walks.

Year 1, I used some of the quart of chiles to make a batch of salsa verde along with the tomatillos from our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share, then gave the rest of the quart to our neighbors. Silly me. Year 2, I bought a quart, made my batch of salsa verde, and froze the rest, sticking them into chili here and there. Year 3, I picked up 2 quarts, made lots of batches of salsa verde, and stuck chiles in a whole host of dishes (listed below).
This year, Year 4, I will be buying 3 quarts. When will it stop?

Hot French Potato Salad

Roasted potatoes and haricots verts with bacon in a Dijon vinaigrette

There are many languages bouncing off the walls of my house these days.  When we play Uno during Family Game Nights we're calling out the color and number of each card in a language other than English. My daughter takes French, and to keep her skills up this summer she's taken to replying to my questions/requests en français. Or at least I assume that she's speaking French--honestly I haven't a clue. I topped out my knowledge when she called a potato masher a "pommes de terre frappe".

My son is learning German online, which takes me back to when I first arrived in Germany and took an intro course on the base. Unfortunately we lived in a region of Germany known for hick accents, so while my son is speaking proper German, my spouse and I speak with a hillbilly accent.
Add to this the fact that my brain seems to have an English/Other Language switch, and when searching for an Other word it could just as easily come out Spanish, Finnish, or Japanese.  Languages that make sense to me.

I mean, this potato salad uses haricots verts. I'd pronounce that haricots verts, but no . . . hairy co-vaire my daughter tells me. If it's hairy co-vaire, why is there an -erts on the end of the word? Makes no sense. However you choose to say it, this recipe is yummy. It's a bold side dish on a plate, assertive with notes of . . . ok, so not my style.  This is worthy of a country who lost 4% of their population during WW1--I can't even imagine that--not to mention a tasty way to eat beans and potatoes.  And bacon, always with the bacon.

Guinness-braised Brats and Broccoli-topped Baked Potatoes

A seasonal topping for a St Patrick's day supper, this simple meal consists of sausages braised in Stout coupled with fresh broccoli and a baked potato, covered in cheese.

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I made this as a simple 'use what we've got from the fridge/pantry' supper.  As I thought more about what I wanted to write for March/St Patrick's day I realized this simple meal would make an excellent alternative to a more traditional bill of fare.  I mean, I love corned beef and cabbage, especially in the form of New England Boiled Dinner, but I dislike eating it when the marketing hype tells me to do so.  Don't get me wrong--in March I love to buy cabbage and potatoes on sale, and at the end of the post I'll share some other cabbage recipes--I just don't like being told when to eat things.

If you want to go rogue for St Patrick's day (heck, I'm not even Irish) join me.  This starts, as do all good Irish tales, with a bottle of Guinness.  I confess the only time I've actually relished a glass of Guinness was in a pub in Ireland--possibly in Baltimore but I'm not 100% sure which town, though of my time in Ireland, Baltimore and the Dingle peninsula was my favorite area.

For more recipes using broccoli, please see my Broccoli Recipes Collection. For more recipes using potatoes, please see my Potato Recipes Collection. These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me scrambling around in March trying to keep eating seasonally and locally and running out of fresh food and freezer inspiration.

I'm sharing more recipes on Pinterest, follow me there. If you like good reads, I share articles that catch my eye on my Facebook page, follow me there. If you like a good peek behind the scenes as much as I do, follow me on Instagram. Want to know How to Use This Blog?


Note--I microwaved my broccoli.  I probably should have roasted it, seeing as I had the oven on anyway, but this post on roasting broccoli wasn't on my mental radar screen.

Final note--do you like crispy baked potato skins with creamy potato insides?  Alyssa has a tutorial for Perfect Baked Potatoes at Everyday Maven.  Do check it out.

Thanksgiving Leftover Remake--Poutine?!

Roasted potatoes topped with cheese curds and gravy, with optional turkey, turning Thanksgiving leftovers into a new meal.

Gravy seems to be an orphan leftover in my house.  We always seem to eat up all the mashed potatoes but not all the gravy.  Yes, I know I can make a Thanksgiving casserole with all the same stuff I just ate moistened with gravy, but I like to find different tastes for my leftovers.  So what do I do with my leftover gravy?

Well, it's the season of excess plenty, so why not make poutine?

[Big Ol' Honkin Disclaimer:  I have never eaten real poutine.  I am not even Canadian--my Canadian mom chose to take a job in the US where she met my dad--though I've got relatives and friends Up in the Great White North. But it seems very wordy to say "potatoes topped with cheese curds and re-heated leftover gravy" when "poutine" conveys the same idea.]

It never occurred to me to make poutine at home.  For this, I give credit to my son.  He and I share a similar affinity for unagi and furikake, so if he wants to try something it's a good bet that I would also like it.

In my house, on your birthday, you get to choose what you want to eat for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dessert.  My son wanted the appetizer for his birthday dinner to be poutine.

Poutine is no amuse bouche.  I had no idea what I was in for!  I'd heard of it, sure, but had no clue that we'd be too full from the appetizer to appreciate dinner!  I decided to try it again, when I had leftover gravy, as a stand-alone snack/meal thing.

Try this if you have more gravy than mashed potatoes!

Potato, Beet, and Leek Soup (And How To Make Vegetable Stock)

A thick vegan or vegetarian or omnivorous soup of potatoes, beets and leeks

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My spouse is a vegetarian, at least while he's away on his all-expense paid work trip to an exotic foreign locale.  If you think it's ironic, considering I just shared a post on 106 Recipe Ideas Using Ground Beef because I have 110 pounds of ground beef in the freezer, you're in good company.

Since the rest of the household is omnivorous, I've been experimenting with ways to create meals we can all enjoy.

I've heard homeschoolers will use the Bus Stop Method of teaching--introducing a subject, then dropping off students to work at different levels while continuing to teach that subject.  I consider recipes like this, and my Vegan/Vegetarian/Omnivorous Valentine's Pizza and my Acorn Squash, Beet, and Sweet Potato Chili, to be similar to the Bus Stop Teaching.  Call it Bus Stop Cooking (though bear in mind I am cooking in my kitchen, not at a bus stop, and I have access to running water, an oven, stove, and all that).

 The base of this recipe is a vegetable stock, slowly cooked in the slow cooker (is that redundant?) all day (and in fact I kicked this batch over to Keep Warm and let it go overnight since I didn't feel like dealing with it in the evening).  I like mushrooms in my vegetable stock, so when I realize that I'm not going to finish a package I'll toss them in with the rest of the cast of vegetables into a Vegetarian Soup Pack in the freezer.

The inspiration for this soup came from Alanna's Greens 'n All Beet Soup.  I love the flavor of that soup, but my kids aren't crazy about chunks of vegetables, and lately with my obsession with sautéed beet greens there just wasn't any left for soup.  So I figured I'd adapt Alanna's recipe with the veggies I had.  Once I simmered and pureed the soup, I had a rick, thick, vegan bowl of yumminess (shown above).  That's Bus Stop #1.  Adding a dollop (love that word) of sour cream makes a nice vegetarian bowl (shown below left).  Bus Stop #2.  Adding a pound of browned and drained ground beef to the pot means that we've arrived at the final destination--a soup for omnivores [aka another way to get my kids to eat beets.  With beef.]

I don't know if my spouse will continue as a vegetarian when he returns.  He says he'll eat "happy meat", so I've sourced a "locally-raised on locally-grown and -ground GMO free feed" turkey for Thanksgiving.  I do know that I will continue this Bus Stop Cooking method, because it tastes good!

Finnish Summer Soup--with Kale

Other possible post titles:  'Finish All The Kale' Finnish Summer Soup, and Kale Keskäkietto 

I hesitated to post this recipe now, because I'm not like Lydia who enjoys soup year 'round, or Karen who is addicted to soup.  I need cool weather, or at least a rainy day, to enjoy a comforting bowl of soup.  However, I've had several opportunities to enjoy this soup this Spring, so I thought I'd share and give you another kale idea since Spring 'tis the season for greens.

Because eating up each week's bag of kale from the CSA farm share doesn't come as effortlessly as eating up, say, a pint of strawberries, I need to work at it.  Throw in kids and it's a bit more effort.  This is where soup comes in.  I've found that if I puree vegetables in soup, my kids will eat them.  Even if it's green.  In the fall I put up kale (tear out the stems--feed them to the composting pigs or add them to the worm bin--blanch and freeze the leaves) and enjoy kale in hearty soups like this one.  But I'm not in a hearty soup mood when there's so much green outside.  Instead I wanted a summer soup.

This recipe comes from a little blue cookbook I've had for a long time, Fantastically Finnish: Recipes and Traditions by Beatrice Ojakangas, though I see it was published the same year as my son, and he's only like 5 or something I think.  I'm sure my mom picked it up, along with its Scandinavian brethren, at a Christmas bazaar.  Mom gave it to me because I spent a summer working in Finland and learned to cook a few recipes there.  Whenever I'd scan through the book this soup, Kesäkietto, always caught my eye.  In the head notes, the recipe comes from Esther Louma of Duluth, MN.  As written, it's a vegetarian recipe.  Because I recently had not one but 2 chicken carcasses burning a hole in my freezer, I spent a day making a pot of chicken jelly and substituted a quart of chicken jelly for the water (see NOTE below).  Since some varmint nibbled my pea plants (and parsley, and fennel, and tomato, and dill, though I have rescued almost all of them) I could not add the peas that this recipe calls for.  Therefore, I've utterly changed the recipe but kept the spirit of it--spring vegetables gently cooked in a milk-based broth.

I recommend you make this on a rainy late Spring/early Summer day, using whatever you've got available.  The nice thing about this recipe is that it makes 4 servings--so it's great if you have fewer eaters in the house, as you won't be eating this soup for a week.

Roasted Potato Salad with Crème Fraîche Sauce

I couldn't decide which post to put up today, so I put up a poll on my FB page.  Roasted Potato Salad with Crème Fraîche beat Thai-marinated baked tofu. Stay tuned for that one.

The second year we belonged to a CSA farm share something shifted in my brain.  I embraced the concept of not knowing what I'd get in the box until CSA day.  Now I thrive on the challenge of using all the produce (by eating it fresh or putting it up for later) before the next CSA day.

This mental shift in my thinking did not come easily, and it has spilled over into the rest of my cooking. Now I keep my eyes peeled for marked-down grocery items and buy those instead of full-price ones, then figure out what to cook after I get home.  It's serendipitous when a recipe I've thought about matches an ingredient that has been marked down.

I'm very lucky to have a Danish sister-in-law.  In addition to loving my brother, raising wonderful kids, and being a talented designer (don't get me started on the hand-me-downs my daughter's gotten from her cousins) she's also a great cook and the best sous chef I've ever had.

Technically she's the only sous chef I've ever had, but she set the bar very high.  Once during a deployment I hosted Christmas and in my little kitchen, with Christine's help, we churned out an American-style Christmas breakfast (complete with overnight yeasted sticky rolls--that's the pan in the corner photo) followed by a full-on Thanksgiving dinner several hours later.  Christine chopped, stirred, and washed up like we'd been doing this together for years. And the tablescape?  Amazing!

Once, while I was visiting Copenhagen, Christine made a simple sauce for our steamed fingerling potatoes.  She combined crème fraîche, a little mayo, garlic, salt, and pepper and served a spoonful of it alongside the potatoes.  It was, obviously, memorable and every time I make it I think of her.

As the weather warms up, my family starts asking for potato salad.  What they are asking for is my Confetti Potato Salad.  However, my celery isn't ready to harvest yet*, and I don't want to buy any when I know I'll be filling my crispers in a few days with our CSA farm share.  Kicking around in my brain was the idea of taking Christine's sauce and tossing it with crispy roasted potatoes for a potato salad.  When I saw crème fraîche marked down at the store, that's exactly what I did.

This potato salad is like a Little Black Dress--it works on fine china alongside a steak or piled onto a paper plate next to a hot dog.  It's tasty hot, or simply warm, and even chilled (my daughter scarfed all the leftovers, so I'm taking her word on that one).  I roasted my potatoes, but if you have the grilling skills you could easily do this dish on the road--simply mix up the sauce at home and carry it to the event in a cooler, then when the potatoes are grilled, toss the whole thing together and serve.

Pasties--A Meat Pie for Pi Day

Most of my cooking is done within my comfort zone.  Granted, my comfort zone is pretty broad thanks to my life experiences, but still.  It's not my typical style to make a dish when I've never even tasted anything remotely similar to it before.

However, I am a lifelong learner and I love my spouse.  And my spouse, to his credit, is a sucker for a book with pretty pictures.  So a long time ago, when he presented me with America: The Beautiful Cookbook by Phillip Stephen Schulz and asked me to make him pasties like he ate while growing up, I reached outside my comfort zone and gave it a shot.  He's glad I did.  I'm glad I did.  The kids are glad I did.  And you will be too.

Since that first episode many years ago, I've traveled up to the Upper Peninsula and tried a real pasty.  I've grown quite comfortable making them, and because pasties are a frequent visitor to our table I've even branched out a bit.  Today I wanted to share my basic pasty, because we've got a cow in the freezer, carrots, onions, and some potatoes that are not getting any younger.  When I have turnips from my CSA farm share they always appear in this dish, though the primary impetus was a good deal on pie crusts from Aldi.

Yes, Meghan says that this one is an easy crust.  Julie says that this one is an tasty crust.  Alanna says that this one is the best pie crust. You ladies are pie crust rock stars.

I am still scared about the whole 'cut in chilled butter' thing, too many opportunities for failure there, so for now, if I can buy pie crust for 99 cents I'm going to stock up.  Besides the fact that Pi day is right around the corner, I know that pie crust freezes just fine and with my unexpectedly defrosted fruit and vegetable freezer (see my FB page for the Lemons to Lemonade details) I had room to store.

For 150 some other food blogger recipes using ground beef, please see my Ground Beef Recipe Round Up. For other recipes using carrots and potatoes, please see my Carrot Recipes Collection and my Potato Recipes Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient.

2018 Pi Day Update: I made a video today while making our supper. Check out how I make my pasties!

Tremendously Green Pizza (Bacon, Cabbage, Caramelized Onion, Leek and Potato Pizza on a Spinach Crust) Pizza Night!

Oh goodness, where to start?  If I was all about pink pizzas last month for Valentine's day, this month I'm into green pizzas.  Well, there's also a mushroom medley coming up, and a salmon/arugula one for Good Friday, but still . . .  here at Farm Fresh Feasts, March comes in like a green pizza.

You'd better get a fork and knife for this pizza.  The crust barely has a chance to stand up to the onslaught of ingredients.  I mean, I knew that potatoes, cabbage, onions and bacon worked well together.  Everything goes better with bacon.  But when I got leeks in the farm share I couldn't help myself.  It also seems very appropriate for a St Patty's Day pizza, what with the potatoes and cabbage and utter green-ness of the thing.  Went well with beer, too.

I'd planned to do a leek, potato, and bacon pizza.  Three toppings, the title of the post wouldn't be too long, no biggie.  Leek and potatoes go together like salmon and oranges, zucchini and nutella, peanut butter and jelly.  But when I was snuffling around in my little fruit and veg freezer (which also happens to be the Extra Pizza Items freezer) debating between garlic oil or  _____ for the 'sauce', I saw the packet of caramelized onions I'd carefully saved.  Why not a layer of caramelized onions as the sauce?
Done!

So far, we've got a layer of caramelized onions, topped with potato slices, and leeks, and bacon.  That sounds pretty tasty, no?  Then I opened the fridge and saw the bags of Chinese cabbage and spinach from the farm share.  They were not getting any younger.  I know I love a spinach crust, and it was time to inflict a spinach crust on the rest of the family.  So the spinach went into the crust.  The cabbage (and you could use any cabbage you got for this, I'd think, though red cabbage would necessarily change the title), why not add that just to push this pizza over the edge?  Done!

Really,  if you've put up the ingredients as they come to you ripe/in season/on sale, this sort of thing isn't as crazy as it sounds.  It's not like I went to the store specifically to get the ingredients for this pizza. Ha!  I think the only thing I go to the store specifically for these days is milk, beer, and grapes.  Everything else just kind of happens.  Like my life!

Back Bacon, Chinese Cabbage, and Potato (Eggless) Brunch Skillets (Quick Take)

I love weekend breakfasts, especially weekends that don't involve sled hockey or wheelchair basketball tournaments.  That's not to say that I don't like eating breakfast away from home at the tournaments, don't get me wrong, but I do enjoy my spouse and I waking up before the kids, walking the dog, and then fixing a big breakfast for the whole family.  I love it when that breakfast comes together quickly!

Here's one breakfast that happened not to contain any eggs.  I saw Back Bacon marked down, decided to try it (why not?) and looked around to see what else I could pair with it.  I have Chinese cabbage from the farm share, and I know my family likes that sautéed for dinner, why not try it for breakfast?

 But there needs to be more to round out the meal.  Conveniently, I've also got new potatoes from the farm share, and I know my family likes to eat fried potatoes.  Throw all this together, jumping from skillet to skillet, and we've got ourselves a hearty winter breakfast.  Plenty of good food to fuel us up for a day in the cold!

If you were serving more folks, eggs would be a lovely addition to this spread.  But if you're serving folks with egg allergies, consider this combination.  It satisfies the appetite of egg eaters and non-egg eaters alike.

Kohlrabi Greens, Manchego, Potato and Bacon Pizza with Red Onion and Rosemary (Pizza Night!)

Today's pizza happened because I baked bacon.  It's my favorite meat, and I tend to not to cook it often because I cannot help myself around it.  Know your triggers.
I always bake bacon--it works best for me.  If I cook it in the skillet, I have too much spatter to clean up.  But baking my bacon means I can easily freeze the cooked strips, drain the baking pan into my Bacon Grease Storage Device, and be on my way to making delicious pork-flavored goodness.  Or something like that.

It wasn't enough for me to use two vegetables from the farm share (roasted garlic and new potatoes) like I'd planned for this pizza.  When I saw the pretty greens on this week's kohlrabi (I knew I needed the kohlrabi themselves for sushi) I figured they'd add a nice pop of color to the pizza.  I didn't figure on the unintended Kale Chip Side Effect.  After I sliced this pizza, I couldn't help but grab the little tufts of greens that were stuck to the slicer--they tasted just like kale chips!  My daughter did not complain about the relative dearth of green on her slices, so I think it worked out well for both of us.

This pizza uses Manchego cheese, a sheep's milk cheese from the (Man of La) Mancha region of Spain.  I got mine at Costco.  Why?  The French Green Lentil Effect.  I'm all about the Effects today.  I was looking for gruyere, but found Manchego instead.  Rachael Ray mentions Manchego now and again, so I should buy it, right?  Apparently she thinks Manchego cheese plays nicely with potatoes.  And now I do, too!  I have a lot of Manchego now, shredded and stashed in my freezer for future use.