Salmon and Blackberries with Lemon Cream Sauce

Flakes of salmon and crunchy blackberries covered in a lemony cream sauce served on pasta.

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This lemony cream sauce is the perfect accompaniment to the juicy crunch of fresh blackberries and enhances the delicate flavor of the salmon. Serve over pasta with a side salad or green vegetable to make a colorful complete meal in about a half hour.


I'm breaking a bunch of rules with this recipe. First--fruit with fish? Okay. Been there, done that with my Salmon in the Company of Good Oranges recipe. Second--a cream sauce for fish? Well, why not? I mean, I like an Everything Bagel (focaccia recipe) with cream cheese and smoked salmon after all. Finally--I'm sharing a recipe using a produce item OUT OF SEASON?? Yes. Yes, I am. I'm in the middle of a spring snow storm and I need to think Happy Thoughts of warmer times. Working with these photos and remembering this memorable dish gives me hope that Spring--and eventually the summer berry season--will arrive.

Fish Taco Naan Pizza

A fast and easy fresh tasting pizza this simple naan crust is topped with mahi mahi, sautéed Napa cabbage, avocados, watermelon radishes, and crumbled queso.

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If you're cooking, you will organically move to a healthier diet . . . and support farmers--Michael Pollan, last night during his talk at the University of Dayton. I'm paraphrasing the end a bit.

I'm sure I sound like a broken record at times, or maybe a scratched disc, but if you're going to the trouble of cooking you may as well cook more than you'll eat during that sitting and plan to repurpose the leftovers into a new meal. It's a great way to plan to use the produce from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share. When the Spring weather is so conducive to being outside--someone I know calls it "productivity poison"--meals that you can throw together from previously prepared ingredients are just the best.

This pizza is one example, and a terrific way to enjoy long-storing farm share ingredients. As a matter of fact, since my photos are date stamped, I know I made this pizza 3 weeks after I picked up the last farm share of the Fall season. Cabbages and radishes store for many weeks in the crisper, and can be used into the winter for fresh crunch in your meals.

When I say many weeks, I will be honest. I polished off THE LAST WATERMELON RADISH OF 2015 on April 17th, 2016. We're talking 4 months in my crisper. Four months!

Fish Tacos with Bok Choy and Peppers

Flakes of seasoned fish nestled against sautéed bok choy and peppers in a warm tortilla, topped with avocado slices and crumbled queso. Use the farm share in unexpected ways with these tacos.

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One of the ways I use less familiar produce in our farm share boxes is to tuck it in alongside other, more familiar to my family, foods. This tip the first one of my Five Tips to Feed Your Family From the Farm Share. When I picked up some marked down pre-seasoned mahi mahi, I thought it would go nicely with the dark purple bok choy from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share in a fish taco.

A typical late Fall farm share box.

Bok choy is a pretty terrific workhorse in a typical cool season [late Spring or Fall, like the photo above shows] farm share box. The mild flavor of this dark leafy green is great in Asian-inspired meals (like this Fried Rice with Greens and Chicken), it's quick in a pasta dish (like this Fast & Easy Greens & Pasta concept recipe), and can usually be substituted for spinach or Swiss chard just about anywhere.

Tuna Broccoli Casserole with Potato Chip Topping

Full of broccoli and tuna, with a creamy sauce and the crunch of potato chips, this noodle-less tuna casserole is a family-friendly 5 ingredient dinner ready in under 30 minutes.

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This is the tuna casserole of my youth. Other folks grew up on Tuna Noodle. Not us. My mom left the pasta for other dishes and fed us this simple 5 ingredient dinner.

After years of fixing my spouse's favorite Tuna Noodle Casserole, from his mom's recipe, I realized how much I missed the one I grew up with--so I made it for my kids. It's important not to lose sight of your childhood favorites when you join your life with someone else.

I'm using locally grown broccoli from my Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share in my version. Growing up, mom always used boxes of broccoli spears and arranged them across the bottom of the dish with the 'tree tops' to the outside of the dish and the 'tree trunks' in a line down the middle of a 9x13 inch pan.

The combination of tuna, broccoli, creamy sauce and crunchy chips is an addictive one--and a terrific way to use up those chips at the bottom of the bag. If you've got bigger chips, I recommend making up a batch of Spiced Cottage Cheese Chip Dip and making quick work of those. I'll help.

This casserole is fairly dry when you first serve it. That means it just begs to be smushed around on your plate. I fixed this for lunch one day and my daughter had a rare second helping, then the kids fought over the leftovers.

For more recipes using broccoli, please see my Broccoli Recipes Collection. It's part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me poking in the farm share box and wondering what to do with all the vegetables that have appeared all at once in my home. I'm pinning more casserole recipes to my Pinterest boards, follow me there to check them out. I'm sharing recipes and articles that catch my eye on my FB page, follow me there. And for what's up in the kitchen or with the dogs, check out my Instagram feed. Want to know How To Use This Blog?