Sweet Potato (Leftover Halloween) Reese's Pieces Oatmeal Cookies

One of the nice things about seasonal eating is looking forward to the new produce that ripens with each season.  It must have been boring just buying whatever I had on the menu plan at the grocery store (who am I kidding? I think I've always shopped for what's on sale/marked down/cheap).  Lately, I have been busily roasting a bunch of the fall produce that's been popping up in my CSA farm share box.  I know that the greens need to be used up quicker than the winter squash and root veggies, but I've missed the root veggies, so I had to include them in my processing labors.

I am frugal by nature, and always looking for ways to save money.  I don't mind asking my kids for some of their Halloween candy, and they don't mind tolerate giving me some when I use it to make treats for all of us!  Today I was going to make a batch of cookies for the family using that candy, and my eye fell on a cup of baked sweet potato flesh that was left over from another recipe.  I'm happy adding veggies to my oatmeal muffins so why not cookies?  I love to make cookies because I bought into that 'let the dough sit' NYT article.  Since it only takes a few minutes to mix up a batch of dough, I'm happy to do it whenever I've got softened butter (yay, hockey season!). Then the dough can hang out in the fridge for a day until I'm ready to bake.  Win for everyone.

Don't try this at home!  See note below!

One technique I have for keeping our family from eating 3 dozen cookies in a day is to freeze scoops of cookie dough on a metal tray until hard, then transfer to a zip top bag.  That way I can bake as much as I want think we should eat for dessert.  And the side benefit is that I frequently have cookie dough in the freezer for unexpected cookie needs.  Long ago I'd promised dinner, ready to heat, to my son's Thursday after school music tutor when he and his wife became parents.  Except I'd gotten the date wrong!  Lucky for me, I had cookies in the freezer, so while the music lesson was happening in the dining room, I was in the kitchen baking cookies and throwing together a meal for the new parents.  A well-stocked pantry is a huge help to my wallet.

Fresh Pear, Fig Jam, and Goat Cheese Pizza (Pizza night!)

When I saw the pig-shaped pear (or is that a pear-shaped pig?) I wanted to put it on a pizza.
The pear, I mean.
And pears go great with goat cheese--so another layer of flavor was there.

What I couldn't decide was what else would go on the pizza.  I love goat cheese and fig jam, but I wanted to try something more savory like caramelized onions with the pear.  I was mulling this over when I went on my near-daily milk run, and asked the cheese monger at my local grocery store for advice.  She echoed my fig jam thoughts.

So I did what any good food blogger, even a very new food blogger, would do.  I made a bunch of pizzas and took separate photos of each so that I can pull multiple Farm Fresh Feasts Friday Night Pizza Night posts out of one meal!  Tonight's pizza is the fresh pear, fig jam, and goat cheese version.

I had help on this undertaking.  My kid decided to help out with photography so I didn't have to keep washing my hands in between steps.  She was taking "action" shots of the pizza.  Some of them I really really like.  I took the ones at the end that are less artistic but do let you see the entire pizza.

Action shot-pears, goat cheese, and jam.

Roasted Butternut Squash and Alfredo Sauce with Fried Sage

I am always looking to my fridge, to the leftover bits of this and that, for inspiration for the next meal.  This quick side dish is no exception.  I had leftover prepared Alfredo sauce from this pizza, and leftover roasted butternut squash from these enchiladas.  And I needed a side dish for this casserole.  I also had lovely fresh sage from the farm share, and have been reading about sage cooked in butter added to all sorts of butternut squash dishes.  It's not hard to see how inspiration struck. Easy cleanup-too!  I cooked this all in one pot, doing first the noodles, then the sage, then finally the sauce before combining it all back in the pot to heat through.

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

Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Enchilada Casserole

Could have called it enchilada-lasagna, or enchi-sanga, but in the end I went with a straightforward name. This dish takes all the ingredients of enchiladas, but instead of rolling each tortilla up individually, I stacked them in the dish and spread the stuffing over the whole mess.

I know, food porn, right?  This was a particularly photogenic dish, if you're into melty-cheesy goodness.  It ought to be-I made it twice before I was happy with it, so there are photos from each preparation.  My fault, not the recipe--my homemade salsa-not-quite-verde wasn't the right sauce. I repeated it with canned enchilada sauce and it was just right.

My first time trying real, homemade, enchiladas was at a baby shower of all places.  Our hostess made cheese and onion enchiladas and I was amazed how soft and flexible the corn tortilla became in the warm sauce.  Up until that point, I'd assumed that corn tortillas were good for tortilla chips and that's about it.  Not anymore!  I loved the combination of cheese and onion then, and it's still my favorite kind of enchiladas by far.

Because I eat seasonally, I've got butternut squash from my farm share.  The farmers at the weekly pick up said there'd been some insect damage to the squash, and to eat them up this week.  Normally I'd be holding off on the squash until later in the fall and focusing on the greens now, but needs must.  I decided to roast the squash because I've been roasting anything I haven't pickled lately (and pickling anything that hasn't moved). I've revamped my Visual Recipe Index! For more ideas on what to do with your butternut squash, click here.

The pig is very concerned he's going to get pickled too.

Red Russian Kale, Tomato, and Eggs Baked in Ham Cups

My mother, myself, most of her best buds from her first job (pre-marriage, pre-kids, when she was Just Herself), and most of the daughters of these women gathered for a weekend in St Louis.  A reunion for the moms, in some cases a first meeting for the daughters.


It is a gift, to hear all about your mom from her friends, when your mom is sitting right next to you.


Three of us daughters got that gift.  Our hostess, Alanna, did not.  Instead, she selflessly created the opportunity for her mother's friends to reminisce about the one member of their group who is no longer with us.  It was a very special weekend.

Alanna, of Kitchen Parade and A Veggie Venture, is a clever Foodie.  She arranged for our meals to be catered by Karen of Family Style Food.  So a bunch of women who all enjoy delicious food got to sit back, relax, visit, and be treated to fabulous dishes like the one I'm writing about today.

This dish was inspired by Karen's Individual Prosciutto, Spinach, and Egg Pies.  I loved it at that weekend, begged for the recipe, and have made it on many occasions since.  It's great for a weekend brunch, a weeknight dinner, even a PTA teacher appreciation breakfast!  Extra veggies without bread products are always appreciated on a breakfast spread.

I usually don't have baby spinach, the original veggie.  But many other greens from the farm share or the garden or the farmer's market will work--Swiss chard, Tat soi, or the Red Russian kale used here to name a few.

The original recipe uses prosciutto, but I had a fair amount of ham slices on hand so I decided to forgo a trip to the grocery store and use what I got.  Frugality!

If you happen to have 4 sizes of muffin tins like I do, let's start a support group use the second largest.  It's larger than a standard muffin tin (7/8 ounce vs 3/8 ounce). If you only have the standard muffin tin, just use a little bit less of everything but the egg.

Artichoke, Arugula Pesto, and Fontina pizza (Pizza Night!)

My dog apologizes for the poor quality of this photo.  No he doesn't, but it's his fault anyway.

I love artichokes on pizza.  Someday I'll put up my 'when my spouse is deployed and I make a pizza exactly the way I want it' pizza, but until then, this will suffice.  It hits almost all the notes I like in a pizza, and most everything for it is a pantry/freezer staple.  Including the arugula pesto!  I love how easy it is to grow arugula (rocket), but after a while I get sick of fresh arugula.  Thank goodness for Farmer John's Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables, where I picked up the arugula pesto recipe below.  If you don't have arugula pesto, any old pesto will do. Don't stress-it's Friday!

Thursday Quick Take-Sausage and Peppers

Life sometimes gets in the way of dinner, but that doesn't mean that you can't make a quick meal using your farm fresh ingredients.  I had peppers from the farm share, a good coupon for some smoked sausage, one for pierogies, and found brat & sausage rolls marked down when I stopped at the store.  Quick meal in under 20 minutes!

Rainbow Pizza (Pizza Night)

This pizza was more an exercise in How Many Colors Can I Put On The Blank Canvas of Alfredo Sauce & Dough than a real taste combination inspiration. It started because I saw Alfredo sauce marked down and thought that would be good on a pizza, and continued when the yellow Bright Lights Swiss chard was calling to me from the garden.  Then I started looking around and noticed the red tomatoes, the mushrooms . . . and finally a purple pepper.  Just be grateful I didn't grab the beets or blueberries.  This time.  While it made for a pretty pizza, and it tasted good, I don't usually prefer sliced tomatoes on my pizza so next time I'd leave them off.  If you love them, go for it.

And I can see red, and yellow, and green, and purple, and brown, and . . .

Beet & Goat Cheese Spread

New photo, same delicious recipe!

I love beets but my family doesn't.  I continually look for new ways to present beets so that everyone will discover how good they are.  One of my favorite ways to eat beets is this soup.  The family will eat it, especially if I puree it, but they don't love it like I do. That's why I was delighted to get this recipe from a friend.  She got it from her CSA farmer!  The inspiring recipe was for crostini, but I use it on crackers, on bread in a sandwich--good with radishes, cucumbers, sliced cheese and lettuce, and as a dip for sliced veggies.  This keeps for at least a week in the fridge.

For other recipes featuring beets, please see my Beet Recipes Collection, part of my Visual Recipe Index.

Try New Things-Radish Sandwich (Quick Take)

One of the neat things of being in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm share is the seasonal influx of new-to-me veggies.  I'd known that radishes existed of course.  I'd seen them on salad bars or on salads I'd order in restaurants. I assumed, based on that brief taste, that I didn't care for radishes.  The first year we got radishes in a farm share, I gave all of the radishes to my dad.  The second year, at the spring "welcome to our CSA" gathering when we picked up the first box of the season, I sampled a French Breakfast radish dipped in salt.

Hello!  That's good eating. After that I started sharing the radishes with my dad.

My favorite way to eat a radish remains the simple radish sandwich.  Take a slice of good bread (La Brea Bakery Whole Grain loaf from the store or Costco remains my favorite).  Spread with butter or buttery spread.  Top with sliced radishes.  Sprinkle kosher salt over top.  Delicious!

I'm currently fermenting some shredded radishes into relish on my countertop.  What are you doing with radishes?

Fried Potatoes--Farm Fresh Feast Style

Fall comfort food at its best--fried potatoes pumped up with farm fresh ingredients.  I learned how to make fried potatoes in Germany from a very patient social worker friend.  He would cook his potatoes low and slow, until they had a nice crust and were cooked through.  I don't have the patience, so I nuke or boil my potatoes first, and finish them in the skillet.  Try it!

Oops, forgot the seasonings and the garlic.

Red Russian Kale, Baby Bella, and Feta with Roasted Garlic Oil (Pizza Night)

Sautéed baby bella mushrooms and Red Russian kale on a roasted garlic oil-brushed pizza crust.

It's Pizza Night again!
This time I had a hankering for mushrooms, and conveniently found some baby bellas marked down at the grocery store.  There's frequently milk marked down there too, which is also convenient as my kids can drink a gallon in the time it takes me to dance around the kitchen Gangnam style.

Pay no attention to the bacon in the foreground.  Or do, your choice.

If you ever tried kale chips, you'll know that lovely frizzled kale melting on your tongue feeling that you can get eating some soon after they've come out of the oven.  This pizza tastes like that to me.  I also like the earthiness of the mushrooms combined with the garlic and kale.  Crazy good.

I posted about how I put up my garlic.  On the advice of my friend Heather, I used a clove of roasted garlic to flavor olive oil and tried that as the pizza sauce. Delicious!

For other ideas using Red Russian kale, please see my Kale Recipes Collection. For other recipes using mushrooms, please see my Mushroom Recipes Collection. These are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. For other pizza ideas, please see the Visual Pizza Recipe Index and my Friday Night Pizza Night! Pinterest board. Would you like to learn How to Use This Blog? Click here.

Summer Squash = Fall Dessert

Pattypan squash in a crumble for dessert? Yes.

I love changing seasons.  As much as I don't want to turn on an oven in the heat of the summer, as soon as the weather starts to turn cool I look forward to baking, stewing, and roasting.
I also relish the opportunity to look at a familiar vegetable in a new way.  Like this patty pan squash.  I'd cut it up, prepared to sauté it with something-or-other, then took the kids to the dentist.  Lucky for us I also brought along a copy of Farmer John's Cookbook, because in that I discovered a new-to-me use for squash that I'd never make in the summer but is perfect for a cool fall evening.  This recipe will work with any summer squash, but since my CSA box had this pretty patty pan I've used it.

Processing a Pile of Pesto before the Frost comes!

A tutorial for how to put up a large quantity of basil pesto. Remember this at the end of summer!

Forty-one degrees out this morning-not expecting that!  I figured I'd better harvest all the basil and put it up before it gets OBE (overcome by events).  Here's what I did.

To me, pesto is all about ratios.  If you have a ton of leaves, you will need 1/8 ton of toasted pine nuts, 1/4 ton of shredded parmesan cheese, 1/4 ton of olive oil.  Oh, and 2 cloves of garlic and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Ish.
Even if this harvest is short of a ton, it's still a lot of leaves to get through.  I buy pine nuts and parmesan during the basil season just so I don't get caught short when I'm ready to make pesto.

Forgot the garlic. Again. And salt.

For other recipes using mass quantities of herbs, please see my Herb Recipes Collection. It's part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. Wanna know how to Use This Blog? Click here.

Triple Green (Pepper, Olive, and Onion) and Sausage Pizza (Pizza Night)

Fresh green peppers and onions, with preserved green olives and sausage, in a family-friendly homemade pizza.

Around here, Friday nights are Pizza Nights.  Except now we live in a place with a lighted football field and have a kid marching in the band, so Pizza Night becomes Pizza Sometime On The Weekend During Football/Marching Band Season.

Eh, I'm flexible.  I bet I make easily 100 pies a year (2 pies each Pizza Night and although I don't make pizza every weekend, I do make it rather often.

I love having farm fresh ingredients handy, so I can make whatever pizza floats my boat depending on what I've got available.  And one cheese/meat for the kids, of course.

Today's pizza is no exception.

For other pizza recipes, please see my Visual Pizza Recipe Index as well as my Friday Night Pizza Night board on Pinterest.
For other recipes using peppers, please see my Pepper Recipes Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. If you'd like to know how to Use This Blog, click here.

Stretching Meat, Part 2: Burgers

Make a pound of ground beef go further in these hamburgers stuffed with shredded vegetables, breadcrumbs, and cheese.

For other recipe ideas for a pound of ground beef, please see my Ground Beef Recipe Round Up--106 recipes from food bloggers using my favorite freezer staple. [Because let's be honest, while roasted beets are always in my freezer, they are not my favorite freezer staple.]

When I get an abundance of onions, celery, carrots, bell peppers, and/or summer squash in the farm share, or from my garden, or on super sale at the store, I will fire up my new food processor and make bags of veggies.  I'll finely chop the onions, celery, and peppers, then switch to the fine shred disc and finely shred carrots and summer squash.  Then I'll pack 1/2 to 1 cup of each veggie in zip top bags.

In a perfect seasonal world, the veggies would all be ripe and overabundant at the same time.  Reality for me is that I'll have an excess of squash, peppers and onion one time, or carrots and celery another time.  So I make up bags with what I've got, and use however many bags I need to get the mix I desire.  I store these in my freezer.

Previously I showed how I stretch a pound of ground meat by combining it with an assortment of farm fresh veggies to make taco meat.  But there's more that you can do with a pound of meat and a couple of cups of vegetables.
I recently had a coupon for Fresh Takes* seasoned breadcrumbs and cheese and decided to try making burgers with it.  Here's how it turned out.

Confetti Potato Salad

New photo, same salad!

I know everyone has their own version of potato salad.  I love many kinds--bright yellow with mustard, chock full of hard boiled eggs, hot with bacon and vinegar.  Still trying to make one that tastes like my memories of Octoberfest at the Tobacco Company in Richmond, VA.

This is my version.  I like the color and crunch that the veggies give, balanced with the tang of vinegar and the sharpness of the celery seed.  I prefer it freshly mixed, still warm.  My husband prefers it cold.  The kids gobble it up either way.  It works with new potatoes, old potatoes, really anything but large baking potatoes.

Sometimes I use red onions, sometimes green, sometimes white or yellow.

For other recipes using potatoes, please see my Potato Recipes Collection. While you're at it, the Carrot Recipes Collection, the Celery Recipes Collection, the Radish Recipes Collection . . . heck, you may as well just check out the entire Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. I've got even more ideas from around the web on my Pinterest board for Potatoes. 

Would you like to better Use this Blog? Click here.

Crock Pot Chicken Adobo with Sauteed Farm Fresh Veggies

An easy overnight marinade and then a day in the slow cooker for this flavorful chicken. The farm share Daikon and Bok Choy side dish comes together quickly.

If you've ever bought a family size pack of chicken breasts marked down at the grocery store,
if you've ever gotten bok choy and daikon radishes in the farm share and wanted recipe ideas,
if you've ever wanted to cook the meat once and repurpose the leftovers into a new meal,
if you've ever wanted to have an entree ready-to-go in the freezer,
if you've ever wanted a new crock pot recipe,
read on

Update:  Somehow I deleted all the original text between the intro and the recipe.  Here's some new thoughts:

During my time on active duty I was fortunate to work with nurses from all over the world.  In addition to learning about different points of view and different cultural aspects of nursing care, I also got to eat the most amazing foods at work functions.  I've never been to the Philippines, but I first tasted Chicken Adobo thanks to a Filipina nurse.  

It's crazy easy to make in the slow cooker using pantry ingredients (start the night before) and results in a bunch of moist, tender, flavorful meat, along with juices suitable for flavoring CSA farm share veggies in a way that entices your kids to eat them.

For other recipes using Bok Choy, please see my Bok Choy Recipes Collection. For other recipes using Daikon, please see my Daikon Recipes Collection. These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. If you'd like to know how to Use This Blog, click here.

Corn Cheddar Bacon Muffins

A savory cornmeal muffin with bacon bits and shredded cheddar, great with a bowl of chili.

Now that 3/4 of my family is unable to enjoy corn on the cob, I've come up with other ways to enjoy the fresh taste of just-picked corn. Normally I'd boil the corn and serve it with butter and salt.  Now, however, I boil it, cool it, cut the kernels off the cob, freeze them on parchment paper on a try, and transfer the frozen kernels to zip top freezer bags for long term storage.

On a particularly Frugal Farm Fresh Eco Friendly Palooza day, I managed to cook the corn in the leftover canning water, but normally I boil it for 10-12 minutes in salted water.

This savory muffin combination was suggested by my daughter.  I'll probably keep making these after the braces come off. They are tasty!

Stretching Meat, Part 1: Tacos

Make a pound of ground beef go further by adding finely chopped and shredded vegetables.

I am always looking for ways to stretch our money while feeding the family the farm fresh produce.  One way, as I've mentioned, is to make 1 pound of ground meat (beef, turkey, chicken) stretch to serve more than 1 meal to our family.  Tacos are one way I've done this recently. 

We like to eat tacos, especially when our farm share has salad mix in season (all but the hottest weeks of summer).  One batch of this taco mix can feed us 2 meals if I repurpose the rest into Taco Rice.  Frugal, filling, and a farm fresh feast!

NOTE:  Normally I'd start with uncooked meat, cook it, drain it, set it aside and then toss the veggies in the same pan.  But today I'd tried to make turkey burgers for lunch, using frozen turkey burger patties, and they didn't retain the patty shape so I ended up with a pound of cooked ground turkey and started from there.  Always have a Plan B.