Egg, Country Ham, Asparagus and Leek Pizza--a Peek Behind the Scenes of Pizza Night

A terrific pizza for Spring--salty cubes of country ham paired with leeks and roasted asparagus, finished with a sunny side up egg.

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This pizza started on a treadmill and ended with a ham biscuit.

Oh, not exactly on a treadmill--but it was while I was on a treadmill [in socks, as it never occurred to me to bring my walking shoes to Ft Wayne, Indiana in February where I was scraping 3 to 5 inches of snow off the van each time I wanted to drive to or from the hockey rink--I don't recommend walking on a treadmill in socks] that I saw a Diners, Dives, and . . . . Drive Ins maybe? show on Food Network.  Not having cable TV at home I'm not up on all this lingo.  On that show, a talented pizza maker in Minnesota, after pulling a kimchi pizza out of a copper pizza oven that I am swooning over still, cracked an egg on a mostly cooked pizza, used a giant-handled pizza peel to lift it up to the upper dome of the oven, and cooked it just a wee bit.  Holy cow that looked good!

When I got a hankering for country ham biscuits--I think because my car was encrusted with salt but I'm not 100% sure--I had enough country ham left over to try my hand at an egg on a pizza.

Yeah, the crust is um blackened. It's a Feature.

There you are--treadmills to ham biscuits, from Minnesota to the Capitol of the Confederacy . . . on a pizza.

I wrote that introduction after my first attempt at cooking an egg on a pizza, thinking that surely I'd perfect the method with my second attempt.  I mean, I make pizzas for a living a whole lot, you'd think if any home cook in a kitchen could bang this thing out it in a try or two it would be me.  But the reality is I've tried this twice, and while I'm getting better and the results taste great each time, it's not perfect.  Yet.

So why am I posting?  Consider this a Keeping It Real edition of Friday Night Pizza Night.  A [literal, thanks to the spouse's new camera] behind the scenes in my kitchen.  A jumping off place for your home pizza making. Maybe seeing my failures will make you feel better about your less-than-optimal results in the kitchen?  I hope so. I'm trying right alongside you all.

Wee Oliver Picklepants is my kitchen assistant today.

This pizza is a fiddly one.  When I get into trouble with a recipe, I take it down to the bare essentials.

•  I tried this with homemade dough and it . . . um, well, it burned blackened before the eggs were fully set.  So I bought a Boboli® [No sponsorship. I bought it, they don't know I exist] to take the whole 'baking the crust' aspect out of the equation. The result was better, but I'm picky in that I prefer my egg whites to be . . . well, white . . . when I eat them.  
• I made this without, and then with, roasted asparagus.  It's better with more vegetables, like many things are in life. 
• I tried this with an assortment of cheeses.  I do not like to use slices of fresh mozzarella on this pizza, but shredded mozzarella, shredded cheddar, Grand Cru all taste good.
• I've made this with country ham and regular ham, and I prefer the country ham (if you eat ham, that is--leave it off if you don't, and the salty cheese will still rock on with the leeks, asparagus, and egg).

For more recipes with asparagus, please see my Asparagus Recipes Collection. For more recipes with leeks please see my Leek Recipes Collection. They 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?

NOTE: This recipe is not gluten free as written, because I used a pizza crust containing gluten. To adapt this recipe for a gluten free diet please substitute the gluten free pizza crust of your choice.
Check labels to confirm that your other ingredients are also gluten free. Good sources for determining gluten free products 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/

Egg, Country Ham, Roasted Asparagus and Leek Pizza

Ingredients

• 12-15 stalks of asparagus (if you've got a bundle, roast 'em all and use half)
• olive oil (about 2 Tablespoons total, divided)
• salt and pepper (about ½ teaspoon each, to start)
• 1 prebaked pizza crust of your choice
• 1 clove roasted garlic (here's how I put up my garlic crop, or use minced fresh)
• ⅓ cup sliced leeks (thawed if frozen. what? of course you can freeze leeks)
• ½ cup finely diced country ham, or regular ham
• 1 ½ cups shredded cheddar, or mozzarella, or Grand Cru cheese, or a blend
• 3 eggs, set out so they become room temperature

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  
2. In a large bowl, toss asparagus with about 1 Tablespoon of olive oil and ½ teaspoon each salt and pepper.  
3. Spread on a rimmed baking sheet and roast for 10 minutes, then shake the pan to turn the spears and return to the oven for another 5 minutes.  
4. Remove from oven and then switch the oven over to the Broil setting.  I think at least 10 minutes of the oven hanging out on the Broil setting would do the trick. I did 5, enough to top the pizza and take some photos, and I should have let it go longer.
5. Combine the remaining Tablespoon olive oil with a smashed clove of roasted garlic or minced fresh garlic. 
6. Brush this roasted garlic oil over the crust, and think of your friend Heather who gave you the idea to use roasted garlic oil in the first place.  
7. Scatter leeks and ham across the crust, then place the asparagus thusly in a pleasing pattern (I did it like spokes, and that works for me).  
8. Top with shredded cheese, leaving 3 open areas without cheese to nestle the eggs.  
9. Make these open areas towards the outer edge of the pizza crust, because if your egg is in the middle it will never cook. Trust me. Crack the eggs into the open areas.  
10. Place the pizza under the broiler for 3 to 5 minutes until the egg is set but before the crust burns becomes a Featured Blackened Crust.  If necessary, take the pizza out and cut it before returning it to the broiler to fully cook the egg white.  I don't really care about the yolk--it can be runny, but my egg white needs to be not clear.

This post is shared on the From the Farm Blog Hop, Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Tasty Tuesdays, Simple Supper Tuesdays

Radish Sandwich Spread

Shredded radishes mixed with cream and goat cheeses for a zesty sandwich spread

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I'm a tea drinker.

While in college, cola was my caffeine source of choice.  I tried coffee, but the taste never lived up to the smell and I couldn't get past the first two sips (one more to confirm the first sip).  My first job after college involved going to neighboring farms for coffee after morning milking which was fun--except the whole 'coffee=ugh' thing.  Instead I figured out that if I filled up my cup with milk and added a splash of tea for color I could choke it down politely. Ish. Therefore, I became a tea drinker.

I am partial to the restorative powers of afternoon tea.  I think of it as after school snack for grown ups.  The amazing thing about tea is the variety of foods you can consume with a nice cuppa.  Muffins are a favorite of mine [there's a whole category of muffins in that recipe index on my right sidebar]. This sandwich spread is equally at home in an afternoon tea setting or a lunch plate.  The spicy bite of the radishes and mustard is tempered by the cheeses for a lovely nibble.  This was good spread on celery pieces and would probably be good on crackers.

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?

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/ 

Radish Sandwich Spread (makes 4 sandwiches)

Ingredients

• ¼ cup cream cheese
• ¼ cup goat cheese
• 1 Tablespoon mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 cup shredded radish
• ¼-½ teaspoon salt, I use kosher
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper (about)
• bread of your choice, or use vegetables or crackers

Instructions

1. Combine in a food processor until well blended.  
2. Chill for an hour, or up to 4 hours.  Spread on thin sandwich bread or crackers or vegetables, or use as a dip.
3. Note:  while this spread should chill for a while before serving, it only keeps about a day.  After that it gets kinda weepy, so I recommend making just what you are planning to use that day.

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

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).

Peach Pie with Ginger Crumble Topping

Summer peaches nestled under a snappy ginger oat nut topping make a surprising crumb-topped pie.

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I blog about seasonal eating--using the produce from my garden and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share to feed my family.  It's March, it's Pi day, so why am I sharing a recipe featuring peaches?

One of the primary ways I make the most of our seasonal produce is by putting the abundance up for winter use.  Last summer, when our peach tree was laden with vanishing fruit courtesy of the Certified Wildlife who must have read the Habitat sign Carla posted about making--and putting up--peach pie filling.  Since my daughter and I had been over to glean a friend's heavily laden tree, above,  I had a bunch of peaches when I read the post.  I followed Carla's clear and simple directions and put up several peach pies' worth of filling.  In the winter time, we can enjoy a taste of summer (and enjoy the additional heat in the kitchen) while we're continuing to eat locally.

I really wasn't planning on sharing this recipe today.  Even though the weather swings from sunny and 67 degrees Fahrenheit to accumulating snow back to sunny and 50s over a 3 day period, I'm thinking Spring!  I've got a roasted asparagus pizza and a radish pizza on deck for future Friday Night Pizza Nights.  But yesterday morning, when babbling about what to post today, my neighbor Dawn said 'but it's Pi day' and I thought, you know, I *do* have a pie recipe to share.  Besides, I've got so many peach pizza recipes for this summer you'd get bored with another peach recipe in August, right?

If you'd like a more savory pie for Pi Day, I gotcha covered.  Last year I shared the food of my spouse's home** in Pasties, A Meat Pie for Pi Day.  I've also shared a Beef and Bok Choy Pie that we enjoy when we've got Bok Choy from the farm share and beef from the freezer.  I'm still chicken on the concept of homemade crust, though.  My achilles heel.


If you came here looking for a Friday Night Pizza Night, I gotcha covered there as well.  Here's my Visual Pizza Recipe Index, and it's broken up my categories that make sense only to me:  recipes for pizza dough, recipes for pizzas with fruit, recipes for vegetarian pizzas, and recipes for pizzas with me.  Homemade pizza crust?  So NOT my achilles heel.


For more recipes using peaches, please see my Peach 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?

Avocado Lemon Feta Yogurt Dip

An easy and versatile vegetable dip of creamy avocado, bright lemon, and salty feta in a yogurt base

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One of my New Year's Resolutions, for the second year running, is to add more avocado to my life.  I love in it guacamole.  I love it filled with corn and black bean salsa.  I love it smashed with some salt, spread on toast, and eaten with an over easy egg.

I got that idea off a BBC show about astronomy and the SOFIA project where I saw some German astronomers--working on the Very Large Telescope--who who were being interviewed over breakfast high up in the Atacama desert in Northern Chile. One astronomer was smashing an avocado with his toast and egg.  Try it--it's delicious. 

Avocado is just delightful--and no, I'm not being paid to say it. It's a New Year's Resolution that I'm able to keep, which is the best kind of resolution.

Brighten up a mashed avocado with a splash of lemon, add the salty tang of feta cheese, make it even creamier with yogurt, and you've got yourself a real winner.

This is the first of two avocado dips I'm sharing this spring.  My second is Avocado Feta Hummus. Both use the delightful combination of avocado and feta, first brought to my attention with Maria's Avocado Feta Dip and cemented into my palate with my Slow Cooker Greek Chicken Tacos and Five Layer Mediterranean Chicken Dip.  I like to serve these dips piled with vegetables and sprinkled with additional feta cheese, and we scoop them up with carrot slices, celery sticks, fingers, or pita chips.  I stumbled across this concept last summer, making my supper out of a Layered Vegetable Appetizer, and refined it during January's #AppetizerWeek when I made a week's worth of vegetable appetizers with a talented group of food bloggers.  You can see all our creations on the #AppetizerWeek Pinterest board.


Not into avocado + feta? How about queso? You can find my Avocado Queso Dip here. 

We've had a string of sunny days, which gives me hope that this winter will come to a close.  Amazing how wonderful time spent in a sunbeam can feel.  I think our dogs have it right--follow the path of the sun from East-facing windows to West-facing windows over the course of the day.  [That's when they're not napping on the heat vents.] This dip makes me think that Spring is right around the corner which, looking at the calendar, it is.  Hooray!

Thai Turkey Cold Busting Hot and Sour Egg Drop Soup

Fight colds with this Hot and Sour Thai-seasoned Turkey, Carrot, and Rice Egg Drop Soup

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When I was in nursing school, in a previous life, Hot and Sour Soup became my magical cure-all for any bugs picked up at the hospital that threatened to take me down.  I'd swing by my favorite Chinese restaurant and pick up a quart when I first felt a tickle in my throat, and usually by the time I'd consumed the container I was right as rain.

Of course I've moved far away from that restaurant, and had good and not as good Hot and Sour Soups in the intervening lives years.

This soup is emphatically NOT a traditional version of Chinese Restaurant Hot and Sour Soup.  Instead, it's got the hot and sour-ness that I crave when I'm sick, coupled with the consistency of egg drop soup that soothes my throat, along with carrots and rice that comfort me like a good bowl of chicken soup should.  Except this is made with a turkey carcass.  Yes, part of my Thanksgiving turkey carcass if you must know.

This is an excellent reason to save your Thanksgiving turkey carcass in your freezer until you're ready for it.  No sense wasting it on some day-after-Thanksgiving soup when you've got amazing leftovers still in the fridge.  No, save that turkey carcass, along with the bits and bobs of vegetables collected in your Soup Pack, for a Real Need.

I made this soup while in Real Need for Soup.  While I was sharing sunny orange recipes here during HashtagOrangeWeek recently, I was sneezing and hacking my way around the Disney World Parks in Florida.  As if being sick wasn't enough, we traveled to/from Florida in a plane and my ears went wrong shortly after take off and still weren't right a week after returning home.  Add to all of the above I had a cough that made me gag and, well, if you've had kids then you know there are . . . consequences . . . when you are walking around having coughing attacks.  So there I am at Disney, sneezing, coughing, and consequencing all over the place, and hoping to survive the flight home so I could make soup. /rant

Thanking again my well-stocked pantry, I slept in (love my bed) and started this soup the day after I got home.  I was inspired by Lydia's Quick and Easy Hot and Sour Soup with Tofu, Shiitake Mushrooms and Noodles and Tyler Florence's Hot and Sour Soup. Now, normally I like the hands off approach of slow cooker soup stock, throwing everything into the crock pot for a day/night before straining and using.  And while that technique is awesome, there is one drawback--in a slow cooker you don't get the flavor concentration from evaporation like you do in an uncovered stock pot on the stove top.  I cooked this stock for 4 hours on the stove top, until it was reduced by about half [and took a picture so you could see**] then called it good.  Using mostly fridge and freezer items I threw together the rest of the soup, snapped some more photos, and we enjoyed a late lunch.  I was fortified for the rest of the day. And then a few more thanks to the awesome leftovers.

If you're looking for the cold-busting properties of a bowl of hot and sour soup, the consistency of egg drop soup, the comfort of a poultry-filled carrot and rice soup--this recipe is for you.


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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?

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.

Slow Cooker Sweet Potato Chili with Hatch Chiles, Corn, and Beef

Sweet and spicy chili that simmers in the slow cooker for an easy supper. This chili has beef, sweet potatoes, 3 kinds of beans, corn, peppers and Hatch chiles for amazing flavor

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When my friend Mary brought her Sweet Potato and Black Bean chili to the thrift shop for lunch, I spooned up that bowl of spicy comfort and was smitten.  Mary's chili, adapted from The Clueless Vegetarian (Amazon affiliate link) was spicy yet went down smoothly, and like all great chilies each person can customize their bowl with a variety of toppings.

I don't know about you, but I tend to become smitten with foods and cook them over and over.  Being a seasonal eater works well with this tendency, because I'm always moving onto what's up next, seasonally, and don't really have time to get into food ruts. At least it works well when fresh vegetables are appearing each week in our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share box!  During the winter months I tend to rely on the produce that can store longer, like the sweet potatoes and butternut squash in the Strategic Winter Squash Reserve, as well as vegetables I've canned or frozen.

I was so smitten with this chili that I made it several times. Each time I loved it even more.  My kids gobbled it up.  Shoot, it was even the first leftover my spouse scrounged out of the fridge when he returned from his most recent deployment.  The combination of colorful beans and sweet potatoes from this chili inspired my Harvest Sweet Potato Salsa.

Serving chili is a great meal for a variety of eaters--you can top it with a whole host of extras if you like.  Some of our favorite toppings:

• red and green salsas
• pickled peppers
• black olives
• shredded cheese
• sour cream
• tortilla chips

My friend Rebbie hosted a chili party which included an oven full of baked potatoes.  My kids created their own loaded baked potatoes from Rebbie's topping selections and missed out on her award-winning chili, but we all went home full and happy.

Orange-Spiked Beet and Walnut Spread

Toasted walnuts, roasted** beets, and a kick of orange juice brightens up this vegan spread

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If you read Wednesday's post and thought I sounded conflicted about posting so many meat-containing recipes in a row, you're very perceptive.  I've got a Guinness-soaked easy meal, a terrific Thai cold-busting soup, and a Fast From The Farm Share supper on deck--but they all involve meat.  And I feel the need to share a vegan recipe in the midst of all this meat so here's one that's been percolating on my mental back burner for a while.

Why do I say percolating?  Well, the recipe I wanted to make just wasn't working for me.  I kept trying variations within the parameters I'd established, and when I hit upon the final concoction that worked I realized I didn't have the exact proportions to share with you.  So I'm going to explain the concept, give you some measurements as a jumping off point, and leave it at that.  I mean, with 6 ingredients [including salt and pepper] there's plenty of 'taste and adjust' for each of us to do.

I'm always on the lookout for new ways to love beets from my CSA farm share, so when I got an email from goop including a recipe for beet and walnut spread I mentally filed it under the 'Beet Recipes to Try' section of my brain.

Don't tell me you don't have a Beet Recipes to Try area of your brain? Pity.

This Beet and Walnut Dip is my inspiration, and I am sure it is delicious, but I a) was running low on tahini and had some hummus to make and b) desired to have another tahini-free appetizer in my spread.  So I took the beets, walnuts, olive oil and salt from that recipe, and was trying . . .  trying . . . trying . . . to make something other than BeetyWalnutButter.  I failed. I was about to grab the goat cheese and de-veganify it when I remembered how well beets and oranges go together (hello, Beet Juice Mimosas!). I grabbed some freshly squeezed Hamlin orange juice from the Band Fruit Fundraiser, threw the concoction back into the food processor to incorporate the juice, and DONE!  The orange juice and olive oil emulsify to fluff up the BeetyWalnutButter into an Orange-spiked Beet and Walnut Spread.

As much as I love my Beet and Goat Cheese Spread, I was looking for a vegan addition to my Awesome Vegetable Apps and Snacks collection (link to my Pinterest board) and this one works great.  I like it on carrots or crackers and spread on toasted sourdough bread in a sandwich.  I think it would be delicious topped with sautéed mushrooms, as the earthy flavors of beets and mushrooms make a nice pairing in my favorite Danish smørrebrød:  liverpostej.

If you've got beets, walnuts, an orange and a bit of time to use the oven, as well as a food processor or amazing knife skills, you can enjoy this vegan spread today.  It makes a colorful addition to an appetizer table.

For more recipes using beets, please see my Beet 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, or the garden abundance. More recipes! I'm pinning more recipes to my Pinterest boards, follow me there. If you like behind-the-scenes shots, please follow me on Instagram. When I encounter an article that makes me think or makes me laugh, I share it on my Facebook page--please follow me there. Want to know How to Use This Blog?

Open Faced Liver Paté LeverPostej Meatloaf Sandwiches

A traditional open-faced sandwich featuring meatloaf flavored with bacon and liver, topped with pickled beets, sautéed mushrooms, even crispy bacon and onions

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This open-faced sandwich is for the hard core carnivore out there.  Not those of you who dabble in boneless, skinless, chicken breasts.  Nope.  This is for those of you who will eat the whole cow, tongue to tail.  [I deliberately exclude myself from the head, though if someone presents me with a slice of head cheese I'll eat it.  I'm just not gonna make it and blog about it, okay?] It briefly passed through my brain to apologize to my vegetarian readers [thank you for stopping by! If you'd like a vegetarian open-faced sandwich recipe, here's my shaved beet one] for posting yet another meat-containing recipe, and then I realized that no, I'm going to own this.

In my opinion, it is disrespectful to the animal to cherry pick the handful of parts that you choose to consume.  I'm not saying to rush out and eat bung, instead I am saying to broaden your horizons and try more than just steaks and burgers or boneless skinless chicken breasts.  Beef tongue is pretty tasty, and the tail--man, I'm drooling just thinking about Elise's oxtail stew recipe.  But each bovine only has 1 tongue and, sadly, 1 tail.  There's a lot more to that animal--including the liver.

This, as you can tell from the head-scratching 'how do you pronounce it?**' title, contains liver.  If you like liver, you'll probably love it.  If you don't like liver, this smells like bacon while it's cooking and looks like meatloaf after it's baked, so give it a try.  My kids are not fans of the beets and mushrooms, so for them they are just eating a meatloaf sandwich, but you're welcome to make it your own. Try this, broaden your horizons, and respect the animal that you choose to consume.

This recipe is my adaptation of a traditional Danish open-faced sandwich or smørrebrød (literal translation is butter bread) using liver paté or leverpostej.  Like a Reuben sandwich is traditionally served with sauerkraut, swiss cheese, and thousand island dressing, the Danish leverpostej smørrebrød is served with pickled beets and sautéed mushrooms, sometimes crispy bacon or onions.

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?

Pepperoni and Orange Pizza

Sweet caramelized orange chunks and spicy pepperoni liven up this pizza

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I'm going to round out HashtagOrangeWeek with a pizza, because it's Friday and I frequently share pizza posts on Fridays [and nearly always fix pizza for my family on Fridays, even if I've just arrived home like today].  You may think that oranges on a pizza could only be on a dessert pizza.  You'd be at the wrong blog, my friend.  I'm not saying that I'll never do a dessert pizza, but I have not yet done one and have no plans to do so at this time.  Besides, I just shared a cookie recipe using oranges, Orange Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Secret Ingredient Cookies, and a sweet muffin recipe using oranges, Orange Olive Oil Date Muffins.  

Why am I sharing a week's worth of recipes featuring oranges from Florida?  I spent this week in Florida watching my son's high school marching band parade at Disney while soaking up sun and warmth.  Since the trip was financed, in part, by selling Florida citrus in the Band Fruit Fundraiser (link to my recipe round up featuring 156 Recipes Using Fruit, from 66 bloggers) I decided to take this week to share recipes I've been making using the fruit we bought in the sale.

The BLUF of this recipe is that it's good to have a broiler.  This pizza benefits from being hit from above with a direct heat source to finish it.  The cheese browns and the oranges caramelize, just a bit, and that is a nice touch.

The other weekend we were at a sled hockey tournament in Ft Wayne, Indiana and the TV didn't get any Olympic coverage. Boo. However they did have Food Network (I don't at home), where I saw a gal in Minnesota make a kimchi pizza in an amazing copper oven.  She'd lift up the pizza--with a super-long pizza peel--to the top of the oven to hit it with a final blast of heat.  Wish I had that set up.  In a second kitchen as there's no room in mine.

It is tricky, timing the amount of 'broilerage' required for the oranges without overdoing the crust and cheese.  If I had a creme brûlée [hey the spell checker automatically put all those hoodads on the letters. Wicked cool] torch I'd hit the oranges individually with that instead.

For general hints, tips, and photo collages please check out my Pizza Primer post, a brain dump of all things related to making pizza in my home kitchen.

For more recipes using oranges, please see my Orange Recipes Collection. It's part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me overwhelmed with Band Fruit Fundraiser citrus or who just like to stock up when it's on sale at the store or who live next to a citrus farm. You pick. 

For more pizza recipes, including an entire category of Savory Pizzas With Fruit, please see my Visual Pizza Recipe Index. I'm also pinning interesting pizza recipes I find to my Pinterest boards, follow me there. I'm sharing my latest pizzas in rough form on my Instagram feed, follow me there. I'll share articles that catch my eye on my Facebook page, follow me there. Want to know How to Use This Blog?

Orange Oatmeal Secret Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies

A tender and tangy twist on the classic chocolate chip cookie--with freshly squeezed orange juice and zest, some oats, and cream cheese.  This is a wonderful cookie.

Welcome back to HashtagOrangeWeek here on the blog.  While oranges aren't exactly a local, farm fresh, food to me in Ohio, we've been enjoying cases of citrus shipped up from Florida as part of the Band Fruit Fundraiser.  Why did the band sell fruit?  To raise money to travel to Florida and march in a parade down Main Street in the Magic Kingdom! Where am I now?  In Florida, watching the band march in a parade down Main Street. See how the circle comes around?

On Monday I showed you how I treated myself--and the kids--to Orange Olive Oil Date Muffins. On Friday I'll throw oranges on a pepperoni pizza--and live to tell the tale.  But for now, while I bask in the sunshine of the Sunshine State . . . I present you with Orange Oatmeal Secret Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I'm realizing that I treat my son's sled hockey teammates, and their families, better than I treat my own family.  I'm sure that's a symptom of something--taking those closest to you for granted and being kinder to complete strangers.  In addition to eating more avocados in 2014, I shall resolve--at this late date--to make more treats for my family.

I had it in my head that I wanted to make chocolate chip cookies with cream cheese in the batter.  I tried a few cookbooks looking for recipes without success, but a couple of minutes on the laptop and Boom! I found Kelly's Secret Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I wasn't content to merely make a tried and true recipe to share at the team dinner.  No, I had an idea to use one of the Band Fruit Fundraiser oranges to add an orange-chocolate twist to the cookies.  Apparently cooking something for the first time for an audience--who don't have to like it--is getting to be a habit.  Oopsie.  Thank goodness for amazing food bloggers!

Kelly's directions are clear and easy.  I was able to make her recipe, including my orange & oatmeal adaptations, one afternoon while dinner was in the oven.  Then, like I always do with cookies and often do with pizza dough, I stuck the dough in the fridge to bake the following day.

Imagine my surprise when I got online for Chef Dennis Littley's weekly Good Day Google Plus Hangout on Air--and one of the panelists is Kelly!  It was pretty cool to be able to say "hey, I've got your dough chilling in my fridge".  I know whenever someone tells me they've made one of my recipes it makes me feel good!

Orange Date Olive Oil Muffins

Sunny orange juice and zest, sweet dates, and a splash of olive oil make these muffins a treat made from things my grandma could have found in her pantry

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This week I am in Florida, watching my son's high school marching band parade down Disney's Main Street and enjoying some warmth and sunshine. I thought a good theme for the week would be recipes featuring oranges, so I'm calling this week HashtagOrangeWeek.  See, the oranges I'm using came direct from Florida as part of the Band Fruit Fundraiser (link to my round up of 156 fruit-filled recipes from 66 bloggers). Why was the band fundraising?  To go to Disney and march down Main Street . . .

Today I'm sharing muffins, because it's a Monday and I like to share muffin recipes on Mondays.  That whole alliteration thing.  Wednesday I'm sharing Orange Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Secret Ingredient Cookies, and Friday I've got an Orange and Pepperoni Pizza. If you are in a cold area, I can't bring you warmth but I can share some sunny citrus.  [And rub it in, a wee bit.]

You ever do something just for yourself?  I made these muffins just for me.  Normally I make muffins for the kids' breakfast or after school snack, or to bring to a function, or--rarely--to eat with dinner.

Not this time.  Not these muffins.

I had a hankering for Orange Date Muffins even though I'd never tried them.  Probably due to repeated exposures to the Orange Date Muffin recipe page in Muffins: A Cookbook (Amazon affiliate link) written by friends of my mom.  Every time I'd read the recipe over the years, though, I was missing some vital ingredient [like oranges or dates].  Since the Band Fruit Fundraiser Citrus Recipe Round Up, though, I've had cases of citrus at the ready, and as it is sled hockey season I have been to Costco and have dates aplenty.