106 Recipe Ideas Using Ground Beef

When 110 pounds of ground beef arrives in your freezer, you experience a variety of emotions.  When it appears just days after you'd donated 55 pounds of ground beef to the Foodbank to make room for the new beef . . . well, let's just say that the need for new ground beef recipe ideas becomes imperative.

Why do I have so much ground beef in my freezer?  Simply put, I like to know about where my food is coming from, and in addition to eating from our CSA farm share, I like to get meat and eggs locally as well.  If you'd like to purchase beef local to where you live, check out the upper left corner for the Local Harvest options in your area.  If you live in the Seattle, WA area check out Farmstr where you can connect directly with food producers.  I've got a NOTE below, more about the beef in my freezer, but I don't wish to offend anyone's tender sensibilities so I first I will share the following wonderful recipe ideas shared by a variety of food bloggers who answered my plea for ground beef recipes.

I broke this list into 9 groups, but you'll find there are some posts that could fit in multiple groups.  Kim from Cravings of a Lunatic's Lasagna Soup is one of them, as it fits in both the Lasagna category and the Soup/Chili/Slow Cooker category.  Wendy of Around My Family Table's Slow Cooker Taco Meat is another one, fitting into both the Taco/Nacho category and the Slow Cooker/Chili/Soup category.  Chanie of Busy In Brooklyn's Spaghetti Squash Bolognese . . . I could go on!  Just like my Visual Recipe Index, where I break up categories by vegetables above or under the ground, know that my mind is an interesting place and the categories seemed good at the time, or made better-sized collages.

Ground Beef in Lasagna

Links below are shown in this collage Left to Right, Top to Bottom

Lasagna Soup from Cravings of a Lunatic
Easy Spicy Lasagna from Cravings of a Lunatic
Easy One Skillet Lasagna from I Heart Eating
Spicy Tortilla Lasagna from The Kitchen Is My Playground
Easy Italian Lasagna by Modern Christian Homemaker
Quadruple Roasted Vegetable Mock Florentine Mock Lasagna by me!

Ground Beef Stuffed into Things

Links below are shown in this collage Left to Right, Top to Bottom, plus a couple of mine that didn't fit

Meat & Rice Stuffed Baby Eggplants from Busy in Brooklyn
Baked Spaghetti and Spaghetti Squash with Optional Ground Beef from Kitchen Treaty
Chipotle Stuffed Zucchini Boats from Nutmeg Nanny
Spaghetti Squash Bolognese from Busy in Brooklyn
Pepper Potts' Stuffed Peppers from Mom on Time Out
Paleo Stuffed Eggplant (With Ground Beef) from Everyday Maven
Millet and Dukkah Stuffed Squash from This American Bite
Stuffed Peppers with Beef and Bulgur Wheat from The Lemon Bowl
Tomato and Capsicum Beef Mince Farcie with Polenta from Masala Herb
Lebanese Stuffed Cabbage Rolls from The Lemon Bowl
The Best Beef Samosas from Rock Recipes
Stuffed Breakfast Biscuits from Around My Family Table
Basic Farm Fresh Feasts-a-boli from me!
Beef, Mushroom, and Fresh Tomato FFF-a-boli from me!

Ground Beef in Sauce

Links below are shown in this collage Left to Right, Top to Bottom, plus one of mine that didn't fit

Bolognese Sauce from Cravings of a Lunatic

Easy Korean Beef over Rice from Juanita's Cocina

Pasilla Bolognese Spaghetti from girlichef

Beef and Broccoli Alfredo from Blueberries and Blessings

Our Best Simple Bolognese Sauce from Rock Recipes

Korean Beef and Broccoli from Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce from Crumb Blog

Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes from Blueberries and Blessings

Veggie Pumped Picadillo from me!

Very Veggie Sloppy Joes for a Crowd from me!

Ground Beef in Pie

Links below are shown in this collage Left to Right, Top to Bottom

Tamale Pie from The Kitchen Is My Playground

Shepherd's Pie from Karen's Kitchen Stories

Frito Pie from girlichef

Shepherd's Pie from Persnickety Plates

Chili Corn Chip Pie from Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks

Sweet Potato Shepard's Pie from This American Bite

Pasties from me!

Thanksgiving Leftover Shepherd's Pie from me!

Beef and Bok Choy Pie from me!

Ground Beef in Mexican Dishes

Links below are shown in this collage Left to Right, Top to Bottom, plus one of mine that didn't fit

Smothered Burritos by Nutmeg Nanny

Molly's Beef Enchiladas by Persnickety Plates

Grilled Game Day Nachos by Supper for a Steal

Tostada Dip by Modern Christian Homemaker

Frito Olé by Home Cooking Memories

Baked Flautas by Home Cooking Memories

Taco Salad in a Bag by Like Mother Like Daughter

Dutch Oven Beef Enchilada Casserole by Like Mother Like Daughter

Beef and Vegetable Enchiladas by Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks

Low Fat Taco Salad by Rock Recipes

Gorditas with Picadillo by Juanita's Cocina

Beef Taco Lettuce Wraps by Everyday Maven

Cheesy Ground Beef Taquitos by Miss in the Kitchen

Taco Salad with Salsa Ranch Dressing by Miss in the Kitchen

Garlic Beef Enchiladas by Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks

Taco Farro by me!

Stretching Meat:  Tacos by me!

Ground Beef in Meatballs and Meatloaf

Links below are shown in this collage Left to Right, Top to Bottom, plus one of mine that didn't fit

Amnah's Moroccan Meatball Tagine by Maroc Mama

Kosher Swedish Meatballs by This American Bite

Paul's Make the Whole Crew Happy Sausage Meatballs with Red Gravy by Cupcakes and Kale Chips

Egg and Ground Meat Tagine (Kefta Mkawra) by Maroc Mama

Cranberry Cocktail Meatballs by Supper for a Steal

Austrian Beef Bread Dumplings Sainehonsa Bratknodel by Masala Herb

Greek Meatballs (Soutzoukakia) by Supper for a Steal

Polpettone alla Toscano or Easy Italian Meatballs by The Culinary Life

Soutzoukakia (Cumin Meatballs in Tomato) by girlichef

Paleo Pesto Meatballs by Everyday Maven

Mini Parmesan Meatloaf by Modern Christian Homemaker

Holiday Traditions Swedish Meatballs by me! (ok, technically my folks')

Stretching Meat:  Meatloaf by me!

Ground Beef in the Slow Cooker, in Soups, and in Chili

Links below are shown in this collage Left to Right, Top to Bottom, plus a few of mine that didn't fit

Zesty Hamburger Soup by Cravings of a Lunatic

Healthier Homemade Sloppy Joes by I Heart Eating

Slow Cooker Taco Meat by Around My Family Table

Slow Cooker Meatloaf by The Kitchen Is My Playground

Slow Cooker Chili by diethood

Chili Con Carne by This American Bite

Bill's Chili by Cupcakes and Kale Chips

Frito Chili Pie--Crock Pot or Stove by I Heart Eating

Slow Cooker Squash and Beef Masala by me!

Acorn Squash, Beet, and Sweet Potato Chili by me!

Slow Cooker Green Tomato Garlic Chili by me!

Ground Beef in Casseroles

Links below are shown in this collage Left to Right, Top to Bottom

Beef and Wild Rice Bake from Miss in the Kitchen

Hamburger Stroganoff by Julie's Eats & Treats

Hamburger Wild Rice Casserole by Julie's Eats & Treats

French Fry Hot Dish by Julie's Eats & Treats

Sloppy Joe Under a Bun Casserole by Julie's Eats & Treats

Cheeseburger Macaroni by Around My Family Table

Homemade Hamburger Helper Cheeseburger Macaroni by Texanerin

Easy Slow Cooker Hamburger & Corn Gulash by Farmer's Wife Rambles

Beef and Potato Skillet Supper by Cupcakes and Kale Chips

Ground Beef in Burgers

Links below are shown in this collage Left to Right, Top to Bottom, plus one of mine that didn't fit

Bacon Cheeseburger Stuffed Mushrooms by Miss in the Kitchen

Sloppy Burger Grilled Cheese by Snappy Gourmet

Herbed Half & Half Burgers by Everyday Maven

Truffle Salt Burgers by Everyday Maven

Bacon and Cheese-stuffed Chili Burgers by Juanita's Cocina

Teriyaki Burger by Juanita's Cocina

Skillet Blue Cheese Burgers by Vintage Kitchen Notes

Cooking 101 Homemade Hamburgers by Around My Family Table

Green Chile Cheese Burgers by Modern Christian Homemaker

Korean BBQ-Style Asian Burger by The Culinary Life

Worcestershire Blue Cheese Volcano Burgers by Cupcakes and Kale Chips

Brie and Caramelized Onion Stuffed Burgers by All Day I Dream About Food

Sweet Pepper Burgers by Busy in Brooklyn

Moroccan Hamburgers with Harissa Mayonnaise by Maroc Mama

Jangsanjeok Korean Simmered Teriyaki Style Beef Patties by Foodie With Family

Chili Beef Sliders by What's Cookin' Chicago

Stretching Meat:  Burgers by me!

NOTE:  The steer in my freezer that will feed my family for the next year had a name.  It is not my intention to offend any tender sensibilities by sharing more about him.  It is my intention to know more about the food I feed my family.  If you don't want to learn more about the steer, please skip over the next paragraph.  I indented and italicized it too, to make it easier if you wish to avoid.  Join us after the photo for some final thoughts.

The steer below was born on a dairy farm in western Ohio.  There's not much use for boy calves on dairy farms--yes, technically he was a bull calf--so he was given to my neighbor's friend's wife because she used to work on the dairy farm.  My neighbor's friend and his family allow their steers (that's a neutered male, BTW) to free range on 13 acres of grass and shelter under the barn.  The kids named this steer Butch, and regularly fed him and his buddies dandelions.  My neighbor's friend built an earthen ramp to minimize the stress of loading the animals into his trailer for the short trip to the butcher shop.  The butcher shop is known for not stressing the animals and only processes 2 animals a day.  Butch was dry aged for a couple of weeks before cutting and packaging.  We got a quarter of Butch (don't ask which quarter, as I've got both his tongue and his tail).  As I don't cook large amounts of meat at one time, I prefer getting smaller one pound packages of ground beef in lieu of roasts.  Why did I have so much ground beef left over from the previous animal?  Apparently I'm pretty good at stretching meat.  

I've thoroughly enjoyed working on this recipe round up.  So much so that I'm planning another one for what to do with the Band Fruit Fundraiser citrus that will fill up my crisper in a few months!  Any ideas for future recipe round ups, (25 uses for kohlrabi?  17 ways to love beets?) please leave 'em in the comments.  Thanks!

This post is shared on the Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Week In Review, Tasty Tuesdays  Wednesday Fresh Foods Link Up and What's Cookin' Wednesday, From The Farm Blog Hop,

Pumpkin and Black Bean Pizza on Roasted Pumpkin Dough

A hearty vegetarian pizza with pumpkin, black bean, and maple topping on a roasted pumpkin dough

Once you've shredded butternut squash and made pizza dough out of it, or roasted sweet potato and made pizza dough out of it, or steamed spinach and  made a pizza dough out of it, pumpkin pizza dough is not much of a stretch.

Roasted beet pizza dough?  A stretch.  A vibrantly-colored-yet-amazingly-found-in-nature stretch.  And a tasty one, to boot.  Where was I?  Right, roasted pumpkin in a pizza dough.

With this non-stretch of a pizza dough, I wanted to go a bit wild with a meatless topping.  I'd read Aimée's account of tapping her maple trees and making syrup (I love the photo of her daughter 'nursing' on the tree) so I was primed to include maple syrup in the mix.  The black beans and pumpkin flowed from there.  This is a hearty, filling, cold weather pizza that left my belly quite satisfied.  The kids proclaimed it "strange" but finished their pieces anyway.  I used too much filling in my pizza, above, and I have adjusted the amounts below accordingly.  This filling is quite tasty, and would be tasty in a rolled pizza, folded into puff pastry, or in a quesadilla as well as this pizza.

We have Friday Night Pizza Nights around here, but if you do Meatless Monday this recipe lends itself to weekend prep/weeknight cooking.  Fix the dough and topping on the weekend.  Have the kids take the dough out of the fridge when they get home from school (or tuck it with your lunch at work and take it out--put it by your house keys--an hour before you're due to leave work).  In the time it takes to preheat the oven you can stretch the dough and spread the toppings.

Squash, Mustard Greens, and Chick Pea Curry (Fast From The Farm Share)

A quick vegetarian stew of sautéed zucchini and yellow squash with mustard greens and chick peas in a prepared masala sauce.  Bring the farm share home and have supper on the table quickly.

For other recipes using Mustard Greens, please see my Mustard Greens Recipes Collection. For other recipes using Cooking Greens, please see my Recipes for Cooked Greens Collection. For other recipes using Summer Squash, please see my Summer Squash Recipes Collection. 

These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share. For other Greens recipe ideas from around the web, please follow my Greens board on Pinterest.

I've categorized fast recipes on this site as Quick Takes, and before I discovered some wonderful Wednesday link ups I used to post fast recipes on Thursdays, because Thursday is one of the days that I'm running kids around right up until suppertime.
However, I've been kicking around the phrase "Fast from the Farm Share" in my head for a while, so I'm going to share an occasional series of recipes that can get on the table quickly using ingredients from the CSA farm share (or your garden, or the farmer's market, or grocery store).

You'll notice I'm relying on a prepared sauce for this stew.  Sure, I can make my own masala (with chicken and chick peas here, or with patty pan squash and ground beef here, or with sweet potato, chicken, and chick pea here) but those are slow cooker recipes which don't fit with the fast theme.

This recipe is for those nights when you've got fresh vegetables that you need to eat and no time/desire to think about what to do with them or make some elaborate concoction.  It comes together quickly (cooking the rice takes longest, so if you've got the option, I'd set up the rice cooker before work, or have a kid start the rice cooker after school, or buy precooked rice) and tastes wonderful. And my kids snarfed up the mustard greens very quickly this way (magical naan, that is) so that's a win in my book.

Mac and Cheese in a Pumpkin from MELT

Creamy macaroni and cheese with bits of Italian sausage baked in a pie pumpkin from the new cookbook MELT:  The Art of Macaroni and Cheese by Stephanie Stiavetti and Garrett McCord

I'm going to talk about this recipe first, then the cookbook where I got it.  Before I get too wordy, some notes:

MELT will be on sale on 22 October 2013.  You can preorder a copy from a variety of vendors, check here for a list of links (link to meltmacaroni.com website).

If you preorder a copy, or even if you don't, you can participate in a $500 Le Creuset cookware giveaway!  Click here for details on the giveaway (link to meltmacaroni.com website). 

I received a review copy* of MELT and chose to post my experience making this recipe from the book because it's tasty and uses seasonal vegetables from my CSA farm share.  I am not involved in the cookware giveaway (just passing the info along to you), I do not benefit from the links posted above, nor was I compensated for this post.  I do get to keep the cookbook, though, which rocks.

What's all the fuss about baking in pumpkins? 

When I see photos of things baked in pumpkins I tend to think it's a gimmick, more for the presentation aspect than the actual taste.  I mean, how often do you see photos of the food actually being served? [Yeah, I went there.  Seems only sporting to share reality.]  As it turns out, while the mac and cheese in this recipe is delicious, it's even better baked inside the pumpkin!  How do I know this?  The recipe calls for a 5 pound pumpkin and the largest one I'd gotten from my farm share was only 2 pounds.  So I baked the rest of the mac and cheese in a pretty Polish pottery bowl alongside the pumpkin.  The pumpkin adds a creamy sweet vegetable base to the mac and cheese which is truly amazing.

What if I don't have access to little pumpkins?

Since I've lived around the world where seasonal, traditional American plant items are pretty pricey (I'm talking pumpkins and Christmas trees) I've given this situation a bit of thought.  I would suggest using a can of pumpkin puree (not the pie filling, just the puree) and spreading a layer of canned pumpkin along the bottom and up the sides of a 2-3 quart casserole dish, then adding the filling, covering, and baking as directed below.  No access to canned pumpkin?  Roast whatever winter squash is local to you, and spread that inside a casserole dish, cover and bake.

Kalua Pig Pizza with Chinese Cabbage (Pizza Night!)

Slow cooked Kalua pig with sauteed Chinese cabbage and caramelized onions on a pizza.  Serve with pineapple on the side and have a real Hawaiian pizza.

When I saw Marlene's and Dorothy's Slow Cooker Kalua Pork posts within days of each other, I knew it was the sign I needed to share this pizza.

Here's how I make my Kalua Pig in a slow cooker!

See, Kalua Pig is an ono grind, but unless you're hosting a luau you're going to have leftovers.  Lots of them.  Normally I pack up multiple bags of Pig to freeze, with a little pan juice, so that we enjoy the Island flavors many times over several months.  We'll eat our first meal with sautéed cabbage, "2 scoop" rice, and fresh pineapple.  Then I get to play with the rest.  I stick to the cabbage and pineapple sides, though, because Kalua Pig and cabbage is like PB&J to our family.  They just go together.  

Stupefyingly Simple Chicken, Rice, and Butternut Squash Soup

One taste of this soup, and you too will be stupefied.  And your body slammed with enough beta carotene to . . . . well to do something astounding.  Maybe even run or something crazy.

For me, making soup is not a quick or easy thing.  I think it's a Production.  I have my Soup Packs.  There's lots of chopping involved.  I plan to spend hours over my pretty purple pot.  And I generally end up with something good that my family eats happily the first time but the soup leftovers don't usually get fought over like other things.

The day I made this, I had 2 kids home sick with colds, and I was busy with baking.  I didn't have time to devote to soup, but I thought the kids would benefit from a warm bowl for lunch.  The oven was on anyway, so I selected a small butternut squash from the Strategic Winter Squash Reserve in the corner of the breakfast nook, split it, scooped out the guts, and roasted it upside down on a rimmed baking sheet with a cup of water for 45 minutes until it was tender.  That part was easy.  I kept going.

Since I wasn't Making A Production out of the soup, I grabbed a large saucepan, preheated oil in it over medium heat, and dropped in about half a cup of carrots and celery from a freezer bag of pre-chopped veggies.  After they had started to soften I tossed in some Onion Onion and minced garlic.  I also tossed in 4 bullion cubes because I didn't have any soup stock on hand.  After my electric kettle had come to a boil I added about 4-5 cups of water to the pan.  Then a can of chicken, half of a squash, and let it simmer gently until lunchtime (give it at least 30 minutes, could go up to 2 hrs).  When it was time to serve, I scooped out the remaining rice from the rice cooker (last night's dinner leftovers), added it to the pot, and dished up bowls of warm soup.

Stupefyingly easy and surprisingly tasty, especially given the utter lack of effort on my part.

Savory Butternut Squash Soaked Oat Muffins

As the weather turns colder and my farm share starts including butternut squashes, I tend to do one of two things:  I roast them or I pile them up in a cold corner of my breakfast nook to make my Strategic Winter Squash Reserve (link to my FB page photo of SWSR 2013).  With the roasted squash, I make different main dishes or side dishes.

Late last winter, however, when the Strategic Winter Squash Reserve was the only source of 'fresh' CSA farm share vegetables [still had stuff put up in the freezer and pantry], I got creative.  I shredded the squash.  Shredding a vegetable that you normally use in a mashed form gives you all sorts of options (like Chicken Saltimbocca).  I've revamped my Visual Recipe Index! For more ideas on what to do with your butternut squash, click here.

Since I'm crazy flexible enough to add vegetables to oatmeal and buttermilk and make muffins, I thought I'd throw a cup of shredded butternut squash in the bowl and see what happened.  The lovely thing about this soaked oat muffin recipe is that you toss the first few ingredients together, then have plenty of time to figure out just what you're going to make in the hour before you finish the muffin batter and start baking.  Plenty of time to dither between sweet and savory muffins.

In the end, I veered into the savory muffin direction (oh come on, the title of today's post gave it away). I had a bit of leftover dribs and drabs from a ham, and figured I'd chop them up and add them to the batter.  I added a bit of cornmeal for crunch, and a bit of thyme because I could, and honey in place of sugar for a hint of sweetness--not too much.   For a rather virtuous muffin (whole grain, no processed sugar) they are delicious.  Come see!

White Chicken Leek Pizza on Sweet Potato Crust

Chicken, leeks, and herbed cream cheese on a tender sweet potato pizza crust.

Changing it up again--recipe first, words later, because I'd like to share below how I store some crops from the garden and the CSA farm share.  One long term storage crop is sweet potatoes.  I've made pizza crusts from (links to my other recipes) shredded butternut squash, roasted or shredded beets, steamed spinach and steamed kale.  Why not sweet potato?  Just like the addition of sweet potato to biscuits results in a tender crumb, adding it to pizza crust results in a tender, flavorful crust.  I made a triple batch of dough and will share have shared my creations throughout this fall--including 2 delicious FFF-a-boli rolled pizzas, one for vegetarians and one for omnivores--created using ingredients that will be leftover after Thanksgiving. Everything is up on the Visual Pizza Recipe Index.
First up, a white chicken leek pizza (with a fresh tomato pesto & fontina option for vegetarians, photo below), since I got both sweet potatoes and leeks in last week's CSA farm share.

Special Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Coconut Bars

A tree, and Timon, during the 10 seconds of The Lion King where he's dressed in drag and doing the hula.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

As a mother, who has pulled more things out of her ear at the last minute invented a number of memorable meals based entirely on what's on hand in the fridge or pantry, I get this statement.  It doesn't apply only to food--you want to be a tree for Halloween?  They don't sell tree costumes in the store.  You need a Wilbur Wright costume for social studies tomorrow morning?  Which one is Wilbur anyway?*

The recipe I am posting today is one of those such inventions.  I'd roasted a pie pumpkin merely because I had some in the Strategic Winter Squash Reserve (don't rush to eat all your CSA winter squash--it will keep for a few months in a cool dry place) and I had the oven on already.  Truthfully, I tossed it in the oven after baking some muffins (that will be up in December, when you've got Band Fruit Fundraiser Citrus) and utterly forgot about it for a few hours.  I stuck the very-roasted pumpkin in the fridge until I could decide its fate--then fate stepped in, in the form of an email requesting parents bring a sweet treat for the band concert.

I had a cake mix, and I knew we always have success with Cake Mix Doctor® recipes, so I checked the Cake Mix Doctor® website and found this.  I hesitate to use peanut butter in anything for a school function, in case of allergies, so I swapped in my roasted pumpkin and made Chocolate Pumpkin Bars instead.  Actually, I made the pumpkin part, and I took photos of my tree sapling daughter making the rest.  Check it out!

Chicken Cider Stew (from Kitchen Parade): My Personal Fall In A Bowl!

Kristy of Gastronomical Sovereignty is on vacation in Merrye Olde Englande, so I'm sharing with her readers how I get two 'storage amounts' of my favorite cook's crops--garlic and basil--out of one garden plot over the course of a year.  The time to start this endeavor is now, and if you like to cook with garlic and pesto, you need to check it out!  You can read all about it here.

I'm doing this whole "I've got a guest post up, go see" thing completely wrong. Instead of just directing you to Kristy's blog today and calling it good, in fact I'm sharing the second installment (but first post) of my Food Bloggers Change My Life series.  Confusing?  Yes, sorry--I shared Rebecca at Foodie With Family's Slow Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala previously, but I started the series because of Alanna of Kitchen Parade and A Veggie Venture.  She is my friend and Food Blogging Mentor (and I'm so grateful last year that she didn't laugh at my email of 'I'm thinking of starting a food blog').

Chicken Cider Stew is a savory stovetop dish that comes together quickly and uses the great stuff I'm getting from my CSA and my garden right now:  sweet potatoes, carrots, celery, onions and apples.

We like this served with a hunk of sharp cheddar cheese.

Every time I read a food blog, I get inspired to try all sorts of new flavor combinations, and sometimes I actually follow through with my ideas.  Rarely, though, does a recipe--exactly as written--become part of my regular menu rotation.

I'll digress at this point and say by 'menu rotation' that would imply that I actually have a menu plan.  Ha!  During the CSA farm share season (mid-May to Thanksgiving-ish for me) I never know what I'm going to get in the farm share crate.  And other than the cow in the freezer I never know what protein I'll have on hand.  So I just kind of wing it on a daily/weekly basis.  However, there are some meals that, when the right elements collide, I already know what I'm making for supper.

This recipe is one of those.  I read it when Alanna put it up on Kitchen Parade in 2007, had almost all the ingredients--still don't have savory--and made it.  Loved it.  The following Fall when it cooled off and my thoughts turned to stew, my farm share box had sweet potatoes, apple cider appeared in the farmer's market and the stores, I craved it again.  The next year, again.

And so it goes.  Reading that recipe six years ago made a permanent change in my Fall menu rotation. See, food bloggers are making a difference!

Cheddar Apple Onion Bacon Pizza

Two notes!  First, I've installed a print button, with options to remove images and non-recipe verbiage, in case you'd like to print a recipe.  It's down at the bottom of the post, let me know if you like it.

Second, I wrote the CSA Cookoff segment this week on HOMEGROWN.org, since I was merely walking a half marathon while Jennifer was having a blast at Farm Aid.  You can check out my Slow Cooker Sweet Potato and Chicken Curry recipe here!

In the pre-braces life, a favorite 'I don't want to cook' supper when it was just me and the kids was popcorn, apple slices, and cheese cubes.  I liked to make it with Gala apples, though my favorite apple is the delicious Larry variety from the Shenandoah valley that I got in a fruit share in our first ever CSA farm share. That easy meal satisfied the sweet, the salty, the need to chew and the desire not to be hungry in an hour.
Until we embark on the post-braces life, I will miss that meal . . . and corn on the cob, and everything bagels with lox, cream cheese, red onion, capers, and summer tomato.  Note to self, sneak out and get a bagel with the fixings before all the tomatoes are gone.  I never was a fan of Laffy Taffy, so I can't say I'm missing it.
Last week my mom brought me a red delicious apple, and since I'm not a fan of eating red delicious plain, I was primed to think of pizza.  When I saw this Apple Harvest Cheddar at Costco (with apple pieces and cinnamon--how cool does that sound?), I thought it would be good on a pizza with apples and something else, so I bought it.  I didn't really think I wanted to try corn on the pizza to recreate my easy supper, but caramelized onions and bacon sounded like good replacements.

Conveniently, I'd caramelized a mess of onions in the crock pot (I used and love Dorothy's method, though I'm going to try Alanna's Sweet, Dark and Dreamy method next time.  For research purposes) and froze them in recipe-size portions, so it was easy to grab what I needed.  I also had bacon baked and frozen.  My freezer can be a magical place.  Is yours?

In the interests of full disclosure, in addition to my mom giving me the apple, my neighbor gave me a big bag of onions that I used to make these caramelized onions.  I bought the rest of the stuff.

It's possible I'm becoming a foodie.  The jury is still out, but go ahead and try this pizza (with any type of cheddar cheese, of course, if you're not near a Costco) while the deliberations continue.

Green Tomato, Pork, and White Bean Chili in a Slow Cooker

Hello, my name is Kirsten and I have a problem.

(Hello, Kirsten.)

I like to make chili using not-the-usual vegetable suspects.  It all started with this Green Tomato Garlic chili recipe a year ago.  I liked it so much I put up a couple of quarts of chopped green tomatoes in the freezer for winter chili.  Instead of making more green tomato chili, however, I veered off in a squash and beet direction with Acorn Squash, Beet, and Sweet Potato chili.  Then I used a quart of the green tomatoes for Green Tomato Bacon Jam.

This chili has cubes of pork, Great Northern beans, and my put up salsa verde.  I wanted a thick chili, so I added some grits and wow--that did it for me.  We liked this chili with a swirl of sour cream stirred into each bowl.  I bet my corn cheddar bacon muffins would be great with it.  If you're having a chili cook off, this would be a little something different.  It's easy to fix (the slow cooker does most of the work) and the flavor is wonderful.  This is also great for a work day meal--brown the pork the night before while the kitchen is still active with dinner, chill it overnight, and dump all the ingredients into the slow cooker the next morning.

Note to self--this fall, put up more quarts of chopped green tomatoes!  In fact, I think I'll put the word out with my neighbors that if they don't want their tomatoes still on the vine when the first frost is predicted, I'll be happy to come harvest.  The cool thing about green tomatoes is that they can hang out on your counter for a few days until you can process them.  What's the worst that can happen--they start to ripen?  Oh, the horrors.

Introducing the Visual Pizza Recipe Index

There is no recipe in today's pizza post.
If you came here looking for your weekly pizza fix--thank you, thank you, thank you.  I really appreciate that you took time out of your day to come here to my blog!
After about 52 weeks of posting a pizza recipe every Friday, I decided that my pizza category over there ----> on my drop down recipe index by category was getting sort of unwieldy. [You'd think I'd spent many years working in libraries or something with my love of indexes and categories. You'd be right.]

I decided to take my slowly-growing html skills and try and tackle a Visual Pizza Recipe Index.

I mean, who has seen my first ever pizza post?  [Thanks, Mom, Felicia, Heather, Debbie, Sue . . .]  I don't create these things so that they can be buried in the blog.  I'd like someone to say 'hey, I've got spinach and leftover turkey, can I make a pizza with it?' and be able to search for ideas here as well as Google.

I broke this index down into four categories.

I've got recipes for pizza doughs (from the rather plain 'buttermilk' dough to the exotic 'beet' dough).

I've got recipes for pizzas with fruit (interestingly, what some would say is the typical pizza fruit, pineapple, does not appear in this category--yet).

I've got recipes for pizzas that include meat toppings (and my lovely little fishies too).

I've got recipes for pizzas that include no meat (or optional meat).

Enough teasing with the screen shots, though I do appreciate my kids teaching their old mum how to take a screen shot.  Here's where to find the Visual Pizza Recipe Index!

And I'll leave you with one of my spouse's favorites from the past year of pizzas:  Turkey Spinach Pesto Pizza.  Oh, please think of this one if you have leftover turkey this fall--it was really yummy and my spouse talked about it for quite some time, wishing that I'd make that one over again.  Perhaps when he returns I'll humor him, but I doubt it since, hey, always a new pizza on the horizon!

This is shared with the From The Farm Blog Hop,  Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Wednesday Fresh Foods Link Up, What's Cookin' Wednesday, and What's In The Box.

Fried Rice with Massaged Kale

I'm probably the last one on the massaged kale bandwagon, and I'm OK with that.  Alanna taught me that you could massage olive oil into torn pieces of kale to soften it for a great raw kale salad.  What I took a chance on was the idea of using massaged kale in a quickly-cooked dish--would it work?

I'm happy to share that it does work.  Our fried rice repertoire has now expanded to include kale, and my kids are enjoying kale not only in soup and in pizza dough, but also in fried rice. Green smoothies, too.  Tomorrow, the world! This is huge in my book.  I mean, my spouse and I enjoy every item in our large CSA share, one way or another.  Our farmers are amazing, their land is very productive, and the kids seem to want to eat multiple times a day, so it really works well if I can use the CSA bounty in a way that also feeds my children.  Double win!

Roasted Acorn and Butternut Squash with Corn and Smoked Sausage

A savory late summer or early fall supper of roasted cubes of simply seasoned winter squash, topped with corn and optional bits of smoked sausage.

My friend Heather, of garlic oil on a pizza fame, knows her way around good food.  No, she doesn't cook it much--her spouse does--but she sure has great ideas for what goes well together.  She was raving about her leftovers for lunch and the combination sounded so good I had to try it.  Heather's lunch was loosely patterned after Ina Garten's Caramelized Butternut Squash, but her spouse added canned corn to pump up the veggies.  Heather combined another leftover and cheese on top for her leftover remix.

I'm a gardener who has helped teach elementary school aged kids about gardening, so when I hear "squash and corn" I immediately think of a Three Sisters garden.  Native Americans would companion plant squash, beans, and corn together--known as the Three Sisters.  The Three Sisters helped each other:  the corn would provide the scaffolding for the beans to climb and the squash would spread around the base, shading the soil, holding in the moisture, and preventing weeds.  When it works, it's a thing of beauty.

I had both acorn and butternut squash, as well as some corn I'd put up [boil briefly aka blanch, cut off the cob, spread on a tray to freeze, and store in a bag], so I figured 2 out of 3 I'll call it Two Sisters.  I wanted to add bit more protein, however, so I chopped up a piece of smoked sausage.  Now it's more like Two Sisters--and a Brother?  I've been busy canning lately (you can see the results on my FB page) so an easy filling recipe like this is wonderful for cool nights.  And Heather's right--the leftovers are terrific!
I've revamped my Visual Recipe Index! For more ideas on what to do with your butternut squash, click here.

Shaved Kohlrabi Meat/No Meat Pizza

I'm still working on the 'elevator speech' about what I do here on this blog.  At work the other day I was trying to describe this to Sharon (I'm paraphrasing here).

Me:  I blog about feeding my family from the CSA farm share.  Have you heard of a Community Supported Agriculture farm share?

Sharon:  No.  What is it?

Me:  It's where you pay the farmer a chunk of money in late winter/early spring when they are gearing up for the season, and in return you get a box of vegetables each week during the growing season.

Sharon:  My friend did that . . . she got kohlrabi.  What do you even do with kohlrabi?

Me:  Sushi!  Pizza!  See, that's why I started the blog!  I've been figuring out how to use the fresh veggies from the farm share for so many seasons that I've got several ideas for kohlrabi!  I hate to waste food.

Sharon:  Me, too.

My elevator speech may not be slick or smooth--yet--but the conversation reminded me that I made a couple of kohlrabi pizzas that I'd like to share with you.  I'd already made pizza using the greens from kohlrabi (of course they're edible--not just for composting pigs or worms, just like chard stems) but I was intrigued at the thought of shaving wafer-thin slices of kohlrabi onto a pizza pie.

As usual, dithering ensued, so I'm sharing a pair of pizzas--with or without meat.  I was a mite ambitious this particular Friday Night Pizza Night, and to keep track of what all went on each one I ended up scribbling the toppings on the parchment paper.  Who knew parchment paper was good for more than preventing my children from hearing unsavory language when I attempt to transfer the dough into the oven keeping the dough from sticking to the peel?

Roasted Shrimp and Potato Salad with Grapes and Celery

A savory and sweet, crunchy and filling late summer salad with roasted potatoes and shrimp, chopped celery, and whole grapes in a dilled yogurt-mayonnaise-lemon dressing.

I've been doing a lot of walking to train for a half marathon, and part of my walking has been to pick up milk at the local grocery store.  Normally I have Simon (the photobombing dog below) with me, waiting patiently at the dog tie up & water station, so I don't linger in the aisles.  The other morning, however, my daughter and I walked together, and after walking in the woods (just found out there's elevation changes on the course, so I need to get some hills in) she and Simon headed home and I headed to the store for milk (and to pad my mileage).  I had time to linger over the deli section, and two salads in particular caught my eye--a dilled shrimp, celery, and grape salad and a dilled lemon potato salad.

On the way home (lugging a gallon of milk is not the hassle it used to be--a side benefit of having kids who go through a gallon every 36 hours) I wondered what would happen if I combined the two salads and, for grins and giggles, roasted the potatoes and shrimp instead of boiling or steaming them.

Since the celery I'm regrowing in my garden is doing amazingly well (of course it is, since I'm only meh on celery by itself, though I love it in soup packs and to help stretch a pound of ground meat) I figured I'd try and combine the recipes.  Our farmers have a nifty new tool, a potato digger, and we've been getting lovely harvests of red potatoes lately, so I had most everything I needed.  I played around with my kitchen scale again, like I did in my Chicken Salad by the Ounce recipe, but this time in metric form.  The volumes in this recipe are my estimation of the weights I used.

Thai Inspired Creamy Chicken Noodle soup (dairy and gluten free)

What's the most comforting bowl of soup you've ever had?

Many years ago my employer sent me on a long, all-expense-paid, trip to an exotic foreign locale just before a major holiday.  My friend drove me down to the airport, we said our goodbyes, I put my gun in the armory and settled down in anticipation of an early call for the next day's flight.

I woke to an ice storm instead.

After a day or so of 'will the weekly flight go late or just be cancelled' my friend came back, picked me and my gear up, and brought me back home.  Where I wasn't supposed to be.  I'd already celebrated the holiday, emptied my fridge, given away my houseplants and sent my dog ahead to my spouse.  It was a weird few days, of being there when I wasn't supposed to have been there, my brain straddling what was happening with what should have been happening.

My friends invited me to many meals during that time, and it was during one post-holiday gathering that I had the most comforting bowl of chicken soup.  It was chicken and rice, and I know my friend's mom added some food coloring to make it more visually appealing, but no matter.  A mom made me chicken soup when I needed some nurturing and it was good.  A few days later I left on my deployment without any weather-related or other drama, but the memory of what a good bowl of chicken soup can do for you stayed with me.

As you can see from the title, this is not your run-of-the-mill chicken noodle soup.  It's got a Thai twist because I had opened jars of Thai ingredients in the fridge, and the wonderful food bloggers I turned to for advice suggested I use them up in soup.  My recipe is an adaptation of both Kalyn's Thai Chicken Soup recipe and  Winnie's Thai-inspired Chicken Noodle soup.  I used what was on hand in my pantry, and I like my substitutions enough to write up the recipe on its own.  We ate this soup as chicken noodle soup for dinner, using a large handful of rice noodles.  The next day, since soup is better the next day, I brought this plus my rice cooker to serve chicken and rice soup for lunch at work.  If you need a little nurturing, and can access Thai ingredients (see NOTE below), keep this soup in mind.  Use coconut milk, not cream, if you like, or chicken breasts, not ground chicken, add sliced Bok Choy if you've got it in your CSA farm share--but do add the peanuts, fresh herbs, and a squeeze of fresh lime juice for garnish.  It's very tasty.

Chopped Vegetable Pizza

BLUF*:  Chop a bunch of stuff together and put it on a pizza.  Bake it.  Enjoy.

This pizza starts with chopped late summer vegetables, fresh mozzarella, optional meat, and a quirky sauce.  Sounds fairly traditional, yes?  I guess maybe the corn might be unusual unless you're outside of the US.  I ate corn on pizza in Germany, but this particular combination was inspired by my fellow Learn Food Photography classmate, Gaurav Prabhu, during our 30 Days to Better Food Photography challenge.  He shared this photo about making pizza it caught my attention not only because he did a great job of capturing the elements that went into his pizza, but also because of those elements.

Chopped onion, chopped tomato, chopped pepper, and corn?  Sounds like a good combo.  A sauce of Szechuan chutney and mayonnaise? Interesting.  Mild cheese to tie the whole thing together?  Good plan.  I decided to make a pizza using ingredients that I had on hand (corn I'd put up in the summer, red pepper, red onion, leftover Italian sausage and pepperoni).  Instead of a chutney/mayo sauce I scanned the refrigerator door and picked up the bottle of Raspberry Enlightenment.  It's suggested in both sweet and savory recipes, so I used it as a sauce.  It was quirky--pretty good, yet not incredible like garlic scape pesto. I think this pizza would also be delicious with Gaurav's chutney/mayo or even a plain tomato sauce.

I've been putting off this post, in part because I had more seasonal pizzas to share and in part because I really don't care for the photos of this pizza.  The more I figure out how to produce semi-decent photos, or at least not blurry ones, it makes it really cringe-inducingly frustrating to see an older pre-rudimentary skills photo.  Yet the other day I got the most delicious corn in the farm share, and beautiful peppers, and I've still got red storage onions, so it's a good time to suggest this combination.

I just hope yours looks prettier than mine.

Low and Slow Pear Butter Waffles

Last year, the folks who grow the farm share spent a few autumn days gleaning pears off of many unloved and unmanaged pear trees in the city.  They shared the pears with us.  The pears weren't ripe yet, so I set them on the counter and moved on to the more pressing items in the share.  When I noticed that the pears were ripening, I moved them into the crisper and continued to deal with the more perishable foods.  Then I needed to make room for the incoming Fruit Fundraiser influx.

Apparently my son takes after me.  While doing a personality test in Science class he learned he's an Otter--that means he procrastinates.  Hmmm, wonder where he gets that from?

What to do with all those pears?  Farmgirl Fare to the rescue!

I made pear butter in the oven following Susan's recipe.  It's simple as can be.  Pears, an acid (lime juice for me since I was out of lemon) and a sweet (honey for me).  I attempted for a brief and futile moment to smush my pears through a fine mesh strainer (forget that!), then considered hopping in the car to use a coupon at BB&B to get the recommended Foley Food Mill, and ended up just chopping stuff up with my immersion blender.  The result, after a few low and slow hours in the oven, was delicious.

I'd taken unattractive free local produce, procured by my CSA farmers, and turned it into something delicious!

Grapes, Goat cheese and Red Onion with Fennel Focaccia

Sweet purple grapes, fresh red onion, and tangy goat cheese on a chewy light fennel focaccia.

After sharing a pair of peach pizzas last Friday, and a raspberry pizza the Friday before, I thought I should move back to vegetable pizzas for my Friday Night Pizza Night posts.  After all, I've got a sweet potato dough and a roasted pumpkin dough that I want to share with you.

However, I don't want this focaccia to drop off my radar.

I had a very productive period making and poorly photographing--but not writing up headnotes for--a pile of tasty recipes, and I thought I'd get them all written up over the summer.

Didn't happen.

I don't want everything to slip through the cracks, or rather fall off the stacks of recipe notes on my work table or dissolve into rows of scrolled-past photos in my ever-expanding photo library.  I don't want to start posting every day, either.  Three days a week is working for me (is it working for you?  too much? I should do a survey sometime.  After I've gotten all those blogs written up I'll ponder it).

I'm going to share a third fruity Friday Night Pizza Night (that's a link to my board of the same name on Pinterest) and then switch over to vegetables next week.  The chicken, peach, Hatch chile, spinach, red onion BBQ pizza will have to wait until next summer, as will the cantaloupe and prosciutto.  Something to look forward to, my spouse always says.

This focaccia uses fennel seeds in the dough.  I bought a bag of them because Alyssa's Skinny Italian Wedding Soup With Kale recipe over at Everyday Maven sounded good, and I figured the seeds could be useful to have on hand.  I'm glad I did--I now use fennel seeds in sourdough bread, Italian sausage, and spaghetti sauce.  Fennel seeds (for me at least) are versatile and not a seldom-used spice around here (I'm talking about you, sumac-for-fattoush and dill-seed-for-pickles).

This is not my first focaccia rodeo, though apparently all of the focaccias I've been making, photographing (and not writing up blog posts about) have yet to grace the screen.  So I'm going to refer you to my Arugula Pesto Focaccia with Artichokes, Feta, Goat Cheese and Green Olives if you want a thorough write up about what to do with your focaccia dough to turn it into focaccia, or why you should listen to my spouse and try focaccia.