Taco Farro

When I was a kid, back when a spade was called a spade in the breakfast cereal realm, there was a cereal called Sugar Smacks.  A jumping frog would do a double 'low five' with kids and their outstretched hands would then be filled with a bowl of cereal.  I'm sure I ate it, though my favorite aptly named cereal was Sugar Pops.  When my family would go camping and get those individual serving cereal boxes [which have increased in size since then, I observe] I always schemed to get the Sugar Pops over the Sugar Smacks or the Sugar Frosted Flakes, though really any of them were a rare treat. 

This memory has nothing to do with tonight's dinner except for one thing:  cooked farro looks exactly like Sugar Smacks to me.  I'm tempted to coat it in a honey glaze, bake it like granola, and call it DIY Homemade Whole Grain Sugar Smacks.  But my kids did not get the we-want-to-eat-breakfast-cereal gene, so I'll leave that to someone else.  

Some time between my non Sugar Pops-filled childhood and present day, I saw a post about cooking with farro.  Recently I saw another one, and put farro on the Trader Joe's shopping list.  An hour after returning from the store with my lil blue bag of farro I saw this farro salad with sun dried tomato, spinach, and cashews.  Since I'd already thawed leftover taco meat for dinner, I decided to switch it up and make Taco Farro instead.

As I mentioned, I bought the little blue bag of precooked farro from Trader Joe's.  The Nutrition Facts state that it serves 3, and the bag is so small I had some concerns.  However, once cooked (10 to 12 minutes in a pot of beef broth for me, since this is not a vegetarian dish--that will come on Wednesday) the farro swelled to 5 cups of cooked grain which was way more than enough for the four of us.
[If I cared to, I'd insert my observation here about the increase in size of single serving cereal boxes, paired with the observation that 1 2/3 cups of cooked farro is a huge serving size.  Just sayin'.]

I learned of the technique (combining leftover taco meat with a cooked grain, and salsa, to make a repurposed leftover meal) from my friend Lee-Ann.  When I stretch a pound of ground meat with my CSA veggies and refried beans, the four of us eat about half the concoction the first night, so we always have leftovers.  Thanks to Lee-Ann we all look forward to this re-purposed dish--it's delicious.  I am making it here with farro, but you're welcome to substitute any kind of cooked rice, or branch out to quinoa, barley, amaranth, bulgur, or whatever floats your boat.

What I love about this dish is how easily customizable it is for each member of the family.  I cooked one skillet of food, and everyone got to fix their meal their way.  Here's a shot of each of our plates:

Can you guess which are parent plates and which are kid plates?

(Leftover) Ham and Sweet Potatoes on a Butternut Squash Crust (Pizza Night!)

I was really torn as to when to put this pizza post up.  Yes, on a Friday, of course, because around here we eat pizza on Fridays.

But when?  Easter ham leftovers?  Fall sweet potato season?  I looked at my calendars . . .

Is it weird that I print out a calendar, a month per 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper, and jot down all the recipes that I'm planning on putting up here?  It helps me see what I'm doing easier  than the long list on Blogger, and helps me see if I'm getting a good balance of vegetable-centric vs more meat-oriented pizzas, entrees, etc.  Perhaps living with my spouse the Planner for so long has rubbed off on me.

and decided to just make this entire week Leftover Ham Week on Farm Fresh Feasts.  There are other uses for leftover ham that I recommend (like fried rice or yakisoba).  If you do not have ham in your fridge, check back next week for Taco Farro, My Favorite Grilled Cheese Sandwich, and something else that's also good--maybe a Sunset Mango pizza.

Since I made 2 crusts worth of this shredded butternut squash crust, I figured I'd play around with the second pie.  My mother-in-law serves ham paired with sweet potatoes (when she's not being treated to someone else cooking her dinner in her own home).  The combination is so pretty--and tasty--on my plate that I thought it would transfer well to a pizza.  I was right.  It did.
Thanks, yet again, to my friend Heather for turning me on to the garlic-oil-as-a-pizza-sauce because that's what I used as the base.
Ok, technically the shredded butternut squash crust is in the base, then the garlic oil on top.  Even though I get a head of garlic nearly each week in my farm share, I'm so glad I roasted my own garlic crop and put it up in the freezer.  A thawed clove just smushed down into warmed oil and makes a simply delicious sauce.

(Leftover Ham Week) Ham and Broccoli Stem Quesadillas (Quick Take)

I can appreciate the head-scratching that a vegetarian would do upon seeing me wash the farm share broccoli, remove the cabbage white caterpillars that had been feasting on it, escort them outside--away from my garden but with a leaf so they won't starve--then head back inside to dice ham.

What can I say?  I love food, and currently have no medical reason prohibiting me from eating all of it.  Not all at once, of course.  And I love that my farm share doesn't use pesticides on the food my family and I eat.  I can escort a few bugs outside knowing that the food us critters are eating is safe.

I'm happy to say I've finally mailed in my check for this year's summer CSA.  I'd been meaning to for weeks, but now it's a done deal.  Let the countdown begin!  I don't know how we'll handle a large farm share with only 3 eaters, so expect a lot of posts about the 'putting up' of anything that I can put up.  Thanks to Tammy of Agrigirl I've got ideas for lettuces, but today, we're talking about broccoli stems.

You know I hate to waste Swiss chard stems, and broccoli stems are no different.  While living in Richmond I learned how to make a delicious black bean soup that called for diced broccoli stem, and ever since then haven't looked at them as an afterthought.

Note to self--make that soup and blog about it.

After I wrote up this post, I saw this post by Karen of Soup Addict about making an open faced quesadilla with a fried egg on top.  Next time, I'm totally trying that--ham and eggs and broccoli? Yum!