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!