Swiss Chard with Bacon and Roasted Potatoes

Fill your plate with vegetables--this dish consists of a heaping helping of sautéed Swiss chard and a side of roasted potatoes. A bit of bacon for flavor and you're ready to eat.

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I did not choose the name Farm Fresh Feasts for this blog because I create fancy feasts out of the farm share box each week. Instead, I felt that even a simple meal, prepared with fresh goodies from local farms, can be a feast.

I've long viewed Swiss chard as a comfort food simply because I grew up eating the chard grown in our suburban backyard garden. [This makes me curious what my kids will grow up to view as a comfort food, actually. Not any beet preparations, except maybe Chocolate Cherry Beet Brownies. Perhaps turnips in Pasties. Possibly kohlrabi in Chirashi Sushi. Certainly Yakisoba and homemade farm share Spaghetti sauce.]

This meal could be seen as comfort food by my family--they sure devoured it and I was glad to have snapped some photos before we ate. Something as simple as chard and potatoes can't be seen as high falutin' food but it sure does hit the spot.

Maple Peanut Butter Bacon Waffles

A hearty whole grain waffle flavored with maple syrup and peanut butter. These also have a bonus crunch from crumbled bits of crisply cooked bacon baked right into the waffle.

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When the weather turns to warm days with cold nights my thoughts run like sap straight to maple syrup. I get my jugs of locally-harvested maple syrup at the farmer's market and, to paraphrase the little old lady in the hot sauce commercial, I put that $%^! on everything.

I've shared muffins made using maple syrup, like my Healthy Morning Glory Muffins,  Winter Squash and Banana Muffins,  and {No Sugar} Carrot Cake Muffins.  I've used maple syrup in desserts, like my Pumpkin Cranberry Maple Kugel (although this makes an awesome breakfast) and Maple Doodle Cookies. I've even used maple syrup to sweeten up savory dishes like Maple Teriyaki Salmon Sushi and my Red Cabbage, Leek, Brat and Beet Skillet Supper (aka Hot Pink Mess) and in my morning Orange and Beet Smoothie. I'm a big fan of real maple syrup from local producers.

Three different stores for these ingredients--the local grocery, the farmer's market, and The Christmas Tree Shops (because where else do you buy peanut butter but The Christmas Tree Shops?).

When the maple syrup jug is brand new I tend to be quite free and easy with my syrup. Only towards the end of the jug do I get a bit stingy, but I am fortunate to enjoy a year round farmer's market so a new jug is just a Saturday morning trip away.


I didn't intend for this to be my second Friday Waffles with Meat post in a row, but I guess it turned out this way. At the beginning of the year I looked thorough the previous year's unblogged photos and jotted down recipes that would be suitable on each page of my monthly editorial calendar. [Sounds fancy, but I just printed off some calendar pages with boxes big enough to write in.] When I sat down yesterday to plot out my March recipes, these waffle photos spoke to me the loudest. Always listen to the waffles. I put them down first. Only after I looked at my recent posts did I realize that a mere week ago I posted my Corned Beef Hash Brown Waffles.

Other waffle recipes I feel like pointing out on the blog are my Butternut Squash Waffles, Overnight Yeasted Carrot Waffles, Eggnog Sourdough Waffles, Banana Blender Waffles, and Chocolate Zucchini Waffles. Yes, we eat a fair amount of waffles around here (and leftovers become school day breakfasts) because it's easy to make a few rounds and then call everyone to the table so we can sit together and enjoy breakfast.

Though that doesn't always happen when you have sleeping-in teens and a hungry, early-rising spouse, so sometimes we eat in shifts.

That doesn't mean we eat alone.


Often a crowd appears.

Berry Mango Swirl Muffins

A multicolored muffin swirled with blueberry, mango, raspberry, and strawberry purees. This whole grain treat makes a large batch, great for bake sales and sharing.

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I was sitting in a Tim Hortons enjoying a blue and yellow swirled lemon blueberry muffin when I got the idea for these muffins. My folks have been visiting this month, which means I've been out and about much more than usual (and have tried a number of interesting breakfast and lunch places--stay tuned for more inspired recipes). Looking at the muffin, I tried to figure out how to simultaneously 'lightly mix together' the batter, as one does for the Muffin Method, while still getting the blueberry puree fully incorporated into the mix.


Clearly I didn't make lemon blueberry muffins for today's Leap of Faith Muffin Monday with the #MuffinMonday bakers. I didn't even master a swirl technique that I could share on the blog. I did, however, make a whole mess of muffins. Enough to give a plate to the office staff of both the junior high and the high schools, some to take to the shop, and the most photogenic ones saved for the dogs.


That's right, apparently Vincent got up to shenanigans while I was at the shop and ate the pretty muffins, not a crumb or paper left. I love that old wiener dog, and while I have no concrete proof (my daughter saw him on the dining room table though), instead of making a bazillion more muffins I've just taken photos of what's left. They were fruity and fun to make, though, so I hope you'll consider trying these when you want to make a bunch of muffins that stand out a bit.