Mustard Greens Pesto with Pecans and Asiago

Peppery mustard greens and toasted pecans form the base for this vegetarian sauce which freezes nicely for later enjoyment.

I thought the focus of my blog was how I feed my family from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share, but my friend Laura astutely corrected me. I focus more on putting up the farm share, especially some weeks more than others it seems lately.

I've been canning and grilling and roasting and freezing like crazy lately. The table full of tomatoes became shelves in the basement full of filled canning jars. [Yet each week I hit the store for more lids, or caps, or jars. I thought they were vanishing into a black hole, but I realized it was just my son's backpack. Yay for back to school.]

Back to blog focus--this recipe is a wonderful example of how to put up greens when you are overwhelmed with a variety of options. I often simply cannot deal with such a variety of greens like we get in the farm share come cool weather, so anything I can put up for later saves my sanity. My inspiration comes from the Kale and Walnut Pesto recipe out of Farmer John's Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables (Amazon affiliate link). I swapped out the type of greens, the type of nuts, and even the type of cheese but kept the concept. This freezes well and is refreshing tossed with spaghetti sauce as we'll see next month.

Shown is Arugula pesto ready to go in the freezer for this yummy dish.

For other recipes using mustard greens, please see my Mustard Greens Recipe Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, or garden. I've also got a Greens board on Pinterest where I share my finds from the web.

Fresh Pineapple and Shaved Ham Pizza with Mascarpone Cheese

Thinly-sliced fresh pineapple and shaved ham atop a red sauce & mascarpone-spread honey wheat crust. It's the little touches that elevate a common pizza.

For other pizza ideas, please see my Visual Pizza Recipe Index. It's got categories for dough, vegetarian pizzas, pizzas with meat and, where this one belongs, savory pizzas with fruit. I've also got a Friday Night Pizza Night! board on Pinterest if you crave ideas for pizza like I do. Want to know how to use this blog? Click here.

I'm sharing a pizza today that, for a change from my usual pizza recipes, is a topping combo found in standard pizza joints. No Beet Greens & Scrambled Egg Pizza here. No Shaved Kohlrabi Pizzas. Nope, I'm keeping it simple today with ham & pineapple on red sauce. Except, as you'll see, it's the little things that matter. Little touches that make your homemade pizza just a bit better than delivery.

For this pizza my little changes are using fresh pineapple, using shaved ham, spreading a thin layer of mascarpone cheese on the crust, and using a honey wheat pizza dough.

Let's start with the crust. If you don't want to make your own dough--don't bother. It's a pizza, and if making dough stresses you out then skip it. It's pretty easy to get good pizza crusts in bakeries and grocery stores these days. I threw my ingredients in the bread machine and let it do the work. [I threw a different set of 'ingredients' in my washing machine and let it work as well. I love technology.]

Get some mascarpone cheese. This is what, the third pizza using mascarpone that I've shared this year? THAT'S BECAUSE IT'S NOT JUST FOR TIRAMISU. I've never even made tiramisu, but I frequently have a tub of mascarpone in my cheese drawer.

Use shaved ham. A very thin slice of ham gets crispier in the oven or on the grill, when compared to a standard slice of ham. That little touch adds texture and flavor to your pizza.

Splurge on fresh pineapple when it's on sale. When living in Hawaii I learned to tell a ripe whole pineapple (look for 'eyes' all the same size), but unless I'm grilling spears I buy the pre-cored fresh tubs at the store. Do I ever buy canned pineapple? You bet--great in a dump cake and a smoothie. Fresh is better on a pizza because it is drier and the heat brings out the sweetness easier.

With just a few little changes you can make a terrific pizza at home, better than you could get at a pizza joint. Aren't you worth it?

Eggplant Feta Casserole

Slices of crisp baked eggplant chips layered with feta cheese and smothered under tomato sauce. Served on a bed of spaghetti, this is a vegetarian casserole that will please the whole family.

Sometimes I've got a lot on my mind. Sometimes I don't have much to say.

This is one of the latter times. If you've been getting a lot of eggplant in your Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share like I have, then you may be ready for a new idea without scrolling through a story. If the weather is turning a touch cooler in the evenings like it has been here, you may even be willing to turn on the oven.

If you've got eggplant and you're willing to turn on the oven, this Baked Eggplant Chip recipe from our old CSA farmers of Blenheim Organic Gardens is a must try. I took it one step further and added a layer of feta cheese, because while living in Richmond, Virginia the Greek spaghetti from Texas Wisconsin Border Cafe was one of my favorite take out meals. I often throw a layer of feta between the noodles and the sauce on my plate when our family eats spaghetti just to recreate this memory.

For other recipes using eggplant, please see my Eggplant Recipes Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share.