Sautéed Greens with Cranberry and Pistachio

Brightly colored and fresh tasting, this side dish of sautéed cooking greens with dried cranberries and crunchy pistachios is sure to satisfy. Great alongside roasted meats or mashed potatoes!

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Talking with my friends who've eaten from Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm shares, a few frequent comments stand out:

• "The flavor of fresh foods is amazing"
• "I never knew I liked _________ (insert a new-to-them vegetable here like kohlrabi or beets)"
• "I'm not used to eating all these greens."

It's this last comment I want to address today.

I'm finding that my family is more likely to eat greens if I keep throwing greens at them. Not literally, though. If I literally throw greens at people, Robert Barker happily eats whatever lands on the floor. Simon flees from the leaves in terror, and Vincent grabs one, refuses to eat it, but will defend--to the pain--his right to keep it in his bed. Anyway, I serve a lot of greens during the cool weather crop season. Salads (chopped, rinsed, spun and packed into wide mouth jars for easy access) appear alongside most entrees when we've got salad mix of lettuces in the farm share box. Stir fries (like my Colorful Chard and Chicken Stir Fry or my Orange Teriyaki Slaw Stir Fry) or smoothies (like my Peanut Butter, Spinach and Banana Smoothie or my Kale, Date, Banana, and Peanut Butter Smoothie) appear if there are members of the beet and cabbage families in the share.

Fresh Peach and Corn Salsa

A fresh salsa perfect for summer snacking! Fresh corn and peaches tossed with spicy cilantro-lime mix uses the best of summer produce. Got your chips ready?

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One of the best things about eating with the seasons is the utter satisfaction of meals made with ingredients picked at their perfect ripeness. Think of strawberries in November, corn on the cob in January, tomatoes in March . . . they do not satiate you in as satisfying a way as their counterparts eaten 6 months later when locally available. [I'm speaking to my fellow Midwesterners and middle-of-the-East Coasters here, folks used to temperate climes. For those readers in tropical climates your ripening schedule mileage will indeed vary.]

We eat a lot of salsa around here. It's an after school snack for the kids, an "I just walked in the door from work and I'm STARVING" snack for my spouse, a bit of local food with many meals, and one of my most successful canning projects. Even though I put up plenty of tomato-based salsas, Salsa Verde with Roasted Hatch Chiles, Peach Salsa with Golden Plums, and Roasted Corn and Hatch Chile Salsa, I'm still lured by the availability of fresh seasonal produce.

When you've got a pile of ripe produce--gorge away, and then have at this salsa. The longest step, cooking the corn, can be done ahead of time. My eyes are always bigger than our bellies when I'm buying fresh ears of corn at the farmer's market, and corn is best when cooked soon after picking, so I always cook the whole batch at once and then use the cooked corn later. This peach and corn salsa is quick to make and easy to enjoy. May I suggest a Cheater Margarita Smoothie as the perfect summer sipper?

Fresh Cherry Blueberry Cobbler

A colorful and comforting dessert combining fresh cherries and blueberries under a sweet dough crust. Serve this with vanilla ice cream for a naturally red, white, and blue treat!

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Introspection. 

According to dictionary.com it means observation or examination of one's own emotional or mental state, mental processes, etc. To me, it's something that everyone should do periodically. Think about who you are, where you are in life, where you want to be, what your values are. Taking time to check in with yourself and think about your next steps means that you're not going to be blindly lurching from one thing/place/gig/person to another. What does this have to do with a dessert made with fresh cherries and blueberries? Simple. As much as I love seeing the fantastic patriotic desserts on Pinterest, I know that artificial colorings are not for me. This type of dessert, using seasonal fruits that are plentiful this time of year, is more my speed. Thinking about myself, what matters to me, how I want to feed my family makes me delighted to share this recipe with you.

For other naturally colored patriotic red white and blue recipes we're talking beets. My Red, White, and Blue Muffins feature cherries, blueberries, beets and white chocolate chips. My Savory Red, White, and Blue Appetizer has roasted beet puree topped with fresh blueberries and goat cheese. It's really yummy.

Are you celebrating Canada Day? May I suggest my Fresh Strawberry Sundae Ice Cream Pie? No pesky blue color to mess up the red & white.