Week 20: pickup and soup

Well, this was the final batch of veggies this year, and I am sad to see them end. This week we received:

carrots

japanese turnips

mizuna

baby leeks

tatsoi (at least I think that's what it is...)

sugar pumpkin

apples

Last night I made one of my standby soup recipes, even though it only used half of one vegetable (turnip greens). It's a pasta and white bean soup which used to be on the Food Network site, but is no longer, so I will try to recreate it here:

White Bean and Pasta Soup

Ingredients:

4 cups chicken stock

1 can cannelini beans

1 can italian seasoned diced tomatoes

1.5 cups small pasta shells

rosemary

red pepper flakes

4 cloves garlic, minced

hot or sweet italian sausage (2-4 links)

chopped greens (fresh or frozen spinach, kale, turnip greens, etc.)

olive oil

salt, pepper

Prepare sausage: if using raw, cook then slice into small piece. If using fully cooked, just slice.

Heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a large pot, then add garlic. Before garlic browns, add sausage pieces, rosemary, and red pepperflakes.

When sausage begins to brown, add chicken stock and bring to a simmer for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, drain and rinse the beans, and mash half of them. Add beans and tomatoes to soup, and bring to simmer.

Add pasta shells, and cook until al dente, about 10 minutes.

Add chopped greens, and stir until wilted. Season with salt and pepper. Enjoy!

Week 19: chicken pot pie and unconventional hummus

On Monday night I attempted a sort of chicken pot pie/chicken biscuit pie from this recipe. I say attempted because I added carrots and turnips without reducing the other ingredients (also used the potatoes from the share), and so ended up with a VERY full baking dish of chickeny stew with some tasty biscuits perched on top. This was a hearty meal, but made enough to feed an army... I'll be eating the leftovers for many days to come. In other news, the pastry blender I bought a few weeks ago was a really good decision, especially when it comes to biscuit-making.

Last night I made butternut squash hummus for a pot luck. I finally bought some tahini! Just like the recipe said this was surprisingly hummus-y for not including any chick peas, and I will definitely be making this again. I cooked the garlic in the olive oil for a bit before adding it because I often find raw garlic to be overpowering.

Like much of what I'm cooking these days, these recipes were found on gojee.com

Week 19: pickup and chicken soup

Last week's pickup includes:

carrots

turnips

potatoes

cranberry beans

golden delicious apples

delicata squash

butternut squash

On Friday I made pumpkin bread with the remaining pumpkin from a few weeks ago, which I had cubed and frozen. I defrosted it and roasted it in the oven, then pureed it with my immersion blender. I used this EatingWell recipe. If I make this one again, I will probably double the spices I used. The bread was decent, but not spiced enough for my taste.

I also was a bit under the weather, so made some chicken soup using half the carrots, the cranberry beans, and the rest of the leeks I bought last week. Here is the basic recipe I use for chicken soup:

Chicken Soup

1-2 chicken breasts

4 cups chicken broth

Carrots, chopped

1 onion, chopped (or leeks)

Egg noodles

Poulty seasoning

Salt, pepper

Optional:

Cranberry beans

Celery, chopped

-place chicken breasts in a baking dish , drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, roast at 350 until cook through, (about 20-30 min)

-when the chicken is cooked, cut into small pieces and set aside

-in a large pot, sauté the onion in a bit of olive oil until soft, then add broth, carrots, other veggies, and spices. Cover and simmer for about 20-25 min until the veggies are soft

-cook egg noodles

-stir chicken and egg noodles into soup

Last night, because we have so many apples, I made yet another apple crisp. I'm really getting the hang of this one! I tried to make something different, but I didn't have all the ingredients for, say, and apple cake in the house. I am planning to make something else appley soon, though.

The next pickup will be the final one, and I will definitely miss it. I suppose it will be freeing to be able to cook whatever I want, and perhaps a bit less often since I won't have to worry about things spoiling, but it's a bit daunting to think about planning meals from thin air again instead of beginning with existing ingredients. What did I do before??

Week 18: potato turnip soup... with carrots!

Last night I made a version of the potato turnip soup from a few week's ago but with a few important differences: I added carrots and used leeks instead of onions. I also ran out of chicken broth, so ended up adding a bit of water. The carrots added a nice sweetness which went well with the turnip flavor.

Week 18: pasta with acorn squash

I think the last time I made acorn squash I must not have cooked it for long enough. I say this because I don't remember it being very good, and so I wasn't very excited about idea's for this week's acorn squash. However, I ended up making a variation of this pasta recipe (found by googling which led me here) and loved the acorn squash. I mostly stuck to the recipe, but used sopresatta instead of pancetta due to grocery store selection (and because that was much less expensive than the closer choice: prosciutto). I also added some broccoli and chopped turnip greens.

Since the one I made last week simply wasn't enough, I made a huge apple crisp last night as well. Basically the same recipe but I added some rolled oats to the topping. I think I might eat some right now for a mid-morning snack...

Week 18: apple pancakes

On Saturday morning I made my old standby pancake recipe. I love this one because it includes freshly grated nutmeg. The twist this weekend was adding about half a chopped mutsu apple, and also some cinnamon. Delicious, fall-y bliss!

Week18: pickup and mac & cheese

Last night's pickup included:

red kale

a sugar pumpkin

acorn squash

carrots

turnips

broccoli

mutsu apples

First of all, the apples are the biggest apples I have ever seen. Some of them are easily 5 inches wide. I plan to make another apple crisp this weekend because last week's just wasn't enough!

Last night I made true comfort food in response to the dreary, rainy weather: macaroni and cheese. I worked from this recipe, but used the kale instead of spinach. A definite win. I also omitted the goat cheese, and used 1% milk.

I also had been dying to make this brownie recipe since I found it last week. Brownies with whiskey and stout? Yes please. They turned out well except that the chocolate chips sort of sunk to the bottom so when I served the first one, the chips stayed behind leaving a rather swiss cheese-shaped brownie bottom. Still delicious though!

Week 17: summer salad and fall bounty

This has perhaps never happened: I have used all the vegetables and it's only Tuesday...

I even bought some brussels sprouts at the grocery store because I couldn't resist. I'm planning to make them for dinner tomorrow night.

To be fair, I still have at least half a pumpkin cubed and in a container in my freezer, but that will certainly get used sooner rather than later I think. Especially now that the fall weather has returned. It was an interesting weekend of cooking because I had all this lovely fall produce and it felt like summer outside.

Sunday for dinner I made a corn and black bean salad with shrimp, followed by an apple crisp. The salad was your basic chop-everything-and-stir meal. The ingredients were:

black beans (1 can, drained and rinsed)

corn (4 ears cut from the cob)

jalapeno (about 3, diced)

cilantro (chopped)

scallions (chopped)

green tomatoes (chopped)

cherry tomatoes (halved)

avocado (chopped)

shrimp (thawed in a pan with a bit of cajun seasoning)

cumin

chili powder

salt, pepper

lime juice

I used 6 apples in the apple crisp, which left only one apple! S. and I ate several for snacks before that... If we don't receive more in the farm share I will be purchasing some. I made the apple crisp from this Food Network recipe, and it turned out nicely. I think when I make it again I will add some oats to the topping to make it a bit more crisp, but overall it was delicious and easy.

Last night I made pumpkin chili using this recipe (found on Gojee) as a base. Aside from substituting pumpkin for butternut squash, I stuck to the recipe with the addition of turnips and carrots to the veggies. I used up the jalapenos, and the cilantro as well. This was delicious. S. was a huge fan, and I can't wait to eat the leftovers. I might even end up freezing some, because it made a lot.

Week 17: pickup and meat pies

Last night's pick up included:

corn

cherry tomatoes

green tomatoes

turnips

carrots

cilantro

apples

and a pumpkin!

I am the most excited about the apples and pumpkin, since they are delicious, novel, and fall-y.

Last night I got together with my sister and a friend and we made sort of meat pies using this recipe as inspiration. We used the carrots and turnips from last week's share. The verdict: you really can't go wrong with starch and sausage.

Week 16: pasta with corn, pea tendrils, and cherry tomatoes

As you can see from the title, last night I made use of my favorite meal technique: pasta with a lot of things in it. I sliced the corn from the cobs, halved the cherry tomatoes, chopped up the pea tendrils, and tossed in some bacon for good measure. (Who doesn't love bacon? When I asked my sister yesterday why bacon was so delicious, she replied that it must be because of "wonder." I can't help but agree.)

So here's the "recipe":

Pasta with Bacon, Corn, and Pea Tendrils

Ingredients:

Pasta (I used orecchiette)

Corn (3 cobs)

Pea tendrils (1 bunch)

Bacon (4 slices)

Cherry tomatoes

Olive oil

Parmesan

Salt and pepper

garlic (1 clove)

Prep:

Chop bacon

Slice corn from cob

Wash and chop pea tendrils

Mince garlic

Wash and halve tomatoes

Directions:

1.Boil water for pasta, cook until al dente, drain

2.In a large pan, sauté the chopped bacon until most of the fat is rendered and it has just barely started to brown

3.Add a bit olive oil and garlic, saute a min or 2 but don't let the garlic brown.

4.Add corn, and pea tendrils, and sauté until pea greens are wilted. Covering for a few min might speed the process.

5.Add tomatoes and cook a min longer

6.Stir corn mixture into pasta, season with salt and pepper to taste, and top with parmesan

Week 16: pickup and tomato soup

The veggies this week are:

-cherry tomatoes

-tomatoes

-carrots

-corn

-mizuna

-pea tendrils

-turnips

-red russian kale

I had a very busy weekend, so didn't really get to cook anything until last night. I made this recipe for tomato soup and sun-dried tomato scones that I found on gojee.com. The only big thing I did differently was add the chopped bunch of mizuna during the last 14 min of cooking. I also used a bit less water. I was definitely a fan of this soup (and, as usual, of using my immersion blender), and the scones were easy to make as well.