Tag Archives: cooking

Greens

Posted on October 8, 2016 by AnnieRie

An overload of greens, and then some. The return of root vegetable season, and the return of really healthy greens with my weekly CSA basket.

This week’s medium share had some real weight to it. The turnips, beets and radishes all came with a massive amount of greens attached. Add to that a couple of squash. It is time to dust off the recipes that use greens and squash to make a harvest meal. The easy thing about greens. They can be used in a sauté recipe, puréed, or just torn up, blanched and added to other recipes.

You can also make fancy pesto with them. Like this one. Used in my green tomato pasta. I made a close cousin to that recipe just the other day. This next batch? Will be using radish greens, basil, beet greens and scallions.

Purple beets obviously have purple “greens”. The color of this pesto should be interesting.

Add to all the goodness from the CSA basket, I found a stray gongura plant in my garden. I think the seeds washed over into my tomatoes from a neighboring plot.

Sometimes called red sorrel leaves, it has quite a reputation as a staple in many Indian diets, and is not that inexpensive to buy. There are at least 10 plots in our community gardens that have this plant flourishing.

Finally, in the greens world around here, there are the last of the green tomatoes. I harvested three pounds today, to finish off my season. A few will be bagged and left to ripen. The rest are destined to be chopped. Some for a green tomato pasta, and the rest for green tomato jam. My friend, Kirsten over at Farm Fresh Feasts turned me on to this jam. You have to take the time and make it. Slather it on a burger.

Just think. The markets are still open around here. It is also easy to head out to Larriland and pick green tomatoes. And beets. Pestos. Jams. Spreads. Soups. The possibilities are endless for what you can do with all things “green”.

Buy your root vegetables from the local farmers and make sure you use up those greens. Don’t let them go to waste.

2 Comments

Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, Gardening, LFFC and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, farms, Food, foodie, gardening, Locavore, tomatoes. Bookmark the permalink.

Soup Season

Posted on October 4, 2016 by AnnieRie

Somewhere in the last week the weather changed. It got cooler and breezy and it rained quite a bit. Just the type of weather to make me pull out the crock pot and make soup.

This week it was split pea soup with ham. Ham from last winter’s CSA meat share, and a bag of split peas. I tend to buy the meat share from our CSA in fall and winter. The fall share is just eight weeks long and the winter share is 13. Not as big a commitment as a 26 week summer share, so you get to kick the tires, so to speak.

I made this simple soup with leftover uncured bone in ham. From a March delivery. I have been working at drawing down that freezer. Dump a bag of split peas in the crock pot. Add a pint of chicken stock and a pint of water. Add an onion, diced. Shred the ham and add it. Add the bones, too, if you have a bone in ham. Salt, not much, and pepper. That’s it. Eight hours in the crock pot. Two dinners for us.

Served with the last of my ripe tomatoes.

Some goat cheese. Asiago pepper dressing. Spring onions. Salt and pepper.

The other star of dinner. The bread.

Again, compliments of the CSA. We get an amazing variety of vegan whole grain breads. They last a very long time, and have that denseness and chewiness that a good bread should have.

Finally, the wines.

We did a Sauvignon Blanc throwdown, between Linden and Glen Manor. Linden makes theirs in the style of a French Fumé. Glen Manor, reminds me of a New Zealand pineapple-y SB. It was fun to compare against the richness of the soup.

Now, on to more experimentation with soups. Next up, pumpkin soup.

The Triamble (also called shamrock) pumpkin that we got today in our box is supposed to be amazingly tasty, and I have a few soup recipes that I want to attempt with it. I will be roasting pumpkin this weekend, for sure.

3 Comments

Posted in CSA, Food, LFFC, Locavore and tagged cooking, crock pot cooking, crockpot soups, CSA, Food, foodie, heirloom tomatoes, Locavore, VA wine, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Home Grown

Posted on September 29, 2016 by AnnieRie

Tomatoes. The reason I garden.

This year I concentrated on heirlooms. Which didn’t do very well, but I did make it to the century mark. 100 pounds of tomatoes by last Tuesday. With a few pounds of green tomatoes still hanging out there. Third year in a row to pass the century mark.

I dedicated about 100 square feet to tomatoes. ROI, a pound a square foot.

This year I did eliminate roma/paste tomatoes from my plantings. Deciding to rely on Larriland Farms, pick your own, to supply me with tomatoes for freezing. Last Saturday, me and hundreds of other people descended on the farm. Most of them looking for apples and pumpkins. Me, looking for tomatoes.

If you could make it through the parking lot to the area for picking tomatoes, you didn’t encounter any crowds. Down beyond the beets and the broccoli, the last tomato fields are open. Just a few weeks left to pick. Prices are amazing. $1.49 a pound for less than 20 pounds picked. Price drops to 75 cents a pound for more than 20 pounds. I picked 26 pounds.

Almost 24 pounds of paste tomatoes and almost 3 pounds of Campari. It was sauce making and oven roasting time, for three days total, at my house this week. The freezer is getting full. Winter will have tomatoes on the menu.

The Campari.

They suffered a bit from the strange weather. Lots of cracked tomatoes. Just like what I encountered in my heirlooms in my garden.

Many of the Campari were destined for the roasting tray. This batch was tomatoes, a red pepper, scallions, olive oil, oregano, sugar, salt and pepper. Slow roast at 250 degrees. I ended up with a total of four trays of roasted tomatoes. One with the Campari and three with the paste tomatoes. When I use the paste tomatoes, I slice them in half or in thirds, depending on their size.

As for the bulk of the paste tomatoes. Three different batches of sauce. Each yielded 2 quarts.

I blanch them first. Remove skins and seeds after they have cooled. In the meantime, I prepare the base.

Onions and carrots first. Sometimes I add green pepper. Always I add minced garlic right before I start putting tomatoes in the pot.

A tray from the oven, and a finished sauce. My sauce is simple. Just add a pinch of sugar, some salt and pepper and oregano. I like it chunky. Like this.

The pasta. From Boarman’s. Called Al Dente. It’s an egg enriched pappardelle. It’s hanging by the butcher case. The sausages. One was hot Italian, the other sweet Italian. I ask the guys at Boarman’s to give me one of each and use them for my Italian meals. Mixing them.

As for that days work.

Ready to transfer to the basement freezer. Yep, it took three days total to process the $20 worth of tomatoes I picked. Yield. Four jars of roasted tomatoes. Six quarts of sauce. One was eaten. Five in the freezer. Not a bad value.

1 Comment

Posted in Farms, Food, Gardening, Local Businesses, Locavore and tagged cooking, farms, Food, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, Locavore, real food, tomatoes. Bookmark the permalink.

Pepper’d and Squash’d

Posted on September 15, 2016 by AnnieRie

My Community Supported Agriculture basket is overflowing with peppers this week.

Including ghost peppers. Which I have no idea what I am going to make with them. We also got a healthy dose of squash.

Acorn and patty pan this week. Last week?

Zucchini and delicata.

It may say “autumn” in the next week around here, but the vegetables are still screaming summer.

Because there’s six ears of sweet corn in this week’s basket, too.

A little side dish, celebrating the seasons.

I took the zucchini. Sliced it. Covered it with items from the olive bar at Wegmans. Drizzled in olive oil. A very tasty side served with Boarman’s steak.

And, now, because my programs have failed me twice while writing this post, I think I will run off quickly before it dies again. Here’s to Indian Summer, enjoyable while it lasts.

Succotash!

Posted on September 4, 2016 by AnnieRie

And more trivial local interesting food stuff.

Because every year I get drawn in by the signs on Rte. 32 that tell me Jenny’s market has fresh lima beans. Shelled by the patriarch of the family. If you have ever shelled lima beans, you know you do much work to get those tasty beans out of their shells.

The beans, corn and scallions in today’s version of succotash come from Jenny’s. The red pepper, from my CSA.

The cornerstone of one absolutely delicious Sunday dinner.

Fingerlings from the CSA. Salmon from a trip to Wegmans. Wines?

A local Sauvignon Blanc throwdown. I liked the Linden one. My husband, the Big Cork.

To me, around here, summer is always about fresh food. Bought locally. Prepared simply.

1 Comment

Posted in CSA, Food, LFFC, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, CSA, Food, foodie, local businesses, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

“Fast” Food

Posted on August 29, 2016 by AnnieRie

Today was the first day back to school around here. Lots of cars on the road. When we commuted, this week (and the week after New Year’s) were the busiest on our local roads. Commuting took longer. Everyone seemed to be back on the highways and coming home meant delays. You got home tired, hungry and in no mood to cook.

My friend, Julia, who writes a local blog, posed the question about how to deal with cooking when your work days are long.

I thought I would take a crack at answering her question. How do you keep from dialing that delivery place, or picking up really bad for you food, because you are just too tired to cook?

This is my secret weapon. My cast iron pan. It sits on the stove all the time. I use it at least twice a week. Sometimes more. Here I am making bison burgers. I had a pound of bison from the CSA. We made burgers for dinner one night. Two for dinner. Two became bison chili later that week. All ground up with black beans, crushed tomatoes with chilis, peppers, onions and spice.

I use the pan to make frittatas. Like this one.

Another easy dinner. I nuked one potato. Sliced it. I had made a baking sheet full of bacon over the weekend. This was some of it. The rest you saw on those burgers above. Mixed up eggs, milk and herbs. Eggs in the pan. Covered with potato, sliced tomato, bacon and grated cheese. A few minutes on the stove and a few minutes to finish in the oven. Quick, easy. Really a good meal.

Besides my cast iron pan, I also rely on make ahead and freeze meals. Like these.

Stuffed peppers. Some leftover pork sausage. Rice from the rice cooker. A can of tomatoes. I made four of them. Two one night and two in the freezer for later.

Turkey meat loaf. This time I made two, but I have made four of them. I always have some sort of meat loaf in the freezer. Oh, and lasagna. My other favorite freezer meal. I don’t have to buy them from the store. I just make a large pan, and freeze at least four more meals for the two of us.

I can put together a good dinner in 20-30 minutes. A simple salad. Some bread. Maybe some pan cooked fish or sausage. A few microwaved potatoes.

There is no need to get fast food pick up. You can easily put a meal on the table with simple ingredients. Yep, it takes practice, but it’s worth it to avoid all that sodium and sugar in those prepackaged meals.

Now, if we could only get the traffic under control around here.

3 Comments

Posted in Food, Real Food and tagged cooking, foodie, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Processing

Posted on August 26, 2016 by AnnieRie

This is the time of year where I spend days reaping the benefits of the garden harvest. It’s quite a bit of work, sometimes more than I expect. But, it is worth it in the dead of winter when I am pulling pints of tomato sauce out of the freezer.

Real tomato sauce. That spends hours simmering on the stove. I have been perfecting my technique these days. Learning how to best extract the “meat” of the tomato from the seeds and skin.

I blanch my tomatoes after cutting the tops off of them. Let them cool down before peeling and seeding. The batch I made yesterday used 24 tomatoes. Yielded two quarts of sauce.

I did get lucky with some “gleaned” tomatoes.

Split and damaged tomatoes. We were harvesting from one of the community gardens while the plot owner was away. These tomatoes weren’t in the best of shape. Not good to use for food bank harvest. For an avid gardener though, these tomatoes could make some awesome sauce. I cut away quite a bit of them. You need to get the infested areas out of the tomatoes, or risk a ruined sauce.

My sauce is easy to make, in terms of work. It just takes patience.

I start with onions, celery, carrots, sweet peppers, garlic. Sweated down in olive oil. Add the meat of the tomatoes to the pan. Add salt, pepper, Italian seasoning. A pinch of sugar.

I like my tomato sauce to be chunky. So I don’t blend it at all. Right now I have a dozen containers in the freezer from three sessions of sauce making.

If you have never made your own sauce, you do need to try it. At least once. To see just how much time our ancestors spent putting up food for the winter. It does make you appreciate what we can buy instead of make. Even though I have found that making my own food yields greater flavor.

Here’s to harvest, and the fruits of our labor.

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Posted in Food, Gardening, Real Food and tagged community, cooking, Food, foodie, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, Locavore. Bookmark the permalink.

Melon Season

Posted on August 17, 2016 by AnnieRie

Here we are again, in the abundance of summer Community Supported Agriculture world, where all of a sudden a fruit or vegetable dominates your weekly allocation. These past two weeks? Melons.

All sort of melons.

Last week there were three of them. This week, four. YES, FOUR!!!!

Those melons in the picture above included an heirloom cantaloupe. A “modern” cantaloupe. A yellow seedless watermelon.

As for the difference between heirloom and modern cantaloupe. Just a touch different in terms of acidity.

And, a soft fragile rind.

I remember from my childhood, only having cantaloupe in the summer. Getting them fresh from the fields on the way to or from the ocean. Maryland Eastern Shore cantaloupes. They were a breakfast treat. Sliced into quarters. Sprinkled with salt.

Now, we get more creative with melon. I have become enamored of this recipe lately. It is very similar to my watermelon, feta and mint salad, but with a more complex dressing.

As for what we are doing with this week’s watermelon. I am thinking melon margaritas, if the weather stays this hot.

This week’s basket included four melons. A French Chanterais. An heirloom cantaloupe. A “baby doll” watermelon. A regular cantaloupe.

Anyone have other ideas for what to do with all this melon?

2 Comments

Posted in CSA, Food, LFFC, Locavore, Real Food, Weather and tagged cooking, CSA, Food, foodie, Locavore, real food, value of CSA, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

Frustration

Posted on July 29, 2016 by AnnieRie

That would be how this week has been. One that frustrates me. Why? Premature replacement of very expensive appliances.

This would be my seven year old fancy fridge. Which decided to fail a week ago. You know you are in trouble when this is the temperature in your freezer.

With the setting at -2 degrees Fahrenheit.

Thankfully, I have a chest freezer in the basement. Not particularly full at the moment because we haven’t started the food processing from the garden. I managed to salvage all the local meat, and cram it into the chest freezer.

The verdict from the repair person. Somewhere there is a seal leak. Typical in these refrigerators. Could be over one thousand dollars to fix. If we can pinpoint the leak with injected dyes.

Not happy. Our older, not fancy refrigerators lasted decades. All of them. Not seven years, like this one. Spending close to 50% of the purchase price to attempt to fix it is not an option.

So, today a new behemoth came into our lives.

I use a large refrigerator because I have large amounts of fresh fruit and vegetables.

I want room for salad spinners. Fruit. Vegetables. Fresh dairy and deli. This is not a repository for a few processed items. It is the storage unit for a CSA basket, and for farmer’s market finds.

This past week we did quite a bit of frantic cooking. Those items I thought may have been defrosting, as they were in the top of the old freezer.

Some bison. Some bacon. A hanger steak. Catfish. Most of it local. Good for the Buy Local Challenge.

I did do a very good frittata with local bacon and eggs. My tomatoes.

Overall, I suppose it’s not the most traumatic of weeks. Not a bit annoying. Refrigerators shouldn’t fail after seven years.

Oh, by the way, Bray and Scarff is awesome, when it comes to recommending good repair people and when it comes to absolutely fantastic delivery and set up teams.

An All American Dinner …

Posted on July 6, 2016 by AnnieRie

… on an All American holiday.

Fourth of July. One of my favorite holidays. Mainly, because we relax. We grill. We watch the illegal fireworks out here in west county.

So, what did we do this year, in the cold, dreary, rainy weather?

We still cooked a meal using mostly local ingredients, and a local wine. But, we couldn’t easily grill. Besides, it was too damp and miserable to stand out there and grill.

We started with a local flair on the classic gin and tonic.

Made with Catoctin Creek Gin. A fairly local distillery in northern Virginia. By the way, their rye is awesome for a classic Manhattan.

The last steaks from Friends and Farms, who unfortunately went out of business last month. Leaving us to scramble for a new source of outstanding meat and seafood at reasonable prices. More on that in a later post.

As for the side dish, enter my zucchini.

Yes, friends, lock your car doors. It is zucchini season. We have zucchini many days of every week. This was simple. Baked with my onions and a can of diced tomatoes (I am finally out of tomatoes in the freezer). Served over Pappardelle’s pasta, picked up at Casual Gourmet.

Highlight of this meal, the wine.

Another Virginia product. This one a keeper. 2009 was an excellent summer here in the midAtlantic. Hot, mostly dry. Perfect for red wines. RdV is the best of Virginia. This bottle, bought at Bistro Blanc the night before they closed (what is it with my favorite places closing this year?), it was big, bold, a baby. It needs more time to develop.

The meal?

Pan fry the steaks. Add some steak sauce. Serve the zucchini-tomato-onion bake over the pasta. Open wine. Celebrate the 240th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

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Tag Archives: cooking

Greens

Soup Season

Home Grown

Pepper’d and Squash’d

Succotash!

“Fast” Food

Processing

Melon Season

Frustration

An All American Dinner …

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