CSA Meals 2013: Week 3

Cabbage, bean sprouts, grapefruit, oranges, spinach, sweet potatoes, eggs, mushrooms, and parmesan sourdough bread.

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Sweet Potato Pie
Large sweet potato, boiled and smashed
3 eggs
Maple syrup
Vanilla
Innards (juice and pulp) of 1 orange

Blend all ingredients with wand blender. Pour into pie shell and bake at 425 for 10 min, then reduce to 350 until done (30-40 min).

This is tasty, but it needs something else. Experiments to follow.
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Spinach Sauce
Butter, olive oil
Spinach
Garlic
Mayo
Mozzarella

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Spinach Sauce II: The Return of Spinach Sauce
Bacon fat
Spinach
Manzanilla olive juice
Mozzarella

CSA Meals 2013: Week 2

Potatoes, turnips, onions, apples, brussels sprouts, tangerines, oranges, acorn squash, eggs, and sesame bread.

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Bacon Apple Balsamic Turnips
Bacon
Apple
Turnip
Balsamic vinegar
Garlic

Lay bacon in baking dish and bake at 350 until your desired crispiness (10-30 min, depending on the bacon and your oven).
Meanwhile, chop turnip and apple, add minced garlic and balsamic vinegar. Toss to coat.
Remove bacon from pan, let drain on paper towels. Add turnip mixture to the pan and stir well to coat in bacon fat. Return pan to oven and cook until soft, ~25-30 min.
Chop bacon and mix with baked turnip mixture.

We ate this mixed with a mild barley stew. FABULOUS.

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Orange vanilla muffins
2 c white whole wheat flour
Innards of 2 oranges, seeds removed and wand blended
Vanilla (lots)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 c sugar
1/2 c olive oil
2 eggs
Mini chocolate chips

Mix everything except chocolate chips. Grease a small pan with olive oil and pour/scoop batter into it. Sprinkle with mini chocolate chips. Bake at 350 for 25 min.

This smelled HEAVENLY but the orange taste was very faint in the final product. It was also a little on the dry side. Maybe another orange / another egg? Orange zest? Orange-infused cream cheese folded into the batter?

CSA Meals 2013: Week 1, part II

Tangy grapefruit sauce
Grapefruit (juice + pulp, wand blended)
Garlic cloves
Dried apricots
Ginger chunks
Balsamic vinegar
White wine

Combine in saucepan and simmer until reduced. Excellent on tilapia.

I poured off the delicious liquid to use as a sauce, and kept the solids in the pan. I smashed the solids into a smooshy lump, then added a lot of olive oil and simmered for awhile. I used the infused olive oil in the next recipe:


Tangy Kale Pesto
Kale, washed
Olive oil
Garlic
Balsamic vinegar
Cheese (parmesan is ideal, I used four-cheese shredded mix)

Boil large pot of water. Blanch kale until bright green, ~30s-1m.
In blender, combine kale with olive oil, garlic, balsamic vinegar, and cheese. Blend until smooth (ish).

Other pleasant additions: white wine, mustard, nuts.
We ate this on egg noodles with meat from the shin stew.


Carroty Cookies
1/2 c olive oil
3 eggs
2 t vanilla
~1/2 c carrot puree
1/2 c applesauce
1/4 c brown sugar
1 3/4 c flour
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
3 c oats
Choc chips


Bananas Foster Pie Doesn't include any CSA food, but dang it's tasty.
Bananas
Rum
Maple syrup
Sliced almonds
Graham cracker pie crust (or baked pastry pie crust)

Slice bananas into rounds, mix with enough rum that the mixture is entirely coated but not sopping. Spoon into pie crust and drizzle with maple syrup, sprinkle with sliced almonds. Bake at 350 until hot, roughly 20-30 min. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

CSA Meals 2013: Week 1

First CSA week of the season! This is the 'early bird' season from the delightful Breezy Willow Farms.

Oranges, apples (Jonagold and Red), grapefruit, carrots, kale, beets, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, eggs, rosemary-lavender bread.


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Sweet and Savory Grapefruit Sauce
Juice of 2 grapefruits
4 cloves garlic
6 - 8 dried apricots
4 - 6 chunks of candied ginger (or regular ginger for a tangier sauce)

Simmer all ingredients together until the liquid is sufficiently flavored and reduced.

GRAPEFRUIT INTERACTS WITH MANY MEDICATIONS. If you presently take a medication that instructs you not to drink grapefruit juice, please do not make this recipe. If you take one of these meds and you drink grapefruit juice anyway, please do not change your grapefruit-consuming habits but do talk to your doctor.

This is so decadent. We poured it over tilapia and sweet potato.

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Wine-stewed fruit sauce, v2
Frozen Peaches
Dried apricots
Red wine

Stew in red wine until fruit is all soft and wine has reduced and thickened.
POUR OVER VANILLA ICE CREAM. Seriously, this is so tasty I don't even know what to do.
Alternative: eat peaches and apricots, then pour liquid over vanilla ice cream.

Winter cooking

Lots of cooking lately! Here's an assortment of recipes that I remembered to write down.

Main Courses

Beer-Roasted Turkey
turkey, defrosted
beer
butter
chicken, turkey, or veggie broth

Arrange turkey in deep roasting pan. Put pats of butter on top of turkey, drizzle with beer, beer and butter inside turkey. Do not cover the turkey.
Bake 20min at 450, then lower to 250.
After half an hour or an hour, add some more beer to the pan and add about a third or quarter cup of broth.
Periodically baste turkey with beer/butter/brother mix in roasting pan.
Cook until thermometer pops out.

The meat from this recipe turns out deliciously moist and flavorful, and the drippings are surprisingly sweet - and delicious. Be sure to make gravy from the liquid remaining in the roasting pan.

Gravy: drippings, some wine, some boiling stock, whisked in flour.

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Shepherd's Pie
Combine:
butter
onions
celery
carrots
broccoli
curry powder
salt
broth
rosemary
thyme

Simmer until veggies are slightly soft.
Whisk in some mashed potatoes to thicken.

Add:
frozen corn
frozen peas
shredded turkey

Pour into pie pan.

Mix together:
mashed potatoes
green onions
greek yogurt

Cover top surface with this mixture.
Bake at 350 until mashed potatoes brown on top.

This freezes very well.

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Tilapia Not-Actually-Ceviche
zucchini, chopped fine
onion, chopped fine
tomato, chopped fine
lime
sour cream
cooked tilapia (microwaved is quick and easy)

Combine all ingredients and mix well to coat.

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Corndog Loaves
small loaf pans, roughly the length of the hot dogs
Hot dogs/sausage (this is pork and cheddar)
1 c self-rising cornmeal
1 c white whole wheat flour
1 c milk + 1 T white vinegar (pseudo-buttermilk - let sit for a few minutes before mixing in)
1.5 T honey
1/2 c olive oil
2 eggs
Cheese

Blob into pans, add hot dog, blob more on top. 1 recipe makes 3 little pans
Bake at 375-400 for 35 min or until tops are browned and knife comes out clean. Serve topped with cheese.

Ratio of corn to dog was a bit too high. We ate one each on baking day, then froze the rest. They reheat quite well. I have a sneaking suspicion that mixing shredded cheese into the batter would be even more delicious.

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Frittatalets
eggs, beaten
finely chopped veggies (we used tomatoes and green beans)
garlic
crazy salt or other savory spices

Combine all ingredients. Spray muffin tins or mini muffin tins with olive oil. Spoon mixture into muffin tins. Bake at 350 for 20 min or until eggs are set.

We ate these with rounds of rosemary-olive bread. They freeze very well, easy to pop out and reheat for breakfast.

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Desserts

Red wine simmered peaches
fresh or frozen peaches
red wine
vanilla ice cream

Combine peaches and wine in a small saucepan and simmer until peaches are soft and wine has thickened a bit. Lovely on its own, amazing with vanilla ice cream.

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Blueberry French toast bake
4 eggs
1 1/2 C milk
allspice
vanilla
french bread rounds, unpleasantly dry or toasted
blueberries
maple syrup

Beat eggs, milk, vanilla, and allspice together. Add french bread rounds and let soak until the rounds are a little bit soft. Add blueberries and arrange in pan.

Bake at 350 until custard bit is set. This one took 35 minutes. Serve drizzled with maple syrup.

(For a more dessert-y, sweeter recipe, mix a tablespoon or two of maple syrup in with the milk and egg mixture.)

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Emergency Peach-Berry Pie
frozen peaches, broken into small pieces
frozen pureed mixed berries
blueberries
whatever other fruit is available

Combine ingredients. Pour into pie shell. Bake until sufficiently set or until pie shell browns.

This actually turned out to be very, very tasty, despite the lack of added sugar and/or gelatinizing ingredients. No picture because we ate it too fast.

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Lazy Man's Bananas Foster
banana, cut into rounds
rum
maple syrup
almond bits, raw or toasted

Combine in bowl and microwave ~30-50 sec. Stir well and add ice cream if desired.