If I Can Do It, So Can You

All winter, going to the grocery store was an exercise in frustration.  I get so used to cooking with fresh herbs, I want them to cook with over the winter, too, but the prices are exorbitant.  Plus, the packages contain more than I need at the time, so I wind up tossing some in the trash when it goes bad.  Ugh!

On top of this, I'm the biggest brown thumb on the planet.  Seriously, I try every year.  I try hard.  But my little 35 square foot garden usually yields about 3 carrots, 2 tomatoes and a handful of jalepeños in a year.  Yes, I'm that bad.

But herbs are different.  Maybe they're more foolproof than veggies.  In any case, about this time I plant a bunch in pots, and I don't have to buy any for months.  One plant, that will yield all season long, costs about the same as 1 or 2 small packages at the grocery store.

Come fall, we'll talk about how to preserve herbs over the winter.

One more note.  Have you tried Trickling Springs's ice cream?  Waaaay good.  Their Strawberry is about the best I've ever had -- and when it comes to ice cream, I'm really addicted.  The seasonal flavor right now is Lemon Chiffon, and it's pretty darned incredible too.  Hurry up and get some, before I eat it all!

Just the Tools at Hand

Today is the first time I've been camping in a long, long, long time.  It's my little guy's first experience.  His enthusiasm was... effervescent.  Of course, this involved campfire cooking.  Other than forgetting how long everything takes (coffee might be done by lunch), it went well.

My Boy Scout days taught me the utility of cooking in foil.  But let's just say that my palate has progressed past a hunk of ground beef with onion and potato slices.  The art form, however, can still be beautiful.

You also don't have to wait for a camp out to do this.  The coals in the barbecue grill work just fine too.

Campfire potatoes are simply sliced Yukon golds, fresh rosemary and thyme, generous salt & pepper, and some fat (olive oil works, and so does leftover duck fat).

Dessert (well, pre-s'mores anyway) was this delicious stone fruit concoction.  Ginger snaps, sliced fruit, lime zest and juice, and I substituted dark rum for brandy and maple syrup for sugar, and WOW.

The true stroke of genius, though, was using leftover ginger snaps for the s'mores.  OH YEAH.

I Dip, You Dip, We Dip: Ricotta, Gorgonzola & Honey Apple Dip

Oh I'm on fire with the corny blog titles tonight!  Watch out now!

A few years ago, my childhood bestie and Barefoot Contessa fangirl, Miss Katie Jane (no Jane is not her middle or even last name, but for some reason my family always called her that) had a pre-Christmas cookie exchange/lots of wine & appetizers night.  I remember this night for two very distinct reasons.  1.)  It was the night that the Mister presented me with my wedding ring (we'd been engaged for over a month, because I'm the kind of gal who could care less about diamond and rings until they arrive and I'm all oooooo it's shiny!), and 2.) RICOTTA...GORGONZOLA...HONEY...DIP.  The night you get your wedding ring is a pretty big honkin' deal, so you know that dip had to be gooooood.  And the way Katie served it and I continue to serve it, is always with slices of crisp apples.  Because then you feel all healthy when you're eating an entire bowl of fancy cheese

So since we're getting more glorious apples this week in the Crop Share, what better way to enjoy them then dipped in some delicious dip.  Plus, honey is a major player in this dip, so snag some local honey while you're in to pick up your Crop Share, and get a jump on fighting seasonal allergies!  I also tend to think this dip would be really good slathered on burgers, so if you're breaking out your grill this weekend (I've given up looking at the forecast, is it going to snow, rain, be summer, or locusts?) then have some dip with some apples, slather some on a burger with the green leaf lettuce as a garnish.  Basically, I've now made you all crave juicy hamburgers, haven't I?  Ooo, even some lamb burgers with super thin slices of apple and this dip slathered on.  Okay, okay, I'm stopping!

Ricotta, Gorgonzola & Honey Apple Dip

Ingredients:

1 15 oz carton of part-skim ricotta

6 oz Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled

1/4 tsp dried thyme (use 1/2 tsp if using fresh)

1/8 tsp dried rosemary (use 1/4 tsp if using fresh)

1 heaping Tbsp local honey

2-3 apples, sliced

Lemon juice

In a medium sized bowl, using a hand mixer, whip up the ricotta until nice and smooth.  About 2-3 minutes.  Then fold in gorgonzola, herbs and honey, mixing until fully blended.  Transfer to a smaller bowl for serving, cover and let chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour, up to a full 24 hours.

Slice apples shortly before you're ready to serve.  Toss apple slices in some lemon juice to help prevent browning, and serve with the dip.

Healthy Caramelized Red Onion Dip via Healthy Green Kitchen

I tend to have a fear of red onions -- long story, but let's blame it on a freshman-year college roommate with horrendous acid reflux and a penchant for subs loaded with raw, red onion.  But when I came across this Caramelized Red Onion Dip from Healthy Green Kitchen, I knew it could make be a believer in "demon onions."  So with Super Bowl Sunday on the horizon, make sure to honor your chips and give them something good and fresh to be dipped in!  If it looks like it's in the same style can as cat food, it's probably wise to leave that on the shelf, and whip up your own easy and healthy onion dip!  Plus, you'll get to put this week's garlic to good use in this dip, too.  Follow the link below to view the recipe...

Caramelized Red Onion Dip

Bacheofe - Alsatian Meat & Vegetable Stew via Saveur

You hear a lot about my Irishness and love for all things potato, but that's only half of my DNA.  Another quarter is French...French Huguenot, to be exact.  So, since my Huguenot ancestors spent a good portion of their lives in the Rhine region of Germany as a means to escape persecution in France, it must be coded somewhere in my genetic tastebuds to love dishes from the Alsace region of France, because their cuisine is an incredible blend of French & German flavors.  So no dainty, delicate sauces over something poached.  No, this is good stick to your ribs food, and like all good traditional cuisines, it's comprised of what's local, seasonal and on the cheap.

Hands down one of my favorite Alsatian dishes is Bacheofe/Baeckoffe, and all you need to know is it's a giant casserole of warmth.  While I was musing over what fun thing to suggest for the Crop Share carrots this week, Saveur did the work for me and posted their recipe for Bacheofe.  Which reminded me I also had tucked away Alsatian chef, Hubert Keller's recipe for his family's version.  So I leave you with links to both versions, but do read the notes at the bottom of Keller's as there's really nothing quite like the phrase, "pig trotters add a gelatinous consistency."  Not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but I'm pretty sure Penny would have something to say about that.  Thankfully, pig trotters are entirely optional for this dish!  So use up those carrots from this week, and if you still have any leeks and potatoes leftover from last week, this will use those right up too.  The recipes are hyperlinked in each title, so click through to view them on their original pages.  But if a massive hearty stew of heavy meat & veg isn't the way you want to use your carrots this week, then enjoy another taste of my DNA (well not literally, as we do frown on cannibalism here at Nalls) with my Grammy Freer's Chicken In A Wine Sauce.  Remember two cups of white wine for the dish, and 3 cups for the chef.  ;)

Bacheofe - Alsatian Meat & Vegetable Stew via Saveur

Beef Lamb & Pork Baeckeoffe via Hubert Keller

There's no image of his version of Baeckeoffe, so I give you this photo of the silver fox himself, shaving with a kitchen knife.  I only have a slight food crush on this man.

These Are A Few of My Favorite Things

Wait till you see the amount of potatoes you're getting in the Crop Share this week!  Squee!  Can you tell I'm Irish by descent?  So, after you're done whipping up this Leek & Potato Soup, you're still going to have potatoes left over!  While I suggest using up some in this Potato Salad with Cucumber, Rocket Greens & Smoked Salmon (this is not your Grandma's potato salad, no mayo in sight, it is an actual salad), I've also got another "fishy" recipe below that is one of my all-time favorite preparations for salmon.  The potatoes become this wonderful crispy base, and then you'll be able to throw on some of the tangelos or any leftover citrus from last week, and snag a Meyer lemon or two while you're in the store.  Then, as I mentioned in the "spoiler" e-mail earlier today, hands down one of my favorite salads of all time is this Herbed Shrimp & White Bean salad I'll link to below.  When you see how beefy the green leaf lettuce is this week, you'll have to work to use that up too, and this entree salad will be just the ticket.  We got in fresh cherry tomatoes today, so you'll be able to snag a pint of them along with some local honey to help round out the salad ingredients.

So without further ado, I give you two of my favorite recipes that are sure to help you use up this week's bounty (titles are hyper-linked to original recipes)...

Salmon & Potato Casserole With a Citrus Herb Vinaigrette via Country Living

Herbed Shrimp & White Bean Salad via Cooking Light

Thanksgiving Favorites: Green Bean Casserole with Herbed Breadcrumbs

Thanksgiving In Nalls’ Kitchen!

7310 Beulah Street, Franconia, VA 22315

(703) 971-4068 ~ info@nallsproduce.com

Green Bean Casserole with Herbed Breadcrumbs

No soup from a can or Franken-onions in this version!

Ingredients:

2 lbs green beans, trimmed & cut in half

3 lg shallots

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 ½ cups, coarse ground bread crumbs (panko works great or a larger ground)

1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped

½ tsp Kosher salt, divided

½ tsp ground black pepper, divided

2 cups reduced fat milk

2 Tbsp butter

1/3 cup flour

Pinch ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Boil green beans in salted water over high heat, uncovered, for 6 minutes until bright green and slightly tender.  Drain well and transfer to a 3-quart baking dish.

While green beans are boiling, dice 1.5 shallots and then thinly slice the remaining 1.5.  Set aside the sliced shallots.  In a sauté pan, heat olive oil over medium high heat.  Add chopped shallots and cook for 4 to 7 minutes until slightly browned.  Pour in breadcrumbs, thyme, ¼ tsp salt, and ¼ tsp ground black pepper, stir to fully incorporate.  Cook an additional 2 minutes or until breadcrumbs are golden brown.  Set aside in a separate bowl.

Heat milk in a saucepan just enough to warm it, but not to boil it.  In the same sauté pan you used for the breadcrumbs, melt butter over medium heat.  Add sliced shallots and cook for 5 minutes until golden brown.  Stir in flour and cook for 2 minutes.  Then slowly add milk, and whisk continually to avoid any clumps.  Bring to a boil and continue stirring for about 2 minutes.  Sauce should thicken to the consistency of heavy cream.  Whisk in nutmeg, ¼ tsp salt and ¼ tsp pepper.  Pour sauce over green beans.  Then evenly top with bread crumbs, and bake for 30 minutes until topping is golden brown and the sauce is bubbling.

Mushroom Stroganoff for World Vegetarian Day!

Happy World Vegetarian Day!  Whether you eat meat or not, I think we can all agree that more fruits and veggies are a good thing...a yummy good thing.  I was a vegetarian for most of my life, but let's be honest, I'm too much of a foodie to restrict myself (I'm looking at you delicious, delicious bacon jam!), especially when so many items are already off the table due to the Mister's and my food allergies.  But for the most part we practice Meatless Mondays in our home, and we would really be up a creek if it weren't for all those crafty vegan cooks, like Doron Petersan of Sticky Fingers Sweets & Eats,  who come up with new and interesting ways to make desserts we can safely eat.  So on this World Vegetarian Day, I give you a way to use up the mushrooms and most of that lone onion from this week's Crop Share...my version of Skinnytaste's Mushroom Stroganoff!

Mushroom Stroganoff

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp butter (I used Earth Balance Margarine for dairy-free)

1/2 sweet onion, chopped

2 Tbsp corn starch

2 cups reduced sodium vegetable broth

1 Tbsp plus 2 tsp soy sauce (I use Kikkoman's gluten-free soy, but you can also use 1 Tbsp only of Worcestershire sauce.  My Mama always used soy sauce in her stroganoff, so that's why I went that route)

1 tsp tomato paste

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 pint mushrooms, gently washed, stems trimmed and sliced

1/4 tsp thyme

Ground black pepper to taste

2 Tbsp dry white wine

1/4 cup sour cream or plain Greek yogurt (I used Tofutti's Sour Supreme for dairy-free)

8 oz uncooked noodles (I use Schar's tagliatelle as it's gluten and egg-free, and you won't even know!)

Begin to bring your pasta water to a boil so that you can cook your noodles while you prepare the sauce.  If you want to mix your noodles into the stroganoff, then undercook them to allow them to finish in the sauce.  I prefer a larger noodle to sauce ratio, so I fully cooked the noodles and then spooned the amount of sauce I wanted on my portion.

In a skillet, melt your butter over medium high heat until it's bubbly.  Add in you onion and saute for about 3-4 minutes, until onions are translucent.  Stir in your corn starch and fully coat all the onions, allowing to cook for an addition 30 seconds.  Slowly add your vegetable broth, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.  Add in soy sauce and tomato paste, making sure to fully mix in the tomato paste.  Bring up to a simmer and add your mushrooms, thyme and ground black pepper.  Simmer for about 4 minutes or until sauce has thickened up.  Stir in your white wine (and here would be where I had an oops, I thought 2 CUPS of wine -- wishful thinking -- so thankfully I only had a 1/2 cup at my disposal and caught myself before I added more, so if you'd like a more "winey" sauce, then add a half cup of white wine and then an addition 2 tsp of soy sauce) and bring sauce to a low simmer.

Once noodles are cooked either drain and mix in to the sauce, or set aside and toss with a splash of olive oil to keep them from sticking.

Before serving, stir sour cream into the sauce and leave on heat for an additional minute to bring it all up to the same temperature.

**You'll be easily able to convert this into a beef stroganoff by starting with 1 lb of beef round or chuck cut into 2 " cubes (my Mama always asked the butcher to run them through the meat tenderizer to make the pieces melt in your mouth even more) and brown that up in butter or olive oil before removing and adding in the onions and mushrooms to brown up.  Then add the beef back in, stir in your corn starch and add your liquid to loosen all the lovely browned bits from the bottom of the pan.  Proceed from there and simmer everything for about 30 minutes before stirring in the sour cream.**

Sweet Day In The Morning, It's Sweet Potato Season!

So, unfortunately, my brain hates freedom tonight and no amount of Advil or Tylenol is touching it.  I am actually blogging in sunglasses at the moment.  Classy.  Thus, for now at least, this week's posts will be rather short and sweet.  In the Spoiler e-mail we linked you to our favorite, simple preparation for Sauteed Swiss Chard, which doesn't exactly scream Labor Day picnic food, but thankfully with this week's bounty of fruit you'll be able to throw together a wonderful fruit salad, fruit crisp, or even go all-American with some apple pie (or tart it up a bit!).  But I've got two preparations for those sweet potatoes for you.  One (an oldie but a goodie from our Crop Share vault) that will be a healthy, yet filling game day recipe now that football season is upon us (I might as well draw ire where I can...Go Colts!) and then another to take you from the gridiron to the grill and have you set for this weekend's picnic circuit.  Happy Labor Day weekend everyone!  Now where's a nice, dark and quiet room for me to hide?

Veggie & Chicken Sausage Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Grilled Sweet Potatoes with Scallions via Martha Stewart

Celebrating 101 Years of Julia Child with Tomates a la Provencale

August 15th may be one of my most favorite days on the calendar, because 101 years ago, on this very day, a little girl was born who was destined to change the face of food as we knew it.  Not just food in America, but perceptions of food across the globe.  That little girl who was never actually all that little, was none other than Julia Child.

Whether you're a Julia nerd like me, we all share in a piece of what she was all about by participating in the Crop Share program, and as Julia herself said, "You learn to cook so that you don't have to be a slave to recipes.  You get what's in season and you know what to do with it."  And that's why we're all here, eating, cooking and learning about all this wonderful seasonal produce so that we're not slaves to recipes or supermarket shelves, we can create our own magic with the bounty that the earth gives up each season.  So as we all raise our rolling pins and save the chicken liver in honor of what would have been Miss Julia's 101st birthday, here is her classic recipe for Tomates a la Provencale and then my quick gluten and dairy-free riff on it.  Bon Appetit!

Julia Child's Tomates a la Provencale

Ingredients:
6 firm, ripe, red tomatoes about 3 inches in diameter
Salt and pepper
1 to 2 cloves mashed garlic
3 Tbsp minced shallots or green onions
4 Tbsp minced fresh basil and parsley, or parsley only
1/8 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp salt
Big pinch of pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup fine, white, dry bread crumbs
A shallow, oiled roasting pan just large enough to hold the tomatoes easily in one layer

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Remove the stems, and cut the tomatoes in half crosswise.  Gently press out the juice and seeds.  Sprinkle the halves lightly with salt and pepper.

Blend all remaining ingredients in a mixing bowl.  Correct seasoning.  Fill each tomato half with a spoon full or two of the mixture.  Sprinkle a few drops of olive oil.  Arrange the tomatoes in the roasting pan; do not crowd them.

Place in upper third of oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the tomatoes are tender but hold their shape, and the bread crumb filling has browned lightly.

Quinoa Stuffed Tomatoes

Ingredients:
2-4 large, red tomatoes, tops sliced off and diced, insides scooped out and seeded
8 oz Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese (or real dairy cream cheese)
2 tsp garlic, minced
1 Tbsp fresh tarragon, minced
1 Tbsp fresh basil, minced
1 cup quinoa, cooked to package directions
Salt & pepper
Olive oil







Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, combine cream cheese through quinoa.  Mix well to incorporate.  Stir in diced tops of tomatoes, and then season mixture to taste with salt and pepper and hit it with a quick splash of olive oil.  Stuff each tomato till full with the quinoa mixture and place into a baking dish.  Drizzle tops with a smidge of olive oil and then bake in oven at 400 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes or until tops are slightly browned and skin on the tomatoes has blistered a bit.

Guest Post from Across the Pond: Pattesons Glass' Pork Rillettes

Apparently my foodie vibes must have been reaching across the miles, because as I spent my weekend musing over this blog becoming a collection of voices, I returned to work on Monday to find an e-mail from Pattesons Glass Ltd, a glass bottle and jar company in Grimsby, England.  They've enjoyed reading our blog, and wanted to offer up one of their recipes to share with our members.  While their Pork Rillettes recipe isn't exactly Spring produce heavy, it's the perfect way to put your garden herbs to good use in a bouquet garni as the base for this dish.  Still have lots of parsley leftover from last week or have you been drying your Crop Share herbs?  Then now is their time to shine.  Just whatever you do, don't tell Penny Pig we've got a pork recipe up on the blog, she might start to wonder why I feed her so many strawberries!

So from some fellow foodies across the pond, I give you their recipe for traditional French rillettes (if you need help with the metric conversions, hop on over to http://www.metric-conversions.org/ to compute it quickly and easily)...

Pork Rillettes

Like all charcuterie, rillettes (pronounced ree-yettes) were originally a way of preserving the cornucopia of fatty goodness yielded by the slaughter of a pig. Stored in earthenware crocks or in glass jars and sealed with a lid of pork fat, they would keep for months. This recipe is much lower in fat and consequently has a little less staying power, but the rillettes will keep well in the fridge for at least a week, and will benefit from a few days’ maturation before you break open the jar.

1.25kg pork belly or shoulder, skin removed but bones left in, cut into chunks

4 cloves garlic, peeled and lightly crushed

1 bouquet garni

3 bay leaves

6 cloves

50ml vermouth

500ml water

1tsp ground mace

Salt and pepper

Place the pork, garlic, bouquet garni, bay leaves, vermouth and water in an ovenproof, lidded dish. Cook at about 100°C for four hours, turning the meat a few times so it doesn’t become too brown, until it falls away from the bones. Remove from the pan and allow to cool slightly. Discard the bay leaves, cloves, bouquet garni, bones and any obvious pieces of cartilage. Drain the pork and place the liquid in a small bowl over ice or in the fridge to chill.

Using two forks, gently shred the meat, allowing it to retain its natural grain. Remove the reserved liquid from the fridge and carefully lift off the solidified fat. Mix the jellied stock that remains with the pork, season to taste with mace, salt and pepper and place in a sterilised 580ml clip-top jar.

Melt the reserved pork fat and pour over the rillettes before sealing the jar and refrigerating until needed.

Rillettes are delicious served cold or at room temperature as a starter, the centrepiece of a light lunch or for a picnic. All that’s needed to accompany the rillettes are some slices of warm baguette, a few cherry tomatoes and some cornichons or pickled onions.

View the original recipe on Pattesons Glass' recipe blog at http://www.jarsandbottles-store.co.uk/blog/recipes/pork-rillettes/ and be sure to check out some of their other great recipes, like their divine looking Salsa Verde!

Thanks very much to Pattesons Glass to reaching out to us with their recipe, it's great to have you at our communal table!

Chipotle & Herb Roasted (or Grilled) Sweet Potato Chips

If there is sweet potato anything on a menu, you can bet I'll be ordering it.  So every time we wind up with sweet potatoes in the Crop Share, I do a little happy dance.  Normally, I like to bake them up whole and then stuff them with all sorts of goodness, but with this being a holiday weekend, it's time for some cook-out ready ideas.  So here's one of my favorite preparations with an added adaptation for the grill...

Chipotle & Herb Roasted Sweet Potato Chips

Ingredients:

2 sweet potatoes, sliced into about 1/4 to 1/8 inch rounds

Chipotle powder

2 tsp thyme

Olive oil

Kosher salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Lay sweet potato slices onto a baking sheet, making sure they are evenly spaced with no overlapping.  Drizzle with olive oil and season with chipotle powder, 1 tsp of thyme and Kosher salt (add a dash or more of chipotle depending on your heat preference).  Flip rounds over, drizzle with olive oil and repeat seasoning.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes, flipping once half-way through, until edges have begun to crisp.  Season with additional Kosher salt if needed/desired.

Adaptation for the grill:

Season and oil as above.  Place onto direct heat on a pre-heated grill and grill for 3 minutes on each side or until well-marked.  Then transfer to a top rack or on indirect heat for an additional 20-30 minutes, turning half-way through.