Spaetzle with basil pesto, swiss chard, and beets

I’ve been scheming to prepare beets for supper, and there’s an awful lot of beautiful basil coming in right now.  A quick look through the pantry and I found a partial container of spaetzle I had bought on a shopping trip with a friend who was reminiscing about how her Czech grandmother used to make spaeztle and green beans.

The beets are going to take longer to cook than the pesto or the spaetzle so I washed about five 1 to 1-1/2 inch beets and trimmed off the tops and the roots.  Put them in a microwave safe dish with a little water in the bottom for 5 minutes at a time until they are soft to touch–mine took about 9 minutes.  Take them out and let them cool a bit.  Meanwhile…..

Wash a small bunch of swiss chard and roughly chop.  Heat a small amount of olive oil in a skillet, throw in a tad of garlic then the chard.  Stir around until wilted down, add a little water and put a lid on until the chard is tender, about the time you’re ready to eat this meal.  While the chard is steaming,

Wash and put a couple of handfuls of basil into a food processor.  Pour in about a tablespoon of olive oil, about 1/4 cup pine nuts, a couple cloves of garlic, salt and pepper to taste.  Puree till smooth and set this aside.  You’ve got water boiling for the spaetzle and now it’s time to put the spaetzle in the water to cook.  While that’s happening, peel the beets, cut them in half, and wash your hands immediately so the red will come off.

When the spaetzle is done, drain it and toss with the pesto.  Put the sliced, warm beets on the plate and cover with feta cheese (a wonderful taste combo).   Plate up the chard and sprinkle with acid of your choice (vinegar, lemon juice, etc.)   The best part of this meal is that the feta cheese tastes wonderful when it migrates over to the basil spaetzle AND when it stays on the beets.

Enjoy a quick and nutritious meal with fresh veggies!

Creamy Garden Vegetable Soup with Tomato Salad

So right about now the fridge is getting overrun with fresh veggies.  It’s hard to keep up with them this time of year.  We had much needed rain all day yesterday and other than having to pick squash and dig potatoes in the rain, it was rather enjoyable.

I decided to try out a creamy fresh vegetable soup.  It actually turned out to be very tasty and was relatively easy to prepare.  Here’s the recipe (it’s a loose one, okay?)

Peel and slice about 3 carrots

Peel and cut 3 or 4 potatoes into 1″ chunks

I used about 6″ of a Daikon radish, peeled and 1″ chunks

1 kohlrabi peeled and cut into about 1/2″ chunks

Roma green beans, stem end broken off, sliced lenthwise about 3 times then crosswise to make “French Style” beans

Cover all these with water and simmer slowly until tender.  You might need to drain a little liquid off at this point but save it in case you need to add some back.

Salt and pepper, parsley, and a can of cream of celery soup.  I let this cook a while then added garlic powder, a dash of cayenne pepper and a package of frozen corn from last year.  Then I added a handful of peas I had frozen earlier in the season.  I stirred the pot vigorously to kind of “puree” the potatoes a little to make the soup creamy.

At this point I would have added some cream to thicken the soup a little, (if I had any) but a big dollop of whipped cream cheese was the best I could do.  Stir the cream cheese or cream into the soup and let it thicken a little.

Yum!

For a side dish I prepared a tomato/rice salad.  There was a bowl of leftover wild rice in the fridge so I took about 1/2 cup of that, chopped one tomato, 1/2 of one of the long Diva cucumbers growing so prolifically right now, a generous sprinkling of fresh basil, some chopped onion, minced garlic, then drizzled with lemon juice and a little unfiltered olive oil, salt and pepper, and tossed well.

Yum!

The best part of both of these recipes are that they use fresh ingredients that are pouring in from the garden right now, and that’s why we garden (or belong to a CSA), right?

“New way” with Swiss Chard

I say “new way”, but someone had to dream it up–I love Allrecipes.com and when I’m trying to find a different way to prepare a veggie that’s the first place I look.  This recipe is Baked Swiss Chard with Feta Cheese and actually I bought some feta cheese last trip to the grocery store.  So, here goes:

1 bunch of Swiss Chard, stems and leaves separated

1 onion, chopped

4 large garlic cloves (I added this part and left them whole)

1 TBS olive oil

salt and pepper

2 TBS olive oil

4 oz crumbled feta cheese

Wash the swiss chard and tear the stems out of the leaves; put these in a bowl with chopped onion, peeled garlic cloves, and toss with 1 TBS olive oil.  Place on an oiled baking sheet in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes or until onion is starting to brown.

Toss the leaves in the 2 TBS olive oil (I only used 1 TBS here) and salt and pepper to taste.   Careful with the salt; the cheese is pretty salty in itself……Place the leaves on top of the stems and sprinkle with crumbled feta cheese (I only used 2 ounces instead of 4) and put the pan back in the oven for 15-20 minutes longer,

 

or until some of the leaves are starting to get crispy on the edges.

YUMMY!

Could I possibly be considered a hoarder?

I’ve not watched any of the new reality shows on hoarding, but once in a while I ask myself that question.  I do have hoarding tendencies for saving plastic plant pots (I do use them, really I do), plastic produce containers, egg cartons, fabric (she who dies with the most fabric wins) and, oh yes, my pantry is stuffed, along with the freezer.

The only thing that would even resemble a New Year’s resolution for me would be to not buy groceries, except for things like milk, bread, and that sort of thing until I get my pantry and freezer cleaned out some.  This morning was a great experiment in using up the rest of a box of blueberry muffin mix.  The muffin tins are, well, serving another purpose right now, so I used a tart dish (about 8″ dia) to bake up this really tasty blueberry muffin-type thingee.  The recipe I used goes like this:

about 3/4 cup blueberry muffin mix (whew, that box is gone from the shelf!)

1 fresh egg from the Happy Hens (I eat the ugly ones that I don’t want to sell)

1 tsp veggie oil

about 1/2 cup of (the rest of a bag of) walnuts, finely chopped in the food processor

2 T wheat bran (I really need to be using this up more often)

a big handful of FRESH blueberries (they were on sale, okay?)

a dash of milk

I sprayed the tart dish with cooking spray then put the batter in and baked at 400 for about 30 minutes.  I topped the slice I ate with, mmmmmm, cream cheese!

YUM!

This little experiment got rid of the muffin mix, a partial bag of walnuts, some of the wheat bran and some of the cream cheese that’s accumulated in the fridge.  I’ve been known to go to the grocery store, with a list, and think, “oh, I need catsup or mustard or cream cheese” so I buy it and get home just to find that I’ve already bought it.   Sometimes 2 or 3 times!  During the holidays I was making pumpkin rolls and cheese balls so I’ve got a few packages of cream cheese in the fridge.  I know some of you are guilty of that too, fess up!

 

Eggplant stuffed peppers

This year wasn’t a particularly “great” year for eggplants but there were a few harvested just before the first predicted frost.  So, I have a bag of eggplants in the fridge–what do I do with them?

Last year, or maybe the year before (time gets away, doesn’t it?) I made eggplant “meat” balls with marinara sauce and spaghetti.  They were totally edible and actually pretty good.  So, I took the eggplant–the skinny Asian eggplants–peeled them and sliced them into about 1/4″ slices or so, sprinkled them with salt and put them on a paper towel for about 20 minutes or so.  This draws the moisture out of the eggplant.  Then I pat them dry and roasted them for 20 minutes or so until they seemed kind of done.

At this point I put them in the food processor and processed them until they were ground up like, well, hamburger.  I added garlic and some onion (I need to go to the grocery store so its flakes, okay?)  Mixed this up with about 1/3 package of an 8 oz pack of cream cheese, about 1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese, and 3 pieces of sun dried tomato that were chopped up.  Oh, I also chopped up a jalapeno pepper that was laying on the counter, just for a little heat.  Mix all that together and stuff it into the pepper.  Oh yes, the pepper.  As I was harvesting all the eggplants before the predicted frost, I harvested all the peppers as well.  I had a couple of “Sweet Diablo” peppers which are just a sweet pepper that is about 5-6 inches long by 2 inches wide at the top and sweet, but not hot.  I slit the pepper, removed the pith and seeds, and stuffed with this mixture.  Then sprinkle with Panko bread crumbs and bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until they start to brown a little.  Yum, yum!

Yummy Glazed Sweet Potatoes

The farm CSA members received sweet potatoes in their shares for several weeks and several of them returned a few really good recipes for different ways to cook them.  I tried this one the other night and ooh, baby!  It’s a culinary delight 🙂

Yummy Glazed Sweet Potatoes

Preheat oven to 350

2 lbs. sweet potatoes – peeled, cubed

throw in a baking dish

Whisk together:

2T evoo

2T honey

1 t. lemon juice

1/2 t. salt

pour over and mix with sweet potatoes

Cook approx. 1 hr. stir several times

The potatoes get sticky and gooey and the lemon juice perks right out of the sweetness and says “here I am”. 

 

Get to know your veggies–Turnips

Turnips have a lowly reputation as being a rotating cover crop for corn and soybeans, as well as a livestock food.  Turnips are tasty!  Eaten raw in a salad, roasted in the oven, added to stews–turnips also add to our important daily intake of good calories.  Rather than listing all of turnip’s nutritional attributes, check out this link http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2699/2 for a full description of why you should be eating turnips.

A new recipe I just ran across sounds absolutely delicious, and it’s going to be part of my supper tonight:

Turnips and Pears

Eileen Droescher

1 lb. turnips

3 pears

unsalted butter

1 onion, peeled and sliced thinly

2/3 cup walnuts, halves

salt and pepper, to taste

1/2 lemon

fresh chopped parsley

Cut turnip in half, then into 1/4 inch thick slices. Cut
pears in half, core and cut into 1/4 inch thick slices. Saute turnips in butter
until tender and crisp. Add pears and onions. Cook while stirring mixture for
about 3 minutes. Add walnuts. Cook for 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Squeeze lemon over mixture and sprinkle with parsley.

Mr. Rooster, Sir

The Happy Hens at Wild Things Farm get a lot of attention.  One of the key players in the lives of the Happy Hens is Mr. Rooster Sir.

Mr. Rooster Sir has been with the Happy Hens ever since the beginning.  He did have a partner to watch over the chickie chicks but his partner was mean to the girls so he went bye-bye.

I’ve noticed that Mr. Rooster Sir watches over the girls constantly.  While they are busy pecking and scratching, he’s watching out, looking, ready to sound an alarm if there’s danger.

One day a hawk perched in a tree way too close to the chicken universe and Mr. Rooster Sir sounded an alarm.  All the girls scurried into their safe haven (aka chicken house) except one.  I didn’t actually see what happened, but I think the hawk actually almost made contact with her because she was hiding underneath a corner of the coop.  I gathered her up and put her back in the house with her companions.  They were upset for a day or two after that incident.

The next day after that encounter, I took fence wire and went across the pen in a zig-zag manner so birds of prey wouldn’t be able to “swoop” down and grab one of the girls.  So far it’s worked really well keeping critters from swooping.  It does take my hat off occasionally when I stand up too tall in the pen.

A few months ago one of the CSA members shared a sourdough starter with me.  I’ve been keeping it fed and tried a few bread recipes but they’ve all turned out to look and feel like one of those discus thingees they throw in the Olympics.  The chickens love testing my mess-ups!

Another observation:  Mr. Rooster Sir will stand there and wait until all the girls have gotten their piece of bread before he will even attempt to get one for himself–a true gentleman.  So appropriately named.

Back to the successful breadmaking experience.  The recipe I used makes a “sponge” from warm water, yeast, and the starter, then let it set for 10 minutes then add flour, sugar and salt, mix together and let rise for 2 hours then knead.  This is where I was messing up.  I wasn’t kneading the dough enough. Kneading sufficiently gets the gluten broken down enough to hold the dough in shape while it’s baking.  So knead, and knead, and knead until it’s really pliable and holds its shape.  I “googled” “sourdough bread not rising” and figured that out.  The bread turned out perfect.

Don’t tell the girls!

Sweet, sweet summer corn

 

One of my favorite veggies during the summer months is sweet corn.  I’ve spent more time at the farmer’s market this year than in recent years and folks sure have opinions about their sweet corn.  This year I grew white corn for the first time.  Not knowing how it was going to be received at the market, I was happy to learn that the folks in nearby Fairfield Glade absolutely love the white corn (most are transplants from the north).  The farmer’s market in town wasn’t so successful.  That crowd of customers is mostly local folks and they want either yellow or bi-color, so I brought home 30 dozen of the 50 dozen I took to town.  Oh, there were the stray few who liked white corn, but I learned a lesson.  When it comes to food, you just can’t figure people out!

Anyway, a couple of the members of the CSA shared several good-looking recipes using fresh sweet corn.   They used to buy corn from a gentlemen in Carmel, IN and these recipes are from his farm. 

Corn Souffle

3 cups corn
1 cup sour cream
1 egg
1 box Jiffy corn bread mix
1 stick margarine

Melt margarine. Stir in egg, then all other ingredients. Bake at 350º for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Corny Corn Bread

1 box Jiffy corn bread mix
2 cups corn
½ stick butter
3 tablespoons sugar

Mix together and bake in 9×9 pan for 20-30 minutes at 400º.

Corn Pudding

3 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons butter
½ cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk
2 cups corn
Salt
Pepper

Cream together eggs, butter, and sugar. Add flour and baking powder; add milk and corn. Salt and pepper to taste. Mix together all ingredients. Bake at 350º for 45-50 minutes. Note: Always bake immediately after mixing.

Baked Corn

2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
Dash pepper
3 cups corn
2 eggs
1 cup whole milk

Stir together flour, sugar, salt, and pepper into corn until blended. Beat eggs; add milk; blend into corn mixture. Pour into greased 1 ½- quart casserole. Place casserole in metal baking pan with ¼-inch water in bottom. Bake at 350º for about 1 ¼ hours or until set.

Corn Casserole

2 eggs, beaten
½ cup softened butter
1 pint sour cream
4 cups corn
1 box Jiffy corn bread mix
2 tablespoons sugar
Salt
Pepper

Mix together eggs, butter, and sour cream until well blended. Add corn and corn bread. Mix together sugar, salt, and pepper; add to egg mixture. Place in 12 x 9 inch dish. Bake at 350º for 30 to 35 minutes.

Corn Fritters

2 cups corn
½ cup milk
½ cup flour
1 tablespoon melted butter
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon baking powder
Butter or maple syrup

Mix together all ingredients; beat well. Fry in fat, similar to making pancakes. Serve with butter or maple syrup.

My favorite color today is black

I find the question “What’s your favorite color” very hard to answer.  I like all colors–it just depends on what the color is on.  Today I like black–the glossy black of yummy blackberries!

There is a patch of thornless blackberries on the farm, planted about 3 years ago.  I harvested a few berries for the on-farm pickup members last Friday, but today I picked almost a gallon of the sweet fruits for Tuesday’s share boxes.  The coffee containers like the one pictured are really handy to strap a belt through the handle, hook it around your waist, and voila!  Hands free picking 🙂

I posted a really good recipe for Blackberry Crisp last year.  It’s called “Blackberry Time in Tennessee”.  It’s easy and delicious, especially with vanilla ice cream.  Click on recipes and you’ll find it.