Stuffed Cabbage

This recipe comes straight from my mom. For as along as I can remember, she's been making stuffed cabbage. It's one of her many dishes that I love eating, and for me, it's definitely comfort food. Wrapping the cabbage was a bit more difficult than anticipated, but besides that, this dish is fairly easy to make! Plus, it freezes very well...so no need to worry about finishing the leftovers quickly.

Stuffed Cabbage

Ingredients:

• 1 head cabbage
• 1 1/2 lbs ground meat (I used turkey)
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup minute rice
• 1 egg
• 6 cups tomato juice
• 3 Tbl chopped onion
• butter/margarine 

Directions:

1. Steam cabbage, either in microwave or on the stove. When cool, remove leaves. 

2. Sautee onion over medium heat until translucent. Set aside.

3. Mix together meat, salt, rice, egg, 3 cups tomato juice, and sauteed onion.

4. Scoop approximately 1/4 cup of meat mixture into cabbage leaf. Wrap and place in large pot. Continue until all meat is used.

5. When all cabbage has been placed in the large pot, pour in remaining tomato juice. Dot with butter.

6. Bring to boil, cover, simmer for about an hour.

Before...

...and after!

Turnip Head

This post is dedicated to Charlie Pace, the former member of Drive Shaft...and a fictional character from the TV show Lost. Every time I hear the word "turnip", I immediately think of Charlie, and how he always referred to Claire's baby as "turnip head". Sigh. There have been few TV show characters that have brought me to tears, and I'm not sure why I got so attached to him. Was it because he was a musician? Reformed bad boy? I "lost" it during this scene:

NOT PENNY'S BOAT

Poor turnip head would never have anyone call him by that name again! The only other TV character I grew attached to was Dr. Mark Greene from ER. Why did he have to die so dramatically? For a while after the episode of with his death, I would start to tear up when I heard Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwoʻole's version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". So lame. Anyway, I digress...

Have you ever had any meal with turnips? My husband and I racked our brains and couldn't remember ever eating one. Cookbooks were no help - there were hardly any recipes in the index under turnips, and the ones that did exist didn't sound too appetizing (i.e. our experience with braised radishes - not in the mood to braise any other vegetables any time soon). What do you do with a bunch of turnips. One bunch = 3 medium sized turnips. Not really enough for a full meal/side dish. What can you make with 3 turnips? How about mashed turnips? Sounds easy enough (and it was)!

Mashed Turnips

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch turnips
• 1 Tbl butter
• ground nutmeg, ground cloves, salt, and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Peel turnips and chop into large pieces.

2. Bowl water in a medium pot. Add turnips when boiling, and cook until tender, 10-15 minutes. Drain and return turnips to pot. Remove from heat.

3. Add butter. With a fork, mashed the turnips. Add seasonings, to taste.

We really didn't have much to eat of the mashed turnips, since our bunch was so small. It tasted really great. Next time, I'd make a gratin with other root vegetables.

CSA Week #3 & Kale Chips

The theme of this week's recipes is freezer-friendly or simple recipes that use few ingredients. Here's what I picked up on this rainy day from the farmer's market:

Other options at the CSA included lettuce, swiss chard, easter egg radishes, broccoli, and kohlrabi. What the heck is kohlrabi? I am hoping it will be around in 2 weeks so that I can try it out. Next week, I will sadly (ok, maybe not so sadly!) be on vacation, so there will be no CSA pick up to blog about.

Tonight, the kale was turned into kale chips, one of our go-to recipes. It's very simple and quick....it takes longer to make the kale chips than to eat them. They always seem to disappear approximately 30 seconds after they come out of the oven.

Kale Chips

Ingredients:

• kale
• olive oil
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 ºF. Wash and dry the kale thoroughly. If using full bunches of kale, tear or chop the kale into smaller pieces, making sure to remove the stems completely.

2. Place kale on a baking sheet. Add salt and pepper, to taste. Drizzle with olive oil. Mix until kale is evenly coated.

3. Bake kale in oven for 20-30 minutes, until crispy. 

This recipe is very simple and requires only a few ingredients that are staples in most kitchens. It meets the requirements of an easy meal! Kale chips can be served with anything - burgers, baked chicken, soup, or by themselves. It's an easy, delicious, and healthy snack, too. Kale chips don't store very well...but they also seem to get eaten very quickly, so storage shouldn't be a huge problem. Just eat them all, you know you want to!

Week #2 Recap

Week #2 of the CSA allowed us to make mostly familiar dishes. Lettuce, broccoli, and strawberries are all pretty much staples (even though we hardly ever buy fresh broccoli!) so it was not too difficult to come up with meals with those items.

Strawberries

Churn, baby, churn!

Three words: strawberry. ice. cream. Nothing says summer like homemade ice cream made from fresh strawberries. If anyone would like to argue this, I urge you to take a spoonful from our freezer. Hurry up, though, because this frozen bite of heaven won't be around for ever. There's nothing wrong with eating ice cream for breakfast, right? It counts as a serving of fruit...maybe? The recipe for this came from The Joy of Cooking, 8th Edition. This cookbook never fails to provide delicious meals. Go out and grab a copy!

Broccoli

Speaking of The Joy of Cooking, the next recipe we made with our CSA produce was Cream of Broccoli soup, served alongside unremarkable beer bread (I'm blaming the bland taste on beer that was 6 months old). The soup was amazing and very easy to make - celery, onions, broccoli, vegetable broth, a little bit of flour, and some whole milk. This recipe requires a blender or food processor - I prefer mine a little chunky, so we did not fully blend the soup. The beer bread tasted great with the soup, but it was not very flavorful. The Cream of Broccoli soup is definitely a keeper...there were no leftovers from this meal! Beer bread deserves a second chance, but next time I'll use a more recently bottled beer.

Radishes

Spring Radishes Braised with Shallots and Vinegar - served with baked chicken

Radishes...what to say about the radishes? The radish leaf pesto (see previous post) was really good - there were no leftovers from that meal, either! It was easy to make and tasted great. After scouring the Internet for a cooked radish recipe, we found this one: Spring Radishes Braised with Shallots and Vinegar. The next day, we made braised radishes with shallots and balsamic vinegar. Braising is a cooking technique where the main ingredient is first seared, then liquid is added to the pan along with a cover, and the ingredient finishes cooking in the liquid. Usually this is done with meat. The braised radishes were alright- the balsamic reduction was very tasty, but anything topped with this sauce would be delicious.

Final thoughts on radishes: probably would never go out of my way to buy them, but now we have some radish recipes if we are ever gifted a bunch. I'll probably stick to eating radishes raw in salads.

Lettuce

So much for being adventurous with lettuce! As always, this just got used up in salads and on sandwiches. One day, lettuce will be made into something more daring!

Radish Leaf Pesto Pasta

During the fall of my junior year of college, I had the amazing opportunity to study abroad in one of the most beautiful cities in the world - Florence, Italy. This was one of the best times in my life, and I have been dying to go back! Being surrounded by my best friends, delicious food and wine, and gorgeous art and architecture made it close to impossible to leave at the end of the semester. One of the best parts of the study abroad program was all of the extra-curricular activities that they arranged for students: day trips to other cities, tickets to soccer games, wine tastings, volunteering in the community, and cooking classes (side note: the other highlights include a 3-week orientation in Lido di Camaiore, a beach resort town, and the most delicious meal plan).

Firenze...la città più bella del mondo

The cooking classes were always the fastest to fill up - no surprise there! I learned some of the most delicious recipes in those classes, including a recipe for one of the best Italian soups, papa al pomodoro (recipe will be in a later post - maybe when tomatoes come in the CSA!). One of my favorite classes that I took was a pesto class, where we made a traditional basil pesto and a Sicilian pesto with tomatoes and sardines, different yet delicious. Pesto itself just means "to grind with a mortar and pestle", so any type of sauce made via this method is considered pesto. In an attempt not to waste anything from our CSA, we used the leaves from our radishes to make...

Radish Leaf Pesto

Ingredients:

• leaves from one bunch of radishes, rinsed with stems removed
• 2 garlic cloves
• 3 Tbl olive oil, more to taste
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, more to taste
• salt and pepper
• optional: 1 can tuna (not shown)

Directions:

1. Place garlic cloves and olive oil in food processor. Process until garlic is finely chopped.

2. Add radish leaves, process until mixture begins to form a paste.

3. Add cheese, salt and peper to taste, and additional olive oil, if needed.

4. Pour over pasta and add tuna. Enjoy!

The pesto was surprisingly really good! On its own, it tasted a little more bitter than traditional basil pesto, but on pasta it tasted great. To be honest, I had to google if radish leaves were poisonous before we ate dinner - good news, they're not! So far, this has been the most creative dish we've made from the produce from our CSA...it's only week 2, so who knows what we'll be making by Thanksgiving!

CSA Week #2

This week's CSA consisted of two oldies (lettuce and strawberries) and two newcomers:

Radishes & Broccoli

The broccoli was a new addition to this week's selection. Other choices included kale, more lettuce, and chard. I wonder what yummy things will come of from these fruits and veggies??

Week #1 Recap

Week #1 of our CSA went by really quickly (and deliciously)! We were able to make 3 meals (with plenty of leftovers) with the produce that we received. Here's what we made...and some notes for future meals:

Quinoa with Kale, Black Beans, Corn, and Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 cup quinoa, rinsed and dried
• 2 cups water
• 1 cube vegetable bouillon, for additional flavor
• 1/2 bunch kale, washed and dried
• 1 can (15 oz.) black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 cup frozen corn, thawed
• 2 cups grilled chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• salt and pepper
• olive oil

Directions:

1. Place quinoa in sauce pan with water and bouillon. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce to simmer. Cook quinoa as directed, approximately 15-20 minutes.

2. Pour 1 tbl of olive oil into medium skillet. Heat to medium. Add kale, cooking for 10 minutes, until wilted. Add black beans, corn, and chicken to warm.

3. When the quinoa is done, add into skillet, with cumin. Stir until combined. Enjoy!

Serves: 4

I added half a steamed sweet potato to my bowl of quinoa - optional but delicious.

Leek and Swiss Chard Tart

(from: http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2008/01/leek-and-swiss-chard-tart/)

I won't post the recipe here, since you can easily find it on the link above from Smitten Kitchen. I did not have any thyme, so I substituted it for parsley, which gave the dish a fresh flavor. I also do not have a tart or pie pan. Instead, I used a springform pan.

We ate our tart with a salad - the lettuce from our CSA. This was my favorite meal of the week...until we ate:

Spaghetti with Kale, Swiss Chard, & Goat Cheese

Ingredients:

• 1/4 box spaghetti
• 1/2 bunch kale, washed
• 1/2 bunch swiss chard, washed and de-ribbed
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese
• olive oil

Directions:

1. Prepare spaghetti as directed by box.

2. Pour 1 tbl of olive oil into medium skillet. Heat to medium. Add onion and garlic, cook 5-10 minutes, until translucent.

3. Add kale and swiss chard. Cook until wilted, approximately 10 minutes.

4. When spaghetti is done, add into skillet. Stir well to combine all ingredients. Add goat cheese and stir , to melt the goat cheese onto the pasta.

5. If desired, add additional goat cheese (as pictured), enjoy!

Lettuce

The lettuce was used in salads and on sandwiches all week long. If we get lettuce again, I would try to find other uses for it, such as grilling the lettuce.

Strawberries

The strawberries were SO delicious that we ate them in a day. If we get them again, I would like to make either strawberry ice cream or jam.

Tomorrow we will get 4 new crops from our CSA...wonder what we will get! 

CSA Haul #1

Our CSA has started - wahoo! I have been waiting for this day for the last few months and it is finally here!!

The muffin was not included in the CSA, but it looked too delicious to turn down from the baked goods table!

Strawberries, lettuce, and kale are staples in our kitchen, so we shouldn't have a problem eating them...but rainbow chard? I have never cooked with this vegetable before, so I will be making recipes that star this ingredient. Loyal readers (Mom, Leah, Sarah, Annie) - do you have any recipes or ideas for rainbow chard?

The other vegetables that were available this week included 2 other types of lettuce, collard greens, and radishes. We were allowed to take up to 3 pints of strawberries, which was extremely tempting. I am looking forward to next week's harvest and to enjoying these delicious fruits and veggies until then!

Stay tuned for rainbow chard recipes!