Harvest Dinner

My refrigerator is overrun with produce.

The cucumbers and green beans have taken over the produce drawer and a couple shelves. The broccoli is barely squeezed into a bag. The potatoes are being stored in the office, for lack of anywhere better. I'm out of space.

I admit, this isn't a bad problem to have.

I'm having to be creative to use up produce during dinners, and the other night, I hit on a particularly simple and tasty dish. To put it in perspective, I'm exceedingly critical of my own cooking - most nights, I discuss how the dish is marginal and could have been better- but I got halfway through this meal and said matter-of-factly, "This is really good!"  My husband agreed.

Green Beans, Potatoes, and Bacon

1/2 lb green beans, trimmed
5 small potatoes, cut into fourths or eighths (bite-sized)
4 pieces bacon

Boil water, and add beans and potatoes. Boil until potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes, and drain. In the meantime, cook the bacon until crispy. Chop bacon into small bits and toss bacon and 2 Tbsp drippings with the beans and potatoes. Serve warm.

This can be served as a main dish or as a side. The beans and potatoes were our main dish, and I served them with a side of corn on the cob. Although this is an almost-all-vegetable meal, it is surprisingly filling.

My favorite part? The only thing in this dinner not from our yard was the bacon. Garden WIN!

Kale Chips

Kale's a new food for me. When I first heard about it just a couple years ago, I had to look up what it was! I bought it for the first time just this year, and stuck it in the aforementioned green smoothies. I had some left over, and wanted to see what else tasty I could make with it, searched for recipes, and came upon this snack food that other food bloggers were raving about. With the few leaves left in my fridge, I had to try it.

Kale Chips

Olive oil (1-2 Tbsps)
Vinegar or apple cider vinegar (1 Tbsp)
Sea salt
Kale leaves

Tear kale into bite-sized pieces, about 1-inch pieces. Put in bowl with oil & vinegar; toss to coat. Spread on a single layer on a baking sheet and sprinkle with sea salt to taste. Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes, until crisp. Edges of leaves should be browned.

When I read a similar recipe, I didn't believe lettuce would get crisp, ever. I was highly skeptical. Amazingly, the leaves did get crisp, and were light and crispy and slightly salty like a good potato chip, but packed with good stuff, so I didn't feel bad eating all of them. In one sitting. Before dinner.

That picture is only half of the chips. I stopped eating long enough to record my experiment.

Deception at Dinner

My birthday is about a week after Christmas, so presents come fast and furious for one week on the year for me, and that's it.

I already mentioned a cookbook I got for Christmas- another came for my birthday. Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld was a gift from my sister. This was one I've heard rumblings about- it and The Sneaky Chef and their legal dispute , mostly. A blogging friend tried out some Sneaky Chef recipes with mixed results . I was ready to give it a try.

The premise of both cookbooks is making yummy, kid-friendly food healthier by including vegetable purees without affecting the flavor of the food. My husband is highly skeptical of this strategy, but says if I don't tell him about my experiments (and he really can't taste a difference), he's OK with it. So far so good.

The cookbook suggests making the purees in big batches and freezing them in smaller amounts. I made a weekend morning project of it and steamed and pureed like crazy with vegetables I had on hand. My husband's comments were "That looks  & smells really gross" since, well, green goo made from pureed broccoli isn't pretty. I froze the purees in half-cup baggies, and started scheming. As a head-start, I already have plenty of squash/pumpkin puree in my freezer, remember?

My first experiment was on myself, since I was unsure about the strategy and skeptical that the vitamin-rich additives (the vegetable puree) would actually fail to be detectable in common dishes. I was in a hurry to eat dinner Tuesday night, and I'll admit it, I made mac & cheese from the Blue Box. I skimmed the mac & cheese ideas from the cookbook and while mixing up the "cheese" sauce, I added 1/4 cup real cheddar cheese plus a couple tablespoons of squash puree. When I couldn't detect any flavor change, I added more, at least a quarter-cup, probably more. Never was I able to taste it, and I felt a little better about my otherwise-unhealthy dinner.

With that success, I was bolder last night and mixed in about a quarter cup of squash puree to the beef stew. It tinted the broth orange a bit, but, with the carrots already in the mix, it wasn't noticeable. Again, no taste was detectable. I didn't say a word to my husband, and he declared that dinner was delicious.

The Good
We're getting more nutrition in our food! We eat way-too-few vegetables, especially in the winter when there's nothing fresh coming from the garden, so the bits of extra vitamins included by mixing in vegetables to established recipes is an added bonus.

The Bad
I am really uncomfortable with the "deceptive" part of it.

The I'm-Not-Sure
The whole philosophy of Eat More Vegetables By Not Realizing You're Eating Them seems sketchy. I mean, if I want my (future theoretical) kids to grow up healthy, they need to learn to eat their veggies, and, while this definitely gets more veggies into a kid's diet, it teaches them nothing about eating said veggies. It keeping their food nutritional but doesn't aid in developing habits when they're choosing their own food.

One solution may be including purees in dishes when appropriate AND having healthy side dishes on the table- last night, we had the squash-infused beef stew with a side of absolutely-awesome roasted broccoli (recipe forthcoming). Just because there's veggies hidden in the dish doesn't mean we can't have them as a side, too! I'm not sure I'll follow many of the actual recipes in the cookbook (because, honestly, I rarely follow a recipe) but I'll probably give a couple a try, and the concept of adding vegetables purees to taste is one I'll keep experimenting with.

From Pumpkin to Pie

All summer in my garden, I complained about this stupid squash plant that took more than its share of the garden. It was a couple squash plants, actually, and the vines tried to invade every other crops space. The somewhat-spiny stems and leaves were an annoyance, and, a little later in the summer, when squash beetles descended and started killing all the vines, I was more than a little annoyed. I put up with the massive plants because I had the expectation of harvesting a plethora of squash from it- after the bugs came, I got just one lonely squash. One. And it was kind of ugly.

It did help that it was pretty huge, and made an interesting decoration piece through the fall. It case you're interested, it was of the Queensland Blue variety. Visitors made comments like "Is it supposed to be that color?" and "Oh, is that real?". Great. I get just one squash and people think it's fake. Sigh.

Anyway, I saved the heavy, ugly squash, along with a couple pumpkins of different varieties given to me by a friend, for a total of 3 pumpkins/squashes to process for Thanksgiving pumpkin pies.

The "processing" took way longer than I expected, about 4 hours one Sunday morning. The pumpkins had thin rinds, and were easy to clean out, cut up, and get roasting in the oven. The taller pumpkin (middle of the picture) had seeds looking very much like what you expect pumpkin seeds to look like- white and mostly flat. Although it had a thin rind, it never cooked until soft, and the compost pile ended up with most of this pumpkin. I was disappointed.

The green-striped pumpkin on the right had flat, green, hull-less seeds and were the most delicious of the three after roasting. It cooked in a reasonable amount of time in the oven, and ended up having a very yellow flesh that was stringy like a spaghetti squash. After a whirl in the food processor with the rest of the cooked-pumpkin pulp, the stringyness wasn't a problem, and the yellow flesh blended with the rest of the orange from the squash.

Speaking of the squash: this was the star of my "pumpkin" puree project. Whie the other two had thin rinds, this squash had a LOT of flesh:

Its seeds were rounder than the typical pumpkin seed, but I decided to roast them anyway. The flesh was VERY orange- so much so that when I finally got the silly thing cut up, my hands were looking pretty orange, too.

The picture doesn't show all the chunks of pumpkin- at this point, I've put some through the food processor already, and there's more in the microwave softening. This process took a LONG time, mainly because the orange-skinned pumpkins were in the roasting pan in the oven, so I was having to try to soften the more solid chunks from the squash in my little microwave. As I got enough softened flesh to fill my food processor, I processed it and scooped it into 2-cup bags.


End of the day: 7 bags (14 cups) of pumpkin puree. Two for Thanksgiving, 5 for the freezer. I've threatened my brother-in-law with a pumpkin pie for his birthday in June. We'll see :)

And, in case you were wondering, the Thanksgiving pies were a huge hit.

Homemade Refried Beans

When I served these for dinner last night alongside tacos, my husband took a bite and then exclaimed "Wow!" They're good, really. And not so much more difficult than scraping the refried beans out of a can. Way more tasty & healthy!

Quick Refried Beans

1 can pinto beans
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 Tbsp salsa (or more, if desired)
1 Tbsp oil

Combine everything in a food processor or blender and pulse until the desired consistency is reached. Store covered in the refrigerator or heat to serve.

One local Summer, week 7: Corn fritters & Pasta

I had been seeing quite a few recipes lately for Corn Fritters, so I decided to try it out. As a side, I whipped up some whole wheat pasta, with a tomato and garlic sauce. This was a very low-key meal, hence the paper plates and bad picture.

Because neither I nor my husband had eaten corn fritters before, we didn't know what to expect (or what they were supposed to look like!) They turned out just so-so- I think I'd need to see/eat one from someone who actually knows how to cook them, to get a better idea of what they're actually supposed to taste like.

The pasta & sauce, however, got rave reviews. My husband tasted it and let out a surprised "Mmm!". That is always a good sign. I'm always proud to use food from my garden with goo results!

Here's the local breakdown:
Local: Corn, tomatoes, basil, garlic, pasta
Not local: everything besides the corn in the corn fritters :-/ Yeah. I know. I coulda done better.

It wasn't the most local meal I've done this summer, but it was what I came up with this week. Next week, I'll be camping Tuesday through Thursday and will not be back home until Sunday, so the week's local meal is up in the air. Anyone have good local-food ideas for northwest Pennsylvania?

Poetry corner

Eat It--It's Good For You
by Mary Ann Hoberman

"Eat it--it's good for you!"
That makes me mad.
How can something good for you
Taste so bad?

"Try it. You'll like it."
I know that's a lie.
I know I won't like it
So why should I try?

"Just take a nibble.
Just one little taste."
What good is a nibble?
The rest goes to waste.

Eggplant is icky.
Spaghetti is fine.
Why can't they eat their food
And let me eat mine?

My little sister memorized this poem when she was young, and it gets stuck in my head periodically to this day. Oh, how things have changed- now my sister wouldn't touch any food that isn't certified 'good for you'.

One Local Summer, week 5: Roast Chicken & Steamed Green Beans with Tomatoes

I had my first harvest of roma tomatoes this week, and none of the tomatoes I have picked have lasted long on the counter. This week's local meal was chicken from the farmers market, green beans from the farmers market, and my first tomatoes I've ever harvested. All was delicious.

Lunch at work: Caprese Sandwich

Inspired by Monday's Betty Crocker Recipe of the Day, yesterday morning I decided to try an experiment while packing my lunch- a basil, mozzarella, and tomato sandwich.

Caprese Sandwich

1 small tomato, sliced thick
4-5 fresh basil leaves (I really like basil...)
Mozzarella cheese (fresh is better, but I only had shredded cheese)
2 slices of bread

How to pack the lunch:
Place tomato slices and basil leaves in a sandwich bag. Pack the bread and cheese separately. Put everything in the refrigerator when you get to work. Put your name on it, if you're afraid someone will steal it.

At work, I have access to a toaster and a toaster oven. When lunchtime came, I placed the tomato slices in the toaster oven (set to "broil") topped with basil and cheese, to melt the shredded cheese. If you're using fresh mozzarella, this would be unnecessary. Toast the bread. Pile everything into the sandwich. Enjoy a fresh, gourmet sandwich from the comfort of your office breakroom. Observe how jealous your coworkers are.

One Local Summer, week 1: Beer Brats and Beans

What if I had an alliteration title for my local meal every week? That would be awesome.

This week, I walked to and from the farmers market- about 25 minutes each way. It was a great way to start a Saturday morning. Among other things (that I will get to later), I bought two sunflowers at a flower stand at the market, and the two big yellow flowers poking their faces out of my tote bag made everyone I passed on the way home smile and say hello. How can you not smile when faced with a sunflower? Sigh. I'm such a sucker for sunflowers.

On a more practical level, I bought eggs and green beans and broccoli and locally-made pasta*. Later Saturday, in the midst of a rainstorm, we went to Joe's Butcher Shop and bought local meat- sausages and bratwurst and tenderloins. Last time we bought bratwursts there, they were delicious, but my husband really wanted to cook them right- and every recipe he has found says to boil the brats in beer before grilling them, to maintain their flavor better. We don't drink, so don't keep beer in the house, but we picked up a local beer to try to 'properly' cook these for dinner.

The brats were boiled in the Upland Brewing Company beer for a while- I didn't keep track, because my husband was taking pride in cooking us dinner. Contrary to the name, the Upland Brewing Company is not based in Upland, Indiana, but in Bloomington. Although there are colleges based in both towns, I suppose they have more customers in Bloomington :)

While the brats were cooking, I made the green beans as a side. there is something therapeutic about the repetitive motion of snapping snap beans. Perhaps it is the memories I have of huddling over a bowl with my mother and grandmother as a child, going through the same motion. I steamed the beans then tossed with dill from my balcony garden.

All in all, a delicious meal. And local!

* I asked the pasta chef if there was such thing as locally-produced flour, figuring he would know. He said no, there's not local flour, or "none produced in a usable quantity". What's a One Local Summer girl to do? Not worry about it, I suppose. I might make my own bread some this summer, or try to go low carb... we shall see.

Fresh salsa

1 lb tomatoes, diced
1 small onion, finely diced
juice of 1 lime
2 serrano chilies (stems, ribs, seeds removed), finely diced
about 1/2 C fresh cilantro, chopped

Dice tomatoes & onions. Be very careful when cutting the chilies- use a fork and a knife, or, if you must touch it, guard your hand with gloves or a paper towel and wash with soap and water afterwards. Don't touch your eyes.

Combine tomatoes, onions, chilies, and cilantro, top with lime juice and toss. Let flavors combine in the refrigerator for at least an hour before serving. Makes about three cups. In my case, it was an appetizer for 10 with none left over (It lasted through a bag and a half of tortilla chips).

Simple Steamed Veggies

It may sound silly- obvious, even- the simplicity of the steamed vegetable as a side dish. Unfortunately, I did not discover this beauty right off the bat. Our 'quick and easy' side to a meal consisted of throwing a few pieces of prepackaged frozen garlic bread into the oven. Tasty and filling, for sure, but, nutritionally, this was 'filler' rather than a proper addition to the meal. Periodically we'd eat canned or frozen corn or green beans, but that was about it.

Finally, I picked up some fresh vegetables at the grocery store. It may have been beans or broccoli, I don't remember. I discovered this pot my mom had given me a long while back- I think I had used it once or twice as a spaghetti pot, think it was neat that it had a built-in strainer. In case you haven't guessed- no, that is not its intended purpose. The pot is a vegetable steamer, used by putting about an inch of water in the bottom, bring it to a boil, then putting the perforated insert in the pot with the vegetables. Cover and let steam for less than 5 minutes, and it's done. Unlike cooking pasta, boiling the water doesn't take long because there's so little of it. Cooking the vegetables minimally enhances color and maintains nutrients. Quick and Easy. And Good for You!
Here's my favorite way to steam broccoli, inspired by Elise & Stephen:

Garlic & Basil Broccoli
1-2 heads of broccoli
2 Tbsp margarine
Garlic salt to taste
Dried basil to taste

Fill a pot with a steamer basket with 1 inch of water and set on the stove to boil. While waiting, cut the bottom 1/2 of the broccoli stem and discard (This is usually hard and no fun to eat.) Using a vegetable peeler, peel the stem the best you can to remove the tough skin. Cut the "trees" off and into similarly-sized florets. Cut the rest of the stem into pieces with a similar thickness as the stems on the florets. Place the broccoli in the steamer basket.

When the water in the pot is boiling, insert the steamer basket with vegetables, and cover. Let steam for about 5 minutes- use a timer. Overcooked broccoli is not only mushy, it's not as good for you.

Turn hot broccoli into a bowl and toss with margarine. Sprinkle garlic salt and basil to taste and toss. Serve immediately.

1 medium-sized head of broccoli makes two very generous servings.