CSA plant sale goodies!

Yesterday we went to the CSA plant sale to pick up some seedlings from Farmer Rich. I wrote a post last year about it, and about how I think it’s cool to buy from our local farmer instead of a big box store. It was nice to chat about what we’re growing, how the weather affects it, and just talk with the guy who grows the food I eat.

Mostly I like to get Farmer Rich’s herbs. I haven’t had the best luck with herbs, and his are so, so healthy. We do get herbs in our weekly share, but it’s usually just one herb, and I like to have the little herb garden so I can just walk outside and snip off whatever I need.

This is the variagated mint. Isn’t it beautiful the way the leaves change from green to yellowish and then back to green?

Here’s the mint potted in an old colander.

Here’s the herb garden in a new window box we picked up today…

In there we’ve got oregano, lemon basil (which smells so good that I got two, one to keep in the house), sage (not pictured, I put it in after this photo), thyme, rosemary, and parsley.

I also got eggplants again, and Tita Leonore asked for a pepper plant (we’ve both had serious woes with germination of peppers this year), so I got a golden pepper plant. And, when we got there, we had an impulse buy: brussels sprouts! They weren’t listed on the online order form, and I can’t wait to see them grow. They are so cool looking.

My peas are being actual peas! Despite the fact that I thought they were all going to die because they got so drowned in the storms, they are producing.

You can see that some of the plant got damaged from the overwatering, but if you look in the left half of the picture, you also see a peapod!

The carrots are also getting very serious. We are so tempted to pull one and see where they’re at. We’re going out of town this week, so that will alleviate some of the temptation for a bit, and I think when we get back it will be time to check one out.

There’s more work for me to do out there, but it was hot and I didn’t want to wear myself out. Next time…

Getting excited for gardening.

I know that there’s approximately two feet of snow on the ground, but I’m getting excited for gardening already. And, quite honestly, if you’re in my area (zone 6) and you’re planning to grow some veggies that enjoy cooler weather, like kale, cabbage, broccoli, and brussels sprouts, it’s time to start ordering seeds! If you’ll be doing indoor starts like I am, it’s actually going to be time to begin those for the cool weather veggies very soon.

One thing that’s going to be different about the way I garden this year is that I’ll primarily be doing container gardening instead of planting things directly in the ground. This is because we’ll likely be moving sometime during the growing season, and I don’t want to give up gardening entirely. I’m not sure when we’ll be moving, or if the space we’ll be moving to will have a garden, or access to a community garden, or if I’ll just be able to have some containers, but having containers will be my bare minimum, so I figure I’ll be able to take them along.

Last year some of my big problems with my garden were timing (I started much too late) and pests, particularly a groundhog, and I think that will be alleviated a bit by planting in containers and keeping them in areas where he’s not comfortable going, like our deck. I need to get my hands on some containers, so if any of my buddies who read this have some that they’re not planning to use, I’d love it!

Here’s the design I came up with for my containers. (Yeah, I made a cute little sketch… sometimes I miss art school, ok?)

In case that’s illegible, or you’re a person with a visual impairment, it’s a picture of a rubbermaid container. I’ll be drilling holes in the bottom (or taking someone’s that they don’t want anymore because it has a crack in the bottom) so that it has drainage. The back side of it has chickenwire that is supported with simple wood poles on either end, and that will be my trellis for things like peas and beans! I’ll also have a thin pipe that will go to the bottom of the container that I’ll water the plants through, since from what I’ve read, if you water from the bottom, the roots are more likely to grow down instead of spreading out, which is really ideal for small spaces like container plants. Pretty neat, right? Is there anything I’m forgetting or that you can think of to improve about it?

I got my seeds this year from a really incredible local source. I joined the Hudson Valley Seed Library, and when you join, you get 10 free packs of seeds. I chose almost all things that can go in containers in case we move (one or two things can’t really, but I couldn’t resist).

Here’s a picture of all my seed packets laid out. Some of them are “garden packs” from responsible wholesalers, “art packs” that have beautiful designs by New York artists, and “library packs,” which have seeds grown right here in the Hudson Valley by small, sustainable farms. I can even send some seeds back that I’ve saved after my harvest this year!

Here’s what I got:

• Royal Burgandy Bush Beans

• Shirofumi Edamame Soybeans

• Di Ciccio Broccoli

• Parisian Carrots

• Forest Green Parsley

• Vates Blue Curled Kale

• Dinokale

• Tom Thumb Lettuce

• Sugar Ann Snap Pea

• Doe Hill Peppers

• Sugar Baby Watermelon

• Long Island Cheese Pumpkin (Google a picture of these, they’re cute)

I also have Bloomsdale Spinach and Purple Vienna Kohlrabi, and a Painted Daisy Art Pack that I already ordered from them, as well as the a beautiful variety Radish Art Pack that they sent to people who signed up for membership. :)

Cool weather growing starts sooner than you’d think! I’m also thinking of buying a fruit tree, like an apple tree, to keep in a container, but I’m working on finding the right orchard and the right variety (dwarf, self-pollinating, with apples that are versatile and/or store well). So, lots of research is going into that. I know that I won’t get fruit from it right away, but it’s a long-term investment that I’m happy to make. And if, for some reason, I were to move someplace that apples didn’t do well, or I absolutely couldn’t live someplace where I had space for a dwarf container tree on a balcony, it’s the type of thing that I’d be happy giving to a good home… I mean, wouldn’t you be delighted to get a tiny apple tree in a pot as a gift?

Anyone else thinking about gardening yet? What zone are you in? What are you going to grow?

Lentil Leftovers Hand Pies

Usually I try to post things that are my own brilliant ideas, creative creations, or invented recipes, but this week, I saw something someone else had made and I just had to make it and share it with everyone.

First, a confession: I am the worst person at making the most ridiculous, giant pots of soup on the planet. They come out delicious and wonderful, but… in obscene quantities. I put on some stock simmering, then chop up some of this vegetable, then decide that some of that vegetable could go in, then, OOH, I didn’t realize we had some of this left! and so on and so forth. And then the beans and the grains expand more than you thought they would, you have to transfer to a bigger pot, et cetera, et cetera. Even when I try to make a small batch of soup, we have leftovers for days.

And that’s what happened this week. It had been raining for days and the forecast said more rain. It was cold in our house. So I made a thick lentil stew with veggies from the farm share. (This is your recipe, if you’re wanting one…) An onion. Some garlic. A potato. A couple of carrots. Some miscellaneous greens (beet greens and something else that I’ve never been able to identify but tastes mildly cabbagey). Some barley. A giant, ripe heirloom tomato. Most of a cup of lentils. I threw it together with some bullion cubes and a few bay leaves, some parsley and thyme from the garden, and let it all cook down for a long while.

The soup was great, and incredibly filling, which is why there was way too much soup. Another contributing factor was that Charlie stopped by our favorite local bakery to pick up some hearty marbled rye bread to go with it. So, in our fridge there was a big container of leftovers.

And that day, The Cast-Iron Darling posted a recipe for Chili Hand Pies made with leftover chili.

Brilliant! Perfect! It’s a rare treat to find empanadas that are vegetarian, let alone hand pies. I thought about mixing in some cumin and making the lentils more like a taco filling, and I thought about putting some cheese in there, but in the end, I just left them alone. I made a pie crust from scratch using (you guessed it) Charlie’s Consistent Win Pie Crust, except I used half whole wheat flour and half all purpose flour. I would have tried out The Cast Iron Darling’s recipe, but it required eggs and we had zero, which is also why there is no eggwash on my hand pie.

I got about six out of Charlie’s recipe, though I still have lentil stew left and am thinking of making another round.

Charlie and I had them for dinner one night, and I also had one for a snack after I’d frozen them. I put it in the microwave for two minutes and it came out perfectly. The crust stayed crusty and everything.

Thanks, Cast-Iron Darling, for this awesome idea!

Slow Cooker Heirloom Tomato Sauce

No, I still haven’t learned how to can.

Yes, I am seriously considering buying stuff to can with, especially since I love apple picking and Charlie can’t really eat raw apples, which leaves us with dozens and dozens of apples for hahas.

But, that has not stopped me from making tomato sauce! Two or three times now, actually. It’s even more worth it since we have a slow cooker that does the majority of the work for me.

You see, we’ve been getting a ton of tomatoes in our farm share nearly every week. Sometimes they’re in beautiful condition, and sometimes they’re a bit soft. We’ve been averaging at least two pounds a week, and sometimes we’ve been getting as many as four pounds a week, and that is a lot of tomatoes for two people to go through. Seeing as the strongest cultural background that I have is Italian (I have other roots, too, but none of those relatives are really around or celebrate their backgrounds), I figured that I should really learn to make an awesome tomato sauce.

This tomato sauce is pretty awesome.

Starting with really flavorful tomatoes is key. The heirloom tomatoes we’ve been getting from the farm are beautiful, in all different colors – yellow, orange, green zebra, deep reds. All of them have deep flavors. If you don’t want to go through the trouble, you can start with tomatoes from a can, but whatever you do, don’t pick sad, pale tomatoes from the store. Pick ones that are vibrant, like romas or on-the-vine tomatoes.

Now, the part that’s the biggest pain in the ass is peeling the tomatoes. Most of you probably know the trick of boiling a pot of water, dunking the tomatoes in for about a minute, and then fishing them out. The skins come right off after that. It works even better if you slice an X into the bottom before you stick them in the pot.

If you’ve got a decent food processor or immersion blender, though, and you’re low on spoons, time, or energy, you can make a more rustic sauce by just throwing the tomatoes in with the skins on. Yeah, skins, seeds, whatever. I had Bo’s immersion blender that he forgot at my house and decided to go for it, and it turned out just as awesome. Make sure you wash the tomatoes first if you’re going to go this route, cut out the stem, and this would be a good time to choose organic, since you’ll be eating the skin (tomatoes are a good time to choose organic, anyway, since the skin is so thin that the chemicals are said to leech through, as opposed to something like an orange or a banana that has a tougher skin that we usually don’t eat).

Here’s what my tomatoes looked like one of the times that I decided to peel them…

Ingredients

3-4 pounds fresh heirloom tomatoes, chopped (skins removed/seeded if you’d like)
1 stalk celery, minced
1 whole onion, finely chopped
4 mushrooms, chopped
1/2 small pepper, finely chopped
3 large cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons fresh basil
3 tablespoons fresh oregano
1/4 cup fresh parsley
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
black pepper
1 tablespoon earth balance (you can use butter, too)
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup wine
1/2 can of organic tomato paste (optional)

Directions

As always, slow cookers have vastly different times, so take this with a grain of salt and do what you think will be best for your slow cooker. Usually when I try a new slow cooker recipe, I stay at home for the first time making it, and then I’ll “set it and forget it” for future excursions.

Sautee the garlic in a pan in a bit of oil on medium heat for about one minute. Add the onions and cook for 2-3 minutes or until translucent. Remove from heat.

Dump the tomatoes, celery, onions, garlic, mushrooms, pepper, olive oil, wine, and bay leaves into the slow cooker. Wait until later on to decide if you want the tomato paste.

Cook on low for about 6 hours. If your sauce is looking pretty soupy (mine usually does), remove the lid and cook on high for about an hour, stirring occasionally.

I keep telling myself that I’m going to put in some tomato paste, and I have a can stashed in the cupboard, but the tomatoes have been so flavorful and rich that I haven’t had to. If yours come out a bit bland, though, it’s a good way to give it a bit of a concentrated punch.

Once it’s cooked down, you can salt and pepper to taste, add the tomato paste if you need it, toss that little pat of butter or earth balance in, and add in all your fresh herbs. You can let it simmer for a bit longer, but not too long, as you don’t want to degrade the herbs too much. Use it immediately, freeze it, or put it in a jar in the fridge and use it in a couple of days.

Buying seedlings, but not from a giant corporation.

I’ve decided to buy some seedlings.

*gasp*

I know, I know. This whole time I’ve been talking about starting everything from seed. It’s better to start from seed because then you don’t risk bringing in the diseases and pests that might be hanging around your local Lowe’s or gardening center. Besides, the seedlings at our local Lowe’s looked pretty badly taken care of the last time we were there.

So, what put it in my head to buy seedlings, then?

Well, it’s almost June. June is when our CSA deliveries begin! Yay! We’re excited to have the fresh vegetables come in while my tiny seedlings are still attempting to grow. I went to our CSA’s webpage the other day to see if they’d decided on a start date for our deliveries yet (they haven’t – it all depends on the veggies) and what did I find but the annual heirloom tomato sale.

I’m not really interested in growing tomatoes. We get a ton of gorgeous tomatoes once the share starts coming in, and our friend Justin has been working on growing his tomatoes for months already, so his are going to be fabulous. We’re going to do some veggie swapping with him for sure, assuming that I’m able to get some veggies out of my seedlings.

A little poking around on the website made me realize that they have other seedlings, too, not just tomatoes. Obviously, these are people whose growing practices I support – I can’t wait to eat the food they grow this summer! It’s also a way for me support the farm a bit more since they do so much for the members. We really have one of the best shares around this area, in my opinion.

I am, of course, also a little nervous still about how small some of my seedlings are still, especially the herbs. I’m hoping that they’ll all prosper and be awesome, but buying some seedlings is another way for me to guarantee that we’ll have a crop of veggies in our backyard this year. Charlie and I talked it over a bit, and at the terrific price the CSA was offering – $3.00 a seedling/set of seedlings, depending on the plant, with a 16.5% discount if you buy at least $30 worth, we decided to go for it. (I don’t really know what they’re supposed to cost, but for super organic plants that are leaps and bounds ahead of mine, that are also contributing to the well-being of all the happy veggies I’ll get all summer, it seems quite fair.) They’ll come in 3″ pots and they’ll already be 6-8″ tall!

So what did I buy? Mostly herbs! Our thyme and marjoram are doing ok, but not fantastic, and our rosemary is doing pretty well if not a little spindly. I was planning to start the other herbs from seed outdoors when it got warm, but since the other ones have come up so damn slowly, I decided to secure my awesome herb garden a bit more. I bought five basil seedlings (large leaf Italian variety) – we’re going to be making some awesome pesto to put up for later in the year, two Greek oregano seedlings, one extra German thyme seedling, just in case, and two moss curly parsley seedlings.

And, since I couldn’t help myself, I decided to get two black beauty eggplant seedlings. We grill those suckers all the time in the summer, and probably will even more frequently since Charlie just got a brand new fancy grill for his birthday. I think I’m going to grow those in containers, but I need to do a little bit more research first. I’m hoping that Farmer Rich will be at the pickup on Saturday to give me a bit of advice!

The downside is that we missed the date for the pickup that’s near us, but the upside is that we get to go for a nice drive in the “country” and possibly stop in to see our friends Teresa and Mikey, who live not too far from the plant pickup location and are moving all the way to Texas next week.

Lentils for Lamb Shepherd’s Pie

Finally updated with a picture! It’s not the most gorgeous thing to photograph, but it tastes amazing!

When our vegan friend Milo from California was living in New York for a few months, he came to our house often. We made some righteous rice and beans on numerous occasions, and maybe had a stirfry once or twice, but we were looking for something more innovative one night, so I came up with this. I remembered seeing a jar of red lentils in my cabinet at the time, so I figured I could substitute them for the meat that’s usually found in a traditional shepherd’s pie.

When we made this originally, I did most of the research, and Charlie did most of the cooking, and we all (me, Charlie, my sister, and Milo) did lots of eating. This recipe was delicious, and the portions were hearty. We all had seconds, and Milo and my sister each took a portion to work the next day. It was great for us for four hungry people and leftovers, so if you want a less serious amount, I’d suggest cutting it in half. The yield was about two 9-inch square casserole dishes.

One of these days I’m going to try to convert this recipe for my crockpot, because I think it would be amazing, even if it came out a little… less neat? Heheh. I’ll update when I do.

Here’s what it looks like during the assembly process.

Ingredients

1 cup of red lentils, soaked in cold water for 40 minutes
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 medium carrots, chopped
2 sticks of celery, chopped
1/2 package sliced mushrooms
1 small can of corn (or 1 cup of frozen corn)
[1Tbsp of finely chopped fresh parsley - we didn't have this ingredient, but I'm sure it's tasty]
1 28oz canned of whole tomatoes, chopped
1 teaspoon of dried rosemary
1 teaspoon of dried thyme
1 1/2 cups of water
1 1/2 tsp of sea salt
2 Tbsp olive oil

Special equipment: baking casseroles or ramekins

6 large yellow potatoes, peeled and quartered
1-2 tablespoons earth balance
1 tsp of sea salt
Cheddar cheese for grating (optional, ours was vegan)

Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 350F.

Drain the lentils. Set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook until translucent. Add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds. Add the celery, carrots, and corn. Cook for about 5 minutes.

Add the salt and chopped tomatoes to the mixture. Stir well and then simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the water and the red lentils, then lower heat and simmer for about 10 minutes or until liquid reduces. (The recipe called for 25 minutes of simmer, but since we made our mashed potatoes vegan, they were a bit drier so we wanted our lentil mixture to be wetter, and this adjustment came out just fine.)

Add the herbs and stir well. Taste the mixture and add more salt if necessary.

Meanwhile, boil the potatoes until soft (about 20 minutes).

Drain the potatoes and then add olive oil and salt. Set aside.

Once the liquid from the lentils has reduced, spoon them into the ramekins and then gently spread the mashed potato on top. Grate on the cheese, if using, and then bake pies in the oven for 20 minutes or until the potato has formed a crust. If not using cheese, cover with aluminum foil for the first 15 minutes of cooking so the potatoes don’t dry out too much.

Remove the pies from the oven and then serve. To reheat the pies, simply put them in the oven for 10-15 minutes on 350F.

Serve with a mixed green salad.

Make-Ahead Mac&Cheese with Herbs and Chard

I’ve been trying to get ahead on making meals for the freezer again, for nights when I’m not feeling well, for nights when Charlie and I are tired, for nights when Charlie doesn’t get home from school until ten o’clock at night. I’ve reached out to some of my friends to help me fill my freezer, but there is a space sometimes between good intentions and executions, so I’m trying to get at least a few in there on my own.

So yesterday, in my infinite wisdom of completely overdoing things and being far too tired after, I decided to make some meals, even though I’d already prepared a variation on Mock Morrocan Lentils and Rice for dinner (and leftovers), and even though I’d already made cinnamon raisin yeast bread in the morning.

I went with macaroni and cheese, since it’s delicious and comforting, and we had cheese and pasta in the house. I don’t feel that a meal is complete without a vegetable, though, so I had to throw something in there. Usually, for us, it’s broccoli, but we were totally out of that. I did, however, have some dark green chard with bright red stems that came in this week’s farm share.

I wondered if it had been done before, and some googling told me that it had. I only looked at one recipe, and it suggested that I boil the chard first. I was going for simplicity, though, not to mention that I just hate when veggies are wimpy, limp, and lacking nutrition. The gooey sauce that I make will surely soften the chard just from being on it, and the time in the oven should take care of the rest. I risked it and just heaped it in, shredded into small pieces.

I’m guessing that this is going to make about 4 generous servings (two nights of dinner for Charlie and I), or, more likely, 4 regular servings plus two lunchtime portions, especially if it’s served with a salad or something.

Ingredients

1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon rosemary
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon sage
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, finely chopped
1/2 cups chopped, de-stemmed chard (or spinach, kale, or similar dark greens)
1 box whole wheat rotini pasta
2 tablespoons butter
2 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
8 oz sharp cheddar cheese, shredded*
4 oz jack cheese, shredded*
4 oz extra sharp cheddar cheese, shredded*
*I often don’t bother shredding, as it’s time-consuming. I’ll just quickly cut up a block of cheese into small chunks or strips.

Directions

Prepare pasta according to package directions. Keep warm.

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Whisk in flour until smooth. Cook, whisking constantly, for about 2 minutes. Gradually whisk in milk, and cook for 5 minutes or until thickened, whisking constantly. Stir in about 3/4 of the shredded cheese, continuing to stir until the cheese is melted and the sauce is smooth. (If the cheese isn’t melting, turn up the heat a tiny bit at a time.) Add the thyme, rosemary, garlic powder, sage, and fresh parsley, and stir over the heat for another minute or two.

Remove from heat. Add the salt and black pepper and stir, then add the pasta and stir until coated.

Now, take your freezer containers of choice, and lightly grease them. I recommend disposable pie pans, since I was able to get a huge stack of them for a couple of bucks one time, and I still have a ton left.

Scoop a bit of mac&cheese into the bottom of the pan, just so that it covers the bottom. Then, take half of your shredded chard (approximately a large handful) and plunk it down in the middle of the mac&cheese. Now, pile more mac&cheese on top, completely hiding the chard. Take the remaining shredded cheese or cheese chunks and poke some into the mixture and spread some on top. Repeat with the second pie pan.

(If you’re not making yours ahead, you can just put it all in any old oven-safe casserole dish that you lightly greased.)

Cover it tightly with heavy-duty aluminum foil and plop it in the freezer.

When you’re ready to eat it, let it thaw for a while, then pop it in the oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until hot all the way through. I recommend leaving the tin foil on until the last 10 minutes or so, otherwise your top cheese might be burnt and your top pasta might get dried out.

Tobarnut Soup

Tobarnut Soup is Tomato, Barley, and Butternut Squash Soup.

[I should have posted this weeks ago! Oops!]

We had some tomatoes that were accumulating from our farm share, despite the fact that there has been a terrible blight that has affected the tomatoes in our area this season. Somehow, farmer Rich has managed to get us a variety of tomatoes, including some lovely heirloom tomatoes which we really enjoyed. I had about four large tomatoes (three red and one yellowy-orange) and two small yellow tomatoes, so I was plotting a tomato soup. When the butternut squash arrived this week alongside a few of the large tomatoes, I started imagining putting the two together. I’ve got a great creamy tomato soup recipe that I’m sure I’ll post here one day that I finally got around to posting, but for now, I’ve decided to combine tomatoes, roasted butternut squash, and barley for another slow cooker soup.

It may seem like our house is overrun with soup these days, but I like to put the soup in little individual containers and put them in the freezer. We’ve also had pretty much the entire household with some kind of cough and sniffles, though we’re not sure if it’s allergies or what. Either way, soup has been a very welcome meal.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium butternut squash
2 tablespoons flour
3 large tomatoes, peeled and chopped
3 cups vegetable broth
1/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
3/4 cup barley
1 tablespoon fresh basil
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
2 teaspoons fresh parsley
1 bay leaf
1 cup light cream or milk (optional)
1/4 cup or so grated parmesan cheese (optional)
Salt and pepper

Directions

Cut butternut squash lengthwise and place face up on a lightly greased baking sheet. Roast the butternut squash in a 400 degree oven for about 30-60 minutes (depending on the size and shape of your squash) or until soft enough to scoop.

Let cool, then scoop out the part with the seeds and discard. Remove the skin. Mash the flesh, either with a fork, a potato masher, or a blender.

I’ve made this soup twice now, and the first time I made it where I blended the tomatoes before they went in, and the second time I didn’t. If you want a very smooth soup, you should do this, but otherwise, don’t worry about it – being in a slow cooker will break it down a bunch.

Toss the olive oil, onions, and flour together in the bottom of the slowcooker. Ideally, you’d do this in a medium sized pot, heating the oil on medium heat, then adding the onions, cooking for about 3-5 minutes or until soft, then adding the flour, stirring constantly, cooking about one minute, not allowing it to brown. But, since this is a slowcooker, and I was in a hurry and didn’t want to wash another pot, I just threw it all in and it worked out just fine.

Add the onion mixture to the slow cooker. Pour the chopped (or blended) tomatoes over the onion mixture and stir well. Add the mashed butternut squash. Stir well.

Stir the barley, basil, rosemary, bay leaf, and parsley in. Add a bit of salt and pepper, but you may need more later.

Set the slow cooker to “low” and check on it in about 5-6 hours.

When the barley is soft, probably after about 6 hours in the slow cooker, be sure to remove the bay leaf, then add the parmesan cheese (optional). Add the milk or cream*, if desired, and stir. Taste to adjust for more salt and pepper if needed.

*The barley tends to soak up a lot of liquid even once the soup is done cooking, so for my freezer portions, I omitted the milk, and I’ll add it back when I heat the soup.

Crockpot Creamy Corn Potato Soup

Tuesday was Crockpot Attempt Number Two, and I was really hoping to make use of the wonderful corn that arrived as a last minute addition to our farm share this week. A neighboring farm had shared enough for each of us to take six fresh ears, and I had some potatoes left from last week’s share. We also got red bell peppers this week, too, so this soup was meant to be.

Tuesdays I usually work in the afternoon, so I got up when Charlie was leaving for work and started chopping veggies. It took a while because of the arthritis in my hands, but eventually, everything was ready to be thrown into the pot. By the time I got home from work, we had delicious soup and enough plenty of leftovers. The crockpot is turning out to be brilliant for Mondays and Wednesdays when Charlie has class until 9pm, since it just keeps things warm, and then whenever we’re ready to eat, it’s ready to feed us.

Ingredients

4 large ears of corn, kernels cut off
1 carrot, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
4-5 small potatoes, peeled and chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 small onions (or one medium, but I had these from the farm share)
2-3 tablespoons of olive oil (I eyeballed it to coat the onions at the bottom)
1 tablespoon dried parsley (use double fresh if you have it)
1 teaspoon tarragon
1 teaspoon thyme
2-3 shakes red cayenne pepper
2 bay leaves
vegetable stock to cover the the veggies (or, I was out of stock, so I used 3 large bullion cubes and water)
1/2 pint light cream

Directions (for a 4-Quart Slow Cooker)

If you’re feeling ambitious, sauté the onion and garlic for a minute or two, but if not, give them a toss in the olive oil. Then, proceed to dump the corn, carrots, potatoes, pepper, and celery on top of it. Toss in the tarragon, parsley, thyme, and red cayenne pepper in. Pour vegetable stock in until the vegetables are covered by the liquid. Give it a stir. Do not add the cream.

Put the lid on, set the slow cooker to “low” and let it cook for about 7-8 hours. Your milage may vary with cooking times, of course, but try to get it so that the corn is crisp and the potatoes are soft.

When you’ve achieved that, pour in the cream and stir it until it’s incorporated. Taste it and adjust any seasoning.

Mock Moroccan Lentils & Rice

1:30pm:

I’ve just put my first ever meal into a slow cooker. I don’t have much experience with them in general, but I do remember, wayyyyy back into childhood, when I still ate meat, that a neighbor of ours made a fabulous turkey corn soup in a crockpot. Charlie and I have been thinking about getting one for several months because I often work 6 hour shifts, which is, I believe, the average amount of time a recipe needs in a crockpot, and a lot of times, I’m too tired to work and cook dinner by myself. If I could prepare the ingredients before I went to work or the night before, though, and toss them into the crockpot before I left, it would be fabulous.

Long story short, my mom bought me a slow cooker for my birthday. It’s an entry-level model – nothing too fancy. It’s dishwasher safe and oval-shaped. There was some debate about whether or not Charlie would be allowed to cook meats in it, but we found some slow cooker liners that he can use “for easy cleanup” so that the meat doesn’t actually get all up in there, though since it’s dishwasher safe and has removable stoneware, it probably won’t be a big deal. If you’re in the market for a slow-cooker, ours is made by Hamilton Beach and cost about $20.

I’m calling this “Mock Moroccan” because I honestly don’t have a lot of experience with Moroccan culture, so someone can easily call me out and tell me that it’s totally off. However, the spices that I used were common in a lot of Moroccan recipes that I found online, though, as usual, I didn’t find one that exactly suited my needs, so, this is what I came up with. And, since the lentil recipes didn’t include very many veggies, I snuck some more in there.

Stuff cooked in a slow cooker sits there for lots of hours, so make sure that anything that’s a little more tender to begin with gets cut into large pieces, otherwise it will just disintegrate.

About ten hours later, after we’ve eaten, cleaned up, gone to the store, and baked a batch of brownies…

The verdict is… yum! Charlie assured me that he thought it did taste Moroccan. He wished it had a bit more heat, but since I don’t do really spicy foods, I wouldn’t have been able to handle much more. If it were just him, he probably would have added more cayenne.

We did have a bit too much liquid, so after cooking for about 5 or 6 hours on low, we turned it up to high with the lid off to reduce it. You could probably just start with about 1/2 cup to 1 cup less liquid, though. Certainly not bad for a first attempt.

For a 4-Quart Slow Cooker

Ingredients

1 cup lentils (I used organic red)
1 huge heirloom tomato (you can use two medium ones of any variety), chopped into large pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons fresh parsley (I was out, so I used about a tablespoon dried)
1 1/4 teaspoons cumin
1 1/4 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced (you can use a little less, dried, if necessary)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoons salt
5 tablespoons olive oil
about a half of a medium eggplant, chopped into large pieces
about half a yellow squash, chopped into large pieces
1/3 cup green beans (I used the super long Filipino variety), chopped into reasonable pieces
1 carrot, chopped
about two shakes of red cayenne pepper
about three shakes of cinnamon
about 4 cups of water, or enough to cover the veggies

Directions

Dump all ingredients into slow cooker. Stir it all up so that all the ingredients are evenly mixed. Cook on low heat for 6 hours or until lentils are tender. If too much liquid remains, remove cover and cook on high for 30-45 minutes until liquid has reduced.

Serve over rice (we did brown rice and cooked ours in our rice cooker separately, but you could probably add water and rice to the mixture and make it all together if you wanted).

Bibs and Bobs Vegetable Stock

My partner Charlie and I are the type of people who are modern hippies, I suppose. As I mentioned a few days ago, we almost never use paper plates or plastic forks. We recycle and we reuse a pretty dramatic amount. We joined a farm share, or community supported agriculture community this year. Hell, our next major big dream purchase after my KitchenAid Mixer is a composter.

In the meantime, though, we are composter-less. We’ve thought about getting one of those little guys that sits on the countertop and thought about saving up for one of the totally sealed units that sits inconspicuously under a cupboard. For now, though, we save our eggshells to put in flowerpots (it’s good natural fertilizer), and we sneak into the backyard with our veggie scraps and toss them into the bushes.

There’s a lot of vegetable waste that’s quite… well, I wouldn’t say edible, since you’re not going to throw it in your stir-fry or plop it in your next quiche, but I would say usable. My friends Anne and Neil of the Beet Risotto, who I get many of my hippie inspired ideas from, such as joining the farm share, gave me this idea for using up all the bits of vegetables that you usually would toss in the trash.

Make your own vegetable stock.

Not only is homemade vegetable stock one of the most delicious things on the planet, it’s also a way to cut down on waste. It’s very simple. Grab a gallon size ziplock bag or other airtight container. If you live with other people, label it, “SAVE FOR STOCK,” as they’ll be wondering what these bits of vegetable trash are doing in the freezer.

Then, whenever you chop up vegetables, evaluate what’s left.

Onion papers? Toss them in.

Ends of celery and carrots? Definitely.

Fresh herbs that are a little… not so fresh, but weren’t put through a proper drying process? Yes ma’am.

I’ve collected up beet stalks, the ends of asparagus, limp parsley, that little hard nub on garlic, and whatever else I’ve come across. I stuff all the bibs and bobs into my baggie and keep it in the freezer. When the bag is full, you’re ready to make stock. The only vegetables you’ll want to avoid are the really watery ones, like lettuce. Those aren’t going to contribute much.

Ingredients

1 gallon sized bag of vegetable parts, including at least about 1 onion, 1 carrot, 2 stalks of celery, some parsley – the rest is fair game
about 10-12 cups of water (you can make your stock more or less concentrated depending on how much storage space you have – just add more water upon using it later)
3 bay leaves (since everything will be strained, this is a good time to use those broken in half ones that are hard to fish out of other recipes)
4 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons soy sauce
salt to taste
freshly ground pepper

Directions

Toss everything except the salt and pepper into a big stock pot. Bring to a boil (this may take a while if your veggies are still frozen) and then reduce to a simmer. Cover.

Let your stock simmer for at least 40 minutes to an hour, but more is definitely better. Stir occasionally. You’ll be able to see the color drain out of the vegetables, so once they’re totally useless looking and your stock is a rich color, you’ll have gotten most of the flavor into your broth. Fair warning: your kitchen will smell wonderful for the afternoon, and people will be begging you to have some.

Storage

Some people recommend freezing stock into ice cube trays that you can have it prepped in smaller amounts. You can also put it into small tupperwares in the freezer, but think carefully before freezing the entire pot into one large container… I also like to make little batches of simple noodle soups for nights when I’m not feeling well. I’ll try to update with that simple recipe soon.

Kale-Came-in-Our-Farm-Share Creamy Potato Soup

We don’t often cook with kale, but both Charlie and I have been fond of it ever since our vegan buddy Milo came to stay for a few months last fall and introduced us to kale chips. This week, it turned up in our farm share. We get an email early Monday morning saying what we’ll get in our late Monday/early Tuesday pickup, and during work Monday morning, I kept envisioning a potato kale soup.

I looked at a lot of different recipes before getting started on this one. Most of them, however, included some kind of bacon or sausage. I settled on adding a slightly smokey Gouda since I’ve been vegetarian since about the time I was 10.

Make sure you read this recipe carefully. When making soups, I usually have a half and half process, where I simmer half of the veggies that disintegrate (in this case, I just did the potatoes) for a long time, and mash them with a potato masher to get a thick soup. Then, towards the end, I toss in the other half of the vegetables, which I’ve reserved in bite sized chunks. This way, the soup gets both flavor and texture, but it also has vegetable pieces that stay firm and brightly colored.

With creamy soups, this is a great way to cut down the fat in the recipe without sacrificing the creaminess of the soup. Even in recipes that don’t require potatoes, such as a broccoli soup, I might toss in a potato early on, mash it up, and then use a lower fat milk instead of cream. It helps avoid that really thin, watery texture that some lowfat creamy soups have.

Onto what I actually made! For the record, our friend Bo thought it sounded so good that he invited himself to dinner. He hopped a train from Brooklyn to Port Authority, then took a bus to the suburbs to sop up soup with us even though he had to be at work early in the morning.

Ingredients

1 tsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
3-4 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered
3-4 small red potatoes, skins on, chopped **keep the skin on and skin off potatoes separate!
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
6 cups vegetable stock
3-4 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped
2 bay leaves
about 3 cups kale leaves, chopped
1 cup milk
4-6 oz gouda cheese, chopped
a shake or two of nutmeg
lots of black pepper
parmesan cheese to serve

Directions

Add oil to pot. Saute garlic for about a minute, then add onions and saute until soft, about 2 minutes. Add 6 cups of stock. Bring to a boil. Add the bay leaves. Reduce the heat and then add the PEELED POTATOES and simmer them until soft. Take out the bay leaves for a minute, and use a potato masher to mash the peeled potatoes until they’re in tiny little pieces. Later, they’ll boil down even more and make the soup even creamier.

Put the bay leaves back in, and let the soup simmer for another 10 minutes or so. Add the carrots and the remaining potatoes. Simmer for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. Add the parsley and remove the bay leaves.

Add the kale and cook for 5-10 minutes or until it’s more soft than super chewy. Once the desired consistency is reached, add the milk, stirring thoroughly. Next, add the gouda, and stir until the cheese is melted into the soup. When it’s completely mixed in, add the nutmeg, then add black pepper to taste. If needed, add more salt, and if desired, add parmesan cheese.

Pairs really deliciously with Spiral Herb Rolls.

Vegetarian Lasagna of Doom

This has got to be one of the best vegetarian lasagnas I’ve ever made (or even tasted). It’s got to be one that’s recorded in blog history.

One of the key things about making lasagna is having enough sauce. Don’t be shy with it! It helps keep everything moist, and if you’ve ever had a dried out lasagna, you know how important that is. I like to use two kinds, a red sauce and a white sauce. The white sauce is easy to whip up from scratch, but if you’re in a pinch or extremely lazy, you can use alfredo sauce in a jar, though they’re not exactly the same thing.

The other thing I prefer about making lasagna… I hate those no-cook noodles, the ones that you put in still hard. It’s weird to me. I grew up watching the biggest pot we had boiling with lasagna noodles, and getting to eat the curly edges that were leftover. What fun is making a lasagna if you don’t get to eat the curly edges first? So, I recommend the noodles that you have to cook before you layer them in… I think they taste better, too.

Ingredients

1 medium zucchini, sliced
1 cup mushrooms, sliced (we prefer baby bella mushrooms, but tend to go with whatever looks the freshest)
perhaps 2 cups? of spinach trimmed
1 onion, thinly sliced
2-3 sprigs of fresh oregano, chopped
1 jar of vegetarian tomato sauce of your choice, preferably something with lots of vegetable chunks in it
lasagna noodles (you probably only need a half box because of all the veggies, unless you have a super deep lasagna pan)
16 oz ricotta cheese
16 oz brick of mozzarella cheese (whole milk or part-skim, not fat-free)
parmesan cheese (optional)

Eggplant:
1 small to medium eggplant, sliced lengthwise
1 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
salt, pepper, dried parsley, dried oregano to taste
1-2 eggs
Oil for frying

White Sauce:

1/2 cup butter
4 tbsp flour
1 cup milk or light cream
1 cup vegetable stock
1/8 tsp salt
about 5 sprigs parsley (optional)
one huge piece of green garlic (optional)
parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions

White Sauce:

Melt butter, add flour and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly with a whisk. Slowly add milk or cream and vegetable stock; stir until smooth. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Add salt.

If you’ve got some fresh parsley handy, you should grab maybe five sprigs of that and the tops of some green garlic. Don’t chop it in any way. Leave it whole and just toss it into the sauce. Let it cook for a few more minutes on low heat, stirring constantly, then strain off the parsley and garlic. Add a bit of parmesan cheese to the sauce if desired.

Eggplant Preparation:

Before you can start layering, you’ve got to fry the eggplant because in this recipe, it’s almost like a eggplant parm/lasagna combo.

Mix breadcrumb ingredients of breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, flour, oregano, salt, pepper, and parsley in a flat tray or plate. In a separate tray, scramble the eggs. Take your eggplant slices and coat them one at a time in egg, then dredge them in the breadcrumb mixture.

Pan fry them in a generous amount of oil at medium-high heat until golden brown, about 4 minutes each side. Remove from pan and let them drain on a mesh spatter shield or a paper towel.

Lasagna:

Prepare pasta according to package directions. If you’re not using a disposable pan, I recommend that you put down a layer of aluminum foil before you begin for easier cleanup later.

Coat the bottom of the pan with a layer of red sauce, then alternate between vegetables, cheeses, fried eggplant, sauces, and noodles until you run out of ingredients or reach the top of the pan. Toss in the fresh oregano and some parmesan cheese along the way, if you feel so inclined. Be sure to reserve enough sauce and mozzarella cheese to cover the entire top of the pan, otherwise your noodles will be hard and your veggies will dry out.

Cover pan with aluminum foil and bake for about 25 minutes at 400 degrees. After 25 minutes, remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes or until cheese begins to brown. (The foil on top prevents the cheese from browning too much too quickly.)

Let the lasagna cool for at least 15-20 minutes once it’s out of the oven, or it will be a soupy mess!

If you’re not serving a crowd, I recommend putting a few slices in the fridge for consumption soon, and the rest in the freezer. When freezing the lasagna, make sure that you freeze it in the portion size you’d want to eat it in, since sawing through a frozen casserole is never any fun. Cut slices and put them into little gladware containers, let them cool (until they’re no longer steaming) and then pop them in the freezer for a great meal in a week or a month.

Spiral Herb Rolls

The other night Charlie and I made an amazing lasagna, which I’ll hopefully have time to post the recipe for later (it was sort of quasi-homemade… we didn’t make the past from scratch, and I made one of the two sauces from scratch). But first, here’s the recipe for rolls stuffed with fresh herbs.

The first herb we got from our farm share was oregano, and I knew I wanted to bake with it, and these seemed like a perfect complement to our meal. I made a handful of changes from that original recipe, though, so my version is listed below.

Ingredients

Dough:

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast (about 2 teaspoons if you’ve got a larger package)
1 cup warm water, 110 degrees to 115 degrees (I don’t measure, I just use hot water from the tap)
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons butter or soy butter, softened
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour (you can substitute bread flour if you want)

Filling:

*Feel free to substitute herbs of your choice, but the fresh herbs are key!

2 tablespoons butter or soy butter, melted
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
4 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced
2 tablespoons fresh basil, minced
2 tablespoons fresh oregano, minced
6 garlic cloves, minced
I also threw in some green garlic, minced

Directions

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the sugar, butter, salt and 1 cup all-purpose flour; beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining whole wheat flour to form a soft dough.

Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a bowl coated with nonstick cooking spray, turning once to coat top. Cover with a slightly damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Roll into a 12-in. x 10-in. rectangle. Brush with melted butter. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese, herbs, and garlic to within 1/2 in. of edges.

Roll up jelly-roll style, making sure to roll it tightly enough (I didn’t the first time!), starting with a long side; pinch seam to seal. Cut with a very sharp knife into 12 rolls. (To do make evenly sized rolls, cut the log in half first, then into smaller pieces.)

Place rolls cut side up on a piece of parchment sheet on a cookie sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan to a wire rack to cool.