Farm Fresh Food Fun

We get an assortment of veggies from our CSA (community Supported Agriculture) every week. I pay them to grow stuff for me because no matter how good my intentions are, I kill plants, it is just what happens.  I LOVE that we joined a CSA though!  It is fabulous.  Although I don't know what exactly will be in the coming week's distribution (all depends on mother nature) I have SO much fun experimenting with new ways to use the abundance of veggies that we receive.  Usually I end up canning or freezing some to help get us through the winter, and then we eat as much as we can fresh!  This week I had two particularly lovely experiences.

The first was with Eggplant.  Yep, there is always the old standby Eggplant Parmesan, and I have put it into a tomato based sauce with zucchini, summer squash and other veggies, but this week I went outside the box, and made a variation of a Caprese Salad.  I started with a bed of Arugula, sprinkled in some basil, and then of course, the fresh mozzarella.  Then I used a BEAUTIFUL large heirloom tomato (called a Mr. Stripy) and threw in some chopped Asian pear for good measure, I love pear in a salad.  What about the eggplant you might ask?  Well, I took that, and cut it into strips.  Dredging the strips first in flour, then egg, then Panko breadcrumbs, and pan frying them in some light olive oil.  I let them rest a bit when they were done cooking, on a paper towel covered cooling rack, and then put them on top of my salad, and drizzled the whole thing with a very nice vanilla fig balsamic that I had in my cupboard.  There is a great olive oil and vinegar store in the Village of Hamburg where you can get almost any flavor you want!  I highly recommend checking them out and playing with flavors! This one paired wonderfully with the salad.  It was a delicious take on the typical Caprese salad, which my family needed a break from, and I will certainly make that again!

My second experience came with the Acorn Squash.  I love squash.  Baked and straight out of the shell, mashed or pureed with honey or brown sugar, you name it, I will eat it if it is squash.  However, today, I was in the mood for risotto.  So, I incorporated that into my lunch planning.  First I grabbed half an onion and a couple of cloves of garlic (also from my CSA) and sauteed them in butter and olive oil.  Threw in a handful of mushrooms as well, a few chopped up basil leaves, and about 1/2 cup of white wine with the arborio rice.  After the wine evaporated. I added in the first cup of chicken stock, and stirred often, and in between, put a halved and seeded acorn squash face down in some water and microwaved for about 12 minutes.  Once the first cup of stock was absorbed, I put another cup in and stirred again until it was gone.  2 cups wasn't quite enough, so I added another 1/2 cup.  That gave the rice the right consistency.  It was ready for the finishing touches.  I scooped out the squash and pureed it in my food processor, then added it to my pot, with a little heavy cream (just a splash I promise!) and about a half cup of grated Parmesan cheese.  When I fed it to my kids for lunch, my oldest daughter (12) told me that "this doesn't belong on a lunch plate at our house, it belongs in a 5 star restaurant!"   I guess I wasn't the only one who loved the way this turned out!

Well, now that my tummy is full, and my blog post is written, I am off to decorate a cake and head to a birthday party!

Catch you later!  Eat well my friends!

Hot stuff

I realize I have fallen WAY out of touch with my blog posting.  However, my recent experiences with all of the lovely produce from our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) has made me want to share some of what I have been doing with it.

Our farmer, and now friend, Marty (whose lovely wife, Carolyn also helps grow our garden goodies) was mentioning that a lot of folks don't want the hot peppers in our weekly distribution.  And when they say HOT they mean it.  These peppers look harmless, but they are Hungarian Wax Peppers, and can bring tears to my eyes after just a bite or two. I love to stuff them with cream cheese, panko and cheddar, but, even I have to admit that they pack a WALLOP, and usually I leave behind about 1/2 of the pepper to save my taste buds, throat etc.

BUT....I have done my research, and found another very easy and yummy use for these peppers.  Today I took a couple dozen of these beauties, and put them on my grill until they were charred (about 15 minutes, flipping halfway through).  After I charred them, I placed them in airtight containers, wrapped in wet paper towels and let them self steam a bit (about 3 hours actually while I ran some errands and dealt with some other veggies that were over populating my kitchen.)....When I returned to them, I peeled the now loose charred skins off of the peppers, split them open, and used a knife blade to gently scrap out the veins and seeds. I then placed them in zip top snack sized bags (1 or 2 peppers to a bag dependent on size), and put the whole lot of bags inside one big Ziploc Freezer bag, being careful to remove excess air from the individual bags as well as the big bag to help avoid freezer burn.

Now what, you ask?  Well, I did a trial run of this recipe the other day with just a few peppers.  And the results were fabulous.  Most of these bad boys are probably destined for some batches of Chili in the Winter, or perhaps a Mexican rice dish, or even nachos.  The test batch has proved to be DELICIOUS in scrambled eggs, and the beauty of it is that during the process of charring, peeling and cleaning out the innards, the heat level comes way down to a much more tolerable to the average palate.

So, bring on the HOT peppers, I have learned to tame them!

Here's hoping you're eating as well as we are this summer!