Wild Things Farm

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!

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!

OK, so this is supposed to be the "slower" season for farmers.  I still haven't figured out "slow" in what way?  Well, maybe slow in that I don't have to beat the sun up every morning--that's quite a break in itself.  The high tunnel is going great; harvesting greens about every 10 days or so.  The Happy Hens are still busy laying beautiful eggs.  Last week I went to the pen to find two of them laying lifeless in the pen and their heads were gone!  I knew that was a clue as to who did it, so I quizzed "Granny Google" and it was either a raccoon, weasel, or owl.  So, knowing the critters around here, I'd say Rocky Raccoon had chicken brains for supper one night.  No more....I found the breach in security (aka hole in the fence) so now the Happy Hens can rest easy again.  It's amazing how something like that affects egg production.

A couple of months ago I found a really cool blog of a vegetarian chef in Denmark.  I'm always looking for recipes to share with members and customers on creative ways to utilize the bounty of the farm.  Although this particular recipe has nothing to do with produce grown on the farm, it's the holidays and I thought this healthy snack fit right in.  Her website is called My New Roots and the address is http://mynewroots.blogspot.com/.  You know how you get to clicking and clicking and end up, well, in Denmark, reading interesting things.  She had a recipe for Date Balls that is really amazing.  I tweaked it of course, but not much.  She rolled hers in toasted sesame seeds, I used coconut.

2 cups chopped dates (finely chopped would work really well)

2 cups chopped walnuts (again, finely chopped)

Coconut, for coating the balls

Put the dates into a food processor and process until very finely chopped--they are really tough.  Do the same thing to the walnuts.  Mix the two together and roll into 1" balls.  Roll them in shredded coconut.  They are very sweet and tasty and no added sugar!   Note the finely chopped--I didn't chop fine enough and it made the balls hard to get to stick together.  They are delicious anyway.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

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 inch 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!

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". 

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--my Dad's Sweet Corn--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 9x9 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.

There are a few words in the English language that are, well, fun to say.  Repeat after me....rutabaga, rutabaga, rutabaga.  I think that's a cool word for a very cool veggie.  Combine a white potato, a sweet potato, and put a smidgen of turnip in there and you've got rutabaga. 

Being a root veggie, rutabagas store through the fall and winter right alongside potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and onions.  The nutritional claim to fame of this veggie is the amount of vitamin c that it packs in one cup cubed---that would be 32 mg or 53% of the recommended daily allowance.  WOW!  That's impressive.  Along with the punch of vitamin c, 1 cup of rutabaga has 3% of the MDR of Vitamin E, 1% Vitamin K, 9% Thiamin, 4% Riboflavin, 6% Niacin, 9% Vitamin B6, and 6% Folate.  Gee, we need to be eating more rutabaga.

A wonderfully simple and tasty way to prepare rutabaga is to wash and peel (if necessary) carrots, potatoes, rutabaga, sweet potato, onion, and garlic, then cube into 1 to 1-1/2 inch cubes and place on a baking sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper to taste, then roast at 350 for about 45 minutes or so.  Stir them around about half way through and stick a fork in them occasionally to test for doneness.  It's good to make extra because they are wonderful as leftovers.

Let's hear it for rutabaga, another veggie winner!

The nutrition data was obtained from Nutritiondata.self.com; a wonderful resource for nutritional data for the veggies we eat.

Two posts in one day?  Well, it's COLD outside and a friend just asked me to send her this recipe I prepared a couple of years ago for a Thanksgiving appetizer, so I decided to "blog" it to share with others, because it's a really good recipe.  It came from FoodNetwork.com, and contrary to what I usually do, I followed this recipe to the letter.

1/2 (17.3 ounce) package frozen puff pastry, thawed
flour, for dusting work surface
1-8 ounce package round brie cheese, halved crosswise
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped toasted walnuts
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Pear slices, for serving
assorted crackers, for serving

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Unfold the puff pastry onto a lightly floured surface.  Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out slightly to smooth out any folds.

Place the bottom half of the brie round, cut side up in the center of the pastry.  Gently pack the sugar on top of the brie and arrange walnuts on top of the sugar.  Top with the remaining brie half, (cut side down).  Trim the puff pastry so that there is only a 2 inch border around the brie.  Place the brie, seam side down, onto the prepared baking sheet.  Use desired shape cookie cutter to cut designs from the excess pastry, if desired.  Place on top of the brie and brush again with the egg wash.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until the pastry is golden.  Allow brie to stand for 3 minutes before serving with pear slices and assorted crackers.

The only recommendation I would make is to double the recipe because it disappears fast!

Okay, so the holidays aren't approaching, we're surrounded!  One of my favorites during the holidays is ham.  Happy hoer LOVES ham, especially country ham.  This recipe doesn't use country ham though, it's a great way to use up leftover spiral sliced ham.  As with every recipe, you can tweek it however you wish.  It's definitely not a vegetarian dish, but delicious. 

Ham Tetrazinni

2 T chopped onion
1 T butter
2 cloves chopped garlic
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 c water
1/2 c shredded cheddar
1 cup diced ham
6 oz spaghetti
2 T chopped fresh parsley
2 T chopped pimento peppers

Cook pasta.  Saute onion in butter in a large skillet. Add garlic when onion is soft.  Stir in soup, water, and cheese.  Heat and stir until the cheese is melted.  Add the ham, parsley and peppers.  Stir until heated through.  Serve sauce over spaghetti.  Add a side salad of fresh greens from the high tunnel.  YUM!

Part of eating in season includes coming up with new ways to prepare the bounty of the season.  There were several small squashes in the harvest this year that were kept for myself.  Yesterday I made butternut squash soup and this particular blend of ingredients was quite tasty.  I used sour cream because I didn't have any regular cream or half and half; it worked great.  A great way to keep chipotle peppers around is to buy them in the can, transfer them to a glass jar, and they'll keep in the fridge for a really long time.  Just take one out when you need it and put the rest back in the fridge.  If you're not into spicy, then just forget the pepper.

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 onion, chopped

1 small carrot, chopped into 1/2" pieces

2 cloves minced garlic

2 small butternut squash peeled, seeded and chopped  (about 2-3 cups chopped)

1 can chicken stock

1/2 tsp sage

pinch of pumpkin pie seasoning

salt and pepper

about 1/2 cup sour cream (or regular cream or half and half)

1 chipotle pepper, chopped

Put squash in a pot with the chicken stock and start simmering.  Melt butter in a frying pan and saute' onion and carrots till tender then add garlic.

Pour onion and carrots into the squash and continue cooking until all veggies are soft.  Add chipotle pepper, sage, and salt and pepper.  Set pot off the heat and use an immersion blender to puree all the ingredients.  When the veggies are all creamed, add the cream and finish blending.   If you don't have an immersion blender you can put the soup in small batches into a blender or food processor to puree. 

I made some garlic cheese biscuits to go with the soup.  Yum!

Cooler temperatures and shorter days are here, meaning to eat seasonally we need to adapt to what's growing locally.  The new high tunnel has a bumper crop of arugula, just waiting to spice up many salads this fall. 

Arugula has no fat or cholesterol, and it is also a good source of protein, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Vitamin B6, Pantothenic Acid, Zinc and Copper, and a very good source of dietary fiber, Vitamin A (5% RDA), Vitamin C (2%), Vitamin K, Folate, Calcium (2%), Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Manganese.

A great recipe for Arugula calls for washed and dried arugula leaves, toss them with a Walnut Vinagarette, crumble goat cheese and walnuts on top, then throw on a few dried cranberries--it's a very tasty salad. 

Arugula--even if you don't like it, the word is fun to say!

I'm not sure of the "proper" name of this salad, but it is delicious!  One of the farm members gave me the recipe and even brought a sample of it the next week, and oh my, it's worth sharing.  It would be great with beans and cornbread or on a polish sausage on a bun, or just as a side dish.  It's sweet and I think would be great with some hot peppers in it too.  Here's the recipe:

1 can sauerkraut, drained

1/2 c chopped green pepper

1/2 c chopped onion

1/8 tsp curry

1/3 c sugar

1/8 t cumin

1/8 t paprika

3/8 t dill weed

Mix all the ingredients together and let it marinade in the fridge overnight. 

Thanks, Dale!

One potato, two potatoes, sweet potatoes, MORE!

Even though it's been sweltering here for the last several weeks, it just doesn't seem like summer until the first big batch of gazpacho is chilling in the fridge.

Gazpacho, or cold soup, is a very loose recipe; you can add to or alter the ingredients pretty much as you like.  I wouldn't advise adding okra to it though.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE okra, but it does not work in gazpacho.   It turns the otherwise yummy tomato soupey base into a tomato slimey base. 

Here's my recipe for a manageable size batch:

Gazpacho

2 cups tomato or v-8 type juice

1 beef boullion cube dissolved in 1/2 cup water or 1/2 c beef broth

4 cups chopped tomatoes

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 to 1 cup chopped and seeded cucumber (this is a good recipe to use some of those kind of big ones that hid from the last picking

1/2 to 1 cup chopped green and or red bell peppers, banana peppers, jalapeno, it doesn't matter what kind as long as you don't make it too hot to eat

1-2 TBS fresh basil, chopped

2 or 7 cloves of garlic :)

generous dash of worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Add the boullion cube to the water and tomato juice (I use a big tupperware bowl that has a lid) and set aside.  Chop all your vegetables and add those and everything else to the tomato juice.  Stir well and let it set in the fridge for at least 2-3 hours so the flavors will blend.  It will keep in the fridge for several days but it won't last that long!

This time of year squash is really "doin' its thang", so another yummy squash recipe should be welcome.  The original recipe calls for zucchini, but I can't tell much difference in the summer squashes, so I call it "Squash Fritters".  This is also a good recipe to use up some of those squash that were hiding the day before and got kind of big to greet you the next picking day!  I still haven't perfected the art of picking every single squash or cucumber--has anyone? :)

Squash Fritters

2 small summer squash (yellow, pattypan, zucchini) OR 1 larger one, with most of the seeds removed

4 minced scallions (or green onions, or onions)

¼ cup parsley

¼ cup dill (can use dried dill, sparingly)

1 beaten egg

¾ cup parmesan cheese

¼ cup flour (I used panko)

Grate squash into a colander and toss w/ 2 tsp salt, let sit 10 minutes.  Squeeze out liquid.

Then mix squash with other ingredients and pan-fry spoonfuls of the mixture in olive oil, flattening with a spatula, 3-4 minutes per side, until golden.  Drain on paper towels & season with salt.