Red Radish and Cucumber Salad

So they put radishes in the CSA box, and I kind of like them in salads in small amounts, and figured I could just make it work because they last this side of forever, so no swap.

Then the fridge froze my lettuce.

And while I learned a valuable lesson and adjusted the fridge, I still have these radishes.

So a little research and I found this delicious recipe, but now am out of radishes, which is too bad because it is all gone:

Red Radish and Cucumber Salad

1 lb red radishes, cleaned and thinly sliced in circles

1 cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced

1Tbsp white onion, thinly sliced

3Tbsp sugar

2Tbsp olive oil

2tsp fresh dill, chopped (I skipped this)

1/2 cup rice wine vinegar

1tsp lemon zest

1 lemon, juiced (I used a Meyer lemon)

Salt and pepper to taste

Place thinly sliced onions in a small bowl of ice water while you prepare the other ingredients, this will take away some of the bite.

In a small bowl, mix sugar, vinegar, oil, lemon juice, zest and dill. Add radishes, onions and cucumbers. Toss all until evenly coated. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve as a side to grilled meats or spicy dishes.

Spinach Cheese Bake

I had some baby spinach from the last CSA box that needed to be eaten up, and a salad would not work because with sore throats all around we are not buddies with salads right now. So I pulled out my Simply in Season Expanded Edition (World Community Cookbook) and started looking. I finally decided on Chard Cheese Bake because spinach is the other option to chard in it. Although rather than steaming the spinach I put some olive oil in the bottom of a heavy pan and added some minced garlic. I slowly brought it to temperature so the olive oil was lovely and garlicky too. I was pleased with the results, but thought it was missing something...I just don't know what. What are your thoughts?

Here is the recipe (page 210)

Spinach Cheese Bake

1lb Spinach cooked

4 eggs (beaten)

1 cup milk

1 cup Swiss cheese (or another cheese) shredded

1 cup bread cubed (I used home made)

1/2 cup green onion (I used red because that is what I had)

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

(I cheated and added some salt and pepper too)

Combine with cooked greens. Pour into a greased 2 quart baking dish. Cover and bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes.

What are your thoughts on adding some more flavor to this? Or is the problem that I used mozzarella cheese because that is what I had and it just did not have enough flavor?

Recipe LInks

In the past couple days there were two lists of recipes I don't want to lose that I thought you would enjoy too!

Amy at Mom's Toolbox of Bible in 90 Days fame shares a whole list of easy, time saving meals with a link inside for even more easy meals!

Aimee at Simple Bites shares a long list of ideas of meals for when you are taking a meal to someone called the Cooking For Others Edition!

There are definitely lots of ideas on both lists that I plan on giving at least a chance, and a few others I know will be favorites!

What is your favorite quick meal?

What meal is your favorite when you are taking a meal to someone else?

Gathering the Fragments

One of my favorite features of More-With-Less Cookbook (World Community Cookbook) and Extending the Table: A World Community Cookbook is the Gathering the Fragments section - using up the leftovers!

We have found that with the CSA box we do need to have a plan to use up the leftover veggies, although the fruit never seems to be a problem! There are the standbys of stir fries and soup, which are always good. You can always roast veggies for a lovely remake on them. Or you can make this casserole from Eat, Shrink & Be Merry! Great-tasting Food That Won't Go From Your Lips to Your Hips! (Although my favorite book in the series is still the original: Looneyspoons: Low-fat Food Made Fun!):

Viva Las Veggies
(Yes, all the recipe titles are punny in these books)

2 medium tomatoes, cut in chunks
2 medium zucchini, chopped
2 large portobello mushrooms, chopped
1 medium red onion, coarsely chopped
1 tsp garlic (I go with 1 large clove)
1 tbsp each olive oil and balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp each fresh herbs such as rosemary, basil, oregano, or thyme (can substitute dried)
1/4 tsp each salt and pepper

1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp thyme

In 9x13 mix first group of ingredients - I usually just keep the zucchini the same, add some kind of onion and then just throw in what I need to use up. Mix this well.

Roast uncovered at 425F for 25 minutes.

Mix remaining 3 ingredients and sprinkle evenly over top. Return to oven for 5 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve hot.


How do you like to use up your veggies that are at the end of their prime?

Coconut Oatmeal

Now that the weather is turning cooler I find myself making this recipe a lot more. Often for lunch with fruit. We love it so much I bought a case of coconut milk from Amazon at a great price, and cinnamon sticks! What recipes are you pulling out for the fall and winter?

Coconut Oatmeal

4 cups whole milk (2% works fine)
14 oz can coconut milk
1/4 – 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 tsp salt (optional)
3 cups oats (rolled, instant, either work)
1 tbsp butter (optional)

Bring milk, coconut milk, brown sugar, cinnamon stick and salt to a boil in a large, heavy saucepan, stirring with a whisk.

Reduce heat to moderate and stir in oats. Return to a boil. Cook while stirring for 2 minutes.

Stir in butter, then remove from heat and let stand covered for 5 minutes.

Remove cinnamon stick and stir oatmeal before serving.

Friday Treat

It has been a long week somehow, and we are all feeling it.

I could fight through it and be a trooper.

Or I could break out the blender and make us a treat and get smiles and better attitudes that way.

So I am going for the obvious - continuing to pray while breaking out the blender for a lunch treat.

What will we be making?

Simple Chocolate Milkshakes

Put 3-5 large scoops of vanilla ice cream in the blender

Add a generous squirt of chocolate syrup

Pour in milk of your choice to about half the height of the ice cream.

Turn on blender.

Get out of the way as children come running.

Add more milk or ice cream as needed to adjust the consistency, and more chocolate syrup if needed too.

Serve to happy little girls.

Enjoy smiles, hugs, and praise for being an amazing chef.

P.S. By using homemade ice cream it is basically just milk, whip cream, more milk, a couple eggs and some chocolate sauce in the end, so not even to terribly unhealthy....don't tell!

Ham and Cheese Crescent Rolls

I needed a quick meal for little girls whose stomachs were not as steady as I would like last night, and after finding a great deal on Pillsbury crescent rolls I decided to try an idea I had.

Ingredients:

1 roll of Crescent rolls
4 slices of ham (Costco ham cut for sandwich meat is great, you cut it diagonally and it is the size of the individual roll)
4 slices of cheese cut in half

On each piece of crescent roll place a piece of ham and a piece of cheese before rolling it up.

Roll up and bake per directions.

Yum.

The girls at more than I expected, and that was a huge compliment to the chef.

You could certainly add mustard, for more flavor, but that would not have worked for my girls.

What is your favorite idea for a quick meal that is still a bit of a great?

Sunday Morning Breakfast Experiment Week 1

We are finding that we have girls with a case of the fidgets most Sunday mornings in church. While discussing ways to handle this we decided that maybe a heartier breakfast is in order, especially with the arrival of cooler wetter weather. So this weekend we launched the Sunday Morning Breakfast Experiment (yes, we are all science geeks, we are calling it the experiment!)

The goal is to have a hearty, mostly healthy breakfast for Sunday morning mostly prepared Saturday night with minimal work, or at least minimized work Sunday morning. To complicate this we have a peanut allergy, a potato allergy, and a strong dislike of eggs (egg casserole is out, quiche is out, french toast is fine) to manage. I thought the blog would be a great place to chronicle our attempts and our findings.

This Sunday we started with recipes that were not new Sunday morning, so we knew it would work, and indeed we had a delicious breakfast. We welcomed the Lord's Day with a feast of Orange Overnight French Toast, homemade turkey sausage patties, fruit, juice, milk and coffee.

Results: There was a definite improvement in how everyone felt by the time we got home from church about 12:15PM. In fact, I have to make smaller lunches on Sunday! But the good news was that EVERYONE seemed to do better in church. Okay, so Baby still had a case of the wiggles, but not nearly as bad, and it was a quiet case. This might be the solution!

Recipes:

Homemade Turkey Sausage Patties - I made these Friday for lunch, and we all liked them but found them a little spicy, not hot spicy, just a lot of spice. So I will definitely be making these again, but will be almost doubling the meat, but not the spices...except the onions of course!

Orange Overnight French Toast

4 large eggs
1 1/2 cup orange juice
1 cup milk
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

8 slices of French bread cut about 3/4 inch thick (if fresh, let sit out sliced for about
half an hour to dry slightly)

Icing sugar

Beat together eggs, orange juice, milk, sugar, vanilla and salt.

Arrange great slices to cover the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan. Pour egg mixture over top. Cover, and let stand in fridge over night.

In the morning, uncover, flip each slice of French toast over, and cook at 375F for 40 minutes or until browned.

Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve.

Sweet Potato Recipes

Last trip to Costco I noticed something that made me very, very, very happy, and I am not talking about all the excellent Christmas gifts, decorations and books they now have in stock, although that worked too!

I saw the cases of SWEET POTATOES!

Sweet potatoes are in stock, it makes me so happy! They are only available at Costco this time of year, and the price is excellent! So I tend to buy a case every time we go! After all, this is the only kind of potatoes we can have in our home due to allergies, and the cases keep for a long time in the garage! (Do not store them directly on the cement, bad idea)

One of my favorite recipes for sweet potatoes is sweet potato fries. It is very simple, heat oven to 375F. Peal sweet potatoes and slice into fries (think 1 cm square-ish). Toss with olive oil and italian seasoning. Cook for 25 minutes, flip them all over, cook for about another 20ish minutes, or until done to your liking.

What are some of your favorite recipes for sweet potatoes? I am looking for some new ones!

Taco Soup

Some time in the last 2 or 3 weeks when my brain was going in many directions at once I saw a recipe for Taco Soup and promptly forgot to save it or print it or make a mental note of where to find it. And, of course, could not find it again.

So I did what all resourceful women do - I combined 2 recipes and winged it! Here is what I ended up with and it was delicious!

Taco Soup

1.5-2 lb. ground beef or ground turkey
1 onion minced
2 can pinto beans (4 cups cooked)
2 can black beans (4 cups cooked)
1 can Rotel tomatoes (I used Kroger Tomatoes with Green Chilies, the can is 14.5 oz)
1 can diced tomatoes
1-2 pkg. taco seasoning (1/4 - 1/2 cup)
2 - 4 cups water (whatever you need to get the soup consistency you like, I just rinsed my tomato cans into the pot)

Brown ground beef with minced onion. Drain. Toss everything together into the CrockPot. Turn to low and forget about it until supper time - in my case 8 hours later, but it would have been done before then.

I served it with shredded cheese, tortilla chips and sour cream.

It was delicious and enough for 1 meal for us and 2 meals in the freezer.

Guacamole

For the longest time we turned up our noses at avacados, and when you live in California that is near sacrilegious! You only think I exaggerate! But then we discovered the little yellow barn that served delicious mexican food and accidentally tried quacamole. We liked it. Then we tried Baja Fresh's guacamole and we were totally hooked.

Did I mention there is no Baha Fresh up here? Yet we still moved. Go figure! :-)

Well, last week in the CSA box we got 2 avocados. I seriously thought about swapping them out. But I decided to try one more time to make quacamole. Don't ask about the first time, it is one of those "we shall never speak of it again" things.

This time I started with Alton Brown's recipe, you know, the guy from Food Network whose stuff is always good? Who is a mix between a science geek and Julia Child? He is the kitchen authority around here. If I say it is his recipe everyone tries it.

My recipe ended up looking like this:

• 2 avocados, halved, seeded and peeled
• sprinkling of fruit fresh to keep avocado green
  
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 medium onion, diced
• 3 Roma tomatoes diced
• 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
• 1 clove garlic, minced

And I basically just mashed the avocado with a fork, added the fruit fresh and mashed some more. Added the seasoning and mashed some more, added the onion and mixed, added the rest and folded/gently stirred together. Per the directions I did let it sit on the counter for about 45 minutes, but it was blazing hot, so that was it, and then I put it in the fridge.

The verdict? We hope there are more avocados in the next box....and we need more chips.

What do you like to do with avocados?

Here Comes Summer

One thing we did not realize when we moved up here is that most people do not have air conditioning, in fact, people who DO have it are seen as kind of weird. So imagine our surprise when our rental does NOT have air conditioning. And it is supposed to be 31C for the next couple days.

So what do we do?

We throw open all the windows in the evening to get as much cool air in as possible, and leave as many open over night as is safe.

In the morning we close all windows with sunshine on them and open all those with shade and cool air until it gets too warm and we close them. (And by too warm I mean that we feel warm air starting to come in rather than refreshing cool air).

We turn on all the fans we have.

We open the shaded windows if there is cool air coming in.

We dress cool and all little girls have their hair up.

We eat cold meals as much as possible, do not turn on the oven if at all possible using the toaster oven, slow cooker and electric frying pan.

How do you keep cool in the heat...and please don't say air conditioning! :-)

Just for fun, here is a new pasta salad we made for lunches this week.

Layered Pasta Salad

layer the following:

3 cups cooked and cooled shell pasta
1 lg red onion diced
2 cups peas
1 cup of ham chopped (I used the sliced deli meat I got on sale)

Mix and spread on top"
1/2 cup mayo
1/2 cup ranch dressing (I used buttermilk ranch and it was yummy!)

Top with:
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup halved grape tomatoes (I just chopped up the romas I had)

Cool in fridge for several hours before serving, mix well before serving.

Sesame Snap Peas

In last week's CSA box we received a number of delicious things. I decided to swap the kale for grapes because they were the red flame grapes, my favorite! But I am sure I will get kale again, so I am keeping the recipes now that I know how to get around the texture issue we all had.

One thing we received that we tried a delicious recipe for was sugar snap peas.

The recipe is:

Sesame Snap Peas

1lb sugar snap peas
1 tbsp dark sesame oil
1 tbsp black sesame seeds or toasted sesame seeds
1 tbsp honey
salt

Bring 4 cups of salted water to a boil. Drop the peas into the boiling water for about a minute and then plunge them into ice water to chill them. While they are still crisp and cool remove them to a colander to dry. Place peas in a bowl, toss with sesame oil, sprinkle with seeds and lightly drizzle with honey. Salt to taste. Serve immediately.

These were so delicious! The only problem we had was not enough peas....we ran out too soon.

CSA Box # 3

When we moved here one of the first things we did was look into CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) and found one for vegetables and fruits that could handle potato allergies, let us pay as we go rather than buy a whole share up front, and was picked up close to our home. And we can get a box every 2 weeks. After enjoying two boxes we are hooked! Did I mention we can order extra stuff too?

If you are wondering about CSA's there is a great post here.

This week we get our third CSA box, and the contents are as follows:

• carrots
• kale
• broccoli
• escarole
• yellow onion
• snap peas
• avocado (2)
• lettuce
• black plums
• yellow peaches
• valencia oranges
• yellow nectarines

With our CSA we can swap stuff out, but to be honest I am trying hard not to. I grew up eating a small repertoire of fruits and vegetables, and we are trying to branch out, to try different things!

Over the next 2 weeks I will be trying my hand at guacamole, and enjoying some of my favorites.

But there are 2 things in the box that have me thinking hard.

The first is kale. I tried cutting it up and then sauteing it in garlic oil, but we found the texture to be a bit too chewy even though we liked the taste. Do you have any great ideas on how to prepare it to get around the texture issue?

The second is escarole. As far as I know I have never tried this, but I am game! We are being adventurous you see! Is this something you like? How do you prepare it?

For both kale and escarole I would appreciate any advice, thoughts or links you have.

If you are interested I could share more on our CSA adventures as we are enjoying this and Miss Pear calls it the box of yumminess.

Bean Recipes?

I am on the hunt for bean recipes that are full of flavor but have almost no spiciness!

Miss Pear is on a spicy strike, so I can get away with a little bit, but not much. I am even cutting our taco seasoning in half and handing over the sour cream.

If you have some good recipes I would REALLY appreciate it!

Bread Recipes

Last week I shared four of my favorite recipes:

• Oatmeal Bread
• French Bread
• Winnipeg Rye Bread
• Three Flour Bread

I also mentioned that I used the More-With-Less Cookbook to teach myself to make bread because this was not something I had been taught, and at the time there was no one around me I could ask to teach me.

Now I have a question for you: What are your favorite, go-to, always work, your family loves bread recipes?

Three Flour Bread

This bread recipe is also from the More-With-Less Cookbook. I have not made it in a while but that was mostly because I ran out of soy flour and kept forgetting to buy more...oops.

But it is on my grocery list now!

I think I might have split the flour into whole wheat and white because technically there are 4 flours in here. Hmm. Regardless it is delicious, and I usually double it.

Three Flour Bread

1 tsp active yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp honey
1 1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup dry milk powder
1/2 cup rye flour
2 tbsp soy flour
1/4 cup wheat germ
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 1/2 cups or more white flour

Dissolve yeast and water in large bowl. Add salt, oil, honey and water. Mix in remaining ingredients.

Knead until smooth.

Place in greased bowl, turning once. Cover and put in warm place to rice until doubled – about 2 hours.

Punch down and place in two greased loaf pans.

Let rise until double.

Place in cold oven and set at 450F for 10 minutes. Turn down to 350F for 25-30 minutes.

Winnipeg Rye Bread

Growing up in Central Canada, we just called this Rye Bread. Turns out it is like no other rye bread in the world, and it is delicious. This is the third bread that is in my freezer right now along with the French Bread and the Oatmeal bread. The cracked rye is becoming harder to find, if you find a source, please let me know. I am seriously considering buying a hand grain mill and doing it myself because the bread is THAT good.

I cannot remember exactly where I got this recipe from, it has been reworked so much that it hardly resembles the original recipe, but is exactly what I grew up with.

Winnipeg Rye Bread

1 cup cracked rye (no substitutions possible)
1 cup water (hot if trying to rush)
1 1/2 cup milk (I often substitute powdered)
1 1/2 cup water
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
4 tbsp butter
8-9 cups flour (I think I add more than this, but add until you get a nice dough)
1 tbsp active dry yeast (steal a cup of the liquid and bloom the yeast if you don't have a Bosch).
2 tbsp milk (I usually skip this step).

Soak the cracked rye flour in 1 cup of water until most of the water has been absorbed.

Place ingredients into the Bosch, adding flour cup by cup, and yeast after 4 cups of flour. Add the soaked rye with the other flour. (If not using the Bosch, bloom yeast).

Kneed for about 7-10 minutes, let rise until double.

Divide the dough into halves or quarters, press out any air bubbles, and form into round or long loaves. (I like 4 long loaves running across a half sheet pan).

Place them onto a baking sheet, and allow the loaves to rise in a warm place until they have doubled in size, about 35 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Brush the tops of the loaves with remaining milk. Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes, or until the loaf makes a hollow sound when tapped on the bottom.

Oatmeal Bread

I often get asked about bread recipes that I use...time to share this week!

This one is from the More-With-Less Cookbook. It is one of our favorites, and is the recipe I pull out when friends ask to learn to make bread, or when we are sick. It never flops, it is always delicious, and I always double it for 4 loaves.

Oatmeal Bread
1 cup quick oats (I substitute rolled oats)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp margarine
2 cups boiling water
1 pkg dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
5 cups flour

Mix oats, whole wheat flour, brown sugar, salt and margarine in large bowl. Pour boiling water over top. Mix and let cool to lukewarm. Dissolve yeast in water and add to oat mixture. Stir in 5 cups flour and kneed.
Place in greased bowl and let rise until double. Punch down and let rise again.

Shape into 2 loaves and place in greased loaf pans and immediately into oven.

Bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes..

Cool on rack brushing loaves with margarine for a soft crust if you would like.

Chicken Enchilada Chili

I have really enjoyed reading the blog "A Year of Slow Cooking" and she is truly more ambitious with her slow cookers that I am! It has been fun to try a few of her recipes, and they have turned out well.

One of my favorites that I made this week is Chicken Enchilada Chili. I throw in frozen chicken breasts at the beginning and about half way through pull them out and shred them before throwing them back in for the rest of the time. Also, I use my enchilada sauce and skip adding the extra chili powder and garlic.

This is delicious over corn bread or rice and topped with cheese.