Smoothies are an easy way to cram more veggies into your day. A little fruit covers . . . → Read More: How to Make a Winter Smoothie with Local Ingredients]]> In the winter, I usually crave hot breakfasts. Oatmeal with applesauce and peanut butter, eggs of all sorts, or pancakes. Recently, I haven’t been eating particularly well, so I’ve been trying to get a little “insurance” at breakfast to make up for the Pad Thai at lunch and burger, fries, and a shake at dinner. Yep. That was yesterday.

Smoothies are an easy way to cram more veggies into your day. A little fruit covers up the healthy taste and if the green color bothers you, just avert your eyes. This has become my go-to recipe, but you can make some tweaks if it’s not sweet enough for you. Add a tablespoon of maple syrup or use a whole peach/banana instead of half.

We don’t have a fancy blender…although I really really really want one, I can’t justify the crazy price. There’s an easy technique for making a good smoothie with a normal blender. Check out this video from Good Eats – the technique info starts at about 4:22.

My blender has four speeds. I run it on the first until the vortex starts, then each higher speed for one minute. If a bubble forms, I turn off the blender, give it a little shake to encourage the “burp”, then turn the speed back up. It takes about 4 minutes of blending, but that’s enough time to put away the ingredients and make a cup of tea.

If you want to get crazy, add half an avocado to the mix. We ordered a box of them from California Avocados Direct, a responsible family farm, and were blown away.

Local Winter Smoothie

Makes 1 large smoothie

Directions

1. If you are organized and want to be like Alton Brown, prep your smoothie the night before. Put everything except the ice cubes into the blender (in order) and stash it in the fridge. In the morning, add the ice and blend, following the directions above. Make sure all the spinach/kale blends in. Sometimes a leaf or two will stick to the side. This is a great way to have a nice smoothie even on a busy morning.
2. If you, like me, are usually not that with it at bedtime, make your smoothie when you’re ready to eat it. Add all the ingredients to the blender (in order) and blend, following the directions above. It might take a little longer for the vortex to form, because the fruit is still frozen, but you can get it going by stopping the blender and smushing the spinach/kale down toward the blades. When you start up the blender again, the smoothie should start moving. It might take a couple of tries. If it’s really giving you trouble, add a little more water/juice/milk. It’ll thin out your smoothie, but usually does the trick.

Here’s one more root vegetable recipe before we switch over to asparagus and salad greens. I clipped this out of a New York Magazine while we still lived in NYC, because we occasionally shopped at Windfall Farms. I also don’t really have any good rutabaga recipes, other than our standard roast-everything-in-a-pan method. “Hold on there, Lindsay”, you might say, “The title of this post says ‘turnip’ not ‘rutabaga’.” Yes, observant reader, it is actually . . . → Read More: Gilfeather Turnip Casserole]]>

Here’s one more root vegetable recipe before we switch over to asparagus and salad greens. I clipped this out of a New York Magazine while we still lived in NYC, because we occasionally shopped at Windfall Farms. I also don’t really have any good rutabaga recipes, other than our standard roast-everything-in-a-pan method. “Hold on there, Lindsay”, you might say, “The title of this post says ‘turnip’ not ‘rutabaga’.” Yes, observant reader, it is actually a rutabaga, but Mr. John Gilfeather thought it was a turnip. Also, Jerusalem artichokes are neither Israeli nor artichokes. What can I say? Vegetable identity crisis.

The Gilfeather turnip is a Slow Food Ark of Taste product, which makes it worth seeking out. The Ark of Taste program finds and protects endangered flavors – those beloved by old-timers, but threatened by industrial agriculture. Just for fun, here are some other Ark of Taste products from the Northeast.

• Bay scallops
• Boiled cider (used as a sweetener)
• “Old-Type” Rhode Island Red chicken
• Shrub (okay, not technically a Northeast thing, but a new favorite of mine)
• True Red Cranberry bean

Kind of makes me want to make an Ark of Taste bingo game…

Back the to rutabaga! It looks like a big white turnip, but is a little milder with less of a bite. Originating in southern Vermont, it’s even more local to us now that we’ve moved to Boston, so I was delighted to find one in one of our last CSA pick-ups.

This would make a great light lunch, but we cooked up some sausages to make a more substantial meal. It was nice and fluffy, like mashed potatoes, but with a more complex flavor – just enough peppery-ness.

Gilfeather Turnip Casserole

Serves 4 as a side or 2 as an entrée

Directions

1. Peel the rutabagas and chop them into cubes. Try to make the chunks close in size, so that they all cook in the same amount of time.
2. In a medium pot, add the rutabagas, a pinch of salt, and enough water to cover. Boil until the rutabagas are soft, about 30 minutes.
3. Once the rutabagas are soft, drain them and allow them to cool for a few minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
5. Put the rutabagas, eggs, milk, salt, spices, and flour into a food processor and process until smooth. If you don’t have a food processor, you can mash everything by hand, but I’d recommend mashing the rutabagas until they’re smooth first, then the eggs (one at a time), then the rest. This will help you get all the chunks out.
6. Rub just a little of the butter on the bottom and sides of a 1-quart soufflé dish. Pour the mixture into the prepared dish.
7. Use a fork to mash the remaining butter into the bread crumbs and sprinkle it over the top of the rutabaga mash.
8. Bake for an hour or until the buttery crumbs are nicely browned.

Looking at that photo, I think that it would be a really pretty side for dinner guests if it were baked in individual ramekins. It’s not terribly attractive sunk down in that big soufflé dish (we don’t have a 1-quart one, so I used what we had).

I barely know who’s playing this year. I’m just not a huge sports fan…but I do like the food tradition! if you want to speed things up, you can make this recipe from store-bought beans, sour cream, and salsa verde. Honestly,though, even making it all from scratch, most of the time it was hands-off. It just took a bit of planning to know to start the day before.

This recipe is adapted from Gena . . . → Read More: Dark Days (Super Bowl Edition): Three Layer Bean Dip]]>

I barely know who’s playing this year. I’m just not a huge sports fan…but I do like the food tradition! if you want to speed things up, you can make this recipe from store-bought beans, sour cream, and salsa verde. Honestly,though, even making it all from scratch, most of the time it was hands-off. It just took a bit of planning to know to start the day before.

This recipe is adapted from Gena at Choosing Raw. Since our food focus is local and Gena’s is vegan, it’s a little different, but the inspiration and bean dip were all her.

Three Layer Dip

Ingredients:

Directions:

Layer One:

1. Heat the oven to 450.
2. Spread the bell peppers on a lightly oiled baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes, stiring halfway through. They should smell delicious and be browned in spots. Note: I regretted putting these directly on the pan, because it required a LOT of elbow grease to clean up. I’d recommend lining the pan with foil first.

   

3. While the peppers are roasting, blend the rest of the ingredients in a food processor until smooth, like refried beans. You might need to add a tablespoon of the bean cooking water (or regular water) to get things moving.

   

4. Let the peppers cool briefly and then add to the food processor with the beans.

   

5. Process until smooth. Taste to judge if you should add more salt and pepper and add if needed.
6. Spread in an even layer on the bottom of a 4 cup ( = 1 quart = 32 ounce) container.

Layer Two:
Spread 1 cup of sour cream (store-bought or homemade) on top of the beans. We used cream from Milk Thistle Farm and buttermilk from Tonjes Family Dairy.

Layer Three:
Spread 1 cup of salsa verde (store-bought or homemade, again) on top of the sour cream. We used salsa verde we canned this fall using green tomatoes from our friends’ garden (Thanks, Brian and Mary!) and peppers from Oak Grove Plantation.

Serve with chips and veggies. We used yellow, orange, and purple carrots (from Paffenroth Gardens), watermelon radishes, and gilfeather rutabagas (both from Windfall Farms).

Pumpkin Spice Cafe . . . → Read More: 100% Pumpkin Sunday Breakfast]]> For breakfast on Sunday, we went pumpkin crazy. We started with homemade pumpkin spice lattes. Well, I guess they were really pumpkin spice cafe au laits, but you could make lattes if you happen to have an espresso maker. As much as I like the Starbucks version, it contains lots of sugar and (in my view) unnecessary additives, which can be a problem if you’re gluten-intolerant or have other food allergies.

Pumpkin Spice Cafe Au Lait
Makes 2 big servings

Ingredients and Directions for Pumpkin Spice Mix:

1/2 cup pumpkin puree (fresh, if possible, but canned is fine)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoons ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix thoroughly and use immediately or store in the refrigerator for up to a week or so.

Ingredients and Directions for Cafe Au Laits:

In a saucepan, whisk 2 heaping tablespoons of Pumpkin Spice Mix with 2 cups milk (dairy or non-dairy) and 2 cups of strong coffee. Cook on low for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Try to keep the mixture from boiling too vigorously, so the milk doesn’t burn.

To serve, strain through a fine sieve to remove the solids and pour into mugs. Straining is optional, but it’s nice not to get a mouthful of pumpkin pulp at the end.

Note: We’re not fans of sweet coffee, but maple syrup would be a great addition if you enjoy your coffee on the sweeter side. You can alter the milk/coffee ratio if you want it stronger or weaker.

Once we had our coffee and were awake and thinking clearly, we realized the pumpkin mixture could be used for French toast! Double pumpkin!

Pumpkin Spice French Toast
Makes 2-4 servings (depending on how hungry and/or indulgent you’re feeling)

Ingredients:

8-12 1-inch thick slices of a day-old baguette
Double batch of Pumpkin Spice Mix
1 1/2 cups milk (dairy or non-dairy)
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon butter

Directions:

1. Arrange the bread in a rimmed baking sheet so that all the bread lays flat. Use a pan that fits the bread, but without too much extra space, so that the bread sits in a deep bath of the milk mixture.
2. Whisk the milk and cornstarch into the Pumpkin Spice Mix. Pour the milk mixture over the bread and then flip each slice so that both sides are covered.
3. Let the bread sit on the counter for 20 minutes, then flip the slices and let it sit for another 10 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 375.
5. Drain the bread for 1 to 2 minutes on a wire cooling rackset on another rimmed baking sheet.
6. Melt the butter in a non-stick skillet over medium-low heat.
7. Working two slices at a time, cook the French toast in the skillet for 2 to 3 minutes on each slide.
8. Put the browned toast into the oven (directly on the middle rack) for 5 more minutes.
9. Repeat for all slices. Devour.

This technique, from His Majesty Alton Brown, creates French toast with a perfectly brown crust and a creamy, custardy middle. It does take a little more time than the usual method, but it’s definitely worth it. The extra soaking time is worthwhile, too, since the flavors really get absorbed. Just use the waiting time to take a shower and dry your hair!

I wanted to finish it off with pumpkin pie for dessert, but Erik talked me down and convinced me I might turn orange. You can never have too much pumpkin in my opinion!