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).

Our winter CSA gave us SO many potatoes this winter. All sorts of varieties and colors, too. I’m not sure why, but potatoes are never top of mind when I’m meal planning. I’ll be better prepared next winter, but I let too many of them spoil this year. Does anyone have a good method for storing them? We’ve tried lots of things, but without success.

Anyway…we had two paper sacks of potatoes (some purple . . . → Read More: Working Through the Potato Bags: Potato Peanut Curry]]>

Our winter CSA gave us SO many potatoes this winter. All sorts of varieties and colors, too. I’m not sure why, but potatoes are never top of mind when I’m meal planning. I’ll be better prepared next winter, but I let too many of them spoil this year. Does anyone have a good method for storing them? We’ve tried lots of things, but without success.

Anyway…we had two paper sacks of potatoes (some purple and some white) and a couple of random sweet potatoes. The purple ones were starting to sprout and the sweet potatoes were drying out. Never fear! Curry is here! Super delicious, super easy curry, that is.

This recipe is from Wildly Affordable Organic by Linda Watson, the genius behind Cook for Good. Erik and I tried to take the Cook for Good Challenge a couple of years ago, but had to bail due to some unexpected business travel. We got some great recipes out of it, though. This is one of them and I’d definitely recommend it for the night you get home late from work and are tempted by the takeout menu. It only takes about 25 minutes and is made from ingredients you probably have already.

This is filling enough that I don’t think rice is necessary, but put some on before you start the curry if you want it.

Potato Peanut Curry
From the book Wildly Affordable Organic by Linda Watson. Excerpted by arrangement with Da Capo Lifelong, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Copyright © 2011. www.dacapopresscookbooks.com

Serves 4 (or 3 if you’re really hungry)

Directions

1. Dice the potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes.
2. In a medium pot, add the potatoes, tomatoes, water (or water/tomato juice mixture), and salt.
3. Cover the pot and bring it to a boil. Once it boils, turn down the heat so that it simmers gently.

   

4. While the potatoes are cooking, chop the garlic finely. You could also put it through a garlic press, but I prefer to mince it with a knife, since I already have the cutting board out.
5. Put the garlic, vegetable oil, tahini, peanut butter, and cayenne pepper into a microwave-safe bowl. (Note: I accidentally put the turmeric in, too, which I wasn’t supposed to do. It turned out great.) Microwave on medium-high (80%) for two minutes.

   

6. Add the turmeric to the tahini-garlic mixture, if you didn’t already, and stir it into the cooking potatoes.
7. Let the curry continue to simmer until the potatoes are tender. This will take about 15 minutes, if you made the tahini-garlic sauce at an average speed, or 5 minutes, if you, like me, had to run to the store for tahini you though you had, but didn’t.
8. Garnish with a little sprinkle of parsley. I think this would be good with a dollop of yogurt, too.

About two weeks ago, we ordered a five-pound box of fresh cranberries from Cape Cod Select. Take a look at that . . . → Read More: Dark Days Challenge Week 3: Cranberry-Carrot Muffins]]> Happy Sunday to you all! My parents are visiting for the weekend, so we had a lazy morning. After a huge feast last night of braised chicken and parsnips, a riff on this macaroni and cheese, and a kale salad with toasted almonds and dried cherries, we only needed a nibble for breakfast. Muffins!

About two weeks ago, we ordered a five-pound box of fresh cranberries from Cape Cod Select. Take a look at that great box!

We used most of them for canning – whole berry sauce, relish with oranges and walnuts (no mint), and pickled cranberries…

… but had about 2 cups sitting in the refrigerator. We also had a TON of carrots. Why? I don’t know. I probably planned to use them in some grand scheme, so bought some at the farmers’ market, and then got some more from the CSA, and it just got out of control.

For a random muffin based loosely on a Mark Bittman recipe, these turned out really really well. Just sweet enough, but with a tart bite every now and then. The texture is great, too. I don’t usually like coffee shop muffins, because they’re too dense, but these are moist without being heavy. If I do say so myself…

Cranberry-Carrot Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and spray a 12-cup muffin tin with nonstick spray.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
3. Add the butter pieces to the dry ingredients and use your fingers to rub the butter through the flour mixture. Keep smooshing until the butter is pretty evenly dispersed and all the chunks are pea-sized or smaller.
4. Whisk together the maple syrup and egg.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the flour/butter mixture and whisk until just barely combined.
6. Gently fold in the cranberries and grated carrot. You’ll probably have to switch from the whisk to a spoon or spatula, but use as few strokes as possible to avoid developing gluten, the protein that makes bread nice and chewy, but muffins tough.
7. Fill each muffin cup with a scant (i.e. not quite full) 1/4 cup of batter. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a thin knife or skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

There’s a great restaurant near where we used to live in NYC called Northern Spy. Definitely give it a try if you’re in the area – it was one of our favorites. They make a kale salad for dinner that’s really simple, but almost perfect. . . . → Read More: Is this the best kale salad ever?]]> It’s a bold statement. I’m not shy about it. It could be the best salad salad ever. I’ll leave it up to you, dear reader, to decide for yourself.

There’s a great restaurant near where we used to live in NYC called Northern Spy. Definitely give it a try if you’re in the area – it was one of our favorites. They make a kale salad for dinner that’s really simple, but almost perfect. For brunch, they add a poached egg and make it perfect. Yum yum yum. Erik and I have been eating a lot of kale salads with poached eggs lately. It sounds kind of strange, but give it a shot. It makes a quick, filling, and nutrious meal any time of day. Two nights ago, I was HANGRY (so hungry I was angry) and Erik soothed me with one. Before I had time to protest, BAM! it was on the table and calming me down.

Perfect Kale Salad

Makes 4 servings

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cut the squash in half and place, cut side down, in a small baking dish. Bake the squash until soft, about an hour, depending on the size of your squash. Remove from the oven and let cool.
3. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees.
4. Spread the almonds on a baking sheet (or pizza pan) and bake for about 15 minutes or until browned. Watch them carefully, because they’ll go from nicely browned to burnt very quickly. You can do all these steps a few days ahead, if you want.
5. Once the squash is cooled, remove the skin and chop into bite-sized, but small pieces. Reserve about 1 cup for the salad. Refrigerate the rest for a quick side dish another time.
6. Start a pot of water boiling to poach the eggs.
7. Pour the lemon juice into a large salad bowl. While whisking, add the olive oil in a thin stream to help it emulsify. Whisk in the salt and pepper.
8. Prep the kale, following these instructions, but slicing the ribbons only about 1/4 inch wide. As you finish the kale, toss it into the bowl with the dressing.
9. Toss the kale in the dressing, making sure to coat all the leaves. I usually just use my (clean) hands, because I seem to be unable to keep salad in a bowl any other way. It also gives me a chance to give the kale a little tenderizing massage.
10. Once the water is at a rolling boil and the kale is dressed, poach the eggs. Only make as many as you want to eat that meal. This salad keeps well in the refrigerator, so you can make a quick meal of the leftover tossed salad and a newly poached egg. We use nifty egg poachers, like these, and cook our eggs for two and a half to three minutes for a cooked, but runny, egg. You could also just crack them gently into the boiling water and then fish them out with a slotted spoon. It takes a little practice, but works.
11. Put a pile of kale on each plate. Top with the squash, cheddar, almonds, and a poached egg (or 2).
]]> http://eatlocal365.com/2011/12/13/is-this-the-best-kale-salad-ever/feed/ 3 http://eatlocal365.com/2011/12/06/dark-days-challenge-week-1-how-to-make-potato-gnocchi/ http://eatlocal365.com/2011/12/06/dark-days-challenge-week-1-how-to-make-potato-gnocchi/#comments Tue, 06 Dec 2011 14:25:06 +0000 Erik http://eatlocal365.com/?p=4660

To motivate ourselves through the winter, we have joined the Dark Days Challenge, which asks that we cook one meal a week focused on SOLE ingredients (sustainable, organic, local, and ethical). Right up our alley! Each blogger gets to set their own parameters within these guidelines. We’ll be sticking to the following rules for our Dark Days recipes:

Our primary sources for ingredients will be our CSA through Red Fire Farm, the Somerville Winter . . . → Read More: Dark Days Challenge Week 1: How to Make Potato Gnocchi]]>

To motivate ourselves through the winter, we have joined the Dark Days Challenge, which asks that we cook one meal a week focused on SOLE ingredients (sustainable, organic, local, and ethical). Right up our alley! Each blogger gets to set their own parameters within these guidelines. We’ll be sticking to the following rules for our Dark Days recipes:

• Our primary sources for ingredients will be our CSA through Red Fire Farm, the Somerville Winter Farmers Market, and our canned/dried/frozen stores from the summer.
• If we need to supplement, we’ll use ingredients from within 150 miles of home or those that we get from the NYC Greenmarket system while visiting friends and family there.
• Salt, dried herbs and spices, baking soda/powder, and vinegar are fair game, but we’ll try to find local sources.

I sort of feel like relying on the Greenmarket is cheating, but we’re still figuring things out here and will be spending a time in NYC for holidays, so I’m giving us a pass. On to the recipe!

This is actually two recipes, one for the gnocchi and another for the sauce. Both are variations on recipes from Lidia’s Family Table, which is a phenomenal resource.


Potato Gnocchi

Makes 4 servings

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it
1.5 lbs	Potatoes		Red Fire Farm CSA
1	Egg	Beaten	Red Fire Farm CSA
2 cups	All purpose flour		Cayuga Pure Organics (NYC Greenmarket)
0.75 TBsp	Salt

Directions

1. Clean the whole potatoes and place them in a large pot. Fill with enough water to cover the potatoes plus a little headroom. Place on high heat, cover, and allow to boil for about 45 minutes, or until they are tender when poked with a fork but not yet falling apart. Drain the potatoes and let them cool enough to handle.
2. Rice the potatoes. This can be done either by peeling them and using a potato ricer, or by using a food mill (which will automatically remove and separate the skins). We used the attachment to our Kitchenaid stand mixer, which is actually two attachments, both the food mill attachmentand parts from the meat grinder attachment. It’s kind of complicated to put together, but it’s a real labor and time-saver. I wish we had taken pictures of the milling process (and construction), but we had just gotten back from Thanksgiving and were cooking for company coming over, so we were in a bit of a time pinch. Next time!
3. Rice / mill the potatoes on a sheet pan. Using a rubber spatula, mush and spread them out over the pan. Sprinkle the salt over the layer of potato. Let it cool and dry for lat least 20 minutes (up to however long you feel like it!).
4. Pour the beaten egg over the potato and then layer on the flour. [At this point in our timeline I finished the unpacking and cleaning up and made it to the kitchen to help, with the camera!] Start with about 1 cup of flour.

   

5. Using the rubber spatula, fold the bottom layer of the potato over the top around the edges. Repeat (gently) a few times until it begins to resemble a loose dough. Gradually add more flour until you have a kneadable dough. If you don’t add enough flough, the gnocchi will fall apart when cooked…but they’ll still be tasty!

   

6. Using your hands, finish the kneading process by making the dough slightly more consistent. Sprinkle on more flour if necessary and knead it in. It should feel more like a dough than mashed potatoes. Shape it into a ball and cut it into quarters.

   

7. Clean and lightly flour a work surface. (Up until now you could do it all on the sheet pan.) Roll out each quarter of the dough in an 18 inch rope. Cut each rope in half to make them easier to work with.

   

8. Cut each portion into pieces between 2/3 of an inch to 1 inch. Have a floury sheet pan nearby to start collecting the shaped gnocchi.

   

9. To give the gnocchi its classic shape, hold a fork so that the tines are facing downwards and push each piece onto the fork near where the tines join. The tines will make an impression on the one side and your finger will create a slight indentation on the other side. Then, roll the gnocchi off the end of the fork to make it more cylindrical and to create the tine impressions all around. Rumor is that eventually you can do this in one motion. I’m not there yet.

   

10. Once all of the gnocchi are shaped and on the sheet pan, toss lightly in the flour to avoid sticking and cover them with a towel. They should be boiled immediately at this point or frozen. They don’t sit around well in this form. Bring a large pot of water to boil (get this started in advance if you remember).
11. Using a kitchen skimmer / spider or slotted spoon, drop 5 or 6 gnocchi in the boiling water at a time. This is important because the water needs to be at the boiling temperature to form the “skin” that will hold the gnocchi together. The more gnocchi pieces are added to the water at one time, the more the temperature will drop and the longer it will take to recover. Limiting the number of pieces is annoying but in the end it will be easier and you will get better results.
12. Leave each batch in the water for 2 – 3 minutes, until they plump up a bit a float to the surface. Fish them out with your skimmer, but be gentle with them! Cooking for too long will lead to mush, so don’t be afraid to pull them out a few at a time as they float.



Simple Tomato Sauce

Makes a lot

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it
2 quarts	San Marzano / plum tomatoes	Previously canned (2 quart jars)	Cherry Lane Farms
1	Large onion	Diced (about 1.5 – 2 cups)	Red Fire Farm CSA
1	Medium celeriac	Diced (about 1.5 – 2 cups)	Enterprise Farm (Somerville Winter Farmers Market)
3 TBsp	Olive oil
2 cups	Water
2	Dried bay leaves
1	Dried chile	Crumbled (substitute 1-2 tsp red pepper flakes)	Northshire Farm chiles dried last summer
1 tsp	Kosher salt

Directions

1. Place the oil in a Dutch oven or large pot over medium-high heat. Once it’s heated, add the diced onion and celeriac (or you can substitute carrot, celery, etc.). Cook, stirring frequently, for 3-4 mintes. You want them to soften but not brown. [Note: we made this sauce using our own canned tomotoes. You can use store-bought canned San Marzanos, if you must.]

   

2. Add the tomatoes, salt, bay leaves, and red pepper flakes. Swish the water around the tomato jar or can to get out the last bits and dump it into the pot. Turn up the heat, cover, and bring the sauce to a boil. Check on it and stir frequently.
3. Once it boils, turn the heat down to medium / medium-high to maintain a bubbling simmer. Cover and cook for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. At this point you can continue simmering and cooking down for as long as you like, up to an hour. When the sauce is as thick as you want, remove the bay leaves, blend with a hand mixer to your desired consistency, and add salt to taste

We served our gnocchi and sauce with another round of our arugula, beet, and peach salad. We quenched our thirst with some delicious cider from Eve’s Cidery and capped it off with little parfaits of home-canned cherries in wine and whipped cream. Yum! Nothing better than an impromptu Sunday dinner with good friends.





]]> http://eatlocal365.com/2011/12/06/dark-days-challenge-week-1-how-to-make-potato-gnocchi/feed/ 5 http://eatlocal365.com/2011/11/24/pre-thanksgiving-light-lunch-peach-and-roasted-beet-salad/ http://eatlocal365.com/2011/11/24/pre-thanksgiving-light-lunch-peach-and-roasted-beet-salad/#comments Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:10:09 +0000 Lindsay http://eatlocal365.com/?p=4634 Happy Thanksgiving!!

Today is my favorite holiday all year – not surprising that I look forward to a holiday focused on food, huh? I LOVE the traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but before you dive head first into a plate of brown-ish, carb-y, gravy-soaked dinner, consider a colorful “pre-game” salad. This one comes together in a jiffy after the beets are roasted (which you could do a day or so ahead of time) and is jam-packed . . . → Read More: Pre-Thanksgiving Light Lunch: Peach and Roasted Beet Salad]]> Happy Thanksgiving!!

Today is my favorite holiday all year – not surprising that I look forward to a holiday focused on food, huh? I LOVE the traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but before you dive head first into a plate of brown-ish, carb-y, gravy-soaked dinner, consider a colorful “pre-game” salad. This one comes together in a jiffy after the beets are roasted (which you could do a day or so ahead of time) and is jam-packed with peppery, mildly spicy, and sweet ingredients.



This is based on a recipe from Not Eating Out in New York, but modified to use ingredients that we had on hand or found at the Somerville Winter Farmers Market on Saturday.

Peach and Roasted Beet Salad
Serves 2 as a main or 4 as a side

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it (* Red Fire Farm CSA, ** Somerville Winter Farmers Market)
2 cups	Beets	Roasted (see below) and cut into quarters or eighths	Northshire Farm
1/2	Dried chile	Crumbled (or substitute 1/4 tsp chile powder)	Home-dried
1/4 tsp	Dried basil
1/8 tsp	Salt
Few grinds	Black pepper
1 TBsp	Olive oil
2 TBsp	Lemon juice
1 1/2 cups	Canned peaches	Sliced or cut into bite-sized pieces	Home-canned
2 large handfuls	Arugula		NorthStar Farm **




Directions

1. Wash and dry the beets. Wrap each in foil and put in a single layer in a baking dish. Roast at 400 degrees for 40 to 60 minutes, depending on size. The beets are done when they’re easily pierced with a thin knife. Once they’re cool enough to handle, rub the skins off with a paper towel. Your hands will get red, but if you wash them right away, they shouldn’t stain. Slice each beet into 4 or 8 wedges, depending on size. Set aside or refrigerate for a few days, if you do this ahead of time.
2. Whisk the lemon juice, chile, dried basil, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. While whisking, add the olive oil in a slow, thin stream. Doing it this way will help it combine with the lemon juice, rather than forming little pools on top.
3. Add the arugula to the bowl and toss to coat all the leaves in dressing.
4. To serve, put a pile of arugula on each plate and arrange the beet and peach slices on top.



]]> http://eatlocal365.com/2011/11/24/pre-thanksgiving-light-lunch-peach-and-roasted-beet-salad/feed/ 3 http://eatlocal365.com/2011/02/07/three-layer-bean-dip/ http://eatlocal365.com/2011/02/07/three-layer-bean-dip/#comments Mon, 07 Feb 2011 19:50:13 +0000 Lindsay http://eatlocal365.com/?p=2482

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:

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it (* Union Square Greenmarket)
1 3/4 cup	Black beans	Cooked yourself or 1 can, drained and rinsed	Cayuga Pure Organics *
1 package (12 oz)	Mixed bell peppers	Or 2 peppers, chopped	Migliorelli Farm *
8 halves	Oven-dried cherry tomatoes	Soaked in hot water for 5 minutes and chopped	Hodgson Farm *
2 or 3 cloves	Garlic	The number depends on size. In the winter, ours are pretty small.	Keith’s Farm *
3/4 tsp	Cumin
1/2 tsp	Salt	If you use canned beans with salt, reduce this to 1/4 tsp.
1/4 tsp	Black pepper	Freshly ground
1 cup	Sour cream		Homemade
1 cup	Salsa verde		Homemade

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).



]]> http://eatlocal365.com/2011/02/07/three-layer-bean-dip/feed/ 1 http://eatlocal365.com/2011/02/05/leftovers-and-tallgrass-burger/ http://eatlocal365.com/2011/02/05/leftovers-and-tallgrass-burger/#comments Sat, 05 Feb 2011 19:44:49 +0000 Erik http://eatlocal365.com/?p=2465 We’ve had a busy week, so we haven’t had time to do anything really interesting in the kitchen. We are doing a bunch of cooking tomorrow for the Superbowl, so we’ll have some post material after that.

We had a lot of leftovers from our party, and otherwise we stuck to simple meals that we’ve already posted about, such as frittata and roasted vegetables.

The picture below is a mix of roasting potatoes, celeriac, . . . → Read More: Leftovers and Tallgrass Burger]]> We’ve had a busy week, so we haven’t had time to do anything really interesting in the kitchen. We are doing a bunch of cooking tomorrow for the Superbowl, so we’ll have some post material after that.

We had a lot of leftovers from our party, and otherwise we stuck to simple meals that we’ve already posted about, such as frittata and roasted vegetables.

The picture below is a mix of roasting potatoes, celeriac, orange and purple carrots, and some sort of purple radish that I can’t remember the name of. It makes for a pretty mix, which we drizzled with some homemade honey mustard vinaigrette.


A very purple roasting mix

For those in NYC, we should also note that we ordered in one night, from Tallgrass Burger. The reviews online are mixed, which is surprising, because we had a great experience. Tallgrass uses only grass-fed local beef (the type we cook with). We both had “The Classic”, which comes with cheese and horseradish-mustard sauce which was both original and tasty. The garlic fries were also great.

Some people online complained about their burgers being overcooked or undercooked vs. their order, but Lindsay and I both commented how they nailed her medium and my well. Others online complained about the price, but we’re willing to pay for better ingredients. At $7 for the Classic, it’s not outrageous. It’s more expensive than McDonalds, but cheaper than a sit-down restaurant.

Plain and simple, the reason we are posting it is that they were the best burgers that we’ve had in a long time. A friend of mine went last night on our recommendation, and she agreed that they reminded her very much of In-n-Out Burger. The style is very similar: not to small, not too huge, thin-patty, reasonable portion size, and high quality. Boo to the naysayers.

]]> http://eatlocal365.com/2011/02/05/leftovers-and-tallgrass-burger/feed/ 0 http://eatlocal365.com/2011/01/19/how-to-make-vegetable-broth/ http://eatlocal365.com/2011/01/19/how-to-make-vegetable-broth/#comments Wed, 19 Jan 2011 17:07:07 +0000 Lindsay http://eatlocal365.com/?p=1445 This is an incredibly simple, mindless vegetable broth. It mimics the boxed or canned brands, but is salt-free (a standard 1-cup serving contains 20-25% of your daily sodium allowance!) and allows you to control the quality of the ingredients. It also takes advantage of my favorite appliance, the slow cooker, so you can throw it together with about 15 minutes of hands-on time.

We’ve been making this about every two weeks, but that’s kind of . . . → Read More: How to Make Vegetable Broth]]> This is an incredibly simple, mindless vegetable broth. It mimics the boxed or canned brands, but is salt-free (a standard 1-cup serving contains 20-25% of your daily sodium allowance!) and allows you to control the quality of the ingredients. It also takes advantage of my favorite appliance, the slow cooker, so you can throw it together with about 15 minutes of hands-on time.

We’ve been making this about every two weeks, but that’s kind of atypical. If you don’t use it up all at once, I recommend freezing it in zip-top bags in 2- or 4-cup servings. You could also freeze it in a muffin pan for smaller (~1/4 cup) servings. Pop out the portions once they’re frozen and store them in a large zip-top bag.

Basic Vegetable Broth
Makes 10-12 cups, depending on the size of your slow cooker

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of carrots, scrubbed and chopped into big chunks
• 1 large celeriac (10-12 ounces), peeled and chopped into big chunks (see this post for directions)
• 1 pound of onions (about 3), quartered but not peeled
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
• 6 whole sprigs of parsley or 2 TBsp chopped parsley – We chopped and froze a ton of parsley in ice cubes at the end of the summer, so that we could have local parsley all winter.
• 3 bay leaves
• 10 black peppercorns
• 1 tsp dried thyme

Directions:

1. Dump everything into the slow cooker and fill it up with water. My slow cooker can handle 10-12 cups of water, depending on how bulky the veggies are.

   

2. Cook on high for 4 to 6 hours or low for 8 to 10. It really won’t be hurt by extra time, so don’t worry if you leave to have brunch with a friend, have an second cup of coffee, and get home late.

   

3. Put a colander on top of a large bowl (make sure it’s big enough to hold all the stock. Wet a piece of cheesecloth and wring it out well. Lay the cheese cloth over the colander. Use a ladle to transfer the contents of the slow cooker to the colander.

   

4. You can let it drain just like that or bundle up the cheesecloth and hang it over the bowl. We use this little set up to let broth and jelly strain hanging from the cabinet. Give it a little squeeze every now and then to get all the liquid out.

   

5. Once the dripping has stopped (probably in less than an hour), store the broth in the refrigerator or freezer or use it right away.
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