Week One (of Two CSA bins)

Denison Farms CSA Bin: raspberries, strawberries, radishes, lettuce, fennel, leeks, potatoes, carrots, cucumber.


Minto Island Growers CSA Bin: lettuce, salad mix, rhubarab, turnips, mint, bok choy, green garlic.

The first produce bin of the year!!

So, at 2 am last night...when we had been travelling since the wee hours and passed through all time zones on our return from a cross-country trip with 2 little ones, I was not as excited as usual about picking up our produce bin. Even less excited was my husband who was counting the minutes it was adding to our late night to “swing by the porch” and pick up the first CSA bin of the season! In my zombie-like jet-lagged state this morning it was even worse trying to sort and prep all the produce, but I know that we are in need a serious diet detox from travelling and this is perfect timing to have an abundance of fresh fruits and veggies in the house!

For dinner I made a carrot top soup. This is something that I have wanted to do since we first starting getting the CSA bins years ago...it always pains me to throw away all those leafy wisps at the top of the carrot bunch! I started sautéing radish and turnip greens last year, but have yet to attempt to use the carrot tops in anything other than making veggie broth. Well, today that is a-changin’! I am doing a slight variation of this recipe:
http://www.chef2chef.net/recipes/recipe-archive/13/078137.SHTML.

I added a few minced garlic cloves, some dried thyme, red pepper flakes, lots more chopped carrots and doubled the amount of rice (also, using brown rice). I’m making a loaf of freshly baked homemade honey whole wheat bread so even if the soup is a bomb we’ll have some yummy bread! Oh, and serving it with a salad of course (gotta use up some of that lettuce, cucumber, radishes and carrots!)



UPDATE: The soup was delicious! Got a thumbs up from both adults in the house!

Late night fruit crisp

As often happens, when the kids are in bed and it's getting later and later....I get hungry for dessert. I was really craving a fruit crisp last night and so I inventoried our fruit (fresh, frozen and canned) selection and offered the following selection to my husband: blueberry, rhubarb, peach, apple or cranberry (or any combination thereof). His answer was "anything but blueberry" so I began a search for an amazing apple cranberry quinoa crisp that I knew I had somewhere. It took me about as long to find the recipe as it did to make the dessert. But it was ALL worth it. Just as delicious as I remembered it!

***Apple Cranberry Quinoa Crisp***

Mix the following ingredients together and put in a glass baking dish:

2 large apples (I use whatever I have on hand, this time it was cameos) - cored and chopped into bite sized pieces (leave skin on)
1 cup frozen cranberries
1/4 cup sugar (or sweetener of choice)
1/2 teas cinnamon

In a separate bowl combine the following ingredients and then spoon over the fruit mixture:

1 cup quinoa flakes
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup coconut oil (or butter or butter substitute, this time I used a little Earth Balance Spread, but mostly coconut oil - I definitely think that the coconut oil makes this crisp topping spectacular!)
1/4 - 1/2 cup brown sugar, depending on your preference of how sweet you want it

Bake 350 for 45-50 minutes until the top is lightly browned.

Coconut Milk-Brown Rice Pudding

This recipe is adapted from David Gabbe's cooking class recipe. David teaches a variety of vegan cooking classes in the Salem and Portland areas and I *highly* recommend him if anyone is interested!

Here's my take on his recipe:

Cook 3/4 brown rice (he recommends using more water than usual to result in a chewier, softer rice....he suggests 3 3/4 cups water - the resulting pudding from this is delicious!! Sometimes I just use leftover rice that I have on hand though)

Add:
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup finely chopped dates
2 teas vanilla extract

Stir and cook until heated. Simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes.

Then, mix 2 tablespoons arrowroot powder (or could use any other thickening agent) with 2 tablespoons COLD water. Slowly stir this mixture into the rice pudding and stir constantly until it is thickened. (usually takes about a minute or so)

First Wednesday Farmer's Market of the Year!!

Here's a quick snapshot of the produce we got at the Farmer's Market today...fresh spinach, broccoli raab, carrots, garlic, zucchini, new potatoes and strawberries!

What's for dinner? Breakfast!!

This was really Friday night's dinner...tonight (Saturday) we went out for Mexican food. But last night I didn't have time to post. We had a "breakfast for dinner" night. Above is a photo of my FAVORITE pancake/waffle mix. It's sooooo good! I use the instructions on the back that call for whipping the egg whites and then folding them into the batter, so it creates an extra fluffy/light product. The other version is equally good (just denser), but quicker and easier, especially when camping and such. Last night I used some homemade hazelnut milk as the liquid for the pancakes which I think added a really nice touch. We served them with thawed strawberries and blueberries from the freezer and (I'm a bit embarrassed to say) I think I ate 5 waffles! Yep, they were THAT good! :)

Cookie Time!

So, dinner tonight wasn't anything spectacular (although it WAS mighty tasty!) - we had quinoa noodles (a new favorite of mine), panfried tempeh cubes, homemade marinara, steamed broccoli and roasted asparagus. The kids also had their favorite bread, Salem Sourdough from Cascade Baking Company.

But the real star of the show (and this post) was dessert...I attended a Green Cuisine forum at Willamette University earlier this week and one of the items served was this fabulous vegan cookie. Students were the "chefs" for the evening and I accosted the one who made the cookies when I noticed she was carrying one of my favorite cookbook author's books in her hand. Turns out the cookies were from "Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. I just so happen to own this cookbook (which I suppose isn't a surprise to those of you who have seen my cookbook collection!) For those of you who have the book, or get it from the library, the recipe is for the Chocolate Agave Trailmixers (pages 96-97 of the book). I have to say that the recipe itself wouldn't have stood out to me, but the samples of these cookies were delicious!!

I made these tonight with a couple modifications - sugar for agave, dark chocolate chips and with dried cherries and freshly roasted cashews. Yum, yum!