Soba Noodle Salad with Mizuna

• 2 cups Mizuna leaves, washed, stemmed, and chopped
• 2 cups of cooked Soba noodles
• 1 tablespoon of toasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp fresh ginger
• 1 garlic scape
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds

Directions

Combine Mizuna nd noodles in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine garlic, ginger, oil, and soy sauce. Whisk together and pour over noodles.

Top with sesame seeds and enjoy!!

TGIFriday's June Bug

• 1 ounce melon liqueur
• 3/4 ounce coconut rum
• 3/4 ounce banana liqueur
• 1 ounce sweet and sour mix
• 1 ounce pinapple juice

Mix together in a shaker, server over ice.

I wrote this post forever ago (6/8/8) and never published it. It is so good. MY FAVORITE for summer time drinks. I am out of all the liquors, but maybe I need to do a Wisconsin run now.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

This is a completley different way than I normally make it, and I was completely winging it as I went. So, measurements are shaky.

• 2 chicken breasts
• 2 slices of ham
• 2 slices of swiss cheese
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 2 tablespoons of flour
• 1 cup of white wine
• 4 ounces of mushrooms

Take the chicken, and trim off any extra junk. Slice a "pocket" into it from the thickest side. This takes some skill, be careful to keep it centered, not poking through the other side and cutting your palm. Stuff the "pocket" with the slice of ham and cheese. Close the pocket with tooth picks.

In a medium heat skillet, add a tablespoon of olive oil, and place the chicken, ugliest side down. Cook for 3 minutes, flip it over, cook another 3 minutes. Don't despair, there will still be rawness to the chicken. Remove the chicken from the pan, and add the butter. Melt the butter, push it around to pick up the chickeny bits. Add the flour, stir together, cook down till it's not pasty (roux style). Then slowly add the cup of wine, stir with a whisk. Do this slowly, to avoid lumps. Cook it for a minute or so, let it thicken it up. Stir in the mushrooms, then put the chicken back in. Put a lid on it, turn the heat down to near low. Cook at a covered simmer for about 20 minutes.

I served this with my lovely CSA asparagus. (tossed with olive oil, kosher salt and pepper, roasted at 425 for 10 minutes.)

Rhubarb Muffins

From the CSA newsletter:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 egg, lightly beaten 1 cup buttermilk

2/3 cup vegetable oil 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 cups finely chopped rhubarb TOPPING: 1/2 cup sugar 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:

1.

In a large bowl, combine the first five ingredients. Combine egg, buttermilk, oil and vanilla; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in rhubarb. Fill greased or paper-lined muffins cups about half full. Combine topping ingredients; sprinkle over each muffin. Bake at 375 degrees F for 16-18 minutes or until muffins test done In the future, I would do it with whole wheat flour and add something else, like criasins or raisins. Something was missing.

Radish Sandwich

So simple, yet wonderful.

Wash up your radish, stick it back in the fridge in a thing of water and ice, let it get real cold. Maybe an hour. Then toast up some bread, spread a nice amount of butter (the real stuff), top with thinly sliced radish, about 2 to 3 radish per sandwich. Sprinkle with kosher salt. Served with beautiful greens from my CSA share.

Chicken & Mizuna Stir Fry

• 3/4 lb chicken breast
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• large bunch mizuna
• Salt to taste

Chop the chicken into bite sized strips. I find it's easier to chop if it's slightly frozen. The original recipe said to mince it in the food processor, that sounded un-pleasant to me. I don't like mushy chicken paste. Mix chicken with soy sauce, wine, cornstarch, sugar, pepper and set it aside to marinate.

Meanwhile, rinse mizuna and chop the stems and leaves.

Heat 2 tsp of oil in a wok or skillet over medium high heat. Add the chicken and stir fry until it is fully cooked through. When the chicken is fully cooked and add the mizuna. Toss the mizuna in the hot pan with the chicken and it will start to wilt and cook down, season to taste with salt.

Serve with rice. I use brown rice. John added additional soy sauce and kosher salt to his. Connor ate 3 pieces of the chicken and at least a teaspoon of rice.

Espresso Steam Cleaner?

The steamer function on my espresso maker still works, so I can still make steamers (steamed milk + flavoring - caffeine). I put too much water in, so I had lot of extra steam to come out. Put the espresso maker over the sink, and let the steam go into the sink. It totally cleaned out the sink. Normally, I take a Magic Clean Eraser to it to remove any staining, but the steamer did it without elbow grease. Funny, right?