Grilled Acorn Squash

Make an infused olive oil, by cooking the oil at a low heat with sage. Dunk the sliced (quarter to half inch thick) and pealed squash into the oil. Grill 4 minutes on a medium heat on each side.

Sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper.

Purple Carrots

Purple Carrots. Need I say more?

Potato Topper

Inspired by Topper's Potato Topper Pizza.
Here we go:

• Heather's Special Ranch Dressing (mayo, sour cream, fresh dill, garlic, thyme, oregano, kosher salt, pepper)
• 2 cups cheddar cheese
• 4 potatoes
• 5 slices of bacon
• 1 minced garlic clove

I used my standard crust, but did 3 cups AP flour, 1 cup whole wheat.
Cut the bacon up into smallish pieces, and fry up. Remove bacon, let sit on some paper towels. I boiled the potatoes till they were nearly done, then cut them up into 1 inch chunks. Fry the potatoes up in the bacon grease with the garlic. Get them a little crisp.
I blind baked the crust for about ten minutes at 400, just get it ready for all the ranch.
Spread the ranch, I used about 3/4 a cup of it. Top with cheddar cheese, the potatoes and bacon. Bake for about 10 minutes.

I talked to an employee of Toppers, and they said that Toppers uses garlic butter for the sauce and puts ranch on top. But, they don't use Heather's Special Ranch either. I like the way mayo tastes when it bakes, so that is why I did it this way.

I really loved this. John did too. Blind baking the crust really helped make it nice and crisp.

Eggplant Parm

1 eggplant, pealed and slice in 1/4 inch slices
bread crumbs
garlic, minced
salt
egg
parm cheese

After slicing the eggplant, sprinle salt onto both sides and let it sit for awhile, the longer the better. I like at least 1 hour. This removes that weird biter flavor if you buy the wrong sex of eggplant. I can never remember how to properly sex a eggplant. How dirty is that?

Rinse the eggplant slices well. Remove all the salt you can. Dip the eggplant into a beaten egg, then dip it into the breadcrumb/garlic. Shallow fry it in canola oil, 2 to 3 minutes a side. Remove from oil, put onto a paper towel, sprinkle with shredded parm. The eggplant is hot enough that it will naturally melt the parm cheese.

Devour.

Fajitas

Shredded chicken, from the whole chicken I made on Friday
Poblano Peppers
Zavory Peppers (these crazy little guys, look like habanero, taste like them, without the heat....so they are actually fruity)
Fresh Cilantro
Salt and Pepper

Chop and saute everything together with a splash of Canola Oil. Fabulous.

Garlic

Look at the size of that clove! The garlic head was the size of a normal one you would buy at the grocery store, but there was only 4 cloves on the head, normally there are like 10. Big Garlic = Big Love. I could have ate it raw.

Purple Beans

The beans were actually purple. I swear. It was crazy. When I cooked them, they turned green though.

Tomato Goodness

That is it. I have a new favorite food. I don't even know what to call this.

• Handful of Cherry tomatoes (I had green, red and orange ones)
• Sweet Red Pepper
• Clove of garlic
• Fresh Basil
• Salt & Pepper

Heat some olive oil to medium-low, add chopped garlic clove. Cook for a few moments, add the pepper. At this point, I added some kosher salt and pepper. Cook till the pepper is slighly mushy, I like mushy veggies. Add the halved cherry tomatoes and the fresh basil. Cook till warm. This is so good. I put it on ziti pasta and topped with some shredded parm. Seriously, this is my new favorite food. I had regular slicing tomatoes, that I just used. Removed the seeds, and they worked just as well. This dish is so pretty, I almost feel bad when I am licking the plate.

Tomato Pizza

Heather, you make too much pizza. Impossible. This one is completely different from any I have made in the past for these 3 reasons:

1. I used 50/50 wheat/white flour in the crust
   
2. I used "fresh mozzarella"
3. I reheated by placing it on a piece of aluminum foil on my NEW grill, and placing it on top

Those are 3 great new changes. I like it. Other toppings included my standard tomato sauce, sweet red pepper, cherry tomatoes and garlic gloves. John's half was peppers and pepperonis.

For my normal crust

For my normal tomato sauce

Ultimate sadness, I forgot I have some fresh basil in the fridge! Damn you dried convenient stuff.

Kale Chips

A bunch of clean ripped up Kale
Olive Oil
Kosher Salt
Parm Cheese

In a bowl, pour the olive oil over the kale. Add the salt and cheese, to your liking, and stir around with your hands. Make sure all the kale gets a good even covering.

Bake at 425 for a few (less than 10) minutes on a Silpat lined baking sheet. Comes out crispy.

It's not the best tasting, but what else are you going to do with kale? Seriously folks, what else are you going to do? I just read an article in TIME magazine about chimps and their sign language skills. They kind of make up their own phrases, and the chimp calls kale "Slow-Lettuce" cause it takes much longer to eat than lettuce, but resembles it. Cute.

Tomato Sauce

• About 20 Roma tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 sweet red pepper
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• salt
• pepper
• basil

Peal and de-seed the tomatoes. Chop into eighths. Do the same with the pepper. Head olive oil to medium, cook chopped garlic for a moment. Don't let it burn! Add the tomatoes and pepper. Add salt, pepper and basil and cook forever, stir every once in awhile on low heat. Seriously, I let it simmer for at least a half hour. The tomatoes will break down by themselves in that amount of time.

It's a crazy amount of work for sauce that will cover MAYBE 2 pounds of pasta, I know. But, I like to control what I eat. I hate onions, and all store bought sauce has onions in it. I normally make my own sauce with a can of crushed tomatoes, but with fresh tomatoes in season, it was time to try it the hard way.

As Connor would say, "Tomato sauce, it's not growssy!"

Fried Green Beans

• 1 pound green beans, trimmed
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon regular pepper
• frying oil

Dunk the beans into the buttermilk, then dredge them into a bowl of flour/salt/garlic/cayenne/pepper. Fry them for a minute or so until golden brown. Place onto a paper towel then sprinkle with salt, or even parm cheese.

6 green veggie beef Stir Fry

1 Green Bell Pepper

1/2 cup green beans

1/2 cup chopped kale

1/2 cup chopped Napa cabbage

1/2 cup broccoli

Garlic Scape

1 pound of some steak or beef strips

2 cups brown rice

Brown up the beef with some soy sauce. Add bell pepper, beens, broccoli and garlic scape. 4 minutes later, add cabbage and kale. Top on brown rice.

Think Jbizz is sick of stir fry yet? Nah, add some beef and he forgets all about the green veggie organic love.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

I've never made a strawberry pie, let alone, a strawberry rhubarb pie. I even tried out a new crust. Let us discuss.

Crust:

• 1 stick of supa cold butter, cubed
• 1 tablespoon of Crisco
• 1 and 1/2 cups AP flour
• 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 4 tablespoons of ice water

Combine butter/crisco/flour/salt into food processor. Pulse 3 times for 3 seconds. Put in the water, 1 tablespoon at a time, pulse for 3 seconds after each. Maybe you won't even need the last tablespoon, but I tend to always need it. Normally, I use lard for crusts (it's not gross, Crisco is gross - a fat that doesn't need to be refrigerator, and is stable at room temp. That is wrong. Stepping down from soapbox.) Form into a nice disc in plastic wrap, put in fridge for at least a half hour. This is my own trick now. I put a Silpat down, sprinkle just a tad of flour. Place dough disc on it, put the plastic wrap on top of it. And roll it out, keeping the dough between the plastic wrap and silpat. I have this god-awful marble rolling pin, and stuff just sticks to it. I want a nice wood one. (TWSS)

How about the filling?

• 1 pound of strawberries, hulled and quartered
• 1 cup of rhubarb chopped up, one inch pieces
• 1 and 1/2 cups sugar, Turbinado please
• 3 tablespoons of corn starch
• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt

Mix this all together, fill the crust. I try to blind bake crusts, but I always junk that up. Put a few pats of butter on top of the filling for luck. Make the edges pretty. I cut off the hang over, then make a faux lattice on top. Bake for about an hour at 350.

Chicken Stir Fry

• 1 chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
• lemon-pepper
• 1 tablespoon of oil
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 1/2 cup of shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup of pea-pods
• 1 garlic scape
• 3 large napa cabbage leaves shredded
• 3 large chard leaves shredded

Season the chicken with lemon-pepper. Heat the wok to a medium-high heat with oil. Cook the chicken throughly, about 4 minutes or so. Add the soy sauce about half way through cooking the chicken. Add the peas, garlic scapes and carrots, cook for 2 minutes. Add the cabbage and chard, cook until wilted, about 2 or 3 minutes. Serve over brown rice.

Shiitake Mushroom and Garlic Scape

Just pretty. Shiitakes are grown in Gilmore Valley, just up the road. The Garlic Scape is from across the river. Lovely, aren't they?

Wilted Bok Choy and Cashews

This was a pretty hardy and very spicy dish. A whole teaspoon of red pepper flakes for such little veggies was a lot. It's not really our style, but it wasn't bad.

• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• minced garlic scape
• 1/2 teaspoon dried ginger
• several small-medium bok choy, sliced crosswise into 1/2-inch thick slices, flowers are edible as well.
• 1 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• Salt and ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup cashews

Directions

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add bok choy and garlic and saute 3 minutes. Add soy sauce, ginger and red pepper flakes and cook 2 more minutes, until bok choy stalks are tender-crisp and leaves are wilted. Season, to taste, with salt and black pepper. Arrange bok choy on plates and top with cashews just before serving.

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!!

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.