Sweet potato, leek and kale tart

For those of you who are wondering - it’s 4 workdays for me until retirement. I’m excited, and a little nervous and at times keep asking myself if this is the right thing to do. I’m ready I’ve got plans for volunteering, organizing to do, lunches with friends to have, hiking and walking, and when better, places to travel. 

I also have some cooking I want to do and learn. I’ve never made macrons or chou pastry and I want to experiment with making my own vegan sausages - so potentially lots of cooking experiment blogging. And then there is getting back into knitting - it’s been a while. 

A couple nights ago I brought in some swiss chard, collards, and kale. I will eat them in a salad, sautéed with onions and a little garlic … the possibilities are endless: Dan not so much - as long as they are cooked or well-disguised he doesn’t complain. 

I also had sweet potatoes, leeks, and fennel from the Farmers Market that needed to be used up so I tossed a little of this and some of that and put it in a shortcrust and poof dinner. We served it with an apple, fennel, and celery salad with a white balsamic dressing - everything was delicious. 

Ingredients:

2 large leeks

2 medium sweet potatoes

1 bunch swiss chard

3 cloves garlic

1 sheet shortcrust pastry

1 tsp cumin

1tsp sage

½ tsp ground coriander

½ tsp fennels seeds

Large pinch salt & pepper

Crumbled feta

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350

Chop the sweet potato into roughly 1.5-inch cubes, drizzle with olive oil then roast at 350 for @ 20 minutes.

While the sweet potato is baking, finely chop the leek (as you would an onion) and gently fry in a drizzle of olive oil. Once the leeks have softened add 3 minced cloves of garlic and fry for a further 1 minute. Add the sage, cumin, coriander, fennel, salt, and pepper to the pan. Chop the swiss chard (just the greens) add to the pan and gently heat for a further 5 minutes.

If using ready rolled pastry, add to a large tart dish with a removable base and prod the base with a fork 3-4 times. Place a sheet of baking parchment with baking beads (or dry rice will do) on top of the tart then put the tart in the oven for a blind bake for 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven, take out the baking beads and parchment. Combine the leek mixture and roasted sweet potatoes in a bowl, then pour into the baked tart. Top with feta and bake for 5 - 10 minutes to soften the cheese.

Take out of the oven and enjoy!

Last Vestiges of Summer

As the days get shorter so does my time at work - eleven days until retirement. It seems surreal, I’ve spent decades preparing for this moment and at times I never thought it would come but I’m ready - for the next chapter. 

Many of you know I’ve been working toward my Master Gardener certification and I’m just about there. Course work is done, 50 volunteer hours are done, continuing education is done - the last step is to turn in my 15 question responses. 

So what’s next? I’ve been trying out several volunteer options and I’ve found a couple that I am going to pursue and then there are my own gardens. Our new neighbors have put in a 6-foot fence that now blocks the sun on 2 of my raised beds so there will be work to relocate them and reconfigure the fence. One of my perennial gardens will also need to change and what to do to cover up that large white fence - at this point I’m not sure. 

I’ve been talking to my gardening friends and the drought has definitely had an impact on harvest and yields. The same applies to our gardens - spinach, radishes, and lettuce were a bust but garlic, zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes, and cucumbers - were plentiful. Potatoes were average, peppers, collard greens, swiss chard, kale, and eggplant on par with other years - our refrigerator and freezer are full and the neighbors are still happy to see us especially when we are bearing tomato and cucumber gifts. 

Some nights there are no plans or recipes you slice a little of this, toss it with a little olive oil and spices, and roast - it’s fresh and delicious. We had movie night (we are cautiously moving back to that) and it was a success. The veggies were tossed with a little olive oil, some fajita seasoning from Penzys, salt, and pepper. The fingerling potatoes (I love the color of the Russian purple - a beautiful deep purple) just oil salt and pepper and the tomato/peach/mozzarella salad had a splash of balsamic vinegar and fresh basil.  

Enjoy the rest of summer, get outside, be with friends and eat good food.  Thanks for stopping by. 

A Tasty Thai Broccoli Salad

At long last, it is raining here and for the first time in I don’t know how long I am not watering the garden - ahhhh. Hose, hand, or natural watering aside things are going well despite the drought; the tomatoes are still going strong, I’m harvesting collards, swiss chard, and kale regularly, zucchini and yellow squash are prolific, and the fall bean and spinach crops are doing well.

Somewhere along the way, I ended up with 4 free broccoli plants. I’ve planted broccoli in the past but have stopped because it takes up a lot of space for a little return. Since they were free and I had a few pots in the garden I planted them and ended up with 2 nice multi-crown heads and 2 that totally flopped. One was completely bitten off at the base - I guess someone was very hungry.

When it’s too hot to turn on the stove I’m always looking for a summer salad that has protein, is easy to throw together, and tastes good - this salad meets the criteria.

Salad Ingredients:

• 1 medium head broccoli, very finely chopped into bite-sized pieces @ 3 - 4 cups
• 2-3 cups packed shredded red cabbage
• 1 cup shredded carrot
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1/3 rd. cup diced onion - you can use either scallions or red onion
• ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro

For the dressing:

• ¼ cup natural creamy peanut butter

• 2 1/2 tablespoons low sodium gluten-free soy sauce or coconut aminos

• 1 tablespoon honey (or pure maple syrup to keep vegan)

• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar

• 1 tablespoon sesame oil (or sub olive oil)

• 1-2 teaspoons fresh grated ginger

• 1 clove garlic, finely minced

• Optional: ¼ teaspoon red cayenne pepper, plus more if you like it extra spicy!

• 2 tablespoons warm water, to thin dressing

Instructions:

Chop all salad ingredients and put them in a bowl and set aside.

Make the dressing by whisking together the following ingredients in a small bowl: peanut butter, soy sauce, honey, rice vinegar, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, cayenne pepper, and water. Drizzle over the salad and toss well to combine.

Enjoy!

A Twist on Traditional Ratatouille

This is my favorite gardening time of year - all of my favorite veggies are producing and I’m constantly presented with new opportunities for finding recipes that I can make without going to the grocery store. 

These days our freezer is full of pesto, we’re using up the last few bags of frozen tomato sauce from last year and we are getting ready to start the 2021 batch. We tried a few new things this year - garlic, which was a great success (54 bulbs), Russian purple fingerling potatoes (so so successful), and 2 new heirloom tomatoes, which are both doing well. 

Did you know that zucchini literally grow overnight? It’s true and I have a counter full of zucchini to prove it. Our eggplant is finally producing and I have a pepperoncini plant that is loaded with peppers but still waiting for them to ripen. One disappointment this year is my poblano pepper plants. One has 2 peppers on it and the other one is loaded with flowers but alas no peppers. Not sure what’s up with that. My green peppers are plentiful and I planted a mini sweet red pepper plant that is producing cute bright red peppers - haven’t tried them yet but soon. 

I love dishes that can come together in a single pot and use as many veggies I have on hand as possible. I found this rift in traditional ratatouille from probably 10 years ago when we belonged to a CSA. I had totally forgotten about it but it fits all the criteria for “using up the harvest”. 

Summer Vegetable Gratin

Ingredients:

1 / 2 lb. new potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 / 4 -in. slices

1 small zucchini, sliced in 1 / 4 -in.-thick rounds

1 summer squash, sliced in 1 / 4 -in.-thick rounds

2 large tomatoes, sliced 1 / 4 -in. thick

2 large sweet onions, sliced 1 / 4 -in. thick

1 small eggplant, cut into 1 / 2 -in. slices

3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

1 / 4 c. extra-virgin olive oil

10 to 15 kalamata olives, pitted

1 / 4 c. good quality shredded Parmesan cheese (or more to taste)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

 Arrange the potatoes in a single layer on the bottom of an ovenproof glass baking pan.

Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper and drizzle with a little oil.

Toss the remaining vegetables and garlic with oil to generously coat.

Spread them over the potato layer.

Scatter the olives and cheese (if using) over the vegetables, cover tightly with aluminum foil, and bake until the vegetables begin to soften about 30 minutes.

Remove the foil and continue baking another 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the vegetables are cooked through, brushing with additional oil as needed.

Sweet/Savory Coconut Green Beans

I just came in from the garden with you guessed it - more. green. beans. I know that many people love to pickle them or can them or freeze them but for me, I like to pick them, steam or saute them and eat them, the sooner the better.

We’ll be heading to the lake soon and cabin 2 will be making an Indian dinner for the thundering herd.  We have a couple vegetarians in the group and one vegan so the cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, and beans in our garden will be put to good use. 

Dan’s favorite cuisine is Indian - so we eat a lot of it. We have a couple local haunts that we frequent but generally, we make our own. I’ve been making Indian spiced green beans with coconut lately (you know to use up all those beans) and we’ve had them with other curries, as an appetizer, and sometimes as a snack. 

After picking 3+ pounds of beans, I decided I would make a large batch to serve as part of the Indian dinner. To the thundering herd - you have been warned. Most coconut green bean recipes use unsweetened coconut but I’ve switched that around. The spicy combination of mustard seeds, red pepper flakes, garlic, and basil combined with a bit of sweetened coconut gives it that sweet/savory flavor that I love. 

Ingredients: 

1/2 lb green beans

1 onion - finely diced

3 - 4 cloves garlic - thinly sliced

4 - 5 basil leaves - thinly sliced

1 - 2 Tablespoons oil

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds

1/2 teaspoon tumeric

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup shredded coconut

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes 

Instructions:

In a large pan, heat oil and add onion, saute until translucent. lower heat and add garlic and mustard seeds, saute until seeds pop. Add turmeric, salt, and red pepper flakes stir until combined. 

Add green beans and saute until crisp-tender, put in basil and coconut, and stir until heated through. 

Enjoy!

Vegan Garlic Scape Pesto

Despite the oppressive heat the garden is doing surprisingly well - of course, the new drip irrigation system is a big help and it saves time. It also keeps the water splash down on the tomatoes, squash, eggplant, and peppers which keeps the plants looking healthy.

Last fall I planted 54 cloves of garlic, today they are about 3.5 feet high and some of the leaves are starting to brown. I’m excited to dig it up and see how things fared. If you recall last year, I forgot to remove the garlic scapes and my garlic was very small and sad. 

So as not to be sad again, I took a class on growing garlic in MN and learned a lot - for example, did you know that there are more than 600 named varieties of garlic? They are divided into 2 types - hard neck and soft neck. I planted 2 varieties of Rocambole, which are nothing to look at but have the best flavor, and Purple Stripe. But what do you do with the garlic scapes? Some people add them to a stir fry or soup, some grill or roast them, and I make pesto out of them. 

This pesto can be frozen and used in the same way as any other pesto my favorite uses are pasta, pizza, and toasted bread with a thick slice of tomato and avocado. 

Ingredients:

10 Garlic Scapes 154g

1/3 C Walnuts 30g

2 Tbs Nutritional Yeast 12g

1/2 Lemon juiced

1/4 tsp Sea Salt

1/8 tsp Ground Black Pepper

1/3 C Extra Virgin Olive Oil 73g

Instructions:

Trim the garlic scapes by cutting just below the bulb. Discard the bulb/tip and cut the scapes into about 1" pieces.

In a food processor, add the scapes, walnuts, yeast, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Process by pulsing until the mixture begins to break down. Scrape the bowl down.

With the processor running, slowly add all the olive oil. Continue to process until all the ingredients are incorporated and broken down, about 30-45 seconds, stopping to scrape down the bowl as needed.

Store in a covered container in the fridge and enjoy within a week. Also, you can freeze the pesto in a small container (as shown above) or in an ice-cube tray. Once frozen, in the ice-cube tray, remove and place in a ziplock bag in the freezer.

The weather person says a chance of rain today - fingers crossed!

A Quick and Tasty Pizza

If you're in my neck of the woods chances are you haven’t left the house in the last 7 days - what is up with the 90-degree temps in early June - honestly it feels like mid-July it’s crazy!

I’ve been watering the veggie garden early every morning so that the plants have time to dry and not collect moisture (which happens when you water at night). Today I cut off the scapes from my garlic plants - I see garlic scape pesto in my future. The heat is really taking a toll on the grass, we’re keeping it longer and only watering in selective spots where it is dire. 

When it’s this hot I’m not motivated to cook nor am I really all that hungry. I found a recipe online for a quick naan bread pizza that takes about 12 - 14 minutes in the oven and has some of my favorite ingredients - blueberries, goat cheese, and onions - what could go wrong?

Dan is not usually a fan of sweet things for dinner but I didn't hear any complaints and there are no leftovers - so I'll take that as a win.

Ingredients:

2 - pieces of naan 

1 T olive oil

1 cup thinly sliced red onion 

salt 

a pinch of red pepper flakes 

2 T honey

1/2 cup fets

1/2 cup fig goat cheese 

1 cup blueberries 

A few basil or spinach leaves, thinly sliced

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, place naan on the baking sheet, and brush with a little water. 

Place the olive oil and onions in a small pan and saute for 5 - 7 minutes until translucent. Add honey and stir until combined, Sprinkle a little salt and a pinch of red pepper flakes on the onions, turn off the heat, and set aside. 

Combine goat cheese and feta in a small bowl, use your fingers to mix together. Divide the cheese mixture between the two pieces of naan and spread out. Top with the onion mixture and add 1/2 cup blueberries to each pizza. 

Place the pizzas in the oven and bake for 13 - 14 minutes until the blueberries are just about to burst. Remove from oven and top with shredded basil/spinach. 

Slice and enjoy with a crisp glass of wine. 

Thanks for stopping by!