In addition to making our way through the abundance of lettuce that we received, there was the Swiss Chard.  I knew from last year that I should use that up as soon as I can, or else I forget about it.  It doesn't seem to keep long.  Any storage ideas?

So, I washed the chard, trimmed off the stalky bits and got to work.  I'm saving the stalks for something.  Maybe blend it up into a hummus and use the rest of the Boston Lettuce as little wraps for it? 

Step 1:  Defrost some bags of homemade chicken stock.  Maybe 6 cups.  Maybe 5.  I don't really know.  Defrost meaning "Squeeze the frozen lumps into a pot over medium heat and let them die a slow miserable death", into glorious like new chicken stock.

Step 2:  Add some smoked ham that I had lying around.

Step 3:  Bring to a boil

Step 4:  Add an unmeasured amount of Orzo Pasta and cook that for about 2 minutes

Step 5:  Add all the chard and lower the heat.  Cover.

Step 6:  Taste.  Needs salt and pepper.

Step 7:  Check for doneness.  Done.

Step 8:  Serve in a bowl with a gargantuan amount of grated cheese.  Yum!

ps, probably one of the worst food photos you will see all day, but it was gooooooooooood.

      

'Tis the start of a new season!  Time to get this cooking blog rolling again.    A very cool spring led to a 1 week delay in getting the CSA (Porter Farms) veggies this time.  As expected for the first week, mostly all lettuce.  Some Green Onions.  No peas yet!

The official Week 1 List is:

1 Romaine Lettuce
1 Red Oak Leaf Lettuce
2 Boston Lettuce
1 Yellow Swiss Chard
Onions.

Might not look like a lot in the photo, but it is.  Especially for two people!  Time to start thinking of new recipes and going through the archives for those that worked out for us.

      

Wow!  53 days since my last entry!  Yes, I have been cooking, but not as much.  Waiting for our Porter Farms CSA to kick into gear.  The weather has been cooler than normal, thus hindering the crops! 

So, I until we start getting our giant weekly allotment of vegetables for which I can experiment with, I give you tonight's creation.

Spinach Fettucine with...hmmm...what went into this...

Fried garlic chips (very strong and not for non-super-garlic lovers)
1 small yellow squash
1 small zucchini
1 pack of dehydrated (and then re-hydrated of course) lobster mushrooms
parsley
The juice of 1/2 lemon
Lots of olive oil
a small slurry of flour and the water used during the mushroom rejuvenation process...and then more of that water as things became quite thick!
Salt
pepper
some crushed red pepper flakes
and
cheese to top it off.

Very tasty!  Enjoy!

      

The following is a photo of what wild asparagus looks like right now.  This is how you can identify where the new growth will occur and harvest away.  In the late fall, these really stick out because they are a nice golden color.  Right now, they are just bent and broken stalks.  Without these though, it's really tough to find.  As you can see with all of the grasses around, in another month or two when the asparagus comes up, these stalks will prove invaluable for locating the tender morsels!

      

I've made this quite often and may have blogged about this before, but seeing that I haven't written in a while, I thought I'd do this.  As usual, I went from memory and a borrowed a few ideas here and there, as well as trying some new things (like the shrimp).



For this recipe I used:

2 Tbs Butter
2 Tbs Olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
~1/2 cup vodka...I just poured
1 can crushed tomatoes
Some frozen salad shrimp (see pic below)
1 cup heavy cream
a few drops of hot sauce (vintage 2007 from a variety of hot peppers...I can't remember what they were.  But they were insanely hot. 

On a side note, I still have a sizeable amount of hot pepper "dust" which I made out of them.  I just now tried some and my mouth feels like I swallowed a lit match.

Salt
Pepper
and fresh Basil added at the very end. (lips now burning as I type this)

I hope that I didn't leave anything out.  I don't think that I did.



In a pan, I sauteed the onion until translucent in the butter and olive oil.  Then in went the vodka and that was left to simmer for a couple minutes to burn off the yummy alcohol  

Next went in the can of crushed tomatoes, some salt and pepper.  I let this go on very low heat (as Elizabeth was working on her garden and dinner would be about 45 minutes away apparently.  SO, once I saw that she was wrapping things up, in went the cream and the still frozen shrimp.  They were cooked, so they just needed to be brought up to eatable temp.  At this point, I also added some fresh basil that I had.  Tasted the sauce...added some more hot sauce and salt...and then it was......done! 

Actually a very easy recipe. Very few ingredients and tastes great.  The shrimp got a bit lost in the flavor of the sauce.  they added some nice texture, but really...fresh shrimp would have added a really great note to the dish.  Problem is, you really can't find fresh salad size shrimp, and I didn't want to deal with bigger ones.  Plus these were cheaper and I still have tons left in the freezer.

The burning sensation in my mouth is still there, but waning.  That's my queue to post the finishing photo.  Shown with some Parmesan shavings and Olive Oil and Rosemary bread from Wegmans.

      

As a note, I do have a forum set up, but have never really used it.  I think it would be a great way for people (especially those in CSA's) to share recipes and ideas.  Any thoughts?

      

This was a spur of the moment idea while shopping earlier.  I wanted chicken and decided to "Thai' it up a bit.  I bought some chicken breast tenderloins.  Next, a can of coconut milk.  Picked up a lime, some basil (not Thai Basil...just regular ol' basil that they sell), and as luck would have it, they had Lemon Grass.    At home I had some Fish Sauce and some Red Curry Paste.



I had no idea how to put this all together in a "proper" manner, so I cut up the chicken and mixed it up with a heaping teaspoon of the Red Curry Paste and the juice of 1/2 lime.  NOTE, I had already zested the lime for the next part.   Into a hot pan with some olive oil this went until the chicken was cooked.

In a small saucepan wen the coconut milk, a sprig of basil, the lime zest, the lemon grass (cut into 2 inch pieces with the outer husk removed...I should have bruised this, but I didn't), and about a tablespoon of fish sauce.  This I heated up and simmered while the chicken was cooking.

The sauce was then added to the chicken that was cooking in the pan, and oops!  We need rice.  No problem.   I let the chicken simmer for about 1/2 hour while the Jasmine rice was put on and finished.

Overall, very very good! I overcooked the rice a bit, but everything tasted fantastic.  Next time I make this, Elizabeth suggested a vegetable mixed in like carrots.  I think baby corn too

      

It's been just over 2 weeks.  I tried the mustard (see 3/7 entry)  after about 4 days and it still had a vinegary taste to it.  That is all gone now.  What flavors are there?  Heat!  Is heat a flavor?  I'm not really detecting any of the other ingredients or spices.  Maybe I added too little? 

Then again, it's not the kind of heat that just mustard powder and water produces.  I'm going to give it a small dose of honey and report back in a week or two on the change if any.

      

This was just one giant mistake. Oh sure it tasted fine.  The potatoes were brilliant.  The beef came out ok.

Walking around the grocery store, I knew I had potatoes at home and thought...ahh..roast beef!

Mistake #1:  Not knowing what cut to buy.  I didn't want Prime Rib, so I opted for either a  Top Round or Eye Round.  Of course, I pick probably the worst, the Eye Round.  I get home and read up.  It's tough.  It's too lean.  It has to be marinated.  Wet cooked.  blah blah blah.  I get the idea.  It's basically impossible.

Mistake #2:  Having no real time to cook it properly.  Sure I can wait and cook it another day.  Do I?  Read on of course.

Fishing through a billion recipes, I decide to use this one that I found.   It's from Morton Salt.  That sounds perfect!  I get to work marinating this beast.  Ok, it was only 2 lbs.  A Baby Beast.  Marinate for 2 -24 hours.  HA!  We have maybe 2 to work with.

Cut to the future.  Marinating is "done".  I get to work with the salt. 

Mistake #3:  Having the camera set wrong to take photos.  They are for the most  part...blurry.  I owe more to my loyal readers than to post fuzzy photos.  We have maybe 3 we can use.

The bright spot so far is the potatoes.  The marinade is perfect to use on them.  It's olive oil and...wait.

Mistake #4:  Not having any more olive oil.  Keeping the giant gallon drums of olive oil makes one lazy in buying it.  I forgot to get more.  So I improvised.  1/2 Extra Virgin Olive Oil and 1/2 Corn Oil.  That should make real olive oil I suppose.

Back to the potatoes.  The marinade was olive oil and grated onion.  That's it.  Perfect for taters.  Chop up some parsley in there (there being the baggie that I marinated the beef in), and add the chopped up potato.  Perfect.

The recipe says to bake at 350 for about an hour and 20 minutes or until it reaches 140 degrees.  I like things on the rare side, but the other eating participant doesn't like it that way, so 140 it is.

When all is said and done, the beef was ok.  I don't even know if I sliced it properly.  It came out better than expected.  The potatoes were roasted at 350 the entire time with the beef and, with the addition of an onion cut into quarters, came out perfect.

Mistake #5:  Just now...not changing the watermark on the photos.  Consider it a plug for the other blog.

      

White Clam Sauce is super easy to make,   I probably make it different each time and it still always comes out good.  This batch consisted of:

~1/4 Cup Olive Oil
1 tin Chopped Clams
1 Dozen Little Neck Clams
Lots of white wine (generally, this is up to you, but I have found that adding too much never hurt!  This probably had 1/2 cup to it, plus the wine that I simmered the clams in.
Chopped Parsley
Minced Garlic
Red Pepper Flakes

Open the tin of clams first.  (I always do this, just in case the can opener bombs out on me and I have to resort to plan
In a sauce pan, add the olive oil, minced garlic, and red pepper flakes.  Heat until the garlic is sizzling and just starting to brown.  Don't burn the garlic....you'll have to start over if you do.  Burnt garlic is horrid.


Add the clam juice only from the can.  The clams get added at the last moment.  Add the parsley and the wine and simmer to boil off the alcohol.

While this is going, in another pot, boil some white wine and whatever else you wish in this.  Butter..more parsley...etc.  When boiling, add the clams and cover.  They will open when ready.  Keep a close eye on this though, as overcooking the clams causes them to become rubbery.  When they are open they are done.

ps, no, I didn't scrub them or soak them in a brine solution first.  I just dumped them in.  My fault.




The final step is simply to add the chopped clams to the sauce.  These are added at the last minute just to warm them.