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Using CSA Veggies - Bowtie Pasta with Swiss Chard and Yellow Squash.

2010-07-21T00:31:00Z

Made this once before, and it was so good, decided to make it again! Of course, I had no idea what went into it before, so I made stuff up. It worked!

Sliced up one of our onions from Porter Farms, and into a pan of olive oil they went with a little crushed red pepper (from my pepper harvest of 2007 or 2008). Throw in a little salt, and start getting the Swiss Chard ready. No stalk, just leaves, but I left the ribs on. Gave them a rough chop, and into the pan they went. A bit more salt, and some homemade Riesling thrown in, and let them cook down. I had the lid on the pan for a bit. Once this was cooked down, in went a small can of diced tomatoes. Whoa, forgot the garlic! Minced one clove and threw that in too, along with some black pepper, and a sliced yellow squash. Cook cook cook. Simmer really, to get rid of the moisture in the pan. I really think that was about it! Serve over bowtie pasta and some cheese and eat up!

Using CSA Veggies - Sunomono using Swiss Chard and Cucumbers

2010-07-19T00:58:00Z

Still haven't bought a new camera, so we'll stick with the iPhone for now, under poor lighting conditions.

We have an overabundance of cucumbers this week (along with yellow squash and zucchini, but that's an entirely different story).

I try to use the Swiss Chard as soon as I can. I decided to try to make my version of Sunomono which is a vinegared dish that I love at our local sushi place Edoya . The first entry I found while I searched was a Bobby Flay recipe . What the heck, I'll give it a try. Mixed it up. Whoa. Way too salty! I decided to venture on my own. Especially since all of my measuring spoons exploded and fell into the sink.

About 2 - 3 tablespoons of rice vinegar, some salt, about 1 Tbs sugar and the obligatory dash of soy sauce later...I thought it was good. No where near the flavor I wanted, but not bad!

Next, we need the Swiss Chard, which I just boiled down a bit. Maybe 6 large leaves cut into chunks (If leaves can be cut into chunks)

Some Cucumber. Any chance to use my V-Slicer (which still scares me)

I rinsed the Swiss Chard under colder water and rung it out. Combined everything, and added a few sesame seeds for garnish.

Yum! Not too shabby. Another use for the chard!

Broiled Tilapia over Wild Lobster Mushroom Risotto

2010-06-07T01:08:00Z

Time to try some more Rielsing in food! Today I used it in a Wild Lobster Mushroom Risotto, served with broiled Tilapia.

I'm assuming they were wild mushrooms. At least that's what the Melissa's packet of dried mushrooms said. Then again, I really don't think it matters at all. Hopefully all of you Lobster Mushroom farmers could set me straight.

The Tilapia was defrosted and placed into a baggie with some olive oil, fresh chopped parsley and lemon balm, with some fresh ground pepper and a few shakes of Old Bay. We have tons of lemon balm, so I have to use it in something. Then it was just ever so simply broiled in the oven, flipping it once.

For the risotto, I chopped up about 1/2 of an onion. Maybe 3/4. I can't judge onion sizes, but I'm thinking this was a medium sized one. Overall, the ingredients were:

Butter
Chopped Onion
1/2 cup of Riesling
1 cup Arborio rice
1 "box" of vegetable broth (Wegmans!)
The newly rehydrated mushrooms and the water they were placed in
Chopped parsely
Chopped Lemon Balm
Salt & Pepper
Oh, and more butter. Probably about 1/2 stick in all. 2 in the beginning and 2 at the end.

Everything came out perfect (if I do say so myself) !

Rielsing Part V - The Initial Test

2010-06-03T00:27:00Z

Ta-daaaaaa!

After 2 months (or 2 days shy...big woo), I decided to see what the wine was like. First step, buy some mussels! I figure at worst, I can cook with the wine, right?

The mussels were placed into a sink full of cold water, cleaned (well rubbed with my paws), and any that weren't closed or didn't close with a sharp rap on the counter were tossed. I think I only tossed three of them. One was closed, but the shell was cracked. The other two were already on their way to heaven, where they shall be revived and eaten again by the hungry masses.

About 1/2 stick of butter, some olive oil, and shallots later, it was time to open the wine. Initial thought...hmmm....maybe it's not ready yet. Pour into a glass. Whoa. Not bad. Not great, but not bad. In went about 1/2 the bottle of wine (wayyyyyyyyy too much) , some chopped green onion, and then the mussels. Cover pot for about 4-5 minutes and voila! Food!

Then another try of the wine, this time with some ice. Ooooooooooooo. Much MUCH better now! I'm regretting adding so much to the mussel broth! It probably needs another month, but I have a feeling that the next bottle will be opened a lot earlier! Yea!

Riesling Part IV - The Bottling

2010-04-05T00:50:00Z

Again, sorry for some of the over-exposed pics! My camera is broken, so using my iPhone, which has no flash, just editing software. Like it or lump it!

The wine is crystal clear at this point. However, I'm a bit concerned that the specific gravity is reading at 1.00 now. Hopefully the alcohol content is high enough. I know it was done fermenting before. Oh well..wait and see. Here's a pic of the wine before bottling:

Still just some slight sediment at the bottom, which I was hoping for. This was then transferred back into my primary fermenter bucket to leave behind the sediment. Also because my bucket has a hole for a spigot, which allows for easier bottling.

Here's the 30 Riesling Bottles drying out after being sanitized:

After filling, they of course have to be corked. Here's the handy-dandy hand corker:

Now, to wait! They will go into the cellar, spend 1 day upright, and then on to their sides for the next 2-3 months. Then they should be ready to drink! Of course, I will probably be tasting a bottle here and there before then. Quality Control!

Riesling Part III, re-racking

2010-03-19T00:48:00Z

Ok, the instructions said that at approximately ten days, you can rack the wine again. I decided to do this for 2 reasons. 1) There was some significant sediment at the bottom (expected), and 2) I knew that I didn't top off the carboy when I first racked it from the primary fermenter. I am topping off with water, so I figure that this won't dilute the wine too much. Some folks say to top off with a like-minded wine. I believe in good ol' American tap water. I did this with my Chianti, which has been bottled for just under 5 weeks now. I tried a bottle a few days ago...not too shabby! Just needs some more aging.

This wine smells good, and I didn't taste any except for some when I started the siphoning with my good ol' American mouth.

Here are the pics. Sorry for the first pic. I did too much exposure stuff.

Riesling Part II, racking

2010-03-07T13:01:00Z

No, you didn't miss anything these past 2 weeks, except a bucket of juice fermenting. Next step in this process: Stabilizing and Clearing.

As per the wine kit instructions, I took a Specific Gravity reading. Instructions say it should be at 0.998 or lower. We are right at 0.998

Next is to siphon the wine from the primary fermenting bucket into a carboy.

Then comes the fun part of adding the stabilizers and other stuff that they give you. Involves lots of stirring! 1) to mix up the ingredients, and 2) to drive the CO2 out of the wine.

Being the strong brute that I am, I pick up the six gallon glass carboy and place it up on a table. Attach the rubber bung and airlock (to keep the air out, but let any gasses out). Here's what it looks at this stage, then with a nice towel over it to keep out the light. It's next to a cheap window which lets lots of cold air in, so it will be kept at a nice cool temp.

For those that are curious, here's what's left in the primary fermenting bucket. I've tilted it slightly to show it better. Hopefully, none of this got into my wine. The directions say that I need to let this sit for another 4 weeks, but after day 10, I can do an optional "re-racking", which is probably what I'll do to ensure a clear wine and that none of that nasty expired yeasty stuff is in there.

Riesling time!

2010-02-21T03:04:00Z

Here is the next wine on the way, a Riesling Auslese. Day one is pretty simple. Clean and sanitize the equipment, add 4 litres of warm water and mix in the packet of Bentonite that they give you, which is used to clarify the wine. These kits have all you need to make wine, except the equipment and sanitizing agents. Equipment consists of things like the primary fermenting bucket (seen here with wine), long spoons for stirring, hyrdrometer....etc. I just bought a bundled kit that had most things I needed.

Next. in goes the grape juice, and enough cool water to bring everything up to the 6 gallon mark. Sprinkle on the yeast provided, and put the lid on (with an airlock). Time to let this sit for about 2 weeks, until it gets racked into the big glass carboy that I have.

Wow, I've been slacking!

2010-02-16T01:51:00Z

Just an update! Still cooking! Been making wine, but didn't blog about it...yet! We have a Chianti, and a Barolo working. The Chianti was bottled last night. Waiting at least a month to see how it comes out. Learned a lot during the first two batches, so I'll document the next batch

Also, I bought two pounds of mustard seed, to do more mustard experiments. This time documenting what I use and in what amounts. I plan on being a mustard baron.

Holy cow, that was a heavy CSA bag!

2009-10-24T22:44:00Z

The apples weren't part of it. Two pie pumpkins! I hope that's enough for pie! I think it is

Lots of leeks and beets. MORE peppers. omg so many peppers this year. I've already dehydrated a bunch of them. And I have enough onions to last till at least January!

"Buffalo Wing" Fettucine, with a Blue Cheese Alfredo Sauce

2009-10-04T23:53:00Z

YES! It actually worked!

Once this idea was spawned, it had to be put into action. We loved it!

Step 1: Make the noodles!

2 Tablespoons Melted Butter
1/3 cup (or so) Franks Red Hot
2 Cups Tipo 00 Flour. Regular flour would do too.
2 eggs

Mix the Red Hot and the butter together, which is a basic Buffalo Wing Sauce. For exact proportions, see the bottle of Franks.
Mound the flour onto your work surface (typical pasta making directions), and create a well. Place the 2 eggs in and start to combine. Here's where the tricky part came in. Start adding some of the wing sauce. I really don't know how much I used, but you don't want to go too far, as then the dough would get all sloppy. If you've made homemade noodles before, it's easier as you know the texture that you're trying to obtain.

When mixed together, you should have a nice ball of dough resembling the following photo. Cover this with plastic wrap, and let rest for about 1/2 hour.

For those truly in to detective work, you can look at the two photos and figure out how much sauce I used

I then ran this through my manual crank pasta maker and ended up with nice red "wing smelling" noodles!

On to the sauce! Phase 2 of not knowing what to expect. I am sure someone has made a blue cheese alfredo sauce before, but this was a first for me.

Again, I wish I measured how much blue cheese I used, but I think it was about 1/3 of this block.

Roth Käse Buttermilk Blue Cheese
However much grated Parmesan Cheese is shown here
1 Stick of glorious butter
1 cup of heavy cream
and a dash of ground pepper. (No white pepper available in the house)
oh, and a small amount of a cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce, once I realized it was too soupy)

I melted the butter in a medium sized saucepan, then added the rest of the ingredients in. I let this go over low heat until (adding a bit more blue cheese to get the flavor right), until it was hot and all of the cheese was melted. It was at this point that I added the cornstarch to thicken it up.

I dropped the fettuccine noodles into a pot of boiling salted water, until done...and then SERVE and DEVOUR!!!

Wow, that was good.

Leek Rings!

2009-08-25T00:53:00Z

Never attempt to make these unless you have lots of time and are willing to put up with a mess. Yes, Alton Brown made it look sooooo easy on that talking picture box.

I, having a small kitchen (hence the name of this blog), was covered in flour and all sorts of goopy goodness. As expected though (I think) they turned out looking just like on TV! Faaaaaaantastic! Yum. Really. Yum. A little pickling salt on top and time to eat away! Next time I won't use THREE WHOLE LEEKS! I was worried I wouldn't have enough, and also had to use them up.

Pasta with mixed CSA vegges

2009-08-25T00:49:00Z

Some things taste much better than they photograph and this is definitely one of them.

For starters, just look how bland everything looks. The purple peppers turn this translucent looking gray. Yet they taste great.

This used:

Purple Peppers
Red Onion
Zucchini
Yellow Squash
Cherry Tomatoes
Canned Artichokes
Olive Oil
and Lemon Juice
salt & pepper too.
Maybe a few hot pepper flakes

Stupid uses for cherry tomatoes #1343

2009-08-18T00:27:00Z

Having added some cherry tomatoes to our salad (as well as a pepper and one of those funky looking yellow cucumbers), I decided to try to use a few to freshen up a sauce that I had stashed in the freezer. Since these were small, I could do this on a small scale, aka in a microwave. I cut an 'x' in the bottom of each one and threw them into a measuring cup which was boiling in the microwave. I then kept it going for about a minute. Removed the tomatoes, cooled them off , and slipped off the skins.

Next, to crush the little fellows into the sauce. Helpful hint #1, when crushing tomatoes, try to get most of them into the pot. I think I got more on my stove than into the intended sauce.

Chicken with a multitude of vegetables

2009-08-17T00:58:00Z

This, as everything grew out of a basic idea of making chicken and snowballed from there. The pic (as usual) doesn't do the dish justice.

I started off marinating the chicken in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, some hot peppers from my garden, basil, oregano, salt, pepper....maybe something else too. Can't recall now! That marinated for about 6 hours or so.

CSA Vegetables used:
Yellow Squash
Zucchini
Tomatoes
Red Onion
Cucumber (for the cucumber tomato salad)

Into the pan went some olive oil, 1 sliced red onion, sliced tomatoes, and garlic. Then on top of that went the chicken. Cover and cook for a bit. While that was going, I cut up the zucchini and yellow squash and tossed that in when the chicken was ready to flip. That's basically it. Cook till done! I'd post more, but it's too hot to sit here with this laptop frying my legs!

CSA Week 8 2009 Veggies

2009-08-17T00:52:00Z

Leeks!
2 heads lettuce
Those yellow cucumber things
Cucumbers
Zucchini
Yellow Squash
Bell Peppers
Cubanelle Peppers
Tomatoes

Zucchini Quiche

2009-08-09T15:52:00Z

I can't take credit for this recipe. I followed it just as written and it's very very good! I was going to add some green pepper to it, but forgot. Did get the chance to use up some zucchini and onion though!

Recipe found here:
Zucchini Quiche 3

Zucchini Quiche 3

3 cups of thin, unpared zucchini (about 4 sm.)
1 cup of Bisquick
1/2 cup of chopped onion
1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons of parsley
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of oregano
A dash of pepper
1 clove garlic, chopped fine, or 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 cup of oil
4 eggs, slightly beaten

Mix all ingredients and put into greased 13x9 pan. Bake 350ºF. for 30-40 minutes.

Shown with a few drops of homemade hotsauce

CSA Week 7 2009 Veggies

2009-08-09T15:48:00Z

Our week 7 Veggies to work with:

-zucchini
-yellow squash
-green bell peppers
-cubanelle peppers
-cucumbers
-red onions (very small as you can see)
-assorted lettuce
-bunched beets

Wings and Beet Chips

2009-08-03T00:16:00Z

Having struggled over a deep fryer purchase, I decided to save $100 and not choose the one I originally wanted. So, I ended up with a Presto® CoolDaddy® Deep Fryer that I bought at Kohls. Overall, it did a great job frying. It may not have the features for cleaning and filtering oil, but hey, it worked.

First to try...Beet Chips. I took out my trusty V-Slicer and peeled a bunch of beets.

I probably fried them for either 1) too short a time, or 2) in too big of a bunch. I hate doing small batches, as I don't have the patience. Next time I shall allot more time for them! Fry, add a bit of pickling salt and done! Very very tasty! Could have used a bit more crisp, but that was my fault, not the fryers.

On to the chicken wings! 8 full wings, chopped into 16, with the little wingy end removed and fed to the dogs (yes, they get raw chicken wings. NOT cooked. Just raw). For the sauce, I did the ol' basic Frank's RedHot Sauce and butter. Add Blue Cheese and (lacking celery sticks) our little yellow cucumber, all sliced up. These were fantastic! Nice and crispy. Wish I had made more!
Enjoy!

CSA Week 6a 2009 Veggies

2009-08-01T16:37:00Z

HOLY COW MORE VEGGIES

Ok, now we're starting to get seriously behind in eating, as I was gone last week.

This weeks bag:
-Green Bell Peppers
-Orient Express Eggplant
-Cucumber
-Lemon Cucumber
-Pickling Cucumber
-Zucchini
-Yellow Squash
-Green Summer Crisp Lettuce
-Red Onions
-Leeks
-Bunched Beets