Friday recipes; or Fricipes

For my birthday, my aunt gave me this great cookbook all about cooking with the seasons. Since she's also quite the gardener, I also came home from a recent visit with a paper bag full of tomatoes.

"Simply In Season," commissioned by Mennonites, has fantastic recipes for all kinds of veggies. From springtime asparagus to winter squash, almost anything growing in your garden is covered. Since I was the lucky recipient of all these tomatoes, and because I don't can, I made a simple tomato sauce, which I froze. The following recipe is pretty much straight from the book, with a few of my own tweaks.

1 chopped onion sautéed in 1 Tbsp olive oil over medium head until soft.
2 garlic cloves, minced. Cook for about 30 seconds.

Add two shredded carrots, 1 chopped green (or red) pepper, 2 bay leaves, 1/4 cup fresh parsley, 2 Tbsp fresh basil, 1 Tbsp fresh oregano and/or 1 Tbsp fresh thyme.

Stir well

6 cups peeled and chopped tomatoes. Puree about half in food processor or blender.
6 ounces tomato paste
Salt and pepper to taste.

Sauté about 15 minutes. Have a lovely bowl of pasta and freeze the rest in plastic bags.

Friday recipes; or Fricipes

The tomatoes are here! The tomatoes are here!

Every year when we get those first few tomatoes, we always analyze the best way to eat them. A fresh mozzarella/tomato salad with olive oil and great bread? A fantastic BLT?

How about some fresh salsa? Oh how I love the conundrum of summer food.

Here's my recipe for the perfect summer salsa. Next week, check back to find out how to deliciously use stale corn chips.

This is a single tomato recipe. Just double, triple or multiple by 100 for your needs. Also, don't be afraid to experiment. A seeded cucumber or diced carrot can make a nice addition, especially if you're making a clean-out-the-fridge variety.

One good sized tomato
Tsp salt
One small onion
One jalapeno or Serrano pepper (use half a green pepper if you don't like the heat)
One small ear of corn, boiled five minutes and cut off cob
Juice from half a lime
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1. Dice tomatoes. Put in colander in sink and sprinkle with salt (this will rid the tomatoes of their excess juice)
2. Layer diced onion, diced pepper and corn on top of tomatoes. Do not stir.
3. Squeeze lime juice over vegetables
4. Wait about 15-20 minutes.
5. Stir the mixture into a medium bowl. Stir in cilantro and season with salt and pepper.

Eat with corn chips, tacos or over scrambled eggs.

Friday recipes; or Fricipes

I've got nothing against the traditional grilled cheese sandwich. Who doesn't love butter, bread and cheese slices, maybe some ham if you're feeling fancy?

But I definitely prefer a more grown-up variety, especially in the summer. And both my kids, even my picky eater, love it.

Today is one of my favorites. I got some good Ciabatta bread from the bakery. I could have made my own rustic version if I had the time and inclination, neither of which panned out.

Then I layer fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, basil and some shredded mozzarella. I brush both sides with olive oil and cook over medium heat on the stove top until both sides are golden brown, about four minutes each.

Add and subtract veggies and cheese to find your favorite combo. I'm also partial to sautéed spinach with goat cheese.

Summer favorites

Someone recently asked me about the cost of a CSA v what I'd spend at the grocery store.

We pay about $14 a week, which is slightly more per week than we paid last year, but our farmer this year grows more "backyard garden" kind of stuff, which is a bigger hit with the fam. This cost obviously differs among farmers, regions, items grown and how organic the farmer is.

One green pepper; two onions; two tomatoes (yeah! tomatoes); three cucumbers; three pickling cucumbers; four banana peppers; one eggplant; three Japanese eggplants; up to four zucchini (I only took two because, frankly, I don't want any more zucchini); one head of leaf lettuce; one bunch of basil; one bunch of carrots; one head of garlic.

And music please.

A dozen ears of corn!!!
After several months of the constant mantra "I don't like it" from my super-picky 2-year-old, this was indeed a welcome addition to the dinner table.

(note* I checked at Meijer yesterday and calculated $14 without counting the zucchini, garlic or tomatoes. I definitely feel like I got a deal.)

Like peas and carrots

I just returned from a second, less eco-friendly, vacation to Minnesota. I realize driving 45 minutes to get to the Mall of America is probably a true tree-hugger's worst nightmare, but seriously... how could you go to Minneapolis and not go there?

When we returned home to a pretty tidy house and an empty refrigerator, I felt pretty good about myself for scrounging up a decent stir-fry meal using some stuff from my garden. My carrots didn't seem orange enough, and peas not abundant enough, but that's why stir-fry is so awesome. Just throw in what you have and hope for the best.

And just for the record, I've never trusted baby carrots. They seem really wet and taste weird. So when we bought a bag for the car, my 2-year-old ate a bunch and later threw them up in their nearly original state, I have to think I'm right on this.

Give peas a chance

I hate peas. Yuck.

That was until last night when I picked fresh peas from my garden, barely boiled them and served with butter and salt. Delicious. I read that frozen peas, because they're flash frozen just after picking, generally taste better than grocery store "fresh." It's surprising, but apparently peas quickly (in about a day) lose their nutritional quality and flavor.

But just out of the garden? Heaven.

My only complaint, and this is a problem with everything from my garden, there just wasn't enough. I don't have adequate room to grow the number of plants needed to provide a satisfying pea side dish. Even the most prolific plant is just one plant.

It's true, I do have a decent-sized yard, but we also have two giant shade trees that keep things nice and cool around here in the dog-day summer months. They also keep the chilly wind out when things around here get more blustery.

So what's a Gardner girl to do? Well, herbs are something that grow pretty easily and don't need a ton of room. I cut what I need and it always grows back. I also have some pepper plants that aren't as square-footage hungry as say cucumbers, zucchini or melons.

Besides, I have my CSA and that provides our four-person clan with plenty of veggies to go around.

Growing success

I think I've mentioned this before, or maybe a few times, but my thumb is not naturally green. So I super excited about my minor success this spring.

I grew lettuce (from plant) and radishes (from seed) in my new little garden. It turns out all the books are right; anybody can grow radishes. My 4-year-old, having helped sow the seeds, even ate some of the radishes she helped grow. And the lettuce was as tender and sweet as any at a farmer's market.

But I was a little disappointed it wasn't the BEST salad I've ever eaten. The stuff from my CSA farmer is just as good. I guess that means it's just as fresh, which is a good problem to have.

Now that the lettuce is gone and the radishes are thinning, I've planted peppers and tomatoes. I'm conducting a little tomato experiment by buying an heirloom variety from a farmer and some standard breeds from the hardware store to see which produces better. The heirloom plant, at $3, better do well to compete with the six-pack of Better Boys for the same price.

Friday recipes; or Fricipes

My salad days are back — literally.

This week in my CSA bounty, I received three full heads of lettuce, a bag of baby greens and a bag of spinach. That means salad.

I'm totally not complaining. I would gladly eat salad every day between now and doom's day. But of course, I need a good dressing. A first-rate dressing is important when trying (begging, pleading and threatening) to get kids to eat their green leafies as well.

Personally, I lean on the side of sour on the sour/sweet debate. Here's what I view as the perfect combination. Just blend all the ingredients, the oil in a slow, steady stream to emulsify the vinaigrette. Toss immediately with greens (and if I'm really lucky, some yummy radishes).

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar or fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt (just a pinch if you only have table salt)
6 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
a few chopped chives, optional


My CSA farmer passed along this dressing recipe recently. I haven't tried it, but I'm intrigued. I'm guessing it would be a favorite with the girls.

Combine about 1/4 cup mayonnaise (NOT Miracle Whip--it will not work!) with enough milk, thinning it, but not runny. Add about 1 tsp sugar and mix until the sugar dissolves. Add vinegar (cider vinegar works best) to taste, 1 TBSP or more.

Summer starts.... NOW

Our CSA started today. Hooray!

Today, the girls and I went over on the bike (it's a long haul and through some pretty busy sections of town so my husband will generally pick up after work but he couldn't today so, in the words of our beloved heroin Dora, "Lo hicimos.") and picked up our bounty of lettuce, spinach, radishes, green onions and Japanese greens. Even with a crappy, cold spring, we got a pretty nice supply of green leafies.

Belonging to a CSA is about the best thing, other than giving up a car, we've done to go green. It's a bit of cash all at once (about $300 at the beginning of the season) but you get a nice supply of veggies each week and you get the freshest of the fresh. This means eating in season and not having to stand in the grocery store produce section for 30 minutes deciding what to buy.

And it feels so awesome to support local farmers. This might have been our first pickup, but they also had a surplus of asparagus at the beginning of the season that they gave to their members, for free. Two pounds of unexpected asparagus! You just can't beat that.

Long live community supported agriculture. And summer.

Seeds of success

I'm nowhere near being able to claim my gardening project a success (I'm somewhere between four weeks and four years away from being able to actually eat anything I've planted) but I'm, yet again, hopeful.

My radish seeds have sprouted in the garden. I don't have much hope for the lettuce plants that my fat beagle is continually attacking, for whatever reason.

And in my south-facing front window, I have the start of basil, chives and, today, parsley. My daughter's popcorn seeds she started at the library story hour are looking the best of the lot. Perhaps I'm Christine (the) Gardner by name only.

My daughter, she was a Gardner right at birth.

Ready, set... Garden

Our family finally got the time to start our garden project. I'm really nervous my raised-bed plot, which we built yesterday and came out extremely good looking and sturdy despite my family's handy-gene deficiency, will look just as neat and plantless as it does at the moment.

But I began feeling really great about the prospect of growing veggies with the girls this summer.

In fact, I was feeling almost hopeful. That sounds super corny, right! But my daughters got in the dirt with me yesterday, planting our tiny radish and carrot seeds (I read these grow great together because radishes mature first, making space for the slower-growing carrots) and larger pea seeds. And bonus, my makeshift compost pile hasn't yet attracted rodents.

Now I'm thinking, "Maybe we can do this. We can teach the girls about nature, grow some kick-ass veggies and have a great time."


Or maybe it's the April Garden Flu that dies down sometime around the second week of drought and heat in mid-July. And this after $28 on lumber, $14 on topsoil and a few bucks on seeds, probably more than I'd spend if I bought grocery-store radishes every week between now and Labor Day.

Oh well. Now, if I can stop the girls from rolling around in the nice, fresh black dirt (not a joke), then we'll be all set.

But you can't ruin my euphoria, much like you can't convince me that daily red wine is a rock-solid solution to future heart problems. I'm going to go ahead and believe what I believe.

From the cheap and easy file

Making your own baby food is super easy and super cheap.

Here was a little weekend project from when I had a baby. I went to my favorite superstore, Meijer, bought plentiful supplies of freezable veggies. Organic or locally grown veggies would have been even better.

For 60 cents, I purchased enough green beans to feed my then baby for a week. After steaming and blending them, I filled ice cube trays with tiny single serving size portions.

Presto. Finished for the week.

And bonus — these little servings cost about 60 cents each when you buy the jarred variety. That's what I did for for my older child. I don't think they're any less nutritious, just more expensive and bearing more waste.

But those little glass containers are super reusable for storing tiny items like nails and beads. Just FYI.

Growing a garden

There's nothing quite as wonderful as fresh vegetables.

Last year, we joined a CSA that only expanded my appreciation for growing stuff. I learned to cook kale, Japanese greens (the original fast food) and Jerusalem artichokes, which are not from Jerusalem or an artichoke.

I learned fresh radishes and the sliced red and white "radishes" at a salad bar are not at all the same thing.

So I'm giving gardening a go this year. I'll grow mostly simple things like tomatoes and lettuce. In fact, I'm so new at this that I had to get a book from the KIDS section of the library. I know... embarrassing.

I have a lot to say about gardening, from my dad's vegetable gardens, to my aunt's canned tomato sauce, to my reluctance to go too far on the side of vegetable-garden crazy for fear my neighbors will talk about me.

But for now, I'll just cross my fingers, hope this endless winter actually ends one day and fill my slosh bucket for compost with all our fruit and veggie scraps.