supper 3/20.

Spring is officially here and it felt like it this weekend! All day Saturday and today I mulched, planted some ground cover, started new seeds, transplanted others, cleaned the deck and spent as much time outside as possible. I did get some cleaning done inside after dark but, for the most part, it's going to take a really rainy day for me to spend more than night-time indoors.

I'll post some pictures of my front step landscaping and of the garden later...too exhausted right now. I was too tired to make supper tonight after a 5 mile run this morning and then yard work all day, but after all that, I really needed to eat a good meal. Mark and I pulled out all available food and assessed what we could make that would be quick and easy. We had the rest of the turnips, mushrooms and spinach from the farmer's market last week. We also had some sweet and red potatoes so I decided to roast them with the turnips, cook up the turnip greens and make pitas with the rest of the ingredients. Mark ran to the store to get pita bread and I got started.

I think root vegetables roasting in the oven is one of my favorite food smells. I chopped up the turnips, potatoes and added some onions with oregano, olive oil and rosemary for flavoring. Side note - everyone should have some herbs in the windowsill. They are practically no work and the flavor they add is sometimes the only thing that gets me through winter without crying for fresh food.
I roasted them at 425 for 40 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes. During the last half of cooking, I added a pan to the oven full of chopped shittake mushrooms, olive oil and garlic.

While that was cooking, I sauteed the turnip greens in olive oil, garlic and a dash of apple cider vinegar. This was my first time eating turnip greens (I'm not southern so please forgive me). I love that with so many root vegetables you can eat the root and greens - makes me feel like I'm not being wasteful. Mark loved the turnip greens and I think I would like them with some rice, orzo or something else mixed in. I'm not the hugest fan of sauteed greens but I eat them because they are ridiculously good for you and I hate not liking things.

I stuffed the pita with the cooked mushrooms, some of the onions from the root vegetables, chopped veggie sausage, spinach, micro greens, goat cheese and a yogurt sauce. It was really, really good and we were both happy we took the time to cook.

Ha - love Tulip looking up from below staring up at the "people" food.
I highly recommend making the sauce below for any sandwich or pita (I think I found it on the Food Network site):
Plain Yogurt
Cumin
Salt
Lemon Zest
Lemon Juice
Chopped Parsley - I was able to pull this from my garden! First thing this year I've been able to get from outside and it was awesome!

Happy spring!!

supper 3/13.

So, daylight savings time is currently sucking the energy right out of us around here. Before that could happen, we had this weekend, which was full of projects. I planted a BUNCH of things - I'll put up details in my next post - went to the farmer's market, cleaned the house and finally cooked a fresh meal.
It's pretty sad how long I have gone without proper grocery shopping which for me is the start of bad, bad eating habits. I'll go all day and realize I had a slice of bread with peanut butter and SweetTarts. Disgusting. I'm hoping it was just a winter thing...really, really hoping considering these terrible choices and lack of proper food led to a 15 lb weight gain. Yikes.

On Sunday, we had some buddies over because that's what we do every Sunday and I love it. Seriously...stop on by anytime. Mark purchased some chicken for him and our friend Shaun but they got so distracted with fantasy baseball, they hadn't started doing anything with it by the time everything else I had made was done so I offered to cook it. I haven't cooked meat in almost five years and it is gross. I became a vegetarian because meat was too expensive and I hated beef and I thought I could live without everything else. I tried it as a new year's resolution and never missed it. Except Chicken McNuggets and the two cheeseburger meal at McDonald's...I know, disgusting, but I'm just trying to be honest.
Anyway, cutting chicken really is the grossest. Mad props to carnivores everywhere because I can't stomach it anymore.
Mark purchased some Panko crumbs awhile back because he wants to make some fried onion/potato thing so I knew we had those. I melted butter and mixed it with lemon juice and dijon mustard in a bowl. After cutting the chicken, I dipped the slices in there and then dipped them in the Panko with some fresh herbs and parmesan and baked the chicken at 425 for 15 minutes. The guys said it tasted great so I would definitely cook it if you are a meat eater looking for a quick meal. I made a sauce out of mayo, dijon mustard, a little soy sauce and a little sesame oil to dip the chicken in and that was really good. I may use that for potatoes in the future.

I also cooked some brown rice in my rice cooker with vegetable stock, garlic infused olive oil and fresh herbs from the window. I chopped up some shittake mushrooms I got from Delvin Farms at the market on Saturday - they were huge! - and baked them with olive oil and garlic for about 15 minutes, stirring a few times part way through.

I put them and sauteed spinach on top of the rice with some lightly toasted slivered almonds, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes.

Finally, I grated three turnips and made this Spring Turnip Frittata from this month's Eating Well. I didn't have any broccoli raab but I would like to try it again when it appears at the farmer's market. I added goat cheese to the mix and it was really, really good.

Everything on the plate (I ran out of spinach for the picture) was sort of the same color, which I try not to do, but otherwise it was a very good meal and most important of all, made me excited for fresh food over the next few months! It's spring on Sunday so it won't be long...I'm really going to miss my SweetTarts, though.

spring salad.

It's not technically spring yet but today could have fooled anybody. And we set our clocks back tonight so the extra sunlight will also be deceiving. 65 and sunny meant I had to go back to the farmer's market. I thought I would continue to go all winter but once our CSA basket was up, my good intentions left with it.
I woke up fairly early today and headed down to Franklin. It wasn't that crowded and it's a lot smaller than in the summer time but being back made me very happy. I put our deposit down on our CSA so we are officially signed up! We are sharing it this year with some friends so I'm rooting for my yard to supplement the smaller weekly veggie flow from our CSA basket.
I really, really love my CSA farmer and I highly recommend them. Yes, it's quite the trek down to Franklin every week but it's WELL worth it. They are a family of four that does it all together and their love of local food and farming is so sincere...their newsletters alone are worth it. Please check them out if you are shopping around for a CSA share - Beaverdam Creek Farms. If you already have a preferred CSA, then stop by their booth and check out their produce. It always looks great - and sells out quick! - and today was no exception. From them today, I purchased a bag of Red Cardinal Spinach, mixed lettuce and Purple Top Turnips, with the greens attached. I have big plans for the turnips tomorrow night in a Spring Turnip Frittata from April 2011 Eating Well Magazine that I want to pair with rice and steamed spinach.
I actually stumbled upon the frittata recipe while making a salad dressing from a different article in the same magazine tonight. Mark wasn't that hungry and I wasn't either, considering I got so excited to shop/plant that I forgot to eat anything until after 2:30. I washed the mixed greens from the farmer's market and put slivered almonds, hard boiled egg, red kidney beans, goat cheese, cheddar cheese, white onion with the Creamy Curry salad dressing from Eating Well (recipe below) on top - SO DELICIOUS! Maybe it's because we haven't had farmers' fresh salad for a loooonnnggg time but this tasted so great to us tonight.
I haven't purchased premade salad dressing from the grocery store in over four years and I think I may have become a little routine in what I mix together for our usual salads. I've lost a bit of creativity with the "throw a salad together" routine so this Creamy Curry dressing tasted even more fresh and fantastic to us - and it has no garlic?!? Who would have guessed it?

Creamy Curry Dressing - April 2011 Eating Well Magazine:
Puree in a blender (or Magic Bullet!!!) until smooth: 1/2 cup each nonfat yogurt and mayonnaise (I used more yogurt than mayo but to each his/her own), 3 tablespoons lemon juice, 2 tablespoons water, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 teaspoon curry powder and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper.