Chicken with Leeks and Carrots (Crock Pot Style!)

Mashed Caulifower

Week 14's Vegeables

ROOTS
Beets-Decent beet greens; use these greens like you would spinach or chard
BRASSICAS
Broccoli - At least 2 heads; perhaps a quiche for Sunday brunch?
Cauliflower-maybe
FRUITING CROPS
Winter Squash-acorn(s)
Peppers
Heirloom Tomato(es) -maybe; not bagged.
ALLIUMS
Onion(s)-yellow storage
Leek(s)
COOKING GREENS
Swiss Chard-Stacey likes to eat her chard in scrambled eggs with some sort of cheese.
Spinach-You can eat it cooked or in a salad.
HERBS
Dill
Cilantro
SALAD GREENS
Lettuce-likely; baby heads of Nevada (a green summercrisp, Cherokee (a red summercrisp), and/or Two Star (a green leaf).

Eggplant 4-eva!

You want eggplant? This is eggplant! Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a nine-inch baking dish. Cut up one large eggplant into half inch slices and decoratively place on a cookie sheet (or baking sheet, whatever you like to call it), sprinkle some salt on top, and then brush some olive oil on top. Bake for 20 minutes and then put it on a plate. You will be tempted to eat the eggplant as is, but don’t. More deliciousness awaits.

Set the oven temp to 350 degrees.

Cut up a red or green pepper and coat with olive oil. Bake for ten minutes and then set aside. Don’t eat these either, although you probably won’t be as interested.

Now, mix together 1 cup ricotta cheese, 3 lightly beaten egg whites, ½ cup of Parmesan cheese, 2 tbsp basil, 2 tbsp parsley, a lil’ bit of cayenne pepper, and some salt until thoroughly blended.

Layer half of the eggplant slices on the bottom of the baking dish. Then distribute the cheese mixture on top. Spread ½ cup tomato sauce over the cheese. THEN put the peppers and 1/3 cup sliced black olives on top of that (can you HANDLE how delicious this is going to be???). Then put the rest of the eggplant on top, as if you were tucking the cheesy goodness in for a long winter’s nap. Lightly dust the eggplant with Parmesan cheese like you were Tinkerbell, and then bake for forty-five minutes.

Eggplant Mash Note

I love eggplant! And I love this recipe for forcing me to use the broiler. I never knew what the broiler was or how to use it before this recipe, so thank you, eggplant, for pushing me in new and exciting directions.

Oil the broiler sheet or a baking sheet and fire up the broiler. Cut up an eggplant and lightly coat the slices with mayonnaise. Then dip both sides in grated Parmesan cheese. Bake in the broiler three minutes on each side, or until the sides are golden brown. If you are the kind of person who serves h’ors d’ouevres, serve them now.

Puke-umbers

We have gotten a ton of cucumbers this summer and I have had little to no idea as to what to do with them. I have little use for the cucumber. If I was a poet, I would write a poem entitled “I have little use for the cucumber.” It would get published in “The New Yorker” and I would smile demurely when people brought it up, and then return to my day job teaching English at a small New England prep school. If my vegetables held an awards ceremony, cucumbers would sweep the “Most likely to rot in the vegetable bin” category. That being said, here is a recipe I used with cucumbers from the Farmer’s cookbook. We mixed ¼ cup of apple cider vinegar, 2 tbsp water, 1 tbsp honey, and ¼ tsp Dijon mustard. I then sliced up one of the ginormous cucumbers we had gotten that week and an onion (the onion was supposed to be cut into six thin slices) and added them to the bowl. You can either marinate the veggies for a half hour at room temperature or refrigerate overnight. Either way, I didn’t fall in love with it. But then, I do not have much use for the cucumber.

Choi!

Choi is a great vegetable with a strange name because it reminds me of Steve Choi who I went to school with. He is a smart wonderful guy who just happens to be a lot shorter that me. Steve and I were very competitive when it came to grades. But he won out in the end and was our Valedictorian. I also went to the senior prom with him. He should not take offense to this but I called him my "Boy Choi " I guess like "Boy Toy." Oh God he should be horribly offended. Sorry Steve.
Anyway, my current prom date and I made Choi last night. We had to wash it a lot but it was worth the extra effort. I sauteed it with some sliced mushrooms, and one clove of garlic. Then I added about a tablespoon of soy sauce and sweet chili sauce.

Week Twelve's Vegetables

BRASSICAS
Cauliflower
FRUITIING CROPS
Melon-an orange honeydew
Heirloom Tomato
Tomatoes
Peppers
Hot Pepper
Sweet Corn
ALLIUMS
Onions-Red storage
COOKING GREENS
Collards
HERBS
Parsley
SALAD GREENS
Choi
Lettuce-heads of Green Star (a green leaf), Nevada (a green summercrisp), and/or Red Salad Bowl ( a red oakleaf)

Fried Rice

Since we've been back from Canada I have been trying to cook a lot of good healthy food to cleanse my body of all the cheese curds, beer, dill pickle chips, poutine, spicy hot dogs and other terrible things I ate and drank.
I made some fried rice when I had a some egg whites left from Dorothy's dinner one night (she just eats the yolks). Here's what I used:
green pepper
1/2 sweet onion
1 c. cauliflower
sliced mushrooms
chard
ginger
1 c. tofu
chicken (1/2 breast, cooked)
2 c. brown rice
egg whites
I sauteed the onion and peppers until soft, then I added the cauliflower, mushrooms and chard and cooked for another few minutes. I seasoned this with 1 tsp. curry powder, 1 tsp. black pepper, red pepper flakes, 1-2 tbsp. soy sauce and 1 tbsp. grated or finely chopped fresh ginger. Then I added the tofu and chicken (both cut in small cubes), combined well and combined it all with the hot rice. I made a two inch hole in the middle of the pan and added the egg whites. I let them cook for a few seconds and then incorporated with the rice mixture. I ate this with some extra hot sauce and soy sauce.

Week Eleven's Vegetables

Sweet Corn
Dill
Cilantro
Tomatoes
Heirloom tomatoes
Cucumbers
Chard
Beet greens
Beets
Red peppers