Pico de Gallo

The CSA box was very heavy last week, so I knew that I would be busy over the early part of last weekend. The farmer very neatly put a "salsa" bag together including various types of peppers, tomatoes, and onions. We received a bunch of cilantro as well. Since my refrigerator didn't look like it would hold all this good food for long, I decided that I needed to figure out how to reduce the vegetables...and quickly!

I did roast some of the peppers on the stove. While I was doing that the phrase, "depth of flavor" came to mind, so really wanted to use that phrase in the blog. Yep, the roasted peppers gave the pico de gallo a depth of flavor! I roasted them directly on my gas burner. I did have the exhaust fan on, so I'm sure the smell of roasting peppers woke my new next-door neighbors. The smell of roasting peppers smells earthy and like something else not so legal...so we'll see what they thought when I talk to them this weekend!!!

The rest of the ingredients just required some time to chop. I did run the chopped red onion under cold water in a strainer to take a bit of the bit (and subsequent bad breath) out of them. I added a couple grinds each of salt and pepper and a tablespoon or so of canola oil. Some of the peppers were chopped without roasting.

Tasty....I'm sure we'll be done with the huge bowl of good veggies by the end of the weekend. Fortunately, my husband bought a big bag of tortilla chips at the warehouse buying club yesterday, so we should be set to finish this bowl over the weekend!

Yum...tastes like summer!

Fall Soups...

The blog is back! After a bit of a lull, Karen and I are back to our regular routine so the blog will resume it's normal activity.

This week, Milwaukee got hit with it's first taste of fall whether.  We had high temperatures in the mid-sixties(before labor day!) so I decided to make soup. During the school year, one night a week is dedicated to soup in our house and this year it will be Tuesdays. My daughter has High School swim meets on Tuesdays this fall and once she goes back to club swimming, Tuesday is a late practice.

Picture from Frontier Soups

While most of my soups are home made, I do keep a stash of soup mixes from Frontier Soups. I decided to make two versions, since I had the time, and freeze them. The first one was their Sausage Lentil soup which is a heartier soup that takes a couple hours to make, and the second was their Vegetable Soup, which I turned into Turkey Vegetable by adding some chopped turkey meat I had in the freezer. The only change I made to the standard recipes was that I only had 4 cups of beef broth and the Lentil soup called for all beef broth.  I substituted chicken broth and it turned out great.

Picture from Frontier Soups

Some of you may wonder why I am blogging about packaged soups.  Well, it is all about being prepared! I now have 6 meals of soup in the freezer, and 6 weeks where I will not have to cook at least once a week! I have included links to the soups I made below..enjoy!

Chicken Noodle Soup

More vegetable use! I had some leftover celery from a shrimp salad recipe (I forgot to take a picture, so I'll have to blog on it another time) as well as two huge bags of carrots from the last couple rounds of the CSA. I had leftover chicken broth from pasta earlier in the week...AND....my husband came home from the warehouse club with a rotisserie chicken...time for soup!

The weather really turned cool in Wisconsin. One day we had hot and humid weather and the next day we had fall like temperatures. Also, my daughter isn't a fan of sandwiches in her lunch, so I thought some individual servings of soup may be a nice lunch option.

That's it...it seems too easy to even talk about. I sauteed the vegetables(1/2 red onion, carrots, and celery) and added broth and noodles. I had some fresh tarragon from the shrimp salad recipe listed above, so I threw that in too. The large white chunks are pieces of parboiled turnips from a box earlier this summer. I ate a bit of it for lunch and will probably freeze some; although, I just may see how much we have in the next couple days.

Grilled pizza....another version

Grilled pizza ideas abound in this book. I checked this book out from the local library and found so many good ideas that I have checked it out a few times as well as written some of the ideas on recipe cards. I do have another grilled pizza recipe that I have used more frequently but am enjoying getting new ideas.

Last Saturday was International Bacon Day and coincidentally we were having bacon on our pizza. I guess I could pretend that it wasn't a coincidence....but it really was. I used the pizza dough recipe in the book instead of my usual grilled pizza dough recipe. The reason...an adventure, I guess.

There was a B-BLT(bacon, bleu cheese, lettuce and tomato) pizza recipe in the book. I did not follow the recipe exactly but used it as an inspiration. The recipe recommended grilling the lettuce, but I didn't do that because it just didn't sound that good to me. Instead I used the lettuce for a side salad. We did an individual pizza for each person because it's easier to handle smaller pizzas on the grill. Also, then everyone gets their own pizza just the way they like it! I didn't make the tomato sauce called for in the recipe but rather put out the toppings for everyone to create their own pizza.

I was excited to eat this all day...fresh tomatoes and fresh lettuce were both in the CSA box this week. I usually buy the 3-pack of bacon from the warehouse club and freeze 2 packs. The other package we seem to go through a couple slices at a time with various pasta and pizza recipes. The three packages usually last a few months and we have found it's a great addition to so many recipes.

Grilling the crusts can be a bit tricky. My husband is the pizza griller and says his secret is a hot fire, quick rotation of the crusts, and watch closely. Then the crusts come in the house and toppings are put on the already grilled side of the dough. The crusts are heated quickly to warm the ingredients...then served.

Having the juicy tomatoes on the crust made me realize that the crust should be brushed with olive oil before putting the tomatoes on it. Other than that, this is a pretty simple and tasty dinner.

I would make this again....and I won't wait for International Bacon Day to make it next!

Chicken Broccoli Pasta

I'm not sure where I got this recipe...but it does get rave reviews from my family! I made it this week when I need something in a hurry. School started....I'm back to work...and Eleanor was at swim practice, so I needed a quick and healthy meal!

Chicken Broccoli Pasta

2T. butter

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bit size pieces

1 small onion, finely chopped

2T. minced garlic

1/4t red pepper flakes

2t. dried thyme leaves

2t. flour

1 c. white wine

2 c. chicken broth

1 1/2 lb broccoli

1/2 lb past

1 c. Asiago

1c sun dried tomatoes, hydrated

1 lemon, cut into wedges

Cook pasta adding the broccoli toward the end of cooking time. Drain.

In separate pan melt 1 T butter and cook the chicken. Transfer it to a bowl.

Add 1 T. butter. Add onin and cook 2-3 minutes. Stir the ingredients into the pan through the flour and cook for 30 seconds. Add wine and broth and simmer until mixture is reduced to 1 1/4 c or so (15 minutes).

Stir all ingredients together into pasta bowl and serve.

This was a meal that was fairly quick to put together and was a crowd pleaser.

Ground Cherry Salsa

From Bup's Bistro

In my CSA Box this week, I received ground cherries. Have YOU ever heard of them? I certainly hadn't, so I did some research! These little gems, wrapped in their lantern paper, are related to the tomatillo.  They have the texture of a tomato but are sweeter. I found recipes for ground cherry pies which are similar to other fruit pie recipes.  I wasn't brave enough to make a pie out of something that resembles a tomato, so I kept searching and came across some salsa recipes. None of the recipes were exactly what I was looking for, so I made up my own...


1 c ground cherries, hulled and washed, cut in quarters
1/4 small red onion
1/2 jalepeno pepper
1-11/2 c chopped cucumber
5-6 fresh basil leaves, minced
salt and pepper

The finished product is a sweeter version of traditional salsa, quite tasty! It would be great with fish or chicken, though we just ate it with chips

Brats, Beans, and Beets

And corn! The veggie box came on Thursday, so I spent Friday night and Saturday morning using the end of summer/early fall produce. I'll have a few more recipes coming from this box, but I thought I would put dinner from last night on the blog today.

We received a large bag of green beans which I decided to roast in the oven at 400 degrees or so. I drizzled them with olive oil and salt and pepper and let them roast. I put in the beets at the same time (on a different pan) and let them roast until fork tender as well. I peeled and sliced the beets and sprinkled them with feta cheese. I had one package of bratwurst left in the freezer that I had gotten earlier in the summer and decided to cook those as well. The corn, well, it looks better than it tasted! Just for the record, the beets were the hot item in this dinner...we all wanted to finish them!