Lemon Squares

A version of lemon squares is a violin camp favorite. Violin camp, besides being about the violin, is all about tradition. Having our friend Carol make these for the week is part of the tradition...one I hope continues for a long time!

Recently I came across this version which is a bit lower fat than the original. I don't think it gives away too many of the other good qualities with this dessert and it does make it seem OK to make it other than just having hers once a year.

The picture is made with lime juice and lime zest instead of lemon because I bought a large bag of limes at the warehouse club and needed to use them. They are so much cheaper there..and I did need them for some recipes...and we have used them in drinking water. I still had a few left (fortunately) so I made these.

Maybe desserts don't really belong on a blog about getting dinner on the table, but I'm thinking of the dessert recipes as a "bonus". They're being posted on days when I don't have anything else to post, so...that's my story!

Here's the bonus recipe of the week:
Base:
1 c. flour
1/4 c sugar
1/2 c oats
3 T. butter
Combine ingredients with a pastry blender. Press into a sprayed 8 inch baking dish and bake 10 minutes in an oven that was reheated to 350 degrees.

While the base is baking make the topping:
1 egg
1 egg white
1 c sugar
3 T. flour
1/4 t baking powder
juice of one lime and some lime zest.
Whisk all ingredients together and pour over baked base.

Bake 20-25 minutes. Cool.
Top with powdered sugar or with powdered sugar mixed with lime juice.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.

"Pumpkin" Pancakes

 The end of the CSA season brought a lot of winter squash. Like Karen, I make sure I process any vegetables that may go bad and freeze them for use later. I still had some squash left over from the squash purée I made when I was making butternut squash ravioli (see post 11/2/2010), so I decided I would try to incorporate some into pancakes. Of course, I couldn't call them squash pancakes, my kids never would have eaten them, so I am calling them pumpkin pancakes! I adapted my favorite multi-grain pancake recipe for these (see post 7/8/2010).

Recipe

1 cup flour
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c oat flour(grind old fashioned rolled oats in coffee grinder or food processor)
1/2 c rolled oats or quick oats
4 T brown sugar
4 T corn meal
1 T baking powder
1 t salt
3 t pumpkin pie spice
1/2 c plain greek yogurt(regular plain yogurt is fine as well)
1 cup pumpkin or squash purée
1 cup milk(may need more to thin batter if using greek yogurt)
2 eggs
2 T oil

Combine dry ingredients; Combine wet ingredients and then add them to dry ingredients. Make pancakes!

Our family likes pancakes plain, hot off the griddle, but these would be lovely with maple syrup and pecans!




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Shredded Chicken

A friend brought this to us when we were remodeling the kitchen. She got the recipe from her sister and adapted it a bit...now I've changed it. Sometimes I wonder if we have gone full circle and it is now back to the original!

I have never served this to anyone and not had them ask for the recipe! It's just that good. Since we're all so busy in the evenings it's nice to have some recipes that work for the whole family and everyone can scoop their dinner out of the crockpot when they get home. Another bonus of this recipe is that the end product freezes well. So, if you have any left at the end of the evening, you have a meal for another time.

1/4 c firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 c mustard
2 T. ketchup
2 t cider vinegar
2 T hot pepper sauce
red pepper flakes
1 t black pepper
1 t crushed red pepper
2 t liquid smoke
3 lb bag of boneless skinless chicken breasts

Throw all the above in the crockpot and cook for 8 hours or so on low. Shred the chicken.
Serve on buns with shredded cabbage.

Tip: It's a great idea to have this the same week as the fish tacos (see..post) so all the cabbage gets eaten!

Beef Stew

 I have mentioned before that my mother wasn't much of a cook...my father, however, had a few dishes that he would create on the weekends to supplement. One of my favorites was beef stew. This dish has been a staple in my repertoire for years and I doubt I make it the same way twice. The basics are the same, but refrigerator contents play a large role, for instance, I don't usually use mushrooms, but I had some on hand, so I threw them in. I have used brussel sprouts in the past as well, so be creative! Here is what I did this time!

Ingredients

2 lbs chuck roast, prepackaged for stew or cut up
Flour, salt and pepper for dregging
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped onions
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup dry red wine
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can beef broth
6 large mushrooms, quartered
carrots, 10-15 baby
potatoes, 4-6 quartered
rutabaga(turnips, parsnips work well too), one large, two small, cut into bite sized chunks

Dreg beef in seasoned flour and brown in skillet in butter. Transfer to crock pot. Sauté onions and carrots in same skillet, scraping beef bits from bottom of pan.  After about 5 minutes, add garlic and mushrooms and sauté another 1-2 minutes. Add wine, broth and tomatoes and bring to a boil. Pour sauce over meat in crock pot and cook on low 3-4 hours. Add the carrots and rutabaga or other root vegetables and continue cooking. After about an hour, add the potatoes and cook for 1-1 1/2 hours longer, until vegetables are tender.

I serve this with salad and homemade artisan bread...delicious! Two pounds of beef makes a full crockpot of stew, so this is another instance where I cook, serve, freeze and still have some leftovers for the next day. I paid about $8 for the meat and I would estimate that the rest of the ingredients totaled about $5, so for $13 I made at least 8 servings(probably more like 10) of stew...let's see, that's about $1.65 a serving...not bad and the crockpot did most of the work!


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Two Bean Burritos

Two Bean...three. This recipe was in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel years ago. I copied it and have made it countless times. I did search online for the original recipe and couldn't find it; however, the credit (if you like it) is not mine. It belongs to The Outpost, a local coop grocery store.

1 small white onion, diced
2 T canola oil
2 gloves, garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 jalapeno, diced
2 t grd cumin
2 t chili powder
1/2 t sugar
1 can pinto beans, drained
2 cans back beans, drained
(I have used any three cans of beans combined. For the picture I used 1 can navy beans, 1 can black beans, and 1 can refried beans...I'm all about what's in the pantry!!)
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 bunch cilantro
cheese..original recipe called for 1/3 lb cheddar and 1/4 lb Monterey Jack. I usually use 1-2 c. cheddar and skip the Monterey Jack...just because that's what I usually have on hand and it decreases the fat a bit to decrease the amount of cheese.
6 flour tortillas

Saute onions in hot oil until soft. Add garlic, peppers, cumin, chili powder, and sugar. cook until soft. Remove from heat and add beans (mashing them a bit, cilantro, and green onion.

Often (like today), I'll put this mixture in the refrigerator and assemble them closer to dinner. Sometimes I will roll the tortillas with the mixture and cover the pans in the fridge...then I just have to preheat the oven and bake when I get home. Tonight I was home at 6:00 or so, so I had enough time to assemble and bake them right before eating.

Add the cheese to the cooled bean mixture. Fill the tortillas and roll placing on a sprayed baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes at 400 degrees. Serve with salsa. OR...you could roll and put them in a baking dish and pour salsa over the top and serve them as smothered burritos.

Leftovers are great for lunch the next day.

Just a note, this is fine without the cilantro or green onions.

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Turkey and Artichoke Stuffed Shells

When I told Meghan we were having this for dinner, she did a little "happy dance".  As I have mentioned in previous posts, my family is not a huge fan of lasagna. This is another great lasagna alternative. This makes a lot of shells and I usually make one pan for dinner and one pan for the freezer (Glad makes an oven ready disposable casserole dish that works great for this). This is also a great dish to make for a pot luck or if you are making a meal for a family...you can always leave out the artichokes and it is very family friendly. I've also thought about substituting spinach for the artichokes...

Ingredients

• 12 oz jumbo pasta shells
  3 T olive oil
  1 c chopped onion
  3 cloves garlic, minced
  1 lb ground turkey
  Salt & Pepper
  1 pkg frozen artichokes, chopped or 1 can artichokes packed in water
  15 oz ricotta cheese
  3/4 c grated parmesan
  2 eggs, lightly beaten
  1/4 c chopped fresh basil
  5 c pasta sauce
  1 1/2 c grated mozzarella

Preparation

Cook shells until tender but still firm, 5-6 minutes. Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and cook until soft. Add the ground turkey, salt and pepper, cook until turkey is cooked. Add artichoke hearts, stir to combine.
In a large bowl combine the cooled turkey mixture with the ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, eggs, basil, parsley and salt and pepper. Stir to combine.
Cover the bottom of a 9"x13" baking dish with 1 c sauce. Stuff shells with turkey mixture. Place the shells in the pan on top of the sauce. Drizzle remaining sauce over the shells and top with the grated mozzarella.
If freezing, cover tightly with plastic wrap. To bake, preheat the oven to 400F. Bake until shells are warmed through and cheese is beginning to brown, 60 minutes if frozen, 20 minutes if fresh.

Cauliflower Pie

The veggie box is here!

As I have mentioned previously, it can be inspirational to get the fresh vegetables; however, sometimes it can be a bit of work. Years and years and years ago, back when CSA was a new concept to me (we have been doing this for 13 years), I don't think Farmer Steve had it figured out as well as he does now. We seemed to get celery root and eggs in abundance....and not much else. We used to joke with the other family about the celery root. I mean, a bit is OK, but 6 bulbs of it every single week for the summer seemed to get old VERY quickly. Fortunately, there has been improvement and we get more variety and just a couple deliveries of this bulbous vegetable every year. I do remember that year and have to chuckle every time I see it.

See, nothing too pretty about this vegetable.
Fall brings many vegetables and I like to make something hearty with them that uses them right away. I find that if I don't stay on top of the box I end up with....well....old apples and wilting peppers (see 10/30 post by Elizabeth)....or worse. It seems terrible to let any food go bad, so, to avoid that I try to cook with the vegetables on the weekend after they arrive. Or...at least do a mass reduction by cooking them and getting them in a state where they last a bit longer. Parboiling and freezing many items helps to preserve their goodness and allow me to have good ingredients on hand for meals to come together quickly later.

It IS a bit of work to get the box; however, it does pay off in the good meals we have. We like to support those small local farmers and this allows us to do that without making time to regularly go to a Farmer's Market (although that is fun too). I enjoy getting things that I may not normally purchase and am (usually) up for the challenge.

Soups and pot pies seems to work really well for this too. Then I'm ready for the week with healthy dinners so we can all eat the vegetables we should....if the meals are served "fresh" or out of the freezer.

Here is another "pie" version that we enjoy. It's a good CSA recipe since substitutions work well....always good to have the recipe adapt well to what you have on hand! As I searched through my recipes I found a couple that take large amounts of the vegetables I received or look like substitutions of the vegetables I have will work.

This is a cauliflower pie recipe of unknown origin:

3 medium potatoes

Boil and mash them and add

2 T minced onion and a bit of salt and pepper

Put mixture into a sprayed pan (sprayed with Pam) to form a crust and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or so.

meanwhile:

Steam 1 head of cauliflower (usually I do this in the pan I used to cook the potatoes, so it saves on clean up)

Melt 1-2 T butter or olive oil and add:

1 chopped onion (usually I use the rest of the onion after using the 2T minced)

3 cloves garlic, minced

Remove from heat and add:

1 T fresh basil

1 egg

4 oz cheddar, grated

( I mix all these ingredients together in the same pan I used for cooking the potatoes and steaming the broccoli/cauliflower)

Bake entire dish at 375 until warm and bubbly...about 30 minutes or so.

That's the regular recipe. I mad a few changes to work with the items I had.

I added some peeled celery root to the potatoes and boiled and mashed it with them. I threw in some of the par boiled turnip from my freezer. I really think that bag is bottomless.

I sauteed a diced carrot along with the onion as well as one chopped leek and omitted the garlic because....gasp...I was out of garlic. I used about 1/2 huge head of cauliflower and a small head of broccoli.

This is one of those recipes that gives you a full dose of vegetables to make up for the days where you may fall a bit short on the veggie intake!

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