What's Cooking at Thyme To Cook?

30Day Paleo Update, 2 RKC Training workouts and Paleo friendly Meatloaf

2012-01-30T11:18:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe that 3 weeks are down and I'm in the last week of Robb Wolf's 30Day Total Transformation, or the Paleo Challenge as I like to call it.

I can honestly say that this challenge has been EASY!!!!!

I, in no way, shape or form thought I would say that cutting out beans and grains and eating meat would be easy. I'm loving food much more these days and I have a feeling that 30 days will come and go and the "challenge" won't end for me.

I've said before that I don't think I want to give up beans forever, and certainly not unrefined, whole grains as well, but I just need to see how I'm going to feel after I add them back.
In line w.the Paleo lifestyle is Primal, something I'm going to check into as well, after the 30 days are up. I do believe that Primal allows raw milk cheese?? I'm interested in that :) I like cheese :)
Who knows?
What I need to happen is I need to stay on top of my game, nutrition wise, so that I can continue on my road to RKC, which brings us to the last 2 workouts of my program from Mike Perry, RKCII, of Skill of Strength.

From Sat January 28th

3TGUS each side - 12kg - Feeling MUCH stronger w.my TGUs

Chin-ups-5X2 - Was able to complete 4 of these sets pretty easily, last one was hard

KB Deadlifts-4X5, 2 sets w.32kg, 2 sets, uneven bells, 20kg/24kg

KB Presses- 2,3,5 X 2 - 14kg/12kg - Used both the 14 and 12kg bells - getting stronger

Single Arm Swings - 5x6 each side - 16kg, 5x6 each side - 20kg - Getting better w.my one arm 20kg swings. It's my hand and forearms that are the limiting factor here.

From Mon January 30th
4 TGUs per side, then switch - 12kg - Again, feeling much more confident in my TGU

GTG Chin ups - Sets of 1 - Total 10 throughout the day - Getting them done :), 2 left....

Heavy Single Arm DL 4X5 each arm - 24kg

Clean, Squat, Press Complex 2,3,4X4 each side - 3X12 and 1X14kg - Last time I used the squat into press for power. Mike instructed me not to do that, so I had to drop the weight down to 12kg. This complex is evil!! 4 rounds is pretty tiring :)

Alternate Swings 6 Sets of 16 (8 per side) - 3x16kg and 3x20kg - As I wrote above, my hand and forearms fail first

Without a doubt I am getting stronger, and that's a good thing.....How about some Paleo individual meatloaves? I got some nice grass fed beef from Hardwick Beef, a farm approximately 40 minutes down the road. I decided to make some meatloaves out of it.

Ingredients
1 lb Grass Fed ground beef
3 garlic cloves, run over microplane
2 medium carrots, grated
1 small onion, grated
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup almond meal
1/4 cup Paleo approved BBQ sauce
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp dried thyme

Technique
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix the garlic cloves, grated carrot, and grated onion together.

2. Add in remaining ingredients and mix until only just combined; overworking the beef will result in a tough meatloaf.

3. Split 4 ways into mini loaf pans, or alternatively, form 1 loaf in a 9X5 loaf pan.

4. Bake until cooked through, 160 degrees, approximately 25 min for mini loaves and 55 min for large loaf; best to check w.a meat thermometer.

The addition of the BBQ sauce adds moisture and a smokey flavor. The individual size means you won't overeat :) I served the loaves with baked sweet potatoes and a raw kale and arame salad. The meal was delicious and I wish I had doubled the recipe...next time for sure, as the meatloaves will freeze great (if they stay around long enough to go in the freezer!!).
Enjoy.

30 Day Paleo Transformation Update, My Wednesday workout this week and Thai Chicken Stew,

2012-01-26T17:54:00.001-08:00

I can't believe that it's already Day 19 of my 30 day Paleo transformation (Robb Wolf's 30 Day Total Transformation). I can honestly say that his has been an easier journey then I thought it was going to be.

To recap, Paleo is based on eating lean, grass fed and pastured meats, wild caught fish, eggs, fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, healthy fats. It does not include grains, beans/legumes, white potatoes, dairy, processed foods and sugar (though some Paleo/Primal followers include full fat milk , butter, cheese from grass fed animals). I went from about 80% plant based to 80% animal protein based.

I've been eating local, cage free eggs, grass fed beef and pasture raised meats from Stillman's Farm, just 40 minutes from my house, wild caught salmon, sardines, tons of veggies/fruits, including sweet potatoes.

So, yeah, do I yearn for "harder" carbs other then those I'm getting in fruit and veggies? Sure, sometimes I do. But in all honesty, I felt so bogged down when I was filling myself up w.grains and beans and breads and sweets etc. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my body. My workouts have been strong and that was one of my primary reasons for trying Paleo - to get more protein with the hopes of building my strength.
11 more days of the transformation to go.

Here's one of my workouts from this week...as I prepare for the RKC, I'm working with Mike Perry of Skill of Strength. He has written a 3 workout rotation to do for 4-6 weeks.
Wednesday January 25, 2012

Turkish Get Ups 5/5, Alternating sides every time - 3X10kg, 2x12kg - Already a huge improvement in the way the Get Up feels from just last week. My next workout (tomorrow) includes TGUs and I'm ready to try just the 12kg.

Heavy KB Deadlift 2x5...32kg- unfortunately, this is the heaviest bell I have...I have easily DL'd the 44kg bell but do not have access to it all the time....

KB Press 2X5...14kg - feeling stronger...the 16kg press is in my sites....

Goblet Squat 2X5...20kg - felt like I could have gone up to 24kg....

2 Hand Swing Ladder, 8 rounds, 5/5/5 w. 16kg, 20kg and 24kg - felt good, used good hip snap...

Getting stronger!

Now, on to the sustenance....I was inspired to make this Thai Chicken Stew by Adrienne Harvey, of GiryaGirl.com. She posted on FB about a chicken coconut soup she had made and so I felt compelled to make one as well. I happened to have just picked up some local (from VT) chicken breasts from Misty Knoll Farms.
I cut the pound of breasts up into smallish dice, 1-2inches, and I marinated them in kaffir lime leaves, ginger and garlic, as well as a few dashes of Red Boat Fish Sauce, for about an hour. Kaffir lime leaves are fragrant and delicious, and add that signature Thai flavor to dishes.

So, here's around 6 leaves, minced, with 5-6 grated garlic cloves, and a 2 -3 inch piece of ginger, also grated:
After marinating, I sauteed the chicken in coconut oil until brown, then added about 1 tsp of a chile paste. For a spicier stew, add more chile paste.

Next I added in my veggies, which were chopped broccoli and zucchini, and let them sweat for a bit before adding in coconut milk, about 2 cups as well as another few dashes Red Boat Fish Sauce. I let it simmer for about 15 minutes, and lastly added in chopped kale. After simmering for about 5 minutes, I finished it off with a squeeze of fresh lime juice and some chopped dill. I used dill because that is what I had. I would have preferred to use cilantro, but the dill worked fine as well.

The stew was warming, hearty and really delicious.

It got better over the next few days and made for great lunches for the first half of the week.

Coming up in the blog, a Paleo friendly meatloaf and review of Paleo Snax Almond Raisin Cookies.
Enjoy!

2012-01-25T08:56:00.000-08:00

Adrienne Harvey of GiryaGirl.com posted one of my Chia pudding recipes last week! In case you missed it, check it here: Chia Pudding Parfait

Chia Pudding Parfaits from Sharon Shiner, HKC

Submitted by GiryaAdmin on Tue, 01/17/2012 - 12:18

Description

A surprisingly easy but delicious treat loaded with nutrition!

Ingredients

1⁄4	c	chia seeds (Sharon likes to use a mix of black and white seeds for contrast)
1⁄2	c	coconut water (Alterntely use almond milk, or slightly watered down coconut milk)
1	T	coconut nectar (Or more if you wish to have a sweeter pudding)
1	pn	sea salt
1	c	mixed fresh berries (or your favorite fruit on hand)
2	T	shredded coconut, unsweetened (check the bulk bins!)
1		zest of a lemon (just a few pinches will do)
1		zest of an orange (just a few pinches will do)

Notes

I enlisted the help of Sharon Shiner, personal fitness chef and HKC to share her favorite creative use of chia seeds. The kind I'll be using are from The Chia Co and can be found at GNC. Delicious!!!

GiryaGirl: I've been sent 10 tons of chia seeds, what to do what to do?!

Sharon: Chia pudding! It's totally yummy. The texture takes some getting used to, but otherwise it's killer.

Instructions

1. Mix chia seeds and coconut water and let them sit for about 10 minutes. One of the properties of the seeds is that they absorb liquids, forming a gel. This gel becomes the "pudding".
2. Stir in the sweetener and pinch sea salt.
3. Top with berries, coconut and zests.

That's it!!!

Enjoy!

Review of Improv'Eat Coconut Pure Wraps and RKC Program Update

2012-01-22T14:23:00.000-08:00

It's Sunday January 22 - I'm 2 weeks into my 30 Day Total Transformation. It's Day 15.....Had a tough workout today - the Day 2 workout of my plan from Mike Perry, Skill of Strength. He has written a 3 day kettlebell workout plan for me, and I will do it for 4-6 weeks.
Day 2 consists of:
TGU 4 on each side - 3x10kg and 1x12kg

Grease the Gear (GTG) Chinups - done in sets of just 1 - total 10 for the day - during the workout, I got 7 in and finished the last 3 throughout the day.

Single arm deadlift - 4x5 each arm - 20kg (patiently waiting for my new bells (16kg, 24kg, 32kg) from DragonDoor - hopefully tomorrow, then I can go heavier on my deadlifts and swings)

Clean, Squat, Press Complex - not putting bell down until all reps are done in the set,
2,3,4 X 4 sets each side - 3X14kg and 1x12kg

Single arm swing 6x16 (8 each side) - 1x14kg, 3x16kg, 2x20kg

Felt good, a bit tired though.
Things I'm working on: hip hinge, hip snap, and letting bell float on my swings and proper alignment on TGUs.
How'd I do today? I think I did much better w.my hip hinge, snap and letting the bell float. When I single arm swing the 20kg bell, the handle is thick and so I'm noticing my hand and forearm get fatigued very quickly. I hope that as I swing the more, my hand will become accustomed to having the heavier bell in it. I'd hate to be feeling great on my swings, but to be limited by my hand strength.
My TGU is getting better, but still not close to where I would like it to be.

After workout, I immediately had some sweet potato and my CoCa Smoothie to recover (coconut milk, frozen banana, almond milk, raw cacao powder and nibs, raw honey and maca).
Other food today included for Breakfast: eggs, scrambled in coconut oil w.Canadian bacon and regular bacon, Lunch: grass-fed beef taco w.homemade salsa and avocado in a Improv'Eat coconut wrap, Snack: Berries and Dinner: Thai Chicken Stew w.zucchini, broccoli and kale w.a baked sweet potato on the side. Want to know more about the coconut wrap I ate w.lunch? Read on!

Improv'Eat Pure Wraps Coconut Flavor

Improv'Eat is the company that makes the coconut wraps, made simply from coconut meat and coconut water and Himalayan sea salt. The wraps are raw and are gluten free. They come in plain or curry. Since I'm not a huge fan of curry flavored things, I got just the plain wraps to try.
They come 4 wraps to a package for $4.99, so a bit pricy at just over a dollar a wrap. One wrap has 60 calories, 2.5 g fat (Sat fat), 8g carb, less than 1g fiber, less than 1g sugar, 0g protein.

The texture is interesting, sturdy and soft yet pliable. At first, I was worried about putting moist ingredients in the wrap, but they are durable, not sogging up, at all. They are easy to wrap up into a roll up or a burrito.
The taste is not overbearing, with a subtle coconut flavor.

So overall, it's got nice texture, good flavor and it makes a good alternative to a tortilla. The one drawback is the price: 4 for $4.99 plus shipping can get pricy.

Here's some examples of how I used the wraps:

Breakfast Burrito with Scrambled Eggs and Whitefish

Grass Fed Beef Burger Wrap with yellow pepper, avocado and parsley

Good stuff.
Coming up, Thai Chicken Stew and a review of Paleo Snax Almond Raisin Paleo Cookie

Training update, 30Day Paleo Update and Paleo friendly Root Veggie Pancakes

2012-01-20T17:15:00.000-08:00

I'm just about done with my first 2 weeks of Robb Wolf's 30Day Total Transformation; today marks Day 13!
In my last update, I reported that I was sleeping great, eating great and feeling strong. Today is no different. What is interesting to me is that (and guys, I apologize for going here), today I started my menstrual cycle. I usually have the most extreme sugar cravings for 3-4 days prior. I did not experience that at all! Amazing, really. Yesterday, I noticed I was extremely hungry, and did have sugar cravings, but nothing like I'm used to dealing with. I also usually get intense cramps on the first day or 2, and so far, I haven't had any!!!
The spike in hunger continued today, but w.out the sugar cravings...the spike in hunger might have something to do w.my workout schedule which looks something like this for the past 3 days:

Wednesday Jan 18, Day 11 - Teach Spin 6:30PM

Thursday Jan 19 Day 12 - Teach Kettlebell classes, 5:30am, 6:15am, 9:30am, then did my own kettlebell workout (detailed below)

Friday Jan 20 Day 13 - Teach Spin 6:15am, Teach Kettlebells 9:30am (where I did ~100 wings w.24kg bell)

So, increase in hunger noted....I am teaching kettlebells again tomorrow morning....When I teach the kettlebell class, I'm not necessarily doing the workout with the class, but I am teaching, moving, demonstrating, concentrating, etc. It takes energy. When I taught today, I managed to get 100 swings in w.the 24kg bell....

I've continued to eat some great meals including pulled pork w.collard greens and onions, grass fed beef tacos and home made salsa, and pan seared wild coho salmon. Food continues to taste amazing. I'm looking forward to the next 2 weeks of the challenge.

RKC Training update
Last week I had a 1:1 training with Mike Perry of Skill of Strength and this week I received the first workout plan from him. It includes 3 workouts per week that I will be doing for 4-6 weeks.
The goal is to build strength and focus on technique.
Since most of my work will be done at home, I had to get some heavier bells and so I am waiting for them to come in - I ordered a 16kg thinner handle bell, as well as (1) 24kg and (1) 32kg bell. While I'm waiting for the bells to come in, I'm doing the program the best I can.

Yesterday I did Day 1: it will be interesting to note my progress in a month's time....The weight I used is in bold.
Turkish Get Ups - 3 reps per side, then switch, spend 5 (s) in each position - 10kg

Chin Ups 5X2 - To date, I am able to do 1 unassisted chin up at a time. I did 3X2 chin ups, resting in between each chin up. My last 2 sets I was just barely coming to top of bar.

Heavy KB Deadlift 4X5 - 44kg

KB Press Ladder 2,3,5 X2 - 12kg

Single Arm Swings, 6 reps each side X10 - I did 8 rounds w.16kg and 2 rounds w.20kg

I'm looking forward to doing this program and hope that I can make some strides in my strength over the next 4 weeks.

Paleo Friendly Root Veggie Pancakes
Because root veggies are so abundant this time of year, I decided to make a root veggie pancake with some of the local produce I picked up at the Somerville Winter Market last week. This recipe couldn't be easier.

I grated a yam, a turnip, a beet and an onion on a box grater, on the largest hole.

To the grated veggies I added 2 beaten eggs, ~ 1/4 cup coconut flour, S+P and chopped parsley.
I formed 1/4 inch thick patties and fried them in coconut oil over medium heat.
They were very yummy....hearty, earthy from the beet and totally satisfying. The pancakes keep well and reheat great in a toaster oven, so it would be worth it to make a double batch and keep them in the fridge. This recipe made 8 pancakes, and they were gone the next day.
The beauty of this recipe is that you can use any root veggies you like. So, if you don't like beet, then don't use it. Some other suggestions would be to use rutabagas, parsnips or celery root.
Let me know if you try a different combo out!
Enjoy :)

The easiest salmon you'll ever make!

2012-01-18T12:09:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post, since I just finished cooking this delicious salmon and wanted to share it with you...it's a piece of beautiful, wild Coho salmon.
Wild salmon should be a big part of a Paleo diet, and as some of you know, I've been following Robb Wolf's 30 Day Total Transformation, which includes a Paleoithic diet, a diet rich in wild fish and grass fed meats, fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds and healthy fats.
Eating wild salmon vs farmed salmon will give you more of the Omega Fatty acids, the essential fatty acids that all bodies need. To name a few benefits, the Omega 3 Fatty Acids are supposedly linked to lowering heart disease and stroke, and are said to have anti-aging and anti-inflammatory effects on the body.
Lastly, the wild salmon is a superfood! It's a great source of protein, being made up of all essential amino acids (those amino acids that can not be made by the body and must be eaten), B vitamins, selenium, Vitamin E and Zinc. Here is the nutritional info for a 1/2lb piece, taken from the Fisherman's Direct website:
Nutritional Information: One ½ lb. fillet of Coho Salmon has 289 calories, 42.8 grams of protein, 11.7 grams of fat, 2.4 grams of saturated fat and 91 milligrams of sodium.

Here, all I did was season the fillet with sea salt and pepper, lemon juice and fresh chopped dill. I then placed it in a moderately hot pan, with a small layer of coconut oil in it, flesh side down, and seared it off. I flipped it once to finish the cooking. The fillet is about 1.25lbs, and about 3/4inch thick. It was done cooking in about 8 minutes. It's moist, flaky and tender.
If you can find wild salmon, of any type, please try it. It's a "health" food and tastes delicious as well!

Talking Food and Fitness w.Adrienne Harvey of GiryaGirl.com

2012-01-17T10:05:00.001-08:00

A couple weeks back, Adrienne Harvey, RKCII, from GiryaGirl.com and I had a great conversation about what ingredient to throw out of your pantry, strategies for not getting bored making healthy meals and working out in Hardstyle fashion....
Here's the link....be sure to check it out, or read below!
http://www.giryagirl.com/HKC-Personal-Fitness-Chef-Sharon-Shiner

Q&A With Sharon Shiner, HKC and Personal Chef with a Fitness Focus

Submitted by GiryaAdmin on Fri, 12/30/2011 - 16:15

Sharon Shiner and I are twitter friends, and through one conversation or another started talking about kettlebells and food (imagine that?!) I found out more about her -and her HKC certification, her passion for kettlebell fitness, cooking, etc and just HAD to start asking questions. Here's our email conversation for you to check out!

Adrienne: You earned your personal chef degree in 2007 and have quite the collection of certifications and memberships. What's your advice for someone interested in becoming a Personal Fitness Chef?

Sharon: When I started Thyme To Cook 5 years ago, I did it already having the knowledge of how to cook under my belt. What I didn't have was the knowledge on how to run a personal chef business. It was critical for me to learn how to "be" a personal chef on a day to day basis. It was only then that I felt comfortable moving on to get more culinary education such as the personal fitness chef certification and most recently, my certification as a Health Educator in raw/living foods and vegan nutrition. My best advice would be to learn the business side of being a personal chef before taking the plunge.

Adrienne: As a nutrition coach, what's the ONE THING everyone should go to their pantry and throw away or donate RIGHT NOW?

Sharon: WHITE RICE!!! I have a bone to pick with white rice!!! But seriously, getting rid of white rice and swapping in brown rice, or other gluten free grains like millet, quinoa or even amaranth make a huge nutritional difference. White rice is basically devoid of nutrition. One serving of brown rice is going to give you 5 grams of protein as well as 4 grams of fiber…white rice is going to give you nothing but empty calories. It's an easy switch that makes sense. Start with adding the brown rice, then move on to the other whole grains I mentioned.

Adrienne: Or go grain free Primal or Paleo and use the white rice to dry out your phone should it happen to get wet! Just don't eat it.

Adrienne: What do you find is the most common excuse for people eating unhealthy food?

Sharon: I hear many different excuses with a) I don't have time to cook healthy meals and b) It's too expensive to eat a healthy diet, being the most popular. I can understand being overwhelmed with working and feeling like you don't have time to get a healthy meal on the table. What I tell people is to dedicate some time on Sunday afternoons to cook up a big batch or 2 of something that can pull you into the work week, like a chili or a stew of some sort. You can also cook some lean protein which can be morphed into other meals quickly on a weeknight, such as chicken breast or a lean steak, like a sirloin. Use the pre-cooked protein in a quick stir fry with veggies that you've already cut up on Sunday for a fast dinner. It's doable, it just takes a bit of planning.

Adrienne: What's the most popular healthy meal you make as a personal chef?

Sharon: One favorite seems to be what I call Beans and Greens. It's such a versatile dish that can be used for both meat eaters and vegetarians. For meat eaters I use a smoked sausage for flavor and protein, add in aromatics such as garlic and onions, some chicken broth, a bean, such as cannellini and a green, such as kale or collard greens. All those yummy ingredients stew together for about 20 minutes, and it's absolutely delicious. For vegetarians, I just omit it the sausage.

Adrienne: What's your favorite strategy to fight off boredom and bring in variety with healthy meals?

Sharon: One basic thing that everyone can do to keep it real in terms of maximizing nutrition and variety is to rotate your greens, your grains, your protein and your flavor profiles. What I mean is, one day you might have spinach, so the next you have kale, and then the day after that Swiss chard. By rotating your greens, you ensure that you are getting a mix of the different the micro nutrients the different greens have to offer. The same goes for your grains, one day having brown rice, the next quinoa and the day after that millet. Pair your greens and your grains with a mix of lean proteins and veggies and tie it all together with differing flavors; one day use garlic, ginger, soy and cilantro for an Asian flare, the next use garlic, onions, oregano and lemon for a Mediterranean flare, etc. If you approach cooking like that, the possibilities are endless!

Adrienne: You're obviously extremely busy with owning your own business, how do you fit your workouts into your routine?

Sharon: Exercise is probably the most important thing to me and it must be part of my life; I found group exercise in 1984 as a chubby sophomore in high school and it's been with me ever since. I do many of my workouts at 5AM before my kids have to get up for school. It's tough to get up that early to work out, but I understand that if I don't do it then, I will not get to work out at all. I work part time, so on the days that I don't work, I am fortunate enough to be able to go to workout with my peers. Whether on my own or with my peers, exercise is always a part of my daily routine.

Adrienne: What's the best way for someone to find a stellar personal chef with a fitness/healthy approach?

Sharon: There are a couple ways to find personal chefs, one which is www.hireachef.com, a website dedicated to finding personal chefs based on your zip code. On that site, chefs have the opportunity to list their specialities, such as fitness chef, veg chef, special diet chef (gluten free) etc. You can also just do a search on google for personal chefs in your area. Or if you're in Boston, you can just call me!!! :)

Adrienne: All that talk about food made me want to work out - what's one of your favorite quick kettlebell workouts?

Sharon: One of my favorite quick kettlebell workouts is what I call a 30 (sec) Step Workout. It's a progression workout that is great for building endurance where you work 30seconds, rest and repeat, adding on every 30 seconds. It looks something like this:

30 sec Goblet Squat 30 sec Rest
30 sec Goblet Squat, 30 sec Figure 8s, 30 sec Rest
30 sec Goblet Squat, 30 sec Figure 8s, 30 sec Push Ups, 30 sec Rest
30 sec Goblet Squat, 30 sec Figure 8s, 30 sec Push Ups, 30 sec Swings, 30 sec Rest
30 sec Goblet Squat, 30 sec Figure 8s, 30 sec Push Ups, 30 sec Swimgs, 30 sec RKC plank, 30 sec Rest

Repeat a few times :) Substitute in exercises that would work best for you.

Adrienne: I love workouts with this structure - they're difficult and fun. Thanks so much for sharing all this with me - and I look forward to hearing from you again!

About Sharon:

Sharon Shiner has been cooking for her whole life. 5 years ago she took the plunge and turned her passion into her career, starting Thyme To Cook Personal Chef Service. She is also passionate about fitness, and has been involved in group exercise for over 20 years. Sharon is a certified Mad Dogg Athletic Spinning instructor and in September, 2011, became certified by Dragon Door in their entry level kettlebell program, getting her Hardstyle Kettlebell Certification (HKC). Sharon pairs her love for food and fitness, cooking healthy meals for people, giving cooking lessons and seminars and teaching fitness classes in the Boston area. Please visit her website to learn more about Sharon and her services, thyme-to-cook.com, and check out her Facebook page, where she posts about all the delicious foods she's cooking.

Cube Steak with Wild Mushrooms, Week 1 Update 30 Day Paleo Total Transformation, and RKC update

2012-01-15T05:17:00.000-08:00

Paleo Friendly Cube Steak with Wild Mushrooms (Recipe below)

First things first. I wanted to report back after my first full week of eating Paleo, following Robb Wolf's 30 Day Total Transformation.
I've reported a couple times what I have been eating. If you've read those posts you can see that I've been eating very well. That's my first observation following the Paleo diet: you eat well, you eat clean and it's expensive. Buying local meats, including grass fed beef and wild salmon and other fish costs money. For me, it's ok, I can afford it. Not sure how someone who is financially challenged might navigate the price tag though.
Overall, I am feeling great.
I have more energy.
I'm sleeping better.
When I eat a meal, I get filled up faster.
I'm less hungry in between meals.
I feel strong during my workouts.
Food tastes amazing to me, better than ever.
Lots of pluses and not too many minuses, other than how expensive the diet can be. For me, it's worth it. I put food as the highest priority, in line with fitness, for my good health.
For this to work for me, I also need to ensure that the meat I am eating is meat that comes from a local farm, with ethical practices or else I can't eat it.
I'm looking forward to Week 2!

RKC Update
This Saturday, I had a 1:1 with RKC 2 Michael Perry, from Skill of Strength. It was an excellent session. He worked on my Get Up and taught me the Get Up Dance! I need to work on getting the bottom half of my Get Up seamless.
Next we worked on my swing. While doing my swing, right off the bat, Mike noticed my right knee was buckling a bit but the left one wasn't. He filmed me so I could see what he was talking about. So, we worked on correcting that.
He also thought my swing was too squatty and didn't have enough hip hinge. We worked on some drills to get my hips hinging deeper.
Lastly with the swing, Mike made the observation that I need to go heavier. Swinging the 16kg bell isn't enough for me anymore and in order to get better, I need to go heavier.
We then worked on the snatch. Bottom line, I need to use my hips more. I have so much power and I'm not tapping in to it.
To finish, Mike worked on opening up my shoulders/lats a bit as well.
To train for RKC, I'm having Mike write me a program to follow. He is currently training his wife Amanda, from Sistas of Strength for her RKC, and she is doing great!
Updates to follow for sure!!

Now, onto the food!
Here's a Paleo friendly recipe for Cube Steak with Mushrooms - done in pressure cooker, but you could easily cook this in the slow cooker or on the stove.
Cube steak comes from the round part of the beef, which is the rump. It's a thin steak that is usually pounded out to tenderize.

Ingredients
1-2 lbs Cube steak
1/4 cup coconut flour
S+P to taste
1 onion, diced
3-4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 lbs wild mushrooms (I used a mix of trumpet, chanterelles, and oyster)
1 cup beef broth (or more if your pressure cooker or crock pot needs more liquid)
Fresh herbs of choice (I used thyme, savory and rosemary)
Parsley, chopped

Technique
1. Season the coconut flour with S+P, then dredge the cube steaks in it.
2. Brown the cube steaks in coconut oil until brown; set aside.

3. Start to brown onions and garlic, seasoning w.S+P. To the aromatics, add the mushrooms and cook down until they start to release their moisture. Add fresh herbs and stir.

4. (If using a slow cooker, transfer the aromatics and mushrooms to the pot now and proceed as directed.) Add back the cube steak and add beef broth. Put cover on pressure cooker, bring up to pressure (15 psi) and cook for 6 minutes with a natural release. If using a slow cooker, cover and cook for 3-4 hrs on high. If using the stove, bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes; check to see if steak is done, it should be very tender. Let it cook longer if it's not quite tender enough.

5. After the pressure has dropped for 10 minutes, release any pressure that might remain and open up the pot. The beef should be quite tender.

6. Test for seasoning, adjusting with S+P if necessary. Top with fresh, chopped parsley.

Coming up next in the blog, a Paleo friendly root veggie pancake and a review of Improveat's Coconut Wraps!
Enjoy!

Pork and Carrot Curry w.Sweet Potatoes and Spinach and a Paleo update

2012-01-13T08:39:00.000-08:00

It's Day 6 of my 30 Day Total Transformation by Robb Wolf! I'm feeling good overall. Today I've had some real cravings for sweet bready stuff like cupcakes or cookies...not giving into it though....I'm recognizing the craving and sending it on it's way.
I've been feeling strong in my workouts, which is the goal of this program for me.
And no, I didn't weigh myself to see if I'm going to drop weight. I can see in the mirror how things are going for me. I actually can't believe that I'm almost done with my first week. It has flown by.

Here's what I've been eating:

Day 4 January 11, 2012
Evening workout: Spinning
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, cooked in coconut oil, from Stillman's farm w.Canadian Bacon and mixed roasted veggies

Snack: Vermont Smoke and Cure RealStick....check them out here: MEATSTICK! Basically, it's a mixed beef and pork, cured meat stick. Delicious!! Here's the nutrition info:
1 oz stick: Calories: 80; Total Fat, gm: 6; Saturated Fat, gm: 2.5; Trans Fat, gm: 0; Sodium, mg: 230; Total Carb, gm: 0; Protein, gm: 6
Lunch: Leftover Cube Steak and Mushrooms with Spinach
Snack: 2 Satsuma mandarins and a mix of blueberries and raspberries
Preworkout CoCa Smoothie
Dinner: Salad with greens, carrots, beets, smoked salmon and avocado and a side of baked sweet potato

Day 5 January 12, 2012

Workout was mid-morning, a Kettlebell Fusion workout
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs in coconut oil and Canadian bacon, sweet potato
Post workout - 1.5 pieces Canadian Bacon and the CoCa Smoothie
Lunch: Greens, avocado and hot smoked maple cured salmon
Snack: Handful of pistachios
Dinner: Pork and Carrot Curry
To give you an idea about a typical Kettlebell Fusion workout, here is what my workout consisted of:
A short Joint Mobility warm up....then Intervals of 30(s) work and 15(s) rest:
1) Battling Ropes x2 rounds
2) Swings -20kg /Alt One Arm Swings - 16kg
3) Dead Cleans L/R - 16kg
4) Deadlifts - 44kg/RKC Plank
5) Military Press L/R - 14kg
Repeat all 10 rounds
Then to finish an 8 minute Tabata (20(s) work/10(s) rest), Alt one arm swings -16kg/Pushups
Good stuff!!!!!! HUNGER INDUCING!!
On to the recipe...Paleo friendly Pork and Carrot Curry. I adapted this recipe to be Paleo friendly from Clean Eating Magazine. While it is "clean" eating, the original recipe has white potatoes and Greek yogurt in it.
I switched out the white potatoes for sweet potatoes and used coconut milk yogurt instead of the Greek yogurt. If the idea of coconut milk yogurt doesn't thrill you on the Paleo diet, then sub in coconut milk. I also added in some more "green" to the recipe by adding in spinach. Lastly, I added in smoked paprika to the marinade. It's my secret weapon! Adding it to dishes causes people that eat them to say, What's that flavor??? Try it sometime!
I made the dish on the stove but this would be a great recipe to make in a slow cooker. I will give directions to adapt it for the slow cooker.
Ingredients

1.5lbs pork tenderloin (or 2lbs pork shoulder for Slow Cooker), cut into 1-2inch cubes
8 oz plain coconut yogurt or coconut milk
3-4 TBS fresh, grated ginger*
3 cloves garlic, minced*
1-2 TBS ground cumin
1-2 TBS ground coriander
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp ground turmeric
sea salt and ground pepper to taste
1 yellow onion, cut in 1/2 and into thin slices
5 medium carrots, cut into 1/4 inch slices
2 medium sweet potatoes, peel on, cut into 2 inch dice
26-28oz diced tomatoes with juice
4-6 oz spinach, sliced
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
Fresh lime juice to taste

*Both the ginger and the garlic are easy to grate/mince by using the microplane. Here you can see the garlic, after it has been run over the microplane; it creates a nice texture which melts easily into a marinade such as this one w.the coconut yogurt or milk.

Technique
1. Mix yogurt (or milk) with the ginger, garlic, cumin, coriander, smoked paprika, turmeric and S+P. Add in pork and marinate for as long as you can, up to 24hrs in the fridge.

2. Season the onions w.S+P and sweat them in some coconut oil, over medium-low heat, covered for 5 minutes. If using the slow cooker, this step is optional. You don't need to sweat the onions first. If you had time, sure, go ahead, but it's not necessary.

3. To the onions, add the pork and marinade, tomatoes w.juice, 1/2 cup water, carrots and sweet potatoes, and stir to combine, again seasoning w.S+P.
**If using the slow cooker, add all of these ingredients into a the pot. Cover, and cook on low, for 6-8hrs. Test pork after 6hrs to see how it's going. If almost done after 6, add in spinach, cover again, and cook for ~20 minutes more. If not done at 6hrs left, let it go longer, adding in spinach with about 20 minutes to go. Then proceed with #6 below.
4. Increase heat to medium, cover, and simmer until veggies are soft and pork is cooked through, about 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Stir in spinach and cook for a couple minutes more.
6. Add in chopped cilantro and fresh lime juice; taste for season and adjust S+P.

The finished stew has a zippy taste from the ginger and a warmth from the smoked paprika. The coconut flavor of the milk or yogurt works really well with the warm spices and the lime juice and cilantro rounds it all out.....it also makes a delicious post-workout breakfast!!!
The spinach worked great but other greens would also go well here, such as kale or even collard greens. I topped a bowl with avocado which made it that much better.
Next up on the blog, a recipe for Cube Steak and Mushrooms and a review of Improveat's Coconut Wraps!

Robb Wolf's 30 Day Paleo Transformation and Stuffed Squash

2012-01-10T16:15:00.000-08:00

As I talked about in my last post, there are some fun and exciting changes going on with Thyme To Cook. I'm training for the next level of kettlebell certification, RKC. It's a rigorous and physically demanding cert. I'm in great physical shape overall, however, I don't feel strong enough to proceed w.my training, so I'm making some major changes to my diet.

I've been about 75-80% plant based, only eating meat on special occasions. I thought I had been thriving on this diet, but in reality, I think I haven't been getting enough protein. After doing Josh Hillis's 21 Day Kettlebell Swing Challenge, I knew I had to switch it up. So over the next 30 days I am following the 30 Day Total Transformation, by author, trainer and Paleo nutrition guru Robb Wolf.
What's it all about?

Well, the program is based on a Paleo diet, which consists of grass fed beef and other animal proteins (lean pork, chicken, lamb), wild fish, eggs, fruits, veggies, nuts/seeds and healthy fats (coconut oil, coconut milk, avocado, olive oil). Grass fed meats and wild fish are high in essential fatty acids, the Omega fatty acids; the body can't manufacture the essential fatty acids, so they must be eaten.
What the diet doesn't consist of is: grains, beans and other legumes, sugar, processed foods, alcohol, dairy.
It's clean eating, something that I have prided myself on doing in the past (maybe not so much in the recent present, until now).
So for the next 30 days I'll be eating some lean protein, carbs and healthy fats at each meal and trying to have 3-4 meals a day.

The downloadable program came with a great manual, which includes the ins and outs of the diet, a detailed exercise program, a great food matrix, a month's worth of meals w.links to recipes, shopping lists and as an extra bonus, there are links in the manual to extra reading, videos and audio to learn more about certain aspects of the Paleo diet. I'm on day 3, just finishing it up, and doing great.

Here's what I've been eating:

Day 1 Sunday January 8, 2012 - This is my day off for the week from exercise

B: Scrambled eggs (eggs from Stillman's Farm) with smoked whitefish (eggs scrambled in coconut oil), roasted veggies and cherries

L: Baked sweet potato, salad w.sardines and beets, Satsuma mandarin

D: Grass fed cube steak also from Stillman's Farm w.wild mushrooms and roasted veggies

Snack: 2 satsuma mandarins
Evening: Tea w.lemon and small bit of honey

Day 2 Monday January 9, 2012
B: Scrambled eggs in coconut oil w. Canadian bacon and roasted veggies. I had decaf w.homemade almond milk (almonds, dates, vanilla)

Did an intense kettlebell workout mid morning. Shortly after was pretty hungry so I had a smoothie made from coconut milk, raw cacao, raw cacao nibs, almond butter, banana, a tiny bit of raw honey and maca powder. This will be my go to smoothie on this program and from this point will just be called CoCa smoothie.

L: Salad with sardines, beets, pepper, avocado and hemp seeds

D: Baked sweet potato, small salad w.mesclun greens, pepper and canned, wild salmon

Snack: 3 Satsuma mandarins and some blueberries
Evening: Tea, straight up

Day 3 Tuesday January 10, 2012
Early morning - intense functional movement based workout: intervals including treadmill, body weight, Keiser Functional Movement machine, kettlebells and core slide

B: Scrambled eggs w.whitefish and small piece baked sweet potato. Decaf w.almond milk.

Mid morning snack: CoCa smoothie

L: Salad with sardines, roasted veggies and fermented, pickled red cabbage

D: Baked sweet potato and Ropa Vieja (shredded beef and peppers)

Snacks: 3 Satsuma mandarins and a mix of blueberries and raspberries

That's it so far! I'm doing well, my workouts have been intense and I'm on program. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next couple of weeks w.my kettlebell training.

Now if you're still with me, on to the food! To ramp up for this program, I slowly added in meats to my diet for a couple weeks. One of the meals I made was a delicious stuffed squash. I still have veggies from my winter CSA and lots of great grass fed beef and other meats from Stillman's Farm.
I roasted up some acorn squash until tender and made a filling for them from diced sweet potatoes, carrots, turnips, garlic, onions, ground beef and kale, all from Stillman's...I also added in fresh thyme, rosemary and savory, all earthy, delicious herbs.

Here's the beef, browning up with some garlic and onions in coconut oil.
I added in the root veggies to cook for a bit, then added in kale and fresh herbs.

I stuffed the squash and put them back in the oven to heat up.
The finished product was delicious and the leftover filling was great to eat on it's own, with salad.

Who knows where this 30 days will bring me. Do I really think I'm going to have a diet void of grains and beans/legumes? I don't think so, but you never know. I'm an "Everything in moderation" type of gal...it might be that I'll add them back and dislike the way that I feel....or maybe I'll feel great....we'll just have to wait and see. In the mean time, I'm hoping that my training continues to progress.
Enjoy!

Road to RKC, 21 Day Kettlebell Swing Challenge by Josh Hillis

2012-01-09T09:20:00.000-08:00

Happy new year and welcome to 2012.....2012 will bring some changes to Thyme To Cook, hopefully positive ones!!

First off, as some of you know, I recently was certified by Dragon Door in their entry level Kettlebell program, the Hardstyle Kettlebell Certification (HKC). I found kettlebells last November (2010) and knew that I wanted to pursue them in a higher capacity then just being a student in class. They provide an amazing way to get strong, and when you workout with them, feel totally empowered. I will be going for the next level certification, called the Russian Kettlebell Challenge (RKC) in the Fall of 2012. The certification is rigorous and extremely demanding. Therefore, I have begun a training program to (hopefully) ensure that I pass the cert.

To start my training off right, I did the 21 day Kettlebell Swing Challenge, brought to you by RKC Josh Hillis. Josh has some great fitness and fat loss programs, including the 21 day Kettlebell Swing Challenge, and System Six. Be sure to check out his blog, Lose Stubborn Fat for more info.I did the 21 Day Kettlebell Swing Challenge without counting out my days, but interestingly enough, my 21st day fell on December 31st, so it was a great way to end my 2011, and bring myself into 2012. The program was great and very effective. It consists of 21 days worth of kettlebell swing workouts, broken down into beginner, intermediate and advanced workouts, ranging from 5 - 20 minutes. The beauty of working with kettlebells is it's one of the most effective forms of exercise, and a 10 minute workout can burn 200+ calories. I chose to do the Advanced 21 day program, which included swings, one arm swings, push ups, and lunges. The only thing that the plan was deficient in was a front end and back end stretch and/or roll. I started most of the days with a dynamic stretch and joint mobility work, and ended with foam rolling and stretching on my own.My main goal in doing the program was to get stronger in my one arm swing so that I could move on to my next challenge, conquering the RKC Snatch test, a test to pass RKC where you need to do 100 snatches in 5 minutes, using a bell weighted for your specific weight (body weight under 123 lbs can use 12kg bell, over 123 lbs have to use 16kg bell). Check out the snatch here: snatch.

When I first started the program, I was doing it in conjunction to my regular kettlebell classes that I take. This was challenging for me as it meant that on some days I was doing 2 workouts. I got through it just fine though. 2/3rd into the challenge, it was December vacation, so the last 1/3 of the challenge became my workout for the day, or at least part of it. On some of the days where the workout was only 5 minutes, I added in other kettlebell exercises to keep my training on point. My last day was December 31st and I did that workout in a hotel room! I brought my 14kg bell with me and worked out, right there, on my mini-vacation.

Overall, it was a great program. I was successful in building up some strength to the point where I can now effectively move on with my training. I highly recommend this for anyone looking to improve their kettlebell swing and stamina. Josh provides videos for those looking to learn more about how to swing correctly as part of the training.

So, now onto a big change for Thyme To Cook. You know I split my time between cooking/coaching clients and fitness, teaching 2 Spin classes a week and subbing kettlebells when the opportunity arises. I have decided to move into fitness more, adding a personal training cert to my education and I am currently doing the American Council of Exercise (ACE) Personal Training Certification. I hope to train people and broaden my kettlebell teaching experience. Cheers to change in 2012. In my next post I'll talk about changes with my diet! Have a great day everyone!

What the heck do I do with...the seeds from my winter squash???

2011-12-06T15:40:00.000-08:00

We are right in the heart of winter squash season....butternut, buttercup, acorn, spaghetti, Kabocha, delicata, hubbard....and the list goes on....I love them all.
But I think I like the seeds the best. They are like a little, extra added bonus so please don't throw them out; most people think only pumpkin seeds are for roasting, but the winter squash seeds are great for roasting as well.

Roasting the seeds is so easy, here's how you do it...
Here are some seeds from an acorn squash. They were removed from the squash and put into a strainer to wash.
These seeds happen to be particularly clean. Sometimes seeds come out with lots of gunk from the inside of the squash on them, and you just need to try your best to get it off. It works best to rub the seeds, under the running water, between your fingers and they will come clean.

After the seeds are washed, let them dry out a bit by spreading them out on a paper towel, then transfer to a baking sheet, lined with parchment or tin foil. Now it's time to flavor up the seeds and here is where you can get creative. Go basic, and drizzle the seeds with some extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt and crushed pepper. Go for some spice and add in some chile powder and red pepper flakes. Go for warm spices with some cinnamon and cumin. Go for earthy and add some fresh chopped rosemary. Whatever your flavors are, make sure they are well distributed over the seeds by tossing the seeds in the oil and spices.
Bake the seeds at 325 or 350 for 15-20 minutes. After about 10 minutes, give the seeds a stir. The seeds will start to let you know when they are done because they will start to pop open and you'll hear them. Test them at this time by trying one or 2 seeds. They should be nicely browned, crunchy and toasty. If they need more time, let them go another couple minutes and try again.
Pull them, let them cool and enjoy!
That's it.
The seeds, as most seeds are, are packed with nutrients. Some stats on butternut squash seeds are as follows: one cup of roasted butternut squash seeds with olive oil and salt has 216 calories, 8.5 g protein, 19.2 g fat, no cholesterol, 297 mg sodium and 6.1 g carbs, 1.3 g of which is fiber.
They are rich in calcium and zinc and one cup is reported as having nine minerals, 13 vitamins, 18 amino acids and three fats.

So when you roast your next winter squash, save those seeds and roast them up. They make a great, healthy snack.

Double Duty Red Sauce

2011-11-28T08:40:00.000-08:00

Last week, I decided to make a red sauce and split it into 2, using one to simmer some meatballs in, and the other to add chickpeas to for a veg option. I had some carrots left from Stillman's as well as some beautiful kale and broccoli that I needed to use up.
I started the sauce off in one pot and split off a portion of the sauce when I was ready to add in the meatballs. I sauteed garlic, carrots and onion in some extra virgin olive oil, added in diced tomatoes and oregano as well as the broccoli and kale and let that simmer for a bit while I made the meatballs.
The meatballs were made from a mix of pork and beef, Parmesan cheese, grated carrot and grated onion, a bit of extra virgin olive oil and S+P. After forming the meatballs, I dropped them in one of the pots of the simmering sauce to cook.
To the other pot of simmering sauce, I simply added in a can of drained and rinsed chickpeas as well as a small, round pasta called Fregola. Fregola is a traditional pasta from Sardinia made from durum semolina wheat. It's got good protein (6g in 1/3 cup uncooked) and good fiber (2g in 1/3 cup uncooked).
Out of one batch of tomato sauce I was able to generate 2 hearty versions, a veg option as well as the meat eaters version with the meatballs.
I served the sauces with beautiful micro greens, red peppers and chopped purple cabbage, and with roasted Kabocha squash, (all from Stillman's as well). The meal was so vibrant. The flavors burst as we ate and it was a simple but very delicious meal.

Vegetarian version

Non-veg version

Roasted Kabocha

Lovely salad

What the heck do I do with....All these Apples????

2011-10-24T06:53:00.000-07:00

How 'bout them apples??? and lots of 'em!!!

For a shaky growing season with hail, Irene and tons of rain, the apples here in MA are superb! It's truly a delicious season. We went apple picking last weekend and brought home tons of apples (that's on top of the apples that I already had from my CSAs)....
I made an apple pie last week and then over this weekend, I made a big pot of apple sauce.
I used a vegan store bought crust for the apple pie. The filling consisted of a blend of Cortlands, Ida Reds, Empires and Macouns (my favorite)....peeled, cored and sliced thin, I mixed them with a bit of unrefined cane sugar, maple syrup, lemon juice, lemon zest, vanilla, whole wheat pastry flour to bind the juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, pinch sea salt and dotted it with Earth Balance vegan buttery spread. I brushed the top crust with a mix of almond juice and maple syrup and did a very light sanding w.unrefined cane sugar. Yum, a success!

But what I really wanted to talk about today is apple sauce and how easy it is to make at home, as well as how much more delicious home made apple sauce is than any store bought version.
I used about 1/2 peck, which is about 15 apples give or take a couple. Again, peel, core and this time cut into dice. I used the same mix of apples as the pie and used almost the same ingredients as the apple pie filling. Here are rough estimates:
Juice of 1 lemon
1/4-1/2 cup maple syrup (Grade B)
pinch sea salt
2 TBS vanilla powder (if you don't have vanilla powder, use vanilla extract)
2 TBS cinnamon (or more if you'd like :) )
1 cup water
Combine all of the ingredients on the stove over medium heat, cover, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer. Stir occasionally. After about 10-15 minutes, remove cover and allow to simmer w.cover off. It will begin to thicken up as the apples break down. After about 30 minutes, use a potato masher to mash the apples up to the consistency that you like.
That's it.
So easy.
Other than some putchkie work to peel, core and cut the apples, it's hands free, and the rewards are great.

So please consider going to get some local apples and make some homemade apple sauce...you will be very glad you did.
Enjoy!

CSA Round up

2011-10-07T16:33:00.000-07:00

I have to say that this season has been one of my favorite CSA seasons. The combo of the small share from Stillman's and the every other week share from Newton Community Farm has worked out wonderfully; I managed the amount of produce very well, and I'm proud to say that I wasted very little.
Both farms have had their hard times with the weather this season, but both have produced amazing produce none the less....the past few weeks have given me crazy good broccoli, eggplant, potatoes, cauliflower, peppers (hot and sweet), greens (kale), celery, carrots, onions, apples, pears, plums, Concord grapes, and mixed herbs....gone are the pounds of tomatoes and ears of corn, but they were great while they lasted :)...enter in the beautiful winter squashes and I know fall is here.
It's a sad time of year for me because I know that soon, my weekly stock ups of local produce will come to a stop, and I'll have to shuffle back to (corporate) Whole Foods and surrender most of my (hard) earned dollars...sigh......oh well, but I digress....

What have I been making?

Sauce! With all the loverly tomatoes, I decided to make some sauce. I bolstered the protein by adding in some tofu as well. It created a creamy sauce, that was flavored with 2 things, garlic and basil.

I made some pasta and dressed with with the sauce, some hemp seeds, nutritional yeast and some green chard....mmmm...that's late summer in a bowl right there.....

With some of the sweet and hot peppers, onions and garlic, I did a quick plantain and Vaquero bean stew in my pressure cooker.
I've posted about Vaquero beans before, from Rancho Gordo, an amazing store out of Napa that is dedicated to saving heirloom bean as well as other cool ingredients like chile peppers and ancient grains from South America.
A big handful of cilantro and a squeeze of lime juice finished off the dish.

From our own garden, we've harvested a bunch of butternut squash, kabocha and pumpkin. I used a couple of the butternuts to make a hearty Lentil, Butternut and Kale soup; I also included a sweet potato in the mix....it was filling and delicious...

About once a week, I've been making 2 big sheet pans of roasted veggies. The possibilities are endless with roasted veggies...I've been using eggplants, sweet potatoes, new potatoes, summer squash, winter squash, red peppers, onions, shallots, broccoli, cauliflower, romanesco....you get the idea.....for added protein, I like to add in chickpeas as well. All you do is chop the veggies into similar size dice, mix with some olive oil, S+P and fresh (or dried) herb of choice...roast at 425 degrees until caramelized....That's it...I eat the roasted veggies straight up, or as a topping for a grain or pasta. Here's some Brussels sprouts (yes, they grow on a stalk) that I used along with cauliflower, romanesco, chickpeas and shallots to roast...And have you heard of romanesco? It's a cross between broccoli and cauliflower and visually it's a beautiful veggie, looking like a mathematical fractile.

Here's a tray with sweet potato, broccoli, summer squash, eggplant, red onion and thyme.

From the fruit portion of my CSA from the Newton Community Farm, I've been getting the sweetest Concord grapes which I have been juicing...check out how purple the juice is...bursting with anthocyanins!!
From Stillman's farm, I bought a chunk of some wild Hen of the Woods mushroom, and sauteed it with shallots and thyme.

Lastly, I'll leave you with this image....it was a great CSA season and I'm sad to see it end...
Enjoy!

CSA Report for the past few weeks!! :)

2011-09-09T09:03:00.000-07:00

OMG, I apologize for not blogging sooner! I went away for a week, had the kids finish up camp and have nothing to do, had a hurricane and then went away for a short 5 day mini-vacay......between that and having to be a mom (an activity that never ends :)), I have been unable until now to wrap up what I've been making for about a month!!
So here we go.....much of the produce I used is still in season, so what you see here, you can still try out if you should choose to.....

First off, I need to say that I've been basking in steamed corn, roasted beets and eggplant and fresh sliced tomatoes (not to mention the outstanding peaches, plums, nectarines, blueberries, raspberries).... I can't get enough of them, really. Here's a round up of the produce that I've been getting from both Stillman's and the Newton Community Farm: corn, eggplant, lettuce, cucumbers, heirloom/cherry/field tomatoes, berries (straw, blue, rasp), arugula, beets, zucchini, summer squash, fresh herbs, broccoli, mixed hot peppers, bell peppers, potatoes, peaches, plums, melon, nectarines and mixed dark, leafy greens.

I've been dehydrating a good portion of the tomatoes that I've been getting, since each time I go to pick up my CSA, I'm taking home POUNDs of tomatoes at once, think 10 lbs at a time. I slice the tomatoes into 1/4-1/2 inch slices and place on dehydrator sheet, then dehydrate at 108 degrees for about 24hrs. The result is a super sweet, heavily concentrated "sun-dried" tomato that tastes out of this world.
With the eggplant, I've been roasting it, grilling it, and also making Baba Ghanoush with it...delish. I did a guest blog spot on The Food Yenta and wrote about my Miso Glazed Eggplant.....in case you missed it, I also posted it here: Miso Glazed Eggplant.
I made an awesome vegan "gratin" with thinly sliced zucchini, eggplant and tomatoes. I layered them in a baking dish, sprinkled them with lemon juice, olive oil, nutritional yeast and basil. I baked it, covered, for about 45 minutes, then took the cover off for another 10 minutes or so. For a non-vegan version, Parmesan cheese works nicely here instead of the nutritional yeast.

I've been doing lots of grain and pasta salads with grilled, sauteed and/or roasted veggies. Here's Quinoa Pasta topped with sauteed broccoli and peppers, onions and roasted eggplant and squash. The veggies were so fresh that I didn't even need a "sauce", simply enjoying the flavor of each veggie against the pasta.

For a quick lunch, I sauteed some black beans with garlic and the cherry bomb peppers from Stillman's - holy heat batman!!! I added some cumin and lime juice, finishing them with cilantro and chard just to wilt it. Yeowee, those cherry bombs pack a punch!! Check out the pepper in the pic below. I served them homemade guac and brown rice.
Some of the amazing blueberries and strawberries made it into one of my "Smoothies of the Day"...the Cherry Berry, with cherries, blueberries, strawberries, almond milk and Udo's 3-6-9 Omega Oil blend....yum!
The potatoes were made into a couple batches of mashed potatoes - again, so delicious and simple.
The beet greens and cukes, along with carrots, apples, pears and lemon were made into green juice. Do you juice??? If not, you should...it's a super source of nutrients and energizes your body incredibly.
During Hurricane Irene, I made an Italian Chicago style braised beef with chuck steak from Stillman's, The Turkey Farm. I browned the beef, sauteed onions, shallots, garlic and carrots, deglazed with red wine (a red called Apothic Red, one of my current favorites), added a bit of broth, then simmered on low heat for a couple hours. OMG. YUM. Not to mention how the house smelled as it was cooking....downright delicious....
Ok, that's it for now...have more to report from this week....and will try to blog on that soon...
Till then, eat well!

Miso Glazed Eggplant

2011-08-16T14:51:00.000-07:00

This was my guest blog that posted on the Food Yenta on August 22 :) Enjoy!

This week from my CSA I got a nice haul of eggplants....I actually got eggplants from both of my CSAs :) From the Newton farm, I got a variety known as Oriental type. They are smallish in size ~3 inches long, with a light purple and white skin.
Now when I think eggplant, I think umami. Umami is one of the five tastes with the others being salty, sweet, bitter, and sour. It can be thought of as the savory taste. Chemically, umami actually is the "taste" of the amino acid glutamate in it's salt form, and it's often referred to as earthy or meaty tasting.
Some common foods with umami are mushrooms, spinach, red wine, oysters and aged foods like Parmesan cheese and Thai fish sauce.
Eggplant itself doesn't have umami, but it pairs well to foods that do have it, such as miso.....miso is a fermented paste made most typically from soybeans as well as barley, chickpeas and other beans such as azuki. It is high in protein, vitamins and minerals and has a sweet, salty and earthy flavor. I love to use miso in dressings for salad, stir fries and soups.
Here, I use miso in a glaze for the grilled eggplant.
After cutting the eggplant in half, I put them on the grill, at a medium-high temperature and grilled them, turning once after about 3-4 minutes.
After the first flip, I started coating the eggplant in the miso glaze. I let the other side cook and flipped them again, coating the eggplant again in the glaze. I repeated this for a few more flips, for a few more minutes, until the eggplant was tender and the glistening with the miso glaze.
I gave the eggplant a squeeze of lemon juice, a sprinkle of sesame seeds and a bit of chopped tarragon to finish. They were succulent and full of earthy, salty flavor from the miso.
The best part about this recipe is that it's so easy....here it is :)
Miso Glazed Eggplant
Ingredients
6 small eggplants or 2 medium to large eggplants, sliced in half lengthwise if small, or into rounds if bigger
Miso Glaze
2-3 TBS miso...I used a white miso, which is sweeter, but really any miso would work well
1 TBS tamari, soy sauce or Bragg's Liquid Aminos
1-2 tsp honey or other sweetener of choice
Juice of 1 lemon, divided in half
2 tsp sesame seeds
1-2 tsp chopped parsley or other herb (I used tarragon because that is what I had in the house)

Technique
1. Prepare your grill to a medium-high temperature.
2. Prepare your miso glaze by adding the miso, tamari, honey and half of the lemon juice to a small bowl and whisking until combined.
3. Give your eggplant a light coating of olive oil and then place on the grill, grilling on one side for 3-4 minutes.
4. Flip your eggplant and brush with the miso glaze. Allow the eggplant to cook on the second side for another 2-3 minutes.
5. Flip again and brush with the glaze, and cook for another minute or 2. Repeat the flip and glaze a couple more times until the eggplant is cooked through and the glaze is caramelized.
6. Remove eggplant from the grill and sprinkle them with the remaining lemon juice, sesame seeds and chopped herbs.

This dish would be great with a sparkling wine such as a nice, cooled Prosecco.
So, try it out and get your glaze on :)
Enjoy!

CSA Report - Pickups 5/6,7

2011-08-11T01:26:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if I have my pick-ups correct for this blog....at this point of the CSA season all the pickups roll into one large produce fest...I become inundated w.produce and I freakout (if only momentarily)....I have to say I've been keeping up pretty well w.all the goods....there have been a few sacrificial cucumbers that didn't make it and some lettuce that has gone bad, but otherwise it's all good....now here's what we've (or I've) been eating for the past couple weeks. (Apologies up front about low quality photos....I'm using the iphone b/c my camera is out of commission)...

Here's what the take home was from the 2 farms...From Stillman's....arugula, rainbow chard, blueberries, peaches, raspberries, zukes, cukes, potatoes, cayenne peppers, poblano peppers, tomatoes, apricots, corn, green beans, basil
From Newton Community Farm.....carrots, basil, chard, parsley, onion, tomatoes, eggplant, cukes, corn

Well, right off the bat, I made another batch of pesto with the basil that I received from both farms. It's been great to have the pesto around all season...makes for an easy lunch with the pesto, tomatoes, greens and a grain or pasta...viola, instant lunch....
The blueberries, peaches, raspberries and apricots either got eaten or frozen down. Do you know how to freeze fruit? Simply give the fruit a rinse, cut if necessary and put on a baking sheet w.parchment or foil, then place in the freezer. Allow the fruit to freeze, then place into a freezer safe container or bag. You'll be psyched in the middle of the winter, I guarantee :)
With the carrots from Newton, we had a nice carrot and hummus session....delish.
The potatoes from Stillman's were used to make mashed potatoes w.my son Max, age 9, who is currently into exploring the kitchen.
With all the eggplant, I made a double batch of eggplant parm....the first batch was made using mozzarella cheese and my husband ate it up....the second and smaller batch was made using Daiya vegan mozzarella style shreds, a vegan cheese substitute product. It was my first time using it, and I was surprised at how creamy and flavorful it was.....
I ended up freezing half of that batch because I couldn't get through all of it.

5 ears of corn were turned into a nice vegan corn chowder, made also w.some of the potatoes and fennel from a prior pick-up.....I used So Delicious coconut creamer as the "cream" to make it luscious and it was really velvety with great corn flavor.
The rest of the corn was eaten straight up or grilled and made into my favorite dish of this post, a roasted poblano pepper and corn salad. I simply grilled both the corn and the poblanos. I let the poblanos rest for a bit, then peeled the skin off. I took the corn off the cob and mixed it w.the chopped poblanos, gave the mix a squeeze of lime juice, a small drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and some S+P. It was DELICIOUS. I put it in a burrito that I filled with homemade refried beans and rice, and topped it with homemade guacamole (which I used some of the tomatoes to make).
Refrieds are easy to make....no lard used here...saute some minced garlic and onion in some oil of choice, add in bean of choice (in this case, pinto), some ground cumin and S+P, then get some elbow grease going w.your potato masher... To thin out the beans as you go, you can add a stock of choice or even just some water as needed....You can add other spices as you see fit. I was hoping I could fool the kids into thinking these beans came from our local Mexican joint that we go to, but no go :( I liked them :)
The zucchini were made into Chocolate Zucchini bread. I made 1 full size loaf and 3 mini "cakes" to give to a client as well as to the farmer that grew the zukes ;)...the recipe can be found on FB on my Thyme To Cook page (see banner above)......
I've been going through a little sandwich stint over the past couple of weeks, so the cayenne peppers, and some lettuce and kale from the last pick up were made into some sammies, along w.the sunflower sprouts that I grew.
First off I need to say that the cayenne peppers were HOT, smoking HOT, but with great flavor. They were almost addictive. I wanted, no I needed more, even though my lips were tingling w.heat....so good. They were what made each sandwich really a notch more delicious.
First off a Tofurkey sandwich on toasted Ezekiel bread w.lettuce, sunflower sprouts, cayenne peppers and some veganaise. You could obviously use a meat of your choice.....
Next up, w.no picture unfortunately...the TLT.....a Tempeh, Lettuce and Tomato sandwich with "tempeh bacon", lettuce, sunflower sprouts, cayenne peppers and tomatoes on Ezekiel bread, also with veganaise.
Lastly, a hummus wrap on lavash with a kale, hemp seeds, cayenne peppers and sunflower sprouts.
The green beans, parsley, tomatoes and some chives from my yard made it into a neat little side dish to accompany some grilled sausage and hamburgers, along w.some quinoa. I dressed the salad in a simple red wine vinegar vinaigrette made with red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, extra virgin olive oil, a touch of honey, S+P.
And last but certainly not least, I made an Asian cucumber salad to use up some of the cukes and hot peppers. The dish accompanied some grilled lamb and beef.....all the meats came from Stillman's, The Turkey Farm....
I hope you're inundated with as much awesome, local and seasonal produce as I am!

CSA Report - Pickup 5

2011-08-02T10:30:00.001-07:00

Hey all, reporting on my week 5 pickup for Stillman's....here's the haul:
Kale, green beans, arugula, fennel, romaine, zukes, cukes, blueberries, tomatoes (cherry and heirloom, mixed varieties), raspberries, hungarian wax peppers, spinach and the first peaches....

Now, the blues and peaches made for good eating...but I did manage to make Oatmeal w.oats from Sunrise Mill, an amazing flour mill out of North Branch, Minnesota...and I put blueberries on top of it along with some raw almonds...sweetened with maple and cinnamon....mmmm.....

The fate of the green beans, wax beans and dill (from last week) as well as the Hungarian wax peppers was a batch of Dilly Beans! My first "pickles" of the season...the wax peppers lent a bit of spice to the brine and the result was a nice firm, slightly sweet and crunchy dilly bean.
The recipe I followed to make the dilly beans can be found here: In the Garden. It's a great recipe, easy to follow and yields a great final product.

The salads have been really super this season. Here are a couple I made w.this past week...
1.Kale Salad with kale, sunflower sprouts that I grew :), cherry tomatoes, cilantro, jalapeno, lemon juice, sesame oil and Coconut Secret Aminos, a salty liquid form of amino acids that is raw, vegan and soy free....it has a neat taste and makes a good substitute for soy sauce

2. Tomato Salad with the heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes (from both Stillman's and from our "farm"), Romaine and sunflower sprouts
And a couple of other dishes:
3. Pesto (from last week) with Chard, tofu, brown rice and tomatoes
4. Tofu with kale, tomatoes and brown rice
A nice chicken was roasted to go along with the tomato salad above...the chicken is also from Stillman's, the meat portion of their CSA....
The zuke, arugula and kale were used in a really tasty red lentil stew, made with coconut milk, turmeric, cumin, coriander, onions, garlic and some veggie broth, finished with cilantro and lime juice...served with brown rice....I love red lentils for when you don't mind if the lentils break down and lose their shape.....
An extra this week, but fun, so it should be discussed are the Eggplant wontons that I made....my son, Max, 9, who has Asperger's syndrome and ADHD is currently into cooking. While at the store, he wanted an eggplant and cabbage and decided they should be made into dumplings. Well, I decided to make them into wontons using wonton wrappers.
For the filling, Max helped and cut the eggplant up into small dice, also chopped up the cabbage and some garlic. He helped me saute it and we gave it a touch of honey and a squeeze of lemon juice. It was pretty yummy.
We filled the wonton wrappers with the filling, some rice (as per Max's instructions) and pan fried them....unfortunately Max did not like the eggplant filling and by the end of the cooking session, I had made him a number of "rice only" wontons....Carb fest!!!!!

Enjoy your week or 2 and eat some good food!!!!!

CSA Report - Pickups 4/3,4

2011-07-18T16:59:00.000-07:00

Whew! The season is rolling along! And it's a good one! Each week I am so psyched to see what I'm going to get! What I'm loving about this season is that I get different things from the 2 farms that I have joined, Stillman's and the Newton Community Farm.....which brings me to weeks 3 and 4 from Stillman's; here's what I brought home: lettuce, zucchini, summer squash, fennel, curly kale, Kirby cucumbers, Sun Gold cherry tomatoes, snap peas, spinach, Chioggia beets, blueberries, raspberries, and arugula....Week 4 from Newton gave me basil, lemon balm, rainbow chard, green onions, parsley, cucumbers and carrots.

Well, the blueberries stood NO chance of making it home alive, and I ate the half pint before I even got home...thankfully I bought another pint while picking up my share. With that pint, I made Spelt Maple Blueberry muffins. I followed a recipe from an Eating Well cookbook and made a couple of changes to it. Here is the recipe adapted from Eating Well Comfort Foods Made Healthy, with my changes:
Ingredients
1/3 cup ground flaxseeds
1 cup spelt flour (original recipe called for whole wheat)
3/4 cup plus 2 TBS white whole wheat flour (original recipe called for AP flour)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup pure maple syrup - I used Grade B
1 cup nonfat buttermilk - I used buttermilk powder w.water, a good alternative if you don't have buttermilk in the house
1/4 cup avocado oil (original recipe called for canola oil)
2 tsp grated orange zest
1 TBS orange juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup blueberries
1 TBS sugar

Method
1. Preheat oven to 400 and coat 12 muffin cups w.cooking spray.
2. Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl; whisk eggs and buttermilk together in a medium bowl, then add zest, OJ and vanilla and mix well.
3. Make a well in dry ingredients and add wet, mixing until just combined. Add blues in and gently fold in.

4. Scoop batter into muffin cups and sprinkle sugar over the top of the muffins.
5. Bake until golden brown, 15-25 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes in tin, then remove.
The muffins were just slightly sweet, and were nicely moist. I might use a bit more sweetener next time??? They weren't mapley enough for my liking....they were very yummy with a schmear of Earth Balance vegan buttery spread....
I was inspired to make a pasta primavera with all the great veggies I picked up so when I got home from picking up my share, I made a beautiful primavera with the summer squash, green beans (from prior week's pick up), green onions, snap peas, arugula, fennel, kale (including kale from my garden) and Sun Golds...and quinoa pasta...I also threw in some of the remaining pesto that I had made. It was fulfilling and so fresh tasting!
Look at these green onions - aren't they insane?!?!?
Beautiful Sun Golds
I was inspired to use the raspberries for Raspberry Lime Rickeys, a drink I was determined to "sharonize" into a healthier drink. I blogged about it on my raw foods blog here: Rawk Out!
The drink was outstanding!!! Fresh raspberry puree with fresh squeezed lime juice, sweetened with agave syrup and home made seltzer...couldn't be any more satisfying on these hot days.

I've been using the produce to make some really great green juice...one day I made the juice using the rainbow chard, green apple, pear, zucchini, carrot, spinach, kale, lemon balm and lime...it was delicious!!!!!!! The lemon balm gave it an interesting taste which I really enjoyed.

The Rainbow chard was also utilized as a wrap for falafel from the amazing Rami's in Brookline, an amazing falafel joint...I layered the chard with hummus, falafel, cukes, tomatoes, green onions and spicy pickles...Yum!
Inspired by the falafel and hummus, I made some tabouleh with bulgur, Sun Golds, cukes, kale, parsley, green onion, lemon zest, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil and S+P. I ate it all week! Again, Yum!
So, what's left? Well, w. the basil, I made another batch of pesto to have around. I made a number of great salads with all the lettuce as well as kale, chard, and Sun Golds. I picked some kale from my garden which I used to make some kale chips.
Last but not least I made borscht, or beet soup, with the Chioggia beets (as well as the carrots). The result was a luscious, soft pink soup that I garnished with green onions and dill. Very satisfying. I grilled some pork chops from Stillman's that I got from the meat CSA to accompany the borscht (for the meat eaters in the house); the chps were marinated in green onions, garlic and extra virgin olive oil.
Have a great week or 2 of eating...hope you're getting in your fruits and veggies!!
Sharon

CSA Report - Pickups 3/2

2011-07-05T17:39:00.000-07:00

I am LOVING my CSAs this season!!!!! I am totally inspired by what I bring home and these past 2 pickups didn't disappoint...from Newton I got Swiss chard, lettuce, basil, oregano, fresh garlic, green onions, snap peas, radishes and turnips.....from Stillman's I got strawberries (last of the season) :( , fennel, zucchini, curly green kale, Forono beets, Rainbow chard, snap peas and lettuce....I also picked up the first tomatoes of the season (Green Zebras and some beautiful cherry tomatoes)....
So....what was cooking with all of this yummy produce??? I used the cherry tomatoes and chard with quinoa and avocado and a basic vinaigrette to make a satisfying lunch.
I was going to add the golden beets from last week's pickup, and so I grated them up, and stuck them in the fridge. When I went back to use them, they had oxidized and turned a yucky black color :( They tasted fine, but were really hard to look at and so I didn't use them....
When I first grated them, they were a vibrant, golden yellow color...so it's not unlike the oxidation of an apple turning brown. If I had grated them and put them in water w.a bit of acid, like lemon juice, they probably would have stayed yellow. (Note to self!!! :))
I roasted off the Forono beets (long, oval, dark red beets), fennel and turnips and used them to top off salad w.the various lettuces that I got.
Before roasting:
After roasting:

A note about turnips and radishes, when you roast them, they mellow out and caramelize a bit, becoming much sweeter and less sharp.
The beet greens, rainbow chard and green curly kale were cooked with Vaquero beans from Rancho Gordo, an amazing store/farm/bean preservation project out of Napa that specializes in heirloom beans. Vaquero beans are a variety of bean that are speckled, black and white and look like the coloring of cows, thus vaquero (which means cowboy or cattle driver in Spanish). When cooked, they keep their pattern, but turn an almost purple color and get very creamy. I cooked them in my pressure cooker with the greens, garlic and lemon.....very hearty. I cooked some burgers with ground beef from the meat portion of Stillman's CSA as well to have with the beans and greens.
The fresh garlic from NCF is outstanding, mellow and sweet. I used it along with the basil to make another batch of pesto.
Look at how white and beautiful the cloves are:
I used the pesto w.pasta but also made some Caprese crostini as an app over the weekend.
Caprese is a classic Italian salad which consists of fresh mozzarella, tomato and basil....
I used the remaining garlic as a part of a marinade for pork cutlets from Stillman's, along with lemon juice, green onions, cumin, coriander and extra virgin olive oil. I grilled the cutlets off and used them for pork tacos.
To go with the pork tacos, I grilled the green onions; I first tasted grilled onions about 6 years ago in San Francisco at a little hole in the wall Mexican food joint. They were delectable! The same theory applies to the green onions as the radishes/turnips, that when you add heat, the onion caramelizes and gets sweet.
The remaining radishes and turnips, along with some zucchini, red cabbage, cilantro, and lime juice became a slaw to top the tacos with.

For the July 4th holiday, I used up the lettuces, cherry tomatoes and Green Zebras to make a salad to bring to a BBQ.
Because I was feeling patriotic and had some beautiful strawberries left, I made some vegan shortcakes to go w.some vegan non-dairy topping and mixed berries. For the shortcakes I used Earth Balance shortening and Earth Balance vegan butter sticks as well as almond milk; they were delicious.
Because I knew I wasn't going to use the oregano that I got from the Newton farm, I actually stuck it in the dehydrator and dehydrated it. It is so fragrant! I'll use it when tomatoes are in full swing to make sauce :)
After ~12 hours in the dehydrator:
Lastly, I used the fronds from the fennel, along with the remaining Swiss chard and zucchini (as well as pear, apple, carrot, celery, cucumber and lemon) to make some awesome green juice :)

Have a good week and eat your veggies!!! :)

CSA Report - Pickups 2/1

2011-06-26T02:40:00.000-07:00

I had my second pick up from Newton Community Farm and my first of this season from Stillman's over the past couple weeks....the season is coming along nicely....along w.our own garden, we are packed to the gills w.goodies!

At Newton, I got to hit the fields to pick the snap peas I took home; the sun was shining and it was hot and it felt awesome. Plus the snap peas were so incredibly sweet, that most of them were eaten straight up! I also took home Red leaf lettuce, kale, garlic scapes, basil, dill, arugula and Haruki turnips. At Sillman's I took home Tuscan kale, Yellow chard, Green leaf lettuce, golden beets, strawberries and zucchini. Lots of produce to keep me busy!!

Snap peas:
I wanted to quickly share w.you a tip on how to clean up a snap pea. When it's fresh, the top of the pea, where it meets the plant, should snap right back, and you should be able to pull it down towards you, taking the strings on either side right down with it:
Pull the top down towards you:
and continue to pull it:
Top view:
You're left w.a nice clean snap pea :)

Here is what a garlic scape looks like:
The scape is actually the top or the shoot of the garlic and it's completely edible and delicious. It's garlicy in flavor but more mild....think less bite.....you can use scapes where you would garlic as well as where you might not since they are more mild (think raw dips, sauces etc)....

Here's some gorgeous Red leaf lettuce...check out the tender leaves and how beautifully colored they are:
Here's a bowl of basil and dill, being washed prior to use:
and check out this cool zucchini, the Romanesco variety...it's got ribs and forms a cool shape when cut crosswise:
So what have I been making w.the goods??? Here's a run down....

1. The red leaf lettuce was cut up into a salad.
2. I used the Haruki turnips to make into sesame turnip chips in my dehydrator....you can read about that here on my raw foods blog: Turnip chips and here's a pic of them as well:

3. I used the kale from NCF as well as the beet greens from Stillman's to also make chips in the dehydrator....check out this beautiful kale chip:

4. The garlic scapes, dill and basil were made into pesto which was used a couple of different ways. First off, I made a Pesto grilled chicken where I used a beautiful chicken also from Stillman's (the meat portion of the CSA) and slathered it w.pesto as well as S+P and some garlic powder, and grilled it....it was great.
Here's Mr.Chicken....you can see, he's missing a wing.....
During the grilling process:
After resting and carving:

The chicken was eaten as is, but was also used during the week w.the remaining pesto and some semolina bucatini pasta for a quick meal....I used the pesto w.quinoa pasta and spinach.....

5a. I used the yellow chard to make "burritos" using the stem of the chard in the filling as well as some other ingredients - I am going to go "Sandra Lee" on you w.the "Semi-homemade" concept here. I am addicted to the Golden Sesame Tofu @Whole Foods....so I used that as well as brown rice from WF as the filling w.the chard stem and some diced jalapeno. Off the hook!!!

5b. The chard was also used along with the remaining snap peas in a quick stir fry w.some ginger seitan, black barley and wheat berries that I also got @Whole Foods....

6. Tuscan kale became a gorgeous raw kale salad with green onions, sunflower, pea and broccoli sprouts, fresh parsley, red pepper, pumpkin, sesame and sunflower seeds dressed with a miso-almond butter dressing:

7. The zucchini was used in a couple different ways.....first to make zucchini chips in the dehydrator....second in a nice brown rice salad along with cashews and golden Hunza raisins with a red wine vinaigrette. It was served with lamb shanks from Stillman's farm, that were oven braised in red wine with rosemary, mushrooms and aromatic veggies...again, when you start with outstanding ingredients, you're going to have an outstanding meal....

As of today, I haven't used the Green leaf lettuce, arugula or golden beets yet.....I anticipate a raw golden beet salad in my future :)

I'll leave you w.these 2 shots of the most amazing strawberry, which I haven't been able to bring myself to eat yet (the other strawberries were not that lucky.....)!!!!

Enjoy!

CSAs 2011

2011-06-15T05:17:00.000-07:00

I've gone and joined 2 CSAs this year. I've kept my allegiance to my favorite farm, Stillman's Farm and joined for a half share for the first time at the Newton Community Farm; I live in Newton, so it was important for me, I felt, to support this amazing farm, that is literally <1 mile from my house. The NCF was a lottery membership and I was picked! Since I got a half share w.the Newton farm, I'll be picking up every other week instead of weekly as I will with Stillman's.
The CSA started a couple weeks back for me, with my first pickup from NCF; Stillman's starts next week. I've decided to keep a tally of what I make with my shares, kind of to keep it real and so I can keep it interesting....
Here's a general pic of the share from my first pick up at the Newton farm; I took home 2 heads of lettuce, a great big bunch of arugula, a bunch of white turnips, green garlic, rainbow chard, cilantro and chives...not bad for a first week!!!
So I'm going to post what I've done with my awesome produce....this time around I don't have pics to share of my final dishes, but I plan to snap pics from this point forward to report back on the blog...
Here's the eats from Newton Farm, Week 1:
1. Stir Fry with the white turnips, rainbow chard, green garlic, jalapenos, chives and cilantro (yum, this was SO delish)
2. The lettuce was used in salads and sandwiches (see below)
3. Lettuce, chives and cilantro were used in hummus roll-ups on lavash with spinach and jalapenos
4. Chives were used with some spinach and the arugula with sesame tofu over brown rice
5. Remaining chives and arugula were used in a stirfry with shallots, spinach and collards with Gardein Homestyle Beefless Tips (delish as well)!!!!

That's it for my first week....picking up tomorrow as well as next Tuesday, so you'll find another post soon!
Enjoy!

Rhubarb Ginger Cream Cheese Bars

2011-06-09T15:18:00.000-07:00

I'm doing another guest blog for the Katsiroubas Bros blog...this time, I'll be using a product they sell called Ravifruit. It's a line of sweetened fruit purees that comes in frozen form. There are a number of different flavors and for this recipe, a Rhubarb Ginger Cream Cheese Bar, I'm using the Rhubarb Rose puree. It's lightly sweet and a bit tangy.
I will also be using the rhubarb puree in conjunction with strawberry puree in a couple other recipes (think cocktails!! as well as a chutney) and I will be posting them on Kat's Blog as well....but first, the bar.....

The recipe called for using cut up rhubarb, sprinkled over a rolled oat and brown sugar crust, and topped with a cream cheese filling. I figured that adding the rhubarb puree to the cream cheese filling would be a welcome addition. The filling was made from cream cheese, sugar, sour cream (I used Greek yogurt instead), egg, vanilla and grated fresh ginger. I cut the amount of yogurt down by a couple tablespoons to make up for the addition of the rhubarb puree.
Here's the beautiful rhubarb, prior to cutting and ~1/2 cup of the Ravifruit rhubarb puree.
The crust was made from brown sugar, butter, flour, rolled oats and a pinch of salt; it also served as the crumb topping, so I pulled ~1/2 cup out to the side prior to pressing the rest into the pan.

Action shot of creaming the brown sugar and butter:

The zing of the ginger, and the tang of the rhubarb made for a super combo.
I used the microplane to grate the ginger up:
After the crust was prepared, I pressed it into the baking pan. I added the chopped rhubarb in and then poured the cream cheese filling over rhubarb.
The baking pan went into the oven as is, to bake for about half of the total baking time and then I added the crumble topping over the top and continued baking the bars. They were done when the crumble topping was brown and a knife came out clean after testing the center. I cooled the bars then let them set up in the fridge for a few hours before cutting them. They had a nice consistency and flavor, both similar to cheese cake. The rhubarb and ginger tasted great in conjunction with the creaminess of the cheese filling. The fruit puree added a stronger rhubarb flavor.

Rhubarb Ginger Cream Cheese Bars
6 TBS unsalted butter, softened (I used Earth Balance)
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup flour (I used white whole wheat)
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1/4 tsp salt
1 8oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Ravifruit Rhubarb Rose fruit puree*
1/4 cup + 1 TBS sour cream (I actually used 2% plain Greek yogurt)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
2 1/2 cups sliced fresh rhubarb
*To make this recipe without the fruit puree, simply omit and add back another TBS of sour cream or yogurt.

1. Heat oven to 350. Line a 9 inch baking pan w.foil and spray with cooking spray.
2. To make crust/crumb topping, beat butter at medium speed until creamy then beat in brown sugar until well blended. At low speed, beat in flour, oats and salt until crumbly.
3. Remove 1/2 cup of crust to use as topping and press the rest into the baking pan.
4. To make the filling, beat the cream cheese at medium speed until fluffy. Beat in sugar until creamy. At low speed, beat in yogurt and Ravifruit rhubarb puree until combined.
5. Add in eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Then beat in ginger and vanilla.
6. Sprinkle chopped rhubarb over the crust and cover with cream cheese batter.
7. Bake uncovered, 20 minutes, then sprinkle reserved topping over the top and bake for approximately 20-25 more minutes until puffed and lightly browned; a tester should come out clean from a center test.
8. Cool on a wire rack to room temperature then refrigerate for a few hours before cutting into bars.
Enjoy!

What the heck do I do with....Morels??

2011-05-21T17:16:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to come across some wild morels a few weeks ago, purely by chance. My parents live in a townhouse development and my kids like to play on a small patch of land across from their townhouse; it's part landscaped and part developed into garages.....the middle of the space is sparsely covered with trees and shrubs and other natural vegetation. The perimeter is landscaped with daffodils, tulips and azaleas. The spot is raised upon a stone wall.
I was jumping up on the wall to play w.my kids when my eye spotted the first morel, simply sticking up out of the mulch, away from any plants, right on the edge of the stone wall and the landscaped area.
I sucked my breath in with shock and shrieked That's a morel!!!!!! My son spied it at the same time and shouted Woah, what's that?!?! So, I picked it, freaked out and did a little dance!!!
I found a couple more not too far from that first one.
We searched around the area and ended up finding a bunch more. Most were found in the daffodil plants, sticking up straight like statues.
I was beside myself. We ended up finding in between 0.25 and 0.5 lbs....not bad for a random chance.
Here's the lot of them:
I prepared them simply, by sauteing them with shallots, garlic, parsley and thyme, then finishing the dish with a squeeze of lemon juice. I served them over micro greens.
Prior to cooking the morels, I split them in half and soaked them in salted water.
The dish was delicious. The morels were meaty and delicate at the same time; they paired great with the shallots and thyme.
I went back to look for more morels but I was unsuccessful at finding any more. I'm hoping next season that I'll find more :)

What the heck do I do with....Grass Fed Beef?

2011-04-09T17:32:00.000-07:00

Grass fed? Grain fed? What's the difference and who cares? Well, there is a difference, and I care....
I am done with factory farmed meats and though I don't actually eat meat all that often....when I do, I know where it comes from and what it's fed.
So, what's the deal?
Well, talking in terms of the cow, the grain fed cow might start off eating grass, but is then confined to a cage in order to fatten up eating feeds and grains and getting treated with hormones and antibiotics. The grass fed cow eats grass, is not caged up and is never treated with hormones or antibiotics.
The grass fed cow is leaner and meaner, lower in calories and saturated fats and typically is rich with Omega fatty acids. The leaner cow will have less marbling; marbling refers to the fat that is found within the meat, like tiny white veins, branching out and about. For this reason, grass fed cows may need extra care when cooking as they tend to cook quicker and/or dry out. Grass fed beef is also a rich source of Vitamins E and A, high in antioxidants and can have up to 7x the amount of Beta-Carotene.

I am a proud member of the Turkey Farm's Meat CSA....The Turkey Farm is Stillman's Farm and is located in Hardwick, Ma. Their meats are exceptional. Each month I get 10lbs of a mix of chicken, lamb, pork and beef....you never know what you're going to find in your bag.....Some of the cows that they breed are referred to as the "Belty", a breed of cow that is lean and high in Omega fatty acids. I recently pan seared a sirloin steak....it was delicious...tender and tasty, not dry at all...I simply seasoned it with sea salt and ground pepper, and seared it in a hot grill pan over high heat. It was about 3/4 inch thick and I seared it off for about 4-5 minutes on each side.
After cooking, I let it sit for 10 minutes to rest on the board, off the heat.

I deglazed the pan w.a bit of broth, just to get some of the brown bits off the bottom of the pan...here, I drizzled it over the steak....
I'll continue to only eat meat occasionally, and making sure that I know where it comes from before I do eat it. It's worth it to me.
Enjoy!

Guest blog for Katsiroubas Bros

2011-02-28T16:41:00.000-08:00

I am honored to have guest blogged for Katsiroubas Bros! Here is a link to the post: Tuscan Kale

And here's the blog (for good measure)...

This past week was cold and bitter, and so I was pleased to be guest blogging for the new blog of Katsiroubas Bros....what was I going to highlight???? Tuscan Kale, one of my most favorite greens, using it in a Greens and Beans Soup.
Kale is a nutritional powerhouse boasting the following nutritional prowess:
-it's low in calories (1.5 cups of cooked kale has only 55 calories)
-it's a great source of fiber and protein
-it's a rich source of phytochemicals which have anti-cancer and anti-oxidant properties
-it's a potent source of Vitamins A and B, and one of the highest vegetable sources of Vitamin K (good for strengthening bones)
-it's packed with minerals
Tuscan Kale has a long, dark green leaf with a tough stem. It's best to remove the leaf from the stem before using.....

The soup was a hearty soup which used well, the Tuscan kale, as well as dried white beans, onions, garlic, leeks, carrots, celery, potatoes and was flavored with veggie stock, cloves, bay, whole peppercorns, parsley and lemon.....
I started with dried white beans or cannellini beans, which I soaked overnight in cool water. Cannellini beans are a great bean to use in soups or stews because they hold their shape well and are pretty mild in flavor. At the same time though, they have a nice creamy texture when cooked through. Nutritionally, the cannellini holds it own with a whopping 25 grams fiber and 24 grams protein in 100g dried beans!
After the overnight soak, I drained the beans and prepped my aromatics and kale....I sauteed the aromatics in olive oil until softened, seasoning with sea salt and pepper.
I added in the beans, the veggie stock and some flavor: cloves, peppercorns and bay.
Once the beans had softened up, after about 20 minutes, I added in the potato and kale as well as a generous pinch of sea salt and let the soup finish cooking. It took another 20 minutes to cook.
To finish the flavor profile, I added the zest and juice of a lemon and chopped parsley; the lemon heightened the flavor and made it shine.
The result was a luscious soup with an amazing velvety texture from the potatoes, a hearty bite from the cannellinis, a nutritional punch from the Tuscan kale and a complex flavor from the cloves and the lemon.

Greens and Beans Soup
Ingredients
2 cups dried cannellini beans, soaked overnight, then drained and rinsed
2 carrots, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
1 onion, diced
1 leek, sliced and washed well
3 garlic cloves, minced
8 cups stock of choice, I used a rich vegetable stock
2 bay leaves
3 cloves
5 peppercorns, whole
1 potato, yukon golds work well, peeled and cubed to similar size as beans
2 heads Tuscan kale, stems removed, leaves cut or torn into pieces
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1/4 cup parsley leaves, chopped

Technique
1. Soak dried beans overnight in cool water (cover by an inch or so), then drain and rinse.
2. Saute onion, leek, garlic, carrots and celery in fat of choice over medium high heat, seasoning with salt and pepper.
3. Add in beans, veggie stock, cloves, peppercorns and bay leaves. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer until beans start to soften up. At this point, season generously with salt of choice (I used Celtic sea salt).
4. Add in potatoes and kale and bring to the boil again, reducing heat and simmering until the beans are done cooking and potatoes are cooked through.
NOTE: Add more stock or water if it appears that the soup is cooking down too far before beans have completed cooking through.
5. When soup is done cooking, add in lemon zest, lemon juice and parsley; taste for seasoning and add more salt and pepper if necessary.

It was fun to guest blog and I am thankful for all the beautiful produce and ingredients that Katsiroubas Bros donated to me to make this delicious soup.

What the heck do I do with....Mushrooms???

2010-12-17T18:10:00.001-08:00

Mushrooms are an under appreciated entity.....they are not a plant, but rather a fungus; they form spores and don't create chlorophyll. In reality, they are nutritional powerhouses. Mushrooms are packed with selenium; selenium has been known to help lower the risk of prostate cancer. Mushrooms are also packed with B vitamins, potassium, are low in calories and high in fiber.
So, what do you do with mushrooms?
Well, they can be eaten in the raw state on salads, but that's pretty boring. They can be sauteed with garlic and thyme and made into a hearty topping for crusty bread. They can be sauteed with garlic and onion and then stewed with tomatoes to make a hearty sauce. They can be used to make an earthy, meaty broth as I did.

I used both fresh and dehydrated mushrooms to make a full bodied, heady broth that I then used to make an Asian inspired mushroom soup. I used dried shiitake mushrooms which I found in an Asian market not far from where I live.
The dried mushrooms give the broth a richness that fresh mushrooms just can't. This is due to the fact that the flavor gets so concentrated when they dry out and all the flavor comes out into the broth as it cooks. I also had a few dried oyster mushrooms kicking around, so I added those as well. Check out these shiitakes:
Other ingredients for the mushroom broth included leeks, onion, carrot, thyme and white button mushrooms. Did you know that the white button mushroom has been found to have the highest antioxidant levels, up to 5x more than other mushrooms??
To make the broth, add all of the ingredients with some water into a pot and bring to the boil; reduce and let simmer for 45-60 minutes.
When the broth is done, you'll have a beautiful brown broth with a delicious, earthy flavor. You can use it in soups, stews, to cook grains even to make risotto...
After my broth was done, I then used it to make a mushroom soup; it was Asian inspired with Nama Shoyu, a fermented soy sauce, which is lower in sodium than it's counterpart, tamari. I also added in some garlic and chile pepper...I would have used ginger and cilantro to finish it off, but I was out...none the less, it was delicious..
I used a variety of fresh, wild mushrooms: chantarelles, yellow foots, oysters, shiitakes and creminis along with carrot, celery, garlic, serrano chile, spinach and kale.
I sauteed the aromatics in coconut oil until tender.
I added in the broth and brought it up to the boil, then let it simmer for about 10 minutes.
I then added the mushrooms, Nama Shoyu and greens, brought it up to the boil, and let it simmer for another 10-15 minutes.
At this time, a handful of chopped cilantro would be nice, a squeeze of lime juice or even a splash of sesame oil would also work. I enjoyed the flavor of the mushroom broth too much and wanted to keep sesame out of it this time :) It was delicious, perfect for the cooler weather, real meaty and hearty tasting, without making you feel like you've eaten something not good for you.
So don't be afraid to try out some mushrooms the next time you go to the market :)
Enjoy, Sharon

Thyme To Cook Wins (Prof division) of 1st Annual JP Mac-Off

2010-12-17T16:39:00.000-08:00

Yup, it's true...I won a Mac-n-Cheese contest! I happened to get an email regarding a Mac-n-Cheese contest that was going to be held in Jamaica Plain (JP), the city where I used to live. It is a suburb of Boston and it has a real sense of community. I immediately wanted to enter, not even because I thought I had a winner Mac-n-Cheese, rather, just to support the community.

The contest was set up by a local chef, Keesha O'Galdez, otherwise known as the Gourmet Diva; the proceeds of the event were going to benefit the JP Small Business division of the JP Neighborhood Development Corp, an organization responsible for getting many of the businesses up and running in the JP area.

My first thought was to enter my standard mac-n-cheese, which is made from a basic cheddar cheese sauce with the addition of ham and peas....but then my mind wandered to a sandwich I once demo'd at Sur La Table, shortly after I started Thyme To Cook. It was a Mexican sandwich which I found in a cookbook by Rick Bayless called Chorizo and Frijoles Negros Tortas. The sandwich was a mixture of chorizo, a spicy sausage, and mashed, sauteed black beans with a chunk of queso fresco (fresh cheese) and avocado, on a crusty baguette. The flavors of this sandwich were off the hook, really. I thought about the flavors and realized that they would probably go great mixed with a nice Monterey Jack cheese sauce. And viola, my Sultry Chorizo and Frijoles Negros with Queso Fresco and "Tortas" Crust Mac-n-Cheese was born.

I did a test run where I invited a bunch of people over to taste test it about a month before the Mac-off. I'm glad I did because I made 2 major improvements to the recipe. First off, I learned I had to make it more cheesy; it just wasn't gooey enough. Second, I was apprehensive about being too aggressive with salt because the queso fresco is a pretty salty cheese, and I learned that I needed to add a bit more salt; the first time around it was a bit flat.....other improvements I made were to add poblano peppers to the chorizo and black bean saute as well as a squeeze of lime juice to brighten the overall flavor.

Here it is all coming together....My list of things to do.....
First off, I sauteed the chorizo, some garlic, and poblano peppers....I added in powdered New Mexico chiles as well as smoked paprika...

Now, unlike the sandwich, where you mash the black beans and saute them, I left them whole and just mixed them with the sauteed chorizo and poblanos.

I made my bechamel sauce....

and added in cheddar as well as Monterey Jack cheeses...

I made the crusty topping out of a day old baguette, olive oil and queso fresco cheese, then assembled it all together.
Just prior to baking....
and after, with my cilantro/scallion garnish...

At the contest...
I was surprisingly nervous as I approached the church where the contest was being held. I don't know why I was nervous, I guess it was my competitive edge coming out. There was 1 other professional chef present, a few kids for the kids division and the rest were in the amateur division for a total of 16 entrants.

When the event started, there were not alot of people there, but slowly but surely, the place filled up and there were over 200 people who attended. Judges were given samples of the mac-n-cheese in small cups to try. Since I was #15, I was 1 away from the end. I was worried that the mac-n-cheese was going to dry out, since it was on sterno for 2 hours, but it didn't even come close to drying out. I was also worried that I was going to run out of mac-n-cheese before the judges got to taste it, since I was 2nd to last; I was starting to run low. I didn't want to pull any samples for fear that they would be cold and dried out. Thankfully, I had enough and served the judges nice hot and gooey, yummy, mac-n-cheese. The judges got to declare the winners in each category and there was also a People's Choice overall award. In the end, I beat out the other professional chef to take 1st place in the professional division, and I took 2nd overall for people's choice.

Overall it was a great experience. Not sure if I'll go back for the 2nd annual Mac-off next year...but we'll see.... :)

Here is my recipe...it's a bit involved, but totally worth it:

Sultry Chorizo and Frijoles Negros with Queso Fresco and Tortas Crust
Ingredients
Chorizo Black Bean Mixture
1 15oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
8 oz chorizo, diced
1 poblano pepper, chopped
6 garlic cloves, sliced
2 TBS fat of your choice for sauteing
2 tsp New Mexico chile powder
2 tsp smoked paprika
Juice of 1 lime
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
S+P to taste

Bechamel/Cheese Sauce
5 cups 1% Milk
5 TBS butter (or Vegan "butter" such as Earth Balance)
5 TBS flour
1 pound Monterey Jack cheese, grated
2 cups cheddar cheese, grated
Nutmeg, S+P to taste

"Tortas" Crust
1 day old Baguette, chopped into small dice
1/2 cup Queso Fresco, crumbled, divided
1 TBS extra virgin olive oil
S+P to taste

For Assembly
1 Pound cooked pasta, shape of your choice, al dente

Technique
1. Make your Chorizo/Black Bean filling by sauteing the poblano and garlic over medium heat until softened, in the fat of your choice. To that add your chile powder and smoked paprika, stirring for a minute until fragrant.
2. Add in the chorizo and increase the heat to medium-high. Saute until crispy, then add cilantro and lime juice, tasting for S+P.
3. Remove from heat and mix in the black beans. Re-season as necessary.

4. Make your bechamel by melting butter, adding flour and "cooking off" for a minute, then adding warm milk and whisking constantly. Bring to a boil and let boil for a minute.
5. Remove from heat and add nutmeg, S+P.
6. Stir in your cheeses and re-season as necessary.

7. Make your "tortas" crust by adding baguette and 1/4 cup queso fresco to food processor fitted w"S" blade and process into crumbs. Drizzle in the olive oil and then process once more until the oil has been incorporated. Season w.S+P. Reserve the remaining 1/4 cup queso fresco to put over the top of the mac-n-cheese prior to baking in the oven.

8. Assemble the mac-n-cheese by mixing the al dente pasta with the chorizo/black bean filling and the cheese sauce until well incorporated. Pour into a 9x13 pan (sprayed w.non-stick cooking spray). Top with the "tortas" crust and then the remaining 1/4 cup queso fresco.

9. Cover w.tin foil that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray and bake at 400 for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 15-20 more minutes until bubbly and golden brown.

That's it. Enjoy! Feel free to email me w.questions or comments.
Sharon
sharon@thyme-to-cook.com

What the heck do I do with....Bison?

2010-10-18T17:00:00.000-07:00

Bison, the other red meat.....but seriously....have you tried it? It is a great lean, red meat that is grass fed, low in calories, fat and cholesterol, and high in iron and Vit B-12: 100 grams of cooked bison has 7 g fat (2 g saturated), 143 cal, 55 mg cholesterol, 3.4 mcg iron and 2.9 mcg Vit B-12....and a whopping 20g protein!!! It's a good choice for people on special diets.
I have one client who I cook for that follows the UltraSimple diet by Dr Mark Hyman. Bison is recommended as a lean meat and so I used it to make a Bison Chili. This client in question has allergies to onions and so I needed to eliminate that from my chili. Instead, I used garlic as an aromatic. This client is not allergic to tomatoes, but does not care for them. Instead, I used tomatillos.
Basically, I minced a bunch of garlic cloves and chopped a couple carrots, browned them up and added in the ground bison to brown. For spices, I added in ground New Mexico chile powder, cumin, coriander, cinnamon and cayenne.

After the bison browned up, I added the tomatillos, some black beans, lentils and a bit of veggie stock.

I let the mix simmer for about 20-30 minutes and it was done. To finish it off, I added a bunch of chopped cilantro and a squeeze of fresh lime juice. Real tasty, very hearty. The tomatillos and lime juice added a tang that went well with the bison, beans and lentils.
Enjoy!

What the heck do I do with....Dried Fruit?

2010-10-04T12:16:00.000-07:00

I'm always on the fence about dried fruit. Do I like it? Don't I like it? Is it yummy? Is it bad for you? I say it's ok, everything in moderation (well most things). Just make sure the dried fruit you are getting is not processed with Sulfur; sulfur dioxide is used to preserve the color and flavor of the fruit, and has been shown to induce asthma in those individuals sensitive to it. Dried fruits are packed with fiber and vitamins and minerals but are also high in sugar, so enjoy in moderation.

I made this delicious snack cake after going apple picking. We have an abundance of apples and I'm slowly going through them. I found this recipe in Living Without Magazine, a magazine dedicated to gluten free recipes as well as recipes surrounding other allergies. But don't stop reading, because you can make the recipe with standard flour (whole wheat in a particular would go nicely).

The recipe uses both fresh fruit (it actually calls for pears but I used an apple and a pear), dried fruits (I used cranberries, apricots, Hunza raisins and 1 date, because I had one laying around), chopped almonds, pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds. To sweeten the bar the recipe calls for maple syrup and date sugar. I used Grade B maple syrup and coconut sugar, not date sugar. Coconut sugar is a low glycemic sugar (lower than cane sugar or honey) and can be used 1 for 1 as a substitute for white sugar. It's a great alternative since it has many vitamins and minerals in it, and it is a sustainable product. The recipe also calls for either quinoa flakes or oats. I love quinoa, in any form, but I used raw oat flakes, simple because I had them.

Overall, the bar is nutritionally dense, and delicious.

Let's talk Flour blends for those who need gluten free options: I tend to lean toward this blend of flour that has the following flours or startchs in it: teff, millet, brown rice, tapioca and potato....it is a high protein, high fiber blend with a nice flavor. I found this blend in Living Without magazine. Here is the recipe: 1 cup brown rice, 1/2 cup millet flour, 1/2 cup teff flour, 2/3 cup tapioca starch and 1/2 cup potato starch. Just mix together well. Most of these flours can be found at Whole Foods or other health food stores or on line as a last resort.

Here is the recipe for the bar, w/pics:

Recipe from Living Without magazine

Ingredients:

¾ cup gluten-free All-Purpose Flour Blend
1 cup toasted quinoa flakes or gluten-free oats
¼ cup date sugar
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ cup maple syrup or agave syrup
¼ cup oil of choice
1 egg or flax gel
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 pears, peeled and coarsely grated
½ cup chopped dates, dried apricots or dried cranberries
¼ cup chopped almonds, lightly toasted, optional
¼ cup hulled pumpkin seeds, lightly toasted
2-3 tablespoons sesame seeds

Technique:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and line an 8x8-inch baking pan with parchment paper.

2. Mix together flour blend, toasted quinoa flakes or oats, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon.

3. Stir in maple syrup, oil, egg and vanilla. Add pears, dates, almonds and pumpkin seeds. Stir well to combine.

4. Spread mixture into prepared pan. Sprinkle sesame seeds over mixture.

5. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until done. Cool. Cut into 12 bars. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!

Blueberry Tea Cake

2010-09-16T16:25:00.000-07:00

I got some beautiful wild blueberries from Maine last weekend and decided to make a tea cake with them. I played with a basic recipe to "sharon" it up....here is what I came up with.

Ingredients
1/2 cup coconut oil
2 TBS Earth Balance vegan butter
3/4 cup evaporated palm sugar (Sweet Tree Sustainable Sweeteners)
1 1/4 cup sprouted wheat flour
1/2 cup raw oat flour
1/4 cup raw flaked oats
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 egg whites
1/3 cup almond milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup wild blueberries

Technique
Preheat oven to 350 and oil/flour an 8x8 cake pan....
1. In a large bowl, cream together the coconut oil, vegan butter and palm sugar until light and fluffy.
2. In a medium size bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (sprouted wheat flour -> vanilla powder).
3. In a small bowl blend the egg whites, almond milk and vanilla.
4. Add the ~ 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the creamed oil/sugar and mix until just combined; add ~ 1/3 of the wet ingredients to the creamed oil/sugar mix and mix until just combined.
Repeat with remaining dry and wet ingredients taking care to not over mix.
5. Gently stir in the blueberries and turn out batter into prepared pan.
6. Bake in center of oven until done, approximately 30-35 minutes.

The cake was delicious and moist. I will definitely be making this tea cake again (and soon) :)
Enjoy...

Anatomy of a Soup

2010-09-10T16:10:00.000-07:00

It's uncanny, really, that when Labor Day comes and goes, it's as if Mother Nature knows to turn off the HOT switch and turn on the COOL switch...
This season, once that switch turned, I had an immediate desire to make soup.

I had a chicken carcass in the freezer, ready to make stock with....some dried chickpeas and some beautiful kale....add in some potatoes and we've got a hearty soup. Last night I soaked up the chickpeas and decided that I was going to use them to make a Kale Chickpea Soup.
Both the chicken and the produce I used today came from my CSA from Stillman's Farm, Lunenberg, Ma.

Anatomy of the Soup
Step 1: Soak the dried chickpeas
Dried chickpeas should really be soaked overnight for a couple reasons. The first is to rinse away any enzyme inhibitors that might be held with in the bean. All beans, nuts and seeds have enzyme inhibitors that prevent them from sprouting or growing in unfavorable environments. A soak in water is enough to rinse them away. The second reason is to soften them up in order to shorten cooking time. After an 8-10 hour soak, here is what the chickpeas look like:
Step 2: Cook the chickpeas
I chose to cook the chickpeas separate from the soup itself. I actually used a pressure cooker to cook them up; the pressure cooker is one of my favorite tools in the kitchen. By cooking foods under pressure it reduces cooking time and is notorious for softening up tough cuts of meat. I put the chickpeas in the pressure cooker with water, garlic cloves, rosemary sprigs and a touch of olive oil. You can cook the chickpeas on the stove as well, but it will just take a bit longer.
The cooked chickpeas:
Step 3: Make the chicken stock
While the chickpeas cooked, I set up a basic chicken stock with the chicken carcass, cut up onions, garlic, carrots and celery. I added water, a bit of cracked pepper, a pinch of salt, and a couple bay leaves. After it came to a boil the heat was reduced and impurities were skimmed away. The longer you let a stock cook, the more flavorful the it will be. I let it go for an hour and a half before straining it.
Step 4: Make the Kale and Chickpea Soup
I started the soup by sauteing minced garlic and diced onions in a bit of coconut oil.
After the garlic and onion softened up, I added in diced white potatoes and chopped rosemary and cooked them for a bit.
To that I added just enough stock to cover the potatoes.
I cooked the potatoes until softened, then I used a potato masher to mash them up and thicken up the soup a bit.
At this point, I added in the cooked chickpeas and raw kale, brought the soup back to the boil and then reduced heat to a simmer to cook kale and blend flavors.....all along the way, I seasoned with salt and pepper.....

After about 15 minutes the soup was done, and was delicious....

The heartiness of the chickpeas with the texture from the potatoes, the earthiness from the rosemary and the texture of the kale worked so well together. It hit the spot, in more ways than one.

What the heck do I do with....Shelling beans?

2010-08-12T16:36:00.000-07:00

I love when I see the first shelling beans at the farmer's market; inevitably I get a memory of visiting Italy and eating the most amazing beans, simply prepared with garlic, rosemary and extra virgin olive oil.
These beans are called Barlotti beans or Cranberry beans and they are beautiful...check them out:
As you can see, they come in a variety of patterns. Unfortunately, as they cook, they lose their beauty and turn an ugly gray color. However, what they lose in beauty, they gain in taste; the beans are soft, buttery and delicious.

Fresh shelling beans are so easy to cook. Simply shell the beans, rinse them and put them into an ample sized pot. Cover the beans with water to about 3/4 of the way up the pot. Add in some whole cloves of garlic, like 4-6 cloves, some thyme, and a couple bay leaves then bring to the boil.
I have learned in the past that salting beans prior to them being (partially) cooked is a no-no; this is supposedly because if salted, the salt interferes with the bean softening up. So, with these fresh beans, I let them go 5 minutes, then I add in a generous amount of sea salt or kosher salt.
The beans take about 15 minutes total...that's it. Too easy to not do yourself.
When the beans are done simply drain them, put them in a bowl and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. They make a great accompaniment to grilled meat or as a topping on a salad of mixed herbs.
Enjoy!

What the heck do I do with....All those greens I have??

2010-08-05T13:37:00.001-07:00

So, in the heart of CSA season, one thing rings true, and that is greens, greens and more greens....Swiss Chard, Rainbow Chard, all types of Kale, Beet Greens...you get the idea. It can be overwhelming, I understand.

I do a variety of things with greens, 2 which are a bit more extreme, 1) juice them and drink them with other veggies and fruits and 2) dehydrate them to make chips in the food dehydrator. Since the majority of people are not using the greens in that fashion, I'll write about 2 recipes using greens that I recently made. The great thing about greens is that all of them are interchangeable, so if you see beet greens in a recipe but only have kale, you can go ahead and use the kale. Feel free to substitute greens and/or veggies that you have on hand.

The first recipe is a Quinoa Beet Green stir fry. I found some beautiful baby beet greens at a farmstand in Hollis, New Hampshire called Brookdale Fruit Farm, as well as some garlic, red peppers, fennel and scallions. Here are some pics of their beautiful produce:
Beet Greens
Scallions

Red Pepper and Fennel
Garlic, which turned out to be 2 huge cloves, one on either side of the stalk...

As with the greens, the grain you use is interchangeable as well. I used quinoa, but you could use millet, brown rice, bulgur etc.
Quinoa is an easy grain to cook; make sure to rinse it first, or buy the pre-soaked kind, as it has a coating that will give it a bitter taste unless rinsed off. The basic ratio for cooking quinoa is 2 cups liquid to 1 cup quinoa. Bring the liquid up to the boil, add a pinch of salt, add quinoa, put the lid on and reduce the heat. Simmer for 10 minutes then check it. When it is cooked, the quinoa will be soft and it will have a small, yellow ring around it. After the quinoa is cooked, let it cool. You can time it that you prep your veggies while the quinoa cooks/cools.
For this stir fry I used scallions and garlic as the aromatics, and red pepper, fennel and beet greens as the main flavors, as well as a small amount of broccoli.

First off, saute your aromatics in the fat of choice (I used coconut oil) over medium-high heat until softened, then add the red pepper, fennel and broccoli, cooking until crisp tender. Be sure to season with salt and pepper along the way. Add in the quinoa and stir frequently, mixing all the veggies throughout, until heated through. Lastly, add the beet greens and stir in, allowing the heat to wilt them. Remove from heat.

That's it. From start to finish, including prep time and cook time for quinoa, you're looking at ~25 minutes.
Here's the finished dish:

The next dish is a Rainbow Chard White Bean Soup. Like the stir fry, you can substitute any green for the chard, and it would work just fine. And like the stir fry, this soup cooks up quickly, with total time including prep and cook, about 30 minutes.

Aromatics for this hearty soup include celery, onion and garlic. The soup starts by sauteing the aromatic veggies until softened in some olive oil.
To the aromatics, a roasted red pepper is added and again, sauteed so the flavors can mix together; season with salt and pepper. To this mixture add your broth, chicken or veggie, whatever works best for you. Add in your white beans (drained, rinsed), then bring up to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. After about 15 minutes, add your greens. It's going to look like too many greens for the pot so to speak, but they cook down quite a bit.

After the greens go in the pot, let them simmer for a few minutes.
After the soup has simmered for a while, remove from the heat and serve up...it would be nice with a sprinkle of Parmigiano-Reggiano....
So there you go...2 quick and easy ways to use your greens (and seasonal veggies too) :)
Enjoy!
Sharon

Veggie Burgers

2010-07-22T18:03:00.000-07:00

I made veggie burgers this week for a client of mine. They were delicious and so easy to make. I've made a variety of veggie burgers before and so I went into it with no real recipe. My plan was to saute aromatic veggies, add in chickpeas and a grain as well as an egg to bind and some raw cheese for flavor.
Well, I did just that. I finely chopped aromatic veggies: carrot, celery, garlic and onion and sauteed them in coconut oil over medium heat. I also added in some dried thyme....
I let that cool a bit and I put them into the food processor to process. I had already made some quinoa for a quinoa salad, so I added some of that into the processor as well as some chickpeas and some chopped parsley.
After the quinoa, chickpeas and veggies were pureed, I added in an egg as the binder and also some raw milk cheeses for flavor. I added in a small bit of raw milk Parmigiano-Reggiano as well as another raw milk cheese, similar to Fontina, which melts well and has a subtle flavor (I'm forgetting what it is called at this moment, so sorry!!).
At this point I realized that the mix was a bit too moist. I didn't plan to add in a component to grab the moisture, such as bread crumbs, as I thought the quinoa would be enough of a buffer. So I hadn't purchased any bread crumbs. I knew my client didn't have any bread crumbs, so in a bit of a panic, I looked for something to add to the mix.....and viola, I found the brown rice cereal!
I put some of the cereal into a bag and crushed it up into a coarse crumb. I added those crumbs into the mix and made the burgers. I cooked one of the burgers in coconut oil and I was curious if I was going to need to give them a coating of crumbs....well, the answer was yes. So, I crushed more cereal and then coated the burgers in the crumbs before cooking them off.
I have to say, the cereal worked out great!!! The burgers were crisp on the outside and moist on the inside. The chickpeas gave the burger a real meaty flavor, and the cheese rounded the taste out. I highly recommend that you try this recipe out at home.
Veggie Burgers
1 carrot
1 stalk celery
3 garlic cloves
1 small onion
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 cup cooked quinoa
3/4 cup chickpeas (from a 15 oz can, drained and rinsed)
2 TBS chopped parsley
1 egg
1/4 cup raw milk Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated
1/4 cup raw milk Fontina cheese, grated
1 - 1.5 cups breadcrumbs or crushed brown rice cereal, divided
Coconut oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Saute the carrots, celery, garlic, onion and thyme in a couple tablespoons of coconut oil or your fat of choice, over medium heat, until softened 6-8 minutes (be sure to season with S+P).
2. Remove from heat, let cool and place in food processor with S blade.
3. Add the chickpeas, parsley and quinoa to food processor and process to blend together then add the cheeses and blend together; taste for seasoning and adjust S+P as necessary. Add in the egg and process once more.
4. Remove mix from the food processor and move to a bowl then add in the breadcrumbs or cereal. Start with 1/2 cup and see how it feels. Press some of the mix together, feel how moist it is and assess if you need to add more.
5. Form your burgers, then press one side into the crumbs or cereal. Flip and press the other side in and pan fry over medium to medium-high heat, in coconut oil.

Please email me if you have questions about the recipe or process of making the burger...
:)

Squash and Corn Chowder

2010-07-15T14:21:00.000-07:00

Ah, July...that means one thing..inundation of squash and zucchini!!!!!!! And, this season, it also means the first corn is here. What to do with all of this squash and corn?
Make chowder, of course!
Here's a quick recipe for a delicious chowder made with applewood smoked bacon, delicious farm fresh squash and corn and low fat milk.
First off, cook off your bacon to crisp it up and render the fat.
Pour off all but a couple tablespoons of the bacon fat, then saute about a cup of scallions, a couple ribs of celery and the squash until softened.
While the veggies soften up, take the corn from 4 cobs and leave 1 cup behind, but puree the rest along with 1 cup 1% milk and some fresh thyme.
When the corn is pureed, add in another cup to cup and a half of milk and puree until smooth.
Add the pureed corn along with whole corn kernels to the sauteed veggies and simmer for another 5 minutes.
To serve, top off with the greens of scallions, some crispy bacon and some shredded cheddar cheese (or other cheese of your choice)....
Note: this chowder will freeze well, so consider making it and storing it for the fall :)
Enjoy!

What the heck do I do with....A Panini Press????

2010-07-10T04:42:00.000-07:00

You make panini, of course! A panini is a pressed sandwich, usually served warm.
The panini press is more versatile than that however, and you can also use it to grill meats and veggies if you don't have a grill, or live in an urban setting where having a grill might be out of the question.
I recently made some panini for a client of mine, Chicken Pesto and Fontina and Black Forest ham...delish. There are a couple of secrets to a good panini. The first and the most important I think, is the bread. You have to use a strong, durable, crusty bread that can withstand the moisture of the filling. The second is the fat you use to grill your bread with. For the pesto and more savory panini, a good quality olive oil works. For something as luscious as oozing Fontina cheese, a high quality butter works.

The panini press is a dual cooking surface piece of equipment, and nonstick. You don't have to flip the food when it's cooking. I used the panini press to cook the chicken (it marinated in fresh, minced garlic and olive oil first for about 2 hrs). Always season your meat prior to cooking w/a liberal sprinkle of sea salt or kosher salt and fresh black pepper.

Once the chicken was cooked, and the bread sliced, I spread it with some basil pesto, (sundried tomato pesto would work great as well). I gave the bread a liberal splash of olive oil and stuck the sandwiches in the press to cook.

After about 5-6 minutes, on a medium to medium high heat, this is what the paninis look like:
Here's the finished chicken pesto panini:
Can't leave out the Fontina and Ham panini:

As I mentioned before, the press is also good for grilling veggies and works especially well with zukes, squashes and peppers....
So, if you have a panini press shoved away in some cabinet in your kitchen somewhere, consider pulling it out again. If you are limited with your space and want a versatile cooking tool, consider purchasing a press :)

What the heck do I do with....Clams???

2010-06-27T17:33:00.000-07:00

Clams!
Rob is lucky enough to know someone who goes clamming in Quincy, Ma and who brings him clams on a regular basis. So, every couple of weeks, I'll get a text from Rob that simply reads, Clams....
I'm not 100% positive what type of clam they are, but based on their size I'm going with little necks or cherry stones; they might be too big to be little necks.
Clams require a little bit of clean up; simply rinse the clams in some cold water and scrub the outsides of the shells to get any grit off.
What do you do with a clam? Well, the easiest thing to do is to simply put the clam on a medium hot grill and let them steam open. Once you put the clams on the grill, close the grill and give them about 5 minutes, then POP, they'll pop open. Remove them carefully trying to save the clam juice or liquor, as it is called that is left in the shell. You can eat them right out of the shell. They are usually tender and delicious, salty from the sea, and perhaps a bit sandy, but that's all good.

If you have more time, boil up some spaghetti or other pasta of choice and start some garlic cooking over medium heat in some olive oil.
Once the garlic starts to get a bit brown, add your clams in, as well as some white wine, a squeeze of lemon, a squeeze of honey and put the cover on. You can also use beer if you chose, instead of wine. I used Vino Verde, an effervescent, almost green in color, wine from Portugal.
I had some scallions laying around, so I chopped some up and threw them in as well.
It takes a good 8-10 minutes for the clams to open and when they do, their liquor will mix with the steaming liquid to form a nice sauce for the pasta.
NOTE: Do not eat or attempt to eat a clam that does not open; it is not a good clam and should not be eaten, but discarded.
After the clams steam open, dress the spaghetti with them and top with a green herb like parsley or basil....it's up to you whether or not you want to top with Parmesan cheese as well....

Enjoy your clams!!!

What the heck do I do with....Tempeh?

2010-06-12T15:15:00.000-07:00

You're probably saying, What the heck IS tempeh???
Tempeh is a fermented soy product that is used as a meat substitute. The fermentation process uses the whole soy bean, and sometimes includes other ingredients, such as grains and/or other beans. The result is a firm textured block with highly digestable protein and fiber.
The brand I used was Soy Boy, 5 Grain flavor. It has soy beans, brown rice, millet, barley and rye in it.
Here are the stats:
In a 3 oz serving there are 130 calories, 3g fat (0.5g saturated), 15g carb, 1.5g fiber, 11g protein!!! It also has admirable levels of iron and calcium.

So, what the heck do you do with tempeh? Well, like tofu, tempeh really benefits from some period of marination. So, for this preparation, I simply broke the block of tempeh into pieces, and marinated it in reduced sodium tamari, seasoned rice wine vinegar, fresh ginger that I grated on a microplane and a small amount of agave syrup to round out the flavors. I let the tempeh marinate in the fridge for about 6 hrs.
After marination, you can saute the tempeh or stir fry it with mixed veggies. You can use it in place of ground meat in stews and chilis. You can even grill it or bake it.
I baked the tempeh and remaining marinade at 375 for about 20 minutes. As it bakes, the marinade becomes sauce; the agave syrup caramalizes a bit and adds a nice flavor to the sauce. When it was done, I simply garnished it with some chopped green onions. Serve the tempeh with a veggie of your choice to make your meal complete.
Enjoy!

What the heck do I do with....Soba Noodles?

2010-05-10T15:29:00.000-07:00

I happen to love soba noodles; soba noodles are buckwheat noodles. They are commonly eaten in Japanese cuisine. Soba noodles are a great choice for people who are gluten intolerant, as they are gluten free. They are packed with protein, with ~6g in 1 cup. They are also low in fat, and contain manganese, a mineral used by many enzymes in the body.
So, what the heck do you do with soba noodles? Well, most commonly, the noodles are used in soups, with thin broths and some veggies. The noodles can also be used to make flavorful salads, such as Asian pasta salad with Asian style veggies and dressings.
Today, I'm going to highlight a Ginger Garlic broth with the Soba Noodles. The recipe comes from Health Magazine, and of course, I've made a couple changes. One change I made is that I used mushroom broth instead of veggie broth. Mushroom broth has a hearty, earthy flavor that pairs well with the soba noodles. I also added in a jalapeno to spice things up a bit and a squeeze of lime juice to brighten the flavors.
The dish starts out with a saute of ginger and garlic:
After the ginger and garlic become fragrant, the broth is added, along with soy sauce, Thai fish sauce, rice wine vinegar, a few dashes of Tabasco and some tomato paste.
After the broth comes to a boil, it is then reduced to a simmer and the veggies are added. So, the possibilities are endless here, as to what veggies to add. I added shredded cabbage and carrot, and let them simmer for a few minutes:
The soba noodles are cooked separately. The noodles cook up in 7-8 minutes. You have to be careful to not overcook the noodles, as they turn to mush when overcooked. I'd even say under cook slightly to be safe. I undercooked the noodles a bit, for I knew that the hot broth was going to be poured over the noodles, and could cook them a bit more. Here's a pic of the cooked noodles:
I finished the dish with minced jalapeno, chopped, roasted peanuts, chopped cilantro and a squeeze of lime juice:
Feel free to email me with any questions!
Enjoy!

What the heck do I do with.....Kale???

2010-04-30T13:53:00.000-07:00

mmmmm Kale! I think Kale is my favorite green. It grows early in spring, throughout the summer and well into fall and is PACKED with nutrition. Let's check out the stats:
As a member of the Brassica family (think Brussels Sprouts, cabbage), kale has anti-cancer fighting properties in it's organsulfur compounds and phytonutrients. It is loaded with Vitamin C, beta-carotene, and minerals (iron, calcium, potassium).
1 cup of kale has a whopping 36 calories, 3g fiber and 2.5g protein!!!
So what the heck do you do with it??
Well, one easy way to prepare it is to simply saute it with garlic, olive oil, a squeeze of honey and lemon juice and some sea salt. I prepared it for a client this week; here's a picture:
What you want to do is get a nice big head of kale and wash it thoroughly. First, remove the leaves from the stems. Pile one leaf on another and roll them up tight. Take a sharp knife and cut across the leaves, cutting the kale into thin strips. Put the cut kale into a bowl of cold water and swish it around, then let it soak for a bit. When you want to cook it, simply lift the kale out the water, letting the bottom remain undisturbed (that's where the dirt will be).

Take a big non stick pan and over medium-low heat, in a coating of olive oil, sweat out 2-3 minced cloves of garlic until they have softened up. Add the kale in to the pan. It's going to look like too much for the pan, but what will start to happen is, the kale will wilt as it gets the heat. Add a couple pinches of sea salt, the juice of half a lemon and about a TBS of honey. Stir the kale around so it gets coated with all the goodies and then cover the pan. Let the kale steam up for about 2 minutes, then take the cover off and saute the kale for about 5-8 more minutes. That's it.

My favorite way to use kale is to bake it, making kale chips. Kale chips are an amazing treat, tasting just like potato chips, but without the guilt of potato chips.
To make kale chips, remove the stems from the leaves, and then simply tear the leaves into bite size pieces. Wash as directed above, and then allow the leaves to dry, on a baking sheet. When they have dried up, sprinkle them with sea salt, about 1-2 tsp of olive oil and 1 tsp of apple cider vinegar. Coat all the leaves, and then bake in a 325 degree oven for 20 minutes. Be careful, because once the kale gets going, it cooks quickly and you want to prevent burning, because it will be bitter. At the 10 minute mark, give the leaves a stir. That's it....
If you are a raw foodist, you can prepare the kale in a dehydrator set for 105 degrees, for approximately 8 hrs and you'll get the same effect.

Here's some kale from my most wonderful CSA, Stillman's Farm:

Can't wait for it to start!!!
Be sure to try some kale soon!!!

Thyme To Cook on Facebook

2010-04-27T14:59:00.000-07:00

Thyme To Cook is now on Facebook! Please check it out!

Thyme To Cook

What the heck do I do with.....Cod???

2010-04-26T17:19:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the 1st edition of "What the heck do I do with...???", a series of posts dedicated to seasonally, possibly local, maybe strange, ingredients. I'm starting with good old cod, a flaky, white fish, which has a mild flavor. Cod is a great low calorie source of protein and has a variety of nutrients (vitamin B, potassium, selenium, tryptophan and omega-3 fatty acids).

Due to it's mild flavor and flaky consistency, cod can easily be used to make cod cakes.

To make cod cakes, cook cod fillets in about 1 inch of lightly salted water; this should take around 6 minutes. Remove the cods and put them on a plate with paper towel to drain and dry.
Pat the fillets dry and flake them in a bowl into medium flakes.

To bind the fish together, in this recipe I used an egg yolk and greek yogurt as well as whole wheat panko crumbs. For flavor I added minced scallions, chopped parsley, Dijon mustard, lemon juice and S+P. You could use a whole egg or mayo (but I feel that adds unnecessary fat).

Once you have your basic mix, you form them into patties, and bread with a coating of panko crumbs. This is best done by placing a bed of crumbs out on a plate and pressing the cod patty into the crumbs.

At this point, the cod cakes could be refrigerated for a couple hours to set up, but this step is not required. It is a good option however, for those who need to juggle their time. Set the cakes up ahead of time and cook later in the day after you work or you do whatever you have to do.

Pan saute the cakes in canola oil over medium heat for about 5 minutes, then flip. You can see in the pictures that not much oil is needed; only enough to coat the bottom of the pan should do it. Beware of wanting to rush the cooking by turning the heat too high. The crust will brown too quickly before the cod cake "cooks" through, so be sure to keep the heat on medium.

Once you flip, cook the cod cake on the other side another 3-4 minutes. Remove from the pan and season while still warm with a pinch of salt.

These cod cakes are worth giving a try. You could even substitute other fish or shellfish and I'm sure the result would be great (crab for instance).
If you have any questions please email or leave a comment.
Enjoy!

Coconut Carrot Curry Soup

2010-02-15T08:01:00.001-08:00

I stole this post from my new blog, Rawk Out, which chronicles the addition of raw foods to my diet. Enjoy!

Coconut Carrot Curry Soup

One of the first raw soups I made was a Coconut Curry soup. The recipe I used was from a book called Raw Foods For Busy People by Jordan Maerin. The book is a thin paperback, and at first glance, might be overlooked, which is a shame, because it is packed with excellent information for a new raw foodist, as well as some great recipes.
This recipe involved opening up a Thai coconut to get the milk and the meat. I know what you're thinking - isn't that and advanced technique? Well, yes and no, really. There are some excellent, informative videos on how to open a Thai coconut on line, on being this video from the Renegade Health Show: go(coco)nuts!!
This is a Thai coconut:
Inside is the round nut which has the milk and meat in it. To get to it, you cut off the white husk, and use the heel of your knife to break the shell open:
Here's the meat and milk after I scraped it out of the shell:
The meat is very soft, almost gelatinous, and the milk, is actually a thin liquid with a mild coconut flavor (I actually made coconut "ice cream" from one on Friday which was soooo delicious, but that's for another post)....

The soup had grated carrots, the coconut milk and meat, diced onion, juice of a lime or 2, powdered ginger, curry powder and cilantro in it. I used my new Blend-Tec blender, which is a high speed blender, that can process just about anything, to process it all up (except cilantro).
After blending it all together, I added the chopped cilantro. The soup was spicy and delicious. The spice of the ginger and curry powder really warmed the body. I will definitely make this soup again :)
Try something raw today!

Soup JouMou

2010-02-15T07:05:00.000-08:00

This soup is a popular soup in Haiti. It traditionally has pumpkin in it, as well as beef and other aromatic vegetables. Flavored with ginger, allspice and garlic, the soup is particularly warming.
I recently made a vegan version of the soup for a client of mine. Instead of pumpkin I used butternut squash, carrots and kale. I added in quinoa to boost the protein level and make it more "complete" nutritionally. I finished it off with lime juice.
It was so delicious, that I in turn went home and made it for my family to eat.
In my Soup Joumou, on top of the ginger, garlic and allspice, I used butternut squash, carrots, kale and instead of quinoa, I used millet.
Millet
Millet is grain that you'll usually find in bird feed!! However, it is delicious, has a high B vitamin content, has a good protein load, and is gluten free, making it a good grain of choice for people who are wheat intolerant.
Soup Joumou when made in Haiti is pureed. I did not puree the versions that I made. Both the quinoa and millet added body to the soup and therefore, I felt pureeing was not necessary.
I cannot stress enough how delicious and warming this soup was. With each bite, you could feel the soup nourishing your body.

My fat of choice when sauteing the aromatics was coconut oil also referred to as coconut butter. Coconut oil is high in saturated fat, however, approximately 65% of the saturated fats are Medium Chain Fatty Acids (MCFA). These MCFAs are different from the long chain fatty acids because they are processed differently in the body than those fatty acids, and current research shows that these types of fatty acids are not responsible for coronary disease. MCFAs have also been shown to raise the body's metabolism level and could aid in weight loss. Other health benefits of coconut oil include antibacterial and antiviral properties.

Beautiful, curly kale
The soup, cooking, after the addition of the millet:

The finished soup, delicious!
Email me for the recipe :)
sharon@thyme-to-cook.com

Vegan Crumb Cake

2010-01-13T12:14:00.001-08:00

Once and a while you come across a recipe that is so full proof, you could execute it backwards, with your eyes closed, and it would still work. That is true of the following crumb cake recipe. I found it on an amazing blog called Vegan Yum Yum, a blog dedicated to veganism. I am not a vegan, but I do enjoy cooking both vegan and vegetarian. When I bake, I use alternative flours, sweeteners and fats so I put my own spin on the recipe.
The recipe was adapted and "veganized" from Cooks Illustrated magazine by blogger Lauren Ulm. I made some changes to her adaptation; Her recipe called for AP flour and I used Whole Wheat Pastry flour. Lauren used granulated white sugar, and I used Sucanat (an unrefined sugar that has the molasses in it as well as other minerals that are stripped out when processing it into white sugar). Lauren used canola oil, and I used Almond oil. Lastly, Lauren used cornstarch mixed with water, and I used potato starch. Besides the oil and the potato starch/water mixture, the other liquid in the mix was soy milk, mixed with a small amount of lemon juice, and a small amount of vanilla.
What I love about this recipe is that you don't have to use a mixer as the fat in both the crumb and the cake is liquid (melted Earth Balance for the topping, and Almond oil for the cake), so, no creaming is necessary. I like to use Almond oil in baked goods. It has a pleasant flavor and is mainly monounsaturated (over over 70%) and polyunsaturated (~17%).

Secondly, you cover the pan with foil and then lift the foil out when the cake is done, so there is limited clean up. Lastly, the cake bakes relatively quickly, so from start to finish, you're looking at about an hour's time, not too bad :)
The recipe is broken down into 2 parts, the cake and the crumb. The crumb is a delicious, thick and crumbly topping made of melted Earth Balance vegetable oil spread, sugar, flour, cinnamon and pinch of salt. I'm all about the crumb, and in fact, it is so substantial in this recipe, the crumb layer is just as big, if not bigger, than the cake layer! Delicious. Here's some pics:
Here is the crumb mix:
The cake batter in the pan:
With the crumb topping, ready for oven:
Done!
Enjoy :)

Asian Salmon Quinoa Patties

2010-01-02T05:43:00.000-08:00

I made some beautiful Asian inspired salmon quinoa burgers (or cakes, or patties, whatever you'd like to call them). When I cooked for a client this past week, I roasted a nice looking piece of wild pink salmon. I had some quinoa made already, and so I combined it with the salmon, along with Asian flavors such as ginger, tamari, sesame, scallions and cilantro.

My oil of choice for this project was Rice Bran oil, an oil high in antioxidants (Oryzanol and Tocotrienols). It has a slightly nutty but not overpowering flavor, and it has a high smoke point. I used it to saute the ginger, scallions and garlic until softened, before adding them to the salmon and quinoa. I also used it to cook the patties.

To bind the patties I used an egg and some quinoa flour.
The patties browned up nicely.
The patties were very hearty and 2 of them made a delicious and filling lunch.

2010 resolution

2010-01-01T05:21:00.000-08:00

Ok, I've been a bad blogger!!! I had all intentions of blogging 09 away, however, life got in the way in a big way. The grand finale was a move into a new community, new home, new school for my best boy and a new (bigger more functional) kitchen.
So, I have no excuses now, as I settle in to my new home and kitchen.
I'll start 2010 off with the Squid and Scallop stew that I made for dinner last night on NYE. We stayed home with the kids (ages 7 and 5), and drank Sofia (Francis Ford Coppola's Blanc du Blanc sparkling wine).

I started with a saute of garlic and onions.
The squid was cleaned already, so all I needed to do was give it a quick rinse and slice the bodies into rings. I added the squid to the pan and deglazed with fresh squeezed orange juice, clementine juice and a 2002 Hop Kiln Gewurztraminer. I also added S+P, smoked paprika and organic strained tomatoes. The strained tomatoes were by Bionature and came in a glass bottle, 24oz, no salt added. They made a wonderful, silky sauce. Also in the mix were pit-less Picholine and Nicoise olives. To counter the saltiness, I added a squeeze of Agave syrup. I put in a couple bay leaves and some parsley stems for herbal undertones.
After bringing the squid up to the boil, I reduced the heat and covered and let it simmer for close to 40 minutes. The thought behind squid is, it gets cooked for either a short period of time, like a quick grill, or for a long period of time, like a braise in a stew.
After 40 minutes I checked on the squid and it was nice and tender, ready for the scallops. I added in the scallops, another round of fresh squeezed clementine juice and let the scallops cook for just a few minutes.
Once the scallops were cooked through, I added the zest of 1 orange and 1 clementine, a big bunch of chopped parsley, a squeeze of lemon juice and a readjustment of S+P.

It was a delicious way to finish up 2009. We ate it with a salad of baby romaine, sliced baby corn, chopped tamari almonds and a mild feta cheese, with a fresh clementine vinaigrette, as well as a crusty ciabbata. I can't resist a chance to add in a shot of my sous chef, Louise :)
Happy 2010!

It's CSA Season!

2009-07-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

It's CSA season!
I'm well into CSA season, and it has not been disappointing AT ALL! The reason I say this is because here in Boston, it rained almost every day in June, and July has only been marginally better. We did get sweet strawberries, and that was all that mattered for the first couple weeks :) The beets have been overflowing as well as have the bunches of chard and kale and summer squashes.
The fate of the zukes and summer squashes have been a variety of sweet quick breads, like this chocolate zuke bread
I've been roasting the beets and eating them in copious amounts. Here are some in a Soba noodle salad
I made a vegetarian modified borscht, which came out delectable.
I used grated beets, diced beets, onions, canned diced tomatoes, veggie stock, fennel seeds, mint, cardamom pods and swiss chard.....

Yum - I topped it with 0% Greek plain yogurt mixed w/dill. Very fresh and satisfying.
There will be more to come as the weeks go by and the bounty continues!

Otto Enoteca Pizzeria NYC 02/14/09

2009-02-18T05:42:00.001-08:00

I visited Mario Batali's restaurant, Otto Enoteca Pizzeria this past weekend when I visited NYC. It was Valentine's Day and all we could get was a 4:30pm reservation, which actually worked out great with our evening activities.
I wrote a short review for Opentable.com, which I used to make the reservation; here is the review:

I recently dined at Otto Enoteca Pizzeria through a reservation I made on OpenTable.com. Below summarizes my dining experience. I hope you will find this helpful next time you are deciding where to dine.
Feedback on Otto Enoteca Pizzeria

Ratings:

Food		Very Good
Ambiance		Fair
Service		Good
Overall		Good
Noise		Loud

	I would classify this restaurant as: Fit for Foodies, Good for Groups, Great for Lunch, Notable Wine List Review by Sharon Shiner: Otto Enoteca is the "accessible" Mario Batali restaurant. You can walk in off the street and eat some good Italian fare without breaking the bank, and without feeling that you need to have to hone up on your Italian food history. The menu is simple yet offers many selections. Start off with the Antipasti, choosing from vegetables, meats, seafood, cheese, and greens. Be sure to try the fresh anchovies with scallions and croutons. After the Antipasti, chose a pasta or a pizza, and split it with your loved one. Finish up with the gelato! It is creamy and delicious with flavors like salty caramel and dark chocolate. The staff is knowledgeable and will answer any question you might have in a manner that pleasant. The spot is touristy but yummy. We had the Antipasti first and chose the following items: Arugula w/roasted cherry tomatoes Roasted brussel sprouts Roasted beets Cardoons w/scallions (cardoons are in the artichoke family and are similar to celery) Prosciutto Fresh anchovies w/scallions and "breadcrumbs", which were really nice crispy chunks of bread and cheese - Fontina, Gorganzola Dolce and Parmesanno Regianno Fresh bread and grisini (Breadsticks) were put on the table, as well as a plate of truffle homey (YUM), a plate of cherries and a plate of apricots w/chiles. Can you say prosciutto, gorganzola w/truffle honey on a piece of bread????? We split a pizza which was an excellent size to split; we got a Taleggio w/mushroom pizza. Taleggio is a stinky cheese and paired well with the mushrooms. It was topped with fresh chopped parsley. It was pure earth....delicious. We finished with their homemade gelato, which screamed with flavor. We paired Salty Caramel with Dark Chocolate and each bite made you want another. The wine list was overwhelming, but offered some wines as individual servings, sold in a short carafe, equal to a bit more than a glass of wine. I had a Dolcetto D'Alba which was super soft. Overall, a great place to eat - a bit touristy and loud, but excellent food. Like I said above - it's the accessible Mario Batali restaurant.

Cilantro Pepita Pesto Crusted Roasted Salmon

2009-02-15T06:18:00.000-08:00

Live from New York, it's Sunday morning, way too early, thus I'm updating my blog!
Some of you were inquiring about the dinner I made last week for my family, which included a Cilantro Pepita Pesto Crusted Salmon and Sweet Pepper Slaw.

The pesto was dynamite. Here's how you make it:
There are no "true" measurements for the ingredients, it's more of a "to taste" type of recipe.
So, first off, roast or toast your raw, unsalted pepitas (about 3/4 cup).
Whats a pepita you ask? A pepita is a pumpkin seed which has been hulled. They are green and oval shaped and nutrition wise, they pack a punch: they are a great source of polyunsaturated fats, protein and zinc.
I put mine in my toaster oven for just a few minutes, just until they start to darken and become aromatic. Let them cool while you deal with the other ingredients:

Cilantro leaves, a good size bunch worth
Lime Juice, fresh squeezed from 3 limes
Garlic, chopped, 1-3 cloves depending on your raw garlic tolerance level
Water, about 1/4 cup
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
S+P (I use sea salt)

I used my food processor to make the pesto, but a blender would work just as well.
Put your cilantro leaves, cooled pepitas, lime juice, and garlic in processor bowl, start to process and add water. Drizzle in the oil until the consistency is paste like. Taste and season with S+P.

For the salmon, I used fillets with the skin off.
Preheat oven to 400 while making the pesto.
Heat an oven proof saute pan over med-high.
Dress the fillets with S+P, and a bit of the pesto on the top of the fillet. Put into pan, skin side up and let it cook without touching for around 5 minutes.
Flip your fillets, add a bit more pesto on top and place in oven to finish cooking.
That's all folks!
Very yummy.

For the slaw, I simply cheated and used a bag of Broccoli Slaw - it has shredded broccoli stems, cabbage and carrots in it. I added in thinly sliced sweet peppers (any or all colors), and fresh chopped cilantro.
For the dressing use equal parts extra virgin olive oil, fresh squeezed lime juice and non-fat plain yogurt, with salt to taste. You don't really need more than 2 TBS of each, but if you like alot of dressing, you might want to make more. (sorry, no picture of slaw)...
That's all she wrote! Enjoy, and email me if you have any questions!

A "better for you" snack cake

2008-12-25T16:19:00.000-08:00

In my efforts to "eat clean" I have been working with alternative sweeteners and flours as well as probiotics.
I made a "yogurt chocolate chip cake" recently and adapted a recipe from the Stoneyfield Yogurt cookbook. I made the following substitutions:

I traded white whole wheat flour for AP Flour. White whole wheat has all the fiber and nutrition of traditional whole wheat, with milder flavor and lighter color. It is a great way to sneak fiber into your diet.

Instead of white sugar, I used Agave Syrup. Agave syrup is made from the agave plant, and is considered a natural sweetener. It is sweeter than white sugar, and so you can use less of it when substituting it for white sugar. It is lower on the glycemic index than white sugar is, making it a good alternative sweetener for diabetics, since it does not raise the blood sugar as high as white sugar does. I especially like it because it goes into both hot and cold liquids without any problem.

Instead of butter, I used Earth Balance Vegan "Butter" sitcks (79% vegetable oil).
I used 2 egg whites in place of the 2 whole eggs.
First I creamed the Earth Balance with the Agave Syrup, then added the egg whites:

Instead of yogurt, I used Kefir, a cultured milk that is considered a "probiotic" since it contains live cultures.

After creaming, I added the Kefir and vanilla, blended those ingredients in, and added the dry ingredients (white whole wheat, salt, baking soda/powder and the choc chips).

One of my favorite places on line to order baking supplies is King Arthur Flour. They are one stop shopping for all things "baking". I used their mini chips for the cake:
The cake also had a topping. For the topping, I used earth balance, white whole wheat, cocoa powder, more mini chips and Sucanat instead of sugar. Sucanat is another alternative sugar and ranks the highest in nutritional value of the sweeteners, containing a smaller proportion of sucrose than white sugar does. It is a light brown sugar, though grainy and not crystalline as true brown sugar is.
For the topping, I mixed all of the ingredients w/the mixer and then put little mounds of it onto the batter.

I had never made this cake before, and the topping actually baked into the cake - I'm not sure if that was supposed to happen, but it actually was a nice effect.

Due to the high moisture content of the agave syrup and the Kefir, the cake was extremely moist, and lasted a long time without going stale.

Take a Bite!
Yum - good stuff!
Check out the alternatives when baking, they can really make a difference. Please email me if you have any questions regarding any of the ingredients I used for this cake (sharon@thyme-to-cook.com).......

Here is the recipe (with my changes):
Ingredients
1/4 cup Earth Balance Vegan Stick (EB)
2/3 cup Agave Syrup (AS)
2 egg whites
1 cup plain Kefir (I used 1%, but fat free is good as well)
1 tsp vanilla
2 cup White Whole Wheat Flour (King Arthur Flour)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used mini chips)
Topping
1/4 cup Earth Balance Vegan Stick
1/3 cup Sucanat
1/2 cup White Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/2 tsp cocoa powder
1/4 cup semi-swee chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.
Cream the EB and AS. Add the egg whites one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Stir in the Kefir and Vanilla.
In a separate bowl blend together the dry ingredients (not the chips).
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir to mix.
Stir in choc chips.
Pour into a greased 9x13 baking pan.
For the topping, cream the EB, Sucanat, flour and cocoa until well blended.
Stir in choc chips.
Sprinkle the topping over the cake batter.
Bake 35-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Chili

2008-10-24T11:07:00.000-07:00

I made some chili yesterday using some gorgeous ground pork from Stillman's (my meat CSA), as well as some of the remaining veggies that I had from my CSA: carrots, parsnips, celery and a type of chile that I believe is called a colorado chile??? It looks like a tomato and is sweet hot, not hot hot. It is a good chile to pickle.
Here's how it all went down:
First, I got all my aromatics cut up. I only used 1 tomato chile because I really didn't want too much heat. Louise happens to love chili, so it had to be Lou friendly.

Here is the chile that I have been referring to:

First, I got my pork going:

Then the onions and garlic, the rest of the veggies, and off it cooked for a while....

In went the liquids. My secret ingredient is, yup, coffee:

In went diced tomatoes w/their juice and some beef broth, and lastly, the kidney beans:

For spices I used garlic powder, ancho chile powder, cumin, epazote and Mexican oregano, and of course S+P. Epazote is an herb that smells like rubber tires, but is a classic Mexican herb and adds undertones of Mexican food that you can't really get anywhere else....
I also cut the stems off some cilantro and put them into a disposable tea bag (for loose tea). That way, you can incorporate the flavor of the cilantro, but you are able to pull the stems when the cooking process is done:

After about an hour of simmering, this is what it looked like:
It was ready to get thickened up a bit. I did that with Masa Harina. Masa is ground corn, used to make corn tortillas (as well as empanada dough and arepas and other things). Have you ever had an arepa? Oh my, so good. I haven't had a "true" arepa since I was in college/grad school, should I date myself??, nah, I don't need to reveal that.
Anyways, I was dating a guy who was of Colombian descent. We would go down to Jackson Heights, Queens to a restaurant there called La Pequina Colombia (here's a link: review, nice to see it's still in business). We would always get arepas there, though they are street food and are sold at carts on the streets. They were made of 2 layers of masa dough, cooked on a griddle and stuffed with an oozing white cheese. I'm not sure what the cheese was, but it was sweet and delicious. Man, I could go for one of those right now..... Anyways heres how the Masa comes packaged:

I added about 6 TBS (a little more than 1/3 cup), and it thickened the chili right up. The last thing to do was pull the cilantro stems and re-season w/S+P, and stir in a ton of chopped cilantro. I served it with cheese, chopped scallions, lime wedges and for myself, plain Greek fat free yogurt.

It was good and thick and delicious. Hungry yet?

CSA

2008-10-19T16:42:00.001-07:00

My CSA is over :( I still have a bunch of carrots, potatoes and winter squash kicking around, and the farm stand is still open for a couple more weeks, so I'll stock up on what I can.
I made a meatball vegetable stew with Stillman's awesome lean ground beef from the Belties on their farm. The meat is ~93-95% lean, and is rich in Omega-3 fatty acids. First I made the meatballs and browned them on my flat griddle.

I cut up yellow and orange carrot from the farm, some red potatoes (also from the farm) as well as some celery, onion and garlic, and sauteed them all in a Dutch oven.
Once the aromatics and potatoes cooked for a bit, I added diced tomatoes, chicken broth and Stillman's cabbage and let that simmer for a short time before adding in whole wheat flax pasta.
I also added back the meatballs to cook them through.
It was delicious - nice for the cooler weather that has crept up on us.

Sesame crusted Tuna

2008-10-19T16:27:00.000-07:00

One of the PAs at my husband's office has a boat and so every couple months we seem to get a dose of fresh tuna. The last time we got some, I crusted it in sesame seeds, both white and black, and pan sauteed it. I am in the school of cooking it through unless I'm eating sushi. Here's my dinner :)

The pieces of tuna:

Dish of sesame seeds - I pressed the tuna right into it:Into the saute pan:
Flip it:
Yum:
It was very yummy. We got some more last Wednesday, but I was off to teach Spinning, and did not eat any. Most of it went into the freezer, so I'm sure I'll revisit it at some point soon.

Charolette's Web

2008-09-27T05:28:00.000-07:00

For a while, we had our very own Charolette's web in the corner of our roof just outside our deck door; the spider was with us for a good month, if not longer. We had a number of days with rain, where she would go and hide, but always returned to spin her web after the rain cleared. Charolette was so cool, and spun her web fast and with precision.

Here are some stills:
One day, she never returned. That was a bummer, because watching her spin her web was just so real and so amazing, a true part of nature that was very fullfilling.

Eggplants

2008-09-19T10:57:00.000-07:00

My CSA is at about week 12, I think. The eggplants have been abundant!

In honor of this big bulb of a veggie, I've been making Baba Ganoush. This is very easy to make. It basically is hummus, but made with eggplant instead of garbanzos.

The first step is to poke holes in the eggplant, all around it.

Second, roast the eggplant either in the oven or grill. Use a medium heat (375ish). I used the grill and roasted the eggplant indirectly.

The eggplant will start to shrivel up and when it's good and shriveled, pull it out.

Wait for the eggplant to cool a bit, then cut it open and pull out the pulp (I put it right into a food processor).

Next, add some garlic; how much depends on how much you want to stink (in a good way).
Add some sesame tahini. Sesame tahini is sesame seed paste. Delicious, confirmed.

A squeeze of lemon juice, and the zest of the lemon, some S+P, and process away.

I do not add olive oil until the end, when I drizzle it on top.
Eat it as a dip or spread or just off a spoon.......

Wheatberries

2008-09-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

Have you ever eaten a wheat berry?
If not, you must, and soon.
I love whole grains and the wheat berry, by far, is the best. Well, when I say wheat berry, I'm lumping in spelt berries and kamut berries as well. Spelt and kamut are also whole grains and in the "berry" form contain both the bran and the germ, making them nutritional power houses.
Here are the berries uncooked:

Wheat berries take a bit of time to cook, but with a pressure cooker, cook up in no time. They also freeze well, so it makes sense to make a mega batch and freeze some for later use.
Here they are cooked:

The wheat berries are chewy and a bit crunchy. They can be eaten mixed in a salad or in soups and stews. They can be mixed into a dough to make a delicious whole grain bread. You can process them with beans and veggies and make veggie burgers. You can even mix them into oatmeal to make a hearty porridge. So, you see, they are very versatile.
I made some recently and mixed them with yellow tomatoes, basil, lemon juice and zest and some extra virgin olive oil, S+P. Yum.
Here's the dish:
I ate the salad throughout this week, topping it with different proteins: tuna, salmon, chicken as well as some avocado. Excellent.

My own little garden

2008-09-06T10:47:00.000-07:00

So, this summer I decided to try my luck at pot gardening (no, not gardening pot!!!). I planted peas, cluster cherry tomatoes, yellow pear tomatoes, red peppers, thai hot peppers, watermelons and pumpkins, as well as a variety of herbs.
I've done surprisingly well with all of it.
My tomatoes are growing out of control - I guess you could say I have my own method of keeping up with them. Here are some pics:

The Tomato Conglomerate
After the rain has fallen
A bunch that I picked yesterday
My peppers are doing great as well and they are just starting to turn red. Here are some pics:

Here are the Thai hots; they are supposed to turn red, but there is no indication that they are turning or that they are going to turn. They do smell very fragrant and I bet they are going to burn.

Now, the "piece de resistance": my watermelon!
I know, it's huge.
I didn't even think I had any melons (hah, don't go there)....the pumpkins did not come out. They flowered, but never grew any fruit.
I thought the same of the watermelons, and then one day, this little guy popped out. I'm going to keep him on there to see what happens.
I am inspired enough to try planting in the ground next season. I'll just have to do some heavy duty squirrel proofing, as well as deer, rabbit, turkey, you name it, we've got it proofing.
I'll let you know how the melon turns out....

When life gives you tomatoes, you make Marinara

2008-09-06T10:22:00.000-07:00

By this point I am swamped with tomatoes, and man, are they are good!
I decided to make Marinara sauce.
I had a purple onion so I used that and 2 heads of Stillman's garlic from the CSA. Their garlic is so sweet and tender, it just makes the dish you are using it in that much better.

I sauteed them in some olive oil until soft.

Then I added the chopped tomatoes and let them melt away.

Last, I added fresh, chopped basil and let it simmer for 5 more minutes - just enough time for the basil to release it's fragrance.

YUM; I froze half of it. It was good and it will be nice to have it mid winter when the tomatoes suck.

Vegetarian, Dairy Free Corn Chowder

2008-08-12T07:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I made a vegetarian, dairy free chowder for one of my clients. I knew I had some, but not all of the components to make it at home, so when I got home, I made up a modified batch for myself.

First off, everything I used to make the chowder came from my CSA (Stillman's Farm) except the shallots.....
I cut up some red potatoes, white potatoes, garlic, shallot, and yellow squash.

I had 4 ears of corn left from last week, so I stripped off all the corn from them.

I used thyme and oregano from my own (tiny) deck garden (rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano, Thai hot peppers, sweet bell peppers, cluster cherry tomatoes and yellow pear tomatoes)...not bad for my first time....next year I'm going in the ground...

I sauteed the garlic and shallots, then added the squash, potatoes and herbs .
I chose to simply use water as the liquid, and I added half of the corn, as well as the cobs, in to make a corn "stock" as the chowder simmered away.
It simmered for 30 minutes or so, then I pureed it with the immersion blender. After that, I added in the remaining corn and allowed the heat of the chowder to cook it.
The color was a bit flat, so to brighten it up, I served it with a swirl of pesto I had made (yes, with stillman's basil), and it was delicious.

Today, I'm going to roast a chicken from the meat portion of the CSA, after I pick up my share. Can't wait to see what I get!

Beans, Beans The Magical Fruit

2008-08-10T04:00:00.000-07:00

I love beans. Enough said. So, I made some pot beans on Friday. I used heirloom beans from Rancho Gordo, an amazing farm in Napa, CA that specializes in heirloom beans. I used Yellow Indian Woman, almost pinto like, but smaller:

From the farm I had some beautiful tomatoes, an Italian green pepper and cayenne peppers, so I was able to incorporate them into the recipe. Along with onion, garlic, and some stock, the beans cooked in my pressure cooker.
Here are the veggies cut up:

Look at the beautiful tomatoes!
First, I suateed the garlic, onions, cayenne and Italian peppers:
Then I added the tomatoes:
Soaked/drained beans and stock went in last, and they pressure cooked for 15 minutes. Here they are:
Yum. A squeeze of lime, and we're good to go. I would have used fresh cilantro, but I was out...oh well.

I had some round steak in the freezer to use up, so I also stewed that off with the same base.
It was yummy - very tender and delicious. Along with the beans, some cut up avocado and some brown rice, it was excellent dinner, and it made excellent leftovers as well.