Winter Bread Salad with Prosciutto and Kale

I’ve been trying to get on board the kale salad trend, with little success.  On paper, kale salad sounds like a spectacular proposition.  Local? Yes! Seasonal? Absolutely! Beautiful specimens of all types of kale are available from local farms in the dreariest, coldest months.  Nutritious? Sure – dark, leafy greens prevent all sorts of nasty conditions.  Delicious?…. awkward silence…

Pork Chops with Mustard Sauce, Smashed Potatoes, and Romaine Salad w/ Garlicky Vinaigrette

Recently a friend and I were having a conversation about the challenge of conceiving, planning and preparing 21 meals a week (plus snacks).  Spelled out like that, the enormity of this job sunk in.  In addition to being nourishing, our family meals are also supposed to be varied and delicious.  Give me a break.  So, when I hit one out of the ballpark, I want to share it with you (and when you hit one out of the ballpark I want you to share it with me – that’s what Facebook is for!).  Last night our dinner was delicious and easy to put together.  It was also devoured before I had a chance to photograph a single pork chop, so I’ll do my best to paint a picture for you with words.

The name of the game: mustard.  I am a latecomer to the mustard party, but now that I have arrived I am living it up.  Let me count the mustards in my refrigerator….1, 2, 3, 4, 5…

Roasted Root Vegetables with Fatty Fat Fat

    

Earlier this fall I discovered a brand new farm that is growing beautiful, beautiful food – they’re called Hand-Farmed Organics.  I was able to join the tail end of their CSA season and each box has been thrilling!  Really, my whole family has been ecstatic over root vegetables and squash, which isn’t at all typical.  It’s undeniably exciting to have a box of gorgeous produce delivered to your doorstep by one of the farmers that has grown it.  I know that aspect can’t last forever,  but meeting Casey & Ryan and talking to them about what they’re growing and how has us all jazzed. Rutabagas!  Yes!

Sweet Victory Fig & Apricot Salad

This week I saw figs at the grocery store, and I barely hesitated before I reached  for a carton.  I’ve struggled with figs in the past, but I have a new confidence this year.  I went home and whipped up a Highly Experimental Salad that turned out to be Highly Successful.  Sweet Victory!  Here’s the recipe…

Waiter, There’s a Flower in My Salad.

I am a miserable farmer, it’s true.  But I am able to grow decent flowers and herbs, and Nasturtiums are both, so how could I go wrong? Nasturtiums are the A#1 recommendation for children’s  gardens – they’re that easy to grow. This year I planted seeds and got a lot (a lot) of foliage.  When the first leaves poked through the soil we were so excited! Days passed and the leaves grew wider and taller. “Oh my, this will be a bumper crop Nasturtium flowers,” we thought.  It has been, instead, a bumper crop of Nasturtium leaves. A few flowers, yes, but mostly leaves. Which left me dejected, until I learned that nasturtium leaves are absolutely delicious.

Slurp Your Vegetables

Earlier in the week I made a very robust vegetable stock.  Roasting the vegetables before they simmered in water was key, and the results were great – like the difference between a roasted carrot and a boiled carrot.  I simmered the stock for 45 minutes or so, removed the vegetables, and then simmered the stock some more.  It reduced down to a dark, strongly flavored broth which I froze in 1/2 cup containers.  This will be an amazing base for sauces and complex soups.  It also turned out to be a fantastic centerpiece for a quickie lunch.  I defrosted the stock and added 1.5C of water.  I raided the fridge for a little bit of this (sliced carrots, shredded kale) and a little bit of that (those noodles my kids didn’t finish).  Everything simmered together for 5 minutes,  I added some shredded parmesan, and sluuuuurp. It was souper.

Confronting Figs

Fresh figs have so much going for them.  They are beautiful –  little gems when they’re sliced open.  I love the taste – definitely sweet, but not very fruit-like.  They are available locally  – fig trees bear fruit even in Seattle’s challenging climate.  So, why can’t I figure out (ha!) what to do with these marvelous little morsels? Perhaps it is their enigmatic nature, their air of mystery.

This  year I was determined to make something fantastic with figs.  I bought figs, I ate a few, I googled recipes… nothing.  The figs withered.  They were compost. But then I tried again.  I brought home more figs, and I did not hesitate.  I did not look to others for answers.  I made up a fig salad, and it was fantastic.  It was also exquisitely simple.  Let me share my good news…

Toss together: figs (cut into 1/8s), torn lettuce, slices of parmesan, toasted croutons, shreds of prosciutto

Dress the salad with a mix of: champagne vinegar, a touch of maple syrup, extra virgin olive oil.

I ate this salad with great joy!  Now I’m ready to try another fig recipe.  My enthusiasm knows no bounds.  If you have a great way of preparing fresh figs, tell me about !  Here, or on our Facebook page.

What a Pickle

My girls and I are trying to start a “pickling thing”.  We are huge fans of dill pickles, and I especially miss the ones I could always find when we lived in Providence, RI.  Were they half-sours?  Crunchy, green, and still tasted like a cucumber.  Last year we harvested a load of cucumbers from their school’s amazing garden, this year we bought what we needed at the Columbia City Farmer’s Market.  I’m still intimidated by canning, so we go the refrigerator pickle route.  It doesn’t bother me that they don’t last as long, because they get eaten up thatfast anyway.  We had another set of 7 yr-old hands to help us make these pickles the other day.  

Potato Chips, Farm Fresh

Yesterday I wanted to test this whole “homemade potato chip” idea.  It seemed like a good idea, but you never know… I returned home from my thrice-weekly trip to the grocery store and realized that I had forgotten to buy potatoes.  Drat!  But then I remembered the potato patch out by my driveway. 

PS: More About Fennel

I have very important news about wild fennel!  I’ve learned that there is an advantage to rampant fennel – fennel pollen.  I had never heard of fennel pollen as a culinary ingredient, but a quick trip to Google educated me.  In an article for Saveur magazine, Peggy Knickerbocker wrote, “If angels sprinkled a spice from their wings, this would be it.”  Well, that sounds good.  I still haven’t tasted it, but apparently the pollen has a very strong, distinctive flavor (intense fennel, I suppose).  I’ve read that you can sprinkle it on meat and fish – any place you want a flavor boost.  It is harvested from fennel flowers in full bloom, and it is very very expensive.  You need a lot of fennel flowers to produce a usable amount of pollen.  I don’t regret axing most of the fennel plants in my flower bed – they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.  But maybe next year I’ll set a spot aside for the fennel to roam free.