Veggie Creations

Roasted Squash & Sausage Soup

• Butternut squash
• Acorn squash
• Onion
• Garlic
• Broth
• Sausage
• Salt & Pepper
• Olive Oil

For this delightful soup creation I decided to roast all my veggies prior to blending. I peeled and chopped my squash along with the onion and garlic and roasted them with olive oil in a 400 degree oven for approximately 30 minutes. I then put them into a blender and blended with some homemade beef stock. Alternately, if you prefer to keep them chunky, just add the stock or broth and do not blend up. I added some cooked sausage, salt & pepper for a super simple delightful soup. This soup is lovely just as is or grate a bit of Parmesan cheese on top.

 

Baked Kale Chips

• Fresh Kale
• Balsamic Vinegar
• Olive Oil
• Sea Salt

Strip your kale leaves from the stalks and chop or tear into pieces. Sprinkle with vinegar, oil, and salt and allow to sit for about 30 minutes. Put onto a sheet pan and bake in a 350 degree oven for about 12-15 minutes. Watch closely until they are crispy. Enjoy a most delightful snack.

Zucchini Hummus

Here's another inspiring summer squash recipe. My plants are still going strong although I have started to notice the squash bugs presence. It won't be long before they start to die off, but I'm okay with that. I recently was inspired by a recipe for summer squashummus.

I started out by sauteeing about 5 cups of chopped zucchini. No need to peel the squash first, just saute until nice and soft. Added it to the food processor with 2 Tablespoons tahini, along with 1/2 teaspoon salt, about 1 teaspoon cumin, 1 teaspoon paprika, 4 garlic cloves, and 1 Tablespoon lemon juice.

Pretty tasty. It is definitely more liquid like than the hummus that I'm used to, but it was fabulous with my no-knead overnight bread dipped in it.

Squash Season

Tis the season for summer squash overload! I have been eating it numerous times a day, everyday, for the past several weeks. I usually eat it whole-heartily for a while until the squash bugs take over and kill my plants. Usually by then I'm ready for them to die. Although there are numerous recipe collections using squash online I usually don't even get to trying them. I thought I might share the methods of my squash eating as I have answered numerous requests lately for what to do with squash.

• Simply slice or dice, saute in a bit of butter, add desired seasonings and call it magic! This is probably my most frequent eating method. I like a little cumin, paprika, salt and pepper added. Sometimes I get crazy and sprinkle nutritional yeast on top for a cheesy nutty flavor. I eat this with my eggs almost everyday.
• Shred it, mix it with some more random spices, cheese, thickener of some kind like bread crumbs or cornmeal or specifically green pea flour and hemp seeds and make it a pancake. Once you have a thick mixture, slap it into a skillet and brown on both sides for a zucchini fritter type delicacy. Here's a picture of my creation last night!

• Pickle the suckers just like they were cucumbers! They certainly don't turn out as crunchy and crisp as pickling cucumbers would but they still are tasty pickled creations.
• Make a tasty fritatta like I did today for the kiddos at the Summer Feeding Program. I shredded the zucchini and potatoes and sauteed with onion. Then poured a bunch of farm fresh eggs on top, added some cheese and let cook into a delightful healthy veggie filled fritatta. The kids loved it too!
•  Of course most people know that zucchini lends itself pretty excellently in a quick bread or cake. Tonight I made my first batch of zucchini muffins and I'm pretty proud because these do not involve a pound of sugar and they are quite tasty. Find the recipe here.

On another squash note, I have started harvesting my first acorn squash. I have honestly never grown a successful crop of winter squash variety because my plants always get devoured by squash bugs before they produce anything. Praise the Lord, these acorn squash grew out of my compost that I had buried in the garden and they were a complete surprise when I found the wonderful squash ready for picking!

Got any other brilliant ideas for using the abundance of summer squash? Please leave a comment and let me know how you prefer to eat these tasty treats!

Meat Marinara

Growing up I refused to eat homemade marinara sauce. We had spaghetti fairly frequently and I always used to complain to my mother when she would make real, from scratch, marinara with home-canned tomatoes. I really didn't even eat tomatoes until I was probably 18. I used to beg my mom to buy the spaghetti sauce in the jar. It's so funny how times change and now I would never even think of buying pre-made marinara. Talk about added sugar and salt and probably red #40.

Here's my recent experience of making marinara using up some great things in my fridge. Starting out with ground venison. Throwing in some chopped onion, carrots, mushrooms and garlic. Might as well add as many veggies as possible. You can't go wrong.

I would have used more home-canned tomatoes, however, I'm still crying from the disaster of a growing season last summer. This is so sad that I actually have to buy canned tomatoes. Just pathetic. Praying for next year to be a bounty!

I did find one jar of homemade marinara that I added as well. Into the pot it all went along with a generous amount of italian herb seasoning and some salt & pepper.

I was pretty excited to cook my spaghetti squash. I simply cut it in half and face down on a baking sheet for about 45 minutes. Spaghetti squash is so fun because it looks exactly like spaghetti noodles, except it's squash!

Wouldn't you know I forgot to photograph my plate. I was dining with friends and had to take this after shot. The marinara was super chunky and tasty. 

Supper Club

I hosted my first Supper Club gathering this week. It was a lot of fun and a really great way to join with other lovely single ladies for a delightful dinner. I decided that a supper club would be a great way to cook great food and enjoy it with others so I invited several ladies that I know enjoy great food and would enjoy meeting some new people.

We enjoyed a lovely fall minestrone. Courtesy of Alice Waters, The Art of Simple Food.

Sauteed onions, celery, carrots, garlic

Swiss Chard fresh from the garden

Added butternut squash, water and simmered

White Northern beans & pasta

Grand Finale!

Green things

My second garden, the one that I tend to approximately once a week at my parents' house, is a little crazy. Due to the fact that I leave it in my mother's hands to water during the week that is about all that gets done. It is definitely alive and doing well, but when I finally get out there to check on things it seems there is sooo much to do. Good things. 

Today I noticed the second planting of corn is as big if not bigger than the first planting. Most of my squash is a lost cause as I'm pretty sure that the squash bugs have already taken over. However, my all organic (I put nothing on them) cabbage heads are needing to be picked because the bugs are eating them alive. My tomatoes are looking good after I pruned and tied them up some more. I harvested a bunch of beets and onions and need to spend another day out there harvesting the remaining onions, turnips, and cabbage. I'm sure there are potatoes that can be dug up and I need to give some effort to the strawberry bed to prepare it for next season.

As I made my way back to town I did a quick check on my first garden. Look what I found! These are even a bit big but just since yesterday morning when I looked at them they grew a ton I feel. Actually that big one was definitely hiding.

Very first zucchini harvest!

Yesterday I made a trip to Manhattan and checked on my friends' Dave and Wendi's garden plants. I harvested some basil on their giant plants and am pretty pumped for the first pesto of the summer season hanging out in my fridge right now. Today's concoction included basil, almonds, garlic, olive oil, and salt. I plan to make pesto pizza tonight for Family Friend Date Night! It's going to be epic goodness!!!

Magical Turnip Soup

• Turnip - I used about 8 medium to small
• Onion - 1 medium
• Carrot - 1 large
• Sweet potato - 1 small
• Delicata squash - 1/2 cup smashed- this can be left out, I used up some that I had thawed in the fridge
• Chicken stock - roughly 4 cups
• White apple wine - 1/2 cup- once again, apple wine not necessary, just what I found in the fridge
• Curry powder - 1 heaping teaspoon
• Mustard seed - generous sprinkle
• Black pepper - 1/2 teaspoon
• Salt - to taste

I chopped the turnip, onion, carrot, and sweet potato and sauteed for about 5 minutes. Then I added the spices for another couple of minutes. Added the squash mash that I had hanging out in the fridge along with the wine and stock. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 30 minutes or so covered. Here you can either eat it chunky style or go ahead and blend for a pureed soup. I prefer the pureed version so all the flavors are mingled. This also allowed me to feed it to my father without him freaking out too much about eating turnips and sweet potatoes. I added a dollop of plain yogurt while serving for a delightful magical soup!

This soup is magical because not only is it virtually fat free and full of healthful vegetables, but it contains curry. Curry, according to this not-so-scientific article, helps as an anti-aging agent, fights Alzheimer's, cancer protection, and arthritis treatment. Sounds pretty magical to me!