Here’s an awesome and easy way to get even the most ardent dislikers of fresh cabbage to enjoy the seasons.  This slaw goes great with hots and burgers or grass fed pork chops and grilled veggies.  Really – it goes great with any summertime fare.  Make a batch and enjoy!

Not sure what to do with the funky looking vegetable kohlrabi?  Well aside from enjoying it fresh on a salad or sautéed with a little butter and salt it can be a terrific addition to a casserole type dish that everyone in the family can enjoy.

When the days get hot like they are now it’s not uncommon to find yourself sitting in a pool of zucchini.  The plants are extra prolific in this weather but if you don’t enjoy their bounty when it’s here – suddenly it’s not!  Now, I have to admit that I have never been a huge fan of zucchini – that was until this recipe.

Grilled summer vegetable medley

summer squash, zucchini, green peppers, banana peppers

Olive Oil

“your own spices” – see below

Directions:

From your CSA share grab some summer squash, zucchini, green peppers and a banana pepper.

Cut into 1 inch pieces and mix in a bowl with a tablespoon of olive oil.  Add salt and pepper if that’s all you want.

We place our vegetables in a grill basket and allow them to cook over medium heat until they are tender.  This depends on the tenderness you like.  Typically we grill the mix for about 15-20 minutes.  In the last few minutes of grilling, you can add some fresh or dried herbs.  Things like parsley or oregano go great.  Another awesome option are some of the McCormick grilling spices that are popular - Montreal Chicken or Steak go GREAT!

This past week we added some Chiavetta’s marinade (in BBQ aisle at Tops or Wegmans)  to our veggies mix before grilling.  Try it out on the vegetables as well as on some grilled chicken to accompany!

Really the “what to add” part is not at all prescriptive.  Take a look around and add whatever sounds great.  Sometimes we throw a tomato in there on the grill – in mushes all over everything and is actually kinda like a sauce.  You imagination is the limit as far as what you can add…  heck – I have even been known to take some fresh local back, start that in the grill basket and then dump the veggies on top…  of course, when you are cooking with “meat candy” you loose some of the “health” points – I suppose…  but it local and grass fed so I’m OK with that!

Although you may not need to do so this week, you can also grill your veggies and freeze them.  We place our grilled squash mix in a food saver bag, vacuum seal and enjoy them over the winter by simply defrosting them, spreading them out on a cookie sheet and heating them up in the oven.  We found that Wegman’s sells a bag of these grilled vegetables for $10!!!  Seriously – people buy them!

The CSA share this week has all the season makings of this super easy and really fresh tasting dish:

Sautéed Radishes and Sugar Snap Peas with Dill

• 1 TB butter
• 1 TB olive oil
• 3-4 garlic scapes (chopped) or 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 2 cups sugar snap peas (with strings removed – refer to video on website)
• 1 cup thinly sliced radishes
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1 TB fresh dill

Directions

Add olive oil and butter to large skillet and melt butter over medium heat.
Add garlic scapes or onions and saute about 3-5 minutes.
Add sugar snap peas and saute about 3 minutes (mixing and stirring in skillet).
Add radishes and saute another 5 minutes or so.
The snap peas should be bright green and crisp-tender and the radishes should start to look translucent.
Add orange juice and stir about 1 minute.
Season with dashes of salt and pepper.
Stir in chopped dill, remove from heat  and serve.

You could turn this into a stir fry by adding meat or tofu and rice.

We served ours along with brown rice and chicken and added several dashes of soy sauce to the dish!

This is a super simple way to use this early week CSA share of some lettuce, garlic scapes (what the heck are they!?) and radishes.  It takes as long as you want to marinate the beef (or tofu) – plus about 15 minutes final cooking time.

Garlic Scape, Radish and Beef Stir-fry Recipe

• garlic scapes cut into 1″ long pieces
• radishes sliced into thin rounds (save some of the really tender leaves and rip them into small pieces)
• 2c. optional – frozen snow peas, sugar snap peas, broccoli or even a stir fry mix (these are likely not in season yet – but we had snap peas in the freezer from last year)
• good cut of local beef steak (we use farm harvested venison) – tofu may work as a non-meat alternative, but I ask why – you are an omnivore?!
• 1 bottle of your favorite beer (extra bottle for drinking is optional)
• 1/4c. soy sauce
• 1/8c. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2 t. onion and garlic powder, each
• 2T. sesame oil
• pinch or 3 of optional hot pepper flakes
• 1/2 T. corn starch
• 2T. stir-fry oil OR olive oil

Directions

To a large glass casserole pan add the bottle of beer, soy, Worcestershire, onion and garlic powders and mix with a fork.  Then add sesame oil and pepper flakes.  Marinate the steak in the sauce for at least 4 hours up to 8 (so mix this up before you go to bed and put it in the fridge, on the way out the door to work, toss in the steak and cover, when you get home – it’s time to toss it all together!).

Start your grill and make it HOT!  Sear the steak on both sides.  Does not need to be cooked all the way through – here you are creating flavor!  Place seared steak on plat and cover allowing juices to set.  Pour about 1/2 the marinade juice into a sauce pan and start to simmer on stove top.  You want to let this cook down.

In a large skillet or wok add stir-fry oil and heat.  When the oil shimmers add the garlic scapes and cook for about 2 minutes.  Add sliced radishes and any of the optional veggies you may have had and toss.  While this is cooking, slice steak into thin strips and add them to the skillet – toss.  Turn skillet heat down to low.

In a mixing cup add corn starch and about 1T water.  Stir until it’s a thin paste – pour that into the cooked down marinade and use a whisk.  The mixture should bubble with the heat and start to get thick.  Pour the mixture into the skillet.  Toss the fresh veggies and steak together to coat well.  Throw in the small torn radish leaves and toss again.

Break out the chopsticks and enjoy!

When the asparagus starts coming in the spring (like it is now) its a welcome addition to the plate because FINALLY after all these months of eating food from last season – the freshness begins!  And frankly, fresh asparagus is a delight when the stalk is snapped off at the ground and then it is immediately eaten.  It’s great in salads, grilled, fried, basically any which way.  Yet, for us, there’s one extra special treat to be had and that’s enjoying a farm fresh Asparagus frittata.  So here’s the recipe to enjoy:

Asparagus frittata

Asparagus frittata recipe

• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3-4 cloves garlic, peeled and
• 1 small onion, diced
• salt and pepper to taste
• 8-12 asparagus stalks (snapped into 2-3″ lengths)
• 6 fresh chopped mushrooms (optional)
• 6 farm fresh (non-factory) eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1-2 tablespoon butter + 1-2 tablespoons olive oil (melted and mixed)
• 3-4 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Place a large cast iron skillet in the oven empty and preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large skillet or sauce pan add olive oil and onions.  Cook until onions start to become transparent.  Add garlic and cook for another few minutes.  If diced garlic starts to brown – you are done!
3. In a large bowl add eggs and milk.  Beat together until foamy.
4. Add cooked and cooled onions and garlic mixture (and mushrooms if you choose to).
5. Add pieces of asparagus.  Mix well.
6. remove hot cast iron skillet from oven and add butter / oil mixture quickly swirling to cover bottom.  Pour mixing bowl of all contents into skillet and quickly return to oven.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes. When sides are puffy and start to show slight browning sprinkle with shredded Parmesan cheese and bake for another 3 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes before cutting into wedges and enjoying.

Here’s to hoping everyone had a wonderful Christmas full of friends, family and food.  I can tell you I personally went through several cycles over the long weekend where I felt I’d never want to eat a thing again – only to be disturbed when my stomach conspired to grow my girth due to it’s seeming endless desire for rich, buttery inputs.
As usual we had a very full house on Christmas Eve and although we didn’t have the high drama of last years wind storms, power outages and roof ripping off – we did eat heartily, drink well and fully rejoice with friends and family.

Christmas morning and opening the gifts was accompanied by piping hot from the oven scones as well as the usual treats.  When we got around to eating breakfast this year I served an Eggnog French Toast with an Apple-Cranberry Compote.  On the side were apricot-mustard glazed venison breakfast sausages I made fresh.  There was a fresh fruit salad and several other tasty treats floating around the table.

Midday we were starting to get hungry (which by my math was just a few hours after breakfast) – so we wheeled out a cheese platter and enjoyed a variety of yummy-ness.  Since Kelli is a fan of goat cheese I had made a special batch for here that was flavored with local maple syrup and our smoked chipotles.  The flavor started sweet, got rich and creamy and then would suddenly finish with some warmth… very good.

Shortly after we finished the cheese platter – played some Wii Sports Resort and Guitar Hero – the holiday hungers returned.  And why fight the always loosing battle to the holiday hungers?  Time for Christmas Dinner.

Christmas dinner this year was a much smaller production as the various family members had to travel and had other commitments – so it was a simple cozy Christmas dinner for 4…  which was a terrific opportunity to try something that, as a person who likes to cook in an adventurous way most of the time was even a massive stretch…  Four pounds of salt piled around a pork roast…  It’s called Roasted Salt-and Spice-Packed Pork Loin

Before we got to the main course we started with a fresh kale salad.  Not something I had ever had before on its own – but let me tell you kale has become a new friend of mine.  It has a terrific taste and texture.  The pine nuts and our own frozen currants from our back yard were perfect toppings with some sliced domestic Parmesan cheese.  Simple pear / white balsamic vinaigrette dressing made this a terrific start to dinner.

As for the roast – well the packing on of the salt and spices was very difficult as it just “felt wrong”.  But – as the recipe and reviews say – the final product was amazing.  The salt quickly bakes into a rock hard shell around the roast…  then as the roast cooks it shrinks inside and basks in the spiced steam it generates.  End result – a very moist and tender, uniquely spiced TERRIFIC pork roast.

We paired the pork with some maple – sherry glazed carrots and Roasted Onions with Gruyère Croutons which were both terrific.  The cool thing with the onions was the magnitude of the different flavors it brought.  Even Kelli – a self proclaimed onion hater – loved this dish.  A bunch of good recipes this year!

So – with the stockings all empty now…  the wrapping paper and bows cleaned up…  the dishes all washed and the visitors all gone…  we look back fondly on the containers in the refrigerator containing the remains of our fortunate Christmas repast.  It’s with fond memories we thank everyone – those who were here – those who were here in thought and prayer – for another wonderful Christmas!