Cranberry, Caramelized Onion & Cheese Spread

For me, coming up with a delicious appetizer can be difficult, especially when that is the one thing you are in charge of bringing to a dinner.  There are times when I enjoy the appetizers more than the meal itself!  Digging into his binder of recipes that he collected, Nick pulled out a few appetizers that sounded yummy and would travel well.  Simple enough, right?  My go-to of nice cheeses just was not going to cut it.

Dip!

This was something we had to bring for a meal in the late fall, and we happened to have some cranberries on hand from our CSA in the freezer, so that made the decision for which appetizer to bring a little easier.  To begin, Nick caramelized some onions nice and slowly.  Caramelized onions done the right way always have such a lovely golden color - definitely not something you can rush.

Kitchen Dinner - What Do You Have On Hand?

While I am away enjoying some fun in the sun, I'd thought I post some good home recipes.  This is one that I threw together with a random assortment of ingredients I had on hand.  When I first started cooking, I always followed a recipe pretty closely, rarely deviating from what someone else suggested I do.  Recently, however, I have become more comfortable cooking in the kitchen and have been able to look at a recipe and use it for inspiration.   

When it came time for dinner on a weekday night, I knew we had tons of things in our kitchen.  Not wanting to just add more to the fridge, I decided to grab some fresh ingredients from our CSA and others from the freezer and pantry and told Nick we were having "garbage dinner!"  He was not necessarily excited by this statement.

Whats on this plate?!

Apple and Pear Crisp - Apple Picking Spoils!

After spending the day at Smolak Farms picking apples, we had loads of apples to put to good use in the kitchen.  That is, of course, if I did not eat them first!  One of Nick's favorite desserts ever is Apple Crisp, so needless to say this was an easy decision.  Last year I made a Fruit Crisp using Ina Garten's Back to Basics recipe, and while it turned out well, I wanted to experiment with recipes a bit.  Since I had some pears on hand from our CSA, I decided to utilize those as well.

Apple Crisp

This time around, I turned to the Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Baking, which had a basic crisp recipe to start with.

Hazelnut/Pecan and Cranberry Bread

This Thanksgiving was pretty low key for us - only 8 gathered around the table.  While my brother did not make it up for the holiday (paying his dues so he gets Christmas through New Year's off), we were joined by my cousin and her family from Minnesota!  They unfortunately cannot make it to the wedding, but generously offered to come out to Boston for a visit - I mean, they had to meet Nick!  With only 8, my mom had the majority of dinner under control, but still wanting to contribute something to the meal I volunteered myself for the breads.  I figured the possibilities were endless!

Cranberry Hazelnut and Pecan Bread

I remembered a bread recipe that sounded delicious I had seen somewhere with hazelnuts and cranberries.  Knowing we had a bunch of frozen cranberries from our CSA and a bunch of hazelnuts on hand, I was on a mission to find the recipe.  Luckily Nick came to the rescue and did a quick online search and found the recipe on Real Simple's website.

Shepard's Pie...ish

This recipe goes back aways - back to when we had fresh corn and onions on a weekly basis.  I mean, its only been two weeks and I am really missing our CSA goodie bag!  Having received so much corn and potatoes for a number of weeks in a row, we really were looking for meals that utilized these ingredients.  Nick decided to take the lead in the kitchen on this night and wing a recipe.  While not really a traditional shephard's pie in any way, the same flavor profile was there.

The Necessities...

• bunches of red onion
• the kernals from 1 or 2 ears of corn
• potatoes
• Johnsonville chicken sausages

To begin, Nick cut up loads of onions and put them in a saute pan with some olive oil and kept them heating low and slow for quite some time to get them fully caramelized.

Caramelizing onions....

Using the special corn trick, Nick cut the kernels off of the ears of corn.

Butternut Squash Chili

After so many amazing months of getting great veggies from my CSA, I am so sad it has finally come to an end.  Mondays now come and go with no boxes of fresh produce.  However, I get to relive some of the last great pick-ups by writing them up here.  When I had a couple squashes to use, I turned to trusty Gojee and plugged in acorn and butternut squash (delicata squash is an easy substitute for butternut) and found a recipe for Cincinnati Chili from the Judicial Peach.  This recipe was for a regular chili, but had some squash, avocado and chocolate - how could I resist!

Dinner!

To begin, I started the long process of preparing the squash.  Luckily, delicata squash does not need to be peeled, so it cuts down on a lot of the prep, but stilled needed to be cubed.  The acorn squash, however, not only had to be cubed but also peeled.  Peeling a ribbed vegetable is not easy to say the least.

Fruit Crisp!

When Nick moved in last year,  Ina Garten also moved into our condo.  He brought along a bunch of her cookbooks and set up the DVR to record her show.  However, she has proven to be a great resource on many occasions.  Even better, her show has taught me a lot of good basics (that I probably should have already known!).  So when I needed a good basic recipe for a crisp, I looked no further than at Ina!

Ina Garten

In our CSA for two weeks we got a ton of plums, ground cherries and apples.  Having already made the Plum Clafoutis and the Ground Cherry Pie, I was looking for something different.  I figured a crisp was a great way to combine a lot of these fresh fruits.  Even better, we had a friend's house to go to that evening with plenty of hungry mouths to feed.

Fruit Crisp

A Rustic Potato and Onion Tartlet

Like I said, we have been getting tons of potatoes in our CSA, and rather than just making mashed potatoes over and over again (even though they are so good!) we have been trying to be creative.  When Nick said he found a recipe for a Rustic Potato and Caramelized Onion Tart I was completely sold and could not wait for dinner!

Dinner is served!

This recipe had a lot of moving parts going on...

Corn and Potato Chowder

For a while in our CSA we were getting more corn and potatoes than we knew what to do with!  I know I shouldn't complain, but when you have 8 ears of corn and 15 potatoes and only 2 people, something needs to be done.  So turning to Gojee, I plugged in the vegetables I had on hand and stumbled upon this corn and potato chowder that looked relatively light and pretty simple to make.

Potato and Corn Chowder

I set out all of ingredients and hoped it would all turn out OK.  While it was not too difficult, there were quite a few ingredients involved.

The Ingredients

Tomatillos!

The same week we got our crazy ground cherries, we also got something a bit more traditional: tomatillos.  We took the obvious approach and decided on making a tomatillo sauce (salsa verde) as part of a little taco bar for dinner.  Lucky for me, Nick decided to take this on!  Turning to Google for some inspiration and a way to deal with the crazy husk and other surprises, Nick found a good starting recipe, whipping up some salsa verde.

Tomatillos

Delicata Squash, Chick Peas and Toasted Gnocchi

I have to admit I actually learned something of value watching Chopped on the Food Network!  Not one week after watching an episode that involved Delicata Squash, we got some (and by some I mean loads) in our CSA.  Even though we had seen the show, the squash still looked like the gourds you use for decoration at Thanksgiving, to the point where we actually asked if that's what they were!  Luckily using Gojee, I found a recipe that uses a whole lot of the squash.

The Ingredients...

Ground Cherry Pie

In our CSA we have gotten a wide variety of foods, and one of the strangest things has to be ground cherries.  Also known as husk tomatoes, they basically look like mini tomatillos.  The farm stand attendant said he just ate these raw, but I wanted to try something a bit different with them.  There are not many ground cherry recipes out there, but I found a simple pie recipe and figured it would be a good start.

Ground Cherry Pie

To be honest, I was actually nervous to eat a ground cherry because it looked like my worst enemy - the tomato.  Once Nick tried one, I went four it and it really was sugary sweet with a bit of a crunch to it.

Over-Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms

Another Meatless Monday meant having to come up with something creative for dinner.  I had four large portabello mushrooms on hand and Nick had ripped a Cheese-Stuffed Portobello recipe out of an old issue of Food Network Magazine - perfect!  Based on some of the CSA veggies we had on hand, I adapted the recipe a bit.

The Ingredients

A Heathlier Eggplant Parmesan..

More CSA fun!  Another item we've received a lot of recently is eggplant.  Wanting to do something a bit traditional but on the lighter side, Nick found a healthier eggplant Parmesan recipe online that came from Shape magazine. 

Farm Fresh Eggplant

I have always loved eggplant, but somehow when I make it at home it never quite tastes right.  Turns out, there is a method to preparing eggplant properly that I NEVER knew! 

All sliced up

Before you actually start cooking the eggplant, you need to slice is up nicely, put it in a bowl with a bunch of salt and let it sit for about 20 to 30 minutes to take out all the bitterness.  The salt pulls out the moisture, so doing this in a colander in the sink will help.  Once its done sitting, dry the slices off with a paper towel and wipe off some of the salt if you like.  

Kohlrabi Fritters

As I've mentioned before, we have been getting a lot kohlrabi in our CSA, and coming up with new and interesting things to do with this odd veggie is tough to do!  After our fresh mozzarella and roasted kohlrabi crostinis, thinking of something else took a little researching. 

Kohlrabi

Nick ended up finding a recipe from A Hungry Bear for kohlrabi fritters, which totally looked worth trying.  To begin, Nick collected the following ingredients:

• 1 Kohlrabi
• 1 onion
• 1 egg
• some breadcrumbs (a couple of tablespoons)
• garlic powder
• 1 green onion
• olive oil

To begin, Nick peeled and grated the kohlrabi using a cheese grater.  You need to be sure to squeeze all the water out of the grated kohlrabi so that it is good and dry.  Otherwise, it will be tough to form a nice patty.  There was a surprising amount of liquid in this one bulb!

all grated

Next he chopped up the red onion finely that we got from the CSA that week (love these!).

Fresh Red Currant Scones

For a couple of weeks we received fresh red currants in our CSA and short of mixing it with some vodka (which, of course I did!) I was not really sure what to do with them since most recipes call for dried ones.  However, Nick did some digging and found a recipe from a blog on gardening.  So, on a recent Saturday morning I was treated to fresh scones - not a bad deal!

Fresh out of the oven!

To be honest, I was not even sure what the berries were - they looked like the poisonous ones on the bushes in the woods.  The second time we got them I thought it was time to put the gorgeous berries to some good use. 

Fresh Currants

Swiss Chard!

This week we had Swiss chard in our CSA, another veggie I am not really familiar with, and yet another reason we originally wanted to get the CSA.  Using Epicurious I tried to figure out what sounded good and practical to make for a weekday meal when I stumbled upon a delicious side dish recipe with Swiss chard, raisins and toasted almonds.

Ingredients

 The Necessities...

• 1/2 large onion, sliced lengthwise 1/4 inch thick (1 cup)
• 2 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 1/4 teaspoon Spanish smoked paprika
• 2 pounds Swiss chard, center ribs discarded and leaves coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup golden raisins
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup coarsely chopped almonds with skins

To begin, I heated some olive oil in a large saute pan and tossed in my sliced onion.  This onion was another fantastic red onion from the CSA that is more like a red onion/scallion hybrid, but is delicious and pretty to cook with!  With the onion I tossed in the salt and allowed it to cooked until it softened, where I then added the paprika.

Lamb Meatballs

I was looking for something to make for dinner recently and remembered seeing a yummy looking lamb recipe on the The Small Boston Kitchen, so I decided to give it a go. The recipe was actually for Moroccan Spiced Lamb Meatballs, and being a lamb lover, it sounded like a great way to bring this protein into my kitchen.

Lamb Meatballs!

I will say Savenor's came up big on this evening. They did not have ground lamb packaged, so I had to ask the friendly butchers behind the counter for some. At first they went in the back to check, but still nothing. They said that I could buy the whole top roast and grind that up, but that was a lot more money than I wanted or needed to spend. So, just as I was about to start figuring out something else to cook, the butchers checked again and sure enough, they had enough lamb scraps (from the top roast), which they ground up for me - thank you Savenor's!

Fresh Mozzarella and Roasted Kohlrabi Crostini

We have been getting our CSA share for three weeks now, and each week we have gotten kohlrabi (German turnip).  Having never seen this veggie before both Nick and I were at a bit of a loss as to what to do with it!  While we have read that you can eat it raw (and tried it, in coleslaw) we wanted to do something a bit more with it.  Nick looked around on Gojee and found a recipe that sounded too good not to try!

Kohlrabi - so Bizarre!

CSA Time - what to do with loads of Bok Choi?

This past week our CSA began and we got TONS of veggies - I mean, look at them all!  I was having trouble deciding where to start and what to do.

Fridge Full!

I pulled out a a couple things I thought would go together - 2 bags of peas and a whole lot of bok choi, plugged them into Epicurious and got back a bunch of results.  The one that peeked my interest was an Asian Chicken Salad with Snap Peas and Bok Choy, so I used that as a starting point. 

Yummy!