How to Make a Roasted Farm Share Dinner

This combination of roasted green beans, corn, tomatoes and bacon is an example of the perfection of September. The nights are cool enough that a hot plate of vegetables is a welcome sight and the produce is still in full swing.

I'm proud to say that I threw the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share on the grill this summer. I had successes (check out the grilling category I added to my drop down recipe index on the right side bar). I had failures [I've fed far too many 'too small' eggplant slices to the Grill Gods with flipping failures] and I somehow drained a brand new tank of propane [I blame the deployment gremlins on that one] but overall the grill became my 'go to' appliance when I thought about how to feed the family from the farm share.

When the weather starts to cool down a wee bit I'm not afraid to turn on my oven. Instead of grilling ALL THE THINGS I start roasting what is abundant in the farm share box and at the farmer's market. I want to keep things easy, though, and clean up is one of those things I like to simplify.

After reading Aimée's Spring breakfast recipe I started trying out a few combinations. It's almost too easy to throw a bunch of vegetables in a pan, add some meat for additional flavoring, and have dinner done.

For other recipes using green beans, please see my Green Bean Recipes Collection. For other recipes using corn, please see my Recipes Using Corn Collection. These are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, and the garden bounty. 

Spicy Korean-sauced Corn & Green Bean Skillet

Nearly a Korean Succotash, this skillet side dish of fresh corn and green beans is spiced up with a teriyaki and gochujang sauce.

Moving to Ohio I understood that I'd be living in a more rural area. Shoot, I drive past 3 farms just taking my daughter to sewing school [she made a medieval dress last week at camp--how cool is that?].

This fact reminds me of when I joined the Air Force to see the world. This suburbanite drove past 13 barns (!) en route to work each day. Quite a shift from the beltway and subway commutes I'd been used to, so I'd say I did see more of the world even before moving overseas and deploying.

What I hadn't expected in Ohio, and what was a happy surprise, was all the farm produce that appears every summer in addition to our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share. There's a wagon with a red striped awning that parks next to a Tim Horton's with produce each week. A flat trailer that appears with corn in a shady area of a strip mall lot. A 'peach truck' I just heard about from a fellow band parent (but haven't seen yet--saving that for next year). And of course our local farmer's market, a few blocks down the street on Saturday mornings. Thanks to these folks I am able to squirrel away plenty of corn for winter while still enjoying some ears fresh.

note to self--get a pedicure before next farm share box photo

For more recipes using corn, please see my Recipes Using Corn Collection. For more using green beans, please see my Green Bean Recipes Collection. These are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the abundance of fresh produce in my community, and from generous neighbors. I'm on a Corn Sweet Corn Pinterest board with loads of ideas from around the web, follow that for more ideas or follow me in general for all of my pins. Want to know how to use this blog? Click here.

Grilled Green Beans with Garlic Scape Pesto and Parm (side dish and appetizer)

 Fresh green beans, grilled until nicely browned, tossed with a garlic scape pesto dressing and buried under a dusting of Parmesan cheese. Use the leftovers for an appetizer wrapped in salami.

I have been all up in my grill for the past two months. Ever since my spouse assembled the monster, the grill became an never-ending source of inspiration for side dishes and planned overs aka repurposed leftovers. Now that I type it out, my farm share box is often the same sort of inspiration, albeit perishable inspiration.

I started a Grill Life List with a slip of paper, documenting all of the vegetables and meats I've grilled so far. Then I misplaced the slip of paper. I'm switching to notebooks. Speaking of, although I have not tried this system, I know a few folks who use it and it looks cool: Bullet Journal.

Today's recipe was made in that window of time after I've used up all the winter farm share stores, emptied the freezer of bulk frozen vegetables [Garlic Scape Pesto and Green Tomato Bacon Jam remain at the ready] and have to actually shop for vegetables in the store until the farm share starts. I asked my spouse what veggies he felt like eating and he wanted green beans. Green beans can give me something to work with, are good blog fodder, so I picked up a massive bag of the tender fresh ones at Costco.

I'm sharing this recipe both as YET ANOTHER NUDGE to make and freeze garlic scape pesto [my previous nudge is Grilled Garlic Scape Pesto Smashed Potatoes] but also because it fits in with my summer eating plan [more about that in the future when I have space to sit and write]. In a nutshell, though, when you're cooking, cook extra to use on nights when you don't have time/it's too hot to cook. This is not rocket science. I mean, I can come up with plenty of reasons not to cook--it's too hot, too rainy, I get home too late, I'm out of ______ (insert name of key ingredient). This reminds me of Matt Scott's Nike commercial. Point is, when I do cook I may as well cook as many things as I can, and figure out ways to use them later.

After enjoying these beans as a side dish I turned the leftovers into a savory appetizer. I wrapped 3 to 4 beans in a slice of thin salami and served the bundles alongside other leftover vegetables, cheese, and crackers. The pairing of crunchy grilled green beans with salty salami is a good one, and way too easy to make.

For more recipes using green beans, please see my Green Bean Recipes Collection. For more recipes using garlic scapes, please see my Garlic Scape Recipes Collection. These are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. You can find more vegetable appetizers on my Pinterest board, Awesome Veggie Apps and Snacks. Want to know how to Use This Blog? Click here.

Shepherd's Pie with Slow-Roasted Tomatoes and Green Beans

Ground beef, slow-roasted tomatoes, and green beans tucked underneath a mashed potato crust.

Do you have any roasted tomatoes in your freezer? Ever since I first read Alanna's tutorial on Slow Roasted tomatoes, I've managed to put up at least a few bags each year. This year it's been cool enough that I've been roasting and canning in equal amounts.

I add roasted tomatoes primarily to spaghetti sauce, but every once in a while I play, like with this Enchilada sauce. This recipe uses leftover mashed potatoes and slow-roasted tomatoes to make an improved--and soup can free [not that there's anything wrong with a can of soup] version of a family favorite casserole.

I usually make my beloved Shepherd's Pie with a can of tomato soup. Since I've canned so many tomatoes and learned how to make Creamy Tomato Soup with Home-canned Tomatoes I don't have any tomato soup cans left in the pantry. I've still got cream of chicken soup for my Turkey Divan, though, and I don't foresee altering that recipe any time soon. My family loves it just the way it is.  Except I've got a kale version coming . . . but hey, that was my spouse's idea.

When you've got excess fresh green beans it's simple to freeze them. Trim to bite size, snap off the ends and strings [yes, there are many stringless varieties but I like sitting around nagging snapping beans with my family. I think it builds character relationships]. Blanch the beans [quickly dip into boiling water for a minute until they are bright green, then scoop out and dunk in cold water]. Spin them dry, lay out on a parchment or wax paper-lined tray, and freeze for several hours. I usually do this when I'm cooking pasta--do the beans first--and freeze overnight. I never dunk my beans in an ice water bath.  If I ever live in a place with an automatic ice maker, perhaps I'll try it.  Once the beans are frozen, transfer to bags or jars for long term storage.

Cranberry Pecan Green Beans

Fresh green beans sautéed with Cranberry Honey Butter and tossed with toasted pecans.

Green beans are one of my standard Thanksgiving Side Dishes, and I'm reminded again how silly it seems to wait another 2 months in order to celebrate the harvest. By the time American Thanksgiving rolls around the only 'fresh' local vegetables are hardy greens like kale and long-storing winter squash and potatoes.  Everything else has been put up. The Canadians have a better plan--have Thanksgiving in October, and do it on a Monday so you have an entire weekend to prepare the feast. None of this 'last minute rush around after work on Wednesday' craziness. No matter which day you're giving thanks for the harvest, here's a recipe for you.

The green beans have been plentiful this year in Ohio. From our farmers here in the SW corner of the state on up to Meghan's farmers in NE Ohio--lots and lots of green beans in the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm shares.

On a whim I decided to combine some of my Cranberry Honey Butter with some of my copious volume of green beans. [I'll be honest, inspiration struck me when I opened the freezer door and a roll of cranberry honey butter fell out.] I thought it would look pretty with the bright green beans, so I whipped up a quick side dish.

To save time and dishes, I briefly cooked the green beans in the microwave and toasted the pecans in a dry skillet. Then it was a simple matter to assemble the finished dish.  Try this one at home.

Hot French Potato Salad

Roasted potatoes and haricots verts with bacon in a Dijon vinaigrette

There are many languages bouncing off the walls of my house these days.  When we play Uno during Family Game Nights we're calling out the color and number of each card in a language other than English. My daughter takes French, and to keep her skills up this summer she's taken to replying to my questions/requests en français. Or at least I assume that she's speaking French--honestly I haven't a clue. I topped out my knowledge when she called a potato masher a "pommes de terre frappe".

My son is learning German online, which takes me back to when I first arrived in Germany and took an intro course on the base. Unfortunately we lived in a region of Germany known for hick accents, so while my son is speaking proper German, my spouse and I speak with a hillbilly accent.
Add to this the fact that my brain seems to have an English/Other Language switch, and when searching for an Other word it could just as easily come out Spanish, Finnish, or Japanese.  Languages that make sense to me.

I mean, this potato salad uses haricots verts. I'd pronounce that haricots verts, but no . . . hairy co-vaire my daughter tells me. If it's hairy co-vaire, why is there an -erts on the end of the word? Makes no sense. However you choose to say it, this recipe is yummy. It's a bold side dish on a plate, assertive with notes of . . . ok, so not my style.  This is worthy of a country who lost 4% of their population during WW1--I can't even imagine that--not to mention a tasty way to eat beans and potatoes.  And bacon, always with the bacon.

Simple and Satisfying Green Beans

Subtitle:  Oops, I did it again*

I recently realized that I don't have any peach recipes, or green bean recipes, on the blog.  I've joined a group of food bloggers who love recipe round ups, and when someone was looking for peach recipes I consulted my Master Spreadsheet and . . . crickets.

There are no peaches in this green bean recipe, if you're wondering.  I'll happily stick kohlrabi and Spam in a sushi roll, but I have to draw the line somewhere.

 We got green beans in last week's CSA farm share so I could remedy one deficiency.  Yes, if you're my mom following the blog closely you will note that I call for (leftover) green beans in my Thanksgiving Leftover Remake Shepherd's Pie.  Until this past weekend, Shepherd's pie was the only way my kids would eat green beans.

I know--they don't eat cereal and they don't eat green beans.  They are such weird interesting kids!  Perhaps all the 'we've got all this kale, here, drink a green smoothie' of this summer has rubbed off on them, because they ate these beans right up.

They (the beans now, not my kids) are delicious (duh, otherwise I wouldn't be blogging about them) and the perfect side dish to serve to a gathering of folks with different dietary needs because they are vegan and gluten free.

Shepherd's Pie--Thanksgiving Leftover Remake

I hate to throw out food, so I am grateful for a family who willingly eats leftovers for lunch or, when we've got enough, for Leftover Night.  When I can turn leftovers into something completely different, it's a bonus.  When I can use 3 different leftovers in one new dish, it's a hat trick.

Making this the other night I scored a Leftover Hat Trick.  I had leftover mashed potatoes, from this dish.  I had leftover green beans, simply sautéed with a bit of bacon.  And my kid wanted grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch so I had half a can (prepared) of tomato soup left.

I did what any self-respecting frugal home cook would do.  I combined them all to make Shepherd's pie!  This may not be the Shepherd's pie of your childhood, but it very nearly is the shepherd's pie of mine, so try it.  You may like it!

My kids are not fans of green beans, but will eat them in this dish and take the obligatory bite of the World's Best Green Bean Casserole (they are even more non-fans of mushrooms than they are of green beans).  For them, I chop the beans pretty small in my shepherd's pie.

If I were feeding green bean and mushroom lovers, I'd try to combine the entire leftover WBGBC with the ground beef and seasonings--without the soup--top it with leftover mashed potatoes, and call it Post-Thanksgiving Shepherd's Pie.  But for now, I'll stick with simply prepared beans and be happy when I hit the jackpot and the leftovers are as good as the original dishes they came from.

Try this if you happen to have 3 or 4 cups of leftover mashed potatoes, 1 1/2 to 2 cups of leftover green beans, and a can of tomato soup in the pantry.

What are your favorite ways to remake Thanksgiving leftovers into new meals?