Instant Pot Fruited Wild Rice Salad with Sweet Potato

This vegan and grain free Instant Pot salad combines chewy wild rice and tender sweet potato with grapes and clementines in a lemony herb dressing. Perfect for summer alongside grilled meats or for fall alongside baked meatloaf.  

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I have meaningful work and it's an amazing thing to be able to write that statement.
What does this have to do with the Instant Pot Fruited Wild Rice and Sweet Potato Salad recipe I'm sharing today? 
The short version is that I discovered the dressing I'm using in this salad (I've got a DIY version, too, see the Note below) via my work with Minnesota Central Kitchen turning rescued/donated ingredients into meals for hungry people in the Twin Cities area.
If that's enough for you please feel free to scroll on down to the recipe.

Garlic Scape Herbed Cream Cheese

A fast and flavorful spread for appetizers or snacks, this zesty cream cheese marries fresh herbs with garlic scapes for a Spring treat. Spread this on crackers or tortillas, pipe it into peppers, or dunk a carrot for a fresh from the farm share appetizer.

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To make a more useful website for my fellow farm share eating folks, I periodically ask food bloggers for recipes so I can add their photos (and links back to their sites) to my Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient.

It's mean, rude, poor form, and illegal to take recipes and photos someone else has created and publish them on another website. Want to print off a recipe to hang on your fridge and refer to? Rock on! Here's how to print from my site. Want to copy and paste this post to publish somewhere else? No, you do not have my permission to steal my work. You're most welcome to link to this page instead.

When I was gathering garlic scape recipes I came across this Grilled Crostini with Garlic Scape Cream Cheese and Tomatoes from Kim of Kiss My Smoke. Her recipe reminded me that I hadn't tried making a savory cheese spread using farm share ingredients.

Pin For Later!

This is not that spread that my kids keep asking me to make--I think I need to use some ricotta and more pepper to make it a bit drier/firm it up, to come closer to Boursin, but much more testing is needed. Rule #3, something to look forward to. 

[What are Rules #1 and #2? Rule #1--you need someone to love. Rule #2--you need something to do. Rule #3--you need something to look forward to. I learned these from my spouse shortly after we met.]

Garlic Scape and Goat Cheese Omelette

This vegetarian omelette is stuffed with garlic scapes, parsley, and creamy goat cheese for a fresh Spring flavor using what's growing right now.

Yes, the tomatoes are local--from my friend's CSA. The pancakes? From the freezer section of the grocery store. 

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Time for a reality check. I find eating locally and seasonally hardest right around now. Loads of produce is in its active growing phase, but there's precious little produce ready to harvest. I've exhausted the Strategic Winter Squash Reserve in the corner of my cold basement. There's a continually replenished supply of empty canning jars coming out of the dishwasher and hanging around the counter, awaiting transport downstairs. I'm starting to see space in the fruit and vegetable freezer, yet I'm sick of using the frozen produce I put up last year.

I want fresh. I want vibrant. I want green!

Enter this simple meal. Since we get local eggs year round from the farmer's market, an omelette is a great Go To entree no matter the time of day. It's a simple matter of popping out to the garden to pick some parsley and a garlic scape which adds a bit of crunch, color, and flavor to the filling. I finished it off with a bit of creamy goat cheese because--magical markdown stickers, yo.

What's a garlic scape, you ask? I'm glad to enlighten--it's the flowering portion of a head of garlic. Happily for all involved (as someone who's been growing her annual garlic supply for about a decade, I'll be both a producer and a consumer here) we producers and consumers of garlic would rather have a fat garlic bulb than another pretty allium flower in the garden bed. So we cut off the twisty flower stalk and guess what happens? The plant puts its energy into growing a bigger bulb. This is truly a win-win situation--we get mild garlic flavored scapes now, and more garlic to harvest later. Farmers can sell both the scapes and the harvested garlic. How awesome is that?

Roast Pork Loin with Yogurt, Mustard, and Fresh Dill

This recipe starts with a boneless pork loin, slathered in a yogurt/mustard/fresh dill coating, then roasted to juicy tenderness. Served alongside dilled carrots, French breakfast radishes, and mashed potatoes it's a wonderful Sunday dinner.

This post is sponsored by the Ohio Pork Council. They paid me for my time, I bought my ingredients and created this recipe.

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The unifying theme today is the massive pile of fresh dill I have from my Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share. In my garden, I'll let my dill go to seed for all the pickles I put up and my plants petered out months ago. The dill from Mile Creek Farm is still going strong, though, and I've got a lot to work with. In the past I've shared How to Make Dill Butter, but I had more dill than that. [Two more big bunches like the one shown in the photo below.] I used some to make the Roasted Carrots with Fresh Dill shown alongside the pork. I used more tossed in with my mashed potatoes, though not full on MA's Make Ahead Mashed Potato Casserole like I'll be making later this month for Thanksgiving. I'll vacuum seal/freeze some of this fresh dill, and dehydrate the rest in the oven. I'll be making my own spice blend for my Spiced Cottage Cheese Potato Chip Dip which has my family unduly excited.

It's been a while since we've had a big Sunday Supper sort of meal. While my family eats together most nights of the week, the resumption of activities once the school year starts means that we are more fractured around the dining room table certain evenings. My son and I eat early, before leaving for hockey practice on hockey nights. My spouse and I often eat together while our daughter is at her weekly sewing class. Warm weather and busy weekends mean that we haven't sat down to a more traditional meat & potatoes kind of meal in forever!

When the Ohio Pork Council asked me to come up with a recipe for pork loin, chops, or tenderloin I headed to my local farmer's market to ask Jean Mattis of KJB farms what she recommended. She sold me a piece of boneless pork loin, perfect for roasting, then snagged another market goer to give me tips on how to cook it. Talk above service! Then I headed to volunteer at the thrift shop and got Emily's tips for using yogurt, mustard, and fresh herbs to make a flavorful crust for roasted pork. Finally, my fellow prep cooks at work helped me brain storm some vegetable side dishes using more of the abundant fresh dill. It really took a village on this recipe!

Roasted Carrots with Fresh Dill

Roasted carrots tossed with fresh dill and spices makes an easy suitable for a variety of eating styles.

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Carrots are unsung vegetables. They can hang out in the crisper drawer for weeks before supporting soup stocks or transferring hummus into my face. They are one of the innocuous vegetables to encourage picky kids to eat. Rarely do they get a moment in the spotlight. A few years ago I noticed I'd amassed a bunch of bags of carrots from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share, so I celebrated HashtagCarrotWeek and shared a variety of recipes using carrots (breakfast through dinner).

When I got a particularly uniform group of carrots from the farm share, along with yet another bunch of fresh dill, I decided to combine the two in a roasted side dish. Ok, truthfully I tossed in some French breakfast radishes to the roasting pan as well, but this post is about the carrots because they really shined with this treatment. My dad is getting more out of the weekly bunches of radishes, eaten on buttered bread, so I'll leave those to him.



I think these carrots would be a terrific holiday side dish. Since I used olive oil they are vegan, and would be useful if you need a side dish for a crowd of eaters of varying styles. I served mine with roast pork covered in a yogurt/mustard/dill sauce, a quickie version of my Make Ahead Mashed Potato Casserole (with fresh dill added) and the dill on dill action worked nicely. Stay tuned for the pork recipe--it's coming up next month!

Fresh Chive and Ricotta Muffins #MuffinMonday

Creamy ricotta cheese and fresh chives are the highlight of these savory muffins. Adding potato flakes to the batter, and using bacon grease takes the flavor of this quick bread over the top.

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Growing herbs is supposed to be easy. For the most part, herbs flourish when you harvest them frequently. For basil, it's pretty easy to make a massive batch of pesto and freeze what you don't use. Here's how I make my pesto. But chives have proven to be a problem for me. I take a few pieces at a time but don't use a whole bunch, so the clump tends to get scraggly from under-use.

Chive blossoms are another matter--I covet those and have even asked the neighbors for their blossoms so I can make Chive Blossom Vinegar, Chive Blossom Focaccia, and Chive Blossom Potato Salad with Egg. I'm on a mission to use more of my clump of chives this year, so I got the hankering to make some savory muffins.

Chive Blossom Potato Salad with Egg

A fresh and pretty side dish for a Spring table, this potato salad combines chive blossoms and hard cooked eggs with red skin potatoes and tangy mustard.

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This chive blossom potato salad is as pretty as it is flavorful. When I made my Chive Blossom Focaccia I was a bit bummed that the pretty purple color of the blossoms baked into a more bread-like brown. I figured that adding chive blossoms to a potato salad would look pretty and fresh for Spring, and add that delicate chive flavor to the dish.

We eat a lot of potatoes, so I've shared a lot of potato salads on the blog. I started off with my family's summertime favorite, Confetti Potato Salad. I shared a tangy Roasted Potato Salad with Creme Fraiche. And I got some green beans in on the potato salad action with my Hot French Potato Salad. Add our wintertime favorite Make Ahead Irish Mashed Potato Casserole, and a Colorful Roasted Squash and Potatoes side dish, and I think I've just plotted out my daughter's dream menu plan. She loves her spuds.


Being a seasonal eater, when the weather turns warm I want to eat cool dishes, not heavy baked casseroles. This potato salad fills that need while looking pretty on the table. It's terrific on those Spring days where it's cool in the morning then warm and sunny during the day, making you rethink your dinner plans to something cooler and lighter. Add a salad of fresh greens, maybe some bread and cheese, and you've got a nice Spring meal.

Chive Blossom and Potato Focaccia

A seasoned and seasonal bread, this chive blossom focaccia is spiced with roasted chiles and chunks of potato. This savory Spring bread is great with a bowl of light soup or along side a simple grilled dinner.

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I am thinking about inheritance today. After touring some lovely homes yesterday and learning about the items my hosts inherited, I got to thinking about what I've inherited. Material things, not values and quirks--that's for another post. I've inherited jewelry. I've inherited furniture. But today, I'm thinking about the plants I've inherited.


While I was stationed overseas, houseplants were one item that I inherited from folks moving on to new duty stations. I enjoyed them during my time, and when I left I passed them on to a new arrival. Houseplants are a quick way to make a new place feel more like a home, and my worms and I nurture more than we kill so our net is positive.


Most of the plants  are ones I have inherited on a more permanent basis. Even though I don't live in Virginia any more, the daffodils and tiger lilies my dad planted are still blooming each year. My dad is to daffodils what John Chapman was to apple trees--he's planted bulbs in 3 states and the District of Columbia. The daffodils Dad planted our first Fall here in Ohio are just starting to bloom.

Yes, I am kicking myself that I didn't raise the camera just a tad more.

My newest plant inheritance is a clump of chives. My folks' most recent downsizing coincided with the beginning of gardening season and their giving up their last community garden plot (after more than 20 years as community gardeners in 2 places). My dad dug up the chives one morning in Maryland, and I plunked them into a hole in my backyard the next day in Ohio. Last Spring was my first year with chive blossoms, and I happily harvested them to make all sorts of recipes.

Here's my first one--a focaccia bread that was terrific as an appetizer when dinner was delayed due to SPRING! Weather and the need to get out and dig. I'd pair this with my Finnish Summer Soup with Kale if I were going to make it soon, as the cool evenings are still soup weather around here.

For more recipes using herbs, please see my Recipes Using Herbs Collection. For more recipes using potatoes, please see my Potato Recipes Collection. For more recipes using roasted Hatch chiles, please see my Hatch Chile Recipes Collection. These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating seasonally from the farm share, the farmer's market, and inherited plants in the back yard.

How to Make Dill Butter When You've Got a Lot of Herbs

Got a lot of dill? Quickly turn it into an herbed butter. Use this butter on potatoes, fish, or bread. It's a fast way to add a little something local & homemade to your holiday table.

Time for another Practical Support for Local Eating lesson. This one is about herbs. When we get herbs in our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share it's not usually a sprig here and there. Instead it is a significant amount.

Sometimes I view the abundance of herbs as an opportunity to use them all in Pot Luck Tabbouleh. Sometimes this will coincide with another vegetable and create an opportunity to put something up [a bunch of cucumbers and dill means I'll throw a few jars of quick refrigerator kosher dills into the back of the fridge to cure]. Sometimes a large quantity of basil from the farm share coupled with my own large quantity from the garden means I can Process a Pile of Pesto. Most of the time, however, the herbs are on their own.

Making herb butter when you've got a lot of fresh herbs is one way to make the most of the farm share. This freezes nicely and makes a special addition to a holiday meal. Too early for Thanksgiving talk? Canadian Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away and I've got a beautiful bunch of dill from my farm share so I think it's quite timely.

Before I get to the recipe, though, I asked a few food bloggers for additional ideas on how they deal with a large amount of herbs. Brandy of Farmer's Wife Rambles shares how she dehydrates parsley. Tara of Noshing With The Nolands turns her basil abundance into Basil Ice Cubes. Sheri Silver freezes her herbs in oil--with a clever tip for telling them all apart in the tray. Meghan of Clean Eats Fast Feets shares how she deals with her chives (and shares a recipe for Blue Cheese & Chive Drop Biscuits). Janelle of Barn2Door dries thyme, oregano for cooking, mint & blackberry/raspberry leaves/fennel seed for tea, and freezes finely chopped chives. She even has a Pinterest board of herb-y ideas.

Left to right photos from Brandy, Tara, Sheri and Meghan. Thanks!

Pot Luck Tabbouleh with Feta and How to Chop a Lot of Herbs Easily

Feed a crowd at a summer gathering with this vegetarian salad that shows off the flavors of summer. Packed with herbs, tomatoes, cucumber, feta, and chewy bulgur wheat grains lightly coated with lemon juice and olive oil this side dish can sit on a buffet table and keep its flavor.

For other recipes using a massive bounty of herbs, please see my Herb Recipes Collection. For other recipes using Cucumbers, please see my Cucumber Recipes Collection. For other recipes using ripe red tomatoes, please see my Red & Yellow Tomato Recipes Collection. These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, or the garden abundance. For another kitchen hack please see my Sun Gold Tomato Panzanella.

Normally I'm just cooking for our family of four so when I go bigger with a recipe that works for a crowd, and also uses the produce from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share, I want to share with the rest of the class. I've done it before with my Pot Luck Asian Chicken Cabbage Salad.

The First Tomato of Summer [yes, worthy of capitalization if you're like me and just don't buy fresh tomatoes November through June] needs something worthy to celebrate its arrival [then you can move on to the weekly Summer Tomato Sandwich]. I'd been eying my unruly mint patch and craving tabbouleh--oh, my mommy pronounces it tah-BOO-lee so that's what I say--so I picked up a package of bulgur and gathered my goodies. I followed the directions on the package and used Bob's Red Mill Red Bulgur (Amazon affiliate link). No sponsorship--I tell you the brand name because the recipe I started with came from the back of the package and because I'd never tried red bulgur before. Usually I buy it in bulk somewhere, and since I know the company name I thought I'd share. The product did work great, though, if you're looking for bulgur. I picked mine up at the grocery store down the street.

That tabbouleh was all I'd hoped for--bright and fresh with all the herbs, tangy but not gloppy from the dressing, crunchy from the cucumber, chewy and filling from the wheat. Plus the flavor of a local tomato picked when ripe and grown for flavor, not travel ability. /rant.

After the success of that tabbouleh I thought it would be good with feta, and with loads of herbs still to use I was looking for an excuse a reason to make more. Lots more. Cue marching band camp--filled with hungry teens, who arrived promptly at 11:30 each day and, like polite locusts, left the serving area decimated 10 minutes later. The band has both vegetarians and kids with sophisticated taste, as well as my kid (I shouldn't rag on him, but he's delighted with leftover concession stand hot dogs . . .). I knew it would not be ignored. One musician came back for seconds 3 times! That's probably not called seconds, but you know what I mean.

Fruity Green Gazpacho

Sweet peppers, mild vegetables, grapes and mint make a refreshing chilled soup with a bit of an edge.

Do you ask for recipes when you taste something yummy--and homemade? I sure do. Even a vague "well, I used a bit of this, a smidgen of that, and a handful of the other thing" is enough of a jumping off point for me. When I've got the right blend of vegetables from our community supported agriculture (CSA) farm share, it's time to grab the appropriate fruits and give it a whirl. Literally.

Last September at a Cool Soups for a Hot Cause fundraiser I had a refreshing green gazpacho. It was sweet, but had a bit of edginess to let me know it wasn't entirely a fruit soup. [I've got my family's Scandinavian Fruit Soup on the blog if you want an entirely fruit soup.] After my second helping--which came after tasting ALL THE SOUPS on offer--I asked how it was made. The generous cook behind the tureen told me it had white grape juice and mint, and that she'd used the recipe from The Silver Palate Cookbook(Amazon Affiliate link). I made a mental note to find it, but after googling a bunch I never found that recipe.

Instead, I found this recipe for a green gazpacho without white grape juice. That looks good, but not the sweet-with-a-bite soup I'd enjoyed. I kept on searching. This recipe has the grape juice, but also jalapeño and the soup I liked was not spicy. Alanna shares her recipe--a more precise version with honeydew and grapes--here.

In the end I cobbled together a few ingredients in the blender and hoped for the best. The result was cool and creamy, sweet and just a little bit edgy, and we enjoyed drinking it. I cannot find my paper with precise measurements yet I'm going to war with the troops I have so I'm deliberately vague in the recipe below. This is clearly one of those 'taste as you go' situations.

Crispy Baked Old Bay Swai with Minted Farm Share Peas

Spicy seasoned swai on a bed of fresh minted farm share peas.

The doctor's office. Sports practice. Getting the oil changed. The pharmacy. Piano lessons. The salon. A flight. Picking up your kids from school, if in fact you have kids, if not--choose another reason for waiting. When you know you'll have time to kill--do you bring along something to do? A book or magazine to read, a craft project to work on?

I knit, I write, or I read. In the wintertime I knit, mostly on a rainbow blanket that is long enough to keep me warm during hockey games. The rest of the year I'm writing or reading as knitting when it's hot out doesn't thrill me.

As an indented aside, that's part of the reason I've been working on this blanket since I was pregnant with my first child, who is in high school. Mostly it's just because I knit slowly. Like I cook slowly. The years in Hawaii were a total wash.

Last Spring, while waiting in the orthodontist's office, I was flipping through an EveryDay with Rachael Ray magazine. The No-So-Mushy Peas caught my eye, because I look for ways to use the fresh peas from our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share. This recipe is described as a spring classic, and I get that--I'm craving it again this year!  Just like Alanna's Chicken Cider Stew heralds Fall to me, Rachael Ray's fish and peas now mean Spring.

For other recipes using peas, please see my Pea Recipes Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. I've got additional interesting recipes on my Colorful Veggies Above the Ground board, one of my Pinterest boards (link to follow me on Pinterest).

Colorful Greek Chicken Salad Plate

Greek yogurt seasoned with herbs, vegetables, chicken and cheese served alongside a colorful bed of vegetables, hummus, and pita chips for a simple summer salad plate

Eating my colors makes me happy. Combining tasty food with colorful piles of vegetables is a terrific way to eat a variety of colors. I wouldn't normally say that chicken salad is a colorful dish, but when you serve it with gorgeous vegetables, well, even on a white plate this would still be a riot of color.

I've been throwing together some easy summer mixed plates using a variety of cool and warm ingredients lately.  For a glimpse, head to my FB page to check out this photo.

Cold and Creamy Pea, Avocado, and Mint Buttermilk Soup

A tangy refreshing chilled soup of garden fresh peas, avocado, and mint in a buttermilk base

"This is my mom.  She has worms."

My daughter's scintillating introduction to her charges didn't dissuade me from my purpose--to share my worm bin with the young gardeners at our local historical society.  Some kids think it's cool, some kids think it's gross, but all kids learn a little bit about worm composting. The more folks--young and old--who are exposed to the myriad of ways we can decrease the amount of waste we create, the better.
I think early exposure to a variety of ideas and foods is important and can result in permanent behavior changes. After I shared my worms with the young gardeners I helped them in their plot. It reminded me of when my teens were in elementary school and I'd volunteer during class time, helping kids to plant, weed, and harvest vegetables.  Now, my daughter was in charge of the pea harvest--showing the kids how to snap off the peas without pulling up the whole vine. She also encouraged her charges to sample the harvest.

When I harvest in my own garden I just eat peas straight off the vine. They need no accompaniment, to me, which is why I haven't shared a pea recipe before. Usually I start snacking on peas while driving home from picking up our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share box, and I'll nibble a few here and there until they are all gone.

However, I screwed up with the peas in the farm share recently which is why I created this soup. After nibbling on a bunch, I set the pint on the shelf in the fridge and the peas froze. Oops.  Not one to waste perfectly edible food that is the result of our farmers' hard work, I searched for a soup recipe combining what I had on hand (peas, mint, buttermilk) with what sounded good (avocado).

If you don't like the taste of buttermilk [because your mom raised you to eat what was put in front of you and your friend's mom offered you a tall glass of buttermilk which you choked down--only to be given a second glass since you appeared to like it so much--my spouse's experience with buttermilk, not mine] I recommend trying this pea soup recipe.  Or this one.

Greek Stew Meat Tacos

Beef cubes, marinated in artichoke, lemon, and olive juices served taco style with avocado dip.

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One way to be a meat-eating local food eater is to buy a cow, or part of a cow.  We did, and that's how I got the cow that lives in the freezer.  One of the cool things about going in on a cow (ok, technically he was a steer), like I've mentioned, is that you get a LOT of cow parts that may be new to you.  And in cooking them, you learn new dishes that you love. Like tail.  I love me some tail!  You also get meats you may be less desirous of--thanks Dawn for bringing over the liver your family isn't fond of--we use it in meatloaf.  When you get a portion of cow all at once, you can find yourself with a package of stew meat tucked away in the corner of the freezer when you're not really interested in fixing a stew.

Just because a package says "stew meat" doesn't mean you need to make stew with it.  It just means that the meat needs tenderizing, either by long slow moist cooking, or by a long soak in a tenderizing marinade.  I opted for the latter this time.


This goes back to my mom wanting to use up the liquid left in the olive and artichoke jars because she never throws anything away without some sort of reuse.  (See where I get it from?)  When I made the Slow Cooker Greek Chicken Tacos the artichoke/olive juice marinade made for tasty meat--so I did the same thing with beef.  Note:  this has an overnight marinade!

For more recipes using avocados, please see my Avocado Recipes Collection. For more recipes using carrots, please see my Carrot Recipes Collection. For more recipes using olives, and artichokes, and other veggies in jars, please see my Recipes Using Veggies in Jars Collection. These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, the garden, the neighbor's garden, and great deals on ugly produce at the grocery store.


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Roasted Winter Squash Tacos

Strips of winter squash, roasted with peppers and onions, for a seasonal, vegetarian twist on the classic Taco Night

I wish I could be more precise about the kind of winter squash I used for these tacos.  It looked like a cross between a pie pumpkin and an acorn squash, so I am positive both of these types of squash will work.  Ditto butternut or delicata squash, as they'd roast up the same way (and you wouldn't need to peel the delicata). I just got a buttercup squash in the farm share but haven't taken time to play with it yet, so the jury is still out on that one.  If you have a spaghetti squash, I recommend you try Julie's Spaghetti Squash and Black Bean Tacos, as that recipe inspired me to look at the Strategic Winter Squash Reserve with an eye to making a vegetarian/vegan and bean free taco night dinner.

This is a Play With Your Benriner meal.  After laboriously halving, deseeding (more fun in next year's compost!), and peeling the squash, I thinly sliced it with my Benriner (link to Alanna's tutorial, or use a mandoline, or a sharp knife).  I gave the ends to the worms in the worm bin in my son's closet, as the composting guinea pig is not a fan.  Nor do pigs like the onion I thinly sliced next.  However, guinea pigs do like peppers and cilantro, so this meal wasn't an entire waste in a composting pig's eye as those were used in abundance.  Putting your seasonal abundance to work, that's what I'm all about.

I chose to roast the squash slices because I wanted a fajita strip shape (since I was using a bag of fajita size tortillas) and it was fun to layer the jalapeño, onion, sage and peppers on top of the squash to finish the whole thing under the broiler.  Only one pan to clean up, which I appreciate!

NOTE:  I created this recipe to be gluten free through my choice of ingredients. Check labels to confirm that your products are also gluten free. Good sources for determining that your products are gluten free can be found here:

http://knowgluten.me/2012/03/31/other-names-for-gluten/

http://glutenfreedoctor.com/gluten-free/

http://www.celiac.com/categories/Safe-Gluten%252dFree-Food-List-%7B47%7D-Unsafe-Foods-%26amp%3B-Ingredients/

Roasted Winter Squash Tacos

3 small winter squash, peeled, gutted, and sliced ~ 1/8 inch thick (about 7 to 8 cups loosely packed)

1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground cumin (depending on how spicy you like things)

1/2 to 1teaspoon ground coriander (ditto)

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon chili powder (as above)

1 onion, peeled (skins to the soup pack!)

1 Tablespoon finely chopped jalapeño

1 teaspoon fresh sage leaves, sliced into ribbons

2 cups sliced bell pepper, colors of your choice

Arizona Dreaming or other taco seasoning, a few shakes worth (probably 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon)

tortillas

Optional

1/2 cup packed cilantro leaves

guacamole

shredded Mexican blend cheese

sour cream

salsa verde

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Toss squash slices with seasonings, then spread out on a piece of parchment paper on a rimmed baking sheet.  Roast for 30 to 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes, until soft and tender.  Add onion, jalapeño, sage and pepper strips on top of squash.  Shake a bit of seasoning (Arizona dreaming, or a taco seasoning) on top of the onion and peppers.  Turn on broiler, and broil for 5 to 8 minutes, about 4 inches from the heat, until the vegetables get some color.  Gently combine all vegetables in bowl to distribute the seasonings evenly.

One of the things I like about Taco Night is how everyone can customize their meal.  I liked to spread the tortilla with guacamole, then layer the roasted vegetables, cilantro, cheese and sour cream.  My spouse preferred to add salsa verde on his roasted vegetables for more spicy flavor.  The kids had some squash with their cheese and sour cream.  How would you top your taco?

This post is shared on the Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Tasty Tuesdays, What's Cookin' Wednesday, the Wednesday Fresh Foods Link Up, From the Farm Blog Hop

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Cranberry Chicken Meatballs with Cranberry Gravy

Cranberries, sage, and red onion flavor ground chicken in meatballs served with cranberry gravy

My spouse used to buy CDs and books based on the covers (you know, in the days pre-online shopping, when you'd physically scan the shelves and pick up what caught your eye).  He discovered Willy Porter's Dog Eared Dream (Amazon affiliate link) that way (cute dog on the cover).  He also found a cooking with fruit cookbook (which, sadly, has been lost in the many moves).  I always intended to use that book to add more fruit to savory dishes, but it never really caught on with me.

I have a taste memory of a wonderful chicken schnitzel melba (chicken, peaches, brown gravy) from Restaurant Paltzer in Spangdahlem, Germany that is my Gold Standard for a savory, fruit-and-meat entree.  I'm still working on the recipe for that (though my German coworker is helping!), but since it's getting on to cranberry season and I'm all about eating with the seasons (or putting up produce while it is in season to eat later) I'll share these cranberry chicken meatballs.

Even though I tend to stock a lot of local ground beef in my freezer, I am not immune to a good deal on ground chicken at the grocery store.  I had chopped cranberries (from these muffins) and some red onions and sage from the farm share.  The family was pretty pleased at the thought of chicken and noodles for dinner.  Perhaps they were happy about a pink meal that didn't contain beets. Even though I had 2 burners and the oven going, this meal wasn't that much plate-spinning effort.  I threw the meatballs together and chucked them into the oven, freeing up my hands to make the gravy while the noodles and meatballs were doing their own thing.