Cranberry, Chicken, Spinach and Leek Enchiladas

Leeks and frost-kissed farm share spinach, sautéed with chicken and cranberry salsa in a creamy enchilada, topped with spicy salsa verde.

Too early to break out the cranberry salsa? It pairs so nicely with salsa verde I couldn't resist. I'm tempted to try and make some of my own this year, since our farm share--and my spouse's coworkers--have provided so many hot peppers.  I've put up salsa twice, and have just enough ripe tomatoes left to put up a third batch.  In the mean time I put up a batch of hot pepper jelly as well--then promptly gave most of it away.  Update: I did make my own cranberry salsa! You can find the recipe here.  Between the canning and the freezing I'm trying to keep up with the supply of vegetables that I'll feed the family during winter. [I feel like the Ant, though I really want to lie down and read my book like the Grasshopper--so I'm going to keep it short and sweet and go do just that.]

Want more enchilada recipes? Try my Clickable Collage. More recipes using spinach? Here's the Spinach Recipes Collection. More recipes using Leeks? Try this collection. More recipes using Cranberries, in various permutations? Look here.

Egg, Country Ham, Asparagus and Leek Pizza--a Peek Behind the Scenes of Pizza Night

A terrific pizza for Spring--salty cubes of country ham paired with leeks and roasted asparagus, finished with a sunny side up egg.

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This pizza started on a treadmill and ended with a ham biscuit.

Oh, not exactly on a treadmill--but it was while I was on a treadmill [in socks, as it never occurred to me to bring my walking shoes to Ft Wayne, Indiana in February where I was scraping 3 to 5 inches of snow off the van each time I wanted to drive to or from the hockey rink--I don't recommend walking on a treadmill in socks] that I saw a Diners, Dives, and . . . . Drive Ins maybe? show on Food Network.  Not having cable TV at home I'm not up on all this lingo.  On that show, a talented pizza maker in Minnesota, after pulling a kimchi pizza out of a copper pizza oven that I am swooning over still, cracked an egg on a mostly cooked pizza, used a giant-handled pizza peel to lift it up to the upper dome of the oven, and cooked it just a wee bit.  Holy cow that looked good!

When I got a hankering for country ham biscuits--I think because my car was encrusted with salt but I'm not 100% sure--I had enough country ham left over to try my hand at an egg on a pizza.

Yeah, the crust is um blackened. It's a Feature.

There you are--treadmills to ham biscuits, from Minnesota to the Capitol of the Confederacy . . . on a pizza.

I wrote that introduction after my first attempt at cooking an egg on a pizza, thinking that surely I'd perfect the method with my second attempt.  I mean, I make pizzas for a living a whole lot, you'd think if any home cook in a kitchen could bang this thing out it in a try or two it would be me.  But the reality is I've tried this twice, and while I'm getting better and the results taste great each time, it's not perfect.  Yet.

So why am I posting?  Consider this a Keeping It Real edition of Friday Night Pizza Night.  A [literal, thanks to the spouse's new camera] behind the scenes in my kitchen.  A jumping off place for your home pizza making. Maybe seeing my failures will make you feel better about your less-than-optimal results in the kitchen?  I hope so. I'm trying right alongside you all.

Wee Oliver Picklepants is my kitchen assistant today.

This pizza is a fiddly one.  When I get into trouble with a recipe, I take it down to the bare essentials.

•  I tried this with homemade dough and it . . . um, well, it burned blackened before the eggs were fully set.  So I bought a Boboli® [No sponsorship. I bought it, they don't know I exist] to take the whole 'baking the crust' aspect out of the equation. The result was better, but I'm picky in that I prefer my egg whites to be . . . well, white . . . when I eat them.  
• I made this without, and then with, roasted asparagus.  It's better with more vegetables, like many things are in life. 
• I tried this with an assortment of cheeses.  I do not like to use slices of fresh mozzarella on this pizza, but shredded mozzarella, shredded cheddar, Grand Cru all taste good.
• I've made this with country ham and regular ham, and I prefer the country ham (if you eat ham, that is--leave it off if you don't, and the salty cheese will still rock on with the leeks, asparagus, and egg).

For more recipes with asparagus, please see my Asparagus Recipes Collection. For more recipes with leeks please see my Leek Recipes Collection. They 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.

I'm sharing more recipes on my Pinterest boards, follow me there. If you like a good peek behind the scenes like I do, follow me on Instagram. Need a good read? I'm sharing articles of interest on my Facebook page, follow me there. Want to know How to Use This Blog?

NOTE: This recipe is not gluten free as written, because I used a pizza crust containing gluten. To adapt this recipe for a gluten free diet please substitute the gluten free pizza crust of your choice.
Check labels to confirm that your other ingredients are also gluten free. Good sources for determining gluten free products 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/

Egg, Country Ham, Roasted Asparagus and Leek Pizza

Ingredients

• 12-15 stalks of asparagus (if you've got a bundle, roast 'em all and use half)
• olive oil (about 2 Tablespoons total, divided)
• salt and pepper (about ½ teaspoon each, to start)
• 1 prebaked pizza crust of your choice
• 1 clove roasted garlic (here's how I put up my garlic crop, or use minced fresh)
• ⅓ cup sliced leeks (thawed if frozen. what? of course you can freeze leeks)
• ½ cup finely diced country ham, or regular ham
• 1 ½ cups shredded cheddar, or mozzarella, or Grand Cru cheese, or a blend
• 3 eggs, set out so they become room temperature

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  
2. In a large bowl, toss asparagus with about 1 Tablespoon of olive oil and ½ teaspoon each salt and pepper.  
3. Spread on a rimmed baking sheet and roast for 10 minutes, then shake the pan to turn the spears and return to the oven for another 5 minutes.  
4. Remove from oven and then switch the oven over to the Broil setting.  I think at least 10 minutes of the oven hanging out on the Broil setting would do the trick. I did 5, enough to top the pizza and take some photos, and I should have let it go longer.
5. Combine the remaining Tablespoon olive oil with a smashed clove of roasted garlic or minced fresh garlic. 
6. Brush this roasted garlic oil over the crust, and think of your friend Heather who gave you the idea to use roasted garlic oil in the first place.  
7. Scatter leeks and ham across the crust, then place the asparagus thusly in a pleasing pattern (I did it like spokes, and that works for me).  
8. Top with shredded cheese, leaving 3 open areas without cheese to nestle the eggs.  
9. Make these open areas towards the outer edge of the pizza crust, because if your egg is in the middle it will never cook. Trust me. Crack the eggs into the open areas.  
10. Place the pizza under the broiler for 3 to 5 minutes until the egg is set but before the crust burns becomes a Featured Blackened Crust.  If necessary, take the pizza out and cut it before returning it to the broiler to fully cook the egg white.  I don't really care about the yolk--it can be runny, but my egg white needs to be not clear.

This post is shared on the From the Farm Blog Hop, Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Tasty Tuesdays, Simple Supper Tuesdays

Red Cabbage, Leek, Brat and Beet Skillet Supper

A hearty satisfying skillet supper of cabbage, leeks, apples, and beets seasoned with bratwurst, maple syrup, apple cider and spices. I could say 'low carb' and 'real' if you like those words.

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If you're a regular visitor to the blog [thank you!] you know all about the Strategic Winter Squash Reserve in a cold corner of my breakfast nook.  That's where I store the pumpkins, acorn squash, butternut and buttercup squash from the Fall farm share, as well as the shorter-storing onions, potatoes, garlic and sweet potatoes. Corn gets blanched and frozen, summer squash and carrots get shredded and frozen, and beets get roasted and frozen. Turnips just get refrigerated until my spouse convinces me to make pasties again. This way I feed my family from our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share twelve months of the year, even though we only get fresh vegetables seven months of the year.**

Simon and Vincent (Oliver and Crystal the pig are missing) showing off the initial SWSR.

Even though I enjoyed a week of sunshine in Florida, last week during HashtagOrangeWeek, winter has its grip on my home and I still want crave hearty fare. This recipe is a hearty skillet supper combining many of the items in a typical Fall CSA share that can be found throughout the winter.  I was inspired by this CSA Cookoff segment done by Jennifer of Homegrown.org. I thought it would be a great way to stuff beets a bunch of veggies and a sprinkle of meat into my kids.  Score!  Today I'll share a skillet full of flavor we affectionally dubbed Hot Pink Mess.

Boy, if I were a young hip blogger, this would be the name of some over-the-top decadent dessert or fried appetizer that I'd make and eat after stumbling home in the wee hours. In reality, a humble fried egg sandwich appeals to me in the wee hours, more so than chocolate. Though Meghan's granola comes a close second for nighttime snacks. 

For more recipes using beets, please see my Beet Recipes Collection. For recipes using cabbage, please see my Cabbage Recipes Collection. For more recipes using leeks, please see my Recipes Using Leeks Collection. These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from their farm share box, or from what's at the farmer's market, or on sale at the grocery store, or what grew best in the garden. I'm pinning more recipes on my Pinterest boards, follow me there. I'm sharing a carefully curated look at the world's most handsome Basset hound, Robert Barker behind the scenes on my Instagram feed, follow me there. Interesting articles get shared on my Facebook page, follow me there. Want to know How to Use This Blog?