Baked Ravioli Valentines

Heart-shaped cheese-filled ravioli dipped in a tangy sauce and coated with seasoned breadcrumbs, then baked. Serve with sauce to dunk and you've got a kid friendly vegetarian Valentine's day meal.

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After sharing the contents of my fridge--as is--on my Instagram feed and Facebook page I figured I'd pan back from the tight Polish Pottery hearts photo to instead show the real state of one of my cookbook shelves.

For the past few years we've been eating this simple supper on Valentine's day. It's festive, but easy to get in the oven and it cooks quickly. I usually don't take photos--after all, I just picked up the package of ravioli at Costco and didn't make them myself--but I figured I'd share since the idea is a simple and good one. I got the idea from this recipe.

Semi Homemade Cranberry Pineapple Pecan Salad

A quick and easy 3 ingredient side dish that tastes fresh, sweet, cool and crunchy all at once. Jazz up a can of whole berry cranberry sauce and perk up your holiday table.

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Two things contributed to this cranberry sauce. Neither of them involve beets. Rejoice!

First, I swung by my closest Kroger grocery store during their pre-holiday free sample palooza and tried a taste of cranberry celebration salad. Second, my mom read this post on my make ahead slow cooker cranberry orange and beet salad and suggested I offer up a recipe for doctored up cranberry sauce that starts with a can, not a bag.

To be honest, I'm cool with the can of whole berry cranberry sauce [though the jellied kind icks me out as I did not grow up with it]. I'm game to start out with a bag of cranberries too--though if we're a small amount around the table I don't need that much sauce. I just require demand a small amount of sweet red salad to mix with my mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey and gravy. [In the same way, I need that dab of lingonberry jam with my meatballs and potatoes at IKEA.]

If you're not into beets yoga using a slow cooker or stove top to make your cranberry sauce but you've got a knife and the ability to toast pecans for a couple of minutes, this is a fast way to dress up a perfectly fine side dish into something even better.

For more dishes using cranberries, fresh or dried, please see my Cranberry Recipes Collection. This is part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for those of us who can't walk past all the bountiful displays at the grocery store this time of year without picking up a little something 'just in case'. I'm pinning tasty looking sides to my Pinterest boards and sharing them on my FB page.

Want to know how to use this blog? Click here.

Szechuan Asparagus with Ma Po Sauce

Szechuan peppercorns and a spicy Ma Po sauce flavor this fast Spring asparagus side dish.

When you move around a lot, you tend to leave behind more than friends at your last duty station home. You leave behind food--literally and figuratively. In the literal sense, you can't take the contents of your pantry and freezer with you when your household goods are going to spend a month on a boat, nor can you take your Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farmers or their produce. In the figurative sense you leave behind the ready access to foods you've come to love. I have not been able to recreate the Chicken Schnitzel Melba from Mom's Place in Spangdahlem, Germany, a Leonard's Malasada from Honolulu, Hawaii, nor a plate of Ma Po Tofu and Ma La Wonton from the Great Wall restaurant on Logan Circle in Washington, DC.

However, I can make a dish inspired by the flavors of that last one. [Feel free to contribute to the 'Send This Blogger Back to Germany and Hawaii So She Can Experience Some Beloved Dishes' fund and I'll work on the other two.] I picked up a jar of Ma Po sauce at the Cincinnati Asian Market during sled hockey practice, and added Szechuan peppercorns to my Penzey's shopping list. Coupled with my other stock of Asian cooking basics I was set. Except I didn't really know where to start. 

One day at the thrift shop where I work someone brought in a 1970's era Chinese Food Using a Food Processor cookbook by Culinary Arts. As I was tagging it I randomly flipped through and my eye caught the Pork & Bean Curd Szechuan Style recipe. I already knew that Ma Po Tofu had tofu, black beans, pork, and Szechuan peppercorns, so I figured this recipe may be a good place to start. [I should note that I didn't follow that recipe, I just looked at the ingredient list and went off, away from the food processor and the pork and tofu, and did my own thing.]

This spicy asparagus is a great accompaniment to a Spring Chinese meal. For other recipes using Asparagus, please see my Asparagus Recipes Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient.

Fast & Easy Bean & Hatch Chile Dip

Three ingredients and a minute of preparation results in a spicy yet creamy Hatch Chile and Refried Bean dip. This is nice paired with chips and salsa.

Last minute three ingredient appetizer recipes are NOT something I'm good at. I usually roast a vegetable (like this link to a sriracha butternut squash hummus) from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share prior to processing it into a dip or layering it with other vegetables and cheese (like this link to avocado feta hummus) before serving. It's not terribly difficult, but it's got some steps.

Not this time. Not this dip.

I'd just whipped up a batch of fresh salsa using some roasted Hatch chiles and the pile of paste tomatoes from the garden [it worked fine, and was less runny than I'd expect for a fresh cantina style salsa--no recipe though] and I wanted a creamy counterpart. Looking around for inspiration, I grabbed a can of refried beans from the pantry [here's Kalyn's round up of slow cooker refried bean recipes for making your own], some cream cheese, and a couple more Hatch chiles.

I get freshly roasted Hatch chiles from the grocery store a mile down the road. Yes, I MapMyWalk'd it so I can declare the mileage on my half marathon training log. Simon is happy for the walk, and I love the flavor. I freeze individual chiles for use year round. If you don't have a source near you, a can of roasted green chiles would be a good substitute.

Lazy Leftover Fruit Salad Ice Cream (#IceCreamWeek)

Welcome to Day 3 of Ice Cream Week 2014! This year the event is hosted by Kim of Cravings of a Lunatic and Susan of The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen. We have teamed up with 25 amazing bloggers to treat you to tons of amazing ice cream recipes. Have you entered into the giveaway?
Ice Cream Week is shaping up to be the best week ever!

Do you ever want a cold sweet creamy dessert, but you don't feel like working too hard for it?

This is where I was, mentally, the first time I made this dessert. I didn't have any eggs or heavy cream on hand and didn't feel like walking a mile down to my local grocery store--nor sending the kids. Nope, like I say in the title, I was just in a lazy mood.

I opened the fridge instead.

In keeping with my desire not to waste food, I started with some fruit salad that was leftover from breakfast. Using only what I had in the fridge/pantry, my daughter and I concocted this treat. When I heard about #IceCreamWeek I decided to make it again, take photos, and write the directions down so you could be lazy too.

This recipe is not a very labor-intensive undertaking, not like making an ice cream pie at home. Shoot, if you don't even want to turn on the stove to toast the nuts--skip it. You'll still get a sweet treat with little effort.

Note: This recipe uses a frozen banana. I don't like to eat bananas that are all spotty, so once they reach that stage I toss them into the freezer (in their skins, the perfect covering). If you don't have any frozen bananas a fresh one would probably work as well. Another Note: This recipe uses an ice cream maker with a pre-chilled bucket--so make room in your freezer for that bucket--it lets you be lazy!

This recipe uses a stove or hot plate, an ice cream maker, and a freezer.

Lazy Leftover Fruit Salad Ice Cream (serves 6 to 8)

½ cup chopped pecans
1 cup milk, or cream, or half and half (2% is what I used)
1 ½ cups vanilla yogurt (full fat)
⅓ cup brown sugar
1 frozen banana, peeled and chopped into small pieces
1 cup chopped up fruit (blueberries and peaches are lovely together)

Preheat a dry skillet over medium high heat. Toast pecans in skillet until fragrant, about 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. In a large bowl, whisk together milk, yogurt and brown sugar. Stir in banana pieces. Churn in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. Mine takes about 15 minutes before it start thickening. Once the ice cream starts thickening, add chopped fruit and toasted pecans to the ice cream maker. Churn 5 more minutes. Serve at once for a soft ice cream, or transfer to a freezer container and freeze for an hour until firm.

Be sure to swing by all of today's Ice Cream Week Participants:

• Roasted Blueberry Milkshake by Cravings of a Lunatic
• Cherry Almond Chocolate Ripple Semifreddo by The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen
• Peach Pit Swirl Ice Cream by Scoop Adventures
• Pumpkin Gelato with Salted Caramel Swirl by The Redhead Baker
• Salted Butter Pecan Brittle Ice Cream by Cookistry
• Lemon Curd Ice Cream by Life Tastes Good
• Pistachio-Cherry No Churn Ice Cream by The Life and Loves of Grumpy’s Honeybunch
• Blueberry Frozen Yogurt by Renee’s Kitchen Adventures
• Raspberry Ripple Buttermilk Gelato by Crumb
• Chocolate Cookies ‘n Cream Milkshake by Love and Confections
• Lazy Leftover Fruit Salad Ice Cream by Farm Fresh Feasts
• Apple Cinnamon Ice Cream by Noshing with the Nolands
• Gluten Free Devil’s Food Ice Cream Cake by Gluten Free Crumbley
• Blueberry-Kiwi Lemonade Shake by The Spiffy Cookie
• Caramel Macchiato Soft Serve Ice Cream by Wishes and Dishes
• Carrot Cake Ice Cream by Mind Over Batter
• Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream by The Gunny Sack
• White Peach Ice Cream with Bourbon Caramel by Quarter Life (Crisis) Cuisine
• No Churn Low Carb Peach Ice Cream from Yours and Mine are Ours

Orange Teriyaki Slaw Stir Fry with Orange Sriracha Turkey Meatballs

A colorful, flavorful, stir fry of red cabbage, carrot, celery and onion in a fresh orange and teriyaki sauce.  Served with orange-ginger-sriracha turkey meatballs and rice.

This is another Fast from the Farm Share meal, combining Band Fruit Fundraiser oranges and cool weather vegetables in an Asian-inspired stir fry.  Because I had it, I baked ground turkey meatballs flavored with orange, ginger, and sriracha separately and added them at the end, but this orange-sauced stir fry would be terrific as a side with a different protein source.

Working on the savory orange recipes section of my Fall and Winter Fruit Recipe Round Up gave me a hankering for Asian-influenced orange recipes.  Since I like to use what I've got, I opened the fridge and chose a red cabbage, a fat carrot, and the last of the celery for this stir fry.  It's pretty much slaw ingredients--seasoned differently and stir fried. I used ground turkey for the same reason--and because the idea of having my daughter mix, shape, and bake the meatballs appealed to me after a day of hauling fruit in and out of vehicles.

I don't have a juicer--but I have a blender, so I tossed the peeled orange and all of the sauce ingredients into the blender and made quick work of the sauce.  Getting the rice going first, and baking the meatballs while working on the stir fry, means that this meal comes together very quickly.

If you want a bright and colorful vegetable side, or a flavorful omnivore meal, try this dish.  It brightens a dreary day.

Squash, Mustard Greens, and Chick Pea Curry (Fast From The Farm Share)

A quick vegetarian stew of sautéed zucchini and yellow squash with mustard greens and chick peas in a prepared masala sauce.  Bring the farm share home and have supper on the table quickly.

For other recipes using Mustard Greens, please see my Mustard Greens Recipes Collection. For other recipes using Cooking Greens, please see my Recipes for Cooked Greens Collection. For other recipes using Summer Squash, please see my Summer Squash Recipes Collection. 

These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share. For other Greens recipe ideas from around the web, please follow my Greens board on Pinterest.

I've categorized fast recipes on this site as Quick Takes, and before I discovered some wonderful Wednesday link ups I used to post fast recipes on Thursdays, because Thursday is one of the days that I'm running kids around right up until suppertime.
However, I've been kicking around the phrase "Fast from the Farm Share" in my head for a while, so I'm going to share an occasional series of recipes that can get on the table quickly using ingredients from the CSA farm share (or your garden, or the farmer's market, or grocery store).

You'll notice I'm relying on a prepared sauce for this stew.  Sure, I can make my own masala (with chicken and chick peas here, or with patty pan squash and ground beef here, or with sweet potato, chicken, and chick pea here) but those are slow cooker recipes which don't fit with the fast theme.

This recipe is for those nights when you've got fresh vegetables that you need to eat and no time/desire to think about what to do with them or make some elaborate concoction.  It comes together quickly (cooking the rice takes longest, so if you've got the option, I'd set up the rice cooker before work, or have a kid start the rice cooker after school, or buy precooked rice) and tastes wonderful. And my kids snarfed up the mustard greens very quickly this way (magical naan, that is) so that's a win in my book.

Fried Rice with Massaged Kale

I'm probably the last one on the massaged kale bandwagon, and I'm OK with that.  Alanna taught me that you could massage olive oil into torn pieces of kale to soften it for a great raw kale salad.  What I took a chance on was the idea of using massaged kale in a quickly-cooked dish--would it work?

I'm happy to share that it does work.  Our fried rice repertoire has now expanded to include kale, and my kids are enjoying kale not only in soup and in pizza dough, but also in fried rice. Green smoothies, too.  Tomorrow, the world! This is huge in my book.  I mean, my spouse and I enjoy every item in our large CSA share, one way or another.  Our farmers are amazing, their land is very productive, and the kids seem to want to eat multiple times a day, so it really works well if I can use the CSA bounty in a way that also feeds my children.  Double win!

Fast Fresh Tomato Sauce

Served over polenta.  Crazy tasty.

When you've got farm fresh tomatoes and are looking for a quick easy no-cook tomato sauce, look here.  A jar of capers lives in my fridge, and if I put up enough, I have a cube or two of pesto left in the freezer until my basil gets going in the summer.  So when I get ripe tomatoes, I'm good to go.
This was fast, easy, and tasty.  Try it!

Mu Shu -ish (Leftover) Chicken Burritos (Quick Take)

When I was a little kid, I used to hate Chinese food.  Luckily, my parents' desire to expose us to new foods was undeterred.  My mom would bring a chicken sandwich along in a baggie when we'd go out to a Chinese restaurant.

I wasn't so nice the first time we brought our kids to an Ethiopian restaurant.  I figured they could find something to eat, and they did:  they subsisted on injera and copious amounts of water from their constantly replenished water glasses.  I had no idea how much water they were drinking until we had multiple potty emergencies during the subway ride home.

Eventually I learned to like Chinese food, and my favorite dish was Mu Shu Pork.  I'm not sure if I liked assembling and rolling my dinner or the flavor of the hoisin sauce best, but it was my favorite thing to order.  Now my favorite dish is Ma Po tofu from the Great Wall Szechuan House near Logan Circle in Washington, DC, and when my brother returns from overseas I bet he will pack some in a cooler, hop on a plane, and we'll enjoy some together.

You wouldn't think from the title of this recipe that this is a 'kitchen sink' dish, but it is.  I had leftover roasted chicken, half a savoy cabbage, some mushrooms that were on their last stems, and we needed dinner.  This came together quickly, tasted great, and was a big flavor difference from the original chicken meal--my favorite way to cook once and eat twice.  This is not true a true Mu Shu--the mushrooms are all wrong and there's no egg for starters, hence the addition of -ish to the title.  Consider this if you've got a roast chicken and want to change it up a bit.

My Favorite Grilled Cheese Sandwich: Cheddar, Pickled Turnips, Shredded Vegetables, and Hummus

Grilled cheese with hummus, shredded carrots & radishes, pickled turnips and lettuce.

When I shared a photo of a grilled cheese sandwich as the centerpiece of a lunch collage in this post on how to eat more veggies, I felt like I was teasing you. So I'm sharing a bit more about my favorite grilled cheese sandwich to inspire you, and hopefully make you hungry. I know I'm getting peckish.

Long on photos, short on words because honestly, this is just a simple grilled cheese sandwich.

Or is it?

If you're ever in the Cincinnati area and hungry, I recommend paying a visit to a Tom+Chee restaurant. They've got amazing grilled cheese sandwiches and delicious tomato soup.  My friend Holly told me about it, and whenever we can we swing by for a meal.  My favorite sandwich is the Hippy Chee.  It's got hummus, cucumber, tomato, and lettuce with your basic grilled cheese.  Tom+Chee manages to keep the bread toasty and warm, the cheese melty and hot, and the veggies cold and crisp.  It's addictive.  I'm still figuring out their technique--it involves a long spatula to fry both slices at the same time before lifting them off the heat, adding cold veggies, and mashing together--and I've found a way to incorporate my farm share veggies which delights me with the results.  Try it yourself!

(Leftover Ham Week) Ham and Broccoli Stem Quesadillas (Quick Take)

I can appreciate the head-scratching that a vegetarian would do upon seeing me wash the farm share broccoli, remove the cabbage white caterpillars that had been feasting on it, escort them outside--away from my garden but with a leaf so they won't starve--then head back inside to dice ham.

What can I say?  I love food, and currently have no medical reason prohibiting me from eating all of it.  Not all at once, of course.  And I love that my farm share doesn't use pesticides on the food my family and I eat.  I can escort a few bugs outside knowing that the food us critters are eating is safe.

I'm happy to say I've finally mailed in my check for this year's summer CSA.  I'd been meaning to for weeks, but now it's a done deal.  Let the countdown begin!  I don't know how we'll handle a large farm share with only 3 eaters, so expect a lot of posts about the 'putting up' of anything that I can put up.  Thanks to Tammy of Agrigirl I've got ideas for lettuces, but today, we're talking about broccoli stems.

You know I hate to waste Swiss chard stems, and broccoli stems are no different.  While living in Richmond I learned how to make a delicious black bean soup that called for diced broccoli stem, and ever since then haven't looked at them as an afterthought.

Note to self--make that soup and blog about it.

After I wrote up this post, I saw this post by Karen of Soup Addict about making an open faced quesadilla with a fried egg on top.  Next time, I'm totally trying that--ham and eggs and broccoli? Yum!

Chicken Spinach Artichoke Pesto Pasta (Quick Take)

A simple & fast skillet supper with sautéed chicken breast, fresh spinach, prepared pesto and marinated artichoke hearts. Six ingredients, about 20 minutes, and you've got a tasty meal.

Updated in 2015 with new photos!

If you want to prepare a special meal that appears as if you've given a lot of thought to it but in fact you just realized that tonight was The Night and need to pull something out of your ear, read on.

I had a chicken breast, a bunch of spinach from the farm share, and a lot of cans of cream of chicken soup because they were a good price so I stocked up.  Yes, I use canned soup.  I tried making my own but it didn't come out as well as this stuff.  Everything in moderation.  While looking for inspiration for dinner, I decided to read the recipe on the can. In the surprise of the century, the recipe called for mixing the can of soup with pesto to make a sauce.  Hey, you know I've got pesto in the freezer!  I could make that recipe!

Not content to merely follow the recipe, I decided to boost the veggie content with my farm share spinach and some marinated artichokes.  I think I was in a race to see how fast I could empty a giant Costco-sized jar.  I did it in about a week, between pizzas, dips, and this.  New record.

This was fast and very delicious, if you are older than 14 and love the taste of artichokes.  The kids ate everything but the artichokes.  If you were going meatless I'd sub mushrooms for the chicken and use the soup of your choice.

Skillet Mushroom Dip for Two (Quick Take)

Wine-soaked mushrooms sautéed with farm share vegetables and herbs, finished with creamy goat cheese. Makes enough for two--to share with your honey.

There are nights when I just want appetizers for dinner.  There are nights when I plan a romantic meal with my spouse.  And there are nights when the whole family feels like grazing.  Do you ever have those nights?

I had a hankering for something hot and shroom-y, but not all of the ingredients necessary for stuffed mushrooms.  So I decided to Dip It.  (Dip it good).

This comes together fast, fits great in my small skillet, and is the perfect appetizer for two mushroom lovers.  Using some of my freezer stash of put up veggies makes this a fast-to-assemble dish.  Just chop everything up finely, sauté it, add the wine, simmer, stir in the cheese and you're done.

Back Bacon, Chinese Cabbage, and Potato (Eggless) Brunch Skillets (Quick Take)

I love weekend breakfasts, especially weekends that don't involve sled hockey or wheelchair basketball tournaments.  That's not to say that I don't like eating breakfast away from home at the tournaments, don't get me wrong, but I do enjoy my spouse and I waking up before the kids, walking the dog, and then fixing a big breakfast for the whole family.  I love it when that breakfast comes together quickly!

Here's one breakfast that happened not to contain any eggs.  I saw Back Bacon marked down, decided to try it (why not?) and looked around to see what else I could pair with it.  I have Chinese cabbage from the farm share, and I know my family likes that sautéed for dinner, why not try it for breakfast?

 But there needs to be more to round out the meal.  Conveniently, I've also got new potatoes from the farm share, and I know my family likes to eat fried potatoes.  Throw all this together, jumping from skillet to skillet, and we've got ourselves a hearty winter breakfast.  Plenty of good food to fuel us up for a day in the cold!

If you were serving more folks, eggs would be a lovely addition to this spread.  But if you're serving folks with egg allergies, consider this combination.  It satisfies the appetite of egg eaters and non-egg eaters alike.

Spinach Sausage Alfredo Tortellini (Quick Take)

As much as I love fresh spinach in an apple spinach green smoothie, there are times when I need to share the spinach goodness with the rest of my family.  They think I'm weird for loving green smoothies.
This was a quick way to incorporate a bag of fresh spinach from the farm share into a hearty, filling meal on a busy night.

Alfredo-Pesto Holiday Ravioli Carbo Loading-Quick Take

This was before some ravioli exploded, so it's the prettiest shot.

I don't know about you, but life doesn't slow down during the winter holiday season.  Far from it!  So I'm always looking for quick meals to put on the table utilizing the produce I've put up earlier in the season.
A fun way to get in your carbo-loading for your all night gift wrapping or card-addressing or cookie-baking marathons (or the Jingle Bell Run or an actual marathon if you're into that sort of thing) is this fun shaped and filled pasta.  I get it at Costco but have seen it in other stores.  I fixed my loved ones red heart-shaped cheese ravioli for Valentines day, and when I saw this green, red, and white star- and bell-shaped I knew it would be a big hit.
When I hit the grocery store I cruise the perimeter looking for marked down stuff:  mushrooms and bananas in the produce section, milk in the organic section, day old bread in the bread section, fancy cheese in the fancy cheese section, and if I'm wanting it, I cruise past the prepared foods section looking for Alfredo sauce.  More often than not, I'll find a container marked down.  Then I know I'll be fixing up a quick pasta dish like this, or using it on a pizza like this, or for tonight's meal.  If I don't find any, I'll check back later in the week--the kids drink milk like calves--so I just rearrange the meal plan. Snort.  Like there's a plan.
But when I saw the holiday shaped ravioli I thought it would look nice with a green sauce. (And a red sauce too, but I had some beets to use and couldn't figure out how to make a red sauce from beets that didn't become a fuschia sauce--anyone?)
One of the reasons I put up stuff when I've got it is for nights like this--I can come home and toss together a fast meal with some wholesome ingredients in a flash.

Yakisoba--Farm Fresh Feast Style (Quick Take)

Recipe for vegetables and meat tossed with noodles and sauce for a kid friendly Japanese dish.

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If you wander through an outdoor festival in Japan, you can see women fixing a delicious stir fried noodle dish, yakisoba, on giant flat griddles.  Because of these unwitting cooking demonstrations, yakisoba is one of the Japanese dishes I'm comfortable making.

I stock up on yakisoba noodle packs when I am near an Asian market.  In Hawaii I could get them fresh, but here in Ohio I get them in the frozen section of the Asian market down the street from hockey in Cincinnati.  Don't ask. I don't usually arrange my children's sports around my food shopping, it just works out that way. :)

I originally had celery in here, but decided there was enough crunch with the Bok Choy and Daikon.

I'm pretty sure my kids developed a taste for it in utero, because they have loved it from the chicken nugget age.  When I get the right mix of veggies in the farm share (some sort of cabbage, carrots, celery or pepper, and onion) it is their lunch of choice.  Yes, my kids come home from school for lunch.  At least my son is easily persuaded to join us if yakisoba is on the menu.  Oh!  Because it's Japanese, give equal emphasis to each syllable:  yah-kee-so-bah.  Easy!

For more recipes using bok choy, please see my Bok Choy Recipes Collection. For more recipes using carrots, please see my Carrot Recipes collection. For more recipes using radishes, please see my Radish Recipes Collection. These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me starting at the contents of a big box of fresh farm share vegetables and wondering how we're going to get the family to eat them. For more recipe ideas, follow me on Pinterest. For a peek at scenes of life, follow me on Instagram. For articles that caught my eye and epic failures because I have my share, follow me on Facebook. Want to know How to Use This Blog?

Simple Sautéed Chinese Cabbage--Thursday Quick Take

This is a simple dish, true, but feeding the family day after day doesn't have to be elaborate.  Sometimes a simple side is just what's needed.

I love appliances.  I can be gone from the house from 4 to 6:30 pm and still sit down for dinner--including a fresh vegetable from the CSA farm share--at 6:45.
Earlier in the day I'd sautéed some chunks of chicken breast and tossed them into a crock pot along with a bottle of Thai red curry sauce.  I started a pot of brown Basmati rice in the rice cooker. Then I actually turned on the crock pot on to low and left for my chauffeuring duties.  While I was out I was pondering a side.  I could slice up some veggies with dip.  Or reheat the leftover creamed chard.  Then I remembered we'd gotten a Chinese cabbage the day before in the farm share box.  All set!  I got home, preheated the skillet while I was chopping the onions and slicing the cabbage, and we would have sat down to eat 15 minutes later.  We didn't, for another 30 minutes, because my son decided to take the dog for an extra long walk.  At least the dog didn't get loose, like that other time.

Simple Sautéed Chinese Cabbage

1/2 medium onion, finely chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1 head Chinese cabbage, sliced into 1/2 inch-ish slices (separate the mostly stem from the mostly leaf)
Crazy Janes Mixed Up Salt (or salt and pepper) to taste
1 Tablespoon butter or cooking oil of your choice

Preheat a large skillet over medium heat.  Add a turn of oil.  Sauté the onion 3-5 minutes until it begins to soften.  Add the thicker stems of the cabbage, sauté and additional 5 minutes.  Add in the cabbage leaves and sauté 3-5 minutes until wilted.  Shake a bunch of Crazy Janes over top, and finish by letting a pat of butter melt over the dish.

Roasted Butternut Squash and Alfredo Sauce with Fried Sage

I am always looking to my fridge, to the leftover bits of this and that, for inspiration for the next meal.  This quick side dish is no exception.  I had leftover prepared Alfredo sauce from this pizza, and leftover roasted butternut squash from these enchiladas.  And I needed a side dish for this casserole.  I also had lovely fresh sage from the farm share, and have been reading about sage cooked in butter added to all sorts of butternut squash dishes.  It's not hard to see how inspiration struck. Easy cleanup-too!  I cooked this all in one pot, doing first the noodles, then the sage, then finally the sauce before combining it all back in the pot to heat through.

I've revamped my Visual Recipe Index! For more ideas on what to do with your butternut squash, click here.