Teriyaki Roasted Mushrooms

Teriyaki sauce tossed with roasted mushrooms for an easy to fix savory appetizer.

It's been over a week since our Fall Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share ended. One moment I'm blogging my Thanksgiving After Action Report, the next moment I'm cleaning up from Robert Barker's latest escapade [he chewed a hole in my nukable neck wrap and I vacuumed rice & flax seed from the living room rug. Now there are piles of rice & flax seed all around the yard]. You can read about Robert's story--and get a dog food recipe--here. The end of the Fall CSA means two things:  time for mushrooms and time to squeeze in all my end-of-year posts before I take a holiday break.

No, it doesn't mean I'll stop blogging about what we're eating from the farm share. Although we only get fresh foods from the farm for about 6 months of the year, to paraphrase the words of my birthday t-shirt, "We eat local because I CAN" (seriously cute shirts, no affiliation to disclose). The point is that I've been freezing and canning and filling up the Strategic Winter Squash Reserve like a boss an ant all Fall, and after I take a couple of weeks off to host my family-of-origin (flung from the far corners of the globe to Southwestern Ohio for the holidays) I'll be back on it with seasonal CSA-inspired recipes, ways to use local foods, and the occasional indulgence thrice weekly in 2015.

Mushrooms and end of year posts . . . there's a connection. We don't get mushrooms in the farm share, though if I'm lucky I can score an occasional King Oyster mushroom at the farmer's market--so I like to make mushroom treats for my spouse and I while I'm not staring at overwhelming piles of mustard greens. I'm also participating in Holiday Baking Week next week, sharing five sweet holiday recipes [though predominantly getting my ethnic on] with giveaways for you folks.

That means I need to get my savory and New Year's recipes up now, like this little effort-big taste vegetable appetizer, one of my Awesome Veggie Apps and Snacks (link to my Pinterest board). My spouse and I consider a skillet of mushrooms a mini-date--we're easy to please--and I've shared several recipes. You can find more mushroom recipes in my Mushroom Recipe Collection, part of my Visual Recipe Index.

TLC for Rescue(d) Dogs: A Recipe with Results

Grass fed beef liver plus rice in a gentle mix, great for boosting the nutrition of neglected dogs.

Subtitle: Tenderness, Liver, Cardio and/or That Liver Concoction

I have a recipe for dogs today--though cats of people certainly could eat it [folks, add salt, pepper, and/or onion to taste]. It may seem weird for a local foods blog to have a dog food recipe, but the key ingredient is liver. I buy my beef from my neighbor's friend, a quarter beef at a time, and I get all sorts of parts in that quarter beef. Some, like the tongue, were initially new to me but have become desired cuts. Others, like t-bone steaks and liver, tend to sit in the freezer until I come up with a way to cook them.

Yes, I just put t-bone steaks and liver into the same category. It's not them, it's me. See, I can confidently take a package of ground beef and make Green Tomato Bacon Jam Burgers. I know how to cook them and they turn out great--better than I can get at a restaurant, though Five Guys runs a very good second to me (and their fries are way better than I could ever do). A t-bone steak is scary. I worked at a steak house in college, and I've eaten in fancy-pants steak houses. I know what a good steak should taste like, how it should turn out. I have not mastered the technique of cooking it enough-but-not-too-much. So I bypass the scary packages. The liver I leave just because I keep trying ways to get the family to like it, and my neighbor keeps giving me hers so I've got plenty.

With this train of though--local liver is in my house and I need to find a way to cook it--liver is now akin to the beets, turnips, or kohlrabi from my Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share and therefore excellent blog fodder. It's possible I'll add a beef liver category to the Visual Recipe Index [my son just asked me where the chicken category was] but for now I'd like to share WHY I'm cooking that liver concoction.

I'd like you to meet Robert Barker. I met him last month when I went to the Humane Society to donate leftover composting pig food and bedding after Crystal died. [As an aside, I think folks who join a CSA should get a pair of composting pigs for their living room. It's a win-win situation and I loved the near 5 years we had Quartz and Crystal after we adopted them from MGPR.] I had no intention of getting another dog when I casually asked, after filling out the donation paperwork, if I could peek into the dog room. Robert Barker immediately caught my eye because, and I'm being totally superficial here as my son pointed out, he's a good-looking Basset hound.

I grew up with Basset hounds. When I say I grew up with them, I mean I do not have a childhood memory without a pack of hounds in it. One family story is of a race to see who would learn to walk down [my mother gently correct me, it was up the steps] the steps first--toddler me or our first Basset pup. The dog won. I got my last hound as a sophomore in high school and lost him when I was in my mid-twenties, and though I went in a new direction with my next dogs (short ears and long legs) I've always had a soft spot for Bassets.

While Robert Barker's good looks caught my eye, his story tugged at my heart. He was picked up by animal control after a neglect complaint and weighed 18 pounds when he arrived at the humane society. He wasn't yet available for adoption due to the court proceedings but I was smitten. I went home and told my spouse about him (though at the time I didn't even now if Robert was a boy or a girl). The next day my spouse left work early so we could return to the shelter and visit Robert again. That started a week of calls and trips to the shelter with trumped up excuses [here's the application I emailed last night, I was in the area, how does the dog react to the uniform, etc]. I bought a new dog bed and a used dog bowl and left them in the car 'just in case'. The animal control officer came for a home visit, met Vincent and Simon, and said that Robert would make a good addition to our home. I'd like to think that photo of cute little me with puppies in the whelping pen helped our case.

The next day Robert was released from medical hold and came home with me. His weight was up to 33 pounds but he was barely more than skin and bones. His fur was dry and missing in many areas, he could not maintain a crouch long enough to pee without sinking down into his puddle, and he was such a sweet and friendly dog. I took him to the vet and in addition to a course of meds she told me he just needed TLC. The shelter had been feeding him prescription canned and dry dog food, and our vet said we could gradually switch to over-the-counter food.

Looking at the ingredients in the canned dog food aisle I was struck by all the flour and flavorings used. When my spouse commented 'this one has Animal Liver . . . doesn't even specify which animal it's from' I decided to use what I've already got on hand and make my own version of TLC--That Liver Concoction. I ran my recipe by the vet and got an OK to get started.

We've been feeding Robert about ⅓ to ½ cup of this concoction with breakfast and dinner for the past several weeks. [Simon and Vincent get a Tablespoon and teaspoon, respectively, though Vincent as the Top Dog gets dibs on licking the spoon.] Robert's coat looks much better, he's got more energy to play with our other dogs, he's alert and aware of squirrels and chases them on walks, he doesn't dip down into his pee--he's just a delightful addition to our family. When I was discussing this post with my spouse I asked for help creating a backronym for TLC. Since plenty of exercise has been a big part of Robert's daily routine, my spouse suggested Tenderness, Liver, and Cardio. It works for me, and it's working for Robert Barker. He's a pretty awesome 50th birthday present, don't ya think?

Cuddling with Vincent helps with the Tenderness part.

Robert will probably always be a food hound. In my experience Bassets are. His favorite place to hang out is with a human in the kitchen.  No matter which kitchen, you'll find Robert Barker there. It's probably time for a recipe, right? Let's get to it.

TLC--That Liver Concoction for Rescue(d) Dogs

1 package beef liver (mine come in ¾ to 1 pound packages)
water
2 cups cooked rice (I use short grain sushi rice because that's what I have on hand)

Place liver in a small saucepan and add water just to cover (2 to 3 cups). Bring to a gentle boil and simmer for about 20 minutes. Transfer liver to a food processor (a blender would do in a pinch) and add  a small amount of the poaching water. Pulse several times to break the liver into small pieces, then process until it is a uniform paste. [If you're making this for folks, taste and add salt & pepper at this point]. Add the rice, and some more poaching water, and process until well mixed. I usually use all the poaching water because . . . why not? The rice will absorb it.  This keeps in the refrigerator for up to a week.

This post is shared on What's Cookin' Wednesday, Fiesta Friday

Sweet & Sour Ham Balls & Upcycling Food

Ham and ground beef form the base of these meatballs, baked in a sweet and sour sauce. Great as an appetizer or over rice. Read on for how I upcycle one holiday ham into 2 new dishes.

As my brain kicks over into Holiday Mode [doubtless spurred by the failures--shown on my FB page--when I branch out in a new cookie direction despite having a baking deadline plus production quota for the Airmen's Cookie Drive] I'm uncovering a tendency to value traditional flavors over the latest food fad. [Not that I'm up on food fads--I'm utterly behind the times in food and fashion both.] During the holidays it seems, more than usual, I need to make each kitchen session count. That's where the second half of the post title, Upcycling Food, comes into play.

Making a beloved Thanksgiving Leftovers Casserole--layering mashed potatoes, stuffing/dressing, turkey and gravy into one yummy dish--is not upcycling. I'm not making something entirely different with the leftovers, I'm just repackaging the same goodness in a different container. While I love that casserole, it's not the concept I wish to expound upon.  I want to talk about upcycling--making something entirely new out of previously used materials.

When we moved in the back yard was partially fenced. We knew we'd be getting a dog [though we didn't know we'd get two more, then lose one, then get another--nor did we know that I'd start a blog and chronicle our pet population with pizza recipes] so we planned to have the partial fence removed and a new fence put in to completely enclose the yard. My clever spouse took a look at the still perfectly useful cedar fence and suggested he use it to make our raised beds.  As you can see through my little collage, it worked.  He upcycled the fence boards into raised beds which we filled with dirt, manure, leaves, and more manure. Then I grew food. It always comes back to the food with me.

This recipe is from my grandma (Mrs Harry Olsen of Fort Frances, Ontario) who was given it by Kathleen Smith (Mrs George C.B. Smith). When my mom wrote in the notes that it was given to my grandma 'years ago' we're talking a long time ago! This recipe has been made in our family since when, Mom?
These ham balls use a pound of cooked ham--if you serve ham at a holiday meal, you can serve ham balls as an appetizer at a holiday party, then serve Ham Ball & Black Eyed Pea Chirashi Rice for New Year's good luck.  That's 3 different meals out of one ham, that's upcycling, and that's almost all I've got to say about that.*

Orange & Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins

Fresh citrus combined with chocolate chips in a soaked oatmeal whole grain muffin.

Do you associate oranges with the holidays? 

I do. We got tangerines in the toes of our stockings even before I'd read of Almanzo Wilder having one in his in the Little House series (Amazon affiliate link). Unwrapping a slice of orange-flavored chocolate from the orange shaped ball is something we look forward to each year. [However, I really did not care for scooping up the sticky Mandarin Chocolate Sherbet at Baskin Robbins. I don't recall anyone other than my mom eating it, but boy was that stuff gooey, and not in a good way, when it had been sitting in the case a while.]

Now that I've got kids in activities I associate oranges with fundraisers, which in my experience result in cases of citrus appearing in my house between Thanksgiving and Christmas. [Do you know how messy it is to deliver a case of fruit in a wheelchair when the sidewalks are slushy? I do, and it's as messy as you'd imagine.] We're luckier than Almanzo, however, and can enjoy fresh citrus year round. I admit that once we've eaten the Band Fruit Fundraiser order that arrives next weekend, I'll have had my fill of citrus for many months.

These muffins came about after my success with Orange Oatmeal Secret Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies. I wanted to combine those flavors into a muffin. I had tangelos on hand, but oranges or tangerines will all work here. Remember when making a soaked oat muffin to start them at least an hour in advance (or up to 5 days, if you'd care to refrigerate the buttermilk/oat combo.

If you'd like other orange recipes, including last year's round up of 156 Recipes featuring Fall and Winter Fruits, please see my Orange Recipes Collection, part of my Visual Recipe Index.

Post Thanksgiving Thoughts

This is an unusual post for me. I thought about posting a Thanksgiving Leftover Remake recipe, but decided I've got a few of those in my index and I've been sharing links with bloggers doing Leftover Round Ups. You can see those round ups on the Rockin' Recipe Round Ups Pinterest Board.

I thought about posting a Christmas themed recipe, to help me mentally switch over to the next Big Thing. Normally I don't cotton to decorating until after my birthday, but we've had a recent mild spell and I support all my neighbors who chose to decorate outside while it was nice.  I did see a few Christmas trees in living room windows during my dog walks earlier this week though--that's a bit too much. I'd rather celebrate my spouse's birthday and my Big 5 0 before I switch over to Christmas.

As this series of photos by my spouse shows, I did a heck of a lot of cooking yesterday. I need a break from cooking! I'd say I have a turkey coma, but in fact my ancient meat thermometer broke in the drumstick, and after a small serving of breast meat w/ the main meal, I pitched the rest of the bird because I'm just not confident that whatever red fluid was in the tube is safe. I'll miss the leftovers and making stock, but there will be more turkeys in my life. We've still got plenty of sides.

Looking through these photos I think it's clear I'm doting on Robert Barker.  It's important to teach dogs about spices! He spent most of the day underfoot, on Kitchen Patrol.  Vincent joined him occasionally, but Simon mostly stayed out of it. He knew he'd be fed in the end.

I created a couple of new recipes that will be up for next Thanksgiving, including my first stuffing recipe.  This was fun to make and apparently fun for the spouse to photograph--tasted delicious too. I love cornbread stuffing and stuffing with apples and onions and to combine the two was really fun. There's no gluten in my cornbread, so it's gluten free as well.

Our menu was a roast turkey (simple as pie pizza), gravy, MA's Make Ahead Irish Mashed Potato Casserole, Alanna's World's Best Green Bean Casserole--with a couple of tweaks as I didn't want extra friend fried onions left over, Cornbread Turkey Sausage & Apple Stuffing, Creamed Spinach, Cranberry, Pineapple & Pecan Salad, and a Caramel Pumpkin Butter Cheesecake. I also have a sweet potato dish I made on Tuesday to add to my leftover mix tape plate. As I feel like cooking, I'll make a corn casserole to change up the leftovers even more.

By the numbers we had 11 pounds of turkey, 5 pounds of potatoes, 1 pound of green beans, 1 gallon of spinach, ½ pound of mushrooms, an onion, an apple, and a thing of celery.  I dipped into my stash of Roasted Garlic in the freezer, and emptied the freezer of turkey stock while I was at it. The biggest category I used, though, was dairy products.  I used 3 boxes of cream cheese, close to 3 sticks of butter, and several cups of cream over the past 2 days. Thanks again Kim for the cream! I've made a serious dent in the final Community Supported Agriculture box for the Fall season, and we've got food to feed us for days.

As for kitchen failures, I dropped a nutmeg into the creamed spinach and broke the aforementioned thermometer. I am absolutely shocked that Robert Barker didn't take down any of the meal, but it sure wasn't for lack of vigilance and effort on his part.

Things that worked well--I did a lot of 'clean as you go' today. I did this partly because I had to clean up to have room for the next item on my mental agenda, and partly because I cooked 3 side dishes using my only 2 saucepans. Either way, I'm sure glad I did--the kids did the dishes and all that was left was the gravy & the roaster when the meal was done.

Since Thanksgiving heralds in the big shopping season, I'll close with a few of my favorite things. These are all Amazon affiliate links to items I use that make my life in the kitchen just a little bit nicer. I think I need to add Meat Thermometer to my Christmas list!



This post is shared on Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Tasty Tuesdays

Cranberry Salsa & Refried Bean Nachos (or Quesadillas)

It's the 4th Wednesday of November. In America, most everybody knows what's for dinner tomorrow. 

What's for dinner tonight?

I've finalized my Thanksgiving menu with a whole 30 hours to go. My Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farmers delivered our turkey and final Fall share last night. I've plotted my Stuffing Strategy and my cornbread is getting drier by the hour. The cranberry sauce is chillin' in the fridge, squeezed in between the turkey from Maker's Meadow and the jar of stock I remembered to thaw for gravy. I've gathered all the ingredients for MA's Make Ahead Irish Mashed Potato Casserole and Alanna's World's Best Green Bean Casserole. My daughter and I will be successful with our Caramel Pumpkin Butter Cheesecake [that will happen after this post goes live, so as I type it's hopeful optimism. While I'm being hopeful, I'll hope neither Robert Barker nor Simon or Vincent will jump up and steal any food].

I am in the zone.

The last thing I want to think about, or act upon, is fixing food for those housemates of mine who have strange ideas about eating multiple meals in the days running up to the Big Event. I don't even want to eat out because people are running around like crazy right now, and I don't want to order in and cause more leftovers to need a home in my packed fridge.

Enter these nachos. They are easy to fix, are made up mostly of pantry ingredients (no need to use much fridge space), can be vegetarian and gluten free--and don't result in leftovers that I'll need to store. Plus the flavor and texture are unlike what we'll be eating tomorrow.

With all the cranberry recipes I've shared, this could be the most unexpected.  It's delicious, unusual, and a departure from the usual seasonal fare.  If you happen across cranberry salsa (link to my recipe if you want to make your own) and/or cranberry cheddar cheese (which I found at Costco), grab some refried beans and treat your taste buds to this change up dish.  This can be a fast and flavorful snack, which was well-received by the whole family during a hectic time. For other recipes using cranberries, please refer to my Cranberry Recipe Collection.

You have a choice in what blogs you visit. I'm thankful you chose to visit mine. Happy Thanksgiving!

3 Cheese Fast-baked Cauliflower

Great for a quick fix side dish when you've already got the oven on.

I like quick to throw together side dishes and I especially like being able to use the oven while it's already warm from baking something else. This recipe combines both of my likes into a cheesy cauliflower side dish good with roast chicken, pot roast, or panade.

I deliberately don't include Thanksgiving in this list because between the bird and MA's Make Ahead Irish Mashed Potato Casserole there are enough white foods on my plate. I prefer more colorful side dishes like Colorful Roasted Squash, Potato & Pepper or Cranberry Pecan Green Beans. However, if you like cauliflower and especially if you've got some in the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share, this dish finishes quickly and tastes great.

I took a bunch of photos of steam and couldn't pick one. Choosy bloggers choose gif.

I made it for lunch the other day while I was baking cookies and making soup, and decided after the first bite that it was blog-worthy. We don't get much cauliflower in the farm share which is pretty good, because the males in the household aren't big fans. Indian food is the best way to enjoy cauliflower they say, and I am a big aloo gobi fan so I'd agree.  In fact, this will be the first cauliflower recipe in my Cauliflower Recipes collection (considering I've got 8 recipes for kohlrabi I think that's saying a lot).

Tasty Pumpkin Treats

Spiced roasted pumpkin sandwiched between layers of oatmeal coconut pecan bar cookie.

When you're in the midst of a big project that requires some hands on but not constant attention, it's easy for you mind to wander. It's easy for your mind to wander to sweets.  With a recent cold snap I decided to get busy roasting all the pumpkin and pumpkin-like squash that had been hanging out on my porch.

Why aren't these squash in the Strategic Winter Squash Reserve? I'm glad you asked. It makes me think you've been paying attention each time I mention the SWSR, and I'm glad of it. I left these squash outside because they came from my garden and the varmints had nibbled them before I harvested. I wasn't sure if they would decay quickly because of the blemishes, so I kept them on the porch. They did fine.

Since I had so many large-ish squash I could only fit one pan in the oven at a time, and this was an all-day affair. Chop the squash in half, scoop out the guts to the compost bucket, place face down on a rimmed baking sheet, add a cup of water, bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for an hour, poke to see if it's tender, take it out if it is/leave in for another 20 minutes if it's not, cool, scoop out the flesh, add the skin to the compost bucket, and repeat. Let the dog out every 30 minutes so he won't pee in the house, and empty the compost bucket while you're out there. Or just refer to this Processing a Pile of Pumpkins post from my first month blogging.

While craving something sweet and scooping endless cups of pumpkin flesh (I ended up with about 12-13 cups) I got a wild hair to replace the jam in my friend Lasar's Tasty Raspberry Treats with a sweetened pumpkin filling. While the last squash was baking I assembled the dough, and as soon as the pumpkin was tender I changed the oven temperature and popped the treats in to bake.  We sampled the first batch but I was already thinking of ways to change them. My second batch, for work, incorporated those changes and I liked them even more.

This recipe uses ¾ cup pumpkin puree and makes a 9 inch square baking pan. I like that size because it makes enough, but not too much, dessert for our family so we're not eating the same thing for days. If you're not blessed with a bunch of pumpkins from your garden or Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share, canned plain pumpkin will jump right in as a good substitute.  If you're serving folks who aren't crazy about pumpkin pie--try this on them for size. It's more like a spiced bar cookie, with subtle pumpkin flavor, than an in-your-face pie.
I debated sharing this so close to Thanksgiving, so close to pumpkin overload, but decided I'd rather share a sweet than more turnip recipes.
Oh, and the other Thanksgiving Leftover Pizza I'd promised? It seems I'd forgotten to jot down the specifics of how I made the stuffing-flavored pizza dough. So I'll be making that again next week, for our Thanksgiving Leftover Remake Pizza, and I'll blog about it next year.

Have a cookie instead.

For more recipes using pumpkin, please see my Pumpkin Recipes Collection.

Turkey and Kale Divan

Has Kale Gone Mainstream?

If I'm combining kale and a can of cream of chicken soup in a casserole kale has surely gone mainstream.

This combination was not my idea--I credit my spouse for it. You see, his favorite casserole is Rice Casserole, or as it's known outside our family, JEN's Divine Turkey Divan. Our kids now make it, following the instructions on this blog, as one of their stock entrees.

When you first learned to read, re-reading beloved books helped you to develop reading fluency. In a similar way, making the same familiar recipe again and again can help beginning cooks to be comfortable in the kitchen.

With this thought in mind (that the kids could make dinner) I picked up all that was needed for Turkey Divan. I intended for the kids to make this while I was out of town, but instead I returned with a giant bag of kale from my Dad's garden only to find all the ingredients untouched and plenty of take out containers in the fridge. Harrumph. When I offered my spouse a choice between Fast CSA Greens and Pasta--to use up some kale--or Turkey Divan, he ask if it would work to substitute kale for the broccoli. He's a smart man.

Thus far there are 356 recipes posted on this blog. This is the 3rd one to use a can of cream of chicken soup but the 13th one using kale. Everything in moderation. For more recipes featuring kale, please see my Kale Recipe Collection.

Six Ingredient Spicy Mustard Greens Soup (in the Slow Cooker)

Spicy sausage, mustard greens and potato in a hearty slow cooker soup.

When the community supported agriculture (CSA) farm share give you a gallon-sized bag of mustard greens, you've got to get right on them. If you don't, you'll turn around one day to find 3 gallons of mustard greens jockeying for space with the cabbages, lettuces, spinach, and . . . . the next thing you know, you have Greens Paralysis. It's a common phenomenon.

When I was suffering from Greens Paralysis, as I posted on my FB page, it was primarily due to an excess of mustard greens and too few family dinners. At a recent Local Food Summit in my town I had the pleasure of listening to my farmer, George Mertz, talk about the benefits of joining a CSA. One that I wasn't expecting to hear, but absolutely agree with, is that joining a CSA will increase the number of times you'll sit down to a home-cooked meal. This easy home-cooked meal broke my Greens Paralysis. With just six ingredients it assembles quickly in the slow cooker.

Now, when I say 'only six ingredients' I'm not talking about ingredients like a cake mix and a can of pie filling. It's true, two of my six ingredients are chock full of other ingredients. Those would be the chorizo and V8 juice. [Actually, so is my chicken stock, now that I think on it. But I can pronounce all of these ingredients.] The sum of the parts of this soup, thanks to those multi-faceted ingredients, is superb. Like nearly all soups, it is better as a leftover on the second day. And anything that breaks my Greens Paralysis, that enables me to get my groove back with respect to my farm share, is very appreciated.

For other recipes using mustard greens, please see my Mustard Greens Recipe Collection which I will now run off and make.

Spicy Broccoli Rabe Deep Dish Pizza

Pan pizza stuffed with broccoli rabe tucked under a blanket of spicy sausage.

And now, for something completely unrelated to Thanksgiving. In honor of my spouse's birth month I'll share this pizza. It was his repeated requests and encouragement that caused me to try making a deep dish pizza in the first place. [Or NOT making one, as it turned out in the first place though I did get the hang of it the second time around.]

I've been making deep dish pizzas in my cast iron skillets at least one Friday Night Pizza Night a month, using whatever's fresh in the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share. Thanks to the long season of cool weather crops I feel I can still share this now--and I need a break from the holiday recipe palooza. This pizza is definitely a break from Holiday Hoopla. The spicy sausage kicks ya in the teeth asserts itself and the broccoli rabe manages to hold its own.

If any vegetable could hold its own in a fight, those in the broccoli family sure get my backing. They do so much to make us not want to eat them! However, the Happy Caterpillars which remind me that my food has not been sprayed with pesticides sure enjoy eating them. It's not just caterpillars that hitch rides in the farm share box. A ladybug and a striped beetle came in the other day with the dill. I could write a whole post on The Critters We Find In Our Farm Share but I just made a collage instead.

I'm noticing that the posts I'm writing the past few Thursday nights, for publication on Fridays, are short. I'll blame it on the dog. It's like having a toddler in the house--though a toddler that you can lock in a crate when you go to bed or to the store. Hopefully I'll be spending tonight at the library for NaNoWriMo being productive. In the meantime--for more recipes using broccoli rabe, please see my Broccoli Rabe Recipe Collection. For more pizza recipes, broken down by vegetarian or meat or fruit toppings, please see my Visual Pizza Recipe Index.

Cranberry, Orange and Beet Salad (make it ahead in the slow cooker)

Making cranberry sauce in the slow cooker? The house smells terrific and you've got the stove free to make yet another side dish. Adding oranges, beets, and a kick of ginger? Lovely. Thanks to Alanna and her reader Karen for the inspiration.

I'm trying to squeeze the Thanksgiving side dish recipes in as fast as I can, along with some suppers to tide you over and use up your Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) turnips ahem goodies, like beets. I've been tossing beets into all sorts of savory meals lately. Beetza (my friend Dave's name for the Roasted Beet and Arugula Pizza) and Beetloaf (which isn't up on the blog yet) to name a few. However, the sweetness of a locally-grown beet really shines in something like cranberry sauce. I've got experience with this--last year I shared an alphabetical Apple/Apricot, Beet and Cranberry Sauce.

I typically roast the farm share beets before I have a plan for them. Scrub a bunch of beets, place them in a foil packet with a splash of olive oil, slide the packet onto a baking sheet. Bake in a 400 degree oven for an hour or until the packet 'gives' when you squeeze it. Sometimes gigantic beets can take nearly 2 hrs, but 1 hr is a good time to check. Let the packet cool, the slip the skins off the beets and chop to the size you desire.

Six ingredients--so simple!

Free time to play in the kitchen seems to shrink like the amount of daylight, so any time I can throw a pile of ingredients into my slow cooker and let it do the work for me I'm happy. When I read Alanna's Homemade Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce for the Slow Cooker I was inspired. Cranberry + Orange is a great combo. Beet + Orange is another great combo, like in my friend Meghan's Beet Mimosa. The idea that I could add beets without turning the whole dish a naturally unnatural color [ahem, like the Beetza or Beetloaf] was a big draw. Cranberry + Orange + Beets for the win!

I've got a little 1.5 qt slow cooker which is perfect for this application. It's also perfect for heating up leftovers while I'm ferrying kids around, so I recommend this size appliance as more than a 'one note' space waster.  Something like this Slow Cooker (Amazon affiliate link) with an added Keep Warm function, works great for soup or sloppy joes and holds enough to feed our family.

I struggled with the idea of naming this a sauce. It's not really sauce-like. Come to think of it, neither is cranberry sauce. It's really more of a guideline salad. When I looked up the definition of salad I read about a cold concoction of vegetables, fruit, and/or meat.  I figured that definition applies to this dish, so I'm calling it a salad.

If you've got beets, consider throwing some of them into this salad. It keeps for a week in the fridge, and although the execution was a failure, the concept of adding it to a rolled pizza as shown at the bottom of the post [come! Look at my failures!] is a good one. For other recipes using beets, please see my Beet Recipe Collection.

Roasted Sweet Potato & Turkey Sausage Breakfast Casserole (Welcome Costco!)

A gluten free breakfast casserole full of hearty roasted sweet potatoes and turkey sausage topped with gouda cheese. No need to assemble the night before and take up space in the fridge--this throws together fast and goes straight into the oven.

I get so much mileage out of having roasted vegetables on hand. Each week as I empty the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share box into various locations around the house--the refrigerator for the greens and most vegetables, tomatoes on the counter, and potatoes, onions, and winter squash in the Strategic Winter Squash Reserve--I plan a time to roast some veggies just to have them standing by.  Usually I'm roasting beets, knowing that eventually I'll find a way to use them. I hope. This time, however, I knew I wanted to have blobs of color [note to self that will be left in the post--really, blobs? maybe something more appetizing?] in a breakfast casserole so I roasted a mess of sweet potatoes as well.

I roast my sweet potatoes by peeling, cubing, tossing with a teaspoon or so of olive oil and spreading them in an even layer on a piece of parchment paper on a rimmed baking sheet. I put them into the oven, turn it on to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and let them go about 20 minutes. After that I stir them, then roast in 10 minute increments (usually just one increment) stirring each time the timer dings until they are tender. Depending on the size of the cubes, they are done in 30 to 40 minutes. These keep overnight in the fridge.

This breakfast casserole is not really a 'make ahead' type.  I have a hard time finding room in my fridge for those pans anyway. There is no bread to soak--it is naturally gluten free. I didn't want to wake up, peel, and roast sweet potatoes and then assemble the casserole before my book group arrived. It was easier to get the sweet potatoes prepped while dinner was in the oven and pop them in to roast since I already had the oven on. Using precooked sausage links meant that it was simple to dump everything in the baking pan, top with cheese, pour the eggs over top, and slide into the oven. The pan, not me. I'm too big for my oven.

I've got a vegetarian (and also gluten free) version of this casserole coming up later. I'm sharing this recipe now because a Costco store is opening up in my neck o' the woods this week (I bought both the turkey sausage and the gouda cheese at Costco) and because I think it would be great to serve guests over the holidays.

How do I shop at Costco if there hasn't been one near me for the past 3.5 yrs we've lived in Ohio? Sled hockey! October through March my son has hockey practice Monday nights an hour away from our home. One of the things you just deal with in disabled sports, I suppose. I find ways to enjoy the outing--like shopping at the Costco or Cincinnati Asian Market that are located a few minutes from the rink. I'm glad to have a closer source for my Costco staples April through September though.

For other recipes using sweet potatoes, please see my Sweet Potato Recipe Collection.

Turkey, Cranberry, and Mashed Potato Pizza

Thanksgiving leftovers as pizza toppings--mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce dotted with turkey and topped with feta and cheddar cheeses.

I'm going to share two Thanksgiving Leftovers Pizzas this month. One is for folks who don't want to make a special pizza dough, and the other is for folks who are game to try another of my new concoctions. Let's start with the easier one.

I knew I wanted a layer of mashed potatoes as the base, and after Thanksgiving I made several attempts using my Make Ahead Irish Mashed Potato Casserole. But none of my efforts with actual Thanksgiving leftovers really thrilled me, so I waited until I saw some turkey marked down, threw some other sides in my basket, and tried again.

For this particular combination I made 3 different pizzas--one without any cheese, one with cheddar, and one with feta. The pizza really needs cheese [this Beef & Broccoli pizza works without cheese, though]. I found I preferred the duo of feta and cheddar together.

You know, I don't think I'm going to type any more on this post. As I sit typing it up our newest addition, Robert Barker, is resting at my feet for his first night in his new home. I will share more of his story as I get to know him, but it's enough to say that he needs TLC more than I need to prattle on about pizza.