Rainbow Root Soup

this sounds gross and healthy, but i swear as it is cooking i am having a hard time not slurping it down before it's done.  it is a warm thick flavorful (not to mention colorful, yow! that's really freakin' purple) comfort soup.  will be serving with whole wheat baguette and goat butter, and ran across some cheeses i sliced and put out with the bread.

ingredients (can so easily be switched around with various roots):
2 orange carrots
1 small yellow carrot
1 large beet (this really dominated the soup which was delish, but if you aren't a big beet fan it'll bother you, as it did my children - absolutely horrified they were)
1 big leek, just the bottom half
1.5 cups pureed spaghetti squash (just what i had on hand, could replace with any other squash cubed and roasted with the rest of the stuff)  (and yes, admittedly this is not a root)
1/4-1/2 cup evoo
salt, pepper, garlic salt
2 tblsp heavy cream (totally aptional)

in pan, toss with evoo, salt and pepper:

3 Carrots, large chopped pieces (one of mine was a yellow carrot)
1 large beet, peeled and chopped

Roast at 350 for 20 minutes

take pan out

add 1 sliced up leek and stir all up

roast again for 10-15 minutes more

poor in food processor.  blend, add evoo - perhaps 1/4 cup

now - as you remember i had an abundance of spaghetti squash from last year garden so i roasted a bunch, pureed, and froze.  i put about 1 cup of thawed pureed squash in the blender.

i keep forgetting to buy vegetable stock so i mixed up some of the vegetable base (paste) with warm water, about 1.5 cups, and added that to the blender.

now it's thick, and sitting in my cuisineart and i just want to eat it straight out, but i plan to heat it in a pan and figure out if it needs more oil, water, or cream - i assumed i'd add cream but we shall see.  i'll keep you posted.

well i added just a dash of heavy cream and a small bit of garlic salt cause i can't help myself with the garlic.  it's super thick, definitely something you can scoop up with dry bread.  hearty for sure.

you can see how easy to vary this

Pasnips and Carrot Puree - Thank you Martha

Yesssssssss, I used all my CSA parsnip and carrot allotment this week.  Thanks to this recipe from Martha Stewart:

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/carrot-and-parsnip-puree

I followed this loosely, used a whole large onion, etc.  it was yummy.


I served some reconstituted pork left-overs (briefly pan fried in evoo) with a dollop of left-over green garlic sauce from my earlier post.

Cream and all things related

As I've made clear in posts before, I have an (un)healthy appreciation for dairy products and particularly cream.  Child #1 has been identified as having a dairy "allergy" but seems not to actually react but I have messed around with removing it and using substitutions - the inspiration for my poll.

He prefers Hemp milk so far but we've used them all.

However, I developed a fixation on creams and their many forms when visiting relatives in the UK.  Yesterday I impulsively picked up a can of Nestle table cream at an asian food market.  In looking up what exactly one can do with "table cream" I found this little gem of a webpage:

http://www.foodsubs.com/Dairyoth.html

It is basic info I was lacking on the creams available.  Love it.

Savory smoked chicken and spinach crepes with creamy green garlic sauce

Kitchen guest performer Husband made the crepes, I have had incredibly bad luck with those suckers but he seems to have it under control.

We stuffed them with pulled smoked chicken, sauteed in garlic and evoo spinach and drizzled a creamy sauce over.

Sauce:
1/3 cup cream cheese
1/3 cup sour cream
4 green onions
1 green garlic
1 generous sprinkle of garlic salt

food processor.

You'd think I'd call it creamy green onion sauce, but that green garlic really packs a punch and nearly brought the sting to a "too spicy!" level for the kids.

Served steamed broccoli with my new chef basket, woohoo!  Kids declared it the best meal ever.  For real.

Fish Tacos with red cabbage and lime and green onion sour cream sauce

3 Tilapia fillets, baked at 400 for about 20 minutes or less, flipping over half way through

Separate fish with fork in baking dish and let sit on stove top as you begin heating the fry pan.

Shredded red cabbage off to side in a dish

Oil fry pan, place one tortilla (we used flour just cause we like em') wait till it starts to puff up

Remove to serving dish, oil side up, place fish flakes, red cabbage fold up and push to side of dish.

repeat with the rest - made 5 large tacos.

Mix sour cream, chopped green onions, lime juice in food processor.  As usual, I find the sauce to be the best part.

I served this with fresh chopped strawberries and some orange slices.

Yay!!!! It's the CSA!!

Prepare for (hopefully) an uptick in posts as my kitchen has been flooded with veggies!  Love to hear your thoughts on leeks and kale.

Garlic Ricotta sauce

I used this on left over tri-tip.  That's my cure-all for left-over meat - a fantastic sauce.  However, this would have been nice tossed with pasta as well.

Roast 5-6 garlic cloves in olive oil
pour the oil and cloves in to a fry pan
add a bit more oil and two stalks of green onions, chopped
sautee for a bit and then add two short pours of veggie broth
simmer for 10 minutes
pour into food processor
add:
about 5 ounces of ricotta (two large spoonfulls)
1/4 cup of feta (that's just what i had left)
squeeze juice of half a small lemon

puree.  add some salt and some more oil to taste and alter the texture as you see fit.  this was easy and could be changed around so much with more adventurous cheese choices.