Bringing Back Deliousness

I am returning after a brief hiatus to the world of eating and blogging about it!

The CSA adventure continues each week with much anticipated trips to the Hyde Park Farmer's Market to retrieve my basket of fresh delights. As the seasons have changed, the selections each week have grown more and more interesting. From mostly leafy greens, I am now seeing treats such as jalepenos, beets, green peppers, enormous green sping onions, and much much more.

Each week I try to come up with something that takes advantage os the flavors and textures that each item has to offer. I find myself even more motiviated to cook and experiment, so the accompanying photos reveal new culinary experiences for me. While some of the dishes I share here today are not farmer's market specialities, my creativity and commitment to preparing home-cooked meals (often for one, but eaten the next day at lunch as well) have blossomed.

Pictured here:
Summer Holiday Layered Cake: A white sheet cake, then cut the cake to create two layers. I gently warmed a mixture of strawberry jam and orange marmelade with a few teaspoons of water to lighten up the liquid. I spread this liquid on the top of the bottom layer and replaced the top half of the cake. I frosted the cake with vanilla icing, and then decorated with fresh strawberries and blueberries.

Veggie Blowout Quiche: The veggies in the quiche include white onion, broccoli, mushrooms, tomato, chopped spinach, dill, and zucchini. I sauteed all of the above (except tomato and dill) before spreading on the prepared pie crust. I added a mixture of mozzarella and parmesean, along with 4 whole eggs and 3 egg whites. Baked for about 40 minutes.

20 Brix Knockoff: There is a wonderful restaurant in Milford called 20 Brix. I had a fabulous meal there with a friend a few months ago, and this meal was my attempt to recreate the meal in my own kitchen. The base is a baked and then mashed sweet potato. I baked the potato in the over until done, squeezed from the skin and mashed with butter, salt, pepper and maple syrup. The protien is a boneless skinless chicken breast that was grilled (gas, outdoor) after marinating in a marmelade, mustard, and syrup mixture for about an hour. The greens are farmer's market rainbow chard, which I sauteed on a pretty high heat with fresh garlic, salt, and pepper. I hit the pan with about 4 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar right at the end. It was delish, and a close second to the original at 20 Brix. I highly reccomend this restaurant and dish (although it may be a fall seasonal dish). The original is served with a moist pork tenderloin rather than chicken.

Faux Taco: A friend recently introduced me to a whole grain wheat soft tortilla, which I thought would taste like butcher paper, but turned out to be rather tasty. On a "throw all the veggies on skewers and then on the grill" kind of night, I had planned to do so and just eat a massive plate of grilled veggies. When I opened the refrigerator and saw a few lonely uneaten tortillas, a rotisserie chicken with one breast remaining, and some of that Laughing Cow herb cheese, an idea was born. I lightly marinated and grilled the veggies as mentioned above. I cut off the chicken breast from the chicken, wrapped it in foil, and threw it on the grill as well to warm. Once finished, I mixed the grilled veggies with cold tomatoes, dill, parsley, a tiny bit of oil, salt, pepper, the chicken, some parmesean and then spread on the tortillas. I broke up the herb cheese with my fingers and dabbed over the top. What a fresh and interesting treat this "clean out the fridge" meal turned out to be! One I am sure to recreate!

Veggies this week will be turned over to mom since I am headed out on vacation. I am headed to Michigan, fresh produce heaven, so I am sure I will have stories to tell.