Cheddar Broccoli and Rice Muffins

In an attempt to start working through CSA veggies that I did a poor job of using during the week. I made Cheddar Broccoli and Rice Muffin cups. I was inspired by a recipe I saw on Once a Month Meals - which I will be perusing further for other recipe ideas.

I took ~ 2 cups of raw broccoli chopped very small ~1/4"-1/2" dice
Whatever leftover rice was in our rice cooker - probably about 1.5 cups
about 1 cup vegetable broth
Salt
Pepper
Thyme
Dried minced onion
garlic powder
2 eggs, beaten
about 2-3 cups of shredded cheddar cheese

I didn't really measure anything, but I mixed all of this up and split it up between 12 muffin cups. I baked at 400 degrees for about 20 min, then I upped it to 425 for about 10-15 more minutes, as it was getting late and they weren't quite done yet. They may have taken a shorter amount to bake if I had pre-steamed the broccoli.

I thought they were pretty good - quite cheesy! Leela ate half of a muffin and Ebon ate two, so I call it a win and something I'll make again! I think I'll try to send these, or something similar, to school with her in her lunch

Massaged Kale Salad

I feel like this was a "thing" last year. I tried making one last year, but didn't succeed. Yesterday was a half success. I was kinda going on memory and only looked up a recipe after I was halfway in. Aarti's recipe from Food Network is the general framework which I followed, though my method and ingredients varied a bit.

I started with a bit less than a pound of kale from the garden. I stripped the leaves from the stems and ripped up the large pieces into a bowl.
I poured about 3 swirls of olive oil and probably 1/2 teaspoon of salt - both of which was too much. I'd probably do one swirl, a couple pinches of salt, and probably the lemon juice that the recipe called for.
Then I massaged the heck out of it until it was softer, wilty, and bright green!
This was the point in which I thought I should find a recipe. So based on the one above and what I had already put in, I just added the juice of one lemon, some freshly ground pepper, diced up about 5 or 6 dried figs to try to offset the saltiness, and a handful of sunflower seeds.
I mixed everything thoroughly and served it up.
I thought it was pretty good, a little salty, but good - the kale wasn't tough and I liked the sweetness of the figs.

Birthday bash: Yogurt Veggie Dip, Cupcakes and Sangria.

I was preparing for Leela's birthday the day before and wanted to have some kind of dip for vegetables and crackers. I had plain yogurt on hand so my internet searching came up with a Garlic-Chive Greek Yogurt Dip. I had Icelandic-style skyr, which is close enough to Greek for me. It was super easy, I used chives from our backyard garden and making it the night before allowed the flavors to develop. I thought it was very tasty and many other people seemed to like it too! To go along with the dip, I cut up cauliflower, red pepper, celery, and had a package of baby carrots, along with some party crackers.

For dessert, we had strawberries, watermelon and cupcakes! Leela wanted chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting. I used the chocolate cake recipe from Ebon's Birthday in cupcake form. I made two batches. The first batch I over-filled a bit and had some spill over, it didn't matter in the end because I was using the silicone cups and a paper liner inside. The excess came off pretty cleanly. I baked them for about 20 min or so. The second batch I did a better job of filling, but I forgot about them and over baked them. They weren't burned, but were definitely much drier than the first. I got 24+ cupcakes from the batter.
Further sleuthing on the same blog I found her vanilla frosting recipe. I tripled the recipe which ended up being way too much because I used a spatula to frost instead of a piping bag which probably would have used more frosting.

Sangria I used 2L Chablis (from a box wine) 1 cup of Grand Marnier, 2 cups of blueberries, a peach, and a nectarine. It wasn't very sweet and I wasn't able to pour out the nectarines, but I thought it was pretty good. Maybe could have been a little sweeter with some kind of bubbly ginger ale or something like that.

Quick pickling

I have been doing a much better job of making sure all the veggies from our CSA are being used. Part of that is because I've been making quick pickles to use up some cabbage and cucumbers.
I really like the cucumber pickles, the spice is just right and they stay crunchy for quite a while.

IN RECIPES
Quickles: Refrigerator Pickles
Posted by: The Farm on Feb 23, 2016

1 lb. pickling cucumbers
1 cup white vinegar
2 cups cold water
1 T sugar
2 T kosher salt
1 t. mustard seed
1 t. whole peppercorns
1⁄2 t. red pepper flakes
1 cup fresh dill
5 cloves garlic, peeled

Evenly divide the garlic, dill and cucumbers among four wide-mouthed pint jars. You can cut up the pickling cukes however you want, from slices to halves, etc. (smaller slices soak up the flavor faster). You can pack as many cukes into the jars as possible, even more than the recipe calls for if there’s space.

In a bowl, mix together vinegar, water, red pepper flakes, salt, mustard seed and dill seed to make a flavored brine. Use a funnel to fill each jar with brining liquid. If the cukes aren’t mostly covered, you can add a little more cold water and shake it up. Cap tightly and refrigerate at least one week before eating (or eat some right away and every day after, to see what they’re like:).

The red cabbage I pickled has been used less, as in I'm the only one in the family eating them, but they turned out pretty good and is pretty tasty.

Balsamic Vinaigrette

I made a salad dressing out of balsamic vinegar the other day. I was so proud of how it turned out. Now i'm realizing I didn't write down what my measurements were. I think I followed a recipe online, but I think it was:

1/4 cup olive oil
1/8 cup balsalmic vinegar
2 teaspoons of dijon mustard

not sure about these:
sugar
salt
pepper

I will revise once I try again.

In any case, mixing all the ingredients together, everything emulsified and didn't separate, even after several days in the fridge! It was tasty too.

Herb Butter sauce for Trout

Ebon made an Herb Butter sauce for a trout he caught at Walden pond. He prepared the fish with lemon juice and slices, olive oil, salt, pepper, and a little rosemary then baked that in the oven at 400degF for about 20 min. While that was in the oven, he made the sauce from Julisa's Album. I thought the sauce, while a bit thin, was very good. Maybe spending a little more time reducing the sauce would make everything even tastier!

Basic Potato Salad

We grilled out yesterday with frozen veggie burgers and sausages, but I wanted to actually make something, so I picked Potato Salad!

I wanted something simple and quick, so I cubed up some potatoes  - probably about 2-3 lbs,I had two large potatoes and one small one.  I didn't bother skinning them, then I covered them in water and boiled/simmered on high for about 20 min or so until they were tender. I drained these and put in a large bowl. Ideally I think you'd put them in the fridge, or let them cool down, but it was dinner time, so I just went with it - warm potatoes and all.
To this I added 2 green onions and one pearl onion - ball and stem - that were chopped small, and about 2 tablespoons of dill finely chopped.

The dressing was pretty basic - to taste
about 1/4 cup olive oil
a little more than 1/8 cup red wine vinegar (homemade!)
about 2 teaspoons of dijon mustard
a sprinkle of sugar, probably about 1/2 teaspoon
salt and pepper to taste

Pour over the potato mix and stir to coat.

I originally had way too little salt and pepper, so I added more, probably about a couple teaspoons (or more) of salt in total.

Overall I thought it was pretty good, once I got the seasoning right. Ebon ate it too!