Happy Fourth of July

(Last year's fireworks over Duluth, MN)
Looks like we are going to have fabulous weather here in Minneapolis. We are planning a leisurely day with a couple of friends. Matt is going to smoke a turkey low & slow throughout the day.

We'll make some potato salad with our garlic scape pesto. Then Matt plans on making a cherry clafoutis for dessert.

No Red, White & Blue Cupcakes this year.

Hope you all have a wonderful relaxing weekend!

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.
© 2007-2009 Kathy Lewinski

What we did with CSA box #4 and what's in #5

Here's what we did with the latest from Harmony Valley Farm...


1. Bakewell Tart 2. Chicken with Garlic Scape Pesto 3. Linguine with Spinach, Garlic & Red Pepper 4. Garlic Scape Pesto 5. Radish Tortilla 6. Strawberry Port Sauce 7. Asian Chicken Salad 8. Strawberry Balsamic Jam 9. Lamb Lettuce Wraps 10. Pancakes with Fresh Strawberry Sauce 11. The Box 12. Toppings for Grilled Pizza

A few words on the dishes that don't have links to recipes...

The Linguine, Spinach, Garlic & Red Pepper dish is an easy one that I make when its just me for dinner. Cook about 3 oz pasta. While your pasta is cooking sauté some chopped garlic & red pepper flakes in a generous amount of olive oil. Drain the pasta & return it to the pot. Stir in the garlic, red pepper & olive oil then about 2 cups cleaned spinach. Stir until the heat of the pasta wilt the spinach & serve.

The Chicken Asian Salad is cabbage, scallions & sugar snaps from our garden topped with chicken & almonds. The dressing was a simple mixture of soy sauce, olive oil, sesame oil, salt, pepper & a little sugar.

For the Fresh Strawberry Sauce on the pancakes just mix strawberries with sugar & let them sit at room temperature for at least an hour.

And box #5...

Strawberries - I have a lot of vanilla ice cream in the freezer calling for fresh strawberry sauce

Sweetheart Cabbage - Matt is craving coleslaw

Romaine Lettuce - Salad & perhaps some wraps

White Scallions - Nothing special planned we use these in a lot of different recipes

Red Beets - Roasted & in salad, yum! I may freeze the greens for use in a soup later

Fennel - Matt wants to grill the bulbs. I'd like to use the greens with fish

Fresh Garlic - A mild garlic to use in everything

Zucchini - Matt says he could have this grilled or sautéed with every meal.

Amaranth - Wikipedia has a good article on how this beautiful leaf is used by many different cultures. I'm thinking in a stir-fry or cooked in a Greek style with olive oil & lemon and served with fish.

Peas - I cooked the peas from our garden quickly in hot oil with a sauce of soy sauce, honey & garlic & it was wonderful. Think I'll do that again.

Salad Mix

Find more ideas on using your CSA box at Cooking Away My CSA.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.
© 2007-2009 Kathy Lewinski

Honeyed Fig and Pig Ice Cream

If you've been following our ice cream making adventures you might remember the Chocolate-Covered Bacon Gelato. In that post I mentioned I wanted to try a Fig & Pig Ice Cream. Well, here it is.

(I need to learn how to get better pictures of ice cream.)

This ice cream was inspired by the dessert we had at the Broder's Pasta Bar Anniversary Lunch. We were served vanilla bean ice cream with slices of fresh fig & a crispy piece of bacon. I really loved this dessert and how all the flavors went together. After making the bacon gelato last week though I decided I wanted the ice cream base to have a little different flavor beyond vanilla. This is where the idea to do a honey ice cream came from. 

I think this version of bacon ice cream might have been a bigger success than the chocolate-covered. The honey ice cream was incredibly rich & creamy with a mellow sweetness that played well with the salty bacon. We used a good local honey with a nice strong flavor which you can really taste in the ice cream. The fig added another dimension of flavor as well as a some texture. We used dried figs because we can't really get fresh here (according to my produce guy they get too damaged in shipping from CA to sell) & I think the dried ones stand up better in ice cream.

Honeyed Fig and Pig Ice Cream
(Honey Ice Cream base adapted from the Ice Cream Bible)

4 egg yolks
1/2 c honey
1/2 c heavy cream
3/4 c half & half
1 T vanilla

3 bacon slices, chopped

8 - 9 dried Mission figs, finely chopped

Whisk the egg yolks & honey together in a large bowl until thick & light yellow. Set aside.

Bring the cream and half & half to a boil in a saucepan. Slowly whisk the into the egg & honey. Be careful to do this slowly so you don't scramble the eggs. Return back to saucepan & stir over low heat until thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon (this took me about 25 minutes). Do not allow to boil. Strain into clean container & let cool to room temperature. Stir in the vanilla. Chill until completely cold or overnight.

Cook the chopped bacon until crisp. Remove to a paper towel & let drain. Place the bacon in the freezer for about 10 - 15 minutes.

Process the ice cream according to your machine's instructions. During the last 5 minutes of processing add the frozen bacon & the chopped figs.

Ice cream will be quite soft. Place in an airtight container & freeze until desired consistency is reached.

Makes about 1 quart

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.
© 2007-2009 Kathy Lewinski

Garlic Scape Pesto

It's garlic scape season again!

A garlic scape is the flower stem of the garlic plant. As it grows it curls into a circle. Farmer's remove the scape at this point from their garlic plants in order to get a bigger garlic bulb. (Apparently if the scape is left on you get a smaller but longer lasting bulb.) The bonus is that scape is awful tasty.

When scapes are in season we use them to replace garlic in recipes, chop them into salads & use them as a pizza topping. They have what I would say is a mild garlic flavor. We went a little crazy this year & had scapes from our own garden, from our CSA & from the farmer's market so I made a big batch of garlic scape pesto. I'll freeze individual servings of it to use through out the year.


Garlic Scape Pesto
(adapted from A Mighty Appetite)

2 c garlic scapes, flower removed & green stems chopped
2/3 c slivered almonds (you could use walnuts or hazelnuts too)
1 1/2 c olive oil
1/2 c grated Parmesan
1 t salt
pepper

Put the scapes & almonds into a food processor & pulse until as smooth as you can get it. With the food processor running drizzle in the olive oil (It'll seem like a lot) & process until smooth. Stir or process in the cheese (I processed it in to get it more incorporated.) Stir in salt & pepper. Store in the fridge for one week or freeze.

About 3 cups

We rubbed some pesto under the skin of some chicken thighs & legs and then barbecued them for a tasty dinner. Our other immediate plan for the pesto is to use it in a potato salad.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.
© 2007-2009 Kathy Lewinski

All-Purpose Mustard Vinaigrette

Recently, Matt adapted an Emeril Lagasse recipe for Mustard Vinaigrette to use as a sauce for some grilled shrimp & we both just fell in love with it. He added whole grain mustard to the original recipe which really bumps the flavor up & adds to the look as well. The mixture forms a thick & creamy emulsion which sticks to your food. And the flavor, it is just wonderful. I was worried it would overpower more delicate flavors like that of shrimp but that wasn't a problem at all. It just seems to take a simple quickly grilled meal & make it seem like something really special.

We served the vinaigrette over some grilled shrimp & asparagus. The shrimp was brined in salt, water & red pepper flakes for about one hour before grilling.

Next we served it over some pan fried salmon & more asparagus. Now I'd like to try it on chicken & rice or perhaps some potatoes. Of course, it would be wonderful just on a green salad too.

All-Purpose Mustard Vinaigrette
(adapted from Emeril Lagasse)

1 T Dijon mustard
1 T whole grain mustard
2 shallots, minced
2 t white wine or champagne vinegar
3 T neutral flavored oil
1 T extra virgin olive oil
salt to taste

Whisk all the ingredients together to form an emulsion.

Makes a little less than 1/2 cup

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.
© 2007-2009 Kathy Lewinski