Southwestern-Style Summer Salad

It has been HOT in mid-Michigan lately, so I've been craving cold refreshing green salads. Lucky for me, my CSA share last week included a variety of great-looking greens. I stared at them until they reminded me of something - in this case, my favorite salad from Chipotle (I know, I'm a classy restaurant-goer). This ended up tasting different, but that was okay; it was still refreshing and interesting. I highly recommend throwing sorrel in with your other salad greens. I'd never had it before, and it adds a tangy excitement to a milder salad mix. Read on for the recipe.

CSA Week 1

Hi everyone - sorry for the long delay. It's conference season at work, and I was having some trouble formatting pictures in Blogger. I've been doing a lot of cooking and eating in the meantime, so prepare for a lot of blogging.

On Wednesday I picked up my first CSA share from the Allen Street Farmers Market. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and it's a system where eaters "subscribe" to a farm's crops for a season, receiving a share of whatever produce is ready each week. My CSA is through Giving Tree Farm, which is a great nonprofit vocational and rehabilitation program for people with traumatic brain injuries. Many for-profit farmers offer CSAs as well; you can search for one in your area here. It's a great way to support local farmers and get fresh, organic produce every week. Some of them even deliver! Anyway, here's what was in my bag for week 1:

• Two beautiful heads of romaine lettuce
• One bag of sorrel
• Handful of rhubarb
• Bunch of spearmint
• Bunch of thyme
• Big bunch of cilantro
• Bunch of sage
• Bunch of some unidentifiable herb with no scent

I was a little disappointed that there was no asparagus, but the other farmers at the market were selling it so I still got my fix.

The tricky (and cool) thing about CSAs is you don't know what you're going to get, and sometimes you don't know what you have even once you've gotten it (case in point: mystery herb). It's going to be a challenge this summer to incorporate these new or unexpected ingredients into my cooking every week. I'm also trying to get better at preserving food - I just picked up a $3 dehydrator at a garage sale, and I'm planning to get a chest freezer soon. If all goes well, some of this awesome organic produce will get saved until winter.

This week I've been able to use or make plans for most of the produce, although I got rid of the mystery herb and I think the thyme and sage have already wilted in my refrigerator. I'll blog about the successes in coming days, but for now here is the CSA week 1 plan.

• Southwest-style salad with romaine, sorrel, and cilantro for the greens (post coming soon)
• Raspberry-spearmint rum cocktails - I infused some rum with the spearmint and mixed it with cran-raspberry juice last night. Surprisingly fantastic.
• Rhubarb with sugar - I've never been a big rhubarb fan, but I enjoyed the more tender stalks raw dipped in white sugar. Some were woody and I confess I skipped them.
• Southwestern Black Bean Burgers with the leftover cilantro... if I get around to it!

Have a great Memorial Day weekend - eat well. :)

Black Bean Nachos

Everyone has their own nacho recipe. Mine is very simple, but it works for a fast and relatively healthy snack or meal.

Katie Mae's Nachos

• Garden Fresh Gourmet Blue Corn Kettle Style Tortilla Chips (Michigan-based company that makes all-natural chips and dips -soooo good)
• Cooked & rinsed black beans (I try to cook and freeze dried beans ahead of time, but I cheat and use canned beans sometimes)
• Shredded cheese - half sharp cheddar and half Monterrey Jack
• Mild cayenne sauce (Frank's Original Red Hot or Texas Pete Original)

Preheat oven or toaster oven to 350 degrees. Arrange chips on pizza tray or baking sheet so they are close but not overlapping. Distribute beans generously, then add cheese, making sure to get every chip. Bake for about 5 minutes, until cheese is melted and bubbly. Add hot sauce to taste (I use a lot of the wimp stuff). Try not to burn your hands grabbing them.

Note: If this sounds good but you want something a little heartier or healthier, try this delicious quesadilla recipe from The New Home Economics. I make variations of this frequently (I always add corn to the bean mixture). If you have a toaster oven, you can make small ones in there instead of heating up the whole oven.

How do you make nachos? Please comment!

Mediterranean Dinner

Inspired by Amy of Runs with Spatula, I decided a few weeks ago to try making hummus again. To round the meal out, I made mujadara (a lentil and rice dish) and homemade pita.

It turned out pretty well. I'm starting to realize that when I compare my versions of certain dishes with the ones I get from stores and restaurants, they're disappointing, but if I approach them as a new and different food, they can still be good. This happened with the mujadara - it didn't taste like what I get from Aladdin's or Sultan's, but Chris doesn't remember those versions and thought mine was perfect.

Recipes after the break -

Dinner with Friends: Kaesespaetzle, Salad, and Apple Crisp

This week Chris and I had dinner with our friends Sarynna and Chase at their beautiful new house. They lived in East Berlin for two years and picked up a fondness for Spaetzle - German egg noodles/little dumplings. Sarynna made a Kaesespaetzle recipe from scratch with the noodles, Emmentaler cheese, and fried purple onions. It was delicious and we enjoyed reminiscing about Europe while we ate it (Chris and I have both spent time in Germany as well).

In addition to Sarynna's Spaetzle, Chase made a tossed salad with romaine, artichokes, palm hearts, tomatoes, cucumber, and homemade balsamic dressing - kalamata olives on the side. I love salads with a lot going on, so this was perfect. Chris liked it too, without the olives.

I brought dessert - a new recipe. Ever since I read Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food last year, along with a few other books with a similar philosophy, I've been trying to eat more whole foods and less refined and processed stuff. This seemed like a good opportunity to challenge myself - could I make a dessert without refined sugar that still tastes like dessert? This apple crisp fit the bill, and I'm definitely going to make it again. I'll do my best to translate "fistful" and "pinch" into traditional measurements.

Cheesecake

As a disproportionately generous thank-you for some pet watching Chris did, our awesome neighbors Jake and Allana made dinner and dessert from scratch for us last weekend. Dinner was Olive Garden's Sausage and Peppers Ziti Marinara; it was delicious, but I unfortunately ate before I remembered to take a photo.

Dessert was the most impressive part: Cheesecake Factory cheesecake. Jake has one of those cookbooks with the secret restaurant recipes, and he and Allana made us a raspberry swirl, white chocolate cheesecake with Oreo crust. WOW. I'm in awe - I've never attempted cheesecake, but I hear they're pretty tricky. The cake tasted sooo good - cold, creamy, and sweet. Someday I hope I can make a cheesecake like that, but in the meantime I'll be nice to my neighbors and keep my fingers crossed!

Master Plan Pasta

This dish was going to be called "can't wait for summer pasta" but I came up with it after a spray paint project that wasn't properly ventilated and apparently referred to it as my "master plan." In front of Chris and our neighbor Jake. Who won't let me hear the end of it. Thanks, guys.

Anyway, Wednesday was sunny and warm (for Michigan) and I was craving summer flavors: roasted red pepper, lemon, feta cheese. This was the delicious and simple result. I recommend it with New Holland Brewing Company's Cabin Fever brown ale. Yum.