Category Archives: Uncategorized

All things Thanksgiving:

Note:  We originally published this last November, and decided to bring it back, because it is such a good clearing-house of all kinds of helpful things as you prepare for Thanksgiving.  Keep checking back, because we’ll be adding new recipes and posts as we get closer.  And as always, if there is some wonderful thing in YOUR kitchen that you’d like to share with us, please email us–one of the major values of our blog is the idea of sharing family traditions and new inventions, so please invite yourself into our family and share your own great ideas.

If you are like me, you still have about 3 weeks before you decide to start planning your Thanksgiving dinner. (That was meant to be an ironic statement. 🙂 ) But in case you are thinking about it now, we have just about everything you could want in the way of Thanksgiving recipes. To make things simpler, here’s a list of what we have. You may also want to click on the “Holiday” category in the sidebar–that will bring up some things from our Christmas selection, as well, in case you want some fancier desserts or other things. Continue reading

8 Comments

Filed under Appetizers, Family Heirloom Recipes, Food for guests, Holiday recipes, methods, Pumpkin Recipes, recipes, salads, Uncategorized, Vegetable dishes

Preparing your pantry for a cross-country move

I’ve been thinking lately about how to prepare, food-wise, for moving.  That’s because my family will be moving from Minnesota to Virginia in the near future so that my husband can go to seminary.  And while the prospect of being within weekend-trip distance of my dear sister (as well as my brother and my best friend!) has me doing the happy dance, I’m a bit overwhelmed at all the preparations that are involved in a)getting a house ready to list for sale, and b)preparing to move on a somewhat uncertain timeline.  So I’ve been thinking through, among a host of other things, how to get my pantry ready to move. Continue reading

5 Comments

Filed under Food for Thought, kitchen tips, Uncategorized

Creamy Romano Mushroom Sauce with Penne

We ate recently at the Olive Garden near us–a rare occasion, since our children are starting to grow out of the phase where they are content to eat off the children’s menu.  (And also rare, because eating at chain restaurants like OG usually means an incredibly high fat and calorie content, and we are trying to be at least a skosh more virtuous, on the average.)

Anyway, Kirk and I both ordered the “endless pasta dish” special, in which they will keep bringing you bowls of your choice of pasta until you blow up.  One of the flavors we tried was soooooooo delicious, I decided I needed to try a knock-off at home:  Creamy Parmesan Portobella Penne.  I thought I’d also try to make it a bit healthier, since we could taste that there was about 6 pounds of butter in each bowl.  (Okay, I might be exaggerating–it was probably more like THREE pounds.)

So here’s what I came up with.  I’m sorry I didn’t get a picture–a pack of ravenous hyenas devoured it before I could change the batteries in my camera. Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Food for guests, recipes, Uncategorized, Vegetarian/vegetarian-friendly

CSA Bounty + Pesto vegetable ragout

I realized tonight as I was happily chopping vegetables in my finally-NOT-blazing-hot kitchen, that I’ve been in a cooking slump because of the unseasonably hot and humid summer here in Minnesota, and that I’m starting to come out of it, now that it’s cooled down and it’s not a thousand degrees in my kitchen.  Tonight’s dinner was quite the smorgasbord of CSA veggies, and I wanted to show you that before I share tonight’s yummy dish.  (I also served a beautiful spring mix/arugula salad, but didn’t get a picture of that.)

Beautiful baby chioggia beets, golden and red:

Pesto vegetable ragout:

So here’s the scoop on the Pesto Vegetable Ragout:

Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under Eating seasonally/CSA, Farmers' Markets, methods, photos, recipes, Uncategorized, Vegetable dishes, Vegetarian/vegetarian-friendly

Melissa’s Calico Beans

Right before Labor Day seems like a good time to post this recipe from my friend Melissa, who brought her baked Calico Beans to a graduation open house we were at this summer.  There were those of us (ahem) who couldn’t stop eating them.  These make a great pot-luck dish, and a yummy addition to your Labor Day feast. Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Potluck dishes, recipes, Uncategorized

How to make pesto without pine nuts

Barb posted the other day about a pumpkin shortage that has people buying up cans of Libby’s on eBay for eyebrow-raising prices.  I’ve discovered another shortage this summer:  pine nuts.  I have a HUGE bush of basil in my herb pot, just begging to be made into pesto, and can I find pine nuts anywhere?  Well…..I CAN, but they are $25 per pound, and I refuse to pay that.  I’d been wondering why they were so expensive, and why so few places had them at all.

About the same time I was wondering this, Barb was having a weird taste-bud issue–all of a sudden, things that she usually loves were tasting really hideously bad to her.  She went googling to find out what might cause that, and found something called “pine nut mouth.”  Turns out that the entire European pine nut crop failed this year (or last year?) and so ALL of the pine nuts that are being sold right now are from China.  And it turns out that these Chinese pine nuts cause, for SOME people, a syndrome called Pine Nut Mouth, which causes things to taste bad for a week or more.  So there you have it–pine nuts are hard to come by this year!

So what do you do with all that basil?  Fear not!  You can still make pesto, using either walnuts or pecans.  Here’s how I did it last night: Continue reading

10 Comments

Filed under Eating seasonally/CSA, methods, No cook recipes, recipes, Resourceful cooking, Uncategorized, Vegetarian/vegetarian-friendly

Hana’s Healthy Apple Muffins

During our recent cottage vacation, I got to spend time with all of my beautiful nieces, including Hana (rhymes with “piranha”–she told me that’s what she writes on name tags, so people don’t call her “Hannah.”)  Hana has, since she was 5 or so, been a kitchen adventurer, trying new recipes, making things up with no recipes, and in general doing the kind of kitchen chemistry that they really ought to give credit for in school.

Anyway, Hana was telling me about this apple muffin recipe that she makes, and her parents and sister all chimed in to endorse how fabulous the muffins are.  So I of course begged for the recipe, and Hana has kindly provided it.

Hana’s Healthy Apple Muffins

-Dry Ingredients-

  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup bran flour (can use whole wheat)
  • 1/4 cup ground flax seeds
  • 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp ground cloves
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup Splenda (or sugar–1 c. Splenda=1 c. sugar)

-Wet Ingredients-

  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup skim milk
  • 2 tbsp honey
  • 1 tbsp molasses
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tbsp ground flax
  • 1 tbsp non-fat yogurt
  • 3 tbsp applesauce
  • 3 apples
  • 1/2 cup raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Peel all apples
3. Add all wet ingredients except 1 apple and raisins to food proceesor (if they don’t all fit just mix them in later)
4. Chop remaining apple into chunks, and raisins into teeny tiny peices (sending through food processor doesn’t work)
5.Combine all dry ingredients, then add all wet
6. Pour batter into sprayed muffin tin (should make about 17 muffins)
7. Place in oven for 25 minutes

Enjoy!

Laura

2 Comments

Filed under Apple Recipes, Breakfast, Kids in the kitchen, Point-worthy Food, recipes, Uncategorized, Vegetarian/vegetarian-friendly

Summer Ratatouille

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate eggplant?  I can recall being served eggplant in my childhood, and every memory raises such revulsion, I have hardly ever partaken of eggplant as an adult, and only when it would have been unforgivable bad manners to refuse.  But I never enjoyed it.

That is, until last summer, our first year of the CSA.  We received little baby eggplants in our CSA box about this time last year.  I sneered a bit, but I had committed to trying to use EVERYTHING we got in the boxes, so I looked for recipes to use the hated eggplant.  And found what looked like a reasonable recipe for ratatouille.  So we tried it.  And it was heavenly.   Even with the eggplant.

We received eggplant in our box last week, just before we headed out for 2 weeks of vacation at the family cottage, so the eggplant (and other veggies) came with us to the cottage.  Tonight, I made a highly adulterated version of that ratatouille, and it was……heavenly.   It is not the pure French recipe for ratatouille, I’ll warn you, but it is seriously scrumptious—it tempts one to crawl into the casserole  to lick out the last molecule of delicious goodness.  This recipe is good for about 10 people,  or for some leftovers—and I’ll give you a suggestion for the leftovers at the end. Continue reading

6 Comments

Filed under cottage recipes, Eating seasonally/CSA, Farmers' Markets, Food for guests, methods, Point-worthy Food, recipes, Uncategorized, Vegetable dishes, Vegetarian/vegetarian-friendly

Lemon cloud Tiramisu

My father-in-law is notorious for his predilection for all creamy desserts.  He’s never met a cream-puff he didn’t like.  And in a happy serendipity, he happens to be a fabulous and adventurous cook.  He is the source of our venerable family Christmas recipe for Apple Dumplings.  We are currently vacationing at the family cottage with my in-laws, and tonight, Dad crowned our meal with this yummy dessert, which was polished off and licked clean in short order.

Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under Cakes, Food for guests, Lemon recipes, musings, recipes, Uncategorized, Vegetarian/vegetarian-friendly

Grilled peaches with balsamic honey sauce

My mother- and father-in law are adventurous cooks who bless us with their experiments whenever we vacation at the cottage with them.  The other night, my mother-in-law made this dessert,  and it was luscious!  It blends the gorgeous freshness of this season’s peaches, grilled just long enough, with the rich and flavorful colors of honey with balsamic vinegar, cinnamon and vanilla. Continue reading

2 Comments

Filed under cottage recipes, Eating seasonally/CSA, Point-worthy Food, recipes, Uncategorized, Vegetarian/vegetarian-friendly