Zuchs

I used grated organic zucchini for this egg white frittata and boy what a surprise I got. It turned out sweet! No wonder people use it in bread.

Saute 2 large grated zuchs with onion and garlic.

Once well cooked and most of the moisture is gone, add a cup of egg whites (or egg substitute) mixed with 2 T of soy milk, oregano, basil, and pepper. Cook until omeletey and flip cook some more, then put on a pan to broil for 6-8 minutes.

To use up some fresh basil, I made bruschetta, including a famers market tomato!

Toast n' broil.

Served with asparagus lightly sauted (in mostly water but a tiny tiny bit of olive oil) and garlic powder and pepper.

New Recipe Thursday*

Hallelujah it's Thursday...starting the week one day short is the best idea ever. Well, having the whole week off was actually the best idea ever, but that's not really practical.

I'm not really sure what inspired this concoction, but thankfully (spoiler alert) it worked! Often I simply think about what think would taste good together and then, well, put it together.

Our Winter Harvest baskets featured a Siberian kale from a new (to me) farm:

"Dane Fisher from Fisher Farms has just returned to providing us produce. Dane is a professor at Pfeiffer University and one of area's earliest supporters of buying local and eating local. He has grown Siberian Kale for us. When young, this interesting kale variety is peppery and smooth. As the cold comes, the flavor is milder but richer. " 

I don't think I've had this variety, but I could tell it was going to be tasty! So much so that I decided to save a little out of the recipe for steaming so I could taste the true flavor.

Anyhow, chop up the butternut it pretty small pieces ~ 3 cups. Transfer to a microwave safe container, add 1 T water, and cook for 5-8 minutes until tender and mushy.

Love the Ikea foldy cutting mats, but really, REALLY wish they could go in the dishwasher.

Meanwhile, saute kale & green onion. Microwave 4 breakfast sausage style links and mash (could easily substitute regular sausage here). 

Combine 4 eggs or egg equivalent**, 1/3-1/2 cup low fat ricotta cheese, and desired amount of garlic powder, sage, and rosemary. (I never ever measure, but it was maybe 1 t garlic, 1 t sage 1.5 rosemary). Mix well until smooth.

Combine sausage crumbles, kale, and butternut and mix with eggs. Pour into pre-heated deep dish pie crust. Top with parmesan cheese and bake for 30 minutes on 400 degrees, plus a 3-4 minute broil.

The kale was phenomenal. Due to it's dainty leaf style, it is here by named Fancy Kale in this house.  The quiche was the perfect flavor/texture combination, not too eggy, and felt more filling than some others.

Definite keeper!

*note that unlike Wordless Wednesday, this will likely not be a regular feature :P

**egg substitutes are probably not the most wisest choice when it comes to nutrition, local eating, organic, or sustainable, but for me, I choose the lack of cholesterol as more important to make this "healthy" for me. It's totally your call.

We picked up a weirdo

Friday night is pizza night in casa YJDKIY. Well, actually, it's more like, pizza night is Friday night. Because not all Friday nights are pizza, but pizza is almost always Friday night.

gee thanks iPhone - that's almost better than my DSLR

Even though I love it, regular veggie pizza was getting kinda B-O-R-I-N-G! When I started looking for new ideas, the only thing that kept coming up was BBQ Chicken Pizza. I don't like BBQ. Nor do I really want chicken on my pizza. Enter my strange world of concocting. YUUUUM. I masked the BBQ and avoided the chicken.

BBQ Chick Pea Pizza (get it!?)

1 prepared pizza crust (or homemade would be even better, but we were going for quick here)
1 c organic chick peas, rinsed
2 c washed kale torn into small pieces
1 medium sweet onion finely sliced
1 c grated Gouda cheese (not smoked)
1 c jarred low sodium marinara sauce
2 T sweet & tangy barbecue sauce
1 T olive oil

Heat oil in a skillet, add onions, and reduce heat to low. Cook 10+ minutes until caramelized and add kale. Mix well to coat kale with oil, cover, and cook 8 more minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, mix marinara and BBQ sauce, tasting to get your preferred balance of BBQ and tomato. Once kale is wilted, remove from heat. Spread sauce onto crust, top with kale & onion mix, and chick peas. Sprinkle grated cheese over top and bake for 11-13 minutes on 405 degrees, broil for 1-2 minutes (I use a pizza stone pre-heated with the oven).

It might sound weird, but don't throw it out of the car until you try it...

PostPunkKitchen

For the first time in a long time, YJDKIY actually stuck to (sort of, as much as could be expected) a recipe instead of just making it up as I went along. For a first try it turned out pretty darn good, and pretty darn healthy, as Mexican food goes. Of course I didn't measure anything and left out a few of the expensive ingredients, but for the most part, YJDKIY served theppk.com's Potato Kale Enchiladas last night.

Sauted up some onion, tomatoes (left over from Zucchini Stew!), and green chilies with cumin, agave, salt and pepper, and left them to simmer down (now - worth the click).

Boiled a handful of peeled and cubed Yukon golds and prepped the kale (note steaming hot picture, go go iPhone).


While the kale was cooking/steaming with some garlic, used favorite YJDKIY kitchen gadget to puree the enchilada sauce and left it to simmer (and didn't make a mess!).


Mixed a little leftover diced yellow pepper and the Yukons in with the wilted kale. Mash mash.


Added some lime juice and stock (this was the cutest little box of stock ever, I bought it because it was the perfect size at about 3" x 5" x 1").


Heated the corn tortillas in an empty frying pan on high to get them flexy and then dipped into sauce and coated well on both sides (did make a mess, had to call in backup photographer).

Added potato kale mix and rolled them up (surprised at ease; ruled out future career as hand model).

Cheated on the super healthy (except for the corn tortillas) recipe and added some fat with a little extra sharp grated cheddar on top. Baked for 20 mins at 350 and then 5 mins broil on 500.

YUM! Enchiladas are normally dripping with grease from the cheese, not to mention all that cholesterol and dairy. The flavor in the guts of these (I think it was the lime) made me not even miss it. YKDKIY gives this two thumbs up and will definitely make this again! Even if I don't get around to cleaning up anytime soon...

(about 1/3 the mess I made!)

Post Punk: is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental.^[1]


PS: theppk has fantastic tshirts on Etsy. Note addition to favorite.

New Recipe: Tomatillo-Corn Pizza

It's been quite a while since I embarked on a concoction with this much prep. I had already planned to make pizza for dinner Friday night, but there were a LOT of fresh ingredients from our CSA backing up on my counter and in my fridge, so I decided to put my thinking cap on and use them up.

A couple years ago, I made salsa verde with some tomatillos, so I started with the pizza premise, and decided to use a salsa-like sauce instead of spaghetti-like sauce.

De-husked and boiled. (Correll Farms - CF)

Plus I added some beautifully colored dark red and green heirloom tomato (CF), fresh garlic cloves (CF), cilantro, and a tiny squirt of agave. Combine it all in a food processor until pureed. Set aside.

Meanwhile, I shucked the sweet corn (CF) and cut it off the cob. I sauted it for about 5 minutes with some onions (CF) in olive oil, just until tender.

One sure thing about using lots of fresh ingredients: lots of compost material. 

Using the last litte bit of my Hoffner Farms wheat flour and basic white, I rolled out a pizza crust. I usually transfer to baking sheet and cook for about 5 minutes while the oven is preheating before adding fixings. 

Top the crust with the tomatillo mix. 

Then the corn & onions, some broccoli florets, and olives. Final touch: Monterey Jack!

Bake for 17-20 minutes, finishing with a few minutes broil. Winner winner pizza dinner. This one is a definite keeper. 

Ja-lah-pa-no

I can't say jalapeno the way you're supposed to. It just doesn't come out that way and it's more fun to say the j, there aren't a lot of j words, so why should it get robbed?

Start with all this. Dice the pepper, onion, and garlic and saute in EVOO.  Add a crumbled block of tofu and some cumin and cilantro. PAM the bottom of a casserole dish and add one flour tortilla.

Layer one: kidney and black beans

Layer two: Onion/pepper/tofu/garlic/spice mix

Layer three: grated cheddar, jalapenos (only on the right half!), olives, and either sliced scissored-up tomatoes (hello other cooker!) or salsa.

 
Repeat layers, finishing with a tortilla and cheese. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes or so, finish with a broil, and serve with very ripe avocado!

I desperately want to...

...name something Ruby. That is the cutest name ever.

I defied everything I've been learning about eating in season from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle all in order to make a recipe they offer: Rhubarb Strawberry Crisp. It took me two stores to find this rhuby, but the berries were BOGO at HT.

Chopped up about 1 lb. of stalks (which I have never purchased, cooked or eaten ever!), quartered the strawberries and mixed with some agave.

Spread in a Pam'd pyrex with a mix of oats, cinnamon, brown sugar, flour, chopped walnuts and melted butter.

In my attempts to make this somewhat not as unhealthy, I skimped on butter and sugar. The butter was fine.

The sugar...not so much. Holy donald that was tart! Baked for about 40 minutes at 375, with the last 5 on broil. It was pretty tasty with the crumble, although my preference would have been for more crunchies and sweeter. Not bad for a first try at rhubarb, although I don't really like the way it turned mushy pink.

YJDKIY much prefers red in my green kitchen.

See?

But maybe I always had a fondness for that color combination.

There's even this for after dinner (this dessert is not dinner despite the fact that I ate it first). Anyone care to make a wager on how long I'll stay awake?

Baked Pizza Rolls

Remember the baked spring rolls? Here's the Italian version!

Diced green pepper, broccoli, green onions and garlic, and the part that I totally cannot be held responsible for, mini pepperonis. This is all Harris Teeter's fault for not carrying the veggie-pepperonis!

I sauted them before stuffing so they'd be doner.

Mixed with some grated mozza and rolled up (same way as before!).

Baked for about 25 minutes at 375 and a 5 minute broil.

Meanwhile, the Canine Component was loving her some sniffs. Little Graybeard! 

Plated with marinara sauce and asparagus.