at home with ann

I like most vegetables, but I've never been a huge fan of beets.  As such, I was less than thrilled about the huge bundle of beet greens in my CSA pickup.  Not one to be easily deterred, I searched the internet for a recipe that sounded good, and modified it to sound even better. Braised Beet Greens with Chicken Sausage inspired by Simply Recipes Serves 4 Ingredients: 1 large bunch (about a pound) beet greens 1 12 oz. package chicken sausage, sliced 1 small onion, chopped 1 garlic clove, minced 1/2 cup water 1 Tablespoon sugar 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes 1/6 cup cider vinegar canola oil parmesan cheese, optional Wash the beet greens very well.  I filled up the salad spinner with water twice and mushed them around before spinning.  Fresh from the farm vegetables are amazing, but they have a lot of dirt on them.  Organic dirt, but dirt nonetheless.  And one scary spider on the turnips, but that's a story for another day. In a large saut...

I was so excited to sign up for a CSA share this year.  When I sent the check in to reserve our spot during a very bleak January, I was imagining hot summer days picking up huge bags of vegetables from the farm and eating fresh meals on the porch.  Thankfully, those days are finally here. Our CSA share is with Tangerini's Farm , a local family owned farm.  Today was my second pickup, we have an every other week share, which is a great option for couples or small families.  One of my favorite things about the farm is that in addition to the already picked CSA items, there is always a pick-your-own item of the week and the herb garden.  Instead of including herbs with the picked items, members can go to the farm anytime and snip whatever they need from the herb garden.  This week I took a handful of dill. Here's a sample of this week's pickup.  In the mix (and in a somewhat left-to-right order), swiss chard, kale, zucchini, dill, lettuce (we have bee...

At about 8:30 on Friday night I remembered that I had offered to bring a dessert to the cookout we were attending on Saturday.  Despite spending the afternoon going to three different grocery stores for my weekly shop, I at no point remembered to pick up the ingredients for nutella cheesecake brownies (a delicious sounding recipe sent to me by my friend Jackie).  I also know from experience that trying a new, complicated recipe late at night is often unsuccessful and results in missing ingredients.  Instead, I went with a tried and true old standby, Lemon Bars.  Straightforward to make, uses ingredients I generally keep on hand, and extremely popular, these fit the bill. Lemon Bars Ingredients: Crust: 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar 1 cup flour 1/8 teaspoon salt Filling: 1 cup white sugar 2 eggs 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (2 lemons) 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest 2 tablespoons flour Preheat oven to 350 degrees. ...

I love bean burgers, they are the perfect homemade veggie burger.  Plus, then you know you have a nutritious base to load up with all the delicious condiments you desire.  After cooking up a batch of dried white beans on Sunday to use in the Polenta Stacks and a white bean and tomato soup, I still had a couple cups leftover.  Since it turns out we can't live on salads alone, I thought bean burgers would be a good lunch/dinner option. This is a basic recipe, feel free to modify as you like, or based on what's in your fridge. White Bean Burgers 2 cups cooked white beans 1 stalk celery, finely diced 1 medium carrot, finely diced 1 small onion, finely diced 1 clove garlic, finely diced ~2 T. fresh parsley (or whatever you grab from the garden) 1/2-3/4 cup breadcrumbs 1 egg (for vegan, use one flax or chia egg) paprika, optional Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment or foil.  Spray lightly with cooking oil. In a large bowl, m...

While on vacation last week, I indulged in quite a few desserts.  I am never one to turn down key lime pie. As such, I tried to keep my purchases at the market this week a little cleaner, which meant no ice cream.  That's all well and good, but it's only Wednesday and I already found myself digging into the bag of chocolate chips, so I knew I needed to make something.   Oh She Glows No Bake Chocolate Cookies  were the perfect option for chocolately banana goodness with some extra nutrition thrown in for good measure.  The best part was that they took less than 10 minutes to prepare.  The worst part was waiting the hour for them to firm up in the freezer. Frosty No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies recipe from Oh She Glows Ingredients: 1/2 cup rolled oats 1/4 cup chocolate chips (non-dairy if you are vegan) 1 large banana 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 Tbsp chia seeds 1 tsp cocoa powder sweetener, optional (I thought they were plenty sweet) In a microwa...

I mentioned yesterday that in addition to the Polenta Packets, we also grilled up a bunch of vegetables to eat this week.  Grilling vegetables is one of the easiest things you can do with a grill, and they are delicious.  I sliced up an eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash, and marinated them in Italian salad dressing.  You can marinate in anything you like, but I would say at least a little olive oil, vinegar, and salt and pepper. I peeled strips into the skin of the eggplant and sliced into about 1/4-1/2 inch rounds.  The zucchini and yellow squash were a little small, so I sliced those lengthwise so they wouldn't fall into the coals.  A few of the zucchini threw themselves through the grate onto the coals anyway, but that was likely due to the tong technique of the griller.  The griller was not me. Grill the vegetables over medium or high heat a few minutes each side, or until they have nice marks and have softened.  Return to the dish you used...

Hello wonderful readers!  We had a fantastic time in Alaska last week, and if I ever finish sorting and editing the 200+ photos I took, I will share a little recap with you.  When we arrived home at noon on Saturday after traveling since 7AM Alaska time on Friday, I can assure you that I had no energy to cook or shop for food.  So, when I woke up inexplicably bright and early on Sunday, I hustled over to the market to restock our kitchen before the weekend masses descended on the store.  Aside from a few setbacks (forgetting my shopping list and a crazy delay at the deli), I escaped with food for a few days, and a great meal planned for dinner last night. As you know, we love cooking on the grill.  Charcoal grilling can be a lengthy process, so we reserve it for weekend evenings when we don't have anything else going on.  Lounging around on the porch waiting for the coals to heat often results in us eating dinner on the late side, but it's always worth th...

I'll be in Alaska for the next week, so I won't be posting.  I am so excited, I expect it won't be like any place I've been before, and we have lots of cool things planned.  I'll be away from the internet, but will be taking tons of pictures, and hopefully eating a lot of king crab and wild salmon! If you need some reading material while I'm gone, check out some of my favorite blogs.  I have a ton of blogs bookmarked in my google reader, but these are the ones I read first every day.  Eat Live Run - http://www.eatliverun.com/ Jenna is such a sweetheart, and a great blogger!  She is a fabulous cook and baker, and just bought herself sparkle shoes for her birthday. Peas and Thank You - http://peasandthankyou.com/ One of the funniest blogs I read, and you get to see photos of her adorable kids!  She's a vegan, and shares excellent, family-friendly recipes.  Also, she admits to wearing yoga pants all day, kind of like me.  The Sartorial...

I had a few pretty scary looking bananas in the fruit bowl this week.  They had passed the point of eating on their own, and had even passed the point of freezing for smoothies.  I really had no choice other than to bake with them or toss them.  Instead of my usual banana bread (which you may remember from here ), I decided to go with muffins.  Partly because I've been on a muffin kick, partly because we were about to go out of town and I could smuggle them onto the plane, and partly because they freeze well.  But mostly because some of my college friends reminded me about Muffin Films, which we use to watch constantly.  (My favorite one is Pssst .)  Now you probably think I'm weird.  Perhaps I can draw you back in by buying your friendship with baked goods? I love this recipe, because it always works, and I can practically make it in my sleep.  It's a very simple quick bread, you mix the wet ingredients in one bowl, the dry ingredients in...

I think I've mentioned before that we went to the Amalfi Coast in Italy for our honeymoon.  Jon's brothers and sister gave us the extremely creative and generous gift of a day at Mamma Agata's Cooking School .  An experience unlike any other, we spent the entire day cooking, drinking wine, walking through their hillside gardens, and eating a gourmet meal.  At the end of the day, we were given a cookbook of the recipes we made, to recreate at home.  One of our favorite dishes was the Eggplant Parmesan.  While I will never find ingredients parallel to hers (tomatoes warmed in the sun on the Italian coast are spectacular), I have modified the recipe a bit to make it my own. Eggplant Parmesan inspired by Mamma Agata Ingredients: 2-3 medium eggplants (or 5-6 small) kosher salt 14 or 28 oz can crushed tomatoes garlic basil and oregano 8 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced 8 oz. smoked gouda, sliced parmesan cheese, for grating 1. Peel the eggplant into ...

You don't need a recipe for a Root Beer Float.  Vanilla ice cream and root beer.  There you go.  Instead, consider this a gentle reminder to bring root beer floats back into your life.  They are creamy, fizzy, and quintessentially summery.

Last week our elderly neighbor passed away.  It wasn't unexpected, but still sad.  He had a dry sense of humor, appreciated sarcasm, and I will miss seeing him puttering around the yard and mowing his lawn every other day.  Gifts of food are almost always appropriate.  Something good happens, bring food.  Something bad or sad happens, bring food.  My neighbor's wife has a house full of people to feed with all their family here to support her, so I wanted to bring something over to help a little bit.  Muffins seemed like a logical choice, everyone likes muffins.  Plus I went a little overboard with the buy one get one free on blueberries this week.  I used the same Martha Stewart recipe as I did a few months ago, but used half blueberries and half strawberries for the fruit. I'll let you use the directions from the boss, herself.  I will add that whenever I make this recipe, I end up with enough extra batter to make one ...

The days are long and the sun is shining.  It feels so nice to wear flip flops, keep the windows open, see the flowers blooming, and be able to wear short sleeves instead of my winter uniform of two sweaters at a time.   One drawback to the hot and steamy weather we've been having lately is that any produce I leave on the counter goes past ripe to rotten in record time, so I'm using it up as quickly as I can.  This week at the market, personal watermelons were on sale.  They were too cute to pass up (you may notice that I can rarely pass up small cute things for sale).  I waited a little too long to cube it up, and the consistency was a bit off, so it became watermelon puree.  All I did to make the puree was stick all the watermelon chunks in the blender and give it a whirl.   This drink is refreshing, summery, and nutritious.  I think it would be a great addition to the bar at a summer party, it can be enjoyed with seltzer for a light non-alco...

As I mentioned yesterday, we had extra grilled salmon left over from dinner.  I am a big fan of leftovers, but especially like repurposing the ingredients to make something new.  My original plan had been to make baked salmon cakes, but when lunch time rolled around, I decided I was more in the mood for a cold salad. Salmon Salad 1/3 pound leftover salmon (or 1-2 cans salmon) 3 green onions, sliced 1 stalk celery, chopped 1/4 red bell pepper, chopped lemon juice dill mayo I added a little of the cucumber yogurt sauce as well Using a fork, flake the salmon in a bowl.  Mix in all other ingredients and serve on toast.  Extra points for topping with lettuce, tomato and pickles.  Even more points if you can tell me how to disable our neighbor's bug zapper.