Roasty-Toasty Pumpkin seeds

We carved our jack-o-lanterns last night.

My "Perry the Pumpkinpuss" jack-o-lantern

That means it's pumpkin seed roasting time again!  One of the ways I know it's Autumn is the smell of pumpkin seeds roasting away in my oven.  Last year we did three batches: salt, cumin, and cinnamon-sugar.  The fancy ones were fun, but the classic salted ones were our favorite.  How do you roast your seeds?

 photo by gotbrimmed on Flikr

Dinner tonight

I know it's been forever. I'm sorry.

Yesterday I made my favorite chicken soup (Marno's from The New Basics - page 99. Or in my case, the page that falls open). I had some chicken left over so I made some ravioli.

I sautéd a leek, half a zucchini, a few little carrots and some Marsala in olive oil. Then I whirred that, the chicken, an egg yolk and a big handful of parmesan in the food processor. I put a dollop in the middle of wonton skins and sealed them with a cornstarch wash and another wonton.

I froze half of them and plan to boil the rest for a few minutes for dinner.

Yum.

Ok, promise not to be away so long next time. And soon I'll have some fun news about my next big project!

And Just Where the Hell Have YOU Been?

Hi.  It's been 20 days.  And honestly, I'm surprised it hasn't been more.  I've been very busy.  With what?  Well, I'll tell you.  With Ice Cream.  I've been making pint after pint after pint of ice cream.  It is my legacy, it's my calling, and it turns out I'm damn good at making it.  

Now I'm trying to figure out how to start a business (man, are business plans boring), acquire equipment, and find investors.  I don't know how to do any of this, but I'm sure excited to learn.

I'll be back, talking about food and other stuff, but right now I've got to focus a little.  I'll give you a link when my new site is up.

In the meantime, my house smells awesome because this is in the crock pot.

Carrot Parsnip Sunchoke Cakes

My CSA is giving me lots of ideas and new ingredients to play with.  The first week I got sunchokes and parsnips.  Here's what I did with them:

Carrot Parsnip Sunchoke Cakes, two ways.

1) Chop and steam veggies

Mash 'em with a fork

Dredge in flour, salt and pepper

Patty

Fry

2) Grate veggies, mix with one egg

One egg to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them.

Patty

Dredge

Fry

Side by side taste test.  Both delicious.  I liked the toothiness of the grated one better.

Also good with bacon and eggs.*

*of course.

Ratatouille

Thank you, lovely readers, for your ideas about what to do with my bountiful CSA.  Tonight, I made ratatouille.  And not just any ratatouille, but this ratatouille, which looks just like this one.

  Awesome.  Beautiful.  My new favorite thing.  And the kids loved to help.

Today's CSA

I'm doing this now because I've skipped many deliveries and have Neglectful Blogger Guilt about it.

Here's what I got in my CSA box today:

Veggies:
Carrots, beets, Thai basil, sesame greens*, corn (6), little tomatoes (bonus! Not on the list!), butterscotch melon, eggplant*, Italian frying peppers, tomatillos*, sweet Spanish onions, cauliflower, Italian garlic, many squashes, cucumbers, gold potatoes.

Cheese:
Otter Creek Summer Cheddar, Castle Rock Colby, Butler Farms Camembert

Yum!!

*What do I do with this!?! I've never had Sesame Greens, tomatillos or eggplant before (be quiet, foodies). What's your favorite way to prepare them?

Sent from my iPhone. Please forgive typos, autocorrect, lack of links and possible strange formatting.

Dinner: a fairy tale

I was sad because my grill was out of gas.

Then I slathered herbs and butter on my steak and put it under the broiler (it's like upside-down grilling! Inside!) and I was happier.

The end.

My quest to weigh 476 pounds by Christmas.

I started making ice cream.

Left to right: olive oil with buttered pecans, mint, chocolate, beet with mascarpone and poppyseeds.

My favorite is the mint, picked from my container garden and steeped for four hours. It is excellent with white chocolate chips and coconut thrown in it. I intend to make rosemary, basil, and "Manhattan" ice cream with a carmel bitters ribbon and roasted cherries.

Recipes later when I'm not blogging from my phone. I have two kinds of carrot ice creams yet to be frozen tomorrow. Something tells me I'll be needing another ice cream maker soon.

Nom.

Cantaloupe Salad

1/2 a cantaloupe
8oz package pearl mozzarella
3 slices proscuitto
12 leaves mint
Splash lime juice
Salt and pepper

I may eat the entire thing myself for dinner. That's ok, right?

Food. Close up.

Hi there.  While I unpack my family's bags from a week's vacation and wrap my head around the concept of "121 degree heat index" that I came home to, please enjoy these gorgeous magnification shots of food.

Closeup of me.

See you soon.

Love,

V

CSA Week 2: My Adventures with Rhubarb

Here's what I got in my CSA box in late May (I know, I know, I'm trying to catch up.)

The most interesting thing to me was not the garlic scapes (though, YUM, love those), or the broccoli rabe (make this if you have some).  It was the rhubarb.  Now, people in my neck of the woods (and probably all kinds of other necks of other woods) use rhubarb all the time.  Me?  Never had it before.  Supposed to be pretty bitter, leaves are poisonous, I like strawberries all by themselves just fine, thank you very much.  HOWEVER!  When the CSA hands you rhubarb, you find something to do with it:

All that rhubarb, chopped

One lemon, quartered

Zest of said lemon

Whole bunch of rosemary, chopped

Cover with water, bring to boil, return to simmer, cover 20 minutes.

Set sieve over a bowl, strain out this yucky stuff, pressing to get all the good syrupy stuff.

Good syrupy stuff.

 Add to vodka, gin, or soda water for a delicious drink.

Or better yet, freeze into ice cubes, add to gin and soda with a squeeze of lime, sit on your deck in your bathing suit, and watch the kids play on the slip-n-slide.

Big EVOO Night

I just wrote three paragraphs that don't sound like me.  I'm starting over.

I belong to an amazing group of people called the Minnesota Food Bloggers.  We get together once (or more) a month and eat, talk and learn about food.  This week we went to Cafe Levain and ate an obscene amount of olive oil from California Olive Ranch.  Ok, maybe it was just me that ate obscene amounts. 

Here's what we ate.

Olive oil tasting! You warm this with your hand underneath it and your other hand cupped over it and swirl it around.  Then you breathe in the aroma and drink it.  Seriously.  What's sexier than an olive oil tasting? 

Amouse Bouche:  Split pea and kohlrabi soup with fresh herbs.

Farmer's market salad with buttermilk-tarragon vinaigrette, candied nuts, goat cheese

Sitka Sound Red King Salmon, EVOO poached shrimp, marinated white beans, sugar snaps in chili oil. That crust was AMAZING.

It starts getting dark here, I might eventually need a camera other than my iPhone.

Hangar steak, fingerling potatoes, local mushrooms with a balsamic, perserved lemon glaze.  I ate the mushrooms.  That's how delicious it was.

Dessert!!!!!!

EVOO cake, EVOO panna cotta with an EVOO tuille, EVOO ice cream (gotta figure out how to make that), and an EVOO gel that had SALT IN IT!!!  This was heaven.  

I licked my plate. Yes, in public.  If you can't lick your plate in front of 50 other passionate food people at the end of a sexy meal like this, then when can you?!

Soooooo happy.

Bonus: Gift bags!!

Extra Bonus:  Senior Picture pose!

I love you, #MNFoodBloggers.

Here are more posts about the night.  Most of them have cameras with flashes....: Thyme in our Kitchen, Girl with Blog, Amy on the Prairie, Eat Drink Life Love

CSA 4

I promise to go back to finish talking about deliveries 1, 2 and 3, but I've got some stuff here today that I need help with. Ok really only Kolrabi. What the hell do I do with it? Suggestions welcome!!
Doing this from my iPhone, so I can't caption or link. More to come. In the meantime, this delivery included Spinach, Mixed Greens (which I left in the share box because I just can't take it anymore with the mixed greens), kohlrabi, iceberg lettuce, mini red leaf romaine, broccoli rabe, red scallions, garlic scapes, zucchini (which are not listed in my inventory), sugar snap peas, baby white turnips and strawberries.

My new favorite thing

Putting mint 

in my salad.

Just roll up those leaves (you remember how to do that from college, right? The long way.) and slice them across really thin.  Sprinkle them in, and every once in a while you get a lovely little surprise of fresh!  Tiny leaves of basil work well, too.  Yum!

Sent from my iPhone