Recipe: Ratatouille Chili

Ratatouille Chili

I have a confession to make. I’m really not sure what to call this recipe. I call it ratatouille chili because it’s as much ratatouille as anything else, with the vegetable choices, but I didn’t go into the day of cooking thinking “Gee, chili sounds like a great idea since the temps are in the 90s and I’m clearly not warm enough in this sweltering kitchen.” When faced with the bounty of our weekly produce shipment from Maple Creek Farm, especially since it was the double shipment to make up for our absence during vacation, one does not think clearly beyond “Sweet heavens I can’t close the fridge door. I’ve got to take charge of this.” And did I mention the eggplant harvested from our garden while we were gone? That clearly needed using up as well.

Recipe: Cantaloupe and Red Pepper Salad with Red Onion and Fresh Basil

Cantaloupe and Red Pepper Salad with Red Onion and Fresh Basil

When  come back from vacation every summer, we’re invariably hit with additional produce from our produce shipment. Maple Creek Farm owners Danny and Michelle are kind enough to double up our shipment to make up for the two weeks we lose while we’re away. The struggle then, is to figure out ways to use double what we normally have, whether that’s for eating or preserving for eating later.

This year we weren’t expecting quite so much cantaloupe right away, but boy did we get it. The tomatoes weren’t that big of a surprise. The red peppers, however, were. As I sat there with the bounty of our harvest laid out on the table, the colors struck me as one of the most beautiful combinations nature had to offer. I didn’t want to lose that. Cooking would dull it, so I thought this recipe up.

Making Ravioli with the Duke and Duchess

This past year has been a whirlwind of new cooking experiences for me. Much to the amazement of all my friends, I confessed to never having made ravioli. I valiantly tried to make a batch on my own the first time through and while not entirely unsuccessful (and considerably tasty as these things go), they were not what one might call a resounding Chef’s Jacket Worthy Cooking Success (TM).

When my friend Rebekah … let me start again. When my VERY ITALIAN friend, Rebekah, discovered that I was attempting my very first batch of ravioli on my own and by hand, she wisely stayed in the background and let me fall flat on my face. This is not an easy task. I needed to (perhaps not exactly) fail in order to appreciate what she was going to offer: a hands-on lesson in making her family’s ravioli recipe.

Me. The little Dutch girl.

Recipe: Kohlrabi Chopped Salad

Kohlrabi, green and purple

My friend M has done something amazing: lost weight through only diet and exercise. Sure, you think that might be easy, but I’m here to tell you its not. Not for everyone, at least. For me it’s been terrible difficult. But something that makes it easier I think is this glorious time of year. Summer is happening. Which means variety.

The vegetables and fruit coming into season make it downright easy to explore new foods, new dishes, and completely lowfat recipes. M recently asked me if I had some good kohlrabi recipes and I indeed do have some. One of my favorites is this chopped salad. You can “sex it up” a little as my husband says it, by adding fattier choices, or you can work the lower fat choices and still have an incredibly tasty meal.

Now, I’m lucky. With the exception of the liquids, I can get everything here at my local farmer’s market, including the meat and spices. And all but the lemons are local and organic. Life is definitely good.

M, you go, girl. I’m immensely proud of all that you accomplished. I know *just* how hard it is and you have every right to celebrate what you’re doing and what you’ve done. Good job!

Recipe: Pan-Fried Kale with Pesto, Mushrooms, and Garlic

Garlic from the 2009 Maple Creek shipments.

There are always those vegetables you struggle to use up. Cabbage later in the summer will become problematic for me. And in the early summer, the huge number of greens are difficult to get creative with. At some point I realize that being creative usually means I’ve waited too long and the greens end up wilting and going into the compost. I’m not saying to forgo the creativity, nor confessing that I will, but sometimes you just need to prepare the vegetable in a way that highlights its flavors. For us this week, it was this recipe. A little garlic, some mushrooms we needed to use up, and poof we have a yummy greens dish.