Rather than my usual strategy of making a huge batch of mashed potatoes and gorging myself on them, I wanted to use my CSA potatoes and veggies to make something I could bring to work as a lunch meal. This was very experimental, thus there was a lot of winging it on measurements and simultaneous saucepan wielding and such.

These turned out great! I will say, though, that if I’d had cheddar cheese on hand, I totally would have loaded up the filling with that. Next time!

Ingredients
– Pie crust dough (I just made my usual recipe, but you could use pre-made ones or whatever recipe you prefer)
– 6-8 yukon potatoes, cut into chunks, with skins
– 2-4 Tablespoons of butter (i wasn’t paying attention, I just used a big ole chunk)
– milk (maybe like ½ cup ish?)
– handfull of fresh green beans, cut into chunks
– 2 stalks of celery, chopped
– 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
– handfull of cherry tomatoes
– schmaltz or stock or oil or something to saute with
– ½ a lemon
– salt
– pepper

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F
2. Make piecrust dough according to whatever recipe you prefer, or use pre-made pie crust. Set the dough aside in the refrigerator
3. Boil the potatoes in a medium saucepan for 10 minutes, until soft
4. Meanwhile, heat up schmaltz (what I used)/stock/oil/whatever in a skillet
5. Add garlic to skillet and saute
6. Add celery to skillet
7. Bring water to a boil in a small saucepan, then drop in the green beans and blanch for 2-3 minutes, until bring green. Drain, then add to skillet and stir.
8. Squeeze juice of ½ lemon over the saute
9. When the potatos are done boiling, drain, then return to saucepan. Add butter and mash with a potato masher. Add milk until the consistency is quite gooey
10. Add salt and pepper to potatoes
11. Add the contents of the skillet to the potatoes and mix
12. Add cherry tomatoes and mix
13. Break dough into 6-8 balls, roll a ball out flat, add a blob of the potato mixture, then fold the dough over and seal the edges with a fork.
14. Place the empanadas on a cooking sheet with parchment paper.
15. Brush the empanadas with remaining milk for glaze
16. Bake in oven for 20-30 minutes, until the crust is golden brown

From this week’s pile of delicious CSA vegetables, I made this tasty risotto for my friends. I like it because it turns out pinkish from the radishes and wine, and the tomatoes I used from the CSA were all different colors – bright red, orange, and yellow – so it ended up being very colorful!

Ingredients
– 6 cups chicken stock
– 1 Tablespoon olive oil
– 6 Tablespoons butter
– 2 small red onions (or one medium one would work), chopped
– 2 cloves garlic, chopped
– 4-5 radishes, thinly sliced
– 1 rib of celery, chopped
– 1 3/4 cups-ish jasmine rice (I was shooting for 2 1/2 cups, but I ran out)
– 2/3 cup red wine
– 1/3 cup parmesan cheese
– 2 cups-ish of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

Instructions
1) Bring stock to a low boil in a medium saucepan
2) In a large pot, heat up olive oil and melt 1 Tablespoon of butter
3) Add onions and garlic and saute until soft
4) Add radishes and celery and cook for a few minutes
5) Add rice and cook until it just starts to brown (stir frequently so it doesn’t burn
6) Add red wine and cook and stir until it is absorbed by the rice
7) Start adding the chicken stock a cup at a time, stirring until it is all absorbed
8) Remove the pot from heat, add the rest of the butter and Parmesan cheese
9) Toss in the fresh tomatoes and serve!

I think I made my most successful stew yet yesterday! This was adapted from a Joy of Cooking recipe, so I’ll merge the ingredients and the directions like they do.

Trim and pat dry and cut into cube:

• 2 pounds boneless beef stew meat, I used chuck roast

Season with:

• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Dredge the pieces in:

• 1/2 cup flour

Shake off excess flour. Heat up olive oil in a stew pot. Add the meat in batches and brown on all sides, remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add more oil if needed during this process. Add to the pot:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 3 celery ribs, chopped
• 4-6 garlic gloves, chopped

Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until onions are tender (about 5 minutes). Add the meat back to the pot and stir. Add:

• 2 bay leaves
• fresh thyme sprig
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper.

Add enough to cover the meat:

• 2 cups beef stock
• 1 cup red cooking wine

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until meat is tender (1-2 hours). Add:

• 2 carrots, chopped
• 3 russet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
• 4 turnips, peeled and cut into chunks
• 2 sweet peppers, seeded and cored and cut into chunks

Cover and cook until vegetables are tender, 30-40 minutes. Remove the pot from heat and remove bay leaves and thyme sprigs (the leaves will probably have fallen off by this point, just remove the stems). In a bowl, knead together until homogenous:

• 1 Tablespoon flour
• 1 Tablespoon butter

Roll the dough into little balls. Drop them one at a time into the stew and whisk until melted. This helps thicken the stew.

Serve hot with crusty bread. Enjoy!

I often make meals that are so crazy simple that I don’t bother sharing or writing down the recipe. But, I realize that the reason most people don’t like to cook is not because it’s hard (it isn’t) but because it’s time consuming. So, for you, one of my simplest and fastest recipes.

Ingredients
– 1-3 potatoes
– a few Tablespoons of olive oil
– salt and pepper
– ground or chopped herbs (I like ground thyme and rosemary, but whatever you have on hand will work)

1) Peel and cut the potato into chunks
2) Toss in a bowl with the other ingredients
3) Spread the potatoes out in a cast iron skillet and cook in a preheated 400 degree oven for about 20 – 25 minutes

It’s always amazing to me how you can turn a single root into a meal with just a bit of olive oil and herbs

I got a ton of zucchini in my CSA box, so that’s what made this all come about. For those of you who have never tried zucchini bread and think it sounds totally gross, do not be put off! It yields something similar in style to carrot cake. Anyway, here’s the recipe, which i modified from something I found on the internet.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon or so white sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground dried lavender
2 teaspoons lemon and orange zest *

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease an 8×4 inch loaf pan. (these would probably make great muffins, too

2. In a bowl, beat together the zucchini, sugar, honey, egg, and oil. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder; stir in the cinnamon, lavender and zest. Stir the flour mixture into the zucchini mixture just until blended. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

3. Bake 45 minutes in the preheated oven, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from heat, and cool about 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

* I took the orange and lemon that i got the zest from, cut them up, stuffed them in a jar and covered in water and put it in the fridge. It’s a nice tasty drink to go with this bread.

This experimental recipe turned out so yummy that I just had to share it. I give you, kimchi borscht, or Lisa Borgscht (it’s a long story, ask Brian Evans). You don’t have to worry about anyone giving you a hard time for it not being “authentic” borscht because you can be like “of course not! It’s got freakin kimchi in it!”

1 russet potato, peeled and thinly sliced
3-4 beets, peeled and thinly sliced
6 cups water and a big pork bone (or you could just use stock, if you have it. Or water, if you don’t)
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, chopped
2 teaspoons salt
2-3 cups of kimchi. If it’s been aging in the fridge for awhile, all the better
black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 cup tomato paste
sour cream, for topping (optional)
chopped tomatoes, for garnish

1) In a saucepan, boil the water and pork bone (or stock). Add the beets and potatoes and cook until tender, about 10 minutes.

2) In a large pot, melt butter. Stir in onions and salt, and cook until onions are soft and translucent. Mix in the kimchi. Pour in the stock (keep the beets and potatoes separate, I used a strainer, but do add the pork bone if you’re using it. Cook, covered, for about 10 minutes

3) Add the beets and potatoes. Season with black pepper. Stir in vinegar, honey, and tomato paste. Cover, reduce to low heat and simmer for about 30 minutes. Remove pork bone. Serve with a dollop of sour cream on top.

Making some soup tonight! It turned out really yummy last time I tried this variation, so I’m writing it down this time. This makes a big ole pot, but could easily be halfed.

Ingredients
– olive oil
– 1 large onion, chopped
– 5 or 6 carrots, peeled and chopped
– 4 garlic gloves, minced
– 1 bunch chard, stalks chopped and leaves cut in strips
– 2 potatoes, cut into chunks
– 2 cups of beef stock*
– 2 cups lentils
– 1 teaspoon of ground thyme
– 2 Tablespoons of apple cider vinegar (or your favorite flavored vinegar)

1) Heat olive oil in a large pot. Add onions and carrots and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant.

2) Add stock, lentils, chard stalks, potatoes, thyme, and 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook for 15 minutes

3) Add chard leaves, cook for 15-20 more minutes, until lentils are tender.

4) Add vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. Serve!

*for Burbank folk, I made my beef stock out of the bones from the giant beef ribs at the Handy Market Saturday BBQ. It is really good.

The Benedictine Spread was a big hit at the beach firepit party last night, so I’ma share the recipe! Of course you can find recipes just by googling the term, but they all have some variation in them, so this is specifically the recipe that I used last night.

(Extra info: Benedictine Spread is a Louisville, KY recipe, so if you make it that means you’re all cultured and stuff)

Ingredients
– 16 oz neufetal cheese (the original calls for cream cheese, but neufetal is just sliiiightly more savory, so I used it instead)
– 2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and grated
– 1 medium onion, grated
– 1 Tablespoon mayonaise (some recipes use more of this to the point that it becomes a more dominant flavor, but I think mayo is gross, so I just use a very small amount for a creamier consistency)
– 2 tsp salt
– dash of cayenne pepper

Directions
1. Grate the cucumber and onion, then drain and dry with paper towels. This is an important step, otherwise the spread will get too watery
2. Mix all the ingredients together in bowl
3. If you want, you can add a drop of green food coloring so that it turns bright green and looks like the lost boys’ food from Hook. I just didn’t have any handy last night
4. Serve cold on chips or bread or whatever

As mentioned on Twitter, I used plums from today’s CSA delivery to make dumpling-like pastries, thus called plumplings.

I essentially just used this tasty recipe for plum pie, only halved.

Instead of the pie crust, I split the dough into 12 balls, flattened each, put them in muffin tins, filled each with the filling, and sealed it up at the top.

They are nothing to write home about, presentation-wise, but MAN they are tasty!

Nick vetoed zucchini from the stew we made last night, so I improvised this recipe. Fortunately, Nathan likes zucchini, so they got eaten up.

Ingredients
– 1 egg
– olive oil
– pepper
– coriander
– ground ginger
– thyme
– sliced zucchini
– sea salt

Combine egg, oil, and spices/herbs in a bowl. Heat a bit of olive oil in a skillet (if you have previously browned beef in said skillet so there’s leftover beef goo, all the better). Dredge the zucchini slices through the egg mixture and cook them a few minutes each side on the skillet. Sprinkle with salt and let cool. Nom.

Today’s CSA delivery included plums and nectarines, which I will use for a pie. It also included radishes. What am I going to make with radishes?? (Other veggies included: white corn, carrots, tomatoes, more zucchini, and lettuce. Suggestions welcome)