CSA week #2

Last week we had a supply of fresh greens, eggs and veggies.  We made several salads, a few frittatas, and a tasty pie!  This week's basket consisted of:

Baby Lettuce

Escarole/Endive Mix

Homemade Honey Oatmeal Bread

Radishes

Garlic Scapes

Green Onions

Peppermint

Looks like we still have a healthy supply of greens for salads, which we've been favoring for dinner since they are easy to make and refreshing on warm evenings.  I plan on grilling the fresh Alaskan halibut fillets I bought today to top tonight's salad!  I season the halibut with fresh orange and lemon zest, garlic, black pepper, and EVOO, then "grill" it on parchment to ensure the fish doesn't stick to the grill (I totally suck at grilling fish straight on the grates heh).  The parchment works as a thin non-stick barrier so the fish doesn't stick to the grates, making it impossible to flip.  

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Last year this time I could only dream about rhubarb.  Spring had finally taken control of the weather in DH, but rhubarb was one of those things that never seemed to make it up to the grocery store.  This year I've been lucky to have a over abundance of the stuff thanks to the plants in my back yard and as part of Week #1 of my CSA share.

This likely being the last rhubarb I'll get this season, I decided to make the hub's favorite, strawberry rhubarb pie!  Because I was busy with another project you'll hear about later in the month, I just threw stuff together, not even following any recipe.  I used pie crust I had frozen earlier in the year that I made from Zoe's recipe (truly, TRULY fantastic recipe!), mixed in cubed  strawberries and chopped rhubarb (in approximately equal amounts, about a cup of white sugar, a quarter cup of brown sugar, a few tablespoons of flour, a few dashes of cinnamon, and a few shakes of tapioca out of its box.

Last rhubarb of the season, provided by the Shepherd's Fold Farm's Week #1 CSA share.

Choppin' strawberries... doesn't the pile of tops look like a cute bouquet of posies?

What you don't see is the hub's impatiently waiting in the background to eat this....

I made it tarter than normal, as the plan with this pie is to eat it warm with ice cream.... However it seems that something resides in our freezer that lives off of it because the vanilla bean Edy's I bought earlier in the week was no where to be found....  seems this monster likes root beer too, because a bottle of it showed up in my fridge some how!

Its CSA Time!

All last year I envied everyone in the lower 48 who talked about their CSA bounty from week to week. Fresh veggies and fruit were hard to come by in AK, and when they did make an appearance, they weren't wallet friendly.

Now that we are back in Ohio, I debated on joining a CSA (community supported agriculture) or planting my own garden. Weighing the pros and cons of both, we decided our money was better spent supporting a local farmer and getting a varied array of fruits and vegetables throughout the year.

I researched local farms on the Local Harvest website and came down to two choices. I like the idea of Crown Point Farm but they already were waitlisting for next year. They were closer, but ended up being costlier and had a work requirement (not that I am opposed to that, but the demands on my time during the summer are unpredictable). Shepherd's Fold Farm was a close second, and after some research about their farm and CSA program, I would have likely chose them anyways, as they also sell their own honey, pastured beef, lamb, and poultry in addition to their CSA program. The hubs and I chose a half share, and this week was our first pick up of the season.

In this week's basket we got:

Sorrel

Baby Lettuce

Radishes

Green Onions

1 Doz fresh eggs

Aloe

3 Cherry tomato plants

Rhubarb

Last night I mixed some of the baby lettuce, sorrel, and radish tops to some spinach we had.  Topped the salad with chopped red pepper, cubed fresh mozz, radishes, and peppered turkey :D.  This weekend I need to get a planter/pot for those tomatoes and get them planted!

May Daring Bakers - Oodlez of Strudels

Boy did the month blow by fast, here we are again, time for the montly installment of Daring Bakers!

The May Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter and Courteny of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafes of Vienna, Budapeset and Prauge by Rick Rodgers.  Because I'm in a rush, you can find the recipes for this month's challenge at the hosts' site(s).

Strudel dough is one of the few things I haven't dealt with in my varied baking past. Didn't seem that hard, considering there's only flour, water, oil, salt & vingar in the dough. I must say, my first attempt turned out the best, I forgot to oil the dough before resting, and the resultant texture of the strudel was crispy and flaky. The attempt I made yesterday afternoon/evening had a better dough feel, plus I oiled it this time, but after baking, the crust was crisp and tasty, yet the flakyness was gone. Granted there is a significant difference in the climatic conditions from the beginning of the month to now (its a lot warmer and humid), so maybe that has something to do with it.

Regardless the dough tasted the great both times and MY OH MY that apple filling recipe has to be one of the best I have ever tried! My first attempt I made a savory strudel with a mushroom filling. I reduced equal parts red wine and basalmic vinegar by half then added chopped mushrooms (used white, crimini, portabella, and oyster - both fresh and reconstituted dry) and cooked until all the liquid was gone and the shroomies were glazed. I topped with chives and gouda cheese wrapped and baked. (This topping is a total winner for putting on pizza or foccacia) The crust was perfect... I left it out to cool for pictures, and came back to an empty pan.... The hubs thought I already taken pics and ate it.

The apple filling was amazingly good. Usually I don't like raisins with apples, but it was a great combo. I let the raisins soak in the rum overnight.

Strudel is certainly as versitale as puff pastry, though without all the hassle of turning multiple times and with out the tons of butter! Stretching was fun, and i was surprised how elastic the dough actually was. I think I would default to studel vs danish for everyday recipes because of how easy it really is!

April Daring Bakers! Neapolitan cheesecake!

It's that time again and this month is a tasty one!

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes.  She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake:
crust:
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs (used  half regular half chocolate)
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice (used Limoncello)
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, (used spiced bourbon)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.

3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.  

3(a). I split out 2 cup of batter and added 8 oz of melted dark chocolate, split out another 1 cup an added reduced strawberry mash (2 parts strawberry 1 part sugar) that I made, and left the remaining batter 'plain.'

4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Prep notes: While the actual making of this cheesecake is a minimal time commitment, it does need to bake for almost an hour, cool in the oven for an hour, and chill overnight before it is served. Please plan accordingly!

This was easy to make, the batter was fabulous, and though I was skeptical that lack of flour would make it lack the structure needed to have height, it turned out great!

I love my own recipe, but  would I make this again?  OH YEAH... let ingredients, little difference in taste!

Because I wasn't sure that the batter with the added chocolate would bake well with the less adulterated batter, i baked that seperately and then added the vanilla and strawberry when everything was done!  Also, that's the only pic I have, the hubs helped himself to several of these single serving cheesecakes, needless to say, it ended up being dinner...