Cuban Vegetables

On a recent trip to New York City the family ate at a wonderful Cuban restaurant called Cafe Habana on Prince Street. One of my favorite dishes was the grilled corn with a spiced mayo and cheese topping. And each ear comes with a lime wedge to squeeze over the corn just before eating.

When I got home from the trip, I quickly searched online for the recipe. Mike and I made it for a dinner party with our Mexico trip friends the other day. The corn was as big a hit in our backyard as it was at Cafe Habana.

For the corn, you wait to put the mayo butter on until the corn is grilled; however, since Mike had a bowl of the mixed mayo, garlic, cayenne, salt, butter, and lime ready to go. He slathered some on zucchini wedges as they were grilling as a marinade of sorts. The zucchini also turned out wonderful with a lighter hint of the Cuban flavors.

A few days after our dinner party, I thought that I would adapt those Cuban flavors for a coleslaw that I was making. Most of the cabbage this summer went into either a traditional creamy mayo coleslaw or an Asian vinaigrette coleslaw, so I was looking for something different. I grated carrots and sliced the cabbage; only those two vegetables would be the base of my coleslaw. Then I made a dressing in the food processor by pureeing four cloves of garlic, a small onion, a small green pepper and one cup of cilantro leaves. To the pureed vegetables I added one cup of mayo, the juice of two limes, salt, pepper, 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper and 1/2 tsp. chili powder. I pureed all of this together to make my dressing. The Cuban flavors of the coleslaw were subtle and delicious.

Juneberry Pancake Sauce

The German Farm Stock Fruit Farm has yielded its first bounty. Sarah said that she enjoyed eating Juneberries last week while at camp at Lake Wapo, so Joe and Sarah ate a few right from the bush yesterday. This morning I told Mike to harvest a few for his cereal because Juneberries are similar to blueberries (his usual morning cereal fruit).

The next thing I know, Mike had harvested three cups of Juneberries, so I suggested that he make a pancake sauce. He simmered the berries with sugar, lemon juice and corn starch to make a great topping for our Fourth of July breakfast. The sauce tastes similar to a Lingonberry sauce that I once had over crepes in Door County. Click here for the recipe from cooks.com.

While the sauce was simmering, I quickly googled the history of the Juneberry and discovered that it was a staple in Native American cuisine, especially pemmican. Read here for more information on this prolific fruit.

Sugar-free Rhubarb Jelly

Since my doctor ordered me to watch my sugar intake (my glucose level hovers around 110), I've been searching for recipes that use Splenda (my favorite artificial sweetener). I discovered this tasty rhubarb jelly recipe, and I used much of this spring's rhubarb crop from Harmony Valley to make enough jelly to freeze for the winter. The kids ended up liking it, so they might be using up my supply, but that's okay.

I just had a tablespoon on a piece of toast. It tastes like spring. In fact, the jelly is tasty enough that I don't even need to butter my toast, saving me the fat that the doctor also advised me to reduce. It's hell getting old.

Click on the link to see just how easy the jelly is to make and freeze. Yes, I froze it in jelly jars, just like my mom used to do. Who needs to worry if your canning seal worked properly.

Pink Stir Fry

Last night I was feeling like I was on a meat overload, so I wanted to create a stir fry with just the veggies from the box that I picked up yesterday. The beet greens looked beautiful, and I knew that if they didn't get used last night, they would wilt before I got a chance to cook again this 4th of July weekend.

The creation turned out great and was the perfect light meal when served over a bed of rice. Here's the concoction:

First, I made a stir fry sauce so that I could cut down on the amount of oil needed in the wok. I combined 1/4 cup chicken broth, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tsp. ginger, a dash of black pepper, and a dash of an Asian Seasoning mix from Pampered Chef.

Three garlic scrapes chopped and sauteed in two tablespoons of oil in the wok.

Add the chopped beet stalks and a dash of the sauce.

Then add the pea pods and chopped zucchini.

The beet leaves were the last to receive a quick starry before I added the rest of the stir fry sauce and thickened it with a tablespoon of corn starch dissolved in water.

I garnished the stir fry with a handful of pine nuts and enjoyed.

Farm in the City

I have been cooking up a storm with my CSA boxes this spring; however, establishing a backyard garden has really taken a toll on my time, causing blogging to take a back tractor seat.

After our recent home remodel, Mike and I decided to strip the entire yard down to just three established trees and start over with a blank dirt slate. We enlisted the services of Molly M. of Heart and Soil Landdesign, who has been working tirelessly with us for two months now. The front yard design has been inspired by a native landscape while the backyard theme is "Farm in the City." For a month now we have successfully maintained a rabbit-proof backyard thanks to Mike's meticulous efforts at turning our chain link (and partial picket) fence into a rabbit-proof wonder that also goes into the ground in case the rabbits ever get the idea to try and burrow under the fence. The chicken wire used on the bottom two feet of the fence is difficult to notice unless you are looking for it. Check out the photo below of the fence around the blueberry and strawberry patch.

And yes, the plans for this were in the works before Michelle Obama decided to dig up part of the White House lawn.

The backyard garden has four raised beds for veggies, two areas for perennial herbs, two strawberry patches, nine blueberry bushes (3 each of 3 varieties), five Nanking cherry bushes, two Honeycrisp apple trees, one fireside apple tree, two Regent Juneberry bushes, 17 raspberry bushes (in four varieties), an asparagus bed, and a lone grapevine to climb a trellis of an old family farm tractor wheel and scythe.

Raised Vegetable Garden

Sarah's Raspberry Patch

The area of the yard known as the orchard

Planting and maintaining the backyard garden has been exhausting, but now I am hoping that my workload will be cut down to just a few hours a week of weeding, watering, and harvesting. We did install a drip irrigation system for all of the veggies and fruits, so once they are established, I will also save time by not having to haul water from the rain barrel.

Dreams of My Own Garden

Although I have already enrolled with Harmony Valley Farm for next year for a full veggie share, summer and winter fruit shares, a coffee share, and a cheese share, I've decided that I will supplement the HFV produce with my own garden next year.

The addition to our house has left our yard in shambles, so we will need to complete a comprehensive landscaping project this spring. And I have finally convinced Mike that a vegetable garden will be incorporated into the design. Mike has visions of a fancy yard with an underground sprinkler system. I envision hardy native grasses, a rain garden, a vegetable garden, two rain barrels, and a composter.

Fortunately, the kids are on my side. It must be the residual German Farm Stock that courses through their city veins. Anyway, Mike is so outnumbered, that he's beginning to come around to our way of thinking. We keep telling him, "Why would we fertilize and water 100% of our land when we could reap some practical benefits from at least a portion of the yard." Mike also bought me The Postage Stamp Garden Book for Christmas, so I really think that he's committed to the venture too.

It will be fun to sit around as a family and design our garden. Sarah has already requested that we plant a raspberry patch, and I'm thinking of sowing an asparagus bed--even though both of those will require years before we enjoy the fruits of those labors. I also have to figure out a way to tastefully build rabbit-proof fences around everything. Send me ideas if you have any.

Crock Pot Soups

Oh, remodeling. My kitchen looks like this . . .

Since the kitchen will be out of commission until February or March, Mike and I set up a temporary kitchen in his workroom in the basement (seen below). I really thought that we'd eat out most of the time, but that the hot plate and microwave would allow the kids to fix a meal if their schedules prohibited them from joining us for dinner; however, the hotplate, microwave, crock pot kitchen has been easier to manage than I expected. Cooking meals with my Harmony Valley vegetables is almost a fun challenge. In the past month without a kitchen, I can count the number of times that we've eaten out on one hand.

A staple of our diet has been soups made in the crock pot. With all of the root vegetables from Harmony Valley, the temptation was just too strong.

Chicken Soup with Parsley Root

Last week I made the best chicken soup--EVER!! I read in the HVF newsletter that parsley root (a veggie that I had never heard of before that appeared in our box one week) was the secret ingredient in chicken soup by top chefs. So even though I was limited to a hot plate and crock pot, I couldn't pass up the chance to incorporate this ingredient into my usual chicken soup recipe. I also had two parsnips from HVF, and I didn't think that they would get used, so they were also destined for the crock pot.

After I boiled the chicken with onion, celery, a bay leaf, thyme, salt and pepper, I was able to use the hot plate to saute all the diced veggies I had been preparing--carrots, parsnips, celery, onion, parsley root, and garlic. I sauteed the veggies just until soft and put them in the crock pot with the diced chicken, a box of chicken broth and the stock from the chicken (there wasn't a lot of stock since I had to boil the chicken in minimal water considering the hot plate's small size). I added another bay leaf, a bit more salt and pepper, and let the soup cook on high for five hours. During the last hour, I added wide egg noodles to the crock pot.

The flavor was incredible. The parsley taste came through, and the parsnips added a tender sweetness to the mix.

Russian Borscht

Without an oven, the common fall dish of roasted root veggies was off the menu, so the beets were piling up in the crisper drawer. I had never made borscht before, but since I have enjoyed eating it at Crossroads Deli, I thought that I'd give borscht a try. I searched the Internet for a recipe that used the most ingredients that were piling up, plus one that I felt could be easily modified for a crock pot. I found this classic Russian Borscht recipe on cooks.com.

I loved the fact that the beets, carrots, onions and cabbage were all shredded and simmered together for two hours. I pulled out the food processor and shredded 8 beets, 6 medium carrots, a bunch of small onions, and a head of red cabbage--all from HFV. I put all of the shredded veggies in the crock pot and covered them with beef broth. I added the cup of white wine, plus I put in 1/4 cup white wine vinegar and a teaspoon of sour salt. I thought the sour tastes would complement the borscht nicely--and they did.

I set the crock pot on high for seven hours, and the borscht turned out a beautiful purple shade. I garnished the bowls with a dollop of plain yogurt, and served the soup with toasted rye bread. Delicious!!