Filet Mignon w/Mushroom Sauce, Chive-Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Christmas dinner for two...seriously good! Maybe one of the best meals ever.

I splurged at Whole Foods and got filet mignon. Too bad this is pricey enough not to enjoy often...though I'm sure it would be good with non-fancy steak too. This is sort of an amalgamation of a bunch of steak-and-mushroom-sauce recipes I looked at online.

Filet Mignon with Mushroom Sauce

-2 pieces filet mignon / beef tenderloin / whatever (let stand at room temp for about 1 hr)
-1 lb-ish mushrooms (I used a package of "gourmet blend" shiitake, chanterelle & oyster mushrooms, plus some creminis)
-1 large shallot, thinly sliced
-butter & olive oil
-1/2 cup red wine (I used Cabernet Sauvignon)
-1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
-pinch dried thyme
-dash Worcestershire sauce
-1/4 cup (or more) heavy cream

Make the mushroom sauce: saute the shallot in about 1 Tbl each butter & olive oil. Add mushrooms & saute over medium-high heat til well-browned. Season with salt & pepper. Add wine & boil until most of the liquid is gone. Add chicken broth & simmer til slightly reduced. Add thyme & worcestershire. I added a tiny bit of flour to thicken (though I didn't really want this to be gravy-like). Can be made ahead to this point.

To cook the beef, preheat oven to 350 and heat an iron skillet over medium-high heat. Season filets well with salt & pepper. Add some olive oil to skillet and sear filets for 4-5 minutes on each side. Finish cooking in the oven to desired doneness - for me it was about 8-10 minutes for medium rare. Depending on how thick the filets are, you may not need to do the oven step. Don't overcook!! Meanwhile, add cream to sauce and bring to a simmer. Serve sauce over beef.

Chive-Garlic Mashed Potatoes

-6-8 medium-sized Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled & quartered
-5-6 garlic cloves, peeled
-1/2 cup heavy cream + milk
-bit o' butter
-handful of chives, chopped

Cover potatoes and garlic cloves with cold water and boil until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain, return to hot pot and let dry out for a few seconds. Mash & add heavy cream, butter and milk to desired consistency. Season with salt & pepper and add chives.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Trim Brussels sprouts, remove any icky leaves and cut in half. Toss with 2 Tbl olive oil & plenty of salt & pepper. Spread out on a baking sheet and roast at 400 for about 20 minutes, until browned & tender. So good!! These are a simpler version of what I made for Thanksgiving. Even Brussels sprout haters should like these!

You will probably have leftovers of everything but the beef...not a bad thing!

Shepherd's Pie

I make this a little different every time. And sometimes I've used instant mashed potatoes, but I had time for the real thing this time. Oh, and technically this is a "cottage pie" since it uses beef. I was surprised that Safeway actually had ground lamb, but at something like $12/lb, I went for the beef! You can also just saute the beef & vegetables together to save time, but I like browning them separately (also makes it easier to drain fat from the beef). Sometimes I've added grated cheese (either on top or mixed into the potatoes), but it can get a little greasy.

Shepherd's Pie

-Your favorite mashed potatoes (I used 4 large russet potatoes mashed with milk, a little butter, a little cream cheese, salt & pepper, and added some chopped green onions)
-1 lb ground beef
-4 cloves garlic, minced
-1 box mushrooms, halved & sliced
-1 onion, diced
-2 large carrots, diced
-1 tbl tomato paste
-1-2 tbl flour
-1 cup chicken broth (or beef broth, but I have trouble finding low sodium beef broth and find the regular stuff too salty)
-1 tsp dried thyme
-dash cayenne and/or hot sauce, salt & pepper to taste
-few dashed worcestershire sauce
-couple handfuls frozen petite peas

Prepare mashed potatoes to a spreadable consistency.

In a large skillet, brown beef. Add garlic and cook until beef is no longer pink. Remove beef to a bowl with slotted spoon and drain off fat from skillet.

Saute mushrooms in same pan until browned, remove to bowl with beef.

Saute onion & carrot in pan with a little olive oil until onion is transparent & carrots are slightly soft. Add beef & mushrooms back to pan.

Stir in tomato paste & flour until incorporated. Add chicken broth - more or less to make a gravy-like consistency. Add spices, salt & pepper & worcestershire to taste. Let simmer a few minutes and add peas.

Put beef mixture in a 9 x 13 baking pan and spread mashed potatoes over top. Draw a fork through potatoes to create a textured surface. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes or until bubbly. Run under the broiler for a couple minutes to brown the top. Let sit about 15 minutes before serving.

Clean-Out-the-Fridge-Minestrone

OK, I lied.

One more dish emerged from the CSA veggies. I think as I was writing the "recap" post, I realized there were still things in the fridge that were edible and I should really just use them up. Therefore, soup:

This used all of the remaining veggies except for some hot peppers, because...I don't want to kill myself.

Baby turnips, green peppers (one of which was turning red), a poblano pepper, one hot red chili pepper, 1/2 head of cabbage, and some bok choy. And a zucchini that was hanging around. Also: a large onion, 4 cloves of garlic, some tomato paste, 1 can of diced tomatoes, chicken broth, 1 can each of white beans & chickpeas, and the rind from a piece of parmesan. I've heard this is traditional to simmer in your minestrone...not really sure if it did anything...but I added some grated parmesan to my bowl.

So I feel better now that these are used up. Whew!

CSA Recap & Top 10

The CSA has come to an end, and I thought I’d do a recap. There were some aspects that were tough about it, but I’d absolutely do it again. I’d highly encourage everyone to find one in your area. You’ll eat better while probably not spending more than you would buying veggies at your grocery store, and you’ll be supporting local (probably organic) agriculture.

Our CSA was of course One Straw Farm in White Hall, MD – about 40 miles away from our home. But they have weekly pickups all over the area, so we only had to go a couple of miles every week to get our veggies.  We got 24 weeks of veggies at a total cost of $570, which we split with another couple. So with a per-person upfront cost of $142.50, that works out to $5.94 per week for 8 different organic vegetables. I’ve never kept track of what I spend on veggies at the grocery store, but that seems like a pretty good deal. If we do the early bird discount next year, it will be even less.

Obviously, you get a ton of vegetables. Even with splitting each week’s share, it was sometimes more than rob and I could handle. Not that we couldn’t have eaten everything, but for busy people who are often not home (and as working musicians, often eating out at gigs), it was hard to plan to use and cook everything. Some things did get wasted – more than I would have liked – but overall, considering our schedule, I think decent use was made of what we got. There were times when I did feel a little held-hostage by the produce lurking at home. After an exhausting day at work--sometimes not getting home until 11pm or later after a gig--it’s tempting  to grab fast food or whip up a box of Kraft mac & cheese. And often, we did. Most of what’s featured on this blog was made on my days off or evenings when I got home at a decent hour – I certainly don’t eat like this all the time! I sometimes tried to plan for leftovers or would freeze things, but not as much as I could have. I think I also lost steam towards the end of this (or maybe was just busier than usual). In a way I'm glad to have a little break so I can go back to just having what I "need" on hand.

And we did get some things we weren’t crazy about. Still not a huge fan of radishes or cabbage.  We seemed to get green peppers almost every week—which I like, but not that much. A lot of lettuce went to waste. If lettuce was all we were getting, I probably would have made more salads. But with all the other veggies each week, I just wasn’t that interested in salads.

But let’s look at the good stuff!

The sheer variety of vegetables was just awesome. There were some I’d never eaten before (garlic scapes, celeriac, kohlrabi, purple broccoli). There were many that I’d never bought or prepared before (kale, arugula, collard greens, mustard greens, dandelion greens, pattypan squash, purple basil, radishes). Definitely ate way more greens than I ever have.

The surprise of coming home every Thursday and discovering what we got was fun (I never actually got to do any of the pickups myself because I got home from work too late). It would be nice if we got some kind of heads up from the farm about what we’d get that week – would help a little bit with the planning – but I enjoyed the challenge of it.

In general, the quality of the produce was great. These veggies often aren’t as pretty as what you get at the grocery store, but that’s because they’re not genetically modified or harvested unripe. But they sure taste better. As I posted before, the farm said they had a lot of weather challenges this season and that did affect the quality and/or what they were able to offer sometimes. But that’s part of eating local – you share the good and bad with the farm. There were occasions when things went to waste because they weren’t in great shape by the time we got them or they quickly perished, but for the most part everything was really fresh.

In summary – I’m not a die-hard locavore/food snob, and I understand how difficult it is to eat well when you have a busy life. But the CSA definitely helped with that, and I’d recommend it to anyone—as long as you can deal with the quantity of what you get.  

Thought I’d also run down my top 10 favorite dishes that came out of this:

10. Beet-Grapefruit Salad 

Fun tastes & textures in this one.

9. Sweet Potato Biscuits 

Delicious warm with butter, awesome vehicle for a breakfast sandwich.

8. Eggplant Caprese Omelet with Home Fries 

Leftover eggplant, tomato & mozzarella salad was better the second time around!

7. Yellow Pear Tomato Salad 

Nothing complicated for these summer gems.

6. Herb-Roasted Chicken with Root Veggies & Sauteed Chard

 I think I was just excited at this point that it was cool enough to use the oven again. But...yum.

5. Pasta with Roasted Cauliflower 

Roasting's definitely the way to enjoy cauliflower. Easy pasta dish.

4. Raw Beet Salad 

Mostly because this is so visually fun with the candy-striped beets. The raw beets are crunchy & sweet too.

3. Braised Pork Chops with Mashed Sweet Potatoes & Swiss Chard

Tasty fall dish.

 

2. Corn-Tomato Chowder with Shrimp

Tasty summer dish!

 

1. Massaged Kale Salad

No surprise here. Never having eaten a lot of kale, I discovered that raw kale is awesome, especially in this salad.

 

Brussels Sprouts w/Bacon, Apple & Pecans; Spiced Roasted Cauliflower

I think we're officially in the post-CSA phase now. Still plan to do a wrap-up on that, but here's a Thanksgiving post--ingredients courtesy of Whole Foods. These were my contribution to dinner at a friend's house:

Both turned out great, but the brussels sprouts were just killer. I've never been particularly passionate about brussels sprouts and this is maybe the second time I've ever made them. If you think you don't like them, try 'em this way. Based off a Martha Stewart recipe:

Brussels Sprouts with Bacon, Apple & Pecans

- 2 bags brussels sprouts
- 4 strips bacon
- 1 apple, cored & chopped
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
- pat of butter
- 1/2 tsp brown sugar

Preheat oven to 400. Trim the ends of the brussels sprouts, peel off any bad-looking leaves, and slice in half. Put 2 slices of bacon on each of two baking sheets (I covered mine with foil). Bake until crispy, 10-15 minutes. Crumble bacon & set aside. If the bacon didn't give off a lot of grease, toss the sprouts with a small amount of olive oil, plus some salt & pepper. Place cut side down on the baking sheets and roast for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, toast pecans in a dry skillet. Add butter & brown sugar, toss until melted & coated. Divide chopped apple evenly among baking sheets & stir together. Roast for another few minutes (my sprouts were pretty much done at this point). Add bacon & nuts.

Spiced Roasted Cauliflower
(two heads made quite a lot--one is probably sufficient unless you're feeding a crowd. Use whatever spice mixture you like - or just salt & pepper).

- Preheat oven to 400 & line 2 baking sheets with foil (one's probably enough if you're cooking 1 head)
- Chop 2 heads of cauliflower into small-medium florets.
- Mix together about 1/4 tsp each smoked paprika, ground ginger, cumin & cardamom, plus some freshly grated nutmeg, a bit of cayenne, and a few pinches of kosher salt. Mix in about 3-4 Tbl. olive oil.
- Toss the cauliflower with the spiced oil & spread out on the baking sheets.
- Roast for about 20 minutes, stirring once, until starting to brown.

Cranberry-Walnut Mixed Green Salad; Chili-Cilantro Mashed Sweet Potatoes

The mixed baby greens and dandelion greens became a salad with toasted walnuts & dried cranberries:

Dressing was olive oil, cider vinegar, dijon mustard and a bit of pomegranate molasses & maple syrup. Really tasty!

I had some leftover mashed sweet potatoes in the freezer and thought I'd spice it up with red chili pepper and cilantro:

I broiled one of the red chili peppers in the toaster oven for a few minutes and then peeled, seeded & chopped it. Tasted a piece and it was pretty spicy, so I didn't even put the whole thing in...but I probably could have as this didn't end up too spicy. We had this and the salad with some fish, and an apple crisp for dessert with semi-local apples.

Oh, last night I also whipped up a quick pasta with Italian sausage, spinach and garlic--just sauteed everything while the pasta cooked and added jack cheese at the end:

Week 24 - The Last One!

Well, the last couple weeks have really slipped by. We were away most of last week so we let Sharif & Joanna have all the veggies. This week is the last CSA delivery!

We've got: baby bok choy, mixed baby greens, spinach, cabbage, poblano peppers, red chili peppers, baby turnips, cilantro, and--I think--dandelion greens:

rob didn't take notes at the pickup, so he wasn't sure. I'm surprised as I thought dandelion greens were a spring thing. Well, I guess some kind of salad is in order!


I'm stumped about what to do with all the hot peppers. We got poblanos two weeks ago and never used them. Every recipe I've seen calls for roasting, which I did when I made poblano-cheddar grits. But these are REALLY hard to peel after roasting so it's kind of a pain...maybe I'll just not worry about that part.

We got a close-of-season e-mail from One Straw Farms, where they confirmed that there had been a lot of weather challenges this year. With all the rain from Hurricane Irene and other storms, they couldn't re-plant in September, and their "hard squash" crops were unsuccessful. But they said they've been relatively lucky compared to other farmers in the mid-Atlantic and New England who lost pretty much everything from flooding.

At some point I'll probably do a wrap-up of my thoughts about the CSA and maybe my favorite dishes. I'll probably continue this as an intermittent food blog when I'm inspired to make exciting things, until the next CSA season starts in June. But now, off to figure out salad and hot pepper ideas.

Week 22: Slackin'

Another busy week with pretty much zero time to cook. We've finally unloaded the majority of this week's veggies on Sharif and Joanna, as we're going to be gone the rest of this week. We got Savoy cabbage, bok choy, poblano peppers, eggplant, lettuce, radishes, dill and cilantro (which didn't make it).

rob managed to use some of the eggplant in a veggie lasagna, and I did some stir-fried bok choy as a side a few days ago. Tonight I made an unremarkable pasta with sausage, cabbage, onion and dill. I think I'm just not a huge cabbage fan.

We've only got a couple weeks left for the CSA, and next week will be a bit of a crapshoot as we'll be away for much of it. Ah well...

Week 21: Southwestern Veggie Casserole

A busy weekend of friends visiting and not much cooking. This week we got sweet potatoes, mustard greens, kale, lettuce, green cabbage, bok choy, dill and cilantro. Maybe some green peppers...or maybe they were leftover from last week. We usually get green peppers!

Today I got to have Sunday brunch for the first time in many years. Took the day off and friends and I went to Great Sage, a vegan restaurant I've wanted to try that's gotten rave reviews from vegan and meat-eating friends. One of my visiting friends is a vegetarian, and the other had been on a bit of a "bacon bender" while here, so this seemed the logical choice. Their brunch was yummy. I had the "Baltimore Benedict:"

Artichoke "crabcake," tofu poached "egg," tomato and Hollandaise sauce with roasted potatoes. There were a lot of quotation marks on the menu! Really tasty; the "crabcake" had a nice Old Bay flavor and I think quinoa was involved. Curious about how they make vegan Hollandaise.

Anyway, not sure if I was inspired by that, but I made a vegetarian casserole for dinner (+ lots of leftovers). Not vegan--I wanted cheese in it--though it could have easily been.

Still had all the sweet potatoes from last week (a double portion as Sharif & Joanna were away), and those plus this week's were getting a little moldy. So I peeled them all, cut off the bad bits, boiled until soft and mashed them. Froze about half the mash and used the rest in the casserole. Went a little something like this:

- 2 cups cooked brown rice
- 1 cup mashed sweet potato
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 3 small green peppers, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- chili powder, cumin, salt & pepper
- 1 can black beans, rinsed & drained
- 1 can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
- 1 chipotle pepper in adobo, mashed
- 1 small bunch kale, thinly sliced
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 2 cups grated cheese
- 1/2 cup sour cream

Saute the onion in olive oil until tender. Add green pepper & garlic; cook a few minutes & add spices. Add black beans, tomatoes & chipotle, simmer for a few minutes. Add kale & cook until wilted.

Preheat oven to 350. Combine rice, sweet potato & vegetable mixture in large bowl. Add cilantro, 1 cup of cheese & sour cream; mix well. Grease a 9 x 13" baking dish with a little olive oil; add mixture & spread evenly. Bake for 20 minutes. Top with remaining cheese & broil until cheese is bubbly.

Very good. The sweet potato adds a creamy texture and balances the heat of the chipotle.

Stir-Fried Purple Broccoli & Bok Choy

This was a nice side dish with Trader Joe's crab-stuffed flounder (which are affectionately known as "toads" in our household):

According to The Internets, purple broccoli seems to be popular in the UK, where it's called "PSB" (Purple Sprouting Broccoli). Tastes just like regular broccoli, and the purple florets are more evident when raw.

Very simple: stir-fried the broccoli and bok choy stems, adding a little water to help them steam. Then added chopped scallions, the bok choy leaves, hot pepper flakes, a little soy sauce and lemon juice.

Greens, Sausage, Potato & White Bean Soup

This used up a whole mess o' greens!

That's 1 1/2 bunches of mustard greens and 1/2 a bunch of Swiss chard. Took awhile to wash & chop all this!

To make the soup, I cooked 3 links of Italian sausage, breaking it up in the pot. Removed sausage to a larger pot and then sauteed an onion and garlic in the drippings with a little olive oil. Added a whole bunch of cubed potatoes and some smoked paprika. Then this went in the large pot with 2 boxes of chicken stock. Simmered about 20 minutes, until the potatoes were done.

Then I added a can of white beans, and the greens. Had to add some more water too. Cooked a few minutes until the greens were tender. Taste for salt at the end...and I added some hot sauce.

Sort of like a Portuguese caldo verde. Made a huge pot...we've got lots of leftovers, and some for the freezer.

Massaged Kale Salad

Made this amazing salad again yesterday and the recipe was requested. Realized I drifted enough from the original recipe my sister sent me that I should just post my version. This still remains possibly my favorite dish I've made since the CSA started! It also keeps a few days in the fridge - this pic was taken of leftovers the next day and it's still nice and fresh. Super-healthy and really tasty. If you have never tried kale (especially raw), I guarantee you'll like this!

Massaged Kale Salad: Quantities don't have to be exact. I like the "handful" approach.

-1 large bunch kale (can augment with other greens such as Swiss chard, spinach and even lettuce. Kale should be the main thing though. This will make short work of a huge bunch, so don't worry about buying too much!)
-3/4 tsp kosher salt
-1 apple (I like a tart Granny Smith)
-2 Tbl. cider vinegar
-3 scallions, chopped
-2 handfuls dried cranberries
-2 handfuls chopped walnuts, lightly toasted in a dry skillet
-4 Tbl. extra virgin olive oil
-Crumbled goat cheese

Wash the kale thoroughly, remove tough ribs. Stack leaves, roll up and slice. Put kale in a large bowl and add salt. Rub the salt into the kale for a couple minutes. Let sit while you prepare the other ingredients.

Core & chop the apple (no need to peel unless the peel's waxy or icky). In a serving bowl, toss the apple with the vinegar (this will stop it from turning brown). Add the scallions, cranberries and walnuts.

Add the kale, drizzle with the olive oil and toss thoroughly. Then crumble in the goat cheese. Salad should sit for at least a few minutes before serving.

Week 20: Back to the beginning?

So here we are at week 20...4 more weeks to go in the CSA. And apparently we have a return to the beginning with greens, greens and more greens. To make it even more challenging, Sharif and Joanna are away this week, so I think rob and I have to tackle this all ourselves:

Let's see...kale (I think this is "dinosaur kale"), mustard greens (haven't used last week's!), swiss chard, two heads each of red romaine and green leaf lettuce, bok choy and green peppers (still have a green pepper stash). And sweet potatoes there in the back! Not green!

Well, perhaps we will see a return of the amazing kale salad. And maybe some type of soup with greens & sausage. And...salads.

Now for my next trick...stuffing all this in the fridge. Sigh.

Braised Red Cabbage with Apples

 

-Saute 1/2 a red onion in a bit of butter until tender
-Add 1/2 head red cabbage, thinly sliced. Season with salt & pepper; saute for a few minutes.
-Peel & thinly slice an apple. Add to pan along with 1/4 cup apple cider.
-Cover & cook for about 10 minutes, til cabbage is tender.
-Add a splash of cider vinegar.

Served this with roasted potatoes and some pork chops similar to the recipe I made a couple of weeks ago. Pan sauce with some red onion, splash of mead to deglaze, cider, chicken stock & dijon mustard.

Was tired & ready to eat so I didn't get a pic of the whole meal! I think this is my favorite cabbage dish so far.

Penne with Roasted Butternut Squash & Chard

A variation on one of my favorite pasta dishes, using last week's butternut squash and this week's chard. I'll actually provide a recipe and step-by-step for a change!

- 1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded & chopped in ~1-inch pieces*
- 1 Tbl olive oil
- 1 tsp dried sage
- 4 slices bacon, diced (can easily be made without, if that's how you roll)
- 1 red onion, halved & thinly sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- pinch crushed red pepper
- 1/2 bunch ruby chard, stems chopped, leaves sliced (or use spinach or other greens)
- splash of apple cider, wine or broth
- freshly grated nutmeg, optional
- 1/2-1 cup half & half or heavy cream (optional but recommended)
- 1 box whole-wheat penne or other pasta (the whole wheat is nice here)
- Parmesan cheese

First, roast the butternut squash (this can be done ahead of time):

*This time, I learned and wore rubber gloves while peeling and dicing the squash. Apparently raw butternut squash has some compound that can make some people's skin feel like it's covered in dried Elmer's glue that won't wash off. I discovered I'm one of those people.

Toss the squash in a large bowl with the olive oil, sage, and some salt & pepper. Spread out on a foil-lined baking sheet and roast at 375 for 20 minutes, or until tender.

Cook the diced bacon in a Dutch oven or large pot until crispy.

Drain the bacon pieces on paper towels; reserve. While bacon is cooking, chop onion, garlic and the stems from the chard:

Saute onion in the bacon drippings over medium heat until soft and caramelized, about 15 minutes.

Add the garlic, chard stems and red pepper flakes. Saute for a couple minutes. Deglaze the pan with a splash of apple cider (or wine or broth):

Grate in some fresh nutmeg (if you don't have fresh, I wouldn't bother). Add the chard leaves. They'll cook down!

After the chard has cooked down, reduce the heat to low and add in the butternut squash.

Add half & half or cream and simmer for a couple minutes. Toss in cooked penne and let sit for a few minutes over low heat - the liquid will thicken and coat the pasta.

Add the bacon bits and parmesan cheese...and enjoy your Pasta of Awesome!

Raw Turnips

Just some raw turnips with onion dip:

A tasty snack. Unless you are rob, who was expecting an apple slice with something cheesy when I popped a slice in his mouth. Oops.

Week 19: Purple Broccoli & Mustard Greens

More cruciferousness this week:

Purple cabbage, purple broccoli (!), ruby chard, turnips, bok choy, mustard greens & green peppers. There were also radishes, but we let Sharif & Joanna have 'em all.

We got mustard greens back in June and I didn't end up using them...will have to try again. Got plans to make my awesome butternut squash pasta though...stay tuned!

Radish Salad

Main thing for dinner tonight was a remake of Pasta with Roasted Cauliflower. This time I used smoked gouda instead of parmesan, and I didn't have any exciting herbs to throw in. The cauliflower is so good prepared that way (and it's so easy)...I could snack on that straight!

I also made a simple radish salad dressed with olive oil, lime juice, salt & pepper and a little honey, plus some cilantro.

Pretty, but...I just don't think radishes do it for me. I haven't tried them cooked yet; maybe that's the next endeavor.

Braised Pork Chops with Mashed Sweet Potatoes & Swiss Chard

My mom posted a link to this recipe a few days ago, and pork chops happened to be on sale...

Oh, so much win! Interestingly, the post is called "Inspired by Columbus" and I made this on Columbus Day. Although the Columbus in the article was referring to the author's visit to the Ohio city.

I mostly followed the recipe, except instead of white wine I used Brothers Drake Mead, which rob had brought back from...Columbus OH! I actually had not realized that until just now. Huh! Also, I sauteed some chopped apple along with the onion for the pan sauce/braising liquid, which was a nice addition.

I'd thought about using roasted butternut squash instead of sweet potatoes, but that would have required more prep...and I already had the perfect amount of sweet potato mash in the freezer from a couple weeks ago. With that already done, this was actually a pretty easy/fast dinner. And super delicious.

Oh, I also made an interesting sandwich the other day to start using up our radishes (I've never been much of a radish person):

Roast beef, Havarti cheese and sliced radishes, grilled:

It was OK, not earth-shattering. Can sandwiches be earth-shattering? Could have used some type of oniony or garlicky flavor.

Week 18: Jalepenos!

The exciting thing this week is a pint of red jalepenos!

This is half of the pint...not sure how we're going to use all these up!

We also got broccoli, butternut squash, cauliflower, swiss chard, onions, radishes, and several small (not quite baby) eggplants.

rob made another delicious breakfast casserole using eggplant, onions and one of the jalepenos - perfect amount of heat. He also put in celery, bacon and havarti cheese. Yum!

Last night he also made a tuna casserole using some of the onion, with some steamed broccoli on the side.

Poblano-Cheddar Grits, Glazed Acorn Squash Rings

Dinner was an unusual combination of things, but all tasty!

The other poblano pepper I roasted was diced and thrown into some cheddar grits. Amy brought home some stone-ground yellow grits from North Carolina...and though I already have an open bag of stone-ground white grits I bought in NC, I had to try these out too. I think they were better.

And, they were made with our squid whisk! That always helps.

For the acorn squash - sliced it into rings, removed the seeds, and brushed with a glaze of melted butter, maple syrup and cinnamon. Sprinkled with salt & pepper and baked for about 20 mins at 425 (flipped halfway through and glazed the other side). The rind softens up and you can eat the whole thing!

Served this with tortilla-lime crusted tilapia from Safeway...just popped in the oven along with the squash.