Purple & Green Slaw, Spicy Shredded Beef

Haven't had time to post about this, but we had a feast for a party we threw a couple weeks ago for my birthday. Also involved a Harrison Ford movie marathon to celebrate his 70th! I was also on a mission to use up lots of veggies before we left for another tour, so this slaw happened:

Half a head of purple cabbage, a candy-striped beet (raw, julienned), a chopped Granny Smith Apple, and a couple chopped red spring onions. The dressing was something like a lime vinaigrette, as I recall...olive oil, lime juice, honey & some dijon mustard.



I also made some spicy shredded crockpot beef, mostly following this recipe...which I almost doubled 'cause I got a giant beef roast.

 I was pleased that my hungry friends ate pretty much everything! We did a sort of Chipotle-like spread with rice, black beans, peppers & onions, Amy's homemade salsa, etc.

Everything went deliciously with Air Force One, Cowboys & Aliens, and Empire Strikes Back!

Kohlrabi Chicken Salad

Favorite use of kohlrabi so far! When raw, it has a celery-like crunch and taste, so I thought it would be good in chicken salad:

Recipe(ish):
- 3-4 chicken breasts, cooked & diced (I poached mine)
- half a kolhrabi bulb, peeled & diced small
- couple of green onions, chopped (I used our red spring onions)
- handful of grapes, halved
- handful of chopped pecans
Dressing:
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup sour cream (or plain yogurt)
- 1 Tbl. dijon mustard
- splash of lime/lemon juice
- salt & pepper

I also added some chopped lemon verbena from our garden; any kind of fresh herbs would be great.

Chicken, Zucchini & Broccoli Stir Fry

I took a rare Thursday off this week and actually got to go to our CSA pickup site! I've never gotten to do that before. OK, it wasn't terribly exciting...the veggies are set out in crates in front of this house; you go check off your name and pick out your stuff:

This week we got red cabbage, kale, peas, zucchini, broccoli, kohlrabi, cauliflower, red spring onions & lettuce.

I've saved up the kale & collards from last week and will combine them with this week's kale for the famous kale salad, to take to a wedding potluck. Tonight I made a simple stir fry with the broccoli & zucchini:

I stir-fried those with some sliced onion, removed them from the pan, added a couple of garlic cloves and some cubed chicken breast. When that cooked through I added the veggies back in and splashed in some soy sauce, honey, lime juice & hot pepper flakes, then added some basil & lemon verbena from our garden. Could've been more "saucy," but it was good.

Arugula-Spinach Pesto

I came home late Thursday night after a gig to this alarming refrigerator situation:

Phew! This is most of the full share, because Sharif & Joanna hadn't picked up their half yet. Then, they lost power in the epic storms, so it looks like our fridge will be hosting stuff for awhile! This week we got arugula, broccoli, cauliflower, collard greens (I think...they're huge), baby turnips, spinach, chard and lettuce.

I thought pesto would be a good way to deal with the arugula & spinach, and I didn't have many other ingredients on hand (didn't feel like leaving the house in 100 degree weather, plus we didn't even know what businesses in the area have power). I made arugula pesto last year and it was yummy.

So, in a blender I whirred the arugula & spinach leaves, some toasted walnuts, two garlic cloves, some olive oil, and a handful of herbs from our garden (basil & lemon verbena), plus salt & pepper and a splash of lime juice. Took awhile to all get pureed in the blender, but eventually I got some nice bright green goo:

(Nice thing about non-basil pesto is it stays green!)

I cooked some pasta and threw some broccoli florets in the water for the last minute. Then tossed it with about half of the pesto, some parmesan and some shredded mozzarella:

Nice side dish with some parmesan-crusted fish (frozen from Safeway, that ol' standby). Arugula pesto has a good peppery bite and it just tastes very "green."