While we were camping with family this weekend, Skyler’s cousin gave us some garlic scapes. They are the stems of the garlic plant and have a very strong flavor. Besides being used in pesto, they can be sautéed with veggies for a great garlic flavor. We wanted to try them out and had some avocados left over and I had thought THIS dish I saw on Pinterest. We were so excited when we saw it has garlic scapes in it! It’s a quick and easy dish that’s ready in just a few minutes. In the time it takes to boil the pasta, the pesto is ready!

Since we just got back from camping, we used what we had so the pesto was just made with basil, spinach, scapes, oil, and cheese. After the pesto is made, the avocado is mixed in, all using a food processor. The recipe we were inspired by has a little more that goes in it, read it HERE. We served it with a delicious summer vegetable tian, which you can find on our blog here.

Pasta with Avocado and Garlic Scapes Pesto

Ingredients

• 10 chopped garlic scapes
• 1/4 cup roughly chopped basil
• 1/4 cup roughly chopped spinach
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup parmesan
• 2 small avocados
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• milk
• 1 lb pasta, cooked

Directions

1. Pulse the scapes, basil, and spinach in a food processor. Slowly add olive oil while processor is on until desired consistency.
2. In a blender (or food processor) blend the avocados and 1/4 cup of the pesto until smooth.
3. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper. Add a little bit of milk at a time until sauce is barely thin.
4. Stir sauce into warm pasta and serve.

After a fun 4th of July weekend with family, we had lots of leftover tomatoes from lunch. Plus I had bought a few zucchini at Riverhill Farm last week. I was dying to make a vegetable dish with the fresh produce we had and thought of THIS vegetable tian recipe. It usually is made with eggplant, but we just got home from camping and just used what we had on hand. It’s a simple recipe that takes just a little time in the oven.

I used a mandolin to slice the vegetables while Skyler sautéed a shallot and some garlic. He spread that on the bottom of an 8×8 dish and I stacked the tomatoes and squash. After it bakes for a little bit, we sprinkled a little bit of parmesan on it and baked it a little longer. We served it with a delicious pasta with avocado garlic scapes pesto, but that’s another story (which you can read HERE).

Summer Vegetable French Tian

Ingredients

• 4 large tomatoes (such as beefsteak)
• 2 squash or zucchini
• eggplant, optional
• shallot, minced
• garlic, minced
• 1 cup parmesan
• fresh oregano

Directions

1. Slice vegetables using a mandolin set to a thick setting.
2. Sauté shallot and garlic and spread in bottom of 8×8 dish. Add a little extra oil to cover bottom of dish.
3. Stack veggies vertically in dish, alternating between tomatoes and squash.
4. Cover with foil and bake for 30-35 minutes at 400F. Sprinkle with parmesan and fresh oregano. Bake uncovered for another 15-20 minutes.

It was dinner for one tonight in the Moon house. I have a hard time cooking for just myself, but this recipe was quick and easy for one. I was in the mood for brussels sprouts and had an idea of what I was going to make, when I saw this recipe on the back of the bag! I updated it a little and was pretty happy with the way it turned out. We will probably have this dish again as a side. I actually think you could use this sauce with prosciutto with a lot of veggies (green beans and broccoli came to mind).

Start by washing your veggies and slicing them in half, lengthwise. Cut up the prosciutto into bite sized pieces. Sauté it on medium-high heat in a large skillet. Stir and cook until crispy. This doesn’t take long at all, maybe 1 minute. Longer if you like it crispier. Remove from pan and set aside for later.

Add the cut brussels sprouts to the same skillet. I added some olive oil because my prosciutto didn’t leave behind much grease. Stir frequently. While those are cooking, heat cream (or milk) in a small sauce pan. Whisk in dijon, season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour over the cooked brussels sprouts, add prosciutto and stir. Sprinkle some fresh parmesan on the top and serve!

Sautéed Brussels Sprouts with Prosciutto and a Creamy Dijon Sauce adapted from 4 Earth

Ingredients

• 1 lb brussels sprouts, washed
• 3-4 pieces prosciutto
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 4 tbsp dijon mustard
• salt and pepper
• parmesan

Directions

1. Cut brussels sprouts in half lengthwise. Cut up the prosciutto into bite sized pieces. Sauté the prosciutto on medium-high heat in a large skillet. Stir and cook until crispy.  Longer if you like it crispier. Remove from pan and set aside for later.
2. Add the cut brussels sprouts to the same skillet. Add olive oil if needed. Stir frequently. Cook until brussels sprouts start to brown slightly (8-10 minutes).
3. While brussels sprouts are cooking, heat cream in a small sauce pan. Whisk in dijon, season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Pour over the cooked brussels sprouts, add prosciutto and stir. Sprinkle some fresh parmesan on the top and serve!

Lately I have been hooked on Sally’s Baking Addiction. Her blog is great and every recipe we’ve tried so far has turned out amazing. So today, Skyler and I wanted to bake something and I found this tasty looking brownie recipe on her site. It’s brownie frosted with a fluffy peanut butter topping and pretzels on top. The original recipe calls for chocolate covered pretzels, and I’m so glad we used plain pretzels because that extra bit of chocolate might have been too rich.

The recipe is takes a little while because the brownies need to cool before frosting them. I am currently having to control myself to not eat the whole pan of fudge-y, crunchy deliciousness. Check out the original post HERE.

Yes. Forty cloves. That’s 40 delicious, roasted cloves of garlic. Skyler made this amazing chicken from marthastewart.com one night for some dear friends of ours. It’s a very simple yet flavorful chicken. We had a small, locally raised chicken in our freezer just waiting to be eaten up.

This recipe takes a little bit of time to prepare and then about an hour in the oven (depending on the size of the bird).

Start by placing the 40 cloves of unpeeled garlic (3 or 4 heads) in a medium-sized bowl. Cover with a bowl the same size to make a sphere. Hold them together tightly and shake, shake, shake! All of the peels should  come off. Toss the peels.

Place the chicken in a roasting pan or cast iron skillet. Rub the entire chicken with 1 tablespoon butter. Season the chicken with salt and pepper; add the remaining butter, thyme, and garlic cloves to the pan.

Roast in the oven at 475 for 45 to 60 minutes. Occasionally baste the chicken with the juices and stir the garlic. Check the temperature of the thickest part of the thigh, it should be 165 degrees. When it is done, take it out of the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes. Serve with the juices and garlic!

We took some of the garlic and spread it like butter on a baguette. Yum, yum!

Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic from Martha Stewart

Ingredients

• 40 garlic cloves (3 to 4 heads), unpeeled
• 1 whole chicken (3 1/2 to 4 pounds), rinsed and patted dry (giblets removed)
• 2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 6 sprigs fresh thyme

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Place garlic in a medium bowl; cover with another same-size bowl, creating a dome. Hold bowls together tightly, and shake vigorously until skins are loosened, about 30 seconds. Remove and discard skins; set garlic aside.
2. Place chicken in a large ovenproof skillet or roasting pan. Rub all over with 1 tablespoon butter; season with salt and pepper. Add thyme, garlic, and remaining tablespoon butter to skillet.
3. Roast, basting occasionally with juices and stirring garlic, until an instant-read thermometer inserted in thickest part of a thigh (avoiding bone) registers 165 degrees, 45 to 60 minutes. Transfer to a platter, and let rest 10 minutes. Carve chicken, and serve with garlic and pan juices.

Skyler and  I have been learning about natural yeast (shout out to my aunt, Sharon, who got us a wonderful cookbook found HERE) and highly recommend that everyone read about it. As we learn more about yeast and even start our own yeast start, we naturally had a yearning to make something with it. We also received a pizza stone from my grandparents for Christmas. Pizza was obviously our next step.

Now that I’ve gone on about how amazing natural yeast is, I have to admit we didn’t use ours for these pizzas. It was still in the process of becoming yeast (I know, I’m full of excuses). If we were to use our natural yeast, we would replace the one packet of dry active yeast, which is 2 1/4 tsp, with 2 tablespoons natural yeast. We learned the consequences of assuming its a 1:1 ratio with homemade soft pretzels, but that’s another story.

Skyler had made this pizza dough a few times without me. Not cool. I’m pretty sure somewhere in our vows we said that we cannot enjoy delicious food without the other present. It’s a very easy, no-rise recipe. He found it on AllRecipes.com and you can find it HERE. The dough only has SIX ingredients! Way better than the paragraph of ingredients on the store-bought, pre-made pizza crust.

Here is the biggest tip, so READ THIS: Make your dough, roll it out on the counter, and then transfer it to the pizza stone BEFORE you add toppings. This step makes your life so much easier. Pizzas are floppy and your toppings will roll/slide/fall off trying to move it to the stone. As far as toppings go, it’s really all preference.

We made two pizzas with our sweet friends, the Nelsons. Our first pizza had olive oil in place of sauce, brie, sliced pears, and a balsamic reduction drizzled over the top. It was very creamy and just delicious. The second pizza we made had Classico pizza sauce, fresh mozzarella, chicken and prosciutto. We were very impressed at the Classico pizza sauce. For store-bought, it was tasty and didn’t have a ton of mystery ingredients.

Pizza night is definitely going to be a weekly event in the Moon house! What are your favorite pizza toppings?

Pizza Dough Recipe (makes one pizza crust and serves 4-6)

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 cup warm water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450F. Dissolve yeast and sugar in water. Let stand about 5 minutes. Stir in flour, oil and salt until well combined. Let rest for 10 minutes. Roll out or flatten with your hands on pizza pan or stone.
2. Add desired toppings. (Remember: Put the dough on the stone/pan BEFORE you add toppings!)
3. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

5 Ingredient Peanut Butter Granola Bars

makes 12-16 granola squares

4 cups rolled oats

2 tablespoons chia seeds (these are optional, I just love the texture they give)

1/2 cup unsalted peanuts, chopped

3/4 cup natural peanut butter, melted

1/2 cup brown rice syrup (honey works too!)
add ins:

chocolate chips

wheat germ

flaxseed

dried fruit (I made some with cherries!)

other nuts

seeds

coconut

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl, combine oats, chia seeds and peanuts. Add brown rice syrup (or honey) and mix to combine. Add melted peanut butter and mix until moistened. This works as a perfect, simple granola bar, but you can also throw in any add-ins at this time. Fold them into the dough. You may need to get in there with your hands and work the granola dough! If dough is still too dry (this can depend on your ingredients) add more peanut butter or syrup (or honey) 1 tablespoon at a time until moistened.

Press dough in a greased (non-stick spray) 9 x 13 baking dish. Bake for 25 minutes.

These would also work as a great no-bake granola bar, but I liked how they came together and the chocolate chips melted as they got warm. If you want to make no-bakes, simply press the dough into the pan and refrigerate for 60 minutes.

Thanks for the recipe, How Sweet It Is!

Ingredients:

• 4 fresh tomatoes
• 1 small can tomato paste
• Fresh herbs: oregano, basil, and rosemary, chopped
• 1 lb ground beef
• Clove of garlic, minced
• 1 small onion (or 1/2 of a large onion), diced
• 8-10 white mushrooms, sliced
• 1 box of lasagna noodles (count how many will fit in your pan, we used 10 noodles)
• Mozzarella and cheddar cheese, shredded (we prefer to buy blocks and shred it ourselves)

Directions:

Step 1: Dice up the blanched tomatoes and heat in a sauté pan (note: sauté pans are the ones with the straight walls, you’ll be making sauce so you don’t want it sloshing out). Mash the tomatoes with the back of a wooden spoon. Add a can of tomato paste and handful of fresh oregano, rosemary, and basil. Let simmer.

Step 2: Start a large pot of water for the lasagna. Cook as directed. If you prefer to use the oven ready noodles, skip this step. Drain when done.

Step 3: In a skillet, sauté the onion, garlic and mushrooms until almost tender. Add the ground beef. When the ground beef is browned, stir into the tomato sauce.

Step 4: In a 9″x13″ pan, spread a thin layer of the tomato sauce on the bottom. This is just to keep the pasta from sticking. Add a layer of noodles, then sauce, then cheese. Repeat twice. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly. Enjoy!

For Mama Moon’s traditional lasagna: In a large bowl, stir together 2 cans tomato sauce, 1 can tomato paste and a packet of spaghetti sauce seasoning to make the tomato sauce. Steps 2-4 are the same!

Drop tomato carefully into boiling water.

Remove after 15 seconds and put into a bowl of ice water.

Easily peel the skin off! (The skin should peel off tightly)

These tomatoes are perfect for salsa, marinara, canning, etc….

Martha Stewart’s Pancake Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, or vegetable oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• Assorted toppings, such as butter, maple syrup, confectioners’ sugar, honey, jams, preserves, sweetened whipped cream, or chocolate syrup

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees; have a baking sheet or heatproof platter ready to keep cooked pancakes warm in the oven. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, butter (or oil), and egg. Add dry ingredients to milk mixture; whisk until just moistened (do not over mix; a few small lumps are fine).
3. Heat a large skillet (nonstick or cast-iron) or griddle over medium. Fold a sheet of paper towel in half, and moisten with oil; carefully rub skillet with oiled paper towel.
4. For each pancake, spoon 2 to 3 tablespoons of batter onto skillet, using the back of the spoon to spread batter into a round (you should be able to fit 2 to 3 in a large skillet).
5. Cook until surface of pancakes have some bubbles and a few have burst, 1 to 2 minutes. Flip carefully with a thin spatula, and cook until browned on the underside, 1 to 2 minutes more. Transfer to a baking sheet or platter; cover loosely with aluminum foil, and keep warm in oven. Continue with more oil and remaining batter. (You’ll have 12 to 15 pancakes.) Serve warm, with desired toppings.