I made homemade pasta noodles the other night with a great vegetarian sauce of vegetables straight from our CSA share. It was one of those dishes where you just keep throwing veggies in that you have on hand and then are pleasantly surprised when it comes out great!

I used Rapini greens, freshly shelled english peas, and leeks from the CSA. You could easily substitute with onion and frozen peas if that’s what you have on hand. I’m sure it would be great with other cooking greens as well: kale, chard or spinach would probably all work.

I was in the mood to make fresh pasta that night but store bought will work just as well. Mine is Bucatini shaped. Penne, Rigatoni or macaroni would all work.

Rapini, Pea & Tomato Pasta

• 2 medium leeks, chopped
• 1 bunch Rapini greens, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups english peas, freshly shelled
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp italian seasoning
• pinch red pepper flakes
• 28 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1/2 cup white white (water or broth would work)
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 tsp olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste
• parmesan cheese, for garnish
• 12 oz cooked pasta, reserve some pasta water in case you need to loosen the sauce

Heat olive oil in sauce pan over medium heat. Add leeks and saute a few minutes until they soften. Add rapini greens and saute 3 minutes until they begin to wilt. Add peas and garlic, continue to saute for 3 more minutes. Add seasonings, tomatoes and wine. Bring to a boil, then lower heat slightly and simmer for at least 15 minutes to allow flavors to combine and liquid to reduce. Add balsamic vinegar and taste for seasonings.

Add freshly cooked pasta and stir to combine. If sauce is too thick add a little of the pasta cooking water at a time until you get it to the desired state.

Serve immediately with parmesan on the side.

Enjoy!

Week 7: Lettuce, English Peas, Purple Kohlrabi, Garlic Chives, Strawberries, Chantenay Carrots, Spigarello, Leeks.

Week 8: Spinach, Sugar Snap Peas, Green Kohlrabi, Strawberries, Lettuce, Baby Carrots (2 shares). This box was supposed to have Cardoon as well but we didn’t like the Cardoon last year so I swapped it for some more baby carrots.

Week 9: Fava Beans, Spigarello, Chantenay Carrots, Baby Erbette Chard, Purple Kohlrabi, Strawberries, Red New Potatoes, Radishes.

It’s been such a great spring filled with delicious veggies. We’ve especially enjoyed the strawberries, new potatoes, spigarello, spinach and peas. The three weeks of kohlrabi we could have done without. I should say we did really like the kohrabi greens in cooking but the roots themselves we aren’t fond of. I tried them fresh julienned on salad and they were “ok”. We tried a gratin recipe from the farm and thought it was a waste of cheese and cream. I’ll admit the last ones we received are still languishing in the refrigerator and will most likely end up in the compost unless anyone out there has a great suggestion for using them.

The fava beans are a fun spring treat but they are so much work I find myself annoyed with them by the time we get to dinner. The shucking, boiling, peeling, cooking is too many steps! I’ve tried the dishes were you don’t do the peeling and just let those skins cook up with the favas and we hated those. Anyway, I look at them as a spring treat but I’d never go out of my way to buy them on my own.

The strawberries are amazing as usual and the new potatoes are simply delicious. These are true new potatoes, freshly dug and not cured. The “new potatoes” in the grocery just cannot compare to these little gems! We cannot get enough of them.

Sugar Snap Peas, Calcot Onions, Agretti, Rapini Greens, Radishes, Swiss Chard, Dill, Baby Carrots, Strawberries

This was a great week, there were lots of our favorites in this box. The radishes and carrots went into salads. The onions were grilled and served along with mexican dinner. The strawberries were snacks as usual. I must admit I haven’t used the greens yet. I am planning to make a pasta dish tonight with the rapini, sun-dried tomatoes and parmesan. I used some of the dill in a fresh salad dressing. There is still some left for another use.

The spring peas are coming in! They are tender and delicious at this time of year. This is a really quick and easy side dish. I served it with a roasted chicken from the deli because I was lazy the other night but it would be great with most anything.

Just five ingredients in this quick dish: snow peas (snap peas would be delicious too), 1 baby leek (or 1/2 a small onion), 1 stalk green garlic (or 1 bulb garlic minced), sesame oil, honey. That’s it! The honey is optional but mine needed a little bit of a hint of sweetness to counter the sesame flavor. I used the leftovers the next day in some fresh thai spring rolls and they were great. Try it if you have any leftovers!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound snow or snap pea pods, trimmed
• 1 baby leek or 1/2 small onion, diced
• 1 stalk green garlic or 1 bulb garlic, minced
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp honey

Spray skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium heat. Add leek, garlic, and pea pods to pan. Stir fry for 5 minutes or so until peas are tender-crisp but leek and garlic are cooked through. Drizzle with sesame oil and honey. Cook, stirring for another minute until combined.

The CSA season started up again a few weeks ago. It’s always an adjustment to get into the routine of keeping up with all the fabulous veggies coming in each week. I am getting caught up though and luckily for me this week was a “light” one as the farm had some hail damage and it was a smaller share than usual. I’m certainly not complaining!

So here’s a catch-up of the first 5 weeks of our CSA from Mariquita Farm

2011-12 CSA Week 1

Carrots, Cilantro, Purple Top Turnips, Loose Spinach, Calcot Onions, Winter Density Lettuce, Delicata Squash, Collard Greens, Baby Leeks

The cilantro I used in cilantro pesto. Carrots, turnips, spinach, lettuce and onions all went into salads and snacks during the week. The collard greens and leeks I used in a soup with white beans and chicken. The squash sat around for a few weeks until I roasted them basted with a mixture of honey, garlic and chile powder. They were great!

2011-12 CSA Week 2

Parsnips, Chantenay Carrots, Thyme, Lacinto Kale, Green Garlic, Little Gem lettuce, Escarole, French Breakfast Radishes, Rainbow Chard, Calcot Onions

I cooked 1/2 of parsnips along with potatoes and mashed them. The other half went into a soup along with the onions. The used the green garlic along with cilantro in a sort of green garlic pesto sauce and served it over grilled fish. I with I had taken a picture of it, it was great. I’ll try to recreate it this week with the recipe. I used the escarole in a wintry salad with green garlic  & honey dressing tossed with radish slices and mandarin orange segments. The Kale and onions I chopped up and threw on a pizza with chicken sausage, so good! The chard was just sauteed to go along with steak night.

2011-12 CSA Week 3

Savoy Cabbage, Watermelon Radishes, Spinach, Chantenay Carrots, Red Beets, Italian Parsley, Calcot Onions, Winter Density Lettuce, Mustard Greens, Baby Carrots

I used the beets in a beet cake as requested by the boys. The beet greens and mustard greens went into a pasta side dish with orzo, lemon and asiago cheese. The parsley went into a chimchurri sauce which I served over grilled pork with the grilled calcot onions. The carrots went into carrot muffins and salads along with the lettuce and radishes. I’ll admit it, I sure do feel overwhelmed with carrots at this time of year! I sauteed the spinach with a little lemon zest as a side one night to finish it all off. I also made a small coleslaw with the savoy cabbage and some carrots.

2011-12 CSA Week 4

Agretti, Parsley Root, Winter Density Lettuce, Radishes, Rapini, Baby Leeks, Green Garlic, Baby Chard, Swiss Chard

Whew, this was a lot of greens! I used the agretti in a spaghetti with parmesan and lemon. The rapini was sauteed as a side with grilled fish and that same green garlic sauce from the previous week which I AGAIN forgot to photograph. Baby carrots were snacks for the boy. Green garlic got used in the green garlic sauce and also green garlic salad dressing for the week. SO yummy! I have to confess I think the chard is still in the refrigerator, I must use it today. Hmm, maybe I’ll just go throw all the veggie odds and ends in a pot and make up some stock for soup tomorrow.

2011-12 CSA Week 5

Strawberries, Delicata Squash, Chantenay Carrots, Baby Carrots, Snow Peas, Dandelion Greens

The strawberries were snapped up within minutes of this photo being taken. The delicata is still awaiting it’s fate. We haven’t eaten the carrots yet, we’ve been working on the backlog of carrots from previous weeks. I may make some more muffins, I am still tinkering with the recipe before I share it. I am planning to saute the snow peas with scallions and sesame oil served along with Thai marinated striped bass. The lettuce was used in a big tossed salad over the weekend. I haven’t used the dandelion greens yet either, they will probably just be sauteed in a pan as a side for something or other.

These muffins are hands down the recipe I make the most often. To our family, they are simply perfection. Chocolate and bananas, what’s not to love? When I make these they don’t last long and everyone always fights over the last one.

You know, you can tell a recipe is well loved when the cookbook falls open to that page automatically as you flip through it. This one does!

I adapted the recipe from the Creme De Colorado Cookbookby the Junior League of Denver. This cookbook has some of my favorite recipes ever in it. I have made dozens of recipes from the book and haven’t run into a dud yet. That is rare!

My husband and I grew up in Colorado and our family still lives there. We visit often (not often enough for my mother but that’s a different story. Hi mom). As a result I have several of the League cookbooks. My mom and I really like them and she often gifts them to me. I believe I got this one for a wedding present although it might have been a gift the year before when I got my own apartment and needed recipes. Regardless I’ve had it a LONG time. It even has my maiden name of Dulick written inside the cover from when I loaned it to a friend once a upon a time.

Back to the muffins… This recipe is very adaptable. It can easily be doubled and they freeze well. I sometimes cut the fat by substituting half of the butter with applesauce. I’ve also been known to throw in a quarter cup of flax seed meal to up the nutrition or use whole wheat pastry flour for half of the flour. Experiment away!

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins - yield 12 muffins

~ adapted from the Creme De Colorado Cookbook

• 1/2 cup butter, softened (can use 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce)
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour (can use 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3 medium ripe bananas, mashed
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to  350 degrees.

Cream together butter and brown sugar. Add eggs and vanilla, mix well. Add flour, salt, and baking powder and mix just until combined. Add bananas and mix until batter is smooth. Fold in chocolate chips.

Spoon batter into greased muffin tins (I haven’t had success with paper liners, they really seem to stick to this recipe).

Bake for 30 – 40 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan for 5 minutes then invert pan and finish cooling muffins on a wire rack.

** One tip for accumulating enough bananas is to freeze them. We often have 1 or 2 bananas that get a little overripe.  Just chuck them into the freezer, peel and all. Yes, they will turn deep dark black and  look gross. It is FINE, trust me! Then once you have enough to make the recipe with (6 for me because I always double it), take them out of the freezer a half hour or so before you want to begin baking. Once defrosted a bit cut a slit in the side of each banana lengthwise and then rip off the peel. It may shred a little as you peel but it will come off pretty easily. Proceed as normal with the recipe from this point.

Enjoy!

Have  you ever tried green garlic? I had never even heard of green garlic until I started getting it in my CSA box. I love garlic and it’s appalling I was missing out on something so amazing as green garlic.

What is it? Green garlic is simply immature garlic and looks similar to a scallion or green onion with a purple tinge near the root end. It tastes like garlic but with a much milder flavor. It is usually only available in the spring and is all over the farmer’s markets at this time of year. I did see it at Whole Foods the other day when I was there as well.

I use green garlic in all sort of things at this time of year but my favorite is Green Garlic Dressing. It is simple to whip up in a food processor. I love it in a green salad or better yet a pasta salad. So good!  Isn’t it a lovely light green color?

Green Garlic Dressing:

• 1-3 stems of green garlic (Depends on how strong you want the garlic flavor to be. I use 3 for pasta salad, 2 for dressing)
• 1/3 cup rice vinegar
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1-2 tablespoons honey (I use one to start, taste and then add more if it needs it. I usually end up closer to 2.)
• salt & pepper to taste

Add all ingredients to a food processor or blender and process until combined. Taste and adjust sweetness and seasoning to your taste. Enjoy!

This batch of dressing went in to a fabulous Israeli couscous salad. I cooked 2 cups of couscous according to package directions. Added a chopped large tomato, 1/2 a chopped red bell pepper, and 1/3 of a bag of spinach sliced thinly, along with all of the dressing. It was a great side for dinner and main for lunch the next day!

Do you read David Lebovitz’s blog? If not, you should!

I made his whole lemon bars last night and they are amazing! Definitely the best lemon bars I’ve ever had.

I got a vegetable mystery box from my CSA on Thursday and picked up a bag of organic lemons they were offering as well.

When David Lebovitz  posted the lemon bars recipe the same day, I knew it was fate that I make them.

His recipe is perfect as is, I made no adjustments. If you want to make them too, go to David’s post for the recipe: Whole Lemon Bars

My friend Maura made these at my suggestion and found them to be too bitter after using the whole lemon (pith included). I would just suggest not to use a lemon with too thick of a rind on it. The one I used was fairly thin skinned. The thickness on individual lemons can really vary. If you have a thick one, just use the zest and pulp of the lemon and discard most of the pith.

Enjoy!

This is the easiest recipe I have posted so far! It is amazing how delicious and flavorful these shrimp are with such simple ingredients.

My inspiration for this recipe came from my mom and a co-worker.

When is was a teenager my mom made blackened shrimp swimming in a saucepan of butter and seafood magic spice. They were great but necessarily an occasional treat.

Then a co-worker was telling me how his wife used rosemary branches AS the skewers for shrimp and grilled them.  I thought that was brilliant.

I made the grilled shrimp with rosemary as the skewer and thought they were great; but it occurred to me that the Cajun shrimp my mom made and the rosemary could work together to be AMAZING! I was right.

So. These shrimp are super easy and amazingly delicious for the effort; which is almost nothing. You can serve them as an appetizer course or as a main.

You will be surprised how easy they are. First take the 4 ingredients: Shrimp, melted butter, Fresh Rosemary Branches, Chef Paul Seafood Magic Spice.

Next, remove 1/2 of the leaves of rosemary and reserve for another use. This makes it easier to thread the shrimp onto the “skewer” and also makes sure you aren’t overwhelmed with rosemary taste.

Set aside extra rosemary leaves for another use. (Suggestion at the end of post).

Thread the shrimp onto the rosemary branches. I do 2 to 3 shrimp per branch.

Next, brush the prepared skewers with melted butter and sprinkle with the seasoning magic seasoning. Place prepared skewers onto hot grill seasoning side down and grill 3 minutes. Brush shrimp with melted butter and seasoning. Flip and grill another 3 minutes.

Be sure not to overcook shrimp, it cooks very quickly and needs only a few minutes each side. Serve immediately.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 2 Tbsp melted butter
• 1 bunch fresh Rosemary
• Chef Paul’s Seafood Magic Seasoning or any Cajun spice

Directions:

Wash Rosemary well. If using outdoor grill soak rosemary branches for 10 minutes in water ( this will help them to not catch fire or scorch).

Take rosemary branches and remove the leaves from 1 side of each branch. Take shrimp and thread them on rosemary branch. Start at the bottom of each branch so that the shrimp threads in the same direction as the leaves. Depending on length of branches do 2 to 3 shrimp per branch.

Brush skewers with melted butter. Sprinkle skewers with Cajun Spice.

Heat indoor grill to high heat or non-stick saute pan to medium high heat. Place skewers on grill or pan; seasoning side down. Brush tops with more melted butter and sprinkle with more Cajun spices.

Cook for 3 minutes. Flip and grill 2-3 minutes until done. Be careful not to overcook, shrimp cooks very quickly and gets rubbery if you cook it too long.

Serve immediately as a warm appetizer or main course.

** Want an idea what to do with the leftover rosemary? I used the reserved rosemary in Pioneer Woman’s Crash Hot Potatoes as a side dish.

Not the best picture of the potatoes but they are fantastic. The burnt looking bit at the bottom is not, I just used tri-color potatoes and those are the blue potatoes. Those blue potatoes were actually the tastiest potatoes of all. Enjoy!

Ooh boy did these ribs turn out great! I got a pressure cooker for Christmas and have been experimenting with it. Cooking Light magazine had an interesting article on them in the fall that intrigued us.

Matt was craving BBQ the other night and I remembered that there was a spareribs recipe included with my new pressure cooker set so I decided to give it a try. It was an asian ribs recipe though so I just used it for a timing guideline and went my own direction.

The Whiskey BBQ glaze recipe is originally from the Jack Daniel’s website. I didn’t have Jack on hand though so I used a Knob Creek Whiskey that Matt had in the liquor cabinet. I also used less sugar than the Jack recipe did and it was still pretty sweet. The full cup of sugar would have been too much for us for sure. Next time I will add some cayenne to the sauce to give it a little kick. If you try it with the cayenne, let me know how it goes!

Regardless of whether you have a pressure cooker, the sauce is worth making. It was really delicious. I’m sure you could roast the ribs in the sauce in the oven as well. I’d just throw them in a covered casserole at 300 degrees for a few hours and check to see if they are tender.

Whiskey BBQ Sauce:

½ cup Whiskey

½ cup soy sauce

½ cup ketchup

3/4 cup brown sugar (up to 1 cup if you want a really sweet sauce)

1 teaspoon garlic powder

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan. Simmer until slightly thickened, 5-10 minutes.

Country Style Pork Ribs:

4 pounds country style pork ribs

2 Tablespoons Vegetable oil

2/3 recipe Whiskey BBQ Sauce

Place oil in large pressure cooker over medium-high heat. Brown ribs on all sides in batches. I did 4 at a time. Once browned remove to a plate and proceed with new batch until  all are browned.

Pour out oil and wipe with a paper towel.

Place layer of ribs on bottom of pressure cooker. Cover with sauce. Add the rest of the ribs and cover with sauce. Reserve 1/3 of the sauce recipe for serving with the cooked ribs.

Place pressure cooker on stovetop over high heat. Tighten lid and set pressure setting to high pressure. Watch carefully and when indicator shows full pressure reduce heat to medium and start timing. Cook for 25 minutes at high pressure making sure that you don’t reduce the heat too much and lose pressure. Some steam should be coming out of the release and the indicator should stay up.

Remove from heat and use natural release method for the pressure. That basically just means set the pan aside and let the pressure subside over time. It will take 15 minutes or so and the ribs will continue cooking.

Open cooker and serve ribs with extra sauce on the side. The ribs will be fall of the bone tender with only 25 minutes of cooking. Time from raw to ready for dinner was only 1 hour including the browning and pressure release time. Amazing!

If you are interested here is the set that I bought: