Day at the farm♥♥♥♥

Today was the annual Farm Day at Plato's Harvest Organic Farm  What is Farm day you ask? It is the day where Farmer Dave & his wife, Sasha organize a family fun day  right there on the farm complete with food, music, hayrides and of course the stars of the show, Plato & Einstein...and all of their animal friends.

It was a potluck.. so I decided to make this Edammame & white bean salad   Once I had made it, I felt like it wasn't enough.... hindsight, I should have doubled it form the start. Unfortunately I did not have any more edamamme.. or cannelloni beans. So I improvised. I added a can of Chick peas, rinsed & drained and Black Beans, rinsed & drained. I also doubled the dressing since I was adding more legumes..

the result...

delicious!!  The pic doesn't do it justice.. I was running late ( as usual.. where DOES the time go?) and took a quick shot once it was packaged to go. I was  disappointed that I had to add the extra beans, because I love the gentle flavors of the edamamme & cannelloni beans together with the rosemary & garlic oil, but when I went to grab the container at the end of the party, it was empty, so obviously, there weren't any complaints.


*note to self* Tj's trip this week.... you are out of edamamme....

Some pics from the day..

Farmer Dave Playing with Plato & Einstein

getting ready for the hayride

 wonderful music courtesy of the Lindsays

Hungry little fellows...

Grapes!!!

Scott & I picked some in hopes to be able to make some jam..

we weren't able to enough because they were too high for us short folk, but we did stop & buy some organic California grown grapes on the way home to add, so hopefully jam will be in  our future ;)

Now we are home, I have a small batch of Sauce simmering on the stove.... a chocolate zucchini bread in the oven.... this time I tried in in a bundt pan.... I'll let you know how it turns out  ;)

and all is well in the world....... time for a glass of wine and some burgers on the grill on my last night of summer... in my kids' eyes.... Ali ( my youngest) starts her Sophomore year of high school on Tuesday, so this is her last night of summer :(   boy did that go fast!!!!

I'm not just talking about the summer ......

nighty night!!

oxoxo

eggplant rollatini

I've been waiting very patiently to make this dish.  I first had it sometime in the 90's all deep-fried & yummy...  I've made a bit of a lightened version of it....

I used Asian eggplant..  You can skip the whole 'salt to remove bitterness' step if you do :)

Start by slicing the eggplant about 1/4 in ch thick the long way

I saved the 'end pieces' ( the part that was all skin) for another dish.  Drizzle the eggplant slices with some olive oil & salt & pepper. The eggplant will act like a sponge    so don't be afraid to add more oil if needed.. 

♥♥♥♥(it's heart healthy)♥♥♥♥

Preheat a grill pan or grill

When grill is good & hot, place the eggplant at an angle on the grill.

let it develop grill marks for a minute then ( don't flip) using tongs Gently move so that the eggplant is angled the opposite way.

( I lost some of the pictures that I took of this somehow , I will try to describe the best that I can..)

*the top eggplant is the first angel that I used, then I turned it so that it is facing the direction that the bottom 2 are.

When you then flip it ( as I have, you will have these very pretty grill marks) *


When all of the eggplant are grilled, set them up like little soldiers to get ready to be filled.. (prettiest side down.. that will end up being the top)

ugh.. the other lost photos were of the filling.

I invite you to use your imagination...

I had about a cup of part-skim ricotta
1/3 cup crumbled goat cheese
1 egg
salt & pepper
crushed garlic cloves (crush with the side of a knife..)  this insures that garlic flavor will be throughout the filling without anyone biting straight into a chunk of garlic..

Then, start assembling

Lay some fresh basil leaves a top of your eggplant

then top with sun-dried tomatoes.. ( I used a different brand than I normally do.. they are as pretty and red as I'm used to, but they still tasted good )

next, the imaginary cheese filling

roll each eggplant up & place in a baking dish lined with some Marinara Sauce

top with more sauce & shred some parmesan cheese on top

bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes  then top with a drizzle of olive oil & a drizzle of balsamic vinegar

YUM!'

I served this with a simple tomato& cumber salad..

I used the same idea as Caprese Towers

I just layered an heirloom tomato with a lemon boy cucumber

I grew these just for fun this year....  You can used whatever cuke you like, just peel it first ;)

top with some shredded basil, a diced red onion, salt, Pepper, EVOO & balsamic vinegar...

enjoy!


on another note... is there something that you would like to have a recipe for?  Something that you would like to see me make? I do have a lot of ideas on my own but  I'm open to suggestions....  I love a challenge..

thanks for reading :)


~oxoox ~shel

Panzanella salad

Let's start with what we received from this weeks's share of our CSA from Plato's Harvest Organic Farm.

new this week were green peppers, scallions & asian eggplant

AND.. we were able to pick the gladiola!!!

oops.... here they are..

and in our bread share??? Stuffed garlic bread!! OH. Yeah.

And now, my favorite recipe of the week~

Panzanella.

 Funny word, eh?  When I first heard this I conjured up visions of brightly colored flamingo dancers. ( I have a wild imagination)

Panzanella is an Italian bread salad.  What, bread, in a salad? Oh, yeah. Trust me. 

I based my recipe on Ina Garten's Panzanella, but I did make changes, basically because I was trying to work with what I had.

I started by cubing the bread (day -old bread.. if you don't have any, you can buy day old bread usually for half price in the bakery section of your grocery store~ use something rustic :)) & sautéing in in olive oil over medium heat...(don't be afraid to add more olive oil while sautéing, you want the cubes to develop a crust)  seasoning with salt & pepper. Let cool.

There are many recipes out there, and not all of them have you saute the bread, but I find that the little scrumdilicious crust that it makes helps keep the bread form getting soggy.

In a large bowl, I added

a pint of assorted cherry tomatoes, halved

a few cucumbers, cubed

a red onion, cubed

1/2 yellow onion, diced

1/2 of a jalapeno, diced  ( I made this last week, prior to bell peppers, if you don;t like the bit on heat, feel free to omit)

I seasoned this all with salt & pepper

what's great about Panzanella is that you really could add whatever veggies ( that you would eat raw) that you happened to have on hand :)

I made a dressing of :

1 small garlic clove, minced

1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard

3 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 cup Extra-Virgin Olive oil

Kosher salt & Freshly ground pepper

you can make this in a bowl by mixing everything except for the olive oil together then slowly stream the olive oil in, whisking vigorously..

You can put all of the ingredients in a blender & whirl away..

or if you happen to have an immersion blender with one of those little mini food processor thingys.. well that works just perfectly.

this is an amazing little invention. Clearly on of my favorite kitchen gadgets.

salad dressing yumminess!

what I especially love is that I usually tend to not use all of the dressing in a recipe, (calorie-counitng & all) ~ so I just pop the top on & save it in the fridge right in it's own container :)

Ok...back to the salad...

You can also make this dish ahead of time, keeping the dressing, the veggies & the bread separate until about 1/2 hour before serving.

at which time, simply toss them all together,( I use half of the dressing to start, then add more as needed) add a few tablespoons of capers, and some shredded basil leaves & a grating of lemon zest.

Let sit for about 30 minutes..

Now because I am a cheese NUT, I crumbled some ricotta salata over top. You could really add whatever cheese that you'd like, feta, goat cheese, even cheddar. Or, you could just omit it.

I LOVED this dish. I served it with grilled steak tips and it went so well together. My only complaint about it was that went I went up for seconds, it was all gone :(

Lucky for me, I just *happen* to have all of the ingredients on hand to make it again today :)

enjoy!
xoxoxo

Quinoa & gazpacho.. yum!!

It's feeling like summer!!!   Here is the board stating what we receive at the CSA!!!

We've had quite the heat-wave here in the Northeast... This kind of unbearable heat calls for some chilled foods, in my opinion..

with all of the yummy veggies & herbs, I set out to create!!

The first recipe that I made was Quinoa Tabboouleh.
Quinoa is an ancient grain that is an excellent source of protein. Click here to learn more about quinoa. If you haven't had quinoa before, I urge you to give it a try.

Here is the recipe ;)

1 cup quinoa
leaves from 1 or 2 bunches of parsley; minced
4-5 scallions; minced
1/4 cup mint leaves; minced
zest & juice of 1 lemon
1 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1 cucumber; seeded & minced
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Rinse quinoa well under cold water. Bring water to boil in a saucepan & add salt. Add quinoa. boil for about 15 minutes then drain & cool.
Combine all ingredients in a bowl & chill.

enjoy!

My mom came over for the 4th of July &  brought gazpacho that she had made. It was delicious! This is the recipe that she used.

I went to make it later in the week & was missing some ingredients. Since I still can't drive, I had to improvise, so here is what I used.

1 28-ounce can whole plum tomatoes with their juices
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 red bell pepper; roughly chopped
1/2 cup celery; roughly chopped
2 small cucumbers, roughly chopped ( these were the first of the season form Plato's Harvest... so)
delicious!!)
1/2 red onion; roughly chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded & chopped
2 garlic cloves ( fresh from the farm they were amazing!)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
Fresh basil & parsley.

I put everything except the basil & parsley in the blender & blended until it was almost pureed ( I like mine a little bit chunky, if you prefer it smooth then completely puree.

I added the basil & parsley & pulsed just to chop it up a bit.
I chilled it for a few hours.
It came out great. Both recipes were very tasty.

I had it with a dollop of fat free Greek yogurt, a squeeze of lemon juice & some fresh cilantro. I ate this for lunch all week. It was a great way to stay cool... and of course, eat my veggies!!

I have many more recipes that I  will be posting soon... stayed tuned!

I'm still a week behind, but I'm about to catch up ;)