GREEN BEAN POTATO SALAD

Friends know how much I enjoy cooking and are always sending me links to recipes. Recently a friend was cleaning out her kitchen in anticipation of a move and gave me a box of cookbooks. Score! I was especially interested in this 1997 cookbook focusing on using produce from the local farmers’ markets.

 

Filled with great ideas!

I had a small bag of green beans in the refrigerator that I needed to use, so I zeroed in on a recipe for a cold green bean potato salad. It sounded like something we’d like on these hot summer days!

WHAT YOU NEED:

1 lb. green beans, cut and steamed

4 large potatoes, diced and boiled

2 scallions

 DRESSING:

2 Tbl. oil

2 Tbl. vinegar

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 small onion, sliced

½ tsp. oregano

Pepper to taste

 WHAT YOU DO:

Prepare the dressing first so the ingredients have time to blend together. I put everything in a jar and shook it up.

dressing ingredients

Wash and de-stem green beans. Since my bag was just under half of a pound, I halved the recipe which worked out nicely.

just under half of a pound

Break into small bite-size pieces and steam. I used a microwave steamer; you could steam on the stove-top in a covered skillet with a little bit of water. Don’t over-steam the green beans; you don’t want a mushy mess!

a microwave steamer basket

Chop the potatoes. My fruit/vegetable chopper made quick work of this task and gave me uniform pieces which makes for even boiling.

a handy kitchen tool!

When tender, drain potatoes. Chop the scallions and combine with the green beans and potatoes in a medium bowl.

Combine potatoes, green beans, and scallions.

Add the dressing and toss gently to mix the ingredients well.

Cover the salad and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Cold green bean potato salad!

This is definitely a twist on potato salad! The dressing with oregano gives it an Italian flavor. I don’t think it will replace my regular mayo-rich potato salad, but it is a nice way to use up a small dab of green beans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read Full Post »

Slow-Cooker Sausage and Kale Stew

I’m having so much fun trying out new ways to use our CSA kale! Once again, Real Simple magazine came to my rescue with a slow-cooker recipe. The full recipe name is: Slow-Cooker Sausage and Kale Stew With Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes. Any time I can just chop and throw ingredients into a crock pot and walk away for several hours, I am a fan! Let’s get started!

WHAT YOU NEED:

1 pound sweet Italian sausage links, casings removed and broken into pieces
1 large onion, chopped
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 cloves garlic, chopped
kosher salt and black pepper
2 large russet potatoes (about 1 pound)
1 small bunch kale, stems discarded and leaves torn (about 7 cups)
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup olive oil, plus more for serving

WHAT YOU DO:

Wash kale and tear into small pieces or roughly chop and set aside. It will be added to the crock pot last. I used the entire bag of kale; it was about 8 cups or so of chopped kale. I figured if the stew was too thick, I could always add more water or broth.

Remove casing from sausage and break apart. Put into crock pot.

Remove casings and chop.

Chop onion and garlic and add to crock pot along with the tomatoes and their juices, tomato paste, garlic, 1 cup water, and ¾ teaspoon each salt and pepper. Stir to combine.

Peel the potatoes and then nestle in the liquid.

Potatoes: peeled and nestled!

Top with the kale.

Top with chopped kale.

At this point, I realized my crock pot was too small! I had to really pack the kale in there, so I transferred everything to a larger crock pot. It was still very full!

Full to the brim!

Cover and cook until the potatoes are tender, on low for 7 to 8 hours or on high for 4 to 5 hours. I set mine to high, and after two hours, I checked to make sure the kale was cooking down. It was, and I stirred to mix the ingredients and pushed the kale down into the liquid, making sure the potatoes stayed on top so they wouldn’t get too mushy.

Cooking down nicely!

At the end of 4 hours, I checked the potatoes for doneness. They were! I removed them from the crock pot into a medium bowl and mashed them with milk, oil, and ½ teaspoon each salt and pepper. I used just a drizzle of olive oil, though, rather than the stated half cup.

Mashed potatoes!

Serve the stew topped with the mashed potatoes. Drizzle with more olive oil, if desired.

Comfort food on a cold autumn day!

Here’s a Time-Saver Tip! To make the morning less hectic, prep this the night before: Combine everything but the sausage and kale in the slow cooker and refrigerate, covered. In the morning, just add the sausage, top with the kale, and start stewing.

Read Full Post »

Baked Eggs with CSA veggies

I saw this idea of baked eggs recently and knew our family would love it! We love omelets, and my husband it quite skilled at cooking them oh-so slowly, and folding them just right. I’m not so good. But this baked eggs recipe is great for those of us with a little less skill – plus, you can still keep your runny egg yolks (if you like them that way – and we do!). I think it would be great fun to get a set of ramekins so that everyone can prepare their own eggs and then you can bake them all at once. You can’t do that with omelets either!

It’s also a great recipe for your CSA box. You can add almost anything here: tomatoes, potatoes, kale, parsley, turnips, basil, leeks, bacon or sausage. I’m hungry already! Unfortunately, I didn’t have bacon ready – but that would definitely improve this recipe!

Also, unfortunately – my eggs aren’t nearly as pretty as the baked eggs here. Oh, but they could be! In the pictures below, I used a medium size pyrex dish, and filled it with enough for two people. But, I plan to get 4 single serving ramekins (Ducks, anyone?) – to make those pretty servings (and fewer dishes to wash)!

The recipe below is what I used. Feel free to mix it up, but follow the steps below for the general idea!

Ingredients (for 2 servings)

• 1-2 TBSP butter
• 4 eggs
• 1 tomato sliced
• 1 leaf kale, chopped into small pieces
• 2 small potatoes, sliced thinly
• 1 small turnip, diced thinly
• about 2 TBSP chopped fresh parsley
• parmesan cheese
• the green tops of leeks, sliced
• salt and pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. While the oven is warming, you can set your dishes inside with a little butter to melt the butter. (Just don’t forget to take them out before the butter burns!)

2. Chop vegetables. Any vegetables that are firm can be sauteed first so they will be tender after baking. I sauteed my potato, kale and turnip.

3. Add eggs to buttered dish. Lay in the tomatoes. Add sauteed vegetables. (Add and any cooked meats that you want to use now, too.) Top with cheese, parsley, onions, salt and pepper.

4. Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes or until the whites are firm. If you don’t like runny yolks, bake them a little longer. Serve immediately!

Read Full Post »

Cheesy Kale and Potato Piroshkis

I seem to be on an eastern European kick, so I thought I’d share this piroshki recipe that I love. This is a little more involved that most recipes, since you have to make bread – however, they turn out neat and fun to eat. So I usually double the recipe and make a bunch of different kinds. They freeze well, and then you can warm them up for lunches at work, or take them on a picnic.

For the dough in this recipe, I used the olive oil dough from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I love this book and this method of bread making because it is so easy to do on a daily basis. However, I don’t want you to have to buy the book to try this recipe! Really you can use any yeast dough recipe here – let it rise, then roll out the dough, cut cirlces and fill them, then bake. If you’re saying, “thanks, but give me a dough recipe,” try this one.

The fillings are quite versatile as well. Traditionally, piroshki can be savory or sweet. In this recipe, you could easily replace the potatoes with sweet potatoes or even winter squash with a similar result. This recipe will fill about 6-5″ pockets, so if you have extra dough leftover, fill them with apples and cinammon and sugar, or chocolate and strawberries, or jam to make a little dessert. When making more than one kind of piroshki, I like to sprinkle a little something on top to tell the different kinds apart.

Ingredients

• yeast dough
• 2 potatoes
• 1 TBSP butter
• 1/2 cup diced onions
• 1 TBSP minced garlic
• 2 cups chopped kale with stems removed
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese, plus more
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Prepare yeast dough and let rise.

2. Meanwhile, peel and dice two potatoes. Boil until tender, drain, and mash.

3. Sautee butter, onion, garlic over medium heat. When onions are translucent, add kale and sautee another 2 minutes.

4. Add mashed potatoes and cheese to kale mixture and set aside.

5. Punch down yeast dough and roll  to about 1/2″ thick. Cut into circles. (I used our soup bowls to cut into large 5″ circles. You can make smaller circles with biscuit cutters if you prefer).

6. Put filling on half of the circle, leaving the outer edge open. Dab water along the outer edge of the filled half. The water will help seal the dough. Fold the circle in half and smash the outer edge down with a fork (dip it in flour, so it doesn’t stick) as you would a pie crust. Repeat until all filling is used.

7.Brush tops with water to help them brown, and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Add cheese to tops of piroshi and bake for another 5-10 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bread is nicely browned.

8. Serve warm or let cool and serve later. Freeze them for up to two months, or keep in the refrigerator for 1 week.

Read Full Post »

Borscht

Although my husband has a special love of Russian culture after a Russian Literature course he took in college – he informed me that he tried borscht, and he really didn’t like it. But after looking at the list of ingredients, I just didn’t buy it – I mean it’s basically beef stew! So we gave it another try, and it turned out so well – we were both glad we did!

This recipe is for a small pot, to accomodate the amount of beets you may have in your CSA box. It’s not overwhelmingly beet-y, so don’t worry – I think you’ll like it.

Ingredients

•  4 cups broth
• 2 cups water
• .75-1 lb steak, thawed and cut into cubes
• 1 large onion quartered
• 2 carrots chopped
• 2 beets, peeled and chopped
• 1 potato, peeled and diced
• 1 cup cabbage sliced
• 1 tsp dill
• 1.5 tbsp red wine vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste
• sour cream

1. Add the broth, water, steak and onions to a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until meat is fully cooked and tender (about 30 minutes)

2. Add beets, carrots, potato, and continue to simmer until vegetables tender (about 30 minutes).

3. Finally, stir in the cabbage and dill, and simmer for another 15 minutes or until the cabbage is tender. Add the vinegar and season with salt and pepper.

4. Ladle into bowls, and don’t forget to serve it with sour cream!

Read Full Post »

Turnips and Potatoes Au Gratin

These veggies, with a hint of nutmeg and warm cheese, make an excellent Thanksgiving recipe. You can easily double (or triple) the recipe if you’re feeding a big family. Plus, it can be prepared ahead of time and warmed up on the big day. What more could you want from a Thanksgiving side dish? Fresh, local turnips, of course!

Ingredients

• 2 large or 3 medium potatoes
• 1 turnip
• 2 TBSPs butter
• 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese, divided
• Pinch of ground nutmeg

Wash the potatoes and turnips, and peel if desired. I left the skins on. Chop the tip and the tops off of the turnip, and remove any eyes from the potatoes. Cut the vegetables into quarters.

Put the vegetables in a pot, and cover them with water. Bring the water to a boil, and boil for 10 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender. Drain the water. I used a small 4-cup food processor to blend the remaining ingredients. If you don’t have a food processor you can mash them, but it will be lumpier.

Puree the turnips and potatoes in a food processer until smooth. Add 1/4 cup cheese and a pinch of nutmeg and blend again.

Spread the mixture into a casserole dish and top with the remaining cheese.

If you’re preparing this dish ahead of time, you can put it in the refrigerator now, and resume when you’re ready to eat. Bake in a 425 degree oven until the top is golden and crispy, about 25 minutes.

 

 

Read Full Post »