From the big picture, clockwise: sugar snap peas, green leaf lettuce, beets, collard greens, red leaf lettuce, one little bitty zucchini, scallions, and rainbow chard

Happy Independence Day, everyone!

Recipe is straight out of the Joy of Cooking.

The rainbow chard was sautéed with garlic and olive oil and dressed with vinegar. The cous cous was plain. The salmon was amazing.

The salmon recipe is from Life’s Ambrosia. The only change I made was to use dill instead of basil, since that what I had on hand.

This week's haul: beets, broccoli, garlic scapes, daikon, rainbow chard, scallions, and a huge bok choy (not pictured).

Have I mentioned how much I love my community garden?

It’s such a peaceful place – a quiet piece of Eden in a busy, busy corner of Missoula.

I pick up our share on Monday afternoons after I leave work, and despite knowing my destination is one of my favorite places, I always quietly dread the drive.

Normally, I surpass the bumper-to-bumper traffic on Missoula’s famously congested Reserve Street by hopping on the interstate and taking a less-direct, but quicker, route home.

On Mondays, though, I must face the beast that is Reserve head-on. There’s no other way to get to the garden from my workplace because there are only so many bridges that cross the Clark Fork.

I breathe deeply and listen to music on the way, trying not to care about how much gas I’m wasting (this worry is of course directly tied to my guilt about my dependency on my car and the Gulf Oil Spill) in the barely crawling traffic, or the oppressive 90-degree heat that makes my car’s less-than-perfect air conditioning system work, feebly, on overdrive. I smile at other drivers, I sing along, loudly and badly, to the radio, I wave people ahead of me, I try to notice some sort of nature (birds, a bit of greenery) in the concrete jungle.

I do all of these things, and my hands are still tense on the steering wheel by the time I get to my turn off, the aptly named River Road, where pavement gives way to lawns and gardens and fields and forests. Within moments, I’m at the garden, and my tension slips away.

Inside the cool, shaded barn, the week’s produce is arranged on a table, and everyone’s share is listed on a white board. The garden manager, Sarah, greets everyone with a smile and is always open to questions of “What exactly, is this?” or “How do you recommend cooking that?”

Later in the summer, I’ll go out into the garden to clip flowers, and I’ll be astounded at how the noise from Reserve, which borders the garden, is muted, and instead the buzz of bees and chatter of garden helpers and tenders only occasionally breaks the peaceful silence of growing.

I hoard these moments – these quiet moments of community and connection to the Earth – so I can survive those hours on Reserve.

Yesterday afternoon, I was craving crab cakes. I know that’s a weird thing to crave, but man, I wanted some crispy-crabby goodness. Specifically, I was craving the crab cakes from Ole Bob’s Seafood Market in Ilwaco, WA.

Mac, the yellow dog, and I spent five glorious, if rainy, nights on the Long Beach Peninsula this spring, and every afternoon we’d truck down to Ole Bob’s to pick up dinner fixings. On our third night, we picked up their pre-made crab cakes, then fried them up in our comfy little cottage and ate them on a bed of mixed greens with marinated tomatoes and Ole Bobs’ own roasted red pepper dressing. It was an amazing meal.

So amazing, we brought a tub of the frozen crab cakes home with us, packed carefully in a cooler full of ice to survive the journey.

Despite our best efforts, they defrosted on the way home. Which meant (oh, darn) that we just had to eat crab cakes again, this time in the cozy kitchen of the little house. While this:

wasn’t just outside our door, it was still an amazing meal.

So these aren’t the crab cakes from Ole Bob’s, and they’re not homemade, either. Instead, they’re store-bought crab cakes, but they were delicious. I served them on a bed of mustard greens from our CSA tossed with olive oil and fresh lemon juice, with tomatoes and tzatziki.

The savory crab cakes with the crispy layer of panko bread crumbs certainly satisfied my craving – but I’m still planning our next trip to the Washington Coast.

Look at those beautiful yellow-eye beans!

There were a lot of options for these beans, but the rainy weather had me craving something comforting, so I went with a traditional soup, specifically:

Famous Senate Restaurant Bean Soup

2 pounds dried navy beans (I used yellow-eye)
four quarts hot water
1 1/2 pounds smoked ham hocks
1 onion, chopped
2 tablespoons butter
salt and pepper to taste

1. Wash the beans and run hot water through them until they are slightly whitened. Place beans into pot with hot water. ‘
2. Add ham hocks and simmer approximately three hours in a covered pot, stirring occasionally.
3. Remove ham hocks and set aside to cool. Dice meat and return to soup.
4. Lightly brown the onion in butter. Add to soup.
5. Before serving, bring to a boil and season with salt and pepper.

I quartered the recipe since we only had 1 cup of beans, but I ended up using about 2 quarts of water, and I added in some extra chopped ham. For extra nutrition and flavor (and let’s be honest, I’m trying to clear out the fridge of all these delicous, but space-consuming, greens), I stirred in about 1/2 pound (3 cups maybe?) of chopped fresh spinach right before serving. The quartered recipe made four generous bowls.

This is what it looked like. Please forgive the awful picture. Soup is perhaps the most non-photogenic of all the food subjects.

There isn’t a recipe here for the bangers and mash. I used leftover bratwurst sausages for the bangers, and made basic mashed potatoes. I folded in some sour cream and raw chopped scallion into the potatoes after mashing for a little something extra. The pan milk gravy was made from bacon drippings, and was heavily spiked with everything in my fridge (horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, spicy mustard, Beef Better than Bouillon, Tabasco, pepper) to give it some depth of flavor .

For the collard greens, I sautéed minced garlic in olive oil, added the greens and salt and pepper, gave everything a good toss, then turned the burner to low, added a drizzle of red wine vinegar, and covered them for about two minutes. They turned out perfect.

Next up: a simple bean soup with spinach.

I love CSA season.

The longest day of the year is one of my favorite days, but I always feel melancholy as the daylight fades. Every year, I feel the need to spend the day making the most of the sunshine, but the day slips away, and before I know it, it’s dark. And, from today on, the days get shorter – before summer’s even begun, really.

So far, it hasn’t really felt like summer here in the Garden City. This month over three inches of rain have fallen in the area – normally we get under one inch in all of June!

Each day that I’ve awoken to rain pattering on the windows, I’ve not despaired though, because I knew the rain was working it’s magic on the gardens in Missoula – including our community garden. Today, on solstice, I was rewarded for my grudging patience with the rain with this bounty of green:

Lucky us!

Today’s pickup included collard greens, mustard greens, scallions, red leaf lettuce, spinach, radishes, bok choy, and a cup of dried yellow eye beans.

Mac filched the radishes as soon as this picture was taken, and both of us munched on spinach as we carried the goods into the kitchen. We made quick use of the scallions and collard greens at dinner (recipe and pictures tomorrow) and I have vague plans for the rest of the greens and beans throughout the week.

As I write this, the longest day of the year is coming to a close. I know the rains will fade, and the sun will shine, and the golden days of summer, full of juicy, ripe tomatoes and fuzzy peaches and sweet corn are still to come. Still, I feel melancholy. But I also feel full, and glad, and fortunate for the bounty we’ll receive this summer.

This isn’t the healthiest French toast recipe out there.

But, it’s delicious, and it’s a great breakfast for a lazy Saturday morning.

The Best French Toast

4 slices wheat bread
4 jumbo eggs
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp butter, divided into 8 equal pieces
8 large strawberries, sliced
1 tbsp sugar

1. Combine the eggs, cream, vanilla, and cinnamon. Beat with a fork until smooth.
2. Combine the sliced strawberries and sugar.
3. Heat a griddle on medium-low.
4. Using tongs, dredge each slice of bread in the egg mixture, letting it soak about 30 seconds on each side. Remove to plate.
5. Heat the oven to warm or 250-degrees. Put two plates in the oven to warm.
6. Add one piece of butter to the griddle for each slice of bread that will fit. (I did two at a time.)
7. Cook the bread 2-3 minutes a side, until golden brown. Remove the cooked pieces to the warmed oven, add a pat of butter to the top of each.
8. Once all the pieces have cooked, remove the plates from the oven (carefully), and top each slice with 1/4 of the strawberries. Dust with powdered sugar and serve immediately.

The recipe is also posted at Livestrong’s MyPlate, the site I use to track my daily calorie intake.

What? Oh yeah. The whole calorie thing. Blame this lady.

This ziti is one of my favorite dinners. The layers of fresh basil, pasta, tomatoes and spicy italian sausage and three cheeses; ricotta; Parmesan; and fresh mozzarella melt together into a gooey, satisfying, compulsively edible conglomerate. Pair a dish of this creamy, tomato-ey pasta with a caesar salad, crusty bread and a glass of wine and you have the perfect comfort food dinner.

Baked Ziti

Makes two medium baking dishes or one really large baking dish, about 12 servings

1 pound ziti or penne pasta
Olive Oil
1 pound Italian sausage
4 tbsp tomato paste
Red Pepper Flakes
2 14.5-oz cans tomato sauce
1 14.5-oz can diced tomatoes
8-oz cream cheese, room temperature
16-oz ricotta
1 1/2 cups shredded Parmesan cheese
8-oz fresh mozzarella, shredded
Italian Seasoning
Fresh Basil, chiffonade(d)
Salt & Pepper

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil for the pasta. Salt the water and boil the pasta until quite al dente. We’re going to bake the pasta, so we don’t want it to be overdone. Drain and set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
3. In a large saute pan or dutch oven, heat a drizzle of olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the Italian sausage and cook until browned. Drain off fat if needed.
4. Add tomato paste and red pepper flakes and cook for one minute.
5. Add the tomato sauce and diced tomatoes, stir to combine. Season with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning to taste. Turn the heat to low. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally.
6. Mix the cream cheese, ricotta cheese, and half of the Parmesan together until well combined. Salt and pepper to taste.
7. To assemble the ziti, coat the bottom of your baking dishes with a scant layer of the tomato and sausage sauce. Follow up with 1/4 of the cooked pasta, then 1/4 of the ricotta mixture. Sprinkle 1/4 of the fresh mozzarella, and 1/4 of the basil. Repeat with another layer of tomato sauce, then the pasta, ricotta and basil. Sprinkle with mozzarella. Repeat in the second dish.
8. Cover the dishes, and bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Then, uncover and cook 10 to 15 minutes or until brown and bubbly. Let stand about 10 minutes before dishing up.

I promised myself when I started this blog I wouldn’t post any I’m-sorry-I-haven’t-updated-in-two-months posts, but …

I’m sorry I haven’t posted in two months.

Things have happened since August 17th.

Here’s a list of ten:

1. School started. Now I’m halfway through the semester, and two-and-a-half semesters away from graduating … except for a pesky internship, but I’ll cross that bridge … you know.
2. Mac and I made our annual trip to Plains, Montana for the Fair and Demolition Derby. I thought Mac was going to miss it for the first time in four years, but he made it after some amazing twists of fate. Sometimes fire season chooses to give, rather than take away.
3. Then fire season decided to start. In September. It was quite inconvenient, what with me having papers to write and exams to study for. It lasted about two weeks. Then…
4. It snowed. On October 9th. On the day of my first exam of the semester, that started at precisely 8 a.m. I couldn’t find my ice scraper. It was not exactly a delightful morning in the little house. I got a 70 percent on the exam…after an eight point correction factor (I’ll clarify – it added points). Painful.
5. After fire season ended but before it snowed (that was about six days), I went to Reno for my mom’s birthday. I flew in without her knowing (on a Friday afternoon flight connecting to Reno and Las Vegas – talk about a party plane!), sneakily took the airport shuttle to the hotel, rode an elevator up 18 flights, praying the whole way that she wouldn’t have a heart attack, and knocked on the door. She might’ve cried, but she didn’t die, and she was surprised. It was an amazing trip, just my mom and my sisters and I. We went to the Melting Pot. I dipped a chocolate marshmallow in molten milk chocolate. Oh yes, I did. Oh! And my sisters rode the mechanical bull at a Cadillac Ranch. There was tequila, and cab rides we were sure would end in fiery death, and pajamas and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches from room service at 4 a.m., and a spa day, and we lost mom for a little while but then we found her again, and I almost beat up some guy for something I don’t really remember. Did I mention there was tequila? Then we went to my hometown and I saw the rest of my crazy wonderful family, and it was one of the best weekends I’ve had in a very, very, long time.
6. Suddenly I have two yellow dogs. One of them is just a loaner, but I’m considering denying her existence when they come back for her. Her big droopy eyes and gangly legs and giant paws kill me. Yellow Dog loves her, especially when she chews on his neck so much we can’t find his collar and I seriously consider that she might have eaten it.
7. These two shows started!
8. The Griz are still undefeated…but this guy is kind of raining on my (and his team’s) parade.
9. I’m involved in this Swap-O-Rama-Rama Missoula thing. It is going to be awesome. I am not just saying that because about 40% of my grade in a class I have to pass to graduate depends on it. It really, really is going to be awesome. You should come, and bring everyone you know, and swap clothes that don’t inspire you anymore for something else that does. Then use sewing machine stations and a silk screen machine to alter it into something completely yours. Turn a t-shirt into a cardigan, or a pair of jeans into a skirt, or a kilt, or a hat, or shoes. You’re creative, you can do it. Let Swap-O-Rama-Rama unleash that creativity, November 8, 2009 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the North Ballroom at the University Center on the UM Campus. Please.
10. Oh, wait. This is a food blog? Fine. Here’s a sub-list. This still counts as ten.

• The CSA ended on October 5th – that’s one bonus week! It was going to stretch another week, but then it snowed (see #4 above).
• I made a red velvet ice cream cake with cheesecake ice cream for a friend’s birthday. It was amazingly delicious. The cheesecake ice cream with lemon zest was the perfect complement to the rich cake. I have no pictures, but it was gorgeous. I used Smitten Kitchen’s red velvet cake recipe, and yes, before you ask, it calls for three small bottles of red food coloring. Three.
  
• Um. That may be the only thing that I cooked worth mentioning.

That probably brings us full circle. Between life and the living of it, I haven’t been cooking much. There’s been a shameful amount of takeout, Top Ramen, and cookies consumed in the little house for the past two months. There was a pot roast sandwich that was pretty heavenly … but that’s about it.

So here’s to fall – to pumpkins and cider, to soups and stews, football and blustery days, and … to blogging again.

I take everything out, and I cook it. All of it. Well – almost all of it.

This is one of those meals. Those meatballs are actually venison burger from the freezer, seasoned and grilled. They’re served on a pita with a drizzle of homemade ranch dressing (we had no yogurt to make tzatziki, unfortunately) and Sriracha. The vegetables were originally skewered and taken out to the grill, but we didn’t have enough coals to really cook them, so I ended up sauteing them in a nice hot cast iron pan to get a grill-type char on them and cook them until just crisp-tender.

The meal could’ve been a massive fail (the meat, it was close. Did I mention I put it on sticks first? That was a ridiculous idea) but it ended up working out, deliciously.

No recipe here – just desperation.

• Tomatoes!
• Garlic!
• Bell Pepper!
• Tomatillos!

The masses, they were ecstatic over these horticultural develoopments.

I was inspired by this recipe (found via Tasty Kitchen) to try my favorite green vegetable a different way in the form of Zucchini Fritters, and made this for dinner one hot, sweaty night this week when the thought of turning on the oven seemed particularly unpleasant. The recipe calls for garnishing with Tzatziki sauce, but I used a dollop of sour cream and fresh mint here.

Zucchini Fritters

adapted (mostly just proportions) from The Noshery

Made 10 fritters, enough for 2-3 as a main course or 5 as a side dish.

1 gigantic zucchini, shredded, then squeezed in a tea towel of excess liquid
2 eggs, beaten
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 small whole onion, minced
6 tbsp bread crumbs
2 tbsp chopped fresh mint
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
Salt & Pepper to taste
Olive or vegetable oil for frying

1. Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix with a fork until combined. The mixture should be cohesive enough to form a loose ball.
2. Heat about 1/4 inch of oil in a large skillet (I used cast iron) over medium to medium high.
3. Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to heap out the mixture into the frying pan. Flatten slightly.
4. Let cook 3 – 4 minutes per side until golden brown.
5. Drain on paper towels, serve immediately with sour cream and fresh mint as garnish.

New additions this week:

• purple potatoes
• cucumbers

We arrived right at 4:30, which made me anxious. I hate arriving anywhere exactly on time. Once again the fresh-from-the-ground vegetables were laid out in a pleasing to the eye arrangement. New additions this week included a head of broccoli and fresh mint.

The haul:

Clockwise from the left: snow peas, romaine lettuce, yellow squash, zucchini, green cabbage, broccoli, kale, basil, green onions, carrots, beets, sugar snap peas, mint and parsley. There’s also a patty pan squash in there somewhere.

I don’t have a clue what we’ll do with it all, just like last week, so this will surely be an adventure!

Pesto. That’s right, pesto.

The basil, parmesan, olive oil, garlic, toasted pine nut miracle. It’s even more of a miracle considering I toss all of those ingredients, whole, with no preparation, into my fancy Cuisanart food processor, push a button, and this happens. Pesto happens. From this little ramekin of pesto we had almost a whole week’s worth of dinners.

There was this pizza, which was much more delicious than the picture makes it out to be. It was also a lot less technicolor.

Then there were these knotted bites of deliciousness, pizza dough rolled out then cut into strips, brushed with pesto and stuffed with a few mozzarella pearls, wrapped up and baked. These are inspired by the knots served at the pizzeria in my home town. I’m perfecting them, and when I do, I’ll have a recipe. These were ooey, gooey cheesy on the inside, and crisp on the outside. They were also a lot less technicolor. I’m going to have to lay off the image saturation button.

There were also three cheese calzones with pesto, but they were rather ugly so I didn’t take a picture of them.

There were salads, a stir fry and roasted vegetables over couscous, but then there was working late and eating burritos from Taco del Sol, who has the best burritos in Missoula. All in all, it was a delicious week.

These carnitas are amazing. This is the second time I’ve made them – the first time was for the Super Bowl. They have so much flavor! They’re sweet and spicy all at once, the crispy, caramelized edges are melt in your mouth delicious, and the smell of them braising in the oven is divine. I had to stop myself from eating the entire pan, standing by the stove and burning my fingers. The recipe is basically David Lebovitz’s, with a few edits.

I served these on toasted flour tortillas (I prefer corn tortillas with this, but we were out) with shredded red cabbage fresh from our community garden, cotija cheese and a mayonnaise cilantro spice sauce. Next time I’d use plain yogurt or sour cream as the base for the sauce – the recipe is below. These would also be just a delicious with nothing but the meat and fresh squeezed lime over the top wrapped in tortillas.

Carnitas

adapted from David Lebovitz

4 – 5 lb pork shoulder, trimmed
Salt
Vegetable oil
2 bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick (I used ½ tsp cinnamon)
2 tsp chili powder
2 dried red chiles
¼ tsp cumin
3 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
Water or chicken broth

1. Cut pork shoulder into 5” chunks. Rub salt all over, then let them rest in the fridge, covered for up to 3 days, or just proceed to the next step.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3. Heat vegetable oil in a large cast iron skillet or roasting pan.
4. Sear chunks of pork well on each side until deep golden brown. Remove to plate or paper towels.
5. Deglaze the pan with water or chicken broth, scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen the tasty brown bits.
6. Add the spices and garlic to the pan, stir. Put the pork back in the pan, pour water or broth in the pan until the pork is covered 2/3 of the way up. Turn the pieces to coat.
7. Roast uncovered in the oven 3 ½ hours, turning every 45 minutes to 1 hour. If the pan seems to be running dry before the pork starts falling apart, add more water or broth to the pan. When you go to turn the meat and it falls apart, it’s done.
8. Remove the pork to a plate and let cool. When you can handle it, shred it in to chunks, then add it back to the roasting pan and toss it in the leftover juices.
9. Add the pan back to the oven and allow the extra juice to evaporate out, so the chunks get a crunchy crisp to them. Be careful not to over-crisp, but if you do over-crisp a bit of broth or water mixed through will rehydrate.

Cilantro Spice Sauce

1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
1 bunch (about 3 – 5 tbsp chopped) cilantro, chopped finely
2 tbsp lime juice, or enough to thin out the sauce
Pepper
Chile sauce – I used Sriracha

1. Mix all ingredients, using lime juice to thin out to the desired consistency and Sriracha until desired spice level is reached.

Joy! Look at the colors! So festive, so summer!

As I headed to Orchard Gardens to pick up this week’s share, Yellow Dog’s ears flapping in the breeze in the backseat, I was proud of us. The only leftovers from last week’s pickup – ½ head of bok choy, two scapes, four beets and ½ bunch cilantro – languished in our fridge, still crisp and happy. Nothing had gone bad, nothing had gotten tossed in the compost bin. I only hope we can keep that up throughout the summer, as we both get busier at work the hotter and drier summer becomes.

This week’s share was laid out in an eye-appealing arrangement on a table in the Orchard Garden’s barn while my farmers, Linda and Sarah, had a hula hoop contest with some pals outside. They invited me to join them – but the only place I hula hoop is on the Wii.

Here’s this week’s haul:

Clockwise from the left: snow peas, scallions, two heads romaine lettuce, yellow squash, zuchinni, sugar snap peas, flat leaf parsley, patty pan squash, carrots, beets, basil, cabbage.

I’m a little brain dead as far as exactly what I’m going to do with it all this week – I have visions of roasted squash, pesto, shredded cabbage on top of carnitas, munching carrots as snacks, salads, and more stir fries. I’ll blog about it as I go!

This meal followed the formula exactly – I sauted chopped up bacon, then added about 2 cups of chopped kale and cooked until wilted, added 4 -5 cloves of minced garlic, then deglazed the pan with about a cup of pasta water. I added the juice of half a lemon, a couple pats of butter, some fresh ground pepper, then tossed in the cooked pasta. A generous sprinkle of grated Parmesan completed the dish – and it took about 30 minutes to throw together.

Despite the bacon and butter, this was a light, fresh, satisfying dish with bold flavors – the bitterness of the kale, the saltiness of the bacon, the sharp tang of lemon and garlic.

Well, there’s me, Alyssa. Or Delisha if you’re feeling cute. I’m a student, toiling office worker, home cook, aspiring ice cream cake baker, thrower of objects (usually sticks) for a yellow dog, and lover of the guy below.

This is Mac. He’s as Montana as it gets.

This is Yellow Dog. He has a name, but Yellow Dog really sums it all up. He’s also fuzzy. He likes to swim, fetch and carry things (including turkey sandwiches and stuffed toy fish) around in his mouth.

This is Killer Kitty. He also has a name, but saying it is kind of like saying Voldemort. It might make him appear, and he’s scary. I should note that although he looks pretty cute in the picture above, approximately .854 seconds after shooting that picture he scratched the crap out of my hand, and I bled, and he and that creepy little moustache looked quite pleased.

We live in the Garden City, Missoula, MT, and we quite like it here. That’s us – that’s the “We” I’ve been talking about.

Anyways, I ended up making it with beet greens instead. When I got home and opened the fridge, the beet greens were limp and the bok choy was still in great shape, so beet greens it was. I soaked the slightly wilted greens in ice water until they regained some of their rigidity – totally salvageable. Why did I do this? The Joy of Cooking told me to. I generally do what Irma Rombauer & the Beckers say – they haven’t steered me wrong yet.

This was a great dish – a hearty main course and perfect with a fresh salad with a drizzle of Caesar dressing and spritz of lemon on the side. The beet greens retained much of their sharp flavor and weren’t overwhelmed by the ham or the cheese, though next time I’ll cut back on the cheese sauce. I made more cheese sauce than the original recipe suggested – I just really like cheese sauce. It’s shameful, really, how much I like it. As I made it, though, we needed spoons to delve into this goodness. In this case, less cheese sauce would be good.

A fun benefit of using beet greens instead of bok choy? The dish was slightly pink. Fun!

The recipe below is how I would make it next time – so it should have a thicker texture.

Beet Green and Ham Gratin

1 ½  tbsp butter
1 small onion, sliced thinly
2 scapes, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups beet greens, cut into 2 to 3 inch lengths cross wise, including stems
Salt & Pepper
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 ½ cup milk
½ cup grated Swiss or other good melting cheese (I used a mild cheddar, it didn’t melt well), plus ¼ cup for topping
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 cup lean ham, chopped

1. Melt butter in skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, sauté until soft.
2. Add scapes and garlic, cook, stirring until garlic is fragrant.
3. Add beet greens and salt and pepper, cook, stirring often, until the stems are tender and the leaves are wilted. Remove from heat.
4. Add butter to small saucepan, melt. Add 2 tbsp flour and cook, whisking until browned. Add milk and heat until just about to simmer. Remove from heat. Preheat broiler.
5. Add cheese and nutmeg, stir in until melted, then add ¾ of the ham. Add the beet green mixture and stir.
6. Pour mixture into a small baking pan, sprinkle ham on top.
7. Broil until bubbly, then add cheese and broil until just brown.
8. Remove from oven and let sit before serving.

The nutty brown butter sage sauce was a perfect complement to the earthy, sharp flavor in the tatsoi greens. I overdid it with the red pepper flakes, though – I love love love spicy things, but it overwhelmed the delicate sage flavor. The fresh lemon squeeze is a must to cut the heaviness of the brown butter.

Pasta with tatsoi greens in a sage brown butter sauce

Adapted from Appetite for China

1 package pasta
1 stick unsalted butter
1 scape, chopped
2 tbsp fresh sage, chopped
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
Salt & Pepper
1 bunch Tatsoi greens, chopped
Fresh lemon juice, shredded parmesan for garnish

1. Cook pasta according to package directions, drain well.
2. When the pasta is almost done, add butter to a large skillet and let it foam and begin to brown.
3. Add scape and sage, cook one minute.
4. Add mushrooms, cook 30 seconds.
5. Add thoroughly drained pasta, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Stir and let brown, turning every few minutes to ensure even browning.
6. Add Tatsoi greens and cook, stirring, one to two minutes or until soft and wilted.
7. Serve hot with Parmesan and a squeeze of lemon.

Look at the bounty! I picked up our first box (though I brought it home in bags) from the Orchard Gardens CSA yesterday.

Clockwise above, we have bok choy, scallions, beets, beautiful carrots, green romaine lettuce, red romaine lettuce, tatsoi, scapes, cilantro, dandelion greens, carrots, beets and one zucchini. Hidden behind are mustard greens and leaves of swiss chard and kale. I’ve never cooked with bok choy, fresh beets, tatsoi, garlic stalks, mustard greens, swiss chard or kale, so this is an adventure!

I’m planning on a stir fry or two for the bok choy, scallions, tatsoi & scapes. We’ll have lots of salads with lunch & dinner, and the carrots will be snacks – the picture above is already missing a few of them they were so yummy – bursting with just-from-the-ground flavor. I’m planning on roasting the beets, using the cilantro as a garnish for Huevos Rancheros & in salsa, and the miscellaneous greens will go in salads.

For dinner we had leftover Greek chicken in pitas, and I tore up fresh red romaine lettuce and a spicy mustard green leaf for the leafy greens on top. It was a quick, fresh, flavorful dinner.

Greek Chicken Pitas

Grilled pita bread
Grilled chicken, sliced (previously marinated in olive oil, red wine vinegar, fresh dill, oregano & garlic)
Red romaine & mustard greens, tossed with olive oil & red wine vinegar
Cherry tomatoes, halved
Tzatziki (plain yogurt, drained, mixed with garlic, red wine vinegar, fresh dill & diced cucumber)
Caramelized onions
Crumbled bacon
Crumbled feta from the local Lifeline Dairy
Squirt of Sriracha