Grilled Romaine with Blue Cheese

We were served grilled romaine at a restaurant one time and still talk about it.  It must have made an impression. This recipe from the Food Network gets close to how we remember it.    Perhaps it's time to give ceasar salad a break and try it at home!  There are many variations to the dressing and definitely ways to make it more healthy, including less cream and making more of a blue cheese vinaigrette.  

 

Ingredients

• 2 heads romaine lettuce, outer leaves trimmed
• Olive oil
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 2 ounces blue cheese (about 1/4 cup crumbled)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar

Directions

Drizzle the romaine with olive oil. Place on a hot grill until lightly charred on the outside, turning occasionally.

Meanwhile, whisk together the remaining ingredients.   

Remove the romaine from the grill to a serving platter. Cut in halves lengthwise to make 4 long pieces, then drizzle dressing over top. Serve immediately.

Broccoli Recipes

BROCCOLI
The following broccoli  recipes were written for us by our sister Molly Boswell in Pennsylvania.  You can find these and more great recipes on her blog: http://www.bloguntilgoldenbrown.blogspot.com

Broccoli Fritata

• 2 cups cooked broccoli florets (just steam them in the microwave to save time)
• 6 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup shredded cheese of your choice
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• butter
• salt and pepper

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and cheese together. In a large skillet, melt the butter and saute the onion and garlic. Toss in the broccoli and saute for a minute or two. Add the egg mixture (and any spice you'd like to add; cayenne perhaps). Cook until the bottom is nice and firm and the edges are cooked. Slide the fritata onto a plate - uncooked side UP. Next place, your skillet over the plate and flip. Continue the cooking, slice into wedges and enjoy. This is good for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and anywhere in between.

Broccoli Soup
Perhaps not the best choice for dinner on a hot summer night, but comfort food nonetheless.

• 1/2 stick butter
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 large heads broccoli (cut into florets)
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme
• 2 cups milk
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1/2 carrot, shredded
• 12-16 ounces Velveeta cheese, cubed
• salt and pepper to taste

In a saucepan, boil the chicken stock, add the broccoli and thyme and simmer for about 12 minutes, or until broccoli is tender but not mushy. In large stock pot, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion and cook and stir until onion is tender. Turn off the heat, and quickly stir in the flour, and cook for 5 minutes. Next, whisk in milk until well blended, and then SLOWLY add in stock/thyme/broccoli mixture and stir so that everything is smooth. Add shredded carrot as well. *Put half of this hot mixture into your blender or food processor, and return to pot. Reduce heat to low-medium low and stir in cheese until melted, and add salt and pepper to taste.

Ham, Cheese, and Broccoli Popovers

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 shredded cheddar cheese (Swiss would be good too)
• 1/2 cooked broccoli pieces
• 1/4 small pieces cooked ham

Mix together the first 5 ingredients until well blended. Next, stir in the ham, cheese, and broccoli.

Fill either a greased muffin pan or ramekins half way full and bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes, and then at 350 for another 15 minutes. Cut a slit into side of each popover and serve warm.

Turkey Sausage and Broccoli Pasta

This is recipe belongs to Giada De Laurentiis, and it's fabulous.

• 2 bunches broccoli stems trimmed
• 1 pound pasta (penne is a good choice)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 pound turkey Italian-style sausage, casings removed
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• Pinch dried crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan

Cook the broccoli in a large pot of boiling salted water until crisp tender, about 1 minute. Transfer the broccoli to a large bowl of ice water to cool, saving the cooking water. Bring the reserved cooking water back to a boil. Heat the oil in a heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add the sausage and cook, breaking it up into pieces with a spoon, until browned and juices form, about 12 minutes. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes, and saute until fragrant, about 2 minutes.

Meanwhile, when the reserved cooking water is boiling, add the pasta and cook until al dente, tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Strain the broccoli and add it to the pan with the sausage mixture and toss to coat with the juices. Add the pasta to the skillet. Stir in the Parmesan and serve immediately.

Broccoli Lasagna

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon salt; 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 1/4 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 1 container (15 oz.) ricotta cheese
• 2 cups chopped broccoli, half way cooked
• 1/2 Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 9 (about two thirds of an 8-ounce package) no-boil lasagna noodles

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare white sauce: In a large saucepan, heat butter and cook onion until tender and golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir flour, pepper, nutmeg, red pepper flakes and 1/2 teaspoon salt into onion mixture; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Gradually stir in milk and cook, stirring constantly, until sauce boils and thickens slightly. Boil sauce 1 minute longer. Stir in chopped parsley.

In bowl, mix ricotta cheese, broccoli, Parmesan cheese, 1 cup mozzarella cheese, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

In a large baking dish (ya' know... lasagna size), spread about 1/4 cup of sauce on the bottom. Add a layer of noodles, top with more sauce, then ricotta mixture, and repeat. Add the last of the sauce and remaining mozzarella cheese on top. Loosely cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Broccoli Cornbread

This is easy to make with a 10oz.package of frozen chopped broccoli as well.

• 1 stick of butter, melted
• 4 eggs, beaten
• pinch of salt
• 2 cups grated cheddar
• 1 onion, chopped (optional)
• 1 package corn muffin mix
• 2 cups (or so) of chopped broccoli

Mix all ingredients together and our into a 9x13 baking dish. Back at 400 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

Kale Chips

Kale chips are a very popular way to prepare kale and for good reason!  Because of that, there are many variations of recipes for them.  You can search for and develop your own favorite, but we've included one on our blog so our CSA members and market customers will have a single easy resource for those items they  may not know what to do with.

Ingredients:

1 bunch  kale

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon olive oil

any seasoning you’d like:  Grill Seasoning, smoky paprika, chili flakes, sea salt and coarse black pepper, Parmesan cheese.

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 275 degrees.  Thoroughly clean and dry kale leaves.  The trick is that they should be dry, otherwise they will be more chewy because they were "steamed."  Remove the fibrous center stalk from the kale by tearing the leaves away from the stalk.  

Directions:

Place kale leaves on one or two baking sheets.  Leaves should be in a single layer.  Sprinkle with olive oil and seasoning.  Toss with your hands.  Add more seasoning if you’d like.

Place pan(s) in the oven and bake for 15 minutes.  Turn leaves with tongs.  Return to the oven to bake for another 15 minutes. 

You can store kale chips in an airtight container for a few days, but I've never been able to do this because they get eaten so quickly!

*Keep in mind- kale chips do not taste like potato chips, nor do they have the same texture or consistency.    

Roasted Garlic-Parmesan Cauliflower

Roasted Garlic-Parmesan Cauliflower 
Original recipe by ourbestbites.com

I used this recipe as inspiration (gasp! I found it on Pinterest) and then altered as I went.  It's a basic roasted cauliflower dish, but I thought I'd include it for those of you who, like I used to, have a hard time knowing, even in a basic sense, what to do with veggies other than steamed or raw. Not that there's anything wrong with those options either.  I just got bored because I had sooo many vegetables to practice with!  I also learned a great tip about microwaving the olive oil and garlic first from this recipe.  We have found roasting vegetables to be one of our favorite ways to prepare many of them.  Roasting is a great "do ahead" side for a meal, low fat if you leave off the cheese, and tastes great.  

Here is the first problem I ran into when following this recipe. The pictures of the process included a perfectly shaped head of cauliflower that was easy to slice into 1/4 inch slices.  That was not the case with my heads of beautiful, if not perfectly shaped, heads.  So, I used a few heads not one big one. I also found it easier to break apart the pieces rather than slicing it, since the heads were a little looser than the example. 
Here is the original recipe with my notes, of course: 

Ingredients
3-4 tbs olive oil
3-4 cloves garlic, minced  (I used scapes just like in your CSA box, chopped in smaller pieces)
1 head cauliflower  (your guess is as good as mine- I just made a whole bunch of smaller heads until my cookie sheet was full. I didn't need to add more oil, so it must have been a good amount)
kosher salt and pepper
2-3 tablespoons crumbled Parmesan cheese  (I have used grated cheese and it worked fine - or just left the cheese off - it still tastes great!)

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Place olive oil and garlic in a small bowl.  Heat in microwave for about 20 seconds and set aside.
Remove stem and leaves from cauliflower head and trim into large florets.  Slice each floret into 1/4 inch slices and place on a foil-lined baking sheet.  Drizzle with oil and garlic mixture and sprinkle with kosher salt and black pepper.  Use clean hands to toss to coat.  Add more olive oil if needed.  Bake for 15 minutes and then toss with spatula.  Bake 10 more and then toss with Parmesan cheese.  Continue baking for 5-10 minutes until slightly golden brown on edges.  (This was way to long for my cauliflower. Maybe I had smaller pieces or like it a little more crisp, but I didn't need the last 10 minutes, so keep watching it.)

New Washing Station

Kyle washes broccoli while Vince soaks lettuce

When I (Anna) told Vince I took pictures of his new wash-station-creation and was going to blog about it, he looked at me with a "really?" expression. Either that or a little embarassed? I'm not sure. Maybe I should be able to tell by now.  Anyway...I assured him it was so we could look back in five years and laugh at our primitive set up.  Or maybe next year. On the other hand, we may be using this same table for the next ten years.  

Fully portable, as are most things on our farm, he assembled cedar planks and propped it on sawhorses.  The best part is it meets the goal to have running water over the produce rather than holding a hose in one hand and produce in the other and then trying to wash it over the patio table.  There are three faucets over the table connected to hoses.  At this point, our only water source is from the house, so there are about five hoses hooked together to get down to the table. (It's probably fewer, but it looks long, anyway.) But it's portable, you say. Why not move it closer? Well.  All that water at one time saturates the ground.  Last year our lawn was constantly soggy, so moving off of it helps keep the grass near the house in better shape.  In addition, the table is right next to the compost, so all those scraps from cleaning/trimming/sorting/etc. go straight into the pile. In the inaugural run, Kyle and Vince used the washing station to prepare for our first week of CSA boxes.  It worked, but there are some improvements Vince would like to make. The first being to purchase some rubber aprons. They were both soaked!  

"the washing station" pre- first use