The brown rice pudding (recipe posted yesterday) reheats quite nicely.

Last week I thought I’d kick the posting back in to gear by setting a goal for myself to post something every day in December. I didn’t really realize that it *was* December until Sunday, which was already December 2. Sunday turned into Monday, which turned into Tuesday and then Wednesday and still I didn’t feel like sitting down at my computer after a whole day of sitting down at my other computer. So here I am on Thursday, which is better than never, right?

It’s Chanukah, so Happy Chanukah if that applies to you. I exercise at the Stamford JCC and they have a very nice Kosher bakery/restaurant inside. Every day this week I’ve been tempted by the smell of latkes and soufganiyot (jelly doughnuts). I thought about buying a latke but I’m too cheap. I’ll make latkes this weekend, either Saturday night or Sunday. Lately, I’ve been running more often. I’ve been mixing in the Ok Go Treadmill Workout (found on iTunes – get it free if you join the Apple Students Facebook group). The music is good and it prompts you to do intervals.

Last night I made an interesting rice pudding in the pressure cooker. No picture, but here’s the recipe that I adapted from Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure

Brown Rice Pudding
1 C long grain brown or brown basmati rice
1/3 C old fashioned oatmeal
10 oz apple juice
2 1/2 C hot water
3/4 t cinnamon
1/4 C raisins
Mix all ingredients in the pressure cooker and bring up to high pressure. Lower temperature to just keep high pressure and cook for 40 minutes. Let pressure come down with natural release. Enjoy!

I tasted a little last night after it was done and it was quite good. I think I’ll have some for breakfast tomorrow and I’ll see how well it reheats. I also made a batch of pressure cooker poached pears last night. Delicious, as always! I don’t think I’ve posted a recipe for that yet.

Pressure Cooker “poached” Pears
4-6 pears
1/2 C water
raisins (optional)
Wash pears, then halve and core. Fit into your pressure cooker in a single layer. Add water and raisins if you desire. On high heat bring to high pressure. Once high pressure is reached, turn the burner off and release pressure naturally.

Thanksgiving
These were my contributions to our Thanksgiving feast in Seattle:

Curried Lentils with Sweet Potatoes and Swiss Chard

original recipe : www.nytimes.com/2007/11/14/dining/142arex.html

Curried Lentils with Sweet Potatoes and Swiss Chard – with Sheri’s adaptations
Time: 1 hour

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 1-inch piece fresh ginger root, peeled and grated
1 1/2 teaspoons garam masala
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
4 to 5 cups vegetable broth as needed
2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 4 cups) – (our sweet potatoes were white!)
1 1/2 cups dried lentils
1 bay leaf
1 pound Swiss chard, center ribs removed, leaves thinly sliced
1 teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
on the side:
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
lime wedges
1/4 cup chopped scallions, for garnish.

1. In large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until translucent, 5 to 7 minutes. Add garlic, ginger, garam masala and curry powder. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute.

2. Stir in 4 cups broth, sweet potatoes, lentils and bay leaf. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium, partially cover, and simmer for 25 minutes. (If lentils seem dry, add up to 1 cup stock, as needed.) Stir in chard and salt and pepper, and continue cooking until lentils are tender and chard is cooked, about 30 to 45 minutes total.

Yield: 8 to 10 side-dish servings; 6 main-course servings.

and, Pumpkin, White Bean and Kale Ragout

Original recipe: www.nytimes.com/2007/11/14/dining/141arex.html

Pumpkin, White Bean and Kale Ragout – with Sheri’s adaptations
Time: 1 1/4 hours

1 3-pound sugar pumpkin or butternut squash
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 large leeks, cleaned and chopped, white and light green parts only – or 2 onions
2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
2 15-ounce cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (or use 3 cups cooked white beans)
2 cups vegetable broth
3/4 pound kale, center ribs removed, leaves thinly sliced (about 6 cups)
1/3 cup dried cherries, roughly chopped, plus whole berries for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Using a vegetable peeler or paring knife, peel pumpkin or squash. Trim stem, then halve pumpkin or squash and scoop out seeds (save for roasting if desired). Cut flesh into 1-inch cubes.

2. Spread cubes out on a large rimmed baking sheet. In small saucepan, combine butter or canola oil, syrup, 1 teaspoon vinegar, kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Cook, stirring, over medium-high heat until butter melts; pour mixture over squash and toss to coat evenly. Roast, tossing occasionally, until pumpkin or squash is very tender and caramelized at edges, about 30 minutes.

3. In a large skillet, warm olive oil over medium heat. Add leeks/onions, garlic, rosemary and a generous pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until leeks/onions are very soft and not at all browned, about 15 minutes. Add beans and broth and simmer for 10 minutes.

4. Stir in kale. Simmer until kale is cooked down and very tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in pumpkin or squash and chopped cranberries; season with remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Garnish with additional cranberries and serve.

Yield: 8 to 10 side-dish servings; 6 main-course servings.

The original recipe called for dried cranberries, but I couldn’t find dried cranberries that weren’t coated in oil and/or sugar so i used dried cherries instead. I’ve made this recipe twice. The second time I forgot to buy leeks and I found onions to be an acceptable substitute for the leeks.

I spent all day Sunday making soup. Partly because I was just in the mood to make soup and partly because, well, I do have a lot of vegetables around the house. I made celeriac potato soup, pumpkin soup, and roasted beet soup.

I started the day off with the celeriac potato soup. One book had suggested that celeriac should be peeled with a pairing knife, but I peeled the celeriac with my favorite vegetable peeler and that worked quite well for me. The potatoes I had were on the small side, which made for a lot of peeling. I lightly sauteed a diced onion for a few minutes, then added the celeriac and sauteed for a few minutes more. Then I added the potato chunks, about 6 cups of water and seasoned with salt and pepper. When the potatoes and celeriac were tender, I blended everything together with my trusty stick blender.

Since my large Le Creuset was busy with the celeriac potato soup, I decided to make the pumpkin soup in the pressure cooker. First step – peeling the pumpkins.

Once the pumpkins were peeled and gutted, I cut the pumpkin up into 3/4 inch cubes and roughly diced an onion. I sauteed the onion in the pressure cooker and added the pumpkin after a few minutes. I added water until the 2/3 mark in my cooker and closed the lid. I brought it up to high pressure and cooked for about 10 minutes, followed by a natural pressure release. Once the mix had cooled, I blended it up with the stick blender and seasoned with salt and pepper. This time I left out the dairy because I was planning to freeze the soup.

The last soup I made was the roasted beet soup, adapted from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. While it was the last soup to hit the stove, it was actually started first because the first thing I did in the morning was peel the beets (messy, but fun) and roast them with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. Once the beets were roasted, they hung out on the counter until I was ready to make the soup.

If memory serves me, the soup started with sauteed onions as most good soups do. In the meantime, I was busy as a bee chopping up the roasted beets in to small pieces. I added the chopped beets to the pan after cooking the onions for about 15 minutes and then followed with water. The directions had the soup cooking for a half an hour or so, but I found that it took much longer to get it to a consistency that I liked.

At the end of the day I packed all of the soup into plastic containers for the freezer. The freezer is full. It does not want me to put any more soup in it. I will probably keep trying my hand at freezer tetris. Courtney thinks I need to re-brand my freezer to give it a more enticing name, so I think I will call it ‘A Showcase of Seasonal Delights’.

It’s hard to believe that the season is almost over. This season I knew better what to expect and how to plan things out and manage the sheer quantity of fruit and vegetables coming in each week, and it feels like it went much quicker than last year. Maybe some of that is tied to the fact that it’s just getting cold now and I can’t quite believe that Thanksgiving is just two weeks away. I didn’t take a picture of the share last night because we had a Fancy Party to get to and I only had enough time to stash the greens in the fridge before I needed to get dolled up. Here’s the list:

Red Beets-2 pounds
Rutabaga-1
Potatoes-2 pounds
Butternut Winter Squash-1
Shallots-2
Red Russian Kale-1 bunch
Purple Top Turnips-2 pounds
Sage-1 bunch
Collards- 1 bunch
Carrots-1 pound
Fruit Share – Jonagold, Cameo and Mutsu Apples

I’m working from home so I did a bit of cooking over my lunch time. I made pressure cooker poached pears, which I put in the freezer, and then applesauce in the pressure cooker. The house smells delicious.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been on the go a lot lately. I got back from San Francisco last Wednesday in plenty of time to pick up the share, but I was way too exhausted to do anything other than take pictures and put the vegetables away. Plus, it was Halloween and I needed to hand out candy far more than I needed to cook. Thursday evening I made a delicious pumpkin soup out of the pie pumpkins I’ve had sitting around for a few weeks. It’s definitely a make again soup. For Friday night dinner I made my spinach vegetable kugel but used collards and kale instead of spinach, which worked out quite well. Tonight I’m planning to make a big “everything” vegetable soup to try and use up whatever is left in the fridge before the new stuff comes tomorrow. We still have a lot of fruit too, so I might need to make another batch of pressure cooker pears (they come out like poached pears but it’s super quick to do) and maybe some applesauce too. If only I actually had room in the freezer.

Week 20

Potatoes-2 pounds
Onions-4
Beets-2 pounds
Delicata-2
Turnips with Greens-1
Collards-1 bunch
Parsley-1 bunch
Black Radish-1
Romanesco-1

Mutsu-green apple, multi purpose
Bosc Pears-rusty brown pear, multi purpose
Empire Apples-small, red really crispy-good eating
Jona Gold Apples-large, red and gold tinge-good cooking

Week 21

Garlic-2
Winterbor Kale-1 bunch
Carrots-2 pounds
Green Winter Cabbage-1 head
Red Ace Beets-2 pounds
Carnival Winter Squash-1
Mint-1 bunch
Celariac-2 bulbs
Graffiti Cauliflower-1

APPLES: Jona Gold, Fuji, Golden Delicious; Bosc Pears

I’ve been traveling a lot lately. Three trips in the past four or five weeks and I’m going away again on Sunday. The weekend before last, I got almost caught up veg-wise. Last week I left for Michigan on Thursday, the day after picking up the share, and as a result the fridge is still pretty full of veggies and the fruit basket is overflowing with apples and pears. I’m thinking about making a pie or perhaps some pear jam but that requires me to actually be home and to feel good, which I don’t right now. I feel pretty darn crummy. I haven’t been sleeping very much, I have a terrible headache, and I just feel generally run down. I need to pull it all together before my next trip. Woof.

Here’s last week’s share:

Acorn Winter Squash-2
Butternut Winter Squash-1
Siberian Kale-1 bunch
Garlic-2 heads
Red Cabbage-1 head
Orange Carrots-2 pounds
Celariac-1 head
Sage-1 bunch
Broccoli-2 bunches

Bosc Pears, Golden Delicious Apples, Cortland Apples, Empire Apples

I’ve eaten some of the carrots, but that’s about all so far. I need to get back in the kitchen.

Delicata Winter Squash-2
Winterbor Kale-1 bunch
Black Radish-1 (sometimes called Spanish Radish)
Blue Potatoes-2 pounds
Red Ace Beets-1 bunch
Onions-4
Italian Flat Leaf Parsley-1 bunch
Broccoli-2

honey crisp, golden crisp, cortland and anjou pears

I was out recruiting during Week 15, so no photos. Jeremie did pick up the share and put all the vegetables away, which was very nice of him.
Here’s what we got last Wednesday, for week 16.

Delicata Winter Squash-2
Carrots-1 bunch
Red Ace Beets-1 bunch
Scallions-1 bunch
Rosemary
Broccoli-2 heads
Turnip Greens-1 bunch
Blue Potatoes-2 pounds
Green Winter Cabbage-1 head
Hot Peppers

Bosc Pears
Honey Crisp and Macoun Apples
Long John Plums

We’re getting in to the veggies that will hold for awhile, which is good. Sunday night I made roasted vegetables: carrots and cauliflower from the csa and some parsnips that I picked up at the farmers market on Saturday. I’ll probably make another onion pie since I have two weeks’ worth of scallions in the fridge and a few shallots hanging around.

Now, lets talk about beets. 4 bunches of beets. This is a substantial amount of beets. I like raw beet salads but I’m the only one in the house who does, so a little goes a long way. It’s been too hot to be in the mood for roasted beets until very recently, and the beets were starting to pile up so I started to look for other ways to use beets. Like baking! I used up three bunches of beets making chocolate beet cake and chocolate chip beet bread (same recipe as my chocolate chip zucchini bread, but with beets instead of zucchini).

clockwise from top left: chocolate chip beet bread in the mixer, chocolate chip beet bread – finished, chocolate beet cake – finished, chocolate chip beet bread – cut

Yes, I’m backfilling a bit.

1 head cabbage
2 pounds Norland red potatoes
4 gourds-just for decoration
4 Pablanos
2 pounds tomatoes
1 bunch leeks
3 heads broccoli
1 head lettuce
1 bunch parsley
1 bunch Siberian kale
3 Lipstick Sweet peppers

Concord Grapes
Mac and Gala apples
Seckle pears

What did I make?
What can I remember?
Potato Leek soup, oven roasted tomato confit, pasta with kale and chicken sausage, cabbage salad, bulgur with tomatoes and parsley. Oh, and a pear cake with the seckle pears. Here’s a picture of that and a picture of the giant bowl of pesto I made with basil from my garden.

I harvested an incredible amount of basil. I should have taken a picture of it.

This weekend we have our annual Farm Day visit to Stoneledge Farm, the source of all our fabulous, organic CSA veg. Part of Farm Day is a potluck lunch and I spent some time thinking about what I should bring. Hoping to avoid going to the store, I opted to try out a recipe for Pear Custard Tart that I’ve had my eye on, as I have plenty of all the ingredients, including pears. The recipe is a huge winner.

There’s more gone now. It was really good last night, warm from the oven. I put it in the refrigerator overnight and I sampled a bit of it this morning – it’s even better. The vanilla totally filled out.

The recipe is from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast.
Jeremie typed the recipe up last night, but I need to double check it before I post it, as we have a discrepancy in the amount of flour used.