The Cabbage & The Cupcake

Early in the week I had what can only be described as cupcake-a-paloza in my apartment.  I was trying to create a sampling of different cupcakes & since you can't just make one cupcake (well maybe you can, but I can't), I now have a dozen assorted cupcakes in the fridge ready to eat and 2 dozen more in the freezer.  I think my neighbors are worried I am trying to fatten them, although it doesn't stop them from eating my cupcakes.

In need of something savory, I grabbed the Napa Cabbage from my latest CSA box.  Its long broad leaves just begged to be stuffed, and I was happy to obliged.  Two pounds of ground beef, some spices & rice made 12 perfect meaty packages.  I cooked them covered in a simple tomato sauce of a can of whole tomatoes blended with garlic.

I decided to give the Blasted Broccoli from Dana Treat a try.  As I said before, I hate broccoli so I didn't really care if I ruined it.  I cleaned the head of broccoli - finding a wee inch worm hiding in the stalks.  I tossed it on olive oil and popped it in a hot oven.  Then tossing it in a bit more olive oil with 3 or 4 cloves of minced garlic and a schtickle of red pepper flakes.  Back into the oven it went to sizzle away.  It actually smelt good.

Here is your first Yiddish lesson - SCHTICKLE.  A schtickle and bissell are similar that they both mean "a little bit", but in cooking a schtickle - a generous pinch - is a bit more than a bissell.

I thought I had really burnt it when it finally came out, but decided to taste it anyway.  It was GREAT!  Garlicky & kind of crunchy, it was perfect.  In fact, after my dinner guest left, I ate all the left overs.
 
Since Masha was coming over for dinner and cupcakes, I decided to also make a salad with the last of this week's CSA lettuce (thank goodness the lettuce season seems to be slowing down).  I made a quick simple vinaigrette & tossed in the raspberries left over from make buttermilk cupcakes with berries.  Masha brought red wine to go with our dinner.  The dinner and the company made the night.

After a couple of helpings of stuffed cabbage, salad, and broccoli (we both agreed that the Blasted Broccoli was simply amazing in the way it transformed this veggie), we were ready for cupcakes.  I had 3 to choose from: banana daiquiri with blueberries topped with a rum glaze, vanilla with dark chocolate chips topped with vanilla chocolate swirl cream cheese frosting, & buttermilk with berries,.  We each indulged in a couple different flavors & Masha left with an assorted 4 pack.

For the stuffed cabbage recipe, click the read more link

Week 4 Lancaster Farm Fresh CSA

Click to go to Flickr & roll over photo for details

1 head broccoli – certified organic – Farmdale Organics
1 bunch red beets – certified organic – Farmdale Organics
1 head Napa cabbage – certified organic – Bellview Organics
1 pc summer ball squash – certified organic – Hillside Organics
1 bunch spring onions – certified organic – Healthy Harvest
1 head green butter head (bib) lettuce – certified organic – Goshen View Organics
1 head red leave lettuce – certified organic – Railroad Organics
1 bag cress – certified organic – Back 40 Ranch

And a happy accident landed me a flower share this week.  It is a huge bunch of mixed flowers & greenery.  Some of it looks & smells like mint, but I am going to double check with the farm before trying it just to be safe.

I have never been a fan of broccoli.  I always thought it smells & tastes like farts (well what I imagine what a fart would taste like).  I found a recipe called Blasted Broccoli that quick roasts the broccoli at a high heat with olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes.  I have never had broccoli roasted and always roast my other veggies like Brussels Sprouts and asparagus, so maybe this will be the thing that finally brings me around to broccoli.

Tomorrow I'm going to pick up some ground meat so I can use my Napa Cabbage to make a batch of stuffed cabbage.  It's perfect for the crock pot & freezes well so I'll have some for the future.  I am also looking forward to trying a new and exciting recipe for a flourless cupcake using the the sweetness of the beets to keep the sugar added to a minimum.

Tomorrow will be a fun day of baking & cooking in the Ess Eppis kitchen!

Garlic Scape Oil

 With a couple of bunches of garlic scapes from the CSA, some grape seed oil, & a food processor I made a small jar of bright green garlic scape oil.  It was quick and simple.  I think this will work nicely as a finishing oil, in salad dressings, and in marinades.  It will top grilled veggies & meat, hummus, and other foods to add color & flavor.

Click to go to flickr & roll over for details

If you aren't familiar with garlic scapes, it is the top part of the garlic plant harvested before it flowers.  They kind of look like scallions, but tastes like garlic.  They are the long green tendrils in this picture.  They can be used raw, sauteed, grilled, any way you want.

To make the garlic scape oil:

2 bunches of garlic scapes
1 tsp cream of tartar (this gives the green color a little 'kick')
1 tbsp kosher salt
1-1 1/2 cup grape seed oil (I use this because it is nearly tasteless & light allowing the flavor of the scapes to shine)
s&p to taste

Cut the garlic scapes into 2-3 inch pieces.  Add the cream of tartar & salt to boiling water and then drop in the scapes.  Remove them from the boiling water in 1 minute and drop into ice water to stop cooking.  Drain the scapes and pat dry with a paper towel. Place scapes into a food processor or blender with about 1/2 cup of oil.  Turn on food processor and let it run till the scapes are broken up and nearly pulverized.  Add more oil to get the consistency & taste you are happy with.  Add salt & pepper to taste.  I am keeping it in the fridge in an air tight jar.

Week 3 Lancaster Farm Fresh CSA

Click to go to Flickr & roll over photo for details

This weeks CSA share was a another bumper crop of greens:

1 bag snow peas – certified organic – White Swan Acres
1 bunch radishes – certified organic – Friends Road Organics
1 bunch garlic scapes – certified organic – Orchard View Organics
1 bunch green shallots – certified organic – Shady Brook Organics
1 bunch dandelion greens – certified organic – Hillside Organics
1 head endive – certified organic – Meadow Valley Organics
1 head red leaf lettuce – certified organic – Green Valley Organics
2 heads red oak leaf lettuce – certified organic – Back 40 Ranch
1/2 head of Napa Cabbage shared from the other site host's full share

The photo is of my half share AFTER giving half the dandelion greens, half the endive, 1 head of read leaf lettuce, and 1 head of red oak leaf lettuce to Catlyn when she came over for a dinner of BBQ shredded beef over lettuce.  Nearly everything I have been eating has been on a bed of lettuce.  Luckily, it's all really good lettuce!  The BBQ shredded beef from my winning of U.S. Wellness Meats was GREAT!  I loved it so much, I wish I had more.  I am tempted to order more knowing the quality of the food and way it is raised, but I do know I can find quality like this with a local farmer.  If I was closer to network of farms that this impressive cooperative or did not live in an area with access to exceptional farmers, I would not hesistate to regularly order from them.

This weekend I am making a dish for a Paleo potluck.  I do not follow a Paleo diet, but want to participate in the potluck with Catlyn & her CrossFit group.  The idea of swearing off potatoes, beans, and grains makes me shake in my boots - I think my love of those foods is imprinted on my Eastern European DNA.  I have narrowed it down to two possible dishes:

Almond Date Balls Drizzled with Dark Chocolate
Cucumber & Radish Rounds Topped with Garlic Mint Aioli

I just have to decide if I want to go sweet or savory.  Either way, I am sure there will be lots of goodies and new people to meet this weekend.  Only once I figure out what I am making, I then have to figure out what to wear!  Will the decisions never end?!  I think I should mull all this over while a make a cake.

Veggies, Veggies, & More Veggies

Week 2 of the Lancaster Farm Fresh CSA.

Click to go to Flickr and roll over photo for description of the produce.

2 bunches spring onions – certified organic – Bellview and Plum Hill Organics

1 bunch garlic scapes – certified organic – Life Enhancing Acres

1 pkg white mushrooms – certified organic – Mother Earth Organics

1 bunch Lacinato kale – certified organic – Goshen View Organics

1 bag baby lettuce mix – certified organic – Farmdale Organics

1 bag wrinkle-crinkle – certified organic – Back 40 Ranch

2 heads green oak leaf lettuce – certified organic – Back 40 Ranch

& some Snow Peas that came with the full share that the other hosts of the site shared with me.

I really love being part of a CSA and have written about it in past post.  Being a site host, I get a share for free.  I opted for a half share and the fruit share that starts later in the season.  Even with a half share, I find myself not getting thru all the weekly goodies before they start to waste in my fridge.  This year I am determined not to waste any part of my weekly half share.  The first thing I did was to wash all the produce this week and package it all up so it is all ready to go in my fridge.  To wash lettuce & other leafy stuff I fill the sink with cold water and gently place in the lettuce.  I swish and swirl it around gently.  The lettuce and leafy goods will float while all the soil that may still be on it will sink to the bottom.  I gently scoop out the greens and dry them in a salad spinner, then lay them out on paper towels to get any left over moisture.  Then I package them in ziplock style bags or the reusable containers my take out Chinese comes in.

The best part if a CSA is that you end up with produce you have never tried or even heard of.  This week I got something called wrinkle-crinkle.  It's a cress that looks like slightly sickly parsley, but is very peppery.  I discovered this after tasting a leaf while cleaning all the greens.  Unsure of exactly how to use it, I decided to treat it more like an herb than a lettuce.  I chopped it up and added it to some pasta, tomato, garlic, and Parmesan cheese.

The bag of mixed baby lettuce has provided a nice addition to nearly every meal.  I made a quick and simple vinaigrette by whisking together a splash of apple cider vinegar, a squirt of Dijon mustard, and s&p to taste.  I keep whisking as I drizzle in some olive oil - about twice as much as I have acids.  Some canned tuna on top of some dressed greens with an extra drizzle over the tuna and I had a meal!  A left over cupcake from the weekend baking rounded it out to complete the meal.

While cleaning the produce I decided to also clean and blanch it so I could keep it in the fridge to snack on.  It never made it to the fridge.  After cleaning - pulling that fibrous string along the edge, I dropped them into salted boiling water for just a minute.  They turned bright green and stayed crunching after dropping them in ice water to quickly cool them.  After testing one, I ended up eating the whole container of the sweet crunchy snack.  They were so good I think I am going to go back to The Fair Food Farmstand at Reading Terminal Market and pick up some more.

Tonight I plan on making Kale chips.  I am going to try experimenting with some flavored salts that I won from goodLife{eats} give-a-way.  I have lavender rosemary & cherry pistachio Secret Stash Salts, in addition to my standard Kosher salt.  Maybe I'll try some different spices too.  I think the smoked paprika might work nice to give a bbq chip taste, but healthier than potato chips.  I'll post how they come out soon.

I'M BACK... and with Mac & Cheese

I am not sure if enough people read this yet to have noticed, but I was away for a bit.  I took a road trip to FLA with my parents to visit my brother, sister-in-law, & niece in Orlando and my cousin's graduation in the West Palm area.  Two weeks on the road & in hotels with the family and we all survived!  Mostly thanks to the super swanky digs my brother booked for us... having a brother who works for Loews has its benefits.  He even got us the hospitality suite at the Royal Pacific where he works.  Everything at the Royal Pacific & Portifino is first class and I'll be posting soon about all the goodies we were treated to during our stay.

I came back in time for a couple of real special goodies here.  From goodLife{eats}, I won a $75 variety box of meats from U.S. Wellness Meats.  It was a big meaty present of NY Strip Steaks, Free Range Chicken Breasts, Shredded BBQ Beef, and Nitrate Free/MSG Free Beef Sticks & Summer Sausage.  I also got a jar of Cherry Pistachio Salt by Secret Stash Salts (and a small baggie of Lavender Rosemary Salt).  On top of all that, I was just a couple days away from my CSA's first delivery!  It was an awesome welcome home!

The first thing I tore into was the beef sticks and they were tasty.  Tonight I made one of the four chicken breasts that came in the pack with lots of CSA & farmers market goodies.  I made chicken lettuce spring rolls and asparagus & tomato mac & cheese.  The mac & cheese looks darker than the average mac & cheese because I use a cheddar cheese that is made with Guiness Beer & I add in tomato paste to give it some extra tomato flavor.

ASPARAGUS AND TOMATO MAC&CHEESE
(measurements are only approximations)
1/2 lb whole wheat elbow macaroni
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 1/2 cup 2% milk
1/4 lb Cahill Guiness Cheddar grated (it was all they had left at Salumeria in RTM - I love this stuff!)
1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 pint grape tomatoes halfed
1 bunch asparagus cut in about 1-1 1/2 inch pieces
salt & pepper to taste

After tossing the macaroni in about 5 cups of boiling water, start the butter melting in a good sized saute pan (I use this oven safe pan from IKEA - so later I don't need to dirty another pan) over med/high heat.  Also preheat the oven to 350.  Stir in  the flour to the butter and let it cook for a few minutes (you just made a roux!) and then stir in the tomato paste, cooking another few minutes.
The macaroni should be ready to be drained about now.
Slowly stir in the milk into the roux.  Once the milk is fully incorporated into the flour add the cheese and stir gently till it completely melts.  Add the spices and salt & pepper to taste.  Fold in the drained macaroni and then the tomatoes and asparagus.  Gently fold together till mixed evenly.
If your pan is oven safe pop it in the oven for 30 minutes.  If not, put it in a baking dish then into the oven for 30 minutes.

CHICKEN LETTUCE SPRING ROLLS
1 chicken boneless skinless chicken breast slice into 1/4 inch thick strips
1 tbsp olive oil
1 lime halved
1 red bell pepper
2 medium carrots
4-5 scallions
handful fresh cilantro rough chopped
1 tbsp seasoned rice wine vinegar
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 head green leaf lettuce
kosher salt & pepper

Season the chicken with salt & pepper.  Heat olive oil in a pan over high heat.  Add the chicken to the pan.  As the chicken cooks squeeze half a lime over chicken.
While the chicken cooks, peel the pepper & carrots with a vegetable peeler.  You won't be able to peel where the pepper curves in so use that curve as the natural line to cut the pepper.  The pieces will come apart easily and you can peel the bits of skin left.  I also like to remove all the ribs - the peeler works nicely on that too.
Chicken should be just about done.  When it is, just put it on a plate and set aside.
Julienne the peppers and carrots by cutting the peppers into thin strips long ways.  Slice the carrots on an angle and then stack the slices and cut down the stack to create "match sticks" (or you could grate the carrots with the biggest grater holes).  Slice the scallion into small rounds (about 1/4 inch) all the way up the greens.  Toss the veggies & the cilantro in a bowl and add in the vinegar, soy sauce, & sesame oil and toss to coat.  Adjust the seasonings and salt & pepper to your taste.
Cut the base on the head of lettuce so all the leaves are free.  Gently rinse & dry (best in a salad spinner).  Holding a leaf in your palm, add in the veggies and then the chicken.  Fold over the sides of the leaf.

And now... ENJOY!

Bad Day/Good Cupcakes

My day started at 5:30am when I was woken up by a wicked bout of heartburn.  Next I missed the bus to South Philly, leaving me to wait in the rain for the next.  Finally at my volunteer gig, the seniors were more ornery than usually, leaving me dazed as I left.  And just for good measure, just a few blocks from my apartment building I lost my footing on some uneven sidewalk and went down like a sack of potatoes... lovely.

I finally got out of the hot sticky weather and into my cool safe apartment about 2pm.  I vowed not to leave my apartment for 24 hours till what ever hex that was plaguing me had passed.  I needed a project that was guaranteed to bring happiness and joy - CUPCAKES!  One small issue, I swore not to leave my apartment for fear that I would end up chased down to the Delaware River by a rabid pack of pit bulls (this is Philly so it is within the realm of possibilities) and I had no eggs or milk for my batter.  This is where bribery comes in very handy.  Using the promise of cupcakes, I was able to obtain a couple eggs & some milk from Dan.

I made a simple vanilla cupcake batter (upping the vanilla extract to a tablespoon) and mixed in mini dark chocolate chunks.  In 20 minutes they rose up nice and light & fluffy with dark chocolate specks.  For the frosting I was torn between a classic butter cream and cream cheese frosting.  That's when I realize - I didn't have enough confectioner sugar for any frosting.  I would have to go to the corner store if I wanted to frost my cupcakes (and is that really optional? no way!).  I was convinced that with the way my day was going I would end up walking in just as the place was being robbed.  Luckily I was able to get to the store and home without indecent.

I decided to make cream cheese frosting and leave some plain, and add coco powder to some.  I added both batches to the pastry bag to pipe onto the cupcakes giving them a nice chocolate/vanilla swirl effect.  The frosting was very easy:

Let a stick of butter and a brick of cream cheese come to room temperature and drop them into the mixer bowl.  I whipped it up with the whisk attachment.  Then I added some vanilla extract and a touch of milk and whipped it some more.  I slowly added the confectioner sugar until it was as sweet as I wanted it.  Then I scooped some out before adding the coco powder & whipping it into the frosting.

And as an added bonus, after frosting 20 cupcakes, I still have a bunch of frosting left over.  I'll have to think of something creative & yummy for the leftovers.

After a cupcake or two, tomorrow is looking a lot brighter.