Chimmy Chimmy Yah!

Tonight's star from this week's basket, GREEN ONIONS.  I was shocked at the amount of green onions that we got this week!  4 giant bulb's worth.  What the heck am I going to do with all of these??  Well, I had gotten a skirt steak to grill this weekend with asparagus.  You always hear about skirt steak and chimichurri, so why not make the chimichurri with the green onions??

Typically, a chimuchurri is usually made with parsley as the star ingredient.  I wasn't sure how parsley and green onion would compete with each other, so I used spinach instead of parsley.  (Plus, I already had the spinach on hand, so even better!) 

Grilled Skirt Steak with Green Onion Chimichurri Sauce:
- 1-1/2 pound (or there-abouts) skirt steak
- 1 bulb of green onions (5-6) - use less if you want a less onion-y flavor, this is fairly strong
- 1-1/2 cups of fresh spinach
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- salt, for seasoning
- cayenne pepper, for seasoning, to your taste

Roughly chop the onions and spinach and put into a blender or food processor.  Add salt, red wine vinegar, and cayenne pepper.  Pulse ingredients as you stream in the olive oil until desired consistency.  Pour all bout about 1/2 cup over your skirt steak and marinate anywhere from 30 min- a few hours.  Reserve the extra half cup for dipping, if you'd like.  I bet this would be good as a warm potato salad dressing, too! 

 
Get your grill (or grill pan) nice and HOT HOT HOT!  Put the steak on the grill in one big piece.  The steak is fairly thin, so it should only take about 5-6 minutes per side for a nice medium-rare temperature.

Let it rest for about 5 minutes, then thinly slice the meat and enjoy!  We served it with grill asparagus and OOPS we were out of potatoes, but luckily had some leftover crock pot potatoes so we just used them :)

This is Tom's, he plated his better than mine :)

Yes, I still have 3 bulbs of green onions left.....Hmmmphhh...I am thinking of a shrimp and green onion fritatta later in the week, maybe throw some in spanikopita for my sister-in-law's dinner party this coming weekend...Stay tuned!!!

I'm Baaaaaack

Hello everyone!  Sorry for my long winter hiatus.  Since I took all winter off, I decided to change the name of the blog from Daly Freschipes to CSA: From the Farm to the Table.  I wanted to focus on what to do with all of the sometimes obscure ingredients we get in the CSA boxes!  That being said, it is week number one at Dilner Farm's CSA and my husband, Tom and I have signed up for the half share again.  It will run through November, so hopefully I can try to post at least once a week!

Let's get to it!  Here is this week's box:

- Kale
- Lettuce
- Green onions (a TON)
- Broccoli
- Strawberries
- Zucchini
- Radishes
- Basil plant (not pictured)

Tonight's star: BROCCOLI

Tonight was leftover night anyway, we had some leftover pork chops and salsa chicken but needed a vegetable so I whipped up some Balsamic Parmesan Broccoli

Balsamic Parmesan Broccoli
- 1 head of broccoli
- 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard (I used a stoneground)
- 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
- 3 tablespoons olive oil

 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with foil and mix breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese together with 1/4 cup olive oil (maybe a little less) until it looks kind of like wet sand.  Spread it in an even layer and put it in the oven for 3-5 minutes.  Watch it carefully, I burnt mine the first round!  Remove from the oven and set it aside in a small bowl.

 

 

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together the mustard, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil until blended.  Add the broccoli and toss it until evenly coated.  Put the broccoli on the same pan you just used and roast it for 5 minutes (or more, but I like some crunch left to the broccoli).

 

 

After the broccoli cooks, add the breadcrumb mixture back to the broccoli and cook for 2-3 more minutes.  Then, enjoy!!

 

Look for a kale, radish, and goat cheese spread this week, and probably some kale chips!!  I plan on using the lettuce for salads for lunch and the strawberries for snacking.  As for the zucchini....the wheels are still turning on that one...perhaps lasagna?!?!  Stay tuned!

 

 

Cleaning out the pantry...

"Tom, what do you want for dinner tonight?"  -- This is a very common question in our household.  It's funny, I don't usually get much of a response other than, "Whatever you want, babe."  So then I typically forget about it then get home and nothing is thawed.  In those situations, my go-to's are any kind of fish or seafood since they thaw quickly.  I had a few shrimp left over and a box of frozen spinach.  I guess we call this dish, "Shrimp Qunioa"....Any better suggestions are appreciated!

Ingredients
- 1 box frozen spinach, thawed and drained in the microwave
- 10-12 shrimp, thawed and peeled
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 large onion or 1 small onion
- 1 large or 2 small cloves of garlic
- olive oil
- salt and pepper

Bring the chicken broth to a boil and cook the quinoa as directed on the package.  In a separate pan, sautee onion and garlic until soft.  Add shrimp for 3-4 minutes until pink.  Add spinach and heat through.  When the quinoa is finished, add the shrimp and spinach mixture.  Finish with a bit of butter to bring it all together (about 1 tbsp.)  Stir.  Eat.  Yum.

Pesky Turkey Leftovers

Hi all.  It's been a while.  My blogging has slowed down since our CSA box stopped for the winter :(

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  I know I am turkey'd out!  But, I hate throwing out food...so I had to find some other way to use up the rest of the turkey leftovers.  As a kid...and now..I LOVED tuna noodle casserole.  I did a spin on that for a turkey noodle casserole!

- left over turkey, cubed
- 2 cups uncooked egg noodles
- 1/2 cup frozen green beans
-1/4 cup roasted red peppers, diced
- 1/2 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
- 3/4 cup red pepper alfredo sauce (it's what I had...)
- 1/2 cup shredded cheddar
-1/4 cup milk or half n half
-2 tsp. butter.

Preheat the oven to 400*.  Start a pot of water boiling for the noodles.  In the meantime, dice the red peppers and turkey.  When the water is boiling, drop the noodled and cook according to package directions.  In the last 2-3 minutes add the green beans.  Once the noodles are done, drain them and put back in the pot with the butter, alfredo, milk, red peppers and turkey.  Stir and put into a small baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.  Top with bread crumbs and cheese.  Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes and voila!

 Before going in the oven

 

After

Thats all for now.  Anyone have any suggestions for a star ingredient that they would like me to feature?  I love comments!

Happy Anniversary :)

Yesterday Tom and I celebrated our first anniversary.  (go ahead, gush about it! ;) )  The dinner we had wasn't totally "fresh" because Tom LOVES filet mignon so I made that for us.  However, my mashed potatoes and beet custard have CSA box ingredients :)

Beef Mashed Potatoes

• 4 cups beef stock (1/4- 1/2 cup reserved after cooking)
• 2 lb. red-skinned potatoes 
• 1/4 cup cream
• salt and pepper

Cut potatoes with skin on into 1-inch pieces.  Pour beef stock over top and boil until potatoes are tender.  Pour out stock, reserving about 1/2 cup.  Add cream, salt, and pepper and mash it up!

Roasted Beet Custard

• 1 lb. fresh beets, washed
• olive oil 
• 1/2 cup cream
• 3 eggs
• 3 egg yolks
• 2 tsp. sugar

Earlier in the day I roasted the beets.  Preheat to 300 degrees.  Drizzle olive oil over the beet and roast for 1 hour and 30 minutes.  Pull them out and let them cool.  Once cool, the peels should pull off easily.  Peel and puree the beets.  Fold in the cream, eggs, and egg yolks.  

Spray small 4 oz. ramekins with cooking spray.  Fill them up with the batter (mine made 3).  Bake at 250 for about an hour.  I put mine in a baking dish in a water bath to ensure even cooking.  Remove when firm.  We bruleed the top with a blow torch (see video).  Put a tsp. sugar on top and burn it up!  This was realllly good. It could've passed for dessert!

Filet Mignon

• 2 filets
• salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp. butter.  

I used my trusty cast iron skillet.  Kept the oven on from the beets and upped it to about 325.  Season the filets with salt and pepper.  Melt butter in the skillet and get it nice and hot.  Sear the steaks on each side (2-3 min per side).  Put skillet in the oven for another 5-7 minutes or until desired doneness.  We eat ours medium-rare.

Thanks for stopping!  I have lots more to upload....maybe another day... ;)

Steakhouse ala Tweedle

Hello all!  I have been slacking majorly.  I actually have been cooking, but just haven't had a minute to sit down and blog.  We have been very busy with weddings and life in general.  This weekend I looked in our chest freezer and saw some nature's basket ribeye steaks and decided to make them today.  What do you get with a steak?  Mashed potatoes and creamed spinach of course! .... Well, with a little twist :)

Steaks with chived and Greek yogurt mashed potatoes and Creamy Kale
---For the steak:
- 2 boneless ribeye steaks, natural if possible
- salt and pepper to season

----For the potatoes
- 4-5 yukon potatoes (from our basket) cut into 1-inch pieces
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 cup of plain Greek yogurt
- 1 bunch of chives (about 1/4 cup- 1/2 cup when finely chopped)
- 1/4 cup skim milk
- salt and pepper to taste


---For the kale:
- 1 bunch of kale, stems removed and cut into ribbons
- 1/4 cup skim milk (should probably have used cream, but I didn't have it...they turned out kind of runny)
- 1/4 cup white wine
- 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
- 4-5 sun-dried tomatoes diced
- 2 tbsp. sour cream


Preheat the oven to 350.  Begin boiling water for kale in one pot and the potatoes in chicken broth (you can use water, but I like the extra flavor) in another pot.  Preheat a cast iron skillet over medium high heat, with a spray of Pam.  When the water comes to a boil, add the kale for about 2-3 minutes until tender.

Once the skillet is preheated put the seasoned steaks into the skillet.  Sear for 3-4 minutes on each side and then put into the preheated oven for about 10-12 minutes or desired doneness.

Remove from the boiling water and put into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process and keep the color.  Let it sit for a few minutes then add back to the pot.  Add the milk, wine, and nutmeg and let simmer over medium heat for 6-8 minutes then lower heat to allow liquid to reduce.  My liquid did not reduce all the way down because I used skim milk.  Add the sun-dried tomatoes at the end.

Once the potatoes are tender (about 10-12 minutes) drain from the broth (I keep about 2 Tbsp. of broth in there).  Add the Greek yogurt, chives, and milk and mash and mix.  I like them a bit chunky and I also keep the skins on the potatoes.

Before plating, let the steaks rest for about 5 minutes so the juices can redistribute.  Also, add the sour cream to the kale.

 

Here is a picture of the full stove top :)

Tom got home just in time for dinner:

 

Thanks for reading.  I hope you enjoy the steakhouse at home...it's much cheaper!!

Cruciferous party

I love the word cruciferous.  Cruciferous is another word for cabbage-family vegetables and they are packed with vitamins, minerals, and fiber.  Today my stars are kale and cabbage

Beer-Braised Kale with Pancetta
- 1 bunch Kale
- 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup pancetta
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 beer
- 1/2 cup stock ( I used vegetable)
- olive oil
- salt and pepper

Start by washing the kale.  Pull it off of the hard stems and break into pieces.  I used my salad spinner to wash and dry it off.  Heat olive oil in a dutch oven and saute onions and pancetta until getting browned.  Add the garlic at the end (I grate it with a microplane).  Add the kale and a bit more oil and coat it with the oil and onion mixture.  Add the beer and stock to cover kale about 2/3 of the way.  Put a lid on and simmer for about 20-25 minutes.  Enjoy :)  We had some leftover meatballs.  I probably should have let it braise 5 more minutes it was still not quite tender, but it was still yummy.

Turkey Stuffed Cabbage 
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 1/3 cup uncooked brown rice
-2/3 cup water
- splash Worcestershire sauce
- salt and pepper
- 8 cabbage leaves
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- 1 can fire-roasted tomatoes
- 1/4 cup chicken stock
- splash white wine
- 1 tbsp. brown sugar
- 1 egg, slightly beaten
- 1 tsp. tomato paste
- 1/2 cup marinara sauce

- Bring 2/3 cup water to a boil.  Add rice, reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.  Bring a wide, large saucepan 2/3 way full of water to a boil.  Add cabbage head whole for about 6 minutes.  This helps so that the leaves peel right off and don't tear.  Drain and cool. 

Combine the ground turkey, rice, tomato paste, some juice from the fire-roasted tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, onion, egg, salt and pepper in a medium bowl.  Spoon into the cabbage leaves and place in a dutch oven (I used the same pot I boiled water in for the cabbage).  I placed them with the rolled side down so it stayed together, but you could use a toothpick or string if desired.  Pour sauce, rest of the fire-roasted tomatoes, stock, and wine over top.  Bring to a boil then lower heat and simmer for 40 minutes, basting and stirring occasionally.   Serve.

These were absolutely delicious.  I didn't miss the red meat in them.  It made some extra sauce to pour over the top.  Probably one of my favorites on the website so far!  Thanks for reading :)