Pizza rolls

We have homemade pizza about once a week.  We all enjoy it, but sometimes it's nice to mix things up a bit.  A friend posted a picture on Facebook of some pizza rolls that she was making and I hopped on that idea.  I looked at a few different online recipes and then worked on my own version.

I used a basic pizza dough recipe that I found on line.  I rolled the dough into a large rectangle about 1/4 inch thick.  Then I added a thin layer of tomato sauce and our toppings.  This time it was thinly sliced onions, chopped spinach, basil, small pieces of salami, and mozzarella cheese.  I rolled the entire rectangle the long way (much like you would with cinnamon rolls) and then cut the roll into slices about 1.5 thick.  I placed the slices on a lined baking sheet and put them into a 425 degree oven for about 20 minutes, until they were melty and just starting to brown.  My recipe ended up giving me 13 pizza rolls, plenty for our dinner and lunch the next day.  I served the rolls along with a green salad of lettuce, spinach, and sugar snap peas.  Yum!

Frittata: Two Ways

Whenever I am feeling overwhelmed by the veggies in the box, I make a frittata.  It's my go-to for any meal and I use up whatever I have on hand.  I abandoned the quiche in our regular rotation, in favor of this because it is so much easier and quicker.  Now I save the quiche for a special occasion.

For this frittata, I cooked up a couple of strips of bacon that I had chopped into small pieces in my cast iron skillet.  When the bacon was done, I took the meat from the pan, and added one small, diced onion to the bacon fat, and cooked it until it was soft.  I then added the stems from a bunch of swiss chard and cooked those down.  Next came the chopped swiss chard leaves.  While those were cooking down I beat 9 eggs with about 1/4 cup of milk.  I stirred in about 3/4 cup of shredded cheese.  I had Jarlsberg on hand, so I used that.  Then I poured the cheese and egg mixture over the veggies, stirring a bit to mix things.  I sprinkled the cooked bacon back on top and then popped the whole thing in a 325 degree oven for about 20-30 minutes until it was cooked through and getting golden brown on top.

                                            

For a quick breakfast frittata, I threw some spinach and green onions in a small omelet pan with a bit of olive oil.  I added some halved cherry tomatoes and two eggs, lightly beaten, salt and pepper.  No cheese this time.  A quick 10-15 minutes in the oven and it's done.  Yum!

Fried rice with an over easy egg

Friends, I read Molly Wizenberg's Delancey and it was a delight. 

I'm quite certain her fried rice recipe will be a catch all dinner this summer. Tonight I used the left over lettuce wrap ground chicken meat, broccoli and scallions and topped it off with an over easy egg. Serve with a gin and tonic. 

Sweet and Sour Collard Greens

We rely on our CSA share for the majority of our veggies from late June through November.  However, we have a little supplement in the form of some hobby garden beds in the back yard.  I have 3 raised beds.  One with strawberries and the other two with veggies.  Each year I learn a bit more about gardening and I practice what I've learned out back.  This year I did a bit of research on companion planting and gave that a try when laying out the plants in my beds.  I also decided to plant some totally different things this year.  In addition to my traditional peas, green beans, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and herbs, I have shallots, celery, and collard greens.  All things that I love to cook with and don't come in our CSA box.

The collards are growing like crazy.  I was inspired on Father's Day by some leftover bacon fat in our cast iron skillet to come up with a way to use some of those huge, green leaves.  This recipe for sweet and sour collard greens was a trial that worked in our favor.  Neal loved these so much (or at least that is what he told me!).  We didn't share any with the kids.  We ate them ourselves for lunch during the week.  They were even great reheated.

Sweet and Sour Collard Greens (serves 4)

2 bunches (about 20 large leaves) collard greens washed and roughly chopped

1 medium yellow onion roughly chopped into about 3/4 inch pieces

2 TBSP bacon grease

2 TBSP brown sugar

1-2 TBSP red wine vinegar plus 1 more TBSP for later in the cooking process

1/2 cup water (used as 1/4 and 1/4 at different times in the process)

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

I started with warm bacon grease in a cast iron skillet.  Bring the heat up and add the onions.  Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and cook for about 5 minutes until they begin to soften.  Then add 1-2 TBSP of red wine vinegar and the brown sugar.  Stir to coat the onions and cook for about 1 minute.  Then add the chopped greens.  Depending on the size of your skillet you may need to add them in batches as they cook down until all have been stirred into the pan and are coated with onion mixture.  Add 1/4 cup of water and cover, leaving the burner on low to cook the greens.  Check after about 5 minutes to stir and make sure there is enough water to continue cooking the greens.  After about 15 total minutes of cooking time for the greens, taste them.  Add more vinegar, salt, and pepper to taste and more water if needed.  Cook for a couple more minutes to take the edge off of the additional vinegar and get the greens nice and tender.  If you are cooking up some bacon to get the grease, you could crumble the cooked bacon over the top to make this a main dish.  If you are using leftover grease from your breakfast, serve with your favorite grilled meat or veggies.

If you don't have collard greens, I think this would be equally tasty with kale or swiss chard. You would want to reduce the cooking time for these less-aggressive greens.  Maybe 3-5 minutes less for the kale and 5-8 minutes less for the swiss chard.  With the chard, I would rough chop the stems and cook them along with the onion at the beginning. You might also want to use a bit less sugar and vinegar with these other greens as well.

A spicy snack

One of our (the grownups') favorite snacks is radishes dipped in salt. Easy, savory, spicy, and refreshing, it's a nice little appetizer without ruining your dinner. Just wash the radishes and trim the greens off. (If the greens are in good shape, save them to cook into your scrambled eggs in the morning.) Sprinkle the radishes with, or dip them into, your favorite salt. We often use pink Hawaiian sea salt that my brother and his wife brought us from their honeymoon, but lately, we've been heating things up. We've been using Sriracha salt that I made.  It is so easy to do!

Sriracha Salt

I use a ratio of about 10 tsp. of Sriracha to 1 cup salt. I usually use Kosher salt, but coarse sea salt would be great too.  Stir the two ingredients together and then spread onto a baking sheet (or two) to air dry for 24-48 hours. To speed up the drying process, you can put the trays into a warm (less than 200 degree) oven for 1-2 hours to dry it out.

My favorite way to use this salt is on sautéed greens. It is equally great on eggs, avocado, and popcorn. It's a nice seasoning for chicken or fish as well.  It also makes a great gift!

Breakfast

I've been trying to eat eggs more for breakfast. I'm usually more satisfied through the morning. I generally saute the power prewashed greens mix in butter and add a couple of eggs. This morning I added the scallions from Common Harvest and a tomato from the coop and a sprinkling of Parmesan. Yum. 

Happy week to you all!

2014 Week 1

I didn't get to this week's veggies until this morning...we had a bit of an emergency with a flooded basement Thursday. Luckily, my veggie share partner, good friend, and neighbor Kathy had bagged our veggies up nicely so they were still in great shape when Nora and I got around to them this morning. We got a huge head of lettuce, lots of spinach, beautiful basil, rainbow Swiss chard, and scallions.  We used some of the lettuce on burgers at lunch today. It was wonderful! 

My meal plans for the week include pasta with torn basil and olive oil, Swiss chard and scallion quiche, green smoothies, and lettuce wraps. All old favorites! 

I will share a new recipe for sweet and sour collard greens later this week. I planted two collards in our backyard garden this year and they are really producing.