Parsnips, parsnips, parsnips

I must say that up until recently I was never a big fan of parsnips. Probably because I never ate them as a kid, my mom thought they were disgusting. You know how it goes, whoever cooks gets to pick what's on the plate. I don't think I even tasted a parsnip until I was 30! 

These days, my fridge is full of parsnips. Let me qualify full: 3. My bi-weekly CSA vegetable home delivery by Bryson Farms has meant a whole new adventure in tastes, mostly because I don't decide what's in my basket but I plan my meals around what I receive. This has made meal planning quite a bit easier. What has happened over the past few weeks has been the consistent serving of (at least one) meatless meal per week. I have discovered the best weeknight recipe in the world: the frittata. Why serve it for brunch when you can have it whipped up and ready to eat in less than 30 minutes?? 

Swiss Chard, Parsnip and Cheese Frittata

4 Swiss chard leaves, stems removed and chopped (to chop them, I roll the leaves length-wise and slice them across - like a jelly roll - plus one chop across the middle.)
3 small parnips
1 small onion
7 eggs
1/4 cup of milk
1 piece of Gruyère cheese (about the width of 2 fingers - sorry, I don't usually measure)
1 clove of garlic
Olive oil, salt & pepper


Preheat the oven to 375F.


Peel the parsnips then use the potato peeler and peel the parsnips into long strips. It's easier to rotate the parsnip as you peel. You probably won't be able to use the whole parsnip, it'll be hard to peel it when you get to the core. Slice the onion in half then slice it into long strips. 


In an oven-proof frying pan, heat one tablespoon of olive oil on medium-high heat. Add the onions and parsnip strips. Add a bit of salt. Stir them frequently so that they don't stick to the pan. When the onions have softened and the parsnips have started to wilt and turn a golden colour, add the Swiss chard. Cook until the Swiss chard is wilted (you might need to turn down the heat).


In a medium sized bowl, whisk 7 eggs. Whisk in the milk slowly. Shred the cheese or chop it into small cubes (I prefer the cubes cause it's one less dish to wash). Finely chop the garlic. Add the cheese, garlic and a bit of pepper to the egg mixture. 

When the vegetables are soft, add the vegetable mix to the egg mixture. Return the pan to the medium-high heat, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and pour the veggies and egg mixture into the pan. Cook for about 4 minutes until the eggs are set around the sides then pop it in the oven for 10-12 minutes until set. 

Serve with a mixed salad.

Enjoy!!

A Taste for Everyone

Tonight's meal was going to be nice an light. Some roasted fish with dried herbs and garlic and some zucchini "fettucine" with tomato sauce from the freezer. Outside... there was a snow storm and to be honest, I really didn't feel like a light dinner, I felt like having greasy pub food. And I heard that little voice in my head saying "the boys won't eat that roasted fish. They will come home, ask what's for dinner and say yuck". Then I had a flash of inspiration! 

I first met Jennie (@really_life) on Twitter last fall when I was tweeting for advice about what to do with all my apples. She is the one who introduced me to the crockpot apple butter recipe and showed me how to can my butters (see September post: Apple Overload!). Last night I was reading her most recent post about challenges for personal improvement. The one thing that really jumped out at me was this: 


Diet
-Try one new recipe that contains ingredients that in theory EVERY member of your household will eat. Aim for it being a healthy recipe.


So mom? What's for dinner? (Beer-battered) Fish sticks and zucchini "fries"!!! Ok, well, I admit, fried food is not healthy but lets start with baby steps. I don't have a deep-fryer (yet!) so I used a large frying pan. The way you know if your oil is ready is to put in a 1 inch piece of bread. If it turns golden within 20 seconds, it's hot enough. For the zucchini "fries" I only used the recipe as a guide, I liked the idea of sprinkling them with with the flour mixture in advance. I had plenty of batter for 2 large fillets cut into 8 servings plus one good size zucchini. I fried everything in small batches (starting with the zucchini) and once the pieces were drained on the paper towels I transferred them to a baking stone in a warm oven (170 F). Everything remained crispy, I was very impressed!

I didn't have any tartar sauce so I made my default "homemade cheater aioli". Here's the recipe:

 1/3  to 1/2 cup store-bought mayonnaise (I prefer the one that is made with free-range Canadian eggs)
Juice of half a lemon (fair-trade or organic if you can)
3 cloves of finely chopped garlic (if you can make a paste with the side of your knife, even better)
1 Tbsp olive oil

 Mix all ingredients to combine and let it sit for about 20-30 minutes so that the ingredients all blend together. If you're making this recipe for a veggie platter dip or a sweet potato fry dip, I suggest you double it ;)


Of course, not everyone appreciates garlicky mayonnaise so out comes... the ketchup! (Side note: just realized that although my ketchup is organic, it is not made from Ontario tomatoes... Going to have to take a good look at my jars...)


So, the verdict: Not only did all the boys eat everything on their plate, JJ & Mac had extra servings of fish, fought over the last piece and tried to sneak leftovers off daddy's plate!! I couldn't believe it. There were absolutely no complaints, the boys were super happy and chatty and told us about their school day.  I need to make this (not so slimming) dish more often!! 

Thanks for the challenge Jennie! We really enjoyed our family dinner :)

Read Jennie's "challenge yourself" post here: http://reallyjennie.blogspot.com/2011/03/get-your-shit-together-challenge.html

Winter Is Almost Over Soup

Spring is just around the corner and the boys are outside playing with the last piles of snow in the backyard (or at least they were when I started typing this sentence but they have since come in and want to paint...)

I really want to have a nice bright soup and finish up all the winter vegetables I have hanging around because it won't be long before we see some green!! 

Recipe for Coconut Curried Turnip Soup

1 ugly-looking inexpensive local wax turnip
1 local sweet potato (if you don't have local sweet potatoes, you could use a local white potato and a local carrot)
2 local cooking onions
1.5L homemade chicken stock (or enough to cover the vegetables + a bit)
1 can (400 ml) coconut milk - not local but also not locally available - buy organic or fair trade if you can 
Curry powder (likely not of local origin)
Salt
1 Tbsp Olive or Vegetable oil


Cut vegetables into small chunks. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium high. Add the onions and sprinkle with a bit of salt. Once you can smell the onions, add the turnips and sweet potato chunks. Turn heat to medium, fry them up for a bit so that they start to sweat. Don't let them stick to the bottom or burn so stir them a few times. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Cook until the sweet potato and turnip are soft (you'll probably have to turn the heat back down to medium or medium-low). Turn off the burner, remove from heat and use a hand blender to make a puree. Stir in the can of coconut milk and add curry powder to your liking. I use about 1.5 tsp. If it needs a bit of salt (which can be the case if you use homemade stock) then go ahead and add some but I like the sweet curry taste of the soup.


You could top with a dollop of plain yogurt if you like the hot/cool combination.


Tip: turnip takes longer to cook than sweet potato so cut the pieces smaller.

Dinner Improv

Ever have one of those weekday mornings where you think: "ok, if I can make enough tonight for leftovers, I will make it through the rest of this insane week"? Right, well, that was my plan of attack for tonight's dinner until I got home and got a call from hubs saying he had to work late and could I pick up the boys from daycare? No problem (as I think to myself "scrap 40 minutes from dinner prep"). 

So I come home with the 3 boys and I have zero time to think. Bread crumbs? Ugh - gotta get the food processor out. Almonds? Same thing. Corn flakes? None. Solution? Turkey nacho meatloaf! Yup! Why not?!? and some roasted potatoes on the side cause I have to finish my CSA order - more to come tomorrow!!

Roasted potatoes:
1 sweet potato (local)
6 small fingerling potatoes (local)
*cut into cubes (skin on or off, whichever your preference) and parboil. Drain and chuff them up in the sieve. Return to pot, drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper and dried rosemary (from the garden). Bake at 425F until golden & crisp. 


Turkey nacho meatloaf (prep while potatoes are boiling)
2 pounds ground turkey (origin unmarked on package. Creepy)
1 lg free run egg - lightly beaten (Canadian)
1 cup of smashed up nacho chips - I used the blue corn ones, lightly salted - put them in a plastic bag and crush with rolling pin (made in Canada).
1 small onion (local) - finely diced
1/4 - 1/3 cup medium salsa (imported. Origin unmarked on package. Also creepy)
1/3 cup small cubes of mozzarella (Canadian)
2 Tbsp Meatloaf Blend (prepared in Canada)
3 Tsp Taco Seasoning (prepared in Canada)

*Combine egg into the ground turkey. Stir in nacho crumbs, then onion, salsa, cheese and seasonings. Scoop into muffin tins to make individual loaves, bake at 425F for 18-20 minutes. Once meatloaves are in the oven, potatoes should be ready to be drained and put in the oven - they'll probably be ready at the same time. 

At this point, I am a bit nervous. It looks good and smells good but if it doesn't taste good, there goes my plan for leftovers this week! This is truly a culinary experiment.


Serve topped with usual nacho toppings (salsa, mozzarella and sour cream - Canadian).
 

It was delish. The boys ate with no complaints and thought it was cool that the blue chips were inside!

Winter bounty

OH! You know that nagging feeling of wanting to do something and never getting around to it? Well... Go! Go now! Go do it! Ok, well finish reading my post first, then go ;) In my last post I wrote about blueberry guilt. All week long whenever I opened the fridge, there they were, staring at me. Creepy foreign blue fruit. 

I signed on with a CSA farm that same week and a week and a half later I received my first delivery. It's so easy! I pay online and put my cooler on my doorstep. I leave a blanket in the cooler for a bit of insulation. They deliver right to my door!! When I got home this week, it was like Christmas!!! My oldest son (JJ, he's 7) helped me carry the cooler to the kitchen and we unpacked it together. 

It was full of surprises!! Mushrooms, garlic, heirloom potatoes, lettuce, micro greens, carrots, parsnip (new kind of carrot, as JJ put it), chard, celery, onions, sweet potato... I must be forgetting something. 

Oh yes! broccoli and cauliflower! Notice the bright red bell pepper right in the middle there? We filled half the table with tons of produce. Tons of local produce and celared roots. My kitchen table was so bright! JJ even asked me if we could make a salad for dinner!! Um? Yeah!!

Check out the inside of these gorgeous heirloom potatoes. Wish I knew what they were called!

 I'm thinking that my menu planning for the coming week might be a bit easier with a fridge full of vegetables. I'm already looking forward to my next delivery, and the next one, and the next one after that...
 

Oh! Now I have guilt!

Does January officially have 45 days? This month feels like it's never ending. The Holidays are over, the thermometer reads -30C and all I can see out my window is snow. I suppose that's all part of being Canadian. Then there's the flu, the ear aches, the tummy aches and all the other bugs that make you feel under the weather and make you want to stay under the covers and hibernate the winter away. 

Not sure if it's like this in your house but here, whenever we're run down by winter bugs, we always seem to come up with a new resolution: gonna wear an extra sweater under my coat (until I'm at the bus stop and realize I didn't), gonna do more exercise (as soon as I *feel* better), gonna go to bed earlier (yeah, right!), gonna eat more fresh fruit... wait! what? in winter???  Not if mommy-the-local-produce-obsessed-household-grocery-shopper has anything to say about it. 

Apparently "fruit" means: melons, grapes, pineapple and berries (all kinds - not frozen) and not the apples (local), bananas (my token acceptable year-round imported fruit), or oranges (currently in season) which are in my house. So... what's a mom to do? Offer beets and turnips? Epic fail. Sure enough, during my Saturday morning grocery run, what do I see at the entrance of the store? Blueberries (from Chile - gasp!) 3 pints for $5!!! The offer is too good to pass up!! For the sake of sanity I am standing 2 meters away from them contemplating the pros and cons. There is no way $5 for my 3 pints covers the entire cost of transportation or the farmer's wages, plus think about the Greenhouse Gas emissions, the pesticides, the freshness (surely they were not picked yesterday)... Yes. All of this is going through my mind because of blueberries in January. I finally suck it up and put the 3 pints in my cart. As Rex the big green dinosaur from Toy Story says so well: Oh! Now I have guilt!! I may have broken out into a cold sweat. I felt like I was wearing the scarlet letter. I turn to my Twitterverse and tell my followers that I might get struck by lightening because I am buying blueberries. 

I got home and guess what!?! Everyone is thrilled to have blueberries. So now the boys are going to be eating fruit all week. That's not such a bad thing is it? They eat their apples (most of the time), they find oranges messy and even in the banana container, my 5 year old still manages to make a banana mushy and won't eat it. A bit of change in the routine might do them some good. 

As for me, did I get over my sinful purchase? Not really. It just seems so wrong to have fresh berries in winter. But I did realize one thing, I need more freshness in my kitchen. So what did I do? I signed up for not one but two CSAs.What is a CSA? Consumer supported agriculture. You can read about it here. One is a local farm that delivers fresh produce year-round (even in winter - thanks to its greenhouses) and cellared vegetables. I can't wait to see what I get! I will certainly have a post about my first CSA experience. The other is meat and eggs and it's only for the summer. I have written a post about the Rock n Horse farm before and I only have wonderful things to say about their meat. Somehow I think perhaps these blueberries were put there for a reason, as a reminder that even in winter, local farmers are in need of our support. They're also a reminder that everything in moderation is good for the body and good for the soul.  

Root vegetables... not chips.

As the second week of January begins and we finish (only) the third week of winter (hard to believe), the local produce in the grocery store is scarce and can seem boring. That is until you bring it all together, with a help of a few extras! 

In my last post I mentioned that I would try root vegetable chips. I am sad to report, those were an EPIC failure. I bought rutabaga, beets, carrots and parsnips (all available from Ontario at the moment) and sliced them with the thin setting on my mandolin. I made an industrial quantity of the stuff. Add a bit of olive oil, some sea salt and some dried rosemary from my garden and I thought for sure I had a winning recipe. No such luck. The slices either burnt to a crisp or never crisped after cooling. So I scraped the batch. As the old saying goes, there are no mistakes in the kitchen only composting opportunities! I washed off my mandolin, reset it to the thick setting and tried again. Smaller batch and no rutabaga. These didn't burn but they also didn't crisp. I still don't know what I did wrong and I was so disappointed. I've done potatoes the same way and I've always succeeded. I will try again, when I have a spare hour or so to dedicate to another attempt. 

The second batch wasn't completely ruined however as I chopped them up and added them to a dish of stewed lentils with bacon (local), spinach (not local but organic) and some canned tomatoes (product of Canada). ~ Side note: always check the origin of the canned product. Sometimes they can be made from Canadian and imported products or sometimes the country of origin isn't even listed. Why don't they list the country of origin? So frustrating! ~ The lentil dish was very tasty and those roasted carrots and beets made the dish very colourful. Even the boys ate the dish and probably didn't even realize they were eating beets ;)