It’s pretty hard not to completely love someone who cleans your house for you. My cleaning lady is an awesome person … and I adore her even more since she shared this recipe with me.

In her subtle way, she inquired why I had bowls of green tomatoes all over my house. We’re talking heirlooms, Romas — both large and small — and cherries. Between our CSA farm harvest and our own plants, our tomato cups runneth over this year, and I was hoping the green ones would ripen up.

She then related to me how she used her green tomatoes — baked with garlic, oregano and olive oil — and I couldn’t wait to try it. It reminded me a bit of Scott Peacock’s slow-baked tomato recipe that we love here, but my cleaning lady said we’d end up with a much different flavor from the green ones, and she was right.

They are savory, slightly tangy and so rich and complex with flavor … very different from the sweet and syrupy slow-baked cherry tomatoes. I souped them up a bit and ended up with a new go-to recipe … as long as we have green tomatoes, that is.

Roasted Green Tomatoes with Garlic and Oregano

Ingredients:

• enough coarsely chopped green tomatoes to fill a 9X13 baking pan in a sort-of single layer (I use a bit more than that)
• about 8 cloves of garlic, sliced or quartered
• about 1/2 cup olive oil
• about 1/5 cup balsamic vinegar
• dried oregano to taste
• sea salt to taste
• freshly ground black pepper to taste

Arrange the garlic and chopped tomatoes in the pan, then pour olive oil over them and toss. There should be enough to coat the tomatoes and leave a coating on the bottom of the pan as well. Sprinkle with the oregano, salt and pepper and toss. Finally, drizzle with the balsamic vinegar and give everything a final mix.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about an hour, or until tomatoes are smushable. Then smush them so the juices mix with the oil and vinegar … yum.

We like to serve this over polenta with some salad and grilled sausages, but we’ve taken Kona’s suggestion and served it over quinoa with good results too.

I’m definitely not into the vegan thing. Eggs are a gift from the food gods not to be squandered. But I will say those feisty vegan bakers and their recipes saved me when my kid was allergic to eggs in the first three years of his life. in fact, almost any recipe by Isa was a big hit in our house with anyone … not just the eggless. And I have a really mean extended family who’s not afraid to tell me when my cooking sucks.

One of our favorites is Isa’a chewy chocolate chocolate chip cookie recipe. I have a cousin who has specifically requested these cookies, so that’s very telling. For years, it was revered and I wouldn’t mess with it even a little bit (I’m such a liar … I never use canola oil, so I’d use butter, rice bran oil, or coconut oil). Lately, though, I’ve started messing for a couple of reasons.

I’m sort of off chocolate, in theory. I’ll eat a chocolate dessert now and then, but I’m proud to say I no longer hoarf down a handful of chocolate chips every time I pass the pantry closet. Yeah, I’m prouder than the mom of a round-headed newborn.

I really don’t like the kid to have too much chocolate either since caffeine and the under-6 crowd of bad sleepers really don’t mix. We’ll try anything, even tricking him.

And now we’re back at the messing. A couple of weeks ago, I made Isa’s recipe with half cocoa powder and half carob powder. No one could tell, so I started getting crazy. I added, substituted and made the recipe mine, all mine. And in my house, anyway, we think it’s better.

It’s healthier, super-delicious but still “normal.” I held myself back from adding pureed spinach, but used the most nutritious unrefined sugar I could find, used coconut milk instead of soy milk and some of the oil and this and that until it fit my specs for healthy. Try it and see what you think.

Carob Chocolate Chip Cookies with Coconut and Cranberries

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup rice bran oil + 1/4 cup coconut milk
• 1 1/2 cups palm sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon whole flax seeds
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 2 cups whole spelt flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened carob powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup grain-sweetened chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup fruit-sweetened dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes (optional)

Grind the flax seeds in a blender until they become a powder, then add the 1/2 cup of coconut milk and blend more, until the mixture thickens a bit and gets gooey.

Meanwhile, mix flour, carob powder, baking soda and salt together in a separate bowl.

Using a mixer (yes, Isa, I’m willing to lose the punk points), cream together the oil + coconut milk and the palm sugar, then add the flax mixture and vanilla and keep on mixing until mixture is almost fluffy.

Slowly add the dry ingredients while mixer is set to low speed. Blend well then stir in chocolate chips, cranberries and coconut.

Plop onto greased cookie sheets and make semi-pretty circles almost 2 inches around, slightly flattened in the middle. These do rise and expand, so leave at least an inch between cookies.

Bake for 10 minutes, let cool for 10 minutes on the pan and then cool the rest of the way on wire racks.

I may not be writing much these days, but our CSA farm’s harvest has been so plentiful this season that I’ve been busy blanching and freezing green and yellow beans, making salsa from the Roma tomatoes and making and freezing fresh tomato sauce for this winter. Oh, there have been some batches of my easy lentil vegetable soup in there as well, and now I’ve got a new recipe for minestrone soup to share with you.

My friend Laura and I have mastered the art of the “found” lunch. Every so often we have a lunch playdate and we each just bring what we’ve got and we end up with a spread fit for a king — or at least two five-year-olds and their moms. Homemade hummus, veggies sticks, fresh fruit, homemade bread and raw seed wafers are often on the menu, and last week when we met at Laura’s house, she had some fresh, homemade minestrone soup to share with us — made from her CSA farm harvest.

When we got back from the farm this weekend, we were quite overwhelmed by the amount of food we had. I was prepared to cook up a huge batch of my favorite lentil soup (again) when Keith asked me if there was a green bean soup recipe we could do. I immediately thought of Laura’s minestrone, chock-full of green beans, and thought I’d take a stab at my own version of minestrone — a soup I’d never made before.

I popped by Food Network’s website to see when to add the pasta and one other little tip caught my eye: In their version of minestrone soup, they mash half of the kidney beans to make a thicker, more flavorful broth. Yes please! So I stole that idea and gleefully mashed my kidney beans. The rest is all me — I swear!

Minestrone My Way

Ingredients:

• 2 onions, diced
• 7 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 zucchini, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 3-4 cups green beans, cut into 1-inch segments
• 4 tomatoes, diced
• 1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained, and mash half the beans
• 8 cups water
• 2 tablespoons Better than Bouillon veggie base (or thereabouts)
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1/2 pound pasta (I used brown rice penne)
• about 4-6 kale leaves, chopped into 1/4 – 1/2 inch sections
• 3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
• parmesan or pecorino romano cheese, freshly grated

Heat some olive oil in a large pot and saute the onion and garlic until fragrant, about one minute. Add the carrots and zucchini and cook until tender, about five minutes.

Next, add water, Better than Bouillon, tomatoes and green beans and bring to a simmer. Add the pasta and simmer for about 10 minutes. Toss in herbs and seasoning, kidney beans (mashed and whole) and kale and cook until heated through. Add parsley and remove from heat.

This soup is designed to be served with lots of freshly grated pecorino romano or parmesan cheese. If you plan to veganize it — gasp! — you might want to add a bit more of the Better than Bouillon to compensate for the lack of salty cheesy goodness.

There’s a great article in the September issue of Better Homes and Gardens. Scott Peacock and Kim Severson discuss the return to the kitchen movement, that all across America home chefs are embracing their kitchen time and using fresh, wholesome ingredients that taste good and are good for you. And they’re enjoying it. Because of this, classic American cooking looks a bit different these days.

It was a really inspiring read and I couldn’t wait to try Peacock’s recipe for slow baked tomatoes with garlic and mint. It’s so simple (really only four main ingredients) that I almost didn’t believe it would turn out to be so spectacular, but it’s truly amazing. Tons of roasted garlic and mint infused into the olive oil that the tomatoes baked in for an hour. In the recipe online, they suggest serving on bread with goat cheese, but in the magazine they also mentioned over pasta would work.

I cooked up some penne and prepared Peacock’s recipe as-is — I know, it’s like I was possessed or something, but I swear I didn’t change a thing. Until I served it.

Keith grilled up some eggplant because I thought it would go wonderfully with the tomatoes and mint and we tossed that into the pasta, along with giant globs of goat cheese and Kalamata olives (well, none for Keith). I also made some turkey meatballs, which I’ll write about in another post, because vegetarian dishes aren’t really a meal for the carnivores I cook for.

We all yummed throughout the whole meal and I’d cook this up again in a heartbeat. The next time, I think I would try it on the bread as suggested, simply because there’s a lovely amount of infused olive oil left and some thick, crusty bread would soak it up to perfection. Although now I’m thinking this would be divine served over polenta….

UPDATE: My new favorite way to eat this recipe is as Kona suggested — over quinoa, with some chick peas added for extra protein. Yes, I got my boys to eat a vegetarian meal … alert the press. I save the polenta for the roasted green tomatoes, which is a perfect match.

When this time of year rolls around, I make quinoa tabbouleh, pretty much a different way every time. I did a few funky things this time, so I wrote it down, lest I become like my father who’s famous for making wonderful dishes … once. Because he never writes down the recipe, therefore we never get it again.

Wow, huge digression. The reason I make quinoa tabbouleh in late summer is because I have many of the ingredients growing right here in my own yard: flat-leaf parsley, mint, roma tomatoes, cucumber and chives (though I used scallions in this recipe).

I made it this time because on vacation last week, I had an amazing red quinoa tabbouleh with some seared yellowfin tuna and a tahini yogurt sauce. It was perfection in every way and so I had better-than-average tabbouleh on the brain. While I didn’t make it to the store to get red quinoa (which is definitely on my list) and I didn’t really set out to duplicate the Ocean House’s tabbouleh, I ended up with one that Keith and I couldn’t stop snitching before the meal was even served, so I did something right.

Quinoa Tabouleh

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dry quinoa
• 2 cups water
• 1-2 teaspoons miso (depending on how subtle you want it)
• 1-2 scallions, finely chopped (about 1/4 cup)
• 2/3 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 1 tablespoon fresh mint, chopped
• 8 medium roma tomatoes, chopped
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted
• 1/4 cup diced cucumber

For the dressing:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• a dash or two of chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon toasted cumin seed, coarsely ground in a mortar and pestle
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Put the quinoa, water and miso in a pot and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low, cover and cook until water is absorbed, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, do all the chopping, toast the cumin seeds in a dry pan until fragrant, remove them, then use the same pan to toast the almonds. One less dirty pan — score!

Next, you can whisk together the dressing ingredients.

After quinoa has cooled, toss everything together, again with the dressing and serve at room temperature.

We served this tabouleh with Ellie Krieger’s rubbed pork tenderloin, only we grilled it instead of pan searing and baking it. It was delicious!

We’re right in the midst of the CSA Farm season, and I love it for oh-so-many reasons. Yes, the fresh food is great. Sure, I love showing my kid where vegetables come from and I delight in him picking the veggies and eating them right from the plant, as if it’s the most amazing forbidden treasure (it is!).  But I mostly love having to think outside the box to create meals. In the wintertime (most of the time), I plan a menu based on recipes and shop for the ingredients. When I’ve got a fridge full of the freshest veggies around and I get to create meals using my creativity, it’s an exciting challenge. I know they’re going to be healthy so all I have to think about is what tastes good.

Radicchio and figs taste fabulous together. I know I’ve created a leeky, Greek-y pasta with figs and radicchio before, but this one is really completely different. I don’t often do this, but technique plays a big part in the taste of this dish, so be sure to read and follow the directions carefully.

Pasta with Figs, Radicchio and Chick Peas

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups mission figs, reconstituted and halved
• 1 can chick peas
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cups green or yellow beans, cut in 2-inch pieces
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 cup raw slivered almonds
• balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 cups radicchio, chopped
• 1 cup packed fresh basil, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
• goat cheese
• 1/2 pound pasta, cooked (I used brown rice rotini)

Heat some olive oil over medium heat in a saute pan. Add the onion and green beans and saute for a minute or two, then add the garlic and almonds and cook until everything is tender, about 10 minutes.

Sprinkle just a little balsamic vinegar to de-glaze the pan and get everything all rich and brown and syrupy. Add the chick peas, figs and radicchio and cook through, then de-glaze the pan again with another sprinkle of balsamic vinegar, this time to wilt the radicchio.

Remove from heat and stir in the basil and rosemary and season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Whisk together the lemon juice and olive oil, stir the pasta into the pan with the chick pea mixture, toss all with the olive oil/lemon juice, spoon onto plates and top with some goat cheese.

We served this with grilled chicken thighs blackened with salt, pepper, garlic powder, oregano and basil. You can keep it a vegetarian dish if you like — there’s plenty of protein with the chick peas.

I like it tart, with the lemon juice and the goat cheese, but if you want to mix in some of the water that the figs soaked in, it would definitely add an extra dose of sweetness.

In the interest of trying new foods, I grabbed some escarole off of the choice table of our CSA farm a couple of weeks ago. I was told that it was a versatile, somewhat bitter green that can be cooked or used raw in salads. Loving radicchio and arugula as I do, I thought I’d give it a try.

A day or two after bringing the escarole home, I pulled out salad ingredients and the escarole. To make a very long story short, I was able to save the salad but it didn’t include escarole. I just found the texture too tough to eat raw. So in my refrigerator the escarole sat.

I had been playing around with a few ideas on how to cook the escarole, and I kept coming back to white beans. Wouldn’t you know that when I went to the CSA farm the next week, Rachael Ray‘s recipe for beans and greens (which I could find nowhere in the internet to share with you) was included in the newsletter, and one of the suggested greens was escarole.

After I finished patting myself on the back for thinking like a famous cook, I took a closer look at her recipe. Man, was it boring! I know some flavors are so wonderful that simple recipes are best, yada yada yada, but I knew I could do a little better than onion, garlic, beans, greens and chicken broth.

White Beans and Escarole with Fresh Herbs

Ingredients:

• 1 medium onion, finely diced
• 3 large cloves garlic, minced
• 15-ounce can white beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 cups (or so) of escarole, roughly chopped
• 1 cup (or so) white wine or chicken broth
• 1/3 cup (or so) mixed herbs (I used flat leaf parsley, sage, basil and rosemary), chopped
• 1/2 tomato, finely diced
• juice of half a lemon
• sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• pecorino romano for sprinkling

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until tender. Add the escarole and wilt. Add the white beans and white wine and simmer for about five minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the herbs, tomato and lemon juice. Season. Sprinkle with pecorino romano or parmesan cheese just before serving.

We served this dish with some grilled sausage (I think it was the smoked turkey and chicken pesto flavor) and that was dinner, but it could easily be a vegetarian main dish.

I was fraught with indecision, I have to say, about the lemon juice versus a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. I suppose you could try either, but I went with the lemon juice and I was very glad that I did. It added just a bit of brightness that I was looking for in the dish, whereas the balsamic would have changed the flavor entirely. Experiment with it and see what you think works best.

Usually I strive to find something original to add to a recipe to give it the “wow” factor. Hearts of palm in a sweet pea and black lentil salad, kelp noodles, well, with anything normal and homemade strawberry ice cream with coconut milk and Greek yogurt.

Some dishes, though, just don’t need anything funky mucking up the works. Margherita pizza, and broccoli saute using all that’s growing seasonally. I know I’m somewhat deviant — I think you’ve probably all caught on to that — but I get positively giddy when I eat something that has grown locally. My favorite Sunday game is guessing what we’ll get on our way to our CSA farm that week, and when it’s from our own yard, watch out … I’m a crazy woman.

This broccoli dish is everything that excites me: broccoli from our CSA farm, basil from our own garden and a tomato from the best farm stand in town. We’re talking local, baby! This is going to be as good as Kona’s farmer’s market pizza, I just know it!

I must digress for a moment and share with you the head-spinning fact that I had my first summer tomato today. Not the tasteless, store-bought, hard-as-a-rock tomatoes — I’m talking about the sweet, meaty fresh-off-the-vine down the street tomatoes … so juicy, so sweet, so delectably ripe and flavorful. Man, it was a good day. Digression over.

Summer Broccoli Saute

Ingredients:

• 1 giant head of broccoli, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 medium tomato, chopped
• 1 good handful fresh basil, chopped chiffonade style
• aged balsamic vinegar for drizzling
• pecorino romano cheese, grated, for sprinkling

Heat a little olive oil in a skillet over medium heat then add the onion and broccoli. Saute for a few minutes, then add the garlic. Cook until vegetables are tender-crisp and a bit golden, maybe 5 to 10 minutes. Add the tomato and heat through, and toss in the basil after removing from heat. Before serving, drizzle with the aged balsamic and sprinkle with the pecorino romano cheese. Toss and serve.

This couldn’t be a more simple, classic recipe, but it’s the perfect way to use your summer harvest — and get your joy on from all the fresh, local food you’ve included in one dish.

A friend of mine recently started a raw food diet, and when I got the opportunity to split a case of kelp noodles with her, I jumped at the chance. Trying a new food is a beautiful thing, and when it’s this healthy for you, it makes it all the more exciting. No-carb noodles with all the nutrition of a sea vegetable and can be served like your favorite pasta? Yes, please.

They are so easy to use too — just rinse and plop in your recipe. You can heat them through, as I did here or just use them cold or room temperature. I’m not sure there’s a wrong way to eat kelp noodles. There’s another positive — they’re a forgiving food.

Speaking of forgiving … I ate “pasta” and didn’t leave the table bloated — score!

We bought some salmon to eat with the kelp noodles, so I went with some flavors I love combining with that flaky, oily, heavenly little pink fish — garlic, ginger, miso, lime juice, sesame oil. The recipe just created itself from there (based on what I had in the house) and this nutritious, vegetarian dish was born.

Kelp Noodles with Almond-Miso Sauce

Ingredients:

• 12-ounce package of kelp noodles
• 1 huge broccoli floret, chopped
• 1/2 an onion, chopped
• sesame seeds for sprinkling
• red pepper flakes to taste
• 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped

For the sauce:

• 2 tablespoons almond butter
• 1 teaspoon miso
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon lime juice

Saute the broccoli and the onion until tender and golden. Add the kelp noodles and heat through.

Meanwhile, whisk all of the sauce ingredients together.

Add the sauce to the broccoli and kelp noodle mixture and quickly heat through. Remove from heat and sprinkle in sesame seeds, cilantro and red pepper flakes.

The less you heat the noodles, the more you’ll probably like them, at least that’s what we found. They are pretty wonderful no matter what, but the longer you cook them, the more rubbery they become, whereas fresh from the package they have a delightful crunch. (The five-year-old called it a “pop.”)

Owen, by the way, loved these noodles (you’ll notice the dot of sauce on the tip of his nose — consider that proof), and if you’re a savvy parent, you won’t cut them to your desired size as the package suggests. No, your desired size will be the long, slurpy strings that make your kid grin from ear to ear.

Would you get a look at that creamy goodness? We make ice cream fairly often, partly because we’re careful about our refined sugar and dairy intake but mostly because it’s fun to stand at the ice cream maker with a spoon and snitch as it’s churning. We’d never tried a strawberry ice cream before and now that we have I can’t imagine why it took so long!

Our CSA farm’s strawberries came in early this year — hooray! — so we picked a bunch of luscious ripe berries this weekend. They were so sweet and ripe, they weren’t going to keep long enough for us to just eat them out of the container. So we made ice cream!

A few notes about this recipe: It’s very close to our pumpkin coconut milk ice cream with a few alterations. I was going for creamy — you know, strawberries and cream — so I added some strained Greek yogurt and I really like the way it blends with the coconut milk. Too much yogurt and it would be too sour for my tastes, so don’t be tempted to add more than the recipe calls for unless you’re prepared for a little tang with your sweet.

You know how homemade ice cream gets really hard after you put it in the freezer? One thing I really like about this recipe is that it didn’t until a couple of days later. I think the creaminess of the yogurt combined with all the sugar in the strawberries helped with that. If you still think it gets too hard too fast, add a shot of some strawberry liquor.

Our berries were dripping with sweetness, but if yours are more tart, feel free to add more agave syrup until it’s just the way you like it.

Homemade Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream

Ingredients:

• 1 can coconut milk (14 ounces)
• 1/2 cup Greek strained yogurt, plain (I used 2% because no markets in my area see fit to carry the whole milk version)
• 3 tablespoons agave syrup
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups freshly picked strawberries

In a medium bowl, mash the strawberries with a fork, then whisk in the other ingredients. Dump into your ice cream maker and grab a spoon … in about 10 minutes, you can start snitching while the ice cream churns….

I know it’s crazy but I did it anyway: I searched the internet for homemade chicken stock recipes. I don’t know why I did this, because I really am quite capable of covering a carcass with some water and simmering for a lengthy period of time. Heck, I even knew that tossing in some veggies and herbs would be a good idea.

But I wanted to get an idea of ratio and technique, so I searched to find the perfect homemade chicken stock recipe. Why? I’ve been roasting a lot of chickens lately and it seemed a good idea to save money by making my own healthy organic chicken stock, to freeze for future use.

First I tried Alton Brown’s recipe for chicken stock. I was immediately surprised by the length of time he recommended — simmering uncovered for 6-8 hours, adding more water as needed. My stock was good, but definitely didn’t have the flavor I was hoping for, which I think was due to not covering and adding more, unflavored water to the mix.

In my internet travels, I stumbled upon a recipe for homemade chicken stock in the slow cooker. Now why didn’t I think of that? It would seemingly solve the two problems I hypothesized were wrong with my first batch — the covering and the adding more water — so I went for it. Perfect!

Usually Alton Brown’s got the science of a recipe down-pat, but in this case he missed the mark. My slow cooker broth turned out rich and flavorful and a much darker color than his recipe yielded. I still think you can make great chicken stock on the stovetop, but if I tried it again, I’d put the cover on my pot and not add any water.

But really — why would I? The slow cooker is so low-maintenance. No watching is necessary, and when the timer goes off, you’ve got homemade chicken stock. It couldn’t be easier and I ended up with 3-4 quarts … I just saved myself eight bucks, baby — a perfectly good head of lettuce.

I might have mentioned once or 87 times that Kona’s got me addicted to making homemade pasta. I started with what came out to be a cross between fettuccine and linguine for my pasta with green beans, artichokes and capers. It was delicious, fun, satisfying and all that other good stuff, but my real motivation for making homemade pasta was because I desperately miss raviolis.

Sure, I’d snitch a bite if Keith ordered them from a restaurant, but it’s not the same as enjoying a whole meal of them and it’s very difficult to find wheat-free raviolis. These were my first attempt, based on a Hawaiian recipe which was a little too crazy for my first foray into ravioli-land. I simplified the flavors and made it more traditionally Italian, since that’s what I had been craving for years anyway.

I liked the recipe because I had everything in the house and there was no cheese filling, which my son definitely didn’t need. They got the seal-of-approval from the five-year-old, so the cheese was not missed (though I will be making some cheese-filled ones at some point).

Homemade Sun-Dried Tomato Raviolis

Ingredients:

• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 cup white beans, cooked and drained (I used canned)
• 5 sun-dried tomatoes, re-hydrated
• 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon water from the sun-dried tomatoes reconstituting
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• ½ teaspoon fresh chopped rosemary
• 1 tablespoon fresh chopped basil

Cook the onion and garlic in a bit of olive oil and then add them to a food processor, along with all the other ingredients. Blend, and add more sun-dried tomato water to get your desired consistency.

Make your pasta dough like Kona did, or try making spelt flour pasta, my favorite! Roll the dough out to your desired consistency, cut into ravioli-sized squares and plop some filling in the center of each square. I just wet the edges with a little water, put another pasta square on top and pinched the raviolis shut.

Toss raviolis into boiling water and cook until they float, which is not very long at all, just a few minutes. Serve with your favorite sauce, or try the one below.

Tomato & Feta Cheese Sauce for White Bean Ravioli

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces diced tomatoes
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup packed fresh basil, chopped
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons feta cheese
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons white wine

Cook onion in the olive oil until tender, then add wine, balsamic vinegar and tomatoes to pan. Cook to reduce slightly then stir in all other ingredients. Serve over raviolis.

The ecstasy of being able to eat raviolis again has been unmatched by any other food experience lately. Oh stuffed pasta, I missed you so … I’m very glad you’re back in my life.

What is it with America and its meatloaf? I’ve never made a meatloaf until the other night, and with this one simple act, I think I’ve solved many of this country’s problems.

Meatloaf is not a quick and easy meal. Seriously people, if this is the way you all cook, it’s no wonder that America eats out 4-5 nights a week on average. I’d eat out too if all of my meals took multiple steps and over two hours from start to finish. Put a piece of fish on a grill pan and roast some broccoli and sweet potatoes. You’ll have a delicious, healthy meal in a half hour.

It is not fun to make a meatloaf. It’s fun playing in a sandbox. I enjoy rolling ginger cookies into balls and coating them with sugar. I do not ever again want to take my wedding rings off in order to plunge my hands into two pounds of cold, raw meat and mix. With. My. Hands. I may as well have been swimming in Maine’s oceans, for crying out loud. We’re talking severe pain deep within the blood vessels, too cold for words. I’m so sure this was a job for my KitchenAid. I’ve washed my hands three times and there is still crusty raw meat stuck under my fingernails.

But it’s all OK, because I’ve just made the world’s most delicious meatloaf and I’m beginning to understand what you people see in this dish.

I never, ever watch the news, but when I saw Stephi’s of Boston’s recipe for cheddar meatloaf, I decided it was finally time for me to participate in this American pastime of meatloaf-making. As usual, my recipe looks absolutely nothing like hers in the end; I don’t even use cheese. I will always thank Stephi for her inspiration and perhaps I’ll even attempt the cheese someday.

Debbie’s Gourmet Meatloaf

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground turkey, dark meat
• 1 pound ground beef, 85%
• 1 egg
• 1 medium onion, chopped and caramelized
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/3 cup ketchup
• 2 teaspoons grainy mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
• 1 slice of bread toasted and food-processed (or 1/2 cup bread crumbs)
• salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix the egg and the next 6 ingredients in a large mixing bowl and then add the meats, oregano and basil and salt and pepper to taste. Mix with your hands (or for crying out loud, try your KitchenAid) until completely blended. Fold in bread crumbs until just blended.

On a cookie sheet lined with foil, form a loaf with mixture and coat with salt and pepper. Bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour, fifteen minutes or until 160 degrees in the center.

I served my meatloaf with a giant mesclun salad and that’s all. Well, OK, the five-year-old dipped it in ketchup, but he does that with everything.

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The first thing you’re probably thinking is, “Avocados are so ridiculously delicious — why would anyone make a guacamole without them?” That’s what I thought before I first tried sweet pea guacamole, many years ago. Let me say right up front here that sweet pea guacamole is not a substitute for avocado guacamole, it’s a completely different dip but very yummy in its own right.

Don’t get me started on these do-gooders who think they are making healthier recipes for us when all they’re doing is taking the good fat out of our diets along with the taste. There’s nothing wrong with saturated fats from whole foods — avocados, coconuts and their oil, all the “taboo” foods are fine to eat, and in fact offer your body a great many benefits. So make the sweet pea guacamole because you want the taste of it, not because you fear avocados. That’s just silly.

What’s not silly is that this weekend, the little recipe that saved my appetizer was, in fact, a recipe for sweet pea guacamole. I have these avocados that refuse to ripen, and a bag of frozen peas are infinitely less stubborn than unripe avocados, so I went with it.

Using this recipe for sweet pea guacamole as a base, I altered it more to suit my tastes (since I actually have taste buds) and added more, well, tasty things. Remember, make the sweet pea guacamole because you want a different taste … or because your avocados won’t ripen.

Sweet Pea Guacamole

Ingredients:

• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 1 pound bag of frozen peas, defrosted
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice or 1 tablespoon lemon juice + 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 2 tablespoons fire roasted chile peppers (though I bet I could have used the whole can … it was small and the dip wasn’t spicy)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 cup packed fresh cilantro
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion (your choice)
• 1 tomato, chopped
• lots of freshly ground black pepper

Puree the peas, garlic, chiles, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper and cumin until smooth. Pulse in the cilantro, onion and tomato. Taste and increase seasonings to your liking.

Just a few notes. Because the peas are so sweet, you probably want lemon juice as opposed to lime; it’ll give your dip a little more kick. But try it out and see what works for you. You can add raw jalepenos for more spice and always more garlic and cumin. This guacamole was perfect served with thick, organic, restaurant-style yellow corn chips.

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In an attempt to eat a somewhat lighter meal than we’ve been indulging in this winter vacation, we cooked fish the other night. To be honest, I wasn’t all that jazzed up about it. I definitely could have wrapped my taste buds around a comforting stew with my mesclun salad and been very satisfied. Instead, I got a slab of fish.

It ended up to be a very delicious slab of fish (and pretty too), but still. I’m just a little resentful that fish found its way to my plate after all of the luscious stews and roasts and beef tenderloins (yes, there was even a Wellington in there, my friends). The fish was very simple to prepare and quite satisfying if you can lose the bad attitude and enjoy it for what it is: lighter fare that should probably be on your plate anyway.

Alaskan Cod and Mango Salsa

Ingredients for the fish:

• Alaskan cod (very different and much yummier than Atlantic cod)
• flour of your choice seasoned with salt and pepper
• 1 egg, beaten
• corn meal

This is the famous Steve Degon double-dip … are you ready? Pat the fish dry and dip it in the flour, then dredge in the egg, then dip in the corn meal. Saute in a pan until browned and done. Yes, you can use your sprouted spelt flour and pink mineral salt and organic corn meal, so that your recipe is worthy of a Fresh Foodie recipe.

Meanwhile….

Ingredients for the salsa:

• 1 cup mango chunks, diced
• 1/2 onion, diced and microwaved for a minute or two in a little olive oil to take the edge off
• about 1/4 cup fresh basil, chiffonade style
• 1/2 red pepper, diced
• lemon juice to taste
• freshly ground black pepper to taste

What can I say? It’s what we had in the house and it worked. You could also try the crunchy mango salsa recipe I devised some time ago, which has snap peas and other yummies in it.

I didn’t get my hearty stew, but I did get a delightful, spur-of-the-moment fish and my gourmet musclun salad, so all was not lost. Oh, and the kid got his potatoes (Owen’s living up to his last name with the whole potato-obsession thing he’s got going). We recently bought a new mandoline (which we love!) that makes crinkle cuts, so we sliced thick chips and oven-roasted them at 400 degrees convection roast for about 20 minutes or so.

I suppose as we detox from the holidays and get back on the healthy bandwagon that lighter food is inevitable. And as soon as the weather warms, I’ll embrace it, but for right now, I want me some beef stew!

Every Christmas Eve, my family throws a giant party with all of the aunts, uncles and cousins. Everyone brings an appetizer or dessert and we munch and mingle the night away. In the past we’ve brought our butternut squash sage pizza, chicken wings, and a variety of dips and one-bite appetizers.

One thing I always try to bring is something I know Owen can eat, since he’s got lots of food allergies. And in fine five-year-old form, he’ll refuse to eat anything at a party that can’t be scooped up easily, grabbed and eaten on the run. If there’s a fork involved, all bets are off.

A few weeks ago, I was playing with a white bean dip recipe which we ended up using inside quesadillas. Yesterday, I stepped it up a bit and perfected it and that’s what I’m bringing tonight, along with these recipes for Alton Brown’s olive tapenade and sun-dried tomato tapenade (can’t stop eating this one … hope it makes it to the party!). They go so well together and when it’s a bigger gathering, I feel cheesy just bringing a little bowl of dip, so classing it up and presenting it as a “dip trio” made me feel better about myself.

White Bean Dip with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Roasted Garlic

Ingredients:

• 15-ounce can white beans, rinsed and drained
• 2-3 large cloves of garlic (or more!)
• 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice, depending on how lemony you like it
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 sun-dried tomatoes, reconstituted in hot water, then drained
• 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• pinch sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper to taste

To roast the garlic: Cut the tops of the garlic cloves off, but leave them in their skins. Drizzle with a little olive oil and wrap loosely in foil. Cook at 400 degrees convection roast (or 425 normal) for about 30 minutes.

Puree beans and sun dried tomatoes until smooth, adding lemon juice and olive oil until smooth and of desired consistency. Adjust, then add the garlic and puree again.

Add all other ingredients and pulse until just blended. If you blend too long, the basil will become pureed and make the dip an ugly color, so please pulse. Serve with baguette rounds drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with grated cheese (we used pecorino romano) and baked at 400 degrees for about 5-7 minutes. Rice crackers and pita chips are also perfect with these three dips.

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It looks delicious, right? I so wish I could confirm that, but Pizzeria Uno’s gluten-free pizza kind of sucks, and that’s just too bad.

I suppose I should be commending Pizzeria Uno for providing fare that the gluten-intolerant can enjoy; it’s a lovely sentiment. But here’s where it gets tricky … no one, even someone with the most limited of diets, could truly say they enjoy this tasteless pizza.

It’s been quite a few years now since I’ve partaken in Pizzeria Uno’s amazing deep dish pizza, chock-full of flavor. I remember loving it, and even though I could only eat a slice or two, it was worth it … full of sausage, veggies and everything that makes pizza worth eating.

In all fairness, maybe that pizza sucks these days too. Nothing, though, excuses the gluten-free pizza’s lack of … everything. Sure, it’s got veggies, which is always a good thing, but the cheese just kind of sits there on the very lame excuse for pizza crust, and the sauce is truly the unseasoned version of a cheap, canned sauce. Not a green fleck to be had. Dude, try an herb or two, really.

Perhaps I am spoiled, not only by our own homemade, wheat-free (not gluten-free) pizza, but also by the Boynton Restaurant’s amazing gluten-free choices. This is a local restaurant (about 15 minutes away) whose owner’s son has celiac disease, so they’ve developed the most luscious gluten-free pizza you can imagine. The sauce is spectacular, tomato-y and filled with herbs and spices. The three-cheese blend is satisfying, and if you order the broccoli, feta and onion pizza (we’ve even created our own version of this favorite) , you’ll get four — four! — cheeses and a rich, decadent white sauce. I really can’t express in words how delicious this pizza is.

So Pizzeria Uno, what were you thinking? People who don’t eat wheat enjoy flavor just as much as the next bub, so I hope you’ll revamp your gluten-free pizza and add some taste, flavor, herbs … something!

I love vacation days … the ones where nothing in particular has been planned and schlepping around the house is the preferred family activity. It’s days like these (add in some pouring rain) that inspire me to make a big pot of homemade soup, and that’s exactly what I did today.

We don’t have any Thanksgiving leftovers hanging around, since we didn’t host, so the fridge and pantry were looking pretty bare. I didn’t even have a can of lentil soup, which turned out to be a very good thing indeed. I literally just chopped and tossed, tossed and chopped until a soup was born. Cooking with whole foods is so very easy and healthy, and this soup took just over 30 minutes from start to finish.

The fun part about this lentil soup is that you can alter it in about four-thousand ways and never feel like you’re bored. I’ll include a few variations — that Owen whined about while he was eating lunch — but the ingredients in your fridge, freezer and pantry are your only limitations. I can’t tell you how pleased I am that I am a food hoarder and have just about every frozen vegetable known to man at any given time. Trust me, it comes in handy.

Easy Lentil and Vegetable Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups dried lentils
• 6 cups water
• 1 TB Better Than Bouillon, or any concentrated veggie broth
• 2 large carrots
• 2 stalks celery
• 1 onion
• 5 cloves garlic
• 2 cups corn
• 2 cups green beans
• 1 tablespoon miso
• 2 teaspoons basil
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme
• freshly ground pepper
• 1 cup baby spinach
• pecorino romano for serving

Put the water and lentils in a large pot and bring to a boil, then turn heat down so you’ve got a rapid simmer going. As you chop the other ingredients (or yank them out of your freezer) just toss them in. I’m sure you could argue technique with me from now until the soup pot boils over, but this method works for this soup (and for me most of the time). If there’s an ingredient you want less cooked, add it in late (like I stirred in the spinach at the very end).

Simmer until lentils are tender, about 30 minutes. You can cover this or not, depending on how thick or brothy you like your soup. Be sure to sprinkle with freshly grated cheese just before serving.

Variations:

• Add diced potatoes, your five-year-old will whine much less.
• Add a 14-ounce can of diced tomatoes.
• Change out the spices and use 2 tablespoons of curry powder and 1 teaspoon of ginger instead. And heck, if you’re going there, add a can of coconut milk to the broth.

I ask the question, because some people just don’t care. It’s only one day out of the year, right? Surely it’s OK to have a cheat-fest and eat all that’s put in front of you. If that works for you, go crazy and enjoy.

It doesn’t work for me. I’ll indulge in things I usually don’t eat (like a few bites of my dad’s stuffing), but I’ll only have a bite or two. Not because I’m worried about the calories, or even setting a good example for my son. I choose to eat moderately because I want to feel good.

It’s just not worth it to me to overeat, especially foods that aren’t usually in my diet. I love Thanksgiving, just like Bob — being with family with no strings (or gifts!) attached is a blessing in itself, and I want to enjoy it — without a tummyache, headache or excessive fatigue.

Here’s what I plan on eating this Thanksgiving, and maybe, just maybe, I’ll post the reality on Friday if it differs from my plans.

Turkey. I find no sin in turkey, and I’ll eat the dark meat with wild abandon and no guilt, since calorie for calorie, it’s got more nutrition and flavor than the white meat.

I’ll have a few bites of my dad’s stuffing, a few bites of the orange veggie that someone will be bringing, and a few bites of the cheesy greens my sister is making. I’m bringing — I think! — a green bean casserole made with whole foods (maybe this one), not sodium-laden cream-of-mushroom soup with canned onions, and I’ll eat lots of that as well.

I’m also making a bread with sprouted spelt flour so that Owen and I can eat it … I’m thinking cranberry bread or zucchini bread. Everyone else makes pumpkin bread, so that would be too many  at our table. Wait — is there a such thing as too much pumpkin bread?

That will be about it, aside from the sugar-laden cranberry sauce which I can’t resist but find that I’m far too lazy to make a replacement for (I used to make cranberry sauce with orange juice and it was delicious). I may have a bite or two of dessert, but I generally enjoy real food far more than dessert (not chocolate; chocolate trumps everything) and I don’t have a sweet tooth.

Is it so wrong? Am I un-American? Should I start eading for the Canadian border now, before you all run me out of the good ol’ US of A? If I mention that I have not problem drinking excessively, will I save some face?

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We’re in the heart of it now… the beautiful season we call autumn. There are so many things to love about the fall in New England: the spectacular foliage, the crisp sunshiny weather and the seasonal foods. Let’s celebrate the fresh, whole food and autumn-inspired recipes that the season brings us. You just might find a new favorite.

You’ve read all about our organic apple-picking adventures and some of the ways we love to enjoy our apples. As I type this post, I’ve got some butternut squash seeds roasting in the oven and my house is just starting to take on that glorious toasty smell you only experience this time of year. Owen will be pleasantly surprised when he wakes up and finds he’s got a fun snack to accompany his breakfast (spoiled boy!).

We’re basically purists when it comes to seed-roasting, but if you want to venture out, Heidi Swanson has some unique ideas for fancy toasted pumpkin seeds: three great recipes, to be exact.

You may not associate cabbage with the fall, but we’ve gotten so many wonderful heads of it this year from our CSA farm that we’ve been enjoying it often. We’ve tried sweet and sour cabbage wedges, Moo Shu vegetables and most recently, Heidi Swanson’s (there she is again….) Tassajara warm cabbage salad. This is actually the first year in a long time that I haven’t made some homemade sauerkraut with it, but we’ve still loved every cabbage-y bite this fall.

One last thing that I must eat before I can declare it fall is some type of orange squash stew. Yes, I’ve got to have my butternut squash sage pizza, but I need a stew. Chicken, pumpkin and kale stew is one of my favorites and we finally cooked it up this week. It is astounding how just a few ingredients combine together so perfectly to create a simple and spectacular dish.

What are some of your favorite fall dishes?

We had a really fun harvest this week, ranging from lots of leeks to two giant heads of radicchio and a pint of Brussels sprouts. Inspiration struck and I devised a pasta dish that would use all of those, plus some leftover fresh oregano and herbed feta I had in the fridge.

Using the weekly harvest from our CSA farm in creative ways is really at the heart of my Fresh Foodie-ness, so I really got a kick out of creating this dish. I’m not sure what I’ll do in a couple of weeks when our CSA farm closes up shop for the season. Supermarket veggies just don’t have the same appeal, although I’m certainly glad we have a lot available to us.

Leeky, Greek-y Pasta with Figs and Raddichio
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Ingredients:

• 8 ounces pasta (I used rotini), cooked to package directions
• 1 pint Brussels sprouts, halved
• 3 leeks, sliced
• 3-4 cups chopped radicchio
• 2 tablespoons fresh oregano
• 1/4 cup Kalamata olives, halved
• 1/2 cup dried figs, halved
• 1/4 cup white wine (or fig juice from reconstituting the dried figs)
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup olive oil, whisked together with the vinegar
• herbed feta cheese, crumbled

In a saute pan, cook leeks and Brussels sprouts in a bit of olive oil until slightly browned. Then, add the radicchio and oregano and cook until everything is tender, brown and wilted. Season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Next, deglaze the pan with the wine or fig juice, toss in the figs and let cook for a few minutes then remove from the heat. Add the cooked pasta right to the pan and pour the balsamic / olive oil mixture over everything. Toss to coat and serve with the crumbled feta and olives (or you can just toss the olives in if you don’t have an olive-phobic husband).

We served this with some Greek blackened chicken, cooked on the grill. We simply crusted it with garlic and onion powder, dried oregano and basil and plenty of freshly ground black pepper and a titch of sea salt. Leave this out if you’re looking for a vegetarian dish.

It turned out hearty, yummy and very unique and I’ll definitely make it again. Maybe I’ll serve it with some spinach and feta chicken sausages next time….

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Words cannot describe the perfect day of apple picking we experienced last weekend. Picture this: a gloriously sunny autumn day in New England, some of our favorite fellow foodie friends and a potluck picnic at the only organic apple orchard in Massachusetts. We really couldn’t have asked for much more, except… pretty apples.

Note the above picture, for those are our crop of green crisp apples (with a few Liberty and MacIntosh thrown in). Don’t get me wrong, they are completely delicious in every way and not in the least bit inferior to conventionally grown apples that are sprayed with, you know, lots of poison. But try telling that to the four-year-old.

It seems that any blemish on the skin of an apple constitutes a personal affront to Owen. To me, the little lumps and bumps on the apples are akin to the empty bag of skin that is my lower abdomen from carrying Owen for nine months — something to be proud of! They are like “the little apples that could”…. against all odds of wet weather and lack of sunshine this season, those organic apples grew strong. Despite not being sprayed with any protectants, pesticides, fungicides… they grew into the perfect fruit that we enjoy today.

Incidentally, if you’ve never had a green crisp apple, you are really missing something. They are super-crisp and just tart enough, the way I like an apple. You can have your whimpy red delicious, folks; give me a tart apple any day of the week.

And just in case you have more apples that you can chomp and enjoy, you could try making our favorite fruit crisp recipe with your extra apples. We did, and served it with some homemade vanilla coconut milk ice cream, using this recipe but omitting the cocoa powder and adding an extra teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Perhaps it’s because I’m a busy mom and winter, with its lack of grill meals, is quickly creeping up, but I’m becoming intrigued with the idea of freezer meals.I love making pesto and freezing it all summer long so I can enjoy it even when the snow is piled high, but that’s all about enjoyment. It really only saves me about 5 minutes and washing the food processor; I still have to cook the rest of the meal.

Since I’ve got to live up to my Fresh Foodie reputation, I certainly can’t buy convenience or frozen meals, but I’m craving a simpler evening these days. So why not try cooking whole meals when I’ve got all of this fresh, whole food at my disposal, and save them until winter? It will be such a treat to have a meal everyone loves ready to go and to have a night off of cooking.

Baked ziti is one I’m going to try first. I’m strangely obsessed with baked ziti, because I’ve never made it and I don’t even know where to start. To me, you boil your pasta and put your goodies with it. It mystifies me that pasta can be baked. I’m adding some spinach to this recipe, and probably some zucchini and eggplant as well.

I really don’t know what the heck butter chicken is, but apparently it is an Indian dish that can be frozen and sounds fantastic! Cook chicken in butter, add lots of fragrant, distinctive spices, yogurt and… yum. I’ll probably also add veggies to this dish — carrots, zucchini, maybe even some chunks of potato.

I love me a good crock pot meal, and it took me a very long time to find a good crock pot chili. Here’s a vegetarian crock pot chili that has promise — three kinds of beans, lots of other veggies and tons of herbs and spices. I won’t need to add any veggies to this one!

Since we don’t eat wheat, these bulgur and beef stuffed peppers aren’t quite perfect, but a quick substitution of quinoa for the bulgur should do the trick. With feta, spinach and lots of garlic, these aren’t your typical stuffed pepper.

I love this recipe for Italian polenta casserole. The measurements make two casseroles, so you can eat one and pop the other it he freezer — nice! Did I mention it’s got eggplant and spicy sausage?

Butternut squash and sage go so well together, and that’s actually a combo we use on one of our favorite pizzas (with some prosciutto too). I’m looking forward to trying this healthy vegetarian lasagna with butternut squash, sage, spinach and cheese.

There are so many more, this post might just end up with a part two!

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Sometimes you’ve got to make a basic dish, one that celebrates all there is to love about freshly harvested food. Can I just brag about our cucumbers for a moment? Or should I say cucumber, because it’s the only one we’ve gotten off of our pathetic plant this year, but I do believe it was the best cucumber I’ve ever tasted in my life — no, not just because we grew it. It was superiorly crunchy (even compared with two local farms’ cucumbers) and juicy and had a distinctive “snap” when you bit into it. Perfect.

Something special had to come of the magical cucumber. We tend to just eat what we pick as close to immediately as humanly possible, though cucumbers thwart us with their thick, tough skin. Which was a good thing, in this case, because it was still around to make a simple side dish that was so fresh and yummy and actually highlighted the perfect texture of my prized cucumber.

Cucumber and Tomato Salad with Fresh Basil
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Ingredients:

• 1 cucumber, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1 heirloom tomato, cut into chunks
• fresh basil, chopped chiffonade style, to taste (I used about 1/2 cup)
• a pinch of sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• olive oil
• balsamic vinegar
• feta cheese crumbles (optional)

Don’t measure — you’ll just make yourself look foolish. There is no right or wrong here; put the freshest ingredients you can find into a bowl, drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and enjoy. You can sprinkle on feta if you wish, but tonight, I didn’t wish —  I just wanted my harvest salad to be as it was.

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You’ve heard it here first. Yes, that’s right: I officially will stop complaining about the piddly amounts of produce our CSA farm has been giving us this season. Today’s harvest wasn’t just plentiful, it was full of variety and fun, just like our trip to the farm.

C’mon, we got to yank out edamame plants by the roots — radicchio, too! Maybe I’m a freak, but there’s something so satisfying and well, downright therapeutic about yanking out a live plant and making off with it. It feels a little dirty… I’m a bad, bad girl….

Anyway, it’s been akin to a wedding shower around here this week… you know, ripping open all the presents and finding something to do with all of them. “Honey, what can we make tonight so we can use the bamboo steamer and the electric orange juicer?”

Here’s our harvest and the newlywed (because it’s finally the beginning of our life, together with the veggies — get it?) things we’ve been doing with them:

• 30 orange cherry tomatoes — They sit in a wooden bowl on our kitchen table, so that every time we walk by it, we can pop one in our mouths.
• One (giant!) radicchio — Nothing too impressive, but I tried a fig salad with yogurt dressing from Epicurious, and substituted lettuce and radicchio for the watercress. Definitely not my favorite recipe.
• Four ears of corn — Cooked ‘em up and served them with Trader Joe’s chili lime chicken burgers and salad. A simple, summery meal.
• As much cooking corn as we could find — I froze this, after cooking it and cutting it off the cob, so I can use it throughout the winter in recipes.
• 50 springs of basil — Some found its way into my quinoa and edamame salad, some was made into pesto and frozen to use all winter long. We usually have homemade pesto through March or so if we are diligent about making and freezing it throughout the summer.

• Four edamame plants — I cooked and hulled them and used them in a quinoa and edamame salad recipe I dreamed up.
• Chives — Again, you’ll find them in the quinoa and edamame salad.
• Mint — Way too strong in the fig salad — did I mention it was not my favorite recipe?
• Raspberries — They didn’t last a day. Best. Snack. Ever.
• Eight carrots — Owen insists on eating these whole (and he’s pretty devastated when I cut the green tops off them), even if they are too think to bite through.
• One onion — Huh. Just realized I didn’t use this yet this week, and it is so very unlike me not to use an onion in almost every recipe I make. I’ll check and see if one of my alter egos has taken over and get back to you.
• Two squash — Grilled as a side dish with the corn and chicken burgers.

• Flowers — In a chalkboard vase, on the kitchen island. They are floppy, yellow, daisy-like flowers which are kind of charming.

Was that boring to read, or do you feel like a newlywed again?