Meal Plan: September 25-October 1

Sunday:

Pancakes for dinner!

Monday:

Pasta with sauce and meatballs

Tuesday:

Slow Cooker Shepherd's Pie (our own recipe - vegetarian with sauteed eggplant, onions, celery, carrots tossed in leftover tomato sauce and a Romano Cheese, topped with mashed sweet and white potatoes.

Wednesday:

Slow Cooker Boston Baked Beans with Rice steamed cabbage

Thursday:

Zucchini fritters and Borsht from the freezer

Friday:

Oven Fried Chicken, leftover beans and shepherd's pie

Saturday:

Paella?

Meal Plan: September 11-18

Sunday:

Macaroni and Cheese and Crunchy Cabbage Salad

Monday: (Fencing)

Leftovers from Sunday

Tuesday: (School board meeting)

Slow Cooker Borscht and Zucchini Fritters

Wednesday: (K @ work reception)

Hummus with pitas and sliced cold veggies

Thursday: (TES picnic)

Eggplant sandwiches, celery sticks, watermelon

Friday:

Pizza

Saturday:

Leftovers (or Salsa Bean Chicken)

Stuffed Patty Pan Squash Recipe

Ingredients:

4 Medium-sized patty pan squash

4 scallions, chopped, white and green parts separated

1 shredded carrot

6 cloves green garlic or 3 cloves aged (regular) garlic, minced

1/3 C crushed almonds

1/3 C creme fraiche, butter milk or plain yogurt

4 T shredded cheddar cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

4 T olive oil

Method:

Preheat oven to 375. Wash and trim both ends off of each squash. Stem for about 15 minutes, until middles can be pierced deeply with a fork. Set aside to cool. When they are cool enough to handle scoop out enough of each squash to make a nice deep cup, without going through the other side. Drain and chop squash innards. Coat a baking dish with olive oil and arrange squash cups in it. Saute white of the scallions and garlic until transparent. Add carrot, chopped squash, salt and pepper. When carrot is bright orange, add the almonds. Turn off heat and add creme fraiche. Stir to combine. Fill each squash cup to slightly over flowing and bake for 25-30 minutes. Add shredded cheese to the top of each and bake for another 5 minutes to allow cheese to melt.

Meal Plan: June 19 -25

Sunday:

Burgers, pasta salad and strawberry shortcake

Monday:

Slow-cooker navy beans with chutney, brown rice and broccoli

Tuesday:

Pasta salad, beet greens with chickpeas

Wednesday:

Zucchini, carrot, chickpea pancakes with pesto sauce

Thursday:

Leftovers from Monday with spinach

Friday:

Homemade pizza

Saturday:

Steak salad or burgers (after Farmer's Market)

Sausage and Asparagus Pie Recipe

This seems much more like a cold-weather meal, but we've had a few cool days over the last few weeks that made us hunker for some comfort food. This pie could be made with many combinations in the filling. I felt the filling needed a little extra bulk, so I threw in some leftover brown rice I had in the fridge. I think I could have just as easily sauteed some potatoes or winter squash.

1 double pie crust of choice.

1 lb bulk sausage, or sausage removed (this time I used lamb and rosemary sausage)

1/2 lb Asparagus, trimmed, but into 2 inch pieces and cooked to al dente.

1 small onion, diced, or the equivalent in diced scallions

1/2 C cooked rice or lightly cooked diced potatoes

2 eggs

For gravy

2 T all purpose flour

1/2 C milk

Salt and pepper to taste

Make pie crust, fit one half into pie dish, set aside. Preheat oven to 350. Cook asparagus and set aside. Cook sausage in cast iron skillet until browned, breaking apart with a spoon as you go. When browned, removed sausage with a slotted spoon and set aside to drain. Keep fat in skillet hot, add onions. When translucent add flour and whisk to make a roux. Add milk and continue to whisk until a think white gravy forms. Combine sausage, asparagus, 1 beaten egg and gravy and stir to combine. Pour into bottom of pie crust in pie dish. Top with other half of crust, seal edges, but slits in top and brush with second beaten egg. Bake for approximately 40 minutes until golden brown.

Meal Plan: May 23- May 29

Monday:

Spinach Nudi with sliced tomatoes

Tuesday:

Rice and beans with chutney and radish greens

Wednesday: (Annie makes dinner)

Pasta pesto!

Thursday:

Zucchini fritters with sliced tomatoes, ricotta and sweet and sour sauce

Friday:

Split pea soup with fresh bread

Saturday: (market day!)

Big vegetable combination with deviled eggs and bread

Sunday: (Memorial Day cookout)

Barbecued meats from market with potato salad and grilled vegetables

Monday: (parade day!)

Roast chicken and vegetables from market

Easter 2011 Menu

Easter truly is my favorite holiday. It reminds me of my grandmother, whose birthday is around this time. I cling to the tradition of buying new "Easter outfits" for my kids, I make sure to have a hyacinth every year to make my apartment smell like her living room and I try to incorporate as many colors as possible into our holiday meal, they way she did.

Spring in the Upper Valley is later than in the rest of the country (did I mention it was snowing this morning?!?), so I had to make some serious changes to my original concept. I had envisioned making Deborah Madison's infamous Asparagus and Morel Bread Pudding that appears in Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, but that will have to wait until May or so. Our menu will rely mostly on storage crops and what we have canned or frozen, with two ever so important, though non-local treats. Can you guess what they are?

We bought our ham from On the Edge Farm in Woodstock, VT and will be glazing it with a mixture of the the apple jelly Scott made from leftover cores and peels last fall and the maple syrup we bought during Vermont Maple Open House Weekend at Center Hill Maples Farm. Though it will be several weeks before we have that quintessential spring opening meal with local asparagus, morels, rhubarb and an abundance of greens we are grateful to celebrate the oncoming spring and the mere fact that we made it through our first winter in the Upper Valley eating locally most of the time.

Easter 2011 Menu

Appetizers:

Deviled Eggs

Carrot Soup

Main Course:

Maple and Apple Glazed Ham

Roasted Beets, Celeriac and Asparagus, sauteed Swiss Chard

served with Hesser House Macaroni and Cheese

Dessert

Cranberry Apple Crisp (variation on our Cranberry Rhubarb Crisp)

Cranberry Rangoon Recipe

Happy Thursday! I know, this may sound gross to you, but you probably don't have a surplus of cranberries in you freezer. Or maybe you do.... I realize this is another recipe for fried food, but I don't go for sweets, we hardly ever eat out and we really don't have any other vices. Once a week we make something fun that is outside our normal whole-grain-local-vegetable-based regimen. Sue us!

I found this recipe on the Cranberry Growers Association website. Incidentally my favorite cranberry grower is Cranberry Hill Farm in Plymouth, MA. If you are down that way this fall you should pay them a visit.

Anyway, I changed the recipe substantially, so here is what I did:

Ingredients:

3/4 C Fresh Cranberries

1/4 C Mayonnaise

10 oz Cream cheese, softened

1 tsp Cholula hot pepper sauce

1 T sugar (I used evaporated cane juice)

3 Scallions, white and green parts, finely diced

1 package Square Wonton Wrappers

1 oil (canola, or peanut) for frying

Directions:

Combine Cranberries, Mayonnaise and Cholula in food processor and blend until almost smooth. Add half of that mixture to cream cheese along with sugar and scallions and mix thoroughly. Drop one tsp full of mixture in the center of each won ton wrapper and seal as desired. I make boats (see photo). Heat oil until it shimmers. Fry rangoons until golden brown. It helps to keep them in a low oven while you finish the whole batch. You should have about four dozen of them when you finish.

The original recipe recommended using the reserved cranberry/mayo mixture as a dipping sauce, but we didn't do that. We set it aside to spread on sandwiches or to make another batch Instead, we dipped them in the sweet and sour sauce we made last summer!

We LOVED these! The insides are delightfully pink and tangy. I can't wait to break them out at a day-after-Thanksgiving-leftover-extravaganza! That said, we've decided to start experimenting with a baked version with the help of this recipe from My Baking Addition.

Meal Plan: April 10-16

There were Swiss Chard, duck eggs and some end of the barrel storage onions at the Norwich Farmers Market this Saturday. We have been so fortunate to have the monthly winter markets.....and the outdoor weekly market reopens in 27 days!!!!! Not that I am excited or anything. We are looking forward to seeing all the farmer friends we made last summer and to visiting more frequently with those that kept us sustained over the winter.

Sunday:

Shrimp stir fry with broccoli, onions and rice

Monday:

Slow Cooker Baked Beans with corn bread and canned apples

Tuesday:

Pasta and marinara sauce

Wednesday:

Tomato Soup and Cheese Sandwiches

Thursday:

Chili with rice

Friday:

Eggs in a Nest with sweetened rice

Saturday:

Pizza

Homemade Tater Tots!

I turned some so-so potato salad into some really fun fried treats!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups potato salad (easy on the mayo) with chopped onions

1/2 to 3/4 cup all purpose flour

1 egg (beaten)

1 medium-sized peeled and shredded potato

1 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 cup canola oil

Puree potato salad. Mix with flour, egg, shredded potato and spices until thoroughly combined. Heat oil in a skillet until it shimmers. Drop tablespoonfuls of potato mixture into hot oil and cook until golden brown and crispy on both sides. Enjoy with homemade ketchup.

Food Storage Inventory

I just went through and took stock of what is left now that new greens are just beginning to appear at the Farmers Market. Not bad at all! However, if anyone has any inventive recipes for cranberries and barbecue sauce, please send them my way!

Basement Freezer

Beans:

1 Pint Black Beans

Broccoli:

1 Gallon Bag

Cranberries:

1.5 Gallon Bags

Corn:

1 Gallon

Meats:

1 Quart Pork Fat Back

1 Quart Suet

1 Soup Carcass

Pesto:

11 muffin cups

Stocks:

12 1/3 C portions of Adzuki Stock

Zucchini:

7 Pints of shredded

Pantry

Dried Fruit:

1 Pint Dried Blueberries

Jams:

1 Pints Apple Jely

1 Half-pint Strawberry Jam

6 Half-pints Blueberry Jam

3 Pints Peach Jam

1 Pint Peach Applesauce

3 Half Pints Apple Butter

2 Quarts Apple Sauce

6 Half Pints Orange Marmalade

Fruit:

5 Quarts Apple Pie Filling

Pickles:

1 Pint Corn Relish

Sauces:

4 Quarts 2 Pints Marinara Sauce

5 Pints Barbecue Sauce

2 Pints Sweet and Sour Sauce

5 Half-pints Chutney

1 Quart Peach Syrup

Tomatoes:

4 Quarts Tomato Juice

Cranberry Recipes

We have two gallons of cranberries in the freezer to get us through the spring. Hopefully these recipes will help make a dent:

Cranberry Rangoons

New England Cranberry Duff

Cranberry Thumbprints

Chicken with Cranberry Sauce

Jam Turnovers!

I simply MUST make this recipe from Inn Cuisine with some of my jams that are leftover from last summer (and Scott's amazing pie crust, of course!)

This blog is such a great find. I can't wait to dig into it later.

Meal Plan: March 13-19

Sunday:

Leftover buffet

Monday:

Pasta with pesto and white beans

Tuesday:

Zucchini Frittata with roasted beets

Wednesday:

Tomato Soup and cheese sandwiches

Thursday:

First Annual Flynn Malone St. Patrick's Day Dinner!

Slow-cooked Corned Beef and Cabbage

Colcannon

Irish Soda Bread

Friday:

Corn and seafood chowder

Saturday:

Pasta with tomato sauce

Meal Plan: January 31- February 5

Monday:

Frittata Fajitas

Tuesday:

Zucchini Parmesan

Wednesday:

Sausage and zucchini chili with rice

Thursday:

Leftover Zucchini Parmesan

Friday:

Leftover chili

Saturday:

Leftover buffet

Sunday (next week):

Roast Chicken

Kale with navy beans and roasted potatoes

Spaghetti squash with creamy pesto sauce

Curry Chicken, red peppers, onions, broccoli in Crock Pot with brown rice

Meal Plan: January 23-29

Sunday:

Sausage chili

Monday:

Chutney Chicken with potatoes and zucchini in the Crock Pot

Tuesday:

Butternut Squash Lasagna

Wednesday:

Tomato Soup and sandwiches

Thursday:

Pasta with leftover chicken broccoli

Friday:

Macaroni and Cheese and salad in CT

Saturday:

Fiesta dinner in South Hampton

Sunday: tbd

Meal Plan: January 3-8

Sunday:

Garlic rubbed roast chicken with oranges and onions from Martha Stewart Living, January 2011 with roasted squash, beets and cranberry-fig chutney.

Monday:
Leftovers from Sunday

Tuesday:
Chicken Pot Pie

Wednesday:
Soup

Thursday
Leftover Soup

Friday:
Pasta with Pesto

Sat:

Lunch- Crock Pot Baked Beans with Apples and cornbread
Dinner- @ JR birthday party; Chinese food for mom

Next week - Sunday:
Lunch- Leftover buffet

Dinner-Meatloaf with potatoes, broccoli and carrots

Meal Plan: Aug 21-27

Saturday

B: Dutchboy, Cast Iron Skillet Cooking p. 6

L: Sandwiches

D: Pasta with tomato sauce

Sunday

B: Overnight french toast with peaches

L:

D: Meatloaf, baked squash, salad

Monday

B: Yogurt, granola, oatmeal

L: Meatloaf sandwiches

D: Apple, Noodle and Cheese Casserole, HCNE P. 299

Tuesday

B: Yogurt, granola, oatmeal

L: Leftover Casserole

D: Meatloaf hash, tomato salad, Boston Globe recipe

Wednesday

B: Yogurt, granola, oatmeal

L: Pasta with leftover meatloaf and tomatoes

D: Corn salad with bread, HCNE p. 07

Thursday

B: Yogurt, granola, oatmeal

L: Leftover corn salad with rice

D: Pasta with remaining vegetables

Friday

B: Yogurt, granola, oatmeal

L: Leftover pasta

D: Pizza

Meal Plan: August 15 - 21

Sunday:

Monday:

Roasted Chicken Breast and Potatoes with Carrots, Onions and Garlic

Tuesday:

Eggplant Parmesan

Wednesday:

Margarita's for Scott's Birthday!

Thursday:

Leftover Eggplant Parmesan Sandwiches with homemade french fries

Friday:

Pasta with Chicken, Vegetables and Garlic

Saturday:

Pizza

Blueberry picking... and picking and picking

We added 9 half pints of blueberry jam to our pantry today with more to come. I used the low-sugar recipe from PickYourOwn.org and it is INCREDIBLE. You just can't go wrong with their instructions. We spent the latter half of the morning at the Darling Farm in Canaan, VT. The Darlings have been in their home and blueberry farm for 14 years and raise 15 varieties of blueberries and produce their own maple syrup. I had no idea there were some many different kinds of blueberries! Mrs. Darling encouraged us to "mix it up" when picking for for pies, jams and freezing because a hodgepodge of Patriots, Blue Jays, Spartans and the like would enhance the overall flavor. But, she cautioned, only pick Northlands for muffins or scones. They are smaller and will hold baked goods together better.

We arrived with each of us outfitted with our own yogurt container necklace ready to fill them up. Mrs. Darling smiled and handed us 2-quart cans with strong plastic twine. I am sure she could tell that we have mostly been "recreational" harvesters up until now. Well if that were the case, the Darling Farm is a professionally maintained playing field. There were rows and rows of bushes perfectly spaced and the berries were SO abundant. In two hours we picked over 11 pints of berries, half the amount we ultimately want for eating, canning, freezing and baking between now and next season. They're falling fast so we plan to head out again tomorrow.

One thought on harvest-outings. I have realized that fruit-picking should be approached much like a trip to one of the north side beaches on the Cape: pack your lunch the night before and head out as soon as you wake up. It's not as much fun to be out there in the hot sun as you think and you will probably need a nap and definitely a shower when you get back.