Remember a couple of weeks ago when I posted on Facebook asking the question, “What in the world should I do with the swiss chard growing in my garden?” Boy, oh boy did my readers have soooooo many suggestions! Eggs to soups to lasagnas to pizzas… the list goes on! I whipped up this scramble for lunch that day and I was surprised. I liked it! I really liked it! I liked it so much, in fact, that I made it a week later as a special breakfast for my husband. He loves anything savory for breakfast, so eggs doused in cheese is a real winner. I encouraged him to try these even though his negative sentiments towards swiss chard surpass mine! Brant loved this egg scramble and gobbled it up, swiss chard and all! And so we have a swiss chard winner!

Is your ideal breakfast sweet or savory? Because I’m *totally* a sweet person. In fact, I couldn’t eat this scramble for breakfast. For lunch? Divine. For breakfast? Ick. I gave my portion to Brant and reheated a strudel topped peach muffin for myself. How about you? Sweet or savory to start your day? 

Continue reading: egg, cheese, and swiss chard scramble

My garden has been more prolific than usual this year, and those of you who read this blog often have seen more than your fair share of posts featuring tomatoes as a result. We harvested about 150 pounds of tomatoes this year, and figuring out how to use those requires a fair amount of creativity.

Every summer I make a bunch of roasted tomato soup and can it for winter. It’s easy to make since it does not require peeling the tomatoes. It’s also absolutely delicious and makes a great quick meal when I am hungry and crave comfort food. After making five gallons of soup last year, I learned that we do not need five gallons of soup. Even if it is the best tomato soup around, that’s just way, way, way too much soup for our little family of two. So, after turning our first 40 pounds of tomatoes into jars of soup for our family (plus a few to share!) I declared a moratorium on tomato soup for the season.

Last year I also canned almost two gallons of pasta sauce to eat throughout the winter months. Given how much I love pasta, this was a fabulous choice and the amount was perfect for us. The problem with pasta sauce is that you have to blanch the tomatoes, throw them in an ice bath, peel off the skins, dice them, and *then* you can make the sauce. Oh, so much work! But I did it. About a month ago, I blanched and cooled and peeled and diced for 3 hours one night while playing Princess Bride in the background (“Inconceivable!”) and getting tomato juice and seeds all over every possible surface in my kitchen. It was a real tomato sauce making party.

The next day, my mom told me she had picked out something for my birthday but wasn’t sure if I wanted it. This is a problem when you have a daughter who is a kitchen gadget collector. How do you track all the toys she keeps buying? Mom hemmed and hawed and finally decided to just tell me about the gift to make sure it was something I’d want. I took one look and said, “I have that! It’s a fruit and vegetable strainer for my KitchenAid. It’s how I make gallons of applesauce every year when my tree dumps apples faster than I can bake with them.” My mom looked at me utterly perplexed. “Then why didn’t you use that for your tomatoes last night?” I stared at her blankly. Then it dawned on me. Oh my gosh. This is a fruit and veggie strainer. That’s what it does! It strains out the icky stuff! Oh my gosh… Oh my gosh. Oh. My. Gosh. Hours and hours and hours wasted on a task that could have taken minutes. I could have kicked myself. My dad suggested that instead of buying me nice things for my birthday, they should just buy me instruction manuals. Ha, ha, Dad. Very funny.

No worries, though. My garden had one more 40 pound tomato harvest, so I decided to give it a try. It took a few tries to figure out how to maximize the results, but let me tell you, this is a breeze compared to the way that I used to puree tomatoes! Do you have so many tomatoes that you don’t know what to do with them? Here’s how to puree them with minimal effort. I made a batch of pasta sauce immediately with my puree based largely on this recipe. I adjusted the sugar and spices to taste since I was not using the traditional canned tomatoes. The sauce was so awesome that I canned even more jars for winter. More pasta for us!

tomato puree

1. Place as many racks as you can in the oven evenly spaced apart. Preheat oven to 500 degrees with convection turned on. If you do not have convection, you will need to rotate your pans as you cook.
2. Cut your tomatoes into chunks or slices and place on a pan. Don’t worry too much about how big the pieces are (I just halved or quartered my tomatoes, depending on their size) and certainly don’t bother with making them pretty. They’re about to be pureed. Save the pretty stuff for later.
3. Place the pans in the oven and cook (rotating after 7 minutes if you don’t have convection) for 10-15 minutes, or until the tomatoes are soft and the skins are bursting a bit. Remove and place in a bowl. Refill the pans with any remaining tomatoes and cook again.
4. Ladle the tomatoes into the feed chute of the food mill and watch as the water and puree pours into one bowl and the “ickies” (stems, skins, seeds, cores) plop into another.

Some notes that you should most definitely read:

One, you’ll notice in my set up above that my bowls are all stacked kadiwampus. That’s necessary because the ickies tend to fall backwards into the bowl of puree that you’re making. It’s a bad product design, but there’s nothing I can do about it now, so I have this system set up to ensure that my puree stays pure.

Two, if you don’t heat your tomatoes first, you will lose a lot of the good stuff to the “icky” pile. Just cook ‘em first like I suggested and you will be happy.

Three, my tomatoes are very, very watery. Yours might be too. If that’s the case, boil the puree along with a can or two of tomato paste on medium low for as many hours as it takes to thicken up to the consistency that you’re happy with. If you need to do this, stir the mixture every 30-45 minutes to ensure it doesn’t burn to the bottom.

Four: I would not add flavorings like onions, salt, garlic or any other spices until you want to cook something with your puree. Other than the puree that I reserved for use in pasta sauce, I canned the remaining puree without any additional seasonings so that I can add it to soups and stews later and then adjust seasonings to taste at that time.

If it’s good enough for Annie, it’s good enough for me. Annie’s Eats is one of  my favorite food blogs and I love almost everything she makes. She wrote in a recent post that she had put off trying these corn cakes for a loooooong time (something we food bloggers are wont to do given that we have so many recipe ideas flying at us every day!) and that her only regret was not making them sooner. I decided at the last minute to add this recipe to my appetizer list for my birthday dinner. They were an absolute hit (everyone especially loved the salsa that went on top) and the leftovers reheated nicely in the toaster oven for my lunch the following day. I highly recommend serving these as an appetizer or side dish. They’re delicious!

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I did not make many changes to the original recipe. I did swap out the peas for fresh asparagus. Because it’s added toward the end of cooking time, it maintains a refreshing crunch. Also, I had originally tried sauteeing the vegetables in leftover bacon grease but I found that it made the soup unpleasantly salty. Instead, I highly recommend reserving the excess bacon grease for another recipe and using vegetable oil or butter for the vegetables. The bacon itself will add plenty of salt to the soup.

This soup serves four people. It’s fabulous served with a slab of crusty bread that’s been smeared with butter and a fruity jam.

spring mushroom soup with aromatic vegetables
adapted from www.oneperfectbite.blogspot.com

6 slices bacon
2 tbsp butter or vegetable oil
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/2 lb quartered cremini mushrooms
2 tsp minced garlic
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
4 cups chicken stock or canned chicken broth
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
5 stalks fresh asparagus, ends trimmed, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/4 cup heavy cream

In a large cast iron or other deep skillet, cook bacon until browned on both sides. Remove to a paper towel lined plate and let cool. Remove excess bacon grease and reserve for another purpose.

Add butter or vegetable oil to the skillet and cook until hot. Add onions, celery, and carrots and cook, stirring continuously, until softened, about 3 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until mushrooms release their liquid and have begun to brown around edges, about 5 minutes. Cut the bacon into small pieces and add to the mixture.

Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add flour and stir until it makes a paste, about 1 minute. Add the stock, thyme and pepper and stir to combine.

Bring the soup to a full boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. In a separate skillet, cook the asparagus in some of the reserved bacon grease or vegetable oil until browned and slightly softened. Add the asparagus to the soup and cook for another 5 minutes. Remove the soup from the heat and add the cream. Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

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I grew peas this year. Lots of peas. More peas than I could eat. And given that my husband ceremoniously declared that “they taste like grass,” the peas were indeed all mine to eat. I gave a bunch away to friends and ate loads every time I passed by their spot in the garden. Yet amazingly, when the time for pea season drew to an end last week, I still had a gallon sized bag of peas on the vine.

I have a new respect for my grandmother’s generation and the way they did things. I spent an hour yesterday shelling the peas and plopping their thick, juicy fruit into a bowl. The result? A huge pile of pea pods… and a very small bowl of peas.

pear salad with mustard vinaigrette dressing
adapted from www.allrecipes.com

several cups of mixed salad greens
1 pear, thinly sliced
1 orange, peeled and thinly sliced (or use candied oranges)
2 ounces crumbly cheese (gorgonzola, blue cheese, white cheddar, etc.)
1/2 cup pecans
1/4 cup white sugar
1/3 cup olive oil
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
fresh ground pepper to taste

Place the baby greens in a large, flat bowl. Top with pear slices, oranges, and cheese.

In a skillet over medium heat, stir 1/4 cup of sugar together with the pecans. Continue stirring gently until sugar has melted and caramelized the pecans. Carefully transfer nuts onto waxed paper. Allow to cool and break into pieces. Sprinkle over the salad.

For the dressing, blend oil, vinegar, 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar, mustard, chopped garlic, salt, and pepper.

Drizzle the dressing over the salad and pass additional dressing at the table.

winter squash soup
heavily adapted from a recipe by Chuck Williams

4 pounds of winter squash (I used a mix of butternut and pumpkin), or 2 cups of pumpkin puree
6 tbsp unsalted butter
2 yellow onions, chopped
8 fresh sage leaves, chopped
6 cups chicken stock
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1-4 tbsp brown sugar, to taste
1/2 tsp cardamom
1 tsp sage leaf (or additional sage leaves if available)
3 oz cream cheese, cut into cubes
1/2 cup sliced almonds

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prick each squash with a knife tip so that it won’t explode. Place the whole squashes on a rimmed baking sheet and roast until a knife penetrates the flesh easily, about 1 hour. Let stand until cool enough to handle.

Halve each squash lengthwise. Remove and discard the seeds and fibers with a large spoon. Scoop the pulp into a large bowl.

In a large saucepan over low heat, melt the butter. Add the onions and the sage and saute until the onions are translucent, 8-10 minutes.

Add the stock and squash pulp, raise the heat to high and bring to a boil. Add salt, brown sugar, cardamom and additional sage. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes to let the flavors combine. Add the cream cheese and stir until mostly melted.

Using an immersion blender or a food processor, puree the soup until smooth. Before serving, reheat the soup.

If desired, toast the almonds in a saute pan over medium heat until fragrant. Sprinkle on the soup and serve. Season to taste with salt and sugar.

For some people, this is too spicy as written, so I recommend omitting some of the spices at first and then add more to taste when you serve it. Remember that spicy foods become spicier the longer they sit, so plan accordingly if you think you’ll have leftovers. Also, with the inclusion of both sweet potatoes and honey, this may be a bit sweet for your taste if you follow the recipe as stated. You may want to start by omitting the honey and then adding it to taste after all the other ingredients have simmered.

sweet potato and black bean chili
adapted from www.denverpost.com

3     large sweet potatoes or yams, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1     large onion, chopped
1     tbsp olive oil
2     tbsp chili powder
3     garlic cloves, minced
1     tsp ground cumin
1/8-1/4   tsp cayenne pepper (depending on taste)
2     cans (15 ounces each) black beans, drained and rinsed
1     can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
3/4 cup chicken or vegetable broth, plus more to taste
2/3 cup pumpkin puree (optional)
1-2     tbsp honey (depending on taste)
1/2   tsp salt
1/4   tsp pepper
1/2   cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese or Mexican cheese blend (optional)
1/2 cup sour cream (optional)
Cilantro, minced (optional)

In a pot, heat the oil and saute the sweet potatoes and onion until crisp-tender, about 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the chili powder, garlic, cumin and cayenne; cook 1 minute longer. Stir in the beans, tomatoes, broth, pumpkin, honey, salt and pepper.

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30-35 minutes or until sweet potatoes are tender. Adjust seasoning to taste. Spoon into bowls and sprinkle with cheese and/or top with a dollop of sour cream. Sprinkle with cilantro, if using.

There is nothing special about the recipe for  these little treats. These muffins are simply portable (and cute!) scrambled eggs! I like to serve them with these tortillas and a bit of salsa. They make a great offering for a holiday meal when you want to serve something tasty for breakfast but don’t want to add even more work to your already busy day in the kitchen. In case you know of any holidays coming up… Let me know if you do.

These would also be perfect for a special occasion brunch with friends and certainly are better than many of those other egg casseroles that are often served!

scrambled egg muffins

(Make your scrambled egg muffins using the same ingredient proportions that you would use for scrambled eggs.)

6-8 eggs
1/4 lb sausage, removed from casings and divided into small pieces (optional)
1/2 – 1 onion, chopped
1/2 – 1 red or green bell pepper, chopped
mushrooms, green onions, or any other favorite vegetables or greens
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat your oven to 350.

In a skillet, saute your sausage (if using) and vegetables until sausage is cooked. Let cool slightly.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs. Add the sauteed mixture to the eggs and stir well to combine. Salt to taste.

Generously coat a muffin pan with cooking spray or butter. Divide the egg mixture among the muffin cups, filling about 2/3 full. Top each “muffin” with shredded cheese.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the tops of the muffins are golden brown.

By the way, this recipe makes a lot of chili, but have no fear. It can easily be frozen in individual serving sized portions and thawed at a later date for a quick lunch or dinner!

I made this in a Crockpot and it was wonderful. I cooked the chicken as the recipe directed and set it aside. Then, after sauteing the onions and peppers on the stove top, I transferred  them to my crockpot and added all the remaining ingredients except the chicken and beans. I let that simmer all day and then, an hour or so before dinner I added the shredded chicken and beans.

Want to make this vegetarian? Simply omit the chicken and substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth in the recipe!

chicken chili
adapted from www.annies-eats.com

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
salt and pepper
4 cups chopped yellow onion (2-3 onions)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 bell peppers (any colors)
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 chipotle chili in adobo sauce, finely diced
2 tsp kosher salt
4 (14-ounce) cans diced tomatoes
1 cup corn kernels, fresh or frozen
1 cup pumpkin puree or diced pumpkin (optional)
2 (15-ounce) cans beans, drained and rinsed (black, pinto, a mixture are recommended)
1-2 cups chicken broth, as needed

Preheat the oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with foil. Place the chicken breasts on the foil and season with salt and pepper. Fold the foil over the chicken breasts to form a sealed packet. Roast 30-40 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. Allow to cool enough to handle and then shred or chop the meat into bite-sized pieces.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Saute the onions 8-10 minutes, or until tender and translucent. Add the garlic to the pot and saute just until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Mix in the bell peppers, spices, and salt. Cook 5 more minutes. Add the tomatoes, corn, and pumpkin and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes, uncovered, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the shredded chicken and the beans, add more chicken broth as desired, and allow to simmer for another 20 minutes.