This one's for you Jenn!

Ok...its been over six months since I've blogged. But hey, I'm a busy gal...or that's the excuse I tell myself for letting down my loyal fans...all six of you.

I have recently completely fallen in LOVE with baking. I have not abandoned my old lover, cooking, but baking is my new mistress. And you know, that's the best way to put it. Cooking is my old steady beau...I'm comfortable with him, but still learning new things all the time. But he's there for stability...ya know, my families gotta eat.

But baking....well, she keeps me happy.

When I was growing up, I really didn't like sweets. I think chocolate was the only candy I ever ate as a child. But as I've grown older, my tastes have matured. And I blame my children for my raging sweet tooth...I kinda blame them for everything though (The ozone hole...that's Taylor. She's just loves burning Styrofoam and she uses way too much hairspray. Where she found the stash of 1987 aerosol cans of RAVE is still beyond me).

Well the more I get into cooking...and baking, the harder it is for me to appreciate store bought processed food. Once you've tasted a truly delicious double chocolate cake , even peanut butter Oreos kinda taste one dimensional.

All of this to say, here is one of my recent baking ventures...just for you Jennifer.

Granola Bars....or Granola Chunks, as Seth calls em.

(I think next time I make 'em, I'll put them in a bigger pan to make them thinner and more bar like)

from The Craft of Baking by Karen DeMasco and Mindy Fox


Makes 16 bars

Ingredients

12 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup pecans, roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup raspberry preserves (i used orange marmalade)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8 inch square baking pan and line the bottom with parchment.

Melt the butter and let cool to room temperature.

Spread the pecans on a baking sheet. Bake until lightly golden and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Cool the sheet completely on a wire rack.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, granulated sugar, brown sugar, salt, baking soda, and pecans. Pour in the melted butter, and using a wooden spoon, mix together until well combined. Transfer about two thirds of the dough to the prepared baking pan. Press the dough evenly into the pan, forming a firmly packed layer.

Spread the preserves over the dough. Evenly sprinkle the remaining dough over the preserves. Bake, rotating the pan halfway through, until the top is golden brown and fragrant, about 40 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cool completely. Then cut into 2-inch squares.

The bars can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.

A Farmer in Training

As a part of my CSA, I will spend 30 hours working on the farm where all my produce is grown. I am very excited about this because as far as my suburban mind knows or cares tomatoes come from a magical place called California where the sun never sets and the fields never end. At the CSA's "Beginning of the Season Meeting" last week, I met all the people who work year round to keep the CSA going. Most of the share I paid goes to providing a "living wage" to the farm workers. The group consists of six people, most of whom do more than a couple jobs, on and off the farm. The idea of helping out is a little intimidating, humbling and gratifying. I'm hoping to get a real understanding of what I eat, and maybe pick up some much needed gardening tips along the way.


When I went to pick up this week's share, my mom and I got our first introduction into farm work. Since its the first week that the farm staff had the extra help, I think they were a little overwhelmed by all of us. As we arrived, Steve, the head farm guy, was headed out the door, a little bedraggled from a busy day of harvesting, weeding and training inexperienced CSAers, in a steady rain for half the day. One thing mentioned at the meeting last week that surprised this naive girl, and not just a few other first timers, was that no matter the weather, plan on showing up to work on the farm. The chores must be done and unless its dangerous to be out there, don't even bother to call to ask if we'll be working. In fact, if a bad storm is headed in that direction, extra help may be needed to protect the produce. The field got a little hail damage last week from the summer storms that rolled through. These realities have never crossed my mind before.

Our assignment was the easy task of weeding nettles and pig weed from a bed of mixed greens. My mom could easily do this with no gloves to protect her hands. I had to get used to spotting the weeds and not plucking next weeks salad. Our task was pretty simple, but as the season progresses and my take-home share increases in abundance and variety, so will the work to be done in the field.

I cannot imagine living off the land as a farmer. I've attempted flower gardening for the past few summers, but my mom usually picks up when I'm too lazy to weed....and often calls to remind me to water my meager plants. The thought of investing my whole life into the land and having faith that you and your family will thrive on what survives the weather, bugs and weeds just seems improbable. I've been lulled into complacency by 28 years of getting whatever veggies I want, whenever I want them, within a 10 minute drive of my house. But I hope that by the end of this summer, a hot house tomato, picked green, two weeks ago, 3000 miles from my house in February won't taste quite as good...and probably won't make it into my grocery cart.

Some of this weeks share








Various Lettuces









Spinach








Broccoli





Tomatoes...to look forward to

The Great Pesto Escape

If you'd asked me last Monday what a garlic scape was, I would have looked at you funny. But I feel like I'm becoming an early adopter of this culinary pleasure. Apparently, garlic scapes are the new hip thing in the foodie world. They are the flower bud of the garlic plant, cut from the plant in late spring to allow the garlic bulb to use all its energy to grow the yummy garlic we know and love. In the past, the scape had just gone into the compost heap, but some thrifty, adventurous cook decided to try it out the would be trash and it is now the sought after farmer's market item of the late spring. The mild fresh, garlicky flavor allows you to cook the scapes like a vegetable, rather than a seasoning as you would the bold, spicy flavors of mature garlic bulbs.

We received green garlic in our CSA batch last week, and there were small scapes on the plants. I also picked up some larger scapes at Findley Market. I had to restrain myself from buying more when I came across them while scoping out a location for my son's upcoming birthday party. In my Internet research for garlic scapes, pesto kept popping up. Being a great lover of pesto, I had to try this new pesto out.

I tried the recipe out for myself on Saturday, but this second try defiantly came out better. I served it over pasta, which we decided was slightly overcooked and grainy, I won't be using Kroger's Whole Wheat Pasta again. But the sauce was very flavorful and not too garlicky. It has more texture than Basil Pesto but a bit more kick. I'm told it freezes well so I might have to put some up. This is another great summer recipe since it only requires use of the stove to boil the pasta. I also love pesto because its a great pantry recipe. Whenever I have extra basil, asparagus or now garlic scapes on hand I use whatever nuts I have on hand and just throw it together for a quick meal. The scapes will only be popping up for another couple of weeks, so I'm gonna wear us out on them while they last.

Garlic Scape Pesto over whole wheat pasta





Makes about 1 cup

10 garlic scapes, finely chopped

1/3 to 1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan (to taste and texture)

1/3 cup nuts (pine nuts, walnuts, pecans, almonds)

About 1/2 cup olive oil

salt to taste

Put the scapes, 1/3 cup of the cheese, almonds and half the olive oil in the bowl of a food processor. Whir to chop and blend all the ingredients and then add the remainder of the oil and, if you want, more cheese. If you like the texture, stop; if you'd like it a little thinner, add some more oil. Season with salt.

If you're not going to use the pesto immediately, press a piece of plastic against the surface to keep it from oxidizing. The pesto can be stored in the refrigerator for a couple of days or packed airtight and frozen for a couple of months.

Finger Lickin' Good

Since its the beginning of the season, we got a lot of greens and lettuces last week from the CSA. We've eaten kale and spinach already from our batch, supplemented a little from Findley Market and the grocery store.

Tonight, I decided to dig into some of the lettuce. I used the Butter Crunch Lettuce from my CSA for this.

Asian Turkey Lettuce Wraps with side of Edamame



Here's the recipe for the wraps and the peanut sauce i used. The peanut sauce is part of peanut sesame noodle recipe which is great on its one...another great recipe when you don't feel like cooking much.


This was a simple recipe, great for a hot weather day. I only turned the stove on to cook the ground turkey. I love stuff like that when its really hot. Who wants three burner and the oven heating up the house when you're already dying of heat exhaustion.

It turned out pretty good. I really liked it, Seth wasn't in love but ate two plates full. I had an gluttonous seven wraps. The kids both LOVED the edamame. The dogs even got to enjoy a plateful that seth tragically sacrificed.

Its Begins

Hello there...really I should just say, Hello Jennifer...the only person other than my husband and my mother who knows about my new blog.

Well I've finally gone and done it. I've been thinking about this for a couple of years, but my vanity has finally caught up to me and I'm joining the rest of the blogging nation.

My inspiration and planned topic for this blog is food and cooking. I am an adventurous cook. I have a hard time taking the easy route in the kitchen. Why make frozen lasagna out of a box when I can make lasagna from scratch with homemade ricotta and homemade pasta. My results are good most of the time, but almost always on the table at a late hour and served to my starving husband who eats only half a serving because he can't each much late at night.

I finally broke down and decided to blog because I'm so excited about this summer's growing season. I just joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and I'm really excited about what I get to cook over the summer. Cincinnati also has some pretty good farmer's markets and Findley Market so I'm planning on cooking around what I find at the markets and from my CSA this summer.

I know the locavore movement is a bit of a trendy thing right now, but I'm pretty interested in the idea of it. I'm not planning on marching on Washington demanding that only organic locally grown food be served in public schools (hey that isn't a bad idea) but for now I'm experimenting within my family, trying to eat a little closer to home if only for the reason, to appreciate where our food comes from and what its supposed to taste like.


McKenzie