Canada Day and Saturday tapas

Yesterday we had a fantastic Canada day. We picked up some cheese and bread at Foxhill Cheese and then went to Taproot for the picnic and strawberry fest. If you haven't had a chance to go, then do - we had a great time. We got to meet new people, and heard that people are actually reading the blog, which is gratifying. And it's always fun to wander around the farm and actually see where the food is coming from - trying to identify different just-sprouted vegetables; noting the gaps in rows of lettuces and fennel that made up last week's box; anticipating tomatoes and chard and basil and other lovely things we saw growing. Ria had a blast running around the farm, seeing all the animals, and playing with Lily (Patricia and Josh's daughter).

Visiting the farm also reinforces my appreciation (and my guilt - we probably should be paying twice as much!) for how much work farmers do - I don't know if other people noticed, since they were on one of the further fields, but the Taproot farmers were planting even on Canada Day. No holidays for them.

Tonight Kenneth and I, having failed to find a babysitter for our anniversary, had one of our favourite meals at home: loosely based on mediterranean tapas or mezze, it's an assortment of of small dishes from which we pick and choose. Tonight was homemade baguette, cheese from Foxhill and Pete's, olives, various pickles made last year from Taproot or garden produce, and kale chips. I know the world has discovered kale chips, so I probably don't need to blog about them, but they really are a pretty good way to eat kale. (Just don't believe the people who tell you they taste 'just like potato chips' and you won't be disappointed.) All you do is tear washed kale up into bite-sized pieces, spray them with olive oil, sprinkle salt and chilis if you want over them, and roast them at 300 for 10-15 minutes. Ria refused them whenever offered them, but then at the end of the meal pulled the bowl over and tried one - and then was disappointed when told they were 'all gone'!

Tapas is a great way to eat a variety of veggies - you can put out whatever you have, served with a bit of cheese, olive oil, some olives and fresh bread - and it's nice not to use the hot stove on a summer day!

-Kathy

baked salmon and kale with olives and tomatoes

I picked up some salmon yesterday, so was looking through my cookbooks for new ways to cook it (since Noah moved into town, barbecuing seems to be implausible). I adapted a recipe of Jamie Oliver's from the Naked Chef cookbook (since neither green beans nor cherry tomatoes are in season) and this ended up being one of the quickest and easiest - and tastiest - meals I have made in a while.

This is my version:

1 bunch kale, washed & ripped up

4-5 canned tomatoes, roughly chopped

small handful of sundried tomatoes, chopped

2-3 squeezes of anchovy paste (or real anchovies, if you have them)

olive oil

10-20 kalamata olives

salt & pepper

salmon

lemon juice

Heat the oven to 475 F with a roasting pan inside. Toss the kale with the canned tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, anchovy paste, olives, and about 2 T olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Take out the roasting pan and brush the bottom with a little olive oil. Put the salmon in one end of the pan and sprinkle generously with lemon juice. Put the kale mixture in the other end of the pan. Roast for 10 minutes. Serve over couscous (rice would probably work too, but couscous is way faster!) spooning the juices from the pan onto the couscous.

I am *definitely* making this one again. It took maybe 15 minutes, tops, and the strong flavours of the tomatoes and olives worked really well with the kale.

Kenneth is right now making rhubarb pie with the last of the rhubarb from our garden. I'm so glad I met someone who knows how to make pies!

-Kathy

Winter green pasta recipe

Box day! This week: canned tomato sauce (or maybe crushed tomatoes?), potatoes, carrots, two small celeriac (I must figure out something to do with celeriac other than soup!), brussels sprouts, onions, cabbage.

Pasta is my fallback comfort food, so in the rush to get the groceries bought and the box picked up, and everything put away (Ria helped by putting all the potatoes and carrots into the crisper bins in the fridge and then proceeding to take them all back out and put them back into the box) I chose the quick and easy route. But - mmmm! tasty. And it used up most of the leftovers from last week's box - mushrooms and kale. The acorn squash still lurks.

1 onion, sliced thinly

1 clove garlic, sliced thinly

1 T olive oil, plus a little more

1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced

1 green pepper, sliced

8-10 brussels sprouts, quartered

1/2 cup kale, sliced

1/4 c cream

1/4 c mozzarella cubes

2-3 T pesto

4 c whole wheat penne

salt & pepper

Saute the onion in a bit of olive oil in a large frying pan or wok. Add the garlic, mushrooms, green pepper, and sprouts, and stir fry until the sprouts are bright green. Meanwhile, cook the pasta. Distract your one-year-old with a story-book on the floor of the kitchen floor for a few minutes while everything is cooking. Just before the pasta is done, toss the kale into the pasta water and cook for a few minutes more. Pour about 1/4 c of the pasta water into the pan with the vegetables; add the pesto. We made pesto last summer with the abundance of basil Taproot gave us, then froze it in ice-cube trays, but store-bought would work as well. Drain the pasta and kale; add to the pan. Stir in just enough cream to make a smooth sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste, and just before serving, add the mozzarella cubes, so that they melt a bit but people still get lovely chunks of mozzarella in a few bites. Pick the brussels sprouts and mushrooms off the floor and feed your one-year-old more penne sans vegetables.

After dinner, Kenneth tried out a new gadget he got for his birthday. We started making our own pasta a couple years ago - I know, it's a bit excessive, but it tastes really good. (Don't worry - the pasta I used in supper was store-bought.) For his birthday he asked for a ravioli maker, and my sister and brother-in-law managed to find one on Amazon. We also tried out making pasta dough in the breadmaker (it seems to have worked really well, and it's way easier than by hand!). So we made ravioli tonight - half stuffed with the leftover squash, leek and blue cheese mixture Kenneth made last night, and half stuffed with Taproot spinach frozen from the summer mixed with homemade ricotta (I make it when our milk goes off, which it's been doing alarmingly often lately - it doesn't taste like store-bought ricotta, but it's good mixed into things). The ravioli mould worked like a charm. We'll keep you posted on how they taste! We feel very artisanal and domestic with so much homemade stuff - and a little sheepish, to be honest - but we have fun.

-Kathy