Week 5…I cannot believe it has been 5 weeks since I started getting fresh garden goodness from Swallow Crest Farm.

I cannot believe it is the middle of June!!!

But, life is good…life is beyond good, here in Northwest Montana…at least by my standards. The weather is perfect, the food is wonderful, Bob, Bear and I are healthy and happy.

So…week 5: red leaf lettuce, spring greens, spinach, green onions, bok choy and radishes

Featuring spinach…a calzone with spinach, pepperoni (uncured, no nitrates from Applegate Farm), goat cheese, monterey jack and a bit of my roasted vegetable marinara.

Spurred on by my neighbor’s chef salad mention…a salad of fresh greens, pepperoni and kalamata olives dressed with my pesto-ranch-green goddess dressing. A bit of parmesan and on the side: pickled cucumber, onion, radish, bok choy slaw.

The fresh spinach – it has been my favorite of the green abundance. I’ve used it like lettuce on sandwiches, blitzed it into pesto, processed it with a bit of olive oil and frozen it…AND added it to a breakfast scramble.

Yep!! This scramble: eggs, spinach and mushrooms scrambled on low in a mix of butter and olive oil…then topped with salsa from the garden (cilantro, tomatoes, green onions, jalapeno, cumin, lime juice, salt & pepper) and goat cheese.

AND…a bagel – HOMEMADE!!! – with a schmeer of goat cheese. YessirreeeBob – THAT is a good breakfast!

Have I mentioned that I’ve been making bagels???

After the pretzel roll/pretzel adventure of two weeks ago…I’ve been making bagels. And reading about making bagels. Experimenting. And making bagels.

I have made the following bagels:
sesame
poppy seed
everything (kind of…using a unique mix of seeds form King Arthur)
cinnamon raisin
cranberry
plain

I have not thrown out a single bagel.

I have learned some things and there is more I’d like to learn. But at the moment, I am NOT unhappy with my bagels.

I am using a high moisture, long rise, no knead dough with a mix derived and adapted from multiple sources and my own experimentation:

2 1/2 cups King Arthur Bread flour (I believe KA bread flour has the highest protein content of any flour available in the U.S.)
1/2 cup King Authur white whole wheat flour
3/4 T instant yeast
3/4 T sea salt
3/4 T sugar
1/2 T non diastatic malt powder (source is King Arthur….this is a barley derivative to assist in rising and texture)
1 1/2 – 1 3/4 cups of warm water

Stir all above to mix and cover with wrap. Put in warm spot to rise for 2-12 hours. Yes, you read correctly. If I make this on a warm day, I let it rise for several hours and then refrigerate. If I mix it in the evening, I leave it out overnight. My house is cool at typically 62-64F.

This is what it looks like after a bit. When it looks like this, I stir it, transfer it to a ceramic crock and put it in the refrigerator…dough for the week’s (or 2 weeks) bagel needs :) !

On baking day, for each bagel, grab a hardball (baseball) size piece of dough. Flour it a bit to make it easy to handle. Shape it into a circle maybe 3 inches in diameter. Punch a hole in the middle and stretch the ring to 5 or 6 inches in diameter = raw bagel. Let the bagel circle sit while you get water boiling and your oven to 450-470. For me…460-470 works best.

For the boiling water, you want a pan large enough to hold almost 2 inches of water and wide enough to allow all of your bagel rings to swim without touching. I use a large dutch oven if I’m making 3 bagels, but typically, I’m making 1 bagel and I use a medium saucepan.

When the water is boiling vigourously, I add a mix of the malt powder, baking soda a sugar to the water. For 1 bagel, I use 1/2 tsp malt, 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp sugar.

Gently slide the bagel ring(s) into the water. Turn over at 2 minutes.

Another 2 minutes and remove with a slotted spoon to a plate.

Brush with an egg wash (slightly beaten egg and a bit of water), top with seeds if desired and put those things into the oven!

I’ve baked them direct on a pizza stone, on parchment on the stone, on parchment on cookie sheet…I can’t tell the difference and since I have a small upper oven that heats very quickly, I’ve mostly been baking on parchment on a cookie sheet in that top oven.

BAGELS!!…homemade bagels. They are a good thing.

Week 4: spring greens, spinach, red leaf lettuce, green onions, cilantro, bok choy

I am one of those people for whom cilantro tasted like soap. But I kept reading that if you persevere, you may/might overcome that. It is a kind of genetic thing apparently and maybe related to sense of smell…a bit of a mystery.

I wanted so much to like cilantro and finally…whether it was some very fresh cilantro or just time and continual trying…I LOVE cilantro. I love the smell and the taste and now can hardly get enough of it…even store bought…funny!

This week, I had my second bunch of fresh cilantro. Also fresh green onions and a few pecorina sweet tomatoes (largish and sweet cherry tomatoes) from my local hydroponic place – I made salsa. I also added 1/2 a can of Hatch hot, diced, green chiles, the juice of a lime, cumin, sea salt and pepper. All blitzed in the food processor to a medium-small chunky stage.

Oh, my! THE best salsa of my entire 56…almost 57 years of life. Here we go again. I will now never be happy with store-bought salsa.

My neighbor, Nancy, gave me a ride to pick up Wild Thing the day before week 4’s produce was ready. On the way to town, I was telling her of Swallow Creek Farm and she was interested so I stopped on the way back from Thursday’s pickup to show and share. Nancy told me that she and Mike enjoy a big chef’s salad so they were happy to have some of the greens and lettuce. The vision of a wonderful chef’s salad… it started a craving for one of my own.

That weekend, I bought Black Forest Ham, sliced extra thick and some sharp cheddar.

Dressing… gotta be Ranch…or at least ranch-ish. I ended up making a dressing somewhere between Ranch and Green Goddess.

A little mayo (HOMEMADE!!!…***), some Greek yogurt, a wee bit of sour cream, spring green pesto, anchovy paste, sea salt, fresh ground pepper and some buttermilk. Perfect. I dressed spring greens, red leaf and spinach with this all week.

In addition to salsa and dressing, I made all of the past week’s items from this week’s local bounty. I have been pleasantly surprised at how well the greens are keeping through the week.

I have used Oxo salad spinners for some years…a huge one at the house and a smaller one in the motorhome. The small one has been pressed into service in the house since I subscibed to the CSA and I also bought 2 new produce keepers: the green keeper has a humidity dial to allow setting the best humidity for whatever is being stored. I’ve been keeping spring greens and red leaf lettuce in it and they are staying fresh the entire week.

Sadly…this herb keeper is empty at the moment, but it has done yeoman duty at keeping the cilantro fresh and green…even store bought cilantro.

It can be a challenge to eat the weekly bounty but so far, I have been able to use or process and freeze or share…everything – and am very much enjoying eating from the garden.

***I thought I’d posted a link of the video about making mayo with an immersion blender but I can’t find that I have so I guess I just thought about posting it. ( mayo video) This takes about 5 minutes start to finish and most of the time is putting the ingredients in the jar. After making it in the immersion blender jar and then scooping it into a mason jar, I finally woke up and now make it right in the mason jar. In the motorhome, I have a version of the ‘Magic Bullet’ blender and I use it. I did have one failure in the motorhome but that was with grocery store (vs fresh) eggs. I reduced the oil a bit and tried again with success.

Here is another ‘trick’…while mayonaisse is traditionally egg yolk, acid (vinegar or lemon juice) and oil….it turns out that you CAN make a low fat version with egg whites instead of egg yolks. My preference is for a reduced fat combo, i.e. instead of two egg yolks or two egg whites, I use 1 whole egg. Here is the ratio that works for me:

1 egg (room temperature!)
4 tsp acid (lemon juice or vinegar. I use lemon juice or rice vinegar or white wine vinegar)
1/2 tsp sea salt (I use Celtic gray fine ground)
1 tsp smooth dijon mustard (I use Amy’s organic Dijon)
slightly more than 1/2 cup oil (I use sunflower oil – you can use canola or olive oil or a mix…your taste preference)

SRSLY…if you read jarred mayo labels and think about what you have to do to give fresh eggs and oil, etc. shelf life…ewww – you might want to give making your own mayo a whirl :)!

Week 3: spinach, spring greens, red leaf lettuce, scallions, cilantro & bok choy!

Bok choy is the new kid on the block this week. I am fairly new to bok choy also. My folks have been using it for some time and I finally gave it a try a month or so ago and love it.

Bok choy is typically used in a stir fry but my folks (and now me, too!) like it in salad, used like celery with a veggie dip, on a sandwich for some crunch…it is very versatile with great texture and taste.

As I keep cooked brown rice at the ready and I had a last bit of cooked chicken – a stir fry with some of the bok choy was in order. I mixed a little sesame oil and sunflower oil until hot – threw the bok choy and some mini sweet peppers in for a minute, then the rice and chicken. I added a wee bit of Oy Vay’s veri veri teriyaki (another great recommendation and gift from my folks!!). Top with some cashews and cilantro. Fresh pineapple on the side. A very good, very quick, very healthy, supper from the garden.

I’ve been keeping a bowl of pickled cucumber and onion going. This week, I added some of the bok choy and grated beets. That worked! The vinegar with just a bit of sugar and whatever herbs sound good – soften, “pickle” and enhance the texture of the raw vegetables. It makes a light and refreshing slaw kind of salad.

More spinach so I bought more mushrooms. I LOVE spinach and mushrooms sauteed in butter. I add the mix to rice, with cheese and mashed avocado to make a quesadilla, to a grilled cheese sandwich, or just on the plate with a poached egg on top.

Due to the schedule this past week, grilled cheese hit the supper table a few times…mostly with pesto.

The pesto did double duty also as the “sauce” for english muffin pizzas. These pizzas and the grilled cheese had pesto made with spring greens, cilantro, a little basil, garlic, salt, olive oil, parmesan and sunflower seeds. I am very much liking the sunflower seeds in place of the spendy pine nuts.

In a search for ideas for the scallions, I saw a recipe for scallion pesto. This was also in the middle of my “what constitutes pesto?” search. I was a bit taken aback by the scallion pesto as I thought: “Wow…this isn’t even green?” …but it is because the onion tops are used along with the white part.

Bottom line, it is a pale green, and I subbed sunflower seeds again, but all else the usual pesto ingredients. It was so good that the photo is the bit I froze as I ate all that I put in the cute mason jar before I got around to taking a photo :) ! The dark green package is the spring green/cilantro pesto.

The first weeks from the garden…your own or a CSA – heavy on the greens!

Somewhere in the neighborhood of ten years ago, I subscribed to an organic delivery service. I received a weekly delivery of organic produce. The group that delivered received the kind of organic produce that is now common place in grocery organic sections, but at that time – not. It was ultimately my introduction to some vegetables that I had never bought nor eaten. It proved to be a wonderful experience as I was “forced” to research some items and then decide how to incorporate them into my meals.

So, this go around, with my CSA subscription from Swallow Crest Farm…I am better prepared. Also, I have ten additional years of cooking experience :)!

Week 1: spinach, spring greens, cilantro, red leaf lettuce, scallions, radishes

The challenge of week 1 was the spring greens. I am not a “leafy green salad” afficianado and I had that beautiful red leaf lettuce. The “spring green” mix I am …or thought I was…a bit ho-hum about, but after this morning’s processing (end of this post), I am now looking forward to what they will be!

Sunday breakfast: A spinach, bacon, mushroom quiche – with a twist…a shredded potato crust. The side is a pickled radish-cucumber-cilantro-onion slaw. The pickled slaw – I’ve been making a version of it with cucumbers and onions. The addition of the radishes was a bonus. So simple: slice cucumber (I used an English cucumber) and radish, chop sweet onion and cilantro. Over all pour a dressing of vinegar, sugar, wee bit of oil. Optional additions are soy sauce, teriyaki, chili oil, sesame oil, mustard… For this version, I went fairly bland with the dressing. I knew I was going to use it with very flavorful and spicy main dishes. But it is wonderful with the Asian twist of sesame oil and mustard if serving with salmon or halibut, etc. Let the mix sit several hours or overnight or a day or so. It keeps getting better.

One of my “go to” meals is a quick saute of rice, beans and whatever else I have handy. When I’m out, I typically cook a pot of brown or brown and wild rice and a pot of beans. They sit in the frig waiting. On this night: brown rice, white beans, spinach and a bit of meat from baby back ribs with a side of pineapple and a glass of hibiscus refigerator tea spiked with pineapple and ginger syrup. It hit the spot!

Many, many years ago…before I moved to Montana…I lived in West Los Angeles. And I went nearly every day to the UCLA campus to work on-site. A favorite lunch from one of the many campus bistros, was a spinach-mushroom quesadilla. It was HUGE! But I was 30-something…

My current version is much smaller and uses my homemade corn tortillas instead of a GIANT flour tortilla. But it is STUFFED with spinach, mushrooms, guacamole (actually mashed avocado) and cheese. And it is good. This was actually breakfast. So the beverage is a hot cup of strong, black coffee. Yea.

While green, leafy, salads are not normally a big part of my eating…that red leaf lettuce….SO good and tender and I enjoyed it on sandwiches. But I also enjoyed it in this salad:

Red leaf lettuce, roasted red beets, goat cheese and walnuts. I dressed the lettuce and beets with a vinagrette: white wine vinegar, olive oil and fresh squeezed orange juice. That worked for my supper several nights.

So, this morning…with another distribution due in the afternoon…more greens to come and I hadn’t used all of the spinach and none of the spring greens.

Plan B: process and freeze

I washed (vinegar/water spritz and then a good rinse) and destemmed the spinach.

A blitz in the food processor with just enough olive oil to clean the sides of the bowl…

Into a ziploc bag, flattened and into the freezer.

I had intended to freeze any leftover greens as pesto – with garlic, nuts, etc., but on further thought, decided to freeze with just a bit of olive oil so I could use however I wanted when I thaw them.

I ended up with a bag of spinach, a bag of spinach and basil – basil not from the CSA. I had the basil on hand and it needed to be used – perfect fit for the end of the spinach that didn’t fit in bag 1.

The third bag was the spring greens. Again with just enough olive oil to clean the bowl.

Ultimately, nothing wasted. All was eaten or frozen for later use.

On to week 2!