Know Your Greens

The new box, look at the two little avocados. They are from DeBusschere Family Ranch.

A new box has arrived that is Heavy on the greens. Winter is in full swing. Greens are so easy to use because they can be added too so many dishes and  instead of a salad just warm up a plate of your favorite leafy greens.   So here is a little runway vegetable show of  all the different greens

Blue Kale

Arugula

Siberian Kale

Red Mustard Greens

Curly Mustards

 I am always trying to add greens to any kind of recipe, using the Siberian Kale I combined a recipe from  Chez Panisse Cooking and my favorite lemon risotto from Nigella Lawson (this recipe everything is in the metric system). I love risotto, I even love the process of making it. I think that the adding of kale to the risotto didn't accentuate either one, even though it came out delicious.  It is however a good warm meal to split on a brisk November eve.

Delicious Black Bean Chili

This is the latest box as of November 7th

I found this recipe a couple of weeks ago and knew as soon as a new box came I would be making it. As the temperature has slowly dropped  I have been wanting to make chili.

The kale and butternut cut up.

I loved that this one included butternut squash and greens which I would not normally think of  putting with chili. I used kale instead of chard and I substituted one of the cans of black beans with a can of Cuban Style Black Beans from Trader Joe's. As I started to cook I realized I didn't have chili powder, so I put in a tablespoon of cayenne and a tablespoon of paprika. So there might have been a little bit more of a back end heat than there should have been. I loved that the kale added a good crunch and it still held up reheated in leftovers the next day. It was so good that we each went back for seconds. And it's completely vegan  or enjoy with a square of cornbread and a little onion and shredded cheese on top.

Black Bean Chili in all its glory. Even the colors look like fall.

Everything Good Inside a Pumpkin

I've been staring at my pumpkin hoping it would give me inspiration. I knew I was not going to carve it for Halloween and making a dessert seemed like an easy way out. I found a recipe on epicurious for Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good and I was sold. On the way to the grocery store to buy ingredients we heard the same recipe on NPR. It was fortuitous.
We did change some things. We eliminated the bread and added some cooked rice making it a loose risotto. I also added tasso ham, which is a Cajun ham with a bit of a kick. Everything else was about the same as the recipe. Within a half hour of being in the oven it immediately started smelling amazing. After two hours of waiting and impatiently switching the oven light off and on to watch for bubbling and browning, the pumpkin was done.

This is what it looked like when we removed it from the oven

As we ate, we discussed the various ways of how we could make this again. Even a sweet pumpkin was discussed, a sort of pie without the crust. It was decreed that stuffed pumpkin would be on the menu for Thanksgiving. I wonder how stuffing in the pumpkin would work?

This is the pumpkin carcass. As you can see we didn't like it at all.

I Vote For Eggplant

On a day where I find myself checking the Huffington Post every 2 minutes, I decided to make something that is easy and I could eat with one hand, while still checking for election updates with the other. This is a picture of the latest box.

I am really excited about my pumpkin and have not yet figured out what do to with it yet. Fall also brings the return of the daikon, which I never know what to do with. Maybe I will start pickling it. But back to eggplant. As it is November in typical southern California fashion we have come full circle and are walking around in warm 80 degree weather. While all I want to do is make stews, curries, and celebrate autumnal squash the warm weather won't allow for it. I found this eggplant sandwich on the Huff Post, and thought this would be a great easy meal. Roasting the eggplant and onion together gave me plenty of time to check up on midterm election status. I normally don't use premade pesto but opted for a jarred one, and made the white bean spread. I was afraid that they would both be too strong and cancel each other out, but all flavors came through. This is also a sandwich that tastes good warm or can be eaten cold the next day for a workday lunch.