Local Organic Produce!!!

Roadside farm stand goodies

I am in love with Vermont!!   I can drive a few miles down the road and purchase vegetables that have been cultivated organically by hands I can greet.  I feel so lucky to be in a location that appreciates local support.  Today I visited Foot Brook Farm in Johnson, VT. They had great prices and incredible produce.  Look at that uncured garlic, it is gor-geous!  The green beans and snap peas taste green, so fresh!  The guy at the stand told me that the heirloom tomatoes they had were as sweet as candy, I think this one will just be savored sliced.  Those pickling cucumbers are going to take a dip in a garlic salt brine.  Have  you ever seen red onions so beautiful with their greens to top them?!?  Sweet crunchy peppers and dark green zucchini, grill perhaps?  This is a welcome rainbow to my cutting board.  I wish I could write more but I just have to get back to my veggies and start something delish!

So much food, so little time..to write...

I have been missing you dearly my blog..topics that I want to share with you pop into my head constantly but I haven't had the time to actually sit down and get them on the screen.   I am here now and I am determined to let you know about all of the delicious goodies I have been creating lately!!!

Sweet and nutty Roasted Chick Peas

These are so super easy to make and a super protein punch for a late day snack.  I tossed mine with some tamari (soy sauce), grapeseed oil and some Shichimi Togarashi.  I slow baked them in a 275 oven for about 45 minutes.  Just leave these guys alone and give them a stir occasionally and you will soon be snacking in style!  You can give this snack your own flair too. Chick peas are a blank canvas and accepting of all seasoning.  Try adding some balsamic vinegar, olive oil and Italian Herbs.  Or some honey and grainy mustard.   Now go ahead and make these.  I bet you won't be able to stop munching on them throughout the day!

What else have I been up to, let's see...

Vegetarian Summer Feast!

This trio is so fresh for a hot summer night.  Up front we have the gorgeous purple cabbage slaw.  My camera does no justice to the color of this.  Bright fuschia mixed with salt, grapeseed oil and apple cider vinegar.  I use Bragg's because it has "the mother" which is all the goodness of it's unfiltered fermentation.

The collard greens are a simple saute with red onion, garlic, tons of it please, Worcestershire sauce and a splash of ACV for tang.

Red Potato salad.  So easy and simple.  Boil potatoes until fork tender.  Drain and put in a bowl. While the taters are still warm toss with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Drop in a glob of grainy mustard and you have instant potato goodness!!  This meal would be great with the chick peas above.

Summer "cooking" should be full of crunch!  When there is an abundance of fresh veggies that are in season I try not to do to much to them.  Light sautes, a brief visit on the grill or just a quick rinse and a big bite!  What is in season now and what should you be focusing on-  

summer squashes

Zucchini is a wonder vegetable.  Shred it for a cold salad, dice it for a light pasta, stuff it with bread crumbs and mushrooms or grill it with balsamic.  The options are limitless. Likewise for yellow squash which can be a bit seedy so you might want to scoop out the center section before using.  I wish I had a picture of my recent summer squash dish but it was so tasty it didn't last long enough to get photographed.

rediscovering my mortar and pestle

So here we are.  The middle of summer. Vermont is like paradise.  I have a beautiful container garden full of herbs, hot peppers, 2 kinds tomatoes of  and lots of flowers!  I am at peace and am awaiting a bountiful harvest.  For now we have been herb crazy!

I have recently started eating poultry and I thought I would give  it a real go. I injected a roaster with the fresh crushed herb garlic oil and rubbed the rest of the herbs on the skin.  I also tossed Bohemian Forest on the skin.  Oh boy was this one tasty bird!  Mashing fresh herbs is incredible and brings out the natural oils.  The aroma was divine!     

 

fresh herbs, garlic, olive oil,salt

Brunch.  Not usually my favorite word in the restaurant business because I  have worked every Sunday as long as I can remember.  This time around I have Sundays off.  Quality time with the hubby cooking up breakfastylunchy goodness!!!  BRUNNCH!!  We do this up in style at my house.  Most recently was an herb filled frittatta with fresh VT tomatoes, peas and potatoes with a side of flaked grilled salmon.  What a way to start a lazy day.

So this is what I have been up to.  Enjoying the summer thunderstorms, cultivating my garden and basically loving life.  I will leave you with a picture of my giant tomato plant that just won't quit.  

Enjoy the summer folks!

Busy days in a kitchen, but at night...

I work in a professional kitchen cooking food for the masses seeking health inspired cuisine.  What does this mean?  I chop vegetables all day long to produce gallons of grain, bean and chicken salads.  How could I ever want to come home and cook, you ask?  Easy.  I loooooooooooove my kitchen.  I know there is no 8 burner gas range, mine is electric.  There is no double convection oven or dishwasher at hand, just my helpful hubby.  And there is definitely no walk-in refrigerator stocked to the ceiling for all your cooking needs.  My fridge and pantry do stand up though.  Pinto, red chili, black, mung, adzuki beans beans beans!  White jasmine rice, bulghur, vital wheat gluten(for making homemade seitan which will surely be posted about!), spring and winter wheat berries grown locally in VT!!!  Dr. Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar and Amino Acids, if you don't have them, get them!  Grapeseed, sunflower, extra virgin olive, corn, safflower oils, fresh ground nut butters, whole seeds, good fats are essential for your brain, use them please.  Kale, collards, red and green cabbage, broccoli-cruciferous vegetables will save your life.  Onions, Spanish, Vidalia, sweet red!! Garlic bulbs and bulbs!!!

This is just a fraction of what I have on hand to stir my culinary juices on a daily basis.  I never know what I am going to want to cook when I get home or even if I am going to want to cook at all.  Sometimes I swear to myself that I do not even want to look at my knives or my cutting board,  but then I get home, unwind and head to the pantry and collect my ingredients and begin the night's feast.  So,what did I make for dinner tonight?  Nothing! My husband cooked :)

With a little help from my friends...

In the very recent past I had the privelege and pleasure of working for 2 of the most incredible women I know and can now call friends.  Jackie Mittelhammer and Becky Solheim are not only sisters, they are co-owners of  Savory Spice Shop in Westfield, NJ .  Words cannot describe the feeling you get when you walk into their shop. We call it the happy place because an aroma of over 400 herbs & spices overwhelm your senses.  

-Wow, it smells so good in here!-

It is a phrase heard all day long with welcome ears.  Along with the collection of everyday or exotic herbs and spices you see you will also notice all of the blends lining the shelves in the glass bulk jars.  Oh, the blends!!  Parm Pesto you get me every time!!  I will be posting pictures of all the recipes I have created using items from Savory Spice Shop.  I don't have written recipes, just a little of this and a little of that, but if you have to recreate something you see I will gladly make a recipe for you :)

I hope you came here hungry cuz here is a taste-

 bulghur, butternut squash, celery and french herbs(Herbes de Provence and Bohemian Forest)

County Clare Corn Chowder with Beer Bread Croutons

 Jamaican Jerk (Extra HOT) Tilapia, Sweet Potato salad with mango vinaigrette and 

Collard greens

Rice noodles with Kale and Shichimi Togarashi

Cambodian Lemongrass Curry with glass noodles

So here is a little taste of the goodies I came up with using SSS products.  I am relying on my phone's camera to take pictures and it is a long process removing pics to the computer..anyway..there will be a digital camera in my life soon and there will be pictures aplenty.  I will be putting pics in another post of my other creations..so look out for it.

Muffins and some other stuff!!

I am not much of a baker. I know it is kind of strange for me to even begin a blog with a baked good.  My peace has always been with a knife chopping away at veggies, sauteing, roasting, frying, blanching.  Recently I have found joy and comfort in a few cups of flour, an egg or two and some butter, mmm always butter!!

I started small.  Sour cream coffee cake, blueberry muffins for a family brunch Sunday morning and then I had to go and make Apple Cinnamon Crumb Top muffins at 10 pm last night.  This baking jones can not be quenched! My go to for recipes is my all time favorite cook book  The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook.  It was the one I grabbed off my mom's shelf when I was just a kid to see what I could concoct for the fam.  It never fails me and when I need a suggestion, a conversion or a quick cake recipe that is easy with pictures that is where I turn to.  I love cookbooks for the suggestions.  A change here or there makes the dish yours but the solid foundation is always a huge help.  I am hoping that eventually I will be able to make my own recipes for baked goods, but for now I will rely on my old standard.

I figure this is as good an intro as any.  I will  be posting regularly, even daily, all of the fresh, whole foods ideas, dishes, inspirations and finished products that I create.  My passion is to open a cabinet and start from scratch.  Pantry cooking, garbage cooking or use whatever the heck you've got in your house cooking!!!  Whatever you want to call it as long as what you are using is au naturel.   Keep dried beans and grains stored in glass jars, it not only looks cool it keep them fresh!  Open your produce drawer in your fridge, anything there?  NO?!?  Go stock up on some collard greens, kale, fresh spinach and chard!  What about your fruit bowl?  Tomatoes, apples, pears!!  Keep it seasonal.  No butternut squash in the summer! Where has it been sitting for so long to get to you  in JUNE!

Basically the mindset is this.  Conscious eating.  Where did it come from, when was it grown and with what methods?  Was the treatment humane, no hormones or antibiotics,no small pens or dim lights?  and the biggest question of all-

WHAT WILL THIS DO TO MY BODY ONCE IT PASSES MY LIPS?  

This is the most important question of all.  What has food come to when the label makes no sense?  

This is a good ending.  Contemplate what has been on your plate lately.  I hope you can find solace here.  I want to make simple easy food that is good for you.  My mantra will close us out-

EAT GOOD FOOD-DON'T SPEND $$$ ON CRAP!!!