Terri

Molten Lava Cakes

January 9, 2011 by Terri · 4 Comments

Everyone is asking where I've been. No excuses, it was a busy December and I looking forward to getting back to blogging. I did a LOT of cooking over the holidays and thoroughly enjoyed it. What I did not enjoy however, is that my dishwasher is broken and it's been a royal pain to try to get my apartment management to fix it or get a new one. Thankfully a new one is supposedly "on order"! My gosh dinner parties involve a lot of dishes! I never realized how dependent I was on my dishwasher until it broke before Christmas. It has given my 12 year old a lot of quality time with mom, as the resident dish dryer though, which is all good! I had a dinner party with good friends the other night. It was a fun night of yummy food and great company. To finish it off I made molten lava cakes for dessert. You know, those yummy runny center cakes that you get out at the fancy restaurant? Yes, those cakes, and you can make them too! I think you'll be surprised how easy they are to make. I … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Desserts Tagged With: Chocolate, Dessert, Dinner Party, Molten Lava Cakes

Pumpkin Pie from scratch

December 3, 2010 by Terri · 1 Comment

If you've never made a pumpkin pie from scratch, you've been missing out. The pumpkin puree in a can just can't compare to the flavor of freshly roasted pumpkin puree. The first time I got a sugar pie pumpkin in my CSA share I was a little unsure of what to do with it. I had never roasted a whole pumpkin before and was a bit intimidated. I just couldn't see the benefit of going to the trouble of roasting a pumpkin when they had those lovely cans of puree all ready for me to use at the grocery store. After roasting my first pumpkin, my opinion changed dramatically. I always start any pumpkin recipe from a freshly roasted pumpkin now. So, how do you go from this: to this: It's really not that hard and it's worth the effort! The place to start is a fresh pumpkin. You can't just start with any jack o lantern pumpkin at the store. You need a cooking pumpkin. My favorites are long island cheese, sugar pie and Rouge Vif d'Etampes. You should be able to find a lot of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Desserts Tagged With: Dessert, Holiday, Pie, Pumpkin

CSA Week 36

November 27, 2010 by Terri · 1 Comment

Collard Greens, Romanesco, Escarole, Pumpkin, Fresh Peanuts, Radishes, Fennel, Salad Mix, Parsley. Sadly this was our last weekly share of the regular CSA season. The CSA resumes in March and we'll miss them until that time. This last share of the season also brought big news about our CSA. The two farms that cooperate to do our Two Small Farms CSA are no longer too small to have their own CSA and are splitting the routes next year. We don't know yet which of the farms will handle our pick-up site but I have confidence we will still receive high quality organic produce regardless of which farm is actually providing the box. It's still a bit sad to think of the two farms going their separate ways. It was a challenge getting through the bulkiest veggies in the share last week to clear space for the Thanksgiving feast ingredients! The pumpkin was used for our Thanksgiving pumpkin pie. It was fantastic as always! The fennel went into some spicy sausage and fennel pasta … [Read more...]

Filed Under: CSA Weekly Photos Tagged With: CSA, CSA Photo

CSA Week 35

November 16, 2010 by Terri · 1 Comment

Celery, Spigarello, Red Leaf Lettuce, Cabbage, Bull's Blood Beet "Greens", Cilantro, Chantenay Carrots, Red Butter Lettuce, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes. I'm so sad to see the end of the CSA season quickly approaching. We get our last box this week on Wednesday! Yes, I know I'm behind getting the weekly photo up but I had company in town last week! I was happy to see both potatoes and sweet potatoes. Although my son doesn't like potatoes, I do! I made a great Sweet Potato, Kale, Tomato soup the day after we got the CSA share. The inspiration recipe comes from Rachel Ray a few years ago. It is usually make with regular potoates and spinach. I substituted sweet potatoes the first time I made it. This time I swapped the spinach for Kale. It is even better with Kale! My son even liked it! I will post the recipe in the next few days! The celery will be eaten as is and used with our Thanksgiving turkey! The carrots will be snacks and salad toppings. Actually they already have been, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: CSA Weekly Photos Tagged With: CSA, Organic

Orzo with Tomato, Zucchini and Parmesan

November 6, 2010 by Terri · 1 Comment

This is a quick and easy pasta dish that I whipped up the other night for my mom. It worked well for a light dinner on it's own or could easily be a side dish. We had kind of a late lunch that day and didn't want to eat much so I made this veggie pasta. This simple dish only has a few ingredients: orzo, zucchini, tomatoes, Parmesan, and lemon juice. I used my Mandolineto cut the zucchini into a fine julienne. If you don't have mandoline, I highly recommend you get one. It makes julienned vegetables take no time at all. I had no idea how much I'd love it until I got one. Seriously, money well spent! Ingredients: 2/3 pound of orzo 2 medium zucchini, fine julienne 8 early girl tomatoes (about 2 cups), chopped 3 oz Parmesan, finely grated juice of 1/2 lemon salt, pepper to taste red pepper seeds (optional) Bring pot of salted water to boil. Cook orzo according to package instructions. While water boils julienne the zucchinis into the finest setting on … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Pasta, Vegetarian Tagged With: CSA, Lemon, Orzo, Tomatoes, Vegetarian, Zucchini

CSA Week 34

November 6, 2010 by Terri · 1 Comment

Green Leaf Lettuce, Cauliflower, Belgian White Carrots, Butternut Squash, Mixed Beets with greens, Artichokes, Tomatoes, Potatoes. Wow is that cauliflower gigantic. I have never seen such a huge one! I will roast it in the oven just like I did the last one. It was so yummy and easy! We were excited to see the artichokes this week. We really like them and it's been a long time since we got them in the share. I will post a recipe for marinated grilled artichokes later in the week. They are great! The lettuce, carrots, tomatoes and beets will go into salads for the week. Some of the potatoes have already gone into a fritatta that I made for my mom and sister who are visiting this week. It turned out really great. The rest will probably just be baked to go as a side one evening. The butternut squash will be made into a soup. Butternut squash soup is one of my husband's favorite things! I will post my recipe for that as well once I make it. It may not be this week though, we are … [Read more...]

Filed Under: CSA Weekly Photos Tagged With: CSA, Organic

CSA Week 33

November 3, 2010 by Terri · 1 Comment

Italian Parsley, Lacinato Kale, Mei Quinn Choy, Zucchini, Potatoes, Early Girl Tomatoes, Acorn Squash, Red Butter Lettuce, Delicata Squash. It's been a busy around here lately what with the Giants in the playoffs and then winning the world series and Halloween. Go Giants!! Not many recipes to share, I haven't been cooking much. I used the mei quinn choy in a stir fry and the tomatoes in guacamole for a friend's 50th birthday party. The zucchini went into a quick zucchini and whole pasta dish. Everything else is still hangning around! Must get busy as I have to pick up this week's box today! … [Read more...]

Filed Under: CSA Weekly Photos Tagged With: CSA

CSA Week 32

October 24, 2010 by Terri · Leave a Comment

Baby Turnips, Yellow Carrots, Red Leaf Lettuce, Orange Cauliflower, Swiss Chard, Delicata Squash, Apples, Scallions, Roma Tomatoes. This week's share has a nice variety. I can't believe our CSA is almost done for another year, just 4 more weeks to go. I'm proud to say that we've gotten every box this year and enjoyed it all. Last year we missed out on several boxes due to vacations. I planned better this year and got them all. The turnips, tomatoes, lettuce, carrots and scallions will go into salads throughout the week. We really like the baby turnips sliced thin in a salad. I haven't found any way that I like them cooked. I've tried several ways and I'm never thrilled with them. Raw they are tasty though! The apples are almost gone already. They are really great, the whole family has been snacking on them. I used the turnip greens already in a dish with lemon, orzo and asiago cheese. Super easy and delicious. I'll try to remember to photograph it next time I make it to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: CSA Weekly Photos Tagged With: CSA

Italian Vegetable Soup

October 22, 2010 by Terri · Leave a Comment

Fall seems to have arrived in San Francisco. A couple of weeks ago we had a record breaking heat wave and now it's cool, foggy and rainy. What to do? Make soup! A pot of soup bubbling away on the stove seems so warm and comforting to me. I just love it! Some would argue it's always soup season in San Francisco because of the foggy weather we so frequently have, but it just seems weird to me to make hot soup in the summertime. Soup is just Fall and Winter food to me. Don't even get me started on cold summer soups, I can't stand them. Eww! The other night I made a big pot of vegetable soup with Italian flavors. It turned out so great! It's one of those things that you can't believe is healthy because it tastes so darn good. I wanted to stick to a vegetarian soup this time as we are trying to each vegetarian at least one night a week. You could easily add some chicken or sausage to it but it doesn't really need it. I used fresh herbs because I had them on hand. You can … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Main Dish, Vegetarian Tagged With: Carrot, CSA, Fennel, Onion, Oregano, Soup, Tomato, Vegetarian