(Above: green onion, kale, and spinach from garden, tatsoi from CSA)

I don’t really mind since I tend to love salad and greens.  However, at some point you run out of things to do with them and start wanting something else to cook.

This week I’m home alone because Madame and the assistants went to visit her family.  In the original plan I was also going to go but then I went and got a job and it didn’t seem appropriate to ask for a week off two weeks after starting.  As it’s a bit lonely I have given myself a few things to work on for the week.

One thing I decided to work on was the greens!  I decided to eat greens with every meal for a week.  I’m calling it Week of Greens.If you’re in a CSA you should try it too, what else are you going to do with a all those greens?  Maybe, if all goes well, it will turn into summer of greens!  Or I just might hit the wall and declare an early end to the week.  We’ll see…. Hopefully I’m alive and well when my family returns.

Here’s how the week began, with a breakfast of greens with one egg and no ham.  I wanted to include ham and call it “Greens, egg, and ham” but didn’t have ham.  Anyways, it was a delicious breakfast.  Instead of ham I added a few thin slices of potatoes fried in a bit of ghee.  I topped the dish with some Ontario greenhouse tomatoes and had a nice side of local strawberries that Madame and the assistants picked last week.

I am not willing to buy foods that claim to be something they are not, for example I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, and foods with names like Tofurkey, and Not Dogs.  These foods are rarely simple foods that could be made at home.  Veggie burgers are one exception to my list of substitutes I will allow, but only if they are homemade.  The same would be true for gluten-free hamburger buns, but I haven’t really wanted to attempt those… until now.

I love baking bread, and that’s the main reason why I always make homemade hamburger buns.  However, in attempting to meet the needs of members of my extended family I was unsure of how to enjoy a meal of burgers with them and still honor both my from-scratch love as well as my localism tendencies.

Then one afternoon I noticed a big round potato.  It seemed to kind of resemble a bun of sorts.  I realized that this vision would allow me to do the two things I wanted to do—make a “bun” that was gluten-free and local.  This bun would be easier to make than the English muffins we like to make for burgers, and just as tasty, albeit in a totally different way!

I’m happy to say that it worked great!  We’ve made them twice now and both times they were great.  Rather than write a formal looking recipe, I’ll just give a short explanation of the process.

All you need to do is find a large round potato, slice it in half, and then slice each half again to form two sets of buns.  The outer round part becomes the top of the bun, the inner flat part the bottom.  Lightly oil a baking sheet, and lightly salt the potatoes, then roast them at 425 for 15 minutes, then flip and roast 15 minutes more (longer for potato slices thicker than ½ inch), or until they are golden and beginning to bubble.  Treat the bun the way you would treat any hamburger bun—put on your favourite condiments and enjoy!

We’ve made them with regular locally and ethically raised beef burgers as well as with Oh She Glows’ “Perfect Veggie Burger” and both were great with the potato buns.  They’d also go quite nicely with The Sweet Life’s Beet Sliders, since beets and potatoes pair very well.  And hey, even if you’re not a gluten-free eater, you might as well try these buns just to change it up and keep things fresh!

Pin it:

Sharing at Nomday Monday.

In the meantime it is important to find a few more ways to make the remaining produce that has been stored all winter a little bit more exciting.  This sandwich was part of our answer.

Rather than make some sort of veggie burger—which is often more trouble than it’s ultimately worth (there are exceptions)—this sandwich gives full veggie flavor while preserving the true nature of the various components.

The three root vegetables, beets, potatoes, and parsnips, are simply sliced and roasted with a bit of oil and seasonings.  Once they are crispy on the outside they go in the sandwich, with a few classic sandwich condiments.  This recipe should appeal to those who say veggie burgers aren’t burgers since this recipe makes no claim to be anything other than what it is, a roasted vegetable sandwich!

Get the recipe at Bailey’s (but really you can probably just look at the photos and know what to do, they tell most of the story!).

Linking up at Nomday Monday.

I’m a big proponent of entering contests.  Not because I usually win, but because I sometimes win.  My most recent win was from the Snap Local Contest.  It was put on by The Ontario Table and involved snapping a picture of a local dish and suggesting a wine pairing from Southbrook Winery (which is a really awesome organic winery!).  I thought this was a great idea for a contest so I entered and several months later I won!  I went down to Southbrook in Niagara-on-the-Lake on Wednesday with my Youngest Assistant while his older brother had his first full day of school.  We met Lynn Ogryzlo, who is the creator of The Ontario Table and a tireless advocate for local food and promoter of Ontario, and especially Niagara, foods and wines.  Due to her incredible work on behalf of Ontario growers and producers she was named Ontario Local Food Ambassador from Ontario Farm Fresh Marketing Association in 2012.  Needless to say it was pretty awesome to meet her very briefly and to get three of her cookbooks!  (The other part of the prize is a private tour and structured tasting for 6 people that we plan to use at some point next spring!).  This week’s recipes are mainly from the three books that I received as part of my prize.  The books are The Ontario Table, Niagara Cooks: From Farm to Table, and Niagara Cooks: A Seasonal Attitude.

Other than that the other big event of the week, the first week of school, went quite well.  My Young Assistant had a great time at school, was happy to have several friends and neighbors in his class, and seems eager to go back.  Although, he was exhausted enough to fall asleep in the bicycle trailer after school on Friday….

A bit hesitant on his first day, but once he arrived and his teacher took his hand he barely looked back!

 Week’s Menu for September 9 – 15 (featuring one repeat from last week that we didn’t get to, Wednesday).  Linking up at Menu Plan Monday.

This week’s meal plan is lacking Monday and Tuesday because we will be out of town for Madame’s work conference in Niagara!  The boys and I plan to hit up a local nut farm and go searching for strawberries too since rumor has it they are ripe there…. Oh yeah, and then we’re going to Madame’s parent’s house for Father’s Day weekend, so there’s a gap on both ends of this meal plan, lucky me—a vacation (and I love helping cook when we go home to our parent’s house, but I don’t have to make the plan!!).

Since this week is lacking on menu ideas, if you feel like you need more ideas just check out last week’s menu which was so good, every day’s meal was wonderful and almost all were new to us.   Shaved Asparagus Pasta was pretty much the easiest meal I’ve ever cooked, I recommend it as an easy seasonal meal!  The meal originally comes from Martha Stewart, but The Red Spoon has a much more detailed version of it that is quite helpful.

June 10-16

These days the menu features lots of green items.  It’s wonderful.  It also would seem that there is some debate on the internet (and maybe beyond) as to whether it’s healthier to eat leafy greens raw or cooked.  Since my 3-minute internet research session was inconclusive I’ll stick to just not worrying about it, and will cook them sometimes and sometimes not.  Basically I will let the recipe and my stomach decide what sounds best (which reminds me of this interview I started to read last night).  For further reading on cooking leafy greens try reading this article about Kale and its recent popularity.

Looking back at least week, one great meal was Cream of Asparagus Soup with Fresh Cheesy Garlic Bagels!  We ate it last night and like I just said, it was a great meal, especially the fresh bagels, which were topped with cranberry goat cheese (since we rarely buy cream cheese).  Let me just say, once you start putting goat cheese on bagels it’s unlikely you’ll ever go back to cream cheese…

• Spinach (1/4lb)
• Kale (1/4lb)
• Pea shoots
• Potatoes
• Asparagus
• Carrots

(left from previous shopping)

• Mushrooms
• Sweet potatoes
• Parsnips
• 8 eggs

(in Garden)

• Lots of greens – mustard, lettuce, spinach, kale

The meal plan is as follows (note that we will be gone this weekend):

Spring is beginning to arrive at the market and that is good.  It also is beginning to arrive in my backyard where I’ve been able to harvest small amounts of leaves from various young plants—dandelions, mustard, spinach, kale, and lettuce.  So this is good.  However, asparagus hasn’t come yet (Friday we will get some from Bailey’s!) so it still kind of feels like Spring isn’t fully here yet.  At the Kitchener Market we were able to pick up some local greenhouse arugula and chard, but neither of those really makes me feel like spring the way the asparagus will.

Sunday afternoon we went for a hike at Rattlesnake Point which is on the Escarpment that looks out over Lake Ontario.  It was beautiful!  We joined two of Madame’s brothers and their spouses, had a lovely picnic, played some Frisbee and kicked around a soccerball, hiked, enjoyed the warmth of sun, and had a great time!  When we got home instead of doing our Cinco de Mayo feast we had guacamole (a mini, non-local celebration!) and a frozen Beet, Potato, & Mushroom Casserole.  Thus we will celebrate Siete de Mayo.  I checked that phrase on google and the only interesting thing I found was a blog from a US surgeon in Afghanistan from two years ago.  His reason cited was the same as mine, well not the same really in any way other than the fact that when you can’t celebrate Cinco de Mayo you celebrate when you are able!  So, come on over for some great Mexican food on Tuesday night if you’re nearby!

The Eggplant Parmesan will be made with local greenhouse eggplants.  Kind of hilarious, and strange… but I was excited to eat something different and pretend that it’s summer.  Tonight’s Penne with Cabbage is something I’ve made before, but a long time ago.  It’s simple and tasty.   Also, I’m branching out this week, or returning to my roots–the Moosewood Cookbook is featured this week in two recipes, Eggplant Parmesan and Spanokapita.  Should be great!

Spring?  Maybe it has arrived.  We feel it a little bit more each day.  In terms of planning our menu for the week  Cinco de Mayo should be an obvious meal choice (if it’s not obvious, it’s going to Mexican!).  However, I will still do my best to utilize local ingredients, which actually should be pretty easy, other than avocados, lime, and tequila….    Other than that this week is a little bit difficult to plan for.  One problem is that some of our favorite winter storage vegetables (namely the leeks) have been disappearing from the market the last few weeks.  That would be okay if it were accompanied by the arrival of Spring vegetables… but it hasn’t been!  We’ve been waiting for an abundance of Spring greens but since they haven’t really arrived we have been somewhat unsure what to plan!  So, this week’s plans for now are going to include things that we can plan on—cabbage and root vegetables like potatoes and beets!  Oh, one more thing, the Beet and Red Cabbage Salad from last week’s menu turned out great!

Desserts – I don’t plan desserts, they are just whatever sweet treat we have made recently, but these Chocolate Diablo Cookies from Chatelaine Magazine are amazing!

Taking a break from meal planning…

Also, an apology:  last week we didn’t get to two of our meals… so we are eating them this week (which means that two days in this menu are identical to last week’s)!  On Wednesday we didn’t make the planned meal because I didn’t feel like cooking… that was the day I ended up baking with My Assistant all day (yes, I realize this was ironic).  Thursday I had a disaster (which I will write about in a day or two)….    And I’d love to hear from you if you’re trying any of these dishes, or what local foods you’ve been enjoying lately!   Share a link to a recipe that’s local for you below!  Try to think of what you could do for 100 Mile Monday this week….

Ok, the plan for the week:

100 Mile Monday requirements for the meal or recipe you link:

• All produce, grains, dairy and meat are from < 100 miles away.

My meal posted below meets the requirements.  The one thing that I really couldn’t get locally was a good type of nut.  Ontario seems to have peanuts, but I have not yet found any good tree nuts like walnuts locally.  I hope to eventually find some, but have only lived here for 3 months!  So yes, I used walnuts in my dish, but not very many!   All my produce, grains, dairy, and meat were from <100 miles away.

The Meal:

Our meat for this week was the last piece from our small box that we got from Vibrant Farms through Bailey’s.  On Thursday I cooked it as a pot roast in the crockpot with potatoes, parsnips, onions, carrots, and radishes.  I also made 4 loaves of whole wheat sourdough ciabatta, and my new favorite beet and apple salad! Oh man, I know I’ve been eating beets all winter but they keep getting better.  The beet and apple salad idea came from Food & Wine but I modified the recipe a bit, partly because for starters I didn’t have pistachios and didn’t feel like buying them.  I’ve seen plenty of salad recipes that feature beets and apples (my own included) but many were more complicated or used spinach (which I rarely have on hand at this time of year).

At the very last minute that evening we invited the neighbors over and the meal turned out to be a great one for sharing!  Everyone enjoyed it and even though it was a huge crockpot full of pot roast there wasn’t too much leftover.  We had 3 of the 4 ciabattas too so I’d say they were well-received.  Oh and the beet & apple salad?  There was none left!

Pot Roast

When I make pot roast in the crock pot I just add whatever wintery vegetables I have available, a piece or two of local meat, some garlic, Italian seasonings, salt and pepper, a bit of red wine, and water and let it cook all day.  Things usually turn out quite tasty so I haven’t done much to improve upon this.  However, here is a link to a standard pot roast recipe.

Whole Wheat Sourdough Ciabatta

I’m not ready to do a recipe for this yet because I wasn’t completely satisfied with how it turned out.  Bread is tricky, especially if you have little experience.  Therefore I don’t want to give a half-hearted recipe and tell you to experiment.   Until my recipe seems completely replicable here is a link that looks good and is similar to what I did (I was working with the knowledge of several non-whole wheat recipes and also sort of making things up).  I kept track of what I did so I can improve my own recipe and post it in the future.

Holy Cow Vegan’s recipe looks straight-forward and successful, with very nice bubbles!

http://www.holycowvegan.net/2012/03/whole-wheat-sourdough-ciabatta.html

My Favorite Beet and Apple Salad

This is adapted from Food and Wine’s recipe.

Ingredients:

• 4-6 medium beets, cooked/roasted
• 1-2 apples, sliced into wedges
• ½ cup walnuts or pecans
• ¼ – ½ cup goat cheese, crumbled
• 3 Tbs. oil
• 2 Tbs. apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tbs. lemon juice
• 1 Tbs. horseradish or horseradish sauce
• Salt and pepper

Put a tablespoon of oil in a baking dish (I used Corningware because it has a lid), roll the beets around to coat with the oil, cover and bake at 375 for 1 hour.  Remove the dish and leave the lid on allowing the beets to slowly cool*.  Peel the beets, and then slice them into pieces about 1cm thick and wide.

Careful, after 1 hour in the oven these are a little hot!

If you like your walnuts sweet and crunchy you can add a small amount of butter (1 Tbs.), honey (1 Tbs.), and salt (dash) to the walnuts and lightly candy them, by cooking over medium heat until they are just starting to turn black.  Remove the pan from heat and allow to cool.  They should be crunchy!

Make the dressing by thoroughly mixing the oil (your choice, preferably local), lemon juice (this will never be local here) horseradish, and a dash of salt and pepper.

Toss the beets and apples with the dressing and top with the walnuts and crumbled goat cheese.  To crumble goat cheese from a “log” just unwrap one end and twist a fork into the cheese allowing the cheese to crumble onto the top of the salad.  Drizzle any extra dressing on top and serve or refrigerate until dinner.