We’re back to reality after a great trip to Yosemite! It was more beautiful (and way less snowy) than we imagined. But why do short weeks after three-day weekends feel so fast and also so long?
This week’s CSA: butternut squash, oranges, a spring onion, lettuce, spinach, kale, and the longest cilantro we’ve ever laid eyes on.
Well, WordPress has not been our friend recently. We are really having trouble posting. Any suggestions?
In last week’s CSA: carrots, broccoli, peppers, kale, blue kobocha squash, arugula, and basil.
October means it’s finally cool enough to crank the oven and make some hearty, hefty, cozy comfort foods, right? At least in theory. At least in states other than California.
So…. lasagna time!
Probably the best thing about this vegetarian lasagna is that you can kind of tell yourself it’s healthy, thanks to the homemade tomato sauce and the finely chopped kale that decorate each layer of cheese and pasta.
For the sauce, we used our pizza sauce recipe, and just added some onions with the garlic at the beginning, and cut down the vinegar measurements a bit to keep it a little thicker. This time around we bought roasted red peppers for our layers, but you can also make your own if you want.
Vegetarian Lasagna (printable recipe here)
Ingredients
Directions
In a small bowl, stir the ricotta cheese and egg until smooth. Chop the peppers into bite-size pieces and finely chop the kale, in a food processor if you like. Tear the mozzarella into small pieces and grate the parmesan cheese.
Time to build the lasagna! Spread a layer of red sauce on the bottom of a 9×13 pan. Then cover with a layer of uncooked noodles, just slightly overlapping. You can break the noodles apart to fit your pan. Add another thin layer of sauce. Spread one third of the ricotta mixture onto the sauce, then one third of the peppers and half of the kale. Grate parmesan cheese onto the kale, and top with one third of the mozzarella. Repeat the layers. There will only be kale on the inside layers, not on the top, so skip that step on your third layer (but don’t skimp on the cheese!)
Now, preheat the over to 375˚ (or whatever is written on the pasta box, but don’t let it talk you into precooking the noodles if you want to avoid soggy lasagna). Let the lasagna sit for at least 30 minutes so the noodles can absorb the sauce. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes, then remove the foil (but save it) and continue baking for 10 more minutes. Remove the lasagna from the oven, cover with the foil again, and let it rest for at least another 20 to 30 minutes, if you can stand the wait. Serve with salad and garlic bread!
Leftovers
Maybe the best part of lasagna! Store covered in the refrigerator for at least a few days.
P.S. Lasagne or lasagna?
This past Friday would have been Megan’s grandmother’s 89th birthday.
I’ve been thinking about Grandma Jean a lot this weekend. She was one hardcore lady. She squeezed every last drop out of life, traveled the world, was brutally honest, and had more energy in her 80s than I think I will ever have. She raised six children, moved her life from Illinois to California, mourned the loss of a daughter and her husband, played bridge and tennis until the very end, volunteered, cultivated a lush and vibrant garden, was quick to jump on a boogie board and catch a few waves at the beach, and accomplished too many other feats to list here.
Grandma Jean taught me: to relax on a hammock whenever possible, to avoid watching the “boob tube” too often, to play different kinds of solitaire, to savor the small yet crucial pleasures in life (coffee first thing in the morning, and pinot grigio at 5 pm), to top pasta with sautéed spinach for the easiest elegant meal, to appreciate the understated sophistication of white (walls, T-shirts, whatever), and to clap along, even if on the wrong beats, to the New Orleans Christmas CD that she played so often she wore it out.
Grandma Jean told me: that just about everything was “darling,” that only boring people were ever bored, that my best friend’s father’s socks were the wrong color, and, upon my complaining about her noise in the kitchen one morning on vacation, that I can sleep when I’m dead.
Grandma Jean gave me: matching bathing suits with my cousin Christina every Easter; a huge, extremely soft, unbelievably cozy blanket in leopard print to keep us toasty when our old and drafty house on Cape Cod was too chilly; a very memorable trip on a cruise to Mexico with Christina, during which time we two gals giggled over the way Grandma said “Mazatlán” (it sounded something like “Matt’s-at-land!” and was always pronounced with sheer joy); a profound admiration of how much one can accomplish with a little elbow grease; and a small ceramic plate with a reindeer painted on it that I look forward to pulling out of storage every Christmas.
Grandma Jean was a classy chef and easy entertainer. She never worked too hard or seemed to get frazzled, but everything turned out just right—she was the kind of hostess we all aspire to be. When my mom and I went over for dinner, she would always say, “Nothing fancy, we’re all family,” as we admired the simple and gorgeous meals that seemed to just materialize in front of us. She would always make me something vegetarian, on the side, without ever making me feel guilty for needing special treatment. Very often my special meal was a frittata full of veggies and topped with bubbling cheese.
And so, Grandma Jean, a frittata for YOU. Happy Birthday! I know you’re not sleeping up there.
Grandma Jean’s Easy Frittata (print here)
Ingredients
Directions
Heat oil and butter over medium heat in an oven-safe skillet. Add leeks or onions and sauté, stirring occasionally, until soft and just beginning to brown (leeks take longer than onions). If using kale, add it and continue sautéing for 5 more minutes. Add your other vegetables and continue stirring. If using spinach, add it at the last minute and cook just until it wilts. Increase heat to medium-high and add (pre-cooked, leftover) potatoes, cooking them just long enough to warm them. In a bowl, whisk eggs, milk, salt, and pepper; then pour eggs into the pan. Let set for about a minute, and then begin stirring as if making scrambled eggs. Cook until about halfway done, allowing edges to firm up. Sprinkle with grated cheese and sliced tomato, and place under the broiler until eggs are completely cooked and cheese is bubbling and browned, usually about 5 minutes. Keep a close eye on it, as it can go from perfect to burned quite quickly. Serve immediately, or at room temperature.
Notes
Other veggies that work really well in frittatas are: asparagus, broccoli (chopped very small), bell peppers, zucchini (salt first to draw out water), and probably many others. We find potatoes to be the essential ingredient, and when they are cooked ahead you can whip up this meal fairly quickly. You can also try a different kind of cheese (jack, goat, or feta have all tasted great to us before).
Frittata keeps extremely well in the fridge for the next day. Wrap individual servings in foil, then reheat in the toaster oven. Leftovers inside of leftovers!
Spinach, carrots, potatoes, oranges, asparagus, kale, and leeks!
Spinach, carrots, potatoes, navel oranges, dino kale, leeks, red cabbage.
Forgive the tardiness and low light—it was a busy day, which meant photos and blogging at night instead of this morning.
I see some potato leek soup in our future…our favorite is Julia Child’s.
What should we do with the red cabbage? Would this Chez Panisse recipe still taste good with butter instead of duck fat?
Navel oranges, lettuce, carrots, butternut squash, broccoli, red kale, spring onions, and Asian pears!
What should we cook up this weekend?
Score! Here’s what came today: walnuts, carrots, potatoes, navel oranges, broccoli, dino kale, savoy cabbage, and leeks.
We still have a sweet potato left from last week, so we’re planning to try this fritter recipe from our wedding caterer’s awesome cookbook. How fun do those look?
And, a confession: we are not huge cabbage fans! We don’t particularly like sauerkraut or coleslaw. Can you help us learn to love it? Our CSA‘s e-newsletter has a recipe for a lentil-cabbage salad with walnuts that looked pretty good, so maybe we’ll give that a try. Any other recipe suggestions?
Wednesdays are a special day around here, because our CSA (community-supported agriculture) box is delivered from Terra Firma Farm!
This week was a beautiful blend of greens and oranges: carrots, broccoli, butternut squash, mandarins, leeks, kale, and spinach. We joined Terra Firma’s CSA almost exactly a year ago, and every Wednesday feels like the most wonderful treat! Our CSA has been extremely convenient and reasonably priced; it has also encouraged us to try fruits and veggies that we normally wouldn’t buy. On CSA Wednesdays, we’ll show you our weekly loot, and maybe you can give us some suggestions for that weekend’s recipe.
We are firm believers in the importance of buying locally and knowing about where your food comes from, whenever feasible for you. We have quite a few farmers in our family (Chandler and Leila at Hayshaker Farm in Washington; Joy and Kerry at Slowpoke Farm in Texas; Joe, Jody, and crew at Winter Family Farm in Texas), which brings it even closer to home for us.
Grandpa Bill even used to grow sweet, juicy tomatoes in small pots in his front yard!
Do you have a CSA? Is it year-round, or only during the summer? Do you shop at a farmer’s market? We would love to hear in the comments. And if you’re local, we highly recommend Terra Firma Farm. Pictured above is their “small” box in the winter—quite the bounty! Otherwise, it’s easy to look up a CSA or farmer’s market in your area.
The Leftovers Project 