CSA Bounty: When in doubt, add cheese and fry

Whenever I get behind on the CSA vegetables or just am stumped for dinner, this type of vegetable patty always come through in a pinch. Also great for nearly every type of "what do I do with that" vegetable (celeriac and rutabaga make a fabulous potato-pancake style vegetable pancake, for example).

No photo, but you've seen this kind of thing before.

3 ears corn, kernels cut off
1 patty pan squash, grated
jalapeno
onion
cheddar cheese blend
leftover quinoa, cooked
brown rice flour
xanthan gum

Mix vegetables. I squeezed out the squash because it seemed so wet, but I ended up having to add water, so maybe skip that step. Sprinkle about 1/2 tsp xanthan gum and then enough brown rice flour to coat. Mix. Add flour or water until it holds together as a loose batter (mine held together, mostly, when squeezed) and stir in a big handful cheddar. Pan fry hand-formed patties until golden brown.

Serve topped with sour cream and diced tomatoes.

Asian Week

I declared it Asian week in the Starnes kitchen last week.  We stocked up on supplies at H Mart in Wheaton - rice paper, rice noodles, dried mushrooms, sushi rice, seaweed wraps, special sauces.  All good stuff.

This sesame cracker was something new for us.  They don't look like much in the package,

but stick it in the microwave for a minute and -

 POOF!  They puff up into a fluffy, crispy, tasty cracker!

We used them to taste our potsticker sauces.

Now, the potstickers themselves are another story.  A failure for sure.  I thought it was just because I used an odd mishmash of flours (a bit of GF all-purpose, a bit of GF mix from a big company, a big of "high protein" mix), but I think what actually happened was I was thinking Tablespoons instead of teaspoons when I added the xanthan gum. They tasted fine, but were tough and hard to work with.  I think xanthan gum was the culprit.  I'll be trying again, though, probably tomorrow, so there should be an update.  The chicken filling was really good though - chicken ground in the Mini-chopper, garlic, ginger, spicy pepper, a dash of fish sauce.

Other items made this week:

sushi filled with cucumber, avocado, wasabi crab, sriracha crab.

Sushi rice recipe from Alton Brown.  We actually left the rice on the counter overnight (it gets hard if refigerated) for making the same the next night (actually, husband had the rest of the crab, I had veg & chicken, more like a bibimbap).

The next night I made meatball summer rolls.  Sounds weird, but we had a version of this (with pork, I believe) at Vietnam restaurant in Philadelphia.  I took ground chicken and seasoned it the way I did for the potstickers earlier, then cooked it on the grill pan in small patties.  Rolled up with rice vermicelli, basil, cilantro, and pickled radish, carrot and cucumber, it was a great summer meal.

Somewhere in there we also made fish tacos.  Fresh corn tortillas filled with mojo-marinated grilled fish and queso fresco.  Awesome.

And last, but not least, this morning's breakfast: potato and pancetta hash (with onion) and topped with a runny egg.  This used up a package of pancetta ends we picked up at DiBruno Brothers on our trip to Philadelphia.  Probably wouldn't use them again though, they were pretty tough.

Now That is a Lunch

Today, I chopped vegetables for salads so I can quickly pack lunches this week (short work week yay!).

Mixed greens, carrots, radish, cucumber, snow peas with homemade creamy dressing.  I had planned to make a creamy buttermilk dressing, but wouldn't you know, they were out of buttermilk at the store, so I improvised.  Gluten free Kinnickinnick sandwich bread, spicy brown mustard, smoked turkey, swiss cheese, tomato sandwich.  Delish.  Spicy Thai Kettle Chips.  Diet Dr. Pepper-wanna be drink from home soda maker.

Creamy salad dressing:
1 individual container fat free plain yogurt (they only had fat free, which I don't normally buy)
about 1/2 as much low-fat sour cream as yogurt
splash of milk
about 1/2 Tbsp to 1 Tbsp mango balsamic vinegar
about 1/2 Tbsp to 1 Tbsp dijon mustard
about 3/4 cup parlsey
about 1/2 cup dill
(you can tell I'm big on measuring ingredients carefully!)

Blend or process until smooth and creamy.  Salt to taste (and it does need salt, it was bland until I added quite a bit to mine.  It's a lot of dressing, don't hold back!).

Strawberry Jam

On Friday, we headed out to the nearest orchard/farm to pick strawberries.  We came home with one flat of strawberries - 11 pounds worth!  I wanted to try my hand at making jam.  It was an adventure!  But, it turned out pretty well.

Since we don't have a deep freeze, I didn't want to make freezer jam, because I didn't think jam would hold up well in our fridge-top, frostless freezer (the freeze-thaw cycle that keeps it frost-free isn't good for long term storage) so we had to water-bath can.

I had a pot I thought big enough to use, but I didn't have a rack that would fit in the bottom of it, to keep the jars off the pan while processing.  We ended up using two aluminum foil snakes.  It wasn't perfect, and it was really irritating to deal with (aluminum foil floats!) but it got the job done.  I think if we try to do this again (and I'd like to can more, it was fun!) we'll need to invest in a large canner, with jar rack.

I followed the directions that came with the pectin and it turned out really, really, well!  Oh, and I'm glad I used by big 6qt Le Crueset pot to cook the jam - when that stuff boils, it really expands!

Grand total: 10 1/2 pint jars of jam, two bags of frozen, whole berries (a little more than a gallon, I'd say, two whole sheet pans of berries), one large bowl for topping cake and ice cream, plus one box for eating.  That was a lot of strawberries!

I am ridiculously proud of how well it worked out, though.  This strawberry jam is delicious!  Fresh, fruity, sweet, and so very strawberry-y!

Arepas!

Every once in awhile, we make arepas.  They're so easy and so delicious, plus it's a nice change of pace from tortillas.

I made a small batch this time, so we didn't have leftover arepas, since we were just making arepas to use leftover filling from making tacos earlier in the week.  Follow?

1 1/2 cups, approx. of masa harina (MaSeCa is the brand I can find most easily around here)

about 1 1/2 cups warm water

~1tsp salt

Mix together until it forms a slightly wet, clay-like dough.  Let rest for 5-15 minutes. 

With wet hands, take a golf ball size portion and roll into a smooth ball, then flatten to make a disk about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.  Cook on medium heat in skillet or griddle for 7-10 minutes per side.  Arepas should cook slowly, browning but not getting too dark (in the picture, the arepa spots are just a smidge too dark).  Bake in 350 oven for 15 minutes.  Arepas should sound hollow when tapped (sometimes mine are hollow but could still bake a few minutes).  Split open halfway with a knife and stuff with filling.  

Tonight we stuffed with a mixture of leftover chicken, mashed avocado, salt, and lime.  Also served with queso fresco, roasted chipotle salsa, sour cream, pickled jalapenos, and chips.

Banana bread, peanut butter cookies, and the end of LOST

Banana bread with chocolate chips based on this recipe from Simply Recipes.
I used two previously frozen bananas, two fresh bananas, and substituted 1/2 cup high protein flour mix, 1 cup all purpose flour mix, and 1/2 Tbsp (1 1/2 tsp.) of xanthan gum for the wheat flour to make it gluten free.  The flour blends I use are from an old issue of Living Without.  I added 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips as well.

Peanut butter cookies made from 1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup sugar, and 1 egg.

While watching LOST we had Trader Joe's chicken lime burgers with mayo, tomato, red onion.  I had mine on a Gillian's gluten free roll, which was really good.  The Big B picked them up for me at the grocery store!  (I had 1/2 a roll the next day for lunch too, topped with egg salad.)  The bun-burger combo, however, was kinda bland.  It definitely lacked for something zesty.  Like queso (Rotel dip to some of you).  Thankfully, that was our side dish for dinner!

Wraps: Trader Joe's Brown Rice Tortillas

All this week I'v been packing Greek salad wraps for lunch.  (I prefer to pick one thing and pack it all week - makes prep so much faster and there's no extra "What should I pack?" time wasted.)  It's worked pretty well, but I've learned a thing or two about using the Trader Joe's brown rice tortilla wraps to make sandwich wraps.  They are gluten free, of course, and like most bread-like-products that are gluten free they don't fold.  So, even if it's been sitting at room temperature for a few hours, it still needs to be microwaved for 10-15 seconds in order to actually wrap your sandwich without it cracking and making a mess.  There are a couple logistical issues with this.  You have to wrap your sandwich right before you eat it, so the tortilla has to be carried to work flat.  I carried mine in a gallon size zip top bag and slipped it into the outside magazine pocket of my work bag.  The wrap must be warmed, so you have to have a microwave at work.  And of course, you have to have the space to assemble your sandwich.  I do this at my desk since our shared pantry grosses me out.  Who knows what's been on that table!

(I didn't actually try wrapping at home and packing the sandwich pre-wrapped, but I'm pretty sure that once refrigerated again, the wrap would be just as dry and crack and fall apart, leaving you with a salad with tortilla pieces mixed in.)

1. Have all sandwich fillings ready to go.  In my case, this was baby greens "herb" mix, chickpeas, feta, olives, red onion, cucumber, and tomato. 
2. Microwave tortilla in bag for 10-15 seconds.  (Yes, micrwaving in a plastic bag is probably going to kill me.  Eventually.)
3. Place on napkin, add filling, roll, then wrap with paper towel to hold it all together and fold paper towel over the bottom to hold filling inside. 
4. Enjoy!