Family Friendly Food

I can't believe it's been (gulp) weeks since I've posted. A constant stream of company (yes, mom and dad, I'm blaming this partially on you - ha, ha) and an uncooperative USB port on our laptop has put a damper on my usual banter.

Now that things have settled down a bit ('though I still need to address the USB issue), I hope to be back to our regularly scheduled programming!
With the fabulous variety of local fruits and vegetables that are available right now, I've been cooking up a storm and have a lot to share!

We're fortunate (knock wood) that the H-man is a pretty decent vegetable eater. At least when it comes to the usual suspects such as cucumbers, peas, green beans, broccoli, asparagus and corn. I love the fact that he's exposed to new and unusual veggies through our CSA (as well as new and unusual varieties of his favorites).

He's not a huge meat eater, although he is getting better, but I'm told that's pretty normal for a four year old. Pasta on the other hand......he would live on it if I let him! One of our favorite family meals is pasta with garlic, broccoli (sometimes chicken) doused in olive oil, a dash of salt and lots of fresh ground pepper. I was recently able to make this dish with local garlic, broccoli and leftover meat from our first roasted free range chicken (which was beyond delicious). Here's what I do. Note: it's not exactly gourmet cuisine, but I know from talking to friends with toddler to pre-school aged children, finding new and nutritional items to add to your repertoire can sometimes seem daunting.

Prepare enough of your favorite pasta for one family meal, plus some extra for leftovers. During the homestretch of the boiling phase (the last 3-5 minutes or so), toss in broccoli, which has been cut into florets (I add 1-2 cups of broccoli for 1/2 pound or so of pasta).

In the meantime, saute several sliced cloves of garlic in a couple Tablespoons of EVOO. Toss in chicken (I've used raw chicken tenderloins or breast as well as leftovers from a roasted chicken here - both work, you just need to adjust your cooking time accordingly).

Once you drain the pasta/broccoli combo, toss it into the chicken, garlic, EVOO mixture and cook until the flavors meld (we like our pasta to saute a bit too).

Serve it up and watch it disappear!
Bon appetit.

Scallops and Chard

Those who know me are well aware that I am New Englander, through and through. My palate is evidence enough of that. My father loves to tell people the story of when, at three years of age, I requested lobster for lunch at a carnival instead of a hot dog or hamburger. And my love of shellfish and many other New England staples only seems to grow with time. So, joining a CSA and trying to eat more locally (and get more creative with recipes) has been a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, I don't cook often because my husband is not home much but he was in between projects and I had him for 2 weeks straight! Needless to say, the pots and pans got a lot of use! And he shares my love of shellfish so pretty much any recipe I attempt in that area is gobbled right up.

Last weekend, I tried a scallop recipe that was somewhat created in my mind and somewhat ripped off of various internet sources. My culinary skills are still in their infancy so I almost always look to other recipes for guidance. We had picked up a pound of scallops at the farmer's market and for some reason, I really wanted to eat them with sauteed spinach. I figured I could sub in some CSA chard for the spinach and it would be just as good. Here's what I did:

Marinate 1 lb. scallops in dressing - I chose Drew's Soy Ginger dressing. Added crushed red pepper for some heat. Let it marinate for at least one hour in the fridge.

Saute +8 torn chard leaves (or another green, if you like) in olive oil, salt, garlic and more crushed red pepper.

Saute scallops (I used a separate pan but you could probably use the same one as the greens) until cooked through.

Toss greens and scallops together over heat to let flavors come together, salt to taste and serve!

We will definitely be making this again as we never seem to tire of seafood. It's just the New England in me!

-Nicole

Herbed Butter

This is a simple recipe to use up some of the vast quantities of herbs you have in your garden, or CSA distribution, or just when you have to buy a whole bunch but just need 1 teaspoon for your recipe. Sure, you could dry them, or freeze them, but where's the fun in planning ahead? Eat 'em!


At our last CSA this week, there was you-pick basil. Well, by the time we got home the basil was already looking pretty wilted, probably due to the 95 degree weather. So my husband looked around online to see what he could make with it right away, and this is the recipe he decided to try. You don't really need a recipe...just mix a bunch of chopped basil and garlic into butter. The linked recipe calls for using a food processor. That's too much work. Just slightly soften some butter in the microwave, or in this heat, just leave the butter sitting on your counter for half an hour before making the recipe.

We've made similar recipes with other herbs in the past. My favorite is to mix garlic, rosemary, chives, and parsley together, which happen to be the herbs growing in my garden. You can try it with any herbs you have on hand, though.

Herbed butter is surprisingly versatile. You can melt it over lightly steamed vegetables to add some extra flavor. If you added garlic to your butter, you can use it to make a delicious herbed garlic bread. You can add it to mashed potatoes for some extra zip. You can put it over corn on the cob. But let's be honest: mostly, ours gets snacked on, spread on crackers or bread, until there's not enough left to do anything else with it.

And if you're feeling especially pioneer-ish, you can even make your own butter. It's surprisingly easy, and fun for kids (and adults, too. In fact, adults are usually more intrigued than the kids in my experience). I posted directions over on my blog a few months ago, so head on over there if you feel like shaking, shaking, shaking.