crustless pasty

2 turnips
3 red potatoes
1 red onion
3 carrots
1 bottom round or eye round steak, chopped into small pieces
springs of thyme
butter
oil
salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 400°F. Roughly chop turnips, potatoes, carrots and thyme.

Melt butter and oil in large cast iron pan, add finely chopped onion and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add turnip, potato, carrot, and thyme to the cast iron pan, and toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook on medium high for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.

Remove vegetables to a separate plate. Add another tablespoon of butter to the cast iron pan. Add the chopped steak and salt and pepper to taste. Cook until barely browned. Add vegetables to steak and stir to combine.

Place uncovered cast iron pan in 400°F oven. Cook for 10 minutes and then broil for 3 minutes to lightly brown top.

fancy gluten-free cranberry cake

We made a gluten-free version of this clafoutis recipe, and while our first version didn't turn out the way the pictures online look, it tasted great, was easy to make and we had all the ingredients on hand. It's an easy, and impressive, dessert to throw together for guests. For Thanksgiving, I would start to make it after dinner is over, so that by the time the 90 minutes to make it has passed you and your guests will be hungry again and it can be served warm.

3 large eggs plus 3 egg yolks
1 cup turbinado sugar
2 cups half-and-half
1/2 cup gluten-free flour (we used Cup for Cup)
3 tablespoons Grand Marnier/orange-flavored brandy (we used triple sec)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
Unsalted butter, for the baking dish
2 1/2 cups fresh cranberries, halved
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Combine the eggs, egg yolks, 1/2 cup turbinado sugar, the half-and-half, gluten free flour, orange brandy, vanilla and salt in a blender. Pulse until the sugar has dissolved and the batter is smooth, about 1 minute. Let sit at room temperature, 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, position a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 425 degrees F. Butter the bottom and side of an 11-inch ceramic tart pan or pie plate and set on a baking sheet. Toss the cranberries with 5 tablespoons turbinado sugar in a small bowl; spread in the bottom of the prepared tart pan. Bake until the mixture starts to caramelize, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and reduce the temperature to 375 degrees F.

As soon as the batter is done resting and while the cranberries are still warm, carefully pour 1 cup of the prepared batter into the hot pan and let sit 5 minutes, then pour in the remaining batter. Sprinkle the remaining 3 tablespoons turbinado sugar on top. Bake until puffed and almost set, about 30 minutes. Transfer to a rack and let cool 20 minutes. Dust with confectioners' sugar. Serve immediately.

Adapted from Food Network

forget about it cranberry sauce

This was the new hit of Thanksgiving 2015. While it's based on a basic recipe, I made changes on the fly based on what we had in the house as well as the fact that I let boil way longer than originally intended because I forgot about it while I was cooking other things. We ended up with our own jellied cranberry sauce.

1 bag of fresh cranberries
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of water
1 tangerine

Empty a 12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries into a saucepan and leave aside 1/2 cup of the cranberries.

Add 1 cup sugar, 1 cup of water, and zest from half the tangerine. Squeeze the juice from the tangerine into the saucepan.

Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves and the cranberries burst, about 20 minutes. Continue cooking until the liquid is completely reduced, another 10 minutes.

Reduce the heat to low and stir in the reserved cranberries. Serve warm or cold.

Adapted from Food Network

beeft stew

Lots of beets and lots of stew meat means getting as close to borscht as we can. This can take a long time to make so it's a perfect weekend afternoon stew.

3 lbs of chuck eye steak
2 large vidalia onions
1 tsp sugar
6 beets
3 cups beef stock

1 sprig of thyme

salt and pepper
butter
oil

Slice onions, cut beets into small pieces and cut meat into 1 inch pieces.

In a dutch oven, heat the oil until hot. Working in batches, brown the meat on all sides. Transfer the browned meat to a plate and repeat until all the meat is browned.

Add the butter and onions to the dutch oven and stir occasionally until the onions start to soften, 5-10 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and sprinkle in the sugar. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Add the beets and cook until they begin to release their juices, 10 minutes. Stir in the broth and bring to a boil.

Add the meat and the accumulated juices on the plate, and the thyme, to the dutch oven and bring back up to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

the best pork roast ever

This is similar to a pork chop and sauce recipe we love that transfers extremely well to a pork roast. The fat cap on top creates a crust that tastes just like pork belly and the thickness of the pork roast means this is the juiciest pork you've ever had.

2 lb pork loin roast with a fat cap
3 3/4 teaspoons french sea salt
3 teaspoons coriander
2 1/4 teaspoons mustard seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil

Pre-heat oven to 500 degrees with roasting pan inside. Crush coriander, mustard seeds, salt and pepper in a mortar and pestle. Rub all of the spice mixture all over the pork loin including the ends and coat with olive oil.

Add the pork loin to the roasting pan fat side up and cook, undisturbed, for 15 minutes at 500 degrees and then turn the oven down to 350 degrees and cook for 45 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes. Slice to serve.

umami chard

We saw this recipe on Man Fire Food but couldn't find it anywhere online so we made up the proportions. It is so good - a combination of flavors we would never think to put together. I imagine these flavors would be good with collard greens, spinach, or anything green and leafy.

2-3 slices of bacon
1 onion
1 shallot
1 garlic clove
honey
red wine vinegar
red pepper flakes
chard

Chop the slices of bacon into small pieces. Roughly chop the onion, shallot and garlic. In a cast iron pan, fry the bacon until the fat has rendered. Add the onion, shallot and garlic and fry until softened and fragrant. Pour in the honey and red wine vinegar and add the red pepper flakes. Stir to combine. Add the chard and stir until chard is covered with sauce. Cover the pan and cook for 8 minutes.

it's nota frittata – no egg veggie casserole

With all the farm share veggies we get frittatas are a good way of stuffing a lot of different vegetables into a single, easy-to-make dish. But wow do I get sick of eggs fast. This dish helps clear out the veggies without the need for eggs and the flavors come together in a surprisingly delicious way.

I have updated the amounts of each of the ingredients used from the original recipe to reflect the sizes and amount of veggies we get in our CSA.

2 tablespoons butter
2 small to medium onions, chopped
Olive oil cooking spray
4-5 small farm potatoes (color/type doesn't matter), sliced
2 cups of zucchini, sliced
3-4 medium to large tomatoes, sliced and halved
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2-3 tablespoons butter, melted
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400°. Melt 2 Tbsp. butter in a medium skillet over medium heat; add onions, and sauté 10 to 12 minutes or until tender and onions begin to caramelize.

Spoon onions into a 10-inch dish coated with cooking spray. Toss together potatoes, zucchini, salt and pepper. Salt and pepper tomato slices separately so they don't break up. Layer potatoes, zucchini, and tomatoes over onions, alternating and overlapping slightly. Drizzle with 2-4 Tbsp. melted butter. Cover with aluminum foil.

Bake at 400° for 30 minutes. Remove foil, and sprinkle with cheese. Bake 30 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

fig & honey heaven

It's fig season and I couldn't be happier! Usually we just roast them in the oven with some honey but the below recipe is an even better version of that.

Fresh figs
1-2 tablespoons of butter
2-3 tablespoons of honey
fresh whipped cream

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Wash and trim both ends of the figs. Put the figs, cut side up, in a baking dish. Melt the butter in a bowl in the microwave, add the honey and heat another 30 seconds. Whisk to combine. Drizzle the hot honey butter over the figs and roast in oven until very soft, 15 minutes.

Add the cooked figs to a bowl, top with whipped cream and drizzle with the honey butter sauce from the bottom of the baking dish.

Adapted from Food Network

making greens meaty

A spring CSA means loads of greens. So far this season we've had mustard greens, turnip greens, beet greens, tokyo bekana (a mild mustard green), arugula, swiss chard, kohlrabi greens and so much lettuce. We've tried a number of different preparations and have actually gotten through just about everything, but a favorite so far has been a quick stir fry.

We had both tokyo bekana and chard and a little bit of cottage bacon. We fried up the cottage bacon pieces in a cast iron pan until browned, added the greens with the stems removed from the chard. When the greens were just about done we added a splash of 18-year balsamic vinegar and then cooked everything for another minute or two. A bit of salt and pepper to taste and you're done.

red beans and rice take two

We enjoy Roger Mooking's Man, Fire, Food quite a bit and recently caught an episode that included red beans and rice and tons of smoked meat. The version of that recipe we tried, while similar to mine, threw in enough new ingredients, and turned out well enough, that I wanted to write down what I did before I forget.

1 package pork belly (we get it from Trader Joe's)
1 link linguica
1 package andouille sausage (we love North Country's)
1 onion
2-3 garlic cloves
12 ounces of water
2 16 ounce cans of dark red kidney beans
cajun seasoning
Worcestershire sauce
Crystal's hot sauce
Cooked rice

Cut up all three meats into bite sized pieces (we did smallish chunks for the pork belly, cubes for the linguica and rounds for the andouille). Place the pork belly in a Dutch oven and heat on high until the pork belly gets crusty and brown. Add the other meats, onion and garlic and cook until onions become translucent. Add the water and kidney beans and stir. Add cajun seasoning to taste, as well as 2 to 3 glugs each of Worcestershire sauce and Crystal's hot sauce. Heat at medium high until the liquid has thickened and reduced, or until the rice is ready.

We also steamed some spinach and vitaminna with just salt and pepper and it complemented the heaviness of the dish nicely.

Adapted from Cooking Channel

chicken corn chowda

This was an incredibly easy and delicious chowder - most of the work goes into chopping everything, but once that's done it all comes together very quickly. Good for a hearty weeknight meal.

2 cups half and half
2 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels
2 tablespoons butter
2 lbs skinless, boneless chicken thighs
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped celery
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced
2 tablespoons corn starch
3 cups milk
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels (about 3 ears)
1 teaspoon chopped fresh or 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt

Combine the half and half with the first 2 cups of corn in a saucepan. Heat over medium heat, but watch to make sure it doesn't boil over. Stir regularly and cook for approx. 15 minutes until the half and half is infused with corn flavor.

Cut the chicken thighs into bite sized pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Melt the butter in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the chicken and brown until cooked through. Remove the chicken to a separate dish.

Add onion, celery, and jalapeño to the Dutch oven; cook for 3 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. Add corn starch; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in milk, chicken, the half and half and corn mixture and remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil; cook until thick (about 5 minutes).

Adapted from Cooking Light