White Bean Soup with Asparagus and Peas

Thanks to my friend Jeremy for this recipe! It is one of my favorite soups. It has a bright, fresh flavor with all the herbs and lemon in it. The asparagus came from the farm, and the thyme and oregano came from our own herb garden.

Asparagus is low in calories, contains no fat or cholesterol, and is very low in sodium. It is a good source of folic acid, potassium, dietary fiber, and rutin (an antioxidant).

White Bean Soup with Asparagus and Peas

• 1 c. dried cannellini or Great Northern beans, picked over, rinsed and soaked overnight in cold water, drained
• salt & pepper
• 3 qt. rich chicken stock
• 1/2 lb. farfalle pasta
• 1/2 lb. asparagus, cut on diagonal into 1 1/2" lengths
• 1 c. frozen baby peas
• 2 Tbsp. minced flat-leaf parsley
• 1 Tbsp. finely chopped mint
• 1 tsp. each finely chopped thyme & oregano
• 1 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
• 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
• freshly grated pecorino cheese for serving

In large saucepan, cover beans with enough water to reach 2" above them and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer for 30 minutes. Add generous pinch of salt and cook until tender, 15-20 minutes longer. Drain.

In large saucepan, bring chicken stock to boil. Add pinch of salt and pasta and cook over high heat until barely al dente, about 12 minutes. Add aparagus and beans and cook until asparagus is crisp-tender (3 mintues).

Add peas, parsley, mint, thyme, oregano, lemon zest and juice. Simmer until veggies are just tender and pasta is al dente, 2-3 mintues longer. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with cheese.

Oven Fried Tilapia, Spinach Risotto and Asparagus

Some of the items we get from the farm haven't made it to the blog yet because they weren't main ingredients in recipes I've featured. For example, the picture above shows some asparagus, which I steam most of the time and serve as a side veggie. We also receive lots of edible flowers each week, which we've used for garnish a few times. Most of them look like the pansy in the picture. And then there's the lettuce. There's a new variety or two or three every week! It is fun to try the different kinds that aren't sold in the stores because they don't harvest or ship or keep well enough to be mass-marketed. There are so many pretty colors and shapes and textures of leaves! I think that's what has been the most fun for me so far this season: seeing the abundance and variety of produce that God has created for us to enjoy!

We liked the spinach risotto (Ethan really liked it), although we decided we'd like to try it with less celery next time. The celery flavor was dominant. The recipe, which I found on the Turtle Farm website, calls for two stalks, including leaves, but I didn't have the leaves anymore so I just used the stalks.

The tilapia recipe is one of our favorites that I use fairly frequently. It calls for bread crumbs, which I used to buy at the store in a little canister. Then I discovered that it is SO EASY to make your own, that I don't buy them anymore. All you do is either lay out your extra bread (I use the ends since I don't like to eat them anyway) and let it get hard for a few days, or put it in the oven at a low temperature if you're in more of a hurry (200 works, I think) until it is all dried out and hard. Put it in a zip loc and beat it with your rolling pin or the bottom of a glass until the crumbs are the texture you like. These will store in the pantry for a long time. Now that I know how easy it is to make bread crumbs, I can't believe they are actually sold in stores! And people pay money for them!

Spinach Risotto

Campbell’s Nutrition Center

5 cups water or organic chicken or vegetable broth	2 ½ cups Arborio rice
1 bag (or 10 oz. torn large spinach) organic baby spinach	2 stalks organic celery, including leaves, cut into tiny pieces
Sea salt and organic black pepper, to taste	¼ cup organic white wine or broth
3 tbsp. organic extra-virgin olive oil	2 oz. grated pecorino romano cheese or other aged skim milk cheese
1 large red Bermuda onion, finely chopped

Measure the water or broth into a large pot. Add the spinach, salt and pepper. Stir to combine, cover, and bring to a boil over high heat. Immediately turn off the heat and keep the spinach broth covered on the stove.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add the onion. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes, or until the onion has softened.

Add the rice and celery. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the wine and cook, stirring constantly for several seconds until the wine is absorbed.

Add 1 cup of the spinach broth. Stir well to combine. Cook, stirring constantly, for about 2 minutes, or until the rice absorbs the broth.

Add another half-cup of the spinach broth. Cook, stirring constantly, for about 2 minutes, or until the rice absorbs the broth. The stirring should break up the spinach further into smaller pieces. Continue adding the remaining spinach broth, a half-cup at a time, stirring continuously for 2 minutes after each addition, or until the broth is absorbed. The risotto should be barely tender, thick, and creamy when done. Stir in the cheese. Taste for seasonings.

Oven Fried Tilapia

1 lb. tilapia fillets
1/4 c. flour
1/4 c. cornmeal
2 egg whites
1/4 c. bread crumbs
1/2 tsp. dried basil

Preheat oven to 450. Stir flour, 1/4 tsp. salt and pepper together in a shallow dish. Set aside.

Beat egg whites until white and frothy. In another bowl, combine bread crumbs, corn meal and basil.

To bread fillets, dip into flour, then egg, then bread crumb mixture.

Spray shallow baking dish with non-stick spray. Lay flat, tucking under any thinner ends or edges. Bake 10-15 minutes, or until fish flakes easily with fork.

Strawberries

Here's what we did with some of the strawberries we got from the farm:


Good Night Waffles (from the cookbook that came with our Waring Pro Professional Belgian Waffle Maker--I highly recommend this brand/model if you're in the market!)

• 1/2 c. lukewarm water
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (1 packet)
• 2 c. milk, warmed
• 1/2 c. unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 c. flour
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda

The night before, or at least 8 hours before baking, combine the warm water, sugar and yeast. Let stand 10 minutes, until foamy. Stir in the warm milk, melted butter and salt. Beat in the flour until smooth. Wrap bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let stand overnight (or 8 hrs) on the countertop--do not refrigerate.

When ready to bake, preheat waffle maker. While it is heating, stir eggs, vanilla and baking soda into the batter. Bake according to your waffle maker's instructions.

The waffles are deliciously light; almost doughy in the middle and crispy on the outside. We topped with Cool Whip and our strawberries.

And of course...


Strawberry Shortcake

We like the Bisquick recipe:

2 1/3 c. Bisquick
1/2 c. milk
3 Tbsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. melted butter

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Stir ingredients until soft dough forms. Spread in ungreased 8" square or round pan OR (as we do), drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Turkey Burgers, Spring Garlic Soup & Braised Red Radishes

We have turkey burgers more often than hamburgers. Instead of the very lean ground turkey breast, I buy the "fattier" one. I don't remember if it is 97% or 93%, but it is great grilled with nothing in it or just add some diced tomato and/or your favorite meat seasoning.

Spring or green garlic is young garlic before it starts forming cloves. Green garlic looks like a baby leek or a green onion with a long green top and small white bulb. Its flavor is much more mild than that of mature garlic.

From the Turtle Farm website:

Bistro 43 Spring Garlic Soup

1 T. extra virgin olive oil	½ C. chopped spring garlic
¼ C. chopped yellow onion	3 C. chicken stock
1 lb. Yukon gold potatoes, peeled, cut 1" pieces	salt and pepper to taste

In a heavy-bottomed pan, sauté garlic and onion in oil for a few minutes. Add potatoes and stock. Simmer until potatoes are tender. Purée and season to taste. Garnish with sour cream. Makes 4 servings.

(We didn't garnish with sour cream, but it would probably be good with it.) This was one of my favorite recipes so far.

When you cook radishes, they taste nothing like they do raw. I don't enjoy them very much when they're raw. Cooking them takes all the bite/peppery heat out of them, and they're much more enjoyable! This recipe is from my favorite vegetarian cookbook, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, by Deborah Madison. It has great tips on choosing vegetables and storing them, so I use it as a reference book as much as a cookbook.

Per Wikipedia, radishes are rich in ascorbic acid, folic acid, and potassium. They are a good source of vitamin B6, riboflavin, magnesium, copper, and calcium. One cup of sliced red radish bulbs provides approximately 20 Calories or less, coming largely from carbohydrates, making radishes, relative to their size, a very filling food for their caloric value.

Braised Red Radishes

20 plump radishes, red or multicolored
1 to 2 Tbsp. butter
1 shallot, diced (I didn't have one, so I didn't use one and it tasted great anyway)
1 tsp. chopped thyme or several pinches dried (we used fresh from our new herb garden!)
salt and pepper

Trim the leaves from the radishes, leaving a bit of the green stems, and scrub them. If the leaves are tender and in good condition, wash them and set aside. Leave smaller radishes whole and halve or quarter larger ones. (I ended up cutting all the stems off and didn't use the greens.)

Melt 2 to 3 teaspoons butter in small saute pan. Add the shallot and thyme and cook for 1 minute over medium heat. Add the radishes, a little salt and pepper, and water just to cover. Simmer until the radishes are tender, 3 to 5 minutes. (This took much longer for me for some reason--more like 10 minutes.) Add the leaves if using and cook until they're wilted and tender, 1 minute more. Remove the radishes to a serving dish. Boil the liquid, adding a teaspoon or two more butter if you like, until only about 1/4 cup remains. Pour it over the radishes and serve.

Grandma Kathy's Visit

We had a great time when my Mom came to visit from Phoenix. Despite the storms and rain, there were enough sunny times to enjoy the zoo and a drive to Osky to visit my Mom's mother and aunts. We had to get out of bed once for a tornado warning, but it was canceled soon after and we didn't have to get the kids out of bed to go to the basement. We did have water in the basement, coming up through the cracks in the floor and streaming to the drains. Nothing valuable was damaged by the water, but I've had to wash a few loads of baby clothes that were in wet boxes.

Maegan did some dancing while Mom was here. She was doing a dance-pose for the camera in this shot.

Here's a picture of my Grandma (mom's mom) with the kids. I love that they have all their great-grandparents!
Maegan's favorite part of the zoo was this point in the elephant show where the mama elephant picked up the trainer with her trunk.
Maegan "milked" the cow at the zoo (water actually came out!).
My paternal grandparents were able to come up from Ottumwa to visit the zoo and have dinner with us. It was great seeing them!

Bean Soup, Corn Bread & Turnip Greens

Southern food, anyone? The bean soup and cornbread are recipes I've used many times, but I had never tasted turnip greens before. We were all a little apprehensive about them, but Mom (who is here from Phoenix), Matthew and I all actually enjoyed them. They are are an excellent source of vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin B6, folate, copper, calcium, and dietary fiber, and may help with rheumatoid arthritis, colorectal cancer and atherosclerosis. Again, sounds like something we should eat more of...even if they are cooked in bacon grease. :)

Southern Style Turnip Greens
Boil greens in salted water for 10 minutes. Drain.
Saute some onion and garlic in a bit of bacon grease. Add the boiled greens and a bit of water. Cook up to 30 minutes. Add plenty of salt to taste.
(Recipe compiled from several I found online.)

Bean Soup

• 1 lb. fully cooked smoked ring sausage, cubed
• 1/2 c. onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
  
• 1 c. carrots, chopped
• 1 c. potatoes, cubed
• 1 48oz. jar Great Northern beans (or just cook some dried ones like I did this time)
• salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil in dutch oven. Add carrots, potatoes and enough water (or chicken broth) to almost cover. Cover and simmer 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add beans and sausage and simmer up to 1 hour.

Corn Bread
1 c. flour
1 c. cornmeal
3 tsp. baking powder
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 c. milk
1 egg
2 Tbsp melted butter
1/2 tsp. salt

Combine all and pour into greased 9x9 pan. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 min.

Tofu with Watercress

Watercress has been in our box from the farm for two weeks now, and I believe it is supposed to be in this Friday's box as well. Last week, we added it raw to our egg-salad sandwiches, which I plan to repeat later this week. Tonight, I added it to my tofu stir-fry. Here's what it looks like raw:

My favorite source, Wikipedia, says watercress contains significant amounts of iron, calcium and folic acid, in addition to vitamins A and C. In some regions watercress is regarded as a weed, in other regions as an aquatic vegetable or herb. Many benefits from eating watercress are claimed, such as that it acts as a mild stimulant, a source of phytochemicals and antioxidants, a diuretic, an expectorant, and a digestive aid. It also appears to have cancer-suppressing properties. It is widely believed to help defend against lung cancer. Wow! We should eat more of this!

I don't have a recipe for the tofu I made; I learned how to make it from Tianyi by watching him do it. If you're interested in learning, let me know and I'll have you over to teach you! Here's a picture of the tofu with watercress and my fried rice (also Tianyi's recipe--better than anything you can get in a Chinese restaurant around here!):

Italian Sausages with Broccoli Rabe and Polenta

If you're like me, you're saying, "Broccoli what?" That's broccoli rabe (pronounced "rob"), or rapini. According to wikipedia, rapini is a source of vitamins A, C, and K, as well as potassium, calcium and iron. If you're like me a couple of years ago, you're also saying, "Polenta? What's polenta?" Similar to grits, it is made of boiled cornmeal. Sounds bland, but actually, this recipe called for basil-garlic seasoned polenta roll, which I thought tasted pretty good. I found it in the organic section next to the tofu. I used Melissa's brand Italian Herb flavor.

Ethan moderately liked the polenta, but Maegan didn't care for any of it, which was ok since this recipe doesn't make a very large amount. Matthew wasn't wild about it, so I'm looking forward to eating leftovers for lunch tomorrow. I guess I won't be keeping this recipe, but it was fun to try anyway. I found it on epicurious.com when I searched for recipes containing broccoli rabe. It is a quick 30-minute meal.

Here's what the broccoli rabe looks like raw. It cooks down a LOT. My skillet was almost too full to put the lid on, and there wasn't enough to cover the bottom of the pan once it was cooked. Its mostly leafy, but has little flower-like parts that sort of look like broccoli. One of the flowers was slightly open, and it was yellow.

Italian Sausages With Broccoli Rabe and Polenta

• 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 sweet or spicy Italian sausages 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1 12-ounce bunch broccoli rabe, trimmed
• 1 cup canned low-salt chicken broth
• 1/2 of 24-ounce purchased basil-garlic-seasoned polenta roll
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Heat 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add sausages. Cover skillet and cook until sausages are brown and cooked through, about 8 minutes per side. Transfer sausages to plate; tent with foil to keep warm. Add garlic to drippings in same skillet and stir 30 seconds. Add broccoli rabe and 1/2 cup broth. Cover skillet and cook until broccoli rabe is crisp-tender, about 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add polenta; mash with potato masher until smooth. Mix in remaining 1/2 cup broth and cheese. Simmer until polenta is warmed through, about 5 minutes. Season polenta with salt and pepper.

Spoon polenta onto 2 plates. Top with sausages and broccoli rabe.

Super Maegan

Maegan loves to dress up. She would wear a dress every day if she could. Even when she can't wear a dress, she loves to put on necklaces and "bracelets", which are really just old hair scrunchies. In this picture, she is also wearing a pink bandanna. She played with this little piece of fabric for a LONG time the other day. She wrapped her dolls in it and wore it dozens of ways: as a dress, a bib, a cape, and a head scarf (two ways). We also played peekaboo with Ethan using the scarf. Who needs toys?!

Strawberry-Spinach Salad

Word from the farm is that there's going to be a bumper crop of spinach this year. I had some store-bought spinach on hand to use up, so the picture shows those leaves, but when they were gone, I used the stuff from the farm. I found this recipe in a church cookbook years ago and I keep coming back to it at least once every summer because it is so yummy.

According to wikipedia, spinach is an excellent source of vitamin K, vitamin A, manganese, folate, magnesium, iron, vitamin C, vitamin B2, calcium, potassium, and vitamin B6. It is a very good source of dietary fiber, copper, protein, phosphorous, zinc and vitamin E. In addition, it is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, niacin and selenium. WOW! No wonder Popeye loved it!

Strawberry-Spinach Salad

• 2 bunches fresh spinach
  
• 1 qt. fresh strawberries, sliced
  
• 1/4 c. cider vinegar
  
• 1/4 c. vegetable oil
  
• 1/4 c honey
  
• chopped pecans
  

Mix vinegar, oil, and honey, pour over berries and spinach just before serving. Add pecans.