New England Fall Casserole

I love fall in Maine. Partly for the lovely colors of gold, red, and brown. Partly for the wet, foggy days that make me want to stay inside and drink tea. But mostly for the food. Those who know me, know full well that Thanksgiving is my favorite day of the year. I love spending 2 days in the kitchen. I love the fall decorations of gourds, leaves, and hand-print turkeys. I love sitting down on Thanksgiving day with my loved ones and sharing in the bounty of the harvest. My love for this holiday has nothing to do with the myth of a Pilgrim/Indian meal, all lovey-dovey and respectful. It has nothing to do with the turkey, even, because when I spent 7 years as a vegetarian I never missed the bird on my dinner plate. It has everything to do with the warm veggies, salty gravy and hearty breads. And being thankful for the ability to eat good foods with the ones I love. It's that last bit of relaxation and gratitude for life before the hectic craziness of Christmas and New Years.

In the spirit of fall and its glorious root vegetables, I decided to spend the afternoon in my kitchen cooking a casserole. A quick poke through my fridge and vegetable basket and I was elbow deep in beets, potatoes, red cabbage, garlic and onions. I also recently purchased a large local pork chop from Caldwell Farms that I would toss into the mix. Simmered for an hour (give or take) in a nice bath of homemade chicken stock from the day before, my house filled with the glorious smell of roasting root vegetables. I served this up with a side of cornbread for a filling, warm and hearty fall meal. New England style.


This is one of those wonderful fix it and forget it meals for those with crock pots. Simply add all the ingredients to the pot, place on low, and go to work, on a fall hike, or curl up with a good book for the day. By dinner time it should be perfectly cooked and ready to enjoy. If you like gravy on your bread or biscuits, use some of the juices from cooking and whip up your favorite gravy recipe.


Fall Casserole
8 small beets (about 1 cups worth), sliced into half moons*
6 medium potatoes (about 2 cups worth), washed and cubed
2 carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds
1/2 red onion, sliced thin

3 cloves garlic, sliced into thin wafers

1 small red cabbage, coarsely chopped

1 lb pork, cubed
4 C stock
1 t salt
1/2 t pepper


*Leave skin on beets if they are baby beets, it will be tender and edible. If they are larger beets, with a tougher skin, peel first.

Preheat oven to 350. Add all ingredients, except pork, to a large casserole dish and stir thoroughly to incorporate flavors. Cover tightly and bake for 1 hour, add pork, then bake another 30 minutes, or until potatoes are tender and pork is cooked. Serve piping hot with cornbread or biscuits.

Tricky Mac 'n Cheese

I am blessed with kids who love veggies. They request kale and potato soup, they devour spinach quinoa pilaf, and they munch fresh salads all summer long. BUT, that doesn't stop me from wanting to trick them every once in a while. Tonight's meal was one of those times. My oldest requested I make my homemade mac 'n cheese. Easy enough. But what about all those veggies sitting around in my fridge. I could throw in spinach, or mushrooms, but my kids are die-hard straight forward mac 'n cheese eaters. They want pasta and cheese. Period. So in order to get a veggie mac 'n cheese, I had to be tricky. I got a 1/2 head of cauliflower out of the fridge and steamed the crap out of it, until it was soft and mushy. Perfection. Mixed with a cheese sauce and tossed with pasta, I was able to successfully trick my children...Sometimes I live for these moments.

Mac 'n Cauli-Cheese
1/2 head cauliflower, steamed and mashed
6 C cooked pasta
2 C shredded cheddar cheese
2 T butter
2 T flour
1 C milk
salt and pepper


Preheat oven to 350. Toss cooked pasta with cauliflower once it's mashed and set aside. In saucepan over medium heat melt butter then add flour in and whisk for a few minutes until smooth and tan. Slowly add in milk and turn up to high heat and whisk continually until it starts to boil, then continue to whisk for 1 minute. Remove from heat, add cheese, salt and pepper and stir. Toss gently with pasta and bake for 35 minutes.

Serve with a spinach & apple salad and enjoy!

Spicy Veggie Noodles

I recently found a 1/2 dozen packages of udon noodles on sale at my local natural market. Of course I bought them all, not knowing when I would need them, but knowing I would certainly find a use for them. And I did. In our recent CSA shares we've been lucky enough to get wonderful veggies like bok choy, broccoli (lots and lots of lovely green broccoli), peppers, shallots, and of course my 1lb of weekly mushrooms. With all these fresh vegetables and those packages of udon noodles, I knew what we had to have for dinner Tuesday night. I spiced up the grown-up bowls after I mixed it all together so the kiddos wouldn't burn their mouths.

Spicy Veggie Noodles
1 green pepper, sliced (I leave mine big so the kids can pick them out)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 shallot (or 2 depending on size), sliced
1 head bok choy, leaves ribbon sliced and stalks chopped - keep them separate
1 C broccoli, chopped

1/2 lb of mushrooms, chopped
2 T butter
2 T oil (sesame if you have it, but any type works)
1 package of udon noodles
1/3 C soy sauce
1/4 C rice vinegar
1 T corn starch
1/3 C water
Sweet chili paste

Boil water for udon noodles and cook according to package. Rinse and set aside. In skillet over medium-low heat, melt butter and add mushrooms. Cook until soft. Set aside. In large skillet or wok add oil over medium-high heat. Add peppers and shallots and cook for 5 minutes, stirring often so they don't burn. Add chopped broccoli and bok choy stems and cook, stirring often, until they are soft. Add bok choy leaves and mushrooms and cook until leaves are wilted. Meanwhile whisk soy sauce, rice vinegar, corn starch and water together. Add udon noodles to veggies with sauce and toss quickly and carefully. Serve in warm bowls with a teaspoon of chili paste and enjoy!

Cottage Pie

Cottage Pie is a traditional british food, but too often mixed up with Shepherds Pie. The difference between the two is that Cottage Pie is made with ground beef, and Shepherds Pie with ground Lamb. Not being a fan of lamb, besides the fact that its not that locally available, I decided to make up some Cottage Pie the other night for dinner. We had about a 1/2 lb of ground beef from Caldwell Farms left-over from some lasagna I made for my mom's birthday, so the boys and I decided to make some comfort food. I had woken with a stomach flu that morning and by evening was feeling much better, but in need of something that would stick to my ribs. This is now my new favorite comfort food! Forget Chicken Noodle Soup when you're sick, this Cottage Pie will give you the vim and vigour you need to get better.

Cottage Pie
1/2 lb ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1 head cauliflower

2 potatoes, quartered
1/2 lb of green beans, chopped into 1" pieces
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
6T butter
1/4 C milk
3 T ketchup
1/2 C shredded cheese
salt and pepper
 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease deep 8x8 casserole dish or pie dish. In skillet over medium heat cook ground beef for 10 minutes, or until brown and crumbly. Add onions and green pepper and saute another 5 minutes. Mix in ketchup, set aside. Steam potatoes and cauliflower separately, until they are soft. Mash and set aside. Steam carrots and green beans together until they are cooked through, but retain a bit of firmness - you don't want them smooshy so they hold up to the baking. In a saucepan melt butter and add milk to warm. Add to potatoes and cauliflower mash, sprinkle with salt and pepper, then mix in cheese. In pie dish or casserole dish add beef mixture, cover with green beans and carrots, then cover the whole thing with mash potato mixture. Dot with butter and bake for 30 minutes. Serve with warm rolls and a small side salad.

**NOTE: you can use any type of vegetables you may have on hand, such as peas or corn. That's the wonderfulness of this meal!

Mango Quinoa Salad

I had a vision of quinoa and mango's to go with my Citrus BBQ Pork Kabobs. I did some online snooping and found a recipe: http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/quinoa_mango_black_bean_salad.html. I doubled the servings and made some changes. I used Purslane instead of cilantro, because it's what I had from my CSA. Purslane is considered a weed, but is a hub of nutrients. Instead of pulling it and tossing it out of your garden, harvest it and use it in the same ways you use spinach and other light greens. It has a very mild lemon flavor. Discard stems (or save for stocks), and use leaves and flowers. Here's my version of a Mango Quinoa salad with Purslane..

Mango Quinoa Salad
1/2 C dried blackbeans
3 C broth
1" piece of Kelp/Kombu (helps make the beans less gassy & cooks them faster)
1 C quinoa
1 1/2 C water
1 large scallion, sliced
1 bunch of purslane, chopped
1 mango, diced
1/2 C orange juice
4 T apple cider vinegar
4 T walnut oil
1/2 t salt
pepper to taste

Soak beans overnight if you can. If not, start beans about 3 hours before the rest of the recipe. Place beans in stock with Kelp/Kombu, cover and bring to a boil, then reduce to low and simmer until tender (but not mushy so they can withstand being mixed into a salad). Once beans are done, strain and rinse then set aside. In saucepan add quinoa and water, cover and bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer for about 15 minutes. While that's cooking, whisk cider vinegar, oil, salt and pepper, orange juice and purslane. Add in beans, scallions and mango and stir thoroughly. When quinoa is done, add that and mix. Refrigerate and serve at room temp or cold.

Citrus BBQ Pork & Veg Kabobs

Our family has been trying to include more sustainable meat in our diets, but have found that after being vegetarian for so long, our likes and dislikes of certain meats are very distinct. Last night was a home-run! I bought some local pork chops and cubed them up for kabobs. Mixed with a yummy quinoa salad (recipe to follow), these were a huge hit with the hubby & the kids.

Citrus BBQ Pork & Veg Kabobs
1 lb pork (not ground), fat cut off and cubed
1 zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced
1 yellow squash, halved lengthwise and sliced
12 crimini mushrooms, stems removed
1 C BBQ sauce (and some for basting)
1/2 C orange juice (I had fresh squeezed
2 T honey
12 kabob sticks, soaked in water so they don't burn

Whisk the BBQ sauce, orange juice and honey until thoroughly mixed - then add pork to it and marinate for 2 hours at least. Once kabob sticks have soaked and pork is marinated (always discard meat marinade immediately - do not use for anything else), it's time to put together the kabobs by adding the zucchini, summer squash, pork and mushrooms. Mine went: pork, zucchini, pork, summer squash, zucchini, pork, summer squash, mushroom. Once the kabobs are made, either preheat broiler or grill. Place kabobs on broiling pan (for oven method), or directly on the grill and baste with BBQ sauce. Cook about 5 minutes, flip, baste and cook another 5 minutes. Meat should be cooked through and vegetables should be soft, but still retain a crunch to them.

Serve immediately with rice, quinoa, potatoes or just a salad.

Stuffed Zucchini

It's that time of year where we're filling up on zucchini's and summer squash, lots of basil, and tons of spinach. I decided to combine them all to make a yummy summery meal that even the kids would like. I'm a big fan of winter stuffed squash meals, with rice and beans and thick heavy sauces. But since it's summer, I didn't want to make anything too heavy. I searched through the fridge and found some ricotta cheese that was just screaming to be used with the big fat zucchini I had gotten.

Green on Green
2 large zucchini, halved and seeds scooped out
1 16oz container of ricotta cheese
1/4 C parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast
4 T chopped fresh basil
1/2 C chopped spinach
2 T butter
1/3 C bread crumbs
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450. Prepare zucchini and set inside baking dish, cut side up. In a mixing bowl add ricotta, basil, spinach, and nutritional yeast and mix thoroughly - if you did it in a food processor it would be best, but don't overwork the ricotta and make it runny. Add salt and pepper to the mixture and spoon into zucchini halves. Melt butter in a skillet and add bread crumbs. Cook over medium heat until starting to brown just a bit. Sprinkle over zucchini. Bake for about 20-30 minutes until zucchini is cooked, but not soft. You want it to still have a bit of snap to it to compliment the gooey cheesiness of the filling. Serve warm with pasta and a salad.