Radish flowers

So we have been blessed with lots of radishes in the SLO Veg tote for the last couple of weeks...actually more than we can eat. I mean, I usually slice up a radish to put onto our salads, but this week I forgot about them and here they are, sitting in my frig looking all neglected. But I have made some deviled eggs to take to my sister's house for our Easter Potluck and I need something to put in the center of my egg plate. Hummm, something colorful. I know! Radish flowers!

So I go to the internet in search of flowers. Here is one of the more simple versions I found on video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8BLJt3w-EI


There was also Betty's radishes, which cracked me up. First of all, my radishes didn't come in a cellophane bag from the grocery store. Also, I didn't think much of her finished product. She has a beautiful kitchen, however.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qUtK9dqSZM

This next one is a little more complex, but cool-looking end product:
http://scissorspaperwok.com/2011/07/15/radish-to-flower-carving-101/

My favorite one I found today, however, is the Radish Star. I think this is what I will try today as a garnish for my deviled egg plate. Simple, cute, nice little garnish.
http://happylittlebento.blogspot.com/2012/04/how-to-cut-radish-star.html

So, how about these Radishes? Pretty cute, I think. Happy Easter!!!

Rad Radish Stars!

This week's tote: 3/25/13

Fruit, Vegetable, Herb, and Juice List for 03/25/2013 - 03/29/2013THIS WEEK'S TOTE INCLUDES:
Vine Ripened Strawberries, "Cutie" Tangerines, Kiwi, "Organic" Fuji Apples, Red Leaf Lettuce, Celery, Radishes, Meyer Lemons, Broccoli, Sugar Snap Peas, "Shanghai" Baby Bok Choy, "Bloom" Broccoli Shoot Microgreens, and Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice  

THIS WEEK'S RECIPES (http://www.sloveg.com/recipes.cfm):
Strawberry Salad with Balsamic-Cardamom Dressing; Green Salad with Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette; Creamy Tangerine Dressed Grilled Asparagus; Poached Tangerine Slices; Sautéed Scallops with Cucumber and Kiwi; Orange and Kiwi Compote with Toasted Almonds; Pork Loin Stuffed with Fuji Apples; Fuji Tart Tatin; Celery Blue Cheese Salad; Spicy Shrimp, Celery, and Cashew Stir-Fry; Spicy Shrimp and Bok Choy Noodle Bowl; Wonton Soup with Bok Choy; Provencal Bok Choy; Radishes with Chive Butter; Sautéed Radishes, Sugar Snap Peas with Dill; Sugar Snap Peas with Bacon and Onion; Sugar Snap Peas and Spinach with Ginger; Lemon Broccoli; Broccoli with Black Bean Garlic Sauce; Chili-Garlic Roasted Broccoli; Bloom Recipes: www.bloommicrogreens.com

THIS WEEK'S LOCAL FARMERS:
Bautista Farms, Bloom Microgreens, Fair Hills Farms, L & C Smith Groves, Mallard Lake Ranch, Martinon Farms, The Fruit Factory , Varian Ranch


Pretty colors this week! We got our pound of fish, some juice, bok choy, sugar snap peas, celery, broccoli, lettuce, citrus fruits, sprouts, strawberries and kiwi. Dinner is going to have to cook itself tonight, though, because I have to figure out storage for all of this and do some dishes, too.

Easy oven roasted fish n vegies

Pretty colors this week! We got our pound of fish (I think it is Pacific Grenedier again), some juice, bok choy, sugar snap peas, celery, broccoli, lettuce, radishes, citrus fruits, sprouts, strawberries and kiwi.
Dinner is going to have to cook itself tonight, though, because I have to figure out storage for all of this and do some dishes, too. So I break a head of broccoli into florets and give it a rinse, then grab a couple of carrots from the frig, along with two stalks of celery and a half onion. Everything gets cut into one-inch chunks and spread onto a shallow baking pan, then coated in olive oil and into a 400 degree oven it goes. The fish follows form with a coating of olive oil, a spritz of lemon juice and a sprinkling of a seafood seasoning blend I have in my spice rack. I put it into the oven about 10 minutes after the vegetables and roast it all for another 20 minutes until the fish flakes and the vegies have a slight brown edge.

Meanwhile, I was up the breakfast dishes and our lunch containers, and put away the rest of the produce and toss together a quick dinner salad. It includes fresh curly leaf lettuce, sugar snap peas, radishes, and a bleu cheese vinaigrete.
I have been saving the plastic containers that my lettuce mixes come in for my SLO Veg produce. The containers can be rinsed out and reused many times. So lettuce goes into one, bok choy in another. The broccoli goes into a plastic baggie, while all the fruts go into my hanging basket. They do pretty well there for about a week, but if I haven't used it up by then I will bag it up and put it into the frig.

Tonight I grab a few strawberries, kiwi, cutie tangerines and an apple, chop it all up in a bowl and add lime juice and honey for a fresh dessert to go with our meal. Now its 8 o'clock, the fish is done, and American Idol is beginning. My favorites are the girls this year, so I gotta dish up our plates and go sit down. Ooooh! Keith Urban is singing right now...this needs my attention. Gotta go!
Note*** tonights dinner included all these tote items: used curly lettuce, radishes, sprouts, broccoli, celery, lemon, strawberries, kiwi, tangerines, apple and fish.

Oven-roasted broccoli and carrots with baked Pacific Grenedier. A little olive oil, lemon juice and seasoned salt completes this easy fish bake, along with some Parmesan cheese for the vegies.

A fresh green salad with curly leaf lettuce, sugar snap peas and radishes, topped with a light Balsamic vinaigrete, and a fresh fruit salad dressed with honey and lime juice accompany dinner. Oh, yes, and some of Lee's tartar sauce!

Spice is Nice!

Fresh food is great. But what about the spices you use to season it?

I admit, I was one of those who would buy some spice and keep it for the next 20 years...and use it! When we had to clean out my Mom and Dad's house after they passed, I found spice cans that I knew had to be 20 years old or more, because the labels were vintage. That got me to thinking, hummm, maybe my spices are pretty old, too. Then I started reading up on spices. I actually bought "The Spice and Herb Bible", by Ian Hemphill (Robert Rose Publishing, 2006). It's interesting how so many ethnic cuisines use the same spice, like basil in Thai and Italian foods, but the flavors you end up with are so different. I need to read it more often, because it is loaded with history of spices and useful information on storage, use, etc. I have learned to move my spices out of the cupboard space above the stove to the other side of the kitchen where they don't get exposed to heat and steam. Also, buy smaller quantities of spices that you only use a couple of times a year for special recipes.

It's funny, because I have some spices that I can't remember what recipe they were used in, like cardamon. Then, when we did my Ukrainian dinner in memory of my mom this year, there was the recipe: the Honey Cake. It called for a teaspoon of cardamon, and I have a whole bottle. If I only make that cake once a year, the bottle will probably last 12 years. Ugh! Some herbs and spices I go through pretty quickly, however, like basil and oregano and garlic. I do keep some spices right next to the stove: salt, pepper, lemon pepper and an "Everyday Seasoning" blend from Trader Joe's that goes with everything. I refill those on a regular basis.

The cool thing about buy bulk spices is that you can buy a smaller amount of those spices you rarely use without spending a fortune and throw it away if it sits on the shelf too long. This shopping trip cost me $6.11 and I filled up six spice jars. I figure each one would cost at least $2.50 at the store, some up to $5 or $6 each. So bulk spices can save a bundle in the grocery budget.

Anyway, I needed to stock up on a few spices today on my trip into town, so I stopped by New Frontier's Food. Its a great store, kind of like a health food smorgasborg, and I admit I don't even know what three-quarters of their products are (like tempah?). But, my horizons are expanding and I am venturing into new foods, and new staples.

Today I bought dried spices and herbs: paprika, cumin, minced garlic and onion, basil and bay leaves. I scoop them from the bulk containers into these little pouches, then transfer them into my glass spice containers at home. Lately I have been keeping the bags to reuse the next time I go to get those spices. They are staples in my spice rack(s), and that is plural because I have two spice stacks that hold 27 bottles each, magnetic spice containers near my stove, and several more bottles of blends and things on two shelf sections in my cupboard. Some things I use daily and have in several forms, like garlic. I have fresh garlic cloves, granulated garlic, garlic salt, minced garlic, Santa Maria seasoning (salt, pepper and garlic), and several more blends that include garlic.

I have been mixing my own blends, so I have seasoned salt, Mexican seasoning, Italian seasoning, Cajun seasoning, Greek seasoning, Herbs de Providence, etc. I also have Fish seasoning, Chicken salt, Steak salt, Thai seasoning, Chinese 5 Spice, Pumpkin Pie spice and Poultry seasoning. I might have bought it premixed originally, but since I have so many spices on hand, I can usually read through the ingredients on the label and refill the bottle with a concoction of the same spices they contain and come out pretty close (except for the Thai seasoning--too many odd spices there).

This is a spice can of Sage from my Mother's cupboard

I don't know how old it is, but the regular price was only $1.15. She must have bought it on sale for 39c. I have relegated this can to my vintage display alongside Lee's mom's stand mixer and Betty Crocker cookbook, published in the 1960s.

So I am curious: What are your favorite seasonings? Where do you buy your spices and how long do you keep them on your shelf?

Today I whipped up some poultry seasoning to use on some chicken breasts this week:
http://www.food.com/recipe/homemade-poultry-seasoning-23966

Chicken Piccata, or Chicken in a Lemony Buttery Caper Sauce

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/chicken-in-buttery-caper-sauce/#axzz2OEvFRHXL

This was my lunch today, leftovers from last night. I think it was even better today than it was last night! Rich buttery, lemony sauce on moist chicken breast. It is a green salad and Chicken Piccata, a request from my hub. In fact, he googled the recipe for it and found it on Marks Daily Apple, a Paleo website (Their's was called Chicken in a Buttery Caper Sauce, but its Chicken Piccata). 

It was a crazy night because having just gotten paid, we had to make a mid-week grocery shopping trip to fill in some staples. He wanted this dish and even found where the capers were located. We didn't get home from the store until about 8 o'clock and I was starved so I immediately started browning the chicken. Hubs got a little "cranky" because I wasn't following his directions...the chicken was supposed to be cut into filets and pounded first. I just put the whole breast into the pan -- dang it! The bad part was that it took longer to cook! Then when I started the sauce, I put the butter in with the caper juice, instead of bring the juice to a boil, then melting the butter into it. There wasn't much brine in the jar, so I also added water. Lee jumped in to salvage his dinner. He used the entire jar of capers! I suggested using some pieces of that funny looking citron thing we got in our box a couple of weeks back, for a lemony flavored sauce, and we used some fresh parsley, too. When his back was turned, I added a splash of lemon juice, too. So much for the recipe.

I made salads with a lettuce blend, some of our SLO Veg head lettuce and those yummy, nutritious sprouts from Mt. Olive Ranch, and some sliced radishes. Topped with homemade Ranch dressing, it was a sure winner. Except that we ate about 9 o'clock, and I didn't take any photos. Then I had to do dishes. I missed most of American Idol. Sigh!

Citron, a weird lemony thing. Not sure how to use it, but chopping up pieces and adding to a sauce for flavoring was one way to do it. We didn't eat the pieces, I just plucked them out after my sauce was infused with their flavor.

Fish Tacos!

We had fish tacos tonight with the SLO Veg Fresh Catch which was Black Cod. I lightly breaded the fish with seasoned cornmeal and fried it in a shallow pan of olive oil. The outside crisped up and the inside was moist and flakey. I chopped up  the pieces after they were cooked and everybody went through the serving assembly line. Corn tortillas, fish, shredded cabbage from the tote box, sliced Meyer lemon, homemade tartar sauce, cheddar cheese with steamed and buttered parsleyed carrots.  Remember that double-batch of brown rice I made the other night? well it comes in handy. I heated the rice in the microwave and poured a can of Ranch-style beans in a sauce pot. When the beans were hot, I stirred in the rice and we had a quick side dish.  I boiled some carrots for a few minutes, then drained off the water and stirred in a pat of butter and some chopped parsley. Dinner was ready!

Roasted cauliflower and stuffed bell peppers

Roasted Cauliflower and Bell Peppers

This was last night's dinner: Bell peppers stuffed with a brown rice and ground beef and drowned in tomato sauce. I actually started it the day before by roasting the bell peppers for 30 minutes @ 350 degrees in the oven. That softened them up and I think I like it. Usually when I make this dish, the bell peppers are still too crispy and  kind of raw and nobody actually eats them. Done this way, baked twice, they are soft and sweet and delicious, and we ate them right up! 

I also roasted the cauliflower in a basic and simple way: florets spread on a baking sheet, drizzled in olive oil and seasoned with salt. The vegies roasted for 40 minutes, and I turned them over about halfway through. 

I browned some ground beef and seasoned it with thyme and rosemary and seasoned salt. Then I mixed it with some left over brown rice, added a can of diced tomatoes and stuffed the peppers with it. A can of tomato sauce was poured over each stuffed pepper and then it baked for 30 minutes until it was heated all the way through.