This beef short rib and noodle soup is perfect for winter. It’s rich, savory, and full of comforting umami. It is braised for hours, filling the kitchen with the wonderful hygge we so long for during nesting season. Yet a healthy dose of ginger gives it a pop of brightness during the season of dark grey. It is also full of collagen, elastin, and chondroitin, to help support our joints – always appreciated in the cold days of winter!
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It’s fall, and that means 2 Acre Farm is bringing their wide selection of pumpkins to the Culver Farmers’ Market. They’ve already nearly sold out this year, but I did manage to snag a couple of Long Island Cheese pumpkins. While most folks decorate for a few weeks and then toss their pumpkins, these guys are delicious. So, when life gives you pumpkins, make soup! Pumpkin and sausage soup
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Tromboncini Fajitas
I really love tromboncini squash. And, we’ve had quite a surplus from the garden this year.
So, pondering what to make for dinner, and looking at tower of squash, then looking at the onions I had just harvested, then over at the stack of lugs filled with peppers, the muse hit me with fajitas. Continue reading
Zucchini Pancakes with fresh wild blackberries
Back to creative outlets for our zucchini glut. Zucchini for breakfast (or brunch)! Pancakes are an underutilized food group. They can be savory or sweet, salty or caramelized. Eggy, floury, or, in this case, loaded with zucchini. This is a great way to boost the nutritional profile of your pancake, yet still good with berries and maple syrup (grade B, of course!). Continue reading
Tromboncini Rotini – A tasty, colorful, and unique summer dinner
Taking another break from the mass influx of zucchini, it’s time to play with tromboncini squash again. I love Troboncini – they are extremely versatile, functioning as both a winter and a summer squash. Their flavor is somewhere between a zucchini and a butternut. And they have a long, seedless neck.
The parmesan tromboncini discs I made the other day were really yummy. But let’s face it, that’s an appetizer. We needed something more substantial for dinner. And colorful. Time for squash and pasta! Continue reading
Mom’s Chocolate Zucchini Cake
Another round in the Great Zucchini Conundrum of 2017… I remembered back to the late 1980’s, when my mom made a very popular Chocolate Zucchini Cake. She is at home recovering from rotator cuff surgery, so I gave her a call. It took her a bit to dig up the recipe, but she did!
Chad’s Brandy Glazed Zucchini Bread
It’s the heart of zucchini season, and so that means zucchini bread. I ran out of printed copies of my recipe at the market, and since, I’ve had at least a dozen people ask me for my recipe, with the urgency of most people with a refrigerator overpacked with squash.
Well, I promised I’d post it this week. I just barely made it, but here it is for your weekend!
The Wild Black Raspberry version of X-Factor Muffins
I’ve long made muffins using the “Old School Muffins” recipe in Alton Brown’s I’m Just Here for More Food. I like the tender texture and the more moderate sweetness of his recipe, as compared with more typical modern recipes, which are more like cupcakes. However, I wanted to make muffins to celebrate Wild Black Raspberries, but had not had time to make yogurt. It turns out our local “grocery store” doesn’t actually sell plain yogurt(!), so buying some was nixed. My wife, Xenia, suggested substituting sour cream instead.
The substitution was inspired! It did require a bit of fiddling with the leavening, because sour cream is not as acidic as yogurt. But the result is even better. Hence, in honor of Xenia, I dub these, X-Factor Muffins.
A partially-baked pizza crust, ready to top and freeze for homemade frozen pizza (if you were making fresh, you would’t pre-bake it)
This is the recipe I use to make homemade frozen pizzas. Of course, it also works well for pizza made fresh! Continue reading