Holm Family Cookbook

Here in California we already have fresh sweet corn showing up in grocery stores that has been grown in California and not Mexico. It hasn't hit the farmer's markets yet, so it must be coming up from Southern California. We've already had it a few times for dinner.

When it comes to cooking, I will take shortcuts to get the job done as quickly and efficiently as I can as long as it does not impact the flavor of the dish I am making. When I discovered this magic corn cooking trick I was elated because there is minimal cleanup, I don't have to spend a lot of time trying to get the silk off of the corn, and the overall prep and cook time is shorter. An extra bonus of the magic corn trick is that I don't boil all of the nutrients out of the corn.

Are you ready for this? Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat or an ear of corn out of the husk.

1. Remove a few of the outer husks that might be dirty.

2. Cut the bottoms off of the corn.

3. Place a moist paper towel on the bottom of the microwave or on top of the carousel and place the corn on the paper towel.

4. Use this guide for your cook time. Remember the cook time can vary for each microwave.

1 ear - 2 minutes

2 ears - 3 to 4 minutes

3 ears - 5 to 6 minutes

4 ears - 7 to 8 minutes

6 ears - 8 to 9 minutes

5. After cooking, let the corn sit about 4 or 5 minutes. It will continue to cook and will be cooler and easier to handle.

6. Pick the cooked corn up by the top (you might want to use an oven mitt if it is too hot to handle) and squeeze and lightly shake out the ear of corn. It should just slide out leaving the silk and all of the husks intact.

7. Just like magic, your corn is cleaned and cooked!

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

~merry~

Asian style green beans with sautéed garlic, soy sauce, and sesame oil

If you've been reading our blog for a while, you know that I serve a lot of green vegetables at my house. Another trend that you might notice is that the vegetables are not covered in butter, cream sauces, or cheese, although I sometimes do top the vegies with a small amount of parmesan cheese.  Olive oil and garlic are usually present in most of the vegetable recipes that I make.

One of my favorite vegetables is green beans and I love them cooked with bacon and butter, however, I usually only eat them that way when I am visiting the mid-west and eating at a Cracker Barrel restaurant (by the way, if you get the opportunity to eat at a Cracker Barrel, you MUST try the baked apple dumplin). OK, I've wiped the drool from my chin and I'm back to my green bean blog.

A green bean recipe that I make often and will eat hot and cold is Asian style green beans. I received this recipe several years ago at a Weight Watcher's meeting, so besides the recipe, I can also supply you with the nutritional info for the green beans. 

November is a good time to buy green beans to make this recipe as you can buy bags of green beans already cleaned and trimmed, which really helps reduce the prep time.

Asian Style Green Beans

1 1/2 pounds green beans, trimmed

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon sesame seed oil

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

6 garlic cloves, minced

In a large pot of boiling water, cook green beans for about 5 minutes until just tender.

While the green beans are cooking, combine soy sauce, oil, and sugar in a small bowl.

When the green beans are tender, remove from heat and drain.

Green beans cooked and drained

Spray a wok or large skillet with non-stick cooking spray and heat over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and stir frequently for about 1 minute until the garlic has begun to brown.  Add the green beans. Stir and turn until the beans are well coated with the garlic. 

Minced garlic

Sautéed garlic just starting to brown

Add the soy sauce mixture to the green beans. Continue to stir and turn for about 2 minutes until the liquid has begun to be absorbed by the green beans.

Nutrition info: 68 calories, 2.4g fat, 4g fiber

~merry~

My favorite summer squash dish

Many years ago, my best friend's family farmed along Stanley Boulevard, which is a thoroughfare between the California cities of Livermore and Pleasanton. Taking advantage of the high volume of traffic along Stanley, they opened Hagemann Farm's U-Pick veggie stand and quickly became THE PLACE in the Livermore Valley to buy the best sweet corn, tomatoes, and summer squash. At the time I was taking some classes at our community college and when I wasn't at school, I worked at the veggie stand. I really enjoyed that job. I loved being outside all day, I loved picking the veggies, and during the fall I was able to use my creative abilities to decorate the veggie stand with Indian corn, gourds, and pumpkins.

One day while I was working at the veggie stand, one of the customers that had driven away backed up, stopped the car, and got out. The customer and his wife were frequent customers and I'm guessing in their 70's. "You really need to go back to school," he said. "We think you are a bright girl and you really need finish high school and then do something better with your life." When I assured him I was not a high school dropout, that I was in college and apparently much older than he thought, he then wanted to fix me up with a German friend of his. "He's a bit older than you, but he has money." If I remember correctly, the German friend was about 60. Hmmm. Thanks, but no thanks. While working at the veggie stand I had lot of interesting encounters with people.

One evening after working at the veggie stand all day, Terry Hagemann and I picked some onions, sweet corn, and patty pan, yellow crookneck, and zucchini squash. We decided to use all of these ingredients to make a one pan meal for dinner. We cut up bacon and fried it. We sautéed chopped onions, cut the corn off of the cob and added the corn along with thinly sliced squash to the pan with the bacon, and sautéed it all until the squash started to brown along the edges. Terry and I thought our squash dish was one of the tastiest dishes we had ever eaten and we would continue to make it whenever the opportunity arose.

Sadly, in the early 90's the Hagemann's closed the veggie stand and moved to the Central Valley. And, sixteen years ago, in the August of 1995, my very good friend Terry died of breast cancer at the age of 39. 

Terry Hagemann tailgating at a 49er's game

After my stint at the Hagemann's veggie stand, I have an affinity for veggie stands and should probably have a bumper sticker warning people, "I Brake For Veggie Stands."  Last week on the way home from the Amador County Fair, we stopped at one of our favorite veggie stands, the Fruit Bowl, on Highway 88. They had all kinds of squash that day, so I loaded up to make "the squash dish," which I have not made in a long time.

Below is the recipe I used to make the squash dish. Even though I did not use the bacon this time, the flavor was still great. It is a simple dish, without a lot of herbs or spices, that allows you to really enjoy the flavor of freshly picked summer vegetables.

Summer squash: Yellow crookneck, patty pans, and zucchini

Summer Squash Dish

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1 or 2 ears of fresh corn, cut off the cob

1/2 red onion or 1 Vidalia sweet onion, sliced

6 - 8 summer squash (patty pan, zucchini, yellow crookneck, etc.), thinly sliced

Salt & pepper to taste

Directions

Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Sautee onions in the olive oil until translucent. Add corn and cook for about three minutes. Add the summer squash to the pan. Be sure to flip the squash every so often so the squash cooks evenly. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook the squash until the squash is starting to brown around the edges. Serve.

Sautéed onions

Fresh corn, cut off of the cob

Salt and pepper added to the cooking squash

NOTE: If you want to add bacon to this dish, cut bacon up into small strips and cook. You can use the bacon grease to sautée the onions instead of using the olive oil.

~merry~

The green bean and shrimp salad served at the disorganized potluck

A few weeks ago we had a potluck and wine tasting at the family party barn. I decided it was going to be a disorganized (–adjective 1. functioning without adequate order, systemization, or planning; uncoordinated 2. careless or undisciplined; sloppy) potluck with no coordination whatsoever. If anyone asked what they should bring, I told them to bring whatever was easiest for them or one of their favorite dishes. I really dislike it when I'm invited to a potluck and the host wants to know weeks or days in advance, exactly what it is I'm going to be bringing. I usually don't plan in advance and don't decide until the last minute, so needing to provide an answer weeks or days in advance can be daunting for me. As I expected, it turned out fine with plenty of very good food and quite a variety of it.

The only area that was maybe a little short was the dessert area. The dessert table at the party barn is usually overflowing, but this time there was probably just the right amount. There were brownies, a s'more pie, and Norwegian cookies.

The entree that was gone before eveyone made it through the line were the chicken and beef enchiladas made by Mary Chapeta. Lesson learned, put the enchiladas near the end of the line, not the very front of the line. Another Mexican themed entree that had people asking for the recipe was Teri Tith's chili relleno casserole.

Our friend Kim Bonde brought a baked potato bar along with a table to set it up on.

Kim Bonde's baked potato bar

Another one of my favorite dishes at the potluck was a green bean and shrimp salad that was brought by Lani Hernandez. I just love green beans. I love them hot and I love them cold. I could go into a lengthy commentary right now telling you about all of the different ways one can prepare green beans just like Bubba did in the movie Forrest Gump when Bubba told Forrest about all of the ways one can prepare shrimp. But, I'm going to spare you this time.

Lani provided me with the recipe for the green bean and shrimp salad--she either got it from familycircle.com or food.com, she can't remember which as the recipe is posted in both places. I'm posting it here for you. Lani said this salad is great served warm or cold. With summer approaching I'm sure I will be making this for a few events in the next few months.

Green Bean & Shrimp Salad - Serves 4

Ingredients

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon honey Dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons snipped fresh chives

1 pound green beans, trimmed

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1-1/2 pounds large shrimp, shelled and deveined

1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

Snipped chives for garnish (optional)

Directions

1. Vinaigrette: In a small bowl, whisk vinegar, mustard, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Gradually drizzle in 3 tablespoons of the olive oil, whisking continuously until dressing is emulsified. Add chives; set aside.

2. Green beans and shrimp: Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add beans and simmer for 5 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain and place in a large bowl. Toss with dressing; set aside.

3. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and shrimp. Season with salt and pepper and cook for about 2 minutes per side or until cooked through.

4. To serve, toss tomatoes with the beans. Place on a serving platter. Scatter shrimp and feta over the top. Garnish with snipped chives, if desired.

One pot sausage and steamed veggies, couscous, and healthy garlic bread

Our mother had surgery last Thursday. She was supposed to be in the hospital for five to eight days and she came home the very next day. By the time we got her home and settled, and figured out a schedule for who would be doing what and when (they sent her home with tubes and things that needed to be tended to), we realized it was dinner time. We didn't have anything planned and there were several of us at the house to be fed. Never fear, my sister Nancy came to the rescue with something that was quick and easy, and could feed all of us. For lack of a better description, I'm going to call it "all in one pot Italian sausage and steamed veggies."

To make this dish she filled the bottom of a large pot with a mixture of Italian sausage. Some were pork and some were chicken with garlic. She cut up broccoli and cauliflower and placed that on top of the sausage. Then she filled the pot with about one inch of water, put the lid on and let the sausages simmer for about 10 minutes.

Put a layer of sausages in the pot

Cover the sausages with a layer of broccoli and cauliflower

While the sausages were cooking I made couscous and she made some garlic bread. The garlic bread was a much heathier version than the butter soaked bread that we all love. To make the bread she used already sliced whole wheat sourdough. She sprinkled the bread with olive oil and put the bread under the broiler until brown. Then she rubbed a clove of garlic on the bread to season it. That was it.

The steam from the sausages boosted the flavor of the steamed broccoli and cauliflower, so it did not require seasoning.

The next time you are looking for something quick and easy, this might be the ticket. 

Quick, easy, and tasty asparagus

Asparagus is a green vegetable staple in my house. I like my asparagus so that it still has a bit of a crunch. When I was growing up we would eat boiled asparagus to the point where it was mushy and we would dip it in mayonnaise. Today the thought of that is almost nauseating.

As per Wikipedia, asparagus is very good for you and nutrition studies have shown asparagus is a low-calorie source of folate and potassium. Its stalks are high in antioxidants. Particularly green asparagus is a good source of vitamin C. Asparagus contains substances that act as a diuretic, neutralize ammonia that makes us tired, and protect small blood vessels from rupturing. Its fiber content makes it a laxative, too.

And speaking of diuretics, asparagus eaters are well aware that shortly after eating asparagus their urine will temporarily take on a whole new smell. A family friend once had a visitor from Japan staying with him. The Japanese visitor woke our friend up in the middle of the night and told him he needed immediate medical attention for a health issue he was experiencing. Turned out the after effects of consuming asparagus scared the bajebbers out of him and he was just fine.

A few years ago, my friend Kim catered my mother's and her twin brother's 80th birthday party and served asparagus. It was cooked to perfection. Since I discovered her method for cooking it, I have been cooking it that way ever since. It is so fast and easy, it will take more time to preheat your oven that it will take to prep and cook it!

Kim Bonde's Quick, Easy, and Tasty Asparagus

Ingredients

1 bunch of asparagus

1/2 to 1 teaspoon olive oil

Salt & pepper to taste

Parmesan cheese

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400F. Wash the asparagus. Trim off the tough bottoms (about 1" off the bottom). Rub olive oil on the asparagus. Place asparagus on a cookie sheet. Salt and pepper to taste. Bake for 7 minutes. If the asparagus is very thin, reduce cook time to about 5 minutes. If the asparagus is thick, increase cook time to 8 or 9 minutes. Remove asparagus to a serving platter. Lightly sprinkle with shredded Parmesan cheese. The asparagus is good served hot or cold.

Cutting bottoms off of washed asparagus. I use the rubber band as a guide.

Here's how I measure my olive oil

Washed and oiled asparagus

Cooked asparagus. Note the darker green color and sweat.

Cooked asparagus with Parmesan cheese and ready to eat

Spring has almost sprung. Eat some asparagus!  ~merry~

It is a sign of spring. I usually have asparagus from about April 1 to the middle of June.

~ Ross Faris

Believe it or not, I have a kid that wants more green vegetables in her diet. If we go a few days without a green vegetable I hear about it. Carrots, green salad, cauliflower--not green or not dark green enough. I created this monster by introducing broccoli to both of my girls at a very early age. The way that I snuck it into their diet was by putting into my pasta dishes. During the last two minutes of the pasta boiling, I would throw in broccoli and then drain and serve it with the pasta. The girls will now eat broccoli steamed, without anything on it.

Trying new green veggie recipes is sometimes difficult because I usually don't get home from work until after 6:30 pm and that doesn't leave a lot of time for experimenting with recipes if we want to eat before 7:30 pm. However, on Monday night I decided to try Swiss chard. I have never eaten it before--I once bought kale and thought it was Swiss chard, but this time I had the real deal to try. And, this time I had both the red and green varieties to try.

Red and green Swiss chard

When I got home on Monday night, I quickly Googled Swiss chard recipes and tried the second one I found. As always, I modified the recipe. The girls really liked the finished dish, however, we all thought that toasted pine nuts would have been a great addition--but then, we always think that.

Since I had never eaten Swiss chard, I wanted to see if we would be able to taste the difference between the green and the red, so I cooked each separately. To me, the red Swiss chard tasted a little earthy, much like the earthy taste that red beets have.

One thing to keep in mind when cooking Swiss chard is that it really reduces in size when it is cooked to a tender stage. The plate that the Swiss chard is on in the photo below is 7" in diameter. So, each bunch cooked down to less than one cup.

As it turns out, Swiss chard is considered one of the healthiest foods you can eat. Among other benefits, it is very high in vitamins K, A, and C, magnesium, potassium and iron.

The finished Swiss chard: green on left, red on the right

Quick and Easy Swiss Chard - 4 small servings

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

8 cloves of garlic, minced

2 bunches Swiss chard

1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions

Remove and discard the stems from the Swiss chard. Cut the Swiss chard into long strips and then cut these strips in half. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook the garlic for about two minutes--until it starts to brown. Add the Swiss chard and mix it with the olive oil and garlic. Add the balsamic vinegar and continue to cook the chard for about 7 minutes until it is wilted and tender. Season with the salt and pepper. Remove from the heat. Sprinkle on the Parmesan cheese and cover for a minute or two until the cheese melts and then serve.

~merry~

After the strangest California summer I can remember, our tomatoes are finally ripening, in September?! The three hot days that finally came (and went) ripened a variety of our tomatoes, at least enough for my favorite tomato panzanella salad. I caught it while watching the Food Network, with Giada De Laurentiis. My favorite part of the panzanella is the grilled whole wheat croutons, I make them all the time, and add a ton of fresh garlic. I keep them in a ziplock bag and they last for a month or so. I buy a large fresh loaf of whole wheat French bread from our Safeway bakery, and chop it up into cubes and grill.

Our family of wild turkeys also liked the whole wheat croutons!

Here is the entire recipe to enjoy while tomatoes are still rolling in.

Artichoke and Tomato Panzanella

Ingredients

1 (10-ounce) package frozen artichoke hearts, thawed (about 2 cups)

3 cups whole-wheat bread, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces

3 large, red tomatoes, cut into wedges

1 cup pitted black olives, halved

3/4 cup chopped, fresh basil leaves (about 1 bunch)

2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more for seasoning

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning

Directions

Place a grill pan over medium-high heat or preheat a gas or charcoal grill. Drizzle the bread and artichoke hearts with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill the bread and artichokes until golden brown at the edges, about 6 minutes total, turning every 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the bread and artichokes from the grill and transfer to a large bowl.

Add the tomatoes, olives and basil to the bowl and toss to combine. In a small bowl stir together the 2/3 cup olive oil, white wine vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Drizzle the dressing over the salad. Toss to combine and serve immediately.

Mangia!

Nancy

It’s that time of year again, is your zucchini out of control?? With our very strange spring weather, we didn’t get our garden planted until late, so I’m making a preemptive strike, finding recipes before the zucchini ambushes our life! Cooking Light magazine got me inspired with a zucchini article in the current issue with some new uses: pickles, coleslaw and meatloaf – add 2 cups of zucchini to your beef meatloaf to moisten it up and make it healthy – the kids will never know! On their website you will find “6 Great Recipes for Zucchini” pictured is Zucchini Oven Chips, one even includes chocolate, or another story “Help, I’m Drowning in Zucchini!”

The recipe journal on 101 Cookbooks always has innovative healthy recipes, a few zucchini recipes include: Summer Vegetable Cianfotta, A Tasty Fritta, Spinach and Zucchini Soup, and My Special Zucchini Bread which includes some unique ingredients like poppy seeds and an optional tablespoon of curry powder.

I found a hilarious story about Italian nonnas and their differing opinions on how a zucchini should be cooked at The Italian Pantry, with a stuffed zucchini recipe.

That’s Fit has “10 Healthy Zucchini Recipes” including zucchini that is stuffed, grilled, roasted, encrusted, sautéed, creamed and a ratatouille-wanna-be.

Even the New York Times posted a Zucchini ‘Pasta’ recipe, where it’s not really pasta, but zucchini ribbons.

The zucchini recipe from the Holm Family Cookbook that I tested in preparation for the zucchini onslaught was my Aunt Joan and Uncle Frank’s Sweet and Sour Zucchini, you can keep them in the refrigerator for weeks, and are refreshingly delicious.

Sweet and Sour Zucchini

2 tablespoons dehydrated onions

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/2 cup salad oil

2/3 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper

1/2 cup chopped celery

5 uncooked zucchini (each about 7 inches long), very thinly sliced

Place the onions in a small bowl and add the cider vinegar. Let them stand for 30 minutes. Then whisk in the sugar, salt, pepper, oil, and vinegar.

In a large bowl, combine the bell pepper, celery, and zucchini. Pour the vinegar-onion

mixture over the vegetables and blend well. Marinate in the refrigerator overnight or for

at least 6 hours. Drain and serve cold. Serves 10

- Nancy, on Zucchini Patrol

"Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie."  -Jim Davis

Trying to find vegetables that kids will eat can be a challenge. For years I tried to get my kids to eat sautéed zucchini to no avail. One time I served them zucchini with some spaghetti sauce on it and they loved it! Now they ask me to make the zucchini with spaghetti sauce and sometimes my oldest daughter makes it herself. 

Zucchini is low in calories, contains folate, potassium, manganese, and vitamin A, but don't tell the kids.

Kid Friendly Zucchini 

Ingredients

Cooking spray

4 medium zucchini

3 tablespoons bottled spaghetti sauce (more or less according to your taste)

1 tablespoon shredded parmesan

Directions

Thinly slice the zucchini (into disks). Spray a large sauté pan with cooking spray.  Sauté the zucchini on medium high heat until the zucchini starts to brown or softens.  Spoon on the spaghetti sauce and mix until the zucchini is coated. Top with the parmesan cheese and serve.

~merry~

Jicama is one of those vegetables that I buy with good intentions of using and then end up having to throw it away because I didn’t use it in time.  When I do use jicama, I usually just cut it up into strips or chips and serve it on a crudite platter or eat as a snack.

I recently had some jicama slaw as a side dish at a restaurant and decided to try some of my own.  After trying different jicama slaw recipes, I came up with this one. It is very colorful and has interesting flavors and textures. I like to add nuts and fruits to my salads and found that pistachio nut meats were a great addition. I think pepitas or sunflower seeds would work great too. (Trader Joe's carries a wide variety of nuts at very reasonable prices, so I recommend looking for your nuts there.) Small chunks of oranges would work well too. Just go crazy with it.

Jicama slaw

Nutty Jicama Slaw

Ingredients

2 cups red cabbage, very thinly sliced

1 cup of julienned carrots

¾ cup of jicama, peeled and julienned

1 to 2 tablespoons minced cilantro leaves

5 green onions (bulb and white part only) chopped

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons rice vinegar

3 tablespoons fresh lime or lemon juice

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon honey

½ teaspoon chili powder

¼ cup pistachio nut meats (or other nuts, such as sunflower seeds, pepitas)

Instructions

In a medium salad bowl, mix all of the produce. In a small mixing bowl, whisk the olive oil, rice vinegar, juice, salt, pepper, honey, and chili powder. Mix the dressing into the greens. Add the nuts just before serving.

~merry~

My family’s consumption of leafy green vegetables is fairly limited. In an attempt to add more of a variety of leafy greens to our diet, I purchased some kale at Safeway. Not being familiar with all of the leafy greens, by the time I got home I forgot exactly which leafy green I had purchased and figured it was Swiss chard. So, I googled a Swiss chard recipe and cooked the kale according to the Swiss chard recipe. Afterwards, I discovered my mistake and found a kale recipe that was very similar to the Swiss chard recipe, so I was relieved that the recipe that I used was just fine. Fortunately, other than not knowing my leafy greens, it was not a huge mistake--no damage was done, and the kale turned out great.

I very rarely make a recipe without tweaking it (I omitted butter and salt, used less onion, and added pine nuts), so below is my version of the recipe that I used, which will work out fine for both Swiss chard and kale. ~merry~

Kale is rich in vitamins A, C, and K

Swiss Chard is rich in vitamins A, C, and K, potassium and iron

Sautéed Kale (or Swiss Chard) with Pine Nuts, makes 4 servings

Ingredients

1 bunch of kale (or Swiss chard)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1/3 cup chopped red onion

½ cup white wine

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts

Directions

Pull the kale (or Swiss chard) leaves off of the stems. Chop the stems into small pieces. Set chopped stems aside. Coarsely chop the leaves. Set the chopped stems aside.  In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Stir in the garlic and onion and cook for 1 minute.  Add the chopped stems and the white wine.  Simmer for about 5 minutes or until the stems begin to soften. Stir in the coarsely chopped leaves and cook until the leaves are wilted (or slightly softened for the kale). The leaves will be a dark green. Stir in the lemon juice, Parmesan cheese, and pine nuts. Serve. 

Sautéing the coarsely chopped kale

Ready to serve!

**Unlike the other pages of our blog, this page receives about 15 hits a day. If you do make this recipe, please come back and let us know how it was!**

Click here for another Swiss Chard recipe

Bob and I are Food Network junkies, along with the travel channel, especially “No Reservations” with Anthony Bourdain. Our favorite is Bobby Flay, the grill meister. One of his grill recipes was acorn squash cut into rings, grilled with maple syrup, brown sugar or butter, or combination of, delicious for even the average squash hater. We also watch Emeril, a fellow Portuguese, in the morning when we are waking up with our coffee, and I recently saw him cook a spaghetti squash. We were planning a trip to Watsonville to visit friends, and their daughter Ashley is a vegetarian, so I thought this would be a good recipe to try. I googled spaghetti squash, and found a recipe that Emeril had cooked on the Planet Green/Discovery channel. I had bought some canned Italian Cherry Tomatoes at the Grocery Outlet that I really wanted to try (if they were good I could stock up before they ran out), so I used those in the marinara sauce. I baked two squash in separate pans - following the recipe I put water in the first pan, but forgot the water in the second, and they both turned out great. I had brought down a mix of veggies from my kitchen and added a few things to the marinara, a green bell pepper, a handful of fresh basil, didn’t have tomato puree so I used a small can of tomato sauce, and forgot to add the Italian Seasoning (we were hungry and I always rush through recipes without reading them through!). It turned out delicious, and very healthy to boot. Click here for a link to the recipe and get over the aversion to squash! ~nancy mueller~

Nancy's version of Emeril's spaghetti squash with marinara sauce

My family loves Brussels sprouts. When my girls were younger, fights would break out if one took more Brussels sprouts then the other. My usual cooking method is to steam the sprouts until tender, heat up a nonstick pan that has been lightly sprayed with olive oil, slightly brown the sprouts, and then sprinkle with garlic salt and pepper. Last weekend I tried a Rachael Ray recipe that I found on the Food Network website that we all really enjoyed and I think that it is worthy of serving to guests.  I also think that non-sprout lovers will enjoy this dish too. Below is my adaptation of the recipe.  ~merry carter~

Ingredients

1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil

1/3 cup of chopped red onion

1 ½ pounds of cleaned and trimmed Brussels sprouts, cut the large sprouts in half

3 slices of precooked bacon, cut or crumbled into small pieces

Ground pepper to taste

1 cup low sodium chicken broth

Directions

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet that can be covered.  Add the red onion and cook until the onion just starts to brown. Add the Brussels sprouts and stir to coat with the oil. Sauté for about 3 to 4 minutes until the sprouts start to tender and begin to brown. Add the chicken broth, sprinkle with the pepper, and stir in 1/3 of the bacon. Bring to a boil and then cover and reduce heat to medium low. Cook for 10 minutes or until the sprouts are tender (don’t over cook or they will become mushy). Use a slotted spoon to remove the sprouts, onion, and bacon, and transfer to a pre-warmed serving dish. Reduce the liquid that is remaining in the pan by cooking at medium high heat for about 3 minutes. Once the liquid is reduced to half, pour over the spouts and sprinkle on the remaining bacon.