Cindy's Spinach Balls

This recipe is an old family favorite from Struggles. It's probably his favorite holiday food, and I've made them a couple times now. No comment on whether I do them as well as his mom.

Not my picture. Source here.

• 2 ten ounce packages frozen chopped spinach
• 3 cups herbed stuffing mix
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 6 eggs, well beaten
• 3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic salt (I actually prefer granulated garlic myself.)
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1) Cook spinach as package directs. Drain well and squeeze out excess liquid.

2) Combine all ingredients and mix well.

3) Shape into small balls. (I use an ice cream disher.)

4) Place on greased cookie sheet.

5) Bake at 325 for 15-20 minutes.

**If you like, you can make/freeze these in advance and bake straight from the freezer. You don't need to grease the cookie sheet if that's the case, and you should add another 10 minutes to the cooking time. Personally, I like to freeze them first as I feel it helps them maintain their shape while baking.

Potato and Turnip Salad with Spring Onions

Today's dish is pretty exciting to me because almost all of it came from our CSA. (Anything with a * is CSA!) I saw Struggles' roomie cooking something similar the other night and was feeling inspired. A note about the onions: When I say "spring onions" I mean something like this. You could also use regular green onions in combination with shallots, I should think. We ate this still warm, but I'm presently munching on it straight from the fridge for lunch and I'm pretty pleased with it as a new take on potato salad. Turnips, even cooked, have a distinct mouthfeel from the potatoes. The onions are alternately sweet and crunchy, on account of adding the different sections at different times. Oh, and the picture below is from the leftover stage, as I forgot to take a pic when it was hot and fresh. Struggles ended up adding more dijon when serving for himself, but I kinda dig the more subtle flavor from the original amount. Don't be afraid to add more if you want!

• 5 medium red potatoes*, cut into 3/4" - 1" pieces
• 2 large turnips*, diced into 1/2" cubes
• 5-6 spring onions*, diced, whites/purples separated from greens
• 3-4 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1/4 cup parsley*, rough chopped
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup dijon mustard, possibly more to taste
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste

1) Boil the potatoes in salted water until fork tender. Drain.

2) Whisk the olive oil and mustard together. Toss the potatoes in this. Set aside.

3) In a large flat-bottomed skillet, melt the butter. Add the turnips and sauté over medium heat until they are nearly fork tender.

4) Add the white part of the onions and the garlic. Sauté for another 5 minutes, until the onions are getting translucent. Dump in the potatoes.

5) Add the green part of the onions and the parsley. Sauté for another 3-5 minutes, until everything is warm, but the green onions haven't lost their crunch. Salt & pepper to taste. 

Fall Veggie & Sausage Sauté

Have I mentioned lately how much I love getting a CSA? Because boy howdy do I love it. I'm already despondent thinking about trying to get anywhere near the quality at the market once the CSA shuts down for the season. This dish was, yet another, example of "what can we make with what we have on hand?" As I was eating it I realized that, sausage aside, this flavorful dish was actually really healthy. No butter, no cheese, only a handful of pasta to the mound of sauté... this could become a recurring guest on our table.

A couple of notes: the squash I roasted a couple days prior and put in the fridge. I under-roasted it slightly so it would stand up to being sautéed without becoming mush. Also, the sauteé is hefty and filling, so you could forget the pasta base entirely if you wanted to avoid carbs. Me, I like starchy bases, so it stays :) The large sausage links I bought at McKinnon's, a local meat shop. Struggles and I have been loving their garlic-cheese ones for just about everything. (There'll be another post about mushroom soup and how I punched it up the second time around with these delicious meat tubes.) I pre-cooked the sausages a bit so they'd hold their shape when I sliced them. Oh, and as always, anything marked with a * came from the CSA!

(so good, even the picture makes me want to eat it again)

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1/2 large red onion, large dice
• 1/3 medium butternut squash, roasted and cut into inch cubes*
• 3 small bell peppers, rough chopped*
• 1 medium zucchini, cut into 1/4" half rounds*
• 1 bunch asparagus, cut into 1.5-2" pieces
• 3 large sausage links, slightly precooked and cut into 1/4" slices (see notes above)
• 1.5 teaspoons crushed red pepper
• salt & pepper

• 1/2 pound pasta, cooked and tossed with:
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 tablespoon dried thyme

1) Olive oil, garlic, and red onion go right into the pan to sauté over medium heat until they're translucent. Throw the not-entirely-cooked sausage medallions in there. (I'm using a LARGE, flat bottomed skillet, by the way.)

2) After 2-3 minutes, toss in the zucchini, peppers and asparagus, along with the spices. Cover. Open and stir every 90 seconds or so until the asparagus is BRIGHT green.

3) Push everything around to the sides, leaving an empty spot in the middle of the pan. Fill the empty spot with butternut squash cubes. Cover and let sit for 1-2 minutes. Open and stir very gently so you don't squish the squash.

4) Serve over pasta. Dust with parmesan, if you want.

So we're trying to eat healthier AND more frugally

Struggles and I spent a week in the desert recently, followed by a week in my beloved Portland. If you've never been to PDX, the most you know is probably from that one show or the apparently unrequited love the New York Times has for the city of roses. At any rate, while Portland is a mecca for vegans and vegetarians, we also really REALLY love meat. And we do it well. Our time there was thusly summed by Struggles, "Every day we ate until we hated ourselves. And then we ate some more." So, upon our return to the East, we agreed that frugal and healthy was the plan. We're still getting our farm share, so that's a big help. I'm a protein machine though, so eggs and beans are about to be my best friends. Here's round one.

A few words about this frittata. You can really put whatever you want in it. That's kind of the beauty of something like this. Also, if anyone says "Oh that's like a crustless quiche" punch them square in the mouth. By definition they are the same thing except for the crust issue. Anyway, I used our big ass cast iron skillet for this, which is the way to go if you've got one. In any case be sure that your skillet can go from stove to oven without a meltdown. I ended up just serving this with corn on the cob, but next time I'm definitely having some sort of greens on the side. I had a kale caesar salad in Portland I've been itching to mimic, so maybe that. 

Veggie Frittata with a Kick
(things with an asterisk are from our farm share!)

• 2-3 tablespoons oil (if you're using a well seasoned cast iron you can err on the conservative side)
• 3 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1/2 cup red onion, diced
• 1 medium carrot diced*
• 1 medium bell pepper, large chop*
• 3-4 white or crimini mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 a small zucchini, in thin half rounds*
• 1/2 a small yellow squash, in thin rounds
• 1 medium-large red potato, scrubbed and sliced thinly*
• 12 eggs, beaten
• 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper
• 1 tablespoon parsley
• 1 tablespoon thyme
• salt and pepper
• 1 medium tomato, sliced*

1) Sauté the onions and garlic in the oil for about 5 minutes over medium heat. Add the carrots; cook for another 5. Next are the pepper, mushrooms, squash. Sauté until the carrots are not crunchy, but not total mush, another 5 minutes-ish. Undercook them just a little because baking will finish them off.

2) Turn heat down to low. Scoop half of the pan's contents out and level the rest. Put a layer of potatoes down. Don't make it a totally solid layer, just scatter them around. Put the rest of the sautéed mixture on top, followed by the rest of the potatoes.

3) Beat the eggs with the spices thoroughly. Turn off the stove. Gently pour the egg in, make sure to get it all around. If it's trapped and pooled in one area gently move the pan back and forth to help it even out. With the amount of veggies I had, the egg *almost* covered them. I had to poke a few potato slices into submission.

4) Lay the tomato rounds on top all pretty like.

Before the oven. Not pictured: my skeptical face that it'll look this nice when it comes out.

5) Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. You want the egg to be totally set, but not dried out.

6) Some schools of thought on frittata demand that you flip the finished product out of the skillet onto a platter for serving. Mine looked so pretty on top that I skipped that. I cut wedges with a sharp knife and just used a cake/pie serving spatula to get it out. Garnish with grated parmesan if you like.

Holy shit. Look at the glory!