Soup Season!

Phoenicians are celebrating our exodus from 3-digit temperatures - Fall has arrived! Kids born and raised in the desert are even breaking out their sweatshirts for the "chilly" 70-degree mornings.

While I may not be ready for boots and sweaters, the cooler temps do give me a great excuse to try out some new soup recipes. We recently had a large amount of potatoes and broccoli to get through, so I jumped on the trusty www.allrecipes.com and used my favorite "Ingredient Search."

I changed the servings on the site (another handy tool!) in an attempt to make half of the original recipe. However, I forgot that the numbers don't change in the actual step-by-step instructions. So, in a last-ditch effort I threw in more potatoes (4 total), onion (1 whole), but only had 20 oz. (2 frozen bags) of broccoli florets. I used the original recipe's amounts for the broth and seasonings, and added a dash of Cayenne per one of the comments. The result was excellent! I think my "mistake" of using slightly less broccoli helped to avoid the overwhelming broccoli flavor that a few comments mentioned.

I did end up with quite a bit left over, so I'm hoping it's great for leftovers, too! All in all, it's an easy recipe for a tasty, filling dish.

*BONUS! Did I mention it's vegan?! Don't tell your guests... They won't even miss the heavy cream or butter. :-)

Click here for the full recipe!

Homemade Fruit Leather

Local summer produce yielded several kinds of fruit, and we took full advantage of the offerings through Bountiful Baskets. We soon found our kitchen full with: 12 pints of blueberries, 18 lbs. of cherries, and 21 lbs. of apricots!

The question is, "Is it possible to have too much fruit?" Unfortunately, yes. To avoid letting anything spoil or go to waste, we had to find options other than snacking on these raw fruits. Of course, we can throw them in smoothies (like the ones mentioned in a previous post), but you can only consume so many meals through a straw!

Introducing... homemade fruit leather (or "fake fruit roll-ups" if you're Alison's kids)! I've found several different recipes for drying fruit into strips for longer-lasting healthy snacks, and they all vary in procedure and cooking/drying time. So, I experimented with every method and can attest to this tried-and-true recipe. I prefer the raw flavors of the fruits mentioned above, so I did not add any honey or lemon juice, and they all came out great!

Homemade Fruit Leather

• 4 cups of fruit
• water
• 2 TBSP honey (optional)
• Lemon juice to taste (optional)

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or plastic wrap (It won't melt at your oven's lowest temperature).
2. Set the oven to the lowest temperature (mine says "WM," others are around 150 degrees F - Do not exceed 150 if you're using plastic wrap!).
3. Blend your desired fruit to a smooth liquid in a blender or food-processor.
   *For less liquid-y fruits (like apricots), simmer them in a saucepan on low heat with just enough water to cover first. 
4. If you like your fruit leather especially sweet, add honey. If you like tart fruit (or you're working with a very sweet fruit like grapes), add lemon juice.
5. Poor the liquid fruit mixture onto the baking sheet. You want a thin, even layer. Spots that are too thin will dry early and become crispy. Spots that are too thick will take too long to dry and/or become sticky.
6. Dry in the oven for 4-6 hours.
   *The first time you work with a new kind of fruit, you will have to start checking after 4 hours. Drying time can vary based on your oven's lowest setting, the thickness of the fruit, and whether you added water or lemon juice. I found apricots to take the longest - over 8 hours! I recommend trying this first on a rainy day when you'll be at home. Then, it's great to put in overnight, and wake up to the sweet smell of dried fruit!
 

Enjoy!

Follow the Food

Before moving to the desert, we participated in a cross-country bicycle trip that put us up close and personal with some of our food sources. We saw the contrast between big farm corporations and smaller-scale farmers, and heard the stories of local and small town businesses and farmers being run out by larger corporations and chains. After our ride, we read Michael Pollan's book, Omnivore's Dilemma (discussed in a previous post), and started to become more intentional about sourcing our food.

We visited a few farms that were practicing small, local, sustainable agriculture. Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia (mentioned in Pollan's book) boasts a "beyond organic" label, where pigs till the forest, rabbits neutralize waste, and mobile chicken coops permit natural cycles of grass growth. Polyface Farm introduced techniques that have caught on with organic farmers, and we have been hot on the trail!

Despite the lack of water, the Phoenix valley sustains a year-long growing season, and we have been thrilled to find opportunities to support our local (and organic) farmers. Our first find was Bountiful Baskets, a volunteer cooperative that provides local produce and grains on a bi-weekly basis. This organization is run completely by volunteers, and has locations around the country. Their unique status ensures low costs for consumers and high returns for local farmers. We have loved contributing to Bountiful Baskets, and have learned a lot about food seasonality, recipes and cooking/preparation. Since you can never be 100% sure what will be in the next basket, we've discovered several new foods, too (Bok Choy, Fennel, Leeks, and more!), which always turns into a hunt for new recipes.

We'd love to read any comments about your local food options; please share below!

Check back for new recipes and ideas from our most recent basket bounty!

Potatoes for St. Patty's Day

In honor of the Irish tradition, we'll be eating cabbage and potatoes tonight! While we have no fancy plans for the cabbage, I wanted to try a new twist on the potatoes. To be perfectly honest, the impetus came from the need to use the rutabagas and turnips in our fridge.

We receive 95% of our produce from Bountiful Baskets, which means that every two weeks we are surprised by a random selection of locally grown fruits and vegetables. We pick up our produce from a local parking lot, where a farmer's delivery truck brings boxes of fresh fruits and vegetables priced by weight. We have the option of choosing organic and non-organic items, and can add weekly specials that range from homemade breads and cookies to pressed oils and flavored tortilla wraps.

Last week, we received a plethora of root vegetables. It's both exciting and intimidating to discover a "new" fruit or vegetable. Previous "discoveries" for us have included box choy, fennel, and vanilla bean (still waiting on a good recipe for that one!).

This week's discovery: rutabaga.

I have two favorite resources for learning how to store, prepare, and eat a new produce item: www.allrecipes.com and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian (which has kind of become my kitchen bible). Tonight's new recipe comes from All Recipes:

Mashed Potato, Rutabaga, And Parsnip Casserole With Caramelized Onions

But what about the turnips?!

I made a few subsitutions in this recipe:

1. Turnips instead of parsnips - Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" book assured me that parsnips, turnips, and rutabagas are almost always interchangeable.
2. Vegetable broth instead of chicken broth

Another recommendation I would make is to SAVE THE BROTH! The directions tell you to drain the vegetables after boiling, but why waste perfectly good stock for soup? *Note to self for next time!

The results of the new kitchen experiment were decidedly yummy! Rutabagas and turnips add a touch more flavor to the mash, and the caramelized onions are a delicious topping. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

What are your favorite ways to prepare potatoes?
Do you have go-to resources for new and/or unfamiliar food items?

Hot Dishes: Quesadillas

Our second attempt at "convegan" cooking was decidedly less vegan, though still vegetarian (and easily modified in either direction). We opted for real monterey jack and cheddar cheeses where the recipe called for a veggie cheese substitute, and stuffed the tortillas to the brim with roasted onions and red, green and orange peppers. We learned the real trick for tasty quesadillas is in how you roast the vegetables. Throwing them into a high-heat oil like safflower or grapeseed really brings out the flavors. I even topped a few pieces with Sriracha sauce for an extra "kick."

We decided that this is a great quick meal with a lot of flavor for just a little time. True to the cookbook's title, the carnivore in the house didn't even miss the meat!

Hot Dishes: "Convegan" Cooking

Over the years, we have labeled ourselves vegetarian, pescetarian, vegan, and "convegan" (vegan when it's convenient!). Currently our household is divided: one vegetarian convegan and one omnivore.

A recent gift, Vegan Cooking For Carnivores, appeared to be the perfect compromise for us. Chef Roberto Martin boasts that the dishes in his cookbook are "so tasty you won't miss the meat," so we had to put it to the test.

Our first sample was the spicy noodle salad.

It's a relatively simple meal, and the dressing is really what makes it:

3 TBSP peanut butter
zest & juice of 2 limes*
1 TBSP sesame oil
2 TBSP agave nectar
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 tsp Sriracha hot sauce (or more to taste)

*We used lemons, and it was a happy accident!

This dressing is great over noodles and roasted vegetables, and would go great with almost any salad. Here's to more conveniently vegan cooking in 2014!