Recipe – Page 4 – Cheeky Attitude

Perfect Picnic / Potluck Salad Recipe

The Summer is upon us and I’m hoping for sunshine-y days with friends and family sharing food. Choosing a potluck or picnic dish can be tricky, you want something that won’t fade in flavor or possibly go bad in transit or while sitting around. And a salad can be the trickiest dish of all. This salad not only travels well, it actually gets better with time. I learned the basics from our chef at work who really knows the limitations of a salad bar.

The basics are:
Red bell pepper
white mushrooms, sliced
zucchini (the small young ones are best)
canned or bottled ( I use canned) artichoke hearts, quartered

good quality basic italian dressing (you can make your own if you have a favorite recipe, or buy the one you like – I have been using Newman’s and always get raves)

Just slice up the veggies into bite-sized pieces, toss with the dressing and you’re done.
For this particular batch I used two small zucchini, one red pepper, about 1/2 lb of mushrooms and one can of artichoke hearts. I tossed it with about 1/3 cup dressing. The result was one quart of salad.

Want to add a little protein? – garbanzo beans work especially well.

It goes just as well beside burgers as it does a roast chicken or homemade ravioli. When I know a heat wave is coming, I’ll make a batch so there’s something healthy and refreshing in the fridge.

Crunchy Salty Cheese-y and Easy: Kale Chips with Asiago

These came together so quick that it is barely a 3-step process.

One of the CSA “keepers” is kale. I would have never purchased it on my own but it came bursting out of my farm box and just kept coming. After using it in soups and frittatas, I decided to try my hand at the “chips” that I would often come upon on the interwebs.

I washed a head of kale and cut out the main stem/rib with scissors, spread them on a baking sheet and brushed the leaves with olive oil.

After sprinkling with sea salt, I thought they would be too plain. I happened to have some asiago and I happen to love asiago so I threw that on top of the lot. After about 20 minutes in a low oven (about 250 deg. F.), the cheese had adhered to the leaves and they became crispy crunchy.

We ate them right off of the pan.

Crock pot butternut squash curry – and how to cut up a butternut squash.

I used to fear these gourds. I didn’t have nightmares about them or anything, but I had no Idea where to start. When I got one in my farm box I knew the time had come to face my fear. Luckily they keep for a good long time because I stared at it on the counter for a couple of weeks. I knew I liked butternut squash in soup and ravioli. But I’d always had it at restaurants or from the chef at work.

I didn’t know how to get to the orange-y cubes of goodness.

So I finally just took the thing into work and asked the chef. She started with: “Well, first you cut it in half, and then…”
I had to stop her there. That was the problem: “how do I cut it in half?” To get equal halves I would need to cut it lengthwise, right? But that seemed scary. I could just see myself slipping with the knife and cutting my fingers in half along with the squash. Or having it slip out from under the knife and fly across the room while I land face first into the blade. You see why I was scared of the thing. It was trying to maim me!

But Chef Susan said “No.” She said that she would cut it right at its waist, before it starts to bulb out. After I did that, she told me it would be easier to peel.

And she was right!

After I peeled it, then I halved it again. This time lengthwise and scooped the seeds and gunk.

After that it easily cut in the pretty cubes like in the above picture. And there was no slipping or maiming or blood. Bonus!

Cut up it was put into the crock pot with some tomatoes, onions, carrots, garbanzo beans and curry spices. I left it to cook for 7 hours on low, stirred, then spooned it over couscous. It turned out to be a hearty meatless meal.

Here’s the full recipe:

4 cups cubed butternut squash
26 oz chopped tomatoes with juice (I used Pomi)
2 carrots cut into chunks
1 white onion halved and sliced.
2 Tbs curry powder
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
2 (15 oz) cans garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained.
3 garlic cloves minced.

Hot cooked couscous

Place butternut squash in a 4-quart electric slow cooker. Mix remaining ingredients (through garlic) in a bowl and spoon over squash. Cover with lid and cook on low setting for 7 hours. You could stir in cilantro at the end or top with plain yogurt if you have it. Serve over hot cooked couscous.

If you’d like it with more kick (depending on how hot your curry powder) you can add 1/4 tsp or more of cayenne pepper.