Chilled Cucumber Soup

Community Supported Agriculture - Our CSA delivery from our farmers this week contained lots of beautiful cucumbers. I've been wanting to try this recipe for Chilled Cucumber Soup for some time - perfect opportunity!

A beautiful light green soup

Chilled Cucumber Soup

This spicy, light, summer soup pairs well with a plate of olives, feta, summer sausage, and baguettes. Serves 4.

¾ c. sour cream with chive

4 scallions, roughly chopped (from our farmers)

2 jalapenos, seeded and roughly chopped

10 fresh basil leaves

Juice of 1 lime

4 farm fresh cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and roughly chopped (from our farmers)

Sea salt

Fresh ground black pepper

(Chill all ingredients before you begin – if you can.)

In a blender, puree the sour cream, scallions, jalapenos, basil, lime juice, half the cucumbers, ¼ cup water, ¾ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper.

Add the remaining cucumbers and puree until smooth. Add more water if necessary.

Solar Powered Pasta Sauce

Community Supported Agriculture - We still had some of our tomatoes leftover from our CSA last week, so I decided to make pasta sauce yesterday. It just happened to be one of the hottest days of the year and I really didn't want the pot of sauce simmering away all day and heating up the kitchen, so solar powered sauce it is...

Solar Powered Pasta Sauce "cooking" on the deck

Solar Powered Pasta Sauce*

Don’t use the stove top to simmer homemade sauce all day and heat up the house, let the sun do the work! Solar pasta sauce is a light and refreshing summer pasta sauce.

6 fresh tomatoes

1 t. salt

10 basil leaves, chiffonade

1 t. red pepper flakes

½ c. extra virgin olive oil

9 cloves garlic, minced

In a large skillet sauté garlic in the olive oil for about 3 minutes on medium heat. Don’t let it burn. Remove from heat, and let the mixture sit to blend the flavors.

Meanwhile, peel and then chop the fresh tomatoes.

Combine all of the ingredients in a large clear glass bowl or 8 c. measuring cup. (Don’t use plastic – you don’t want chemicals leaching into the sauce.) Mash everything together with a potato masker.

Cover the bowl and take outside to the summer sun! After a few hours in the sun, the sauce will be nice and hot – ready to pour over pasta. Yum!

*Adapted from a recipe written by Jasper Mirabile Jr. of Jasper's restaurant in Kansas City, originally published in the Kansas City Star. 

Peeling tomatoes was fun, messy, and took a little longer than I thought!

Red, White, and BOOM Dessert Spring Rolls

Community Supported Agriculture - It has been close to or over 100 degrees for days now. I don't want to turn on the oven to bake anything for the fourth of July! Here is a recipe I developed that is a simple and fun twist to an old favorite - and best of all, no baking! Have a "cool" 4th!

What do you do with locally picked blueberries? Create an easy, cool, spicy, fun dessert!

Red, White, and BOOM Dessert Spring Rolls

Blueberry and strawberry spring rolls with a spicy dark chocolate peanut dipping sauce

By: Heather McAnerney

Makes 8

Sauce

½ cup Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter (Peanut Butter & Co. brand – or any other organic chocolate peanut butter)

2 teaspoons Sriracha sauce, or to taste

water

Spring Rolls

16 small organic strawberries

1/2 cup organic blueberries (locally picked at the Berry Patch)

8 Tablespoons honey flavored Noosa yogurt (or any other honey flavored organic yogurt)*

 2 ounces Rice Sticks (1/4 of a package)

8 spring roll wrappers

For sauce:  Whisk dark chocolate peanut butter and Sriracha sauce together. Add water in small amounts, whisking to combine until desired dipping sauce consistency is reached.

For rolls: Boil noodles until tender – 3 minutes. Drain and rinse in cold water. Using scissors, cut noodles into approximately 3inch lengths. In a bowl combine cooled noodles and honey yogurt. Stir to combine.

Stem strawberries; slice in fourths.

Fill large, flat, round dish with hot water. Immerse wrappers one at a time until soft. Assemble rolls one at a time.

To assemble: Each roll will use approximately 8 strawberry slices, 6 blueberries and ¼ cup noodle mixture. On each wrapper one third from the bottom, place 4 strawberry slices. In between each strawberry place a blueberry (three blueberries total), place half of the ¼ cup noodle mixture, Repeat layers; 4 strawberry slices, 3 berries, and remaining ¼ cup noodle mixture. Roll wrapper up to just cover fillings. Fold in sides. Roll in tight cylinder. Cover with damp paper towels until serving. Repeat to create 8 rolls total. Do not refrigerate. Uncover and serve with sauce.

* Voskos Greek Honey yogurt 5.3 oz. container equals approximately 8 Tablespoons

Optional addition – add .20 pound dark chocolate covered almonds (Whole Foods bulk foods section). Chop and sprinkle inside the rolls with the strawberries and noodle mixture.