Purple Scallion Artichoke Heart Salad

Community Supported Agriculture -I'm really loving the cool purple scallions that we receive from our farmers at Fruitful Hills! So, the purple scallion recipes continue...
One bite of this Purple Scallion Artichoke Heart Salad and you will be transported right back to a picnic in the '70s. This recipe was my mom's "go to" for picnics and gatherings. I've updated it just a bit - I don't think there was Vegenaise is the '70s?

Hmmm, '70's recipes used a lot of canned stuff, didn't they? I'm not even sure how to cite the original source on the original recipe, as far as I know, this is something moms in the '70's wrote down and traded around to each other. Whoever created it was a little edgy for the '70's - curry spice wasn't a mainstay of the Midwestern housewife's cooking arsenal back then. And, talk about easy and fast!

Purple Scallion Artichoke Heart Salad

2 boxes Chicken Rice-A-Roni

1  bunches purple scallions* (or green onions)

1 can artichoke hearts, chopped (the jar kind from Costco are fine too - just drain well)

1 small jar stuffed green olives, sliced

1 can sliced water chestnuts, drained

½ t. curry (I add more)

Vegenaise to taste (or mayonnaise)

*Fruitful Hills produce

Cook rice according to box directions. Cool. Add purple scallions, artichoke hearts, olives, and water chestnuts. Stir in Vegenaise, a little extra olive juice, and curry. 

Pink Potato Salad

Community Supported Agriculture - Well, I'm on a roll with the "colorful" food choices. It must be a factor of school starting and setting up the art room. I'm not able to turn off my art lesson thoughts even when I'm cooking! 

Many of the beautiful ingredients for our Pink Potato Salad come from our farmers at Fruitful Hills. And, I was able to sneak in two of my own personal favorites that I like on a tossed salad - beets and blue cheese. Thank you beets for the beautiful pink color. Next year when we have beets earlier in the season from our farmers, I will definitely make this recipe with fresh beets!

Dinner of Pink Potato salad, Purple and Green Coleslaw, and grilled chicken

Pink Potato Salad

10 small red potatoes*

1 can of either diced or julienned beets, drained

Fresh celery tops, chopped*

Purple scallions, sliced*

4 oz. container blue cheese crumbles

1/3 c. either sour cream, or Vegenaise

2 T. lemon juice

2 T. olive oil

4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled (optional)

*Fruitful Hills produce

Boil potatoes whole. Drain; cool slightly. Cook, drain, and crumble bacon. 

In a large bowl whisk together sour cream, lemon juice, and olive oil; add scallions, and beets. Fold together to combine.

Slice the potatoes that have been cooling, leaving skins on. Gently add potatoes and blue cheese to the bowl, fold together slowly so that the potatoes won’t break apart.

Sprinkle with bacon and celery tops.

If bacon is omitted, add salt to taste.

Purple and Green Coleslaw

Community Supported Agriculture - Back in June we received some beautiful green cabbage from our farmers along with purple scallions. I used those ingredients to make Purple and Green Coleslaw. The original recipe came from our farmers at Fruitful Hills, and I just tweaked it a little bit.  (Artists - we can't resist making color our focus sometimes, even when we cook!) I served this for Father's Day and it was a hit.
Well, this week we received some small green cabbage, and more purple scallions, so, time for another round of Purple and Green Coleslaw.

Purple and Green Coleslaw

*This recipe cut in half makes plenty for a family of 6. The original recipe is an appropriate amount for a party.

1 head green cabbage (or 2 small heads), shredded

1/3  head purple cabbage, shredded

1 green peppers, diced

4 purple scallions, sliced

Dressing Ingredients:

1 c. vinegar

1 c. sugar

1  t. mustard seed

1  t. celery seed

1/2 t. salt

Boil together dressing ingredients. Remove from heat and cool. Pour dressing over vegetables and toss. 

Healthy Eggplant Parmesan

Community Supported Agriculture - Our farmers have been growing a miniature eggplant - and I'm in love with these little purple cuties!!!

Eggplant hasn't  been one of our family staples, so I wasn't really sure how to proceed... so I just decided to make a classic - well sort of! I started surfing for eggplant parmesan recipes. All the classics call for the eggplant to be sliced, coated in egg and breadcrumbs and fried in oil. Ughhh! I couldn't do that to my little purple babies and I really didn't want to do that to my waistline either. So, I improvised.

Healthy Eggplant Parmesan

3 tomatoes*

1 sweet red pepper*

1 red hot pepper*

3 cloves garlic**

12 baby eggplant*

fresh sliced mozzerella (look for the package that says "16 slices")

olive oil

salt

pepper

1/2 c. grated parmigiano reggiano (or other similar cheese)

fresh pasta of your choice

* = from Fruitful Hills our CSA farmers

** = from Bad Seed Urban Farmer's Market http://www.badseedkc.com/

Roughly dice the tomatoes, sweet pepper, and hot pepper. Peel garlic and roughly chop. Add all to a food processor. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pulse until finely chopped, then leave running and stream in olive oil until it looks like tomato sauce. Pour into a 9X13 baking pan.

Slice the baby eggplant in half lengthwise. Layer on top of sauce.

Layer with the sliced, fresh mozzarella. It was a little pricey ($7.99 at Price Chopper), but the time saving convenience of having it pre-sliced combined with the healthy benefit of fresh mozzarella makes it worth it.

Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes. (Boil water and cook pasta while this bakes.) Sprinkle with parmigiano reggiano and continue baking for 5 more minutes. Serve over hot pasta. This makes a very light, taste packed, sauce. It will not look like a traditional plate of spaghetti and sauce!

Feta, Tomato, and Artichoke Phyllo Appetizer

Community Supported Agriculture - I had beautiful cherry tomatoes that I needed to use before our next delivery. It's unusual that I have any left to cook with - my husband usually eats them like candy, but he was out of town on a business trip for a few days, so we had a nice supply to work with.

I found this recipe in a magazine a few years ago. I can't remember what magazine or I would cite the reference. The point is, the recipe is so easy, once you make it, you will not need to reference the recipe again!

This is before it has been baked - we were so hungry that I forgot to take a picture of it after it came out of the oven!

Feta, Tomato, and Artichoke Phyllo Appetizer

I sleeve of phyllo dough, thawed ahead of time in the fridge (usually two sleeves of dough per box)

1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

1 to 2 cups marinated artichoke hearts, quartered

1 cup crumbled feta cheese (approximately)

3 Tablespoons melted butter

Roll out half of the dough onto a cookie sheet. Brush with half of the melted butter. Layer the other half of the dough on top, and brush with remaining butter. Top the dough with tomatoes and artichoke heats, sprinkle feta over the top. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-30 minutes (until dough is nicely browned on the edges). Slice and serve as either an appetizer or a side dish.

The best part of this phyllo dough recipe is that there is no rolling, cutting, forming of any type done to the dough. Unroll it and go - it's easy!

Ready to cook!

Baby eggplant (from our farmers at Fruitful Hills) sliced in half, drizzled with EVOO and sprinkled with salt and pepper. Fresh fish with lemon and fresh dill (also from our farmers at Fruitful Hills). Ready for my husband to carry it all to the grill. This was our first trial with grilling baby eggplant - we soon found out it takes hardly any time to grill these little guys!

Wild Rice with Farm Fresh Veggies

Community Supported Agriculture - What do we do with such beautiful veggies, but we're in a rush? Short cut time...

I made this dish a few weeks ago... Wednesday nights we take a look at what veggies are left from the week because we get a new delivery on Thursdays. So, to make room for the new stuff, Wednesday night is "get creative night."
With school closing in and a classroom to prepare, I needed a short cut.

Wild Rice with Farm Fresh Veggies 

2 boxes Rice-A-Roni Long Grain and Wild Rice

2 yellow squash

2 green peppers

1 pint cherry tomatoes

Follow the directions on the box and start the water boiling. While your waiting, slice the squash and dice the peppers into big chunks. When the water boils, and the squash and the peppers in with the rice and flavor packets. About two minutes or so before the rice is done, add the cherry tomatoes. They won't burst, but they will be piping hot when the rice mixture is done.

Probably next time, I'll hold the green peppers out until the last minute too - they lost their bright green color. The rice will probably cook longer than it says on the box because of the added moisture from the veggies.

Serve with a great steak from Dodge City beef http://www.dodgecitybeef.com/ and farm fresh corn. Delicious!