Bottom of the Mason Jar Fruit Leather

Bottom of the Mason jar Spicy Peach and Strawberry Jalapeno fruit leather

Bottom of the Mason jar Spicy Peach and Strawberry Jalapeno Fruit Leather

                                              

Spicy Peach & Strawberry Jalapeno Fruit Leather

Bottom of the Mason Jar Fruit Leather

Spicy Peach + Hot Jalapeno Strawberry

 Earlier this summer I made some summer-heat strawberry/jalapeno jam, and some spicy peach butter. The peaches were from our CSA farmers at Wolf Creek Farm, and the strawberries were from Red Barn Ranch, all grown locally.  

I made several jars that our whole family enjoyed. Summer is days away from being over, and we barely have any summer jam left. I need my jars and fridge space for fall ingredients. What to do with a little bit of jam? Make some creatively flavored fruit leather - of course!

Each piece of fruit leather is half spicy peach butter and half jalapeno hot strawberry jam. It's colorful AND full of flavor. 

Jam can be used as a replacement for honey, sugar, or whatever sweetener you would normally use in fruit leather. 

I combined 8 less-than-perfect strawberries with about 1/3 cup strawberry/jalapeno jam. This mixture was a bit runny, but it still worked well. A food processor works well to combine the fruit and jam. 

The peach portion combines 1 peach and about 1/2 cup peach butter. 

 I poured the strawberry/jalapeno mixture around the center, and the spicy peach mixture around the outer. Use a knife to drag the two mixtures together in a decorative design. 

Before cooking in the hydrator

After cooking in the hydrator

You will know the fruit leather is done when it is no longer sticky. This fruit leather that combines jam and fruit took longer to cook, and came out a little thicker. Cooking times vary according to machines, and amount of fruit. Mine took 18 hours. 

The recipe:

Spicy Peach & Hot Jalapeno Strawberry Fruit Leather

Ingredients:

8 strawberries, hulled and diced

1/3 cup strawberry/jalapeno jam

1 peach, diced

1/2 cup peach butter

Directions:

Cut parchment paper to fit dehydrator tray. Or, use a dehydrator tray that is specifically for fruit leather. 

In a food processor, combine strawberries and strawberry/jalapeno jam. Puree. 

Pour the strawberry mixture around the center half of the tray.

Clean the food processor. 

In the food processor, combine the diced peach and the peach butter. Puree. 

Pour the peach mixture around the outer half of the tray. 

Use a knife to draw the two mixtures together and create designs.

Cook in the dehydrator on 135 degrees for 12 to 24 hours. Cooking times will vary depending upon the dehydrator and the amount of fruit used. The fruit leather is done when it is no longer sticky.

Once cooled, use kitchen shears to cut into 16 portions. Roll up the portions. Store in an air tight container. 

Lemony Sage Summer Squash

Sage leaves are beautiful, soft, and fragrant. Sage combined with lemon, browned butter, and cooked summer squash makes a wonderful "non-pasta" light side dish. 

Son-In-Law Salsa

This recipe comes from my son-in-law's family. I have reduced the heat via the peppers and changed the seasoning to suit our "American" palettes. All of the veggies are organically grown and from our farmers in Trenton, MO - fresh, fresh, fresh, straight from the earth to our table...

Tons of Tomatoes Italian-Style Pepper and Sausage Soup

This spicy, light, summer soup is a great way to use up the abundance of summer tomatoes and reap the benefit of the vitamins from summer tomatoes and bell peppers! This can be served as a soup, or ladled over pasta for a light and summery sauce.

Spicy Veggie Packed Tamale Pie

Packing as many veggies into a casserole is a fun challenge, and a good way to get ours kids to eat a variety of the good stuff we receive each week in our CSA delivery from our farmers. 

Rounded out with local seasoning and corn tortillas from Spanish Gardens, and ground beef from  down the street at Dodge City Beef, this casserole packs a punch of local and healthy all rolled into one.

Kansas City Cheese Steak Stuffed Peppers

Local farm fresh organic green peppers straight from our CSA farmers and local Kansas City Hereford House steak sauce combine into one delicious and quick week night dinner. A Kansas City twist to a traditional Philly cheese steak - even better than the traditional in our opinion. No wheat involved in this recipe!

 

Cauliflower Garlic Bread

CSA - Wheat free meals are a fun challenge. We made a wonderful dinner of zucchini "pasta" with bolognese, and cauliflower garlic bread on the side. Delicious and no wheat side effects. My daughter eats a Paleo diet. The original recipe is hers, with a little tweaking by me.

Zucchini "Pasta" with Bolognese Sauce

CSA - What to do with large, beautiful, organically grown zucchini fresh from our CSA farmers? Turn it into "pasta"! We are cutting down on our wheat intake, and we've been feeling so much better. But, what do you do when you crave pasta? Use zucchini instead!

Caipirinha Avocado Lime Jalapeno Chicken Salad

CSA - Community Supported Agriculture - This week our farmers sent plenty of cucumbers and the first tomatoes of the season. The fresh smell of cucumbers reminded me of a delicious drink that we had in California at Samba Brazilian Steakhouse and Lounge at Universal Studios City Walk. The drink is a variation of the traditional Brazilian Caipirinha.

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Community Supported Agriculture - What do you do with a huge head of cabbage? Well, two things come to mind, either make coleslaw or make stuffed cabbage. I love my mom's stuffed cabbage, but in all my adult cooking years I have never even attempted to make stuffed cabbage, but guess what? It turned out great! And I discovered a few time saving tips too!

Green Tomatillo Salsa - Salsa Verde

CSA - Community Supported Agriculture - Our delivery from our farmers this week contained cilantro and green onions - time for salsa! We love tomatillo salsa (salsa verde). It is such a refreshingly cool taste - with a kick of jalapeno too. This is my sister's recipe that she developed after working in a Mexican restaurant. It is super easy and perfect for summer.

4th of July Dessert Spring Rolls

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

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!

Kale Pizza Crust and Sauce

Chive Blossom Corn Muffins

In our farmers newsletter this week they wrote about chive blossoms being edible. 

Hmmm. So, we decided to kick up the flavor of our cornbread muffins! 

So fun, and colorful!

Kale, White Bean and Chicken Soup

The recipe for this soup originated in the weekly email from our farmers.

We replaced the potatoes in the recipe with beans (more fiber and protein), 

added some more spices, and our special "topping." 

Our teenage sons gladly ate this super healthy soup. 

I noticed they heated up the leftovers for lunch the next day.

That's an accomplishment for us!

Swiss Chard Potato Salad

This week our delivery included Swiss Chard.

Hmmm. What to do with Swiss Chard?

I altered a recipe I found that was originally printed in the American Profile section of the paper. 

It's an Italian Potato Salad with Swiss Chard.

http://americanprofile.com/articles/italian-potato-salad-with-swiss-chard/

I really want to reduce carbs and the sugar spike potatoes brings, so I flipped the recipe around, 

and made it mostly Swiss Chard with a little bit of potato.

I also altered the amount of seasoning to our taste.

Spinach Campfire Breakfast Burritos

This post is less recipe /more encouragement to be daring when cooking over a fire. 

That's right, a fire...not propane. Campfires are not limited to hot dogs and roasting marshmallows.

We took our farm fresh eggs and fresh spinach from our first CSA delivery this year on our camp out

and created some delicious and spicy breakfast burritos.

Stuffed Delicata Squash

Community Supported Agriculture - We have been thrilled with the variety from our organic farmers this season.

 One of our new delights is Delicata Squash (see previous posts - Cooking With Delicata Squash, Delicata Squash Bechamel and Eggplant Pasta Bake, and Delicata Squash Muffins with Toasted Pine Nuts).

We've been using butternut squash and spaghetti squash for years, but we had never cooked with Delicata Squash before. It is so nice and mild. We diced some the other day - stir fired with asparagus, and added it to scrambled eggs. It actually tasted like a very flavorful potato.

Stuffed Delicata Squash

4 Delicata Squash

1/2 lb. ground beef, no hormones/no antibiotics from Dodge City Beef  http://www.dodgecitybeef.com/ 

1/2 onion, chopped

2 c. cooked brown and wild rice

2 c. sliced fresh mushrooms

slivered almonds

Cut Delicata Squash in half lengthwise  Scoop out seeds and pulp. Discard. Bake the squash in a 350 degree oven on a baking sheet, cut side up for about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile,  cook onion and beef in a skillet. Add the mushrooms at the last minute - don't over cook. Stir in the cooked rice. Remove from heat.

When squash is done baking, remove from oven, fill each cut half with the beef and rice mixture. Top with slivered almonds and return to the oven to bake for about 5 minutes to toast the almonds.

Andy Warhol Stuffed Pepper Soup

Community Supported Agriculture - I posted a classic '70's recipe for stuffed peppers a few weeks ago. We had a few leftover, so I made Stuffed Pepper Soup. There's really no recipe for this - it's so easy!

I had the limited edition Andy Warhol inspired Campbell's Soup cans waiting in the pantry for inspiration. I really wanted to make them into pencil cups for my desk, and this recipe was a quick way to use up the soup inside the cans. The hardest part of this recipe was getting the soup out of the cans without ruining the labels. We decided to cut the labels off, set the labels aside, use the ingredients, clean and dry the cans and then glue the labels back on.

Andy Warhol Stuffed Pepper Soup 

4 to 6 leftover stuffed peppers

2 - 3 cans Campbell's condensed tomato soup

Chop up the green peppers and all the ingredients they are stuffed with into small pieces. Mix this and the condensed soup into a pot. Add some water. Heat and enjoy! (Easiest "recipe" ever!)

Forum Stuffed Peppers

Community Supported Agriculture - What should we do with a bunch of beautiful organically grown green peppers? We made stuffed peppers - yum! This is an old fashioned recipe - one bite and you are back at your parents' dinner table in the 70's wearing the polyester pantsuit your mom sewed for you eating off of avocado green and goldenrod colored dishes.

The recipe we tried is an old Kansas City favorite from the Forum Cafeteria. I might have gone to the Forum Cafeteria  with my grandmother, but I really can't remember it. I do remember the  Colonial Cafeteria at the Wyandotte mall though!

Read a great retrospective article about cafeterias published in the Pitch entitled "Trays of Our Lives." Here is the link: http://www.pitch.com/kansascity/trays-of-our-lives/Content?oid=2189356

We only made a few changes to the original recipe. We used hormone-free ground beef from Dodge City Beef. Also, instead of white rice, we used Bob's Red Mill Wild and Brown Rice. Also, I couldn't follow the directions to "melt shortening" to cook the veggies in. Just. couldn't. do. it. So, olive oil instead.

Forum Stuffed Peppers

By: Forum Cafeteria - originally published in the Kansas City Star

Creole sauce

1 t. shortening

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 t. minced green pepper

¼ t. minced garlic

¼ t. chili powder

1 (16 oz.) can whole tomatoes

3 ¼ c. beef broth, divided

½ t. salt

1/8 t. sugar

1 t. cornstarch

Stuffed Peppers

2 lb. cooked, boneless roast beef*

1 small or medium onion

1/3 c. chopped green pepper

½ c. cubed, cooked, peeled potatoes

½ t. chili powder

1/8 t. salt

1 (16 oz.) can whole tomatoes

1 c. cooked rice

6 whole green peppers

Paprika

For Creole sauce: Melt shortening in skillet over medium heat. Add onion, minced green pepper, garlic and chili powder and cook, stirring frequently, until vegetables are tender. Add tomatoes, 3 cups beef broth, salt and sugar; simmer 1 hour. Dissolve cornstarch in remaining ¼ cup beef broth, then blend into sauce. Cook, stirring frequently, 5 minutes.

Meanwhile; prepare stuffed peppers: Cube beef and onion. Coarsely grind beef, onions, chopped green peppers and potatoes. (If desired, chop ingredients in a food processor.) Place ground meat and vegetables in a large mixing bowl. Add chili powder, salt, tomatoes and cooked rice and mix well.

Cut 6 whole peppers in half horizontally and remove seeds. Place peppers in rapidly boiling water and cook just until peppers are tender but still firm. Spoon stuffing into each pepper half, molding about 4 ounces stuffing into an oval shape. Place stuffed peppers in a single layer in a large, shallow baking dish. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake at 350 degrees about 30 minutes or until browned. Spoon hot Creole sauce over peppers and serve.

*Cooked roast beef from a deli can be used instead of leftover roast. Browned and drained ground beef can also be substituted for diced roast beef.