Asian cabbage wraps:

These wraps were so delightfully easy and tasty!!  

Source:  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/asian-lettuce-wraps/detail.aspx

I subbed cabbage from my CSA for the lettuce, and then followed the recipe for the rest!  Awesome dinner.

Ingredients Edit and Save

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Original recipe makes 4 servingsChange Servings

• 4 cups water
• 2 cups uncooked white rice
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 pound ground pork
• 1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 (14 ounce) package firm tofu, drained and cubed

• 2 carrots, shredded
• 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/4 teaspoon hot chile paste
• 1 head iceberg lettuce leaves, separated

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Directions

1. In a saucepan combine the water and rice. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes, until water is absorbed. Set aside and keep warm.
2. Heat oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Cook the pork, green onions, and garlic for 5 to 7 minutes, or until lightly brown. Add the tofu, carrot, Hoisin, and soy sauce, stirring frequently until heated through. Remove from heat, and stir in the sesame oil and chile paste.
3. To serve: spoon a small amount of rice into each lettuce leaf, top with the stir-fry mixture, and drizzle with additional soy sauce or hoisin, if desired. Wrap the lettuce leaf to enclose the filling.

Kitchen-Friendly View

• PREP15 mins
• COOK32 mins
• READY IN47 mins

Footnotes

• Optional additional stir fry ingredHoisin sauce, also called Peking sauce, is a thick, reddish-brown sauce that is sweet and spicy, and widely used in Chinese cooking. It's a mixture of soybeans, garlic, chile peppers and various spices. It can be found in Asian markets and many large supermarkets. Look in the Asian or ethnic section. If this item is not in stock at your local store, ask your grocer to special order it for you. Most grocers will be happy to do this for their customers.

Pioneer Woman Leftover Turkey Pot Pie:

The "before baking" picture.
I highly recommend the PW link to Sylvia's Perfect Pie Crust.  Others just pale in comparison.

You can see my system for organizing online recipes in the background:  print out a page and keep it in a 3-ring-binder (ala "Mittens" ;)  )  and on the blog.  

  

Leftover Turkey Pot Pie

1 pie crust (1/2 of Perfect Pie Crust recipe)
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup finely diced onion
1/2 cup finely diced carrot
1/2 cup finely diced celery
2 cups leftover turkey, light and dark, diced or shredded (or both!)
1/4 cup flour
2 cups low-sodium chicken or turkey broth
splash of white wine (optional)
1 cup heavy cream
Frozen peas (optional)
Fresh thyme, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Melt butter in a skillet or dutch oven. Add onion, carrots, and celery, and cook until translucent (a couple of minutes.)
Add turkey and stir. Sprinkle flour over mixture and stir. Cook over medium heat for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly.
Pour in chicken or turkey broth, stirring constantly. Splash in wine (you can leave this out if you’d like.) Pour in cream. (May add frozen peas at this point if you’d like.)
Bring to a slow boil and allow mixture to cook and thicken for a few minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste (do not underseason), and fresh or dried thyme to taste. Do one final taste at the end and add what it needs.
Pour mixture into a casserole dish or deep pie pan.
Roll out crust so that it’s about 1 inch larger than the pan you’re using.
Place the crust on top of the pot pie mixture, and press crust into the sides of the dish. Cut vents in the top of the crust.
Bake for 30 minutes or until very golden and bubbly.
Allow to cool for a little bit before serving.

Serve with a large spoon.

Delicious!

"After" photo, post-baking, pre-digging-in.

It's awesome.  Quick, easy, and a great way for me to get my kids to eat tons of veggies! (Well, okay, mostly juts Finn...)

Source:  http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/11/quick-recipe-leftover-turkey-pot-pie/

Changes I made:

--  I leave out the cream/milk because I've been dairy free, or kids have been dairy free, for so long that it's just become habit.  It's also fewer calories that way.  :)

--  I add as many veggies as I can/want:  corn, carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, onions, garlic, celery, etc.  Lots of CSA stuff!

--  With the Sylvia's pie crust recipe, I make one batch for 2 crusts, not 3.  If I make 3 they are too small/thin.

--  I use lots of thyme, but dried, as I rarely have fresh on hand.  LOTS of thyme!

Red Lentil Chili:

This is another recipe from my sister Renee.  It'll be one of my "meatless meals" so I have high hopes that you don't miss meat at all!  I haven't made it yet, but she ADORES it.  I did get my 4 lbs. of red lentils in the mail from Amazon, though, so now I'm all set!  I'll be using the last few of my CSA red bell peppers in it.  Sniff.  Ah, I'll miss my CSA so much this Winter!!

"Red Lentil Chili:

1 large onion, chopped (2 cups)
1/4 c vegetable oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes (I use cayenne pepper and add to taste--maybe 1/4 teaspoon.)
5 cups chicken broth
2 cups orange split lentils (don't use another kind of lentil)
28 oz. diced tomatoes, in juice
2 red bell peppers
3 celery stalks, chopped
2 Tablespoons brown sugar (optional)

In a heavy pot, cook the onion in oil for 10 minutes over low heat. Add the garlic, chili powder, cumin, oregano, thyme, paprika, and pepper flakes; cook, stirring, for 3minutes. Stir in the chicken broth, lentils, and tomatoes; simmer for 40 minutes; add up to 1 cup water if the mixture becomes dry. 

Add the peppers and celery (I ran them through a food processor first) and simmer until lentils are cooked and veggies tender, about 30 more minutes. Stir in the brown sugar toward the end. Or not. If it's a little spicier than you'd prefer, the sugar can help balance it out a bit. But I leave it out more than half the time.

Serve over basmati rice. It’s even better as leftovers!"

Watercress Beet Salad:

We made this salad for two of our recent family birthday parties.  It's so delicious!  I hate beets, however, so we put those on the side rather than in the recipe.  I guess I'm just a sucker for anything curry.  However, I do love that it has a base of watercress and not boring old lettuce like so many bland salads these days!

I've now made the recipe with both the red wine vinegar and the fresh lemon juice.  I think I much prefer the lemon juice. The red wine vinegar just left too much tartness and we even had to add a little powdered sugar to cut that down.  If you have no lemons (FRESH is important...no canned lemon juice), obviously use the red wine vinegar...just be prepared for more tartness!! :)

Watercress Beet Salad

Curry vinaigrette (for 16 people):

4 cloves garlic

2 tsp. salt

8 tsp. curry powder

2 tsp. fresh ginger, peeled and grated

10 T lemon juice or red-wine vinegar

1 ½ c. olive oil

Salad:  4 bunches beets, scallions, apples, chopped walnuts, 4 bags watercress, 2 cartons crumbled goat cheese

Beets:  Leave 1 inch stems on, rinse, rub with oil, roast in ¼” water at 400 degrees 25-40 min. or until tender when pierced with knife.  Cool, peel, slice, toss with vinaigrette.

Heavenly Soup:

I got this recipe from my sister Renee.  We often eat it every St. Patrick's Day, because she doubles the cilantro in it and it's a delightful green.  It's a wonderful soup, especially if you are...like me...trying to include more meatless meals in your diet.  You don't miss meat in this soup at ALL.

It's also amazing with that Italian herb bread from allrecipes.com that I have on this blog...

"Carrot and Corriander (Cilantro) Soup

2 medium onions
6 large carrots
3 large potatoes (the kind you buy individually - baking potatoes)
1 bunch fresh cilantro (I used 2...more on that later)
8 cups chicken broth, made from soup base
2 cups heavy cream (I omit)
1/2 c. butter
salt and pepper

Peel vegetables. In a food processor, shred the heck out of the carrots, potatoes and onions (they looked pretty pulverized when I was done). 

Melt the butter in a large saute pan, and saute the vegetables for 15 minutes, covered. Add a little salt & pepper.

Transfer the vegetable mixture to a large stock pot, add chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then simmer on low for 20 minutes, covered, until vegetables are tender. Chop the cilantro (again, I ran it through the food processor) and add. Puree the soup in a blender in batches. Return to the stock pot, stir in the cream. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve!

When my friend made it, it was a nice orangey color. But I decided I wanted a stronger cilantro flavor, so I used two bunches instead of one. The result was great in the taste department, but it was kind of green looking - a little like split pea soup. Maybe not as aesthetically pleasaing, but it was really like something you'd get as a first course in a fancy restaurant - SO good!"

Tomato pie:

Tonight I made my first tomato pie, thanks to the recommendation from my friend Julia.  They.are.divine.  You should make one.  Tonight.

I used Pioneer Woman's crust (Sylvia's crust on her website), because all other pie crusts are just a mistake.


Source:  http://allrecipes.com/Recipe-Tools/Print/Recipe.aspx?recipeID=12599&origin=detail&servings=8&metric=false

Fresh Tomato Pie

Rated: Submitted By: Britt Terry Photo By: FLOWERBUFF Servings: 8

"This savory layered pie is a great way to use up extra summer tomatoes--and it's delicious warm or cold. Layers of sliced onion and tomato are topped with Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses. The pie is baked until golden brown, and then garnished with chopped fresh herbs."

INGREDIENTS:

1 (9 inch) pie shell 7 ripe tomatoes, sliced 1 yellow onion 3/4 cup mayonnaise 1/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese ground black pepper to taste 2 teaspoons fresh basil 2 teaspoons fresh oregano

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.	Bake the pastry shell for 8 to 10 minutes or until browned.
3.	Slice onion and place in the bottom of pastry shell. Slice tomatoes and arrange over onions. Add black pepper to taste.
4.	In a medium bowl, combine mozzarella, parmesan and mayonnaise. Spread this mixture evenly over tomatoes.
5.	Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Once cooked, garnish with fresh herbs.

Acorn Squash soup with Kale and Bacon:

This is one of my most favorite fall soups!

Source:  http://www.marthastewart.com/326547/acorn-squash-soup-with-kale

Ingredients

• 4 strips bacon, 4 ounces, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 pound kale, thick stems removed, leaves finely chopped (about 8 cups)
• 4 cups Acorn Squash Puree, or 2 packages (12 ounces each) frozen winter squash puree, thawed
• Coarse salt and ground pepper

Directions

1. Cook bacon in a large saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until crisp, 4 to 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer bacon to a paper-towel-lined plate; set aside.
2. Add onion to fat in pan, and cook until softened, 4 to 5 minutes. Add kale; cook until soft, 3 to 4 minutes.
3. Add squash puree and 3 cups water (or more if necessary to achieve desired consistency); bring just to a boil. Season generously with salt and pepper. Serve, garnished with reserved bacon.

When I make this soup I usually eat it for lunch 5 days in a row.  

The soup in the pot.  It doesn't LOOK amazing, but it is.