What could be nicer on a wet dreary day, than piping hot chili?  Here's what I put in my most recent batch.  As usual, I merely lumped stuff in rather than measured, so feel free to add things in the proportion that suggests itself to you.

I cooked dried calico, garbanzo and white beans the night before, resulting in a large crock pot full of the critters.  I froze half, and retained half as the base for this chili.  The garbanzo beans are particularly yummy since they retain a nice texture no matter how long you cook, or store, the chili.

Into the pot were added raisins, cashews, chopped onions, tomato paste, beer, orange juice, sorghum, chili powder, cayenne pepper, cumin, and a quart of 2009 home-canned tomatoes.  I went a little light on the cashews as I didn't have the raw nuts, only the roasted & salted pieces.  Next time I make this I'll use chipotle pepper rather than cayenne, and might add a container of frozen sweet corn.  This freezes well; look for it to be served next time Raventree Pewter favors us with his presence.  Call if you want to join us!

I don't know where he found it, or if I can read his writing well enough to set this recipe down correctly, but Mark found a way of making sweet & sour beet tops that's just incredible.  How incredible, you ask?  I'm a fairly picky eater, and I would gobble down string and old keys if they were prepared like this.  Without further ado, then:

a mess of beet tops
1/2 stick butter
3 tablespoons prepared horseradish
2-1/2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

His cryptic note says only "saute greens for 5 minutes" but I imagine he melted everything together prior to the introduction of the beet tops.  I'm sure you could use any greens for this, although the beet tops were very attractive with their burgundy veins.  Mark used white vinegar and the horrible flavored corn syrup that is sold as "maple syrup."  If I'd been cooking this, I would have skipped the syrup until I could get the real deal; I would have used honey in it's place, and gone with Balsamic vinegar.  I also have vague plans of using wasabi in lieu of the horseradish and adding some slivered almonds and Mandarin oranges, one of these days; Mark plans to either freeze or can more greens than he initially bargained for, because this recipe is going to be made a lot through the year.

We freeze, dry or can most of what we grow in our garden for use throughout the year, but radishes are one thing we tend to only eat while they're fresh.  This year Mark planted Cherry Belles rather than the usual French Breakfast Radish, and these certainly have a more uniform globe; they also have a little more "bite."


If we don't sell these at the Lamoni Farmer's Market today, I plan to braise the tops, and make a salsa with the globes.  On second thought, Mark just got his Vita-Mix working again, so I might juice the tops, and make salsa with the globes.  The recipe I will base my salsa on can be found in the delightful "More Recipes From a Kitchen Garden" by Renee Shepherd and Fran Raboff.  I'm sure to make substitutions, but here is the recipe I'll be working from:

Chile Radish Salsa

The following peppers to be roasted, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped:  1 serrano, 1 anaheim, 2 jalapenos
1 large clove of minced garlic
1 cup finely diced radishes
1 cup of seeded and diced cucumbers
5 finely chopped scallions
2 cups of diced tomatoes, drained
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup cilantro
salt to taste

In a bowl combine chiles and vegetables.  Stir in lime juice and olive oil.  Add cilantro and salt to taste.  Refrigerate 1 hour; drain off excess liquid before serving.

Sounds good, doesn't it?  Maybe I'll break out the tortilla press and make fresh tortillas to go with.

I bought the 75th Anniversary SueBee Honey Collector's Edition Cook Book from Watson Farms, a few farmer's markets ago, and today I finally made a casserole based on a recipe they give for Sour Cream-Potato Casserole.  If you want to see what the recipe originally looked like, Watsons still have copies of this nice wire-bound book; to learn what I did, read on.

I mixed together:
2 pounds of thawed hash browns
1 pint of sour cream
1 chopped medium onion
1 can, cream of mushroom soup
a 6-ounce piece of sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 stick of melted butter
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon black pepper

All of that went into a casserole dish.  For the topping, I used some home made raisin bread cubes that were taking up space in the freezer, probably about 2 cups of cubes, and tossed 1 cup of melted butter into them.  This mixture was spread atop the potato mixture, and the whole thing was baked for 45 minutes at 350.  The result was a creamy, sweet-sour casserole that I garnished with smoked paprika.  I'll portion and freeze this to be used as breakfast on market Saturdays, rather than running up to Casey's for a donut and their potato cheese thingies.

Even before our cool-weather vegetables are ready to be picked, we're enjoying fresh greens in the form of Lamb's Quarters, shown here growing in the rock garden near the front door.  We use it every way you would use spinach, and it freezes well too.  Be sure to pick yours from a source that uses no chemicals, as most folks see this as a common weed. 

Our most recent dish to feature Lamb's Quarters was a spinach-feta cheese quiche.  We meant to follow the recipe but were missing some ingredients, yet the finished product still turned out delicious!  One quiche was frozen and the other eaten within days; the quantities given below are for two quiche.


2 pie crusts for a 9-inch pie, unbaked
2 boxes of mushrooms, sliced
1 large or 2 small onions, diced
1 head of garlic, diced
2 packages of feta cheese, plain or flavored
2 cups fresh Lamb's Quarter leaves
1 stick of butter
8 eggs
2 cups of Cheddar cheese
2 cups of milk
oven at 375

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat, and sautee onions and garlic.  Set aside; sautee mushrooms.  Add the onion/garlic back to the skillet with the mushrooms, and include the Lamb's Quarters, feta cheese, and about half of the Cheddar cheese. When everything is mixed thoroughly, divide into the two pie crusts.

Beat the eggs and milk together until frothy.  Evenly divide this liquid between the two pie crusts, pouring slowly so the liquid covers the vegetable mixture.  Bake in a pre-heated oven for 15 minutes, than cover each quiche with the remaining Cheddar cheese.  Bake for another 35 minutes or so.  The cheese on top will have nice brown bubbles and the center will be firmly set.

We made our bloomer in not having any milk, but fear not!  This was still delish. 

It's been a dreary chore of a day, but I brightened it up with some Creamy Carrot soup.

To start, I cubed the following:

2 pounds of carrots
1 large onion
3 large potatoes
1 head of garlic

These were sauteed in butter, covered with water and simmered for 30 minutes.  At that point, I introduced:

2 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon each of ground ginger, ground cayenne pepper, and paprika. 

Blended it all together, froze quite a bit, will enjoy the rest with some home made wheat bread.  Mmmmm!

Throughout the growing season we're also preserving our vegetables by canning, freezing and dehydrating.  Dried onions are one of my favorites because they lend a taste of caramelized onion wherever they're used, so I like to blend them with fresh onions in recipes.

This isn't really a recipe, just something I threw together with the last of our dried split peas and lentils.  It comes out an unattractive grey color so I didn't photograph it, but rest assured, it's tasty!  What I combined was:

Roughly 1 cup each of dried split peas and lentils
1 head of garlic, peeled
1 chopped fresh onion
1 biggish handful of dried onions
1 cup chopped carrots
Scattering of bay leaves, sweet basil, Himalayan sea salt, and black pepper
Enough water to cover this all by a depth of 2 inches

Let it fester in the crock pot on "high" for much of the day.  Serve over warm buttered noodles with some Parmesan cheese---mmmmm!!