Pizza pizza...

After my bad dinner experience yesterday, tonight had to be something that was fail-proof.  My fridge is stuffed with bags of spinach, swiss chard, romaine and red leaf lettuce, plus I have a drawer full of yellow summer squash.  So - after some careful thought, my sister and I decided to make a veggie pizza with some spinach and squash.  It was easy and delish!

Spinach & Summer Squash Pizza

1 fresh/pre-made pizza crust

2 small yellow squash, sliced

1 small bunch (~1 cup) spinach

marinara sauce

fresh mozzarella

Italian spices

--> Preheat oven to 375 F.  Roll out the pizza dough onto a pizza stone or aluminum pan sprayed with PAM.  

--> Separately, heat a sauté pan over medium heat.  Spray with PAM and then saute/grill the sliced squash for ~3 min per side, or until they brown up and start to soften.  After the squash is done, grill the spinach (or steam it)  for a few minutes so that you get the excess water out of the spinach.

--> Back to the pizza.  Layer the sauce onto the dough, followed by the sliced, fresh mozzarella, then squash and then spinach.  Sprinkle with your favorite Italian seasonings and then place in the oven for ~25 minutes (check every 10 minutes to see how the dough is browning).  Enjoy!

Does anyone actually like escarole?!

I had good intentions with my dinner - really, I did... And I just looked back at last year's blog post about escarole and I seemed to like what I made.  But - this year, I officially decided I do NOT like escarole.  Maybe escarole is like cilantro - you either love it or hate it.  I hate cilantro and I think I am feeling the same way about escarole. The recipe I made was very simple and should be tasty, for someone who likes these greens.  That someone just isn't me.  Thank goodness I paired the escarole with something I do love - scallops!  YUM.  So far, dinner has been some perfectly grilled scallops... I'll share my simple escarole recipe for those who are in the love camp...

Sauteed Escarole with Parmesan & Almonds
1 head escarole
1/4 cup toasted almonds
bit of slivered parmesan cheese
EVOO or PAM
red pepper flakes (optional)

--> Spray large frying pan with PAM or drizzle with olive oil.  Heat the pan over medium heat and add the red pepper flakes.  Once the pan is heated up, add the escarole.  Saute for 3-4 minutes, turning the leaves sort of frequently.  After 4 minutes, throw the already toasted-almonds in the pan and move them around among the leaves for ~30 seconds before removing all from heat.  Dress the greens with the parmesan cheese and serve hot.

Veggie lasagna

A few years ago I posted a twist on lasagna - here is my classic veggie lasagna recipe... it uses swiss chard instead of (or along with) spinach.  It is sooo good and it also freezes really well - enjoy!

Veggie Lasagna

box of no-boil lasagna noodles
1 egg
1 bunch bright lights swiss chard &/or spinach if you have
1 container lowfat ricotta cheese (15 oz)
marinara sauce - home-made or your fave brand will do
Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
shredded mozzarella cheese

--> Boil up a pot of water.  When the water boils, add some salt and then the chard &/or spinach.  Boil the greens in the water for ~5 min and then remove and press out most of the water.  Chop the greens as finely as you can.

--> Coat the bottom of a pyrex pan with Pam.  Lay down a layer of the uncooked lasagna noodles.

--> In a bowl, mix together the chard, ricotta cheese, egg, parmigiano cheese, salt & pepper.

--> Take 1/3 the mixture and spoon on top of the noodles.  Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and then cover with sauce.  Repeat with noodles, cheese mixture, mozzarella cheese and sauce - I like to have 3 layers and on the top layer I actually do the ricotta mixture then sauce and then mozzarella cheese.

--> Cover the whole thing tightly with aluminum foil so it is tightly sealed.  Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes at 375 F.  Let sit out of oven for 15 minutes before removing the foil.  Enjoy!

CSA Week 2 - an abundance of greens

Week 2 of the 2012 CSA season brought more greens! We had our basic salad varietals - red leaf & green leaf lettuce and arugula - plus oriental greens - Mizuna and Chinese Cabbage - plus big leafy greens - Bright Lights Swiss Chard and Summer Spinach and then more mustard greens. So many greens and so little time meant big cooking nights. I made a fantastic veggie lasagna that used both the Swiss Chard & the Spinach and then an asian-flavored stir fry that used the bok choy from week 1 and the chinese cabbage from this week. That leaves me with just the arugula, mustard greens and mizuna which I'll use tomorrow.

In the meantime, here is the Asian stir fry recipe: I found a recipe on another blogger's site and tweaked it a bit to my liking (plus I didn't have soba noodles)...

Asian Greens Stir Fry
1 head Chinese cabbage
few stalks of Bok Choy
1/2 cup mushrooms
2 shredded carrots
2 garlic scapes - sliced into small pieces
salt & pepper
1 tsp ginger powder
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp peanut sauce (found in asian section of supermarket)
1 tsp sesame seeds

--> Heat up your wok or large frying pan. Add some olive oil then add garlic scapes and greens. Add a pinch of salt & pepper and toss the greens around for about 3-5 minutes until cooked through. Add the mushrooms and after ~1-2 minutes, sprinkle with the garlic powder.

--> Separately mix together the rice vinegar, soy sauce, peanut sauce and sesame seeds.

--> Remove the vegetables from the heat, add carrots and then add the sauce. You can serve with soba noodles like the original blogger suggested or over quinoa or rice - whatever it is to your liking!

A New CSA Season Begins!

The 2012 CSA Season started today. As usual, the beginning of the season in the northeast brings an abundance of greens and a CSA staple - garlic scapes. If you are a new CSA member, you probably don't know what to do with most of what you received. And you might be incredibly overwhelmed/disgusted by how dirty and bug-filled the greens are when they arrive. The easiest way to wash them is to let them sit in a bowl of water for a while and then depending on how dirty they were, rinse again. You are best off getting a salad spinner because the dryer the lettuce is when it is stored, the longer it lasts. Enough on preparations... now what to do with all the greens. Over the years I've learned that there are certain greens that are too bitter for me to eat raw and others that make the most delicious salads. Today, my share basket included Garlic Scapes, Cherriette Radishes, Red Leaf lettuce, Green Leaf Lettuce, Chinese Cabbage, Bok Choy, Mizuna, Suehlihung Mustard greens & Rhubarb. So - I prepared some lunch salads for the rest of the week with the red leaf lettuce, chinese cabbage and radishes, which I complemented with some store-bought carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, almonds and dried cranberries. While the mizuna is a green that can be added to leafy lettuces for a salad, I decided to mix it together with the mustard greens and sauté with onions, garlic and some grape tomatoes. To cut the bitterness of the greens, once they were almost all done sauté-ing, I added about 1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar (you could prob also use red wine vinegar if you have that on hand). What a delicious side to accompany any meal!