Cooley Family Farm

Tonight Kevin said that as he distributed rapini today he either saw looks of excitement or of fear. So for those who may be unsure what to do with rapini I wanted to share this fabulous way to cook it that we enjoyed this evening.

Pasta with Rapini

Ingredients:

1 bunch rapini, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 (8 ounce) box uncooked pasta
1/2 cup walnuts
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 large cloves garlic, sliced
salt and black pepper to taste
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

When chopping the rapini you can use the entire plant other than the tougher portions of the stems. The stems may be used, but it is very important to only use the most tender parts of the stems. Coarsely chop the leaves and flowers. Cut the tender part of the stems into 1 inch pieces.

Fill a large pot with lightly salted water and bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Once the water is boiling, stir in the rapini, and cook until just tender, about 5 minutes.

Remove with a slotted spoon, and set aside.

Return the water to a boil, and stir in the pasta. Cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the pasta has cooked through, but is still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes. Drain well in a colander set in the sink.

While the pasta is cooking, cook and stir the walnut halves in a skillet over medium heat until fragrant, about 5 minutes. Set the walnuts aside, add the olive oil, and reduce heat to low.

Stir in the garlic, and cook until golden brown, about 3 minutes.

Stir in the broccoli rabe, and cook 3 minutes to reheat. Season to taste with salt and black pepper, then stir in the drained pasta and walnuts. Toss with Parmesan cheese before serving.

Yum! I hope you enjoy it.

Tracy

I know I say this a lot, but yum, yum, yum! This really is one of my favorite ways to cook asparagus. Last season for asparagus I posted Asparagus with Vanilla Balsamic, Asparagus Soup, Pan Fried Asparagus, and Asparagus Pizza. (If you haven’t seen them, be sure to check them out in this blog in the older posts). I ran out of time to get this one posted last season, so I knew this would be THE asparagus recipe to share this season. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!!

Phyllo Wrapped Asparagus

Ingredients:
Asparagus spears
Frozen phyllo dough sheets, thawed
Melted Butter
Garlic Pepper
Parmesan Cheese (Or your choice… blends are great)

Preheat Oven to 375

After thawing the phyllo dough, cut it in half like this…

Lay one of the half sheets of phyllo out so you can lightly butter it. Cover the remaining phyllo with a damp towel to keep it from drying out (which I did not do in this picture… ooops).

Next sprinkle with garlic pepper and cheese. Parmesan cheese alone works well, but I really enjoy combining other cheeses like ramano, provolone, asiago, etc. It all works just choose whatever combinations you like. It doesn’t take a lot of cheese so just sprinkle lightly down the center of the dough.

Select 3 or 4 asparagus spears. I usually choose spears that are close to the same diameter and length, but that is mostly so it looks pretty.

Roll the asparagus up and place them on a baking sheet.

Next, brush the top of the phyllo dough with a little more butter or spray lightly with a cooking spray. Put in the oven and bake for about 15 – 18 minutes.

Easy!! Yummy!! Even kind of fancy!!!

Enjoy…
Tracy

Yes… that’s right…. brownies with spinach and butternut squash. Quite a while ago I saw some recipes for spinach brownies. The recipes I saw called for spinach and carrots. My supply of carrots is pretty low this time of year, but Kevin still has a lot of butternut squash in storage from last fall and he is picking some beautiful new spinach now. I think butternut squash is my favorite sqaush… it seems there is nothing it can’t do! Well… my experiment worked out because the brownies turned out great!!!

I sprinkled a little powdered sugar on top to make them look “fancy”. But they really didn’t need it.

Here is my version of the Spinach Brownie recipe:

Brownies (with Spinach and Butternut Squash!)

Nonstick cooking spray
3 oz semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup butternut squash puree (instructions below)
1/2 cup spinach puree (instructions below)
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 Tbsp. trans-fat-free soft tub margarine spread
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
3/4 cup Self Raising flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat the oven to 350°. Coat an 8″ x 8″ baking pan with cooking spray. Melt the chocolate in in microwave starting with about 30 seconds… stir, then 15 seconds… until the chocolate is melted.

In a large bowl, combine the melted chocolate, spinach, butternut squash, sugar, cocoa powder, margarine and vanilla and whisk until smooth and creamy, 1 to 2 minutes.

Whisk in eggs. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely in the pan before cutting into 12 bars.

If you eat them warm you taste more of the vegetables. If you let them cool or refrigerate them they just taste like chocolate brownies.

Butternut Squash Puree
I cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Place the squash halves skin side up in a baking dish. Bake at 400 for about an hour or until very tender. Scoop the squash out of the skins and it is ready to use.

Spinach Puree
Thoroughly wash the spinach. I snap off the larger stems. I put a small amount of water in a skillet on the stove over medium heat. In small batches I add spinach to the skillet and cook them for about a minute and a half. Place the wilted spinach in a blender or food processor and puree.

Enjoy!!
Tracy

This is a very popular breakfast treat in our house. The kids start grabbing them as soon as they are coming out of the skillet!! It may not sound like it from the title, but they really are very, very yummy!!! I highly recommend giving this one a try.

Butternut Squash Pancakes

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
3 Tablespoons cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup fat-free milk
1 cup mashed cooked butternut squash
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 Tablespoons canola oil
1/2 t. vanilla extract
2 large eggs

I toss all of the ingredients in my blender or mixer and blend until creamy. Then cook them in the skillet like any other pancake. I use a stainless steel skillet. I spray organic canola spray before I cook the first pancake.

The original recipe was given to me by my sister and calls for sweet potatoes and includes chopped pecans. So delicious!!!

-Tracy

I’ve been experimenting a bit lately with some raw food recipes and found this one. It sounded like a fun way to dress up the carrots for a special occasion. And the best part is that it was simple and fast to make!!

Ingredients:

Carrots
Blueberries
Sunflower Seeds
lemon juice

Shred the carrots or cut them into little matchsticks. I used a new kitchen gadget to shred mine and it left them kind of curly looking. For the blueberries I pulled some out of the freezer from our trip to Michigan last summer. I rinsed them off under some warm water for about a minute, drained them, and then added them to the shredded carrots. Drizzle a little lemon juice over the carrots and blueberries and let set at room temperature for a while for the blueberries to finish thawing. Finally just before serving add some sunflower seeds.

The original recipe calls for raw sunflower seeds, but I used the dry roasted salted kind and it was really good. Also… I only added the sunflower seeds to each portion as it was being served. If you happen to have left overs it’s better so you don’t have soggy sunflower seeds.

We really liked this recipe for a fresh, healthy, simple change of pace for the carrots.

Enjoy!!!
Tracy

We are so thankful for such great weather and wonderful turnout to our Harvest Basket Open House. We really enjoyed getting to visit with everyone and watch the kids having fun! For our refreshments this year we decided on a “dip” theme. I’m including all of the dip recipes in this blog.

When we took the food tent down it was a happy feeling to see the trampled grass in that area. It was a sure sign that the food was enjoyed.

Raspberry Honey Mustard Dip

Ingredients:
1 half pint container frozen raspberries
1 Tablespoon powdered sugar
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons prepared mustard
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice

First, I made the raspberry sauce. Put the frozen raspberries and powdered sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir occasionally while the raspberries cook. After about 15 minutes you are ready to put the sauce through a strainer to remove the seeds. I used a fine strainer that fits over a mixing bowl. Using the back of a wooden spoon I rub the raspberries back and forth over the strainer until no more sauce comes through. This is a fabulous recipe on its own. I use this raspberry sauce to drizzle over a variety of desserts, to use in my chocolate icing to make a raspberry chocolate icing, etc. There are a lot of possibilities!!

Combine the rest of the ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix until creamy. Add about 2 tablespoons of the raspberry sauce or as much as you like! Now it’s ready for dipping pretzels in.

Beet Dip with Tahini

Ingredients:
1 garlic clove, coarsely chopped
4 T. extra virgin olive oil
2 T. Tahini
3-4 chpped fresh mint (depending on how minty you like your dip)
2 tsp. red wine vinegar
Juice of 1 medium lemon
sea salt and pepper to taste

I roasted the beets in a 350 degree oven for about an hour. I wrapped each beet individually in foil and baked until they were tender. You can poke the fork through the foil to test without opening. When the beets are tender remove them from the oven and let cool until you can safely handle them. Remove the skins… the skins should slide right off.

I cut the beets into large chunks and put them in my blender with all of the ingredients and blended until smooth. If you want texture you can experiment with chopping the beets, or blending everything except the mint, vinegar, salt, and pepper. These last ingredients can be added after the dip has been pureed by hand blending them in.

The lemon and mint give this dip a light and refreshing taste. Serve with pita bread, toasted baguettes, or crackers.

Pumpkin Dip

Ingredients:
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
2 cups powdered sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 T. ground cinnamon
1 T. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. frozen orange juice

I tossed everything in my blender and processed until creamy.

I used one of Kevin’s pie pumpkins which have a wonderful dense flesh and are not watery when cooked. This dip is great served with graham crackers.

How to Cook a Pumpkin

1. Slice pumpkin in half (or quarters if really large)
2. Scoop all of the seeds out of the center. (Try saving them and making spiced pumpkin seeds)
3. Place the half (or quarter) of pumpkin with skin side up into the dish.
4. Cook in a preheated 350 degree oven for 90 minutes.
5. Remove from oven and let cool until it can be touched.
6. Turn the pumpkin halves flesh side up.
7. Scoop the flesh into a blender or food processor.
8. Puree the pumpkin.
9. Any excess pumpkin can be frozen for later use.

Raspberry Chipotle Dip

2 pints frozen raspberries, thawed
1/2 medium onion, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 chipotle pepper from can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped
1/4 cup cider vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt

1. In a saucepan, heat the oil and sauté the onion and garlic until soft, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the chipotle pepper and stir constantly for about a minute.
3. Add the raspberries and continue to stir and cook for about 3 minutes.
4. Add the vinegar to deglace the pan, and finally, add the sugar and salt. Bring everything to a boil.
5. Reduce the heat to simmer and cook until you get the desired consistency.
6. Pulse in food processor to get an even thick paste. Or you can use a blender (which is what I did).

This dip is served over cream cheese with crackers like wheat thins. This is one of my favorite dips!!

Green Tomato Relish

This recipe yields a very large batch!

Ingredients:
8-10 medium green tomatoes, cut into wedges
2-3 medium onions, cut into chunks
12 ounces orange marmalade
4 cups brown sugar
1 cup cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Place tomatoes and onions into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until chopped into small pieces, but not pureed. Place vegetables in a large saucepan and add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer, then cook uncovered until golden brown and quite thick, 1-2 hours. Freeze in plastic bags or containers.

I made this last fall and froze batches of this in plastic containers. The day before the open house I put one batch in the refrigerator to slowly thaw. It was ready to be served on open house day. No additional thawing was needed.

This relish is served over cream cheese with crackers like wheat thins.

Roasted Butternut Squash Dip

Sorry I didn’t get a better picture of this! But as you can see this is a dip that is served warm. I put some extra in the freezer to have for Thanksgiving! YUM!

Ingredients:
1 (2-pound) butternut squash
1 small sweet onion, quartered
4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
2 tablespoons whole sour cream
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350°.

Cut squash in half lengthwise; discard seeds and membrane. Brush cut sides of squash halves, cut sides of onion quarters, and garlic cloves with oil. Arrange squash halves, cut sides down, in a glass baking dish; arrange onion quarters and garlic cloves in dish. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until tender. Cool slightly. Scrape cooked squash out of the skin. Squeeze garlic cloves to extract pulp.

Place squash, onion, and garlic pulp in a food processor or blender; process until smooth. Add sour cream and remaining ingredients; process to combine. Serve warm on toasted baguettes.

Eggplant Dip

This is my other favorite dip!! This one was posted previously when we had an abundance of eggplant. See the recipe here.

I hope you enjoy all the dips!

-Tracy

I decided that I wanted to try a Mexican Pizza with the tomatillos Kevin brought in for me.

I made my own pizza dough using the recipe I posted with the Asparagus Pizza. But you can use any pizza crust that you like.

1 1/2 tbsp. Chipotle Puree
1 large red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper
1/4 pound tomatillos, husked, and chopped into small pieces
2 cups of cooked corn kernels
3/4 cup cooked black beans, drained
Fine cornmeal for dusting
1 1/2 cups crumbled feta cheese

Season the tomatillos with salt and pepper and set aside. Heat a medium saute pan over medium heat. Drizzle in just enough olive oil to coat the bottom and add the onions. Cook until tender and starting to brown, about 10 minutes. Remove to a plate and set aside.

I flattened my pizza dough onto some parchment paper on an air bake sheet.

I didn’t have any chipotle puree on hand but I did have some left over chipotle peppers in adobo sauce in my fridge. I decided I could make my own paste out of those. I spread a thin layer of the paste on my pizza dough.

Next put a thin layer of cheese on. Kevin and I have a different taste for cheese. So on my half I put feta, on his half a put a combination of cheddar and montery jack. Next add the corn, onions, tomatillos, black beans, and the remaining cheese.

Bake at 425 for about 15 minutes or until finished.

Overall Kevin and I really liked this pizza, but there are some things I will do differently next time. First… Kevin and I don’t eat a lot of spicy food and we found the chipotle paste to be to hot for us. I will do something more mild for my sauce. Next I really love the black beans on the pizza so I will add more black beans. And the slightly caramelized red onions were very tasty. I don’t think I put on as many as the recipe called for so I will be sure to add more red onion next time. And finally… I will be sure to have some avocado and cilantro on hand to top the pizza with when it comes out of the oven.

-Tracy

Right now we have a good supply of eggplant in the field. I’m not sure when the season for eggplant will end, but this is a great time to get some extra for some wonderful baba ghanoush.

Ingredients:
2 medium eggplants
1/4 cup tahini (sesame seed paste)
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 garlic cloves peeled and smashed
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil

You can use any of the varieties of eggplant that we have. I picked the above two purples.

Prick the eggplant skin with a fork and roast in a preheated oven at 400ºF for about one hour or until the eggplant is tender. Let the eggplants cool briefly. Cut the eggplant in half and scrape out the pulp.

Puree the pulp in a blender or food processor with the other ingredients until smooth. Taste and season with additional salt and lemon juice, if necessary. Chill a few hours before serving.

We ate this with pita bread as an appetizer. You can also roast a variety of vegetables and serve atop a plate of the dip, drizzle with olive oil, add a couple of black olives if you like and eat it as a main dish with pita bread. Yummy!!

Give it a try!!
Tracy

My sister was just here visiting from California. While she was here she found this recipe for us to make for dinner one evening. Since it called for a little of everything I thought it sounded like a great idea. I so love summer and all the fresh food choices we have!! I knew by the ingredient list that I would like the recipe, but it surpassed my expectations. I loved it and am craving it right now. My batch was pretty big so we had it for leftovers during the next couple of days. It reheated wonderfully.

Calabacitas with Potatoes

Ingredients
Sweet Corn
1 Tbs oil
New Potatoes
Onion
Yellow Squash
Zucchini
Tomatoes
Oregano
Salt & Pepper
Shredded Cheddar Cheese

You notice that I didn’t put quantities in the ingredient list. I will give some guidelines here, but the quantities don’t matter a lot. Making things fairly even will work out great. I had some medium sized squash and zucchini, so mine was fairly heavy on that end of things.

But as a guideline this recipe called for about 3 ears of corn, pre-cooked in the microwave, 2 med. potatoes, 1/2 cup chopped onion, 3 squash, and 2 tomatoes.

Start by dicing the potatoes. Heat the skillet with the olive oil (chicken broth can be used instead) and add the potatoes. I put my skillet on medium heat. Stir as needed. While the potatoes are starting to cook dice the onion. Cook the potatoes until they are just tender then add the onion.

Next, dice the squash and zucchini. When the onions are soft (but not brown) add the squash and zucchini to the skillet. Cover the skillet and cook stirring occasionally. Dice the tomatoes. When the squash and zucchini are slightly soft add the tomatoes, oregano, salt & pepper and cook for another minute or so.

Slice the corn off the cob trying to keep some in chunks. I wasn’t able to do this, but it is more for presentation since it still tastes the same! Stir the corn into the mixture.

This can be served as a side dish as is, with cheddar on top or in a flour tortilla with cheese. Kevin liked it best as a side dish. I loved it in a tortilla with cheddar on top.

Other ways to enjoy include using Monterey Jack Cheese, lime juice, sour cream, or cilantro to taste.

Hope you enjoy!
Tracy

About a year ago some of our good friends (Ben and Mika) invited us over for potstickers at their home. They made a fun time of it and we all hung out in the kitchen with various jobs in preparing things. In addition to the potstickers they also made vegetable tempura. Everything was delicious!

I’ve really been craving the vegetable tempura. In particular I haven’t been able to get the tempura green beans off my mind!

So I decided that I wanted to make vegetable tempura so I could have some of those delicious green beans as well as experiment with some of the other vegetables that are currently being harvested.

We don’t eat fried food very often, but this is one of those dishes that is really fun to do every once in a while. And if you can share with family and friends and just hang out in the kitchen that’s even better!

The Batter Mix
1 large egg, cold
5 ounces iced water
1 cup of flour

Mix the batter and leave it lumpy. The batter should be a little thin. You can adjust the thickness based on preference by adding flour or water. Place the batter in the fridge until ready to use.

You can use a variety of vegetables. I used green beans, potatoes, eggplant, sweet banana peppers, and sweet onions.

I kept a bowl of ice water for placing the vegetables in as I cut them up. I’ve read that cold vegetables and batter placed in hot oil will produce a crisper tempura.

I snapped one end of the green beans, cut the potatoes and eggplant into thin circles (leaving skins on) no larger than 1/4 inch. I cut the banana peppers in half and removed the seeds. and the onions I had were small so I quartered them.

I used my wok for cooking the tempura. I put just enough canola oil in the wok to keep the vegetables from touching the bottom of the pan while they were cooking. Heat the oil and start dipping the vegetables in the batter and placing in the hot oil.

For me it was a little challenging to find the right heat setting. I have an electric range and it worked out best right around medium high heat. I turned the vegetables over with tongs until both sides were a light golden. Be especially careful with the hot oil as it can splatter. When the veggies were ready to be removed I put them on a wire rack over a cookie sheet so they could drain any excess oil, I then moved them onto a clean dish towel. Right before serving I put the tempura on a platter.

Kevin’s favorite was the green beans and potatoes. I was very surprised to find that my favorite was the banana peppers since I’m not usually a big pepper eater.

For dipping the tempura in I had side dish of soy sauce with a little sesame oil. Kevin liked his lightly salted. And we had a nice bowl of Japanese rice.

For my first try I think it was a success! We still had some batter and veggies left so I made some more as left overs the next day. I think the second batch turned out even better. The second night my results looked a little less golden than in the picture above. Either way… we enjoyed it both nights! I hope you give it a try!

-Tracy