Fennel Radish Potato Salad 

This is a side great for summer thanks to its minimal cooking time. This dish has more protein and much less fat then typical potato salad thanks to using greek yogurt as a base for the dressing. So I would say this is pretty much guilt free! I found it went great over a bed of baby arugula. The sweetness of the salad went well with the tartness of the greens. 

Want to use every part of the fennel plant? Save the long, tough green stems for using to make home made vegetable broth! The flavor is sweet and in broth fairly subtle.

This is a dish where it tastes best after sitting in the fridge for an hour

Total time: 20 minutes 

This recipe is for a half batch and serves 4

(I liked it so much I made a second batch with the remaining ingredients I had) 

Ingredients: 

Half a fennel bulb 

2 medium red russt potatoes   

1/2 bunch radishes

For the dressing: 

1/2 cup greek yogurt (I used fat free, but you could also use 2%)

1 heaping Tablespoon miracle whip or mayo 

1 Tablespoon honey 

Pepper 

Salt 

About 2 Tablespoons chopped greens (the parts that looks like dill)

1 Tablespoon lemon juice 

Method: 

1—Bring enough lightly salted water to cover potatoes to a boil in a small pot. Chop potatoes into 1 inch cubes and add cubes to the water. Cook until a fork can be inserted easily, after about 7 minutes. 

2—While potatoes are cooking, chop fennel cross wise into pieces that resemble the ones in the picture. They should look like little “U”s and be about 1/8 of an inch in thickness. A mandoline slicer can help with this. Either mandolin or slice the radishes as thin as possible. 

3—Add cooked potato, radish and fennel to a large bowl. Add dressing ingredients and toss until all the ingredients are well mixed. 

Serve chilled

Enjoy!

Simple Summer Squash Frittata 

It is hard to go wrong with eggs and vegetables. There are endless 

combinations! Eggs help bring out the sweetness of vegetables, add protein, flavor and heft. I really like this recipe because it is relatively easy to make, is incredibly healthy, and just tastes so good! It can be eaten at breakfast, dinner or a snack. Any time of day really! This made recipe about 4 servings, but I only got one because my family ate it before I could have some for lunch! Next time I will make more :). I used a 5x7 heat proof glass dish and it was perfect for this recipe, but any glass baking dish that is not too big should do.

The key to frittatas is to cook the summer squash and zucchini before adding the egg. It makes sure the dish will have a great texture and not turn out soggy.

Total Time: 45 minutes 

Prep time: 15

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 small zucchini 
• 1/2 large summer squash
• 1 whole scallion, including greens, chopped 
• 2-4oz fully cooked ham, chopped into tiny pieces 
• 3 eggs
• Splash of milk
• A few pinches oregano 
• Salt
• Pepper

Fresh Tomato slices for serving.

Method:

1—Set oven to 415 degrees F. With a large knife or with a mandolin, cut zucchini and summer squash into either 1/8th or 1/4th of an inch slices. 

2—In a non stick skillet (or any other pan with just a smidge of oil), heat up about 1/2 cup of water until boiling. Add squash, a few flakes of salt, and cook, stirring frequently, until the slices are tender and starting to get that translucent touch that they get when cooked. Drain off any excess water 

3—While the squashes are cooking, prep the remaining ingredients. Beet the eggs with a fork until well mixed, then add the splash of milk, oregano, salt, and pepper. Chop ham into very small pieces, so there will be flavor in every bite without being overpowering. Chop scallions into 1/4 inch pieces.

4—Lightly grease a Take half the squash mixture and cover the bottom of the 5x7 glass dish. Take half of the squash mixture and half the ham and scallions and cover the bottom of the dish. Layer the rest of the squash and ham on top. Poor egg mixture over vegetables and top with a hearty amount of grated parmesan cheese. I had a scallion leaf left over, so I placed it on top as decoration

5—Bake in oven for 15 minutes, then turn off heat and leave in oven for an additional 15 minutes. 

Serve warm. To make a bigger meal, add slices of fresh tomato, avocado, and toast or boiled grain. 

Enjoy!

Day 1

Feeling some anxiety over the refrigerator situation. There are so many bags of leaves, it is difficult to find specific things that I need. (that second to the top shelf is "my shelf", the only space I am supposedly allowed) Also feeling concerned that I overbought at the market (later I will see that the amount I got was almost perfect). It would have been good to have logged how much veggies I ate in a week before doing this project. I will do that next time. Mother is very upset about the large fennel head. Good thing I have a recipe to take care of that! 

Things made: 

Simple Squash Frittata

Black Bean Arugula Bowl (Basically brown rice, salsa, fennel greens, chicken, avocado all over a bed of baby arugula. It did not taste great so there will be no recipe on it)

Fennel Radish Potato Salad 

Mini Blueberry Tarts with Oat flour Crust. 

Breakfast: Simple Strata with fresh tomato, avocado, and barley. 

Lunch: Black Bean Arugula Bowl 

Dinner: at a friend’s house, Mini Blueberry Tarts for dessert.   

Lessons learned: It was smart of use that fennel up quickly. This type of project needs a lot of plaining! I imagine if I had a better plain going into this, I would have been able to organize the refrigerator so that what I needed was always up front when I was ready to use them, e.g the the napa cabbage be in the far back because I will be using that on Monday/Tuesday. 

Tips: Going to a friend’s house for dinner and still need to use what you bought from the market? Bring a dish or dessert! 

Market Day 

June 30th 2016

The Goal: Buy enough produce to last me until the next market.

The Haul:

• 1 bunch beets 
• 2 carrot bunches 
• 1 fennel bulb including stems 
• 3 loose cups garlic scrapes 
• 1 medium bag baby arugula 
• 1 medium bag baby chard 
• 4 medium red potatoes 
• 1 small and one large zucchini 
• 1 large summer squash 
• 1 large green papper 
• 1 small napa cabbage 
• 1 bunch kale 
• 1 celery head 
• 2 large tomatoes 
• 1 quart blueberries
• 2 cucumbers 

What I Had in Mind While Buying: I had about 3 recipes already planned (pickled asparagus, beet chickpea bowl, and fennel radish potato salad) so I bought things for them, but other then that I just bought things that sparked my interest. Personally I find it fun to create recipes from random ingredients, however next time I would have a few more recipes plained before I went to the market. It would have made the shopping experience faster and less stressful. 

Lessons Learned: Before attempting to bring that haul home, it is very important to communicate how much food you will be bringing with anyone you are sharing living space with. I thought I had explained my goals to my mother well enough, but I misses some things and she made a portion of soup to last for several days the day of the market, throwing a challenge into my plain to eat only market food and to waste little to no food. 

Tips: Once you get home, make a plain of how to use the produce and when, prioritizing using the vegetables that take up the most space first. This helped give me some peace of mind. 

I felt rather unwell that evening, so the official challenge of using the produce would start the next day.

Here goes! 

The Eat Local Challenge 

The Challenge: to buy a week's worth of produce from the Medford Farmers Market, and to make those local vegetables the star of every meal for that week with as little waste as possible.

The Goals: to learn how to make the most of the farmers market! This project is all about experimenting with new recipes, learning how to use every part of the vegetable as well as learning from mistakes. The hope here is to help make it easier for other’s take advantage and use their local farmers markets to their full potential.

The Format: There will be a report on how each day went, recipes made, lessons learned along with hopefully helpful tips, followed by the recipes in posts to follow.

Most of the recipes I will be making will be made to have 2-4 servings, as I am mostly cooking for 1. Please remember that it is very easy to double these recipe to fit your needs! 

Let the Challenge Begin!

An Interview With Good Roots Farm 

Located in Lincoln, Massachusetts, right near the Lexington border, Good roots farm grows and sells many different kinds of produce from baby greens to turnips to summer squash. And it’s all certified Organic! 

Learn more at their website at: http://www.goodrootsfarm.net/

What strikes me most every time I walk by their stand is just how much green there is. Turnip leaves, sprawling heads of fennel, the “salad green buffet”…it is everywhere. 

I (Kate Mitchell) talked to the farm owner Brian and his wife Lia on June 30th 

K: How did you get started? What motivated you to start your own farm?

Brian: [pauses to word perfectly] "well, I wanted to grow good food that would not impact the environment. I learned about farming from working with other farms, reading a lot, and doing it on my own.”

K:  How long has the farm been running? 

Brain: “3 years now.”

Lia: “We actually started 4 years ago, but the first year was spent prepping the land"

K: How many people working?

Brain: "we have 3 part time workers right now." 

Lia: "I help out with the markets. I am a full time nurse at mass general. This market, the Medford one, was our first market we sold at back in 2014"

K: What are some of your favorite parts about working on your own farm?

Lia: "I am not much of a gardener, so I really enjoy the opportunity to work on this [farm] project and work with my husband. I enjoy being part of his work. I also love taking and engaging with the customers."

Brian: "I just love it. I love to negotiate, I love the challenge of making good food"

K: What are some of your goals for the future? 

Brain: "I want to keep learning, to find more efficient was of doing [farming] it. It's two parts: one, is to become a better farmer, and two, is to be able to sell it [produce]!"

Amazing Beet Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting 

This cake phenomenal. Probably the best tasting home made cake I have made to date. 

I made this over the weekend to celebrate my 19th birthday, and all of the 8 people who tried the dessert gave similar rave reviews. You cannot taste the beets at all! The vegetables add moistness and make the cake tender without making it overly decadent.

People who say they hated beets loved this cake. Everyone was surprised when they heard what the “secret ingredient” was. I found the original recipe (http://www.food.com/recipe/dont-knock-it-until-you-try-it-beet-cake-63346) online and altered it as I thought needed. I am defiantly going to be making this recipe again.    

The cake batter goes into the oven as a brilliant magenta, but the cake bakes to a nice golden brown. The chopped walnuts really enhance the texture and I would not leave them out (unless someone has an allergy of course. And you could always sub with sun flower seeds or almonds.)

Ingredients are listed in the order they are prepared 

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 and 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (you can use entire all purpose flour, or use a 1:2 ratio of all purpose to whole wheat if you wish) 
• 2 teaspoons backing powder
• 1 and 1/2 backing soda
• 1 and 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
• Sprinkle nutmeg
• 3 and 1/2 cup shredded beats (you can also just purée them in food processor)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts.
• 2 teaspoons vanilla   

Method:

1--Heat oven to 350 degrees F and grease and flour 13x9 baking pan. (It is important to dust the greeted pan with flour for easier cake removal. You can use one big pan like I did, or use a bundt pan, or two smaller pans, etc.)

2--In a large bowl, beat eggs, sugar and oil until light colored and fluffy. I highly recommend using an electric mixer, but you could also use a whisk. You will just need a lot of elbow grease.

3--In another bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon, and stir to combine.

4--Add dry ingredients to egg mixture and mix well.

5--Add vanilla, beets and walnuts, stir with a large spatula or spoon until well combined 

If you are ok with it, taste the batter. I found this to be really helpful when getting the cinnamon amount right. 

6--Pour into pan, bake for 45 minutes to an hour, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, without any brown coloring. Let cool then remove from pan and frost. 

Almond Cream Cheese Frosting

I took half a cream cheese frosting recipe like this one: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/8379/basic-cream-cheese-frosting/ and added about 1/4 cup more milk and 1/4 more powered sugar plus 1/2 teaspoon almond extract and 1/2 more vanilla. The goal was to have the cream cheese flavor but also to have a relatively runny/icing consistency. The cake is very moist and goes best with a thin frosting.

Taste and adjust. 

How I did the Jackson Pollock effect:

Because the thin frosting shows all the cake’s blemishes and imperfections, I drizzled some colorful, runny frosting to make the cake look prettier. 

Method: save about 1/3 cup of the frosting and add about 2-4 Tablespoons of milk, one at a time, until the frosting is very runny but not watery. 

Add blue food coloring (or another primary color) to the frosting and mix. The take a spoon or spatula and drizzle the frosting in large sweeps. 

Add a 2-3 drops another color to the frosting bowl (I used red), mix, and dribble again.

Add more of the second color to the frosting bowl and do a few more drizzles.   

If you want a more control, make straight lines of colored sing and and swirl 

designs in with a toothpick

Serve. This cake was still just as good as leftover 3 days later 

Enjoy!