Kitchen Tools I Couldn't Do Without

Since joining Fair Shares and eating locally grown/produced food, I have had to change some of my cooking habits. I have always loved to cook, but I also love convenience. For example, I usually bought bags of salad, pre-chopped garlic in jars, and have even been known to buy a pre-chopped onion for a recipe. Those days are gone. When we get our weekly share fromFair Shares there is a little more work prepping the food, but I find with the right tools it doesn't take much longer, and I know it is worth it. The funny thing is I already owned most of these kitchen tools, but hadn't used them in awhile. It's nice to get use out of those things taking up space in my cabinets.

Here are my most used go-tos:

Hand Held Cheese Grater

I used to buy bags of pre-shredded cheese for pizza, tacos, potatoes, everything. Now I am getting blocks of cheese from Heatland Creamery and Ropp Jersey Cheese so I need an easy way to shred it.

I love using this gadget. I cut a hunk of cheese drop it into the well, squeeze the handle with my left hand and turn the grater wheel with my right. I can shred the cheese directly onto pizzas, salads, or into a measuring cup for a specific amount for a recipe. It is also easy to clean. It comes apart and goes in the dishwasher.

Pampered Chef Garlic Press

This is wonderful. You can drop in a clove of garlic, with the peel on, and it will crush the garlic through, leaving the peel in the press. We have been getting wonderful locally grown garlic from Roundabout Farms.

This press is also dishwasher safe.

OXO Salad Spinner

This is a kitchen tool I

had to buy. I had a salad spinner years ago, but since the introduction of bagged salads I wasn't using it and got rid of it, which was probably good. It was cheaply made and was falling apart. I love my new OXO salad spinner. The bowl is a solid plastic and the spinning bowl can be stopped mid spin to allow the lettuce and greens to rearrange in the basket before re-spinning. It definitely gets out more of the water. I use it for all the various lettuces we get, as well as the greens and bok choi. I've found I can put a couple of handfuls of greens in the bowl, fill with water, agitate the water with my hands to get off the dirt, then pour the greens into the basket to spin. I then lay the cleaned greens out on a dishtowel and start the next handful. After everything is washed and thoroughly dry I put the greens in my green bags, which is my last and probably favorite Kitchen tool I couldn't do without.

Green Bags

I use these bags religiously and have had great luck. Lettuce, celery, greens, even cut cucumbers last longer. The trick is making sure the produce is dry before putting the items in the bag. I have not used them for tomatoes, because tomatoes need to be played on a counter without bags. I have used them for apples, pears, and various greens when keeping them in the refrigerator.

Thai Sweet Potato Salad

The last Fair Shares newsletter suggested looking at a blog from Overlook Farms for some new apple recipes. I did a little searching on the blog and found some other recipes that caught my interest. The one for Sweet Potato salad (scroll down the page) was perfect for my family. My daughters won't touch sweet potatoes, but love Pad Thai so I thought I'd give it a try. (we will be trying the Pho Bo soup, too. Vietnamese Soup is big in this house.) My youngest daughter, who won't try anything new, was asking for seconds. She said it tasted like Pad Thai.

I made a few adjustments to the salad dressing. The biggest changes were that I cut back on the mayonnaise because I knew my husband would like a less creamy dressing. I also used olive oil rather than sesame oil because I didn't have any on hand. To make up for it I added some toasted sesame seeds.

This is how I made the dressing:

Sweet Potato Salad

Cut three sweet potatoes into bit size pieces and boil until tender.

Combine these ingredients in a blender until smooth. Pour the dressing over the potatoes.

1/2 c soy sauce

1/3 c mayonnaise

1 1/2 T ginger

1 1/2 T olive oil

6 cloves minced garlic

3 T creamy peanut butter (I used Sappington market's honey roasted)

1 T Chinese chili sauce

3 T brown sugar

I wanted to toss in some chopped green onions and crushed unsalted, roasted peanuts, but I didn't have either one. I think they would have added, but it was great as it.

As I said yesterday I caught my family dipping their tunrips in the sauce. I also saw some being put on the trout we served with it.

I hope you give it a try. Sweet potatoes are a great food and this is a refreshing way to eat them.

Italian Pak Choi

We recieved some greens in our share last week from Fair Shares, which I think they were pak choi. I did some searching to look for ways to cook it, keeping in mind I would be serving it with a garlic trout, found a couple of Italian bok choy recipes and used them as a guide.

Since joining Fair Shares I've found I enjoy some greens, but this has got to be my favorite so far. In the last minutes you throw in some fresh basil and thyme which gives it a super fresh feel.

I served it with a garlic trout, as well as the turnips and sweet potato salad I wrote about earlier this week. Here is a picture of the whole meal, including the last tomatoes from my garden and some bread.

Italian Pak Choi

One bunch pak choi -- remove leaves from stems and clean. Chop the stems into 1/4" pieces. Slice the leaves into 1/2' strips.

Sauté 2 cloves of garlic and half an onion in olive oil. When it the onions have started to caramelize add the chopped stems, sauté until soft. Add the leaves and sauté until just wilted. Throw in the about 10 fresh basil leaves and approximately 4 tablespoons of fresh thyme (removed from the stems). Remove from heat. Sprinkle on some ground black pepper and a little sea salt to taste.

This is one green I went back to have seconds on. (My daughter's didn't care for it, though.)

Turnip Greens

Tonight we had roasted turnips and turnip greens. I got the "recipe" from the Fair Shares newsletter from last week. It was really easy to make and a fun way to eat turnips. I left the leaves and stems on the turnips, washed and dried them thoroughly. Spread them on a baking sheet. Drizzled on olive oil and sprinkled on sea salt. Bake at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

The newsletter suggested serving with a fruit relish but I opted to serve as it. I found my family was dipping the turnips in the sauce from a Thai sweet potato salad that I also made tonight. I'll post about it tomorrow.

I liked the toasted turnip greens. And the turnips were fine. My older daughter thought they tasted like carrots. I didn't think they had much flavor, which was fine with me.

Pickles!!!

I opened the first jar of my homemade pickles yesterday and was very pleased. I had been waiting since August 18th, when I canned them.

They ended up a tart version of bread and butter pickles. The slices had some crunch and the taste was crisp. I wish I'd had more cucumbers and made more. I know I'll be making these next year.

Scott said they'd be great with braunschweiger. I used them today in a chicken salad using left over chicken from Sunday. There is something warm and comforting about homemade pickles. Mmmmmm.

Why I Haven't Been Updating the Blog

I have to admit I haven't been posting too much because eating local has become habit. Even when I don't have time to cook I have enough food available to eat using local ingredients. Some of my staples have become locally made cheese, pasta and pesto, with whatever produce has arrived for the week. Here is a typical fast night dinner for us. The macaroni and cheese is made with a combination of cheeses from Ropp Farms and Heartland Dairy. The ravioli has pesto on it. The greens are collard greens from Yellow Dog.

The small peppers were a new surprise from Yellow Dog, called pimientos de padron. They are tiny bite size peppers. I put a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan and got it hot. Threw in the small peppers and tossed them around until they started to blister. I took them off the heat and added some sea salt. They were really fun --- just bite off the pepper and throw the stem away. Most were mild, with an occasional hot one. Someone described it as playing russian roulette with peppers, you never know which one will get you. I have to agree and think that is part of the fun. I'd love to have more and make a meal of them with sliced sausages and cheeses.

Other foods we've had recently include breakfast sausage, eggs, yellow watermellon and a lot of squashes. I've been grilling the squash and putting a little honey on it. The combination of smoky and sweet plays off the squash really well.

We received a meal of black beans and rice from del Carmen. My older daughter has been eating it as a snack and loves it. I guess I need to get more.

Sitting on my counter ready to go is a pattypan squash, an acorn squash and fingerling potatoes. We also have some sunchokes and mushrooms waiting to be eaten.

I gave my mother the grapes and radishes since we never seem to eat them.

Overall we have been eating much healthier and with more variety being a member of Fair Shares and I am looking forward to what the next season will bring.

Tomatillos

I love tomatillo salsa. I love roasted salsas. I love grilling.

I was in grilling heaven last week when we got tomatillos (from St. Isidore family farm) in our share from Fair Shares, and there was a roasted tomatillo salsa recipe in the Fair Shares newsletter. It was really easy and it was a big hit with the whole family. Even my mother who is afraid of spicy foods loved it.

I roasted the tomatillos, garlic, an onion, and jalapenos in a foil pan on the weber grill. Put it all in the food processor and chopped to the consistency I like. (I had about 20 tomatillos, three jalapenos, one onion and 2 cloves of garlic) Very easy and very tatsty.

Everything in this mealwas local. The chicken was from Greenwood Farms. According to the Greenwood Farms website, "Greenwood Farms is the home of Naturally Raised Beef, Pork, Lamb, and Chicken, Free-Range Eggs, and "Jersey Girl" Grade A Raw Milk—all of which are raised without the use of antibiotics, steroids, or added hormones. We believe that working in harmony with nature is the best way to produce foods that are both healthy and delicious. so everything we sell is raised in a way that puts the health of our customers, the animals’ well-being, and the needs of the earth first." With that said, you should know the chicken was smaller than most roasters you see in the big chain grocery stores. It was probably the size of a small fryer, but the meat was so good it easily fed all five of us once we put it in the wrap with the tomatillo salsa, cheese and some tomatoes.

I roasted the chicken on the grill, along with some potatoes and carrots. When the chicken was done I started the tomatillos and corn, from Theis, which I had wrapped in foil with some butter and seasoning. We also had a lovely yellow watermelon from family owned Lee Farms in Truxton and tomatoes from Ivans Heiloom,

The next morning we had it on scrambled eggs with sausage, tomatoes and cheese in a breakfast wrap. (again all local)

You can really see the tomatillo salsa here because in the the base layer, but it is soooo good!