Italian Spices

For spring break, my lucky roommate decided to go to Rome to visit her boyfriend.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go to Europe over my spring break, but I did feel like I was there, because of the gift she brought back for me!

She got me Italian spices! Aka she is the best roommate ever!

This is one of my go-to, quick meals, a simple rice dish.  You can put different spins on this dish depending on how you are feeling by mixing up the spices.  I sometimes make it with curry and cumin or even basic salt and paper.

I loved using the Italian spices.  They were really flavorful, delicious, and even a little spicy!

Feel free to try my recipe or mix it up!

Ingredients:
1 cup Rice
2 big handfuls Greens (these can be spinach, kale, or anything else, I had this Asia green from my farm box that I used)
1 handful Mushrooms

Directions:
Cook the rice according to the directions.  

Add mushrooms and greens to a saucepan with some olive oil.  Add whatever spices after about 30 seconds, to allow the greens to cook slightly.  Cook until the greens have become a vibrant color.  Serve over rice.  

Duck for Dummies

This week, I decided to cook a duck!  I have been wanting to try to cook duck ever since I got back from study abroad.  Duck is all over Eastern Europe, and when I went to Prague, I accidentally ordered an entire duck for myself.. whoops!  Anyways, it was delicious, and with some help, I managed to finish the whole thing!

Anyways, this weekend, I have some free time, because there isn't a frisbee tournament.  I decided to venture to Eastern Market.  This actually reminded me a lot of study abroad.  Every city I visitied, I tried to go to a market.  I hadn't been back to any market since I've gotten back to the states, and this was a nice reminder.  As I was walking around, I saw a sign for duck, so I sprang for one.  My duck, at 5.4 pounds, is wonderful!

Little did I know what I was getting myself into.  Keeping in mind, I was the girl that sat in my Professor's office hours and balled my eyes out the day before our fetal pig dissection because I was too afraid to dissect.  This time around, I had a minor panic attack when I opened up the duck package.  I could actually see the things I had to look at in Biology.  Weird.  Anyways, I got over this eventually, to go on with the recipe.  

I found this awesome recipe to use, with an apple butter glaze.  I decided to roast some potatoes from my farm box to round out the meal.  The cool thing is, I used both sweet potatoes and blue potatoes.  I really like the color combination.  

And... on with the show!


Ingredients:
1 whole duck
Sea salt
Black pepper
2 Tb of fresh thyme
1 Jar of apple butter

Directions:
Take duck out of package.  Inside the cavity, there should be the innards.  This is like the heart, kidneys, liver, and other things.  (Do not panic).  Remove them, and either, 1. Throw them away or 2. Save them for other things.  I decided to actually make pate with the liver (recipe is here), and I am going to make duck stock next week to freeze.  However, if panic arises, just discard them.  No harm done. 

Rinse duck with cold water and pat dry.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and thyme.  I used fresh, but dried would also work.  I also put some thyme inside the duck.  I thought this would be a good idea, but I'm not sure if it actually did anything.  Then, I put it in the oven at 450 for 10ish minutes.
  

After that, I lowered the temperature to 350.  Every 15 minutes or so, I brushed apple butter on.  This helps the apple butter flavors set in.  

Anyways, it turned out well!  Duck is a success!

Sprout Jar

For those of you who came here for duck.  Stay tuned!  The duck did not defrost in time for me to post tonight, but it will be updated soon!

Anyways, in a pinch, the blog post for the week is SPROUTS! A while ago, I saw this awesome blog post from one of my favorite blogs, The Free People Blog.  Anyways, it detailed how to grow bean sprouts in the winter.  Then, when I was at the garden store, I saw the seeds, and I made an impulse purchase.  I am now a proud owner of a Sprout Jar.

It is really easy to do, and I encourage everyone to try this.  Bean sprouts are good on most everything, super healthy, and extremely easy.  I will update next week to let everyone know how they are doing!

Ingredients:
Glass jar
3 Tb sprouting seeds
Mesh
Rubberband

Directions:
Put seeds in jar and fill a quarter cup of water.  Let sit for 4-8 hours. Drain.  Rinse 2-3 times daily, leaving the jar horizontally placed to allow sprouts maximum growth.  In about a week you will have sprouts!

Baked Ziti

Baked Ziti, basically, the best pasta dinner dish ever!  Today, I made baked ziti for my team.  We have been trying to have a bunch of pasta dinners this year, because the ultimate team has gotten so large.  We are almost 40 girls.  Getting to know everyone socially, would be a little difficult, except for pasta dinners. 

Anyways, a few weeks ago, I made lasagna, but this time, I wanted to try something different, spice it up a but.  I decided to use the food network's recipe for baked ziti, with some of my extra spice, aka meat for the meat-lovers and peppers for the vegetarians.  

I think everyone really like the baked ziti, and it was very simple to make.

Ingredients:
1 pound of whole wheat ziti or penne pasta
1 jar of marinara sauce
16 oz of shredded mozzarella 
1 pound of ground beef or 3 bell peppers cut to 1 inch pieces
1 cup of parmesan cheese

Directions:
Preheat over to 400 degrees.  Cook pasta according to package.  In a frying pan, cook meat/peppers until tender.  Once cooked, mix pasta, sauce, meat/peppers and cheese together in a 12 inch baking pan. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top.  Cook for about 30 minutes and serve.  

Everyone at the pasta dinner loved it!  

Potato Soup

Lately, I've been really into making soup.  Maybe its been the snow or cold, but also, soup is a great way to bring friends together.  I know that sounds cheesy, but I really like to make a big pot of soup and then invite all my friends over, for a Soup Party!  

As a snow day treat, I made a big pot of potato soup from this cool, new blog, The Pioneer Woman.  My friend discovered her blog, and she makes great, simple recipes good for large groups of people!

Anyways, I decided to try her potato soup recipe.  It turned out really well.  All of my friends loved it!

Ingredients:
1 small onion, diced
10 rustic potatoes, diced
8 carrots, diced
6 stalks of celery, diced
8 cups of chicken stock or broth
3 tablespoons of flour
1 cup of milk
3 tablespoons of flour
1/2 cup of heavy whipping creme
1 teaspoon of paprika
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Add onion, carrots, and celery to the pot.  Cook for about 3 minutes, until slightly browned.  Next, add potatoes.  Cook for another 5 minutes.
  

Add stock or broth and spices.  Simmer for 30 minutes, until potatoes are softened.  Whisk milk and flour together.  This is very important.  Otherwise the flour will all stick together and look more like dumplings.  Make sure all of the chunks are out of the milk.  Add to pot.  Stir.  Allow to simmer for about 5 more minutes.  Add in heavy whipping creme. Taste and add more spices if necessary.  Serve. 

Mushroom Burgers

One of my favorite, go-to recipes is portobello mushroom burgers.  They are easy, healthy, and delicious!  My original recipe came from Martha Stewart, but now I like to experiment for myself. However, I almost always use her balsamic glaze, because it is wonderful. 

This week, when I got portobello caps in my CSA Share, I simply couldn't resist making them. 

Ingredients:

Portobello caps

Goat cheese

Burger buns

Micro Greens

Condiments 

Directions:

Heavily sprinkle portobello caps in balsamic vinegar.  Let sit for as long as possible (at least twenty minutes).  The longer they sit for, the better they taste because the balsamic has time to congeal with the mushroom.  I usually do this step in the afternoon, allowing my burgers to rest for 3-5 hours. Then, sauté them smooth side down As they are cooking, pour the extra balsamic vinegar from the plate onto the burgers. This solidifies the balsamic taste. 

While the burgers are cooking, toast your bun.  

After, plate your burgers, adding the goat cheese and micro greens.

Feel free to add anything else you see fit.  Sometimes I add brie instead of goat cheese or some pickled radishes if I have them on hand.  Enjoy!

Asian Salad

While I was studying abroad in Dublin, my mom came to visit me.  One of the things we have in common is our love to cook, so naturally, we decided to take a cooking class.  There, we learned to make this delicious Asian salad with radishes.  Therefore, when I received radishes in my farm share this week, I decided to make the salad. 

This salad uses a technique of cutting called "julienne," which means cutting up the vegetables into matchstick sized pieces.  You can watch a video to learn how here.  

Ingredients:
4-5 Large Carrots, julienned
6 Small Radishes, julienned
1 Apple, julienned
1/4 Cup of Mint Leaves
3 Tb of Rice Wine Vinegar
1 Tb of Brown Sugar
Optional - Hot Sauce to Taste


Directions:
Add carrots, radishes, and apples together in a bowl. Stir in vinegar, brown sugar, hots sauce to taste.  Toss with mint.  Serve.