Adventures of a healthy-ish pseudo-foodie

I wasn't confident enough about the acid content to can these, so they are in the chest freezer now. This week, the CSA gave us three hatch chilies! I successfully roasted and peeled them, and then, faced with many tomatoes and a good onion and a jalapeno pepper, I decided to make salsa. I loosely followed  this recipe from Chili Pepper Madness . It is so good! I'm mad that I don't have any chips or tortillas or anything that would be good for snacking with this salsa at the moment. The Recipe: 3 hatch chilies 4-5 medium tomatoes, halved 1 white onion, cut into chunks 4 cloves garlic, smashed 1 lime, juiced 1 jalapeno, seeds and membrane removed salt to taste Coat the chilies in olive oil and salt. Roast them under a broiler for 20 minutes, flipping half-way through. Immediately transfer to a covered bowl to cool off, then remove the skins and stems. Place halved tomatoes, chunks of onion, and garlic cloves on baking sheets. Bake at 350 f...

Before: Beautiful berries from Thistledown After: 11 jars and bellies full of strawberries The first thing we accomplished on our Summer Fun to-do list was strawberry picking and making jam. The last time I canned strawberries, I went without the pectin and ended up with strawberry sauce. It was good, but it wasn't as good as jam. So this time we did it the right way. I knew we wouldn't need much sugar, since these strawberries were SO sweet. I searched through many recipes that claimed to be low-sugar but actually contained a lot of sugar, and eventually settled on  this one from Lively Table . Easy and delicious. The only change I made was not running the strawberries through a food mill or blending them. We opted for chunky strawberry jam. The Recipe: 4 c strawberries, stemmed and washed 1 c water 3 tsp lemon juice 4 1/2 b low sugar pectin 1/3 c sugar Mash strawberries with a potato masher. Place mashed berries, water, lemon juice, ...

They look benign, but these have SO much flavor. In our previous CSA, we were allowed to list three items that we never wanted to get, and turnips were at the top of my list. Then we switched CSA's, and our FIRST WEEK with the new one, guess what was in there? Since pickling has worked well for other less-desired CSA items (radishes and beets, I'm looking at you), I searched to see is pickled turnips were a thing. And I found  this Momofuku turnip pickle recipe , which gave me an excuse to use the kombu in our pantry. I followed the recipe exactly, even though it seemed like too much sugar. And yes, they are sweet, but in a good way! They packed great punch on an asian-themed salad, and I plan to put them into our tofu bibimbap bowls this week, especially since we ran out of kimchi. The original recipe says that at Momofuku, they serve these as a snack, but I don't think I'd snack on these without something bland for balance. The Recipe: (from Mo...

Don't forget the extra cheese on top In the Spring, I put chard in All The Things. From one small chard area in the garden, I harvest a good-sized portion every few days.  I was looking for a way to use up some chard, as well as potatoes and sour cream, and I came across  this recipe from Smitten Kitchen . I'm not a big baked potato person, but this clearly was going to be delicious. I followed the recipe very loosely. Predictably, it was delicious.  The Recipe: (based on the recipe from Smitten Kitchen) 2 potatoes 1 bunch chard 1-2 tb sour cream 1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese 1/4 onion, chopped finely 1 tsp olive oil salt and pepper to taste Cook the potatoes (I did this in the instant pot in 14 minutes, then natural release) Wash the chard and then place it, wet, into a pan. Cook until wilted. Cool the chard, squeeze out the extra water, and chop it finely. Saute the onions in olive oil until slightly browned. Scoop out the insi...

Tastes better than it looks. I have very little experience with collard greens because they are so often made with meat. I think the first time I ever tasted them was at  Black Wolf Supper Club , where they cook them with kimchi. And I loved them, but I have yet to successfully recreate them. So this time, I decided to play it simple. I perused a few recipes before deciding how to do it, and I hoped for the best. And then end result was so much more delicious than I expected! I ate these alongside hard boiled eggs in one clean-out-the-fridge night, and then the next night we put the leftovers on Annie's mac and cheese, and THIS was delicious.  The Recipe: 1 bunch collard greens, cut into ribbons 3 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 onion, minced 2 c vegetable broth salt and pepper, to taste cider vinegar, to taste Saute onions in olive oil until translucent and slightly browned. Add garlic and saute for 1 more minute. Add vegetable broth and 1 t...

My photo... Original photo from "Joanne Eats Well with Others" Ok, aside from the fact that my photography needs work, this recipe was outstanding and I will be making it again soon. I followed  this recipe from Joanne Eats Well with Others . I was not familiar with this blog until Pinterest showed me this recipe. I'm a new fan. After posting this, I plan to go bookmark a bunch more of her recipes. I like recipes that are packed with veggies but don't feel like they're packed with veggies. The "sauce" is mostly just cauliflower and chard, but it feels rich like pesto (thanks in part to the parmesan). And I love the texture of the food-processed cauliflower. My only real modification was that I added lemon zest. Because I already had the lemon and it just seemed like the right thing to do. Also, instead of grating the parmesan, I food-processed it into little pebbles. This was purely a matter of laziness, but I actually really l...

This crust is too crispy for my liking, but just right for Jess. I've been making this since about 2005, and I don't know how it's not on the blog yet. I wish I could give proper credits for the idea, but that's a long time to remember where it came from. I do vaguely remember that the idea for using roasted garlic as a base came from one source, and the idea to add arugula post-baking came from another source, because I remember being pleasantly surprised and impressed with myself when this all came together. In any event, this is one of my go-to recipes when I have arugula. I like it because it's pizza and salad all in one, so I don't feel the need to serve vegetables alongside it. The only downside is that it doesn't keep very well. In a perfect world, I would only dress the amount of arugula we will eat in that sitting, and I would keep the rest of the arugula dry and separate until we eat the leftovers. In reality, I generally just throw it...