Spicy Chile-Garlic Green Beans and Tomatoes

When we got home from market last week, we were looking for something simple for lunch, and I was in the mood for something savory and spicy (when am I NOT in the mood for spicy, right?). I remembered awhile back seeing a recipe for Green Beans and Tomatoes on Leng's blog A Fat Cat Created A Vegetarian and wanted to make something similar with our tastes in mind and what we had on had.

What we came up with is a spicy, tasty, and wonderfully savory snack or light meal that would be wonderful with some sauce or soba noodles to soak up the extra sauce. Mmmmmmm.

















The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = local produce from The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook (will denote whether product is local or just from the Nook)
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

Spicy Chile-Garlic Green Beans and Tomatoes
2 tbsp. safflower oil
3 cups fresh green beans, snapped into 1/2-1 inch long pieces **
1 large yellow onion, chopped *
3 large tomatoes, cored and chopped **
5 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsp. chile-garlic sauce (I used Huy Fong)
a few splashes of shoyu
salt
black pepper

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add the green beans and stir-fry over medium-high heat. Cook until beans begin to soften and get some blistering on them.

Add the onions and cook for an additional 10 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, garlic, chile-garlic sauce, and shoyu. Cook until tomatoes exude their juices and begin to form a nice sauce.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

*If you wanted a milder version, halve the chile-garlic sauce or use a milder chile sauce.

'Til next time!

Roasted Onion, Garlic, and White Bean Bisque

More soup!

I have been wanting something creamy and tasty, but not heavy. I watched an episode of Iron Chef recently where they made French Onion soup and that got my mind to working. I have never had traditional French Onion soup, so I am not sure what it is supposed to taste like. I also need to figure out how to make it vegetarian. But I loved the idea of a mild savory soup flavored with onions, as they have an excellent taste and this is what I came up with:

















The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = local produce from The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook (will denote whether product is local or just from the Nook)
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

Roasted Onion, Garlic, and White Bean Bisque
2 red onions, peeled
2 yellow onions, peeled *
1 bulb garlic, 1/2 inch of the top removed
1 cup white beans, soaked overnight and cooked
2 1/2 cups veggie broth (homemade if possible) *
dash oregano
dash basil
salt
pepper
safflower oil

Preheat oven to 400.

Cover onions and garlic evenly with oil and sprinkle with salt. Roast in the oven for about 30 minutes, turning the onions half way through cooking.

In a blender, puree the beans and veggie broth.

Once veggies are roasted, add those to the bean mixture and blend until very smooth.

Transfer to a large soup pot and season to taste.

We ate this with some of the DanJo Farms foccacia cut into breadsticks and toasted in the oven. So flippin' tasty!

'Til next time!

Crockpot Chile Chili

The weather is starting to get chilly here in Mid-Missouri and there is nothing better (at least in my opinion) to eat when it is blustery than a hearty soup, stew, or chili. So I decided to make chili!

I like my chili to be really spicy - well, if I am honest, I like EVERYTHING to be really spicy, but Brett has complained many times that the reason he does not like me to make chili is because it is too hot. I decided to be nice and use chiles for flavor, and just a little bit of heat and we ended up with this super tasty chili that we enjoyed with Fritos!

















Sorry for the horrible picture. Hopefully someday I will figure out how to use my camera.

The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = local produce from The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook (will denote whether product is local or just from the Nook)
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

Crockpot Chile Chili
1/4 cup Anasazi beans, rinsed ****
1/4 cup cranberry beans, rinsed ****
1/4 cup pinto beans, rinsed ****
1/4 cup navy beans, rinsed
1/4 cup black beans, rinsed
1 cup kidney beans, rinsed +
2 pasilla chiles, stems removed and rinsed
2 ancho chiles, stems removed and rinsed

4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 habaneros, seeded and minced *
2 gypsy (or other sweet peppers), seeded and minced *
2 yellow onions, chopped *
4 large tomatoes, cored and chopped *

2 red potatoes, scrubbed and cubed *
1/2 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed *

cumin
cilantro
salt
pepper

(Start this chili in the morning.)

Combine beans and dried chiles in a crockpot and let simmer on low all day.

Before you go to bed, add all the vegetables except the sweet and regular potatoes.

In the morning, add the potatoes, and season to taste. Let cook for an additional hour or so or until potatoes are soft.

This chili was super tasty and would also be excellent with tortilla chips or on a baked potato. Mmmmmm.

'Til next time.

Vegetarian Baked Ziti

As most of you who have read this blog with any regularity know, I don't really "do" Italian food. I'm not the biggest pasta fan (I know, I am a freak, I also don't like ice cream either, believe it or not), and I went vegetarian before I really learned too awful much beyond homemade pasta sauce and pesto.

But Brett is a fan of the Italian food, vegetarian, meat laden, or otherwise, so I decided to be nice and make something he would really enjoy. When I asked him if I should get some meat to put it in, he requested a vegetarian version of Baked Ziti, so that is what I made!

































The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = local produce from The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook (will denote whether product is local or just from the Nook)
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

Vegetarian Baked Ziti
For an 8x8 pan

1/2 box penne pasta (we used "mini penne"), cooked according to package directions
1 jar pasta sauce or 3-4 cups homemade (we used the St. Louis made Zia's pasta sauce, local and delicious!) +
1 package white button mushrooms, sliced
1 large yellow onion, chopped *
1 ball of fresh mozzarella, shredded
1/2 cup Gruyere, shredded
1 container whole milk fresh ricotta
2 tbsp safflower oil
salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 350.

While noodles are cooking, heat oil in a large skillet. Add the mushrooms and onions, and saute for about 10 minutes or until soft.

Meanwhile combine ricotta with half the mozzarella and half the Gruyere. Combine the other half the of mozzarella and Gruyere.

Add the pasta sauce to the veggies and season with salt and pepper. Heat through.

Combine pasta and sauce/veggie mixture.

In an 8x8 baking pan, layer half the noodles and the ricotta mozzarella mixture, then the last layer of noodles and top with the mozzarella/Gruyere mixture.

Bake uncovered for about an hour until top is golden brown and contents are bubbling.

Enjoy!

Weekly Local Booty - Farmer's Market and CSA - October 10, 2009

Yes, so it is becoming apparent that I cannot focus on very many things at one time. I have been very much into reading and writing, and while I have been cooking, I realized that I haven't been blogging - at all. It has been a few weeks! Eeek!

In good news though, I have read quite a few good books. Even better news though is that I have been writing up a storm and now have 94 pages on my piece. 94 pages! That is a LOT. I am going to have a lot of editing to do! I am very pleased where it is going. The story line and dialogue need to be "beefed up" a bit, but overall I am very pleased.

Like I mentioned earlier, I have been cooking, and even taking pictures. I have just yet to blog about any of that. Well, do not despair (as I know you all so very much are), I plan on getting those posts written and schedule before I have a chance to forget about it again.

And though it is a bit late, I will now show you the tasty local booty we got from market this weekend.

First off, our Week 22 (only three weeks left!), DanJo Farms, quarter share veggie CSA:

















Starting from the bottom right: a turnip, 2 tomatoes, collard greens, lettuce, lots of green beans, a little butternut squash, and radishes.

And check out our haul from the farmer's market!

















From the bottom right: Goatsbeard Farm feta, lots of little yellow onions, 2 packages of DanJo Bakeries foccacia, and 4 acorn squash.

Though I haven't been documenting it, I have obtained a few other winter squash for storage in the past couple of weeks and also gotten more chiles to freeze. I need a few more sweet chiles and I was hoping to find some serranos to freeze, but I'm not sure that is going to happen. At least we have tons of jalapenos though!

Anyway, I hope everyone had a great weekend and keep your eyes posted for an onslaught of posts this week.

'Til next time.