While farms (and farm stands) bring us crunchy winter delights like cabbage and sweet apples, I wanted to share my early February lunchbox favorite.  This recipe unites an odd assembly of players — dried cherries and purple cabbage, balsamic vinegar and ginger — but they bring more than the sum of their parts to the table.  This salad is both sweet and savory and it’s hardy enough to stand alone.  While it’s very good at any temperature (I’ve tried ‘em all), it’s unequivocally tastiest warm or at room temperature.

Ingredients:
1/2 red onion
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon ginger, minced (or more, to taste)
3 cloves garlic, minced
sea salt, pepper
4 cups red cabbage, shredded
3-4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup dried cherries (no sugar added)
4 small sweet apples, thinly sliced
1/3 cup feta cheese, crumbled

Method:

1.  Shred cabbage and set aside.  In a large, high-rimmed pan, saute onion and olive oil on medium-high heat until wilted (about five minutes).  Add garlic and ginger and season with sea salt and pepper.  Stir until fragrant (an additional minute or two).

2.  Add cabbage and gently toss.  Drizzle balsamic vinegar and cook for 6 minutes, until cabbage has heated through and is al dente.  Meanwhile, slice apples.

3.  Add apples and dried cherries and saute until heated through (but not cooked).  The apples should still have “crunch” and maintain their shape.  Remove pan from heat and fold in feta cheese.  Serve warm.

Diet Notes: Gluten-free, nut-free

I tend to be overzealous about a number of things (ie. an empty email inbox, books (of non-electronic varieties), election cycles, coffee, citrus and cocoa powder, to name a few).  Last week, after gabbing with farmer friends and ogling over the bounty of winter grub, I came home with four, enormous cloth bags of spicy winter greens.  I can’t help myself.

With only two, lonely cubes of garden, basil pesto in the freezer (and wanting to save those for a rainy day), I decided to do a riff off of traditional pesto and use spicy greens for the leafy base instead.  After a few trails, this recipe is my favorite.  (A close second had a few squeezes of meyer lemon blended in at the end.)

Ingredients:
4 cups arugula (packed)
1 clove garlic, large
3 tablespoons olive oil  (plus additional, if desired)
1/2 cup asagio cheese, grated
1/4 cup walnuts, toasted

Method:
Pulse arugula, garlic, walnuts and cheese in a food processor.  Slowly add olive oil and blend to desired consistency.  Freezes and thaws well.

Diet Notes: SCD-safe, gluten-free

When I set forth to make this wrap, I combined a hodgepodge of recipes and aimed to make a falafel-like ball with crunch and Mediterranean flavor.  Instead of relying on dried coriander and cumin to amp up the taste, I wanted to use garden-fresh cilantro and scallion.  I wanted to see what would happen when I incorporated a whole grain into the mix (quinoa) and fresh vegetables (spinach) for nutrients and eye-popping color.

Before supper one night, I happened upon Green Kitchen Stories saffron-falafel recipe.  I liked their idea of using flappy cabbage leaves as a wrap (a pita would be good, too) and tahini as the base for a bright dressing.  I experimented with a few simple four-ingredient tahini dressings. The one below was my favorite.

Ingredients for the Chickpea-Quinoa Balls:
1 cup quinoa, cooked
2 cups garbanzo beans, cooked
2 cups spinach, fresh
1/2 cup cilantro leaves
1/2 cup scallion
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon flax meal
4 tablespoons brown rice flour
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1-2 tablespoons water (if necessary to thin)

Method:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees on convection (or 400, standard).  In a food processor, combine all ingredients and pulse until pureed.  The mixture should be sticky, but not so sticky that it doesn’t hold a form or stay together.  (In the event that there is too much liquid, add extra brown rice flour, a little bit at a time.  If too dry, add water a tablespoon at a time.)  Scoop into balls, uniform in size, and bake for 20 minutes.  Flip over and bake an additional 15 minutes.

Tahini Sauce
1/4 cup tahini
2 tablespoons grapefruit juice
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
generous pinch sea salt, pepper
2 tablespoons water, to thin

Method:
Whisk together and drizzle on top of wrap.

Diet Notes: gluten-free, vegan, nut-free

It’s 70 degrees in Tucson and all the windows are open.  Today, the whole fam (plus a cousin!) is at home and we’re noshing on bowls of roasted vegetables, cooked quinoa and drizzles of lemony dressing.  I don’t know how we’re going to make room for the chili and cheesecake dinner finale this evening, but we always manage.

This recipe (inspired by Angela) offers a trifecta of addictive ingredients: winter citrus tang (think: meyer lemon and ruby grapefruit glory), a punch of garlic and thick tahini, which makes for great texture.  It’s ready in about four minutes and is wonderfully versatile: Drizzle it on roasted vegetables, pasta, cooked grains, in a wrap or use as a dip for crudités.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup tahini
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup meyer lemon juice
1/4 cup grapefruit juice
1/4 cup nutritional yeast*
1 tablespoon olive oil
sea salt, pepper

*If following a strict gluten-free diet, seek out nutritional yeast that contains no gluten.

Method: Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor and pulse until smooth.  Refrigerate leftovers; to reconstitute, add water a tablespoon at a time.

Diet Notes: Nut-free, vegan, gluten-free (see asterisk)

I’m not one of those “coffee is the nectar of the gods” sorts.  I don’t live for the “buzz.”  In fact, I admonish black cups that yield overly-jittery mornings that linger past lunch.  But a morning without coffee (or, I’ll be generous, without tea) becomes unmarked, lost in a haze of more and less important “to-dos” of the day.  A morning coffee isn’t nourishing in the way an omelet with red peppers is nourishing. In fact, if you look at the world through the lens of life-sustaining foods, no five-calorie drink realistically makes the cut.  If wouldn’t kill you to delay coffee drinking for a few hours; if you put off peeing or taking some important pills, the results could be disastrous.  In short, a cup of coffee is a comparatively superfluous delight.
Drinking coffee signals: I want the house to smell good.
It says: This is just for me.
It always says: Shut up and don’t nag.
And even in a travel cup it says: Baby, sip me slowly.  

Exhibit A: Tea steeping

Enter: The French Press.  I love coffee shops, but I love protecting my already-deflated wallet more.  A french press is a relatively inexpensive start-up purchase, it uses no electricity, the coffee grounds can be composted and the gizmo itself is versatile–I use my french press to steep loose-leaf tea, too (see Exhibit A and B). Making coffee at home is easy-peasy and takes fewer than ten minutes.

Exhibit B: Making chai tea

A note about coffee grounds: The best coffee, I think, is prepared with beans that are ground the day-of.  But if you don’t have a bean grinder, not to worry: You can still have a great cup of coffee so long as you use beans that have been ground relatively recently (ideally the last couple of weeks; short shelf-life).  If you like coffee from a particular cafe, buy a bag of their coffee beans and ask them to grind the beans for you.  Keep in mind: French press coffee requires the beans to be ground slightly coarser than that of a drip-coffee machine, so be sure to mention you have a french press at home.  Alternatively, most grocery stores have a coffee grinder in the coffee section–if you purchase your coffee there, grind it yourself and choose the setting.

What you need for one cuppa coffee:
French-press
8oz. water
2 tablespoons coffee grounds

Method:

1.  Heat one cup of water on the stove.  Meanwhile, measure two (heaping) tablespoons of coffee grounds into the bottom of the french press. When water comes to a boil, remove from heat.  When the water ceases to bubble, pour into the french press.  Stir with a spoon and then put the lid on top to keep the water warm.  Set timer for 4 minutes.

2.  Press the “plunger” down to the bottom of the glass jar to trap the grounds.  Pour coffee into a cup and drink black or with preferred additions (sweetener; cream).  In summer, add ice cubes.

My mom refers to these cookies as the “disappearing choco-balls.”  My aunt told me the word “dream” had to appear somewhere in the title because, as the suggestion implies, she dreamt of them.  I’ve taken a liking to eating two of them after every meal.  And let me quell any concerns if you’re not in Camp Coconut (my mom and I join you, there) – the coconut imparts great texture and only a mild flavor that’s superseded by the chocolate.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup rolled oats*
3/4 cup shredded coconut, unsweetened
2 tablespoons coconut flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup natural peanut butter, chunky

*If following a strict gluten-free diet, be sure to purchase oats that have been processed in a facility without wheat to avoid cross-contamination.

Method:

Combine dry ingredients and toss with a fork.  Stir in honey and peanut butter with a large wooden spoon, electric mixer or by hand.  Roll into balls about 1″ in diameter and refrigerate for at least an hour before eating.  These freeze and thaw well, too.

Diet Notes: Gluten-free

This weekend I’ll be traipsing around one of my old stompin’ grounds with two chums.  We’ll drink coffee, bundled up in a dozen layers, and ogle over this weeks’ farm bounty.  I made my ladies a batch of these snappy cookies (inspired by a favorite nook on the interwebs: ComfyBelly) so we have something to nosh while vegetable perusing.

I made a few batches of these cookies yesterday and left one sheet on the countertop for my family to nibble.  This morning, as I blearily headed into the kitchen to put on a pot of hot water, there wasn’t a cookie crumb to be found.  To put it another way: They’re addictive.  Hot, out of the oven, they’re chewy and soft; let them cool and they’ll harden and “snap.”

One thing to note: I grind my own almond flour.  As you can see from the photographs, my flour is chunky and not as finely ground as almond flour purchased at the grocery store or blended in a VitaMix.  Head over to ComfyBelly’s site to see how these cookies look with almond flour that is more finely ground.

Ingredients:
2 cups almond flour
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 + 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
3/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon all spice
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1/3 cup honey

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees on convection.  Grease two cooking sheets and set aside.

2. Combine all dry ingredients, including spices, in a large bowl.  Toss with fork.

3.  In a small saucepan, melt butter on the stove.  Remove from heat, add honey and mix.  Combine with dry ingredients and stir until thoroughly incorporated.

4.  Shape dough into small, quarter-sized balls.  Flatten them, using your fingers, on cookie sheet, about an inch apart.  Bake 18-20 minutes, or until golden around the edges.  Cool on the sheet pan at least 5 minutes to set.

Diet Notes: SCD-safe, gluten-free

I get such a kick out of edible table decorations; along those lines, I like consumable party favors (or wedding take-home goodies), too.   This year, for Thanksgiving, I whipped up a double batch of apple fruit roll-ups and put a small wrap on each plate.  It was a seasonal palate cleanser and was a fun story-prompter.  I might’ve even convinced my uncle David to buy a dehydrator!

Ingredients for the Roll-Up:
apple sauce
honey
cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg, ginger

Tools:
food dehydrator
parchment paper
scissor
string

Method:
Cook down apples into a sauce or scoop from a jar.  Heat on the stove; add honey and spices to taste.  Remove from stove and spread on a plastic dehydrating sheet (like this one) about 1/2 cm thick.  Turn dehydrator on at 135 degrees and dehydrate for 10-12 hours.  Peel away from plastic, rip or cut into thin strips and roll up in parchment paper.

Diet Notes: SCD-safe, gluten-free, nut-free

Quick pickles are my go-to recipe when the cucumber crop goes gang-busters.  But it wasn’t until this past fall, when I cooked side-by-side with Cammy at Super Chilly Farm, that I added apples into the vinegar brine.  We made this recipe six times in three weeks and since coming home to Arizona, my mom has kept the crisper drawer stocked with cucumbers.

Two things to note:

(1) Use the very best apple cider vinegar you can find.  If you can, seek out a local apple orchard and buy vinegar in bulk (we buy gallon jugs).  The cost isn’t prohibitive (in fact, it’s often comparable to grocery store prices, or cheaper when purchased in larger quantities); it only requires a bit of extra effort.  While I lived in Maine I tracked down Sewall’s cider vinegar.  I brought home a bottle for my mom who tried it and said it tasted like wine and was the best she’d ever tasted.

(2) At Super Chilly Farm I was fortunate to have a stock pile of heirloom apples at my disposal.  With each batch of pickles, I sliced up different kinds of apples — softer, crisper, sweeter, tarter.  My favorite pickle batch used sweet, only slightly acidic, very crisp crab apple varieties called Chestnut and Pipsqueak.  Close runner-ups were Red St. Lawrence and Garden Royal apples.  (Photographs here.)  I suspect that this recipe would be quite good with the conventional varieties Pink Lady, Fuji, Braeburn or Gala.  Or, if you live in apple country, visit an orchard growing out apples native to your area and try out a couple that strike your fancy.

 Ingredients:
4 medium-sized pickling cucumbers, thinly sliced
4-5 small/medium apples, unpeeled, cored
1 tablespoon sea salt
2 early onions/shallots
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup honey (or more, to taste)
1 cinnamon stick

Method:

1. Prep cucumbers: Cut off ends, discard, and thinly slice with a cabbage shredder, mandolin, food processor or sharp knife.  Place cucumber slices in a colander and toss with sea salt.  Let sit for 20 minutes.  Prep apples and onions using the same slicing utensil—aim for uniform thinness and size.

2. In a small bowl, whisk vinegar, water and honey until full incorporated.  Add cinnamon stick and pour dressing over apples and onions.

3. Rinse cucumbers and lightly dry.  Add slices to bowl with apples and stir well.  Let sit for at least 30 minutes before serving.  Refrigerate for up to two weeks.

Diet Notes: SCD-safe, nut-free, gluten-free

We have 22 containers of pesto preserved in the frosty depths of our freezer. Even though I’m a pesto-eating champ (case in point: for snack-time I eat dollops of pesto on carrots; I pour an extra quarter-cup on top of my already-seasoned pasta), I’ve run out of Tupperware.

Instead of processing my most recent harvest into a sauce, I dried it.  That way I’ll have basil-flavor handy for dishes where pesto is unwarranted (do those exist?) or when the green goddess shmear runs out.

Home-dried basil is a zillion times more potent and scrumptious than its cardboard-flavored cousin on the spice rack in the supermarket.  What’s more, when you dry it yourself, you make bank.  (CHA-ching!)  To illustrate: We have multiple basil plants in our garden.  On average, one plant will yield three to four harvests of 9-12 cups of basil leaves.  I harvested all of what you see above & below from one plant.  Two weeks later I had over a pint of dried leaves.  This week I’ve used my dried basil in two soups and a frittata and the taste is to-live-for-good.  Here’s how easy it is:

STEP 1. Snip-snip: When harvesting basil for pesto, for cooking or drying, cut back the whole plant, stems included.  Giving your basil plant a big haircut will allow the plant to regrow stems, preventing them from hardening and turning woody.

STEP 2. Clean as a Whistle:  Gently wash each stem in a sink basin full of water to remove any dirt or dust. Give each stem a little shake and let them air dry on the counter top for several hours.

STEP 3. Twisty-tie Time: When the leaves and stems have dried, group stems into bundles and turn upside down.  Use a twisty-tie (or hemp or strong string) to tie the stems together at the base.  I usually tie four or five stems in each group.  Be mindful not to group too many stems together; there should be some breathing room between each stem so that all the leaves can properly dry out.

STEP 4. Forget about ‘em: Clip each bundle to a drying rack (like below) or use a string and tie each bundle to  a hanger.  Place in a cool, dry place for a couple of weeks.