Halve and slice a summer squash thinly into a bowl.

Crumble in some feta.

Cover with a good dash of vinaigrette, Italian seasoning (or whatever fresh herbs you’ve got), and salt.

Top pizza and bake.

Wow!

This form lends itself to lots of options. Here are two I tried recently:

Egg and Greens Quesadilla

• Oil
• A handful of greens in bite-sized pieces (kale, spinach, chard, etc.)
• One large egg
• Three corn tortillas
• Shredded cheese
• Salsa (verde is great)

In a small frying pan, wilt the greens in oil.  When they are just soft, crack in the egg and stir enough to lightly combine the yolk and white. Let sit and cook until it forms a flat omelet. (You can flip it over to help it cook faster).

Slide the omelet onto a plate. Put the first tortilla into the frying pan and spoon on a bit of salsa. Top with the omelet, then another tortilla, then more salsa, then the cheese, and finally the top tortilla. When the bottom has toasted a bit, flip the whole thing over to toast the top tortilla and melt the cheese. Serve hot and crispy.

Pulled Pork and Greens Quesadilla

This is a nice twist on the southern triumvirate of pork, greens, and corn. I could easily imagine a spoonful of black-eyed peas or baked beans in the layer with the greens, too.

• Oil
• Greens
• Prepared pulled or bbq pork
• Three corn tortillas

Sautee greens in oil. Some salt and/or garlic powder wouldn’t go amiss.  Remove from pan and put the first tortilla in the pan. Top with pork, the next tortilla, the greens, and the top tortilla.  When the bottom is starting to toast and the pork is hot, flip to heat the top tortilla.

Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve come up with a new recipe, and I’ve had a couple in the last few days. The first is a really simple braise of kale, green beans, tomatoes, and optional meat.  The two things that make this recipe, for me, are the braising technique (cooking in a small amount of liquid) and adding some baking soda to the recipe to neutralize the acidity. Don’t skimp on the fat; it really gives this dish a hearty richness.

Tomato-braised vegetables

• 2 Tbl. fat (olive oil is fine; beef or bacon drippings are great)
• 4 c. chopped kale
• 2 c. diced tomatoes with juice (fresh, or one pint/small can)
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda, or to taste
• Three small potatoes, cubed
• 2 c. green beans
• Optional: diced cooked meat

Wilt the kale in the fat.  Add the tomatoes (cook for a minute or two if they’re fresh so they release their juice) and the baking soda. You’re aiming to reduce the acidity without making the tomatoes actually sweet.  Throw in the potatoes and green beans. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 15-20 minutes.  Add the meat in at the end to warm it through. (I suppose you could brown some ground beef at the beginning if you weren’t using up leftovers.)

When the potatoes are tender, remove the lid and cook the tomatoes down so everything is saucy but not soupy. Serve as-is, or over couscous, rice, noodles, etc.

Found a great new recipe for mashed potatoes while making pierogies last weekend. It uses onions sauteed in butter, but no milk.  The texture is not as creamy as the kind with milk, but the flavor is out of this world. Yum!

• 3 potatoes the size of your fist
• 1 small onion
• 1-2 Tbl butter
• salt & pepper (start with 1/4 tsp of each)

Cut the potatoes into 1″ cubes, cover with cold water, and boil until soft. (I usually put some additional salt in the cooking water.)

Dice the onion and sautee in melted butter until translucent.

Drain the potatoes and mash  in the onions, butter, salt and pepper.  I use a masher; haven’t tried it with electric beaters. This recipe seems to favor a heavy-handed approach to the S&P.

That’s it! Really astoundingly delicious for something so simple.  It’s also very convenient for us; we don’t keep milk (or milk equivalents) on hand, and I hate opening a container if I only need 1/2 cup.

I’ve been wanting to spice my own sausage (especially turkey sausage) for a while, and when I found ground turkey thighs at Whole Foods, I decided to finally give it a go.  Here are my results so far:

Sweet Fennel Sausage recipe

• 1 lb ground turkey thighs – you want to have some fat in there, so don’t use breast or extra-lean thighs
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
• 1 tsp garlic powder

Mix well and use as you would any bulk sausage.  I also tried adding sage to this (home-grown and dried, very potent) and it was…odd.  It mostly negated the fennel flavor and the predominant flavor became “sweet,” with faint grassy undertones.  I’ll have to work on that; I love sage sausage.  I’m thinking subbing sage for the fennel and seeing how that goes.

Hot Italian-style Sausage recipe

• 1 lb ground turkey thighs
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

This was a bit too hot for us, but YMMV depending on the heat of your peppers and the preferences of your family.  I also tried this without the garlic powder and with smoked paprika, but the recipe listed above was by far the best.  The paprika tasted too much like paprika and not enough like smoke.  Perhaps ground chipotle peppers would give me the hot/smoky effect I’m looking for.

I first had mulligatawny soup a month or two ago at Taste of India. I was, at first, confused because I was thinking “mulligan stew” not “mulligatawny soup,” but once I tasted it, I didn’t much care what it was called. It’s creamy, but non-dairy, flavorful and very satisfying.  Here’s what I cobbled together at home…not sure how authentic it is, but whatever. Mulligatawny is a made-up soup, anyway – the Brits insisted on a soup course from their Indian cooks, who came up with this because apparently Indian food wasn’t delicious enough. Whatever.

Em’s quick and dirty mulligatawny soup recipe

• 3 cups chicken stock
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 cup leftover dal
• 1 cup tiny mixed vegetables (corn, peas, etc.)
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Put in pot. Make it warm. Eat it up, yum.

Big honkin' squash!

One of the joys of gardening for me is learning the whole life cycle of vegetables. Winter squash, for example, can be eaten young and cooked just like zucchini, or when fully mature, like a pie pumpkin. I don’t plant summer squash any more…I just rob the winter squashes when they’re young, and I don’t feel pressured to try to “keep up” with the zucchini. And you can also grab them at a middle stage that I have really come to enjoy. More firm and robust than a zuke, but not yet so hard that you have to peel them and cook them for a long time.

This is one of the first of the experimental “long pie” pumpkins from this year’s harvest. You can see they’re huge – over a foot long – and that yellow spot you see will eventually creep all over the pumpkin and become a deep pumpkiny orange. This one was in its last days of being tender enough to eat rind and all.

Cut into manageable pieces

First, I cut the pumpkin in half lengthwise and scooped out the seeds. Then, I cut it into quarter-moons. Finally, a simple sautee in butter, with an onion. These were destined for enchilada filling, so I added chili powder (cumin, cayenne, oregano, etc.) and a little salt. The enchiladas had the sauteed squash, some pulled pork, corn, and cheese wrapped in corn tortillas and doused in sauce. Quite tasty!