Stealth Greens

Yesterday I found that our grocery store was having a meat sale.  I love it when they do that - mix and match 5 items for $20.  I got 2 packages of chicken cutlets and 3 packages of bacon (I was a little late and missed out on some of the variety).  Some of that went in the freezer, but I used 1 package of the chicken to make chicken parmesan.  I made it in 2 casserole dishes - one with nettles and one without.  I know what I can get away with as far as feeding the 6 year old, and this was not going to fly.

When adding the nettles, I pulled a little package of them out of the freezer; these are the ones I froze last fall.  I chopped it finely, still mostly frozen, and sprinkled the nettles between the layers of chicken before it went into the oven.  When my husband came home, he said, "Why is it green?"  I said, "Think of it as a florentine."

He did admit, after a few bites, "You know, nettles have a really nice flavor."

Garlic Mustard Salad

We went for a foraging outing cleverly disguised as a walk today.  I kept nibbling on things and then handing them to others in our little group, saying things like, "I think this might be shepherd's purse.  Eat it.  It tastes like lettuce."

Garlic mustard, however, is easy to spot, and it's taking over.  Knowing that no one would mind if I grabbed a lot of it, I pulled several plants out by their roots.  Once we got home, I made this salad.  The recipe is from Edible Wild Plants, by John Kallas, Ph.D.  There are actually several books with the same name, I have two; this one and a field guide.

This salad is a quick thing:  a can of red kidney beans, rinsed, some garlic mustard and raisins, tossed with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.  I liked it, and I have some greens left over to toss in a salad if I can do that in the next day or so.

Special Occasion

Tonight I made a special dinner for my husband to celebrate his birthday.  We ate outside, in the evening, in March, in MA.  I've said before that this was weird, right?  Yeah.  It was 80 degrees again today.

First, there were filet mignons on the grill, with grilled zucchini and pasta with a bittercress pesto.  I don't think I've made pesto since college, but I was inspired by the presence of so much bittercress in the yard.  I collected about 2 cups (packed) and a handful of the field-garlic-chive things and blended them with 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts, some pepper and a little garlic, 1/2 c. olive oil and some parmesan cheese.  That made enough for 4 meals; 3 portions are now frozen for times when we need the fresh spring taste of the bittercress again.

Then the piece de resistance, the cake!  I made a sour cream chocolate cake but used coffee instead of water.  That's a trick from a Wacky Cake recipe I have.  It makes the cake even richer.  (Have you ever made a Wacky Cake?  I love them - they have vinegar and baking soda in them to make them rise.  But they are even better when you use coffee as the liquid.)  After the layers had cooled, I stacked them with doce de leite (that's Portuguese for what is essentially caramel made with milk, and my tub of it came from a Brasilian store) in between and on top.  Then came the dark chocolate ganache.  Mmm.  I set the cake on a rack over a plate and poured the ganache over the cake and chilled it.  The cake was then moved to a cake plate and I took the rest of the ganache that had cooled on the plate and piped it onto the cake and chilled it again.  If I hadn't, the whole thing would have melted.  My kitchen was so hot today!

It was terrific.

81 Degrees!

That's how hot it was today.  In March.  In Massachusetts.  To use the local vocabulary, "It's wicked weird."

Spring also means that the nettles are starting to grow again at the stables, so after my ride today I grabbed my gardening gloves and got to work.  I picked about 3 cups of nettle shoots, generally 3-4 pairs of leaves per shoot.  When we got home I blanched them, drained them, squeezed out the water, and then things got interesting:

The nettles were sauteed in canola oil and butter, with some pepper and some of those field-garlic-chive like things.  Then when they were almost crispy they were drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  They were GOOD.

Thanks, 3 Foragers!

Spring has only been here for a day and I've been enjoying whatever little edible things I can find in the yard.  The 3 Foragers' blog has been really helpful for this, since they live in the same climate as I do.  I've been eyeing this recipe for a week and finally had a morning to make it.  I had to make 2 trips to the garden because a half-cup of diced field garlic is a lot more that I expected.  I just had my first bite of this bread and I really like it.  It's terrific!

I am copying their recipe here so I have it in my archives as well, but giving credit where credit is due, this is not my recipe!  It came from here.


1/2 c. warm water
1 tsp. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast (about half an envelope)
1 c. small curd cottage cheese
1/2 c. chopped field garlic
1 egg
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. all-purpose flour

1. In a large bowl, mix together the warm water, sugar, and yeast. Let it sit for 15 minutes until the yeast is foamy and active.
2. In a small saucepan, warm the cottage cheese up to room temperature. Add the chopped field garlic, and add to the yeast mixture in the large bowl.
3. With a large spoon, mix in the egg, salt, baking soda, and flours into the yeast and cottage cheese mixture. Mix until there is no more dry flour visible. The batter will be thick, but too wet to knead.
4. Cover the bowl and let it sit in a warm place for 1 1/2 hours to proof.
5. Heat the oven to 350° F. Grease an 8" x 4" loaf pan, and pour the bread batter into the pan, spreading it evenly.
6. Let the loaf rise for about an hour, or until the loaf has doubled in size. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the loaf is browned. Cool for 20 minutes and remove the loaf from the pan. Serve the bread sliced, toasted, and smeared with cream cheese.

Garden Salad Takes on a New Meaning

A few days ago I mentioned hairy bittercress and that it was growing in my yard.  Since then I've checked back on The 3 Foragers' blog and found that I was not using it to its full potential!  Yesterday we had friends over for dinner so I tossed some into a salad of regular lettuce, cucumber, mango, tomato, and goat cheese.  It was very good, but the peppery taste of the bittercress was lost.  So today, following their example, I made an entire salad of just bittercress, plus a couple of young dandelion leaves, and goat cheese, drizzled with balsamic vinegar.  It was sharp and a little stronger than anticipated.  Perhaps there is a happy medium somewhere?

For last night's dinner we also marinated 2 pounds of shrimp in a cup of the Mango Blackberry BBQ sauce and grilled them.  The shrimp were excellent!

Happy Pi Day!

In honor of Pi Day, I made a pie.

If I hadn't remembered it was Pi Day 2 hours before I had to be somewhere, I would have made a pie crust and everything.  I would have been prepared.  But I decided, spur of the moment, that we needed a pie.  Fortunately I had a frozen pie shell and a jar of apple pie filling.  I added a pint of brandied peaches (drained) on top of the apple filling and then made a streusel topping:

1/3 c. butter
3/4 c. flour
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Cut together with pastry cutter and sprinkle over the top of the pie.  This was baked at 375 for 40 minutes.

This evening we warmed it up and served it with a topping of Brasilian "Table Cream" which seems to be unsweetened condensed milk.  While not the best pie I've ever made, it was good pie.