A Fresh, Lowfat Twist on Cole Slaw: Swiss Chard Cabbage Salad Recipe with Garbanzo Beans, Broccoli Stems, & Cottage Cheese

Colorful, Crunchy, & Good for You - Pass the Salad Please!

During a live chat last year with Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins, authors of the bestselling Silver Palate cookbooks, my foodie friend Sonia asked an interesting question:

I think that we all tend to read a recipe and then make it our own by adapting it to our tastes or to what is readily available in our areas....at least, that is how I usually cook.... for example, the stuffed tomatoes recipe in the Silver Palate calls for ricotta and spinach.....although ricotta is readily available in our markets in Hawaii, I have a farmer friend with a goat farm just a few miles up the road from me and they make their own chevre..........so that is what I usually use in that recipe...... and I have Malabar spinach in my garden, so that is what I like to use........

I'm curious, though....when someone tells you they have 'changed your recipe around,' does it bother you or are you pleased that you at least gave them a starting point..........?

The reason I ask is because I was told once by someone they had loved my cookbook and then proceeded to tell me how she had changed most of my recipes.....At the time I wasn't sure how to react....upset that after all that work someone else took them and changed them around to the point they didn't ressemble mine anymore, or happy that I at least provided a springboard for someone else's creativity...

And Julee replied:

I really take it as a compliment that someone has made [one of] our recipes and chosen to make it their own....That's what cooking is all about. I have an insatiable curiousity...and so sometimes I want to make the familiar....sometimes the new!!!

Since I started Farmgirl Fare three years ago, I've heard from people all around the world who have made my recipes. While I love to know that they've enjoyed them (and that they worked!), I also love it when they tell me that one of my recipes inspired them to head into the kitchen and create something of their own.

The other day I received this note from Sarah:

I read your blog regularly, and the other day I was bored at work so I was looking back through your archives. I was intrigued by your broccoli soup with chickpeas. I didn't follow your recipe at all except for the suggestion of an addition of a can of chickpeas. I had a 2 month old head of cauliflower in my fridge and so I put some onions, garlic, celery, and cauliflower in some broth, cooked it up, added a can of beans, pureed and voila! I did have some pesto on hand so I added a teaspoon of that to the soup and it was amazing. My cat even ate a small bowl of the stuff! Thank you for the inspiration! I don't usually follow recipes but read them compulsively and rework them.

So not only did I inspire Sarah to whip up something delicious with that languishing head of cauliflower in her fridge, but I now have a tasty sounding new recipe for cauliflower soup as well.

Fortunately my dear friend Kat feels the same way as Julee and I do, because although I doubt anyone would recognize her Fresh Veggie Salad in this recipe, it was in fact the inspiration for its creation. Two things about Kat's salad jumped out at me when she shared it with me last year: the intriguing combination of cabbage and spinach (something I'd never thought to do), and the addition of cottage cheese, which I've been tossing into all kinds of stuff.

With those two ideas in mind, I simply took her recipe and ran with it. Kat's version is versatile; she's rolled it up in chicken breasts, used it in omelets, and even tossed it on a pizza. Mine might be versatile, too, though I have yet to move beyond just gobbling it out of a bowl — or straight from the dish in the fridge.


Low Fat, Low Carb, & Packed with Fiber—But You Don't Have to Tell

Susan's Swiss Chard Cabbage Salad
Inspired by Kat's Fresh Veggie Salad — Makes about 8 cups

This is actually the second Kat-inspired salad I created. The first version was made with spinach, but since I never got around to planting any spinach this past spring, I simply made due with what I had on hand this year — and that was plenty of homegrown Swiss chard. I also took advantage of our scallion bounty. I'll share the spinach version, too, but since I know a lot of you are looking for new ways to use up all your gorgeous Swiss chard right now, I figured this one needed to come first.


Fresh From the Kitchen Garden

There's a nice crunch to this salad, in part because Swiss chard — which is easy to grow from seed — gives you a bonus veggie: the stalks can be chopped up and used like celery. Choose colorful varieties of chard such as Pink Lipstick, Canary Yellow, and Orange Fantasia and you'll have some of the prettiest 'celery' around. If you tend to throw out broccoli stalks and only use the florets (shame on you!), this is a great place to toss them instead.

This pseudo slaw — which would be perfect for picnics and potlucks — looks best right after it's been mixed up, but it tastes best after it's chilled for a couple of hours. I use a large serrated knife to thinly slice the cabbage and a big chef's knife to slice the chard, which I kind of roll up into a bundle before cutting. As always, I urge you to use local and organic ingredients whenever possible.

4 cups thinly sliced Swiss chard leaves
1 cup chopped Swiss chard stems
2 cups shredded green cabbage
1 cup shredded purple cabbage
1 or 2 large handfuls peeled & chopped broccoli stems
7 or 8 large chopped scallions (green onions)
1 can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed
1 16-ounce carton cottage cheese (I use lowfat)
1/3 cup white balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon onion powder or granulated onion
1 teaspoon garlic powder or granulated garlic
Salt & pepper to taste

More chopped scallions for garnish

Combine Swiss chard leaves, Swiss chard stems, green and purple cabbage, scallions, and garbanzo beans in a large bowl. Add cottage cheese and mix well. Add vinegar and stir to combine. Sprinkle with onion and garlic powders and mix well. Salt & pepper to taste, adding a little more vinegar if desired. Garnish with chopped scallions.

So how do you use recipes? Do you follow them to the letter? Improvise with what you have on hand, is in season, or that you think might taste even better? Or do you simply look for inspiration and then just totally wing it? If you've written about a favorite recipe creation on your own blog, you're welcome to include a link to it in your comment.

Related posts:
How To Grow Swiss Chard from Seed & Why You Should
Recipe: Hot Swiss Chard Artichoke Dip (and lots of other ways to use Swiss Chard)
What To Do with 125 Scallions
Grow Arugula — Seed to Salad Bowl in Less than a Month
How To Grow Your Own Gourmet Lettuce from Seed

Other salads & potluck/picnic fare you might enjoy:
Swiss Chard Tuna Salad with Scallions & Kalamata Olives
Sour Cream & Onion Dip (and foodie travel)
Fiesta Cottage Cheese Veggie Dip (and factory tours)
Mexican Jumping Bean Slaw & Quick Vegetarian Tacos
Colors of Summer Salad
On Loving Lettuce & Eating Salad for Breakfast
Summer in a Bowl
The Easiest Greek Salad Ever

Still hungry?
You'll find links to all my sweet & savory Less Fuss, More Flavor recipes in the sidebar of the Farmgirl Fare homepage under Previous Posts: Food Stuff W/ Recipes. Enjoy!

This is my contribution to Grow Your Own #12, the wonderful monthly food blogging event hosted by my friend Andrea at Andrea's Recipes. Grow Your Own 'celebrates the foods we grow or raise ourselves and the dishes we make using our homegrown products.' Catch the roundup the first of each month at Andrea's Recipes. Want to join in the Grow Your Own fun? Find out how here.

© Copyright 2008 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where Farmgirl Susan shares stories, photos, and recipes from her crazy country life on 240 remote Missouri acres — and we're slightly obsessed with salads (and cake).

Purple Basil Pesto & the Easiest White Bean Appetizer Dip / Spread Recipe Ever

Purple Is the New Green

I have no idea how it happened, but spring 2007 found me and my kitchen garden completely basilless. Thankfully a gardening friend (whose tiny city garden I usually supply with plants) was kind enough to share a couple of basil seedlings with me, including a purple one. I'm not very adventurous when it comes to herbs, and I'd never grown purple basil, but begging gardeners can't be choosers so I gratefully took what he offered and stuck it in the ground.

The purple basil plant flourished. It was absolutely gorgeous, but I didn't know what to do with it. I love fresh basil in all kinds of dishes, and I loved the color of these leaves, especially how they're outlined in green, but the thought of blackish purple basil pesto — or blackish purple basil anything for that matter — just didn't seem appealing.

My foodie friend Kat (don't miss her scrumptious new food blog, She's In The Kitchen) suggested I make basil vinegar with it: You fill a large jar with half white vinegar, half cider vinegar, then stuff it with purple basil and let it steep for a week. Strain it and pour the resulting gorgeous magenta vinegar into a pretty bottle with a few sprigs of fresh basil. That sounded nice, but I wasn't sure what I would do with the vinegar either.

I decided to appeal to my garden blog readers, begging them to tell me what they would do if they had a beautiful purple basil plant in their garden. They quickly came to my rescue with all sorts of delicious ideas, including:

— Add it to a white bean salad with some red peppers and green onions

— Throw it into a pot of beans, tomatoes, potatoes, zuchinni, and onion

— Put it in a red sauce made from fresh tomatoes

— Garnish anything that the flavor of basil will complement

— Stir into a slaw of chopped carrots, fennel bulb, and garlic just before serving

— Make purple basil lemonade or, better still, purple basil watermelon/honeydew melon agua fresca

Soilman in England suggested I put it in Mussels à l'Italienne and even offered up his recipe: Chopped onions sweated in olive oil for a few minutes. Add a few glugs of white wine and lots of chopped tomatoes plus tomato purée. Pour your mussels (cleaned and de-bearded) in, cover and cook for 5-10 minutes. Put into bowls with lots of chopped purple basil.

I couldn't wait to tell my city friend that I'd figured out what we could do with our purple basil. He listened patiently with a slight smile on his face as I recounted all these creative ideas. Then he said, "I turned mine into pesto."

"Oh yeah?"

"It was the best basil pesto I've ever had."

"Really?"

"It was like pesto on steroids."

"Wow."

"And it wasn't even that weird of a color."

"Huh."

So I skipped all the wonderful suggestions and turned my entire purple basil plant into the best pesto I've ever tasted instead.


Homemade Purple Basil Pesto On Homemade Pizza

Low Fat, Full Flavor Purple Basil Pesto
Makes about 1-1/2 cups

1/2 cup (about 2-1/2 ounces) roasted & salted whole almonds
4 ounces fresh purple basil leaves (about 4 cups packed, but it's best if you weigh it — I love my Salter 5-pound digital scale)
6 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
6 large cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 cup finely grated pecorino romano cheese
10 ounces fresh tomatoes (about 3 smallish) any kind, quartered
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix all ingredients including almonds in a food processor until thoroughly combined and the consistency you like. Or you can use a gigantic mortar and pestle if you're trying to build up your arm muscles. Add more salt to taste if necessary. Store in the refrigerator for several days or freeze.

Except for the fact that purple basil isn't as pretty as the green and does make a rather oddly colored pesto (as you can see in the photo above), I would probably quit growing the green stuff altogether. Mixing a few green leaves into the pesto does help brighten it up a bit.

Unfortunately my friend couldn't remember what kind of purple basil we were growing, so I figure I'll just work my way through every purple variety I can find and do some scientific taste comparisons. There are even certain types of basil plants that are half purple and half green.

I didn't forget to plant basil seeds this year, though I did get a rather late start. Five different types of basil - including Purple Ruffles and Purple Osmin - plus a mixed variety surprise pack are just now sprouting in little containers, but I have high hopes for a bumper summer crop. (And besides, my tomatoes won't be ready for ages either.) I might even turn part of my purple basil harvest into something other than pesto. But don't hold your breath, especially since I've discovered such a delicious way to use it.


Homemade Pita Chips: Tastier Than Storebought & Made in Minutes

Beyond Easy White Bean Pesto Dip / Spread
Opening a bag of cheez doodles and pouring them into a bowl would probably be a slightly easier appetizer to make than this, but they wouldn't taste nearly as good - or be as good for you. This stuff isn't exactly beautiful, but trust me when I say that no one will notice.

The consistency of this spread will vary depending on the type of beans you use, how well you drain them after rinsing, and the thickness of your pesto. I made one batch with Great Northern beans and a slightly thinner pesto and ended up with a dip rather than a spread. If it's too thick for your liking, simply thin it out with a little olive oil or water.

Cans of organic beans are a staple in my farmhouse pantry. They're readily available in natural foods stores and most supermarkets and can often be found for the bargain price of about a dollar apiece. Some places such as Whole Foods will even give you a case discount if you stock up and buy 12 cans at a time.

1 15-ounce can organic white beans, such as cannellini (white kidney beans), drained and rinsed
1/2 cup homemade or purchased basil pesto
1/2 cup finely grated Pecorino Romano or other hard Italian cheese
Salt to taste

Combine beans, pesto, and cheese in the bowl of a food processor and whiz until smooth. Salt to taste. Serve with pita chips (check out my easy recipes for homemade pita chips and pita bread, plus easy pita pizzas), crackers, raw veggies, or a spoon.

This spread improves with age, so try to make it a day ahead. Of course then you'll also have to try not to gobble it all up before serving time comes, but fortunately the recipe can easily be doubled.

After coming up with this recipe while my foodie mother was visiting last fall, I've become slightly obsessed with white bean dips. Sometimes I even have them as a main course (because I eat so much I don't have any room left for the actual main course). It turns out that almost anything can be successfully mixed with a can of white beans (where have I been?), and I'll be sharing some of my other favorite creations soon.

Related posts:
How To Keep Your Basil Growing Into Fall
6/25/06: Beautiful Basil Seedlings in the Greenhouse
7/25/06: Volunteer Basil in the Kitchen Garden
8/10/06: Basil Gone Wild - and Happy Pollinators

Other Farmgirl Fare basil recipes and appetizers you might enjoy:
Savory Tomato Pesto Pie with a No-Fail Biscuit Crust
Fresh Tomato Pesto Pizza & A Simple Tomato Salad
Fresh Tomato & Basil Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread
Simple Fresh Tomato Pizza Sauce (no blanching required)
The Easiest Greek Salad Ever
Colors of Summer Salad with Fresh Basil
Summer in a Bowl with Fresh Basil
Fiesta Cottage Cheese Veggie Dip
Hot Swiss Chard Artichoke Dip
How To Make Arugula Pesto & What To Do with It
All About Chives & How To Make Herbed Yogurt Cheese

Still hungry?
You'll find links to all my sweet and savory Less Fuss, More Flavor recipes in the sidebar of the Farmgirl Fare homepage under Previous Posts: Food Stuff W/ Recipes. Enjoy!

This is my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging, a tasty and informative event created nearly 3 years ago by my foodie friend Kalyn, and hosted this week by Kalyn herself. You'll find this week's roundup at Kalyn's Kitchen. Want to join in the WHB fun? Check out the Rules For Weekend Herb Blogging.

© Copyright 2008 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where Farmgirl Susan shares stories & photos of her crazy country life on 240 remote Missouri acres - and there can never be too much fresh basil, no matter what the color.

Recipe: What To Do With Kohlrabi? Puree It!

These Resprouted Purple Kohlrabi Plants Are Very, Very Safe

Life is complicated. Something as basic as eating shouldn't be, but leave it to us humans to let this vital, natural act all but take over our lives. Even though most of us now have the luxury of hunting and gathering our food from the farmers' market and garden and grocery store rather than out in the wilds, we nevertheless think about it constantly.

But instead of worrying whether we'll be able to take down a bison to feed us through the winter, our days are now dominated by smaller, more specific--and yet still often overwhelming--details, such as figuring out how to produce meals that will simultaneously support our health, our budget, and the neverending desire to lose that pesky ten pounds.

But it's the often ridiculous rules and rationalizations we've come up with that really send us over the edge of edible obsession. You know, those little things that make perfect sense only because you've conveniently convinced yourself that they do.

For instance, some people believe that calories don't actually count if you've snitched the food from someone else's plate. Or that a healthy breakfast can consist of an enormous hunk of chocolate cake as long as it's accompanied by a large glass of milk (this would be me). Nitrate-fearing health nuts will gleefully wolf down a mile-long hot dog if they're sitting in a sports stadium, and people who would never allow a bag of refined sugar into their homes are routinely seen walking around carnivals with their faces buried in clouds of cotton candy.

Some people are more practical, only consuming certain foods if they're in season, or setting spending limits and refusing to pay more than a dollar for a can of tuna or 89 cents for a bunch of parsley. Then there's the inordinate number of us who know that when it comes to eating, absolutely anything goes if you're on vacation.

The Beauty Of Vegetables Is Highly Underrated

Ever since I moved to the country and started planting an enormous kitchen garden, many of my self-imposed food laws have to do with buying fruits and vegetables. If I don't--or can't--grow something, then I have no problem paying for it. I buy celery, carrots, and mushrooms year round (as long as they're the right price and the celery and carrots are organic).

But plunking down cash for so-so stuff that I have in great abundance at certain times of the year? I just can't get myself to do it. Swiss chard from the supermarket? Certainly not. Kale? I can't. Tomatoes? No way. It's the same with basil, turnips, arugula, cucumbers, green beans, lettuce, sweet peppers, pak choy, radishes, strawberries, and all sorts of other stuff. In a moment of weakness last summer I forked over two dollars for a miniscule packet of fresh dill (which grows wild in my garden but never when the cucumbers are ready) and the stress almost killed me.

I do, however, make a few exceptions for year round essentials that I grow but not well (or not enough of), such as onions, broccoli, and parsley. And if I could find a decent source for it, I would probably buy kohlrabi every single week.

Kohlrabi, from the German words kohl (cabbage) and rabi (turnip), is not actually a cabbage or a turnip. Cultivated in Europe since at least the mid 1500's, this cold loving member of the brassica (cabbage) family is low in calories, high in fiber, and a good source of several vitamins and minerals. Although kohlrabi has been grown the U.S. since at least the early 1800's, it still has yet to become very popular.

Sweet and mildly flavored, kohlrabi can be braised, boiled, stuffed, sliced, scalloped, steamed, julienned, roasted, and sautéed. You can grate it into slaw, toss it into salads, slip it into soups and stews, snack on it raw with dip, and stir-fry it. You can even wrap it in foil and grill it. I've seen recipes where kohlrabi was covered in cream, sautéed with anchovies, stuffed into empanadas, fried into cakes, served with hollandaise sauce, and turned into a cinnamon brunch bake. This vegetable is versatile.

Unfortunately all of these cooks are wasting their time--and their kohlrabi. For the only thing you should ever be doing with kohlrabi is turning it into purée. Trust me.

Purple Kohlrabi In My Kitchen Garden

Kohlrabi Purée Recipe
Adapted slightly from The New Basics Cookbook by Julee Rosso & Sheila Lukins (authors of The Silver Palate Cookbook)

The Silver Palate ladies, who are self-described kohlrabi fans, say that "kohlrabi, once tasted, can become an obsession, for it seems to exude freshness," and liken it to an almost peppery version of broccoli. They do include two other kohlrabi recipes besides this purée in The New Basics Cookbook, but I'm sure that's only because their editor told them to.

Kohlrabi is usually available from May to December and comes in both white- (which is actually green) and purple-skinned varieties. The insides of both are white. Since my motto is Why go with green if you can choose purple instead? I always grow the purple variety in my organic kitchen garden. Look for kohlrabi bulbs that are about 2-1/2 inches in diameter. Any larger and the skin may toughen and need to be peeled, and the insides can be woody. Freshly picked kohlrabi will keep for several weeks in the refrigerator.

You'll need both the bulb and the leaves for this recipe, which is where my problem comes in. By the time the bulbs have formed on the plants, insects have usually ravaged the leaves. (They'll grow back if given the chance, as you can see in the top photo of these old plants I discovered buried under weeds last fall, but by then the bulbs will no longer be edible. Fortunately the young leaves are wonderful in salads.) This spring all the leaves remained untouched, but for some reason most of the plants never formed bulbs. I'm still trying to figure out why; it may have had to do with the warm weather. But I did manage to harvest kohlrabi enough to make one batch of this glorious purée.

Kohlrabi plants are beautiful. Kohlrabi purée is not, which is why I haven't included a photo. This is actually a good thing, because if you believe that guests should only be served food that is pleasing to look at, you can save this recipe for a time when you only need to feed yourself.

Rosso and Lukins suggest serving kohlrabi purée alongside your favorite meatloaf instead of mashed potatoes, but I turned it into a main course and managed to devour an embarrassingly large amount while standing in the kitchen.

I've adapted the recipe slightly, mostly because I'm not the type of person who ever has 3 Tablespoons of chicken stock or 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice hanging around in the fridge. The mushrooms do add a nice flavor, but I've left them out before, and the purée still tasted absolutely delicious.

4 kohlrabi bulbs with leaves
2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 ounces cultivated mushrooms (I used Baby Bellas), quartered
3 Tablespoons cream (or milk, chicken stock, olive oil, or water)
salt and pepper to taste

1. Trim the kohlrabi bulbs, peeling them if the skins seem tough. Rinse the leaves (discarding any that are yellow) pat them dry, and coarsely chop. Set aside. But the bulbs into 1-inch chunks.

2. Bring a saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil, and add the kohlrabi chunks. Reduce the heat and simmer until tender, about 15 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a skillet. Add the onion and sauté over medium-low heat until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, another 1 to 2 minutes. Do not let garlic brown.

4. Add the mushrooms and the reserved kohlrabi leaves to the skillet. Cover, and cook 5 minutes. Then uncover, and cook, stirring, until all the liquid has evaporated, 3 minutes. Set the skillet aside.

5. Drain the kohlrabi chunks and place them in the bowl of a food processor. Add the mushroom mixture and all the remaining ingredients. Purée until smooth.

6. Transfer the purée to a saucepan and reheat over low heat, stirring, 2 minutes.

Makes 6 portions. (I love that they don't actually say it will "serve" six people, but that it does indeed make six portions.)

So what are your silly food rules? Come on, I won't tell anyone.

This is my contribution to Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this week at Kalyn's Kitchen, where WHB was created over two years ago. Each week food bloggers around the world share favorite recipes using herbs, plants, veggies, and flowers. Want to join the fun? The rules for Weekend Herb Blogging are here.

Copyright © 2007 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where Farmgirl Susan shares stories & photos of her crazy country life on 240 remote Missouri acres.

Hot Swiss Chard Artichoke Dip Recipe

This New Twist On An Old Favorite Is Perfect For Parties

Do you love hot spinach and artichoke dip? My version of this popular appetizer is cooked on the stovetop instead of in the oven and uses chopped fresh Swiss chard leaves and stalks in place of frozen spinach. It's also packed with plenty of onion and garlic for extra flavor. The easy recipe, along with lots of other ideas for what to do with Swiss chard, is over on my kitchen garden blog--just click here.

You didn't know I have a kitchen garden blog? You can learn why this Farmgirl Fare offshoot isn't just for gardeners here.

The best Swiss chard you'll ever eat is of course that which you grow yourself, and fortunately this versatile vegetable is extremely easy to cultivate. It's both heat and cold tolerant and even thrives in containers. My kitchen garden post, How To Grow Your Own Swiss Chard & Why You Should, offers detailed growing tips and--thanks to all my fellow Swiss chard lovers--the comments section is full of all sorts of delicious ways to enjoy my number one leafy green. Do you have a favorite Swiss chard recipe you'd like to share?

© 2007 FarmgirlFare.com

Factory Tours & My Low Fat, Full Flavor Fiesta Cottage Cheese Veggie Dip Recipe

Making A Memory Even Tastier

When I was a kid, one of the things we often did while on vacation was to go on factory tours. Except for a few, like the Volkswagon factory in Germany, these places usually manufactured or processed some sort of food. To this day, details from those visits make up some of my clearest childhood memories.

There was, for example, the pineapple factory in Hawaii where pineapple juice came out of a drinking fountain. And the tuna factory where two of the ladies cutting up large whole fish on a long assembly line smiled and pointed at me as I pinched my little nose in an attempt to escape the overpowering scent of tuna.

I remember watching thousands of Hershey's chocolate kisses riding stair-step conveyors at the Hershey factory in California, and being disappointed when the tour of the "real" factory in Hershey, Pennsylvania turned out to be nothing more than an amusement park type ride.

As an adult, I happily toured the Ben & Jerry's ice cream plant in Waterbury, Vermont not once but twice. I tasted ice cream right off the assembly line and saw the original note sent to Ben & Jerry from a fan--written on an ice cream carton lid--suggesting they create a flavor called Cherry Garcia. I also discovered that through much experimenting in the early days, Ben & Jerry determined the best way to break up Heath Bars into the perfect sized chunks for their Heath Bar Crunch ice cream was to drop a case of the candy bars onto the ground from a stepladder. They employ a slightly more advanced technique now.

While touring the Jelly Belly jelly bean factory a few years ago, my mother learned that the flavored outside layer on each jelly bean is applied by tumbling them around in what look like gigantic clothes dryers. And at the on-site gift shop, Jelly Belly "seconds" are packaged up and sold as Belly Flops.

After a tour of the memorabilia-filled Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, a friend of mine had a chance to taste several flavors of soda only available outside the U.S.

Factory tours have become quite popular, especially with families, because they're interesting, usually kid-friendly, and often free. There are even books devoted to the subject. Watch It Made In The U.S.A.: A Visitor's Guide To The Best Factory Tours and Company Museums by Karen Axelrod and Bruce Brumberg promises to "help you and your family discover information about more than 300 ordinary and extraordinary products most of us take for granted." Included in the book link above are seasonal monthly posts by Karen Axelrod. This month "Halloween Heaven" highlights seven candy factory tours around the country.

While factory tours are fun for people of all ages, I do think the fascinating glimpses they give us into what often seem like whole other worlds have the most profound effect on children. Every once in a while Joe still fondly recalls the tour of a potato chip factory he took with his Cub Scout troop some forty years ago.

The most memorable factory I've ever visited was actually the one closest to home. It was a tortilla factory owned by the mother of my very first friend (we "met" when we were just a few months old), and one year she treated our Brownie troop to a personal tour. We saw enormous vats of masa, watched tortillas travel along what seemed like miles of conveyor belts, and were given handfuls of warm tortilla chips by the ladies running a machine that magically coated the chips with nacho flavored seasoning.

Even without the tortilla factory, my friend's mother stood out from the crowd. She put an antique wooden carousel horse with a tail made from real hair in the living room, zipped around in a classic Porsche roadster, and once fed us French toast for dinner. They were a family of expert skiers and had a snow cabin full of bunk beds up in the mountains. She was the only mother in the neighborhood we called by her first name, and her entire face lit up when she smiled.

She also spent a lot of time devising ways to get people to eat more tortillas. Long before the days of desktop publishing, she and her mother put out a newsletter called Tortilla Talk, which they filled with interesting recipes using tortillas and tortilla chips.

Back in early August, the first ripe tomatoes from the garden and an ongoing cottage cheese kick prompted this e-mail message to my mother: What was that stuff you used to make a long time ago with cottage cheese and salsa or tomatoes or whatever? And what did you do with it once you made it--just eat it with chips?

The recipe for 'Gayle's Caliente Cottage Cheese Dip' arrived in my inbox soon after, and I wasn't surprised to find that it was from Tortilla Talk. Below it my mother had added, Gayle could be Mrs. Pete Wilson. I've since learned that the recipe did indeed originate in the (now) former First Lady of California's kitchen.

I took the original six-ingredient recipe, applied my More More More motto to it, and came up with this colorful, veggie-packed version I've been devouring ever since. It's always nice when something that's so good for you tastes so good, too. It's even low fat.

So what memorable factory tours have you been on?



The More Color The Better Is What I Always Say

Susan's Fiesta Cottage Cheese Veggie Dip
Makes about 3 cups

Gayle's recipe called for 3 dashes of Tabasco and a 4-ounce can of diced green chiles, which were a staple in many pantry cupboards in our neighborhood when I was growing up. I opted to use a chopped fresh jalapeno pepper instead, but canned chiles would add a nicely flavored kick. Using yellow or orange tomatoes and/or sweet peppers will make the dip even more colorful. As always, I urge you to seek out local and organic ingredients whenever possible. They really do make a difference in so many ways.

1 16-ounce container cottage cheese (I love Cabot and Nancy's Organic lowfat)
1 cup chopped Roma or other paste tomatoes (about 4 large)
1 cup chopped sweet red pepper
3 large scallions (green onions) white and green parts, chopped
1 large clove garlic, minced or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped (optional)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix all the ingredients in a medium bowl. Feel free to add even more veggies if you like. The original recipe says to chill at least 3 hours before serving, then pass with tortilla or corn chips. Waiting a few hours, or even overnight, does improve the flavor, but, as usual, I nibbled away while I chopped and mixed, and it tasted just fine to me. It's funny, though, how you can add so many ingredients to a container of cottage cheese and have it all fit back in the original container. This dip will keep two to three days in the fridge.



Turn It Into Instant Coleslaw

What else can you do with it?
Personally I think this dip tastes great just plunked in a bowl and eaten with a spoon, which is the way I've enjoyed most of the six or so batches I've made over the past few months. It's a nice (and healthier) change from plain cottage cheese. If you haven't used up all your cabbage making my Mexican Jumping Bean Slaw, simply combine some Fiesta dip with shredded cabbage for another new twist on coleslaw.

You could also use it to fill an omelette or top a baked potato. Or make a quick vegetarian burrito by stirring in a can of black beans and a can of corn into either the plain dip or the coleslaw and wrapping it all up in a flour tortilla, perhaps with an extra sprinkling of chopped fresh cilantro. You could probably even spread some on a sandwich. Can you tell I love this stuff?

Still hungry?
You'll find links to all of my original recipes under Previous Posts: Food Stuff W/ Recipes in the sidebar of the Farmgirl Fare homepage.


This is my contribution to the Doubly Delicious Two Year Celebration of Weekend Herb Blogging, the wildly popular traveling event my friend Kalyn (who loves cilantro) started as a joke back in 2005. Each week food bloggers around the world share favorite recipes using herbs, plants, veggies, and flowers. The recap will be posted on Kalyn's Kitchen Monday October 15th. You'll find all the weekly recaps from the first two years of Weekend Herb Blogging here and here. Want to join in? The rules for Weekend Herb Blogging are here.

© 2007 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where Farmgirl Susan shares stories & photos of her crazy country life on 240 remote acres.

How To Freeze Zucchini& My One Claim To Fame

Squash Blossom In My Kitchen Garden

It's a big world out there, and distinguishing yourself from the crowd in even some small way is nearly impossible. Most of us must accept early on that we'll never be an Olympic athlete or an astronaut or a princess, but these days even the tiniest of titles are snatched from our grasp the second we strike up a conversation.

Just finish touring 14 European countries in 9 days? Your seatmate on the plane home did it in five. Was your child reading books at age two? One of the kids at his preschool recited Shakespeare from the womb. Tell someone you bake your own bread, and they'll inform you that they keep five different authentic European sourdough starters in their fridge and grind all of their own wheat.

Even the dubious honors are hard to come by. Each year I'm nominated for World's Worst Housekeeper, but I never win. The second time my mother came to visit us in The Shack, the first thing she did was hang a little sign on our tacky-but-practical black plastic pole lamp that said Martha Stewart Doesn't Live Here. Out of respect to both Martha and my mother we refuse to dust the lamp.

I have, however, realized that I do have one bonafide claim to fame:

I'm the only person on the planet who tends an enormous kitchen garden and yet bought thirty zucchini this summer.

So far this year I've harvested two zucchini from three plants. There's a third one out on the vine, but it's turned a sickly yellow. I planted four other types of heirloom summer squash that are doing almost as well. This totally embarrassing situation mostly has to do with killer squash bugs and my refusal to use toxic poisons in my organic garden, but I also seem to be having a pollination problem. Despite the fact that every time I peer into a squash blossom a bumble bee crawls out of it, for each summer squash I do manage to harvest, there are at least two dozen blossoms that simply shrivel up and die. Anybody know what's going on?

The good news is that I paid just twenty cents per zucchini, because there's only so much you can charge for something that everybody else is desperately trying to offload for free.

Clever and tasty ways to use up zucchini are everywhere this time of year, but many people are sick to death of eating it no matter how nicely it's served. What you should really be doing with all your late summer zucchini is freezing it for later. Six months from now, when you're not only craving zucchini but seriously considering plunking down $2.99 a pound for some bruised and battered, rubbery specimens at the supermarket, you'll be thrilled that you did.

Fortunately freezing zucchini and other summer squash is a snap. All you do is cut it into half-inch slices, blanch it in a pot of boiling water for three minutes, transfer it to a bowl of ice water to cool, drain it, and bag it.

Back in 2002, I decided to freeze my first pile of zucchini and yellow straightneck squash, figuring the frozen slices would turn to mush but that I could blend them up into warm winter soups. To my pleasant surprise they emerged from the freezer in perfect shape,* so I ended up turning each package into a Quick Winter Pantry Saute (olive oil, onion, garlic, summer squash or zucchini slices, a quart jar of canned San Marzano tomatoes from the garden, a can of organic garbanzo beans, & a sprinkle of freshly grated pecorino romano, served over rice or pasta if desired).

You can also freeze grated zucchini for baking, though I've never tried it. Some people put it straight into bags, but others recommend steam blanching it first (see links below for more information on how to do this). Update: Many thanks to all of you who left comments letting me know that unblanched grated zucchini freezes beautifully--and can be used for more than baking. I now have several bags of it in the freezer. And thanks for all the other zucchini tips, too!

You can pack your zucchini into zipper freezer bags or inexpensive freezer containers, but it'll freeze better and last longer if you vacuum seal it with a FoodSaver. I've had my FoodSaver for years and use it to seal everything from green beans to wild venison to chainsaw chains (it keeps them from rusting). I've excavated three-year-old packages of summer squash and other goodies from the depths of the freezer that looked and tasted fine.

A FoodSaver is an investment that pays for itself in no time, and once you start sealing up everything in sight you'll wonder how you ever lived without one. I've found it's more economical to make my own custom bags using two different sized rolls of the FoodSaver bag material.

For the third year in a row the Eat Local Challenge website, in association with the Locavores, is hosting a month-long Eat Local Challenge, and everyone is invited to join in. This year the challenge is in September, with an emphasis on canning and preserving the bounty of September for the winter months. Why not start by preserving some zucchini?

Related info & articles you might find interesting:
How To Freeze Summer Squash: Illlustrated step-by-step instructions from the wonderful site pickyourown.org
Quality for Keeps: A Comprehensive Guide To Freezing Vegetables from the University of Missouri Extension Center
The Ball Home Canning Basics Kit includes everything you need get started canning
What To Do With All Those Green Tomatoes? Make My Easy Green Tomato Relish!
My Basic Summer Squash Soup Recipe
My Simple Summer Harvest Soup
My Simple Summer Harvest Soup--The Autumn Version

*When you blanch and freeze most vegetables they lose their crunch. I actually prefer my squash on the soft and nearly overcooked side, but if you're an al dente sort of person you'll want to use your frozen squash in soup.

© 2007 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where Farmgirl Susan shares stories & photos of her crazy country life on 240 remote Missouri acres.

Three No-Cook Summer Recipes:Mexican Jumping Bean Slaw, Easy Vegetarian Tacos & High Kickin' Creamy Tomato Dressing

When Life Gives You Five Enormous Cabbages. . .

Okay, life didn’t exactly give me the cabbages, but when they’re twenty cents a pound and locally grown, in my book that’s practically free--and obviously meant to be. So that was why one day last summer I tossed twenty pounds of cabbage into my supermarket shopping cart.

Once in the kitchen with my bounty, I realized there was no way all those cabbages were going to fit in my already crowded refrigerator, which meant I had to store them in a cooler with ice packs. I then proceeded to stuff myself with cabbage until I was sick of it, which is of course what true seasonal eating is all about.

I was also determined to come up with new ways to enjoy this extremely nutritious member of the Cruciferae family of vegetables. Inspired one day by various ingredients that were all hanging around the kitchen hoping to be eaten soon, I tossed them together with a few pantry staples and created this colorful salad that I immediately named Mexican Jumping Bean Slaw.



I’d forgotten all about it until a couple of weeks ago when I arrived home toting five locally grown cabbages. Obviously I didn’t come down with a case of self-restraint over the past year. Fortunately these little darlings weighed in at less than a pound apiece. They even all fit in the fridge.

The slaw was as good as I’d remembered it, and would be perfect for a potluck. While it tastes great on its own as a side dish, a snack, or a light and healthy lunch, this time I decided to try stuffing some of into warm homemade taco shells. I topped these refreshingly different vegetarian tacos with chopped tomatoes, cilantro, a drizzle of dressing, and a dollop of sour cream. Oh yeah.



Mexican Jumping Bean Slaw
Serves 4 to 6 -- Recipe may be doubled

This delicious and healthful coleslaw-type salad doesn’t actually contain any jumping beans and is more Tex-Mex than Mexican, but when it comes to dubbing new dishes I’ll admit that sometimes catchy wins out over reality. Besides, with a name like Mexican Jumping Bean Slaw, you might even be able to talk any picky little eaters at your table into seeing if they’re able to pop a bite in their mouth before it jumps right off their fork.

The snappy tomato dressing, which was inspired by last summer's Seven Second Tomato Glut Solution (oh how I wish I had that glut this year), whizzes together in seconds in the blender and can be used on all sorts of other things besides this slaw (see my suggestions at the end of the recipe), but you can always use a bottled dressing instead. Trader Joe’s sells a lowfat creamy cilantro dressing in their refrigerated section that’s full of flavor but not calories.

The optional cooked chicken turns this into a heartier dish that’s perfect for a summer supper with friends, or for feeding people who simply can’t fathom the idea of eating a vegetarian taco.

As always, I urge you to seek out local and organic ingredients whenever possible. They really do make a difference in so many ways. Cans of organic black beans and organic corn are versatile pantry staples, and both can often be found for about a dollar.

3 cups (about 9 ounces) shredded green cabbage
1 cup (about 3 ounces) shredded purple cabbage
2 large sweet red peppers, diced
2 medium carrots, grated
4 large scallions, chopped
1 15-ounce can organic black beans, drained and rinsed
1 15-ounce can organic whole sweet corn, drained or 1-1/2 cups cooked fresh corn
2 cups shredded or diced cooked chicken (optional)
Salt to taste

2-1/2 cups High Kickin’ Creamy Tomato Dressing (see recipe below)

In a large bowl, combine green cabbage, purple cabbage, red peppers, carrots, black beans, and corn. Stir in chicken if desired. Add 2 cups dressing and mix well, adding another 1/2 cup dressing if desired. Salt to taste. Serve immediately, or for best flavor, chill for several hours or overnight. Slaw will keep in the fridge for 2 to 3 days.



Mexican Jumping Bean Slaw Tacos
Few Tablespoons olive or canola oil
Corn tortillas

Optional toppings:
Chopped vine-ripened tomatoes
Chopped fresh cilantro
More High Kickin' Creamy Tomato Dressing
Sour cream
Guacamole or diced avocado
Shredded cheese

Heat 2 Tablespoons oil in a large skillet. Add two or three tortillas. Using tongs, turn tortillas over so that both sides are covered with oil. Let cook, turning once or twice more, until just starting to crisp, 2 to 3 minutes. Set on a paper towel-lined plate and sprinkle lightly with salt. Cook the remaining tortillas, adding more oil to the skillet as needed.

To serve, fold warm tortillas in half and stuff with Mexican Jumping Bean Slaw and optional toppings, drizzling with more High Kickin’ Creamy Tomato Dressing if desired.

High Kickin' Creamy Tomato Dressing
Makes about 3-1/2 cups

1 pound juicy, vine-ripened tomatoes (about 3 medium), coarsely chopped
1 cup yogurt (I use lowfat or nonfat)
1 cup sour cream (I use lowfat)
3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3 cloves garlic, peeled & chopped
1 Tablespoon ground cumin, preferably freshly ground*
1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds, preferably freshly ground*
1 teaspoon chile powder* (or more to taste)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth, adding a little more tomato if it’s too thick. Store in refrigerator for up to 3 days. Warning note: The heat from the chile powder in the dressing becomes more pronounced the next day.

*I order most of my herbs and spices in bulk from AmeriHerb. Read more here.

Other ways to enjoy this dressing:
--Mixed into a Tex-Mex potato salad
--Drizzled over a platter of sliced garden tomatoes
--Tossed with a green salad
--With a plate of grilled summer squash
--In your favorite chicken salad
--As a quick way to give rice salad a kick

All this veggie goodness means these recipes fit right into ARF/5-A-Day. Catch it every Tuesday night at Sweetnicks.

© 2007 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where Farmgirl Susan shares stories & photos of her crazy country life on 240 remote Missouri acres.

Give Beets A Chance: Caramelized Beets With Garlic Recipe

Harvesting Young Beet Greens With Cary Last Spring

"Who here likes beets?" I asked my cooking class students. Almost everyone raised their hand. "Wow. A room full of beet lovers. This is great. Okay, do you like garlic?" Enthusiastic nods all around. "Then I'm going to tell you the easiest, most amazingly delicious way to prepare them."

It didn't matter to me (or my students) that this was a class on making cream cheese pastry. Certain things simply need to be shared no matter what the circumstances, and my recipe for Caramelized Beets With Garlic is one of them.


Last Summer's Tiny But Tasty Beet Harvest

One of the best things about homegrown beets is that even if you abuse them, they will still taste delicious. The plants will put up with frosty mornings as well as hot and humid summer days. The beets you see here were planted late and thinned too late (those are the giant thinnings in the top photo). They were also left in the ground until July 31st, so some of them ended up much too big--and looking a little strange.

I then stuffed my poor harvest in a plastic bag and stashed it in the refrigerator for two months because I wanted to save it for my beet-crazy mother's upcoming visit. I was sure the beets would be tough and woody (not to mention half rotten), but I should have known better--beets from the garden do not hold a grudge. They were wonderful.

It's not too late to plant some beet seeds in the garden. Check out my kitchen garden blog post, How To Grow Beets from Seed and Why You Should, to learn how.

Caramelized Beets With Garlic
There are plenty of other ways to cook beets, but even if I have a 100-pound harvest someday I will probably never try any of them because I am so addicted to these.

The two most important things you need when making this recipe are plenty of beets and plenty of time. Beets shrink down a whole lot while cooking--and if you or a kitchen companion is a hungry nibbler, they'll shrink down even more. Start with way more beets than you think you'll need (my mother and I ate this entire harvest in one sitting).

Cooking time will vary depending on how big a pile of beets you're cooking, the size of your beet dice, and how high you set the burner on your stove. Figure a minimum of 45 minutes, but it'll probably take more like an hour (trust me, it's worth the wait).

So easy. Scrub your pile of fresh beets under running water. If the skins seem a bit thick or tough, you can peel them. (I’ve never made this with storebought beets—or ever bought beets at all, come to think of it—so I don’t know what the skins are like.) Trim tops and bottoms, then cut into about 1-inch dice.

Pour a generous amount of your favorite olive oil in a large skillet or pot and heat. Add beets, stir to coat with oil, then cook slowly, stirring often.

Meanwhile, peel several cloves of garlic, sprinkle them generously with salt, and chop them up. When the beets are fully cooked and caramelized, make a hole in the center of the beets and add the garlic, stirring around to make sure the garlic touches the bottom of the pan and cooks. Cook about 1 or 2 mintues; do not let garlic brown. Stir garlic into beets and serve.

If you happen to have any leftovers, they taste great the next day, either reheated or straight from the fridge.

© Copyright 2007 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where Farmgirl Susan shares stories & photos of her crazy country life on 240 remote Missouri acres.