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Apple Pie

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Do you feel it? Is time swishing by as fast as a 747 jetliner? I looked it up and yep, a jetliner exceeds 600 miles an hour! Whew! That’s how September and October have felt around our house. I blinked and the days flew by. We have had birthdays and anniversaries to celebrate, and that has been beyond fun to spend time with those I love. We have also been busy with hospital visits and doctors appointments. My sweet mother has had plenty of medical issues the past few months. Thankfully she is on the downhill side of this. My advice to you dear friends? Wear sunscreen…..you do not want to deal with melanoma.  My husband and I even took a much needed weekend get away trip to Eureka Springs, Arkansas.  That is a blog post for another time, but it was a wonderful respite. We stayed at a quaint bungalow within walking distance of all the shops and restaurants on Main Street. The weather was picture perfect and I am still remembering the bliss!

Of course, as always my antidote to busyness and yes, even stress is to enjoy delicious food. The apples were about to spoil on the kitchen counter from days of neglect so on Sunday it was time, well let’s be real, it was passed time to peel apples. I carved time for my most favorite experience in the kitchen, baking pies. [Read more…]

Crisp Cucumber Poppy Seed Salad

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Summer is lingering on just a bit longer, especially if the thermometer here in the Midwest has anything to say about it. I am still enjoying cucumbers from the CSA that Hen House provided long after the CSA has ended.

My mom always marinated cucumbers in vinegar, water and onion. Growing up I grew extremely fond of this combination. Recently I tasted a cucumber salad that was laden with poppy seeds and was very tart to the taste. It was delicious too! I came home and immediately began working on my version of this seasonal treat. Traditional Midwestern cucumbers will work fine but I actually prefer the variety of cucumber known as English. [Read more…]

Beer Can Chicken

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I was lucky enough to grow up during the time when we did not have cell phones, Twitter, Facebook or any other social media distractions. I spent summers at our lake home on the Lake of the Ozarks. Lucky me! Weekends were filled with All-American fun such as picking blackberries from a wild field, my mom making her famous cobbler and laughing with friends as we “played on the lake” all day long. The memories that I have stored in the memory safety deposit box in my mind will last for my lifetime and for that I am eternally thankful.

A fond food memory of weekends on the lake includes my dad at the grill. He was always in his happy place when he was at the lake. One of the recipes that he would grill throughout the summer was beer can chicken. Beer can chicken would be served with corn on the cob, plump, ruby red summer tomatoes and peach or blackberry cobbler. Are you getting the picture? This truly was heaven on earth and as close to any Norman Rockwell painting that you have ever seen.

Years have flown by since weekends were carefree and spent at the lake but recently when the Hen House Market CSA included a fresh, free range local chicken all those memories surfaced and if I am totally honest, a few tears, too. I declared to my family that it was beer can chicken for Sunday dinner and they were as excited as I was. [Read more…]

Pesto and Peach Pie CSA

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Participating in the Hen House CSA (community supported agriculture) this summer has brought our family’s fruit and vegetable consumption from junior varsity to varsity status in a flash. It has been exciting each Saturday morning to grab our bag and scurry to Hen House market to see what goodies they have for us. If you have been on the fence, then run, don’t walk and sign up to participate in a CSA.

Each week seems better than the week before and they are all 5 star. Saturday I picked up a gallon of whole milk, a dozen eggs, fresh basil, fresh carrots, tomatoes, peaches, cinnamon raisin bread and salsa. Whew! That’s a lot of great goodness for my family to enjoy.

There seems to be thousands of ways to use fresh basil in the summer but, of course, our go to is pesto. My daughter would enjoy pesto everyday of the week if I would serve it to her. I like to make it during the summer and freeze it for those cold, snowy days that we are sure to see in 6 months.

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Marinated Kabobs

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Kathy mentioned last week that we have partnered with Hen House markets this summer. It is such a treat to pick up our CSA (community supported agriculture) bag each Saturday. It is especially nice to be able to pick up my CSA when I do my weekly grocery shopping. This week I received a French baguette, a jar of honey, beef stew meat, brown eggs, cucumbers, zucchini, red beets and potatoes. Wow! It is a feast and I could hardly wait to begin dreaming about what I would do with the bag of locally grown and produced food.

The first thing that came to mind was to use the stew meat, zucchini and honey to make kabobs. Kabobs are a wonderful way to get my family to eat vegetables that they normally wouldn’t choose to eat. Pair the kabobs with a rice pilaf and we had a Sunday afternoon feast. This was an easy go-together meal. The only thing I needed to remember was to begin the marinade and marinate the meat the day before. This was an important step in order to tenderize the meat. Usually kabobs are made with sirloin but by cutting the stew meat into small bite-size pieces this was an economical way to enjoy kabobs, and of course, you can use sirloin instead of stew meat. If you enjoy kabobs as much as we do, you might want to try this recipe too.  This is a retro kabob recipe and one that we love.

I have thoroughly enjoyed planning our menus this week around the CSA bag. I see a week filled with spicy marinated cucumbers, roasted beet salad, vegetable frittatas and stuffed zucchini–this is a win-win for my family. We have a variety of dinner ideas and plenty of healthy vegetable to enjoy.

Keep the living easy this summer and marinade beef today, then in a day or two, dinner is ready in a snap. Enjoy!

Marinated Beef Kabobs

1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon coarse ground pepper
1 to 1 1/2 pounds stew meat, cut into 1-inch pieces**
Vegetables for skewers such as mushrooms, zucchini, grape tomatoes, onion, red or green pepper

In a medium bowl, whisk together olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, lemon juice, minced garlic, honey and coarse ground pepper. Pour into a ziptop bag or pour into a shallow baking dish with 2-inch sides. Add meat to bag or baking dish. Seal bag or cover baking dish with plastic wrap. Marinate meat for 24 hours in the refrigerator.

Drain meat, reserving the marinade. Skewer meat pieces and vegetables onto skewers. Place the reserved marinade in a small saucepan, over medium high heat. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to a simmer and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

Preheat grill to medium high or allow coals to burn down to white ash. Grill meat over direct heat until meat thermometer registers 145°, or until beef is done as desired, turning skewers to brown evenly and cook vegetables. During the grilling, baste the vegetables and meat with the cooked marinade.

**Substitute sirloin or your favorite cut of steak for stew meat.

 

This post has been sponsored by Hen House. More information on their CSA can be found here. All opinions expressed in this post are our own. Thank you for supporting the brands that help make this site possible.

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