Green Options

June on our Wisconsin farm and B&B, Inn Serendipity, ushers in a few weeks of chaos.  Tending everything from gardens to B&B guests, June packs in a cornucopia of duties that take time away from the kitchen and savoring the abundance of the early summer season.

Don’t get me wrong as I truly relish this time of year, when both the days and work lists are long but satisfying.  Which is why we need quality fuel, good food to provide energy for the day.  This Spring Spinach and Asparagus Pasta ranks our new seasonal favorite, as it blends the tender seasonal flavors of asparagus and spinach with a filling dose of pasta, nuts and cheese, seasoned up with a unique, savory soy sauce-based dressing.  Plus it makes a sizeable batch, perfect for easy leftovers throughout the week.

Read on for the recipe and enjoy:

Kids love play dough. There is no getting around it. If we’re being honest here, I’ll confess that I love the stuff, too! The store bought sort is pretty pricey, though. It comes in those plastic containers and contains preservatives to prolong its shelf life. On top of all that, I’m betting that the chemical dyes that turn it those lovely colors are none too natural. There are some more natural alternatives out there, but nothing beats making your own from scratch!

Luckily, making play dough is fun, easy, and you can even get your kiddos involved! My mom teaches preschool, and I still remember helping her make big batches of play dough during the last weekend of every summer vacation. We’d hang out in the kitchen, mixing and measuring ingredients. She’d even let me stir it in the pot while she supervised. I’ll admit that we did use that spooky food coloring that comes in the plastic squeezy containers, but I did a little digging and found some alternative coloring options that I think you’ll really dig. Enough reminiscing….let’s make some play dough!

Of the adjectives used to describe gluten-free baked goods, the word “fluffy” rarely makes the cut.   Heavy,  solid, crumbly, dry — yes, any and all of those. Those of us living sans gluten have gotten used to the slice-and-toast routine when it comes to wheatless breads.  Fresh-out-of-the-oven-fluffy has all but vanished from our vocabulary. These fruit-sweetened beauties, though, change all of that.

For starters, the batter actually rose above and beyond the baking tin’s edge.  When’s the last time you remember anything gluten-free doing that? These muffins even manage to disguise shredded fruits and vegetables without coming anywhere near the dreaded dense description.

Goodbye flat, vaguely muffin-shaped globules.  It’s time to move on.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably found yourself in the situation of being ready to make dinner but then realizing you haven’t bought groceries in a while and there’s not much to eat in the kitchen. When you’re hungry but also too lazy to leave the house to go shopping, it’s time for some serious MacGyver action. But instead of defusing a dangerous bomb with just a paper clip and duct tape, the task is to create a tasty meal with the only tools in front of you: the contents of your fridge and pantry.

Thankfully, there are a few recipes that can nearly always be created at the last minute with just a few ingredients. One of my favorites is Spaghetti Aglio e Olio, which sounds complicated but is just a simple and delicious dish of pasta with olive oil and garlic. I’d venture a guess that most people usually have a box of dried pasta stashed somewhere in the kitchen and olive oil and garlic are generally pantry staples. Ta-da! You’ve got the makings of Spaghetti Aglio e Olio. If you happen to have any other fresh vegetables in the house, you can toss them in as well. It’s a great way to cook green by using up produce before it goes to waste and cooking a filling and tasty meal without any meat.

Wheatless Wednesday, along with her currently more popular cousin Meatless Monday, were the brainchild of Herbert Hoover during World War I.  Already active as a food relief administrator in Europe, Hoover was appointed to preside over the U.S. Food Administration in 1917, just before the United States entered the First World War.  It would be twelve more years before Hoover was inaugurated as the 31st president of the United States, but by that time he was already a household name.

Hoover’s massive food preservation program encouraged Americans to reduce food consumption so that the food supply for the troops and war-torn Europeans would remain strong.  The uniqueness of his plan– as opposed to later World War II efforts — was that Hoover’s program avoided rationing, while still successfully reducing American food consumption by 15%.

With the farmers’ markets back in swing, if you’re lucky, there may be a fresh goat cheesemaker selling their wares near you.  For those who may not have been properly introduced to this flavorful, distinct type of cheese, consider this a personal welcome from Dreamfarm.

Diana Kalscheur Murphy is a goat cheesemaker from the rolling green hills of southwest Wisconsin, basing her business on her farm, aptly named “Dreamfarm.”  “The Dreamfarm name came before the whole cheesemaking business,” explains Murphy.  “My family and I always wanted to live on a farm and when we found this place, we realized we were living our dream.”

Starting with a few goats for fun, Murphy ended up with extra milk and started experimenting with making goats cheese.  “My friends gave me rave reviews and encouraged me to start producing cheese for sale,” adds Murphy.

After years of experimentation, I have come up with the perfect recipe for easy, hearty, healthy, stick-to-the-ribs tasty chili, right in the slow cooker.  And I’m going to share it with you.

But first, let’s talk about what you can do to make your chili — and all your cooking, really — more “green.”

Take a tip from Annie Somerville, acclaimed chef at the Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, when you explore the upcoming first farmers’ market of the season, check out some of the more unusual, fresh fare that showcase spring flavor.

Chef Somerville knows her seasonal offerings.  For the past 28 years, she has helped lead the Greens Restaurant to become a national showplace for creative, fresh, local vegetarian cuisine that features the local abundance from sustainable and organic California growers.  Her signature dishes, like the Warm Cannelli Beans and Wilted Greens recipe below, draws inspiration from her regular forages at the Embarcadero Farmers’ Market and area farmers.

“At the market the last couple of weeks, you could really start seeing big indicators that the season is shifting and spring has officially arrived,” explains Chef Somerville, as she vividly and affectionately describes spring produce as if they were beloved old friends returning for a visit.  For an artistic chef like Somerville, the farmers’ market provides a culinary palette, a place where she can wander and draw cooking inspiration from the ingredients she sees.

Take a tip from Chef Somerville and explore some of the more unusual, uniquely flavorful fare that appears this time of year.  Here’s some ideas on using three of her favorites:  Nettle, chervil and kale.

Spring is here. In order to eat seasonally your food focus should be shifting to tender, leafy vegetables that represent the fresh new growth of this season. The color green is associated with spring, which is a time of renewal and refreshing, vital energy. The greening that occurs in springtime should be represented by greens on your plate, including items like swiss chard, spinach, kale, romaine lettuce, fresh parsley and basil.

Leafy greens are some of the easiest and most beneficial vegetables to incorporate into your daily routine. Kale, for example, has more nutritional content and few calories than almost anything else. Although it can be found throughout the year, it is in season from the middle of winter through the beginning of spring when it has a sweeter taste. Kale is part of the Brassica family, which is known for their health promoting benefits and cancer fighting properties. Kale boosts the body’s detoxification enzymes, thus helping to clear potentially carcinogenic substances more quickly. Research shows that diets high in cruciferous vegetables, such as kale, are associated with lower incidence of a variety of cancers, including lung, colon, breast and ovarian cancer. One cup of kale contains just 36.4 calories, but provides 192.4% of the daily value for vitamin A, 88.8% of the daily value for vitamin C, and 7.0% of the day’s needs for manganese which helps produce energy from protein and carbohydrate. Kale also contains calcium, fiber, vitamin E, iron and B vitamins. Here is an easy and delicious kale recipe to get you started on eating for Spring.

One of the biggest challenges to getting people to eat healthier, especially kids, is the perception that the food’s just not going to be as tasty as fast food that’s loaded with sodium, bad fats, cholesterol and refined products.

The key is to make the food taste absolutely fantastic.  Try this recipe for broccoli, for example.

Got local pizza delivery on speed dial? No guilty confession needed. Takeout pizza makes a quick, hot meal that pleases just about anyone in your family. But the price of convenience starts to add up – especially in today’s economy. And as fat counts seep into the cardboard and our arteries – not to mentioned unmentioned preservatives – our guilt starts kicking in. Add in the fossil fuel for those delivery cars, and we know we should be cooking up some alternatives.

Take your pizza quality up a notch while keeping money in your wallet by starting to make pizza at home. While pizza may seem complicated, with a little planning and thought, you can whip up gourmet-quality creations faster than that delivery car can pull into your driveway.

Here are some easy, cheesy starter tips: