Grilled Cheese With Pickled Hot Wax Peppers

This ended up being the healthiest most fun dinner we've made in a while. Hungarian hot wax peppers for the win! One of my favorite things in the world is eating food as soon as it comes out of the frying pan and is piping hot. So digging into this grilled cheese while it was still all melty and super crispy was awesome in itself. The extra kick that came from the layer of peppers in there took this whole sandwich up to top-notch status. Not to mention that it is the easiest thing in the world to make - all signs are pointing toward the need for more fancy grilled cheese in my life.

These sandwiches were a slight variation of this Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese on Simply Scratch

Used From Our CSA
Hungarian hot wax peppers

Thoughts on the Recipe

The grilled cheese was part of our dinner last Friday night. But preparing for the meal started on Thursday evening, because we had decided to pickle our peppers. To do that, we followed the instructions on this page. However, since we only had six peppers, Steve cut the ingredients way down while keeping the ratios intact (1 part salt, 4 parts vinegar, and 12 parts water, by volume). We also skipped the corn oil part of the instructions, and just left them in the vinegar solution for the few days it took to work our way through them. Aside from the fact that I neglected to wear gloves while slicing these up (which trust me, I definitely regretted for about the next 16 or so hours), it was a quick and easy process and we stuck the whole bowl in the fridge to sit overnight.

As far as the sandwich recipe goes, grilled cheese is a hard thing to screw up. So the recipe was a perfect catalyst to helping us use our peppers, even though we didn't follow it exactly. For example, no jalapenos were involved, and we didn't grill the peppers that we did use. Also, I don't usually do the "stir the minced scallions into the cream cheese" thing, when I could just as easily sprinkle the onions over a smear of cream cheese and thereby not have extra or make up too little of the mixture. I'm in favor of keeping it simple wherever possible.

But speaking of cream cheese - adding it to grilled cheese is a genius move. I never would have thought of that.

It took me almost a week to write this post, and I've craved another one of these grilled cheeses every day that I've worked on it - torture! We are all out of peppers, so I think I need some other delicious grilled sandwich ideas to help distract me. Any suggestions?

Pineapple Rice (on a Bed of Mizuna Greens)

In the interest of full disclosure, let me clarify that pineapples do not grow in the Mid-Atlantic (unfortunately, because how cool would that be?) and the one that this recipe centers around was purchased at the grocery store. The CSA-item that was the star of the meal was the mizuna. All of what we had was used to form the bed of greens for this Hawaiian rice dish.

Mizuna was a completely new green to Steve & I. It's known for having a mild peppery taste, which reminded Steve of horseradish. I'm not sure how it would be on its own; I find the flavor to be pretty strong. But tossed in this pineapple dressing and paired with the rice concoction, it really rounded out the set of flavors and made for a great complete meal. Brown rice is not something I normally get excited about, so I was really pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this dish.

Pineapple Rice Recipe on 101 Cookbooks

Used From Our CSA
purple mizuna
scallions

Thoughts on the Recipe
- We didn't plate up the greens and rice on a big serving platter as the recipe suggests. Since we planned to have leftovers, we kept them separate until serving up an individual portion.
- We skipped the seitan, but agreed this could be good with some chicken in the mix, too!
- We ate the rice hot (vs. at room temperature)

Even though this dinner didn't feature as many CSA vegetables as I might have liked (especially for as many as we have this week!), I think I have to count it a win when we make a meal with a completely new vegetable that we had never even heard of before, and enjoy it this much. If nothing else, it's a starting point. Mizuna and I are no longer strangers.

Kale & Quinoa Salad

The first time we ever tried a recipe with quinoa in it (to make these tacos, which I highly recommend, btw) Steve came home from that week's grocery store run and said that there were a lot of different flavors of "kwin-o-ah" (emphasis on the "o") and he wasn't quite sure which one he should get. I honestly had no clue what he was saying at first, which quickly became hilarious and adorable when I realized he was talking about quinoa. And that's my funny, if not anti-climactic, story about quinoa. In Steve's defense, I will never run the risk of misspelling it since I say "kwin-o-ah" to myself just about every time I write it out. Thanks, man.

Last night we tried another kale salad recipe. And despite the common denominators of kale and chickpeas, this one is really pretty different from the chopped kale salad we tried during CSA Week 1, which is exciting. Yay for variety! And like the first kale salad, this too was delicious.

Kale & Quinoa Salad on enjoy it

Used From Our CSA
kale
scallions (in place of red onion)

Thoughts on the Recipe
- We halved this, because I did think we would have enough kale for the full version. But as I washed and chopped it, I did start to feel like it was a lot more than I initially guessed we had. So I made the full amount of dressing just to make sure we wouldn't wind up short on that. We had a little dressing leftover in the end, which will be great on any green salad later this week. In fact I would definitely make just the dressing again to have on hand on it's own - simple but it works!
- I saw the note in the instructions to add the dressing early on (to help wilt the kale) a little late in the process of getting everything ready. It's good advice and next time I'll definitely do that first, before cooking the quinoa or chopping the onion. 
- The leftovers today were great. If you plan on having any, I'd just recommend leaving the cashews out and adding them in as you eat it. Cashews get all weird and rubbery after sitting in a dressed salad for a while. Anyone else experienced this?

So there you have it: a delicious kale & quinoa salad. Let me know your thoughts if you get the chance to try it out! I'll post again soon with a Week 3 recap, and some links to other recipes we used this week that I didn't write about in detail.

Butter-Roasted Chicken and Stock

So it's been pretty quiet around these parts this week, huh? I guess I fell off the blogging wagon. But here I am, clambering back on. With or without a post to share, things are chugging right along in the kitchen and in our bellies.

Last Sunday we roasted our first whole chicken, and Steve had the idea to try our hand at a basic chicken stock with the carcass. Both were a relative success, I think. The only downside is that we barely set foot outside of the kitchen all afternoon/evening, but to be fair, I also decided to make some homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream with the leftover mint leaves that we bought for the chicken. You might be thinking: "Woah, overkill." but in that case you probably have never tasted ice cream made with real mint, because it melted all that hard work away with one bite. Well, almost.

Four cups of chicken stock, now hanging out in our freezer.

Butter-Roasted Chicken with Cilantro and Mint on Food & Wine

Used From Our CSA
whole heritage chicken

I had a pretty personal encounter rubbing our bird down with the flavored butter. First time for everything!

Thoughts on the Recipe
Really this was pretty straightforward. Of course we halved the recipe since we were only working with one bird. The flavor was great, really unique, and even more pronounced in the next few days (I wonder if our stock will take any of that on). We ate it for dinner with a green salad on the side. Very satisfying and made for some great leftovers.

The only thing I am coming to loathe about all these non-breast chicken parts we've been working with is the crazy amounts of splatter in our oven, and the resulting smoke-filled kitchen and fire alarms that go off every 90 seconds. I think I am going to try tenting the pan with foil next time we make legs, wings, or a whole chicken in the oven. Do you guys have any other suggestions?

After dinner Steve started work on Phase II of the marathon chicken-cooking day, a basic stock recipe. It felt like a pretty low-risk, marginal-reward experiment, so why the heck not give it a try?

The Gateway Stock on the paupered chef

Used from Our CSA
chicken carcass, uncooked wing-tips, neck, etc. (everything that came with it, minus the liver)
scallions

Thoughts on the Recipe
- In addition to the scallions, Steve also threw in a bunch of other non-CSA stuff that we already had on hand, loosely following the guidelines of the recipe: more onion, bay leaves, ginger, and cilantro (we did just get cilantro in yesterday's box, though, so go figure).
- I totally agree with the one commenter on the recipe site who submitted that it's ridiculous to go out and buy new produce just to make it into a stock - in that case isn't it easier to just buy a can of stock? But there was a great follow-up comment from someone who accumulates their veggie scraps in a bag in the freezer and uses them when the time comes to make a stock, and I think that is so smart.
- I think our finished liquid went straight into the freezer, so we may have missed the "let it refrigerate for a day" step, to let the flavors meld. Ooops - next time.
- As he says in his recipe, this may not make the most highly refined stock, but it will suit great in a lot of the one pot dishes that Steve and I tend to gravitate towards.

In the end we got four cups of stock out of this experiment, which equates to two cans from the store. I'll take it. Have you ever made a stock from scratch before? If so, I'd love to hear your tips and tricks in the comments!

Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Last night we made these yummy lettuce wraps for dinner. And Steve was only a few bites in when he declared that this is the second best thing we've made so far this year (right after bacon pancakes, a snow day favorite). Bold statement.

But I agree: this made a great dinner. And despite the long-ish list of ingredients, everything came together pretty easily, especially with two of us working together. We also learned to poach and mince a chicken breast, which there is nothing difficult about at all, but still: life skills! It was a little tricky to find a lettuce wraps recipe that looked just right: a lot of them seemed either so simple that they weren't really going to get at the flavors we were hoping for, or so complex that they really couldn't have made a practical weeknight dinner for us. This one seemed like it would strike a happy balance, and we were not disappointed.

Thai-Style Peanut Chicken Lettuce Wraps on the cozy apron 

Used From Our CSA
chicken breast
green leaf lettuce
red scallions (from Week 1)

Thoughts on the Recipe
-There are a handful of semi-unusual oils and sauces required for this recipe, and if you don't have them on hand (which we fortunately did) this meal might start to add up cost-wise. However, most of them have a pretty long shelf-life, so if you like cooking with Asian flavors, they might be worth the investment.
- Along those same lines, we actually skipped the peanuts in this recipe. We didn't have any, don't use them much, and felt like the peanut butter would carry that flavor just fine.
- I also skipped all the garnishes. Wednesday night dinners call for realistic food-prep if you ask me. Apologies if these photos suffer from lack of flair. Oh, wait: here's a picture with a flower in it:

This will also make a great lunch today. I'm looking forward to it!

Steve is bringing home our third CSA box tonight. There are several things on the list this week that I have never even heard of! The challenge continues...

Chopped Kale Salad

The first recipe I made using some of our Week 1 ingredients was a total hit. We have actually already made it twice for two different dinner gatherings with friends. It seems to have been a hit with them, too! I will definitely return to this recipe in the future.

Chopped Kale Salad on What's Cooking Good Looking

Kale is not something we cook with regularly at all. But when I spotted this recipe online a few months ago, I thought it looked so delicious that I pinned it right away, knowing we would probably get some kale in our CSA. I mean, just look at the photos on her site - they make this dish look a heck of a lot more appetizing than mine do. The sweet in the chickpeas, mixed with the crunch of the almonds, creaminess of the avocado, and the awesome dressing (I loved the taste of ginger in there) all came together to make this a fast favorite. And the kale makes a perfect backdrop to the flavor/texture party that's going on here.

Used From Our CSA
kale (used half the bunch each time, so it's all been used now: wahoo!)
Egyptian walking onion/red scallions (used in place of green onion the first and second times respectively; both were fine substitutions)

Thoughts on the Recipe
- I think you can easily get away with 1/4 c. or less of sesame seeds. But I always feel like recipes call for more sesame seeds than are really needed. They are not cheap! We have had luck in the past getting a bigger, less-expensive bottle of them found with the Asian food, rather than the tiny bottles that are shelved with the other spices.
- I know it's not a CSA item, but avocado is never an "optional" ingredient in my book. It elevates everything!
- I loved that ginger flavor in the dressing so much, and will probably add more next time I make this. Why not?
- This was the perfect dish to make and take. We tossed the dressing in right before leaving home and it held up great.
- Leftovers are really important in our home, so I also think it's worth mentioning that this was still great on day two. I probably wouldn't hang on to it much beyond that.

Still great on day two!

I now have one kale recipe in my pocket that I feel confident about. What's your favorite thing to make with fresh kale?