I have been wanting to try my hands at homemade noodles for some time now and, having stumbled across a recipe that promised me I didn't need a new KitchenAid attachment to do so, I decided now was the time. The process was incredibly easy, the end results were incredibly delicious. Though I'm sure we will rely on dried store bought noodles from time to time, I'm also sure I'll be doing this a lot more often.

Pappardelle is a wide ribbon Italian noodle. I made two different kinds—a standard white flour noodle and a spinach noodle. Of the two our favorite was actually the spinach noodle, and I have a it on my list to try a whole wheat noodle next time as well.

Homemade pappardelle

Ingredients:
  ● 2 cups flour
  ● 2 large eggs
  ● 1/4 cup water
  ● 1-1/2 tsp olive oil

Directions:
1. Put 1-1/2 cups of the flour into a large bowl. Make a well in the center of flour and add eggs, water, and olive oil. Stir until flour is moistened and leaves the side of the bowl.

2. See step two (and on) below,

Homemade spinach pappardelle

Ingredients:
  ● 1/2 cup fresh spinach leaves, coarsely chopped
  ● 1 large eggs
  ● 1-1/2 cups flour
  ● 3-4 tbsp water
  ● 1/2 tsp olive oil

Directions:
1. In a blender or food processor, combine the spinach and egg; cover and blend until pureed. Put 1 coup of the flour into a large bowl; make a well in the center and add the spinach puree, 3 tablespoons of water, and the olive oil. Stir until well blended, adding additional water if it seems dry.

2. Turn the dough out onto a slightly floured surface and gather it into a ball. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes, or until it is smooth and elastic, adding as much of the remaining flour as need to keep it from sticking (be careful, though, too much flour will make for brittle noodles).

3. Shape the dough into two equal balls; wrap each ball in wax paper and allow to rest for 30 minutes.

4. Working with one ball at a time, place the dough on a lightly floured surface and flatten it into a round withthe palm of your hand, then use a rolling pin to roll it into a rectangle about 1/8 to 1/16-inch thick. If the dough is too elastic to roll out, recover and allow it to rest longer. Once rolled thin, cover loosely with a towel and allow to try for 30 minutes.

5. With a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut dough to desired width of noodle (pappardelle is usually about 3/4-inch wide). Separate noodles and allow to dry for another 30 minutes to 2 hours (I draped mine over my cooling racks. I also have a friend whose Italian mother does not dry additionally but just drops the noodles right in to cook, so I'll be trying that next time).

6. To cook noodles, bring salted water to a boil and add noodles for just 2-3 minutes—they cook fast, so don't overdo it!

And here they are, served with spicy Italian sausage sauteed in olive oil and 3 cloves of garlic with julienned red and yellow peppers, and vidalia onions and garnished with chopped fresh tomatoes and basil (from our garden!). This was superb!

I found this recipe, or something like it, doing a search for ways to use kale. I love kale, and with winter coming we're likely to see a lot of it in our organic deliveries. Yum!
To the original recipe I added celery and twice the garlic, and cut the number of potatoes; I increased the amount of tomatoes and beans used while switching from canned to fresh/rehydrated; I also changed dried parsley to fresh and added a little more.
This is a great vegetarian meal for those chilly fall, or winter, nights. I served it with homemade multi-grain peasant bread and apple crisp (an extra fall treat!).

Garden Kale Soup

Ingredients:
  ● 2 tbsp. olive oil
  ● 1 yellow onion, chopped
  ● 4 tbsp. chopped garlic
  ● 1 bunch kale, stems removed and leaves chopped
  ● 3 celery ribs, chopped
  ● 8 vegetable broth
  ● 6-8 tomatoes, diced
  ● 4 white potatoes, peeled and cubed
  ● 3 cups rehydrated cannellini beans (or 2 cans)
  ● 2 tbsp. Italian seasoning
  ● 3 tbsp. snipped fresh parsley
  ● salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
 1. Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot; cook the onion and garlic until soft. Stir in kale and cook until wilted, about 2 minutes. Stir in the water, vegetable bouillon, celery, tomatoes, potatoes, beans, Italian seasoning, and parsley. Simmer soup on medium heat for 25 minutes, or until potatoes are cooked through. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

It's not quite chili season yet, but the weather earlier this week sure was misleading.  After spending the better portion of Tuesday standing in a chill rain making our daily round of the construction sites in the neighborhood, Calvin decided that chili was perfect for a chilly day (in fact, he got a real kick out of saying that...over and over and over again).  I think it's a mark of my increasing maturity (be nice, now) that I was able to pull this off thanks to a well stocked kitchen, or at least a well stocked garden:  dried beans in the cupboard, several plants full of ripe tomatoes, onions from the garden as well, and a strange variety of fresh veggies needing to be used in the fridge.  This, as you can probably tell from its eccentricity, is entirely my own recipe.  Imagine.

Kitchen Sink Chili

Ingredients:
  ● 2 cups mixed dried beans
  ● 2.5 quarts water, plus more
  ● 1 large onion, chopped
  ● 3 lbs tomatoes, chopped
  ● 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
  ● ~4 celery stalks, with leaves, chopped
  ● ~2 parsnips, chopped
  ● ~4 stalks bok choy (white part only), chopped
  ● 1/4 tsp salt
  ● 1/2 tsp pepper
  ● 1 tbsp chili powder
  ● 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions:
1.  In a large pot combine beans and 2.5 quarts of water.  Bring to a boil for 5 minutes, then remove from heat, cover, and allow to sit for 1 hour.
2.  Drain beans, then cover with fresh water, bring to a low boil, and simmer for 3 hours, adding water if necessary.
3.  Add tomatoes, garlic, parsnips, and spices, then simmer for 20 minutes.  Add bok choy and celery and simmer for additional 20 minutes.  Serve hot, topped (optionally) with cheese, sour cream, and hot sauce.

The joy of this recipe is that you can substitute anything you think sounds yummy for anything you think doesn't.

Mmmmm...it's garden fare time!  This is a great meal for using up the beans and tomaotes you have erupting from your gardens, and also a vegetarian dish with lots of flavor and a good side of protein.  The recipe came from Better Homes and Gardens, athough I've lightened it up a bit and added a tad more basil than originally called for, of course.

Ingredients:

  ● 3/4  cup feta cheese
  ● 1/2  cup Greek yogurt or plain low-fat yogurt
  ● 2  Tbsp. snipped fresh basil
  ● 1  small clove garlic, minced
  ● 2  12- oz. pkgs. frozen soybeans (edamame)
  ● 1-1/2  lbs. fresh green beans, trimmed
  ● 2  cups yellow cherry tomatoes, halved
  ● 12  slices crusty country bread, toasted
  ● Fresh basil leaves
Balsamic Dressing:
  ● 1/4 cup olive oil
  ● 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  ● 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
  ● 1/4 cup fresh basil, lightly packed

Directions:

1. In food process combine feta cheese, yogurt, basil and garlic.  Blend until creamy and season with salt and pepper as desired. (If you don't have a food processor you can mash the cheese and yogurt together with a fork then add the remaining ingredients and stir).  This may be made ahead.

2. In saucepan bring 8 cups lightly salted water to boiling. Add soybeans and green beans and return to a boil. Reduce heat and cook, covered, 6 to 8 minutes or until tender. Drain and cool (speed up by rinsing with cold water.  Add tomatoes to bean mixture and drizzle 1/2 of balsamic dressing mixture (see below); toss to coat.

4. Spread feta mixture on bread slices; place slice on serving plate; mound bean mixture on top. Drizzle remaining dressing; top with fresh basil leaves.

Balsamic Dressing: In blender or processor combine 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, and 1/4 cup lightly packed fresh basil leaves; blend until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Recipe shown here with gazpacho soup on the side - another garden great!

It's that time of year! Our zucchini plants are valiantly fighting powdery mildew (with a little help from their farmer–did you know that a 1:1 dilution of organic milk sprayed on the leaves after dusk does wonders for this ailment?), and are producing at an astonishing pace. I keep remembering last year when all we got was one armload of zucchini before the plants succumbed to the fungus that we are successfully fighting organically this year!

In any case, with so many zucchini on hand, how could I not make zucchini bread? I found a standard recipe online, which we tried as written first, then made it a tad heartier and healthier with my own variations, including substituing whole wheat flour for half the white, increasing the amount of nuts, and decreasing the amount of sugar. I was expecting the worst, but really it was beautifully moist and very flavorful. Better than the original, if I do say so myself.

Ingredients:

● 2 eggs
● 1 cup sugar
● 2.5 tsp. vanilla
● 3 cups grated fresh zucchini, skin on
● 2/3 cup melted butter
● 2 tsp. baking soda
● 1.5 cups whole wheat flour
● 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
● 1 tsp. nutmeg
● 3 tsp. cinnamon
● 1.25-1.5 cups chopped pecans

Directions:

1. Mix together sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Mix in the grated zucchini then add melted butter. Sprinkle baking soda over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour, a third at a time (I mixed the two flours together first). Sprinkle in the cinnamon and nutmeg and mix. Fold in the nuts.

2 Divide the batter equally between 2 buttered 5 by 9 inch loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour at 350, or until a wooden pick inserted in to the center comes out clean (check for doneness at 50 minutes). Cool in pans for 10 minutes. Turn out onto wire racks to cool thoroughly.