Here’s how to make it:

Chop and combine the following veggies, all measurements are approximate.

• 1 cup red cabbage slices
• 1 cup green cabbage slices
• 1-2 carrots
• 1/2 cup cilantro
• 2 tbs black sesame sees (optional)

Then mix in the following flavors, again all is approximate.

• 2+ tbs olive oil
• 1-2 tbs rice vinegar
• scant 1 tsp honey or agave
• salt and pepper to taste

Let the mixture mingle for about 1/2 hour before serving. This will keep for a few days in the fridge.

Ingredients:

• 2 salmon fillets with skin on one side
• 1 cup fresh pineapple cut into small chunks
• 1/2 cup barbecue sauce (I used Annie’s Smoky Maple BBQ sauce, but you could use your favorite, or make your own.)
• olive oil
• cayenne (to taste)

Directions:

1. Combine barbecue sauce, pineapple chunks and cayenne. Mix and set aside.
2. Clean and oil your grill grate.
3. Rub a little olive oil on your salmon fillets.
4. Cook fillets over medium-hot heat for a 3 minutes on the non-skin side, putting meat directly on the grill grate.
5. Flip the fish over skin side down on a piece of foil for the rest of the grilling.
6. Top each fillet with your pineapple-barbecue combo.
7. Close grill lid and cook on medium-high until done to your preference.

The foil is used so the fish doesn’t stick to the grill as the BBQ-pineapple sauce will carmelize and drip off the side (yum!). So for the long cooking portion, we put the fillets on sheets of foil and then put the pile of pineapple BBQ sauce on top. And then when cooked to perfection, you can use a thin metal spatula or fork to remove the fillet from the skin (which will probably be carmelized and stuck to the foil) and serve this gorgeous salmon dish!

Here is my mushroom patch. It is in the rubbermaid bin to keep spores from dirtying the carpet. The mister bottle is to the right. The plastic beyond the mister bottle is a humidity tent, and the skewers in the patch help hold the tent up. You can see a new mushroom at the right of the far end of the patch.

Here is one shiitake mushroom that I clipped from the patch.

The kit came with a number of recipes, but so far I've just been sauteeing the mushrooms in a bit of oil or butter. It's delicious.

I have read that the stems get too tough for cooking, so I boil the stems for soup stock. I then freeze the stock for future use.

Here’s my shitake cooking recipe so far.

Ingredients

• fresh shiitake mushrooms
• oil or butter

Directions

• Wash the mushrooms
• Cut off their stalks, save for boiling in water to make soup stock
• Slice caps in half, then cut into sections
• Heat oil or butter in pan on medium-low
• Add mushrooms
• Sautee until done.  The color will change and they will cook down.
• Serve hot

Mmmmmmm…..

Ingredients (all are approximate):

• 2 cans of chili beans
• 1 large can stewed tomatoes
• 1 lb ground beef
• 2 cups chopped carrots
• 1 small chopped onion
• a few cloves minced garlic
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 1 chopped bell pepper
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1/2 cup beef broth (or water)
• olive oil
• chili spices (cumin, chili powder, oregano — or whatever spices you like)

Directions (generally):

1. Saute all but 1/4 cup of the onions, garlic and carrots in olive oil in a large skillet or pot (this will be where all chili is combined).
2. Meanwhile, brown meat with remaining 1/4 cup onions/garlic/carrots and set aside.
3. Add wine, beef broth, tomatoes, beans and chili spices to the large skillet (not the browning meat) once onions are clear.
4. Cook at simmer or lower temperature for 10-15 minutes.
5. Adjust chili spices if needed (hotter, etc)
6. Stir in frozen corn, bell pepper and browned meat, and turn off the heat.
7. After the chili cools, spoon it into a gallon size freezer plastic bag(s). Poke the corners in (so when they’re frozen they don’t puncture other bags or foods) and double bag it into another freezer bag.
8. Freeze overnight, and then pack in your frozen chili to your hut or cabin. (Since it’s frozen it will help keep other foods cold en route to your cabin.)

Notes: Serves 6-8.
I served this with steamed green beans and crescent rounds (from a can). Delicious!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb gnocchi (check to make sure it’s dairy-free. some are, some aren’t)
• 1/2 lb ground meat (beef,  or buffalo)
• 1/2 lb  cremini mushrooms or shitake mushrooms cut into large chunks
• 3-4 sprigs whole green onions chopped, green parts separated from white parts
• 1-2 tbs chopped fresh parsley
• splash white wine
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1 tbs olive oil

Directions:

1. Put a pot of water on to boil (for the gnocchi).
2. Add olive oil and white parts of the green onions to a medium hot skillet, cook for about 1 minute.
3. Tear off chunks of the ground meat and compress into small balls using your hands, and place one-at-a-time in skillet. (These should be about the size of the gnocchis.)
4. Gently roll around or turn over the browning meat in the pan, so all sides cook evenly.
5. After about 5-7 of meat browning, add the chopped mushrooms.
6. Cook meat and mushrroms for about 3 minutes more, and then add the green parts of the green onions, the parsley, and white wine.
7. At this point, the water should be boiling, turn heat down to a very gentle boil and add the gnocchi.
8. Turn down  the skillet to low.
9. Remove the gnocchi from water, add to the skillet and gentle toss the dish.
10. Serve immediately.

So I decided to get crazy. (I’m on the 4th night of my husband being away, after all.)

I started with this. (looks pretty good, huh?)

I split it in half, dropped a little bit of oil on each side, and sprinkled salt and pepper. Then off to the grill it went.

Success! It was easy and yummy.

side note: Beside the eggplant is a ground turkey burger I pulled out of the freezer. I stole this recipe from Whole Foods. One day they were grilling these burgers in their parking lot. And they are so nice about listing the ingredients for everything. So I got out my pen. To the best of my memory, it’s:

• ground white meat turkey
• green curry paste (about 2 T. per pound)
• coconut milk (to keep it moist)
• cilantro
• green onion
• lime juice

I over-cooked the turkey burger, so I poured some left over pesto over it.

This is one of my favorites and is totally easy! I marinate the salmon in:

• soy sauce
• rice wine vinegar
• garlic
• ginger
• lime juice

Next, I grill it, skin side down. (let’s face it, I grill everything!) Meanwhile, I cook some jasmine rice. I quickly sauté some veggies in a skillet (sometimes I steam them by throwing them on top of the rice 1/2 way thru cooking.) This time I did broccoli, carrots and green onions — all from the farmer’s market.

When the veggies are 1/2 way cooked, I pour some coconut milk in the pan with them. While stirring, I add about 2 Tbs of curry. I usually toss in a few dashes of cayenne to my curry since it’s from the grocery store and doesn’t have much kick.

Last, but not least, I cover it with salt before I eat it. I’m not sure why, but I feel it needs it. mmmm, so good!!

The batter should NOT be whipped as much as you would at lower altitudes.

The final product looks like this:

Using cake flower is important:

The first thing I did was stop by some cherry trees I’d noticed earlier in the week on a bike ride. I’d talked to the residents and they’d said I could grab as many cherries as I wanted. These were not as sweet or as big as cherries you’d get from the store, but still very edible.

After that, I got a cherry pitter and some scissors. I took the scissors to my garden and cut most of my normal basil (I have some cinnamon basil with which I’m still trying to figure out something to do). I made pesto:

• basil (stems are fine as long as you can chew them)
• olive oil
• parmesan cheese
• pine nuts

Stick it all in the food processor, chop it up and pesto you have! I forgot to put in some garlic, but it was still pretty good. You can see I only got about a 1/2 pint, but now it is in the freezer for some winter day when I want to spread it on toast.

After that, I made breakfast from some things I’d gotten from the CSA. This is stir fried zuchinni and onions, with some chard remnants tossed in at the end.

For lunch, I made pizza-dillas.

• tomato sauce
• shredded cheese
• dried salami
• tortillas

Place all ingredients on tortilla, heat in toaster oven until cheese is melted. Mmmmm.

I also tried a recipe from the CSA handout–baked kale:

• kale
• olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees wash the kale. Remove the stems. Mix enough olive oil with kale in bowl to coat kale lightly.  Spread kale on a ungreased baking dish. Make sure that the kale is only one level thick–I burned my kale because I put too much in it (some pieces were not crispy, so I left it in too long). Stick it in the oven, checking every 3-5 minutes for crispiness. At the end, it tastes a bit like a healthy potato chip. My SO suggested mixing the kale with bacon, which would of course make it taste better.

And finally, I pitted all the cherries. Originally, I was planning to dry them, but laziness got the better of me and I stuck them in jars in the freezer, to be enjoyed in a pie or on ice cream in the future.

What a day!

Ingredients:

• white potatoes (1 large)
• sweet potatoes (1 medium-large)
• hard boiled eggs (2-3)
• mayo (2-3 tbs) — I use Hain’s Safflower mayo, which is dairy-free.
• brown mustard (1 tbs)
• fresh chives (1 tbs)
• fresh parsley (1 tbs)
• capers (1 tbs)

Directions:

1. Peel potatoes. Cover with water, boil and cook until soft.
2. Drain and set aside to cool.
3. Hard boil eggs. (I place eggs in boiling water, cook for 12 minutes. Remove and immediately place eggs in ice water.)
4. Chop herbs. Put herbs, mustard, mayo, capers in a mixing bowl.
5.  Add potatoes to the herb mixture and mix well.
6. Chop eggs (in quarters or eights), add to mixture and lightly mix.

This is tasty when warm, or after refrigerated. You can easily double or triple this if you’re taking it to a picnic or family reunion.