Rhubarb and strawberry compote

One of the recent boxes had a bunch of rhubarb in it.  

When I was young, we'd eat it raw, dipping the end into a bowl of sugar.  I think we were mostly eating the sugar.  Now that I'm older, I prefer to eat it cooked, with a bit less sugar.

Wash and chop the rhubarb.  I had about 4 cups.  Add 1/2 cup of sugar and a couple of tablespoons of water.  Cook over medium to low heat, stirring frequently, until they start to soften.

I then added one pound of chopped fresh strawberries and cooked for another five minutes or so.

Here's what it looked like after cooking.  You should taste it at this point, as you might want to add a bit more sugar.  It was on the tart side, but I decided not to add sugar, as the ice cream would be a sweet addition.

Let cool (it can still be warm, but not piping hot) and serve with vanilla ice cream.

Jell-O!

(No farm ingredients were harmed in the making of this post, although shredded carrots often make appearances in Jell-O molds.)

Recently, my mom gave me her Tupperware Jell-O molds, so I went all out for a party this past weekend.

In the front of the photo, there is a pineapple lime Jell-O "salad", made with a package of lime Jell-O (a.k.a., "green jello"), an 8 oz package of cream cheese, 1 cup of mini-marshmallows, a drained can of crushed pineapple, and 1 cup of chopped walnuts. A time warp from my childhood to present day, in one wreath-shaped mold.

In the back of the photo, a layered Jell-O "salad" (seriously, who thought to call these salads?). On the top, which was the first flavor to go into the mold, is cherry ("red") Jell-O. After that set, I put in lemon (or "yellow") with a can of mandarin oranges added. (I wasn't kidding about the lack of fresh farm veggies in these....)  Finally, I added a layer of grape ("purple"). While it looked pretty, I think the grape flavor was a bit overwhelming, plus the purple was a bit dark. I think ending with an orange layer would have looked much nicer, like a sunset.

People seemed to enjoy them, but many waited to have them with dessert, rather than eating them with the meal. I suppose you had to grow up in earlier decades to appreciate Jell-O as an accompaniment to dinner.

I've been collecting Jell-O cookbooks for a while now. (I've also read a book about the history of Tupperware.) I learned from one from the 1960s that there used to be vegetable flavored Jell-O, but my mom doesn't remember that. Maybe they were only available in certain areas of the country?  I just found this ad for vegetable flavored Jell-o on the web. I wonder how long those flavors were available. (Yes, I could probably learn with a bit more web searching, but I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader.)

Scrambled eggs with garlic chives

Recently, we got a bunch of garlic chives in the box. I've never cooked with them before. Searching for "garlic chives" on the web returns many examples of cooking them with scrambled eggs, so I decided to try that.

I washed and chopped the garlic chives.

Then scrambled six eggs with salt and pepper. The eggs I used were from Lilac Hedge Farm.

I started by cooking the garlic chives in a bit of olive oil for about a minute to wilt them.

 Then I added the eggs...

...and cooked them until they were done.

The garlic chives were a bit stronger than regular chives, but still worked well with the scrambled eggs.

More quiche: asparagus, ramp, and feta

On Mother's Day, we hosted a brunch at our house.  I made two quiches.  One was filled with oven dried cherry tomatoes (made last summer, stored in the freezer) and swiss cheese.  The other was filled with ramps, asparagus, and feta.  I followed the same basic recipe that I've posted for quiche before, just with different fillings.

I washed and prepped the ramps and asparagus.  For the ramps, I separated the bulbs from the leaves, then chopped both.  I also cut the asparagus into thin rounds.

Then I sauteed the ramp bulbs for a minute or then, then added the asparagus.  After a few minutes more, I added the ramp leaves and cooked for a minute until they were wilted.  Then I took the pan off the heat.

Once your pie shells are pre-baked (go back to see the original recipe, if you haven't already), add your fillings.  The back on in the photo below has dried cherry tomatoes and swiss cheese.  The front has the ramp and asparagus filling with feta.

Add the egg and milk mixture and bake, according to the original recipe.

Enjoy.  Try your own fillings as well.  If you come up with good combinations, please leave them in the comments below.

What's in the box, 5/14/14 edition

Greetings.  I'm a bit behind in posting some of the recent recipes.  I'll catch up soon.  For now, here's what was in yesterday's box:

Asparagus, carrots, parsnips, red popcorn on the cob, a bunch of thyme, kohlrabi greens, a small bag of sorrel, and a bag of stinging nettles (which came with a warning label on the bag and a piece of duct tape across the top to reinforce the message - I've never had them before, but apparently they are bad to handle raw and must be cooked before eating - the fugu of the vegetable world?).

Best. Husband. Ever.

I have the best husband in the world.  After I have made many expressions of annoyance with my crappy blender, he bought me a new Vitamix blender.

After unboxing, I tried it out by making watermelon slush.

I put chunks of watermelon and some ice cubes in the blender.  I also added a very small amount of sugar, as the early season watermelon isn't all that sweet.  Then I turned on the blender.

So fast!  So well blended!

I have the best husband (and not just because he buys me cool appliances).

Links: pasta e ceci, spring pastas, and new things in the box

A few thoughts with links:

This post from Food 52 with 10 spring pastas makes me want to cook more pasta.  While the ramp pasta includes pancetta, I note that the recipe calls for cutting the ramps into long thin strips, which I may try with the ramps we got in yesterday's box.  Or perhaps I'll make some ramp pesto, although I generally prefer to see the ramps, rather than blending them in a way that makes them seem like many other vegetables.

I had horchata in Costa Rica last year.  I keep wanting to try to make some, but never have.  This recipe for strawberry horchata seems like a good one.  

For the past few years, I've been making pasta e ceci from this recipe recommended by my Italian friend.  While the photos in that post make it look soup-like, mine is always a bit thicker, with the blended chickpeas more like a loose pasta sauce than soup, which I prefer.

Apparently garlic chives are also known as Chinese chives.  Here's a recipe for cooking them with eggs, as well as some info about them.  Given the comparison of them to ramps, I'm wondering if it would make sense to combine them with ramps or, perhaps more interestingly, make two sauces for pasta to compare ramps to the garlic chives.

I also searched for kohlrabi greens, as we got some in the box and they are new to me, finding a recipe for stir frying them with some toasted sesame oil and soy sauce.  It appears that one should cook kohlrabi greens, as I can't find recipes for using them raw.