Many happy mediums

No, this post is not about mediums (i.e., psychics) or forms of media (tv, radio, etc.).  This is a recipe that can please a variety of cooks: those looking for vegan dishes, cooks with two left thumbs (or no thumbs), paleo dishes (which incorporates gluten-free cooking), and "good for a crowd" cooks. 

The mister and me participated in an interesting nutrition challenge from mid-September through mid-October. Short version of the story: the mister followed a paleo lifestyle while I embraced a gluten-free and sugar-free lifestyle.  Since I am the main cook at home, all dinners were prepared using paleo recipes. 

At the end of the challenge, we decided to embrace these choices at the end of the nutrition challenge.  That is...except for beer. 

It had been a bit of time since we had enjoyed an all-veggie dinner, and I saw this recipe while looking for a way to use butternut squash.  I really like butternut squash, but that's because someone else prepares it.  This one almost looked TOO easy, I had to try it.  So, here goes nothin'...

Ingredients:
- leeks or onions, about 1/4 cup diced
- carrots; three, peeled and chopped
- garlic; a couple of cloves smashed and chopped
- butternut squash; about 2 - 2.5 cups, peeled and cubed
- spices: cumin, ancho chili powder, cinnamon, curry powder, nutmeg; I suggest 1 teaspoon of each, with the exception of the nutmeg--just do 1/2 teaspoon
- 2.5 c. stock (veggie, chicken, beef, it makes no difference)
- 1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes
- 1 15 oz can full-fat coconut milk
- a generous amount of kale, cut into thin ribbons; I covered an entire dishtowel with kale. You can NEVER have too much kale! 

Steps:

1. Bring your burner to medium and coat a large dutch oven with olive oil and add the leeks/onions, carrots, and garlic and saute until soft (about 5 min)

2. Add butternut squash and coat with spices, saute for 3 minutes

3. Pour in stock and can of tomatoes, mix well and bring to a boil; reduce heat to a simmer for 20 minutes

4. Add can of coconut milk, and kale; simmer until kale is wilted (about 5 minutes)

5. EAT DINNER!

6. Enjoy leftovers the next day.

Notes: To make this dish with more "heft," you could add small meatballs (lamb or beef, or a combo) while the soup is simmering for 20 minutes.  Alternatively, if you wanted to add more veggie/vegan options add a can of garbanzo beans.  Like I said, this recipe pleases many and can be adapted for many different lifestyles. 

It was divine and fed us for several days.

I made dinner and the papparazzi forgot to show up.

As I posted earlier this week, the mister and me are participating a nutrition challenge for 30 days (September 16 - October 16).  Since we've moved away from gluten and legumes, many of our dinners have seen an increase in meats and greens.  It felt like I haven't made an all-vegetarian dinner for some time, so I did on this night.  I also had a smattering of foods that I half-prepped over the weekend and wanted to use:
- mushrooms from Oley Valley Mushrooms
- sweet potatoes from the LFFC CSA share
- chard from the raised beds
- beets from the raised beds (I harvested all of them on Sunday--see below and roasted them whole for later use)

So, this evening I decided to get creative. While sweet potatoes were wrapped in foil in the toaster oven and cooking, I began prepping the rest of dinner--scrubbing and cutting the mushrooms, removing the peels from the beets (it was super easy after roasting them the day before), and the mister helped me by chopping and rinsing the chard. 

I grabbed my two Le Creuset pans (the frying pan and the large sauté pan).  In both, I put about a teaspoon of ghee.  In essence, ghee is clarified butter; baked slow and low so that the milk solids are removed from the butter.  It is incredible to cook with and does not have the oxidization that occurs when heating EVOO to high temps.  

In the frying pan, I added the mushrooms and allowed them to cook on low until they were nice and browned.  It takes 10 minutes or so. 

In the large sauté pan, I added some sage to the melted ghee and let those flavors mix for a minute. Then, I added some chopped walnuts to toast them (let the walnuts get warm for about 2-3 minutes).  From there, I added 4 or 5 large beets (chopped into 1" pieces) and let them warm through.  At that point, I topped the pan with chard and put the lid on to wilt the greens.  After 5 minutes, I grabbed my silicone spatula and made sure to mix the beets and greens.  Once the greens were wilted, I was ready to put everything on our plates.  

We ate the mushrooms separately with just a touch of salt and pepper. They were divine!  I got more creative with the second half of the dinner -- and warned the mister that I was doing so.  I took the sweet potato out of the toaster oven, removed the skins, and mashed it in my bowl.  I then topped the sweet potatoes with the beet/chard/walnut mixture and added a dash of EVOO.  It was a terrific mixture of flavors and the mister followed suit and prepared his plate the same way.  

Problem is, I never took a picture of our dinner. The paparazzi were slacking this evening.  I will likely make this dinner again and promise to post a picture.  

Dinner was gluten-free and vegetarian. A quick swap of EVOO for the ghee would make this dinner vegan. 

Totally not local...but not every meal can be that way.

So, even though I call myself the Local Food Lady, we all know that I don't eat local 100% of the time!  The main crux of doing this blog and writing about my food choices is to strive for local foods. There are plenty of items that I haven't looked for locally (quinoa is a good example) or that I know definitively aren't grown locally (hello morning coffee!!). 

The mister and me are participating in a nutrition challenge at our gym.  He's following the Paleo diet and I have opted to eliminate sugar and gluten from my food sources. So, since I prepare most of the meals in the household, my dinners will be paleo, but my breakfast and lunches will not.

In essence, the difference between our two nutrition challenge choices is that I am continuing to eat: dairy, oatmeal, legumes, fruits (raw, cooked and dried) and gluten-free starches (like quinoa).  I'm also having a tiny, tiny bit of local, raw honey in limited dishes like my morning oatmeal. People who embrace the Paleo diet as a lifestyle choice will incorporate honey or maple syrup on a minimal basis, but the mister is attempting to avoid these sweeteners completely.

Also, anything that comes from a box or is packaged should have 5 grams or less of sugar per serving and should note "gluten free" on the label.

What's the reason behind this?  1) it's a challenge and 2) let's see what kind of impact these changes have on my body.  Over the last few months, I realized that I was relying on flour-based starches too often for dinners (hello pasta!) and if I saw a pizza on a menu, I was jumping to try it.  So, I began to scale back on the pasta and pizza dough, and have begun to remember that when dining out, a salad with lean proteins is a smarter option in lieu of a pulled pork sandwich doused in bbq sauce. 

What is the biggest challenge for me?  Beer!  I'm a big fan--beer geek, is a better term--of microbreweries (our local one, specifically) and the mister and me have an entire refrigerator in our basement dedicated to our love of beer.

I completely eliminated the 2 Splenda that I would put in my 20 ounce coffee and eliminated my secret stash of small chocolates. Instead, I'm drinking my coffee with half-n-half and opted for 85% dark chocolate that has 1g sugar per 1" square.  That said, I was in the mood to create a Paleo-friendly dessert that incorporated my favorite flavor--chocolate! 

I came upon a recipe for Paleo Chocolate Pudding. Hmmm...wondering how this would work out. As you know, I am inspired by recipes and rarely follow them to a T. This is what I used for my puddin':

- 4 very, very ripe avocados (it helped they were already chilled in the refrigerator)
- 1/4 cup of Hershey's Special Dark unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup buckwheat honey (it's dark like molasses)
- 3 tbs. creamy almond butter (unsweetened)
- 1 tsp. lemon juice
- 1 tsp. bourbon vanilla extract (you can use any extract you wish--almond, mocha, mint)
- spices: nutmeg, cinnamon

I tossed it all in the Cuisinart and and it came out looking just like pudding.  I tasted it and could not believe how AWESOME it was. It was the consistency of incredible fudge. I even went so far as to walk upstairs to the mister with a spoon and said, "ok, there's some honey in this, but you MUST try it!"  I think the Hershey's Special Dark was the slam dunk.

I packaged it up in individual servings for my lunch this week.  I cannot wait to make this again.  The only local ingredient on the list was the buckwheat honey. Even though we are 75 miles from Hershey, PA, I  don't think Hershey's cocoa powder counts.

Next time, I'll probably add some fresh mint from the garden (2nd local ingredient!) and give it a mint chocolate chip flavor. 

Not only is this Paleo-friendly, but it's vegetarian, dairy-free, gluten-free and the only product that is not vegan-friendly is the honey (I'm not opening that beehive here). 

Paleo-friendly puddin'

Snacks!?! Why not!

So, I had a plethora of kale in my garden this year. Yes, a ton of it. It's still growing and was one of my most successful crops from the raised beds. I even planted more for the cooler fall temps.  

My go-to kale dish usually involves garlic and EVOO and is sautéed . It's not too inventive, but I know what I like. 

This weekend, we had some more fall-like temps and my Instagram and Facebook feeds were filled with images of fall-inspired creations.  One I hadn't tried before were kale chips!  

So, on the first day of fall, I grabbed that excellent kale and got to work.  Here's what happened:

Preheat the oven to 300°. While the oven is warming, grab some cookie sheets and cover with parchment paper.  

I had a 1 gallon Ziploc bag stuffed with pre-washed and de-stemmed kale, so I was already ahead of the game.  I put about half the bag in a large bowl and drizzled with olive oil. From there, I added some garlic sea salt and make sure to get all of the leaves coated with the olive oil.   

With the other half of the kale, I dusted it with Chipotle Chili Powder.

Both sheets went into the oven for about 20 minutes.  They weren't quite done, so I let them cook for another 5 minutes and then swapped the locations of the cookie sheets in the ovens for another 5 minutes (total of 30 minutes in the oven). I removed the cookie sheets and then let the kale chips cool for a few minutes. 

The house smelled so good and I was looking forward to trying these chips as soon as they cooled. I was so looking forward to trying these that I ended up hovering over the stove as I "sampled" several chips...over and over again until there were just a few servings left for storing!  

Lessons learned: try turning up the heat to 325° to reduce cooking time; do NOT overcoat the kale, as it will take longer to cook (I think I used a little bit too much and will reduce my EVOO next time); get creative with the spices/herbs that you use! 

There's something awesome about double chocolate cookies.

So, as I have said before, the mister and me are doing a nutrition challenge. We are on day 14 right now. One big thing I'm missing is beer, but also I have had a craving for something sweet. Since we are avoiding sugar, even a teeny bit of honey (I'm talking a droplet) is enough.  It's amazing how the palate will change when you eliminate something from it. 

Yesterday evening, I decided to indulge that sweet craving and make some double chocolate chip cookies.  

• 1 and 1/2 cups almond flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• scant 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup Hershey's Special Dark unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon

• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/8 c. buckwheat honey (you can use regular honey)
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cups dark chocolate chips - I used "Enjoy Life Mega Chunks"

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a medium sized mixing bowl combine dry ingredients.
3. In a small mixing bowl beat egg, honey, and vanilla extract with a hand mixer.
4. Pour wet ingredients into dry and beat with hand mixer until combined.
5. Melt coconut oil, pour into batter, and continue to blend until combined.
6. The mega chunks are a little too big, so I suggest chopping them first.  Stir in chocolate chunks.
7. On a parchment lined cookie sheet, create balls of cookie dough, about a tablespoon in size. Give them a little thumb print because they won't spread out like normal cookies.
8. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

They were incredible with some almond milk.  Enjoy!!

Lamb meatballs with Moroccan-inspired stew

I am lucky to have regular access to Philadelphia's renowned Reading Terminal Market.  A new booth opened up over the summer--Border Springs Farm--and it specializes in pasture-raised lamb. They have both prepared foods and items from the butcher. I opted for a pound of ground lamb to take home and create something.  Other than making the occasional lamb burger, I rarely cook with lamb.  The good news is that it cooks at the same rate as ground beef.

The mister and I are participating in a 30 day nutrition challenge.  I'm avoiding gluten and sugar; he's doing the same, and he's also avoiding dairy. The focus of this challenge is to build a diet mostly of leafy greens and veggies (limited starches) and proteins.  

So, I scoured my many cookbooks looking for a ground lamb recipe. There were many lamb-based dishes, but few with ground lamb.  I came upon one for grilled lamb pops and decided to use this as a good starting point.  If you are a regular reader, you know that I rarely follow recipes to a T. Rather, I use them as an inspiration for a meal. 

We also had an abundance of sweet potatoes from our CSA and a never ending supply of tomatoes from our garden at home. I wanted to get them cooked up soon before they got soft and wilty.  So, I came upon another recipe for a Moroccan-flavored stew.  Here goes...

Grab two large pots. I used my Le Creuset wide  pan and the Dutch oven and put both on the stove top with a slice of bacon diced in each as well as some onions.  While these were warming up on the stove (slowly!), I began assembling the lamb meatballs. 

Ingredients:
- 1 lb ground lamb
- 1 egg
- 1/4 c. walnut meal (in place of breadcrumbs)
- garlic clove, smashed and diced
- chopped fresh herbs: mint, parsley, cilantro
- salt, pepper

Mix well with your hands and form into 1" balls.  Add to pan and cook on low/medium heat, moving around the pan until semi-firm (about 20 min). 

While the meatballs are cooking, begin work on the stew. Once done (about 20 minutes), turn off the heat and allow the meatballs to rest in the pan.

Ingredients:

- 1/4 c. onion diced

- 3 stalks of celery, diced (not in the original recipe, but I used them because I had them)
- 2 cups sweet potato, peeled, cut in 1" pieces (the recipe originally called for butternut squash, but I substituted this) 

- 1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes 

- as many fresh cherry tomatoes as you wish

- 2 cups water (again, another substitution--original called for chicken broth and I had none)

- generous handful of raisins -- I used golden raisins

- 3 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped

- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger
- 1/8 teaspoon cardamom 

- 1/8 teaspoon clove

We've already began cooking one slice of bacon and onions as we were preparing the meatballs.  This is now nicely oily and the onions are translucent.  Add the celery and sweet potatoes and cook for 5 minutes.  Pour in the can of diced tomatoes and add 2 cups of water.  Allow this to come to a boil and then simmer (with the lid on) for 20-30 minutes.  Begin to check the sweet potatoes for done-ness.  If they are still tough, continue cooking for another 10 minutes or so.  Add the raisins, garlic and all spices.  Transfer the meatballs and some pan fat to the stew.  Let the flavors mix for 10-15 minutes.  The stew will be brothy.  If you prefer a thicker stew, take the lid off and allow some liquid to cook off.  

Serve over pureed sweet potatoes (about 1/2 cup) or couscous.

Tomatoes and sweet potatoes simmering in the pot

Lamb meatballs added

As plated

All-local meatloaf filled with veggies

Two things: a confession and a truth are combined in this post.  I confess that I have never had or made meatloaf in my entire 35 years of life. I'm totally telling the truth (about the meatloaf and my age).  Everytime I think of meatloaf I'm reminded from the scene from Wedding Crashers.

We had a pound of ground beef in our freezer and I wanted to make a dish that wasn't a burger. So, I did some quick internet searching and was inspired by a recipe I found on a Paleo-focused website. Here's my version.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb. bacon (between 10-12 slices)
• 1/2 c. diced onion reserved in 1/4 c. measurements
• 1/2 c. diced pepper
• 1 c. finely chopped button mushrooms (any mushroom will work well)
• 1 c. cooked kale or other hearty green (may substitute chard or spinach)
• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 c. shredded carrots
• 2 tbs. stone ground mustard
• 2 tbs. ketchup 
• 2 tbs. Worcestershire sauce 
• 1 egg 
• Herbs to your liking: thyme, rosemary, cumin, garlic powder, dill
• Feta cheese (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400F. Line a cookie sheet with foil and place a rack on the cookie sheet. 

On your stovetop, heat up a large pan (I used my Le Creuset). Take 2 or 3 slices of the bacon and chop finely before adding to the pan.  Add 1/4 c. of onions and all of the diced peppers. Cook until fragrant, about 2 - 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms to the pan and cook thoroughly.  Remove from the pan and reserve.  In the same pan, cook the kale until fully wilted, remove from pan and allow to drain on a paper towel-lined plate or bowl. 

In a large bowl, add the following:

• Remaining onions
• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 c. shredded carrots
• 2 tbs. stone ground mustard
• 2 tbs. ketchup 
• 2 tbs. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 egg
• Herbs to your liking: thyme, rosemary, cumin, garlic powder, dill

Mix well, so that all herbs and items are incorporated throughout.  If found it incredibly helpful to use my hands for this part.  Add the mushroom/onion/pepper mixture. Before adding the kale, make sure it is drained well and chopped finely.  Once all ingredients are incorporated, take 1/4 of the meatloaf mix and create a small loaf.  If you are using the feta cheese, make a small crater in the meatloaf and add the cheese; bring the sides of the loaf up around to close.  Repeat this 3 more times.

On your cookie sheet, lay out 8 pieces of bacon. Wrap each loaf with bacon and secure with a toothpick.

Put in the middle rack of the oven at 400F for 35 - 40 minutes.  I checked on it after 30 minutes and decided that it needed 15 more minutes to get the bacon crispy or until the internal temp reaches 160F. 

The mister was out at a meeting, so I kept his in the oven (with the gas turned off and the oven door ajar) to keep it warm. It did not overcook the meat or the bacon.  It was incredibly moist and tasty.  I was quite surprised at how well this came out because as I confessed earlier, I have never eaten meatloaf or even attempted to cook it.

"MA......WHERE'S THE MEATLOAF?!?!?!?!"

I suspect you could make this in a traditional pan loaf and line the pan with bacon, but would likely need to cook it longer. 

I cannot wait to make this again.  The bonus to this recipe is that ALL items with the exception of the herbs, ketchup, and mustard were all local. 

I tried my hand at growing vegetables this year. Part III

There have been great successes this summer with our garden and here's a snapshot of some of what I've been able to harvest:

Eggplant (dogs didn't come from the garden)

Cherry tomatoes

Beefsteak tomatoes. I have probably harvested at least 5 - 7 lbs and there's more to be had.

Countless caprese salads

The garden is rockin'

I will re-evaluate planting zucchini next year, as they took up an incredible amount of space and only one veggie came to fruition before rotting on the vine.  I have already planted new seeds for the fall; including two types of lettuce, red Russian kale, and Swiss Chard. 

I tried my hand at growing this year. Part II

As I said in my earlier post, there were successes and failures in my endeavor to grow veggies this year.  The mister and I played is safe and continued with our CSA membership, but decided to opt for the half share in lieu of the full share.

Some of the seeds I started inside were looking great, like the broccoli, pictured below:

Some of the other seeds (kale, cucumber, zucchini) called for a direct planting in the soil.  So, around Mother's Day I got the seeds in the dirt and within  three weeks, I already had some success.  I decided to also look for some plants at the farmer's market and picked up some eggplant plants from an organic farmer.  So, by memorial day, my garden looked like this:

Lettuce (up front), broccoli (middle), sunflower and eggplants (left and top), hints of kale (top right)

We were able to set up a watering system by running the hose from the house (some 50') along the top of our fence line and connecting it to a diverter connected to two soaker hoses.  Once in the AM and PM we watered the beds for 10 minutes.

Top row are cucumbers; bottom two rows are zucchini

Carrots in the foreground

As I said before, I had some failures in this process.  My tomatoes that I started from seed did not transplant well and died, so I bought 5 tomato plants from a farmer at the Phoenixville Farmer's Market.  My broccoli transplanted well, gave me lots of green leaves, but never delivered on the florets. 

Within a few weeks I was harvesting food and the garden was thriving. 

Before (upper) and after (lower)

In my next post, I'll give you the rundown of everything we harvested this year. 

I tried my hand at growing food this year

And I think I succeeded.

The discussion began in late winter.  I don't know if you could even call November 2012 - March 2013 winter-like this year, as we had unseasonable warm temps and little to no snow precipitation.  I mentioned to the mister that I'd like to try growing food this year in addition to our CSA.  I've grown some herbs and cherry tomatoes in containers before, but with limited success.  I don't know what gave me the confidence to try growing food on a bigger scale. 

The mister and I began researching raised bed plans and seed sellers online. We decided upon a 4' x 8' dimension for our beds, but since we have a large male dog it needed to be at least 24" high, lest he try to raise his leg. (Most raised bed plans call for no more than 6" height.) And, given the amount of food I planned to grow, we decided that two would be sufficient this year.  We also decided upon a location that would allow us to build a third one if this year's "experiment" was a success.

The mister downloaded plans from the internet and began planning his supply list -- which seemed to go on forever, but I'm sure he views my ingredient lists the same way.  The mister and I agreed that we were going to use cedar instead of pressure-treated wood for the beds since they treat pressure treated wood with chemicals.  So, one very expensive trip to Lowe's for lumber (it was $200+), we had a pile of wood in the backyard and the mister got building.  Two beds were built in a day, and resemble the same size of a single (sleeping) bed you'd have in your home. 

In the meantime, I got to seed shopping. I'm very interested in eating/growing/buying food that are not GMO.  So, I found Botanical Interests online.  They sell both non-GMO and organic seeds and I bought a bunch of them--different types of lettuce, kale, tomatoes, broccoli, herbs, sunflowers, zinnias, chard, zucchini, cucumber, and watermelon.

I plotted out my planting schedule on a spreadsheet and purchased some seed starting kits to begin the garden.  I put the kits in a sunny spot, on our heater, so that the seeds would germinate easily despite the shorter days.   After a week, I had success with my lettuce seeds sprouting through.

It was working!  The picture above is of lettuce sprouts.  In order to get these sprouts into the raised beds, we needed dirt. So, the mister went over to our local landscape supply company to talk dirt with them.  They recommended a mix of screened topsoil along with aged mushroom compost to provide nutrients to the beds.  So, a few days later, we had 5 tons of dirt delivered to our house and the mister got to moving.  It was a terribly rainy day, but he was able to fill both beds and cleared all dirt from the drop zone.  He's the best.

Now that the beds were filled with good dirt, I started to evaluate my planting schedule and started to get some seeds in the ground. There are many that call for planting after the threat of frost (which is usually after Mother's Day in the mid-Atlantic); however, some hearty greens like kale and lettuces can handle a frost and keep on growing. I made sure to transplant some around mid-April and by the end of April I was already seeing success with the red leaf lettuce.

It wasn't all successful, but since I'm getting pretty long-winded, I'm going to continue this in a second post. To be continued...

Every good soup starts the same way...

I have found that every single soup starts with the same base:

• carrots
• onions (or leeks)
• garlic
• celery (if available)
• spices (sage, thyme, bay leaves)

It's a great start to any soup. Get those chopped veggies into a large stockpot with a touch of oil. Warm until fragrant. Add about 8 - 10 cups veggie stock or chicken stock (water works just fine, too).   Bring to a boil, then allow to simmer for about 30 minutes.

This time, I found myself with lots of escarole. It's more of a bitter green, which is why it goes well in soups as opposed to eating it in a salad.

I chopped the escarole, added it to the pot, along with two cans of cannelini beans, and 3/4 cup pastini. I allowed that to simmer for a bit, and then cool on the stove top until ready for refrigeration.  I always give my soups at least a day before eating them. It allows the flavors to settle in and makes for a better tasting soup.

Here's a shot of my escarole soup. You could add small meatballs and eggs if you were going for a traditional "Italian Wedding Soup."  Otherwise, this recipe as posted is vegan.

Delicata squash with greens and kielbasa

So, I found myself with a glut of delicata squash and I was unsure what to make of it. As you know, I don't really follow recipes, but I'm "inspired" by them.  We had a party to attend, so I decided that the delicata squash would be a great base for the dish that I was going to bring. 

I looked at my cookbooks and found one for a sausage-stuffed delicata squash recipe. I didn't have any sausage, but I did have some excellent kielbasa in my freezer.

I began by preparing the squash, scrubbing the skins, cutting it lengthwise and scooping out the seeds.  I cooked the squash (skin-side up) in the oven at 375 degrees until easily pierced with a knife. I suggest checking on it after 20 minutes as cooking times vary, depending upon the thickness of the squash.  Once done, take the squash out of the oven and flip over. 

While the squash was cooking, I heated up my Le Creuset with some bacon pieces and onions.  Once the bacon leeched some fat into the pan, I began crumbling the kielbasa and browning it on medium heat.  Once the kielbasa appeared to be cooked thoroughly, I added about 2 handfuls of chopped kale to the pot.

Turn the heat to low and allow the kale to wilt down. Mix everything well in the pan and scoop into the cooked squash.  Once all squash is filled, top with breadcrumbs and put under the broiler briefly.

These were a huge hit at the party. We sliced them into small bites and everyone enjoyed them as finger food. One thing to keep in mind, you can eat the skins of delicata squash. 

It's been a long, long time...

So, I must apologize to my readers for being remiss in posting here at my blog. I have focused most of my posting on my Local Food Lady Facebook page. I have been busy with growing food (for the first time ever!), making food, and enjoying food.

Growing food

I'm going to do my best to update this site to reflect the recipes I've been making over the last few months.  Thanks for reading!