Tortellini Soup

Here's how to make a delicious tortellini soup.

1 onion, chopped
8 ounces mushrooms, cut into chunks
1 clove garlic, minced
1 pound roma tomatoes, cut into chunks (or home canned)
1 Tbs. olive oil
6 cups stock (home made vegetable stock, if you have it)
1 package fresh tortellini
6 ounces baby spinach (you can also use chard or beet leaves)
3 Tbs fresh basil, chopped

Heat the olive oil in a soup pot.  Add the onions and garlic, and saute for a few minutes until they start to soften. (Okay, I just saute them while I am cutting up the mushrooms.) Add the mushrooms, and saute for a few minutes until they start to cook. (Or for however long it takes to chop the tomatoes.) Add the tomatoes, and stir until they start to soften.  Add the stock and bring to a boil. Add the tortellini. Let the stock come to a boil again, then simmer for 7 minutes.  Add the spinach and basil, and cook a few minutes longer until the spinach wilts.

Sprinkle some Parmesan cheese to serve, if you want.

This is a vegetarian version of a recipe that my daughter learned at cooking camp many years ago.

Zucchini Walnut Muffins

Yeah, I know.  This is the third zucchini muffin recipe I've posted.  But they are sooooo good, and they use up summer squash from the garden. Yea!

Zucchini Walnut Muffins

1.5 Cups unbleached flour (substitute as much whole wheat as you like)
1/3 C brown sugar
1/3 C white sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1.5 C grated zucchini (or summer squash of your choice)
2 eggs
1/3 C oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 C chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 375. Coat a 12-Cup muffin pan with cooking spray.

Mix the flour, sugars, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg in a medium bowl.

Beat the eggs in a large bowl, and add the zucchini, oil and vanilla.  Add the flour mixture and stir until just blended. Fold in the walnuts.

Divide the batter evenly into the muffin cups. (If you would like, you can sprinkle the tops with a little cinnamon sugar at this point.) Bake for 25-30 minutes until the tops are golden and the tester comes out clean.

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Yes, I know.  I already posted a recipe for chocolate zucchini cake.  But we've got squash everywhere, and my son really, really likes these.

Ingredients:
3 eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup sunflower oil
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups grated zucchini
3 cups all-purpose flour (I use 1 cup whole wheat and 2 cups unbleached)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Coat 2 12-cup muffin pans with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, beat together eggs, sugar, and oil.  Add cocoa powder, vanilla, and zucchini.  Stir well.

Add the dry ingredients, and stir until just blended.  Stir in the chocolate chips. Divide the batter into the muffin cups.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.

You are supposed to let the muffins cool before you eat them.  Yeah, right.

Blueberry Pound Cake

Life on the farm is really busy. Even during what seems like a lull between planting and harvesting, there is always something that needs attention.  Last week, it was blueberries. Folks were coming over for dinner and I needed a dessert that I could put in the oven and ignore for an hour while I irrigated the greenhouses.

Blueberry Pound Cake with Lemon Glaze

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour, divided
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups blueberries

Heat the oven to 325.

Generously butter a 10 cup bundt or tube pan, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup sugar. Tilt the pan, tap, and shake until the sugar is evenly distributed. (Sounds like a dance, doesn't it?)

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth. Mix in vanilla.

Toss the blueberries with 1/4 cup of flour and set aside.

Mix together the remaining 2 3/4 cups flour, baking powder and salt.  Add to the egg mixture, beating at low speed on the mixer.

Fold the blueberries into the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.  Bake until tester comes out clean, 70-80 minutes.  Let cool for 10 minutes (but do not invert to cool as you might normally do for some cakes. I learned the hard way.  Blueberries affect the structural stability, and mine fell. That's why I added the glaze - to hide the evidence.)

When the cake is cool, mix 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar and a pinch of salt with 2 Tbs lemon juice.  Stir until smooth. This should be pourable. Add more lemon juice if  it is too thick.

I decorated mine with calendula petals and borage flowers to make it pretty.

Roasted Red Pepper Dip (or Spread)

We had some people over for a cookout yesterday, and I made this dip and some Vienna bread.  Even my friends who don't like peppers raved about it.

Roasted Red Pepper Dip

2 red peppers
8 oz cream cheese
2 gloves garlic, chopped
2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt

To roast the red peppers, cut them in half and seed them.  Then put them on a baking sheet, cut side down, and roast for 30 minutes at 375 degrees.  They are done when the skins start to blacken and blister.  Put them into a casserole dish or bowl and cover it, and let cool for 20 minutes or so. Peel the skin off and discard.

Put the peppers, cream cheese, garlic, salt, and lemon juice into the food processor and process until everything is blended.

Marinara with Homegrown Tomatoes

I used to think of spaghetti as a cold-weather meal.  I had no idea how easy it was to make sauce for pasta from fresh tomatoes. This recipe is light enough for a summer meal. For heartier fare, we sometimes serve with meatballs or sausage.

My favorite marinara sauce came from the Vitamix web site, but it seems to have disappeared. Fortunately, I wrote down the few slight changes I made to the original, so here's what I do:

Marinara with Homegrown Tomatoes

Put the following into the blender container in the order listed:

• 1 medium carrot
• 1 Tbs olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic or one clove elephant garlic
• 1 medium onion, peeled and cut into eighths 
•  2 pounds fresh tomatoes, quartered
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano (or 1 tsp fresh)
• 6 large fresh basil leaves
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Blend on medium speed for 15-30 seconds.  Pour into a pot. Add a bay leaf and simmer for 30 minutes.

Pesto!

Pesto is amazing.  In the time it takes to boil your noodles, you can have a gourmet meal.

Pesto
Put the following in the blender in the order listed:
2 cups basil leaves (or for a change of pace, try parsley)
2 cloves garlic
1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2/3 cups olive oil

Blend for a few moments at medium speed until it looks the consistency that you like it.  You may have to use the pusher to get all the goodies down to the blender blades.

Pour it over hot pasta.

Done.

This is how parsley pesto looks over tortellini.