Mountain Bounty Farm

The veggie box was scrumptous last week (yeah for all those greens!), although we’re still working in everything in it since we went up to Tahoe for the holiday weekend. We always stay in Incline and have found THE  place to eat – Jack Rabbit Moon. It is the kind of wonderful cooking I can only dream of doing! Their appetizers are always so good, wine list excellent, and their pasta dishes are infused like I would love to make mine. We also ate at Bite - a local favorite – and another wonderful place with great food and a cool hip vibe.

Enjoy  this week’s finds …. lots of recipes below!

Veggie Box Contents
2 lbs oranges
1 lb parsnips
0.5 lbs spinach
1 bu carrots
1 cabbage
1 bu collards
0.5 lb baby romaine
1 lb leeks
0.75 lb beets
1 lb golden turnips

Fruit Bag Contents
Kiwis
Blood Oranges
Grapefruit

Recipes

Upside Down Caramelized Root Veggie Tart – a great way to use beets + turnips + carrots. I recommend making it simple with a premade crust!

Lentil Stew with Winter Veggies – hoping this hearty winter meal brings on a winter storm

Roasted Beets & Parsnips 

Root Veggie Gratin – you can add potato to this, too

Root Vegetable Soup with Meatballs – this one is simple but elegant!

Blood Orange Martini – I don’t know about you guys, but I have been craving a summertime cocktail.

Mixed Baby Beet Salad with Blood Oranges, Shaved Fennel, and Chevrot Cheese

Thanks to MBF member Mayumi Elegado (the magic behind Truckee & Tahoe’s Moonshine Ink)

http://stitchandboots.wordpress.com/2010/01/24/turmeric-roasted-rutabagas/

I don’t know about you, but I can’t get enough of these beautiful carrots. When you taste one, you don’t want to go back to store-bought and bagged! Be sure to check out my (and members) recipes below. Last weekend I made my family the Root Veggie Lasagna …. being a lover of Italian food (red sauces) I was a bit hesitant in trying one of my favorite dishes so differently. But this was delicious. You don’t really need very much cheese either – although I did add some ricotta to make it a little more traditional.

Veggie Box Contents
2 hds Batavian Lettuce
1 lb Rutabaga
1 bu Carrots
1 lb Broccoli
0.75 lb Romanesco
2 hds Radicchio di Treviso
1 bu Spinach
1 bu white spring onions
1 buttercup squash
1 bu cilantro

Fruit Bag
Navel oranges
Kiwis

Recipes

Roasted Balsamic Radicchio

Root Veggie Lasagna – I made it this past weekend and we had leftovers last night – super yum. I used parsnips, carrots, sweet potatoes, shrooms, onion and butternut squash – but you could use the rutabagas, onion and the buttercup squash in this week’s box! You could try some regular potato, too. I also added some ricotta with chopped green garlic in the layers – really good.

Cilantro Chicken – yeah! It is so exciting to see cilantro. Im trying this one this week.

And for those of you who missed my favorite way to do the rutabagas …….click here.

And here are some yummy sounding ones from MBF members (try using the buttercup squash in these, too):

Butternut Squash Soup

Potato Soup

Butternut Squash Salad

Warm Spinach Salad with Fried Egg & Potatoes

Tumeric Roasted Rutabagas

Thanks to MBF member Jane Lynn Grimes.

1 medium onion
olive oil
2-3 carrots
2-3 sweet potatoes
1-2 turnips or 5-6 radishes
1 T. minced garlic
1 lime
1/2 t. chile powder
2-3 whole scallions
fish sauce

Cook a thinly sliced onion in the olive oil over medium high heat about 5 min. Meanwhile peel and grate carrots, sweet potatoes, radishes or turnips and add with garlic to pan to cook for another 5 minutes. Add juice of 1/2 a lime, sprinkle of chili powder, handful of chopped scallions and fish sauce to taste. Garnish with lime wedges.

Thanks to MBF member Monica Quinones for this!

1.5 lbs potatoes, chopped
1 celery root, peeled and chopped
1 leek, chopped (set aside finely chopped green part)
4 garlic cloves, chopped
45 fl oz rice milk
1 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp dried sweet basil
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp salt (optional)
2 tsp black pepper

Place potatoes, celery root, onion and garlic in large pot with enough water to cover all ingredients, bring to a boil, cover and allow to cook on medium heat until potatoes are tender enough to poke with fork. Drain.
Add 1/2 cup rice milk to food processer along with half of your potato mix and process until smooth puree is reached. Pour into large pot and continue to process remaining potato mix in the same manner, adding the final puree to same large pot with remaining rice milk.
Add thyme, basil, corriander, salt & pepper, stir and cook on medium-low, allowing soup to heat throughout. Serve and enjoy.

There is only LOVE.

Maybe I LOVE Valentine’s Day because I have a wonderful husband and 2 beautiful little girls (giving me an excuse to make homemade cards and cut out heart frosted cookies) … but I also support the idea of a day or month of celebrating romance and LOVE. I am currently reading the NY Times bestseller, The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin. You may know the story or have read it – the author attempts to become a happier, more light-hearted person by completing a year of practical changes in her life, with each month focusing on a different theme. Last night I started reading, ironically, the “February” chapter, where she looks at her marriage. During the month she continually reminds herself of one of the 12 commandments she decided upon before entering her experiment … “There is only LOVE.”

This little simple sentiment is what I am taking with me as an inspiration as we go through this next little holiday time. I will try to remind myself of this when I get overwhelmed with the seemingly endless amount of work around me (I can take a break), or when I am impatient with my children (they only know as much as they know), or critical of my husband (he works hard, too). I’ll take it with me in the car, the grocery store, the gym …. remembering I can only work on myself.

THANK YOU!
So enough about me – now a little bit of LOVE out to you guys. Last night John Tecklin, the brain and the heart behind Mountain Bounty, sent out a heartfelt email about the challenges the farmers have had this winter. In response, we have received a large handful of notes back to us, thanking us for the update and praising us with words of support. Thank you! Our farmers are doing their best with this difficult weather – and we all are thankful that people like you believe in what we do.

Now for the food. If you aren’t taking your lovey out this weekend or Tuesday nite to celebrate – think about staying in for a cozy romantic dinner for 2 (or the family) and try the recipes I included this week – below. Happy Love!

Veggie Box
2 lbs Oranges
1 bu Carrots
1 bu Green Garlic
1 bu Collards
1 bu Rapini OR Red Mustard
0.5 lbs Little Gem Lettuce
0.5 lbs Spinach
1.5 lbs Potatoes
1 Red or Grey Kabocha

Fruit Bag
Grapefruits
Navel Oranges

Recipes
Kabocha Squash Pasta & also Soup Recipe (2 recipes, same page)  - this is a fun blog, too! Some lovely and fun relationship advice, too.

Collard Greens with Guanciale and Chilies – this is an awesome dish I recently found in Sunset Mag (Jan 2012). Guanciale is an Italian sweet bacon. I used pancetta instead and it was great – but you can also use thick-cut bacon. Try using pickled piquillo peppers in it, too.

Hanger Steak with Green Garlic Sauce – my husband and I love to make tri tip or a good thick NY steak on the weekends. Pair this with some nice roasted potatoes, garlic up & saute that rapini or spinach- and all you’ll need is the chocolate cupcakes (below) a good bottle of red from The Pourhouse (in Truckee) or Carrington’s (Nevada City).

Chocolate Orange Cupcakes – here’s another fun recipe and page from the blog mentioned above. No need for one of those fancy cupcake shops when you got this recipe. (Oh and if you really want to impress someone, get them the decadent truffles from The Truffle Shop in Nevada City.

Can you believe it is already February? It always amazes me how quickly the year gets going ….. and this weekend is already the Superbowl. Dare I even say that we’ll still be having a huge party even though the 49ers aren’t in it? It is a big tradition with our family of friends – and of course along with the game, (and the billion dollar commercials), and lots of fun stuff to drink, we’ve got tons of fun party food to eat. I usually serve Martha Stewart’s famous Mac N’ Cheese (unfortunately no produce needed – and I use good sourdough bread for the topping and smoked gouda + cheddar and/or gruyere), and this year I started searching for more fun – and healthier – munchie things to make. I wanted to be able to share Mountain Bounty’s good stuff! So check out the recipes below that I’ll be trying this weekend …..

An Important Word from ME!
Also – before you read on for this week’s bounty, I just wanted to remind all of you about how our pickup system works. WE RELY ON YOU! I do my best on this end to make sure our counts are totally correct, our farmers and delivery drivers count that again, and then once the boxes and bags arrive at the pickup sites – it is up to YOU! I cringe every Wednesday & Thursday nite when the farm cell rings. I keep my fingers crossed that everyone correctly picks up their shares within the time we have alotted at each site. Please remember: There are no extra boxes or bags at the sites. If you are sharing, and you and your share partner mistakenly pick up the same week, someone else will go without their share. OR – if you don’t tell your friend or husband EXACTLY what to pick up, and they pick up an additional bag or box, someone else will go without their share. Please help me make the system work.
Thank you guys!

Veggie Box Contents
2 lbs oranges
1 Butternut Squash
0.5 lbs sundried peaches
1.5 lbs potatoes
1 bu leeks
1 lb parsnips
1 bu rapini
1-2 romanesco

The sundried peaches are just that, sundried with no additives. They have a dark color, almost black, especially on the outside. As a reminder, the rapini is also known as broccoli rabe. And romanesco is a kinda like broccoli + cauliflower – it sautes with garlic beautifully!

Fruit Bag
Navel Oranges
Lemons

Recipes

Leek Tart

Butternut Squash Bruschetta

Parsnip Fritters

and this recipe, I randomly found in a 1999 Cooking Light magazine at the gym today – Creamy Potatoes & Greens – sounds like a great side with hamburgers!

And if you have just signed up, be sure to scroll down for more recipes in past MBF Winter Newsletters!

What a wonderful weekend I had – hunkering down inside with the family – went to the movies (We Bought a Zoo is really worth the ticket), and had some scrumptous food. Eventually I’ll share with you my to-die-for chicken pot pie recipe. Sunday nite we even added smoked chicken in it. So good. Our shares sound lovely this week – and enjoy the recipes I’ve put together for you below. A nice varied selection.

Veggie Box Contents
2 lbs Oranges
1 Green Cabbage
1 Buttercup Squash
1 bu Green Garlic
1 bu Collards
1-2 Celery Roots
0.5 lb Mei Qing Choi (Bok Choy)
1 bu Scarlet Queen Turnips
1.5 lbs French Fingerling Potatoes

The Mei Qing Choi and Collards show signs of past freezes: mainly tip burns along the edges of the leaves. You can treat the cute turnips like radishes – they are great in salads.

Fruit Bag
navel oranges
kiwis

And now for some Recipes:

What to do with the Green Garlic – fun recipes!

Balsamic Fingerling Potatoes

Celery Root & Potato Pancakes

These little potatoes are my favorite. Try this different recipe. The balsamic adds a nice kick.

• 1 ¼ pounds of fingerling potatoes, washed and halved
• 2 ½ tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• ½ teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped fine (optional)
• 2 to 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Place your oven rack in the lower third of your oven.
2. Prepare your potato wedges. Attempt to cut each wedge into similar sizes for even roasting.
3. Toss the wedges in a bowl with the olive oil, sea salt, pepper and rosemary (optional).
4. Roast for 20 to 25 minutes, until fork tender.
5. Sprinkle with the balsamic vinegar, shaking the pan to coat the potatoes. Roast until vinegar evaporates, about 4 minutes.
6. Season with more sea salt and pepper and serve.