Adventures in Farm Shares

By Barbara O'Neal

I have been on a vegetable adventure this summer. I signed up for a weekly share in an organic farm co-op, and the variety is enormous. Now, I consider myself a big vegetable eater. I love vegetables. I eat lots of them. I thought I understood them.

Turns out I wasn’t eating nearly as many as I thought. But that’s the challenge of a farm share, right? Working with what’s seasonal, even if it does get to be a lot of say…oh…cabbage by the end of said season. The whites of our eyes are tinted pale green.

Turns out, too, there are more vegetables in Heaven and Earth than I have dreamed of, Horatio.

Take, for instance, the pretty little red bulbs that came in my share a couple of weeks ago. Christopher Robin (being from England where things grow much, MUCH bigger than they do here in Colorado) guessed that they were radishes. Since I’ve been growing all manner of radishes this summer, it seemed a reasonable guess. I sliced off a chunk and tasted it.

The river-bottom silt of beets filled my mouth. It was all I could do not to spit them out on the floor. I do not like beets, Sam-I-am. Do not like them boiled or roasted or sliced in salads. They always look so extraordinarily beautiful, and always taste like catfish. Blech.

Another adventure was kale. (We've been getting a LOT of kale!) I had not worked with it at all, mainly because it’s always used for decoration in lawns and doesn’t look particularly edible. But it’s basically a hearty green veg, so I was game to layer it into the lasagna. I put the purple kind in a spinach-tortellini soup, and the result was a much more substantial texture than the spinach usually lends, and plus you get to feel like Super Nutrition Person because kale is, as my son tells me, what all the cool kids eat these days.

One of my great challenges is still eggplant. I love the way they look—that gleaming purple skin and cute little hat. When I’m out, I love eggplant parmiagiana. But before they came in the shares, I had never actually handled a fresh one, and my experiments thus far have been only mediocre. I’ll keep trying, because it seems a valuable addition. (Tips welcome!)

My favorite of the year so far, however, came in the share this week. A Yugoslavian finger squash. It looks kinda like a flying saucer, but honestly, if you’ve met one winter squash, you’ve met them all. I’ll let you know how it comes out when I bake it, but I’m not expecting any major surprises.

It’s not all weird vegetables, of course. We’ve been feasting on fresh spinach again, and tiny green baby onions, and leeks. On my counter is a bowl piled high with plump baby pumpkins and acorn squashes in their military uniforms and the pale oblongs of butternuts. It’s a treat to dig through the share each week and find out what’s on the menu.

What vegetable will you absolutely not eat under any circumstances? Do you get a farm share like this? And please...give me some tips for making a decent dish with eggplant!

Photo credits: Beets-- 3liz4; kale--Ameetav Nangrani

Comments

[Joshilyn Jackson]

The FINGER SQUASH IS CREEPY. More toe like. ALIEN toe like.

We call ours CRAZY FARM BOX. We only get it in winter because we use the farmers market in the summer. It never has those FOOT LOOKING squashes in it though. /sadpanda

[Reine]

Hi Barbara,

Lovely thoughts about vegetables! I adore fresh, and youngish (very important), eggplant. I slice it in 1/2" disks; dip it in egg; coat with Italian bread crumbs; pan fry; serve with fresh marinara and freshly-grated and blessedly-aged Parmesan cheese. This is actually the only way I will eat eggplant.

[Nancy Martin]

Barbara, my husband will eat anything as long as it's not beets. But I like beets! Have you tried roasting them with a little brown sugar? (Okay, what doesn't taste good with addition of brown sugar?) And in autumn, they look so pretty in a dish full of assorted roasted veggies. Guests can always pick them out.

But I am no good with eggplant. (I think the name put me off early.) Last night at my book club, our hostess tossed a slew of assorted veggies in an orzo pasta with feta cheese. A big pot in the middle of the table--always cozy.

[Judith Bandsma]

I don't like squash or broccoli. Kale in our house gets made into a typical Dutch dish...boerenkool met wurst en spek. Definitely not your best way to fix a vegetable.

Eggplant. I had tons one year from just 3 plants. This is my favorite recipe: Eggplant soup base

Slice eggplant in half, brush with olive oil and set, right side up, on a baking tray. Cut an onion in half, the end off a full bulb of garlic, arrange on the tray and brush with olive oil. If you've got room, add a couple whole tomatoes. If not, you can used canned later. Put these in a 400 degree oven until the eggplant is mushy and looks disgusting. (This will change, trust me).

When the eggplant is cool enough to handle, scoop the meat out of the skins and put into a heavy bottomed pan. Throw in the tomatoes if you roasted any and the garlic cloves. Add about 1 1/2 or 2 cups of chicken broth. Add the canned tomatoes if that's what you're using. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer for about 20 minutes.

Blend this mixture in small batches, or use an immersion blender, until the whole thing is smooth. Add 3/4 cup of cream (ok, use fat-free milk if the idea of cream horrifies you, but it won't be as good) and a tablespoon of butter. Salt and pepper to taste.

Now comes the fun part. Add whatever you want to it. I've used shrimp, clams, cut up chicken, thinly sliced beef, other vegetables...or eat it plain. In the summer this is a very good cold soup.

If you have a lot of eggplant, you can stop before the cream and butter, place the blended mixture in containers and freeze. Add the cream and butter after you've thawed it and you have a quick meal.

[peach]

I love vegetables and love to eat them when prepared properly. This past week has been a cauliflower bonanza. We have plenty of cauliflower from the garden put up in the freezer, but have two dozen plants in the garden with various size heads. I've made Parmesan breaded oven baked cauliflower florets; cream of cauliflower soup, cauliflower with cheese sauce, cauliflower with butter, sea salt and cracked pepper. I have to dream up something else because I've still got cauliflower, but it's my favorite of braccia family.

I've tried hard to think of a vegetable I don't like, but nothing is coming to me at the moment. Beets, I love them especially fresh out of the garden, boiled, then slipped from their jackets, sliced, and topped with a dollop of sour cream. Heaven!!!!

Garden season is finally winding down here in our little neck of Western PA. Planted the garlic for next year this past Sunday. Cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage are good until we have a severe freeze so probably will go for a few more weeks. Our carrot crop stays in the ground until March, or all used. We keep them from freezing by covering with large trash bags packed with leaves.

Gardening has been tough this year due to the extremes in moisture and high heat. Yield is down and very disappointing.

Today my family is starting a two day annual event. Applebutter making. We'll be cutting, coring, cooking and running 7 bushel of apples through the squeezo to make applesauce. Tomorrow we will spend 8-12 hours around a 30 gallon copper kettle with a fire under it. We will take turns stirring constantly with a wooden paddle until it turns into brown gold. We'll get between 15 and 17 gallon to divide between 7 family groups. I'm on my way out the door in the next few minutes to start.

[Deb]

I love all veggies except OKRA. YUCK. TO me, it tastes as though it has been pre-digested. I also cannot stand the texture.

I prepare eggplant similarly to the way Reine does it, although I will often bake it instead of heating on top of the stove, and I frequently skip the sauce. It tastes great either way.

[KD Easley]

Brussell sprouts, I will not eat them sam I am. Yuck!
I would kill to be part of a co op like that. How awesome.
Jealous.

[Karen in Ohio]

I love veggies, and have had a really great garden for the last couple of summers. Steve built a raised bed for me at the farm, just 100 square feet, and then he doubled the size last year. Then we built an electric fence around the garden, incorporating a sweet little garden gate as the entrance.

This year I had close to 300 pounds of veggies out of that little space: lettuces, spinach, parsley, Swiss chard, cilantro, dill, basil out the wazoo, French breakfast radishes, carrots, beets, three kinds of onions, peas, green beans, okra, butternut squash, potatoes, strawberries (but not many, so I've yanked up the vines), and TOMATOES--about 150 pounds just of them. It froze last week, so I went down there and picked out the last of the tomatoes, yielding about 30 pounds of green ones, along with the last of the ripe grape tomatoes. And here at home I still have cilantro, parsley, rosemary, stevia, and lemon verbena.

Last night for dinner I made a vegetable medley in a 9 X 13 pan in the microwave: two long, baby eggplants, sliced in 1/3" pieces; the end of a bunch of celery; a head of garlic, just the peeled cloves; chunked green pepper; tomato chunks; two small onions, chunked; a fistful of basil; some dried oregano; and several tablespoons of olive oil drizzled on top. Finished it off with some thyme sprinkled on it. Covered with plastic wrap; cooked at high power for 18-20 minutes. Served over couscous, but you can also serve over bulgur or rice. Then I also sauteed some Swiss chard in a bit of olive oil, sprinkled with some sumac seasoning and squirted with lemon juice. Yum.

My favorite veggie is Brussels sprouts, prepared a la the Joy of Cooking method: Halve them--this releases the bitterness, and toss with a little olive oil. (At this point you can precook them in the microwave, if you want. I often do.) Heat a T of olive oil and a T of butter in a big skillet, then saute several cloves of minced garlic. When the garlic is just beginning to soften, throw in the sprouts, cut side down. Cover and cook of medium low until the sprouts are bright green and caramelized on the cut side. Sprinkle with a little sea salt. The best, seriously. People who normally don't care for them enjoy them this way.

Okra, not my favorite, although my friend fries it and I like it that way. But sliced okra in vegetable soup adds something indefinable, a good indefinable. I keep some sliced in the freezer to add to winter soups. And the flowers on the plants are weirdly beautiful.

[Barbara O'Neal]

Josh, right? They are strange. I forgot my encounter with kohlrabi, which is also weird looking.

Maybe that is what I needed to know, Reine, youngish eggplant. Though I get what they give me.

That is a gorgeous soup recipe, Judith. The eggplant would give it some good body. I'll try it.

[Barbara O'Neal]

KD, depending where you are, you might be able to still get a winter share. Google organic farms or CSA.

Karen, thats how I love Brussels, too. Or we roast them. I've decided to add them to our growing list for next year. So pretty!

Ha, ha Deb. that's a perfect description of the texture of okra.

Wish I were with you, Peach. What a great way to spend a couple of days. I had friends who gathered to make tamales like that--zillions of them. Everyone was always laughing and gossiping.

[Harley]

Barbara, I am with you. NO BEETS. Beets are BAD. I don't care how fresh they are, or how your grandmother's aunt prepares them, keep them away from me. Also, they turn things RED that aren't meant to be red, so if they're in a salad, I can't just politely move them aside, because the salad is now contaminated.

I'm also not nuts about cabbage, but it's not full-fledged animosity, like with the beets.

I'm very good about eating my veggies, but I have to cook, saute, roast or grill them to within an inch of their lives, unless it's lettuce. So good luck with the eggplant. I usually stick them in the oven for about a week and a half (covered with olive oil) until they soften up.

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

In the past I was not fond of Brussels sprouts. Now I LOVE them. And I had Brussels sprouts slaw topped with crispy fried B-sprouts the other day..YUM.

Eggplant. Is--great, but iffy. I think the key is to cut it in chunks, put in a colander, then salt it. Let the salt draw out the mater, then after about an hour, rinse it. It makes it less bitter. I just roast it (skin off and cut up) with zucchini and little tomatoes with some sea salt and olive oil and garlic..then toss it with pasta and cheese.

Yeah, slimy okra. Not my fave. Although in good
gumbo..

Those squash are too weird to eat.

[Josh]

Reine, on first glance, I thought you were combining with marijuana, not marinara. Shows where my mind is, even after all this time.

I am not supposed to eat raw vegetables, doctors' orders, even though I love many varieties of them. No regular garden salads, no vegetable trays, no nothing. It's either that, or many trips to the ER and, finally, surgery. Definitely a bummer.

[Cornelia Read]

Okra and peas--FEH!!!

I only cook the skinny asian kind of eggplants, because they don't get bitter. So I'm no help to you...

Those squashes are really, really scary. I think if you put them on a front porch for halloween they would make no children dare to trick or treat...

[Alan P.]

Skinny Al eats pounds of vegatables each week. This week's lunch special was raw cabbage with Kim Chee and cucumbers, 6 oz. of carrots and two apples.

Reine's recipie is quick easy and yummy. I salt the slices of eggplant first and then let them sit about ten minutes first. Then dab with a paper towel and then bread and bake or fry. Add cheese and sauce. Bibaganoush is good too. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/babaganoush-recipe/index.html Also try Japaneses eggplants. They are not as bitter as their bigger cousins.

I like bean sprouts and fennel and for a while I got the girls to eat bok choy, but I think it was because they liked to say bok choy.

A typical week in the vegetable aisle:

5-8 lbs. carrots
12 bananas
5-10 lbs. apples (our last apple picking adventure was 40 lbs of apples, they lasted 3 weeks)
3 lbs raw cabbage
1 lb. spinach
3-5 lbs. tomatoes
6 English cucumbers
jicima
grapes when I can get the US grown ones

[NancyP]

Firied okra is crack.
Golden beets in a salad? Heavenly.
Love peas, beans, corn, spinach, broccoli, asparagus. . .
BUT eggplant is the devil's work, and squash, except for spaghetti sqash covered in cheese, is the vegetable kingdom's kudzu. I run screaming from it. If you don't keep your eye on it, it will come for you in the night.

[Alan P.]

I forgot a road less traveled from yesterday, sorry, but it is a good story.

My great aunt worked in a St. Louis leather goods store as a young single girl. It was the early '20's. A tall young man was looking for a leather jacket. He offered to take her flying in his air mail plane. Aunt Sara turned him down, he didn't have the money for the jacket and she didn't think he would amount to much. It was probably for the best, Charles Lindbergh wasn't Jewish anyway.

[Holly Gault]

I love all vegetables although, I am more reserved about kohlrabi. Slice eggplant 1" thick, brush with olive oil, broil until brown, turn, repeat. Now you can saute or layer in cheese and marinara.

Or baba ganoush - bake whole until it is soft and collapses, scrape out and puree with garlic, olive oil, lots of lemon, parsley, and a little tahini.

[Elaine Viets]

What bounty, Barbara.
I learned to like vegetables as an adult when I discovered they didn't have to be boiled to death. Love mustard and collard greens sauteed in a little olive oil and garlic.

[NancyP]

Aw, I think those little finger squash are adorable! They have wee belly buttons!

Alan P., great story. The Flight Not Taken.

[Amy]

Squash. Yuck. It makes me feel childish for not liking it, but I just can't stand it.

Eggplant with garlic sauce. I don't have a recipe, I just sort of throw stuff together until it looks right. Cut the eggplant into half-inch, cube-ish strips, then cut them down to about three or four inches long. I don't skin it, but my husband likes it better skinned, but he can just be grateful I'm cooking. The garlic sauce: well, garlic, sliced. Hot pepper oil or sesame oil or peanut oil or corn oil, dried hot red peppers, red cooking wine, rice vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce, corn starch, water, probably some other stuff I can't remember. Meat eaters might like some chicken broth instead of water. Combine the sauce ingredients in a frying pan, throw in the eggplant, cook until the sauce is thickish and the eggplant is soft. If you cook it a while, it gets a little caramelized; some people like that, some don't.

[heather graham]

I am so with you on the beets!
And admire it all so much--I can even kill a cactus.

[Pam aka SisterZip]

I so wish I liked vegetables. To me anything green tastes like grass and most other veggies taste like dirt to me. I read an article that some people just do not have the taste buds required to 'love' veggies...so I'm off the hook, lol.

I do love corn on the cob, like regular corn, peas, lima beans, fresh carrots. I can tolerate green beans if NOT cooked with pork fat & onions. I will not touch broccoli, brussell sprouts, cooked carrots, or any squash. Just nasty.

Oh, and GO CARDS!!!!!!!

[Kerry]

Peas. Except once in England I had some little bitty ones that were delicious. But mostly, ugh. Other than that, I'm good with all other veggies. Winter squash and sweet potatoes are new faces - I guess it's taken me a long time to acquire the taste for them.

I love eggplant. My favorite recipe is a dead-easy crock-pot ratatouille; the long, slow cooking really deepens the flavor of the tomatoes and makes everything blend beautifully.

Winter squash I mostly bake and blend with either applesauce or baked apples, butter and a little maple syrup. The other day I made a sort of sweet potato pancake out of leftover mashed sweet potato, crispy-crumbled bacon and sautéed onions. Yum!

[Kerry]

Not faces. FAVES. Stupid spell-corrector . . .

[gaylin in Vancouver]

I am not an adventurous vegetable eater. Have to be real careful of extra green leafy things, they lead to unfortunate run-to-the-bathroom problems. I don't like beets either something about the taste/texture/flavour doesn't match up in my mouth and I gave up trying to like them. Eggplant falls into the yech category for me.

My basic every week veggies are red pepper, tomato, zucchini, spaghetti squash, yams, peas and carrots. None of which I grow on my small balcony. I love roasting yams and then using the leftovers for yam hash browns.

[lil Gluckstern]

I used to do a "Joy of Cooking" ratatouille. Lots of eggplant and all kinds of good stuff. Sprinkled with parmesan, and served with fresh French bread or over rice. Yummy. Dom de Luise had an eggplant spread, cooked, mashed with olive oil, and garlic. I actually grew eggplant once, but I was the only one who liked it enough. You see, there were all those pretty flowers...

[Barbara O'Neal]

Pam, that's my sister to a T. She doesn't do vegetables. It's painful to remember her sitting at the table, two hours after dinner, refusing to eat the peas my mother served for dinner.

Alan, that grocery list earns 5 gold stars!

[Doc In CA]

Eggplant, while very good in many dishes, has almost no nutritive value. you'd get healthier eating the box it came in.

Personally, I'd rather eat the garden compost than eat broccoli or cauliflower. The smell and taste of both are jusr nasty.

I'm not a big fan of beets because they always taste like dirt.

On the other hand, I like most squash, love spinach and other greens, am cool with turnips & parsnips, could not cook without onions & garlic, would die without potatoes (both regular and sweet), REALLY love tomatoes and chili peppers, am very fond of sweet corn and, with the exception of the durian, have never met a fruit or berry I didn't like.

[Storyteller Mary]

Gee, Doc, my Aunt Yoko and several websites point to significant nutrition from eggplant. I'm sure if you add too much oil and salt, it becomes less so, but I stir fry with very little of either, and lots of other veggies (and just a little meat or tofu) for a very good, healthy dinner -- thanks to my CSA for providing me with so many veggies that it was either eat or be buried under them. I gave some away and froze some for winter -- I miss them already!
http://www.localharvest.org/terripin-farms-csa-M32881

[Storyteller Mary]

Oh, but I don't eat lima beans -- Mom always excused me from those (and ate the left-overs for lunch the next day because SHE liked them).

[Carol]

I've cracked the eggplant code! Thane and I thought we hated eggplant, until we were at The Slanted Door in San Francisco, and our waitress loved us so much she comped us her favorite dish: eggplant. We looked across the table at one another and tried to figure out how much we had to eat before we politely said we were full, and then we took a bite. Really good. Crack good. Roasted until they were incredibly soft, then tossed with coconut milk, chili paste, and garlic. I still dream of that eggplant. But I've made it and loved it often since. The key is young, and roasted until it's really, really soft and carmelized. Oh, and call it aubergine. Sounds so much better!

[Doc In CA]

Lima beans: no

Peas & most other beans: yes

[Karen in Ohio]

Lil, that eggplant spread? Baba ganoush! Love the stuff, along with hummus. And eggplant does have the loveliest flowers, as pretty as those on okra.

One thing I've not tried is squash blossoms. The Italians batter and fry them in olive oil. Daylily buds are also supposed to be good that way, but I can't bring myself to try.

When my last two children were small I had a sweet little herb garden, including chives, borage, nasturtiums, and some other things. I taught the girls which things they could eat, as well as clover, honeysuckle, and dandelions from our UNTREATED yard. (I want to make sure to stress that part! We also did not have animals.) They loved foraging, especially the youngest, who used to eat chive blossoms then come in, snuggle up real close, and breathe toxic fumes in our faces. The little devil.

[Karen in Ohio]

Mary, a really good, and much more tasty, substitute for lima beans are edamame. They look similar, but don't have that dry texture. And they're a superfood, so they have a lot of nutrients.

[Margaret Maron]

I'd rather eat a spoonful of dirt than beets, but love eggplant salad:
slice the eggplants into strips the size of your little finger. Salt well and leave in colander to drain off come of the bitter. Slice onions and peppers similarly. In a large skillet or wok, saute onions and pepper in a little olive oil till peppers are tender. Rinse the eggplant. Drain. Add to wok or skillet and stir till eggplant is soft. Add a couple of drops of sesame oil (a little packs a real wallop) and stir well. Remove from heat, stir in vinegar to taste. Serve warm or cold on a bed of fresh mixed salad greens.

[Amy]

Wow, beets are taking a beating. Doesn't anyone like them pickled? The pickled beets were much better in Australia than any I've had here. Standard fare on burgers down under. It adds a nice tang and texture to a burger, though mine were veggie burgers, if that makes a difference. It might.

[Debbie]

I hate cabbage, beans & brussel sprouts! They hate me too, & make me unpleasant to be around! Lol!
I love most other veggies, but don't eat them enough!
I read about a restaurant that serves a butternut squash & okra stirfry over pasta. that sounds yummy to me! If I liked to cook, i'd try that!
P.S. I thmk those finger squash are perfect for this time of year!

[Storyteller Mary]

Love edamame and garbanzos, and these days, if a lima bean or two shows up in something, I can handle that, too. I'm learning to eat more veggies, less meat, and smaller quantities of snacks and sweets . . . and feeling better for it.

[Storyteller Mary]

I had squash blossoms! Jessica and Brad planted extra squash plants just to have blossoms, and she gave everyone directions for frying them -- oh so good!!!
Winter squash is very good with just a bit of butter pecan ice cream on it. My mother heard a chef describe it on television and made a point of telling me, the only member of the family who liked squash . . . what a good mom!

[Karen in Ohio]

Amy, thanks for reminding me about the beets on the hamburgers in Australia! That was so weird: hamburger patty, "tomato sauce" aka ketchup, lettuce leaf, and beet slice! It was tasty, though. Their ketchup tasted so different because they don't use corn syrup for it; everything in that country is sweetened with cane sugar, or maybe beet sugar? Didn't think of that.

My gardening friend canned some of the best beets I've ever had last year, loaded with cloves. I couldn't stop eating them. She gave me another jar this year, but I'm saving it.

[Pam aka SisterZip]

I like Idaho russett potatoes and LOVE sweet potatoes. Outback Steak House has a wonderful roasted sweet potatoe with brown sugar and honey butter. Yummmmmm!

Pickled beets and candied yams were horrors of my childhood. My mother was/is not much of a cook and really messed me up with alot of things, lol. I hated baked apples until I made some from a recipe on epicurious.com. Mom would just core the most sour apples around and put little red hots candies in the center and bake. Just awful.

Fruits, I do much better. I love fresh pineapple, cherries, seedless green grapes. Hate any type of melon except watermelon. It just doesn't like me.

[Sandi]

Have you tried baked kale chips? Sounds odd, I know, but several people have sworn to me they're amazing. I haven't had the opportunity yet. I never had "real" beets growing up and the canned version still turns my stomach. However, a few years ago at Thanksgiving I added them to a mix of roasted root veggies. Dice potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, rutabagas, parsnips, beets, onions, and anything else you can think of. Toss them with olive oil and bake for a gazillion hours until everything is caramelized and tender. Add a little salt, and mmmm...

I also like to add practically any vegetable to lasagna. Eggplant, sliced thin, would be a good alternative or addition to the lasagna noodles. I chop carrots fine and cook them in the sauce (yes it's homemade - I'm such a freak I even make the pasta from scratch - thank you Grandma & Grandpa!) to sweeten it. Zucchini and yellow squash, broccoli, spinach, eggplant - they're all great. Sticking with the tomato base, what about ratatouille as a way to use the eggplant?

Karen - that's my favorite Brussels sprouts recipe, too! I use that method for cauliflower as well. No more "cauliflowerncheese" (the only way we ate it when I was a kid) for me!

[Sandi]

Oh, and sweet potatoes are out of this world roasted, baked, or "oven fried" (tossed in olive oil and baked) then seasoned with a little chili powder and salt, or my favorite smoky seasoned salt from Penzey's.

Really, the only vegetable that I can't stand is okra, and that may be because my dad grew some when I was a kid and didn't pick it soon enough, so it was hairy AND slimy. I haven't tried it since.

[Mary Stella]

I have strange vegetable likes and dislikes. I will eat beets in a salad. I like tomatoes in salsa, when they're stewed or in a tomato sauce (I'm half Italian after all), but I can't stand them just raw sliced on a sandwich or chopped in a salad. Yuck. Same thing with cucumbers -- love tsasiki (sp?) sauce but not raw.

My Italian grandmother cooked eggplant a gagillion ways. One thing I remember before she made parmigiana or simply breaded and fried was that she drew moisture out by sprinkling with salt and blotting it with paper towels.

One of my favorite of all vegetable experiences is to take a whole artichoke and tuck small spoonfuls of bread crumbs, garlic powder and parmesan cheese into the base of each leaf. Cook it in the pressure cooker for 15 minutes until tender and then pull out leaf by leaf, scraping the mixture and the "meat" of the leaf off in your mouth. Oh yum! Then when you get down to the heart, you cut and scrape off the prickly "choke" stuff and eat the base. Double yum.

[Reine]

Josh!

"Reine, on first glance, I thought you were combining with marijuana, not marinara. Shows where my mind is, even after all this time."

Hahahahahahahaaaa!!! Sounds good to me.

[Reine]

NancyP, You are so funny with Satan's spaghetti squash! I don't like it either. My wonderful mother-in-law lost a few points the weekend she brought a a spaghetti squash to go with my Cabernet sausage red sauce and a jicama boulder for me to add to the salad. HUH??? I had never had broccoli before, didn't know beets looked like . . . you know . . . and would never eat one even when threatened with detention (paid Bunny Welch to eat them).

[Reine]

Alan, I just merged your grocery list into my shopping app.

Lil, I want that recipe for the spread. It actually sounds very good. I know Step would love it.