Farm Share to Table

Having the farm share is definitely making my cooking more creative and making me try recipes and ingredients that I normally wouldn't. Its also helping to grow my cookbook collection-I keep finding cookbooks with recipes for the "new" vegetables I've now got in my fridge. I find it a welcome challenge to take the freshest, seasonal ingredients and then assemble a menu from there. I know this is nothing new and is standard in many other parts of the world, but traditionally in the States, we pick out a menu and then head down to the market to get whatever we like-regardless of where it was shipped from or whether its in season or not. That's certainly changing and I think we're better for it. I'm definitely enjoying these vegetables and assembling menus completely from the farm share/farmers' market, with a few pantry staples.

Last night for dinner, we started with a salad of red leaf lettuce, fresh raspberries, slivered almonds and a balsamic vinaigrette with herbes de Provence. The entree was orzo with roasted squash. Yes, I know I've been rocking orzo salad quite a bit this month but it makes many simple and delicious summer dishes. Plus, if by any chance there are leftovers, it makes a great lunch. I roasted two types of yellow squash-the eightball (self explanatory) and one that looked like a starfish (the name escapes me)-along with some Walla Wallas, olive oil, cumin, salt and pepper. To my standard lemon vinaigrette, I added some mint and a dash of cumin . Dessert was a blueberry-raspberry fool. I mashed about half of the berries and whipped some cream with sugar and vanilla. I then combined half of the whipped cream and the mashed berries and layered the mixture, berries and cream in a nice glass and it was chilled by the time we were finishing our orzo salad.

Orzo Salad with Roasted Yellow Squash and Lemon-Mint Vinaigrette
Serves 2-3 as an entree

5 oz. orzo
2 small yellow summer squash, chopped medium
1/2 small Walla Walla onion, chopped small
5 tablespoons olive oil, separated
1 teaspoon cumin, separated
1/2 lemon, zested and juiced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons freshly chopped mint
2 tablespoons goat cheese, crumbled
Salt and pepper
Grated Grana Trentino parmesan, for serving

Cook orzo in boiling salted water, for 8-10 minutes or until al dente
On a half sheet, toss squash, onions, 1 T olive oil, 3/4 t cumin, with salt and pepper
Roast at 400 degrees for 15 minutes
In a small measuring cup, combine lemon juice, lemon zest, 4 T olive oil, garlic, mint, 1/4 t cumin, salt and pepper
Drain orzo and place in medium bowl
Add roast squash and vinaigrette
Toss to combine
Cool to room temperature
Add goat cheese and check for seasonings
Serve with parmesan

Destination Dill Chicken

My favorite use for chicken thighs is enchiladas rojas, a recipe that I love from America's Test Kitchen. The other night, I bought some boneless thighs at the market and when I got home I went to work trying to figure what I wanted to do with them. I found a recipe in Sara Foster's Fast Easy Fresh cookbook for braised tarragon chicken. With a some modifications, my boyfriend and I were soon having Dill Chicken Thighs with Pan Sauce. The chicken was very tender and the sauce complimented it nicely. Plus, I always like a recipe you can start on the stove and then throw in the oven to finish while going about other things. I served the chicken with an orzo salad with fresh peas and roasted aspargus and kale sauteed with spring onions and olive oil. As hard as I try, I don't love kale and the CSA farm share has been full of it for three weeks straight. I don't mind a couple of the more mild varieties, but since I don't know their names I can't recommend them here. Orzo salad came out well: orzo, lemon vinaigrette, asparagus, minced shallot and some lovely fresh peas that I threw in with the orzo for the last minute of cooking.

I've seen recipes for toast with butter and sliced radishes and they never really interested me. However given the large number of beautiful purple, red and white radishes in the farm share from yesterday, I knew I had to figure something out. I toasted some sliced sour dough bread, spead it with unsalted butter and topped with the thinly sliced radishes and a sprinkling of kosher salt. That turned out to be a pretty good snack while preparing dinner. I do love toast with butter, so throwing the radishes on top isn's that much of a stretch. So what if all those French people know what they're talking about. With the rest of the radishes, I think I may go with Deborah Madison's recommendation from Local Flavors and make a compound butter to speed the radish-toast-butter-salt intake process. I'll throw the radish butter in the freezer and just take a little slice when I need my toast and radish fix.

Dill Chicken Thighs with Pan Sauce

4 small (about 1 1/2 lbs) skin-on chicken thighs
2 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
1 large shallot, minced
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 teaspoon dijon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Heat 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoons of olive oil in a 10" skillet over medium high heat
Season chicken thighs with salt, pepper, and half of dill
Cook chicken 4-5 minutes until golden on one side and turn them to cook for 4-5 minutes longer
Remove chicken from skillet and turn heat down to medium
Add shallot to skillet and cook 2-3 minutes, until soft
Add broth and deglaze the pan
Whisk in mustard, return the chicken to the skillet and bring to a boil
Put skillet in oven and cook 20 minutes
Remove chicken and if sauce needs to thicken, reduce over high heat
Stir in remaining butter and dill and season to taste with salt and pepper
Serve sauce over chicken