Sometimes naked fresh is the best

What could be better than freshly sliced cucumber on a just-baked piece of bread smeared with your favorite spread and topped with a salt and herb mixture? Having just finished eating that for lunch, I can’t think of anything more satisfying for a light meal. Of course, if I hadn’t eaten my just-cut salad greens yesterday, I could have added that as a side dish. 

As gardening season winds down, I’m reminded of how much I love certain fresh produce when it’s eaten “as is” or only minimally prepared. All of the raspberries never make it into the house as I snack when I pick. Sometimes I just walk to the garden and eat straight from the vine for dessert!  Strawberries, grapes and blueberries are the same; I have to at least taste them as I harvest. Jim loves plucking the warm peach and demolishing the fruit before he bring it inside. He’ll even eat an ear of corn as soon as he picks it.

Some people savor the tomato sandwich. I really don’t care for them freshly sliced in salad or on a sandwich, but I do love making the simple Baked Caprese Salad that puts the reddest slice of a Costoluto Genovese on top of oven-toasted bread then melts mozzarella on the tomato, finishing it with a fresh Basil leaf. I feel the same way about peppers, especially yellow and red ones, in that I lightly saute them in oil, sometimes throwing in greens as well.  

A gardener and cook should always taste the labor of love at as many stages as possible to see how you like it best. Following recipes to the final instruction can result in a fabulous product. But if you taste along the way, you might find a new option for making the dish even better. 

So here’s to enjoying the last harvests of the season. Savor and commit that taste to memory. When February comes, that will be your motivation for another season of gardening.

A Delicata Delicacy

When the child eats barely a bit of most foods on the table but smiles after she tastes my squash, that’s enough for me to declare it a winner.

The other night we went to our friend Robbie’s house for good conversations and Sunday evening dinner. Robbie is a great cook so we never worry about walking away hungry. Of course, what’s fabulous to the adult palette isn’t necessarily so to the child’s taste. A child’s food preferences are often greatly influenced by what he or she eats on a daily basis. A table filled with unfamiliar foods can be more frightening that inviting.

When I offered to prepare a delicata squash side dish, I wasn’t thinking about pleasing a child, I just made it because Jim likes it so I thought everyone else would, too. The slightly sweet vegetable topped with bright raspberries is as pleasing to the eye as it is to the tongue. Here’s the easy recipe.

Delicata Squash with Raspberries

Cut squash in two lengthwise. Place cut side down in baking dish. Fill with about water about 1/3 the height of the squash. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake in 400 degree oven 30 minutes or until soft. Stand back when removing the foil so the hot steam doesn’t burn your skin.

When the squash is soft, turn it over and empty the water. Cut a few bits of butter and drop into the squash cavity. Sprinkle with salt then with brown sugar. Top with walnut or almond pieces and a few raspberries. Don’t overdo it with any of the toppings; the squash flavor is great itself and these toppings just help bring out the flavor. Bake another 10 -15 minutes until the filling is melted. If one squash boat is too much for one serving, cut it in half. Serve and enjoy!

Our friends, and their granddaughter, sure liked it. They’ve already decided to look for delicata squash seeds to plant in their garden next year.

The hard frost arrives

I picked my final four raspberries yesterday morning with icicle fingers. A month later than usual, we got our first hard frost. I plucked a few ripening tomatoes from the now brown vines and cut some beautifully sturdy Swiss chard and arugula, then welcomed the warmth of my house when I brought it all inside. A cup of tea does wonders to warm the fingers!

So does a bowl of soup. I tried an experiment over the weekend and admired the unexpectedly pretty results. I made soup stock from our leftover turkey bones and plucked then shredded the meat from it. I sautéed onions, celery and carrots in olive oil then added the stock, meat, white beans and chunks of butternut squash. The squash added a pleasant yellow-orange tint to the broth. I cooked until the beans and squash were soft then seasoned with cumin, oregano, red pepper, black pepper and salt. We’re still savoring the results.

As the weather gets colder this week, I’m sure I’ll continue to look for foods that bring welcome warmth.

Eating a healthy breakfast

I attend a church that is blessed by the presence of a number of caring nurses who have recently started a health ministry program. Like many churches, we typically follow our Sunday morning service with coffee and doughnuts. Of course, doughnuts aren’t the healthiest choice so this past Sunday, our health ministers offered us something different.

What was on that menu? We enjoyed plain and vanilla yogurt to which we could add blueberries, raspberries, bananas, raisins or granola; turkey sausage links; nutty pumpkin bread (with pumpkin from my garden); and two juices (one with pomegranate) that didn’t have sweetener added. Oh yes, we also had chocolate chips to put into the yogurt—an attempt to interest the children in actually trying it.

The positive reactions from those present demonstrated that sometimes it just takes a taste or two of something healthy to introduce someone to a new, more positive, habit.

Thank you Cindy, Theresa and Lu!