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Fresh Produce Tuesday- Week #11: Strawberry Recipes

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For this week’s Fresh Produce Tuesday series, we are featuring  many amazing strawberry recipes.  Strawberries are my all-time favorite fruit.  I enjoy them almost year-round, but the most delicious ones are the fresh, local strawberries found every June from local farms.  I love that strawberries are so versatile- I enjoy them in a smoothie or with Greek yogurt in the morning, with a spinach salad for dinner,  in a sweet dessert, or I just pop them in my mouth just as they are.

I’ve been noticing fresh spring produce is abundant lately at the farmer’s markets.  Here are  recipe ideas for Asparagus, Artichokes, Spring Onions, Peas, Garlic Scapes & Spring Garlic, Rhubarb, Fava Beans, Radishes, Lettuce, and Morels in case you missed any of the previous weeks of our series.

I made this strawberry shortcake recipe a few weeks ago and loved how it turned out.  I was a little shocked how much heavy cream was used in the shortcake base alone, but it created a perfectly tasting cake to douse with strawberries and whipped cream.

Here are 9 additional strawberry recipes that I love:

Here’s your chance to link up you favorite strawberry recipe.   It would be great if you could link back to 2 Sisters 2 Cities or add our button to your strawberry  post (our button can be found on the top of the right-hand column), but it is not required.  Readers, please “like” the recipes below that you like the best!

Here is the Fresh Produce Tuesday schedule for the next few weeks:

Week #12- June 12th: Kale
Week #13- June 19th: Carrots
Week #14- June 26th:  Chard

Fresh Produce Tuesday- Week #10: Morel Recipes

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This week, I am trying a new type of produce that I have never cooked with before- morels.  I always like to extend my culinary knowledge however and really wanted to see what all the fuss about morels was about.  I tried to pull together a list of morel recipes that I’ve always wanted to try, but I haven’t been able to wrap my head around the price of morels (I paid $19.99 for .75 ounces of dried wild morels…yikes!)  Of course, you could try to forage for morels yourself, but it’s advised to always do so with an expert as many similar looking varieties of mushrooms can be quite toxic (and some even deadly.)

Here are 10 Morel Recipes that look quite appetizing:

Food bloggers, please link up your morel recipes below. It would be great if you could link back to 2 Sisters 2 Cities or add our button to your morel post (our button can be found on the top of the right-hand column), but it is not required. :)  Readers, please “like” the recipes below that you like the best!

Here is the Fresh Produce Tuesday schedule for the next few weeks:

Week #11- June 5th: Strawberries
Week #12- June 12th: Kale
Week #13- June 19th: Carrots

In case you missed any of the previous weeks, here are recipe ideas for Asparagus, Artichokes, Spring Onions, Peas, Garlic Scapes & Spring Garlic, Rhubarb, Fava Beans, Radishes, and Lettuce.

Fresh Produce Tuesday- Week #9: Lettuce Recipes

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For this week’s Fresh Produce Tuesday series, we are featuring recipes for all the great varieties of local lettuce available in the spring.  Some of the lettuce varieties include arugula, mesclun, oak leaf lettuce, butter lettuce, mache, romaine hearts, and watercress.  (If you want to learn more all the types and test your lettuce knowledge, Steamy Kitchen has an on-line quiz with 21 varieties of lettuce.)  Lettuce is the mainstay of most salads, but I can’t wait to see what other lettuce recipes others have for their greens.

We spent most of the weekend recuperating from last weekend’s pig roast.  On Saturday, we did take Baby T to two local farms.  Weir River Farm in Hingham, MA opens up their animal barnyard area every Saturday from 10am-2pm.  T loved checking out the horses, sheep, pigs (and brand new piglets!), chickens, and cows.  Then, we headed over to Holly Hill Farm in Cohasset, MA for their annual plant sale.  I picked up a few herbs for container plants (and sadly, not my raised garden boxes.)  Their honor-system farm stand was also open and I was able to pick up the arugula seen in the picture above.

Here are ten lettuce recipe ideas:

 
Food bloggers, please link up your favorite lettuce recipe below.  Feel free to submit your favorite salad dressing recipes as well.  Readers, please “like” the recipes that find most appetizing.  Please keep us posted on any recipes you try!

Here is the Fresh Produce Tuesday schedule for the next few weeks:

Week #10- May 29th: Morels
Week #11- June 5th: Strawberries
Week #12- June 12th: Kale

In case you missed any of the previous weeks, here are recipe ideas for Asparagus, Artichokes, Spring Onions, Peas, Garlic Scapes & Spring Garlic,Rhubarb, Fava Beans, and Radishes.

 

Fresh Produce Tuesday- Week #8: Radishes

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It’s radish day today as part of our Fresh Produce Tuesday series.  I can’t say that I love radishes, but I’m always on the look-out for recipes that may help me change that.  Radishes have that straight from the earth feel to them.  In fact, according to Wikipedia, there are some varieties of radishes from seed to a little plant in just 3 days!

If you live in the Boston area, be sure to stop by the Copley Farmers Market for it’s opening day today from 11am-6pm.  I used to work nearby and stopped by that market twice a week (Tuesday and Friday.)  It’s a wonderful market and one of the things I miss most about living in the city!  My favorite vendors are Siena Farm (lots of produce variety), Gilson’s Herb Lyceum (great herbs to plant), Atlas Farm (best tomatoes!), Stillman’s at the Turkey Farm (for meat).  I also would always grab lunch from Crystal Brook Farms– they have the best goat cheese picnic to go (the brown bag usually has a tub of marinated goat cheese, fresh bread, and a trail mix).

Here are some recipes that I have pulled together that feature radishes:

Please share your favorite radish recipe by clicking the blue “Click Here to Enter” link:

If you missed any of the past weeks, here are links to each type of produce we have featured: Asparagus, Artichokes, Spring Onions, Peas, Garlic Scapes & Spring Garlic, Rhubarb, and Fava Beans.  All of the linky tools are still open if you still would like to submit a recipe for any of these weeks.

Our Fresh Produce Tuesday line-up for the next few weeks is as follows:
Week #9- May 22nd: Lettuces
Week #10- May 29th: Morels
Week #11- June 5th: Strawberries

I hope you’ll continue to join us in celebrating a new type of produce each week as the growing season really starts to heat up.

Fresh Produce Tuesday- Week #7: Fava Beans

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Photo Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpck/3470999153/

We are featuring fava beans today as part of our Fresh Produce Tuesday series. If you missed any of the past weeks, here are links to each type of produce we have featured: Asparagus, Artichokes, Spring Onions, Peas, Garlic Scapes & Spring Garlic, and Rhubarb.

Here is the schedule for the next five weeks:
Week #7- May 8th: Fava Beans
Week  #8- May 15th: Radishes
Week #9- May 22nd: Lettuces
Week #10- May 29th: Morels
Week #11- June 5th: Strawberries

Fava beans are a little annoying to write about because spellcheck automatically changes the word fava to lava every single time! They are quite delicious though and will soon be popping up in Farmers Markets and CSA boxes. I found these great sounding recipes to prepare fava beans:

Fellow food bloggers, please link up your fava bean recipe below!

Fresh Produce Tuesday- Week #6: Rhubarb

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Happy May Day and welcome to another week of Fresh Produce Tuesday!  This week we are featuring recipes with rhubarb.  Rhubarb is mostly known for its use in sweet desserts (often paired with strawberries), but I also tried to include a few savory dishes below.  I used some fresh rhubarb over this past weekend to make a strawberry rhubarb slab pie for our dinner party.  I saw this recipe in Martha Stewart Everyday Food last month and marked the page to make it at a later time.  It turned out so good and it makes a lot!

Here are some additional recipes that incorporate rhubarb as an ingredient:

Please link up your rhubarb recipe below if you have one!  (I would love it if you could provide a link back to 2 Sisters 2 Cities or add our button to your rhubarb-related post, but it is not required.)

As a reminder, here is the spring schedule for Fresh Produce Tuesday!  As Farmers Markets and CSA boxes start to get going for the season, make sure you stop back to find and share recipe ideas:

Week #1- March 27th: Asparagus
Week #2- April 3rd: Artichokes
Week #3- April 10th: Spring Onions
Week #4- April 17th: Peas
Week #5- April 24th: Garlic Scapes & Spring Garlic
Week #6- May 1st: Rhubarb
Week #7- May 8th: Fava Beans
Week  #8- May 15th: Radishes
Week #9- May 22nd: Lettuces
Week #10- May 29th: Morels

Fresh Produce Tuesday- Week #5 Garlic Scapes & Green Garlic

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I had yet another tough week of finding the produce for this week’s Fresh Produce Tuesday.  I looked high and low for garlic scapes at several stores, but came up empty-handed.  Thank you so much to Georgianne Mora from A Cooking Life for letting me use the lovely picture above.

I originally had just scheduled garlic scape recipes for this week of Fresh Produce Tuesday, but last week Tracey from A2ZMommy and What’s In Between asked for suggestions for spring garlic that she saw in the store.  Spring garlic (also known as green garlic), is young garlic that is pulled to thin out the garlic crops, while garlic scopes are the curling, flowering stalks that are cut off the garlic plant.  I can’t wait for the farmers’ markets to get going around here so I can start making some of these recipes:

Time to link up your recipe featuring garlic scopes and green garlic!  Click on the blue link below to enter your Fresh Produce Tuesday recipe idea:

Here’s the current Fresh Produce Tuesday line-up.  And remember, the previous weeks’ Linky Tools are still open if you still want to submit your recipe for any of the past weeks.  Be sure to stop back next week with your Rhubarb recipes!

Week #1- March 27th: Asparagus
Week #2- April 3rd: Artichokes
Week #3- April 10th: Spring Onions
Week #4- April 17th: Peas
Week #5- April 24th: Garlic Scapes & Spring Garlic
Week #6- May 1st: Rhubarb
Week #7- May 8th: Fava Beans
Week  #8- May 15th: Radishes
Week #9- May 22nd: Lettuces

Fresh Produce Tuesday- Week #4: Peas

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Welcome to our 4th week of the Fresh Produce Tuesday- today we are featuring peas.  I was hoping to find shelling peas at the grocery store, but I was only able to find snap peas and snow peas today.  The local farmers markets in this area don’t start for a few more weeks so unfortunately, I was out of luck in my search to find just plain peas.  That’s alright though- we can showcase many varieties of peas this week!  Here are 10 recipes featuring peas:

Also, just wanted to remind you of our Fresh Produce Tuesday schedule for the spring:

Week #1- March 27th: Asparagus
Week #2- April 3rd: Artichokes
Week #3- April 10th: Spring Onions
Week #4- April 17th: Peas
Week #5- April 24th: Garlic Scapes
Week #6- May 1st: Rhubarb
Week #7- May 8th: Fava Beans
Week  #8- May 15th: Radishes

Please link up your favorite pea recipe below!  I would love it if you could provide a link back to 2 Sisters 2 Cities or add our button to your pea-related post, but it is not required.

Fresh Produce Tuesday- Week #3: Spring Onions

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For the third week of the Fresh Produce Tuesday series, we are showcasing spring onions.  We’ve received so many great recipe ideas for asparagus and artichokes in the past couple of weeks (the linky parties for both are still open if you would like to submit a recipe!)  Also, here is the current schedule for the Fresh Produce Tuesday series by week:

Week #1- March 27th: Asparagus
Week #2- April 3rd: Artichokes
Week #3- April 10th: Spring Onions
Week #4- April 17th: Peas
Week #5- April 24th: Garlic Scapes
Week #6- May 1st: Rhubarb
Week #7- May 8th: Fava Beans

Spring onions are onions that are picked before they grow into conventional onions.  They have a milder flavor than regular onions.  Elizabeth Schnieder, author of Vegetables from Amaranth to Zuchini describes spring onions in the following manner:

What we call spring onions are usually young onions, more mature than a straight green onion or scallion, less mature than the bigger round things we call onions.

I made some spring onions as a side for dinner a few weeks ago.  I brushed them with olive oil, sprinkled on some salt and pepper, and just threw them on the grill for a few minutes.  Very easy and very tasty!  Here are some other recipe ideas that include spring onions:

Do you have a recipe that includes spring onions?  If so, please link up your recipe below!  (It would be great if you could provide a link back to 2 Sisters 2 Cities or add our button to your spring onions post, but it is not required.)

Farmers’ Market Recipe: Bacon Asparagus Quiche

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I went to the Southie farmers’ market for the first time that I have lived here for the past 5 years.  It occurs from 12-6 every Monday, but in the past I had always worked during these hours.  I picked up some additional plants for my porch, and also bought some asparagus and fresh eggs.

 

 

 

 

 

When I got home, I realized I had enough ingredients to make a whole meal out of my farmer’s market purchases…Bacon Asparagus Quiche!  I love to make a whole meal our of my farmers’ market finds.

Ingredients:
-1 pie shell (I used a frozen one)
-1 bunch asparagus
-1 tablespoon olive oil
-6 pieces of bacon
-6-8 eggs (I used 8 as the fresh ones were on the small side)
-thyme (dried or fresh)
-1 and 1/2 cups milk and/or half & half (I used a 50/50 combo, but use any combination you prefer)
-shredded cheese (I just used a cheddar and monterrey jack mix I had from a previous recipe)
-salt and pepper

 

 

 

 

 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Cover the pie shell (in a pie pan) with foil.  Lay the bacon on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.  Bake both in the oven for 12 minutes or until done.

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, wash and slice up the asparagus in 1-2 inch pieces.  Heat a small skillet to medium and add olive oil.  Add asparagus and saute 6-8 minutes.  Add a small dash of thyme and cook for 1-2 more minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Combine the eggs, milk/half & half combination, and shredded cheese in a large mixing bowl.  Once the asparagus is done cooking and has cooled for a bit, add the asparagus to the egg mixture.  In addition, once the bacon has cooled, break it up into small pieces and add it to the egg mixture.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

 

 

 

 

 

Lower the heat on the oven to 325 degrees F.  Put the pie shell on a baking sheet.  Pour the egg mixture into the pie shell (I originally put a little too much milk in the recipe at first so it overflowed, as seen in the picture below…recipe above adjusted for this!)  Cook for 30-40 minutes, or until set.  Let the quiche cool slightly before eating.

 

 

 

 

 

This recipe would be delicious with a mixed greens salad and a light dressing and a nice glass of white wine!

-m

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