Daria Can Cook – and so can you!

Thanks so much for your feedback on my last post! I think I’ll be doing a mix of different types of posts, ranging from pretty pictures to policy rants. This one goes in the “pretty pictures” category.

I was home for lunch yesterday so I made myself a salad with a bunch of our CSA produce. There was natural sunlight coming through our windows (a rarity!), which led to pretty pictures even with my point and shoot.

This was tossed with a mixture of olive oil, apple cider vinegar, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper. The cinnamon and cayenne combo is amazing! I think I need to work on my knife skills though. I’m always cutting things into the same shapes, which means the same textures and tastes.

Do you have any killer salad tricks? Any favorite dressings, veggie combos, or mad knife skillz?

I’m finally back with this week’s veggie CSA haul. It’s one of the biggest ones yet, and it includes a fall treat I’m super excited about!

Nope, not those…

Not those either…

Getting closer…

Can you see it?

There it is! On the right! A BUTTERNUT SQUASH!

Plus a beautiful bunch of kale:

For lunch today I made use of a summer squash leftover from last week (so many veggies! so little time!), the new kale, and some of the cherry toms to get this snacky plate:

I definitely felt a little Snackface-y, especially because I sauteed the kale in a dry skillet so they crisped up into kale chips. I was kind of skeptical about kale chips, but WOW are they good! They explode into little crispy bites of heavenly greenness in your mouth. I will definitely be making these again.

For dinner tonight we did a pasta dish with CSA spicy Italian sausage, stir-fried eggplant, long beans (amazing texture!), more cherry toms, and hot pepper. It was so good I forgot to take a picture!

This was purportedly our last week of summer bounty. Our share continues through November, so we’re looking forward to hardier fare like root veggies and (thankfully) kale. I’m excited for the change of seasons! And I’m excited to be writing a blog post – I’ve missed doing this during my busy busy school days! Thanks to those of you who have still be visiting and commenting – you’re the best!

We did a little make-it-up-as-you-go-along cooking last night. We knew we wanted to use our Swiss chard, sweet corn, and pork cutlets, but our plans didn’t get much farther than that until it was time to cook.

I was in charge of the veggies. For some reason I’ve been thinking about spiced nuts (possibly because of Gliding Calm’s review of some Living Nutz products?), so I decided to use those as my inspiration. Here’s what I came up with:

Sweet and Spicy Swiss Chard with Walnuts and Cranberries

1) Sautee 1/4 cup walnuts in olive oil for 2-3 minutes (I set our gas burner to medium-high heat for this recipe)

2) Add a dash of cayenne pepper (to taste) and a handful of dried cranberries. Cook together for 1 minute

3) Add roughly chopped Swiss chard and cook until just wilted

And that’s it!

I loved this. The heat from the cayenne and the sweetness of the cranberries work perfectly together, and both the chard and the walnuts have a nice crunch.

Trent took charge of our pork cutlets, which he rubbed with olive oil and a few grinds of The Spice Hunter’s Fiery Chile Fusion Blend (Tellicherry black pepper, crushed red pepper, green chile, green bell pepper, chipotle chile) and grilled on our charcoal grill. They had a nice smoky, grilled flavor with just enough kick from the peppers.

We also boiled a few ears of our sweet corn, which was perfectly ripe, sweet, and buttery. Lovely! Here it is all together:

I love it when things come together on the first try.