Honey Mustard Dressing

This is the simplest honey mustard dressing recipe you will ever find and it's perfect just the way it is.

1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tsp Herbs de Provence
salt & pepper to taste

Whip it all up and store covered in the refrigerator. Shake lightly before each use.

CSA 2010 Week 1

This year, we purchased a full farm share from Heron Pond Farm in South Hampton, NH as part of their Community Supported Agriculture program because the half share last summer just wasn't enough. They offer a great variety and a very fair return on investment--which was $500 for a full share (paid back in February to help kick start the farming season).

Each week, I will post a picture of our share to build awareness of this great opportunity to get local produce at its peak of freshness. I will also try to post pictures of anything I prepare featuring weekly ingredients.

Two heads of red leaf lettuce
One half pound of yukina savoy greens
One bunch of scallions
One tomato
One pint of perfect strawberries

This week, among other things, we had sliced strawberries with whipped cream and this salad:

Salad with farm-fresh red leaf lettuce, scallions and tomato. Also has leftover pulled chicken, crisp bacon, granny smith apple, celery, green pepper, cucumbers and grated carrot. Topped it off with homemade honey mustard dressing.

And, we had a nice Asian veggie stir fry a couple times, using the yukina savoy greens (recipe follows in later post):

More to come. I promise

With my husband away, I haven't been cooking anything too exciting lately because cooking for one just isn't the same. However, when he's home at the end of the month, I will surely be back in the kitchen and whipping up some delicious recipes for my honey, who I hear has been nourishing himself with BBQ take out and Subway. So, he'll be very ready for some CanCan concoctions. Until then, eat fresh and local whenever you can.

Turkey Veggie Chili

Still in San Diego, and wanting a little something spicy, but healthy, I opted for an easy chili.

As I've mentioned, I'm without many conveniences of home, such as my spice rack, so I relied upon an old favorite, McCormick's Original Chili seasoning. I've also been using ground turkey instead of beef or pork for health reasons, and this time I wanted to amp up the vegetable content for a more nutritious all-around meal, so I included a rainbow assortment for the most impact.

The Value of a Chicken

I'm sure I'm not the first person to discover the value of a whole chicken, but today its worth struck me as blogworthy. Plus, I haven't been cooking anything fabulous lately, so I'm overdue for a post.

As I've mentioned, I'm in a temporary home in San Diego for 8 weeks while my husband is out here for work. It's been nice, but I miss my kitchen and my things. Here, I have very few pans to work with, and all are very poorly made, which makes most cooking techniques a risk, at the very least. Aside from that, I don't have many of my go-to tools, such as a good roasting pan, so we've been relying more heavily on store-bought prepared foods, such as a rotisserie chicken we got at Von's Supermarket the other night--for probably the 12th time since I arrived here 6 weeks ago. Their chickens are great! Probably the best supermarket-cooked chicken I've ever had. And, at $5.95 for a cold, day-old version, the chickens are a real steal!

With that $6 bird, I will do various, all be, simple meal preparations for the next few days when I'm in a pinch for a quick fix. This afternoon, I had a cold chicken leg with the thigh (skin removed) and a side of cole slaw. Tonight, we had Caesar salad with chicken breast meat and a freshly baked baguette that I rubbed with minced garlic before tossing it in the oven; we shared a single breast. Tomorrow, I may use the other breast for a sandwich or stir fry, and the next day I'll pull off what's left and reserve it so that I can simmer the carcass for a nice chicken stock. I'll use the stock to make soup (maybe with some leftover pulled chicken), or I'll use it to make rice, gravy, or anything else I can think of within the week that follows.

The best part--or most valuable--is the fact that when we return to the east coast, we will be again treated to fresh whole chickens, free from my in-laws' farm. I think those chickens are appropriately called "priceless." Oh, and they give us eggs too! We're pretty lucky--but everyone can appreciate the value of a chicken anytime they can find multiple purposes for it at home.

Sidenote: As soon as I start cooking something noteworthy, I'm going to include photography. At least I'm going to try to include photography. We'll see how it goes.

Braised Shallots and Crimini Mushrooms

While we're out here in San Diego during the winter, we have the added pleasures of visiting many farmers markets. I think there are around 15 weekly markets in the San Diego area. So far, we've been to four: Mission Valley, Point Loma, Ocean Beach and of course, my favorite, the Little Italy Mercato.

Each had vendors offering beautiful local produce (some certified organic, some spray free, etc.), flowers, prepared breads, entrees and treats (oh, the desserts are drool-worthy), as well as products of local artisans. For me, all markets are a feast for my eyes. I instantly start imaging what I could do with this and that--then I remember I am in my temporary winter home, with little more than a frying pan, small glass casserole dish and soup pot to work with. Ugh. All this produce and so few ways I can prepare it in this limited kitchen.

During my most recent market trip, to Ocean Beach (on Wednesdays, 4-7 p.m.), I spotted these big beautiful shallots and recalled a recipe I read about carmalized whole shallots, something I had never considered before that sounded quite delicious. I also saw some nice crimini mushrooms and thought the two would make a nice side dish to the stuffed chicken I had planned for the following night. Since I rarely follow a recipe word for word, I did my own spin on it, as follows:

Braised Shallots and Crimini Mushrooms

12 whole shallots, peeled with roots left intact
12 whole crimini mushrooms, wiped clean with dry cloth (do not wash mushrooms)
5 tablespoons of butter (I used salted)
2 tablespoons of sugar
2 cups of white wine (I used pinot grigio)
1 teaspoon of dried thyme leaves (or a fresh sprig or two would be nice)
Salt and Pepper


Preheat oven to 400 degrees

In medium sauce pan over medium low heat, melt butter. Once melted, add thyme, sugar and whole shallots. Stir gently to coat and let cook about 8-10 minutes, stirring just occassionally. Transfer to casserole dish, top with mushrooms, wine, salt and pepper. Pop into oven, uncovered, and cook for about 30-40 minutes. You can cook it for longer, but the shallots will break down much more.

Remove the vegetables with a slotted spoon to leave most of the (fattening) juices behind, then just drizzle a bit of this flavorful goodness over whatever else you are serving, such as stuffed chicken breast and roasted red potatoes, as I did. I also reserved the leftover sauce in a container in the fridge to possible use later in the week as a sauce compliment, or to drizzle over bread when making crostini.

Leftover shallots and mushrooms would be terrific over mashed potatoes (made with that leftover buttery wine & thyme sauce) or make great pizza toppings!

The recipe that inspired this used a bit of red wine vinegar instead of so much white wine, for a tangier taste and more caramelization versus braising. That might be worth a try another time.

Sidenote: Peeling shallots is a pain in the ass, I know. If you peel off more than just the skin layer, I suggest saving the remnants (skin and all) in a bowl in the fridge to use when making your next pot of stock. I try to save all my vegetable ends and skins for this purpose. I think it adds a tremendous amount of flavor, and I'm sure a variety of good nutrients seep into the stock during a slow simmer. If anything looks too rotten in your stock bowl when it comes time to add to the pot, just discard. At least you tried to use it all up. In my case, I try to make a stock (usually with chicken bones) about once a week to use for on-the-fly soups and anything else that needs a boost of flavor.

Grilled Veggie Tacos with Black Bean Salsa

Grilled Veggie Tacos with Black Bean & Corn Salsa

A recent meal at Islands restaurant on Claremont Mesa in San Diego inspired this new recipe. I think it will work great with whatever vegetables are seasonal at the time you decide to make it.

I used zucchini, summer squash, red bell pepper and yellow bell peppers as the base in this batch. All vegetables were cut into fairly chunky pieces for grilling and rubbed with olive oil and a little taco seasoning.Veggies were lightly grilled, maintaining firm texture, but gaining nice hot grill marks. Once done grilling, slice out nice taco-sized strips from each piece.

The salsa is pretty easy to make. Just mix:

1 can of black beans (canned, well rinsed and drained)
1 cup of frozen corn (thawed) or a couple fresh, grilled ears of corn
juice of one lime
2 ripe tomatoes (finely chopped)
half a red onion (finely chopped)
1 large fistful of fresh cilantro (finely chopped, with most stems removed)
1 fire roasted Serrano chili pepper (finely chopped, stems and ribs removed), or substitute a jalapeno pepper
Salt & pepper to taste...it will need a fair amount of salt, but go a little at a time and test.