Salmon Rösti

So, not long ago I was approached by a scout from a major food network, looking for undiscovered culinary talent.  I was asked to show my mettle by presenting an appealing recipe that makes use of only common ingredients found in the average household pantry...

I am sooooo lying!  What really happened was, I forgot to plan dinner (again,) and I was scrambling around at 5:00 trying to find anything whatsoever to cook.  Not so much as a thawed hamburger in the fridge.  Pasta?  No, we don't eat that any more.  Omelets?  We had that for breakfast.  Chinese takeout was starting to look like a dangerously good option, when suddenly I stumbled across a couple cans of wild Alaskan salmon.

Dinner is saved!

This is No Ordinary Butternut Squash Soup

Not long ago I discovered a really great chicken recipe that I highly recommend you try.  The chicken is coated in a sauce made of mustard and maple syrup and then baked.  Even if you don't like mustard, you should try this because the cooking process transforms the sharp, yellow mustard sauce into something mellow and tangy and just a little bit sweet.

So, why am I talking about chicken?  What's that got to do with butternut squash soup?  You'll see.

Garlic Herb Vinaigrette

I don't know why I bother making homemade salad dressing.  You can easily buy bottled salad dressing at any grocery store and probably some gas stations.  Sure, it's expensive.  And yes, a lot of dressings have terrible, unhealthy ingredients, but you can figure out which ones are healthy (ish) by reading all the nutrition labels.  And so what if everybody only wants Ranch all the time -- it's not my job to expand other people's palate preferences.

And making salad dressing at home is a complicated process of dumping 4 or 5 ingredients into a bowl and blending them......

Okay, I DO know why I make my own clean and healthy salad dressing at home.  If you've never tried it, a good place to start is with a simple (but delicious!) herb vinaigrette.  It's easy.

Sunchokes Three Ways

One of the fun things about participating in a CSA program is discovering things you never knew existed... in massive quantities!  For instance...

These babies are sunchokes.  Also known as Jerusalem artichokes, which is a curious name for them, as they are neither artichokes nor from Jerusalem.  In fact, they are the tubers from a type of sunflower, and they were first cultivated by native North Americans, long before Europeans arrived on the continent.  You are starting to like them already, aren't you?  Good!  But let's not stop there.  Here are more things to like about them:

• They contain a good amount of protein, no fat, and surprisingly little starch.
• They have a mildly sweet flavor from fructose, so they are a better choice for people with type 2 diabetes than grains or other starchy vegetables.
• They are a good source of many important nutrients, including potassium, iron, fiber, niacin, thiamine, phosphorus and copper.  Not to mention loads of fiber!
• They are a great plant to place in your garden:  easy to grow and super pretty!
• Finally...