Fresh Specialties

Natural Easter Baskets

Ideas for Spring

I find Easter confusing. Whether you go in for a religious holiday or, like me, consider it a secular shindig, there's no mistaking that one of the strong overtones of the day is the return of spring. Bunnies, eggs, flowers and pretty spring-like pastels rule the season. What's confusing, is that we tend to convey this springtime feeling with a lot of cheap, ugly and tacky plastic junk.

A couple years ago I tossed out all our plastic eggs. In their stead I replaced them with naturally dyed eggs. Beet juice, onion skins, grape juice, even cabbage, make lovely dyes for your eggs. Another trick is to wrap the eggs in pretty flowers or leaves, slip them into a nylon stocking foot, then drop them in the dye bath. When you unwrap the package, pretty flowers and leaf patterns greet you.

I also gave up on the cheapo unnaturally colored baskets. Sea grass baskets are beautiful around the house. Even simple, natural baskets, perhaps adorned with a ribbon, make the kids happy. Lately I've noticed a trend toward plastic baskets. Yuck.

I cushion the baskets with straw instead of plastic grass. I sometimes even fill a basket with soil and plant actual grass seed into it. Anything is better than the plastic Easter “grass.” A friend of mine lines her baskets with play silks, which have the added benefit of being one more goody for the kids inside.

As for toys and candy. Naturally I include a few treats. The chocolate bunny is a must, although I go for the larger foil wrapped ones to cut down on the cardboard or wrapping. Jelly beans and chocolate eggs are another favorite. For toys, I stick to things for the season – bubbles, a new kite, sidewalk chalk. Nothing extravagant, but old favorites that require yearly replacement.

Bring on the Sprouts!

Brussels sprout preparation tips

I had never tried Brussels sprouts as a child. My mom is dead set against any cabbage-related plant, including broccoli, cauliflower and the sprouts. She couldn't stand the smell, she said. As an adult, I just assumed I wouldn't like them, since I had only heard horror stories about the yucky Brussels sprout. Man, was I wrong.

Perhaps it was because my first taste was from some fresh sprouts right off the farm and not the frozen variety (frozen vegetables rarely have a good flavor, in my opinion). Or, maybe it was because I carefully researched the best way to prepare them. I'm not sure what it was, but I am now completely addicted to these cute little miniature heads of cabbage with their mild flavor.

The main issue is that improperly prepared sprouts can have a distinctly bitter flavor. The culprit is the stem end. A lot of recipes advise steaming the sprouts. These recipes will advise you to cut an X in the stem end. Don't do this! The little white stem is the seat of all that bitter flavor. Slice it off and put that steamer away!.

After trimming the sprouts, I like to slice them in half, then toss them with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. Throw them on a roasting pan and roast them for 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven. The outsides brown and develop a slight caramelized texture, while these interior is creamy and flavorful. Yummy! You can roast them whole, but I like to brown as much of the sprout as possible.

A Peck of Peppers

Some like it hot!

Peppers, no matter the type or how they are served, hold a special place in my heart. I grow them fresh, buy them from specialty markets, and sample food items featuring them. Spicy and fiery, sweet and mild, full flavored and exotic – I don't care. I have never met a pepper I didn't like.

The two main types of peppers are sweet and hot. Sweet peppers have no heat factor, like the ubiquitous bell peppers. Hot peppers range from the mild, such as a poblano, the burning fire of a habanero. Pepper shape doesn't provide an good indication of whether or not a pepper is sweet or spicy, although the majority of the bell shaped ones are sweet or only mild.

The Scoville Scale ranks the heat of peppers. Bell peppers and cubanelles, for example, rank a 0 on the Scoville index because they have no heat at all. The habanero and Scotch bonnet rank at over 500,000 on the heat index. In between sits the rest of the hot peppers, from green chiles to jalapenos and Thai peppers.

The seeds of hot peppers often supply a bulk of the heat. If you like things spicy, leave the seeds in. To make a dish more mild, remove the seeds before chopping the pepper. The flesh and juice of the pepper also contains capsicum – the element that gives a pepper its heat.

One word of caution. Wear gloves and wash your hands thoroughly after handling a hot pepper. The capsicum stick to your skin. It can cause skin irritation, but the worst pain is if you touch your eye with a capsicum soaked finger.

Almost Vegetarian

Lowering your meat consumption.

Many people are cutting back on the meat in their diet. The reasons are various, but they generally boil down to cost and health. We cut back several years ago for diverse reasons. The cost of meat has become prohibitive and the desire for a healthy diet also plays a part. I also prefer to spend my few meat dollars on higher quality hormone-free meats from humane local farms. All this means we are almost vegetarian when compared to the average American.

The first step in lowering meat consumption is to stop thinking of the meat as your main course. Instead, elevate a side dish to the main entree and serve meat on the side or use it sparingly, almost like a condiment. We enjoy meat at every dinner, but having one or two meatless meals is another way to lower consumption.

People are shocked when I share my family's weekly consumption. There are four of us ranging in age from 7 to 35 (including an always ravenous preteen). On average, we use 3 pounds of meat a week. Our breakfasts tend to be meat free. Lunch is either soup, tuna salad or egg sandwiches with fruit. Most of the meat is consumed at dinner. Generally, I use a half cup or less per meal. That isn't per serving, but per four servings and leftovers.

The process is simple. I up the vegetable or starch component of any dish. Meat is then added for flavor. A sprinkling of bacon complements the flavor of home baked macaroni and cheese. A half cup of diced ham turns a dish of roasted vegetables into a main course. Chicken vegetable and noodle soup is just as good with only ¼ cup shredded chicken.

Sunchokes

A Winter Treat

Sunchokes are more commonly called Jerusalem artichokes. This is a misnomer, considering they are neither artichokes nor from Jerusalem. Sunchokes belong to the sunflower family of plants. They grow as the plant's tuber, while the plant above produces flower very similar to those of a sunflower.

The tubers are an amazing fresh vegetable that is readily available in winter and early spring. They resemble bits of ginger root or knobby potatoes, but their flavor is all their own. There's no need to peel a sunchoke, but you should scrub the skins well with a vegetable brush to remove any clinging soil.

Sliced sunchokes oxidize and brown quickly, so only cut them right before serving. When sliced or grated on a salad they provide a flavor and texture similar to water chestnuts. Sprinkling the slices lightly with lemon juice will prevent the oxidation from occurring.

I prefer sunchokes roasted. Just slice them up and toss them with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast them alone or with other root vegetables, the choice is yours. Roasted sunchokes have a texture similar to roasted potatoes but their flavor is almost nutty, a perfect accompaniment to a cold weather meal.

Sunchokes are also hailed as a wonderful food option for diabetics and others watching their carb intake. Unlike potatoes, the carbs in sunchokes break down into fructose. It takes the body longer to convert fructose to a sugar, which makes it a good choice for those one special diets who are craving a starchy root vegetable.

Fresh From the Freezer

We enjoyed strawberry shortcake on Valentine's Day. Not the type of strawberry shortcake you usually get in February, with white-cored bland berries shipped from some hothouse grower in another country. Oh no, these were delicious, sweet alpine berries that are red through and through. The type of strawberries you can only get fresh from the patch in summer. In fact, they were fresh from the patch. Sounds impossible in my northern region, but thanks to proper freeing techniques, we get to enjoy these berries year round.

Strawberries and other fruit freeze well, although the finished product is usually best served in desserts. You can freeze them using a dry pack method, which requires an ample sprinkling of sugar, or you can immerse them in a sugar syrup. Firmer berries with thicker skins, such as blueberries and cherries, freeze well without the sugar but they aren't firm after thawing so are best used in baked goods or sauces.

Nearly all vegetables freeze well, but they do require blanching first. The process is easy. Simply immerse the vegetables in boiling water for two to five minutes, depending on their firmness and size, then cool them quickly in ice water so they don't continue to cook. Drain, dry and freeze.

To keep the fruits and vegetables in the best condition, use freezer-safe storage bags or containers. I like to use glass containers, but plastic also works. Air is the enemy in the freezer, so make sure everything is sealed well. Don't fill containers up to the top since the food expands when frozen – always leave an inch of headspace. Finally, use the items within six months for best flavor, although most retain their quality for as long as a year.

Strawberries for My Valentine

No fresh fruit says “I love you” better than the strawberry. The sweet red berries even look like little hearts when viewed just right. Cutting off the top carefully can further exaggerate the heart shape, making them the perfect thing to serve your lover on this most romantic of days.

The only thing better than a bowl of fresh strawberries on the Valentine table is mixing both chocolate and strawberries together. You can make the standard chocolate dipped strawberry quickly and easily. Just melt some chocolate in a bowl and dip the strawberries. Allow the chocolate to harden and voila! Drizzle each berry with white chocolate to dress them up a bit, or use a clean paint brush to write love messages on the berries with white chocolate. A big wow factor for such a small amount of time and effort.

Chocolate dipped strawberry roses are another fresh choice that is a bit more original than the standard chocolate covered fruit. Insert a wooden skewer into the stem end of each dipped strawberry to make the rose stem. Wrap the skewer with green floral tape and add a few silk leaves. The result is a beautiful rose that tastes as good as it looks.

Another favorite is strawberries and cream. If you go this route, use only a top quality cream. Whipped cream is a bit sweeter, especially if you make it your self. Stem the strawberries in such a way as to really accentuate their natural heart shape.

Perk Up Your Home

Fresh Flowers for Late Winter Color

Even though there is still snow in the ground, my heart is already beginning to sing for the springtime. The air outside feels a little different. The air is just as cold but something but the bone chilling frigidness is starting to dissipate. I'm ready for fresh greenery and spring blooms, even if my garden isn't ready to supply them!

I purchase most of my fresh flowers from January to March. Many of us need these bright blooms to get us through the last days of winter mentally in tact! My love for fresh flowers can cost a small fortune, but now I plan ahead.

Paperwhite bulbs, a type of tender daffodil, are readily available this time of year. Simply pot these in some soil or even on a bed of gravel, and within a couple of weeks you will have delicate flowers blooming in your living room. Hyacinths, daffodils and tulips will reward you in the same way, but you have to plan ahead and pot these up in early December. These bulbs need a couple of months in a cold area – either in the fridge or outdoors – before they will bloom inside.

Another idea for fresh indoor flowers is to force flowering tree branches into bloom. Pussy willow and forsythia are favorites, but nearly any flowering branch will bloom early inside. Just cut the branches once the buds begin swelling and place them in warm water in a sunny location. Soon the buds open and reward you with a bit of sunshine indoors while everything is still cold outside.

Food Co-ops: Save Time and Money

I can't remember the last time I bought produce in the grocery store. In summer, I get most of our fresh food from the garden or from farmer's markets. In winter, I depend on what I put up in summer or I order from our local produce co-op. If you haven't heard of co-ops before, you are missing out on a wonderful resource for both your taste buds and your wallet.

Co-ops differ in what they provide and how they are operated, but generally they are formed by either a group of consumers or a selection of farmers. Consumer co-ops may have an annual or monthly membership fee that is used to purchase the produce, or they may allow you to only pay a fee when you want a delivery. Farmer-driven co-ops are set up in a similar way, although some may require members to volunteer some hours at the farm.

Co-ops are run by the members, so all types usually need volunteers to divide food deliveries and manage pick-up times. The co-op I use, Bountiful Baskets (available in several states), requests members to volunteer for setup and sorting at least once for every six orders.

Ordering also varies. Some co-ops provide a selection to choose from, while others only offer predetermined produce packages. Bountiful Baskets offers predetermined packages and you don't know what you are getting until you pick it up, but the produce is primarily from small farmers and is always excellent and varied. They offer some special selections, such as fruit packs, organic packs, bread, honey, olive oil, and produce packs aimed at a specific cuisine – you just don't know exactly what they will contain.

The best part about a co-op is I know my food comes primarily from small farmers. If I used an even more local co-op, I could even meet the farmer responsible for growing my food. It doesn't get much better than that!

Breaking the Winter Doldrums

Fresh greens are back in style.

As part of my sustainable lifestyle goals, I try to eat in season. Although I grow quite a bit of my own produce, I do still visit the grocery store or coop stand. Come midwinter I am tired of the food I preserved in the summer and fall. I'm also tired of eating the root vegetables, apples and oranges that are the usual winter fare. Thankfully, I can stick to my seasonal feasting goals and enjoy a bit of fresh greens even when there is snow on the ground.

In milder climates, lettuce, spinach and other greens can grow all winter long with just minor protection. Many local growers in my area, the frozen northwest, grow and sell salad greens year-round. I've even had success growing mesclun and other micro-greens in windowsill pots, although they do need some supplemental lighting during our short, cloudy days. These aren't your flavorless, nutrient-free iceburg lettuce greens. These small looseleaf lettuce varieties pack flavor and a nutritional punch. They also make for a colorful presentation since most micro-greens come in colors ranging from pale green to red and deep purple.

There is something about enjoying a crisp salad in January that feels a little decadent. A winter salads don't have thick slices of tomatoes, cucumbers or pepper strips. The normal salad add-ons just aren't in season and I'd much rather go without than eat a genetically modified, bland hothouse grown tomato. Instead I garnish my salad with dried berries, seeds and nuts – staples for a seasonal diet. My favorite is dried cranberries and pecans with a ginger vinaigrette dressing. Experimentation is the key to finding your favorite winter salad combinations.