My Greek grandfather always had some ingenious way to deal with any problem you might have. Duct tape can fix anything wasn't just his motto, it was his way of life. Born to a Greek immigrant and grew up in South City St. Louis working at the family grocery store, Grandpa became a machinist and worked almost until the day he died. A man of few words but the ones he did say were very memorable.

I remember the story about how they were jealous of the new color TVs that had just come out. Ever the innovator, my grandfather decided to upgrade his just as good ole black and white TV with strips of colored cellophane. Blue at the top for the sky, orange in the middle for people's skin, and green at the bottom for grass. And no, I am not making this up! Another instance when my aunts were very young they were complaining about the muggy, hot St. Louis summer my grandpa said, "Girls! Just think cool thoughts." That saying became one of the family's running jokes even to this day and it was what I was thinking the other day when it was so hot and muggy here in Cleveland. I guess God was listening because he has blessed us with some cool days since then. With today's dish you wont need to think cool even if it was hot!  (Again, I've been too lazy to get the camera out and too focused on eating. I'll try to do better next week :)

Cool as a Cucumber Pesto Pasta
***Add celery for more crunch

1 C orzo pasta, cooked to al dente, optional
1 C shredded chicken
1 English or regular cucumber (Source: FFM)
1 lb flat romano green beans, blanched (Source: FFM)
1 C chickpeas
Basil pesto (Source: garden)
Olive oil
S&P

Cook your pasta to al dente if using, drain, coat with olive oil and set aside to cool. Poach or roast your chicken and shred- I used leftover roasted chicken that I had stored in the freezer for a time just like this! Blanch your green beans in salted water just until they have lost some of their bite and plunge into an ice bath or run under cold water to stop the cooking process. If you get heartburn from regular cucumbers like I do, remove the skin and seeds from the cucumber and slice into 1/4" thick half moons.

You can make your pesto or buy it- I wont tell. I processed fresh basil, garlic (3 cloves!), S&P, olive oil, a touch of lemon juice and pistachios in a food processor to make mine.

Toss orzo, veggies, chicken, and pesto together in a bowl. Top with crumbled feta cheese and S&P to taste.

I have a unique love affair with squash. In particular, me and butternut are best buds and acorn and spaghetti squash are good friends. I think I ate squash almost every day for weeks last fall when squash was plentiful. Unfortunately, I am just not as big of a fan of summer squash for whatever the reason. I don't know if it's the flavor, the texture, or what but it just really isnt my thing. But I love the golden yellow and deep green colors on a hot summer day so I was pleased to see we received some in last weeks share.

Last night I was dying to cook so I quickly sauteed some summer squash and garlic, tossed it with the garlic chive pasta from Ohio City and garnished with some scallions and cheese. My favorite way to prepare summer squash is to saute it over high heat with olive oil in my stainless steel All-Clad pan. I love the caramelization that happens because honestly, I dont think summer squash has much flavor otherwise. If I had had some fresh cilantro on hand, it would have been a great addition to this light, fresh pasta. I'm loving the sunshine, but not so much the humidity so I was totally in love with this dish. Perfect for a hot and muggy day. I can't wait to eat the leftovers. I still haven't busted out the old camera, so I hope you will forgive me for a lack of photos. Hopefully next week will be better!

I had a reader question the other day about what to do with your excess green beans. Bring a deep saucepan of water to rolling boil, salted so that it tastes almost like the ocean.  Prepare your green beans (snap 'em if you like) and an ice bath. Blanch the green beans in the salted boiling water (water should be boiling the entire time for this process to work, so always leave it on high heat as the addition of the green beans will bring down the temp some) for about 2-5 min. I usually go on the shorter side so when I cook 'em up later they are still a bit cruchy. Immediately plunge the green beans into your ice bath to stop the cooking. Spread the completely cooled beans on a tray and freeze. Once frozen, pop them into a freezer safe bag. Cook just like you would any frozen vegetable you might by from the store. 

I have struggled with a chronic pain condition for the last 8 years and last year I decided I was going to challenge myself to a half marathon. I started training June of last year for the Cleveland half that would be in May 2010. Unfortunately, I somehow injured my knee in October and wasn't able to run for the next 6 months. I was pretty disappointed that I didn't meet my goal but then I remembered that there was still time in 2010! So, after my knee miraculously healed I started training for the Cleveland Towpath Half Marathon in Oct. 2010. It hasn't always gone as smoothly as I would like but I keep reminding myself that life is a marathon, not a sprint. I just have to finish, it doesn't matter how slow I go to get the job done. While running yesterday I was rocking out to my jams (I love my new Ipod Nano that has a radio!) and dreaming about dinner. I was only out on a 30 minute run and it ended much worse than it started, but the thought of this delicious dinner kept me going. I love me some carbs! Also to my delight this dish photographed as good as it tasted.

Kale Whole Wheat Fettucini
**Swiss chard is another one of my favorite greens and goes well with a fatty meat like bacon. If you're meat free, pine nuts and cranberries are also delicious! This recipe made enough for the two of us to have large helpings and leftovers for lunch.





1 lb fresh whole wheat fettuccine (Source: Ohio City Pasta, FFM)
1-2 lb Kale: any kind of you like (Source: FFM)
1 large onion sliced thinly on a mandolin- 1/4" thick
3-4 cloves garlic diced
red pepper flakes
olive oil
8 oz bacon (Source: New Creation Farm, FFM)
2-3 oz chevre (Source: Lucky Penny Farm)

Clean and destem your chard. You will probably feel like you have way too much chard. You don't, trust me. It will cook down to a manageable portion. Slice up your onions and dice your garlic. Bring salted water to a boil. Cook up your bacon and chop coarsely.

Heat olive oil in skillet on medium-high heat and cook your onions 'til golden. Carefully add the chard in batches, allowing each batch to cook down a little bit before adding the next to make room in the pan. When swiss chard is all in the pan, let it wilt down about 5+ minutes. Add garlic and red pepper flakes S&P and cook for another 5 minutes or so until the chard is tender but still green. Cook pasta to al dente- fresh pasta takes about 4-6 minutes. Drain pasta and add to skillet with your greens. Toss in the bacon. Serve with a dollop of chevre or crumbled feta on top.

**Note about the chevre: Lucky Penny gave me a 4 oz container of the chevre about 2 or so weeks ago. I used most of it in the cheesecakes last week and it was still good this week, despite being past it's "use by date" which was a pleasant surprise!

The Boston Red Sox are in town and they brought the Big Green Monster with them. Okay, maybe they didn't but the Big Green Monster was at my house tonight. I usually try to make sure our meals are a variety of colors because who wants to eat an all yellow meal? However, we were in the green tonight both literally and figuratively since our meal was a vibrant, fresh green in color and made with entirely local ingredients from our FFM bag this week. I didn't mind so much that our meal was monochromatic because it was a home run (ahh puns) in the flavor department that's for sure. With a pasta dish and a hard boiled egg (that we had left over from last weeks share), lettuce, spinach salad we were set!

When I saw that we would be receiving garlic scapes this week I was totally lost. I didn't even know what the heck these scapes were! But, I love garlic so I wasn't too concerned. After a bit of research (and finding a picture of these things) I was so excited to cook with them. I was hoping to get a large bunch so I could experiment with several recipes that I found but the bunch was pretty small with only two scapes. Then I found out we are getting MORE next week and all was right with the world. It's a good thing too, because these delicate fronds are absolutely delicious. The sharp garlic flavor with a hint of a scallion taste was going to go perfectly in a pesto over the spinach pasta from Ohio City Pasta. I'm excited to get a chance to try them in another dish soon!

Monster Green Pasta
**I really do need to work on getting exact measurements, but it's just not how I cook. So I apologize in advance for those of you that are frustrated by my recipes. I used pistachios in lieu of pine nuts because that's what I had on hand and I often use them in another pesto recipe. But feel free to make substitutions based on what you have and like!


1 lb spinach fettucini (Source: Ohio City Pasta, see link above)
bunch of scapes (I had 2, Source: FFM)
basil (Source: Fire escape garden)
pistachios (I used about 1/8-1/4C)
lemon juice (about 1-2 TBL)
olive oil (about 1/4 C)
feta (Source: Blue Jacket Dairy)


To make the pesto, finely chop scapes and put in food processor with pistachios (or other nuts), the lemon juice and a little olive oil. Pulse 1 min and add the rest of the olive oil and pulse until smooth. Add S&P.


Boil salted water for your pasta. Salting your water is extremely important and Gorden Ramsey is always yelling at the contestants on Hell's Kitchen about it. Don't be a donkey, salt your water! Cook pasta to al dente- fresh pasta takes about 4-8 min. Drain and mix with pesto and feta immediately. Serve warm.


Listening to as we cook 
Artist: The Black Keys
Album: Brothers