Split Pea Soup with Bacon, with Whole Wheat Pita

I don't think I'd ever had split-pea soup until I made this recipe. For some unknown reason, I bought a bag of split peas at the grocery store last week, so I gave the soup a try.

While split pea soup is traditionally made with ham hocks, they kinda weird me out. As an alternative,I gave my soup a salty, smokey base by cooking a couple slices of bacon in the pan, removing them, and then cooking the onion, garlic and carrot in the bacony grease. Then I served the soup topped with the crispy bacon bits. Delicious!

The soup called for some hearty bread to dip into it, and since the white pita went so well last week, I tried pita using a whole wheat dough. Pretty good! Not as tender as the white pita, but still poofy and tasty!

Sloppy Joes and Kohlrabi/Apple/Carrot Slaw

Remember way back when I made these "adult" sloppy joes (wow, that sounds dirty!)? Yeah, they're still good. Bourbon, smoked paprika, cayenne... mmmm.

Served them with this awesomely simple crunchy slaw made from kohlrabi (that alien-looking member of the Brassica family), Granny Smith apples and carrots with cider vingar, olive oil and honey (I skipped the swiss chard stems in the recipe...).

Korean Beef Rice Bowl

This Korean-style beef and veggie bowl was a good use of fresh summer veggies like carrots and zucchini. However, I think it could benefit from a squirt or two of Sriracha to give it at least a little kick. But I think everything might taste bland relative to the Szechuan spicy I tasted this past weekend...

Kale and Chickpea Soup

Chuck made this kale and chickpea soup a couple weeks ago while I was working late. Definitely good for you- meatless and full of veggies and legumes. But not the most exciting soup I've ever tasted- a little bland. Easy enough and a healthy choice, for sure, though.

Jicama, Beet, Carrot and Orange Salad

I made this crunchy, healthy salad to compliment/counteract the spicy richness of the smoky shrimp, hominy and tortilla soup. I used clementines rather than navel oranges because that's what I had in the house. Fresh, crunchy, good for you and very pretty to look at...

Moroccan Chicken with Fennel and Carrots

I got some fennel from Star Hollow Farm this week, as well as some of the biggest, fugliest carrots ever. The other Martha had this Moroccan chicken recipe on her site, and I thought I would give it a go, despite the fact that Tim and Chuck like neither fennel nor black olives nor cooked carrots, really. It sealed the deal when I remembered I had a ton of dried apricots and chicken thighs at home from a particularly overzealous trip to Costco recently.

This was really good: sweet, but has a nice spice! I think I pretty much like anything with Moroccan or Moroccan-esque spices. We served this with couscous cooked in chicken broth, with broccoli on the side. Tasty! I think even the haters liked it.

PS: we cooked this tag-team style like last week's Top Chef Quickfire challenge. I started the mis en place, but got distracted by a previously scheduled beading project, so Tim finished the chicken, and Chuck the broccoli, without really knowing what they were getting themselves into. Good work, kittens.

Summer Rolls with Spicy Peanut Sauce

Another Steamy Kitchen recipe... this time a Vietnamese summer rolls with a spicy peanut dipping sauce. I always wanted to try my hand at making these, and this week I had mint, a cucumber, and Bibb lettuce from my CSA. I had the rice noodles and rice wrappers from a trip to Eden Center with Jennifer many months ago.

These were delicious. I added some basil in there, and used lemon zest in place of lemongrass for marinating the shrimp, as Jaden recommends. I omitted the mango because the ones I saw in the store weren't really ripe yet. I considered adding nectarine or peach instead for a little bit of a sweet factor, but the peach just turned into a pile of mush when I tried to make it into matchsticks with the mandoline. We didn't miss it, though.

Warning: these things are very hard to wrap! Mine were pretty messy looking. My lack of skills may have been due to the 3 margaritas and hookah full of cinnamon tobacco I had on Amy's roof just prior to making these, though.

First Asparagus of the Season

First asparagus of the season combined with the last of the parsnips (hoorah!). Served with the white wine chicken and mushrooms recipe that I've made before, using the thyme and mushrooms from the CSA and the tarragon off the roof.

Parmesan Parsnip (and Carrot) Fries

This is a tasty way to eat the parsnips I keep getting in my CSA... partly crisp, partly soft and roasty, totally covered in shredded Parmesan. I added in some carrots for color and served it with maple-mustard glazed chicken thighs (which were also really good).


I am ready to be done with these things for the season, though. Bring on the asparagus!