Roasted Root Vegetables

One of the side dishes at Christmas lunch was this pretty assortment of roasted roots.

Who needs table decorations when the food looks this good?

Usually I add potatoes to a casserole of roasted roots, but since we were eating those in the potato torte, I was able to focus on a variety of other vegetables.

I used a bunch of baby chiogga beets, a bunch of baby turnips, a bunch of baby rutabagas, a couple of daikon radish and some carrots.

I started by deciding which casserole dish I was going to bake them in, and then adding the veg as it was scrubbed and chopped. When the dish was full, I tipped the vegetables into a bowl and tossed them with olive oil, salt and pepper, 2 bay leaves, and a couple of sprigs of rosemary.

I cut each of the vegetables in different shapes so cautious eaters could tell what they were going to put in their mouths. The turnips and beets were so small I just cut them in half. The daikon was in log-like shapes, as were the carrots. And the baby rutabagas were so tiny I left them whole (although I did peel them because they were a little hairy).

I poured a little oil in the bottom of the casserole, added the roots and herbs, covered it, and let it sit on the counter until an hour before dinner. I baked it for 45 minutes or so at 350°F. I could have put the casserole in a hotter oven, but the potato torte was in there at 350°F. I find roots are very flexible in their cooking. They came out soft and luscious with wonderful flavor, and looked very pretty on the plate.

Sunday Shopping

With all the leftovers in the fridge, I didn't feel the need to buy much at the Hollywood Farmers Market today. But I did want to wish my favorite farmers Happy New Year. And I never know what I will find to inspire the week's cooking.

Yes, you know how this story ends.

Here's what we bought:
8 oz cremini mushrooms
8 oz green beans
2 sweet potatoes
1 onion
3 parsnips
3 bosc pears
16 oranges
1 bunch baby rutabagas
1 bunch baby turnips
4 leeks
2 fennel bulbs
3 grapefruit
3 summer field apples
1 bunch celery
1 dozen eggs
1 lb oaxacan coffee
olive oil

Potato Torte

The main dish at Christmas lunch was Potato Torte. This is an easy make ahead recipe that everyone loves - potatoes, cheese, zesty tomatoes - it smells like pizza when it's cooking.

Plus it looks impressive on a pedestal stand.

The recipe is adapted from Diana Shaw's Vegetarian Entertaining, a great book of recipes and menus for vegetarian feasts throughout the year.

I've been making it for years for celebrations and for comfort food. It reheats well as leftovers. I will shape the last couple of wedges into patties, fry them, and serve them with fried eggs for breakfast.

It's a Christmas gift that keeps on giving.

Potato Torte
1 large onion, peeled and diced
2 tbsp olive oil
14-oz can diced tomatoes
6 large potatoes (I used 12 smaller red ones), boiled and peeled
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups diced cheese (I used a combination of jersey jack, kerrygold reserve cheddar and firehouse mike cheddar)
3/4 cup grated parmesan
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/3 cup chopped fresh oregano (or 2 tsp dried)
1 tbsp olive oil
black pepper
butter

Sauté onion in 2 tbsp olive oil until soft. Add tomatoes and black pepper to taste. Cook over medium heat 10 minutes or so until the sauce is thick and smooth.

Mash the potatoes. Stir in the eggs, cheese, parsley and oregano.

Butter a 10" springform pan. Put one-third of the potato mixture in the bottom. Cover with half the tomato sauce. Then a layer of potato, a layer of tomato sauce, and a final layer of potato on the top.

Drizzle with olive oil. At this point, the torte can be refrigerated overnight, then brought to room temperature before baking.

Bake at 350°F for one hour. Cover with foil and bake an additional 15-20 minutes. Let sit 10 minutes before serving. It can also be served at room temperature as part of a buffet.

Serves 12

Easy Appetizers

Sometimes it's the simplest things that taste the best.

For Christmas lunch, I served an appetizer of roasted red peppers wrapped around feta. They were so delicious we ate them all before I thought to take a photo.

This is another of those recipes which are too simple to be written down. The key is to use sweet plump red peppers and salty pungent feta. Don't bother with tasteless cheese and winter-y peppers.

I used some red peppers I had roasted and frozen in the fall. (See how I roasted them here.) I defrosted them overnight in the fridge, and the next morning prepared the dish. 15 minutes before serving I drizzled it with olive oil and put it in the oven. I served the appetizers warm with forks to cut them with. I was concerned the cheese would be too hot, but it wasn't. If I had used smaller pieces of pepper and cheese, they could have been finger food.

Roasted Red Pepper Appetizer
3 red peppers
6 tbsp feta
olive oil

Roast, seed and peel the red peppers. (See instructions here.)

Cut them in half and lay them on a chopping board with the inside facing up.

Cut a piece of feta about an inch in size. Put it in the center of the pepper half and fold the pepper up around the cheese like a package. Place it seam side down on a lightly oiled cookie sheet.

At this point, they can rest for a couple of hours until you need them.

Drizzle a little olive oil over top the pepper packages, then place them in a 350°F oven for 15 minutes.

Serve with forks and plates. Will serve 3 but they will want more.

Steaming Pumpkin

We are still eating our way through our Thanksgiving decorations.

One of the squash was a long bulbous thing - quite decorative. However when I braised a little of it to eat with dinner one night, we found it bland and tasteless and a little stringy.

So I cut the rest of it into big chunks and steamed it until tender. When it was cool enough to handle, I peeled it and puréed it in the food processor.

I froze it in cup-size containers, ready to add moisture and a pretty color to muffins, scones, and maybe even pancakes. In these settings, it won't matter that the pumpkin has no flavor - the other ingredients will assert themselves.

I hope our last squash is more delicious.

Food for the Week

Potatoes will form the centerpiece of our Christmas lunch, so we carried a lot of weight home from the Hollywood Farmers Market this morning.

Here's a list of the organic produce we bought:
1 head garlic
1 onion
4 cameo apples
3 bosc pears
2 shallots
arugula
parsley
dill
Spring Hill Dairy jersey jack
Bloomsbury spinach
many pounds of red potatoes
2 celeriacs
carrots
lots of tangerines
2 fuerte avocados
2 dozen eggs
1 bunch spring onions
celery
pistachios
5 cups and 2 quarts plain yogurt
collard greens
2 red butter lettuce
1 romaine lettuce

Simple Mustard Greens

I returned home from work tired the other night, so I started dinner by putting brown rice in the rice cooker. You can't go wrong with rice.

Then I found some leftover tofu stew to reheat, and put that in a pot ready to go.

Finally, I rooted through the fridge and pulled out two bunches of purple mustard greens. Refrigerator gold!

Greens, tofu and brown rice are a healthy yet satisfying meal. And mustard greens are really easy to wash, perfect for a lazy evening.

I cut off the bottom of the stems, up to where the leaf started, then washed the leaves in cold water. and left them to drain.

I sautéed an onion, some garlic and red chile flakes, then stirred in the mustard greens by the handful, seasoning with salt as I went. When they were all in the pot, I covered it and set it over a low heat to cook, stirring occasionally to scrape up pieces that were caramelizing on the bottom of the pot.

They added a little zing and lot of nutrition and color to the meal. You can see in the picture that some of the leaves retained their purple color.

The next morning I put together a lunch of leftovers. I put some brown rice in the bottom of a container, then a layer of the cooked mustard greens. On top went a scoop of sauerkraut (natural probiotic) and a drizzle of dandelion vinegar (calcium). It was a nutritious and satisfying lunch - yes I ate it cold - that got me easily through the day.

Greens are great.

Simple Mustard Greens
2 bunches (or 1 large bunch) purple mustard greens
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
sprinkle red chile flakes
salt

Cut the bottom off the greens and wash them well in cold water. Chop across in 1 inch strips and set aside. (Don't dry them.)

Warm the olive oil in a large pan. Dice the onion and sauté until it is soft. Add the minced garlic and red chile flakes. Cook, stirring occasionally, until fragrant.

Add the mustard greens, a handful at a time, stirring them into the oil and sprinkling with salt. When all the greens are in the pot, stir well once more and put on the lid.

Let the greens cook, stirring occasionally to scrape any bits off the bottom, 10-15 minutes until they are the consistency you enjoy.

Serves 2-3

Post-industrial lettuce

I was driving home last night listening to NPR when I heard a truly astonishing report on All Things Considered about the future of lettuce farming.

It turns out that lettuce is a labor-intensive crop. Workers with shovels thin the lettuce plants, weed them as necessary, and harvest them by hand. No machines have been found that don't crush the lettuce plants.

Until now. They interviewed a farmer experimenting with a tractor complete with an imac computer that automatically maps the lettuce plants, takes pictures of them, and thins them to the right spacing within a tenth of an inch. Later it harvests them when they are the perfect size.

The worker driving the tractor just has to push a few buttons for this modern marvel to do all the back-breaking labor formerly done by humans.

The part that had me cussing though, was the way the machine thins the lettuce plants.

The reporter says the tractor shoots a "killing spray" on the plants that are not in the right place.

Killing spray is another word for herbicide or pesticide, so I'm pretty sure my organic farmers will not be using this tractor any time soon.

Killing sprays are not uncommon in fields. There was a time (I hope this is not still a common practice) when Agent Orange-like herbicides were sprayed on crops of green beans to defoliate them so the tractors could more easily pick the beans. When machines get involved in agriculture, chemicals are not far behind.

It's another reminder that healthy organic earth-friendly vegetables require people willing to do tough menial labor for very little money. It raises the question of why we insist on paying so comparatively little for fresh produce when it is labor intensive and time sensitive?

I suppose mainstream farmers are realizing that since we don't value our food enough to pay a living wage and provide less oppressive working conditions, they'll eliminate the workers and use machines to grow vegetables in ways that poison our earth, and most likely our bodies.

Steamed Beet Greens

I've been enjoying Mark Bittman's book Leafy Greens: An A-to-Z guide to 30 types of greens plus more than 120 delicious recipes.

Unfortunately he prefers to blanch greens rather than sauté them because he finds they burn too easily in the pan. I find the occasional slight charring gives them a caramelized flavor that I enjoy, so I will stick to sautéing. Plus, I feel that blanching (boiling the greens in salted water until tender) releases too many nutrients. Unless I'm going to use the blanching water in soups, it feels like a waste.

He also mentioned steaming, however, and I had not tried that. I had a bunch of tender beet greens from Shear Rock Farms so I gave it a try.

I have a collapsible steamer that fits in a pot. I washed the greens, put an inch of water in the pot, added the steamer, and piled the greens on top. As you can see in the picture above, they did not fit very well. I managed to get the lid on, steamed for 5 minutes, and then looked in the pot. The greens had shrunk considerably, as you can see in the photo on the left. I tipped them onto a chopping board, chopped them coarsely, and tossed them with a dressing of a tablespoon olive oil and a tablespoon lemon juice.

They tasted good, cooked quickly, and left very few nutrients behind in the steaming water (I hope). The olive oil in the dressing allowed my body to absorb the nutrients in the greens. Altogether very satisfactory.

Food for the Week

With the cooler weather, greens and root vegetables are flooding the Hollywood Farmers Market. It's hard to decide which ones to eat this week.

I love turnips and beets because they are two vegetables in one. I separated the roots from the greens when I got home, and stored them separately in plastic bags in the fridge. The greens will be sautéed with onions and garlic as a simple side dish, and the roots will be roasted or steamed or added to soup (I haven't decided which yet).

I was grumbling to Larry that this year the farmers are growing celery root and parsnips but not rutabagas when we stopped at the Flora Bella stall to buy young turnips, radishes and mustard greens. I noticed what looked like tiny yellow parsnips and inquired what they were. They were rutabagas!!!! I have never seen finger-sized rutabagas before. They were in bunches with their greens attached, and I was told the greens are delicious. I nibbled a piece, and it was true! They are sweet - sweeter than lettuce. Unbelievable. So I bought a bunch. The roots will be sliced in our Solstice Soup this Saturday, and the greens will be a yummy vegetable early in the week.

Flora Bella has planted a lot of rutabagas this year, apparently, so this is just the beginning. I am so happy!!!!

This is what we bought today: 1 red pepper, 1 red butter lettuce, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, 4 onions, carrots, 1 1/2 lb assorted mushrooms - cremini, shiitake, portabello - turnips with tops, cauliflower, radishes with tops, tiny rutabagas with tops, 15 oranges, 6 grapefruit - 4 pink, 2 ruby - spinach, 6 cameo apples, 2 bosc pears, 15 tangerines, 1 lb honey dates, 1 dozen eggs, Mike's firehouse jack from Spring Hill Dairy, beets with greens, mustard greens.

Have you ever seen such tiny rutabagas?

Curly Purple Kale

We brought some vibrant purple curly kale home from the Hollywood Farmers Market on Sunday.

It was so young and tender, the stems were not even 1/4 inch wide. I just had to chop it, stems and all, before gently sautéeing and steaming it for a colorful nutritious side dish.

Kale has been found to lower blood cholesterol and help prevent heart disease and certain cancers. Surprisingly, cooked kale has more health benefits than raw, probably because we don't chew enough to break down the fibers and absorb the goodness.

There are many ways to cook kale, but this one is simple and tasty. The cooked green can be served as a side dish, added to rice or other grains, or stirred into soups or stews.

I served it the other night with a bean stew, potatoes, and Baked Heirloom Pumpkin.

Cooked Kale
1 bunch curly kale
1 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic
sprinkle of hot chile flakes
salt

Wash the kale. Remove the stems if they are more than 1/4 inch wide. Chop the leaves coarsely.

Warm the olive oil in a large pot. Add the peeled and chopped garlic and a sprinkle of chile flakes.

Add the kale along with the water left on the leaves after washing. Stir well so all the kale is turned in the oil. Sprinkle with salt. Cover the pot and let the kale cook gently until it is tender, stirring occasionally.

Serves 2-3

Black Bean Salad

Bean salads are a great addition to a lunch bag. They are easy to eat, high in fiber and protein, and combine well with a green salad to make a satisfying lunch.

This week I combined black beans with red pepper and sweet little cherry tomatoes to make this colorful salad.

I took a green salad separately in my lunch bag and combined the two for a satisfying lunch. An apple rounded out the meal.

Black Bean Salad

1 cup black beans

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tsp hot sauce

1/2 cup halved cherry tomatoes

1/2 cup red pepper

juice of 1-2 limes

salt and pepper to taste

Cook the black beans in simmering water until tender. Drain and toss with vinegar and hot sauce. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Stir in the cherry tomatoes and red pepper. Add the juice of one lime, then season with salt and pepper. Add more lime juice or hot sauce to taste.

Serves 4

This salad will last a few days in the fridge.

Eating Pumpkin

We starting eating our Thanksgiving decorations this week.

Last night I took the beautiful heirloom pumpkin that had decorated our hall table all fall and popped it in the toaster oven.

Forty-five minutes at 350° and it had turned a gorgeous dark brown. A knife slipped in easily so I knew it was cooked.

I sliced it into wedges and served it, not really knowing what to expect.

And it surprised me by being the most buttery pumpkin I have ever eaten. It tasted like I had poured butter over it, although I had not. Wow.

Sunday Shopping

It was cold at the Hollywood Farmers Market this morning. Chilled fingers had a hard time counting bills, so every transaction took a little longer than usual.

We ate breakfast out so we didn't buy oranges to juice, but we were still weighted down. I had looked in my pantry last week for white lima beans to cook with the beautiful rapini from Flora Bella (see the recipe here), and found I had run out of them. Zut alors! I used a combination of yellow-eyed beans, black-eyed peas and barbecue beans, which tasted fine but didn't look as good, which is why I didn't post a picture. This week I bought both lima beans and rapini, so I have hopes of an attractive and tasty bean dish this week.

Larry bought an organic brisket from Rocky Canyon Farms where the cows eat grass until the day they are driven to the slaughterhouse. I think if you're going to eat a cow, it's nice to let it have a good life first. Also, for your health, grass-fed creates less inflammation in the human body than corn-fed does. (Most grass-fed cows are fed corn for the last 3-6 weeks of their lives to create more marbling in the flesh.)

We discussed grapefruits with Jorge. The ones we've been eating are sweet with yellow flesh. He says they're pink grapefruit, so named because of the color of the skin - there's a pink blush on it - not the color of the flesh. He gave us two ruby grapefruit to try - they will have pink flesh, he says. I hope they taste as good as the pink ones. (Are you confused now too?)

We also learned that the blueberry bushes at Forbidden Fruit Orchards near Santa Barbara got frosted this week, so no more blueberries from them until spring. I hope our bushes will be fruiting then too.

Still no rutabagas at the market. Instead I had to once again restrain myself from gathering armloads of squash -- this week we'll start eating our Thanksgiving decorations.

Here's the organic produce that we did bring home:
olive oil, feta, pistachios in the shell, 4 cups plain St. Benoit yogurt, blueberries, 1 dozen eggs, 13 German butterball potatoes, 4 tangerines, 2 heads garlic, cherry tomatoes, 8 red potatoes, purple curly kale, 1 red pepper, carrots, purple mustard greens, young turnips with tops, beets with tops, rapini, parsnips, cauliflower, 2 chestnut sweet potatoes, 1 lb coffee, 1 green pepper, 8 pink grapefruit, 2 ruby grapefruit, 2 lbs each of lima beans, Christmas limas and chickpeas. Russ sharpened two of our kitchen knives while we shopped.

"Cheese" Sauce

Way back in the '80s, I learned to make this "cheese" sauce using nutritional yeast instead of cheese. It doesn't really taste like cheese, but neither do most cheese sauces. It has a rich umami flavor, and is great on rice or potatoes, and when I was vegan I used it for mac and "cheese."

I was inspired to make it recently when I found nutritional yeast flakes at Granny's, my local health food store in Pasadena. I said how happy I was to see it again, and Richard looked at me, bemused, and said they've always carried it. Isn't it amazing how you can go somewhere for years and still see things you never noticed before?

Anyway, I rushed home to introduce my hubby to the wonders of nutritional yeast.

I served this sauce over brown rice and vegetables, real winter comfort food, and we both enjoyed it.

(Most people are introduced to nutritional yeast as a popcorn topping - just sprinkle it straight out of the container onto popcorn - and then rave about it. I haven't tried that, because Larry makes such excellent popcorn - see his technique here - that I don't want to mess with it.)

Nutritional yeast is full of B vitamins (I sprinkle it on my granola instead of taking a B supplement) which help calm the nervous system. It's a great source of B12 and folic acid, high in protein, and gluten-free. What more could you want?

I can't fully endorse its cheese flavor. I think it's more nutty than cheese-y. But it is a wonderful sauce that will have you smacking your lips and going back for more.

"Cheese" Sauce
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup flour
3 1/2 cups boiling water
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
pinch tumeric
1/4 cup oil (yes, more oil)
1 cup nutritional yeast

Heat the 1/2 cup vegetable oil over medium heat. Whisk in the flour. (This is a vegan roux.) Whip in water, salt, tamari, garlic and tumeric. Cook until thick and bubbly, stirring occasionally. Whip in remaining 1/4 cup oil and yeast.

Cook until heated through. Taste and season with salt and pepper if necessary (probably won't be). Use as you would any cheese sauce or white sauce.

Makes about 4 cups of sauce (enough to make mac and "cheese" for 3 1/2 cups of macaroni).

Larry's Thanksgiving Contribution

Today is substitute blogger day. I'm filling in for Joy so I can tell you about the British and Canadian cooking influences that she has exposed me to over the years, since she is both British and Canadian herself. Years ago, we both really liked a Canadian show called Manic Organic where the host grew his own organic food on an Ontario farm. We also liked the Jamie Oliver programs where he cooked at (what seemed to be) his own house in the English countryside.

And when we last visited Joy's brother in Surrey, England, we learned that he and his wife enjoyed a cooking show called River Cottage, hosted by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingsall. In the episode we watched, Hugh held up these Samosa-looking meat pie objects and said they were called "pasties" and that Welsh miners went off to work with pasties in their pockets to eat later in the day. Or something like that. All I could think about was problems with pocket lint.

When I decided to contribute a vegetarian dish to our Thanksgiving dinner, I looked through two excellent Jamie Oliver cookbooks that Joy has given me over the years. I've hardly used them, if at all, but I think they rub off on me just by sitting on our shelves.

The recipe that looked like the best match for Joy's menu was for "Baked Creamed Spinach" out of Jamie Oliver's Great Britain. I always liked the rustic look of Jamie's food — more country cottage and dinner with friends than white linens and stuffy waiters.

I didn't quite understand all of the terms in the recipe, but I certainly got the spirit. For instance, I'm still not sure what a "knob" of butter is, but I gathered I was free to go with my instincts. Also, he didn't give exact cooking times — he just said to cook the first part of the dish (spinach, cream, onions, tomato, garlic) down until it looked "thick and lovely," which was much nicer than setting a timer. The final serving called for browning breadcrumbs and cheese over top the creamed spinach. Jamie said to put the dish under the grill and let it "bubble away" for 5 to 8 minutes, or until it was "bubbly and gorgeous."

I recommend the hearty books by Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingsall. Next year, I might put a few pasties in my (freshly laundered) pockets and head off in my Wellies to find a River Cottage with a brick fireplace and well-stocked pantry for another fun cooking experience.

Post-Thanksgiving Shopping

I was not inspired when thinking about food this morning. We still have Thanksgiving leftovers, but we'll be needing new food by mid-week, and I could not think of a single thing I wanted to cook or eat.

Fortunately we went to the Hollywood Farmers Market anyway — Larry needed his St. Benoit yogurt fix — and the piles of vegetables at Flora Bella and Finley Farm stands were so beautiful that I found it hard to restrain myself from buying one of everything.

Okay, to be honest, I did a lousy job of practicing restraint.

We will be eating a lot of greens this week.

And because we have to finish the Thanksgiving sour cream, I bought a small spaghetti squash that I will make a decadent casserole with.

This is what we will be eating this week:

Rapini, arugula, cabbage, mustard greens, baby turnips with greens, broccoli, 1/2 lb cremini mushrooms, 6 red potatoes, 2 dozen eggs, 6 grapefruit, 2 cameo apples, lightly-salted pistachios in their shells, collard greens, 1 small spaghetti squash, 1 red onion, 2 small white sweet potatoes, 2 bartlett pears, 5 cups of St. Benoit plain yogurt, red butter lettuce, orange blossom honey and 8 oranges. Also, while we were shopping, Russ sharpened two of our garden shears.

Thanksgiving Parties

I grew up celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving in Montreal, a low-key tradition involving cleaning out the garage and eating turkey.

So the American Thanksgiving extravaganza is intriguing to me. Every year I pester Larry with questions about what his childhood Thanksgivings were like, what they ate, what traditional foods we should cook this year. He's really tired of it.

So this year I questioned Tracie instead. I think she enjoyed the experience as much as Larry does.

Fortunately, some people are happy to share their Thanksgiving experiences with me.

Our friend Ramsay on the East Coast roasted sweet potatoes to take to a Thanksgiving potluck. She transported them in a pyrex bowl with fresh rosemary sprigs tucked in. As they were reheated in the oven, the rosemary gently perfumed the dish.

(She made me envious by saying that the host made mashed rutabagas. There have been no rutabagas at the Hollywood Farmers Market this year.)

I hope your Thanksgiving was also full of good food and good traditions. I'd be happy to hear about them.

Excellent Squash

We had an excellent vegetarian Thanksgiving meal. The company was good, the conversation was lively and interesting, the football was boring enough to be muted, the wine was delightful, and the food was exceptional.

Larry made Creamed Spinach (from Jamie Oliver's Best of British Cookbook — highly recommended), Tracie brought mashed potatoes infused with garlic and sage, and I cooked an heirloom squash with lentil loaf. What a feast!

I overcooked the cranberry sauce, so it was more like jam than sauce. Still good. It will be yummy on toast.

Organic freezer corn was a highlight (doesn't that say it all?).

The salad of persimmons and pomegranates whetted the appetite. (See the recipe here.)

But I have to say, the squash thoroughly impressed me. I stuffed it with lentil loaf, cooked it at 350°F for 90 minutes or so (until a knife slipped in easily), and then let it rest until the rest of the meal was ready. It was great. And a little spicy. I used crushed dried chiles I'd grown, and it turns out they were pretty hot —a good foil for the sweet orange squash. I sliced it into wedges to serve. (I'm sure turkeys don't slice as easily or look as beautiful.)

The apple pie was delicious - it scented the house with apple and cinnamon and made us think of fall, even though we live on the West Coast where fall means temperatures in the '70s. Before we gathered in the kitchen to cook dinner, I spent time in the garden admiring the birds – warblers, wrens, finches, bulbuls, mockingbirds and bushtits – as I filled the birdbaths, watered the pansies and the fava beans, and rejoiced in the flowering narcissus and the budding peony. Nature is truly a wonder to celebrate.

This heirloom pumpkin has a dusky suede-like skin  — nature creates the best art.

Giving Thanks

On Thanksgiving Day I give thanks to all the farmers and their families and the farmworkers for growing the beautiful food that keeps me healthy.

Every week at the Hollywood Farmers Market I look in amazement at the piles of fresh organic fruit and vegetables, and I place my dollars with gratitude in the dirt-grimed hands of the farmers who grew them.

Thank you Jorge and Jared; Finley Farms and St. Benoit yogurt makers; Mr. Ha; James at Flora Bella; the growers of almonds, walnuts and pistachios; the South Central Farmers Cooperative; and Tutti Frutti.

Your hard work helps keep us healthy and strong.

We will raise a glass to you at our Thanksgiving table, as we enjoy the food you raised from the earth.

Lentil Loaf

I know many vegetarians celebrate Thanksgiving with a Tofurky, but not me. I want something beautiful as my holiday centerpiece, not something that looks like a dead animal.

So this year I will be serving a squash or pumpkin (haven't decided which one!) stuffed with lentil loaf. It will be a truly festive and seasonal dish.

With it we'll have corn and carrots, creamed spinach, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and the persimmon and pomegranate salad I made last year. (You can read the recipe here.) With goat cheese walnut puffs as appetizers and apple pie with whipped cream for dessert, we will be suitably rotund when we rise from the table. That's okay, Friday we'll have Green Soup for dinner.

Unlike the lentil loaf I made a couple of years ago which fell apart at the table, this one will hold its shape. (I know because I made it today. On Thursday I will cut the top off the squash, take out the seeds, and stuff the already cooked lentil loaf in the cavity. Then I'll cook it at 375° for an hour, by which time with luck the pumpkin will be cooked through.)

If you are going to a non-vegetarian dinner, take a couple of slices of this loaf wrapped in foil and heat it in a corner of the oven for 10-15 minutes. As long as you're not somewhere bacon is added to every dish, you'll have great sides to go with it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lentil Loaf
2 tsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled
2 sticks celery, chopped
1/3 cup kidney beans, cooked (or 1 14-oz can, drained)
1/3 cup brown lentils, cooked (or 1 14-oz can, drained)
1 egg
1 carrot, grated
1/2 cup Cheddar, grated
1 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp chili powder

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Sauté the onion, garlic and celery in the olive oil until tender, about 5 minutes.

Put the kidney beans and lentils in the food processor. Add the egg and the onion mixture. Process until smooth.

Pour into a large bowl. Add the remaining ingredients, along with salt and pepper to taste.

Grease a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Spoon the mixture in the pan, smooth the top, and bake one hour.

Let rest a few minutes before tipping out of the pan to serve. (Or let it cool in the pan.)

Can be served any way meatloaf is: with vegetables and mashed potatoes and gravy, cold in a sandwich, shaped into patties and dipped in breadcrumbs and fried like burgers, or as I will be doing Thursday - stuffed into a pumpkin.

Makes one loaf - enough for 8-10 servings.

Preparing for the holidays

Most people prepare for Thanksgiving by brining turkey or making pies.

This year, I prepared by making Green Soup.

Holiday food is higher in fat and sugar than our regular daily fare, but it wouldn't be a holiday without butter and whipped cream and dessert. So Green Soup is our preventative medicine. We ate it last night, we'll eat it again next weekend, and I froze some to eat over the Christmas holiday too - in between the feasting.

Green Soup is a nutrition powerhouse - loads of liver support, blood support, bone support - you name it. Just what a body needs to feel strong enough to withstand the food assault of the holiday season.

After we ate the Green Soup last night, Larry thanked me for making it. It's not his favorite food - one bowl is enough - but he can feel the goodness while he's eating it.

The first time you serve Green Soup to your family, serve it in small bowls before the main course. And use greens you know your family likes, like chard or spinach or collard greens. A combination is nice. And of course, dandelion greens and nettles add to the mineral load, so add them if you think your family will handle it.

This is the recipe I made yesterday. It's unlikely you'll be lucky enough to have the diversity of greens I did, so use what you have. Use mild greens like collards and spinach to tone down the spicier mustard and turnip greens. (See my recipe for Radish Green Soup for another version.)

This recipe makes a large pot - make a half recipe the first time.

Looks like green goop. Tastes delicious. And your body will thank you for it.

Green Soup
3/4 lb potatoes

1 bunch turnip greens

1 bunch mustard greens

1 bunch collard greens

1 bunch nettles

1/2 large onion (1 cup diced)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 bulb fennel
1 clove garlic
1 cup vegetable stock
1 cup water


Peel and dice the potatoes. Boil in salted water until tender. Drain.

Gently rinse the nettles in cold water. Be careful touching them because they can sting. Remove the toughest stems, then cook them in a little water until they are very soft. Purée them with extra water if necessary - they make a wonderfully vibrant green liquid - and set aside.

Wash the other greens well. Chop them (including the stems), and set to one side.

Sauté the onion in olive oil until tender. Cut the stems off the fennel. Quarter the bulb and remove the core. Dice the remaining bulb and add it to the pot along with the chopped garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the fennel is soft.

Add the stock and water. Add handfuls of greens, stirring them and sprinkling with a little salt. When all the greens are in, cover the pot and let them simmer until they are very soft.

Let cool a little. Stir in the potatoes, then purée in batches in a blender or food processor. Make sure it's really smooth. Add extra water if necessary to make it soupy.

Return to a clean pot, reheat gently, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

A little lime juice or lemon juice or apple cider vinegar added at the end will brighten the flavor. Or serve lemon wedges on the side.

Makes 8-10 cups of soup.

Sunday shopping

This year we'll be having a vegetarian Thanksgiving. Our niece Tracie has decided to be vegetarian, and since she is joining us, Larry decided that he would forego turkey so we could all eat the same delicious vegetable bounty.

Today we went and bought the bounty and hauled it home. The Hollywood Farmers Market was bustling at 8 a.m. as people shopped for the big food feast. This is the organic produce we bought:

22 oranges, 2 carrots, cilantro, 4 shallots, 3 onions, dinosaur kale, garlic, red onion, 1 celeriac, 2 pomegranates, 1 early girl tomato, 1 bunch parsnips, fresh goat cheese from Drake Family Farms, 2 dozen eggs, 2 garlic, 3 fuyu persimmons, 1 bartlett pear, 4 pink lady apples and 4 sundowner apples which will be mixed in a pie, 2 quarts plain St. Benoit yogurt, 2 grapefruit. We also stopped at Flora Bella farmstand, where James had chickweed and nettles. Yes, I know those are weeds in my mother's Montreal garden, but they are full of nutrition and I can't grow them in the dry heat of southern California. (James' farm is up near Three Rivers where it is cooler and moister.) So I bought some of each - the chickweed for salad and the nettles to add to Green Soup.

Spiced Cabbage and Tofu

I'm really enjoying Lorna Sass' book Short-Cut Vegetarian. It's full of meals that are quick-to-make, healthy and full of flavor. She uses more prepared foods and sauces than I do, but there are lots of fast simple recipes to enjoy.

The other night we enjoyed this simple dish of tofu, cabbage and spices. I could have served rice with it to make a bigger meal, but it wasn't necessary.

The recipe calls for 3 tbsp tomato paste. That's less than a tin. I scoop the remaining tomato paste into tbsp-size lumps and freeze them on a cookie sheet. When they're solid, I toss them together in a freezer bag. The next time a recipe calls for a tbsp of tomato paste, or a soup could use a little extra flavor, I'm prepared.

Spiced Cabbage and Tofu
1 lb green cabbage
1 lb firm tofu
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 cup warm water
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp brown mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup frozen corn, defrosted
1/2 cup frozen peas, defrosted
2-3 tbsp lime juice

Cut the cabbage into 3-inch wedges. Cut out any hard central core, and slice the remainder crosswise into 1-inch wedges.

Drain the tofu and cut into 3/4 inch dice.

Blend the tomato paste in the warm water.

Heat the oil over high heat in a large skillet. Add the mustard and cumin seeds and let sizzle until you can hear the mustard seeds start to pop, about 15 seconds. Turn down the heat to medium and stir in the water-tomato paste mixture, curry powder and salt. Add the cabbage and tofu and stir to coat in the sauce. Cover and cook about 10 minutes until the cabbage is just tender, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.

Add the corn and peas and continue cooking, covered, until the cabbage is wilted and the texture you like - a little crunchy or a little soft. Stir in lime juice and serve with extra lime wedges on the side.

Serves 3

Roast Salted Sweet Potatoes with Sage

I'm always looking for new ways to cook sweet potatoes. Larry would be happy if I just cooked regular potatoes, but sweet potatoes are so much healthier - not to mention more colorful on the plate.

Sweet potatoes are high in antioxidants, and contain compounds that help our digestive systems be less sensitive to heavy metals and other toxins. We've done so well at polluting our soil and groundwater that our bodies need all the help they can get.

One of the challenges with sweet potatoes can be their texture. I buy from a farmer who has three or four varieties of sweet potato, some the soft juicy orange kind, others are dryer and more chestnut-y, and yet others are purple-ish. I tend to buy the orange ones because I like the color. And then I have to find a way to dry them out a little.

Slicing thin, sprinkling with salt, and roasting made the sweet potatoes delicious. I added garlic and sage, and a drizzle of lemon at the end, and Larry said these were the best sweet potatoes ever. (He thinks it was because of the salt.) If you don't like sage, leave it out. Or use thyme or rosemary instead.

The oil is essential, because we need to eat sweet potatoes with a little fat in order to get the health benefits. (That's true of so many vegetables, isn't it?)

In the picture on the right, the sweet potatoes are below, and a casserole of roasted shallots is on top. I keep experimenting with baking members of the onion family because I feel I should like them, but I don't. They get slimy and are hard to cut. We ate a couple of the shallots as a side dish, but I chopped the rest and added them to Green Rice the next day.

Roast Salted Sweet Potatoes with Sage
1 lb sweet potatoes
2 tsp olive oil
coarse salt
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp chopped fresh sage
juice of 1/2 lemon (or so)

Preheat oven to 375°F. (400°F works fine too if you're cooking something else at the same time, just keep an eye on the sweet potatoes so they don't burn.)

Peel sweet potatoes and cut into 1/4 inch slices across. Place on an oiled cookie sheet and lightly brush with more oil. Sprinkle with coarse salt and garlic.

Bake until the potatoes are tender when you poke them with a fork. Sprinkle with sage and lemon juice and serve.

Serves 2-3

Sunday Shopping

Turnips are back at the Hollywood Farmers Market!! Well, they were today. Who knows if they will be there next week. That's part of the pleasure and frustration of shopping at a farmers' market.

This is what we bought this morning: 1 red butter lettuce, 1 bunch turnips with greens, 10 small red potatoes, 1 dozen eggs, cherry tomatoes, 1-lb jar of raw organic wild-fermented in LA aromatic Four Thieves sauerkraut by Brassica & Brine, 2 bartlett pears, 2 anjou pears, 1 bunch of red fine-leaved mustard, 11 cippolini onions, 2 bunches scallions, 1 green pepper, 2 bunches carrots with tops, 5 cremini mushrooms, 2 yellow onions, 20 oranges, 1 red pepper, 1 bunch collard greens, 2 pomegranates, 2 bunches parsnips with tops, 1 bunch giant purple radishes with greens, green seedless grapes, 6 grapefruit, 12-oz lightly-salted pistachios in the shell, 4 apples (2 cameo, 1 winesap, 1 mutsu), 4 pixie tangerines, 6 gold nugget tangeries, 2 fuyu persimmons.

Winter Squash

I've been writing a lot recently about winter squash because that's what is coming in to the farmers' market. I always buy organic squash, even for decorative purposes. The picture at right is my Thanksgiving centerpiece. After the holiday we will eat the squash over the next few weeks.

I just learned a disturbing thing, however.

It turns out that American farmers are growing (non-organic) winter squash as a remedial crop in contaminated soils. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are effectively pulled out of the soil by winter squash plants. These are contaminating chemicals, and farmers are consciously planting the winter squash to pull them out of the soil so their soil becomes healthier. This is to be lauded. But I'm not sure I want to be eating squash with PAHs in it.

Do these chemicals get into the winter squash we eat? Into the butternut squash soup we buy at the store? That hasn't been studied. But I can't imagine the leaves and roots and stems of the plant absorb the PAHs and not the fruits.

The only way to know for sure you do not have PAHs in your squash is to buy organic squash, and products made with organic squash.

For me the only difficulty this presents is deciding which of the beautiful organic heirloom squash to buy.

Roast Chipotle Squash

Move over Spiced Squash, Roast Chipotle Squash is even better!

Chipotles are smoked jalapenos. You can get them in cans with adobo sauce, which is a spicy tomato sauce. Look for them at Mexican markets and well-stocked grocery stores. Unfortunately I have yet to find them organically produced.

They are spicy and smoky and make squash taste delicious!

This is another of those recipes that is too easy to write down, but here goes.

Roast Chipotle Squash
1 kabocha, acorn or other winter squash
1 tbsp minced canned chipotles in adobo
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp canola or other light oil
2 tsp water

Preheat oven to 400°F. Wash the squash, then cut it in half and scoop out the seeds. Place the halves cut side down on a cutting board, and with a big sharp knife carefully cut them lengthwise into 2-inch wedges.

Stir together the chipotles, salt, oil and water. Slather this onto the wedges (the flesh more than the skin, because the skin might be too tough to eat after roasting), using about half the sauce. Put the squash on a cookie sheet and bake, loosely covered with foil, for 15 minutes. Remove the foil, turn the pieces and drizzle the rest of the sauce over the top. Bake uncovered until tender, about 15 more minutes. Sprinkle with salt and serve.

Serves 2

The Week's Groceries

It was another excellent week for organic groceries at the Hollywood Farmers Market.

This is what we brought home with us:

Cherry tomatoes, romaine lettuce, red butter lettuce and spring onions for our lunch salads; 1 lb coffee from El Salvador, 1 avocado, 1 dozen eggs, 16 oranges and 1 whole wheat rosemary boule -- awesome Sunday breakfast; 1 poblano chile; 7 small red potatoes; 2 small green peppers; 2 leeks; 1 quart and 3 cups plain yogurt; 2 small tomatoes; 2 heirloom squash, 1 small pumpkin and 1 kabocha squash -- for Thanksgiving decorations and then to eat; parsley; 1 large fennel; 3 bartlett pears and 6 grapefruit for morning fruit; tarragon; 5 shallots; 1 bag pistachios in their shell; cilantro; 1 bunch celery; chestnuts(!); 1 onion; 5 tangerines and 6 apples for our lunches - the apples are 2 mutsu, 1 black Arkansas, 2 cameo, and 2 whose name I have forgotten.

Roast Squash

There are so many adorable little squashes and pumpkins at the market these days that I always end up with a couple to serve as vegetable sides during the week.

Winter squash are not just great to look at. They are high in antioxidants, and contain polysaccharides that have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

My latest addiction is spiced squash, but that requires cutting the raw squash and sometimes that is just too much work.

It's easier to throw a whole little pumpkin or squash in the toaster oven at 375°F. When it's soft, 30-45 minutes depending on the size, I cut it in half, let it cool a little, then scoop out the seeds.

I either cut it in wedges to serve, or I use a half as a cute little bowl for whatever bean or grain dish I've cooked.

It's a simple use of a healthy vegetable.

The Week's Groceries

Everyone was perkier than usual at the Hollywood Farmers

Market this morning, probably because of the time change.

A chilly breeze blew through the market, making it really feel like fall. I indulged in squash as a consequence, including the most beautiful heirloom pumpkin I've ever seen.

This is what we brought home with us:

6 small daikon radish (with greens!), 1 heirloom pumpkin, 1 quart and 6 cups plain yogurt, 1 lb almonds, 1 jar almond butter, 1 sweet dumpling squash, 14 oranges, 2 celeriacs, 1 kabocha pumpkin, a bag of trail of tears beans, mustard greens, 3 pink lady apples and 3 cameo apples, 2 grapefruit, 3 smallish eggplant, 2 onions, 7 small red potatoes, 2 small bunches of celery, 3 bartlett pears and 2 dozen eggs.

Tomatillo Salsa

Tomatillos are interesting vegetables (actually fruits). They look like giant cape gooseberries with a papery husk that covers a hard green ball which has a sticky surface. They are tart and tangy, and form the base of the green sauce poured over cheese enchiladas.

I made this variation the other day and poured it over cheese omelets for breakfast. It was great.

Tomatillos are coming to the end of their season, but they last for a few weeks in the fridge still in their husks. I've also husked and rinsed them and frozen them successfully in the past.

The poblano pepper adds a slight heat to the salsa. But this is not a hot sauce - it makes an interesting but not overwhelming breakfast dish. It would also be good on enchiladas or stirred into rice.

Tomatillo Salsa
1 tsp vegetable oil
1/2 poblano pepper, seeded and chopped
2 tbsp chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup husked, rinsed and diced tomatillos (4-5)
cilantro for garnish

Warm oil in a small pan over medium heat. Sauté poblano and onion until tender. Add the garlic and tomatillos. Cook until they start to brown, just a few minutes. Remove from heat and keep warm.

Make a 2-egg omelet, layering a little cheddar in the middle before you fold it over. Spoon some of the salsa on top and serve.

Makes enough salsa for 2 omelets.

Saturday Night Pasta

At the end of a long week, a big bowl of pasta hits the spot.

On Saturday Larry and I made a tomato eggplant sauce for our pasta that was pretty sensational, if we do say so ourselves.

I think the key was that I cooked the eggplant on my cast iron grill pan. I brushed it with oil, but because the eggplant wasn't sitting in the oil as it would have been in a fry pan, it developed a smoky flavor that shone through in the pasta sauce.

We used a red jalapeno pepper and a green long Italian pepper. I could have sautéed them with the onions, but I forgot. So I stirred them raw into the sauce to cook, and they did a good job of flavoring it.

This sauce would also be good stirred into cooked white beans.

Tomato Eggplant Pasta Sauce
2 cloves garlic, peeled and bashed
1/3 cup diced onion
1 tbsp olive oil
14-oz can diced tomatoes
1 jalapeno
1 Italian pepper
1/2 lb eggplant
parmesan to taste (optional)
1/2 lb penne

Sauté the garlic and onion in the olive oil until golden. Add the tomatoes and their juice. Stir well, season with salt and pepper, and simmer 10-15 minutes, adding water if necessary so it doesn't get too thick. Stir in the chopped peppers.

Meanwhile, warm a grill pan over medium heat. Slice the eggplant 3/4 inch thick. Brush the pan with oil and cook the eggplant until soft, 10-15 minutes, turning as needed. (You could also do this on a barbecue.)

Dice the eggplant into 1-inch pieces and stir into the tomato sauce. Add water as necessary to the sauce to keep a good consistency, and let it simmer 5-10 minutes for the flavors to meld.

Cook penne according to package directions. Drain and stir into sauce. Let simmer a couple of minutes to let the pasta absorb some of the sauce, then serve with parmesan on the side if desired.

Serves 3-4

Trail of Tears

One of the reasons to shop at the farmers' market is to buy organic heirloom beans.

These beauties are Trail of Tears, an heirloom black bean that has great flavor.

They are so named because they were donated to Seed Savers Exchange in 1977 by Dr. John Wyche of Oklahoma. His Cherokee ancestors had carried these beans on the infamous death march from the Smoky Mountains to Oklahoma over the winter of 1838-39. 4,000 people died along the way. It's a horrific event in American history and I'm glad it's not forgotten.

These beans were grown on Finley Farm this summer, so they are still fresh enough to need shorter cooking time than old beans would. I don't soak them, just cook them in boiling water for an hour or so until they're tender.

They make excellent soup, and great black beans.

So many vegetables, so little time

The abundance of the fall harvest is truly awe-inspiring.

I walked through the Hollywood Farmers Market this morning overwhelmed by the bounty. How many vegetables can two people eat in one week?

I resisted purple and white eggplants, a wide assortment of squashes, a diversity of greens -- it's an awful lot of self-discipline to exert at 8 o'clock in the morning.

Somehow, despite my iron will, we returned home with many bags of organic food. This is what they were filled with:

1 green cabbage, 1 bag lightly salted pistachios in the shell, 2 ears of corn, 2 bunches of beets with their greens, 1 orange sweet potato, 1 kabocha squash, 8 shallots, 1 orange pepper, 1 green pepper, 2 li'l beefsteak tomatoes, 5 small red potatoes, 2 onions, 1 red pepper, 1 pint cherry tomatoes, 4 small artichokes, 10 habanero peppers, 1 bag assorted lettuce leaves, 1 butter lettuce, 1/4 lb shiitake mushrooms, 1 bunch swiss chard, 2 poblano peppers, 1 bunch dill, 1 small head broccoli, 4 cups plain yogurt, 1 dozen eggs, 4oz feta, 14 oranges, 6 grapefruit, 1/2 lb haricots vert, 3 cameo apples and 2 pink lady apples.

Chipotle Bean Salad

I've been eating bean salad for lunch ever since I read Eat for Life by Joel Fuhrman, MD. This is an excellent book on controlling inflammation and inflammatory diseases with diet.

While I was not having any special inflammation problems, I took his lunch recommendation to heart: bean salad, green salad and an apple. (I rebel by dressing my beans with oil - he is vehemently anti-oil and low fat.)

Regular consumption of beans has been linked to decreased risk of diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers. They are high in fiber, protein, B vitamins, antioxidants, iron, magnesium and potassium. Beans are nutritional powerhouses that are also inexpensive.

I realize that although I eat bean salad almost daily, I haven't posted many recipes for it. With luck this will change as my photography skills improve - it's hard to make a bean salad look attractive on screen. But boy do they taste good.

This one is spicy because of the chipotles in adobo. Add less if you like, but remember that beans can take a lot of seasoning. Giving this salad time to marinate in the fridge lets the seasoning enter the beans.

I used a round sturdy mottled bean I bought at the farmers market this summer. I think it's called Tongue of Fire. Pintos, kidney beans or pinquitos would be good also. Canned is okay, but rinse them well.

The salad will last up to a week in the fridge.

Chipotle Bean Salad

1 lb dry beans

3/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

2 tbsp dijon

3 tbsp chipotles in adobo, chopped

2 scallions, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano (or 2 tsp dried)

Cook the beans in plenty of boiling water until tender, 1-3 hours depending on the age of your beans. Drain and let cool a little. (Or use 4 15-oz cans of beans. Drain and rinse well.)

Whisk together the olive oil, white wine vinegar, mustard and chipotles. Pour over the beans. Stir to combine. Stir in the scallions and oregano, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Put in a covered container and refrigerate a few hours, stirring occasionally.

Serve on a bed of lettuce.

Serves 8

Vegetable Stock

Here is a picture of my excellent vegetable stock (with parsnips!!!) simmering away in the slow cooker. The parsnips add an indescribable deliciousness to the stock. You can read the recipe here.

It's worth making even if you can't find parsnips.

I packed it in 2-cup containers in the freezer. Now I'm ready to make many delicious soups and risottos.

There's nothing like a good vegetable stock.

Beet Greens with Feta and Potatoes

I love beet greens, but they tend to sog down to almost nothing when they're cooked. The other night I wanted them to hold a more substantial place in the meal, so I cooked them with sautéed potatoes and sprinkled feta on top for a dish that was over the top delicious. And easy too.

When you buy beets with the greens attached, cut off the greens when you get home and store them in separate bags in the fridge. Two vegetables for the price of one - pretty amazing. And when you consider what a nutrition powerhouse a beet green is - full of vitamins and minerals, as well as the eye nutrients lutein and zeaxanthin - you will become sad that you only get one bunch of greens with all those roots.

Potatoes are awesome too - full of the insoluble fibers that regulate blood sugar, among other things. And feta makes happy mouth.

So try this dish, make it often, and your family will be happy and healthy.

(Other greens like spinach or chard or collard greens would work in place of the beet greens. Just cook long enough for them to soften and become delicious.)

Beet Greens with Feta and Potatoes
5 small red potatoes
1 tbsp olive oil
1 bunch beet greens (save beets for another purpose)
2 tbsp feta, crumbled
salt and pepper to taste

Warm the oil in a cast iron skillet. Add the scrubbed and quartered potatoes. Let them cook until crispy on the outside and soft in the middle, turning occasionally but not too often.

Add the washed and chopped beet greens. Sprinkle with salt and toss well. (The oil and salt help the greens break down so the nutrients are better absorbed by your digestive system.) Cover with a large lid, turn down the heat, and let steam until the greens are tender.

Remove from the heat and sprinkle with the feta. Cover and let rest for 2-3 minutes to let the feta soften. Serve immediately.

Serves 2-3

Pineapple Guavas

If you read this blog regularly, you've probably realized that I'll try anything (vegetarian) once. I even tried pickled okra and found it was surprisingly good.

So when our organic grapefruit provider, Jorge, said he had pineapple guavas, I had to buy some. (Four for a dollar - what a deal.)

They are about 3 inches long, and have a soft green skin. Jorge told us to eat the whole thing except the calyx.

So yesterday morning I sliced a couple and put them on our morning fruit.

While they did taste faintly pineapple-y, I was most struck by the floral-ness. It tasted like I was eating flowers.

I understand a lot of people really enjoy this. I did not. They weren't Larry's favorite either - he asked how many days we would be eating them.

I assured him there were only two left, so only one more morning of fragrant floral fruit.

I'm really glad we tried them because I've always been curious. And now I know they're not my thing.

Food for the Week

This last week zoomed by - my mother was visiting from Montreal so I spent more time in the garden than at the computer. I assure you we still ate very well. I have a couple of new recipes to share with you later on.

Today, however, Larry and I were back at the Hollywood Farmers' Market, stocking up for the week ahead.

We admired the fall bounty of peppers, eggplants and the last of the zucchini. I once again resisted bringing home a giant squash.

Here's what we did come home with:

4 onions and 11 small red potatoes - half of which will go into the vegetable stock I'll make with the parsnips I bought last week (good thing I snagged them, because the market was parsnip-free today); 1 1/2 lbs small eggplants - most of which are currently bubbling away in the slow cooker - vegetable chili for dinner tonight!; 2 pomegranates, 3 bartlett pears, 4 grapefruit, grapes, blueberries, and 4 pineapple guavas for our breakfast fruit this week; 14 oranges that Larry squeezed for Sunday brunch o.j.; 8 pixie tangerines and 2 mutsu apples for our lunch bags; 3 red peppers; 3 san marzano tomatoes; 8 cremini, 2 shiitake and 1 oyster mushroom; parsley; cilantro; 6 anaheim peppers; 3-year-old cheddar and regular jack from the grass-fed organic Jersey cows at Spring Hill in Petaluma; 1 yellow pepper; 2 bunches scallions; 1 lettuce; 1 quart and 3 cups plain yogurt from the organic Jersey cows at St. Benoit in Napa Valley; 1 dinosaur kale; organic Pacamiel coffee from El Salvador; small stalk broccoli; 2 small zucchini; 1 dozen eggs.

This week in Hollywood

Today at the Hollywood Farmers Market it was obvious the seasons have changed.

The bustle and sunshine of summer were replaced with slow cloudiness as the farmers took longer to set up their stalls, the customers were later to arrive, and the sun had not yet peeked out by the time we headed for home with our goodies at 8:30 a.m.

The best news, however, is that parsnips are back!!! I bought two bunches at Finley Farms, one to eat, and one to make into the best vegetable stock around.

I staunchly resisted the lure of a large green squash (very large - like a flattish pumpkin). This is what we came home with instead:

1 lb raw carmel almonds
1 curly green kale
wild arugula
3 small plain yogurt
1 sweet potato
1 ash-covered goat cheese
1 tomato
1 small spaghetti squash
1 onion
12 oz lightly salted pistachios
1 lb La Montana coffee
2 dozen eggs
green Greek olives
black oil-cured olives
1 lettuce
romano and purple beans
1 avocado
2 bunches parsnips
3 bunches carrots
2 bunches young tender beet greens with roots
assortment of apples: Mutus, pink lady, cameo, red delicious, summerfield
heirloom cherry tomatoes
1 curly endive
1 baby romaine
1 radicchio

Whole Oat Pilaf

Oats are one of the best foods we can eat to keep our inner microbes happy. There are a wide variety of microbes living inside us - the ones we hear most about are the ones in the large intestine that benefit from yogurt and other probiotics, but there are many many more -  and the fiber and natural sugars in oats do a great job of keeping them balanced and harmonious, which in turn helps us stay healthy.

Rolled oats serve this purpose, so granola is a good way to start the day.

However, whole oat groats are even better for the body.

And they make a fine substitute for brown rice when you're looking for a grain to round out a meal. Make sure to buy hulled oat groats, not the ones with the husks on that are used for sprouting. They should look similar to brown rice or barley.

I took advantage of the fresh peppers at the market to make this cheerful fall pilaf that I served with a bean stew, beets with mint, and wilted greens. It was a colorful meal that our bodies really appreciated.

(And it tasted good too!)

Whole Oat Pilaf
1 cup whole oats
1 jalapeno
1/2 red peppers
1/2 orange pepper
4 mushrooms
2 shallots
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp fresh basil

Bring three cups of water to a boil, add 1/2 tsp salt and the oat groats, cover and simmer until cooked, about 20 minutes. Drain.

Meanwhile dice the peppers and shallots. Chop the mushrooms and mince the garlic.

Warm the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Add the peppers, shallots, mushrooms and garlic and cook 2-3 minutes until crisp tender, stirring occasionally. Lower the heat and add the cooked oats. Season with salt and pepper. Toss so all is warmed through. Stir in the basil and serve immediately.

Serves 4