Port Potager

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone, and we are still eating our way out of several gigantic containers of leftovers. That is in no way a complaint, by the way--we're loving it. Perhaps one of the reasons we have so much food left over this year is because we filled up on appetizers throughout the afternoon. Here's our cocktail snack spread: That all looks perfectly reasonable, until you remember the 22-pound turkey and vat of mashed potatoes waiting in the kitchen. Any other day of the year, this would have been a light lunch.   In addition to a nice, cured salami and several cheeses, we had bites of red and blue tart , made from some of the last Chioggia beets of the year. Chioggia beets are my favorite because they are extra sweet and not so earthy. When raw they are red and white striped, but after you roast them the colors blend into the pink you see above. Kirk went fairly light on the blue cheese, which probably pleased our younger guests. Th...

During the winter (thanks to our No Buying Veggies Challenge ), the variety of available food is way  down. We are out of onions and sweet potatoes, and our greens are buried under several feet of snow. We still have a bunch of fresh pumpkins and butternut, potatoes, and leeks, plus frozen green beans, okra, and sundried tomatoes. That's just about it, except for various herbs and some dried peppers to spice things up.  So ... what to do? You can only eat roasted vegetables so many times before you get a little tired of them, not matter how tasty they are. Luckily for us. Kirk came up with some creative dishes this week to breathe some new life into our winter staples. Spicy Pumpkin Bisque 1 small pumpkin (the baking kind)  1 head of garlic, broken into cloves  1 Tbs. olive oil 1 cup heavy cream 2 Tbs. Peanut butter 1 small leek Salt, pepper, cayenne, and ground chipotle to taste 1. Cut the pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds, and s...

I already wrote about our delicious Thanksgiving lunch of chipotle corn chowder, rolls, and Bloody Marys, but here's what else we had for our harvest celebration. Thanksgiving is the culmination of our year's labor, so I'm going to show it off a bit. Some snacky appetizers: pickled Swiss chard stems , sweet gherkins , and curry sour refrigerator pickles . Also on the scene is a slice of cheese torta to spread on the crackers. That wedge is actually a small portion of what was once a giant jello-mold-esque bomb of buttery, cheesy delight. It's super-rich and freezes well, so we brought a piece out for the holidays. This is modified from an old recipe from Kirk's mom that we only have a photocopy of. Here's how we make it. Cheese Torta 2 packages of cream cheese, room temp 4 sticks of unsalted butter, room temp 6 pesto cubes , melted (about 4 oz.) 1 small jar of oil-packed sundried tomatoes cheesecloth 1. Moisten and then wring ou...

While processing our pie pumpkins the other day , I set aside the seeds to make a snack: First, you have to pick the seeds out of the stringy glop, and this takes some patience. After they are separated, the seeds need a final rinse to get off any last bits of pumpkin. Then I spread them out to air dry on towels. (The pumpkin goo goes right into the compost bucket.) While the seeds are drying, I mixed up a ... dressing? flavor coating? in a bowl. This was 1 egg white, the juice of a small lime, and a teaspoon of olive oil, all whisked together until emulsified. Then stir in 1 tablespoon chili powder, 1/8-1/4 teaspoon of chipotle pepper, 1 teaspoon kosher salt (go light and taste, depending on how much salt is already in your chili powder), and 3-4 big pinches of sugar.  Add the pumpkin seeds into the mixture and toss with a spoon until coated. I had just over 1 cup of seeds, but this amount of dressing could really cover up to 2 cups of seeds, I think. So ours are...