Monday, February 17, 2014

Harvest Monday, February 17th, 2014

Looking out my front window

We saw a lot of snow last week. So no harvests. But as usual I did use up some of my saved harvests from last year.

This is my wonton soup. Now none of the vegetables you see in this were from the garden. I do have carrots, but I was using up some bought carrots from a party as I don't have a lot of mine left. But the wontons, which I swear are in there, are made with my garden vegetables.

Pizza is a favorite food of most people in the US. But I can't eat tomato sauce, so I'm always trying something weird. I think my last experiment was the best. I started with cranberry sauce - homemade, but not homegrown, layered that with some pureed squash that was cooked down to get rid of all the excess water, and added a layer of squeezed out spinach. The cheddar cheese was layered on very thinly. But oh my gosh. This was a pizza made in heaven. Oh so good. I'll have to make more. I think I might have to make some cranberry sauce next fall (can I get cranberries still?) that are a bit less sweet. I think the squash adds a lot of sweetness too and the cranberries for this need less sugar than what I put on my chicken and turkey. From the garden we had squash, spinach, and a pinch of oregano.

Since that turned out so well I tried layering a wrap with cranberry sauce, chicken, purple sweet potatoes (from the garden), and cheese. That wasn't nearly as good. I think what made the pizza so good was the smooth almost buttery squash (though there was no butter in there).

You can see here I was using up the leftover spinach and squash from the pizza (the green beans are also from the garden). I freeze them in packets and the pizza didn't need them all so I just ate them the next night. But the main dish was a seafood risotto. My goal for this winter was to try to get some vegetables into my veggie hating husband. My plain vegetables he won't touch as he doesn't like the texture of them. So I've been seeing what I can hide inside a meal. The risotto has onions (from the garden), mushrooms, and Chinese cabbage pureed before adding to the rice. Though it is far from a culinary masterpiece, it came out decent. I've never made risotto before. I'll probably make it again.

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.

18 comments:

  1. You sure are being very innovative, Chinese cabbage in risotto, going to remember this. The wonton in hiding, know what you mean, I posted a finished dish once and the star ingredient was hardly visible.

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  2. You are really coming up with some interesting creations. I love risotto, and I think it's a good way to use all kinds of veggies. I'm more likely to take the easier way out and make a pilaf though. The wonton soup looks great even if the wontons are shy.

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  3. Your resourcefulness is always inspiring. I'd love to be able to try your soup - looks delicious.

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  4. That shrimp looks fantastic. What a great idea to puree it before adding. I do this to some of my sauces, but hadn't thought about using it with rice type dishes.

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  5. I can feel your snow and cold in my bones. Maybe that's why I had a cup of hot tea yesterday when it was in the low 70's. Sympathetic move for friends in New England.

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  6. Hi Daphne, really adore how you turn everything from your garden into tasty meals..I still need to learn a lot..

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  7. I actually almost never put tomato sauce on my pizzas, I prefer "bianca" pizzas with plenty of cheese and toppings but no sauce. Did your husband eat the risotto with the secret veggies? I'm lucky, I can put just about any veggie in front of my husband and he'll happily eat them.

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    1. Yes he ate it and said he'd eat it again. Thank goodness.

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  8. No harvests here, though plenty of sprouting among the storage garlic and potatoes!

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  9. The pizza looks wonderful. This reminds me that I have pizza dough in the freezer and frozen baked tomatoes in the freezer as well. Maybe it's time.

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  10. Delicious meals, never thought of using sweet potatoes in a wrap, gotta try that someday. Glad your hubby will eat the hidden veggie again :)

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  11. The dishes you have shown here are certainly more ambitious and more appealing that what most people produce with their frozen veg! Bravo.

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  12. Hehe I love how you managed to sneak veggies into the risotto! I'm impressed that your harvests last you so well throughout Winter. Still, hope you see some better gardening weather soon!

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  13. Between your not being able to eat tomato products and your hubby not wanting to eat veggies you sure have a challenge! Sounds like you are persisting and doing great though. I didn't even bother to post this week. Hopeless here. Storming again! Nancy

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  14. That cranberry and squash pizza sauce sounds like pure inspiration.

    I've got sunny photos of my garden this week.... Don't hate me!

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  15. You are always posting creative and tasty recipes. love the pizza sauce!

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  16. I make homemade pizza quite often and rarely do I put tomato sauce on it any more. Sometimes I'll stick to shaved chedder, bacon, red onion, rosemary and parmesan cheese -then top it with a nice salad. Or I'll do a pesto pizza with with chicken and whatever veggies we have around. My favorite though is fast becoming a simple pizza with fig jam and prosciutto, then topped with Gorgonzola and arugula when it's out of the oven. Now you're making me hungry!

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  17. I'm using also stored and fresh harvest this month, thank you for the ideas

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