Crab Cakes with Mango Salsa

Shared by Heather Herrick 

Level of Difficulty: Beginner 

Recipe Ingredients:

Crab Cakes 

• 1 pound lump crabmeat
• 1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup reduced fat mayonnaise
• 1 large egg -- beaten
• 2 green onions, white and light green parts only -- minced
• 1/2 teaspoon soy or lobster sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Mango Salsa

• 1 bag frozen mango
• 1 small red onion -- finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 1 tablespoon minced jalapeno
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions: 

To make the salsa: In a medium bowl, combine the salsa ingredients. Mix well and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes to 2 hours, to let the flavors blend.

Drain the crabmeat (fresh, frozen, or canned) in a sieve [if frozen, allow to defrost]. In a medium bowl, flake the meat with a fork and discard any shells or cartilage that might remain. Add the remaining ingredients, mixing gently but thoroughly. Shape into 6-8 cakes. Place the cakes on a place, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes or as long as 2 hours, so they will hold together on the grill.

Grill over Direct High heat until the bread crumbs are toasted, 6 to 8 minutes, turning once very carefully with a spatula. Serve warm with the salsa spooned on top. Alternatively, they can be pan fried in a little oil.

Crack Noodles

Shared by Heather Herrick 

Level of Difficulty: Beginner 

Recipe Ingredients:

• 8 oz. rice noodles
• 1 tbsp. olive oil or vegetable oil
• Kosher salt
• 1 1/2 tbsp. sesame oil
• 1/2 c. thinly sliced green onions, plus more for serving
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/3 c. low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 tbsp. chili garlic sauce
• 1 tbsp. packed brown sugar
• 1/2 tbsp. lime juice
• Pinch red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions: 

Cook noodles according to package instructions. Drain.

Add sesame oil to skillet. When sesame oil is fragrant, stir in green onions and garlic and cook for one minute. Add soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, lime juice, brown sugar, and red pepper flakes (if using). Simmer until sauce has reduced slightly, 3 to 5 minutes.

Add cooked noodles and toss to combine. Garnish with more green onions. Serve immediately.  

Eat in my Kitchen's Feta, Artichoke, and Zucchini Casserole

Shared By: Rebekka Sherman-Loeffler

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 25-30 minutes

Level of Difficulty: Beginner

Recipe Ingredients:

• 8 small Baby Artichokes, canned in water or oil
• Olive Oil
• 10 oz Feta, about 1 inch thick
• 14oz Zucchini, sliced thin by hand or mandolin
• 10 large Black Olives with pits (green work, too)
• 1 small handful Capers
• 6 large Cloves garlic, in their skin
• 8 sprigs of Thyme
• Flaky or large grained Sea Salt
• A few Black Peppercorns, crushed
• Rustic white Bread 

Directions: 

Preheat the oven to 425 F

Cut artichokes in half or quarters, slice zucchini.

Oil baking pan, place feta in middle, layer zucchini and artichoke on top. Layer rest around the feta. Top with olives, capers, garlic, and thyme. Drizzle with 4 tablespoons of olive oil, season with salt and pepper to taste.

Bake for 25 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Serve with bread.

Notes: Recipe taken from: Peters, Meike."Eat in my kitchen: to cook, to bake, to eat, and to treat" (Munich: Prestel Verlag, 2016.) 65. 

Fluffy Sourdough Pancakes

Shared by Heather Herrick

Level of Difficulty: Beginner 

Recipe Ingredients:

• 2 large eggs
• 245g (1 cup) whole milk
• 61g (1/4 cup) Greek yogurt (optional)
• 250g (1 1/2 cup, stirred down) sourdough starter
• 4g (1 teaspoon) vanilla (optional)
• 180g (1 1/2 cups) all-purpose, einkorn, or a mix of all-purpose and whole wheat, flour
• 6g (1 teaspoon) baking soda
• 4g (1 teaspoon) baking powder
• 5g (1 teaspoon) sea salt
• 50g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
• 63g (1/4 cup or 1/2 stick) melted butter

Directions: 

Beat eggs in a medium bowl. Add milk, yogurt (optional), sourdough starter, and optional vanilla. Stir to incorporate.

Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Add dry mix to the egg mixture, mixing well. Stir in melted butter. Wait about 30 minutes to let your sourdough starter get going just a bit.

Lightly grease a hot griddle or pan. Drop the batter onto the griddle and cook until light brown and bubbles start to appear on top, then flip to cook the other side. Refrain from flipping multiple times.

Notes: These are super fluffy and have a fantastic flavor, I think they're better than good restaurant pancakes!

Greek Turkey & Rice Skillet

Shared by Lauren Crowe

Prep Time: 5 mins

Cook Time: 30 mins

Level of Difficulty: Beginner 

Recipe Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 19 oz. Ground turkey (97% lean works best)
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Freshly cracked pepper
• 1 cup long grain white rice, uncooked
• 1/4 lb frozen cut leaf spinach
• 1/3 cup sun dried tomato halves (about 7 pieces), sliced
• 1/2 cup kalamata olives, sliced
• 1.5 cups chicken broth
• Handful fresh parsley
• 1 fresh lemon
• 1 oz feta (Optional)

 Directions: 

1. Add the olive oil and garlic to a large deep skillet and sauté over medium heat for 1-2 minutes, or until the garlic is fragrant. Add the ground turkey, oregano, salt, and pepper to the skillet. Continue to sauté until the turkey is cooked through (about 5 minutes).
2. While the turkey is cooking, slice the olives and sun dried tomatoes. Once the turkey is cooked through, add the rice, frozen spinach (no need to thaw first), olives, and sun dried tomatoes to the skillet.
3. Add the chicken broth and stir until everything is very well combined. Place a lid on the skillet, turn the heat up to medium high, and allow it to come up to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, turn the heat down to low or medium low, and allow it to gently simmer for 15 minutes. Use the lowest level of heat that maintains a steady simmer in the skillet.
4. After 15 minutes, give the skillet a brief stir, replace the lid quickly, turn off the heat, and allow it to sit for an additional 10 minutes.
5. While the skillet is resting, zest half of the lemon and slice it into wedges. Roughly chop the parsley. Give the skillet a final fluff and stir, then top with lemon zest, parsley, and crumbled feta. Serve with lemon wedges to squeeze over top.

Notes: Recipe from www.budgetbytes.com

Quinoa with Corn, Scallions, and Mint

Shared by Heather Leigh

Prep Time: 20 minutes 

Cook Time: 15 minutes 

Level of Difficulty: Beginner 

Recipe Ingredients:

• 4 ears corn, shucked or 3 cups of frozen corn
• 1 tablespoon finely grated fresh lemon zest (from 2 lemons)
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), melted OR olive oil
• 1 tablespoon mild honey OR alternative sweetner
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 cups quinoa (about 10 oz)
• 8 scallions, chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh mint

Directions:

Put corn in a 5- to 6-quart wide pot, then add water to cover and bring to a boil, covered. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, 5 minutes. Transfer corn with tongs to a cutting board. When cool enough to handle, cut kernels off cobs with a large heavy knife. Alternatively, cook frozen corn 4 minutes in simmering water, then drain.

Meanwhile, whisk together lemon zest and juice, butter, honey, salt, and pepper in a large bowl until combined.

Wash quinoa in 3 changes of cold water in a bowl, draining in a large sieve each time.

Cook quinoa according to package directions.

Add quinoa to dressing and toss until dressing is absorbed, then stir in corn, scallions, mint, and salt and pepper to taste.

Notes: Rinsing the quinoa removes some of the starch making for a fluffier texture. It's not essential, but a nice touch.

Spaghetti Squash and Meaty Tomato Sauce

Shared by Antonia Garcia

Prep Time: 15 minutes 

Cook Time: 45 minutes 

Level of Difficulty: Beginner 

Recipe Ingredients:

• 1 Spaghetti Squash
• 1lb Ground Beef
• 1 16oz diced tomato
• 1 8oz can tomato sauce
• Olive Oil
• Salt
• Fresh Basil to taste
• Spices

 Directions: 

Spaghetti Squash

1. Pre-heat oven to 450.
2. Cut Spaghetti squash in half length-wise.
3. Scoop out the seeds from the center.
4. Lay the squash on the baking sheet.
5. Brush with Olive oil.
6. Sprinkle with salt. 
7. Roast in the oven for 45 minutes on the middle shelf at 450 degrees.
8. Once roasted, remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes.
9. Take a fork and pull the spaghetti squash flesh off the skin of the squash and into a bowl, it should be primarily stringy.

Meat Sauce

1. In a medium saucepan, add the ground beef and cook through.
2. Add salt and basil to taste.
3. Once the meat is cooked through, add the can of diced tomato and the can of tomato sauce to the pan.
4. Stir the meat and tomato on medium heat for 10 minutes.

Sourdough Scones

Shared by Heather Herrick

Prep Time: 30 minutes 

Cook Time: 15-20 minutes 

Level of Difficulty: Beginner 

Recipe Ingredients:

• 4 1/2 cups (22.5oz, 630g) unbleached all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup (4 oz, 112g) granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 sticks (6oz,168g) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1" chunks
• 1 cup (8oz, 240ml) buttermilk (regular whole milk works well too), plus more for brushing
• 1 cup (8oz, 240ml) sourdough discard (100% hydration)
• 2 eggs

 Directions: 

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line two 1/2 sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt and. Toss in butter chunks. Mix in the butter until the bits are the size of a pea.
3. Whisk together the buttermilk (or regular milk), sourdough discard and eggs. Add the buttermilk mixture to the dry ingredients all at once and mix until just barely combined. Some loose flour may remain at the bottom of the bowl. DON'T OVER MIX.
4. Dump the dough onto a floured surface and finish kneading by hand just until all the loose flour is absorbed. Use your hands to pat the dough until it is 3/4" thick. Use a 2.5"-3" biscuit cutter to cut scones. or use a pizza cutter to make triangular scones.Re-roll the scraps and continue cutting until all the dough is used.
5. Line the scones onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving 1" space between. Brush the tops of the scones with buttermilk (or regular milk) and sprinkle with granulated sugar.
6. Bake on the middle racks of the oven, flipping the trays after 10 minutes (see note). The scones are ready when they are golden brown and sound hollow when the bottom is tapped. Total baking time 15-20 minutes.

Notes: You could add fruit or nuts or cheese to these scone too. But we like the flavor so much we just make them plain.

Sourdough Pizza Crust

Shared by Heather Herrick

Prep Time: 20 minutes (resting time 20 hours)

Cook Time: 10 minutes 

Serving Size: 4 Pizza Crusts 

Level of Difficulty: Intermediate 

Recipe Ingredients:

• 100 g (approx 1/2 cup) sourdough starter (active or discard)
• 10g (approx 2 teaspoons) fine sea salt
• 30 g (approx 2 tablespoons) olive oil
• 500g (approx 4 cups) all-purpose flour
• 375 g (approx 1.5 cups) water

Directions: 

The night before:

Add the pizza crust ingredients to a large mixing bowl and use your hands to mix until they are fully incorporated. Cover the bowl and allow the dough to ferment at room temperature overnight.

The next morning:

Perform a set of stretch and folds. Wet your hand with water to prevent the dough from sticking. While the dough is still in the bowl, gently pull one side of the dough up and over itself. Turn the bowl and repeat this on all sides of the dough until you turned the bowl full circle.

Cover the bowl and place in the fridge until ready to bake. (The dough can be left in the fridge for up to 36 hours.)

That night: 

Remove the dough and let rest on the counter for 30 minutes to come to room temperature.

Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces and on a generously floured (I used a lot of flour to keep mine from sticking) work surface, shape each portion into ball shape. Cover the mounds with a tea towel let rest 30 minutes.

Use a rolling pin or your hands to press a ball of dough into an 8"-12" (depending on how thick you want) circle. Use flour as needed to prevent sticking.

Grill, broil, or bake (400 degrees) to desired doneness.

Add toppings and broil or bake

Notes: We like BBQ chicken pizza: BBQ sauce blend of cheddar, mozzarella, and gouda (or your COVID cheese blend aka whatever you have or can get!) cooked sliced chicken breast roasted red peppers cilantro

Sourdough Soft Pretzel

Shared by Heather Herrick

Level of Difficulty: Intermediate 

Recipe Ingredients: 

• 4 cups bread flour or all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons SAF or instant yeast (I can't get yeast, left it out and they turned out great...my sourdough starter is very active)
• 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 cup whole milk (I used a mix of almond milk and 1/2 & 1/2...it's what I had, again, they turned out great)
• 1/2 cup unfed sourdough starter
• water and baking soda for boiling

Directions: 

Mixing the dough:

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, sugar and yeast. Set the whisk aside and switch to a sturdy wooden spoon. Stir in the milk and sourdough starter until a soft dough forms. Turn onto a generously floured surface and knead, for 15 minutes adding small amounts of flour as needed to keep the dough from adhering to the counter. You do not want a firm dough… it should be fairly slack, a little tacky and soft, yet smooth. Place dough in a clean bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and set aside to rise in a warm, draft-free place until nearly doubled in bulk and puffy, about an hour or so.

Shaping the pretzels:

Use a knife to cut the dough into 8-12 equal pieces. Roll each piece like play-dough until you have a snake of dough about the circumference of your index finger. Lay the snake of dough in a u-shape. Twist the two ends together twice, keeping the base of the "u" open, then fold the twisted ends down onto the base of the "u" and gently press in place. Transfer the pretzels onto parchment lined (or greased) baking sheets, being sure to leave generous amounts of room between them. They will expand both as they rise and again as they boil and bake. When you have dealt with all the dough, cover the pans with tea towels and let them rise in a warm, draft-free place until puffy looking, about 20 minutes.

Boiling & Baking:

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil in a stainless steel or other non-reactive pan (enameled cast-iron, tempered glass, etc…) When water simmers, add at least 3 TABLESPOONS of baking soda. Gently lift the pretzels one at a time into the boiling water. (You can boil more than one at a time, but be sure not to crowd the the pan as they will expand as they boil. Let simmer for about 45 seconds, flip the pieces and simmer for another 45 seconds-1 minute. Use a slotted spatula or spoon to drain and return each piece to its place on the pan. Continue until all pieces have been boiled and returned to the pan.

Sprinkle each pretzel with about a teaspoon of pretzel salt (if you have it, I don't). Place pans in oven and bake the pretzels at least until golden brown (at least 18 minutes), but you can bake until they are deep brown which is my preference (closer to 22-24 minutes in my oven.)

Notes: These are kind of a lot of work, but they're so good!!

Tropical Quinoa Black Bean Bowl (Vegan)

Shared by Melissa Taylor

Prep Time: 15 minutes 

Cook Time: 15 minutes 

Level of Difficulty:  Beginner

Recipe Ingredients:

• 1 avocado
• 2 (15 oz) cans black beans
• 1 small bunch cilantro
• 1 lime
• 2 mangoes
• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 medium red onion
• black pepper
• extra virgin olive oil
• maple syrup (or honey if you're not vegan)
• salt
• Optional: Favorite hot sauce or other source of spice

Directions: 

In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup quinoa and 2 cups water; bring to a boil over high heat, stir once boiling and then reduce to simmer and cover for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit covered for 5 minutes.

Drain and rinse 2 (15 oz) can black beans in a colander; set aside to drain further.

Juice 1 lime into a medium salad bowl. Add 2 tbsp olive oil, 2 tsp maple syrup, 2 tsp salt, and pinch of black pepper; whisk together.

Add 2 diced mangoes into bowl (cut/peel/dice however you're able, this is the hardest step, mangoes are so slippery!)

Add 1 avocado diced to bowl.

Add leaves from 1 bunch of cilantro to bowl (shaved & chopped).

Add 1 small diced red onion to bowl (if you're not a fan of raw onion, you can saute this for a few minutes first or forego altogether).

Preheat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Once the skillet is hot, add the black beans and cook until heated through, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Uncover the quinoa and fluff with a fork.

Set-up a bowl-making station with quinoa, black beans, and mango-avocado mixture and voila! Add favorite source of spice/heat/kick if you so please (my personal favorite is Yellow Bird Habanero). Enjoy!