Tart of the Month Autumn Round Up

It's been a very busy month around here, so I didn't have time to make a new tart in September.  Instead, I thought I'd browse the archives for seasonal Autumn tarts I've made in the past.

There are some real winners here!

This Butternut Squash Tart with Sage, Honey & Chilis is really easy and makes a tasty, fancy appetizer or light lunch.

Stone fruits are still in season here in Ontario, and these Plum Tarts with Honey and Black Pepper are a sweet and sour treat.

This Roasted Vegetable Tarte Tatin takes a little more effort, but it is so beautiful and delicious, it's well worth it. 

I can't get enough butternut squash at this time of year, so here's another Butternut Squash Tart, this time with mushrooms and Gruyere.

Little Beet, Cheddar & Apple Tarts on puff pastry are a simple treat for a savoury dessert or snack.

Tarte flambée, or Flammekueche is similar to pizza and makes a wonderful dinner when nights get cooler.  

Carrots are in season and I love the way this Carrot and Herb Tart uses a variety of coloured carrots with the green of fresh herbs. 

And, finally, it isn't really fall without some pumpkin spice. These Pumpkin Spice Tarts have a gingersnap crust I love. 

Get outside and enjoy the season!  

Putting Up With: Tomatoes Two Ways

My "Putting Up With" series is a play on the phrase 'putting up' as a colloquialism for canning.  But in this case, it's particularly apt, because the only way I can put up with (tolerate) tomatoes is when they're canned, cooked or preserved in some way.  

I was a very picky eater when I was younger, but I've learned to tolerate, and even enjoy, some of the things that horrified me as a child.  I now cook with all types of peppers and mushrooms and even occasionally use mayonnaise and beans, all things I couldn't stand a few years ago.  But I've never grown to love raw tomatoes. Both the texture and taste are repulsive to me.  These recipes have helped me use up all the tomatoes I get every week from our garden and my CSA box.  

CSA - Summer Vegetables Abound

It's too hot. We are not the biggest fans of summer around here. We prefer it when the weather's cooler. 

But one of the things I look forward to every summer is my weekly CSA box.  

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Farmers essentially sell shares in their crops in advance, then deliver the shares to customers weekly throughout the growing season.  

Rhubarb-Cherry Sauce for Pork Chops

Rhubarb... I just don't know. 

We signed up for our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box again this year. We loved it so much last year and we ate everything, except the rhubarb. This year I was determined to try to use it up so I thought I'd make this sauce to accompany pork.  

The recipe comes from Martha Stewart.  Here's what you need:

Roasted Beet Salad with Creamy Jalapeño Dressing

Lately in our CSA basket we've been getting a lot of golden beets. They taste pretty much the same as red beets but they don't make as much of a mess when you peel and chop them.  This salad makes use of the pretty contrast between the red and golden beets and adds some creamy, spicy dressing to the mix.

Here's what you need for this salad:

CSA - Fresh Veggies Weekly (and Kohlrabi Two Ways)

For the first time ever, we have signed up for a weekly CSA box.  CSA stands for community supported agriculture.  Local farmers supplement their costs by selling shares in their produce in advance, so you pay upfront for weekly vegetables throughout the season.  What you get each week is a surprise, which may be intimidating for some people, but for us it's a fun adventure!  It's actually exciting to open the box of veggies each week and see what we get.  

Turkey Burgers

Ground turkey doesn't really work the same as beef.  Since it is so lean, it can turn out dry.  But this recipe uses veggies to keep the meat moist, juicy and flavourful.  These burgers are delicious and very healthy too!

Here's what you need for these burgers.

Tart of the Month: Asparagus & Gruyere

I have plenty more to tell about our road trip to Nashville, but let's take a break from travel for our tart of the month!  This month we're doing asparagus again. We have a small asparagus patch in our garden and due to the cold winter and late spring, it is just starting to produce asparagus now in mid May.  Asparagus is one of my favourite vegetables so it gets two months of tarts before spring turns to summer and I suspect the tart of the month will turn from savoury to sweet for a while.

This tart is so easy.  Once again, no pastry skills needed, just frozen puff pastry.  Here's what you need for this simple spring tart from Martha Stewart:

Short & Sweet Sunday - Summer Memories

Remember summer?  Sitting on the deck, fresh vegetables and fruit for snacks.  A glass of wine.

Those are purple radishes!

And prosciutto-wrapped honeydew melon.  One of my all-time favourites.

Spring is here!  Soon it will be time for snacks on the deck again.  

Slow Cooker Pot Roast

I've made pot roast in the crock pot before and it is still, by far, my most popular post ever.  That version had a lot of liquid, as do most pot roast recipes I've seen.  But this recipe from Martha Stewart has only a few tablespoons of liquid.  I turned it on before work and, to be honest, I worried all day that it would be all dried out when I got home.  But slow cookers are magical things.  Lots of juices came out of the roast and made a lovely jus that kept the meat moist and was delicious over the meat.  

Here's all you need:

Creamy Shrimp & Broccoli Pasta

A quick weeknight dinner, this creamy, colourful pasta full of veggies makes a nice change of pace. 

Here's what you need:

Cauliflower with Easy Cheese Sauce

I'm still trying to cook locally and seasonally, even as it becomes slightly more difficult as the weather gets cold.  We still have lots of local cauliflower in the market though.  I love to roast it, but this simple cheese sauce really makes steamed cauliflower special.

Normally, I make a cheese sauce starting with a roux (flour cooked in butter), then heat milk and remove from heat and add the cheese.  But this sauce uses corn starch and evaporated milk.  I used 7 year old cheddar (!) and fat free evaporated milk, but you can use the cheese and milk-fat level of your choice.

How Brussels Sprouts Grow

Usually when you buy Brussels sprouts in the grocery store, they are sold as individual sprouts in a bin or packaged in a bag (or even frozen).  But have you ever seen how they grow?

If you're lucky, you might find a Brussels sprout stalk for sale at a farmers market this time of year.  

Baby Turnips with Turnip Greens & Baby Carrots

I'm very pleased with these summer veggies.  Every week I go to the farmers market and grab whatever looks good.  

We've had some tasty veggies this year, but I always keep an eye out for baby turnips because they're so sweet and delicious. 

The baby turnips look exactly like white radishes.  Here they are with some breakfast radishes.

Cherry Tomato Pasta

For the past several years I've tried to grow San Marzano paste tomatoes in my garden.  Both Matt and I hate to eat raw tomatoes, but love cooked tomato sauce.  But the San Marzano tomatoes never thrived in our Canadian garden.  We had blossom end rot and very low yield.  We were lucky to end up with 3 or 4 tomatoes in a season, and we'd end up buying a bushel of tomatoes from the farmers market to can tomato sauce. 

So this year, we decided to grow a very high-yield cherry tomato plant called Sweet Million.  It has been fantastic!  We've had dozens of tomatoes each week since the end of July, with no end in sight.

Corn Radish and Jicama Salad

This is a gorgeous, tasty salad.  I bet it will be even better when corn is in season this summer, but it was a wonderful, colourful dish.

I adapted this recipe from Serious Eats (like just about everything I eat).  I didn't have all the ingredients they call for but this turned out great.   

Here's what you need: 

Stuffed Acorn Squash

Here's a full meal all in one.  You can use leftover cooked rice or cook rice specially for the recipe.  

Here's what you need:

1 large or 2 small acorn squash.
1 carrot
1 shallot or small onion
1 celery stalk
1/2 pound ground chicken or ground pork
1 apple
1.5 cups cooked rice (I used a brown and wild rice blend)
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
1 teaspoon dried oregano
salt and pepper
2 teaspoons butter

Butternut Squash and Shiitake Mushroom Ragout

Here's another healthy dish that was surprisingly tasty.  Bon Appetit magazine published a Food Lover's Cleanse for the new year.  There are lots of nice, healthy recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.   This one would be great as a vegetarian main course but I served it with roasted halibut.  

Here's what you need:

8-10 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms
4 sun-dried tomatoes, not packed in oil
2 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/2 cup tawny Port
1 large onion, chopped
1 medium butternut squash
1/4 cup pomegranate seeds

Pork Fried Rice

This is a combination of leftovers so delicious I actually planned ahead for leftovers to make it.  

I had leftover pork from this delicious pork roast, and I made rice the day before and refrigerated it because fried rice is best made with cold, leftover rice.  Cold rice lets the grains stay separate and whole when tossing them around in the pan.  You can use fresh, hot rice but the grains will break up and get kind of mushy.

I used these ingredients but feel free to mix up the vegetables and aromatics.

3-4 cups cold cooked rice

About 1/2 to 3/4 lb leftover cooked pork. You can use pork tenderloin, pork chops or pork roast.  You can cook it expressly for this recipe (I'd recommend roasting or grilling in a hoisin barbecue sauce), but leftovers are quicker and easier.

2 carrots, peeled and diced.

1 bunch scallions or green onions, sliced.

Green parts separate.  

2 garlic cloves and 1 inch of ginger, minced.

4-5 heads baby bok choy chopped (optional).

Plus 1 cup frozen peas, 3 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 tablespoons rice vinegar, and sriracha to taste (optional if you like it spicy)

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a wok or large pan.

Add the carrots, the white parts of the green onions and the garlic and ginger.  Stir fry for about 2 minutes.

Dice the pork into bite sized pieces and add to the vegetables.

Add the cold rice. 

Break up the rice and add the soy sauce and rice vinegar.  

Stir in the sriracha if you like it spicy. This amount gave it a big kick.  

Stir fry until the rice and pork begin to warm through.

Then add the frozen peas.

And the chopped, rinsed bok choy and green parts of the green onions.  

Toss together and stir fry until the bok choy is wilted and the rice is hot.

Serve it up in a shallow bowl or plate.

This is a one-pan meal made mostly of leftovers that only takes about 15 minutes start to finish. But it's packed with veggies and with flavour.   Give it a try!