13 October 07Cabbage, Winter Squash, Jalepenos

Shredded Cabbage Salad

From Food Book ~ for a Sustainable Harvest, By Elizabeth Henderson and David Stern

• 1 T. vegetable oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
• 2 T. olive oil
• 2 T. wine vinegar
  
• 1 large head cabbage, shredded
  
• 1 t. dried rosemary
  
• 1 t. ground cumin
  
• 1 1/2 t. oregano
  
• 1 t. dried basil
  
• 1/2 t. salt or to taste
  
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
  

Saute onion in oil, until clear and slightly golden. Halfway through cooking onion, add garlic. (If you prefer, you can toss in the onion and garlic raw.) Add onion and garlic to olive oil, vinegar, and herbs. Mix well. Toss with shredded, raw cabbage and serve.

Squash and Apple Bake

From Food Book ~ for a Sustainable Harvest, By Elizabeth Henderson and David Stern

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
  
• 1 T. flour
  
• 1/4 cup melted butter or margarine
  
• 1/2 t. salt
  
• 1/2 t. mace
  
• any winter squash
  
• apples

Peel and slice winter squash into a greased baking dish. Cover with sliced and cored apples. Top with other ingredients. Bake at 350 degrees until tender (about an hour). Note: maple syrup, molasses and honey also make good sweeteners to a dish like this.

Hot Pepper Sauce

From Farmer John's Cookbook ~ The Real Dirt on Vegetables

Where do you put your hot sauce? Eggs? Pasta? Green beans? Steak? On everything you eat? When you see how easy it is to make your own scorchin' hot sauce, you'll soon become a hot-sauce-over-everything person. And then you'll start improvising, adding maybe a few garlic cloves, or some tomato paste, or rosemary sprigs. Different people have different secrets to a great hot sauce, but here we give you the basics. You can make this in a quart-size mason jar, or you can do it like they do in the South: in a big old rum bottle. Measurements are approximate; you do what you need to fill your container completely. Makes about 1 1/2 cups.

• about 1 pound of jalapeno or Serrano peppers or other hot peppers, or a combination, washed, stems removed.
• 10 whole black peppercorns
• about 1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Stuff as many peppers as you can in the bottle or jar, dropping in a few peppercorns between peppers. Bring the vinegar to a boil in a medium pot. Stir in the salt and remove from the heat. Let it cool for about a minute. Pour the vinegar over the peppers until they are fully covered. (You might not use all of the vinegar.)

Pound a cork into the jar or bottle (an old clean wine cork works fine) or screw the lid on tightly. Put the peppers in a cool closet for 1 week; then transfer to the refrigerator. The sauce will be ready to use after 1 week, but it will get even better and hotter with time. Once the sauce has reached a heat to your liking you can transfer it to a smaller clean container and store it in the refrigerator; at this point it will keep indefinitely.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Taken from Simply Recipes

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cut open the pumpkin and use a strong metal spoon to scoop out the insides. Separate the seeds from the stringy core. Rinse the seeds.
2. In a small saucepan, add the seeds to water, about 2 cups of water to every half cup of seeds. Add a tablespoon of salt for every cup of water. Bring to a boil. Let simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and drain.
3. Spread about a tablespoon of olive oil over the bottom of a roasting pan. Spread the seeds out over the roasting pan, all in one layer. Bake on the top rack for 20 minutes or until the seeds begin to brown. When browned to your satisfaction, remove from the oven and let the pan cool on a rack. Let the seeds cool all the way down before eating. Either crack to remove the inner seed (a lot of work and in my opinion, unnecessary) or eat whole.