Lettuce Share

I couldn’t stop thinking about or eating broccoli last week.  It started when John pointed out these burgeoning broccoli buds in the garden… 

…and continued with this beautiful head of Romanesco broccoli from Worden’s stand at the downtown farmers market.

It’s always a good day at the market when I come home with a head of Romanesco.  All three of us love it, mostly because it’s so strange-looking…the inspiration for Sideshow Bob’s hair, perhaps?   

Beyond its oddly pointy allure, it also has nice flavor and texture.  For our tastes, it cooks better than the plain Jane broccoli.  We like our vegetables crunchy.  Although the stalks cook similarly, the flowers on the Romanesco hold up better than those of regular broccoli.  Even if it’s slightly overcooked, it doesn’t get mushy.  I used it in some vegetable quesadillas, a breakfast bread pudding, and a pasta dish from Rachel Ray’s website.  Although I don’t always find her meals to take only 30-minutes, this one was right on time and really tasty!  I undercooked the broccoli and used whole wheat pasta; other than that, I followed the recipe to a tee.  Pecorino-romano cheese makes the sauce rich, while a touch of lemon and a pinch of crushed red pepper give it a layer of zip.  Toasted walnuts add some protein and so does the broccoli. 

Broccoli contains five percent protein, although this may not be true for Romanesco.  While me and most of North America believe it’s broccoli, the French call it Romanesco cabbage.  Très difficile!  It’s broccoli here, and these are a few other tidbits I came across last week:

*Broccoli is loaded with fiber, vitamin C, beta-carotene, cancer-fighting compounds, and chromium, which is a mineral required for insulin to function normally. 

*Broccoli comes from Calabria, Italy.  It became a commercial crop in the United States during the 1920’s.

*Researchers have identified a gene that makes certain people not like broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cabbage!  It’s a reaction to the bitter-tasting compounds.   

Sources: The Big Broccoli Book, Reader’s Digest Magic Foods for Better Blood Sugar, and The Vegetable Book

I answered my own question about honey this morning at the Lakewood Ranch farmers market, “Is there a huge flavor difference between varieties?” Yes, there is.  The Honey Cart was offering samples of their seasonal honey. 

Cooper and I tasted four types of honey, each from a different nectar.  Fall comes from Black Mangrove and Wildflower (Ragweed).  Winter comes from Florida Maple, Golden Rod, Tea Tree, Strawberry, and Blueberry.  Spring comes from Citrus, Primrose and Clover.  And Summer comes from Palmetto, Jasmine and Gallberry.  

They all tasted good, but we went with Summer.  It’s a departure from our usual orange blossom honey but is still fruity and sweet.  Fall and Winter had the most bite; you could really taste the maple in the Winter honey.  According to the National Honey Board, there are over 300 varieties of honey in the United States!  

Despite the sweet flavor, honey is actually good for you!  It’ll full of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.  I’m a huge fan of Burt’s Bees products for all these reasons.  But now that I’ve been on the National Honey Board’s website, maybe I’ll start whipping up some of my own beauty products.  Check out these recipes:

• Cucumber Honey Eye Nourisher
• Chocolate Milk Bath
• Green Honey Glow Mask
• Hair Shine
• Honey-kissed Lip Balm

I baked carrot snack cakes last night to celebrate.  To stay on theme, they’re in the likeness of ladybugs, dragonflies, bumblebees, and butterflies.  I found a backyard bug cakelet pan on sale for $20 at Williams-Sonoma after the holidays.  But the real inspiration was this giant carrot from Worden’s Farm.

Ta-da!  Happy Birthday Lettuce Share! 

The recipe is from Better Homes and Gardens New Dieter’s Cookbook, making it at least half the calories of your average slice of carrot cake with cream cheese icing.  More importantly, it tastes good.  Sift powdered sugar on top and it tastes even better, but the cake alone is moist and sweet.  Unfortunately, I’m no Minchul.  To see what you can really do with this cakelet pan, go to Ohdeedoh. 

This is the recipe exactly as it appears in the book, although I made a few small changes according to what was in my kitchen.  I chose butter over margarine, substituted raw sugar for regular granulated sugar, and used two-percent organic milk instead of skim.

Carrot Snack Cake

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup margarine or butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup finely shredded carrot
• 1/4 cup skim milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• Nonstick spray coating
• 1 to 2 teaspoons sifted powdered sugar

Instructions

In a medium mixing bowl beat margarine or butter and granulated sugar until thoroughly combined.  Beat in egg.  Stir in carrot, milk, and vanilla.  In another bowl combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg.  Add to carrot mixture and stir until thoroughly combined.  Spray an 8×8x2-inch baking pan with nonstick coating.  Pour batter evenly into pan.  Bake in a 350° oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center of the cake comes out clean.  Cool completely in pan on wire rack. (Or, remove from pan after cooling 10 minutes.  Then cool completely.)  Place a paper doily on top of the cake.  Lightly sift the powdered sugar evenly over the doily.  Carefully remove the doily.  Makes 9 servings.

Nutritional facts per serving: 152 calories, 6 g total fat (1 g saturated fat), 24 mg cholesterol, 154 mg sodium, 23 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 2 g protein

Exchanges: 1 1/2 starch, 1 fat

It’s grapefruit season again.  As long as the freeze didn’t do too much damage we’ll be eating grapefruit for the next three months.  It’s a real treat to have a food source like that in your backyard.   The juice is my favorite.  When they’re really ripe, it only takes two grapefruit to squeeze out an 8-ounce glass.

But how easy it is to forget the joy of that sweet, tangy juice when it’s your two-hundredth glass.  Getting rid of so many grapefruit can actually get tedious.  This is our third season with the tree; it’s time to move beyond the basic sugared grapefruit half and cup of juice.  Our first dinner of the season was Honey Orange Grapefruit Chicken served over a Grapefruit-Spinach Salad with Grapefruit Poppy Seed Dressing.

We all loved it - even John, who (gasp) doesn’t like grapefruit that much.  The dressing cut the tangy bite of the fruit, and the chicken had a tasty sweet and sour flavor from the blend of honey and grapefruit.  The original recipe was printed in Woman’s Day Magazine and is also delicious.

Honey Orange (or Grapefruit) Chicken

• 2 Tbsp. flour
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken-breast halves
• 2 tsp. oil
• 1 tsp. freshly grated orange or grapefruit peel
• 1/2 cup fresh orange or grapefruit juice
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1 Tbsp. honey
• 1 tsp. minced garlic
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley

Mix flour and salt in a plastic food bag.  Add chicken and shake to coat.  Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add chicken and cook, turning once, 5 minutes or until golden and meat is opaque at center.  Remove to serving plate.

Put orange peel, juice, broth, honey, and garlic in skillet.  Boil 4 minutes or until slightly thickened.  Stir in parsley; spoon over chicken.

Poppy Seed Dressing

• Juice from 1-2 grapefruit
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
• 1 Tbsp. honey
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 Tbsp. poppy seeds
• Salt and pepper

Cooper just got back from Tennessee. His uncles live on a mountain where ATVs are the preferred method of transportation and backyard chickens are welcome. This is their flock of Rhode Island Reds, New Hampshire Reds, and Barred Rock chickens. I wish he took a picture of the coop; it’s a mini-version of their house! Out in the not-so-mini garden, giant squash climb up the posts and creep down the hill. Tomatoes, carrots and broccoli are percolating under the much kinder Tennessee sun, and fresh blackberries are only an ATV hop up the mountain. Uncle Warren taught Cooper how to make blackberry cobbler; he treated us to dessert last night. We didn’t have fresh mountain berries, but it was still delicious!