I adapted the recipe from Sandy Mitchell, on About.com.

Ingredients:

Filling:

3 cups Concord grapes, washed and stemmed

2 small pears, cored, and cut into small chunks, or, 1 medium apple, grated

1 cup sugar

4 Tbsp flour

1 1/2 Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

9″ pie shell, either homemade or prepared (I like the ones at Whole Foods)

Topping:

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup melted butter

Preparation:

Pop the grape pulp from the skin by pinching them out. Save the skins. Simmer the pulp in a small saucepan for about 5 mins. While still hot, press the pulp through a sieve or a food mill to remove the seeds.

Combine sugar and flour.

Add in the grape pulp, skin, and other fruit.

Next, add the lemon juice and melted butter.

Mix then pour into pie shell.

For the crumble crust, combine the topping ingredients.  It will be dry and form little balls, sprinkle the mixture all over the top, coating it. Use as much or as little as you want, but the more you use, the crisper it will be.

Put aluminum foil under pie for an easy clean-up, it gets kind of messy.

Bake the pie at 350 degrees for 40-60 minutes.

Cool before serving.

I love pork and the other day, I got a huge hankering for it.  This came about after talking to my mom,” Try cooking them in apple juice,” she said on the phone.  So, my brain started planning the menu and after receiving beautiful apples, red onions, and a nice head of arugula from my CSA (community supported agriculture), the meal was set.

First, I went to Whole Foods and got three thick cut pork chops.  These babies were about 1 1/2 inches thick and looked oh so good.  At $7.99, it wasn’t too expensive, though three pieces cost me about $17.  Once I got them home, I let them sit in a half cup of Red Jacket Orchards apple juice, for about an hour.  Next, I stuffed them with a mixture of apple, fresh sage, pine nuts, dried cranberries, a little salt and pepper, a dash of tarragon, and a touch of olive oil.  After the saucepan was heated, I poured the apple juice from the pan and put the chops in.  Cooking them on medium heat, I rubbed brown sugar on one side of the pork chop and then let them simmer till each side was browned.

While I cooked the meat, I decided to caramelize the other half of the apple and a small red onion.  Using about 6 Tbs of butter and 1/4 cup of brown sugar made enough sauce to cook the apple and onion, and left enough to drizzle on the finished pork chop.  Taking the head of arugula, I evenly divided it on the plates, thinly sliced some radish and summer squash and put it around the dish, and set the meat right on top.  I didn’t think the greens needed any sauce, since the sweet butter and juices from the meat coated it.

Voila!  A delicious, though not healthy, local, and seasonal meal.
Ingredients:

2 lbs boneless pork chop

1 radish sliced

Pork Chop Procedure:

Dice 1/2 the apple and mix with olive oil, pine nuts, cranberry, sage and tarragon.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Cook until browned, then cover with lid and let some of the apple juice steam into the pork chop for about 15 minutes.

Apple and Onion Topping Procedure:

Slice the other half of the apple.

Put a heaping pile of apple and onion on finished pork chop and drizzle left over butter sugar sauce.

Serves 3

Time: 1 to 1 1/2 hours

When in doubt, make a quiche.  At least I think that’s my new motto.  Quiche is a simple, easy to make dish that almost anyone can eat and just about everything can go into.  Now, I am lazy and buy pie crust from Whole Foods; two frozen shells to a pack for about $3.  This makes it even easier to prepare a quiche.  The one pictured here I made with all farm fresh veggies and eggs from my farm share, save for the tomatoes, cheese and crust!

Serves 4

Romano, Scape, and Cherry Tomato Quiche:
Ingredients:
6 eggs

1/3 to 1/2 cup of milk

1 scape

1/3 cup cherry tomatoes sliced

1/3 cup grated Romano cheese

1 Tbs brown mustard

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground pepper

2 Tbs olive oil

3 small potatoes sliced into half circles

2 small radishes sliced into circles

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Take crust from freezer and set on baking sheet

Lightly sauté scapes and tomatoes together

Beat eggs with milk, mustard, salt and pepper

Distribute the Romano on bottom of piecrust

Follow with vegetable mixture

Pour eggs into crust

Bake for approximately 40 minutes or until crust is brown and no liquid remains

Let cool

Preparation for Potatoes and Radishes:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Coat potatoes and Radishes in olive oil, salt, and pepper mixture

Distribute in one layer on baking sheet

Bake for 15 minutes

Take out and flip potatoes and radishes

Bake for 20 minutes

Remaining CSA Ingredients:

SCAPES

CHARD

MINT

Other posts from this weeks CSA:

Bok Choi with Egg

Mashed Turnips with Serrano Ham Collard Greens

The other day I had some fridge fixings that needed to be used up.  What to do with a pound of buffalo meat, snap peas, carrots, birds-eye chili peppers, and other vegetable odds and ends?  Mmmm…Time to be creative!  So, I whipped up some super dense buffalo meatballs with chopped up red onion and chili pepper to give them a kick.  With the remainder of the veggies I just pan-fried them a little and served it on the side.  The result, though not serendipitous, tasted amazing.

Spicy Buffalo Meatballs Recipe

Ingredients:

1 lb ground buffalo meat (I got mine at Whole Foods)

1 small birds-eye or other spicy pepper diced (about 1/4 cups worth-give or take depending on how hot you want it)

1/4 cup red onion diced

1-3 garlic cloves diced

2 eggs

1/4 flour (I used gluten free)

Dash of Tabasco or hot sauce

1 Tbs dried parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, mixing well.

2. Heat skillet grill on high and form spheres, a little smaller then a tennis ball

3. Place meatballs on grill and cook till all sides are brown and a little crispy.  Pre heat oven to 350 degrees

4. Transfer browned meatballs to baking pan and cover with foil.

5. Bake in oven for 15 minutes.  Turn balls over, recover, and bake another 15 minutes.

6. Take out, let sit for 10 minutes and serve.

These are actually duck eggs, but they were part of today’s adventure at Whole Foods when I saw a bevy of neato eggs.  Read about my adventure on Serious Eats!

And, if anyone wants an emu egg,  you buy and I will fry.