3 Bean Baked Beans

It's Memorial Day weekend.  A weekend to thank those who have defended our freedome.  I have many friends and relatives who have served and fought in the military, army, navy, marines AND air force.  I have heard the stories from those who were in WWII, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. I am grateful every day for what they have sacrificed so I can have the life I have today.

To celebrate, we will be cooking out on Monday.  At the farmers market today, I picked up some spicy Italian brats and some asparagus that I plan to grill.  And right now, I am making some baked beans to go along with it.  I don't make homemade baked beans often, so I don't have a standard recipe. I do know that I have always liked my mom's baked beans, but they are in Minnesota at my niece, Katie's, college graduation.  So, I turned to my friends and asked them to give me their best baked bean recipes.  It turns out that one of my friends posted the same recipe that my mom uses.  It is credited to Pat Lyle, a close family friend.  I didn't follow it exactly, but used it as a basis for my beans.  I like to mix bean types and decided to go with pinto beans, great northern beans and black beans for this batch.

3 Bean Baked Beans

• 1 can pinto beans with jalapenos
• 1 can great northern beans, drained & rinsed
• 1 can black beans, drained & rinsed
• 1 Tbsp olive oil 
• 6 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 1/2 lg Vidalia onion, chopped
• 3 small mixed sweet peppers, chopped
• 1 bunch ramp bulbs*, thinly sliced
• 2 tsp roasted garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
• 2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

 Heat olive oil in a frying pan.  Add onions, peppers and ramp bulbs and cook, stirring until onions begin to turn translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add garlic, cook and stir about 1 minute until fragrant. Mix all ingredients in a large baking pan.  Bake in a preheated 350F oven, stirring occassionally, for 1 hour or until cooked.

*Farmers market items

Ramp Quiche

Before my parents head to Minnesota for the weekend to attend my niece's graduation from St. Olaf College, it was time to make another quiche.  Last weekend, I actually was able to find ramps at the farmer's market and just knew that I needed to use them in a quiche.  We gathered other ingredients, including a caramelized onion cheddar I had purchased from Eastman Party Store, and I threw together the next variation.

Spinach Ramp Quiche

• bunch of ramps, leaves only
• small bunch of baby spinach
• 3 slices genoa salami
• 2 oz caramelized onion cheddar
• 2 oz sharp cheddar, shredded
• 5 large eggs*
• 1 1/4 cup 1/2% milk
• garlic powder, basil, salt and pepper, to taste

Remove leaves from ramps and save bulbs for other use.  Thoroughly wash ramp leaves and spinach.  Chop both leaves to bite-sized pieces.  Cut salami into bite-sized pieces.  Combine vegetables and salami in bottom of prepared 9-inch round baking pan.  Crumble the caramelized onion cheddar over these fillings and then sprinkle with sharp cheddar.

In a medium bowl, beat eggs.  Add seasonings; mix well.  Slowly add milk while continuing to beat eggs.  Pour carefully over the filling and bake quiche in a preheated 350F oven.  Allow to set for 5 minutes before serving.

*CSA Ingredients

Squash Quiche

Mom and Dad have a busy weekend, so we decided to make another quiche (after all, when you have farm fresh eggs, you should use them, right?).  This time, Mom brought out a summer squash, bacon, bleu cheese and more mushrooms and onion.  Okay, challange accepted.  I decided to slice the squash very thin while Mom cooked up bacon, onion and mushroom.  Then I layered the squash with the sauteed items, sprinkled on the cheese and went from there.  Here's the recipe:

Bleu Squash Quiche

• 6 farm-fresh eggs* (note, several were smaller than normal, so I added one)
• 1 1/4 cups 1/2% milk
• 1 med yellow summer squash, thinly sliced
• 2 strips bacon, diced
• 1/4 cup onion, diced
• 1/4 cup mushroom, diced
• 1 cup sharp cheddar
• 1 oz Bleu cheese, crumbled
• salt and pepper

Sautee the bacon, onions and mushrooms over medium heat.  Layer the squash slices with the sauteed items.  Sprinkle cheddar and crumbled Bleu cheese over filling.  In a medium bowl, beat eggs, then add milk and beat until very smooth.  Season with salt and pepper.  Pour carefully over filling.  Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 35 minutes or until knife inserted into center comes out clean.  Allow to set for 5 minutes before serving.

*CSA items

Gearing Up For CSA!

I know it's been forever since I have regularly posted here.  You should know that a lot has happened in the last year.  I started my first year as assistant professor of accounting at Saginaw Valley State University and it was so much more than I could have asked for.  Not only did I have a successful year teaching, but I managed to get a paper submitted for publication and was written up in the Interior newsletter.  They only highlight a couple professors/staff member a month, so I am humbled by this and happy that this wonderful honor will appear in my PPC folder for my first year of being faculty.  I have been to India and a meeting in New Orleans.  I have worked on important committees and just had a really great year.

Last week, they replaced my left knee, so I am in the process of recuperating from that.  It is going very, very well. I am already graduated from walker to cane.  My range of motion is already better than it was before surgery.  I couldn't be happier with my progress.

I did cook the other morning, making a quiche, but did not get a photograph of the finished quiche.  But I don't think that means I shouldn't post the recipe, so I will do that now.  Mom had spinach, mushrooms and onions in the refrigerator, as well as a selections of meats.  I chose ham for my protein and used sharp cheddar for the cheese.  Mom helped a lot because I am still restricted in my movements, but I put it all together for them to bake.  Here's the recipe:

Cheddar Ham Spinach Quiche

• 5 large farm fresh eggs*
• 1 1/4 cup 1/2% milk
• 1 1/2 cups baby spinach, torn
• 4 oz thinly sliced ham, torn
• 1/2 cup button mushrooms, chopped
• 1/4 cup onion, diced
• 1 cup sharp cheddar, shredded
• 1/2 tsp freeze-dried basil
• 1/8 tsp garlic powder
• salt and pepper to taste

Dice onions and mushrooms and saute them until onions begin to become translucent. Tear spinach and ham and put in bottom of prepared baking pan (9" round baking pan).  Sprinkle with mushrooms and onions.  Then sprinkle with cheddar cheese.  In a medium bowl, beat eggs; add milk and continue to beat until mixed well.  Add seasonings; pour carefully over the filling.  Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 35 minutes or until knife inserted into center comes out clean.  Allow to set for 5 minutes before serving.


I didn't mention that my egg CSA has started.  Each week, I will received 1 dozen farm-fresh eggs.  It was interesting that the range of sizes were great within the dozen and some were white while others were brown.  It doesn't matter that there is such a difference, but I found it fascinating because the eggs that I received from my CSA in Cleveland were always uniform in size and the same color.  I am guessing that the farm we received them from in Cleveland was a much bigger farm that my current CSA.

So, now, it is time for me to give a shout-out to my new CSA.  I finally decided to go with Middleton Farm CSA out of Coleman, MI.  I have gotten to know them over the last year because I bought much of my meat from them each week when I went to the farmers market last summer.  I purchased the egg CSA, which started at the beginning of may and a quarter share of the Harvest Share CSA, which will start sometime in June.  I think the beginning is up in the air because of the cold wet weather we have been having this spring.  However, they did send an email last week saying that they were starting planting, so hopefully, we will start close to the scheduled time.  This group also offers several meat CSA plans, which, at some point I should be able to afford.  But for now, I will continue to buy my meats from them at the market as needed.  Oh, the interesting thing about how they do their Harvest Share CSA is that you go to the market and they hand you the proper size container for your share.  You then can fill that container with whatever you would like from the produce available that week.  Both my mom and I really like this idea as we will get what we want and will use.  I hope I am brave enough to try different things as they are available (one of the reasons I was attracted to CSAs in the first place), however, I will enjoy being able to control the amount of greens and items like turnips that I receive.

Middleton Farms CSA delivers in Midland and Mt. Pleasant and has pick up at the Midland Farmer's Market as well.  The shares include being able to go to the farm to pick up additional items as well.  It looks to be the beginning of a great relationship!  For information on the CSA, you can go to their website: http://www.middletonfarmcsa.com/.

*CSA ingredients

Strata time!

On Wednesday morning, I met with my orthopedic surgeon and scheduled my knee-replacement surgery.  Because I have not managed to lose any of the remaining weight, he would not agree to replace both knees at the same time.  He also said that he didn’t think the right knee necessarily needed replacement at this time.  I sure hope he’s right.  I will admit that I have been making every excuse in the world to not cook for myself lately.  I suppose the fact that people tend to feed you when there is a death in the family makes it easy for me to make excuses.  Whatever the reason, I really wanted something home-cooked this morning.  Since I don’t have to be anywhere until 11am this morning (when I will go for my personal training session), I decided to make breakfast.  I had a bunch of asparagus in the refrigerator and a few leftover biscuits.  While I normally make crustless quiches for breakfast, I decided to put those biscuits to use and make a strata instead.  This probably would have been better if I had decided to do this last night, however, stratas will work if you have a bit of time to let them sit before baking.  I am glad that I had asparagus because the warmer temperatures yesterday made me long for spring/summer.  I have signed up for my new CSA, but that program will not start until June.  I do, however, get to start getting farm-fresh eggs starting in May. 

Asparagus Biscuit Strata

• 3 buttermilk biscuits
• 1 bunch asparagus
• 1 cup Swiss cheese
• 5 extra-large eggs
• 1 ½ cups 1% milk
•  ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
• Italian seasoning, to taste
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350F.  Break up biscuits into a prepared casserole dish.  Cut asparagus into 1-inch pieces; steam in the microwave for 4 minutes.  Mix with biscuits in casserole.  Sprinkle cheese over fillings.  Beat eggs with milk, parmesan cheese, and seasonings.  Pour over fillings and allow to stand for at least 15 minutes (may make in advance and refrigerate overnight).  If made the day before, take casserole out of refrigerator and allow to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before baking.  Bake for 35 minutes or until a knife, inserted in the center, comes out clean. 

Split Pea Soup

It has been a long cold weekend.  My brother passed this weekend and I spent most of the weekend in his house.  While there, I found that he had half of a smoked pork shoulder in his refrigerator.  And if there was one thing that everyone will tell you, he was a great cook.  I took it home both because I didn't want it to go to waste and because it was one last chance to have his cooking.  A friend posted that he was making split pea soup, which is usually made with ham or a ham hock.  I thought, what better way to use this pork shoulder, so this morning, I put together a split pea soup in the crockpot using the shoulder.  I just tasted it and it is so very lovely!  A fitting tribute to my brother who I miss so much!

Smoked Pork Split Pea Soup

• 2 cups smoked pork shoulder, diced to 1/2' cubes
• 16 oz yellow split peas, rinsed and sorted
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp tumeric
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 6 cups good chicken stock

Layer all ingredients into the bowl of a crockpot in the order given, ending with the chicken stock.  Cook, covered, on High for 4-5 hours, or until the peas and carrots are cooked.  Remove the bay leaf before serving.

Beef, White Bean, Quinoa Stew

After a couple weeks in India, I had a taste for beef.  I had bought a pound of stew beef from Jack's before leaving for India and put it in my freezer.  I wasn't quite in the mood for traditional stew, so I looked around for other ideas.  I ran across a recipe for Beef and White Bean Stew but decided that I needed some additional protein and carbs in the recipe, so I added some quinoa.  It turned out to be a very nice, comforting stew.

Beef, White Bean and Quinoa Stew

• 1 lb Stew Beef
• 1 med onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 1 28-oz can petite diced tomatoes
• 2 15-oz cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 cups sweet corn
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 1/2 cups beef stock
• 2 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1 cup dried quinoa (I used a mix of red and white)
• 2 cups water

Place all ingredients, except quinoa and water into bowl of slow cooker.  Cook, covered, for 4 hours on HIGH.  While the stew is cooking, boil water.  Add quinoa, stir and then cook, covered, for 15 minutes or until water is absorbed.  Season slightly with salt (but remember that you have seasoned the stew as well).  Stir quinoa into stew and cook for 15-20 minutes for flavors to combine.