Countdown to Thanksgiving: Bruschetta

Bruschetta (pronounced brus-ketta), from the Italian bruscare meaning to toast over coals. In Italy, the season for new olive oil is getting underway now and a simple bruschetta is a favorite way to celebrate the new flavors. The traditional bruschetta is just a slice of toasted bread rubbed with raw garlic and drizzled with olived oil. Simple and delicious (and local if you happen to be going to Italy this winter).

You can dress up bruschetta any way you like. The options are nearly endless. My Mom makes Mario Batali's White Bean Bruschetta, which is a personal favorite of mine. My brother, Ryan, also makes another favorite, a simple garlic, tomato, and basil bruschetta, which I duplicated below, though not nearly as well as he makes it.

Tomato and Basil Bruschetta

Remove seeds from tomatoes. Salt insides and let drain while preparing toasts. Toast slices of thick Italian bread under the broiler until crispy (or use a toaster if you must, not quite the same and takes longer, but your oven might be a little overused on Thanksgiving. I understand.) Rub each slice with raw garlic. Chop tomatoes and basil. Spoon mixture onto toasts. Serve.

Even though tomatoes grown outdoors aren't in season right now, a lot of people are growing greenhouse or hydroponic tomatoes locally because they are so popular. Chances are, you'll be able to find some at the farmer's market.


Roasted Red Pepper Bruschetta

The method is the same as above: toast, rub with garlic, add topping. If you roasted and jarred red peppers over the summer use those, if not, you can probably find some jarred, roasted ones at the farmer's market.

Other bruschetta topping options:
Apple or pear slices and cheese
Roasted garlic
Carrot Top Pesto
Squash
Mozzarella and herbs

Countdown to Thanksgiving: Unabandoning the beet

Beets. I've been fighting with them for the entire growing season. I fell in love with beet greens in one of my first CSA boxes, those have been flying out of my fridge and into a skillet with garlic and an egg within a day or two of arrival in my apartment. But the roots at the bottom? Those dark red orbs? I just couldn't find a way to like them...and I tried a lot of things...


Borscht
Roasted for use on salads
Sauteed with onions
Mixed into dip
Raw on salads


All of them rejects until I decided to bake with my beets. There were lots of recipes for chocolate beet cakes, but mixed reviews as to whether or not one could taste beets in the cake. So I nixed that before I even got out of the gate. I needed a trial run on some other baked good before I was willing to risk ruining perfectly good chocolate.


So I made bread. In the spirit of zucchini, pumpkin, potato and other vegetable breads, I mixed up some bread with beets. It made a beautiful pink dough.

It baked up brown...


But I liked loved the bread anyway!! It doesn't taste like beets. Well, okay...I could've pureed the beets better because a few chunks snuck in and those tasted like beets, but if you spend a couple more minutes blending it should be problem solved.


So without further ado, a new veggie bread for your Thanksgiving table:


Beet Bread

1 c. cooked, peeled beets

½ c. butter, partially melted

2 T maple syrup

½ T lemon juice

1 tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. salt

1 ½ c. all-purpose flour

Puree beets with butter (to partially melt, I just put a stick of butter in the microwave for about a minute, it’s not exact, just helps to have a little of both, I found) – this is best done in a food processor or blender. 

Mix in maple syrup and lemon juice. Fold in remaining ingredients to form a soft dough.

Place dough in greased loaf pan. Bake in preheated oven at 375 degrees Farenheit for 25-35 minutes (until knife inserted in the center comes out clean).

Thick, dense beet bread. Enjoy!

Zucchini, zucchini, zucchini...

Zucchini almost grows faster than weeds at this time of year. Once it gets going, it can be one of the most prolific plants in the garden. For the third week in a row I’ve been presented with one of these beautiful green members of the cucumber/melon family in my CSA box. This week it wasn’t even on the list of items planned for the box, it just showed up between the cucumber and the green beans. So, today is the day to start tackling all the zucchini in my fridge. Luckily, zucchini tend to keep well.

My first thought for zucchini was zucchini bread – when I’ve got too much of a fruit or vegetable I tend to figure out how best to put it in a baked good for a little variety. I whipped up a batch of Sweet Zucchini Bread from the 75th Anniversary edition of the Joy of Cooking. But afterward, I still had about half a cup of shredded zucchini left over…so I made a variation of my Dad’s Ugly Scramble:

Ugly Zucchini for 1

Small pat of butter
½ cup zucchini, grated or sliced thin
1 tsp. chopped garlic scapes (or a little fresh garlic)
1 egg, beaten

Melt butter in medium skillet. Add garlic scapes and zucchini. Saute until zucchini is translucent. Add egg and cook for about a minute while stirring. When egg is cooked through, the dish is ready. Add a little salt if desired and enjoy!