Good Earth Gardens and Zucchini Soup

Last year, a bunch of my coworkers were offered the opportunity to take part in a kind of mini farmer's market through a company called Good Earth Gardens. The company is run by a Master Gardener (Leslie), and every week, she brought in deliveries of all kinds of vegetables for a monthly fee. You could sign up for different packages (for a single person, couple, or family) and she would bring in all kinds of variety for everyone to enjoy. Well, immediately after this started I got veggie envy, but I never participated since I would have never been able to go through all of the veggies and was afraid it would be a waste of money.

Well this year, when the opportunity came up again, I immediately jumped on it! One of my teammates and I split a "single" delivery every week, and it is still way more than enough veggies to the point where Allen and I can't finish them all! (My Mom and Dad have lucked out with the extras though) It has seriously been such a cool thing to have this summer at work, and we always look forward to our Wednesday veggie deliveries.

The other nice thing is that it has forced us to eat a ton of different kinds of veggies that we would have never bought for ourselves normally. It has also been pretty educational since there are a lot of veggies I've never even heard of that we end up receiving (i.e. kohlrabi - what the heck?!)

Kohlrabi (kind of tastes like cabbage - not my fav, but interesting!)

So this has been a whole new fun thing for us, and we are completely spoiled now by all of the fresh onion, peppers, tomatoes, broccoli (ohhh the broccoli), sugar peas, green beans, fresh herbs, a few different kinds of squash, carrots, swiss chard, spinach, cucumbers, eggplant...the list goes on and on. Plus, it's really nice to support the local produce, a local company, and Leslie is as nice as can be. So now we've gotten in the habit of incorporating all of these veggies into more and more meals, and it has also allowed us the opportunity to get a little bit more creative with our dinners. Which brings me to my next creation: Zucchini soup. Don't be discouraged if you don't like zucchini, (it has been taste tested and approved by Allen and a few of my coworkers) and this is one that I made up on my own (yay!) so please enjoy:

(I didn't take a photo of our soup so I borrowed one from Simply Recipes - it should look similar when you're done!)

Zucchini Soup

Ingredients:

Olive oil - about 2 tbsp

2 small yellow onion, chopped

3 gloves garlic (of course), minced

3-4 lbs zucchini (this is an estimate - the zucchini we got from Leslie was HUGE and would be at least 4 lbs, which was plenty), skin taken off and chopped into bite size pieces (if the skin is hard to take off, you can bake it for 10-15 minutes and it will loosen it up - little trick from my friend Jill :))

4 cups chicken stock (can also use vegetable)

Red pepper

Lemon pepper

1/2 cup heavy cream (optional - I added it, but it could be creamy enough without it)

Salt and pepper

Instructions:

Heat the olive oil in a large pot on medium-high heat. Once heated, add the chopped onion and minced garlic for about 3-4 minutes until translucent and fragrant. Add a dash of the red pepper (more if you like the spice) and a tablespoon of lemon pepper, stir until fragrant - about a minute. Reduce to medium heat and add all of the zucchini. Cook until soft, about 5 minutes or so. Add the stock, bring everything to a boil, and then bring the heat down to medium and let everything cook for about 20 minutes.

Remove from the heat and use a hand immersion blender (or food processor) to blend everything until the soup is smooth. Return the soup back to the heat and add the cream if necessary (it helps to smooth it out, but the squash makes the soup pretty creamy anyway). Add salt and pepper to taste, as well as any additional red or lemon pepper if you want to kick it up a notch ;) We topped the soup with some crispy fried onion salad toppers and some yummy crusty bread. Enjoy!!

Rack of Lamb and Zucchini

Well it's been a while since I've posted up one of my new favorite recipes lately so here you go! This lamb chops recipe is one that Allen and I did on a whim for our little mini celebration the Monday before Christmas and I've seriously been craving it ever since! I'm proud of this one because it's one we did completely on our own with no recipe (so bear with me while I write this out - if you have any questions just let me know!)

Sorry - this one is not for my veggie friends unfortunately, but the zucchini recipe below could work for you! Just skip down :)

Rack of Lamb
Ingredients:
- 1 whole rack of lamb (the one Allen and I got from Meijer had 8 racks in it - there's not a lot of meat on the bones so 4 each was the perfect amount, we weren't crazy full or anything)
- Olive Oil
- Santa Maria seasoning (we got this seasoning from Allen's brother Mark in AZ - I believe it is only sold on the west coast, but it basically consists of sea salt, garlic, a little pepper, and minced onion if you want to create your own)

Preheat your oven to about 450º. Season the full rack (top and underneath) with seasoning while you heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a cast iron skillet on medium high. If you don't have a cast iron skillet, you could probably just use a regular large stove top pan and prep a baking sheet for the oven. After the olive oil is heated, put the rack of lamb in the skillet and sear on each side for about 3 minutes, or until you get a good crust on the top end. Put the full skillet in the oven with the top of the lamb facing up (or put the lamb on the baking sheet with the juices from the stove top pan) for about 25 minutes. Pull it out and cover the lamb for about 10 minutes to rest. Enjoy!

Zucchini Recipe 
This is a recipe that I really stole from my mom so I have to give her credit there. It took basically everything in the world for my sister and I to eat vegetables growing up, and this is one that I would usually eat with no problem. The parmesan cheese in this recipe really covers up the veggie taste, without being too unhealthy for you, so I have to love it (plus, I love cheese).

1 zucchini (for one serving)
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper
Parmesan cheese (I like fresh grated but you could use anything)

Preheat oven to 350º (either conventional or toaster oven). Cut the zucchini length-wise and put on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper, and sprinkle cheese on top. Bake about 8 minutes, or until zucchini is cooked through and cheese is crusty on top.

Butternut Squash Soup

So cooking has quickly jumped to the top of my list of hobbies in the past year or so, and I've really been enjoying trying out new recipes. One of my favorite things to make is soup - I love soup. I could eat soup every day. We already have a few really yummy soup recipes in the rotation (french onion, broccoli, beer and cheddar), but last night we made butternut squash soup. I have to say, it is now officially in the rotation - I love it! Here is the link to the recipe (also below with my modifications): Giada's Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients

Soup
2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 1/2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 3/4-inch pieces (about 7 to 8 cups)
6 cups low-sodium chicken stock
1/4 cup chopped fresh sage leaves
Kosher salt freshly ground black pepper

Crostini:
1/2 baguette, sliced diagonally into 1/2-inch thick slices
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage leaves (I did not put sage on there, but it's an option from the original recipe)
1 cup (2 ounces) grated fontina cheese
Kosher salt (and I also added pepper)

Directions
In an 8-quart stockpot, add the butter and oil and melt together over medium-high heat. Add the onion and carrot and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until aromatic, about 30 seconds. Add the squash and the chicken stock. Bring the mixture to a boil and add the sage. Continue to boil until the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes. Turn off the heat. Using an immersion blender, blend the mixture until smooth and thick. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Keep the soup warm over low heat.

For the crostini: Put an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Arrange the bread slices on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sage. Sprinkle the cheese on top and season with salt, to taste. Bake until the cheese has melted and the bread is light golden, about 6 to 8 minutes.

To serve, ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with the cheese crostini.

Giada's Note: The cooked vegetable mixture can also be pureed (after cooling for about 5 minutes) by ladling, in batches, into a food processor or blender and blended until smooth.

Enjoy!!