April is a big birthday month around here. Today is Luc’s big day, and Alex has his birthday at the end of the month. As such, we’re squeezing in a few gift-related posts, and we thought it would be fun to start it off with potatoes!
How’s that for alliteration?!
Today we’re sharing the simplest of potato sides with a twist (hehe).
Have you ever used potato stamps before? The idea is super simple : carve a shape into the smooth side of a cut potato, dip it in paint, and print it on paper!
Today we created a simple project inspired by Swimmy, a book written and illustrated by Leo Lionni.
Lionni is said to be the first children’s illustrator to use collage as his main medium. In this book, the illustrations are printed. And, on many of the pages, you can see that the same stamps are used over and over again, as in these examples with the fish.
Swimmy’s story is relatively simple. He stands out from his school of fish, but sadly one day they are all eaten (except him!). He ventures out into the ocean and sees many wonderful sites. Eventually he finds another school of fish, and this time he teaches his new family a way to work together and protect themselves.
If you’ve never read it before, we’ve included a video of the story above. But really, there’s nothing better than reading aloud to your kids, and it’s nice to have the book on hand to discuss the artwork and how to use a couple of stamps to make a complex image, so we suggest picking up a copy from your favorite bookstore or the library.
You’ll see that we focused our work on the pages of Swimmy and his school of fish. But there are many beautiful illustrations in the book that you could recreate (my other favorite is the seaweed printed using doilies).
I prefer keeping projects simple, because I often believe that that helps little kiddos create beautiful artwork without too many complications, confusing steps, or accidental blunders (like mixing all of the colors and just getting brown!). In an effort to keep this project simple, we used just two stamps and two colors, EXCEPT at the last moment when we added a black Swimmy to our pieces.
The nice thing about using Swimmy as inspiration for these projects is that the kiddos can stamp a school of fish going in any direction. As you can see in the original work, fish are swimming up, down, and all around.
And as you can see from our pile of work above, stamping takes a bit of practice. At first the boys wanted to stamp and slide the potatoes. Similar to how they would slide a paintbrush across the paper. It took a little bit of help and some practice to get them comfortable with stamping and lifting the stamp straight up.
This is a great project for making a book “come alive” for the kids. Imitating art found in books is a great way to expose kids to different techniques. It encourages them to start questioning how different pieces of art are made and gives them the tools to start making their own original pieces!
Potato, patato. However you pronounce it, we’re excited to call this tuber our ingredient of the season. Ah the potato, always the side-dish, never the main dish.
We think this vegetable gets a bad rap as being full of carbs and too bland (without a boatload of salt and butter) to be the centerpiece of a meal. We’re hoping to change that this season with a line-up of simple but delicious meals. Just a little something to bring spuds into the limelight and inspire you to give them a second (or third!) look. We’re also hoping to entertain you by putting the potato to work in a few unexpected ways…
This gratin is a one pan (or pumpkin) meal that is so delicious and savory that it’s perfect for these crisp fall nights of late October.
I made up this recipe on a whim last Wednesday – it was the night before our next farm share delivery and my goal was to make a delicious dinner using up as many random ingredients as I could before the fridge was restocked. I ended up experimenting with a potato gratin that was packed with a layer of pork sausage and another layer greens and fresh herbs. The final result was a dish hearty enough to stand on its own as a one-pot meal. To my delight, everyone in the house loved it, and I couldn’t help but make it again last night, but with a pumpkin twist!
As I said, I wanted to use up odds and ends from the fridge. Whenever I put those constraints on myself, I often come up with something creative (usually delicious), and in the end, I often realize that this made-up dish is a great jumping off point for many more experiments (thus the pumpkin!). Since there’s so much flexibility in this dish, I’m going to write it down as a recipe, but with an emphasis and understanding that you have a lot of room to experiment.
For example, here are a list of the variations I used in the two times I’ve made it:
I know that the idea of making a Bechamel sauce can be daunting on your first go, but don’t back away from it. I first made one a few years ago for a sweet potato and kale gratin (also amazingly delicious), and it was then that I realized that it was so easy. Just remember to keep stirring and watch your heat – you don’t want it too hot or too cool, just somewhere in the middle and you’re good to go. This is a handy sauce to be able to make because in addition to gratins, you can use it as the base for homemade macaroni and cheese or as a basic cheese sauce to go over veggies.
Ingredients
Instructions
If you’d like to experiment with the pumpkin variation, it’s easy peasy, yet looks impressive. Begin by slicing the top off a smallish pie pumpkin and remove the seeds and stringy bits from inside. Then I placed the pumpkin on a baking sheet and popped it in a 350F oven to begin cooking while I prepped the remaining vegetables and sauce (about 15-20 minutes?).
When the remaining ingredients are ready, start layering them in the pumpkin : first the greens, onion, and herb mixture, then the sausage, then some of the sauce, then any additional veggies (this is where I added the yellow squash), then the diced potatoes, dollops of goat cheese, and then the remaining sauce. I had some remaining ingredients, so I layered them in individual-sized pots with some sauce and cheese.
These would make cute individual-sized servings for a dinner. I’m also thinking that a cracked egg on top of the pots and left to cook in the oven would turn this into an amazing breakfast casserole!
I popped the pumpkin back into the oven for another 30-40 minutes to let everything continue cooking and blending together. When I removed it from the oven, I let it sit for about 20 minutes (we were distracted), and it was still perfectly warm and ready to eat when we served it (great to know if you’re trying to time dishes for a holiday dinner). Rather than scoop out the servings, this looks beautiful on plates if you slice through the pumpkin and place pie-like slices on plates, allowing everyone to remove the rind on their own.
So there you have it, an amazingly simple and versatile gratin that is hearty enough to be its own meal. If you make one, let us know what variations you come up with!
Officially, the boys and I were on the east coast for month 3, and the food I’m sharing below is from month 4, so we may have missed some late summer veggies, but we’re jumping feet first into fall and calling this month 3 of recipes. While we were away, it was Calder’s job to eat all of the food and blog about it…
This month seems to have been more plentiful than previous months. We’re seeing a natural change in what’s being harvested from crops with shorter growing seasons, like radishes and turnips, to some of the slower-growing crops, like corn and carrots. We’ve also been the lucky recipients of a full case of Colorado peaches. With all of this food, I realized that I have a lot more to share this month and am breaking the post up into two parts. Today I’m sharing most of the main course recipes and in the second post I’ll follow-up with desserts, canned goods, and fermented foods.
… and it’s so frustrating that the days are getting shorter as the veggie boxes are getting heavier!
Early in the month, I leaned on a couple of my favorite cookbooks, Jerusalem and Plenty, for new vegetable recipes. If you like to experiment in the kitchen and are open to trying new spices and food combinations, I recommend both books. Jerusalem includes meat and vegetable dishes, but Plenty is all vegetable.
I haven’t discussed it much on the blog, but I’m part of a cookbook club, and I’m excited to host our October meeting where we’ll be cooking from Jerusalem. I can’t wait to taste all of the dishes and document our meeting for a future post!
The table below lists the variety of foods that we’ve received for the past month. I don’t know the exact quantity of vegetables we receive each week (it’s a large grocery bag filled with veggies, and I would say it’s about 20+ lbs), definitely enough to feed our family for the week. During the month of September, the vegetables have been some combination of those on the list below. In the protein category, we receive about 3-5 lbs of meat each week, made up of a combination of the items on the list. The tofu and tempeh each arrive once per month. Under the dairy & misc. category, we receive the yogurt & cheeses each week, we receive 1 lb of coffee once per month, and approximately two canned goods each week. While in season, we receive fresh fruit and some variety of fresh herbs.
| veggies | proteins | dairy & misc. | fruit & herbs |
|---|---|---|---|
| cucumbers | stewing chickens | herbed goat cheese | peaches! |
| green lettuce | hot German sausage | camembert | plums |
| carrots | italian sausage | yogurt | basil |
| cabbage | bacon | coffee | parsley |
| eggplant | ground beef | fruit jam | dill |
| onions | tofu | pickles | sage |
| zucchini | tempeh | edible flowers | |
| summer squash | eggs | ||
| mushrooms | |||
| beets | |||
| chard | |||
| kale | |||
| kohlrabi | |||
| peppers | |||
| broccoli | |||
| leeks | |||
| radishes |
Above each photograph, I list the farm share ingredients used for the dish and, where available, I’ve linked to the recipes. Where necessary, I also include some notes about that day’s meal.
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Cucumber salad with smashed garlic and ginger (from Plenty) : cucumbers, onion, herbs
This was a delicious and refreshing side dish for a summer meal. It was a bit spicy for the boys, so we had plenty of leftovers, and I loved eating it on rye bread with humus (it was good that just typing that makes me was to make more right now).
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Teryaki tempeh : tempeh
We liked this DIY teryaki sauce enough that it’s worth keeping for future recipes.
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Chard with tahini, yogurt, and buttered pine nuts (from Jerusalem) : chard
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Roasted eggplant with buttermilk sauce (from Jerusalem) : eggplant, peaches
This ingredient combination may seem odd, but it was amazing! So good, in fact, that we ate this dish at least three different times over the month. The original recipe called for pomegranate seeds, but since we had an abundance of peaches, I decided to experiment. Luckily, the odds were in our favor and this turned out so delicious that now we’re excited to experiment with other fruits. Pears? slightly cooked apples? definitely pomegranates.
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Squash casserole : zucchini & yellow squash, goat cheese, eggs
I added fresh dill and dill goat cheese to the casserole, and I subbed panko bread crumbs for the crushed crackers that were called for in the recipe. I served this casserole with round two of the roasted eggplant and some sauteed paneer with Indian spices.
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Scotch eggs! : Italian sausage, eggs
I only had a Scotch egg once in my life, but loved it enough that I was craving one three years later. If you’ve never had one a Scotch egg is a hardboiled egg wrapped in sausage, coated in bread crumbs, and deep fried. I barely had enough bread crumbs and vegetable oil to make this batch, but they turned out delicious and have me excited to make another batch!
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Chard with tofu and black bean sauce, stir-fried rice : chard, tofu, onion, corn, bell pepper, carrots, eggs
For a while we were ordering Chinese about once a week from a local restaurant. That habit has transferred to our favorite pizza
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veggie burritos with homemade peach salsa (more on that tomorrow!) : onions, green peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, mushrooms, sauteed greens, peaches, chicken, green chili goat cheese
The next day, I used the leftover burrito ingredients to make an amazing burrito bowl for lunch : just pile everything into a bowl over the rice and enjoy!
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Savory vegetable pie : collard greens, caramelized onions, parsley, mint, potatoes
I baked this pie on a Friday and we took it with us the next day on a weekend camping trip. It served as the perfect, portable lunch on both Saturday and Sunday, with many small slices eaten as between-meal snacks.
I didn’t follow a specific recipe, just looked at a few things and came up with this formula: place the bottom crust inside a pie dish, add the sauteed greens and mushrooms mixed with the caramelized onions and fresh herbs, add a layer of grated cheddar cheese, top with a layer of cooked diced potatoes that are lighted mashed/blended with some buttermilk (could sub regular milk for less tang), add the top crust, and bake in a 350F oven until done.
While I’m comfortable making quiches, this was my first savory pie. It came out so delicious (and easy to serve) that I’m excited to make a few more this fall and winter. I think they’ll be perfect for dinner-time picnics in the park or packed lunches on ski days.
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Burgers, grilled corn, and kohlrabi salad (salad recipe from Jerusalem, but we didn’t love it) : ground beef, corn, kohlrabi
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soba noodles with mushrooms : mushrooms, leeks
We had such a great combination of mushrooms this month! I don’t know the names of all of them pictured below, but as soon as we saw them, we were excited to do something special with them.
This dish is super simple, just sauteed leeks and mushrooms added to soba noodles in a miso broth. Its simplicity really lets the flavor of the mushrooms stand out, and their meatiness adds a nice hearty texture to the dish.
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Salads : lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, cucumbers, peppercorn goat cheese
Nothing special here, just delicious simple salads. I really loved adding the peppercorn goat cheese to the salads (and the carrot soup), and am thinking that I may be hooked on this as a new garnish.
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Light vegetable soup : onion, carrots, broccoli, green pepper, yellow squash
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Carrot soup : onion, potato, carrots, collard greens, leeks, chicken broth (from the stewing chickens), peppercorn goat cheese
There’s nothing I love more than adding some good garnishes to a blended root vegetable soup. For this one, I sauteed the greens with leeks and garlic. After placing the greens on the soup, I sprinkled it with some of the peppercorn goat cheese.
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Beet tart : sauteed greens, caramelized onions, roasted beets, goat cheese.
After seeing an apple tart where the apple slices were arranged in a rosette on top of the tart, I wanted to try to make a savory version using beets. This was my first go at it, and while it tasted good (we ate it all!), I think there’s room for improvement in both the presentation and the taste… I’m sure I’ll have an update with a recipe in a future post!
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Pesto : basil
I don’t use a particular recipe for making pesto, although it would be handy since there are times where I forget key ingredients (cheese! garlic!). Calder doesn’t like pine nuts, so I made this batch with walnuts, and think it’s just as delicious.
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And that’s it for the main courses. Looking back, we ate so well this past month! Tomorrow I’ll post the desserts, canned goods, and fermentation projects from the month.
Happy Monday errrrr Wednesday! We’re not the type to make excuses, but we’ve been busy! This past week I spent my days in Boulder with Katie, Calder and their two boys. It was such a blast! I can’t even think about all the fun I had or I might cry. I’m not sure when my tears started flowing so freely, but I cry A LOT these days. Usually it’s about happy moments or cute videos, but sometimes I tear up when people win on Wheel of Fortune. Yeah, what the hell is happening to me?! Anyway, when I think about how much fun I had this past week and how cute the kiddos are and how far away we live from each other I want to cry, but I won’t because I’m in control, right? Right.
If you want to feel in control like me, you’ll totally make this lime crema because it’s the easiest and tastiest dipping sauce on BOTH sides of the Mississippi and as you’re shoveling spoonfuls into your mouth you’ll think “Holy cow that was easy. I rock. I’m a cuisine queen. I’m in control of my supper and my life.” At least that’s how my thoughts played out as I was dipping my sweet potato fries. Oh and lime crema is adaptable too! It’s basically an equation: cashews, liquid, salt and seasoning. That liquid could be any type of milk, vegan or not, or you could use water; I promise it will taste just as creamy with water. It’s amazing. Don’t ask questions.
I hope this post finds you well and just in time for the weekend. Why? Because big breakfasts are what my weekends are all about and precisely where these Potato Patties With Egg and Asparagus were born. I rarely eat any breakfast during the week. I’m not sure when that happened, but it did and I know, it’s not a great routine to get into, but so it goes. Let’s forget about Monday through Friday and focus on the weekend, which is when you’ll be making this eggy, garlicky, asparagussy (<quite proud of that made up word) goodness. There’s something about layering food that makes it taste that much better to me. I like grabbing a little of everything in each yummy bite. I know I could do that if these three ingredients were all sitting side-by-side on the plate, but it just takes the fun out of all of it. I want everything snuggled together ready to be devoured in under a minute’s time. This potato, egg and asparagus breakfast is extremely simple. If you haven’t ever cooked a thing, try making this. Everyone can make eggs, right? Can you use a spatula? Do you know how to shake a salt shaker? Sweeeeet! That means you can also impress your family with this super tasty take on breakfast.
If you’ve never transformed a vegetable into a stamp now’s your chance. It’s a quick and disposable option for those days when you want to create something without too much preparation and effort. Potatoes are cheap and it’s likely that you have a couple living in your kitchen right now. Sliced in half, potatoes are a perfectly blank canvas just waiting to be customized. Cheap, easy and customizable means a perfect craft for groups so test out this tutorial at summer camp, in the classroom or on a rainy day. We love stamping so much here at Live Seasoned that this is just the first post in a Stamping Series. From time to time we’ll be back to teach you how to make stamps from just about anything from Styrofoam takeout containers to pencil erasers. For now grab your spuds and let’s get starchy.
or Cardstock
Each stamping will look a little different and that’s really the beauty of the potato stamp. It’s not rigid and formal; it’s unique and playful. I played around with both repetition and white space. I could have decorated a dozen canvases, but I only had three. As you can see, some of the stamps are more opaque than others. I decided to use a paintbrush on some and others I left alone. It’s all a matter of personal preference.
I had a great time playing around with these potato stamps and it made me excited to babysit or teach again so that I could pass on the fun. I’m always looking for cheap and easy household crafts that I can create in a pinch to entertain bored kiddos. Potato stamps are the perfect solution for creating decorations, invites, or gift wrapping for those random occasions or specific party themes. I know I’d rather run to my kitchen rather than a craft store whenever I need a simple stamp. I hope you’ll try this out next time you’re entertaining some art-lovin’ little ones or maybe you’ll throw your first ever ‘Buds and Spuds’ art party. Be sure to instagram your results and tag @liveseasoned, we’ll love you forever.
If you’re looking to shake up your breakfast menu, try this sweet potato skillet. It’s a quick and hardy dish with the perfect amount of spice. The eggs are a great source of protein and the sweet potatoes add lots of fiber and potassium to the dish. What’s my favorite aspect of this recipe? The lack of dirty dishes. Since you cook and eat out of the skillet, clean up is easy peasy.
If you’re serving it with toast you can put the slices under the broiler too. I ate my skillet with an expensive ($8!), but delicious gluten-free loaf from the Saturday Farmers’ Market. I’m not allergic to gluten, but the loaves at Imagine That Gluten Free looked so delicious that I had to give them a try. It was a cold and windy (read absolutely freezing) Saturday and I was wandering around near closing time so the vendor even gave me a baguette ($6) for free! That combination of friendliness and deliciousness will keep me coming back for more. I wish I had a photo of the baguette. It seriously looked like a piece of art. My guy and I scarfed it down that day. Stay tuned via Instagram and I’ll snap a picture of the beautiful baguettes this Saturday.
I hope you enjoyed this simple yet filling recipe. The heart makes me smile every time I serve this up. Do you ever play with your food? Morph your pancakes into any fun shapes lately? If so, snap a picture, share it on instagram #foodart and tag us! I’m off to make dinosaur pancakes and heart-shaped donuts!
