celery root remoulade

• celery root
• prepared horseradish sauce

Peel the skin from the celery root and wipe away any dirt or remains on white flesh. Grate into a large bowl and add horseradish sauce to taste (how clear do you like your sinuses?). I supplemented my store bought sauce with some packets of horsey sauce I had leftover from the last time we got Arby's. This can sit up to a week in the fridge and makes a great topping for a roast beef sandwiches.

The dish: Every now and again we all need a change of scenery to re-charge our batteries. Kim and I recently felt in need of some re-charging and decided to take a night away from home and stay in New Jersey with the intent of watching the sun rise over New York. We stayed at the Jersey City Hyatt which without a doubt is the hotel with the best view of the city. The staff at the hotel couldn't do enough to make us feel welcome and their restaurant, Vu, was outstanding, and not just for its namesake. As supporters of a local farm, we were happy to see that Vu also supports agriculture and features several local items on their menu. Among them was mashed potatoes with celeriac, also known as celery root. Celery root has a distinctive flavor that worked well with the potatoes (but also rocks when raw) and paired well with the veal I enjoyed. It made an already distinctive dish even more so. The texture when grated raw is perfect for the sharp horseradish and turns a plain roast beef sandwich into an occasion. Don't be afraid by its funky appearance, celery root is easy to prepare and tastes like nothing else you've ever had. Oh, so how was that sunrise? We may have gone for some re-charging, but after seeing the sun creep up behind the skyline on that chilly autumn morning, it felt like we were brought back to life.

Swiss chard with golden beets

• rainbow Swiss chard, rinsed and dried
• golden beets, greens removed
• fresh garlic, chopped fine
• olive oil
• nutmeg
• coarse salt
• fresh pepper

Rinse outside of beets with cold water to remove any surface dirt. Place on baking tray or oven safe dish and drizzle with olive oil, bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until tender. Allow to cool and simply remove the skin on them by peeling back and gently pulling it off. Cut into bite sized pieces and put aside until you make the chard (they'll keep for about a week in the fridge). Separate the leaves of the chard from the stem. Roughly rip the chard leaves and dice the stem into small pieces. In a large skillet over medium high heat cook garlic in a swirl of oil until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add a little more oil and cook the chard stems with the garlic until both are just tender, about 3-5 minutes. Begin adding the chard leaves in batches, tossing in the pan to wilt down, adding a little more olive oil when necessary. Add the beets right before the final batch. Once all the chard has wilted remove from heat and season with a pinch of nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.

The dish: An interesting side effect of keeping this blog is whenever I cook I find myself thinking about what I'll write for what I'm preparing. As I made this dish I was thinking back to a post about Ikea and how efficient they are at packaging items. This came to mind because Swiss chard is actually two veggies in one; a leafy green like kale or spinach and a stem like celery. Both have a distinctive taste and unless you want ultra soggy leaves or too crunchy stem they should really be prepared separately. Of course, the Swiss are so good at fitting things in that even their vegetables are double packed. It seemed like a great idea until a few days later when I remembered that Ikea is Swedish and not Swiss (a common mistake?). It didn't really matter though, because the chard and beets tasted great and Kim and I enjoyed all of it. I let our favorite farmers know how well the flavors worked together and they reminded me that I made this dish with more ingredients than necessary, as I could have just cooked the beet greens and had a very similar taste and texture to the chard. It seemed fitting as I had already goofed the blog entry, so why not discard the greens and add some nearly identical greens in their place? In spite of my best efforts to seemingly screw up everything about this dish, it worked out great and the colors of the chard played nicely with the hue of the beets.

purple potato salad

• fresh purple potatoes, scrubbed and sliced in half
• Dijon mustard
• Champagne vinegar
• honey

In salted boiling water, cook potatoes for 10-15 minutes until fork tender. Combine equal parts honey, vinegar and mustard; adjust according to taste. Pour dressing over potatoes and serve either warm or cold. I was lucky enough to have a close to empty squeeze jar of Dijon in the fridge so I used it to mix the dressing and I was able to achieve the cool drizzle effect in the photo.

The dish: I usually try to avoid Frankenfood because square watermelons and grape flavored apples just don't do it for me. I'm not sure how altered purple potatoes are, but our farm friends had some and I just had to try them. They taste just like a regular potato, but carry some of the health benefits associated with other purple foods. The most abundant of the good stuff are flavonoids, antioxidant compounds that among other things, might help keep cancer at bay. There's been a lot of research into the biological environment cancer cells live in and what we can do through diet to alter it. In other words, if Madame Cancer decides to take up with us, we don't have to be good hosts. Cancer is a tricky disease that's good at sending out signals to our bodies to divert resources like food and energy toward its own benefit. Everything we eat or drink changes the composition of our blood, and various nutrients in food can alter it in such a way that it blocks some of cancer's communications. Various flavonoids and antioxidants can actually fight cancer by doing things like controlling blood sugar to reducing inflammation. In addition to tasting great, this salad has tons of cancer fighting properties and nutrients our bodies can put to use. Not to mention, the distinctive purple and yellow coloring looks like the velvet pouch that Crown Royal comes in, and only good things come out of that magical bag.

garlic onion refrigerator pickles

• 1lb small cucumbers (I've seen them called kirby and kuke, so I have no idea what is right)
• pickling salt
• fresh garlic, chopped
• 2 onions, sliced into rings
• cider vinegar
• sugar
• fresh dill
• mustard seed

Combine about 1.5 cups of salt with 4 or so cups of water. Make sure that salt is well dissolved and pour over cucumbers in a tight container. Let sit at room temperature, out of the sun, for two days. Drain and rinse the cucumbers well. Combine 3 cups cider vinegar with 1.5 cups of water and 1/2 cup sugar, cook and bring to a boil stirring occasionally. Let cool for 20 minutes. In a tight fitting container, layer the cucumbers with the garlic, onion and dill with a few shakes of mustard seed. When vinegar mixture has cooled slightly, pour over the mixture and refrigerate for 1 week.

The dish: I once remarked to our favorite farmers that making pickles was more of a commitment than marriage was. I was being facetious, but there's an element of truth to that statement. There's no one step in making these pickles that's difficult, but if you skip one or screw it up your finished product will suffer. You can screw up in marriage pretty frequently and it can all end well anyway. Much like marriage, pickles are worth the effort, you'll never want to eat a pickle from a jar after you make your own. We used these on top of some pulled pork sandwiches and the taste was out of this world.

penne with sauteed kale

• sauteed kale
• whole wheat penne (or any short pasta)

Cook pasta according to package directions. Top with sauteed kale and serve.

The dish: I just read an article on how the American diet has shifted from being spring based, leafy greens and such, to being autumn based, seeds and oils from them. The article contended that we evolved by naturally packing on a few pounds in the fall months in anticipation of the coming winter. The shift is because of individual tastes and preferences, but mostly has to do about money. Oils are more stable and last much longer than leafy greens, so food manufacturers and retailers looking to reduce spoilage opt for them. The result is predictable; we're all getting fat. We had some kale leftover from our last run to the farmer's market, so this dinner was a lay up. The combination of the whole wheat pasta and the kale was tasty and fulfilling, and it was good to give our bodies a nice spring meal when the days are getting shorter and the leaves are beginning to turn.

zucchini saute

• fresh green and yellow zucchini (or summer squash if you must be a pain in the ass), cut into small pieces
• olive oil
• coarse salt
• fresh ground pepper

In 2 swirls of oil, heat the zucchini over a medium flame until slightly tender. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

The dish: My in-laws live in a rural town that makes most of Norman Rockwell's paintings seem downright urban. It's the type of town with one store and no traffic lights, where everybody knows everyone and you can comfortably leave your doors unlocked fifty weeks of the year. When the townsfolk are are reaching for their keys when they enter their homes, you can be sure of one thing; it's zucchini season. Being that the population density is about 1 person per square mile, pretty much everyone has an active garden and zucchini is easy to grow, yields a bit and apparently isn't too popular for dinner. Under the guise of being kind-hearted, folks will leave squash in their neighbors cars and foyers, often to be found by people with their own harvest surplus. I'd love to have such problems, as zucchini is one of my favorites, but when I left my door open all that happened was that my stereo got stolen (well, not really, but I didn't get any squash either, dammit). Fortunately, Kim visited her mother recently and returned home with a zucchini the size of my leg. Between that and the good folks from our favorite farm, we've had a bit of squash to work through. If you're getting tired of reading about it, then lock your doors, you're probably not the only one who feels that way.

sulky subs

• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• sub rolls
• fresh basil, chopped fine
• soft goat cheese (acorn hill is the best if you're local)
• 4 Pine Island onions, sliced into thin rings
• brown sugar
• Balsamic vinegar

In a small pat of butter over a medium-high flame, saute the onions until translucent, about 3-5 minutes. Reduce flame to medium, add a spoonful of brown sugar and a generous swirl around the pan of vinegar. Continue to saute, stirring occasionally, until onions reduce to about a third of their size, about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, beat the hell out of the chicken with a meat tenderizer, grill until fully cooked and slice into bite sized pieces. Assemble sandwich by spreading goat cheese on bottom half of bun, sprinkle a little basil over it, top with warm chicken and finish with onions.

The dish: I decided to test out that old saying "a bad day at the track is better than a good day at the office" (unless of course you're my boss or client, in which case this entry is a work of pure fiction). I live within about 25 minutes of the oldest, active racetrack in the country, so for the 5 or so days a year they race there it would be senseless to go anywhere else. I've been to the track enough times to know three things: 1. there is no such thing as a sure thing 2. any race with Stephane Bouchard is going to be great 3. although they don't get the national attention the thoroughbreds get, the standardbreds race with a great deal of heart and are beautiful ponies. Kim and I had a great afternoon and even had a chance to check out the Harness Racing Museum, a must if you haven't been yet. The kind folks in the gift shop helped me pick out the cool plate you see above. I wasn't sure what to showcase on it, but did a fair amount of research and found that folks at trotting races must not eat but those blue bloods at the triple crown do nothing but. One of the more famous thoroughbred foods are dainty finger sandwiches. Harness racing is anything but dainty, involving the jockeys strapped to the sulkies, bouncing behind the trotting horse past the stands of screaming fans that look nothing like Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison. What would these enthusiastic on-lookers eat if they were more concerned about food and less about horses, like their counterparts in Kentucky and Belmont? Surely nothing dainty, but a substantial sandwich that would replenish some of the energy lost for cheering at the photo finish. Some chicken and local goat cheese and basil, topped off with the bounty of the neighboring onion capital of the world, named after the simple machine that separates their races from those other ones. If you haven't been to a harness race, then go. They'll be racing all this weekend at the Historic Track, and as the name implies it's like stepping back in time. Ladies, make sure you have on your favorite Royal Ascot, and gents make sure that you've got the fixings for a sulky sub in the fridge, as you'll need some fuel when the posting is done.

grilled zucchini

• fresh zucchini
• olive oil
• coarse salt
• fresh ground pepper

Cut zucchini in half lenghtwise, season with salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil, or better yet spay some on if you have a Misto. Grill over a medium flame for about 10 minutes, turning once.

The dish: So it finally happened, the rain stopped for about 7 minutes and I was able to unwrap my grill from its cover and fire it up. For those of you who don't know me, I have a beautiful condo (technically my wife has it, she's just cool about letting me crash here) with a balcony about the size of an unfolded newspaper. There's no chance of me fitting one of those behemoth grills that seem to be so popular, and here in sunny New Windsor our elected officials have nothing better to do than dream up inane laws that prohibit me from having any bbq. All grilling that appears here is done on the down low using a grill that's about the size of a large shoebox (hey, like Bob Dylan said, if you're gonna live outside the law then you have to be honest). If you don't like zucchini, then try it grilled, it takes on a whole new flavor. It becomes crisp and moist all at once and begins to taste like the flame without overpowering the natural taste of the zucchini. It's one of my favorite veggies on the grill and I recommend trying it even if it means chancing a visit to the local kangaroo court.

sauteed kale

• fresh kale, roughly chopped into bite sized pieces
• fresh garlic, chopped fine
• nutmeg
• coarse salt
• red pepper flakes (I use Simply Organic)
• 3/4 cup of vegetable stock
• sherry vinegar (or any red wine vinegar)

In a swirl of olive oil over a medium-high flame, saute the garlic and red pepper for 3-5 minutes. Add the veggie stock and stir for about a minute. Begin adding the kale in batches, letting each one wilt a bit before adding the next. Once all is added, season to taste with salt, vinegar and just a touch of nutmeg (thanks Rachael Ray). Reduce flame to low and continue to cook an additional 5+ minutes, or until kale is tender. Add more stock if needed.

The dish: I know a few posts back I promised you were reading what was the beginning of a long and exciting bbq phase of the red room. Turns out that Mother Nature has made a liar of me and my grill has sat under its cover for pretty much all of June, just as it did in the chilly winter months. If you're reading this from the lovely Empire State, then you're probably wet and not quite sure what the sun looks like anymore. As it happens in life, while I was in the middle of bitching about the impact the rain has had on my biking (or lack of), I bumped into someone far worse off because of this crazy weather. I was at the farmer's market and got to talking to a few of the vendors whose crops were rotting under water with no end to the rain in site. Couple that with low attendance at the markets because people are afraid of getting wet, and you've got a recipe for disaster. Farmer's don't have it easy anywhere, and in our region where land is in pretty high demand for the never ending suburban sprawl, disastrous weather can be the proverbial straw on the camel's back. The easy solution of course, is for all of us to do our best that when possible we eat something that was grown close to home. Check around for a farmer's market in your neck of the woods, if you're around Goshen on Fridays theirs is great (Bialas Farms is my fav, but all the farms are good). Not only will your food taste better and be better for you, but you'll be supporting an important way of life that's quickly vanishing. So with this crazy weather we've been having, go ahead and put on that sweater that you packed away long before June, stop payment on the check to the global warming folks and take that cash to your local farmers market and pick up some kale or any of the other delicious veggies they have.