Goodbye springtime, hello summer, but this fresh veggie toss makes a meal for all seasons

I had to prepare this recipe while the title still was appropriate. Summer has crept in all around us; spring is just about a memory. But I guarantee you: this meal is so impressive and colorful, it knows no seasonal constraints.

This recipe was the last untried one from Southern Living’s March 2011 issue featuring “God’s bookmark”—that Southern icon, bacon. Everything else on the page I had enjoyed enormously—starting with the BLT Benedict with Avocado-Tomato Relish that I made for Hubby’s birthday morning breakfast.

Springtime Pasta with Bacon, the dish featured here, was billed as being great served warm or chilled. I was skeptical about whether these ingredients would make for a good cold salad (suitable for a brown-bag lunch for the next day, the magazine touted it) and personally believed it fell only into the “warm” category, but oh my! dining on it for lunchtime leftovers (fresh from the fridge) yesterday was pure bliss.

Fresh snow peas and frozen sweet green peas go into the bow-tie pasta during the last minute the pasta cooks. A wonderful melange of veggies—radishes, carrots, green onions, and fresh parsley—are stirred into the drained pasta/green vegetable mixture. Then all is tossed with a lemon juice-olive oil dressing plus seasonings as desired. Crumbled bacon and feta cheese go on top.

The magazine suggests serving it with grilled shrimp kabobs, but Hubby and I needed nothing else but this.

Goodbye springtime, hello summer, but this dish is a keeper. I just filed it with my Christmas bring-a-dish potentials and made it a meal for all seasons.

Springtime Pasta with Bacon

1 (16-ounce) package whole-wheat bow-tie pasta

1 cup frozen sweet peas

1 1/2 cups fresh snow peas

8 radishes, sliced thin

2 large carrots, grated

2 green onions, thinly sliced

1/3 cup coarsely chopped fresh parsley

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup olive oil

salt (or salt substitute) and pepper to taste

6 turkey bacon slices, cooked and crumbled

4 ounces feta or goat cheese, crumbled

Cook pasta according to package directions. During the last minute of cook time add sweet peas and snow peas. Drain. Toss pasta mixture with radishes and next 5 ingredients; season with salt substitute and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with bacon and feta cheese. Serves 6-8.

What got this “Wow!” of “Wow!”s from Hubby? Not chocolate decadence but greens casserole!

After being my accomplice for all the 212 blog entries I’ve completed, Hubby has sampled every dish I’ve prepared before I entered each recipe. That’s a lot of taste-testing in more than a year—and a lot of “attagirl!” affirmations on his part.

I can’t think of any recipe in those 212 that Hubby hasn’t complimented—some more vociferously than others, of course, but Hubby always been free with the superlatives. Makes my job as chief cook and apprentice food blogger much easier, I must say.

But for him to be forthcoming with the remark, “This has to go down as my all-time favorite of anything you’ve cooked”, I had to take notice. “You mean one of your favorites?” I queried. “No, the ABSOLUTE favorite.” Well, that’s sayin’ somethin’, for sure.

Mind you, this wasn’t Chocolate Decadence or some sicky-sweet multilayer dessert he was puffing. It was none other than today’s blog subject, Greens Casserole with Mozzarella. Perhaps this happened because his own greens from his own garden (and the tail-end of them, mind you) represented the impetus for the recipe. But Hubby kept bragging and gushing and going back for more casserole. At one point he suggested that this was THE DISH I needed to bring to the next family gathering. At another point he walked into my office crunching a tortilla chip and murmuring, “This would make a good dip, too.”

Well, onto this attention-getting recipe, which took the last of the last of our 2011 crop of collard greens but was a fitting sayonara to them. It merely was a mixture of wilted greens, a sauce of milk, butter, flour, and cheeses and a topping of dry bread crumbs with Mozzarella cheese sprinkled on. I baked it in a 7-inch-by-11-inch casserole dish. It didn’t last long. (Recipe source: www.nikibone.com) Using my own homemade chicken broth, skim milk, part-skim (instead of whole-milk) ricotta cheese, and whole-wheat bread for the dry breadcrumbs were the redeeming health features, besides of course, the fresh-from-the-garden green leafies. As we know, collard greens provide anticancer properties and offer an excellent source of vitamins B6 and C, carotene, chlorophyll, and manganese. One cup of collard greens provides more than 70 percent of the recommended daily allowance for vitamin C.

Bye-bye, collard greens. You’ve been a blast and taught us a lot and been the star of our winter garden. We’ll for sure remember you at the time of next year’s plantings.

Greens Casserole with Mozzarella

1 1/2 pounds collard greens, washed and trimmed

salt (or salt substitute) and freshly ground back pepper

1 cup chicken or vegetable broth

1 cup skim milk

4 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup ricotta cheese, whole milk or part skin

3 tablespoons dry bread crumbs

2 ounces Mozzarella cheese, shredded

Butter a 1 1/2-quart baking dish or casserole; preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut out and discard the tough stems from the greens; cut out thick center ribs. Rinse all the greens and shake off any excess water; chop them into 1/2-inch pieces. In a large skillet cook the greens over low heat; add them by handfuls and stir them down as they wilt. Add 1/2 cup of water if the greens seem dry; then cover the skillet and braise for 10 to 15 minutes or until tender. Pour off any liquid left in the skillet; then season the greens to your preference with salt and pepper. Transfer greens to a bowl and set aside. Heat the broth and milk in a saucepan, just until bubbles form around the edge of the pan. In the large skillet melt the butter over low heat. Add the flour and cook, stirring for one minute. Add the hot broth mixture all at once and stir over medium heat until the sauce is smooth and thickened. Whisk in the grated Parmesan and ricotta. Stir the greens into the cheese sauce; pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle with the bread crumbs and then sprinkle the grated mozzarella over the top; bake for 20 minutes or until the sauce is bubbling and the mozzarella is melted and lightly browned. Serve immediately. Serves 6.

Christmas in July arrives with cauliflower/avocado medley

Some people do their Christmas shopping early. I do my Christmas-recipe planning well in advance.

Already I've been making notations in the margins of recipes, "Prepare for this year's Christmas buffet." I've scoped out recipes that in one way or another seem to lend themselves to potlucks that pop up at holiday time. Such invitations, though received joyfully, usually are accompanied by a frantic, frustrated sigh: "What in the world can I fix to take?"

I try to anticipate the holiday crunch and help myself out a little. Naturally now would be too early to prepare and freeze a dish, but at least during crunch-time maybe I can find my anticipatory notes to myself and already have a plan in place.

Nothing about Cauliflower Avocado Bake immediately conjures up "Jingle Bells", but the Christmas colors of this vegetable medley (not to mention the absolutely delightful flavor combination of this surprising mixture) would make it a true joy for a holiday take-a-dish event.

I had some leftover cauliflower from when I prepared "Broccoli and Cauliflower Salad" from Truett Welborn's cookbook that honored his mother, Neta (mentioned in my last week's blog.) Hubby looked in the vegetable compartment of the fridge and remarked, "Don't forget the rest of the cauliflower. We need to use it before it goes bad." True, cauliflower rapidly shows its age by getting brown spots or darkened areas. What could I throw together quickly to use up the leftover cauliflower bunch? I didn't have any occasions in which I needed to prepare a veggie tray to cut it up for munchies.

Under my "cauliflower" section of "Celebrating a Healthy Harvest" I found instructions for Cauliflower Avocado Bake. Cauliflower and avocado? Whoever heard of pairing those two? But avocado can make anything better. I decided to try it. Then the colors starting arraying themselves: the green for the avocado, green pepper, green onions, and parsley; the red from the red pepper; white from the cauliflower. Plus grated cheddar cheese on top (every casserole--at Christmas or otherwise--needs a little cheese topping, right?)

Like every other recipe that I prepare from my "Healthy Harvest" booklet, the results were highly unusual and extremely good. The melted cheddar cheese linked the cauliflower and avocado in a seamless flavor combo. As I mentioned earlier, the holiday colors represented the crowning touch. "Hark the Herald Angels Sing"--Christmas is just five months away! Recipe-wise, I'm ready!

Cauliflower Avocado Bake

1 large cauliflower (about 1 1/2 pounds), broken into florets

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 large avocado, cut into 1/2-inch chunks

1 tablespoons cooking oil

1 red pepper, cut into thin strips

1 small green pepper, cut into thin strips

4 green onions, chopped

3 tablespoons fresh parsley, diced

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

1/4 pound sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Steam or boil cauliflower 5 minutes until tender; drain. Grease a 13-inch-by-9-inch baking dish. Spread cauliflower evenly in pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper; top with avocado chunks. In a skillet over medium heat saute peppers 3 minutes or until softened. Stir in green onions, parsley, and garlic; cook 2 minutes more. Spread mixture over cauliflower; top with grated cheese. Bake 20 minutes until cheese is bubbly. Makes 6 servings.