I am on co-op in Charlotte, NC and one of the best decisions I’ve made while

on this co-op was to eat at Luna’s Living Kitchen. Luna’s is the Holy Grail for anyone

interested in Slow Food principles; it is the perfect place for vegetarians, vegans, and

those interested in live and raw foods to eat. It is a “living” kitchen since their food is

prepared fresh daily and the menu is constantly evolving based on what is in season,

the food is prepared without refined sugars, preservatives, eggs, dairy, or animal

products, AND the food is bought from local organic farmers. Can you get any more

awesome than this??

As you might expect, Luna’s prices reflect the love and healthiness of the food

they serve. If you go for lunch, expect to spend $20 – $25 without a tip. But don’t let the

fear of spending lots of money prevent you from going to this restaurant – it is too tasty

to miss out on!

I ordered a kale lemonade, which was made with kale juice, lemonade, ginger

juice, apple juice, and celery juice. It was SO COOL. For someone who normally just

sticks with water when at a restaurant, it was such a nice treat. I loved the drink right off

the bat because of its awesome color, but it tasted even better than it looked. Luna’s

has a lot of organic juice and smoothie options on the menu, and you can even buy

some juices to go (if you’re interested in more about juice cleanses, there are some blog

posts on Luna’s website).

For my entrée, I went with their “Lunasagna” mostly because I loved the play on

words. Since it is vegan, it is made with zucchini noodles and a cashew-basil cheese

(made in house!) that was so, so tasty. The noodles and cheese were covered in sundried tomato sauce and mushrooms, and a local green salad on the side. This was such

an innovative dish and I am really glad I got it. The zucchini noodles were crunchy and

the cheese velvety.

To round off the great meal, I went with some house-made cookies. I got Monkey

Bites and my lunch partner got Lemon Bites. All the ingredients are still organic and still

delicious, and in case that didn’t appeal to you enough, then maybe knowing that no

wheat flour, chemicals, soy, GMO’s, preservatives, artificial colors or flavors are used in

the cookies will pique your interest. I prefer the Lemon Bites to the Monkey Bites (since

I’m always a sucker for anything lemon flavored), and my lunch partner thought the

opposite – so it all worked out! It took all my willpower not to go back and buy six more

packs of Lemon Bites.

The service was really great as well. I ate there on a Tuesday during lunchtime

and it was busy. We were fortunate not to have to wait for a table, but there were some

folks who did need to wait a little bit. It is possible to get takeout, so quite a few people

were stopping by and picking up their orders. The waitress was very attentive and

knowledgeable about everything on the menu – where it was from, how it was prepared.

I will definitely be coming back, and recommend that if you’re in the Charlotte

area, you check it out! Be sure to check out their website, and visit them in-person at

2102 South Boulevard, Suite 150, Charlotte, NC 28203. They’re open Monday through

Saturday from 8:00 am to 9:00 pm.

Rating: 5 of 5.

-Mara Scallon

Between this week and last week, my small share of the CSA came with rainbow chard, collards, shallots, and mushrooms among other things.  

Chard and Mozzarella Sandwiches

Last week I made open-face chard and mozzarella sandwiches, and I’m definitely going to make them again this week, they’re delicious!

Ingredients

• good bread
• oilve oil
• a bunch of rainbow chard
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tomato, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• mozzarella

Directions

1. Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan. Add the onions and garlic, cooking until fragrant.
2. Remove the stems from the chard leaves, cutting a bit into the leaf itself to remove some of the thicker stem/rib. Chop the stems into about 1/2-inch pieces. Add to to the pan with the onion and garlic, also adding the chopped tomatoes.
3. Roughly chop the chard leaves and add to the pan as well, adding salt and pepper. Toss the ingredients in the pan, allowing the leaves to cook down. Once the chard is wilted, remove from the heat.
4. Place the mozzarella cheese on the bread slices, then top with the chard mixture.

I bought a day old loaf of nice bread from American Provisions (only $1!) and toasted it on the stove with the mozzarella pieces so that it would all be warm.  

I ran out of cheese to go with the leftovers, but they were just as delicious on plain toast.  

Recipe adapted from http://dkscooks.wordpress.com/2012/07/03/open-face-chard-and-mozzarella-sandwich/

Omelet

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• salt and pepper
• goat cheese
• olive oil
• mushrooms, sliced
• 1 shallot, chopped
• garlic, chopped
• salad/lettuce/spinach/ some kind of greens you like

Directions

1. Beat together two eggs, as much goat cheese as you’d like, and salt and pepper
2. Pour into pan heated with olive oil, lift up the edges of the omelet to let uncooked parts run under as you go, and let cook through. 
3. Sauté the mushrooms, shallot, and garlic in a different pan.  After a few minutes, add the greens and cook until wilted.  
4. Once the mushrooms and greens are done, put them on top of the omelet, sprinkle with more goat cheese, fold the omelet in half, and enjoy!

Avocado with Hot Sauce, Lime, and Cheese

Michelle O’Donnell

As soon as Mara sent me this recipe I couldn’t wait to make it.  It’s got some of my favorite things in it, was super easy to make and it turned out to be delicious.  With just avocados, limes, hot sauce, cheese and seasonings, I think it’s my new favorite meal and snack. In fact I’ve already made it twice in the last 24 hours.  

Ingredients:

• 1 avocado
• 1 lime*
• your favorite hot sauce*
• cheese*
• salt and pepper

*The limes that I used weren’t especially juicy, so I used the entire lime, but if you’ve got juicier limes you might need less.

*the recipe suggests Tobasco or Louisiana, but I used a Pique that I made a while back that used habaneros, carrots, and lime.  

*I used a mexican blend, the recipe calls for parmesan. 

Directions: 

1. Cut the avocado in half, removing the seed.
2. Poke holes all over with a fork so that the lime juice and hot sauce will soak in.
3. Spread desired amount of hot sauce over each half of the avocado. Squeeze lime juice evenly over both halves.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.
4. Fill just the cavities of the avocado with cheese and put under a broiler for about two minutes, or enough to melt the cheese.
5. Cover the rest of each half with more cheese, and put back under the broiler for another two minutes.  
6. Enjoy!

Original recipe here.

All the Best at the Garlic Fest

By Emily Asbolt

Photo Credit to her brother Stephen Ashbolt

Vampires beware- I may still have garlic seeping out of my pores.

Why, you ask?

Well, only because of a lovely little event I had the pleasure of attending this past weekend: the 8 th
Connecticut Garlic and Harvest festival. And as I learned there, when you eat garlic, it is not just your
breath that takes on the familiar odor, but your sweat too. It’s persistent stuff!

That little bit of TMI shared, let’s talk more about why garlic is cool. Before last weekend, I knew it
was delicious on bread, but worth an entire festival? As it happens, yes- a remarkable little cluster
of fun, garlic is most closely related to the onion, and is used in some form in nearly every culinary
style the world over. Native to Central Asia, it has been used medicinally for over 7,000 years, and has
been shown to have many health benefits such as helping people control their blood pressure and
cholesterol, and even reducing the risk for some types of cancer! Supergarlic! Plus, it’s pretty great-
tasting.

As unbelievable as this may be, however, the Garlic Festival was not actually my sole reason for having
my parents spend 10 hours in traffic coming to collect me. I will even admit to being a little skeptical
about the whole experience (I prefer traditional autumnal activities that involve more sugar).

But gosh darn it, was it worthwhile.

Featuring over 200 venders, both garlic-related and not, the Garlic and Harvest Festival took my-and-
my-familys’ tastebuds on an autumnal frolic through the most wonderful flavors of the season: organic
peanut butter, chocolate-covered pretzels, dips, oils, breads, cakes, cookies, and even
garlic-pistachio ice cream. And the best part? All of the venders were small businesses and farms like
that which come to our own market at Northeasten, which meant I could stuff my face entirely guilt-
free!

And how.

Granted, the fact that it was a garlic festival meant that the finicky vegetable had quite a starring role.
Pretty much all of the vendors jumped on the bandwagon, even the ones providing wares traditionally
as far from garlic as one can get (garlic shortbread, anyone?). And the garlic hats- they certainly were
a sight. So if you are the type of person/mythical creature for whom garlic is not really your jive (my
granddad, for instance, who treats every bulb of it he encounters like it once caused him extreme
physical harm), it was not really the place for you.

Having the words “garlic festival” in the title probably should have tipped you off to that, though.

And my family (or at least me) will consume just about anything if told it is both a) edible, and, more
importantly, b) free. So a swell time was had by all.

We left the Garlic Festival smelling delightfully pungent and ladened down with fall goodies galore
(ironically enough, nothing garlic flavored- we stuck to the sweet stuff, like maple cream and chocolate
espresso beans), happy to have done our part to stay local, improve the community, and learn a little bit
more about the miracle of nature that is garlic.

Be sure to next year check out the 9th Annual Connecticut Garlic and Harvest Festival, already scheduled
to take place in Bethlehem, CT, October 12-13th, 2013!

An Ode to Peanut Butter

[[I can’t write poetry, so this won’t be a true ode in the literal sense.]]

I. Love. Peanut. Butter. I know this might not come as a surprise, seeing as I’m a
college student and, as one professor put it, “peanut butter’s practically a food group for
you kids.” I had this professor during freshman year but thought he was just being funny.
After all, I’d always enjoyed peanut butter. I could (and still can) eat peanut butter and
jelly sandwiches every day for lunch for weeks at a time. My favorite Christmas cookies
were always Top Hats – the peanut butter cookies with the Hershey’s kiss pressed into
the top. And, until I understood just how un-Slow Food-like they are, Reese’s were my
favorite candy.

But it was only after this professor’s comments that I started learning more about
peanut butter. I learned that peanuts are the most pesticide-intensive crop grown in the
United States. NOT COOL! That’s when I decided to try out organic peanut butter.
Suddenly I was a convert – no more of that partially hydrogenated crap for me.
Peanut butter is now one of the greatest things in my life. When it’s real and awesome,
then you have to refrigerate it and mix it before you use it. But perhaps the best thing
about now eating real peanut butter is how it sticks to the roof of my mouth. I’ve always
been a bit of a bookworm, and I remember reading childhood books that contained a
scene in which the characters would complain of peanut butter stuck in their mouths. But
I ever really understood this phenomenon, and now I realize that was because I was never
eating real peanut butter!

Now, real and organic peanut butter is the only type I buy. I’m so lucky that I live
with my best friend since when I’m running around making idiotic noises because I went
a stuck peanut butter all over the roof of my mouth (and hair and clothes and furniture;
I’m a bit messy when I eat), she just knows to act like nothing abnormal is happening.
What a gal. Meanwhile, while she’s calm and collected (or pretending not be weirded
out) I am jubilantly crowing “Book I hab peeub ubber ib my moub!” to anyone who will
listen (usually, she’s the only on in hearing distance…).

In short, I love peanut butter, and you should too.

Also, I just found out that National Peanut Butter Day is January 24th!!! This is
just as cool as Hobbit Day!

By our very own Mara Scallon

Moroccan Phyllo Rolls with Balsamic Maple Sauce

These were absolutely delicious. Lots of veggies and lots of chopping but completely worth the effort.  We made large rolls, but making little rolls would be perfect for appetizers!

Part 1: Phyllo Rolls

Ingredients

• 2 cups combination of yellow, red, and orange bell peppers, chopped
• 2½–3 cups zucchini or yellow squash, cubed
• 1–1¼ cups onion, chopped
• 1½–2 cups fennel bulb, chopped (about 1 medium bulb)
• ½ cup dried apricots (preferably unsulfured), chopped (or if in season, 1 cup fresh figs, stems removed, and halved)
• 5–6 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1½–2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1½ tsp cumin
• ¾ tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp paprika
• ¾ tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 cup cooked chickpeas or white beans
• ½ cup (packed) fresh basil (or parsley) leaves, minced
• 8 to 12 sheets phyllo pastry sheets (see notes)
• 2½–3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil (to brush phyllo)
• 1/4 cup chopped or slivered almonds, lightly toasted (for garnish)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425ºF
2. Toss bell peppers, zucchini, onion, fennel, apricots, and garlic with oil, cumin, ginger, paprika, cinnamon, salt, and pepper. 
3. Roast for 35-45 minutes until veggies are caramelized in some spots and softened.
4. Remove from oven, toss in chickpeas or white beans and basil, and let cool slightly.
5. Reduce oven temperature to 375°F.
6. Line a baking dish or sheet with parchment paper. Place a lightly dampened dish towel over phyllo sheets to keep moist while preparing rolls.
7. Lightly brush top of one sheet with oil. Place another sheet (not brushed with oil) on top. Spread ¾–1 cup roasted veggie mixture (see note) down the center of top sheet, leaving 1–2-in (2½–5-cm) space from edges. Fold left side over filling and roll up, tucking in sides as you go.
8. Brush with additional oil and place in lined baking dish or sheet. Repeat process until all phyllo and mixture are used.
9. Bake for 24–28 minutes, until golden brown.

Part 2: Balsamic Maple Sauce

Ingredients

• ¼ cup pure maple syrup
• ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 tsp Earth Balance Buttery Spread (we used butter)
• 1 medium clove garlic, minced
• 1/8 tsp (rounded) sea salt
• 1 tsp arrowroot powder (1 tsp Arrowroot powder = 1 T flour or 1 1/2 t. cornstarch)
• 3 tbsp tamari (aka soy sauce)

Directions

1. In a saucepan on low heat, combine syrup, vinegar, butter, garlic, and salt, and heat for several minutes.
2. In a separate bowl, combine arrowroot (or substitute) and tamari (soy sauce).
3. Add mixture to saucepan, stir to incorporate, and bring to a boil.  
4. Let boil gently for about 1 minute then remove from heat.

Part 3: Put it together

1. Drizzle the sauce over the rolls, and serve! We had them with salad and used the sauce as dressing.

Rosemary and Lemon Cupcakes

We have a few herb plants around the house, so I wanted to use the rosemary in something, and these cupcakes were born! Everyone who tried them liked them, but then consensus seemed to be that the rosemary flavor wasn’t very strong.  I’m not sure if it just needs more rosemary, or if we should have used a food processor to chop it instead of just a knife. We also didn’t have lemon extract, but adding extra lemon juice worked pretty well!

Part 1: Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 3/4 cups cake flour
• 2 teaspoons finely chopped rosemary
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon extract
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons  finely shredded lemon peel
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• Lemon Glaze (recipe below)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In large mixing bowl beat butter on medium-high for 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar, lemon extract, and vanilla. Beat on medium-high for 2 minutes until light and fluffy, scraping bowl. (I always do the butter/eggs/sugar mix first so I only have to use one bowl)
2. In medium bowl combine cake flour, rosemary, baking powder and salt; set aside.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Alternately add flour mixture and milk to butter mixture; beat on low after each just until combined. Stir in the lemon peel and lemon juice.
4. Spoon batter in prepared cups to three-fourths full. Bake 22 to 25 minutes, until a wooden pick inserted in centers comes out clean.Cool in muffin cups on rack 5 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely.