Originally Posted by Jess – March 29, 2015
Lots of things are going on in the land of CSA 365!
Yesterday, the Town of Westford voted to approve funds for the Westford Community Gardens, it is exciting to see things get underway. Ther
e will be informational sessions at the Cameron Senior Center and the JV Fletcher Library on April 1, 2, and 11. Please visit the Community Gardens Facebook Page to learn more information. I’m proud to be working wth a team of dedicated volunteers to bring this project to the table, and it was wonderful to see the concept embraced by the town.
I also stopped by the Springdell farmstand and while my five year-old was enjoying his commune with the baby lambs, I ordered some tomato plants for the garden. Jamie is a wealth of information and there are many lovely varieties to choose from, all hand seeded and grown. I also ordered a few chickens. Pickup dates start in May and run through December. A date or two are sold out, but there are still many options left to order fresh and free spirited chickens to enjoy throughout the rest of the year. Order yours today!
Before the chicken, there was the egg. (Is that true?) Anyway, today we’ll be working with eggs, and the rest of the beautiful bounty you see above. There are a lot of recipes out there for Baked Eggs with Spinach and Tomato, feel free to Google and make it your own. My version for today was to sauté some minced Springdell garlic with some chopped tomato and as it started to brown, I tossed in a couple handfuls of spinach and stirred everything until the spinach was wilted.
I buttered 4 individual ramekins, divided the spinach mixture in the bottom, followed by a thin layer of mozzrella cheese.
One Springdell egg went into each ramekin, followed by a sprinkling of shaved parmesan cheese (I think feta, gruyere, herbed goat cheese or even cream cheese would be fabulous too!)
I baked at 400 degrees until the whites were just set. These will continue to cook once you remove them from the oven, so if you don’t want a hard cooked yolk, be wary about leaving them in too long.
For the Sweet Potato Hash, I am turning to a recipe adapted from a recipe that was shared a few seasons back by a fellow Springdellian on Facebook (AKA a friend of a friend of a friend). I remember cooking this and loving it. When Springdell sausage is involved, you are pretty much guaranteed a hit.
Here is a quick video showing the meal in action!
After sautéing some Springdell garlic and onion in a generous pat of Amish Roll Butter for a few minutes, I set them aside. In the same pan, I browned some Springdell breakfast sausage (casings removed) from February’s Meat share.
There was really no fat to drain, so after a vey thin coat of olive oil and salt on my sweet potato cubes, I tossed them in the pan with the sausage and onion mixture. Into the oven it all went!
This is what came out, simple and delicious.
Sarah inverted her ramekin on the plate and we added some crumbled bacon. Double delish!
I wanted to mention, if you are reading this post via email and just see a little thing below this paragraph here that says “” and not the actual full recipe, please click here to link to the actual CSA365 website. There you can view the whole recipe. Sorry it’s confusing, we are working to get our email distribution list to show the full recipes, just like it does up on the website. Thank you for bearing with our technical difficulties!
- 2 tbsp butter, preferably Amish Roll Butter
- 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
- 4 cloves of minced garlic
- 1 pound of Springdell Pork Breakfast sausage, casings removed
- 3 sweet potatoes, cleaned and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Preheat the oven to 425. In the meantime, heat a large oven-proof skillet over medium heat before adding your butter.
- Once butter melts, sauté your minced garlic and onions until tender, about 5 minutes. Remove onion mixture from the skillet and set aside.
- Turn the heat up to medium-high and add the sausage to your skillet, cooking until browned. Turn off the heat and if there is excess fat in your sausage, now is the time to drain it (save the fat for another day!)
- Drizzle olive oil on your sweet potato cubes, sprinkle a little salt and pepper, and toss until the potatoes are just coated. Transfer the potatoes to the skillet and fold in the onion and sausage mixture before placing it in the oven. Roast and stir occasionally, until the potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes.
- I don’t peel the sweet potatoes for this recipe, unless you really want to. The skin helps to add to the flavor, crispiness, and nutrition.
- The recipe calls for 4 sweet potatoes, but when you have the beauties that you get from the farm, I have found 3 to be more then enough.
- You can forego some of the olive oil and toss the sweet potato in a bit of the sausage fat. If using Springdell sausage, you’ll likely find a only small amount of fat that is not even worth draining. Might as well toss your sweet potatoes in it!
We had a crustless and gluten free Sweet Potato Pie for dessert, but that’s another recipe for another day. How are those sweet potatoes treating you?