Utter delight awaits with this flavor-packed, blissfully fresh meal. Intensely delicious, bursting passionately with wet, bright aromas, this dish will have you licking your fingers and mumbling sweet nothings under your breath. You may even drool. It’s just that good.

The salsa alone could be gobbled feverishly. It’s packed with the season’s best fruits: crisp apples, luscious strawberries, and tangy orange. Add sinfully sweet dates, crunchy grated carrots, and a few sprigs of grassy cilantro for a harmoniously zestful fruit salsa.

I pair this with soft, fresh tortillas packed with a hint of salty Dry Jack cheese, a slice of creamy Jersey Jack, a sprinkle of earthy walnuts, and a drizzle of wet, sweet clover honey. Put the two together, and you just might begin imagining that you’re sliding down a rainbow into wonderland.

Pinch yourself. This is real.

Serve this as a light lunch, brunch, or even a snack. Go ahead. You deserve it!



Double Jack Quesadillas with Seasonal Fruit Salsa

Ingredients:
4 large strawberries, diced
½ small carrot, grated
1 small apple, diced
2 dates, diced
1 small orange, peel zested and fruit diced
2 sprigs cilantro, chopped fine
2 whole wheat tortillas
2 pumpkin spice tortillas
4 slices Jersey Jack cheese
2 Tablespoons grated Dry Jack cheese
4 Tablespoons walnuts, chopped
4 Tablespoons clover honey

Farm Fresh Ingredients: all of the above!

Use a spoon to mix the first six ingredients together in a medium bowl. Set aside.

On microwave-safe plates, lay the tortillas flat. Top each with 1 slice Jersey Jack cheese and a half tablespoon Dry Jack cheese. Place each plate in microwave and cook for about 45-seconds each, or until the cheese is melted. Remove and immediately sprinkle 1 tablespoon walnuts and 1 tablespoon honey over cheese. Fold tortilla in half to form a quesadilla. Slice each quesadilla into smaller sections and serve with ½ cup fruit salsa. Feel free to “ooh” and “mmm” as you chew!

Labels: complete meals from farmers market, dry jack cheese, farmers market recipe, fruit salsa recipe, honey, Jersey Jack cheese, quesadilla recipe, seasonal recipe, tortillas, walnuts

Just in time for The Big Football Game, here’s a seasonal dip fresh from the garden that the toughest of guys will love. My giant, 6'4" husband loves it!

There’s nothing like the bright, grassy flavor of cilantro in the middle of winter. Out here in Cali, winter is when it grows best. It’s wonderful for adding to stir fries, fish tacos, quiches, salads, you name it! But when I think about cilantro, my mind automatically wanders to salsa. Sadly, we don’t have ripe tomatoes or peppers right now.

So what else can we do to get that cilantro onto a dipping chip? The answer: Cilantro Pesto Dip. This dip gathers all the freshest flavors of the season for a tangy, zesty, creamy dip worthy of your finest tortilla chips! This recipe has it all: bright grapefruit (juice and zest) ripe from my neighbor’s tree; walnuts, onion, and garlic from the farmers’ market. The only “naughty” ingredients are the black olives (those are from a can) and the jalapenos.

Cilantro Pesto Dip

Ingredients:
1 large bunch of cilantro (about 3 cups), chopped roughly, including stems and leaves
1 cup walnuts
1 cup black olives
½ a large onion, roughly chopped
3 jalapeno peppers, roughly chopped in quarters (use less if you don’t like the heat—but remember, this is being added to sour cream later, so the heat will mute)
Juice & zest from one large grapefruit
1-2 cloves garlic (again, use more or less depending on how much you like garlic)
3 Tablespoons olive oil or avocado oil (use the best quality you can find)
Salt to taste (about ¼ teaspoon—remember, your chips will have salt)
1 16-oz container light sour cream
Organic blue or yellow corn tortilla chips for dipping

Add all the ingredients (except for sour cream and tortilla chips) to the bowl of a food processor. I find it blends more easily if you put the liquid ingredients on the bottom, followed by the non-liquid ingredients, because you’ll end up scraping down the sides less often.

Turn the food processor on and blend until you have a creamy mixture. Turn off the processor and scrape the sides of the bowl to ensure that all the ingredients are incorporated and pulse again. Now, you have a bold cilantro pesto.

Remove one cup of the cilantro pesto and add it to a medium bowl. Add the sour cream to the bowl. Stir the two together. Voila! You have a delicious dip! Grab your chips and dig in!

Note: if the dip is too strong for your tastes, add more sour cream.

You’ll have lots of pesto left over. I store it in an airtight container in my fridge and use it to make more dip for up to a month. You can use the dip to top tacos, nachos, or anything else where you would otherwise add a dollop of sour cream. You could also add the pesto (without the sour cream) to Southwest-style pastas, soups, or stir it into a bowl of black beans to serve as a side dish.

Labels: black olives, chip dip, cilantro, cilantro pesto, cilantro pesto dip, dip recipe, grapefruit, seasonal recipe, Super Bowl recipes, tortilla chips, walnuts

Open up and say, “Ahhhh!” It’s pumpkin season, and that means bliss upon your palette. I never met a pumpkin recipe I didn’t like, and I have never failed in my attempts to incorporate pumpkin into everything from my morning chai to my chili. My latest experiment brings pumpkin to can’t-go-wrong corn muffins. The crunch of cornmeal, the earthy density of chopped walnuts, and the caramel notes of brown sugar come together to form the perfect fall treat. Dip them in spicy chili, drench them in gooey honey, or pop them straight from oven to mouth. However you enjoy them, you’re guaranteed a mouthy good time!





Ingredients:
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground ginger
½ tsp. ground cloves
¼ tsp. ground cardamom
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
¾ cup cornmeal
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup pumpkin puree
½ cup brown sugar, packed
¼ cup canola oil
1 cup chopped walnuts
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
In a medium bowl, sift together the flours, spices, baking powder and soda, as well as the salt. Whisk in the cornmeal to incorporate. Form a well in the center.

In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, pumpkin, sugar, and oil. Add this mixture to the flour mixture and stir just until combined (it’s okay if some of the flour still shows through—it will be combined when you add the walnuts). Next, gently fold in the walnuts.
Fill 12 greased muffin cups to about ¾ full. Allow them to sit for about 10 minutes (this will allow a lovely crown to form) before baking in the oven for 15-18 minutes.

I lift my muffins from the tin as soon as they come out of the oven. (My fingers have built up a tolerance.) But you can let them rest for about 5 minutes before you remove them and allow them to cool on a wire rack.

Labels: brown sugar, cornbread, fall recipe, muffins, pumpkin, walnuts

Labels: berries, breakfast, buttermilk, french toast, maple syrup, recipe, walnuts