Americana Pot Roast is my new favourite crockpot recipe!! I made it at my parent's place while we were visiting and it turned out 1-der-ful!! Just plopped it in Mom's crock for 8 hours and dined for a few days on it. :o) The roast turned out soooooo tender, it just fell apart (i don't know if it was the way this recipe drenches the roast in liquid, or if it was the natural beef we used.)

1 boned rump roast (4 lb)
1 cup sliced onion
2 tablespoons Hungarian sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup dry red wine OR 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 can (14 oz. size) beef broth
8 small red potatoes, cleaned and washed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
6 carrots, cut into chunks

Directions:Heat oven to 300. Place a Dutch oven coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat until hot. Add roast, browning on all sides. Remove from pan; reduce heat to medium. Add onion, saute 10 minutes. Add paprika, basil, oregano, thyme and garlic; saute 1 minute. Add wine, water, and broth; bring to a boil. Peel a 1/2" strip around each potato. Place in pan; add salt, pepper, carrots. Return roast to pan. Cover and bake at 300F for 2 hours. Turn roast; cover and bake an additional hour until tender. Serve with vegetables and broth, or make gravy from broth if desired.

Recipe Location: http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/364/AmericanaPotRoast64158.shtml
Recipe ID: 34500

Swiss chard was a new green to me until i found this at Recipezaar.com--and what a co-wink-ie-dink! It's a WW recipe and a yummy one at that! I might add mushrooms too--try it both ways!!

Swiss Chard or Spinach With Pine Nuts and Raisins (ww) Recipe
This recipe is delicious made with any dark green leafy vegetable (Kale, Swiss Chard or Spinach your choice). Recipe comes from WeightWatchers.com. Points value 2.
2 tablespoons raisins
1 tablespoon hot water
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 medium garlic clove, minced
1 bunch spinach or swiss chard (6-ounces)
1 tablespoon pine nuts, toasted
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 servings 15 minutes cook time; 10 mins prep

Chicken Apple Hazelnut Salad--the combo in it self sounds delightful!!

Ingredients:

5 Romaine lettuce leaves
5 red leaf lettuce leaves
1 chopped red apple
1/3 red onion, cut into thin rings
1/4 c. chopped filbert nuts
1/4 c. croutons
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 grilled or poached chicken breasts, julienne

Combine all ingredients except chicken to a large bowl.

Dressing:
1/4 c. lemon juice
1 T. light rice vinegar
1/4 tsp. Dijon mustard
2 cloves minced garlic
1/4 c. olive oil
2 T. canola oil
1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper

Toss salad with 2-3 Tbsp of salad dressing initially. Some of the dressing may be used to baste the chicken while grilling.

Notes:

Croutons--amounts of croutons one will consume are a personal thing, so i save them out of the salad to let the individual put them on themselves. Same with the cheese.

Sub = i didn't have any red onion, so i added a 1/4 c. blueberries to the salad. Just as yummy!!

recipe from Main Course Salads for Two from The Pacific NW by Janelle Lombard

Ruby Razz Crunch!!!

another yummy recipe i tried recently i found @ http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/recipe-index.html . this makes a decent dessert, however i think i would tweak a few things...my notes are listed at the bottom or this recipe.

Ruby Razz Crunch
Ingredients:
1 (1 lb.) pkg. thawed, frozen rhubarb, cut if pieces are large
1 (10 oz.) pkg. thawed, frozen red raspberries (reserve
1/4 c. for topping)
1/2 c. sugar
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 1/2 c. sifted Pillsbury's Best enriched flour
1 c. quick-cooking oats
1 tsp. French's cinnamon
1/2 c. melted butter
Procedure:
Drain rhubarb and raspberries. Combine fruits; set aside. Mix the fruit juices and measure 1 cup adding water if necessary. Combine sugar and cornstarch in saucepan. Blend in fruit juices. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thick and clear. Remove from heat, cover and set aside. Blend together flour, oats, cinnamon and melted butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press half of crumb mixture firmly into 8 x 9-inch pan. Cover with drained fruit mixture and the thickened fruit juices. Sprinkle with remain- der of crumbs mixture; pat down lightly. Bake in slow 325 degrees oven for 55 to 60 minutes. Cool slightly in pan before cutting into squares. Serve warm or cold with mounds of frozen top- ping.

Notes:

Rhubarb--i used fresh rhubarb. And since rhubarb isn't one of my most favourite things, and i figured this might be quite tart with rhub and raspberries, i shorted the rhub a bit.

Flour--i try to use whole wheat whenever i can. in this dish, i found white whole wheat flour to be okay, but the oatmeal/flour/butter mixture came out a strange crumbly--not as it normal should. Next time i might use a half and half flour mix or whole wheat pastry flour.

Needs pecans or some sort of nuts!! I think it might add a little flavour to it.

Cinnamon--we are cinnaholics around here, so we always add more cinnamon to our dishes and 1.5 tsp still wasn't enough in this dish.

Garlic Scapes!!!

This is the best thing i love about gardening: learning new dishes to cook with what you are planting!! Unfortunately, it's a bigger challenge than it should be because of the dreaded Mom Brain.

Last fall, i planted garlic for the first time after reading an article on how easy it was to grow. I planted both hard neck and soft neck varities, and once spring came, i learned what a scape was. It's a "bulb" that sprouts out of the hardneck varities that looks funny but tastes delightfully like young garlic (just like the leaves, should you choose to harvest those in the Fall.)

Our CSA turned me onto an article where i found a yummy recipe for Garlic Scape and Yukon Potato Soup. You can check out the recipe at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2002351155&slug=garlic29&date=20050629

You can also find a few yummy looking recipes on sites like Dakota Garlic.

I haven't seen scapes yet in the stores (not even the health food stores), however i've heard you can find them at farmer's markets occasionally.