Make-ahead meals are great to have waiting in the freezer during the busy holiday season. Healthy family dinners are a priority to many, but sometimes can be difficult. Practical expectations are important for maintaining a manageable and low-stress season. This pasty recipe is easy to multiply or divide to suit any family size, and it keeps well in the freezer for up to eight months. Not to mention, this recipe fits our Nourish standards by feeding a family of four for under $15 ($10 for recipes without meat).

If cooking is out of the question, our Deli offers an extensive selection of other options in the Grab n’ Go. Our Co-op Creamery Café is another option for getting a P6 meal on the go. The daytime menu is served 8 a.m.-3 p.m., and the evening menu is served 5-10 p.m. Stop in for a snack or drink special on your way to and from your holiday shopping during out social hour between 3-5 p.m.

Pasties

Recipe makes 4 servings

Crust:

¼ lb. lard

½ cup boiling water

2 cups all-purpose flour

½ Tbsp. salt

Filling:

1 potato, peeled and diced

1 carrot, peeled and diced

½ large rutabaga, peeled and diced

½ lb. ground sirloin

1 large sweet onion, peeled and chopped

1 Tbsp. salt

½ Tbsp. black pepper

1 egg whisked for wash

Crust:

Pour boiling water over the lard until the lard is dissolved. Add salt to flour and add this to the water and lard. Mix together until it forms a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Filling:

Combine the filling ingredients in a large bowl. Let sit and meld together, while rolling out the crust. Cut the dough into four even pieces, about five ounces each, and form into balls. Make sure the dough is cold for easier handling. Flour a work surface and roll out each ball of dough into an eight-inch circle, inch thick.

Evenly divide filling into four portions. Put large cupful of filling on one half of the dough circle; dab ice water around the edge of the crust to seal. Add a tsp. of butter on top of the filling before sealing. Fold crust over top of filling like a turnover, and seal edges well. Make three small slits on top of each pasty for venting. Brush top with egg wash.

At this point, you have some options. You can either pop these directly into the oven or freeze the pasties uncooked for up to eight months. To freeze and cook at a later date, wrap individually in aluminum foil then place in a freezer bag to avoid freezer burn. When you wish to cook the frozen pasties, remove from freezer and defrost and follow the instructions that follow. If baking right away, place fresh pasties on parchment lined baking sheets and bake at 425° F for 15 minutes; then turn oven down to 350° F for 60 minutes or until nicely browned.

Of the many reasons to love eating with the seasons, I find the anticipation of the next season’s harvest perhaps the most satisfying. The feeling of excitement for the return of certain fruits and vegetables after months away – when they are in their prime and often when we like to eat them most.

This summer, we’ve had our fill of vine-ripened tomatoes, succulent stone fruit, and hydrating melons – all of which require no heat or fuss to enjoy. As summer winds down and the weather cools, cool season bulk greens such as arugula, spicy mix, salad mix, and spinach have returned from Heartbeet Farm and we have been enjoying deliveries of late season raspberries. We’ll have both until the frost. We also have squash, sweet potatoes, and fall apples to look forward to cooking with and feasting upon for months to come.

In the past few weeks, squash availability really blossomed. Now, beyond the standard butternut and spaghetti squash we have acorn, blue hubbard, buttercup, red kabocha, red kuri, and delicata. Over the next few months, this list will grow to include over a dozen winter squash varieties each with unique flavors and textures suited to different preparations.

Butternut squash makes a richer and nuttier pie than any pumpkin pie I’ve tried. Roasted buttercup is my favorite for a pureed soup. For a quick snack, halve a delicate squash lengthwise, brush the flesh side with olive oil and tuck a clove of garlic and a few sprigs of rosemary or thyme in the cavity and place flesh side down on a baking sheet. Roast until soft and fragrant. Add a little butter, salt and pepper and eat right out of the skin.

I love simmering thick wedges of a red kuri squash, skins on, in 1 cup dashi (Japanese broth made of kombu and bonito flakes), 2 Tbsp. mirin, 2 Tbsp. sake, 2 Tbsp. sugar, 1 Tbsp. soy sauce and a pinch of salt until the broth is reduced by half and the squash is tender. Equal parts savory and sweet, this makes a delicious side or could be eaten over rice with a little of the cooking broth poured over.

Squash risotto is perhaps my favorite way to eat winter squash. In a heavy pan, heat a tablespoon of butter and a little olive oil over medium heat. Add 2 cups of squash (butternut or buttercup are great here) cut into ½ inch cubes. Cook until the squash begins to soften – around 10 minutes. Add 1 cup of Arborio rice, stir to coat the squash and cook for a few minutes until the rice begins to appear translucent. Add ½ cup of dry white wine, stir until the wine has evaporated. Add in heated vegetable or chicken stock ½ cup at a time allowing each to be absorbed by the rice up to 3 cups in total. When finished, the rice should be tender but not soft and the squash should be fully incorporated. Add ½ cup of grated parmesan, salt and pepper to taste and garnish with sage and more parmesan.

To navigate the many squash varieties, look to Produce staff. Information is also posted next to squash displays with basic flavor profiles and suggested uses. In the next Sprout! newsletter, Snow, Seward Co-op’s Produce Buyer, profiled the squash varieties expected from our local farms this year. Perhaps the best way to become familiar with the different squash varieties is to try and taste them all!

For the most part, I adore living in a seasonal landscape. Still as I cycled to work this morning pushing against a truly Arctic wind, I felt defiantly not ready for the weather to change. One of our flower farmers dropped off buckets of celosia (cockscomb) and asclepia (Oscar) earlier in the week and he casually mentioned that snow was on its way. Our last delivery from our other local flower farm was a few weeks back after a frost put an end to the wild and beautiful blooms at Humble Pie. Whether I am ready or not, the season is turning.

The Last Local Tomatoes

That same frost signaled the beginning of the end for local tomatoes. While some plants may rebound from an isolated frost, the shortening days and overall cooler weather make it difficult for developing tomatoes to ripen. Once the field plants have passed we’ll continue to bring in delicious locally-grown hydroponic tomatoes until it just becomes too cold and dark for those operations to produce. Local tomatoes ripened on the vine have a far superior flavor and texture to winter tomatoes brought in from other regions. Take advantage of these fruits while you can – eat them fresh until you’ve had your fill then preserve them for a taste of the garden in February.

My favorite method for preserving tomatoes is roast them long and low in oil to create a type of tomato “confit”. Slice tomatoes in half, generously coat with olive oil, and set skin-side down on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with sea salt and place a half-dozen sprigs of thyme among the tomatoes. Place in an oven at 250° and cook slowly for several hours until the tomatoes have nearly flattened and are slightly shriveled. They should be chewy but not tough or leathery. Pack them tightly in a jar, pour over the oil and juices from the pan adding more oil if needed to cover the tomatoes then heat process to seal.

Winter Squash

In name and association, winter squash sounds like a cold-hardy plant but it really isn’t. Unlike tomato plants that may rebound from a dip below freezing, these temperatures more often than not finish the squash plants. Thankfully, by this time of year the plants have done their work – the squash themselves are mature and ready for curing and storing the winter long.

Squash has a flexible flavor- one that can be prepared beautifully as a sweet or savory dish. I use squash as a base for soups and risotto as well as for baking – my “pumpkin” pie is usually made with butternut squash. In the autumn, we see so many more squash varieties from our local growers. Stick to the old time favorites if you like, but the sweetness of a delicata and the nuttiness of the small orange Hubbard are not to be missed. Squash doesn’t need to be fussed with and any of these varieties can be halved, de-seeded, and roasted flesh-side down with a few herbs and a clove of garlic in the cavity. Or just roast them whole and do the cutting once cooled when the squash has softened from cooking.

Sweet and Hardy Brassicas

Luckily, there are plants that not only weather the cooler temps but are better for it. Most brassicas transform with a frost to become sweeter more flavorful versions of their summer selves as the cold triggers the plant’s starches to convert to sugar. There are so many delicious brassicas to choose from this time of year: several varieties of kale; broccoli, cauliflower, and the fractal florets of romanesco; kohlrabi in green and purple; red and green cabbage as well as savoy; and fresh, firm, and tiny Brussels sprouts. We are also lucky that some among this list not only withstand the cold but store well and will provide us with locally-grown produce well into the winter.

Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes began arriving from Wisconsin Growers Co-operative a few weeks ago and along with long-storing brassicas, they will sustain us with some locally grown produce throughout most of the winter. There are over 300 varieties of sweet potatoes and this year we are excited to add the Bonita and the Stokes Purple varieties to the now familiar Beauregard, Jewel, Garnet, Japanese purple, and O’Henry White. In general, sweet potatoes fall into two categories: soft and firm. The soft varieties – Beauregard, Jewel, Garnet, and for the most part the Stokes Purple – become soft, moist and sweeten considerably with cooking. The firm varieties – O’Henry, Japanese purple, and now the Bonita – remain firm and have a nutty – only slightly sweet – flavor. Like squash, sweet potatoes can be roasted whole (with a few pricks to the skin with a fork) and the longer one cooks, the sweeter the result. This is especially true with the “soft” varieties. I love adding a few cups of mashed Beauregard to my biscuit batter for a beta-carotene rich and flavorful take on this classic.

For firm varieties, I prefer roasting. Using a knife or mandolin, cut thin disks from a firm variety of sweet potato – my personal favorite for its nutty flavor, firm texture, and contrasting color is the Japanese purple. Brush a deep oven-safe sauté pan with a mixture of butter and olive oil – reserving half the mixture for later. Arrange the disks in the pan in concentric circles similar to a roll of coins. Brush the sweet potatoes with the remaining oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake until the edges are golden and the flesh is cooked through. Heat a cup of crème fraîche along with a sprig of rosemary and a dried hot pepper until the crème fraîche is more liquid than solid. Pour the herbed crème fraîche over the sweet potatoes and garnish with chopped flat leaf parsley and rosemary. Warming and delicious.