Japanese Knotweed & Serviceberry Crumble

*This is a guest post by Mary Angelini. Mary is passionate cook and foodie. She spends much of her free time studying cook books, dreaming up recipes, and, of course, cooking delicious foods. She is starting a small food business centered around using locally sourced ingredients—selling at local markets and providing custom-made nutritious loca meals to busy families. She lives on a suburban homestead with her family in Clarkston, MI.*

This dish pairs the almost rhubarb-like tangy qualities of Japanese knotweed with the rich and sweet qualities of serviceberries, a fantastic wild fruit. If you haven't got your own frozen foraged serviceberries, you can always use frozen blueberries—or frozen wild blueberries, which would be all the better! Serve it hot with a nice local vanilla ice cream, homemade whipped cream, or my favorite, tangy yogurt...

Japanese Knotweed & Serviceberry Crumble

What You Need:

2 cups frozen serviceberries
2 cups knotweed stalks cut into thick coins
1/2 cup all-purpose flour + 2 tbsps
1/2 cup whole oats
1/2 cup brown sugar + 4 tbsps
1/4 cup butter
pinch of baking soda
pinch of baking powder
pinch of salt
cinnamon to taste
1 tsp pure vanilla
Pinch of ground cardamom

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.


• Cut the butter into the flour, oats, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla,
  cardamom and cinnamon until it forms a crumbly mixture.


• Sprinkle half of this crumb mixture on the bottom of a greased 9 x 9 pan.


• Mix the frozen serviceberries with the 4 tbsps of brown sugar and the 2 tbsps of flour until
  well mixed and coated with the sugar and flour.


• Spread the serviceberries and knotweed in the pan and place the remaining crumb over the top.


• Bake 40 minutes or until lightly browned on top and bubbly.

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Nettle & Spinach Spanikopita (Crustless)

*This is a guest post by Mary Angelini. Mary is passionate cook and foodie. She spends much of her free time studying cook books, dreaming up recipes, and, of course, cooking delicious foods. She is starting a small food business centered around using locally sourced ingredients—selling at local markets and providing custom-made nutritious loca meals to busy families. She lives on a suburban homestead with her family in Clarkston, MI.*

Serves 6 - 8 if made in a pie dish
Serves 4 in 8oz ramekins

Nettles are the ~perfect~ star for the classic spanikopita recipe—rich, flavorful, and super-nutritious. This time around, the dish comes without a crust, cooked in ramequins. Perfectly gluten free!

Nettle & Spinach Spanikopita (Crustless)

What You Need:

1  lb frozen chopped spinach
1 lb fresh chopped nettles
3 cups water
1/4 cup olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
1 1/2 tsp dried dill
1 tsp salt
30 grinds of pepper
8 oz feta (crumbled)
2 eggs
½ to 1 cup of heavy cream
1 tbsp butter (for greasing the baking dish)

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.


• Place frozen spinach and nettles into a pot, add water cover and bring to a boil.


• Boil for several minutes until spinach is thawed and nettles tender, about 5-8minutes.


• Drain the greens in a colander (and save the boiling water for use as soup stock forlater).  When the greens are cool enough to handle squeeze all the water out of them that you can.


• Heat the olive oil in a medium sauce pan.  Add the onions and saute untiltranslucent.


• In a medium sized bowl whisk the eggs, ½ cup of cream, dill, salt, and pepperwith a fork until well mixed.


•  Add the greens, onion, and feta and stir again untilcompletely mixed. If the mixture is too dry add more cream a tablespoon at a time until it is “loose” as it will firm up when baked.


• Spoon into a buttered pie dish or buttered ramekins and bake for 40 minutes or until egg mixture is cooked.

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