Farm to Family

By Melissa Vanni

Your family has just returned from an inspiring trip to a local farm-stand (in this case Soil Born Farms in Rancho Cordova) and has brought home a bag of bright, fresh fruits and veggies.

Now what?  How do you take farm ingredients and turn them into a family-friendly meal? We asked food blogger Melissa Vanni to take corn and potatoes (two summer staples) and make a simple supper!

Parmesan garlic fries

Ingredients:

4-5 potatoes cut into thick strips

2 tablespoons of cornstarch

1 handful of grated parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons of olive oil

8 garlic cloves, minced

1 handful of fresh chopped parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

-In a bowl combine your potato strips with the cornstarch, parmesan cheese, olive oil, salt and pepper. Make sure your potatoes are well covered with this mixture!

-Arrange your potatoes in a single layer on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray and pop them into a 400 degree oven for 30-40 minutes.

-While your fries are baking heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and saute your minced garlic over medium heat until they are fragrant.

-Toss your crispy fries with the sauteed garlic and some fresh chopped parsley. Enjoy immediately!

Summer corn and shrimp ceviche

When the weather warms up the last thing I want to do is stand in front of a hot stove and cook! Let the lime do the cooking in this cool and refreshing summer corn and shrimp ceviche.

Ingredients:

1 pound of shrimp, peeled and deveined

1/2 a cucumber, sliced

1/2 a red onion, sliced

2 cobs of fresh corn on the cob de-kerneled

1 diced jalapeno pepper

1 cup of fresh lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

-Start by cooking shrimp in a pot of boiling water for 3 minutes or just until they turn pink.

-In a large non-aluminun bowl combine the cooked shrimp, cucumber, red onion, corn kernels and jalapeno pepper.

-Pour the lime juice over this mixture and season with salt in pepper.

-Cover with plastic and chill for several hours to blend flavors.

-Melissa Vanni is the mom of 4 boys and author of PrettyYummyFoods.com