Roasted Butternut Squash

It's Fall and I love this time of year...the crisp days, the bright blue sky, and the colors: the oranges and the golds, both in the landscape and on my plate.

And I am a sucker for pumpkins, especially these warty pumpkins. These bumps add so much personality to these autumn squashes!

Speaking of squash, 'tis the season for butternut squash. (An FYI tidbit: butternut squash is known as butternut pumpkin in Australia and New Zealand). Anyway, it's in abundance right now and so is the sage in my garden. These two fall flavors make a great combination. Sage pesto has now taken the place of basil pesto and it's just as tasty as the summer basil version.

Roasted Butternut Squash with Sage Pesto

1 butternut squash
1 bunch of sage
1/3 c. olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1/4 c. pine nuts, toasted
big pinch of sea salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Peel and slice squash into 1/2 inch slices, removing seeds. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly grease with oil. Place the squash on the baking sheet in a single layer. 

Prepare the pesto: Put the sage, olive oil, garlic, pine nuts and salt in a food processor and process until fairly smooth. 

Coat the squash slices with the pesto. Bake for 30 minutes or until tender.

Fregola Sarda

I love pasta. I love the names. I love the shapes. I love pasta's versatility. My pantry is full of pasta. There's ditalini, mini penne, mini wheels, stellette, fettucine, rigatoni, paccheri, orecchiete, folie di ulivo, and fregola sarda. Yep, that's a lot.

It's a rainy October day, one where it's damp and chilly, and a pot of soup sounds warm and comforting. And I made a pot of soup, Italian Sausage Vegetable Soup. The recipe calls for orzo and I usually have orzo, except not today. And my goal is to use a lot of this pasta before I buy anymore and plus I just didn't want to make a trip to the grocery store in the rain.

In place of the orzo, I used fregola sarda. What is fregola sarda? First of all it's pronounced FREG-o-lah or FRAY-go-lah. 

Fregola is made from course semolina which gives it a rustic character. The pasta is rolled into tiny bits, dried, and then toasted, which changes the color and gives it a nutty flavor. 

The fregola worked very well in the soup. It got soft but not mushy. Orzo gets mushy.

So, I'm kind of in love with this fregola and I'm looking at all kinds of recipes to try with it. There's about 3/4 of a package left so I must choose wisely. I'm NOT going to buy anymore fregola until there's a significant dent in my pantry pasta supply. Wonder what my family will think of pasta for the next two weeks...

Ciao!

(You can find the recipe for Italian Sausage Vegetable Soup at http://housedustandwanderlust.blogspot.com/2013/01/italian-sausage-vegetable-soup_22.html)

Zucchini-palooza 17 and 18

The trouble is, you cannot grow just one zucchini.  Minutes after you plant a single seed, hundreds of zucchini will barge out of the ground and sprawl around the garden, menacing the other vegetables.  At night, you will be able to hear the ground quake as more and more zucchinis erupt.

~  Dave Barry

Zucchini-palooza #17
Use-up-some-leftovers-stuffed peppers

Kielbasa, deer sausage, farro, onion, mozzarella, and you know what! Added a little Sweet Baby Ray's and some sriracha. My son took a couple to work for his dinner and his co-workers were jealous!

Zucchini-palooza #18 and FINALE!

Dug out the old family pumpkin bread recipe and added zucchini to it. 

To make all of these loaves, it took a mere 

17 eggs 

13 c. flour

 12 c. sugar

 5 c. oil

 30 c. shredded zucchini

a few Tablespoons of spices

Zucchini-palooza 13, 14, 15, 16

                           Zucchini is a 24/7 food: appetizer, main dish, side dish and snack ~

Zucchini-palooza #13

Zucchini cornbread 

Needed to find a recipe that would get hubs excited about all this zucchini that's taken over the veggie bin. Mission accomplished!

Zucchini-palooza #14

This started  out as a simple caprese salad and evolved into grilled zucchini caprese topping for bruschetta! (And FYI, Italians pronounce this broo-SKEH-tah).

Zucchini-palooza #15
Zucchini noodle lasagna

Look beneath that cheesy goodness and there are zucchini noodles layered with a meaty, vegetable-y sauce. 

   Zucchini-palooza #16
Zucchini gratin with Gruyere and salsa verde.

O. M. G. The flavors in this are fabulous! The freshness of the salsa verde, the bold Gruyere cheese, buttery bread crumbs, and oh yes, the zucchini! A BIG thank you to my Philadelphia foodie niece for suggesting this recipe. Yum-O! 

Zucchini-palooza 9, 10, 11, 12

Zucchini's terrific! 
Like bunnies, prolific!
 ~ Author Unknown

Zucchini-palooza #9

What happens when the zucchini patch doesn't get picked for a week...Yikes!

Zucchini-palooza #10

Lunch. Grilled zucchini spears.
Quick, easy, delicious ~

Zucchini-palooza #11 to the rescue! 

What to do for a last minute dinner invitation...

Grilled zucchini salad with cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and pecorino cheeses, and kalamata olives with a white balsamic vinaigrette. 

Zucchini-palooza #12

Homemade V-8 (actually 11) juice

Look closely and you'll see zucchini in there, along with carrots, beets, tomatoes, spinach, cabbage, red and green peppers, celery, onion and garlic. A garden in the blender!

Zucchini-palooza 5, 6, 7, 8

Five, six, seven, eight,

Zucchini recipes are really great!

Yes, zucchini is so versatile. It pairs well with another wonderful flavor of summer, basil, and goes to the sophisticated side in ZP 5 and 6. But then in 7 and 8, it's comfort food: zucchini-carrot cake (cream cheese icing is a must) and zucchini bread. Good flavors and good feelings.

Zucchini-palooza #5

Grilled zucchini roll-ups filled with spinach and basil leaves and goat cheese. 

A little labor intensive but sooooo worth it!

Zucchini-palooza #6

Zucchini and basil soup 

Very light, very summery, very green!

Zucchini-palooza #7

Underneath that layer of cream cheese frosting is zucchini-carrot cake. 

An all-purpose cake: breakfast, afternoon snack, and dessert.

Zucchini-palooza #8

Zucchini bread twinsies!!

Zucchini-palooza 1, 2, 3 and 4

It's been one heck of a summer. A crazy, turn-your-world-up-side-down summer. But in the midst of chaos, sometimes the most unexpected thing can bring a little order to the world. For me, it turned out to be my zucchini garden. Leave it to a green squash to be my link to normalcy...

Zucchini-palooza 2014 began with the first picking...
"The Dirty Dozen"

Zucchini-palooza #1
Cream of kohlrabi soup with onions, carrots, potatoes, and of course zucchini.
(Those green flecks are the zucchini)

Zucchini-palooza #2

Zucchini-Lemon Cookies 

Very light and refreshing. They lasted two days!

Zucchini-palooza #3

A clean-out-the-veggie bin concoction. 

Cherry tomatoes, 1/2 red pepper, 1/2 green pepper, a couple Japanese eggplants, onion, a half bag of frozen corn. Sauté the veggies. Add salt and Italian herbs to season. Add mozzarella and Parm and cook until melted. 

Zucchini-palooza #4 

What to do with all the shredded zucchini left over from making the lemon zucchini cookies? Make a stir fry with onion, cabbage, carrots and of course, zucchini. Stir fry the veggies until crisp tender, add a little soy sauce and there ya go!

Mike's Hot Honey {New York City}

A souvenir from my NYC travels...

My daughter lives in the hipster Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, which also happens to be one of the foodiest neighborhoods in Brooklyn. She loves to share her food findings with me so one of our walks took us to the Bedford Cheese Shop (229 Bedford Ave at N. 4th Street).

And while it’s easy to drool over the cheese, bread and charcuterie selections, she took me into this shop for one reason: Mike’s Hot Honey. 

Mike’s Hot Honey is honey infused with chili peppers, locally made in Brooklyn. So when in Brooklyn...

What to do with this funky honey when I get back to Ohio? When my kids were little, they liked to dip their chicken nuggets in honey, so why not?  Fried chicken with a little sweet and heat...thank you very much.

Chicken Nuggets

Ingredients

Vegetable oil, for frying

8 boneless skinless chicken thighs

2 eggs 

2 teaspoons cayenne pepper 

Salt and freshly ground black pepper 

1 cup all-purpose flour 

1/4 cup cornstarch

Directions

Line a sheet tray with a wire cooling rack. Slice chicken into 2-inch pieces. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, cayenne, salt and black pepper to taste. In a paper bag, shake together salt, pepper, flour and cornstarch. Dip the chicken in batches, first in egg mixture, then in the flour mixture and shake to coat. Set on a wire rack and let sit 10 minutes.

Carefully place chicken in hot oil and fry until golden and crispy, 5 to 8 minutes. 

Snow Ice Cream

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

When Mother Nature dumps snow on you, make snow ice cream.

The Midwest got walloped with another polar vortex this week...more frigid temps and more snow. So many people complain about the snow and the cold, but you know what, it’s winter in Ohio, folks. This is what happens. 

So life has given us snow. Before this white fluffy snow turns into icky gray slush, I’m going to get myself outside, scoop up some clean snow, and make snow ice cream. The recipe is easy...5 ingredients and 4 of them should be in your kitchen: milk, sugar, vanilla and salt.

This is a sweet reward for shoveling the driveway for the umpteenth time. And yes, I will look out for the yellow snow! Beware of brain freeze, too.

Simple ingredients for this special treat

Milk + sugar + vanilla + pinch of salt = yumminess

Snow in my grandma's measuring cup. She would be smiling!

Snow ice cream!

Topping of choice: maple syrup

Snow Ice Cream

Ingredients

1 cup milk (any kind)

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 pinch salt

8 cups clean snow or shaved ice (more or less depending on the density of the snow)

Directions

In a large bowl, whisk milk, sugar, vanilla and salt together until combined. 

Go scoop up some fresh (clean!) snow, and immediately stir it into the milk mixture until you reach your desired consistency. Top with sprinkles or other ice cream toppings if desired.

The ice cream should be fluffy and not runny, but it melts quickly, so dive in right away!

Thanksgiving Turkey {Brining}

I've read a lot about brining turkeys and so this Thanksgiving I decided to give it a try. There are so many recipes available for brining and after looking through so many I decided on "My Favorite Turkey Brine" used in the Pioneer Woman's blog.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/10/my-favorite-turkey-brine/ 

I like this recipe because she uses everyday ingredients, not things like allspice berries, chopped candied ginger or juniper berries. Nothing wrong with those ingredients, but knowing me, those would sit in my cabinet for a year or so, lose their flavor and then I'd pitch them. This recipe is short and sweet, too...just nine ingredients, and most of them were already in my kitchen.

Turkey Brine

3 cups apple juice or apple cider

2 gallons cold water

4 T. fresh rosemary leaves

5 cloves garlic, minced

1-1/2 c. kosher salt

2 c. brown sugar

3 T. peppercorns

5 whole bay leaves

Peel of 3 large oranges

Combine all ingredients in a large pot. Stir until salt and sugar dissolve. Bring to a boil, then turn off heat and cover.

Allow to cool completely, then pour into a large brining bag or pot. Place uncooked turkey in brine solution, then refrigerate for 16 to 24 hours. (My turkey was 23 pounds and I kept it in the brine for 27 hours)

When ready to roast turkey, remove turkey from brine. Submerge turkey in a pot or sink of fresh, cold water. Allow to sit in clean water for 15 minutes to remove excess salt from the outside.

Discard brine. Remove turkey from clean water, pat dry, and cook according to your normal roasting method.

After bringing the ingredients to a boil, the house was filled with a delightful holiday smell...the fun had just begun!

Summer Treats {Ranier Cherries}

The stone fruits are here! The stone fruits are here!

Peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, bing cherries, Ranier cherries...sweet, juicy tastes of summer.

With shopping list in hand, I went to Kroger. Even though there was no produce on the list, I passed through the produce department anyway. And my eyes fell on the bags of Ranier cherries, those sweet, tasty orbs, yellow and blushing with red, so sweet that they can be dessert all on their own.

I grabbed a bag.

Going through the self-checkout line, I punched in the Ranier cherry code, and 1 1/2 pounds of cherries rang in at $9.40. What? Did I type in the wrong code? Nope. These sweet gems of summer are $5.99/pound. This price is the "pits!"

Off to a good start!

Jill's Radishes

Every Monday is "Marvelous Mother Nature Monday" on my friend Jill’s Facebook page. She loves nature and has a vast knowledge of it and her posts are always so enjoyable to read.

“My gardens are thriving (so far!) I get such joy from the beauty and magic that I go out a couple of times a day just to gaze in wonder. Seriously. These plants are my babies. 

My radishes are round, red and ready to be picked and consumed - trouble is, I don't like radishes. No, I hate radishes. Seriously. I know, I know, why did I plant them? I could give you any number of reasons, but, they don't really matter. What matters is that I've got some really nice radishes that nobody over here wants to eat - please let me know if you'd like some! Seriously.”   ~ Jill

Well, well, well...I love radishes. Seriously. 

What to do with these 9 beautiful red gems? I wanted to do something different and so I roasted them. I’ve never roasted radishes. Roasting veggies brings a new dimension to them, a rich, brilliant, caramelized sweetness. These nuggets went from crunchy and spicy to mellow and soft. They reminded me of turnips only not as “bitey.”

But a tray of roasted radishes just didn’t do it for me...it needed some friends, so playtime began! And the end result was a farro salad with the radishes added to other roasted veggies: parsnips, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes. There was a beautiful pile of radish greens sitting on the counter and screaming, “DO NOT LET THESE GO TO WASTE!”  What goes good with greens? Bacon. Fry up a couple strips of bacon and saute the greens in the little bit of bacon grease, a splash of olive oil and cider vinegar, add it to the salad and voila...smoky bacon, tangy vinegar, earthy farro, sweet roasted veggies...Yum, yum, yum! 

Seriously.

Simple Pleasures

Simple pleasures are one of the niceties in life. I was in New York City last week and came home to a very empty refrigerator. I should have gone grocery shopping right off the bat after getting home, but I didn't. Instead I spent the day outside waging war against the weeds that took advantage of my week's absence, tilled dirt in my gardens, and "vacuumed" up some heavy lawn clippings from the grass cutting Hubs had cut the day before. 

Dinner time arrived, I was starving, nothing of note to eat. The day had been a sunny, but cool spring day here in the Miami Valley and soup sounded good. Dorothy Lane Market, here I come, and please let one of the soup selections be Burgoo...please, please, please!

Burgoo...what a fun word! Back in the day when I lived in Owensboro, Kentucky, my parents would get Burgoo and other marvelous barbecue items from a little restaurant called the Moonlight Barbecue. My brothers and sister and I weren't too fond of this soup that was spicy, had all different kinds of meats and lots of veggies. We called it Bird-Doo.

Well, tastes change as we grow and I now love Burgoo. And it was one of the selections in the soup line up...YES!

Nothing better than a warm bowl of soup with lots of crackers crunched in to soothe, as Winnie-the-Poo would say, that "rumbly in my tumbly."

Soup...Saltines...Satisfaction...Simple

Sardine Casserole

Sardines...those small, oily, little silver fish that come in a cute little tin, full of Omega-3 fatty acids, calcium and Vitamin D. I LOVE them!

One day while perusing Food52, a site that brings together a community of passionate home and professional cooks who share recipes and culinary wisdom, I stumbled upon a Sardine Casserole recipe which was in a contest for "Your Best Cheap Feast." I read the recipe. I had to try it.

This dish is packed with superfoods and has a surprising mix of flavors: bold sardines, sweet butternut squash, earthy barley. You can't make this at the last minute...lots of steps and lots of dishes to clean up. If you like sardines, this dish is delicious and in the end, the time and effort are worth it. 

Sardine Casserole
2cans bone-in, skin-on, oil-packed sardines
2 large bunches kale
Olive oil
1 onion chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 t. fresh thyme leaves
1 t. all purpose flour
1/2 c. creme fraiche
1 c. cooked barley
1/4 c. fresh bread crumbs
1/4 c. freshly grated Parmesan cheese
3/4 c. butternut squash, cut into 1/2" cubes
1/4 c. white wine

Coat the butternut squash with olive oil, toss with salt and pepper, and roast for 20 to 25 minutes at 425. Remove from oven and set aside.

Meanwhile, oil a large baking dish. Blanch the kale for about one minute in salted, boiling water. Drain well, and once it's cool enough to handle, squeeze out excess water.

Cook the onion with a pinch of salt in olive oil until soft and fragrant. Add the garlic and thyme and cook another minute. Add the blanched kale, more salt and pepper, and the flour. Stir everything together until the flour is distributed throughout. Add the creme fraiche, white wine, cooked barley, and cooked butternut squash. Cook until any liquid in the pan has evaporated. 

Remove the sardines from the oil (don't throw out the oil) and add them to the pan, breaking them up as you stir.

Transfer the sardine and kale mixture into the oiled baking dish. Drizzle the oil left over from the canned sardines on top of the mixture, and top with the Parmesan and breadcrumbs.

Bake at 425 for 15 minutes.

Lookin' good!

Just want to eat it out of the pan!

Big clean-up...

Rainbow Carrots

Alright, I'm on a colorful vegetable roll.

Next pretty veggie I couldn't resist are rainbow carrots. Call me a sucker on this one: organic, 8 or 9 carrots in a bunch, $2.59/ bunch. A little pricy, but hey, the things we do to satisfy curiosity!

So what to do with these gorgeous vegetables...hmmmm...well, first photograph them. Such a pretty subject with colors ranging from purple to red  to orange to yellow. And then the wispy green tops...so pretty!

I love roasting vegetables. It's so easy and the roasting brings out the natural flavors. Typically when I roast veggies I go savory with garlic, salt, and herbs. I broke out of my comfort zone with these carrots and went sweet. Orange olive oil and a vanilla cinnamon sugar made these beauties a real treat!