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.

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. 

Little Black Book

My unassuming little black book is filled with delectable and luscious information...things that I will never forget and don't want to forget,  some tasteful and some spicy memories, goodies that people beg for. 

It's my handwritten recipe book where I copied recipes from my mom's little black book, wrote down recipes from my mother-in-law's collection, got recipes from friends or from a magazine that was in a waiting room. It sits on a shelf with other recipe books, Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Yotam Ottolenghi's Jerusalem, and lots of other cookbooks collected over the years.

For Mother's Day, hubs, first child and I went to FIndlay to visit my in-laws. Mother's Day is one of those days where restaurants are busy all day long and waits can be horrendous, especially if you don't have a reservation because this was a last minute trip. I wanted to make an egg casserole and a coffee cake in advance so we could have a nice, leisurely meal at my in-laws' house, sitting around the table and chatting as long as we wanted.

Nowadays it's so easy to hop on the computer, type in what you want to make and voila!...thousands of recipes pop up. I searched for a coffee cake recipe and the perfect Mother's Day coffee cake was no where to be found in cyber-space. And then a bolt out of the blue hit me. My mother-in-law used to make a danish at Christmas. The recipe made two buttery, flaky, melt-in-your-mouth pastries that are frosted with a powdered sugar icing. And I knew exactly where that recipe was...in my little black book.

Danish 

(recipe shared as exactly in the little black book. Where the directions say to use margarine and oleo, I substituted butter)

Cut 1 stick of margarine into 1 c. flour. Add 2 T. water. Mix into ball. Divide and spread dough on ungreased cookie sheet into 2 long strips.

Mix 1 stick margarine & 1 c. water. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat & add 1 t. vanilla or almond extract. Add 1 c. sifted flour immediately. Beat in 3 eggs, 1 at a time. Beat until smooth & spread on dough. Bake at 350, 50-60 min. until raised and golden brown. Frost while warm.

Frosting

2 c. powdered sugar

2 T. milk

4 T. oleo

1 c. vanilla

                             

Beer Cookies

A little while ago, my brother gave us a growler of Mad River Milk Stout from the Dayton Beer Company. Mad River Milk Stout is a very good beer: it won a gold medal in the recent Best of Craft Beer Awards competition in Bend, OR (January 2014).

A growler is a lot of beer...64 ounces...a half gallon. We shared it with friends and still a little was left over. And it went flat. And I could not dump this prize winning beer down the drain.

Sooooo, what to do with flat beer?

It was close to St. Patrick's Day and those leprechaun voices kept whispering, "Do something with that flat stout in your fridge!" By the luck of the Irish, I found a cookie recipe that combined beer and pretzels, chocolate and caramel into one luscious cookie. 

Sweet, salty, soft, crunchy. Perfect.

The batter is good enough to eat just like this...

The caramel icing...so easy, so good

Everyone who eats these thinks that you are the most wonderful cook in the world!

Chocolate Stout Cookies with Salted Caramel Frosting & Pretzels
http://cravingchronicles.com/2012/02/01/chocolate-stout-cookies-with-salted-caramel-frosting-pretzels/

I used Snyder’s Butter Snaps pretzels. Dip the frosted cookies into the crushed pretzels – that way you pick up more of the salty pretzel flavor on the cookies.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 tablespoon dark cocoa (such as Hershey’s Dark Cocoa)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
6 ounces stout beer 
1 1/2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips

1 batch Easy Salted Caramel Frosting (below)
1 bag of salted pretzels

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with Silpats or parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powders, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.

Beat butter with sugars with a mixer using the paddle attachment until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add vanilla and egg and beat to combine. With the mixer on low, add flour mixture in thirds, alternating with the beer. Beat just until combined. Fold in chocolate chips with a spatula.

Chill dough in the fridge for about 15 minutes, or until firm enough to scoop.

Using a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop dough onto prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake at 350°F for 15-17 minutes or until tops spring back lightly when touched. Cool on pan for 2-3 minutes, then transfer to a wire wrack to cool completely.

To Assemble
Crush pretzels into small pieces using your hands or a food processor. Spread pretzel crumbs out in a pie plate or on a small baking sheet.

Only frost cookies once they have cooled completely. Working with warm frosting still in the pan, spread frosting on a few cookies at a time. Dip each cookie frosting side down in the pretzel crumbs, pushing lightly to make sure they stick. Frosting will dry as it cools, so work with only a few cookies for best results.

Easy Salted Caramel Frosting

The trick with this frosting is to not add too much powdered sugar or it will be thick, stiff, and too sweet. Add only as much as you need to make it spreadable without being runny. Leave the frosting in the warm pan as you frost the cookies to make it easier to spread, as it will set up when it cools.

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter
pinch of salt
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup + up to 4 tablespoons powdered sugar

Directions
In a medium saucepan, melt butter, salt and brown sugar over medium heat, stirring to combine. Bring mixture to a boil, stirring frequently. Boil unstirred for 1-2 minutes.

Remove from heat and immediately whisk in cream. (Careful! Hot caramel may spatter.) Whisk in vanilla. Cool 5-10 minutes, then stir in 1 cup powdered sugar. Whisk briskly to smooth out any lumps. If needed, add powdered sugar 1 tablespoon at a time (up to 4 tablespoons), whisking briskly between each addition, until frosting is firm enough that the whisk tracks don’t sink all the way back into the frosting.


Spread frosting over cooled cookies.

Comfort Food {Scalloped Potatoes}

Dinnertime on a snowy day in Ohio with a surplus of potatoes and some ham left over from Thanksgiving...what to do? It's comfort food time and time to go back to an old family recipe, one that isn't written down, one that has been passed on by word of mouth, generation to generation: scalloped potatoes. It's so easy and so good and even better the next day. 

This recipe is so versatile: it can feed an army or it can feed 2 people. Potatoes are the main ingredient but there are so many vegetables that can go well with potatoes. I happened to have a few Brussels sprouts on hand so I sliced them up and tossed them in. Adding ham made it a one-dish meal.

In this recipe I used potatoes, ham, Brussels sprouts and onions and used a 2 1/2 quart baking dish. So here's what you do...my apologies for not having exact amounts. This is one of those recipes where you eyeball the size of your baking dish and figure out how much stuff will fit in that dish. Cut up a little more if you need to fill it; make an extra if you cut up too much! This dish freezes well, too. Put it in the freezer the day after you bake it.

Instructions

Cut up all your ingredients:

• Thinly slice the potatoes. I used a mandoline set around 1/8 inch. I tried slicing the Brussels sprouts on the mandoline and ended up slicing them with a knife.
• Cut up the onions.
• Slice the ham.

Put a layer of potatoes, ham, onion and Brussels sprouts in a baking dish. 

Cover with a 2-3 T. of flour and dot with 2 T. butter. Stir this layer to incorporate flour and butter. 

Layer again, sprinkle with salt, dot with butter and stir. Keep repeating this step until your ingredients are gone or your dish is full.

Pour milk over the dish to almost cover the ingredients. 

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. The liquid will be soupy so serve in a little bowl if you don't want liquid to go all over your plate. 

I also made a casserole for my son while making our dinner. He doesn't like Brussels sprouts so I used carrots in his. 

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!

Zucchini, Bean and Tuna Salad {Zucchini-palooza}

It was a clean-out-the pantry day and a summertime salad fits so nicely into a day like this. 

What to do with a can of pinto beans, a couple cans of tuna, and a red onion...toss them together, add some garden bounty and voila! 

Quick, easy, delicious and light...a perfect summer meal ~

Zucchini, Bean and Tuna Salad

1 can beans, drained (I used pinto beans)
2 cans tuna in olive oil
Red onion diced
Handful of parsley chopped
Small zucchini chopped
Salt and black pepper
Olive oli

Drain beans and put in a big bowl.

Add tuna...DO NOT drain...lots of good flavor in that oil. Add to the beans.

Add onion, parsley and zucchini. Stir gently. 

Taste and add salt, pepper and olive oil as needed.

This salad is so versatile. My brother dropped off some tomatoes and cucumbers, so in the spirit of Tomato-mania, adjust the ingredients, and voila! Another salad equally as good!

Grilled Zucchini Roll Ups {Zucchini-palooza}

An appetizer or a snack...these zucchini bites go like hot cakes! 

Last year I took them to a friend's house for a Girls' Night. My friend said that she didn't like goat cheese...she changed her mind after one! 

They're a little labor intensive but once you get the system down, putting them together goes quickly. 

Be prepared...these will be the first things to go!

Grilled Zucchini Roll Ups

3 zucchini (about 1/2 pound each), sliced lengthwise into 1/4" slices

Olive oil

Chunk of goat cheese

1-2 T. minced fresh parsley

1 T. fresh lemon juice

2 c. baby spinach leaves

1/3 c. basil leaves

Directions

Slice zucchini 1/4" thick. Discard the outermost slices of zucchini. Brush the slices with the olive oil. Place on preheated grill or grill pan for 4 minutes on each side, or until tender.

In a small bowl, combine the goat cheese, parsley leaves and lemon juice, mashing with a fork.

Put a dollop of the cheese mixture about 1/2 inch from the end of a zucchini slice. Top with a few spinach leaves and one large basil leaf or a couple small basil leaves. Roll up and place seam side down on a platter. Repeat with the rest of the zucchini slices. 

Summer Lettuce

I grew up eating home grown lettuce in the summertime. Leaf lettuce grew abundantly in my parents’ and grandparents’ gardens. As a kid, I wanted to eat iceberg lettuce because all of my friends did; not the stuff that was fresh picked out of a garden. But now, my tastes have grown up...give me fresh garden lettuce any day!

When we ate garden lettuce salads, we did not use bottled dressings. Mom always dressed the fresh leaf lettuce salad with a very simple dressing made of cream or 1/2 and Half, sugar and cider vinegar. Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper and it was done. She would always mix the dressing right in the salad bowl and the amount of cream, vinegar and sugar would depend on the amount of lettuce that she had. It was one of those recipes where she eyeballed the quantities.

It’s the perfect dressing for fresh garden lettuce: light, sweet but tangy, and refreshing.

This recipe makes 1 1/2 cups of dressing. Go to your garden or favorite farmers market and enjoy fresh leaf lettuce. It is one of summer's delights!

1 c. heavy cream or 1/2 and Half

1/4 c. sugar

1/4 c. cider vinegar

1 t. salt

1 t. pepper

Put ingredients in a jar and shake. Use appropriate amount over lettuce.

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!

Meatless Meal {Ash Wednesday}

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Season of Lent. It is a season of penance, reflection, and fasting which prepares us for Christ's Resurrection on Easter Sunday.

One of the fasting “rules” of Lent is that Catholics abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and all the Fridays of Lent.

My first meal of Lent is risotto with Swiss chard, mushrooms and roasted tomatoes. I didn’t go to the grocery store to get ingredients to prepare this dish...just wanted to use what was in my fridge. Risotto is one of those dishes that is so versatile and easy to prepare. In Italy, risotto is cucina casalinga. Casalinga simply means home cooking. Soups, pastas, meats, vegetables–anything cooked in the house is casalinga, and usually wonderful because it’s prepared with love.

Risotto is easy to prepare and it’s not hard to make a good risotto.The only thing is that you have to stand over it for at least 20 minutes. Risotto doesn't allow shortcuts and can't be successfully prepared in advance. This is a dish that is all about real time.

To make a good risotto, use only Italian risotto rice, such as Arborio, which is the one most commonly available in American markets. The grains of this rice are short and stubby and absorb liquid without becoming gluey (unless they are overcooked). Long-grain rice produces a mushy, gummy mass.You have to stir the rice constantly, adding the stock 1/2 to one cup at a time, until it has reached a point of softness and the grains retain their shape. Do the taste test if you need to see if the rice is cooked enough.

Ash Wednesday Risotto

1 bunch of Swiss chard, stems removed and large chop

1 clove garlic, slivered

2 T. olive oil

1 package mushrooms (what was in the fridge)

1/2 package cherry tomatoes (in the fridge)

3 c. chicken or vegetable stock

2 T. olive oil (not a typo)

1 cup Arborio rice

1 cup dry white wine (Pinot Grigio from Trader Joe’s...$5.99 a bottle)

½ cup or more freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano or cheese of choice (freshly grated cheese is a must!)

Salt and black pepper, to taste.

Roast the cherry tomatoes: Set the oven to broil. Put tomatoes on a cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Put under broiler for about 5 minutes or until tomato skins burst open. Remove from oven.

In a large pan, heat 2 T. olive oil over medium heat. Saute the Swiss chard until it is soft. Add the garlic and  saute for a couple minutes. Put chard and garlic into a bowl.

Heat the next 2 T. of olive oil and add the rice. Cook over medium-high heat for about one minute, stirring to coat with the olive oil. Add the white wine and stir until the wine is absorbed.

Add the first addition of stock, about 1/2 cup. Stir until most of the liquid is absorbed. Add another addition of stock and stir until most of the liquid is absorbed. Repeat this process until the mixture is creamy and a bit loose; the rice should still have some chew to it. The process will take 20 - 30 minutes.

Turn off the heat and stir in the Swiss chard/ garlic mix and the grated Parm to taste. Season with salt and pepper. Gently stir in the tomatoes.