Red Pepper Spread

Perhaps this blog should be called "Hit me with your best food processor" although that sounds really quite deadly as my food processor weighs at least 25 lbs.

anywho, hauled out the big ass cuisinart and made this:

1 jar drained roasted red peppers
1 heaping tablespoon chopped garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup raw peeled almonds
1 giant handful of fresh spinach
1/4 cup provolone cheese
salt to taste (2 tsp?)

spread on sandwich bread, serve with french bread for dipping, or as a bruschetta/tapenade deal.

Butterscotch Squash Muffins

These are awesome.  I can't really say it any other way.

I love having *random crap around, it always ends up being the best part of the end product.

So I have an abundance of spaghetti squash as I mentioned before.  I've now cooked two, have two sitting on the counter and I have at least four waiting in the garden.

I baked and then pureed one squash.  (look at baking directions in an earlier post).  In a bowl I combined:

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup pureed squash
1 tbsp vanilla
*1 jell-o butterscotch pudding cup
1/4 - 1/2 cup of milk
2 tbsp vegetable oil

I also mixed in a generous portion of chocolate chips and topped with crumb topping that I happen to always have in a tupperware container in the fridge.

These are incredibly moist and delicious.  True the nasty processed unholy-ness of the pudding cup may sorta cancel the wholesome hippy vibe we were getting from that squash puree, but what can ya do? 

Tomato Tarte Tatin - Bon Appetit

http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2010/08/tomato_tarte_tatin

made this for dessert tonight on a whim.  had no intention, in fact no real desire to do it, just sounded too weird for my still blossoming palate.

a lovely local gardener extraordinaire is under siege with tomatoes growing up to the sky, over her fence, across the street and into the local school baseball fields.  i'm exaggerating, yah?  so, because karen sent me on my way this afternoon with a bag full of beautiful tomatoes, i decided there was no time like tomato time to make a tatin.

mine was over-cooked because it's tricky cooking fancy tarts with a 15 month old sitting on your hip, writhing desperately to get in to the oven and seemingly defying the laws of gravity by managing to climb higher up my person the more i intend to place him firmly on the ground, away from the boiling hot oven, behind a gate, closer to his ever ready-to-pounce brother who is at the moment tenuously distracted by diego.  go diego go!

but i digress, regress, and digest.

the tart was interesting, certainly needed more attention than i could give it, but as we all know by now, a healthy dose of whipped cream certainly made it edible.

Spaghetti Squash Gratin

stole most of this from the chocolateandzucchini.com recipe

first of all - never have i had such a perplexing research phase for a new food.  but i've familiarized myself and ...  i think i've tackled the red-headed step-child of the squash family (i mean that with great love to all my strawberries).

i searched high and low for spaghetti squash information.  mostly people were hatin' on it for not being pasta.   kaaaay.  but then my search led me to chocolateandzucchini.com where the author wrote a bit of an ode to spaghetti squash and she really sold it well.

here's the thing - it is NOT pasta, stop it right now.  it is squashy squash squash and should be treated as such.  so, what do i LOVE to do with squash?  incorporate cheese and cream.

d'uh, i thought, of COURSE i should make this gratin the chocolateandzucchini.com lady is talking about.

so first of all, i took to the squash with a butcher knife a la slasher movie and did my best to make a few stabs (so the squash could breath of course) with out stabbing myself or the counter top.  then put the whole. damn. thing. in a baking dish and left it in oven for an hour.  took it out let it cool and then i attacked it with the knife again thinking i was still dealing with a log.  not really, it sort of erupted and fell apart immediately.  the insides pulled away from the shell (for that's what it is, not peel, not rind, not skin but hard shell).

at this point i realized - this was the easiest damn vegetable i've ever prepared.  so then get the seeds out and scrape out, takes 2 seconds.

Gratin dish, my version:
 
put half the squash in greased baking dish (a big one).
sprinkle salt and pepper (a bit more than you might be thinking because the squash does need some flavor support)
top with thin slices of (cheese i had on hand) queso fresco (salty yet mild yum)
sprinkle bacon pieces on cheese)
pat down second half of the squash
salt and pep
generously heap grated parmesan cheese
top with remaining bacon and candied walnut halves (sounds sketchy but it seriously made the dish)

ok at this point i covered with foil and refrigerated overnight 'cause it was 10:15pm and i might be a late-night secret alone-in-the-kitchen binge eater to an extent but i DO NOT eat family-sized portions of freshly baked squash entrees at 10:45pm.  try chocolate chips and spoonfuls of peanut butter.

so the next evening i took out the dish, poured some half n half in and threw it in the oven for 30 minutes and took the foil of around 15 minutes to crispi-fy the cheese.  delicious.

*one note - if i were to do this again, and judging by the veritable squash jungle going on in the back yard i WILL, i would use heavy cream rather than half and half and i would not use quite as much because there was a bit of excess liquid which pissed me off.

spaghetti or not here i come!

it's time to pick the first few spaghetti squash from the garden.  i'm not really excited, and as i was fairly warned, it has taken over the garden, grown OUT of the fenced in garden and is climbing our play structure several feet away.  i need to pick at least two, perhaps three today - i WILL make them yumy.  but in the mean time, anyone have any suggestions on how?

the pizza sauce

i can never serve store bought again.

you guessed it, get out the cuisinart.

dump in:
1 can diced tomatos, water and all
1 can tomato paste
1 onion
2 tbsp crushed garlic
1 zucchini
1 carrot
1 large fistfull fresh spinach
1 long pour of olive oil
3 tbsp honey
lots o' salt
black pepper
2 tbsp italian seasoning

blend

pour on crust.

blueberry mascarpone coffee cake

this morning's breakfast, easy to make, long to bake

mix:
2 cups flour (i did 1 whole wheat, 1 white)
1.5 cup sugar
1/4 cup blueberry juice
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup greek yogurt
2 tbsp safflower oil
2 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp salt

4 oz mascarpone cheese
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp lemon zest
(whipped together left over from the stuffed dates last night)

mix all together, pour in to greesed cake pan (i used a 9 inch round)
top with crumble topping

bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes

Gourmet Girl: Mascarpone Stuffed Medjool Dates

had these for dessert tonight, totally delicious

Gourmet Girl: Mascarpone Stuffed Medjool Dates

Chicken Pillows!

you know what they say, "you can relocate the girl out of the midwest twice from coast to coast and quadruple her cost of living, but you can't pry that canned cream of mushroom soup out of her hands."

this recpie comes from my dear fellow cow-girl Liz.

Chicken Pillows, they do a heart good when casserole is just too farm-y but you crave something non-local, non-organic, and with just a hint of transfat.  ENJOY!

2 packages crescent rolls
1 block cream cheese
2/3 c. mushrooms
4 tbsp margarine
2 c. cooked chicken, diced (4 breasts)
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
bread crumbs

Roll out dough, divide into rectangles (4 each roll) and seal
perforated lines.  Cream margarine and cream cheese. Add chopped
mushrooms. Put spoonful of cheese mix and few pieces of chicken onto
each crescent roll. Fold the sides of the rectangle together and crimp
edges to make a pillow. Brush each pillow with melted butter then
cover with bread crumbs. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes, until golden
brown. Heat soup with a little milk to use as gravy. Makes 8 pillows.

 So as you can see from my comment below, we went from chicken pillows to one big chicken comforter (aka pie).

Queso Fresco

some other time.

was fantasizing about all the wonderful dishes in which queso fresco might work, only tried it once and BAM it went baaaaad, like super stinky shoes bad.  i shall try again and be prepared to use it quickly.

Mint challenge

well same sister who suggested mint watermelon facials (on to-do list for tonight while catching up on master chef) has asked for more mint ideas.

i can start with mint cucumber basil water

half a cucumber, thinly sliced
bunch of mint chopped
bunch of basil chopped

place in pitcher, pour boiling water (fill 2/3), stir in 1/4 cup of sugar or some agave liquid.  then pack with ice cubes the rest of the way.  let sit in fridge for as long as you like.  i had this tasty refreshing drink available for a week.  fun to drink over ice in nice fancy goblets.

blueberry infused whipped cream and in general the ease with which one may riff on whipped cream...

oh whipped cream, how you make my life better

this summer we got a magic bullet.  it has changed my life in one key area - dessert.  i top anything i can with whipped cream now because i can make it in less than one minute.

i veered off the plain white sugar path and added bourbon.  the kids were outraged and asked me to never ever do that again.

then i started using brown sugar and it was ... hawesommmmmme.

tonight i added some of my aforementioned stockpiled blueberry juice plus white sugar.  fabulous lilac pillows atop my vanilla pudding.

oh, i also did cocoa powder with sugar.  that's really all the dessert you need right there.

now i'm thinking stewed strawberry chunks? honey? crushed candied pecans???

blueberry milk

i saw this on another blog but couldn't remember all the steps.

so here is what i did.

oversupply of blueberries:

boil with a bit of water
add some sugar (i did not add enough in the end so i made up for it by adding agave sweetener at the end)
boil/simmer for a while
try to mash all the berries once they are super soft.
strain
i refrigerated half and froze half

mix with milk, add some agave liquid as needed

butternut squash and mushroom brown rice risotto

roast cubed squash, one LARGE onion, salt and evoo in oven for 30 mins

in pot, sautee 2 cups brown rice in evoo
add 1/4 cup of white wine
let that cook off for a minute or two
add 3 - 4 cups of vegetable stock
bring to boil
turn to low heat and cover
 cook on low for ... till it is all soft

sautee mushrooms, onion flakes, mashed garlic in evoo, peas

prepare your food processor mechanism (mine is the beloved cuisinart) to blend the squash and onion. 
fold in to rice

add mushrooms and peas

top with chopped chives and mascarpone dolups.

A challenge for the readers - Watermelon

it's taking over my life.  i had some frozen in cubes, then i inherited a gigantic half a watermelon this weekend.  i cut it all up and froze in more cubes.  what should i do with them?  they are gross thawed.

Zucchini pesto

Cuisinart you stole my heart.

2 zucchini
1 giant bunch of spinach
5 cloves garlic
1 cup raw almonds
2 cups Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp salt
add olive oil till smooth

Green yummy-ness

Cucumber - an epiphany

I have found a way to love cucumber.  most likely this is obvious to everyone else, but it's taken 31 years for me to understand cucumber has a purpose.  It MUST be peeled, and it serves to cut the saltiness in its partnered food.  ok then, bring on the cucumbers.

Squash challenge from sister

to quote sister "can i throw you a challenge? we overgrew two zucchini and no exaggeration, they are each the size of my lower leg. they would work as peg legs, and shapely ones too. [husband] thinks they will be too gross to even bear cutting into, i think i could premake a 14 tier chocolate zucchini cake for [daughter's] bridal shower. what do YOU think?"

i am going to suggest starting with zucchini chocolate chip muffins:

2 cups wheat flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed shredded zucchini
2 dollops vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup safflower oil
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp baking powder
pinch salt
1 cup (at least) chocolate chips

zucchini cakes- let the squashing begin

shred three zucchini and three large carrots
dice a large red onion
toss with 8 oz greek yogurt
2 tbsp wheat germ
2 tbsp flax powder
1/2 cup of bisquick-type concoction
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
season with: corriander, salt, pepper, garlic powder

pan fry in olive oil, coconut oil, safflower oil, etc.

dollup yogurt, sour cream, apple sauce on top.

husband claims these handle hot sauce quite well.  i will never know.

Salmon cakes with mustard yogurt sauce

the husband, the kids (EVERY SINGLE ONE), and the cousin dog loved this:

MIX:
three cans salmon
one shredded zucchini
1 or 2 shredded large carrots
8 oz ground up mushrooms
handful of chives chopped up
2 dollups of greek yogurt
2 tbsp flax powder
2 tbsp wheat germ
garlic


to taste:
cumin
mustard powder
salt
pepper

served on a bed of israeli couscous with sauteed red onion

SAUCE to drizzle (this is the killer component of the dinner):
greek yogurt
mustard (enough to thin out the sauce to enable you to drizzle on cakes)
garlic salt

Turkey Pile

sounds good right?  good food starts with a disgusting name i find.

sautee a red onion with some garlic in olive oil
add ground turkey, beef, chicken, lamb
add to taste:
salt
black pepper
turmeric
paprika
flax powder
more evoo (the intent is to make it kind of thick and gooey and slippery)

having warmed soft pitas in the oven, place one on each plate
put a handful of fresh spinach on pita
pile ground meat on top
cute 5-6 cubes of fresh cucumber on top
top with generous sprinkle of goat cheese (i'm sure feta would be lovely too)

again, the hell is the squash?

Maiden Post - a muffin kind of week

one of the babies can't eat egg.  this has forced me to bake more than i might have otherwise, and it has forced me to sort of get a grip on the science of baking.

muffins i've made this week, takes less than 10 minutes:

yeilds about 12 muffins

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp flax powder
1/4 cup oil (been using safflower oil)
1 cup vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup milk (more or less, enough to make batter thin out just enough)
add blueberries (fresh is fabulous but this morning i used dried, and frozen works just fine too)

this morning i also did a batch with whole wheat flour, a rogue packet of hot chocolate mix, and added chocolate chips rather than blueberries.  voila, chocolate chocolate chip muffins.

also - the best part of any muffin in my mind is the crumble topping (soft butter, sugar and flour, fork it all together).

i know - where the hell is the squash here?  i'll do that next.