Great Pumpkin (and Squash) Recipe Blog

Follow me to a new location

2010-08-27T12:49:00.004-04:00

I'm giving up this site and in an attempt to make posting easier, I've moved all my content under a single email address. The posts from here have already been exported to the new site. Same design, same content, slightly different address. Join me at greaterpumpkinrecipe.blogspot.com.

All future posts will be there, and this blog will shut down at the end of August.

Vermont Cheddar Bisque or something like it

2010-08-26T18:43:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was CSA pick-up day. We received cantaloupe, 1 pound of tomatoes (I picked some small green striped ones), peaches, peppers (sweet and hot), okra (yuck), green beans, and a loaf of bread. And I did not use a single one of these items for dinner. What I did do was make a potato soup using the last of our potatoes. It seemed like a hands-off kind of meal, and after grilling chicken two nights in a row (once for fajitas and once for a pasta dish with a walnut sauce), that was what I needed. The recipe I started with is below. I'm not sure of its exact origin; my mom sent it to me last year and I meant to cook it a few weeks ago when we were overloaded with potatoes but hadn't gotten to it.

Vermont Cheddar Bisque
1.5 C peeled potatoes, cut into ½-in cubes 2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 C low-sodium chicken broth 1.5 C shredded extra-sharp Cheddar cheese
1/4 C unsalted butter 1/4 tsp salt
1 C finely chopped onions Coarsely ground black pepper to taste
3 T all-purpose flour 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1.5 C 2% reduced-fat milk
1. Combine potatoes and broth in a large stockpot. Cover and bring to a simmer. Cook until potatoes are tender, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat.
2. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add onions and cook stirring, until translucent, 6-to-8 minutes. Add flour and cook stirring 2 minute. Stir into potato mixture. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until thickened.
3. Add milk and cook, stirring, about 8 minutes. Do not boil. Remove from heat and stir in mustard and about half the cheese. Stir until melted. Add remaining cheese. Season with salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper to taste.

I already knew there would be at least one substitution. I had a block of horseradish Cheddar cheese, not extra sharp. But, really, that was just the beginning.

First of all, I really hate peeling potatoes, a task that does not fall in the "low maintenance cooking" category. Since I skipped peeling, I decided to skip cutting, too, and just tossed 2 pounds of potatoes (all we had left) into 3 cups of chicken broth (all we had left) and let those babies cook.

Meanwhile, I melted the butter and sliced two small yellow onions and half of a red onion then cooked them in the butter. That's about what the recipe called for. I did not use any flour. I added some garlic near the end.

I'm not sure how long it took to cook the potatoes; I had the burner at about medium and did sit down to read a magazine so I definitely wasn't running around the whole time. I ended up cooking the potatoes for so long to make sure they were soft that even with the lid on the pot most of the chicken broth evaporated or was absorbed by the potatoes. I used a hand masher to mash the potatoes a bit and then added the onions to the potato pot. I then added 1.5 cups of milk, probably 3 teaspoons of Dijon mustard, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to the pot and pulled out the immersion blender.

The potato mixture was very thick, more like mashed potatoes than soup, so I added more milk. Then I mixed in the cheese, which I had grated in the food processor. It was probably around 1.5 cups.

There were little bits of peel still, but the soup was overall thick and creamy. I sprinkled a little extra cheese on top. I wrote a poem before about Frank Lloyd Wright that had a line about the nutrients in a potato skin. Maybe it's a poem about potatoes and not about FLW.

I have no idea what the nutritional value of this meal is, but it feels pretty healthy -- onions, potatoes, spices, 2% milk, and local cheddar cheese. Filling and not bad to make for a late summer day when the temperatures have finally started to get below Unbearably Hot.

[Pictures to follow]

This weekend will definitely involve cantaloupe plus the watermelon we still have. Now what to do with the pears...

How to Gain 5 pounds on your honeymoon (in one week)

2010-08-23T13:21:00.007-04:00

Sunday: get married and have a brunch reception. You probably lost weight in the days before due to stress, nerves, poor appetite, and running around, and even the increased consumption of alcohol has kept you at your lowest weight in almost 10 years. For the parties on Friday and Saturday, you were too busy talking to people to eat that much. Then you go to the reception buffet and try a little bit of everything. After all, you worked hard to pick a menu and It's Your Day: fresh fruit, salad, frittata, Hot Brown Casserole (a crowd favorite), and a waffle station with chocolate sauce and whipped cream. Eat the fruit, salad, a little bit of the casseroles and two waffles. Don't forget the two mimosas from the bar (peach bellinis and bloody marys also available), a glass of white wine, and the champagne toast. There's the bite of carrot cake with cream cheese frosting after the cutting. Then the 1.5 slices later (yours and part of his, mainly the frosting part).

After the reception, your appetite kicks in again so you order room service: cokes, a hamburger, and pork (his). They mess up the creme brulee order so give you 3 different desserts instead.

Monday: breakfast at the hotel. Coffee with cream and sugar. There's a buffet but you had that yesterday. Order the biscuits & gravy. Breakfast comes on two plates with toast, eggs, and bacon, plus the actual food you ordered.

On the drive to your first honeymoon spot, eat half of a giant cookie leftover from the rehearsal picnic. Stop for lunch at your favorite brewery (Restaurant #1). Order a wheat ale with orange slice. Split a smallish appetizer pizza with goat cheese and duck sausage -- three small slices each. Later, get a huge chocolate cupcake with frosting at a bakery but only eat half of it. More Coke.

Cook the food left for you at the cabin - steak and crescent rolls. Bake the brownie mix. Have a beer (you bought some at the brewery).

Tuesday: Cold cereal for breakfast (Frosted Flakes). Lunch: you end up at an outlet mall and split a huge tuna-salad sandwich and Dr. Pepper.
Dinner: You're at your inn in a scenic lake town. You decide to share dishes so you won't have leftovers and so you have room for dessert. Restaurant #2: Order a vodka martini because martinis are on special but then decide you don't like it so get Chardonnay instead. Let him have his gin martini and some of your vodka one. Split the bacon-wrapped scallops. Split the Saltimbocca ("Braised chicken breast layered with fresh sage and prosciutto, topped with artichoke hearts, lemon beurre blanc sauce, and capers and served on linguine." Order separate desserts: strawberry shortcake and creme brulee.
Drink French Press coffee (with cream and sugar) at the coffee shop while you play cribbage.

Wednesday: Breakfast at the inn: orange juice, fresh fruit, quiche, and a cranberry scone.
Lunch: Restaurant #3: Split the Spinach-artichoke dip and fish tacos. Nap and eat some of the leftover brownies you brought with you.
Dinner: Restaurant #4: Decide it's more cost-efficient to share a bottle of wine -- order the Oregon Pinot Gris. Split the Foie Gras, the Mahi Nicoise salad, and the Walleye Buerre Rouge. Order separate desserts -- creme brulee and something with chocolate. Share a pot of French Press coffee (with cream and sugar).

Thursday: Breakfast at the inn: fresh fruit, Eggs Benedict, and a carrot coffee cake. Coffee with cream and sugar.
Lunch: Restaurant #5, unnamed because it wasn't worth it even though it normally would have been fine: crinkly sweet potato fries, a burger with blue cheese and onion, and a vegetable wrap (his) that did not come with the guacamole. Only eat half of your meal but take it back to your room for someone (him) to finish later.
Snack: Wander the shops again which are having a street sale. Get gelato/sorbet (sour cherry and chocolate for him; hazelnut and coffee for you).
Dinner: he's full from eating the leftover lunch, but you're hungry and dessert first wasn't enough. Go to the Italian place (Restaurant #6) and order the calamari and the half-order of angel hair pasta. Drink water. He eats some of the calamari. Tip extra because you feel bad for taking up a table.
Dinner two: After playing cribbage by the water and skunking your husband thoroughly, you decide you want dessert, which works well because now he's ready for dinner. Return to Restaurant #2 and sit at the bar. In a role reversal, he gets a fancy cocktail and you get a beer (Blue moon). He orders the bacon-wrapped scallops and the key lime pie. You get the spinach artichoke dip (which strangely comes with tortilla chips and salsa) and a root beer float. You have one scallop and he has some dip and chips, plus the salsa.

Friday: Breakfast at the inn: fresh fruit, another coffee cake, and a different type of quiche. Coffee with cream and sugar.
On the road. Coke. Lunch: (Restaurant #7) at Thai place downtown. Coke and noodles with vegetables. Snack: coke and half of a giant oatmeal raisin cookie.
Dinner: Back in the town where you had lunch on Monday. Dinner reservations at Restaurant #8: Order a Manhattan with a cherry. You loved them at this place before and it's half-price martinis (which this drink qualifies as). Split the Trio of Artisan Cheese, the Indiana Tomato Salad, the filet mignon which comes with fancy mac-n-cheese and an herb salad. Sop up the extra salad dressing using the freshly-baked bread. Order a second Manhattan, this time with two cherries. Split the Strawberry Jubliee for dessert. Make reservations for the same restaurant the following night.

Saturday: Breakfast at the b-and-b: fresh fruit, scrambled eggs, bacon, and mini cinnamon rolls. Coffee. Talk with the couple getting married later in the day. mid-morning A&W root beer. Lunch at one of two Tibetan restaurants in town - Restaurant #9: Split the samosas. He gets mo-mo; you get cho-cho. Share the plates. Decide you're too full for crepes at the place you were looking for in the first place.
Snack: buy some tacky college-town t-shirts and two dark chocolate truffles. Open two beers back in your room but only drink 1.5 of them between the two of you.
Dinner: Same restaurant (#7), different floor, different server from before. Order a Manhattan and a Femme Fatale for the table. Order separate Indiana Summer Salads this time. Split the pork tenderloin for dinner. Order one more cocktail each. Order the Chocolate pate and the Black-and-Tan for dessert.

Sunday: Breakfast at Restaurant #10. Coffee (with cream and sugar), Order the french toast plate, which comes with 2 plates: one with four slices of french toast and maple syrup, one with scrambled eggs, bacon, and four slices of wheat toast.
On the road: A coke and half of a king-sized Snickers bar because you feel like it.
Home: Snack on Greek yogurt with raisins. Weigh yourself later and cringe.
Dinner: Wait too long to cook at home because you've been unpacking and napping so you get burritos at Qdoba. Go for the queso burrito with chicken instead of the usual vegge burrito. Add sour cream, cheese, and fajita vegetables. Drink with water at home while catching up on Mad Men. Save half of the burrito for lunch on Monday.
After dinner: go to your neighbors' place for football. Drink a Pepsi, eat two slices of cheese and eat one chocolate-chip cookie.

Monday morning: Weigh yourself. Down 1/2 pound from Sunday afternoon but up 4.5 pounds from your lowest weight the week before. Recognize that walking an average of 10,000 steps a day doesn't count for as much when you're essentially walking from restaurant to restaurant. Enjoy every bite of it all.

Weddings, Kitchen Tools, Canning, and Corn

2010-08-04T12:33:00.003-04:00

Followed by an actual dinner report.

Planning a wedding takes a little more time and mental energy than I originally anticipated with my "Let's just get these details out of the way and don't worry about things we don't like" plan. But there are lists to make and things to cross off and people to talk to and more lists to make and dreams about too many people coming to the wedding that wake you up at 4 in the morning. Plus, it is really, really hot here. This time last year we were flooded (just parts); today it's supposed to be 100 degrees and not a cloud in sight. I'm not worried about the wedding going through or not; I know that whatever the temperature, we'll still be married at the end of the day. I'm worried about heat stroke and just walking from a car to the building.

We have been cooking at home and making use of fun new kitchen toys: the mixer, grill, and immersion blender have been joined by an awesome Vitamix, Which I have not actually used yet but I did watch the DVD. I do plan to make smoothies today after a hot walk home from the bus. Rich started us off with Carrot Top smoothies last week. The first batch tasted a little too much like dirt and carrots. I think this was because he used the stems and greens. Other ingredients included aloe vera, flax seed oil, protein powder, milk, and frozen fruit. The second batch was an electric green color and tasted better. But you still know there are carrot tops in there.

Yesterday we received a trifle bowl -- over winter break, I made two trifles but used regular pans because I didn't have a trifle bowl. This is one of those desserts where I think you really need the right dishes. A lot of the trifle is about the layers, although it does taste delicious, too. I'm looking forward to making one soon (maybe September) in the new bowl.

The CSA is still coming in every Thursday. Starting next week we'll get a rotating loaf of bread, too.

Much of the cooking at home has been canning as wedding favors. At least three weekends were spent canning three different items: green tomato chutney, apple-tomato relish, and hot pepper jam. Two of those weekends, we had help from two friends. Some of the produce came from the CSA but we also got some from farmers markets, ordered directly from a farmer, and at the local grocery store's weekly produce sale.

Last night's dinner made use of 4 ears of corn from the CSA and of the Oxo Corn Stripper my mom sent me last summer. As soon as I received it, I stopped getting corn in the CSA, so last night was my first opportunity to use it. It was a lot easier to use than a knife to scrape the corn off. However, I did still manage to cut myself -- right on the top of my left thumb. This affects my texting skills more than anything else. The idea had been to make this Pan-Roasted Corn and Tomato Salad from the New York Times. I think we've made it before. Except we did not have cilantro or red onion or Thai chilies or avocado. Rich worked late and neither of us wanted to drive to the store in the heat. The market near his office did not have any of these ingredients. Plus, we had fresh produce at home, just not that specifically. So this is what it became: bacon, 1 small yellow onion, corn, green and red tomatoes, salt and pepper, basil, and goat cheese. Yum, so delicious! I immediately put some in a container to take to work before we ate it all last night. To go with it we finished up the gazpacho Rich made this weekend using the Awesome Vitamix.

[Pictures to follow]

Tonight I'm considering something with brussel sprouts and pasta. Because tomorrow we pick up more produce.

Grilled Flounder, Cream of Garlic Soup, and more

2010-06-30T08:59:00.002-04:00

It feels like there hasn't been a lot of at-home cooking this past week. I think we made a few big meals and have been living off those. Last Thursday we picked up the CSA and had cabbage, two types of green beans, blueberries, kohlrabi, onions, cilantro, and cooking apples. Later that night my friend L. came over for dinner and I gifted her with a head of cabbage (we had 3 heads total at that point, and I don't care how great your cole slaw recipe is, a person can only eat so much cabbage. I much prefer the dark leafy greens). The menu for Thursday was Red Snapper with Fava Bean Puree, roasted beets and beet greens with bacon. Maybe using so many Food Network recipes isn't trendy, but there are some good options there, and Giada's dishes are pretty simple but satisfying.

Changes we made: we didn't go to the grocery store until Wednesday night and there was no red snapper, so we bought wild flounder. We put the flounder steaks in aluminum foil with some olive oil and green garlic and cooked it on the grill. I was not about to deal with shelling 3 pounds of fava beans, so we bought the frozen lima beans. The chicken stock was made with water and bouillon cubes because I had forgotten the grocery list and rewrote it from memory but did not remember chicken stock as an item. I think dinner turned out well although Rich wasn't happy with the beet greens. The roasted beets were good with a little salt sprinkled on top.

For dessert we had the option of blueberry buckle (still there from Tuesday) or peaches cooked with balsamic vinegar -- both with vanilla ice cream. We all went with the buckle.

This weekend Rich cooked a delicious cream of green garlic soup and an orzo salad with dill and fennel tops. Recipe links to follow later. I made a peach crisp from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook (sometimes, you just need the basic plaid-covered recipe). I have not had it with ice cream but have added it to my oatmeal and yogurt.

Those cooking apples may become a Brown Betty; otherwise, basic applesauce.

Roasted Turnips, Cream of Potato Soup, Blueberry Buckle

2010-06-23T13:03:00.002-04:00

Last night, not only did I cook dinner by myself (Rich got home just as I was finishing up), but I cooked three dishes: Roasted Turnips, Cream of Potato Soup, and a Blueberry Buckle.

The turnips and potatoes seem more winter than summer, but we have a lot of turnips (from the CSA) and potatoes (to go with the turnips but not from the CSA). Earlier, Rich was going to make "neeps and tatties" but a weekend trip with a delayed return screwed up our schedules, leading him to work late last night. Dinner responsibility fell to me. I do like to cook, but I'm a one-dish girl. I also didn't have the highest energy level last night and probably would have been happy with cereal or something similarly basic. In fact, when Rich called and asked what I was making, he said "it's not something with an egg on top, is it?" (Another of my favorites!). by the way, never comment negatively when someone else is doing all the cooking.

I made the blueberry buckle first. The idea had been to cook it Tuesday night and serve it Thursday night when a friend came for dinner, but it was too good looking to resist (sorry!) Maybe we'll get more blueberries this Thursday. This batch of blueberries came last Thursday and since we ate out Thursday night and left town Friday, we didn't have a chance to eat them, so I froze them (spread out on a cookie sheet). I needed a recipe that only called for one pint of berries and not a lot of eggs (I had been planning on using them at dinner but not on top of something!) since we only had 4 left. This one fit the bill. Changes I made were only to the topping because I ran out of sugar. I mixed some cinnamon with brown sugar to sprinkle on top. We ate it with peach ice cream.*

Roasted turnips: I have never used this recipe before and have never used a Mario Batali recipe before. He's, um, a little short on details. Do I peel the turnips? (I didn't.) How hot should the burner be? (I covered the full range and even popped the pan in the oven for a little bit.) I do think my turnips were a lot bigger than his -- I cut them in 8ths more than quarters -- but this took much longer than 8-9 minutes to saute to a light golden brown. Fortunately, the soup was still cooking. But the cake was also in the oven, and that's a lot to deal with. They did end up being tender enough and the paprika helped with the color.

Potato soup: I almost went with potato pancakes, which would have required using at least one egg. But soup seemed a little more hands-off and less messy. This recipe won because I had all the ingredients except cream. I just realized I skipped the cayenne step -- oh well. I substituted milk (2%) for the cream. The problem with this recipe is it gives you no sense of how long it should take. I had to cook the potatoes (cut in at least quarters) for at least 20 minutes on high to soften them enough. Fortunately for me, I guess, I started dinner and dessert 2 hours before Rich was supposed to get home from work.

The highlight of the potato soup recipe was I got to use the immersion blender! I ended up using the hand masher to start and then used the blender. I sliced up some scallions and cooked some bacon for toppings. We even put a little goat cheese on the soup.

The cake was already cooling when Rich got home and everything else was ready 10 minutes later.

* One of the downsides of downtown living is no grocery store. We walked about 3/4 mile in 90+ degree weather to the fancy market/restaurant. Except the market part was closed. Even though the sign on the door says it's open to 9. And this is the 2nd time we've been there that they closed early. The guy let us and 2 other people who had just shown up buy something since we were not paying with cash. And then they didn't even have vanilla ice cream. In retrospect, we should have just gone to the crummy CVS.

What happened to the squash recipes?

2010-06-14T11:23:00.006-04:00

Our summer squash and zucchini have gotten lost in the piles of greens (kale, lettuce, collard greens, etc, etc). This will need to be corrected. The pasta this week should focus on the squash and not the broccoli (Hmm, maybe broccoli pizza crust later). Or is there such thing as a summer squash soup? Then we can break out the new immersion blender again (post to follow on the the new blender and its first use for kale soup).

Ooh, this one looks good. By the way, I'm also not sure about sneaking vegetables into meals for kids, but since I don't have kids, I guess it doesn't really matter. I did think about the concept when making the cauliflower pizza -- you could totally hide that from children or adult picky eaters.

Or this one. Especially since it's so hot outside. If the weather continues like this through the summer, there will definitely not be an outdoor wedding in August. We will wed in the AC like civilized, non-sweaty people. A third option, although we don't have buttermilk (I think we have the ingredients for everything else, even tahini.) Finally, this one would also use the pasta but would not require use of the immersion blender.

Soup options: Sunny Summer Squash Soup, Cold Zucchini & Summer Squash Soup, Buttermilk, Summer Squash Soup, or Summer Squash Soup with Pasta & Parmesan. Which one would you pick?

The CSA deluge continues

2010-06-14T11:05:00.002-04:00

For the pick-up two Thursdays ago, we were actually able to get through all the food. It helped that we had friends over for dinner Wednesday night and finished up the turnips and salad. Dinner was lamb burgers with the cucumber-yogurt sauce from the turkey burger recipe, red onions cooked in balsamic vinegar, roasted turnips (which I forgot to put out), and the remainder of the salad (mixed greens with avocado, grapefruit, orange, and goat cheese, and a french dressing).

Other highlights of the week included a pizza made with a cauliflower crust -- something different to do with the cauliflower and pretty easy. There are a number of links about it online but it's basically 1 cup of "riced" cauliflower (I boiled it and then put it through the food processor to rice it), 1 egg, and 1 cup mozzarella cheese. I doubled the recipe and used fontina cheese since we didn't have any mozzarella. Mix it together, add some spice if you want, then back at 350? for 10-15 minutes. The crust did not taste like pizza crust we had had before but it didn't taste like cauliflower either. It was pretty good. For toppings, we finished off a can of San Marzano tomatoes, some eggplant sauce we ended up with for a recipe we never made, and sauteed zucchini and squash. Plus the rest of the fontina. It was even good as breakfast the next day.

This past Thursday we picked up collard greens, red cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, squash/zucchini, and garlic. Maybe something else. So far we've had the collard greens and cabbage. Last night we cooked bacon and onion and then added the collard greens. In a separate pot, we cooked bacon and added the red cabbage, brown sugar, and raisins. Tonight is a salad night. Tuesday will probably be pasta with broccoli, zucchini/squash, tomatoes (canned), sundried tomatoes (jarred), and roasted red pepper (jarred). With goat cheese, I'm sure. Wednesday, leftovers. Thursday, we pick up again, but then we're out of town Friday-Monday. There may be blueberries Thursday, so we would definitely eat those that night.

Summer CSA, or this blog should now be called Salad Daze

2010-05-27T12:00:00.003-04:00

Last week our summer CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share started. We knew we wanted to do one but had to talk through the different options. 1) Use the CSA he used last year. One of the pluses was this pick-up is right next to our building. One of the negatives was there was not a lot of variety. 2) Use the CSA I used last year. Pluses: we used this one for the winter share and it had add-ons (meat, eggs, etc). Negatives: there is a downtown pick-up but not as close. 3) Some combination.

We went with Door #2 -- the next decision was the full share (family of 4 with 2 of those supposedly being young, picky eaters) or a half share (which is not half the price of the full share). We decided to go big or go home and picked the full share, feeling that the two of us could get through it. Last summer with each of us getting 1/2 share, we would end up with a full share anyway. In addition to getting the produce box, we also selected the unfortunately named "Mixed Meat" package -- 13 weeks (every other week) of assorted local meat, plus catfish and prawns. We can get local goat cheese and local eggs at the local store. And we decided we really don't need that much whole milk.

I am already feeling like the full share is too much. This is what we got last Thursday:
Strawberries
Spinach
Green Onions
Arugula
Mesculine (apparently, this should be mesclun as mesculine redirects me to mescaline, which We Did Not Get.
Mustard Greens
Head Lettuce (two heads of this)
Easter Egg Radishes
Bok Choy

The meat was frozen ground beef patties and mild (pork) sausage links.

This is what we've had so far:
Thursday - sauteed arugula and mustard greens with bacon. A spinach salad with green onions and strawberries.

This left us with
Green Onions (didn't finish them)
Head Lettuce (2 heads)
Easter Egg Radishes
Bok Choy

Easy, right? Friday night was leftovers. Saturday we had dinner at the baseball game. Sunday was an all-day canoeing trip. We didn't get home until 7 pm and were dirty and exhausted. Monday, R. boiled a chicken and made a Cobb salad. He even hard boiled some eggs and he doesn't even like eggs. So I had the eggs and he had the avocado. The Cobb salad used up green onions and more lettuce, leaving us with
Head Lettuce (1 head)
Easter Egg Radishes
Bok Choy

Tuesday, R. cooked more bacon and mixed it up with pralines to form this great crunchy praline-bacon brittle. Mixed with lettuce, chicken, and goat cheese. Wednesday we ate out because we had evening plans and didn't go home after work.

Now it's Thursday, CSA pick-up day, and we still have the radishes and bok choy left. And we're going out of town this weekend. We picked the last 2 heads of lettuce in the box, and when the people realized they were out, I offered to leave one, and they said, "No, we messed up; we'll just substitute something else." Next time, I will leave the extra head of lettuce.

Grilled Snapper with Orzo (without the orzo)

2010-05-25T14:41:00.010-04:00

Or, Emily grills!

This is a dinner from last week. We had the feta-stuffed burgers Sunday or Monday night. Tuesday night was leftovers. Wednesday night, our friend Y. came over with tools to help Rich (I've been told I can use his first name) install a piece of art (a large metal star we picked up at an architectural salvage store over the weekend). Rich had seen two large rusty stars out on the sidewalk in front of the store when I was still out of town. He emailed me a photo and had the store hold them until Saturday. I was nervous about the star motif. Too Texas? Too trendy? I see a lot of star things on HGTV and not just the next Design Star show.

We went by Saturday to look at the stars in person. There were 2 of them, but we decided the other one was too big. The one we got is still close to 4 feet across but small enough to fit in the back seat of a Honda Civic sedan. The star came with a little hole on three of the tips, perfect for hanging, except we were going to hang it on the brick fireplace and don't have fancy tools for drilling into brick and/or mortar. But our friend Y. does because he does home repair/construction stuff for a living. This is the same friend who fixed the door on Steak Chimichurri night. He came over around 5:30 with the proper equipment, and while he and Rich hung the star about 8 feet in the air on the fireplace, I cooked dinner.

The star on the fireplace.

I had not planned on cooking dinner. I had planned on going to the Y after work and letting Rich cook dinner while Y. hung the star (moon to follow?). But it turns out this hanging thing was a two-person job, so it worked out that I decided to be nice and come home straight from work. I was glad we had already cooked the burgers because the fish seemed easier for me to make. The recipe we had picked was a new one to us: Pan-Grilled Snapper with Orzo Pasta Salad from MyRecipes (specifically, Cooking Light online). It did involve using the grill (we don't need no stinkin' pan) but I had thought I would do the prep and the pasta and Rich would grill. I like to eat from the grill but rarely cook from it. Something about the heat and fire, although the gas stove doesn't bother me. I had really only used a charcoal grill before and even then it was a rare occurrence. I think I mainly grilled vegetables on it because I was afraid of killing myself with undercooked meat. My cooking confidence was not high at that point.

This time I was confident but tentative. Once I figured out how to get the grill going (turn the knob, push the button), I was on my way!

Substitutions to this recipe: Tuesday night we decided to make this for Wednesday but realized we did not have enough orzo and did not want to buy some at the Fancy Overpriced Downtown Market or make a special trip with the car to one of the many grocery stores beyond walking distance from downtown. We considered lentils of which we have plenty. Instead, I decided to cook linguine.

In the middle of cooking on Wednesday, I discovered I did not have enough shallots and added a little garlic but not enough to equal the full amount of shallots in the recipe. Rich suggested red onion but I had already made the garlic sub at that point. Over the weekend we bought frozen red snapper at the grocery store which was having a Buy One Get One Free deal--it turned out to be Buy One for Half Price but since there were only 3 pieces of snapper in each of the two bags, I was glad we had two bags.

Raw snapper on a plate.

The sauce.

Linguine with the sauce in the new bowl

Better view of the bowl

When I tasted the sauce, I thought it might be too tangy (I did double the recipe as recommended), but I liked it on the pasta and fish. The snapper looked beautiful on the grill -- perfect little grill marks. I served the pasta in a bowl we had just received that day as a present and put the snapper on a plate so we could each serve ourselves. The three of us ate 4 pieces of fish, and then Rich and I had the other 2 pieces over the next couple days for leftovers. I don't think I ever had snapper before. It was a good, fatty fish, which was perfect for the grill because it didn't fall apart when I flipped it. And it cooked fast.

Look at those grill marks!

The timing of everything worked out great. Rich and Y.w ere just cleaning up their mess and putting the ladder away when I put the food on the table. Their work site, by the way, was about 3 feet in front of the table, while I was working on the other side of the table in the same room.

Dessert: vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce with Creme de Menthe, and frozen Girl Scout Thin Mints.

Feta-Stuffed Turkey Burgers

2010-05-19T09:02:00.008-04:00

Feta-Stuffed Turkey Burgers - May 19

Last night we used our fabulous new grill and made Feta-Stuffed Turkey Burgers from Cooking Light. From start to sit-down, this took about 45 minutes. Yes, the recipe says 30 minutes, but we started off slow and used a real grill, not a pan. This required moving the plants off the balcony, sliding the grill over, and pulling off the cover. Then we had to sidestep the plants we had moved inside. Urban grilling is difficult, people.

Weber grill - so cute!

What we did differently: We had 1.5 pounds of ground turkey so used some extra red onion and feta cheese. I used Greek yogurt instead of plain yogurt (it just seemed appropriate) and grated a little lemon rind into the cucumber-yogurt combo. We did not add any lettuce to the burgers. We used onion rolls instead of Kaiser or hamburger buns.

Verdict: Delicious. The prep work was pretty straightforward. R. sliced the onion while I sliced the feta (we bought a block instead of the crumbles). He assembled the burgers, after mixing the ingredients in the mixer--not part of the recipe but why not? I made the yogurt mixture.

We ended up with 6 burgers, but we each only had one. I have one with me for lunch today as a deconstructed burger--there's a bun, but it's not assembled. We didn't have any side dishes except for a few pickles from the fridge. Next time I would make a side salad using the lettuce and tomato. And feta. And olives (for R. not me).

Dessert: Leftover strawberry-rhubarb crisp with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Some of the ingredients- red onion, cucumber, Greek yogurt, feta cheese

Turkey and onion with spices in the mixer

Cucumber and yogurt sauce/spread

Patties being assembled with cheese in the center

On the grill

Look at those grill marks!

Assembled and ready to eat

Special Lunch Post: Turkey Club Wrap

2010-05-06T12:22:00.002-04:00

I'm heading out of town straight from work today so did not bring my lunch with me (just snacks) because I didn't want to leave a dirty container at work for a week or travel with one. Or clean it in the work bathroom and leave it at work, an option I just now considered. However, I also had leftover chicken paprikash for dinner last night, which made 4 meals, and today's lunch would have been 5, which is really just too much, so I wanted something different anyway.

Although there are other options on campus for lunch (one day I will get egg salad on a bagel), I went for the one I always go to --the closest one. There's a "cafe" (coffee shop) on the ground floor of my building. It sells coffee and tea from a local coffee shop but the food is provided by the campus provider. They have packaged salads and sandwiches which generally include an assortment of wraps. I tend to go for Turkey Club, Chicken Caesar, or Buffalo Chicken. Today I went with Turkey Club because it was the only one available--there were two non-wrap sandwich options, but they cost more. The 3 I pick are also the 3 cheapest ones, $4.79 plus tax. If you buy it with a bottle of soda, the total is $6.66--the devil's lunch!

I know that the semester is officially over (graduation this weekend), summer classes haven't started, and the cafe has reduced hours, but, hello, people still work here. I have a 12-month contract; I don't get summer off and neither does my lunch. Well, fine, I get the turkey a lot anyway. But the hot press seems to have also taken the summer off. If you get it hot, the cheese melts, and the lettuce gets that nice warm, wilty feeling, and it's generally a little gooier all around. The cafe person put my sandwich in the press, and when she gave me my unnecessarily large plastic container with the wrap, the container was warm, but when I got back upstairs, the cheese was not melted, and the lettuce was not wilty. I actually broke my plastic knife in half trying to cut through it. Cutting the wrap is an issue even when it's hot but the lettuce was particularly trying today; I seemed to have only tough lettuce parts in my wrap.

Lesson: Don't buy lunch on campus during the summer.

Chicken Paprikash

2010-05-05T09:06:00.003-04:00

There has been a lot of travel happening, with more to come, so that means not much cooking. Monday night, after we had spent a long weekend out of town, R. cooked Chicken Paprikash. We actually bought the ingredients the week before but didn't have a chance to make it. The chicken was in the freezer, but I moved it to the refrigerator Sunday night when we got home. That's me, always thinking ahead.

I haven't had Chicken Paprikash before, and, in fact, R. is the only person I've ever heard say "paprikash." I would have just called it Chicken Paprika. But it's his father's recipe, not mine, and he has some Hungarian heritage and I don't, so what do I know.

No recipe for this meal because it was all in R.'s head and only required one phone call. Well, two calls because his parents weren't home so he called his sister. I can tell you this meal involved bacon, chicken drumsticks (he had been looking for thighs but couldn't find the right kind), onion, paprika (I want to say he used a combination of sweet and smoked), sour cream, and cute little home-made dumplings. I have links to 4 recipes I found online, none of which match what I remember from his. I don't think he used any tomato paste, but since I wasn't home for the start of the cooking, I can't say for sure. I can say I did not see any tomato paste cans on the counter. He cooked some rice to go with it since it's a soupy dish. I would have thought noodles, but again, it's not my recipe.

It was a very good dinner but perhaps a bit large for two people. We are still eating it. I had it Monday night and Tuesday for lunch and will have it again today (although with noodles this time because we did run out of rice). He had it Monday and yesterday. We will probably eat it tonight, which will exceed my quota for number of times I'll eat the same meal in a week (3). We need to finish it before leaving town Thursday night as I don't think it will keep that well over the weekend.

Four examples of chicken paprikash recipes, none of which were actually used:
one, two, three, four.

Spinach, spinach, & more spinach

2010-04-27T08:16:00.002-04:00

Last night a friend came over to design a necklace and bracelet for me. I'm very excited! R. offered to make dinner. Then it turned out he had a board meeting after work, which would have cut into cooking time. Saturday I started looking for make-ahead recipes we could use. Since we hadn't picked a meal yet or gone shopping, we were pretty flexible. I was leaning towards a vegetable lasagna for a few reasons. One, we have a bunch of no-bake lasagna noodles still from when I bought too much for the squash/pumpkin lasagna this past winter. Two, it's spring, and to me spring equals vegetables. Through the power of the open web, I found a spinach lasagna recipe at the Mayo Clinic, of all places. At least we know it's healthy: Spinach lasagna with sun-dried tomato sauce.

While R. was napping (still) on Sunday, I started the mushrooms and spinach, skipping the sauce for later. R. did that part when he got up and then took over and assembled it. Our changes:
- we used 2% milk because the soy milk we had was vanilla flavored
- we used sund-dried tomatoes in a jar (oil) instead of dry-packed
- we had a greater variety of mushrooms and ended up with 12 ounces instead of 10
- we used regular instead of fat-free ricotta

Prep was pretty easy, just a little time-consuming because of the steps. Clean-up wasn't that bad. R. covered the baking pan in foil and stuck it in the fridge. Monday evening, I pre-heated the oven when my friend showed up and baked the lasagna while we talked design.

We had extra spinach, having bought twice as much as we needed, and I thought a salad would be a good thing to have. However, I didn't want to go to the store for anything extra, so I did a Google search for "spinach apple salad" and quickly settled on this one. We had Granny Smith apples and cheddar (shredded) but no walnuts. Close enough. The dressing was good, but I would almost use a little less oil. I put the shredded cheddar in a separate dish and also put some goat cheese in a dish so we could choose which type we wanted. R. got some hazelnuts out, as well. I think we all ended up having it with goat cheese. Is there anything goat cheese doesn't improve?

For dessert, R. had made a raspberry chambord sauce the other night and we still had some left.(By the way, Chambord liquer has the cutest bottle ever. I'll even say it's cuter than the Frangelico monk.) We also had vanilla ice cream and butter pecan ice cream. And Ghiradelli 60A% bittersweet chocolate chips for melting. We decided on vanilla and topped with the raspberry sauce and some chocolate sauce. Delicious!

Steak Chimichurri, Yucca Fries, and Fried Plantains

2010-04-13T09:32:00.001-04:00

Skirt Steak with Chimichurri, Yucca Fries, and Fried Plantains - April 12

This meal came about because we had leftover mint chimichurri from the lamb we cooked last week. I've been low on B12 and needed a meat dish, so steak it was. We went to the local grocery store that was more likely to have yucca but less likely to have skirt steak. We ended up getting a different cut (the name of which I'll have to check on) that was already cut very thin.

We also picked up 2-3 yucca and then 1 plantain as an impulse buy (my impulse). The Cuban restaurant I love here has delicious fried plantains. Spoiler alert: Next time I'll just go there.

The recipe was an Emeril one from the Food Network. The plantain recipe was from Alton Brown.

This ended up being a great meal for Monday night since we ended up having a friend over for dinner as a thank-you for fixing the door that wouldn't lock. Sunday afternoon R. picked up some Mexican beer and some salad fixings to round things out.

We used a lot of oil last night and did some peeling. And almost broke the new Kitchenaid slicer. Yucca are tough. Despite some oil temperature mishaps (first too hot then not hot enough), the yucca fries turned out almost perfect. They didn't look golden, but they were the perfect crispness. The plantains were tolerable. I admit I totally messed up on the recipe--I couldn't visualize the one-inch slices and then didn't have slices that could stand vertical only to be smashed down. The flavor and texture weren't what I wanted.

The steak was pan fried (our new grill arrived yesterday but we didn't have time to set it up--some assembly required--and didn't have gas for it anyway) and was delicious. R. made some more of the chimichurri to be used as a salad dressing (greens, grape tomatoes, shredded carrot, feta cheese, and optional olives) and with the meat.

For dessert, Blue Bell Pistachio Almond ice cream or Breyer's Butter Pecan Ice Cream with chocolate sauce made with Ghiradelli 60% dark chocolate chips.

There's a little bit of everything left. I'm tempted to cut the rest of the steak up and add it to the salad.

Catch-up of meals with photos

2010-04-08T19:38:00.003-04:00

Not a very appetizing photo, but a good meal, if not a little spicy-I blame the jalapeno. It's a Squash and Black Bean Stew. It was thicker than a stew. We used sour cream to cut the spice.

Pumpkin souffle -- straight from the oven and up and then down to deflated.

This pumpkin-turkey goulash came from Epicurious. Goulash is a Hungarian stew (short answer). My mom used to make a version of it I didn't care for growing up; this was okay, but too much.

Dusting off the pumpkin (again)

2010-04-07T15:28:00.002-04:00

It's been more than 2 months since my last post. We have had pumpkin. Most recently we made pumpkin pancakes (from Epicurious) with dried cranberries (our own addition) using pumpkin from the freezer (and we still have leftover pumpkin). We have been eating great meals, with or without squash, but I have been bad about photographing the cooking or even the finished product. I then decide I can't post unless I have pictures. However, I do have pictures (still on my camera) of some meals and still didn't post.

Then today I read this article in the New York Times about food bloggers who photograph their food, and it was actually helpful. I do not photograph my food at work or at restaurants or at other people's houses. I just snap pictures in my kitchen. If I can't handle that, then I should delete this site now. The other issue has been that I don't do as much of the cooking--less involved leads to less motivation to document. But here is my new, new resolution -- post about dinners (whether they have squash or not), made at home (whether by me or not), with or without photographs. At least once a week.

Tonight is leftovers, but I'll still try.

Winter squash on the way...

2010-01-27T15:59:00.003-05:00

Today's CSA newsletter promises winter squash, possibly something called the long neck pumpkin, which looks like a deformed butternut squash.

Squash-related posting to resume soon. Meanwhile, here's a bulleted summary of eating from the past week or so. Most of this covers a trip to Boston and Cape Cod.

baked scrod with spinach and brussel-sprouts with bacon (lunch at Legal's Test Kitchen)
Gobbler sandwich (turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce - just like Thanksgiving leftovers) from All Star Sandwich Bar
raw oysters, fancy cheese, salmon, and a Greek bean-based dish (food at R's sister's house)
cheese blintzes from S&S
spinach-and-artichoke dip, mussels, and calamari salad from Boston Beer Garden
raw oysters from Chatham (at R's parents' house - caught by his dad). As an aside, do you catch oysters or harvest them? Or something else?
Scallops alfredo from Napi's in Provincetown
Chicken fingers at Chicago's Midway airport
Cabbage soup (made by me, at home)
Chicken picata with onions and orzo -- this deserves its own post soon (made by me, at home)
Couscous with dates, craisins, almonds, and goat cheese (made by R., at home)

No squash but some delicious seafood

The lasagna I didn't make, leftovers, and the 2nd trifle

2010-01-12T20:10:00.008-05:00

Just to state the obvious, but it's hard writing a blog post every day. I'm barely doing every week! Things have been slow here in 2010 so far at the Great Pumpkin and Squash Recipe headquarters. We may finally be awaking from our chocolate-covered cherry coma.

I'm not even sure what I had for dinner last week since the soup posts. The closest we've come to a new recipe is the Giada butternut squash lasagna that I did not make last night. We had talked about it over the weekend, but then R. made a HUGE pot of red beans and rice, and I was worried about having too many leftovers. Especially since I'm heading out of town Thursday and he's following Saturday and the lasagna is not something would look good in the refrigerator after a week.

I did get as far as taking out some pumpkin (2 cups) and squash (1 cup) from the freezer Monday morning. Monday evening, though, they still weren't thawed, and I realized that one of the most time-consuming parts of the recipe the first time was thawing the frozen pumpkin on the stove. So I refroze it (hopefully, that will be fine). I wouldn't have had it for dinner anyway just because of the cooking time and because I didn't even attempt to start it until 7.

What I did have was leftovers -- ribeye, turnips, and mashed sweet potatoes. We were supposed to have friends over for dinner Friday and that would have been the menu (plus ice cream with chocolate sauce), but I wasn't feeling well or at least up to entertaining, and we rescheduled. But what to do with the thick cut of meat with some coffee rub thing on it? (Don't ask me about the meat; I didn't pick it out.) R. cooked it all up. He had high praise for the turnips from the CSA. I've never been a fan of turnips. Or should I say I'd never even met turnips before that I can recall? I can't give all the details on cooking, but he sliced them thin, cooked them, and added some salt and pepper. They were sort of mashed but not completely. The mashed potatoes have become a favorite here -- sweet potatoes, lavender, lemon juice, and milk (whole milk from the CSA; potatoes also from the CSA).

I also cooked a hot dog in the microwave, mainly because I saw the apple-and-tomato relish in the fridge and remembered R. had the relish on a hot dog the night before (the hot dogs came from the depths of the freezer). I only had one bite of the hot dog but ate a couple spoonfuls of relish (homemade by R.)

* I will get the recipes for the turnips and potatoes and post those later. *

Tonight's leftovers for dinner following a trek to and from the YMCA were the rest of the turnips and potatoes and one-half of a goat cheese and hot pepper jelly (homemade by us) sandwich. The jelly has a kick to it that the goat cheese cuts nicely. Cream cheese works well, too. That version is the fancy version of my childhood cream cheese and grape jelly sandwiches.

Tonight's dinner - I'm not proud, but I am satisfied.

--------

Trifle 2.0

We made the whisky trifle from Christmas (from the Eat Feed Autumn Winter cookbook) for New Year's Eve. We went to a small party hosted by a couple originally from Russia. Lots of delicious fish-based foods -- salmon, caviar, and something called herring under a fur coat(?), which is not the most appetizing name but was a good dish. The "coat" was made of beets. Then there were these little potato dumplings that seemed a little like pierogi but smaller and Russian. After all that food, I wasn't sure anyone would want dessert, but there was still the trifle! This time we put it in a 13 * 9 glass baking dish, lining the ladyfingers on the bottom and then around the perimeter. We made some extra whipped cream to cover the top completely and sprinkled some granola on top. Having learned from last time, we made the custard the night before. Fortunately, the party didn't start until 10 so we had some time during the day for the rest of it.

The small group ate about half of it, and we left the rest with the hosts who were more than willing to finish it off (I think they had it for breakfast). The baking dish worked well and showed off the layers, but I still want a trifle bowl.

Ladyfingers on the bottom of the baking dish

Ladyfingers lining the baking dish with liquor in the background

Custard spread over the ladyfingers with a cookbook spread in the background

UPDATE:

We have determined that the delicious turnips were actually delicious watermelon radishes. Still no complete recipe for that or the potatoes.

Tonight's dinner was a fried egg and half of a goat cheese-and-hot pepper jelly sandwich.

Stay tuned for updates from the on the road. If not winter squash, then at least some seafood. Just to keep things interesting.

CSA pick-up - where did all the squash go?

2010-01-07T09:20:00.003-05:00

This week was another squash-free CSA pick-up. We received the following:

daikon radishes (made a good relish using these at Thanksgiving)
cabbage (ugh)
sweet potatoes
lettuce (not sure what kind it is, but it's very delicate)
mushrooms (the special item this week)
milk (every week)
eggs (every week)

This means there will either be more Squash-Free recipes, or I will start posting any interesting meal we make whether it has pumpkin/squash or not.

Monday night I made the Gingered Butternut Squash Soup with a few substitutions - only one apple, no carrots, and 3 small instead of 2 medium potatoes. I thought this meal would last the week. I was wrong. It was gone by Wednesday and I only had one serving. Next time may call for a double recipe, although an immersion blender would make things easier. Even with the regular recipe, I can't fit all of the soup in the blender at once.

Asian Butternut Squash

2010-01-03T15:31:00.006-05:00

No squash-and-goat cheese quesadillas yet. We went for an Asian theme instead: Asian Butternut Squash (from SavvyFoodie, based on Jamie Oliver).

I did not do any of the cooking, so I can't say how easy it was to make, but I can say it was easy enough that it only took one person. I felt only slightly guilty for not helping since I was on vacation and R. worked that day. But I know he likes to cook and he usually goes from day job to night job with no time for cooking so this was actually a treat for him. And for me.

He followed the recipe pretty closely, but we were missing a couple ingredients. Even though I went to the specialty store for Chinese Five Spice, I ended up not getting cilantro or pistachios. I think we had some slivered almonds on it. I just forgot about the cilantro because I did end up at the grocery store after the specialty store. The 5 spice store was not an Asian specialty store; it's actually Italian and where we bought the ladyfingers for the trifle and where we get bread and pasta sometimes. I was asked to either get the individual spices and locate a spice mill (or coffee grinder) or get the mix. Despite a wide selection of spices, the store only offered 1 of the 3 spices needed, and a five-spice blend was not to be found in the spice section. However, I did locate it on the Asian shelf. This particular blend included cinnamon, star anise, fennel, ginger, cloves, white pepper, and licorice root (which is 6, but who's counting).

To accompany the squash, R. made the stir-fried bok choy from SimplyCooking. We had an overflow of cabbage * and considered doing a cabbage-and-apple salad like this one from Vegan Epicurean but did not have miso (a day or two later, we tried to buy some at the nearby gourmet market but got a miso soup mix that substituted fine enough and later in the week we got miso at the Italian market to have on hand for next time).

The Asian squash was delicious and the bok choy was a nice accompaniment. This was a good new squash recipe to add to the rotation. To me, it was almost borderline Indian-tasting, and there's an Indian spice I don't care for but can't yet identify, but this managed to stay on the non-Indian spice side of food. And I really loved it with the raisins. Some rice or even naan (I like that part of Indian food) would have been a good addition. Maybe next time.

* We have so much cabbage I should have called this the Great Cabbage Recipe Blog. The problem is I'm not a big fan of cabbage. The salad was good with the apples and extra dressing. Tonight, we're going squash free with a miso & cabbage soup (also with carrots and green onions). It's very cold here -- not as cold as other places and no snow -- but nearly 20 degrees colder than normal. Cold = soup weather. Tomorrow I will most likely use the remaining butternut squash to make one of the soups again.

Christmas Dinner (squash free)

2009-12-26T10:07:00.007-05:00

This KitchenAid professional Empire Red mixer was a Christmas present from my parents, and it has played a starring role in the holidays.

The butternut squash are still waiting. I'm thinking of trying a squash-and-goat cheese quesadilla today. I saw it on a local restaurant's menu before and I think we can throw something together.

For Christmas dinner, we selected a meal from the great cookbook Eat Feed Autumn Winter by Anne Bramley (full disclosure: I know the author). I bought this book for R. for his birthday. Earlier in the week we made a couple things from it but didn't do a full menu. For Christmas, we decided to select a full menu. I was in the mood for red meat, so we went with Highlands Hogmanay (p. 126) - A Scottish New Year.

Each menu has multiple dishes with the full recipes. There are also related quotes, information on that particular day (solstice, New Year's, etc.), and side boxes with other details. Plus, gorgeous pictures.

Menu:

Oat Cakes with Smoked Salmon and Salmon Caviar

Beef Rib-eyes with Whisky Sauce

Caramelized Onion Mashed Potatoes

Whisky Trifle

Oh my, was that a good meal. We even found the recommend oat biscuits (Walkers) from Whole Foods. I don't think we found salmon caviar exactly, but it was something close enough (I didn't pick that part). The only recipe that took a long time was the trifle, and that could have been avoided if we had read the direction in addition to the ingredients -- the custard had to set for 3 hours and then the ladyfingers had to set for 4 hours, but I could have easily made the custard the day before (as recommended).

We ate the meal around 3 or so and had dessert around 8. I skipped a few steps with the trifle and just cooked the fruit on the stove top and we didn't do the toasted honey oats. I had some leftover trifle for breakfast and think I am slowly getting drunk on it. Instead of Scottish whisky, we used Kentucky bourbon.

It called for 6 steaks, but since we didn't invite anyone over, we just had 2 generously sized steaks. I have some leftover beef from yesterday (R. cleaned his plate) and we have potatoes still. We also cooked up some grape tomatoes and had them on the side with basil and goat cheese. Added a nice punch of color and used up some of our extra tomatoes (leftover from a salad the night before).

This was our first Christmas together and the first time neither of us visited our parents for the holidays. We really had a lovely day, and I'm glad we had such a meal to go with it.

Smoked salmon on oat biscuits topped with salmon caviar and creme fraiche

Sauteing up some grape tomatoes

Mashing the potatoes and caramelized onion in the mixer

The steaks - R. was worried about messing them up, but they turned out great, and it was a very easy recipe.

Potatoes, steak, and tomatoes with goat cheese on the plate

R. gets ready to dig in

The ladyfingers and custard -- we need a trifle bowl; this one wasn't deep enough

Apples and pears cooking in butter and sugar (and maybe just a little port)

Whipping cream in the mixer

The trifle more fully assembled

What was waiting for us afterwards. It was worth it. And the dishwasher did its share.

Stay tuned - the squash is coming

2009-12-23T14:40:00.002-05:00

Today's CSA announcement said we were getting "3 pounds of assorted winter squash."

Can't wait!

Butternut squash lasagna

2009-12-20T09:48:00.018-05:00

This recipe for Butternut Squash Lasagna is from Giada on the Food Network. My dad sent me the link to this -- he and my mom loved it. My dad is retired and has some time to watch the Food Network, and he is partial to Giada. Plus, e knew we had all this pumpkin. Lately, I've only been watching that channel at the gym -- it's a little disconcerting to be pedaling away on the elliptical and then see Paula Deen add 2 sticks of butter to a bowl.

I don't think I had ever made lasagna before. Or if I had, it was something really basic like layering jar tomato sauce with lasagna noodles and sprinkling some cheese on it. I cooked this on Monday after work (and after the gym). We thought the daughter of a family friend would be coming through town Tuesday and this would be good to have handy for her and her children for dinner. So I got home from the gym around 7 and started cooking.

Butternut Squash Lasagna (Giada De Laurentiis, Food Network)

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 (1 1/2 to 2-pound) butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup water
3 amaretti cookies, crumbled
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 1/2 cups whole milk
Pinch nutmeg
3/4 cup (lightly packed) fresh basil leaves
12 no-boil lasagna noodles
2 1/2 cups shredded whole-milk mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup grated Parmesan

Directions

Heat the oil in a heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the squash and toss to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour the water into the skillet and then cover and simmer over medium heat until the squash is tender, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Cool slightly and then transfer the squash to a food processor. Add the amaretti cookies and blend until smooth. Season the squash puree, to taste, with more salt and pepper.

Melt the butter in a heavy medium-size saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk for 1 minute. Gradually whisk in the milk. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the sauce thickens slightly, whisking often, about 5 minutes. Whisk in the nutmeg. Cool slightly. Transfer half of the sauce to a blender*. Add the basil and blend until smooth. Return the basil sauce to the sauce in the pan and stir to blend. Season the sauce with salt and pepper, to taste.

Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees F.

Lightly butter a 13 by 9 by 2-inch glass baking dish. Spread 3/4 cup of the sauce over the prepared baking dish. Arrange 3 lasagna noodles on the bottom of the pan. Spread 1/3 of the squash puree over the noodles. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese. Drizzle 1/2 cup of sauce over the noodles. Repeat layering 3 more times.

Tightly cover the baking dish with foil and bake the lasagna for 40 minutes. Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses over the lasagna. Continue baking uncovered until the sauce bubbles and the top is golden, 15 minutes longer. Let the lasagna stand for 15 minutes before serving.

*When blending hot liquids: Remove liquid from the heat and allow to cool for at least 5 minutes. Transfer liquid to a blender or food processor and fill it no more than halfway. If using a blender, release one corner of the lid. This prevents the vacuum effect that creates heat explosions. Place a towel over the top of the machine, pulse a few times then process on high speed until smooth.

First the substitutions. Can you believe 3 weeks into the Winter CSA and we still haven't gotten any squash? I used 2 cups of the pureed pumpkin from the freezer instead. This would have saved some time, except I needed to thaw it, which I did on the stove instead of in the microwave. Also, I did not use amaretti cookies -- we had leftover Nilla Wafer crumbs from bourbon balls and I used those with 2 capfuls of almond extract instead.

In terms of difficulty, this recipe wasn't that bad. I have a mental block against sauces (it's the whole stir constantly thing; I like to move around when cooking), but it turned out okay. No scorching! It could have been a little thicker, but it was much better than my pudding attempt later in the week.

My problems came with the layering of the ingredients. We had Barilla no-bake lasagna noodless, which are small. I'm not sure if other brands are the same or not, but I always picture lasagna sheets as being long. I put three in the bottom of the dish then added the pumpkin, sprinkled the cheese, and then poured sauce over. I felt like the noodles were too small and wondered if I should overlap more on the bottom but resisted. The recipe says to repeat this 3 times -- I ended up only doing it 3 times total. And then I wasn't sure what to end with at the top -- sauce? cheese? At the last minute (actually, a little past then because it had already been cooking awhile), I added a layer of lasagna noodles and then sprinkled more cheese on top.

It came out to a nice golden brown and, yes, the noodles expanded when cooking so filled up the dish more. I will say that this is not the most visually appealing dish - orange, green, and shades of brown. But it was delicious! The guests came through Wedneday, not Tuesday, and didn't stay for dinner, so R. and I have been eating this on our own through the week (it says it serves 8-10). It heats up nicely in the microwave and holds together well. It's rich without being too heavy.

When I told my mom I made it, I said that we liked it but it took a long time to make. She said she didn't know because dad made it -- well, he's retired, he had all day! I didn't finish until after 9. While it was cooking, I was able to take a shower and then had a bowl of cereal for dinner.

Some of the ingredients

Pumpkin puree

Stir, stir, stir!

Adding basil to the blender

After mixing the basil and some of the cream sauce in the blender

Adding nutmeg to the cream sauce

Pumpkin spread over the noodles - I probably should have had used more pumpkin. It's not like I don't have enough.

Sauce poured over cheese, pumpkin, lasagna noodles - the basil made it a lovely shade of green

Sauce layered over pumpkin & cheese

The finished product - maybe a little too brown on top?

Tatsoi with jasmine rice and eggs

2009-12-09T19:15:00.005-05:00

This is the 2nd week of our winter CSA and still no squash. There's still plenty of pumpkin in the freezer, but that requires more preparation (i.e. thawing the pumpkin). So tonight starts a new segment called Squash-Free Cooking.

I was going to cook an egg tonight with some kale (from today's CSA) and maybe a corn tortilla spread with goat cheese and hot pepper jelly. But R. reminded me of the tatsoi from last week. There's a reason it was still here -- neither of us was quite sure what it was. This is one of the joys and challenges of having a CSA.

We switched CSA locations to one slightly more convenient and I think we lucked out in the special ingredient category because we got maple syrup again! This will be luck if we skip a sorghum week (the other items are honey and mushrooms). Or maybe everyone gets two weeks of maple syrup in a row.

I skipped an Internet search and went straight to the cookbooks for a recipe. But only one of the cookbooks I checked had anything with it. Nothing in The Joy of Cooking. Nothing in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. Nothing in the Moosewood Cookbook. Only Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone had anything and that was the Tender Tatsoi with Sesame Oil Vinaigrette. A salad. Except it is currently 30 degrees outside and I wanted warmth.

So I made up the following on the spot based on what I found in the pantry and what Deborah Madison's cookbook called for:

Ingredients: jasmine rice, tatsoi, olive oil, rice vinegar, sesame oil, black sesame seeds, and oyster sauce.

Cook time: maybe 30 minutes.

Cooking process:

I wasn't sure if I should just eat the greens or the stems as well so I split the difference and included part, but not all, of the stem. I sauteed the tatsoi in olive oil for about 10-15 minutes at medium heat and then added a splash of rice vinegar and a splash of sesame oil. The book called for toasted sesame seeds, which we didn't have. R. said there were black sesame seeds in the spillover spice area (on the very top of the kitchen cabinets). I couldn't reach the container even with a chair unless I climbed on the counter, which I was not prepared to do. Turns out there were also black sesame seeds in the spice rack, so I added a pinch of those.

Meanwhile, I cooked the jasmine rice according to the package instructions. I didn't feel like dirtying another pan so for the egg, I pushed the tatsoi to the side, turned the heat down slightly and cooked the egg on the other half of the skillet. I cooked it "sunny side down," which is a new thing for me. The yolk was still a little runny -- that's my favorite part when it spills over the food.

I scooped some rice into my bowl, added a little bit of oyster sauce (I bought this for an earlier Asian cabbage recipe and haven't used it since), topped it with the tatsoi and then slid the egg on the very top. Had it with a glass of Shiraz.

There is leftover rice and tatsoi for one of us to have tomorrow. Egg sold separately.

washed tatsoi in my favorite colander

Bag of jasmine rice

The extra spices live on the top of the cabinet I can't reach

Vinegars, sauce, and spice

Simmering rice

[No picture of the tatsoi cooking, sorry]

The finished plate with the runny yolk

Pumpkin & Goat Cheese Risotto

2009-12-08T19:24:00.001-05:00

I'd been looking forward to trying this recipe for Pumpkin & Goat Cheese Risotto, which came from Kath Eats at http://www.katheats.com/celine-vin/ (one of the new food blogs I've been reading -- new to me, since I just subscribed to a bunch in the past few months) who got it from the Millennium Knickerbocker Hotel Chicago:

Pumpkin and Goat Cheese Risotto

½ onion, minced

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 small pumpkin, peeled, seeded, and medium diced (can substitute with butternut squash or acorn squash)

½ can pumpkin puree

4 oz. goat cheese

1 ½ cups Arborio rice

5 cups hot chicken stock

½ cup white wine

1 T. grated parmesan cheese

2 T. butter, unsalted

1-2 T. kosher or sea salt

½ tsp. fresh ground pepper

2 T olive oil

1 bay leaf, dried

Chives, thyme or parsley, chopped

1. Steep the bay leaf in your chicken stock.

2. In a heavy bottom stock pot, sauté rice with pumpkin (not the puree) and onions over medium heat until onions are translucent and rice has a toasty aroma with a golden color. Add garlic and sauté briefly.

3. Deglaze with white wine, add bay leaf.

4. While stirring vigorously add stock one cup at a time. (It will take a few minutes to absorb the stock, so this is a labor-heavy task).

5. Continue adding the stock 1 cup at a time until it is absorbed. You will use almost, if not all, of the stock depending on how you like it, ale-dente or fully cooked. Before adding the last cup of stock, stir in your pumpkin puree.

6. Once your rice is cooked to your liking, you should season it with salt and pepper and add your cheeses while stirring.

7. Finish by adding in your butter, stirring until it is completely melted.

8. Stir in your chopped herbs, allowing it to sit for a minute before serving so it can allow all of the flavors to marry.

What does it say about our kitchen that fancy rice, pumpkin, and goat cheese are now staples here? Besides that we spend too much on groceries each month that we like to eat well. The only snag was we did not have enough chicken stock so ended up draining broth from two cans of chicken noodle soup.

I had absolutely nothing to do with the preparation of this meal, except the chicken broth idea which I came up with to avoid having to drive to the Sad Kroger on a Sunday night after a long day. I do have pictures of what was done, and I can tell you it was delicious! Even with us forgetting to add black pepper at the end. The only deliberate change was not adding chopped pumpkin, because believe it or not, we had no fresh pumpkin or squash; everything left was already pureed.

Even the leftovers were good -- which is the sign of a good meal. R. added sour cream and hot sauce to his leftovers.

Broth, measuring cups, goat cheese and leftover apple-cranberry crisp (not part of the recipe)

Steeping the bay leaf in the stock/broth

Adding the pumpkin puree

Cooking the rice and waiting for it to toast

The cooking putting it all together.

Still life with cheap Chardonnay, leftover Shiraz, and the cook's glasses

Risotto in my bowl!

Butternut squash with pasta & goat cheese

2009-12-04T19:30:00.005-05:00

local maple syrup

one-half of a butternut squash, after roasting

It turns out our first winter pick up was on Wednesday, not Tuesday. At least I realized that before we went to the site. We had enough trouble as it was -- location at the corner of a one-way street on the right side and I was in the left lane so we missed it completely. Then when we came back around, we still didn't see it and didn't notice the sign until the freight train slowly passed by on the tracks between us and the building. And there's only one way there.

After all that, we finally picked it up and no winter squash! We had broccoli, a winter mix (which looks remarkably similar to the spring mix), tatsoi, kale, milk, and eggs. The special item was maple syrup!

For dinner, I roasted the butternut squash at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes after drizzling a little bit of olive oil on it. I had a craving for goat cheese, so I ended up cooking some pasta (just general Angel hair) then scraping the squash on top of the pasta and adding some goat cheese crumbles to it. Topped it off with some salt and pepper and a dash of maple syrup. Yum! I ate half the squash and pasta and finished the rest at lunch the next day.

Meanwhile, I cooked the kale and added it to the never-ending tortellini soup.

This weekend we're making mac & cheese for visiting family (plus kids) and mixing some pureed pumpkin into it. Will anyone notice?

draining the pasta

angel hair with goat cheese and butternut squash

Butternut squash soup redux

2009-12-01T11:53:00.001-05:00

Last night I made one of the butternut squash soup recipes I posted about earlier, the one from the NY Times. With a few differences. 1) We were all out of onions following the massive Thanksgiving cooking but had some celery, so I chopped up three stalks and sauteed that and then added ginger and garlic. 2) The recipe calls for 6 cups of water, chicken stock, or vegetable stock. I used 4 cups of chicken stock and 2 cups of water (turkey stock was being made at the same time but is for a different soup). 3) I didn't count exactly how many potatoes I used, but I used one butternut squash. 4) I squeezed fresh lime into my bowl. This was part of a different recipe, and it's so good! For my lunch today, I brought leftover soup with a lime wedge in the container.

I love these pureed soups. I'm ready to toss just about anything in there. Last night I was tempted by an orange going soft but I took a bite and decided the flavor would taint the soup.

I keep forgetting to take pictures. First, remember to leave camera in kitchen. Second, buy a better camera.

Winter CSA Countdown
Our winter CSA share starts today - squash and winter greens, eggs, and a combination of honey, sorghum, mushrooms, and maple syrup. Possibly milk, too, but that's for R. I can't wait! Part of the reason for last night's soup was to use up the potatoes and squash. We have 1 potato and 1 squash left right now plus about 12 cups of pumpkin in the freezer.

Pumpkin bars and Thanksgiving

2009-11-28T21:50:00.005-05:00

R. and I hosted our first Thanksgiving together and had 9 friends over for the big meal. One of the sides was mashed sweet potatoes with lavender--it's a recipe that R. has made a few times but I'm not sure where he got it. Everything was delicious. This Winter Fruit and Nut stuffing has no pumpkin or squash in it, but it is now my favorite stuffing recipe. (Sorry, dad! He makes a great stuffing with clam juice in it, but I think this new recipe will be my T-Day contribution for years to come). The only thing I did differently was just use 8 tablespoons of butter instead of the 12(!). Still plenty moist. We cooked the stuffing separate from the turkey, which I guess makes it dressing, to accommodate the vegetarian guest.

For dessert, we had an apple strudel brought my a friend and pumpkin bars made by me. Sadly, I don't have a single photograph of the cooking, the meal, any of the people, or any of the food. The pumpkin bar recipe is the one I grew up with; I'm pretty sure my mom got the recipe when we lived in Missouri.

Pumpkin Bars (with cream cheese frosting)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Combine:
4 eggs
1 2/3 C sugar
1 C oil
15 oz can pumpkin

Sift together:
2 C sifted flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Combine pumpkin mixture and dry mixture. Spread in greased 16 x 11 in jelly roll pan. Bake 25 – 30 min at 350 degrees. Frost when cool and cut into bars 1 in x 2 in.

Frosting:
3 oz cream cheese
½ C butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 C sifted powdered sugar

Cream Butter and cream cheese. Add sugar and vanilla. Mix well.

My mom has made adjustments to the recipe, such as using 2 whole eggs and 2 egg whites, but I just used the original one. The only difference is I did *not* use canned pumpkin -- I used some of the frozen pureed pumpkin. I had a 2 cup bag, which is a little more than 15 ounces, but I also let the pumpkin drain which reduced the quantity a little.

I had meant to decrease the amount of oil because the fresh pumpkin, even after draining, has more liquid than the canned, but I forgot. The bars turned out perfectly! As did the frosting. I had some issues putting the frosting on the bars -- the spatula tried to pull up the top layer of the bars and make the frosting look crumby. But I didn't hear any complaints. The bars actually lasted until Saturday, but that may because there were only 3 of us here--half of them disappeared by the end of Thursday.

Variations on Butternut Squash Soup

2009-11-17T12:56:00.005-05:00

In the past month, I've received or found three butternut squash soup recipes and have taken the chance to make all of them. They're pretty similar and are each quite tasty. Sadly, though, 1) I have no pictures of any of them being made or eaten; and 2) I can't cite the source for two of the recipes, but I will do my best to track that down and post an update with links. [Update: links are now available for all three recipes]

Soup 1: Squash, Cider, and Apple Soup
This recipe was sent to me by my mom who saw it in the newspaper. That either means my parents' local, small-town paper or the Sunday NY Times.

[Update]: this recipe appears to have come from American Profile and must have been reprinted in a newspaper.

Ingredients
2 T unsalted butter
1/4 tsp salt
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
3 C peeled and diced butternut squash
5 C fresh apple cider (not apple juice)
2 large apples (any kind), peeled, cored, and chopped
2 T light brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3 C low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
1/8 tsp ground cloves

1. Melt butter in a stockpot or large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in onion, cover and cook 10 min.
2. Add squash, apples, broth, salt and bay leaf. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer, covered, until squash and apples are soft, about 20 min. Remove from heat.
3. While soup simmers, pour cider into a medium skillet. Bring to a boil and cook until reduced to 4 or 5 T. Remove from heat.
4. Remove bay leaf from soup. Spoon solids into a food processor. Process until smooth. Stir back into broth. Add reduced cider. Reheat soup, stirring in brown sugar and spices.
Serves 6

I made this one Sunday night. I had the soup cooking on the stove when it was time to pick R. up from work, so I turned it off and then finished cooking it and boiled the cider when we got home. I didn't notice any problems with this. A soup you puree is pretty forgiving.

There is a fair amount of prep work with the peeling and chopping, but the cooking process is easy. I would love an immersion blender for recipes like this (and the ones to follow). Instead, I scooped everything into the regular blender, which holds more than our food processor, and then transferred the pureed contents back into the pot.
*******

Results: Delicious with a nice cider tang. My mom thought it was a little too sweet when she made it. My squash was so big that I ended up with close to 4 cups instead of 3, so that might make a difference. I would suggest trying to use less cider. But make the regular recipe first.

Soup 2: Sweet Potato and Butternut Squash Soup
I have no idea where I found this. I'm pretty good about saving links to online recipes in my delicious account, but this one doesn't show up. I'll have to do some computer/web sleuthing.

[Update]: This one came from the New York Times and was by Martha Rose Schulman.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 pound butternut squash, peeled and diced
1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 medium-size Yukon gold or russet potato, peeled and diced
6 cups chicken stock, or vegetable stock
Salt to taste

Procedure
1. Heat the oil in a heavy soup pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the ginger and stir together until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the squash, sweet potatoes, regular potato, and water or stock, and bring to a simmer. Add salt to taste, reduce the heat, cover and simmer 45 minutes, or until all of the ingredients are thoroughly tender.
2. Using an immersion blender, puree the soup (or you can put it through the fine blade of a food mill or use a regular blender, working in batches and placing a kitchen towel over the top to avoid splashing). Return to the pot and stir with a whisk to even out the
texture. Heat through, adjust salt and add pepper to taste.

Yield: Serves 6

Advance preparation: You can make this a day ahead and refrigerate. Reheat gently. The soup freezes well. Once thawed, whisk well to smooth out the texture, and reheat. Note: I add 3-4 cloves of garlic to the onions after 4 minutes.
*******

Results: Very similar to the first soup minus the apple and cider. I had an apple going soft so tossed that in (after I cored, peeled, and chopped it), but you couldn't taste that addition at all. I also added some garlic. And I used the blender.

Soup 3: Gingered Butternut Squash Soup
This soup recipe is from Carolyn Cope (Umami Girl) in a post at Serious Eats.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, large dice
2 large stalks celery, large dice
2 large carrots, large dice
2 large boiling potatoes, peeled, large dice
1 medium butternut squash, peeled and seeded, large dice
2 medium apples, peeled and cored, large dice
1 two-inch piece ginger, peeled and grated with a rasp over a bowl to catch any juice
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
A few slices red chili
6 cups veggie stock, chicken stock or water*
Salt and pepper to taste
Lime wedges for serving
*If using water or unsalted stock, add one teaspoon of salt

Procedure
1. Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Add the onion, celery and carrots along with a good pinch of salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until beginning to soften. Add the potatoes, squash, apples, ginger, garlic and chili and cook, stirring occasionally, for five minutes more.

2. Add the stock or water along with a few good grinds of black pepper. Bring to a boil over high heat, then cover and reduce the heat to maintain a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, until all the vegetables are very tender, 20 minutes or more depending on the size of your dice.

3. Remove from the heat and carefully purée with an immersion blender, or in batches in a regular blender, until very smooth. If you want a completely smooth soup, pass it through a fine-mesh strainer. Serve hot, garnished with lime wedges.
Serves 4-6.
**********

Results: My soup ended up looking browner than the beautiful picture in the link because I was lazy and did not peel the potatoes (or the apples). Other differences - I did not have any celery. The carrots were from a canning project earlier, not fresh. Instead of 2 large potatoes, I used 4 smaller ones. We did not have fresh ginger, so I used ginger from a jar. I also threw the entire red chili pepper in there. I chopped the onion up in the food processor and then for some reason did the same with the (unpeeled) potatoes. Since everything is pureed, I don't think it really mattered, but it didn't look too great.

Yum. Even with all those differences, the soup was still quite tasty. And the lime wedges at the end are brilliant. It also went well with the vodka-with-spiced apple mixer (cut with club soda) we're finishing up from a party.

Great pumpkin the second (smaller and faster)

2009-11-16T11:27:00.006-05:00

Okay, I had no photos of the 18-pound pumpkin before it was cut. And I had no photos that showed its size compared to something else. And now I can't find the photo of the second pie pumpkin we received. This one was 9 pounds, so half the size of the first one.

Still pretty substantial but a little easier to handle. What else is 9 pounds, I thought? Oh yeah, me when I was born. The Great Pumpkin Blog (and Squash) Recipe Blogger came into this world weighing 9 pounds exactly.

9-pound baby

This baby photo was taken 1 or 2 days later. Picture a big baby. Then picture it orange. Now you have a 9-pound pumpkin. Now picture 2 of those, and you have the 18-pound pumpkin. When I made the connection between me as a newborn and the 9-pound pumpkin I was carrying around the apartment, I sent a quick apology out to my mother.

1/2 of an 18 pound pumpkin
(= 9 pounds)

The 9-pound pumpkin was faster to take care of. I don't remember how many cups of puree I ended up with, but this time the puree went in hard plastic containers instead of plastic bags and then put in the freezer.

Pumpkin Birthday Cake Disaster

2009-11-10T12:04:00.018-05:00

R. is an excellent cook. He plans main dishes and side dishes, is adventurous, likes to cook with fresh produce, and rarely has a bad day in the kitchen. For my birthday dinner party, we had Cornish game hen with stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes (with lavender), a salad with goat cheese and dried cranberries, and a pumpkin soup (I made that one). He is not, however, a baker and is quick to admit this himself. In fact, he claims the cake he made for my birthday this fall was the first time he had ever baked. I believe him. (Someone else made a cake for the dinner party; the pumpkin cake was just for the two of us.)

It all started with this: the Williams-Sonoma pumpkin harvest loaf pan I picked up last year on sale right after Christmas. When I moved in with R., he thought I should not bring the pan with me. Since I hadn't used it yet, I wanted to keep it at least through the fall and see if I baked anything with it.

In October, when when R. saw a recipe in Southern Living for a pumpkin cake, he thought of all the pumpkin we had and my harvest loaf pan (I'm still not sure why he was reading Southern Living). I think it was this cake. The picture on the cover showed the cake baked in a pumpkin-shaped pan.I am a big fan of pumpkin bars (to be posted about in the future), which also have a cream cheese frosting, and thought a pumpkin cake sounded good.

My birthday cake was made a couple days after my birthday (that's ok!) R. had copied the SL recipe but could only find 1 of the 2 pages so ended up using an alternate recipe online for a Pumpkin Rum cake -- it was probably this, the Pumpkin Raisin Rum Bundt Cake. Except we didn't have rum, just whiskey. Close enough? This was not the only substitution made. We didn't have enough raisins, so craisins were used to supplement the dried fruit portion of the cake. The recipe called for canned pumpkin. We had fresh -- it should taste better (and it does) but it tends to be more liquidy, so I said when I used fresh, I just ended up putting in less of one of the liquid ingredients. For example, when I made pumpkin bread last year, I ended up not adding the oil, and the bread still came out great.

The recipe said to bake in a bundt pan; we had a smaller harvest loaf pan with some bundt-like qualities.I thought I suggested leaving some room in the pan, but R. didn't hear me and filled the harvest pan to the top with batter. Some of it was put in a 2nd pan, but 3 pans probably would have been better. Fortunately, he did heed my suggestion to put a cookie sheet under the cake pans in the oven in case of spillage.

And there was spillage. The pumpkin cake practically exploded. First it spilled; then it got poofy and looked like it had potential. Then it deflated and became a Cake Fail. But the project was not abandoned! R. made the rum (whiskey) glaze and dribbled it over the cake pieces. There were some pumpkin shaped pieces, then some big cubes, and then a light layer of cake that had baked onto the cookie sheet.

Despite its appearance, it was actually a very tasty cake and perfect for fall. It would be a good recipe to try again with some changes at home to the actual baking process.

The Williams-Sonoma harvest loaf pan

Most of the ingredients

Draining more liquid from the pumpkin

Pumpkin cake batter. So far, so good.

Batter in the loaf -- looking a little full!

Uh-oh, batter eruption

Cake deflation!

Don't forget to let it cool.

Presentation counts for a lot.

Birthday slice

Lessons: baking and cooking do not require the same skills. Substitutions don't always work. Don't fill cake pans to the top. Don't worry too much about how it looks if it still tastes good.

Great Pumpkin the first

2009-11-10T09:47:00.008-05:00

This truly was a great pumpkin. I felt like we should take it to the fair except we hadn't grown it ourselves. My relationship with pumpkin has been carving one at Halloween and cooking with canned pumpkin. It's only when I started receiving pumpkins through my farm share that I started cooking with them. Last year I ended up with a freezer full of pureed pumpkin and butternut squash that I couldn't get through. This year looks to be the same.

It all started in mid October when we got an 18 pound pie pumpkin. How are we supposed to eat that? We only know the weight because I stood on the bathroom scale with the pumpkin and without and subtracted the difference. Fortunately, we had recently bought a handsaw for a home improvement project. I used the handsaw and a large knife to cut through and break the pumpkin open on Saturday. Sunday became Pumpkin Day. I didn't think to take a picture until after it had been cut, so look at one half and multiply it by 2 for the full size.

First I roasted the two halves in the oven following the directions in the Joy of Cooking. I think it said to cook for an hour. I let it go longer because of the size. The oven can be set on a timer that turns the stove off at the end so I left it to roast while I went to the gym. When I got home, I showered, had a snack (needed the energy for what lay ahead), and then got to it.

Working with one half at a time, I scraped out the pumpkin and discarded any extra seeds -- I had pulled a lot of them out before cooking. I know you can cook the seeds but I can only handle so much at a time. Then I put that food processor to use and pureed the pumpkin. I put the puree in a colander to drain out some of the excess liquid. An hour or so later, I ended up with 15 cups of pumpkin. If I had wanted to spend even a little more time on it, I could have gotten an even gallon.

I scooped the pumpkin into plastic bags, 2 cups to a bag, and then a few 1 cup bags. In retrospect, I should have used containers, but the bags take less space up. Then I put the small bags into two gallon-size freezer bags and put those in the freezer. I marked each small bag with a 1 or 2 to indicate how much was in there.

Since then, I think we've used maybe 4 cups of pumpkin. The insides of the great pumpkin puree project give the freezer a nice orange glow when you look inside.

Welcome to the Great Pumpkin (and Squash) Recipe Blog.

2009-11-10T09:41:00.000-05:00

I live in a slightly southern city with my person R. We both had CSA (community supported agriculture - check it out!) this year that we split with other people. Which meant, by the end of the week, we ended up with a full share (his half and my half). We can find recipes for most of what we receive and have only lost a few items. When October rolled along, we started getting the squash and the pumpkins. When he received an 18-pound pie pumpkin one week, I knew this had to be documented.

This blog will show our attempts at cooking through all this food and will post links to recipes we've found. We have a 13-week winter CSA share coming up and it's all for both of us - winter greens, winter squash, and more.