butternut squash
okay...so my butternut squash weighed in at between 10 and 13 kilos (a kilo is 2.2 pounds). It was so large that when it was plopped into my hands i could barely hold it (hence the bad pic) and I think it was larger than most 6 month old babies.
Needless to say (and yet I'm saying it), I made several different things with it throughout the week.
Noell: I took your two ideas from last week!
I made a butternut squash soup...no white wine, though, so i had to substitute apple juice. I also added a few carrots to boost the vitamins and whatnot. It was REALLY REALLY good. I roasted the squash first with oil and lots of yummy spices (fresh garlic, cinnamon and cloves, rosemary, some basil and some oregano and some sage). Then it was: cook in liquid, mashy mashy, puree in the blender (much less mess than my lentil soup was!). It was a nice, mild, yummy yummy soup! Everyone loved it AND I got to eat it for a couple of days. I love when I can share food and still eat lots of it.
I also made the foil-pack-in-the-oven thing, with butternut squash, potatoes, zucchini, green peppers, onions, and carrots. With olive oil and spices. yum. On Monday. Because on Monday my flat gets cleaned (and my dishes washed)--which means it is the WORST POSSIBLE NIGHT to cook something that makes lots of dishes. Foil packs = no dishes. :-)
And then, tonight (so exciting!):
I made something like a risotto, only with regular organic brown rice, not arborio rice. It went basically like this:
(need: butter, hard white cheese, veggies--in this case, winter veggies, rice, veggie broth, white wine (see below for substitutions), a big pot with a lid or lots of foil, and a wooden spoon.)
cut lots of veggies (I used zucchini, butternut squash, green bell peppers, carrots, and mushrooms--I was out of onions but that would have been yummy too)
mince some garlic
melt some butter (a couple tablespoons)
saute the (onions if you're using them), mushrooms, and the garlic a few minutes in the butter...add salt and pepper...saute a few more minutes
add the rice (I used about 1-3/4 cups brown rice)...saute like you're making rice-a-roni even though you aren't
add all the other veggies
add 3 cups of vegetable broth and 1-1/2 cups of dry white wine (I used a mixture of veggie broth, orange juice, and white vinegar b/c we don't have wine here)
add some more spices: I used basil, oregano, thyme, and some Emeril Spice (I love that stuff)
cover
cook for a while, until the rice is cooked and most of the liquid is absorbed
stir and let stand a couple of minutes
if the liquid isn't going away, cook a few more minutes (uncovered)
add another T or two of butter, stir.
add some grated cheese. Any hard-ish white cheese will do...I used cheddar. parm or pecorino would be good. stir.
eat.
This was so good, I can barely express it's yumminess to you. You will have to take my word for it. It tasted even better than some of the risottos we had in florence. I am not joking. :-)
black bean stuff
okay ames (and everyone), here you go. two recipes to try:
Black Beans and Olives--a side dish great with rice or with mashed potatoes...
some minced garlic
lots of green olives with those red pimiento things in them, sliced
a couple cans of black beans
some olive oil
heat big saucepan. add olive oil. saute the sliced olives. add garlic, saute more. olives should start to look a little brownish-transparent-ish. Add beans (do not drain). cover and lower heat. simmer a while. when it's all cooked and tasty, eat.
Black Beans and Pasta (martha clay's recipe...basically)--a meal in itself
some cans of black beans (like umm, three?)
a couple cans of RoTel
an onion or two
minced garlic
olive oil
some veggie broth, just in case
some nice spices--salt, pepper, maybe some cilantro or basil or something...
Gemelli pasta
Cheese--shredded yellow is best (mmm, cheddar)
sour cream, if desired
saute onions in olive oil. add garlic. add black beans (undrained) and rotel. cook for a long time on medium-low heat. season with spices. if it's dry or burning, add some veggie broth. if it doesn't taste right, add a few squirts of lemon juice. about fifteen minutes before you want to eat, cook pasta.
put in a bowl like this:
pasta, then bean mixture, then cheese, then sour cream.
eat. especially good with french bread...
a roasting we will go...
well, after a warm spell in east texas, we're experiencing the normal february cold snap... today i woke up to go take a yoga class and froze my sockless toes on the way to the car... so... when i got home, i built a fire, and decided it was time to cook, winter style! my favorite way to cook in the winter is by roasting, and my favorite thing to eat is soup.... so i took a census of food items in the kitchen and decided to make a
roasted winter squash soup.... here goes...
take a couple of squashes (i used one butternut and one acorn) and chop in half and deseed... then you can quarter them, or leave them halved and toss them on a baking pan (if you line it with foil it will be much easier to clean later). spray drizzle or brush the squash with olive oil... season with salt, pepper and seasonings of your choice (i used fresh ground nutmeg) smash a few cloves of garlic to place in the squash cavities... i also threw some fresh rosemary and thyme on.... i roasted these in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour at 425 degrees. then i turned the oven off and went to visit my grandmother allowing them to cool...
.... when i returned, i sauteed garlic and onion with some olive oil in the bottom of a big soup pot.... then i peeled my squash from it's skin and added that to the pot (i also added the roasted garlic from the pan).... next smash the squash with a tater masher... add 1/2 c to a cup of dry white wine and 2 cans of chicken or veggie broth (depending on whether youre a carnivore or herbivore)... season to taste (i added a sachet of bay leaves, rosemary and time) and walk away with the pot on low so it can simmer and absorb all the flavors. when you decide it's "done" puree it in small batches in the blender or food processor OR if you don't have those high tech tools, force it through a mesh sieve. if it's too thick, add more broth... goes great with crusty bread and goat cheese- YUMMY!!!!
AND.... everyone knows soups taste better the next day, so i made something different for dinner:
a
roasted foil pack dinner! the easiest thing in the world to cook... again you're using a 425 degree oven... in a bowl mix whatever it is you want for dinner (i used broccoli, asparagus, garlic, carrots, and cubed chicken breasts) this can easily be made for veggie or meat fans, in fact it would be a great hands on dinner party where folks each choose their own ingredients (when i lived in german a friend cut a block of feta in half and wrapped it in foil with onions, tomatoes and bana peppers, it was killer!)... then i seasoned everything with salt pepper, and accompanying flavors (i used lemon zest, spicy paprika, and rosemary) a few tablesppons of olive oil, and toss until well covered.... you can use separate squares of foil if your making individual sized packets, or one big square of foil for a large dish... wrap it all up throw it in the hot oven and leave it there 40 to 60 minutes.... these are also great on camping trips... you can bury them under hot coals! anyways... when you take it out of the oven let it sit a few minutes and be really carefully opening the packet because crazy steam will escape.... whatever you've created will be super moist and juicy... in fact i cooked a pot of cous cous to serve as a pillow for my roasted goodies.... OH YUM!
i love days that involve cooking, fires, yoga, reading, and npr... it's been a really nice friday...
**FOOD TRIVIA**
did you know ricotta is the whey that comes from making mozarella cheese? then it's cooked a second time and that's why it's called ricotta (italian for twice cooked)!!
there were olives, and behold, it was very good.
okay, I made the olive tapenade stuff. And all I have to say is: wow.
We have "fresh" olives here, of course, so naturally I had to go to taste each kind and decide which would be best. After deciding on the darkest ones, I also bought some "gebna rumi"--country cheese--which is somewhere between soft and semi-soft, is kind of salty, and in general tastes good. (sorry, no goat cheese here.) Then I picked up my favorite breadsticks from the bakery and we were ready to go!
I had to mortar-and-pestle it, and the mortar/pestle in our "big kitchen" (the communal kitchen) is made of plastic. So this took a while...and a couple of different people, actually. After smushing the pits out of the olives, chopping lots of garlic, and sticking it all in there, I smushed.
And smushed.
And smushed.
Then Jennifer smushed.
Then Jay smushed.
Finally, it was ready right around the time the rest of dinner was ready. LOL.
It was so so so good, that it was all gone by the end of dinner. All of it. No leftovers for Teri the smusher, oh no.
yum.
crockpot incident #2
i hope i'm not annoying anyone with my obscene amount of posting here. i just do a lot of cooking, almost all of it being new things i am just trying and am too enthused about sharing with the world! especially vegetarian foodies, like me. at work the other day i tried having a good food chat with some of my foodie friends there, but unfortunately they are all carnivores, and while i have an appreciation of the meat products from my former carnivore days, i just have nothing fun to contribute to the conversation when it turns to the wonders of sausage. and they don't care about my experiments with lentil stew. which is what i want to share with YOU! the foodies who appreciate the beauty of a lentil!
the lentil is something i only discovered last summer when i was visiting my mom and reading through a bunch of new vegetarian cookbooks i had just purchased at the FABULOUS half-price bookstore near her house. at that moment i had never cooked lentils or made anything with curry in it, so i was intrigued by the recipe i found for curried lentils. we decided to make it together since my mother couldn't believe HER daughter had reached the age of 25 and never made anything containing curry or lentils. it was fun and i was delighted with how easy lentils are to prepare. yay for lentils!
but i digress into sentimental memories. nowadays i am always excited when my menu planning for the week includes a lentil dish because of my newfound fondness for the lentil. unlike dried beans, which i still struggle with sometimes, i never have issues with lentils. they are so very low maintenance.
anyway, yesterday was the second time i have used the new appliance: the crockpot. and i used it to make lentil stew. and once again it has held its own.
lentil stew:
i dumped a pound of lentils + 3 cups water, a big 28-oz can of diced tomatoes, tomato paste, 1/2 cup red wine, onion, celery, carrots, garlic, oregano, basil, and a little crushed red pepper into the crock pot and set it on GO! about ten hours later i had dinner.
and it tasted really good for lunch today reheated with a little leftover shredded gouda melted on top. the perfect food for the snow storm they keep telling us is coming.
we'll see about that.
Help!
I'm not posting a receipe - sorry ladies, haven't had time to cook in a while - but I am asking for one.
I'm having my prayer group over for lunch in 2 weeks and thought about Ter's yummy black beans and olives medley... So if Teri or someone else who knows what I'm talking about could tell me how to make that, I'd be super thankful!
all things cheesy mushroomy and potato-ey good
i'm posting again. ;)
so tonight i had the best thing ever. according to me. cuz it includes most of the elements i require for the perfect food.
mushrooms.
cheese.
and
potato.
anyway, so i made some baked potatoes and then i sauteed three kinds of mushrooms: portabellos, shitake, and button with a little garlic and onion until they were cooked. now to me, that mushroom combo would be a satisfying meal. give me a fork and the pan and i'm set. BUT i had to be patient cuz it was about to get better. next i split my baked potatoes in half and spooned the mushroomy goodness on top. THEN i loaded it up with shredded gouda cheese. mmmmm....goooooouuuddddaaaa.... and THEN i sprinkled the whole thing with chopped green onion and a little marjoram.
next it all went under the broiler until the gouda was all gooey.
it was yummy in my tummy.
i'm posting!!!
with pictures!
now, this little experiment wasn't
that exciting, but i thought it was colorful and pretty enough to perk up the blog, photo-wise. i was awfully proud of myself for making this meal. it was more labor-intensive than i thought it would be, but it made my mouth happy enough to make up for the extra time. the squashes make you work soooo hard to get at their goodies.
anyway, may i present: my dinner! (two nights ago. ;)
so, this is a new variation of the stuffed pepper that i tried and it was pretty good.
it involved:
br. rice
black beans
hominy (first experience with hominy, what a weird product, but it tasted pretty good)
chopped walnuts!
green chilis
onion
a little cumin
and a delightful little ingredient i just discovered: liquid smoke! it gave the dish just a little hint of smoked flavor, which was a really nice touch!
with a little jack cheese melted on top.
here's a close-up of the pepper's goodies. as you can see i had already devoured my side veggies by the time i got to the pepper. this was my first experience with butternut squash as well. i just baked it in the oven till it was tender, melted a tiny bit of butter on top and sprinkled with nutmeg. it was good. kinda like sweet potatoes, but not. and it made a nice sweet contrast to the smokey pepper. and the finishing touch was a little steamed broccoli.
my husband eddie's comment (being the carnivore he is): it's good, but i feel like a rabbit! ;0)
don't worry, we are getting pizza today for superbowl sunday, he will be sure to get his meat fix in on his half of the pizza.
yay! for thin crust veggie pizza from our local pizza joint!
oh, and i must say, the crockpot did a good job. i made a spicy veggie chili with garbanzo beans! (i normally use kidney and black beans.) it would certainly be a great investment for those times when you have to be gone all day. you come home to a really nice meal, instead of having to work up the energy to cook something. just in the door and time to eat! and it makes cooking dried beans a no-brainer. ya just soak em, and then toss em in with whatever else you want with it, and however many hours later....voila! bean food. except i'm still no expert on the perfect bean. i think i just need a little more practice before i can finally turn a dried bean into something wonderful. me and the canned beans have been pretty tight up until this point.lol. i'm learning. slowly, but surely.
i'll keep you updated on my progress with the beans and the crock o pot as we get to know each other better. ;)
lame
sorry i'm so lame with the cooking right now.
I totally came down with a cold the night we returned from our YAV field trip, and I can't taste much so I don't know if what I've been cooking is particularly good or what. We had burritos in a bowl yesterday for lunch--with highly imported Taco Bell refried beans because I was too lazy to make my own. You know, soaking the beans, etc... Also I made a pasta dinner yesterday...with my own sauce, naturally (onions, zucchini, carrots, green bell peppers, green beans, fresh tomatoes, canned stewed tomatoes with their juice, and some tomato paste and water...lots of spices like basil and oregano and garlic and stuff). Jason said it was really really good, and it looked really tasty--all bright red with green stuff--but I couldn't taste much of it. I ate it again today...still not a lot of taste. But I also couldn't taste the vanilla tea and cookies, or the twix, so I'm sure it wasn't the sauce. I stayed bland with dinner--baked potato with butter/salt/pepper. Then I coughed up a little of it... boo. that's why I had to eat twix. To make myself feel better. Except I couldn't taste it very well, so it didn't work like i'd hoped. And that has nothing whatsoever to do with cooking....
I started blogging about Italy over at my other house. I wrote some about food. It's way more exciting than this. Sorry...and now Jason's gone for a week so I don't know if there will be any excitement. Mashed potatoes, when I can taste them again. other than that...eh. we'll see. Maybe I'll eat out a lot this week. Especially if I can't taste it anyway--those 12 cent sandwiches are good, but how much better if you can't taste them? At least you only spent 12 cents.
I think I'm done now. I clearly should be in bed. I hope you all are having better food days than me. :-)
Tastey Sandwich
Last Thursday my prayer group and I had a picnic on top of a hill that overlooked Staunton (and right next to the grave of the very first Stauntonian settler). It was lovely - much meditation goodness and belly happiness. Our host made us a sandwich that I have now remade 3 times in the past week. It's either that good or I need to get out more.
Need:
bread (ciabatta bread or a wheat baguette will do)
olives
tomatoes
mayo
provolone cheese
feta cheese (I like the basil and tomato feta myself)
lettuce
Instructions:
Er, make a sandwich? You need to cut the olives up into a spreadable mush, and toasting the bread gives it an extra umph. Just a tasty sandwich that goes create with a nice chai.
intro
i have nothing to say cooking wise, but i thought i would introduce myself to the blog! i'm the new girl and my name is emily! :) teri and i go way back to undergrad, where we were both dreaming of being world famous clarinetists and then realizing that maybe we should find a dream that was a little less silly and heading off into grad school to accomplish worthier things than hanging around in a practice room breaking reeds against stands. teri actually made her getaway. i somehow got sucked back into the practice room vaccuum and now employ myself as a working musician.
But more important to all of you is that i like to cook!!! and have been doing quite a lot of it. most of it experimental. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't...you know how it goes. teri invited me to join cuz she has been reading about my fascinating cooking exploits on my other blog and i'm excited to be here cuz i've been reading your adventures so far, and look forward to sharing my stories and getting to know all of you better by reading yours!
ok then. that's it for now.
but just for the record, i don't have a ricer. i KNOW! i've just never actually had to use one so i haven't bought one. oh the SHAME!!! lol.
BUT, i do have fond memories of pad thai with tofu from noodles in the pot, teri. it's the best.
and tomorrow marks my first experience cooking ala crockpot. i've always considered myself above the crockpot, that somehow it represents all things way older than me. like grandmother old. and i wasn't yet willing to embrace it. well, i gave in. cuz i've got some good pot full o crock recipes to try.
tomorrow:
the truth.
is the crockpot really worth the $20 i spent?
will it change my life like so many say?
is leaving food to cook aaalllll ddddaaayyyy really that wonderful?
alright. i'm really done now.
