Pureed Pumpkin

A week or so ago my good friend's dad sent home with her a HUGE pumpkin from his garden for me. I was so pleased, but so confused as to what to do with it, I knew if I waited too long I would be dealing with a rotten pumpkin, which is not an option (I hate wasting food). So after a week of staring at it I decided to bake it. I figured if I can bake squash and smaller pumpkins I can certainly bake a 10lb pumpkin right? To my complete surprise, my attempt was a success! Here's what I did:

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Place your pumpkin on a cookie sheet and stab enough times to where the air is allowed to flow out of it while it bakes, either that or you can wait and watch a pumpkin explode.
3. Bake for 90 minutes or until skin is easily punctured with a knife.
4. When finished let cool for about an hour, then remove the top by cutting around the stem.
5. Remove stringy stuff and seeds (you can save the seeds if you want to bake them later for a snack)
6. Next scoop out the flesh of the pumpkin with either a spoon or your hands and place in your blender or food processor. (Mine was so large that I had to do little by little) Place in half pint or pint jars and freeze. Voila!

Simple, a little time consuming, but I started it later than I should have and it sat over night before I scooped anything out. So it looked a little sad the next day but it turned out fine. Mine made about 3 and a half pints of pumpkin puree. A lot I know, but you can make, coffees, cocktails, breads, pancakes, pies, pastas and the list goes on. So excited to try out all the different pumpkin recipes!

Sad Looking Pumpkin

Asian Chicken Noodle Soup

I've welcomed in this first week of fall by changing my closet out from florals and shorts to cable knits and wool socks. Goodbye sundresses, until next time! (Secretly Im not that sad) I have a soup in the crock pot, Woodchuck's Pumpkin Cider in hand and my 12 foot, fall colored paper chain is hung. I wanted to try something different with my soup than the regular potatoes and rice that I usually grab. So I decided to put an asian twist on a classic soup. Here is my Asian Chicken Noodle Soup.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 medium onion, chopped thinly
• 1/2 cup green onion, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons ginger
• 2 boneless chicken breast, chopped into 1 inch cubes
• 2 leaves of red kale, stalks removes and chopped (can replace with spinach)
• 2 cans chicken broth (14 oz)
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 cups shitake or button mushrooms or 
• 8 oz egg noodle (chinese or regular)

Note: Carrots would be good in this too but I didn't have any. Sa la vie.

Directions:

1. Place chicken, mushrooms and onion in crock pot.
2. Then add green onion, ginger, kale, and garlic.
3. Then over veggies and chicken add your broth and soy sauce.
4. Place on High for 4 hours or Low for 8 hours.
5. When its about time to turn the crock pot off make your noodles according to the package.
6. While serving put noodles in your bowl first then your chicken mixture with broth.

There you have it, you can add some red chili flakes if you want to spice it up a bit, but it's up to you! Take a look below on a couple hours of work for harvest decorations! Hope your first week of fall has been wonderful!

Candied Beer Bacon

So this past weekend, I was trying to get over a cold in time for my fiance's birthday party. But I managed to suck it up and create some yummy morsels for everyone. I spent the whole week looking for recipes that fit his personality and found one completely perfect. Some candied bacon... with beer... just perfect. I took on the process early not knowing how long it would take me. But here it is, the delicious, gone in two seconds, bacon recipe!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb bacon
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup beer

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Take a cookie sheet and line it with aluminum foil, place a cooling rack on top of the sheet to catch the grease (it'll pile up :) )
3. Cut pieces of bacon in half and place on cooling rack, it's ok if they overlap a bit. Bake them for 10 minutes
4. In a small bowl mix together your beer and brown sugar.
5. When 10 minutes is up, take your bacon out and brush it with your glaze on both sides of the pieces. Bake again for 10 minutes, continue this process until the bacon is crispy. It took me about 3 times.
6. Let cool on the rack for an hour before eating, then serve it up!

I doubled this recipe because I was baking for 10 people, it definitely went quickly, a few pieces didn't make it to the actual party either. Well enjoy this tasty appetizer, cheers!

Because recipes don't just grow on trees...

Thought I would just share this awesome recipe with everyone! Seriously so easy to make and fun too! I must admit, it was my first attempt at making bread. Usually my fiance makes it or I say 'Im going to make bread this weekend', but then the task seems too long and I find something else to do with my time. But just look at what a little commitment can do!

I made it on saturday it was gone by monday. I ate it with coffee for breakfast, spread a little jam on there and voila! European breakfast!

20 Cloves of Garlic

Working with kids, I get to deal with the excitement of the new year all over again, what with new clothes and supplies coming in, it's always a fun time. But the dreaded back to school cold always comes up to get you some how. Usually I can fight it out until October, but this year I didn't make it, I became one of the many to get that irritating itchy throat and stuffy nose in September.

My sick day essentials: Soup Book, Honey and Tea

So as I sit on my couch drinking all the tea with honey I can stand, my cough drops near by and reading my book, my tummy starts to grumble... I never know how to soothe my stomach when I am sick (you'd think the many years of practice would stick) but I am always scared to put the wrong things in my body.

There is always one answer though, and that's soup. I worked up the energy to make Garlic Soup, trust me this was one of the times I wished I had invested in one of those fancy schmancy food choppers... so if you don't have one, maybe go get one before you make this tummy satisfying, cold stopping soup. Worth it.

Along with the soup I made these awesome grilled cheese, tomato and thyme sammies. Eat your heart out pinterest.

Garlic Soup

Ingredients:
Serves 3

• 20 cloves of garlic (roughly 2 bulbs) minced
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 1 tblsp olive oil
• 1 tblsp parsley
• 1 cup of chicken broth
• 1/2 lemon
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 2 cups milk
• 1 tblsp flour

Note: I made this with only 1/2 of a tablespoon of flour and thought it to still be a little runny, I would suggest going for a whole tablespoon. Also the recipe told me to puree all of the ingredients minus the milk and flour, then combine all of it in a stock pot. I don't mind chunks of onion and garlic flavor so I skipped this step, also Im sick therefore lazy.

Directions:

1. First in a frying pan saute your onions and garlic in the olive oil.
2. While onions and garlic are cooking, place all other ingredients into either a stock pot or a crock pot and stir well. Set your heat to high if using a stock pot and wait until ingredients are boiling. If you chose to use a crock pot just keep the heat off until later.
3. When onions and garlic are finish place them into your pot. Stock pot users turn your heat down and let simmer for 1 hour, crock pot users let sit for 2 and half hours on low heat.

Grilled Cheese with Thyme Tomatoes

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 4 slices of whole grain bread
• 1 beefsteak tomato
• thyme
• salt
• pepper
• cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Cover a cookie sheet with tin foil.
3. Slice about half of your tomato into not too thick pieces. Then sprinkle them with thyme, salt and pepper. Place them on your cookie sheet
4. Bake for 20 minutes.
5. While tomato slices are in the oven , cut your cheese into thin slices (this is where you decide how much you want on yours) and place them on half of each sandwich.
6. When slices are finished, using a fork place them on top of the cheese. 
7. Using the same covered cookie sheet place them in the oven for 5-10 minutes depending on oven, so keep an eye on them.

Serve these two recipes together for a mouth full of tasty goodness, I know I feel better quicker when my taste buds are satisfied. Happy Eating!

Had some tea with my happy concoctions!

Steaks and Sprouts

So this is a shorty. Whenever my fiance and I go out to a restaurant and order steak we are always disappointed that they over season and then offer you A1 sauce... come on... we like our steaks a little red and a little salt and pepper on top, because we like to actually taste our steak. So I took out our delicious grass fed, new york steaks the other day for one of our favorite and easy recipes. And for our side, some yummy and easy brussel sprouts.

Steaks and Sprouts Recipe:

Ingredients for Steak:

• Two 6oz new york style steaks
• Salt and Pepper
• Olive Oil

Ingredients for Sprouts:

• 1 lb frozen sprouts
• 1/4 cup mustard
• desired pepper
• desired salt

Directions for Steak:

1. Drizzle olive oil onto a frying pan, turn heat to medium high. 
2. Place steak down on frying pan and grind (or sprinkle) pepper over the top and sprinkle with salt.
3. Flip them over after about 2 minutes, then salt and pepper the other side.
4. Keep flipping the steaks every 2 minutes until how you prefer it cooked.

Directions for Sprouts:

1. Microwave the frozen sprouts according to package.
2. Once cooked, add in mustard and mix well.
3. Then mix in pepper and salt.

Serve!

Well there you have it, its so good, and so quick. Coming home from a long day at work we were both pretty excited to sit down and enjoy our home cooked (lightly seasoned) steaks. Living the high life on a week night!

-Madeline

Lemon Orzo with Shrimp

This post is kind of a shout out to my mother. I went into my kitchen the other night scouring the pantry and fridge for something to make, grabbed a few things and came up with dinner on the fly. Mom used to do that a lot, chicken and rice... got some spices... olive oil... great! I am so glad I've got the talent to do just that. I had just enough orzo left to make a meal, what was left of my GIANT bundle of swiss chard and some shrimp from Trader's in the freezer,  but no sauces... have no fear! We've got lemons! I grabbed my ingredients and this is what I came up with:

Lemon Orzo with Shrimp

Serves 3-4 ( I make enough so my fiance has enough to take to work with him the next day)

Look at that awesome heirloom!

Ingredients:

• 1 large heirloom tomato chopped
• 1 1/2 cups of orzo
• 1 medium sized lemon cut in half, seeds removed
• 1/2 lb of small shrimp
• 1/2 of an onion chopped
• 2 large leaves swiss chard chopped, end of stalks removed
• 1 tblsp olive oil
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. First I de-thawed my shrimp as instructed (you can skip this step if you have fresh shrimp)
2. Put orzo and water in a pan and let boil like you would any pasta noodle. When it is done (orzo will be lighter in color and fluffy) you will drain the rest of the water out and put the orzo to the side.
3. In a large skillet saute your thawed shrimp in the oil with the onions, both will cook around the same speed.
4. When onion is clear and shrimp is looking good add in you swiss chard, saute until tender. Then turn down your heat to a low setting.
5. Next add your orzo to the saute pan and your chopped tomatoes. Mix well.
6. Then take your lemon and squeeze it generously over the pasta, along with the lemon add your salt and pepper ( I don't like mine too sweet from the lemon, so I am generous with the S&P). Mix the ingredients.

Good-bye swiss chard!

There you have it! Making this recipe sauce free will save you a bunch of calories and leave the flavors of the shrimp to shine through! Hope you like my 'on the fly' recipe!

Meatless Monday Mushrooms

I am proud to be a local co-op and farmer's market shopper, something about knowing where my chops come from, leaves me feeling all warm and happy inside, while I roam around the market on saturday mornings I always hit my mushroom guy, my veggie stand that always sells the most amazing chard (kind of obsessed with chard) and of course my meat ladies who give us the best grass fed organic ground beef your taste buds ever had the pleasure of meeting. But, today is Monday so I thought I'd share my meatless monday recipe, with my baby bok choi and oyster mushrooms.

Oyster Mushroom Simple Stir-fry

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 3 heads baby bok choi, chopped
• 1 large leaf of swiss chard, chopped
• 1/3 cup cashews
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 onion, chopped 
• 8-9 medium sized oyster mushrooms, chopped
• 1 cup white rice
• 1/2 tblsp coconut oil
• dash of crushed bell pepper 
• salt and pepper to taste

Note: This can go many ways with taste, you can add hoison sauce to the mixture after sauteing your veggies, add a dash of sriracha for a kick or add the class soy sauce to the rice and veggies.

Directions:

1. In a pot bring 2 cups water to a boil and add one cup of white rice (about 15-20 minutes)
2. In a fry pan, saute your onions and garlic in the coconut oil, before they lose their crispness add the bok choi and swiss chard. 
3. Once leaves are tender add your mushrooms and cashews, serve on a plate with a serving of rice.

See! So easy!

As far as the sauces go, I must admit I am a class soy sauce type, but be sure to only add a drizzle , 1tbls of Kikkoman's has 920 mg of sodium in it! Yikes!  I know the Trader Joe's soy sauce is seriously low sodium, so that might work better.

Note: Eating this while I am typing... *sings* yum yum in my tum tum tummmyyyyyy!

Acorn Squash Soup

Steamy Goodness 

Last night I was perusing the recipe kingdoms of pinterest and foodgawker and found this awesome recipe, with it simply entitled Acorn Squash with Kale I was instantly intrigued, and lucky for me, a friend brought me just those things the day before.

Usually when I look at a recipe, I alter it to where it's my own. I love going where my taste buds will me to go and with simplistic recipes such as this one, it is so easy to make it your own. Here is the link to the original recipe if you'd like to try to experiment yourself!

Anyway here's my version on a simple and awesome recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 acorn squash
• 4 slices of bacon
• 3 cups water
• 1 vegetable bouillon 
• 4 large kale leaves (stalks removed)
• 1 large swiss chard leaf (stalks removed)
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 finely chopped medium onion
• Pepper to taste
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Wash and slice you acorn squash in either fourths or in half and remove seeds and stringy stuff. Place in oven for 30 minutes.
3. While squash is baking, fry your bacon in a skillet until crispy. Remove bacon and place on paper towel for later, but leave fat in pan. 
4. Next fry your onions and garlic in the bacon fat until light brown, then add your kale and chard and fry until soft. Set to side.
5. When squash is done baking, let it cool for 10-15 minutes (do not put fresh out of the oven squash in your blender or it will not have a happy outcome)
6. Then cut the hard skin off of them (discard the skin) and place the inner soft parts into your blender. (If you have a food processor or something that works better that's fine) Pulse until it is more liquid that chunky.
7. Next place the squash into the skillet with your veggies.
8. Add three cups of water and one bouillon cube. 
9. Once the soup is boiling and the bouillon is dissolved, sprinkle your ground cinnamon on top and stir it in. 
10. Serve up with bacon as "garnish" (haha garnish bacon)

Good-Bye Acorn Squash!

So there you have it. My take on Martha's recipe. I served the soup up with some classic grilled cheese sammies, due to the thunderstorms outside and the tea i was drinking, I felt like some comfort food.  I hope you enjoy it.

Martinis and Mushrooms

A couple nights ago I had two of my good friends over for martinis and to watch the classic film Guys and Dolls. There were laughs, and a few too many of the gin and lemon drinks. But it was a good time and we baked up some wonderful food. Unfortunately the night started off so nicely that I had forgotten to snap pictures of the delightful goodies we treated ourselves to that night. Luckily for you I still remember the recipes!

Stuffed Crimini or Button Mushrooms (makes 5 mushrooms for 3 people)

Ingredients:

• 15 brown crimini mushrooms
• 4 leaves of kale
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 tblsp olive oil
• 1/ 4 yellow onion
• 3 oz of feta cheese
• 1 1/2 tblsp balsamic vinaigrette (or to taste)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Remove stems from mushrooms, set to side in a greased 8x8 baking dish. (You can keep the stems for another meal if you like)
2. Mince garlic and onion, then sauté with olive oil in a small sauté pan. When onions become clear and garlic is browned,  place the mixture into a small mixing bowl.
3. Remove leafy parts from stem of kale, and place in saute pan with vinaigrette, fry until leaves are soft but not totally limp and wrinkly.
4. Next place the kale in the mixing bowl with garlic and onion. Add feta and mix together.
5. Then take pinches of mixture and stuff your mushrooms, keep going until all mushrooms have a generous amount in them.
6. Place mushrooms in preheated oven for 20 minutes. (oven temps are different so keep an eye on your little morsels) 

My friend made this next one, it's a recipe we both adore she just added a nutty twist. (Pun intended)

Bacon Wrapped Goat Cheese and Pecan Stuffed Dates

Ingredients:

• 20 pre-pitted dates, or if you don't mind the pitting like us you can save a few cents and get ones you have to pit yourself.
• Toothpicks
• 10.5 or more goat cheese (you can never have too much)
• 10 slices of bacon
• 20 Pecans

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. Pit your dates if you chose this route. 
3. Then stuff three quarters of the way with goat cheese, placing a pecan on top as you stuff each one.
4. Next slice your bacon into halves an wrap each date with a half of bacon, holding the ends together by poking them with a toothpick. (I find these delights are better if the two ends of bacon are on the opposite side of the opening to the dates.
5. Take a cookie sheet and cover with aluminum foil.
6. Then place dates a good inch and half away from each other. 
7. Bake for 10-15 minutes. Or whenever bacon gets crispy!

Classi Martini

Ingredients:

• 2 oz gin
• 1 oz vermouth
• Ice

I usually add a spritz of lemon, and to keep my cocktails cool but not watered down, I use frozen grapes.

Seriously, both of these appetizers and this martini made for happy bellies and happy girls. My other friend made these melt in your mouth chocolate chip cookies, so simple, and so good. If I get the recipe (and her permission) I'll try to get them on here. So sorry for the lack of pictures, but the imagination makes things so much better no?

The Start

So it's almost my favorite season. The season full of soups, gourds, ciders and sweaters. Nothing about fall upsets me. But alas, the key word here is 'almost'. So I decided to take my hat off to those summer months of canoeing, concerts and canning; and allow a few more meals that included the spice of the season. So here is my burrito recipe that had my fiance trying to sneak thirds and left the house smelling of chili powder. It's easy as 1, 2, 3 and takes under 30 minutes.

Mad Burrito Mixture

Ingredients:

• 1 lb 95% lean ground beef (or whatever you have)
• 1 cup brown rice
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1/2 frozen corn
• 1 yellow onion
• 1/2 tblsp chili powder (or if you like it spicy add more!)
• 1/2 tblsp  cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tblsp  cumin
• 1/2 tblsp  tumeric
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 1/2 cups of chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 can of tomato sauce
• whole wheat tortillas

For the add-ons its up to you. We usually go for the sour cream, lettuce, tabasco and salsa, you know, the works.

Directions:

1. Boil the rice in the broth you have chosen, until tender (usually around 20 minutes) Then drain the remaining water out.
2. Add in the tomato sauce, salt and pepper to the rice
3. Chop your onions and peppers.
4. Fry the ground beef in a medium sauce pan, once browned , drain the fat and add onions, corn and bell peppers to the pan. Let sit for about 10 minutes depending on your heat setting. 
5. Add the rice to the sauce pan of veggies and meat. 
6. Then add all of your spices and mix it up.  If you want it spicier, you can always add a few dashes of tabasco
7. Add your mixture to a tortilla, add your favorite burrito accouterments and EAT UP!

Hope this satisfies your bellies and help you savor your last days of summer!