Crafting Food: Spicy Pepperonata

It also makes great lunch leftovers

I had a dish something like this for brunch when I visited NYC this past March at a wonderful little place on the upper west side. I wanted to try and recreate it as soon as I got home and after sorting out some quirks, I can't get enough of the stuff—especially since you can eat it in so many ways and it lasts for days! I've used this recipe as a starting off point and combined it with what I remember of the dish I had which was much spicier than the traditional Italian pepperonata that I've read about since.


Spicy Pepperonata

Ingredients

• 1–2 TBLS extra virgin olive oil
• 1–2 TBLS balsamic vinegar
• 2lbs bell peppers in various colors, rough chopped into large bite-size pieces
• 1lb yellow onions, chopped the same size as the peppers
• 1lb tomatoes, chopped to 1/2 inch
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
• 1 TBLS Sriracha
• 1/4 tsp crushed red chili pepper flakes
• Freshly ground black pepper and sea salt, to taste

Directions 

1. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Add the onions and let them get soft and just slightly brown by sizzling briefly and then cooking on low heat for 20 minutes. Add the garlic after 15 minutes and stir occasionally to make sure nothing is sticking.
2. Add the peppers and cover the pan. After a couple minutes, open and leave the lid just slightly ajar. Allow the peppers to cook this way for 15–20 minutes and continue to stir occasionally.
3. Remove the lid and add the tomatoes and balsamic vinegar. After the liquid has evaporated, add the parsley and season with sriracha, crushed chili pepper flakes, salt, and pepper.

Spoon it over thick toasted bread and top with a poached egg and a drizzle of sriracha. This recipe makes enough for 4–6 people or will last for a few meals for just 2. You can store it in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to one week.

It makes for a great breakfast, brunch, or lunch as is, or you can combine it with some mixed greens and roasted potatoes to round it out as a meal for supper. The nice thing about the pepperonata itself is that you can serve it warm or cold, have it with any meal of the day, and eat it alone as a side dish, mix it in with pasta or whole grains, add to sandwiches, you name it!

Choose Your Own Adventure Chili

O hello cheese! You want in on this chili goodness too?

Chili is one of my all time favorite cold-weather meals. A big bowl of this, and we are happy campers no matter how much snow we've shoveled (well, not that we've been doing much of that this year!). Usually I make it on a Sunday afternoon when I have more time and there is enough to last us a couple nights. Thank goodness for things that taste just as good the next day and heat up easily.

This is based on a recipe from my mom but I've gussied it up and changed it a bit depending on how much heat and what kind of backdrop flavors I want to highlight. So go ahead, feel free to mix it up to make it hotter, lighter, spicier, or any "ers" that suit your fancy!

Gotta love free organic meat from your parent's farm.

Choose Your Own Adventure Chili

Ingredients:
1 lb. lean ground beef
(or ground turkey, chicken, or pork)
3 14 oz. cans of chili beans
2 14 oz. cans of diced tomatoes
(or 1 can + two freshly diced tomatoes)
1 large yellow onion, diced
2–4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 large poblano pepper, rough chopped
(Prefer less heat? Use just one anaheim, poblano, or cubanelle pepper)
(Want to try it mild? Pick up a couple serranos or chipotles)
(Love it hot and spicy? Try a couple habaneros or jalapenos)
olive oil 
freshly ground pepper and salt
1 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. chili powder
(cut the amount of these two in half for less spice)

To kick up the flavor (optional):
1/2 teaspoon beef bullion
2 TBLS ketchup
a few splashes of worcestershire sauce, to taste
(I'm currently experimenting with sriracha, crushed chili peppers, and dried peppers to layer the heat)

let it simmer, let it thicken

Directions:
1. Finely chop the garlic and add to 1–2 TBLS of heated olive oil (medium heat).

2. Just when it starts to get golden, add in meat (be sure to salt and pepper it first), onion, and pepper. Sometimes, if I'm still working on chopping the vegetables, I add in just a bit of water at this point to slow the browning and give myself more time. Stir here and there until meat has browned.

3. Add in the optional flavorings at this point, as much or as little according to your own tastes.

4. Add chili beans and diced tomatoes, cumin, and chili powder.

5. Bring all the ingredients to a roiling boil and then immediately turn it down to medium heat. Let simmer for 1/2 to 1 hour until thickened, stirring now and then so it does not stick to the bottom.

6. Add more salt and pepper if you like before serving. Top each bowl with a bit of sharp chedder and switch into couch potato mode.
(...or monteray jack, or swiss...well, you get the idea...)

To Grandmother's House We Go...

We had a lovely little Christmas here and I hope you and your family enjoyed your holiday celebrations as well! We are off to visit family in Michigan for the next week and will be sans internet so I just wanted to pop in before taking off and thank each and everyone of you for being a part of my blog and my life this past year. It has meant so much to me and I am looking forward to sharing much more with you in the new year.

One last project for 2011 though before I go: homemade marshmallows! I tried a new recipe this year and really love the way they turned out more so than the first ones I made last year. I love melting them in a mug of hot chocolate although they are so good, very springy and fluffy, that you might end up just eating them one by one...not that anyone in this house did anything like that! The taste is so much more incredible than store-bought which I don't really go in for much. I got the recipe over on Smitten Kitchen and it's got great step-by-step instructions and insight which I found really helpful since I've only been dabbling in candy making for a year or so. Last year I made caramels all wrapped up in wax paper and decided to continue the food giving trend with these—a sweet and simple gift that, for me, speaks to what the holidays are really all about. And on that note...

Wishing you warmth, health, happiness, love, hope, peace, and all awesome things now and in the new year—see you back here in 2012 friends!

Crafting Food: Prickly Pear and Papaya Freezer Smoothies

Cheers to the last days of summer

I like to fill out a summer meal with a fruit smoothie as they're cool, refreshing, surprisingly filling for a drink, easy on a weeknight, and a healthy alternative for that ice cream craving. The challenge is that fruit can be expensive, difficult to keep fresh for whenever the craving hits, and a pain to chop up on a busy hot night. Because of this I wholeheartedly rely on the freezer method as it streamlines the whole process (and frozen ingredients create a better smoothie texture anyways). It's all about the prep work beforehand so I wait until fruit goes on sale or when it's super fresh at the farmer's market, chop it all up right when I get back home (which is manageable if you make some time on the weekend), and freeze it in individual sandwich size ziploc bags. Each ziploc contains an equal mix of fruit so I can just pull a frozen bag out when I need it, toss a couple other items in the blender, and wahlah: two large (or three tumbler sized) smoothies!

My go to version is the classic strawberry/banana/orange juice combo but recently I found some discounted and unusual fruits at our grocer. They don't come in stock often and make for a great flavor combo, so I made my move. If you can't find these at your grocer, fill up a bag with whatever combination of fruit you like and add the other ingredients listed below, changing up the flavors (but not the amounts) of the yogurt, sorbet, and juice ice cubes to complement them.

Prickly Pear and Papaya Freezer Smoothies
(makes 4 ziploc bags full/8 smoothies)

1 Papaya
(remove skin with potato peeler, scoop out seeds with a spoon, cut into big cubes)
4 prickly pears
(remove skin with paring knife, quarter and scrape off seeds, slice into big chunks)
4 bananas
(remove peel and slice into 1/2 inch medallions)

Divide the papaya equally among 4 sandwich size plastic bags. Add in 1 banana and 1 prickly pear to each, seal, and freeze. These can be frozen for up to 8 months but I don't think we've ever taken that long to use up our smoothie ingredients.

The inside of prickly pears can be yellow, orange, or deep red like these.

When you are ready to make some, take a bag from the freezer and let it thaw just until the fruit begins to separate from each other. Most days, I just zap it on defrost mode in the microwave for 10–20 seconds so that it's still frozen, but not as hard as a rock when it goes into the blender. Once ready, add to the blender:

1/4 cup yogurt
(Avoid those fake sugary ones—I like Glen Oaks drinkable low-fat yogurt with probiotics for smoothies as they have a ton of complimentary flavors but you can use just about any.)
1 cup mango sorbet
(which is naturally fat free!)
3-4 guava juice ice cubes
(you can find affordable tropical juice flavors in small cans in the Mexican grocery isle. Just freeze it in your ice cube trays, transfer to a ziploc, and pull some out whenever you need them.).

Blend thoroughly and serve immediately. Pad yourself on the back for making friends with your freezer and revel in how delicious being thrifty, organized, and healthy can be!


A note on prickly pears...
Also known as cactus pears, these little guys have a ton of antioxidants in them and are crazy good but they are full of seeds. You can scrape them off the flesh, some will break up if blended thoroughly, and they are completely edible if you just swallow and do not try to chew them...it's up to you. The fruit tastes so incredible and is such a fun food that I don't mind dealing with them one way or another. If you get them from the store, they will likely be removed of any prickly outer thorns (hence the name) but be careful if you are harvesting them from the cactus itself!

Crafting Food: Skillet Cabbage

 The cabbage starts out purple but will run to pink once the lemon juice is added—beautiful and delicious
but be careful you do not get pink spots on your tablecloth. Not that I know anyone who did that...

It's been a while since I've posted a recipe, mostly because we've been relying on old favorites and leftovers for the past month so that I could concentrate on getting ready for the show (which is just two days away now! holy rocks batman!). I'm always looking for new ways to make vegetables interesting though and this little dish saved my lunch several days running.

Perhaps the best nutritional advice I ever got was that the more color there is on your plate, the better (that is, not in reference to artificial dyes and confectionery delights) since a wide variety of colors indicates that you are getting a wide variety of nutrients with dark leafy greens of purple and green being the most nutrient dense choices. Since it's so easy to end up with a plate of brown fried/starchy/baked carbo goodness, I've found this advice has really come in handy when it comes to meal planning and making healthy but tasty(!) choices.

So when I was about to get some of my usual brussels sprouts at the grocery store recently and realized they were all out, I decided to wing it and get a red cabbage instead since it seemed like it would have a similar body and crunch once shredded. I almost always steam or roast vegetables but prepared it the same way I do the brussels sprouts (using less butter in an effort to make it healthier) and was surprised once again with how delicious a traditionally scorned vegetable can be with this treatment! Not too cabbage-y-y-y at all but savory and with a nice little kick thanks to the lemon and pepper. Since one head of cabbage can be served as a side for two dinners for the both of us or make up the whole of 3-4 lunches for me, it makes a pretty good showing for a 99 cent head of cabbage!

Edit: it's a large serving but I accompany it with only a cup of rice/pasta for a quick weeknight meal. You could quarter the cabbage into smaller portions for two people or use half the head to serve as a side for a more elaborate dinner of 4-6 people. This will also work with regular green cabbage which is even cheaper.


Skillet Cabbage
1 head red cabbage
1/2-1 TBLS unsalted butter
1/2 fresh lemon
course ground kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

-Divide your cabbage into halves or thirds, depending on how many meals you'll need it for. Shred the designated portion with a large chopping knife or food processor (I prefer the courser bits the knife will give you) and refrigerate the rest. Cabbage, even after being cut, will keep a bit longer than other vegetables so there's no need to worry if you don't want to eat the other portions several nights in a row.

-About halfway through shredding, place your pat of butter in a large skillet over medium heat. If preparing it in halves, use 1 tablespoon of butter. If preparing it in thirds or quarters, use just a 1/2 tablespoon.

-Place shredded cabbage in the pan and quickly toss to coat with butter. Add salt and pepper to taste and turn heat up to high.

-Continue to toss and cook for 1-2 minutes or for desired tenderness. I don't like to go any longer than a couple of minutes because I like to have a lot of crunch and avoid the wilted stewed effect. Remove from heat and in a bowl mix with 1 TBLS fresh lemon juice (about half a lemon). OPTIONAL: sprinkle on slivered almonds as a topping.

BAM! you're done! That was relatively painless right?
Plus, you can't beat cheap + tasty + nutritional so proceed to plate that goodness up and devour.

I'm having the last of mine for lunch today and will then proceed to busy myself in tying up some loose ends for the festival this Saturday (insert much excitement, nerves, and crazy panic here). If you're in the downtown Providence, Rhode Island area I hope to see you there! If not, I'll see you back here on Monday with photographic evidence of how it all went!

crafting food: chocolate-hazelnut gelato in chocolate-peanut butter bowls

chocolate + jadite = bliss

the piéce de résistance of my birthday weekend was this chocolate-hazelnut gelato, spooned into these molded chocolate bowls and golly gee it was the most frigging divine thing i've had in a while!

we had made this same nutella flavored gelato to compliment our pie and coffee at thanksgiving with our handy kitchen aid ice cream mixer attachment and i decided to make it again and spruce it up a bit once i saw these on pinterest (if you have not yet gotten addicted to pinterest, do yourself a favor and get on that).

but the more i read about the ins and outs of making your own chocolate bowls with semi-sweet chips and balloons as molds here and here, the more nervous i got about how sadfrustratingwasteoftimeandchocolate it would be if/when the balloons popped and my bowls right along with them. i also had the designsponge peanut butter cups on the brain while at the craft store when i had the idea to use half dark chocolate/half peanut butter candy melts and jumbo muffin cups as molds, eliminating the need of volatile balloons and taking advantage of the fact that these candy melts are made for melting/hardening/molding. i looked everywhere for jumbo silcone cups but couldn't find any and ended up buying paper cups instead....i was worried but needlessly as they worked beautifully! it turned out so well that i decided to take a few snapshots and share the process with you:

i started by laying out a baking sheet and lining it with a bit of wax paper just to be safe and tidy. then i melted together half of each bag of candy melts (i used dark chocolate + peanut butter but you could do just a whole bag of one or so many other combinations!) in a double boiler and spooned 1 1/2 to 2 heaping TBLS into each cup. this made enough for me to coat 8 jumbo muffin cups (ahem and just a smidge to lick off the spoon when i was done).

working quickly with a decorating brush, pull the chocolate up the sides making sure to thoroughly coat them so that no light shines through (light spots = weak spots). i had about 10-15 minutes to do this so grab a warm body to help you or melt your coating in smaller batches. they should start to set up by the time you are painting the last one but to harden completely, set them in the fridge for at least one hour (i was paranoid and went for two).

to the left is the wrong way to remove the paper cup, to the right is the correct way

once they've completely hardened, pull them out and set on the counter. do not pick one up and start tearing the paper down the ridges as this puts too much pressure on the chocolate (i say this having broken the first two this way). instead, you can gently get use a vegetable peeler to pull just a sliver of paper away from the ridge at the edge of each cup to get you started. then turn the whole thing upside down onto the baking sheet and gently peel the paper in a sideways motion across and around the ridges. i was happily surprised to find that it was easy to remove them this way without worrying about any stray bits of paper getting stuck AND without breaking them.

keep in fridge until you add the ice cream/mousse/pudding/whatever you like and then enjoy!


p.s. thank you to each of you for the warm birthday wishes, you guys are so kind and it means a lot to me! i did indeed have a nice little weekend but also seem to have developed a nice case of seasonal allergies (or maybe a cold? both?) which i'm finally going to stop ignoring. hence, i am writing this from the couch and am crossing my fingers that i will be back in action soon. blurgh.

crafting food: pasta from scratch

i spent part of an afternoon last week making pasta. i wish i used my hand-crank machine more often because it can be both delicious and economical but it can also require a bit of time and muscle....two things which i've never had much of. on the other hand, i love how the hand-crank puts you directly in touch with the most authentic pasta there is and it's such a satisfying thing to see the way in which the most humble of tools, our hands, can produce food for the table.

the recipe is simple and while there are variations, the main ingredients have remained the same for centuries:

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
2 TBLS water
1 tsp salt
(i always end up needing to add more water than that to get my dough to stick together but this is a good place to start.)
more flour for dusting as you work the dough through the machine

mix the ingredients together thoroughly and add more water as needed until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. use your hands to finish forming it into a ball and divide this into several smaller ones the size of large golf ball. follow the directions that accompany your particular machine for thinning and cutting the dough.

yummy fresh goodness

once you've got that part done, you can either dry it and it will last for eons or you can freeze it and it will last a half eon (just my rough estimate, ahem):

drying: you can dry your pasta by placing it on linen towels along the counter (if you use towels or your pasta is just thick, you do need to move the it around every so often so that the air is getting circulated), over the back of a chair, or even spread out along the length of a broom stick setting between two chairs. you can use a fancy pasta drying rack or a clothes drying rack. whatever you do, just make sure the surface that the pasta is touching is clean and that your canine or feline friends are kept away from the area as it can take a while to dry completely, depending on the humidity of the room/time of year.

freezing: if the whole drying process sounds a bit elaborate, the good news is that you can freeze or refrigerate fresh pasta (refrigerate only up to a week) so that all your hard work is easily stored for later use. plus, fresh pasta boils in just a minute or two so it's ready to eat in a jiffy. yep, i just said jiffy.

i'm looking forward to eating ours with chicken parmajohn. yes, parmajohn. it's one of my husband's go-to meals for when i just need a night off from cooking and i must say he does a great job. especially considering that when i met him, he was living off of pan-friend steak, subway, chinese take-out, and tortellini salad...o dearie my, sometimes learning about food and putting more muscle into it is totally worth it  :)

crafting food: cheddar ale soup

so what do you do when you've had a rough week, you've got 20 some odd inches of snow on the ground with 7 more falling, and you don't have the cash on hand to escape to some exotic local? well, um, if you're anything like me, you might do a bit of CARBO-LOADING! yes, the caps are necessary today and yes, something along the lines of carbs! salty! chrunchy! cheesy! goodness! in my belly! sounds like just the thing right about now (me, an emotional eater? bah, what is this you speak of?!)

we made this wonderful cheddar ale soup recently, compliments of williams-sonoma, and it really hit the spot. as usual, i changed a couple things so i will just list them below in italics (the rest being the original recipe, slightly paraphrased in kat-speak).

Cheddar Ale Soup
Serves 6

Ingredients:
1 bacon slice per bowl/person (we usually go with low-sodium but turkey bacon would be a great healthy alternative too of course. or, just leave out and wah-lah: vegetarian friendly.)
2 TBLS unsalted butter
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup all-purpose flour (you can substitute whole wheat flour if you like)

1 cup pale ale
(make sure it's one you really like as the taste comes though quite strongly and i made the mistake of just using whatever we had in the fridge...oops)
1 TBLS worcestershire sauce
2 cups milk
2 cups chicken broth
(you can use stock too, i had some homemade turkey stock i'd frozon from thanksgiving and it really gives it a great depth of flavor! substitute vegetable stock for vegetarian version.)
1 1/4 lb. sharp cheddar cheese
(we used a combination of inexpensive sharp cheddar from the grocery store and some gourmet vermont cheddar....holy awesomeness batman!)
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste


Directions:
in a 4 1/2 quart dutch oven (um, yeah i wish i had one of those..my stock pot sufficed) over medium-high heat (bacon is crispier if cooked on lower heat, i usually go with medium), cook the bacon until crisp and then transfer to a paper-towel lined plate to drain while you move onto other things.

discard all but 2 TBLS of the fat in the pot (that's about all i had actually). reduce heat to medium and melt butter. add the onion, carrots, and celery, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are softened, about 20 mintes (20 minutes was too much for mine as they got a little black despite stirring. all stoves are calibrated differently so just keep a careful eye out).

add the garlic and cook for 1 minute.
add the flour and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes.
add the ale and cook, stirring constantly, for 2-3 minutes.

add worcestershire, milk, and stock, increase the heat to medium high and bring to a simmer. then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 10-12 minutes. remove the pot from the heat and puree the soup with an immersion blender until smooth (yes, that would have come in handy but no immersion blender here. i pureed the soup in my regular old blender once it had cooled a bit but it was so full that it was difficult to keep the lid on. next time i will just use the food processor like a smart person).

return soup to pot on medium-low heat and add cheese by the handful, stirring constantly; do not allow the soup to boil. season with salt and pepper to taste and then ladle into bowls. top of with the crumbled bacon and, instead of croutons, serve with large hunks of freshly baked bread to rip off and dunk in your soup! i'm thinking a bread bowl might not be a bad idea next time...

add:
1 part Masterpiece Theatre's Downton Abbey on PBS
1 grandma's quilt
2 sleeping cats curled up around you
=start feeling like maybe the world is not half as rotton as it felt the day before!


edit: i was just reading that tomorrow (January 22, 2011) is National Soup Swap Day...what a neat idea to try sometime or anytime during the colder months! i'm sure you could even work in a charitable component...hmm, must let this one simmer in m' brain for a bit!

Crafting Food: Garlic Hummus

I am hunkered down with a few pairs of custom embroidered shoes for the next few days so I thought I would share a tasty recipe with you in the meantime. This is my own recipe for garlic hummus, a middle eastern dip made with chickpeas.

You can cut the recipe in half if you're just making enough to go with a normal meal. I use two cans of chickpeas here as I usually make it for parties. Serve with torn up bits of pita bread, pita chips, or even crostini!

Warning: I am kind of a garlic freak so the taste really comes through here. Try just 3-4 if you prefer less and try a few extra shakes of the cayenne pepper if you like lots of heat as the 5-6 shakes listed here will just give it a bit of a kick. Chickpeas are a great source of protein and can carry other flavors and spices very well so don't be afraid to customize it to your own tastes!

INGREDIENTS:
2 15oz. cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
4-6 cloves garlic
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil + some for drizzling
fresh squeezed juice of 1 lemon
3 TBLS tahini (sesame seed paste you can get at the store)
5-6 shakes cayenne pepper
1 tsp. parika + some for garnish
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. kosher salt


DIRECTIONS:
Combine ingredients in a food processor, adding liquid a bit at a time as you go, until creamy. Sprinkle with paprika and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. garnish with a sprig of parsley. Enjoy!

Eat your vegetables (with butter if you have to).

OK. You have got to try this recipe.

And I have got to post about something completely non-christmas related so I can maintain some sense of sanity as I work through all these custom orders.

I came across this recipe on a PBS cooking show, made a couple small changes, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that, um, I like brussel sprouts (wt?)! Actually I haven't found a recipe I've loved this much in a while so thought it was definitely worth sharing. I even cooked up the extra brussels sprouts for my lunch today so it looks like there's no going back for me...


My Version:
-First things first, I made this dish vegetarian by simply not cooking the sprouts in with the juices from the steak. We don't eat much meat here, especially red meat, and it tasted delicious all on its own. Plus, with the almonds, you still get a bit of protein.

-Place your slivered almonds in the pan (no oil, no nothing) and toast until golden brown. Set aside in a small bowl. Toasting nuts helps enhance their flavor, but if you're short on time, feel free to skip this step as it's not going to ruin the dish.

-Chop the ends off 1 Lb sprouts and then shred them lengthwise. While you're doing this, place 2 TBLS of unsalted butter in the pan and allow to melt on medium heat.


-Place sprouts in the pan with the melted butter and toss. Immediately turn heat up to high and add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.


-After 1–2 minutes you'll have some tender bright green pieces and some crispy golden brown pieces. Remove from heat and in a bowl mix with 1 TBLS fresh lemon juice (about half a lemon) and the toasted almonds.


FINITO! once you get the hang of this recipe, it is very quick to prepare but still impressive I think.

crafting food: baking powder biscuits

a good rule of thumb: if it involves a honeypot, it's probably going to be a beautiful thing.

one of my favorite fall traditions is sitting down with lord of the rings (the books or the movie) and a big bowl of stew. i usually serve this with apple cider and homemade baking powder biscuits which are so scrumptious with a touch of butter and honey!

here is a family recipe i use to make these very simple biscuits that are a great compliment to hearty sunday night dinners:

Baking Powder Biscuits
Makes app. 10 biscuits
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Sift together:
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3 cups flour
4 1/2 tsp. baking powder

then add:
6 TBLS. shortening
1 1/4 cups milk

i love my antique biscuit cutters but you can also use an upside down drinking glass
with a little flour on the edge to cut out your dough.

mix together and roll out at app. 1 inch thick. cut out circle shapes for biscuits and place on baking sheet. bake at 350 degrees until lightly browned and fluffy (if i recall, you can check them at about 10-15 minutes and go from there).


see, i told you they were simple!

happy halloween!

i usually take the weekends off from blogging but since it's a holiday, i just couldn't help from posting something a bit festive. having been gone for the last chunk of october, my husband and i just carved our pumpkins last night. my main motivation is just to get all the yummy seeds out for roasting though...you can tell this because his pumpkins always look better than mine, just check out the picture at the end of this post.

so here is my recipe for roasting pumpkin seeds (it's super simple!):

1. wash your seeds and get all the pumpkin guts off of them while you preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

2. spread your seeds in a single layer on a baking sheet (usually one sheet per pumpkin will suffice).

3. lightly drizzle canola oil over the seeds and then sprinkle them with kosher salt.

4. bake for 30 minutes and open the oven to flip and redistribute the seeds every 10 minutes to ensure even roasting.

5. allow to cool and then gobble those babies up! these are a great healthy snack (as long as you go easy on the oil and salt) or as a festive appetizer for your halloween parties. you can also roast squash seeds the same way, they have a similar nutty flavor.

my husband's is the awesome one on the left.

Recipe Index

I've gathered up all my recipes on the blog for you here and hope you find something you'll want to make again and again—feel free to let me know how a dish turned out for you in the comments section of each recipe as I'd love to hear from you. Happy cooking!

P.S. Although there is a separate vegetarian category, I have tried to make notes for vegetarian options in as many other recipes as possible.


Main Dishes
Proscuitto Flatbread
Cheddar Ale Soup
Fresh Pasta
Choose Your Own Adventure Chili

Vegetarian Meals
Quinoa Vegetable Salad
Kat's Quiche
Spicy Pepperonata

Side Dishes
Roasted Asparagus
Buttered Brussel Sprouts
Skillet Cabbage
Farmer's Market Summer Salad
Cool Cuppa Cucumber Salad

Appetizers and Snacks
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Finger Food Smorgasbord
Bruschetta Two Ways

Baking
Gingerbread Men (and Women!)
Oatmeal Bread
Baking Powder Biscuits
Pie Crust Design and Leaf Pie Crust Q & A

Desserts
Chocolate-Hazelnut Gelato in Chocolate-Peanut Butter Bowls
Homemade Marshmallows

Canning
Granny's Strawberry Freezer Jam
Grandma Sorenson's Kosher Dills

Dressings, Frosting, Sauces, and Dips
Nana's "Beat the Hell Out of it" Buttercream Frosting
Garlic Hummus

Drinks
Prickly Pear and Papaya Freezer Smoothies

little miss homemaker

and thanks to poppytalk for the purdy labels
(you can find even more cool labels for all sorts of things here...thanks martha)

i spent the better part of my weekend making my first ever strawberry jam..and dang is it ever good. i can't take much of the credit because i simply used the recipe that my granny has been using for years. and you know where it comes from? the inside of the pectin box, ha.

Easy Freezer Jam
(takes about half the time of the cooked method and yields a softer set with a fresh fruit taste)
1 batch makes app. 4 cups jam

Ingredients
2 cups crushed strawberries
2 TBLS fresh lemon juice
4 cups sugar (holy heck i know!)
1 pouch certo liquid pectin

Directions
1. make sure all your containers and lids are clean and ready to go.
2. crush strawberries with a potato masher. leave bits of whole strawberry...as much as your personal taste dictates.
3. measure exact amount of prepared fruit into a large bowl.
4. measure exact amount of sugar into a separate bowl.
5. stir sugar into prepared fruit. mix well and let stand for 10 minutes; stir occassionally. important: do not skimp on time requirements as it is important that the sugar dissolve.
6. while fruit mixture sits, stir pectin into a small bowl with the lemon juice.
7. stir pectin mixture into fruit mixture. stir constantly until sugar is completely dissolved and no longer grainy, about 3 minutes (a few sugar crystals may remain).
8. pour into prepared containers leaving a 1/2 inch space at the head of the jar for expansion of the jam during the freezing process. cover tightly.
9. let stand at room temperature for 24 hours. check at this point for proper set.
10. enjoy the FRUIT of your labor. sorry, couldn't resist.

jam can be refrigerated for up to 3 weeks and frozen for up to a year. for more detailed directions, check out the certo box!

crafting food: oatmeal bread (yum)

I spent part of my weekend making one of my favorite things: oatmeal bread! It had cooled down a bit outside and so I thought it'd be a perfect time to use the oven and bake up some delicious homemade bread...I guess i'm on a roll in the kitchen as of late.

My doctor told me a while back I have high blood sugar and with a history of diabetes in the family, it's become important to me to try and vanquish all the nasty chemicals, preservatives, and refined sugars found in the things we buy at the grocery store that make it so difficult to maintain a healthy weight. It's a seemingly uphill battle but investing in some whole wheat flour has helped me to make a lot of things at home as I'd much rather be baking and cooking than standing in the grocery aisle attempting to disseminate misleading food labels.

Here is the family recipe for this very tasty bread:

(makes two loaves)

Combine in a large bowl:
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter/margarine

Mix together dry ingredients and then add 2 cups of boiling water.

In seperate small bowl, mix together until dissolved:
1 package dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water

When oatmeal batter is cooled down to room temperature, add in yeast mixture.
Stir in:
5 cups whole wheat flour

Once dough is stiff enough to handle, turn onto floured board and knead for 5–10 minutes. Place in a greased bowl and cover with damp cloth. Place this in a draft free area and let rise once until doubled, punch down, then let rise again. Shape into two loaves and place in greased 9x5x3 pans to bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes. Before popping them into the oven you can brush them with a bit of melted butter and sprinkle oatmeal on top.

Tada, homemade bread! Yum.

a summer evening's goodness

we don't eat a whole lot of meat at our house, let alone have a grill, so i've been hunting around for some new summer recipes that don't completely turn the kitchen into a sauna. i've especially been looking for ones that use whole grains since they're so healthy and hearty too. i came across this recipe for quinoa vegetable salad on allrecipes.com but i made just a few small tweaks including substituting farro for the quinoa, and leaving out the corn and carrots. paired with a tall glass of ice cold tea made from scratch with fresh mint from our balcony garden, it filled us up and was o so very good! i was a bit surprised by the cilantro-mint-balsamic vinegar combination but they really worked well together and it is indeed a recipe worth sharing!

here is the recipe, with my tweaks added in, more or less since i don't tend to follow standard measurements much:

1 teaspoon canola oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 red onion, diced
water (app. 3-5 cups)
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound farro

1/2 red onion, diced
1 large tomato diced or bunch of grape tomatoes quartered
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 cucumber, sliced and quartered

2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons mint, rough chopped
2 tablespoons cilantro, rough chopped
1 teaspoon natural sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper


Directions:

1. soak farro in cold water for approximately 25 minutes and drain.
2. heat the canola oil in a stockpot or dutch oven over medium-high heat. cook and stir the garlic and the first half of the onion in the hot oil until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes. pour in the water, kosher salt, and black pepper and bring to a boil; stir the farro into the mixture, reduce heat to medium (uncovered) and let simmer for 20-25 minutes. Drain any remaining water from the farro with a mesh strainer and transfer to a large mixing bowl. refrigerate until cold.
3. stir the tomato, bell pepper, cucumber, and remaining red onion into the chilled farro. Season with cilantro, mint, sea salt, and black pepper. Drizzle the olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the salad; gently stir until evenly mixed.
   

ENJOY!

crafting food: prosciutto flatbread

we took a long walk around the lake in town on saturday (it's about 5k i think!) and went grocery shopping afterwards so of course we were starving by the time we got home. luckily for us, we'd started some pizza dough the day before and let it ferment over night for some extra flavor so all we had to do when we got home was warm up the pizza stone and then pop the rolled out dough in for about 10 minutes for this lovely flatbread (apologies for the flash photos..blech i hate that light..but c'est la vive, i am always cooking dinner at night wouldn't ya know!). making flatbread is a DELICIOUS and easy way to feed your pizza craving, possibly even just a tad healthier since this recipe doesn't require any sauce and melty cheese. don't worry though, it's still completely mouth-watering to bite into!

once your flatbread is toasty and golden (pop it with a fork in a few places if it bubbles up while baking), slide it off the pan or pizza stone and onto a cutting board. you can make it like this (above) in the big circular shape of a traditional pizza pie or you can create small oval flatbreads for individual servings. we decided that next time we'll try making the bread into individual servings as they'll save you from having to cut slices, store better for leftovers, and help the toppings to stay put. also, i think this individual presentation would make them great party food as people could decorate their pieces any way they pleased!

we chose to scatter on handfuls of prosciutto, heirloom tomatoes, rough-chopped basil, crumbled feta cheese, a small drizzling of olive oil, and then topped off with some kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. trust me on the black pepper...seriously SO GOOD! you can use all kinds of toppings though like arugula, fava beans, different cheeses, and so on.

wa-lah(!):

happy vday lovely people!

here, have a cupcake :) ok, sorry to tease!

you could say the recipe is "vintage." it's my nana's and calls for enough butter that you know it's from the 1950's. i posted the recipe as a cake last year but just made them into cupcakes this time and added a bit of food dye to the frosting to spruce 'em up for valentines. i recommend refridgerating them once frosted so that the frosting has time to set.

Bruschetta Two Ways

One of my favorite things to make (and eat) is bruschetta and as you can see, I kind of pile on the toppings to make it a little meal in and of itself. You can try all sorts of healthy combinations but my favorite will always be beefsteak red and yellow tomatoes with basil and fresh ground pepper. Another favorite at our house is shaved parmesan cheese with arugula. And the best part is, it doesn't taste like you're being healthy at all! Here is how:

1. Freshness and quality are key when you're cooking with only a small number of ingredients. Find a nice big loaf of crusty italian bread, try some focaccia bread or a baguette, or get brave and make your own! Cut it in thick slices and toss in a shallow pan with just a bit of olive oil (the greener the tastier) on medium heat. Just don't walk too far from the stove at this point as it will burn fast!

2. Second step is simple—just rough chop your basil, arugula, tomatoes, prosciutto, whatever you please! You can slice your cheese in thin rectangular pieces if you don't have one of these handy cheese planes as shown in the photo.

3. Now assemble, top with freshly ground black peppercorns if you like and....

...ENJOY!

Adventures in Vegetarian Cooking

Besides my sewing, knitting, and embroidery, I really do love to garden and cook with fresh beautiful foods. One of the things I've been trying to do a lot more of since this past year is making a few vegetarian meals each week. It's a healthy alternative and it certainly makes preparing dinner a bit easier!

Last night we made frittatas with chopped bell pepper, red onion, and basil. Alongside we had broiled asparagus and vegetarian sausage...a first for me! and you know what? it wasn't all that bad! In fact, it smelled just like the real thing but with just a slightly mealy texture inside...kind of like falafel. I'd definitely eat it again but with a few more spices added of my own perhaps.

The asparagus is so simple and delicious. If you haven't tried it, it's an easy side dish to prepare and here is how:

Wash asparagus and trim ends to desired length. Arrange on cookie sheet side by side.

Drizzle with good olive oil—not too much, app. 1 tsp. I would say
Sprinkle on course sea salt or kosher salt as well as freshly ground black pepper.

Broil on high for 8–10 minutes. Flip the asparagus at the midway point for even cooking (if you don't flip, it's not the end of the world!).

Serve and ENJOY!