Roasted Butternut Squash

Winter is a time for squash. I don't care for the stringy-ness of acorn squash as much, but the sweet flavor of butternut squash is to die for. It is so easy to make and needs almost no preparation (just a long baking time).

1 butternut squash - any size
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Peel and cube the squash into 3/4 inch chunks. Toss with the olive oil. Lay on a baking sheet, sprinkle liberally with pepper and conservatively with salt. Bake at 425 for 45 minutes, turning occasionally.

Chocolate Truffles with Irish Cream

Don't spend a fortune on store bought truffles - they are one of the easiest candies to make! They keep well in the freezer for up to 3 months and make a lovely homemade hostess gift. I use Irish Cream but it also works well with Rum, Kahlua, or any sweet liquor of your choice.

Truffles
-1/4 cup butter
-3 tbsp heavy cream
-4 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
-2 tbsp Irish cream

Coating
-4 oz bitter sweet chocolate, finely chopped
-1 tbsp vegetable oil
-1 cup chocolate sprinkles (jimmies)

In a saucepan over med-high heat, bring butter and cream to a boil. Remove from heat, and stir in chocolate until completely melted. Then stir in rum. Pour the mixture into a pan and chill until firm, 2ish hours. When firm, take rounded teaspoonfulls of the mixture and form small balls. Place them on a wax paper coated baking sheet and chill until firm, half an hour or so.

To make the coating: In a double boiler over simmering water, melt the chocolate with the oil, stirring until smooth. Remove from water, cool completely. Set the sprinkles in a bowl or cup.

Drop the truffle balls 2 or 3 at a time, into the melted chocolate coating. Using a fork, lift them out and allow excess coating to drip. Roll the coated truffles in sprinkles and put them back on the baking sheet. Chill until they are set, 30 minutes. Wonderful!

Coconut Snowballs

Having impromptu company and looking for a quick dessert without exotic ingredients? Looking for a way to dress up simple vanilla ice cream so it's pretty enough to serve? Look no further! These coconut snowballs please most palates, look nice on the plate, and take no more than ten minutes. You can even make the ice cream balls ahead of time and keep them in the freezer. This multi-purpose chocolate sauce hardens quickly when in contact with cold foods, making it perfect for ice cream dishes.

Vanilla ice cream - scoop and shape into round balls 2-3 inches in diameter
2 cups of sweetened coconut flakes

2 squares unsweetened baking chocolate
4 tbsp butter or margerine
1 lb confectioners sugar
1/4 cup half and half or whole milk

Scoop the ice cream, shape into balls. Put in the freezer until they harden. Toast the coconut on a baking sheet until just browned, approx 5 minutes.

Melt the chocolate and butter together in a saucepan over med-high heat. Stir until smooth. Reduce heat to low. Stir in the confectioners sugar and cream in small amounts until chocolate sauce is smooth. You may need more or less sugar for consistency.

Roll the ice cream balls in the toasted coconut, patting with your hands to coat them. Drizzle chocolate sauce on plates and center the ice cream, top with more chocolate.

Chicken or Pork in Balsamic Reduction

This recipe has a very tangy, flavorful sauce that works well on chicken or pork cutlets. It's an easy but relatively low-fat recipe.

4 chicken breast cutlets or boneless pork chops
olive oil
1.5 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 yellow onion, chopped fine
pinch of dried parsley
2 tbsp chilled butter
1 tbsp minced garlic
splash of red wine

Heat oil in a skillet over med-high heat. Salt and pepper the meat on both sides and add to the hot skillet. Cook 4-5 minutes on each side, remove from skillet and keep warm under foil.

Add chopped onion to the skillet with minced garlic. Sautee until soft. Add broth, vinegar, and red wine to the skillet, simmer until liquids have reduced by half. Remove from heat. Add cold butter and stir into sauce, then add the meat and juices to the pan, coating the chops in sauce. Serve finished with the pan sauce, or over rice.

Slow Cooker Chunky Applesauce

Nothing says "fall" like the smell of baking things with apples. Apple pie, apple crisp, apple compote, anything. The bad news is that they are all full of fat and sugar, you just can't go right with flaky pie crust or cripsy oatmeal topping. But you CAN go right with homemade spicy applesauce - all the warm cinnamon apple goodness without any added fats or sugars. All you need is a crockpot.

Apples - peeled and sliced (I use 8lbs of apples to fill a 7qt crock pot, adjust as needed)
Cinnamon - 1 tsp for every 4-5 lbs of apples or so
Sugar (optional) - 1/8 cup for ever 4-5 lbs of apples

Peel and slice the apples. Toss with the cinnamon and sugar. Put everything in the crockpot with 1/4 cup of water. Cook on low heat for 6-7 hours (overnight works wonderfully), stirring towards the end. Serve for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!

Lemon Cake

Nothing says summer like a fresh lemon cake! Super easy and super lemony, make a regular white cake from recipe or mix, but replace all the water with freshly squeezed lemon juice, and then fold into the batter the zest of 3 lemons. For lemon buttercream icing, beat as normal and replace the milk with lemon juice, and a drop of yellow food coloring if it's not quite yellow enough from the butter. Garnish with candied lemon slices. Voila! This is can be to the table in an hour or less if you use thin 6 inch cakes (3 layers) that cool quickly.

Peach Apricot Cobbler

This is a super tasty, rich, and easy cobbler type dessert. It can be made with virtually all kinds of canned fruit, so it's excellent for mixing and matching and using whatever you have! I've used peaches, apricots, pears, mandarin oranges, pineapple, and cherries in different combinations and all to pleasing results.

-1/2 c sugar
-2 tbsp cornstarch
-1 can (1 lb, 13 oz) sliced peaches - drained, juice reserved
-1 can (10.5 oz) apricot halves, drained, juice reserved
-1 tbsp butter
-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

-1/2 c flour
-1/2 sugar
-3/4 tsp baking powder
-1/4 tsp NaCl
-2 tbsp butter, softened
-1 large egg

1. Preheat oven to 400. In a medium saucepan, mix together sugar and cornstarch. Stir in 1/2 cup each of the reserved fruit juices. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils and thickens, 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
2. Stir in butter, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add peaches and apricots. Spoon mixture into a 1.5 qt casserole.
3. For the topping, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, butter, and egg. Drop in small chunks or spoon topping over the fruit mixture.
4. Bake cobbler until slightly golden, 30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
5. For a nice garnish, beat up some heavy cream with 2 tsbp of honey and a pinch of cinnamon. Serve over the warm cobbler!

A Chocolate Cake

With fondant roses. Simple but pretty.

Lasagna Roll-Ups

I like this tasty recipe as part of our meatless meals plans - it's filling and hearty without meat or beans. Taken from an original recipe in Cooks Country, I made a few changes that I think punch things up a little bit (though the changes probably knock it out of the 30 minute meal category into a 45 minute meal).

8-10 no boil lasagna noodles
15 oz. container ricotta
1 block mozzarella, shredded 8 or 10 oz. (approx 2 cups?)
1.5 cups grated parmesan cheese
1 cup cheddar, shredded
1 large egg
1/2 cup chopped basil (or 1/4 dried basil)
1/2 tsp salt
1 can, 20 oz, crushed tomatoes
2 onions, chopped
3 tsbp olive oil
2 tbsp minced garlic

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place the noodles in a microwave safe dish with hot tap water, enough to cover noodles. Microwave until noodles are softened, 3 to 6 minutes. Discard water. Dry noodles on clean towel.
2. Combine ricotta, 1 cup mozzarella, 1 cup cheddar, 1 cup parmesan, egg, salt, and half the basil in a bowl.
3. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat until onion is soft. Remove from heat, add crushed tomatoes and remaining basil. Spread half the tomato sauce in a 9x13 dish, set the other half aside.
4. With the short side facing you, dollop 1/4 cup of the ricotta mixture on each noodle, roll up. Arrange seam side down in the dish. Pour the remaining tomato sauce over all.
5. Sprinkle remaining cheese over top the rolls, cover with foil and bake until heated through, 10-12 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 5 additional minutes, or until cheese is browned. Let stand 5 minutes and serve.

This makes a pretty hefty portion...but it freezes and reheats well, and makes great leftovers for lunches.

Creamy Turkey and Wild Rice Soup

This was a post-Thanksgiving recipe, but I just tried it out now - I made the stock from just the carcass of a turkey breast I had roasted, rather than doing a whole turkey (a breast is like 1/20th of the work!) and the stock came out just fine. For 2 or 3 people I cut the recipe in half...anything more than that and go for the full recipe. It reheats well. :-)

Turkey Broth 2 tbsp butter 2 chopped onions 1 celery rib 1 leftover turkey carcass, chopped into 4 pieces 3 cups white wine 6 cups low-sodium chicken broth

Soup 1 cup wild rice 4 carrots, peeled and chopped 2 celery ribs, chopped 1/2 tsp dried thyme 1/4 tsp baking soda 1/4 c all purpose flour 1 cup heavy cream 3 cups chopped cooked turkey salt and pepper

1. For the broth - melt butter in a large dutch oven over med high heat. Cook onions, celery, and carcass until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add wine and broth and simmer over low heat for 1 hour. Strain broth, discard solids.
2. For the soup - wipe out the dutch oven (or if you have 2, lucky you!) and toast the rice over medium heat until it begins to pop, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in turkey broth, carrots, celery, thyme, and baking soda, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer until rice is tender, about 1 hour.
3. Whisk flour and cream in a bowl until smooth. Slowly whisk flour mixture into the soup. Add turkey and simmer until slightly thickened, 10 mintues. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

If you find it easier to make in two steps - broth first, refrigerate, then soup the next day - that works too.

Warm Black Bean and Corn Salad (with Honey-Lime Salmon)

This is a tasty, sweet and spicy, soft and crunchy warm salad. I'm not a huge fan of salmon but this would be excellent alongside chicken made in the same honey-lime marinade....someone pointed me to this recipe in a Rachael Ray cookbook, and I am always up for new salads and sides.

The red pepper in this recipe kicks it up quite a few notches - if you don't like spicy things cut the red pepper flakes in half, or omit all together. If you like spice, then flame away!

• 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (divided use)

• 1 medium red onion, chopped

• 2 large garlic cloves, chopped

• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

• 1 teaspoon ground cumin (1/3 palmful)

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

• Juice of 2 limes

• 3 tablespoons honey (3 gobs)

• 1 teaspoon chili powder (1/3 palmful)

• 4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets

• 1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped

• 1 (10-ounce) box frozen corn kernels, defrosted

• 1/2 cup chicken stock or broth

• 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained

• 2 to 3 tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves, chopped

• 6 cups baby spinach

1. Preheat a medium skillet over medium heat with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil (twice around the pan). Add the onions, garlic, red pepper flakes, cumin, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes. (this will be your salad skillet)
   

2. While the onions are cooking, preheat a medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

3. In a shallow dish, combine the juice of 1 lime, honey, chili powder, and salt and pepper to taste. Add the salmon fillets to the lime-honey mixture and toss to coat thoroughly. Add the seasoned salmon to the hot skillet and cook until just cooked through, about 3 to 4 minutes on each side. (if you are not for salmon, use the marinade to cook chicken or other fish - shrimp would be good too- however you like)
   

4. To the cooked onions, add the bell pepper and corn kernels and cook for 1 minute.

5. Add the chicken (I use vegetable) stock and continue to cook for another 2 minutes.

6. Add the black beans and cook until the beans are just heated through.

7. Remove the skillet from the heat and add the juice of the second lime, the cilantro and the spinach. Toss to wilt the spinach and then taste and adjust the seasoning.

8. Serve the lime-and-honey-glazed salmon on top of the warm black bean and corn salad.

Authentic Beef Enchiladas

This is an excellent recipe that I pulled from the October Issue of Cook's Country. It's not a quick-n-easy dinner - the beef must simmer for an hour and a half and putting the whole thing together I'd estimate it takes 2.5 hours or so in total - but on a Sunday evening when you have the free time, it's just delicious - mexican restaurant quality enchiladas in a smoky, flavorful sauce. Despite the magazine recommendation for blade steak, I used a thin chuck steak and had just as excellent results. If you use chuck steak, the key is to have small pieces. Both steaks are inexpensive. If you like your enchiladas on the mild side, don't use the full 1/4 cup of jalapenos, I also love black beans and I threw about 1/2 cup into the beef mixture before filling the tortillas. Without traipsing down to Mexico, the beef in this recipe is as authentic as you can get!

3 garlic cloves, minced
3 tbsp chili powder
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 tsp sugar
Salt
1 to 1.25 lbs blade or chuck steaks, trimmed to small pieces
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
½ cup water
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack or mild cheddar
¼ cup chopped cilantro
¼ cup canned japapenos, chopped fine
12 (6-inch) corn tortillas, white or yellow

1. Combine garlic, chili powder, coriander, cumin, sugar, and 1 tsp salt in a small bowl. Pat the meat dry and sprinkle with salt. Heat oil in a dutch oven (or I used just a deep saucepan) over med high heat. Cook meat until browned on both sides. Transfer the meat to a plate. Add chopped onions to the pot and cook over medium heat until golden, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic mixture and cook till fragrent, about 1 minute. Add tomato sauce and water, bring to a boil. Return meat and juices to the pot, cover, reduce heat to low, and gently simmer till meat is tender and can br broken apart with a wooden spoon or fork, about 1 ½ hours.

2. Adjust oven rack t the middle position and heat oven to 350. Strain the beef mixture over a medium bowl, breaking meat into small pieces, reserve the sauce. Transfer meat to a bowl and mix with the cilantro, jalapenos, and 1 cup of cheese.

3. Spread ¾ cup of sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Microwave tortillas 6 at a time until soft, 1 minute. Spread 1/3 cup beef mixture down the center of each tortilla, roll the tortillas tightly, and set in the baking dish seam side down. Repeat with remaining tortillas and beef, you may have to fit a few down the sides of the pan. Pour the remaining sauce over enchiladas and spread to coat evenly. Sprinkle remaining cheese over, wrap with foil, and baked until heated through, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking till cheese browns slightly, 5 minutes. Serve with yellow rice, refried beans, and sour cream!

Herbed Roasted Potatoes

One of the easiest (though with the baking time not necessarily the quickest) side dishes one can come up with is roasted potatoes. Particularly if you use new potatoes, or small creamers - they usually have few eyes and imperfections and not a lot of dirt to be scrubbed, so they can just be chopped in half quickly. But they are simple and tasty and always a hit with the meat-and-potatoes crowed (namely, my husband).

If you don't have these herbs or spices handy, improvise and make your own. Just be sure that you are generous with the salt and the cracked pepper.

Herbed Roasted Potatoes

2-3 lbs of red or gold new potatoes, creamers, or small yukon golds
1/4 to 1/3 cup olive oil
2 generous tablespoons of parsley - dried, or chopped fresh
1 tbsp NaCl
several peppermill twists of cracked pepper - probably equaling 2 tbsp or so
pinch or two of dried rosemary
sprinkle of garlic salt or 1/2 tsp minced garlic

Rinse (or wash if they are super dirty) the potatoes and dig out any eyes and peel out any bad spots, leaving as much skin intact as possible.

For smaller potatoes, cut them in half - for larger new potatoes (larger meaning length of more than 2 inches or so) cut them into quarters. Put the cut potatoes in a large mixing bowl and toss with the olive oil and spices until evenly coated. Spread the coated potatoes evenly on a dark baking sheet and bake in the oven at 400 for 40-45 minutes, or until done.

If you have so many potatoes that a single layer on the baking sheet isn't possible, use two sheets! In the photo below I am obviously heavy on the parsley (because I like it), so if yours don't look quite so "herbed" that is just fine. You can serve them straight out of the oven, or top with a pat of butter if you like. Leftovers are great in the morning alongside scrambled eggs!

Hobby Night Cakes

Every year our church has a hobby night - where people can set up tables and showcase their hobbies. So I thought this year to have a table for cake! Since it is a hobby and all. I had a few different kinds of cakes brought in and gave them away to people who asked, and some mini cakes for children to try their hand at decorating. The 3 tiered stack was a little heavy, but still looked ok.

French Onion Salisbury Steaks

Normally I eschew Salisbury Steak, thinking of it as classless t.v. dinner fare. But this recipe caught my eye in one of those freebie magazines they send to your home - and since I am a huge fan of all things french onion and I had some ground beef handy, I thought I'd give it a whirl.

It was actually quite good! When i think of salisbury steak i think of dried out ground beef patties in a slick greasy gravy, but this recipe turned out thick, spice-filled, and medium-rare ground sirloin in a flavorful broth reduction with plenty of onions. Served on top of cheese toasts and soaking in a shallow bowl of onion soup, it was tasty and filling. While I certainly woudln't serve this to the Queen of England, it was a quick, simple meal and definitely a more well-presented and flavorful version of a tv dinner classic. I used a cup more onions than the recipe called for, and since I had dried thyme instead of fresh, only the tiniest pinch of thyme. It can be overwhelming and I had really screwed some things up by over-thyming them in the past. (photo not mine, from Cuisine magazine online)

Combine and form 4 patties:

1 to 1.25 lbs ground sirloin
1/8 cup fresh or dried parsley
2 scallions, minced
1/4 tsp NaCl
1 tsp cracked black pepper

Dredge each patty in flour and sautee all together in 2 tbsp olive oil for 3 min on each side. Remove from pan and set aside.

Add into frying pan:

4 onions, sliced thinly
1 tsp sugar

Cook for 5 minutes, until onions are soft.

Add in: 1 tsbp tomato paste, 1 tsp minced garlic. Stir over heat 1 minute.
Add in: 2 cups beef broth, 1/4 cup dry red wine, pinch of kosher salt, pinch of fresh or dried thyme. Simmer.

Add the beef patties back into the sauce, continue to simmer till sauce is reduced by one third or so. Serve steaks in shallow bowls on cheese toasts (toasted bread topped with parmesan and then broiled quickly) with onion soup ladled over.

Black Bean Burgers

This recipe comes courtesy of my friend Lexi, who has lived in Texas and Pasadena. I think she knows her way around black beans! These are super tasty burgers that freeze well, so you can make them and freeze for later. Not well suited for grilling, these are better pan fried in just a little olive oil. The bean paste is mushy and it requires that quick-searing heat to make a crispy enough crust that the burger won't fall apart. Topped with cheese and some spicy ranch, even my carnivore husband thinks these are a nice alternative to a meaty burger. Quick, protein filled, and low in fat. What could be better?

INGREDIENTS

• 1 (16 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 green bell pepper, cut into 2 inch pieces
• 1/2 onion, cut into wedges
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon Thai chili sauce or hot sauce
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs
• crushed saltine crackers
  

- Process the beans with the onion and garlic until a chunky paste. Mix in a bowl (using your hands) with the egg, spices, and bread crumbs. Form into patties, and coat each side with the crushed saltines.
-Pan fry the burgers a few at a time in a teaspoon or so of olive oil (or even nonstick cooking spray works), making sure to form a crust on each side. Serve alone or on buns, with cheese and toppings.

Baby Cake

A congratulatory cake I made for a friend and their baby (June). The cake is almond with buttercream, and the baby, blanket, and blocks are fondant.

Fondant is tricky in the summer because it tends to get sticky the second day - no matter where it's kept. Refridgerated fondant will just become cold and sticky, fondant left out will be hot, sticky, and melty. The best thing to do is keep it cool after fashioning whatever it is, and then dust with a gentle brush of powdered sugar the next day if it is looking shiny or sticky. Fondant is an awful lot of work for something that is so ornamental and almost no one eats!

Lemon-Limeade

I found myself wanting to make lemonade, but I was short of lemons. Limes, however, had been on sale 8/$1.00 this week, and I had bought extra limes for the express purpose of putting them down the garbage disposal (at 12 cents a lime I can afford that luxury!). But on a whim I decided to go halfsies on lemons and limes in the traditional lemonade recipe. The end result was actually quite delicious.

1.5 cups granulated sugar
8 cups of water, divided into 7c and 1c
1.5 cups lemon or lime juice (for me it took 3 large lemons and 4 large limes, squeezed)

-Combine granulated sugar and 1 cup of water, boil until dissolved, to form a simple syrup. Refridgerate till cool.
-Squeeze lemons and limes, discard seeds but keep the pulp.
-Combine lemon-lime juice with 7 cups remaining chilled water.
-Slowly stir in sugar syrup, reserving the last 1/4 cup and adding to taste.
-Garnish with lemon rinds and enjoy.

Fresh Croutons

Even a simple everyday salad can be punched up by quick and easy homemade croutons. An excellent use of leftover bread, these little toasty pieces can be stored in an airtight container for several weeks. Use a smattering of your favorite herbs and spices - fresh chives baked with the croutons are great in the summer, dried basil and oregano are good compliments for a salad with an italian meal, or even rosemary and dried sage taste good, particularly on wheat bread. Virtually any type of old bread will do, these were made from leftover slightly stale potato rolls.

- Slice your bread or rolls as normal, butter one side.
- Cut into squares or small pieces (they do not have to be regular)
- Toss the squares in a large plastic bag; I usually use the bread bag itself.
-Add generous amounts of your choice of spices - a good basic formula is 1 tsp garlic salt, 1 tsp dried basil, 1 tsp dried parsley, cracked pepper and coarse salt. Toss and shake the bread and spices in the bag until all are evenly coated.
- Spread evenly on a baking sheet, bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes, or until croutons are toasty. Be careful, one they start to burn it only takes 20 seconds or so before they become completely unusable!

Store in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks or so. Add them liberally to soups and salads for an extra punch of flavor.

Tri Color Pasta Salad

What is better in the heat of summer than pasta salad. Ice cream, maybe? But that's not appropriate for dinner. You can make a great pasta salad by just cooking tri-color pasta, draining and rinsing, and then tossing it with halved cherry tomatoes and diced bell peppers. A bit of fresh coarsly grated parmesan finishes it off. Top with any thick dressing - I use homemade balsamic vinagrette that I pop in the freezer for a few minutes to chill and thicken. I find it much better to dress individual portions right before eating, that helps to avoid the oily slimy pasta salad fate that so many people suffer at BBQs.