Daily Archives: October 22, 2013

Soups, Vegetarian

Butternut Squash Soup

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I recently had a dinner party, and in the spirit of the season (fall) I decided to make butternut squash soup as one of my main dishes. Earlier I posted about butternut squash macaroni & cheese, if you have one and soup just isn’t your thing. No reason not to enjoy the bounties of fall, regardless of texture preferences.
So as per usual, I googled around and pulled from several recipes and what I had in the house to come up with this. It received universally positive reviews! I made a large amount since I was feeding 6, you can cut everything in half for a smaller number of people.
Ingredients:
2 squash, halved and seeded
2 carrots
2 celery sticks
1 small chunk peeled raw ginger (about 1 inch)
1 white onion
4 chicken bouillon cubes
5 cups water
1 package cream cheese
Cinnamon, nutmeg and coriander seasoning

Step 1: Place halved squash on a baking pan with a little water. Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes, until soft when poked with a fork.

Step 2: While the squash are baking, boil the carrots, celery, onion and ginger in chicken water until tender.

Step 3: Scoop the squash out of the skin and blend in a blender. There’s a surprisingly large amount of flesh in there, I had to do it in three batches. Add hot water from the pot to thin it out. Blend in the cream cheese, the vegetables and chicken stock as well, put it all back into a large stock pot.

Step 4: Add a healthy dose of cinnamon, nutmeg and/or coriander, adjusting to your tastes. Bring to just a simmer, and enjoy.

This is a great taste of fall, good on its own or I’m sure you could pair it with any number of dishes. You could probably mix and match too, if you wanted to try pumpkin or acorn squash instead. You could add milk or half and half to make it creamier, or omit the cream cheese & chicken bouillon to make it vegan.

Breakfast, Comfort food, Less than 5, Main Dishes

Sausage gravy & biscuits

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If you asked my family if ever they thought they’d see the day where I not only willingly ate sausage gravy and biscuits, yet alone cooked it myself, they would call you crazy.

For the longest time I was very against sausage in any form; ground, patties, links. Well, I’m living proof that tastes change over time. The more times I tried sausage gravy & biscuits, the more I liked it. However, I am also aware that commercial gravy is horrific for you. I had a can of biscuits in the fridge and sausage was on sale $3/pound at my farmer’s market.

I couldn’t resist buying a nice, fresh ground pound of sausage and trying my hand at this artery-clogging breakfast favorite. Turns out, it is actually quite easy. I did cheat and use canned biscuits rather than make my own. But the gravy is more art than science, use your own judgment and tastes when adding milk and flour to make it the consistency you want. You could also use cornstarch to thicken it rather than flour for a gluten-free option.

Pro tip: this sausage gravy would be great over just about any meat or grain, like chicken and mashed potatoes, or ham and rice.

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound sausage
  • 1 can biscuits
  • 1 cup milk
  • 4 tbsp flour
  • Salt & pepper

Step 1: Brown the sausage in a frying pan. Once fully cooked, remove the sausage, drain the fat and set aside.

Step 2: Bake the biscuits in a 350 oven for 10-12 minutes.

Step 3: Add the flour to the pan you cooked the sausage in, slowly whisk in the milk. Add all the milk, and bring to a simmer. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Step 4: Add the cooked sausage back in and mix well. Pour over warm biscuits and enjoy!

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:16]
I can feel my taste buds cheering, and my arteries crying…
Healthy, Pasta

Mixed seafood linguini in lemon-butter sauce

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I’m very thankful that I have the ability, when I’m at the grocery store and see a bag of mixed seafood on sale, I can just throw it in my cart and think nothing of it. That’s exactly what happened last week. I saw the mixed seafood on sale, and decided seafood linguini was for dinner that night.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb pasta
1 lb bag mixed seafood
1/2 bag frozen mixed vegetables
1 tbsp garlic
1/3 cup butter/margerine
1/3 cup lemon juice
Sprinkles of garlic, italian seasoning and sea salt
(I added a few squirts of fish sauce because I have that. Because I’m weird. But it’s salty and goes great with seafood.)

 
Step 1: Boil the pasta. While it’s boiling, throw all the other ingredients into a pot. The lemon, butter and spices will coat the seafood and veggies. Simmer with a lid for about 5 minutes, then without a lid for another 10 or so. 
 

 Step 2: Once the pasta is done (~7/8 minutes) throw that in the pan to coat with sauce. You can adjust by adding butter, oil, lemon juice, or white wine as needed. Cornstarch or flour can thicken the sauce too.

 Once the seafood is soft, and the vegetables give when poked with a fork, or you’re hungry, it’s done!

Snacks

Pumpkin seed makeovers

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One of my favorite parts of fall is carving pumpkins and roasting the seeds. Salty, crunchy, the perfect snack. A friend of mine decided to try branching out and putting weird things on the seeds we roasted. Here are our concoctions and my humble opinions thereof.

 This is the batch I made the day before, soaked overnight in salt water. They were simply roasted with olive oil and sea salt. My favorite, the old classic.

Indian spices: turmeric, curry powder & coriander
Brown sugar and cinnamon sweetness
Chili powder and chipotle pepper
Garlic and salt, a classic combo

All four batches of seeds, mixed with oil and a bit of salt each

Step 1: Mix seasonings, 2 tbsp oil and some salt into each batch.
Step 2: Spread the seeds in a single layer over a cookie sheet.
Step 3: Bake at 350 for 10 minutes, mix around so nothing burns, bake another 10 minutes.

 Each batch was put into its own labeled baggie.

The garlic salt was good, like original with garlic. The curry had a strange aftertaste. The spicy ones were nearly too much for me but tolerable. And the sugar ones caramelized and burnt into clumps… so as much fun as it was, I’ll stick with the classics. But now you know.