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This was one of my first ’specialties’. It is a really healthy soup and made with one of my all time favorite vegetables; butternut squash. Depending on how much you blend it, it can come out silky, creamy smooth or slightly chunky and brothy. Tonight I served it topped with toasted pumpkin seeds and with a side beet salad with a dill-garlic-yogurt dressing. AND a slice of Pane Siciliano – BBA Challenge #23 – blog post on that coming soon!
- 1 medium (2lb) butternut squash
- 2 small potatoes, cut into cubes
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 32 oz. chicken broth or stock
- salt and pepper to taste
- cut squash in half, remove seeds, and bake at 375 F for 1 hour
- brown all veggies (including baked squash) in a large pot for 5 min.
- add stock/ broth and simmer for 40 min over low heat
- blend with immersion blender until smooth (or regular blender)
- add salt and pepper to taste and serve! (good with a dollop of sour cream or plain yogurt)
I. Cannot. Sit. Still. I have become hypersensitive to my body since ‘the accident’, though Joe would tell you that i have always been this way. My bruised (?) ankle recovery rate thus far does not bode well for the marathon in three weeks. AAAHHH.
This was my first venture back into the kitchen since the accident. Maybe I went a little crazy, but I had a good time. As a note, the pumpkin photographed immediately below is not done. It needed another 15 minutes after this shot was taken, but at that point I was ready to eat and not taking any more pictures. It was good! And the spiced pumpkin seeds I made after this were pretty tasty too! I served the soup with some wheat rosemary olive focaccia. See that recipe below.
Pumpkin Soup in a Pumpkin
- 1 5 lb. pumpkin, w/ stem
- 5 T butter
- salt
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 1 C fresh white breadcrumbs, toasted
- 1/2 t ground nutmeg
- 1/2 t ground sage
- ground black pepper
- 1/2 C grated swiss (all i had was cheddar) cheese
- 3 C chicken stock (I used bullion cubes)
- 2 bay leaves
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Clean pumpkin inside and out, cutting a 4″ diameter hole for the lid. Set the seeds aside
- Melt 4 T butter in a medium skillet and saute onions for 10 minutes over medium heat. Add breadcrumbs, nutmeg, and sage, and cook 2 more minutes. Remove from heat and add cheese.
- Rub remaining 1 T butter (softened) on the inside of the pumpkin. Scoop onion mixture into the pumpkin, then fill with chicken stock to within 1/2″ of the rim. Add bay leaves.
- Bake pumpkin for 1 1/2 hours, or until outside is browning and pumpkin flesh is soft.
- Before serving, use a long handled metal spoon to scrape the insides of the pumpkin and mix the flesh in with the soup. Serve.
Quick Focaccia
- 5 C flour (I used 2 C bread, 2 C all purpose, and 1 C whole wheat)
- 2 1/2 t yeast
- 1 2/3 C warm water
- 1/4 C olive oil
- dried rosemary
- 1/3 C chopped olives
- sea salt
- Stir together 1 2/3 C lukewarm (105 to 115°F) water and yeast in bowl of mixer and let stand until creamy, about 5 minutes. Add 5 C flour, 1/4 C oil, and 2 1/2 teaspoons table salt and beat with paddle attachment at medium speed until a dough forms. Replace paddle with dough hook and knead dough at high speed (woohoo!) until soft, smooth, and sticky, 3 to 4 minutes.
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead in 1 to 2 tablespoons more flour. Knead dough 1 minute (it will still be slightly sticky), then transfer to a lightly oiled bowl and turn dough to coat with oil. Let rise, covered with plastic wrap, at warm room temperature, until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
- Press dough evenly onto a spray oiled and salted (optional- but good) baking sheet. Let dough rise, covered completely with a kitchen towel, until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 425°F.
- Make shallow indentations in the dough with your fingertips. Gently brush or spray with olive oil. Sprinkle with rosemary, olives, and sea salt and bake in middle of oven until golden, 20 to 25 minutes.
Filed under: DINNER | Tags: beets, carrot, leeks, onion, potatoes, tomatoes, vegetarian
2 BEETS, 3 CARROTS, 8 GARLIC CLOVES, 1 LEEK, 1 ONION, 2 RED POTATOES, 2 SWEET POTATOES, and 6 CHERRY TOMATOES.
Did i forget anything? This was all i could find around the kitchen to roast tonight. I tossed the beets, potatoes, garlic, and carrots in a couple T evoo and some salt and pepper then popped em in the 475°F oven. After 12 minutes I added the onion and leek (and some rosemary). After 25 minutes more, i added the tomatoes and cooked 5 minutes more. I then sprinkled a little parmesan over the whole thing and gave it 3 final minutes… at that point after opening and closing my little oven door, i bet it was down around 425°F or less.
I served it over parmesan couscous with a side salad.
This should be good fuel for our long runs tomorrow!
This is the first time in a long time that Joe and i have shared a uniformly topped pizza. Typically, my half has a lot of sauteed/ semi fancy toppings, and his looks a bit like what you might find on a dominos menu. I decided to give his style of pizza a try tonight and really enjoyed the simplicity of sweet peppers (Italian and red), onions, and grape tomatoes. It was especially tasty with some red pepper flakes on top… sweet and spicy.
I used the same crust recipe as usual, but left it on the sticky side while kneading. This proved to be a good thing and made it softer than usual on the inside. After proofing for two hours, dividing into thirds, and shaping one into a disc, i drizzled it with olive oil, covered it with aluminum foil (so it wouldn’t stick) and let it sit an extra hour or so before baking (as the oven preheated).
The sauce was delicious and homemade and contained:
- 6 halved and seeded cherry tomatoes
- 1/4 t garlic powder
- 1/4 t onion powder
- 1 t dried basil
- 1/4 t salt
- 1/4 t sugar
- mix it all with an immersion blender till the tomatoes are completely crushed. Yum.
Filed under: DINNER | Tags: barley, eggplant, lemon, olives, onion, salad, tomatoes, vegetarian
Thank you SK! This was delicious! I rarely buy fresh herbs, but since i am making another parsley-heavy dish tonight, i went ahead and got some. I had been looking for a NEW eggplant recipe for some time when i finally went to Smitten Kitchen and found her recipe. It was a little involved – one of those dishes where you can spend the SOLID 50-60 minutes washing, chopping, baking, and working the stove top. But it was worth it.
I will definitely make this one again someday. It was filling and tasty, with enough depth of flavor so that I didn’t feel bad not serving it with anything. A wonderful midweek recipe that you can actually look forward to eating chilled for lunch the next day.
- 1 1/2 lb eggplant, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (I used 4 baby eggplants)
- 1/2-3/4 lb zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 10 T evoo
- 1 t salt
- 1 t black pepper
- 1 C chopped scallion (or yellow onion)
- 1 1/2 t ground cumin
- 1/2 t ground coriander
- 1/4 t red pepper
- 1 1/4 C pearl barley (8 oz)
- 2 C chicken or veggie broth
- 1/2 C water
- 2 T lemon juice
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1/4 t sugar
- 1/2 lb cherry tomatoes, quartered
- 1/2 cup Kalamata or other brine-cured black olives, pitted and halved
- 1/2 C thinly sliced red onion, rinsed and drained if desired
- 1 C chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
- Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 425°F.
- Cook barley: Heat 2 T oil in a large pot over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then cook scallion, cumin, coriander, and red pepper, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add barley and cook, stirring until well coated with oil, 2 minutes more. Add broth and water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until all of liquid is absorbed and barley is tender, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, 5 minutes. Transfer to reserved shallow baking pan and spread to quickly cool, uncovered, to room temperature, about 20 minutes.
- While the barley is cooking, toss eggplant and zucchini with 5 tablespoons oil, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 3/4 teaspoon pepper in a bowl, then spread in 2 oiled large shallow (1-inch-deep) baking pans. Roast vegetables in oven, stirring occasionally and switching position of pans halfway through baking, until vegetables are golden brown and tender, 20 to 25 minutes total. Combine vegetables in 1 pan and cool, reserving other pan for cooling barley.
- Make dressing and assemble salad: Whisk together lemon juice, garlic, sugar, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and 3 tablespoons oil in a large bowl. Add barley, roasted vegetables, and remaining ingredients to bowl with dressing and toss until combined well. Serve with slices of feta cheese.
Still maybe under the influence of Food Inc., veggie dishes hold more appeal than meaty entrees. There are more and more Farmer’s markets popping up all over town here in Charlottesville, and plenty of opportunities to get fresh vegetables. This recipe was found in the August publication of In The Kitchen, a sort of local, organic food newspaper that can be picked up at the nearby Whole Foods. The magazine centerfold has a month of recipes designed to minimize wasted food. So the chicken you roasted one night might show up a couple days later in a chicken salad recipe. The following recipe made enough for 7 adults, plus enough leftover for 2-3 lunches. I think this would be a great thing to make with fresh summer veggies, and freeze for wintertime.
- 1 medium eggplant, peeled and chopped (i usually like to keep the skin on things, but was afraid the eggplant skin would be too bitter for this dish)
- 2 onions, diced (i used one red, one yellow onion)
- 3 small zucchini, grated (i used one yellow and two green)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 C chopped red bell pepper
- 7-8 medium-large tomatoes, chopped
- 3-4 T each fresh minced oregano and basil
- salt and pepper to taste
- heat a couple tablespoons olive oil in a LARGE, deep rimmed skillet or two medium sized skillets over medium heat.
- Meanwhile, heat a large pot of salted water for pasta.
- add the eggplant, onion, garlic, squash, and red pepper to the pan and saute till caramelized (all soft).
- Add the tomatoes, increase heat to high, and simmer until the sauce thickens (about 25 min.)
- Meanwhile, cook the pasta (spaghetti, angel hair, or fettuccine work well) according to the package directions.
- in the last few minutes, stir in the spices. Serve with fresh grated parmesan cheese.
I was still not feeling top notch today after my minor surgery yesterday, so we had a simple dinner. I copied Joe’s chicken ‘recipe’ form a couple weeks ago and baked it in a 375 F oven covered in Subbs BBQ sauce for 45 minutes.
For the squash, i sauteed two yellow squash and one zuchhini, for 12 minutes in a large pan with one sliced onion, 2 cloves garlic, olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper. I sprinkled some parmesan cheese immediately after serving.
With that we had a salad of romaine lettuce, blueberries, and feta cheese.
Filed under: DINNER | Tags: appetizer, beef, bread, mushrooms, onion, strawberries, tomato
Ever since i was little, i have preferred to eat like a bird… just a little bit of everything. Just ask Joe about my peppermint patty eating technique! I am a big snacker and I love to have little bites of things for dinner. I am a big fan of tapas-style eating. So, when Joe and i have leftover rustic bread, i jump at the chance to turn it into crostini or bruschetta.
Crostini Di Firenze Recipe
- 1 clove fresh garlic
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 pinch black pepper
- 1/4 pound (frozen!) strawberries
- 1 large ripe tomato, diced
- 5 fresh mint leaves, chopped
- Slice the baguette into 1/2-inch slices, discarding the two end slices. Grill the bread over a gas grill or electric grill, or toast the bread in a toaster or conventional oven. Turn to grill or toast both sides, if necessary.
- Peel and finely mince the garlic. Place the garlic in a small bowl. Add the olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Whisk well to blend. Set aside.
- Rinse the strawberries and drain thoroughly, then remove and discard the leaf caps. Coarsely chop the strawberries (about 1/4-inch pieces) and place, along with the juices, in a small mixing bowl.
- Core and seed the tomato and finely dice it. Add the tomato and any juices to the strawberries as you chop. Rinse and dry the mint leaves and finely chop them, adding them to the bowl.
- Just before serving, whisk the oil mixture to recombine and add it to the strawberry mixture. Stir well. Place the toasted (or grilled) bread on a serving platter and spoon 2 heaping teaspoons of the topping over each bread slice. Allow the slices to stand for about 5 minutes so the juices can penetrate the bread, then serve immediately.
- Each serving has about 75 calories (40 percent from fat), 3 grams fat (0.5 gram saturated), no cholesterol, 1 gram protein, 10 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram dietary fiber and 85 milligrams sodium.
Beef + Caramelized Onion Crostini:
- 1 loaf rustic bread, thinly sliced
- 1 T olive oil
- 1 sweet onion, thinly sliced
- 1/4 C dry red wine
- 2 T red wine vinegar
- 1 1/2 T packed light brown sugar
- 1 1/2 T honey
- 1 piece (24-ounce size) beef tenderloin
- 2 T blue cheese for topping
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Preheat a grill to medium-high heat.
- Brush the bread slices with the olive oil. Place on a sheet pan and grill until crispy, about 5 minutes. Set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, combine the onions, wine, vinegar, brown sugar, and honey. Stir constantly over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes, until the sauce is the consistency of marmalade.
- Grill the beef tenderloin, turning to mark all sides, until medium rare, about 10 to 15 minutes total. Let rest for 10 minutes, then thinly slice the meat. Place a slice of beef on each crostini and top each with a teaspoon of onion marmalade and sprinkle with blue cheese.
With the crostini we had truffle and mushroom risotto (packaged truffle risotto to which i added sauteed porcini mushrooms) and a salad.
we broke our friday pizza tradition last week because we went to a friend’s house for a double dinner date. We have a wedding rehearsal dinner coming up this friday, and i just couldn’t bear the thought of no pizza for two whole weeks!
Last night i started a new batch of Bread Baker’s Apprentice pizza Napoletana dough [right after i finished the Brioche (our little kitchen never gets a break)]. The recipe yields 6 personal crusts (i usually have 1/3 left over anyway). Today, i decided to get a little inventive with the toppings. See the dough recipe at 101 Cookbooks.
Sauteed baby bella mushrooms (with garlic) + chopped dried figs + thinly sliced onion + 1/2 t sea salt
it sounds really sorta strange, but it was REALLY good. the figs and sea salt were a nice combination. I sauteed five baby bella mushrooms with a clove of garlic in about 1 t olive oil for 5-7 minutes.
