Butternut Squash Soup

I love soup and this is one of my favorites. This Butternut Squash Soup is the perfect blend of sweet and savory - the sage and chicken broth give it a roast chicken flavor aspect and the honey and apples really bring out the sweetness of the squash!

The biggest pain of making this is dealing with the squash, but I have it down to a science. you can always buy a pre-peeled and halved (or sometimes even pre-cubed!) squash at the grocery store, but I am a girl on a budget and would rather hack into it myself and save a little money. I find that a palm held peeler works best - it is really easy to use! It just seems to work better with the size and shape of the squash - I hate my "normal" peelers for this task. (Actually, I prefer this peeler for ALL of my peeling tasks - the other peelers in my kitchen are relics of the days before I discovered this wonderful little palm held peeler!)

Once it's peeled, I use a large chef's knife to cut the bulbous bottom off - from here I slice the top into 1/2" thick rounds and then further cut them to turn them into the 1/2" cubes I need. Then I stand the bottom piece on its cut end and cut it in half. I like to use a grapefruit spoon to remove the seeds and stringy bits, but you can use a knife or a normal spoon - whatever, so long as it comes out. Then I slice that into 1/2" pices and cube that up, too.

It's very simple and very satisfying - one of my favorites!

Roast Chicken

Roast Chicken is something I do REALLY well. As many times as I make it, each time I tell Scott that I am making roast chicken for dinner he makes the most wonderful "mmmmmmm" noise and praises it as if I had spent all day slaving over it. But roast chicken is EASY - in fact, it is what I make if I am not in the mood to cook. It takes less than 5 minutes to prep and it just camps out in the oven for 2 hours. I give a lot of credit to the roasting pan I use - it seems to raise the chicken to just the right height to get a perfectly browned bird! But the real secret to nice browning and a crispy skin is all in the prep. When I am rubbing the chicken with olive oil and herbs and salt and pepper, I make sure to rub some underneath the skin and as far into the legs/thighs as I can reach. It makes the meat a bit more flavorful and moist and it truly does make a difference in the skin.

Ricotta Cheese Pie

I don't make a lot of desserts, but this one I look forward to every year! Ricotta Cheese Pie is one of my most favorite foods! It's sweet, but not too sweet and never cloying - it feels light, yet so satisfying. It is the one desert that my mom would let me have a slice of for breakfast! This recipe comes from my dad's side of the family, but I have only ever had it when my mother makes it or I make it - we usually only make it once a year - for Easter! There is nothing stopping me from making it year round, it certainly isn't difficult or expensive, but there is something to be said for anticipating a certain dish, relishing it on it's particular holiday and as a leftover in the days following and missing it when it's all gone - it's special!

This is also the dish I am bringing to the breakfast potluck at work - as I said before, Ricotta Cheese Pie leftovers were fair game for breakfast in the days following Easter, so why not? Also, it's a cold dish so I don't have to worry about reheating it and I can make it ahead.

It has a light vanilla taste and a light, almost crumbly yet moist texture. The graham cracker crust compliments it perfectly and the cinnamon sprinkled on top as soon as it comes out of the oven is a great finishing touch.

Spaetzle, Schnitzel & Spargel - Oh My!

Ever since I saw the post on Smitten Kitchen, I have been dreaming of Spaetzle! So, I decided that called for a night of German food! And when I think of Germany, I think of my friend Sean - he loves all things German ... and naturally he picked up a Spaetzle press the last time he was there that he offered to loan me for the occassion! He came over on a Saturday night (4/16/11) with a delicious bottle of wine and his awesome spaetzle press!

The recipe I went with was 7 eggs, 2 Cups of AP Flour and 1/4 milk (I happened to have 2% on hand.) After mixing it with my hand mixer, I let it sit in the fridge for about an hour. At first it looked a bit thin, but after it had a chance to rest it was like elastic-y pancake batter ... in other words: perfect!

The intarwebz had a lot of wank over method - some people decried presses and other gadgets in favor of the traditional board, others said not to bother with the board - my decision was made when I couldn't find a board and Sean volunteered his press. Since I never tried the board, I cannot comment, but the press worked fantastically! (And it looks suspiciously like my potato ricer ... I think I am going to give that a try before I go and buy a specialized press!)

It only takes a minute or two for the Spaetzle to cook - you squeeze the press, the batter shoots out below into the boiling water in ribbons and when finished, you fish out the spaetzle and put them in an ice bath. Simple and delicious!

That night, I decided to go all alliterative - some pork Schnitzel and some Spargel (asparagus) were fantastic complements to the Spaetzle. The night Sean was over, I popped the cooled Spaetzle into a frying pan with a Tablespoon of butter and some shallots - both Sean and Scott raved about them! The two of them have both traveled through Germany and had the authentic, real deal, so their compliments meant a lot!

But I still had plenty of leftover Spaetzle ... time to get creative! Not pictured was my Spaetzle Provencal that I made the next night. The shallots and the butter from the previous night's dish got me thinking and I realized that I could treat the Spaetzle just about the same as I would bay scallops. So, I put a few handfulls of spaetzle into a zip top bag, tossed in about 4 Tbsp of AP Flour and shook it to coat them, melted 2 Tbsp of Unsalted Butter into a skillet and added the spaetzle. After about 4 minutes of tossing them around the skillet, I added 2 more Tbsp of butter, about 1/2 C minced shallots (maybe less), some dried parsley (didn't have fresh) and stirred that around for a minute or two and then added 1/3 cup of chicken broth and let that go for another minute or so. The result was delicious!

The next night I decided to try my own version of Kaese Spaetzle - it was my own version because I lacked the traditional cheeses one would normally use! I made 2 small ones to use up the small amounts of leftover cheddar and pepper jack that I had out as snacketizers the night Sean was over. The first one used the leftover Spaetzle provencal, a sliced up, coooked, sweet Italian sausage and some white cheddar cheese and was really fantastic! The other one was cheddar jack and sausage and, while good, the pepper was kind of intense in the pepper jack so it was pretty spicy. You can most closely compare it to baked macaroni and cheese (you bake it at 350 for 20-30 minutes), but the spaetzle was feather light and not at all heavy like noodles can get. I would definitely make this again (and again and again!)

It's the little things

This udon starts with the standard udon base brought to a simmer along with the white ends of the scallions. In addition to the noodles there were enoki mushrooms, shrimp, the green tops of scallions sliced thin, water cress and carrots. The best part about the carrots? I bought myself a set of vegetable shape cutters in flower shapes! Creativity and eye appeal are important parts of Japanese cuisine - why shouldn't food look as good as it tastes? The small flowers are the perfect size for raw carrots in udon to be - enough to deliver their fresh sweet taste, but not a huge overwhelming piece. And they are Pretty!

Frozen from Scratch

Kitsune Udon! Arguably, my favorite iteration of udon. Would you believe in the picture to the left, the only fresh ingredient is the scallion? It's not that I didn't make it all from scratch (well, not the noodles anyway and I buy the aburaage already fried, but I do flavor it myself), but I made it from scratch weeks ago. I love that I can enjoy homemade food that is better for me (and cheaper!) than a store bought frozen entree, but just as easy. Maybe even easier!

When I make the Udon Soup Base, I make enough for 4 servings (well, 6 really - there is always enough for lunch the next day!) Scott and I are only two people, though. So the other half? I freeze it! I just pop it into a quart sized container and it freezes like a dream. When I want to use it, it is as simple as putting it into a pot and bringing it up to a simmer! The aburaage come in a pack of 10 - they don't keep for very long and flavoring them takes the same amount of effort if you are doing a few or if you are doing the whole package - may as well do them all! I just pop the extras into zip-top bags in serving portions and keep them in the freezer for when I need them! One day I will make my own udon noodles, but for now, the fresh noodles come in handy serving size packs and can live in my fridge awaiting the next udon night. The wakame udon comes dried so there is no worry about spoilage (so long a you don't store it like an idiot) and the kamoboko - more specifically, naruto - come frozen, you just need to slice off what you need.

And even though I prefer to chop my scallions fresh, I will admit that I have prechopped scallions in my freezer for those nights that I want udon but I can't bear to go to the store.

I like that I can have a delicious, healthy meal in less time than it would take to call out for a pizza, that I can prep a large batch of ingredients all at once saving time and preventing waste and that I can make the most of my meager dollars. And it really turns out great - you would never be able to tell that it took less effort to put together than making a sandwich!

George

I swear that this is not a paid advertisement - it was inspired by last night's dinner!

There are many reasons to love George Foreman, but for me, it all comes down to the grill! I don't know where I would be without it! That sounds VERY dramatic, but it's true. I live in a small, second story garden apartment - that is important for 3 reasons: 1) I don't have a lot of space; 2) I don't have a balcony or a yard to set up a charcoal grill; and 3) it gets soooooooo hot during the summer that using my oven is completely out of the question. My George Foreman grill solves all three of those issues. I don't have one of the huge models (... yet ...), so it stores in one of my cabinets (right on top of the FoodSaver ... subject of future fangirl post!), out of the way, but still easy to reach. Since I don't have an outdoor place to grill, I can do all of my grilling in the kitchen and it doesn't throw off a lot of heat. In years past I was relegated to a lot of cold pasta salads (which I am NOT a fan of) because cooking was out of the question - now I can make grilled shrimp, chicken, fish, burgers, vegetables, etc. and not make my apartment hotter than the surface of the sun.

It's also really versatile - last night I completely changed what I made for dinner ... the only thing that didn't change was my plan to use George to make it! I would have used it for the grilled chicken I had planned, but I wound up using it to make a grilled ham and swiss sandwich instead! Bonus? I didn't have to use any butter on the bread - I just assembled the sandwich, tossed it on, shut the lid and took it off the grill when the cheese was all melty! When I make turkey burgers and decide to add cheese, I can hold the top half of the grill hovering over the cheese and get it all nice and melty!

George will always have a place in my kitchen - it really is everything that it claims to be!

My Happy Place

This post has been kicking around in my head for a few days, but a simple exchange with Scott last night brought the hazy jabberings of my mind into focus.

I am lucky to have a lot of friends who love to cook and who are also fantastic cooks - they make the best guests and the best hosts! When I am lucky enough to score an invite to their tables I know I am in for a treat, and when I invite them for dinner I know that they are not going to whine or freak out if they see a brussels sprout on their plate or a piece of fish. When I have my more finicky friends over for dinner I wrack my brains trying to find something to serve that they won't mind eating, but when my foodie friends come by the sky is the limit! I can get as creative and flavorful as I like!

Scott is one of those wonderful people who loves to cook and cooks food that I love. But right now, his kitchen is a work in progress - he really can't get in there to cook! Last night we were in my sitting room talking and laughing when I noticed the time and said that I needed to get started on dinner if we were actually going to eat. He asked if there was anything he could do to help. My first instinct was to tell him not to worry about it, just relax and hang out ... but this is Scott. A man who really likes to cook and hasn't been able to in a while. Instead, I looked at him and said "If you want to get your hands on some food and play with knives, of course you can come cook with me, but if you would rather hang out and relax, I can handle it solo." It turned out that he wanted to cook and it was really nice to be in the kitchen with him! He wasn't offering to help out of a sense of duty and being polite, he wanted to cook! I guess the kitchen is his happy place, too!

My kitchen is my happy place.

I spend a lot of time in my kitchen, even if I am not cooking. I have a laptop that lives on my counter so I can listen to music, watch TV and movies, access my recipe blog and search for new recipes. I don't have a large, state of the art kitchen - I live in a 2 bedroom garden apartment so it's really small and it doesn't have top of the line appliances or counter space to display a ton of gadgets and electronics, but it's my tiny kingdom and I love it. Where some might see these as limitations, I see these as important factors that shape the way I cook.

My kitchen may be tiny, but it is arranged to my convenience and liking - I can move around really quickly and rely on muscle memory to grab exactly the ingredient or implement I am after. My kitchen is set up to compliment the way I think - it's all about ME! With a small electric range and oven, I learned to really think through my meal plan - I need to determine whether or not I have the space for everything that needs to happen at once to actually happen. I learned what cooking temperatures can be nudged around a bit to allow several things to cook at once ... and which tempertures are absolutes! And occassionally discovering that it will be impossible to cook the meal I planned due to lack of space has been good for me - it forces me out of my comfort zone and inspires creativity (with what I am cooking AND how I cook it!) Since I have limited space, I have had to really consider what gadgets and appliances I really need. Rice cooker? OMG, yes! I use it constantly, I can cook whole meals in it and the steamer basket is so handy! Microwave? I got rid of it years ago and have yet to miss it - I only used it to reheat leftovers or nuke frozen veggies ... my stove and oven can do that, the microwave was redundant for me.

My kitchen is my happy place because cooking relaxes me and stills my mind. I have had a weird couple of years - stressful and unsettling - but going to a familiar place that is MINE, where I have the final say, where everything is according to my whim, gave me something to hold on to when everything else in my life was in flux. My kitchen kept me sane. I am competent in the kitchen - I have decent knife skills, a good understanding of flavors and an ingredients purpose in a recipe. When I feel imcompetent in life, I go to my kitchen and it makes me feel better. When I am anxious or my head is turning, nothing calms me like chopping and slicing and stirring and basting - the more fussy, technical and complicated the recipe, the faster my head stops spinning. Some people meditate when they are stressed, some people pray ... I put a brunoise on an apple and make apple madaleines. Worries and troubles get lost in the repetitive, precise movements - my head goes empty and the food is all that exists. It's a little mini-vacation from the real world.

But most of all, my kitchen is my happy place because cooking is one of the ways I show some love to the important people in my life. My mother (and the rest of my family, too!) loves coming to my place for dinner - every time she says "It's like going to a fancy restuarant!" That is balm to my soul - my mother is a wonderful woman who loves me beyond reason and I love that I can make her feel spoiled with my cooking. I use the good china, table linens and silverware as often as possible - I like to show people that I think a meal with them is a special occassion, even if its not a holiday or celebration. I like to surprise people with foods I know they like (or foods I know they will love once they try them!) I bake cookies from scratch when talking with friends - sometimes even grownups need cookies after a bad day. I know not everyone sees the world the same way, but I see a home cooked meal as an expression of love - you are fed body and soul, care and expense is taken to plan and make a wonderful meal and it is lovingly prepared by hand with the hope of pleasing and stisfying everyone who will eat it - to make them full in every sense!

It may be tiny, it may not be shiny and new, but it is home.

A Note on Pictures

What is a food blog without pictures? Ummmm ... it's THIS food blog 90% of the time! I am trying to be better - I swear! - but 9 times out of 10 I don't even think of snapping a picture until after I am done eating and when I do snap a picture, I tend to use the camera in my cell phone. The picture below in the St. Patrick's Day post? I was about to dig in when I realized I wanted a picture - I set the plate next to me on the beeeeyooooootiful couch, took out my ancient cell phone and snapped a picture in my dimly lit living room. Classy!

Scott is an excellent photographer and has occasionally taken pictures for me - I think I am going to see if I can get him to become my official photographer! And then you won't have to try and figure out what is dinner and what is my messy living room in the grainy mess I dare call a photograph!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

A day to celebrate my smidgen of Irish ancestry, the potato, beer and Celtic punk music! Sweet!

I know corned beef, cabbage and potatoes are "traditional" but they are not what I am making for dinner. (Okay, okay ... there are plenty of potatoes and cabbage involved, but not in their plain, boiled form!) When I was a teenager, I stopped eating red meat. It isn't because "meat is murder" or for a spiritual belief ... I just found that I didn't care much for the taste (exception = venison!) and I just felt so much more energetic and ache-free after I stopped. So, no judgement here if you are a carnivore ... just no red meat recipes either! But until about 6 or 7 years ago, I would "cheat" on St. Patrick's day because I loved corned beef! But sadly, it was corned beef that taught me that after a while without meat, it's best to stay that way.

So, what do non-(red)meat-eaters eat on St. Patrick's Day? I spent some time poking around the internet looking for other Irish foods to make and stumbled upon Colcannon - I had never heard of it before, but was intrigued! Potatoes, leeks, cabbage all in one dish! I made it for the first time last year and Scott and I loved it! And even better, I panfried the leftovers into little colcannon cakes. Delicious!

But what protein to replace the corned beef with? Last year I cooked a whole bunch of Italian sausage in Guinness to go with the colcannon, but ... I was looking for something a little more ... not Italian! Well ... Ireland *is* and island nation ... why not fish? A few years ago I was watching a program on the Food Network about food from around the world and an Irish chef was using the most beautiful seafood that was caught right off the coast! We tend to think of corned beef and lamb and such when we think of Irish food, butnow I think of fish. So, tonight there will be some cod on the plate! Cooked simply - baked in a 425 oven for about 15 minutes, tossed in olive oil and perhaps some sea salt, pepper and marjoram with a squeeze of lemon to finish it off!

Well, the cabbage is already covered in the colcannon, but the idea of "Protein/Starchy side/Veg" is so firmly ingrained in me that I can't leave well-enough alone. And the Japanese principle of having 5 colors in a dish has rubbed off on me (note: the purpose of the 5 colors is nutritional, not just aesthetic. It's not a perfect system, but chances are if your plate has 5 different colored foods on it, you are getting a good range of nutrients! Trufax!) Well - I don't know if I can make it all the way to 5 on this plate, but some carrots would round out the white and green nicely! I mean, it's good enough for the Irish flag and all. And there is something ... blah ... about a plate of beigey white.

So, when I get home tonight, the first order of business is to fire up the stereo, get some Flogging Molly and Pogues going, wash those leeks, peel the potatoes and pour myself a beverage! But I think I am going to stop reserving colcannon for St. Patrick's Day only - it's too good to see on the plate only once a year!

Slainte!