Category Archives: Fall Food

Vegan Sweet Potato Black Bean Chili with Bell’s Kalamazoo Stout

Posted on February 2, 2012 | 2 comments
This recipe evolved over time in the kitchen on a snowy Saturday.  It lacked body until I added the canned (boo) crushed tomatoes and the stout.  Then it became magic.  See for yourself.  As it is vegan, to get men to eat it just tell them there is beer in it.  
This is a perfect way to use up those tomatoes you froze this summer from your CSA when you couldn’t keep up with eating them.  If you run them under water for a few minutes straight from the freezer the skins will peel right off and you will have perfect “stewed” tomatoes for chili.

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Sweet Potato Black Bean Chili 
  • 2 large onions, diced
  • 2 large carrots, diced
  • 1 red bell pepper, diced
  • 1 15-oz can crushed tomatoes
  • 1 dark beer (I used Bell’s Kalamazoo Stout)
  • 2 large sweet potatoes, diced into small cubes
  • 6 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 2 C veggie broth
  • juice of 1 lime
  • 3-4 C whole tomatoes, smashed (I used the frozen here, but canned whole would work fine here too)
  • 3 chipotle en adobo, chopped
  • 5 C cooked black beans, or 2 cans drained and rinsed
  • 1 1/2 C frozen corn
  • 2 tsp cumin
  • 2 1/2 T chili powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
  • 1 tsp black ground pepper
  • 2 tsp oregano

In a dutch oven over medium-high heat, saute the onions, sweet potatoes, carrots, red bell pepper until tender.  Add garlic and saute another minute or so, then add the seasonings (chili powder, chipotle, oregano, salt, cumin, pepper), saute another minute or so, then add the liquids (broth, lime juice, crushed tomatoes, beer) and whole tomatoes, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and add corn and beans.  Simmer as long as you wish, although you can chow down once the veggies are tender.

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Posted in Fall Food, Fridge Finds, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetarian

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Chickpeas, please.

Posted on October 27, 2011 | 3 comments

Ever since I began making chickpeas from a dried state, I have been obsessed with them.  I eat them by the handful like they are popcorn.  They’re delicious, nutty, versatile, freezable, and CHEAP (check them out at a Supermercado near you).

Here’s a super quick, frugal recipe to laugh Asian take-out prices right out the door.  It keeps well in the fridge for about a week and tastes AWESOME inside of a flour tortilla too.

Island Chickpeas

Adapted from Happy Herbivore

  • 4 C chickpeas
  • 1 1/2 C teriyaki sauce, use your fave from a bottle or better yet, make it
  • 2 T Szechuan sauce
  • 4 C cooked brown rice
  • 2 bunches Kale
  • 4 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • lime wedges
  • canned mango salsa
Combine chickpeas, teriyaki sauce, Szechuan sauce in large frying pan or wok.  Allow to marinade for 5 minutes.  Cook over medium heat, stirring regularly, until almost all of the liquid has been absorbed.  Remove from heat.
In  a saute’ pan, heat oil and garlic until sizzling, add the kale.  Saute’ until bright green and just wilted.
To plate, take 1/2 cup of brown rice, top with some kale a scoop of chickpeas and a squeeze of lime.  I also put a dollop of leftover mango salsa on mine.  Delish.
Pictured under the chickpeas is a Boca chicken patty as well.

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Posted in Dinner, Fall Food, Fridge Finds, Leftovers, Less is more, Quick Cooking, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetarian

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Butternut Squash Surplus

Posted on October 24, 2011 | 2 comments

Last week I was up to my ears in butternut squash.  A few from my CSA, and a few from one of my work friends (these alone were over 9 pounds each and more than 2 feet long).  I have a tendency to put these items out in the garage, and then forget about them until I can actually smell them…not good.  So this time I got a leg up on the surplus.  I roasted three baking pans of squash last night and then today made a few cups of it into butternut squash ravioli with brown butter and sage sauce, then froze the rest for soups and such.

Butternut Squash Ravioli

Inspired by this recipe from Epicurious

  • 3 cups mashed butternut squash (from roasted)
  • 1-4 oz log creamy goat cheese
  • 4 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1/8 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
  • 1 package won ton wrappers (40-60 count)
  • 1/2 cup shallots, chopped
  • 1 stick, butter
  • 1 handful fresh sage leaves, whole
  • 1/8 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
  • pepper, salt to taste
  • handful of fresh parsley
  • parm cheese

Filling:  Saute’ garlic over medium until lightly browned, add goat cheese, squash, nutmeg and combine until creamy.  Remove from heat, let cool.  When filling is cool, drop 1 1/2 tsp in the middle of a won ton wrapper, lightly brush edges with water.  Seal by touching opposite sides together in whatever shape you like.  I touched opposite corners together to form a triangle, then flipped it like a dumpling.  Be sure to squeeze the air out of the ravioli before sealing and DO NOT overfill.

Sauce:  Combine in a frying pan over medium high heat butter, shallots, fresh sage and nutmeg.  Let this combo simmers until butter turns a nutty brown, shallots and sage crisp.  Turn off the heat.  Let hang out until your ravioli are ready to dress.

Ravioli:  Bring a dutch oven 3/4 full of salted water to a boil.  When it hits boiling, turn it down to medium heat, this is a little more gentle on your fragile raviolis.  Immerse 6-8 ravioli in the hot water so the water temp doesn’t drop but also so they do not touch the bottom, sides or each other…this would be bad. Allow the ravioli to hang out in the hot water bath for 2-4 minutes until they float or become opaque in color, remove with a slotted spoon directly into a serving dish, top with brown butter sauce, fresh parsley, a bit of parm cheese and serve.

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Since it’s just the two of us to cook for, but this recipe makes around 45 raviolis, I made the remaining raviolis, put them on a cookie sheet and froze them for an hour.  Then I tossed them into a freezer bag and tossed into the deep freeze.  The Interwebs say that they should keep for 3 months and to make them straight from the freezer next time.  I’ll let you know how that works out later.

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Posted in Dinner, Fall Food, Noodles, Recipes, Seasonal Ingredients, Vegetarian

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TVP Chili – Say That Three Times Fast

Posted on October 17, 2011 | Leave a comment

This is the chili I take tailgating.  Carnivores have no idea this doesn’t have meat in it thanks to the chipotle which adds a smokey beefy taste to the dish.  Add a little liquid hickory or hot sauce to increase the meaty factor.  I love this over vegan dogs, it makes me feel just like everyone else, which if you are veg, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

TVP Chili for Meat-Eaters

  • 1/4 C cumin
  • 1/2 C chili powder
  • 2 C cooked chickpeas
  • 2 C cooked great northern beans
  • 2 C cooked cranberry beans
  • 1-46oz bottle V8 Hot & Spicy reduced sodium
  • 1/3 of the V8 bottle, water
  • 2 medium onions, finely chopped
  • 4 T garlic, minced
  • 3 bell peppers (your choice of color), chopped
  • 1 C frozen or fresh corn off the cobb
  • 2 chipotle en adobo, chopped finely
  • 2 C whole crushed tomatoes, with juice
  • 3/4 C hot water
  • 1 C TVP
Rehydrate the TVP in a bowl with the 3/4 C hot water.  Set aside.
Saute onion, garlic, bell peppers, cumin and chili powder over medium heat until onion is soft.
Add V8, water, tomatoes, stir to loosen up the charred bits in the bottom.
Last, add the beans, corn, and TVP then stir to combine.
Let simmer for flavors to develop for 20 to 30 minutes.

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Posted in Dinner, Fall Food, Leftovers, Make Ahead, Meat Substitutes, Recipes, Soup, Vegan, Vegetarian

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Veg Tortilla Soup

Posted on October 10, 2011 | 4 comments

It hasn’t exactly been soup weather here in Michigan (thank goodness)!  Yesterday it was 82 degrees, I’m sure we will pay for that later.  I love soup so much, that I couldn’t wait until it was cold to make some tortilla soup.  Heidi Swanson from 101cookbooks.com has some of the most simple and delicious soup recipes one could ask for, however, when I have extra delicious ingredients on hand or in the freezer…I like to embellish on her deliciousness.  Here is my version of Veggie Tortilla Soup.

  • 6-8 corn tortillas, cut in half and then into matchstick-thin strips
  • a big splash of extra virgin olive oil
  • fine grain sea salt
  • 20 small yellow or red cherry tomatoes
  • another splash of extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 large white onion, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 2 teaspoons ground coriander
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne or other spicy red chili powder
  • 1 tablespoon chipotle en adobo
  • 1 small can diced green chiles
  • 1 1/2 cups frozen corn
  • 2 cups black beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1 14-ounce can crushed tomatoes
  • 6 cups vegetable broth (or water)
  • a few sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
  • 1/4 cup of goat cheese, crumbled (omit if vegan)

Gently toss the tortilla strips with a glug of olive oil and salt. Turn them out onto a baking sheet, arrange them across the pan and bake in a 350F degree oven for 10 minutes or until golden and crispy. Set aside.

I usually do this whenever I have tomatoes that have to be used up in a hurry.  I call them “crack tomatoes”.  They have so many uses…limitless really as a fridge staple.  To make:  halve (or quarter) the tomatoes lengthwise and put them in a small roasting pan, oven proof dish, or rimmed baking sheet. Toss with a bit of olive oil and a pinch or two of salt. Bake in a 350F degree oven for 40-45 minutes (less time if you use smaller cherry tomatoes), or until the tomatoes are shrunken and golden around the edges. The tomatoes keep nicely in a jar for days (refrigerated).  If you are going to keep them for a little longer, douse them in olive oil and store them under the oil in an airtight container, I use a Ball glass canning jar.

For the soup itself – in a big pot over medium-high heat cook the garlic and onions in a splash of olive oil along with a couple pinches of salt for just a minute or so. Stir in the spices and then the tomatoes, chiles, chipotle en adobo. Cook down for about five minutes or so, it should thicken a bit. For a smooth soup don’t add corn or beans then remove from heat, add one cup of the broth and puree with a hand blender (or puree in a traditional blender). Add the remaining 5 cups of broth and puree until smooth. Bring the soup back up to a simmer and cook for another 10 minutes.  If you like chunkier soups to mop up, don’t puree, and add the corn and black beans.  Serve as is.

Serve the individual bowls topped with plenty of tortilla strips, the roasted and sun-dried tomatoes, and some crumbled goat cheese. Alternately, as I mention up above, you can finish with sliced avocado, cilantro, white onions, and a squeeze of lime. If you like a creamier soup base add a splash of half and half, or stir in some extra goat cheese.

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Posted in Fall Food, Recipes, Soup, Vegan, Vegetarian

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Simple Solution – Veg Broth

Posted on October 3, 2011 | 3 comments

It has been a busy few weeks at the nonprofit I work for, so mostly dinner has been take out or warming up stuff out of the freezer, and plenty of veggie burgers (on buns, on tortillas, on naan), not a ton of creativity going on in the kitchen.  With that in mind, my CSA share and Doorganics delivery look limp and sad, but not rotting in my fridge, I decided to get ahead of the game and make veg broth to store in my freezer for the upcoming soup season.  Making your own veg broth is cheap, and a good way to use up items that are unsavory for cooking at face value but are still wonderful for a broth base.  During the summer, I keep a freezer bag full of items that would make good broth like the stems of mushrooms, the tops of radishes, celery greens, washed carrot peels, the ends of onions, parsley and the like then when I get a few extra seconds, I dump it in a soup pot cover it with water, add whatever fresh herbs I have in the fridge if any, and let it boil away.  I store it in 2-cup measures in freezer bags marked with the date and freeze flat, that way whenever I need a quick base for soup, I have a lightly flavored, sodium free, cheap alternative to store-bought broth.   Since the consistency of the veggies doesn’t make a difference in the taste of the broth, the freezer step doesn’t hurt, I promise.

My current batch of broth has in it:

  • celery greens
  • celery
  • portobella mushroom stems (trimmed and washed)
  • red bell pepper (seeds and all)
  • carrot shavings (cleaned)
  • turnips, quartered
  • onion ends & parts
  • garlic cloves
  • peppercorns
  • rosemary
  • thyme

Put all the items into a soup pot, cover with water and let it simmer away for an hour or so.  Remove from heat, let cool for hours and hours, then pour into labeled freezer bags (label them before you pour into them) and freeze flat. Remember this will not have salt added as is, so when you add to soups be sure to season well.

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Posted in Fall Food, Fridge Finds, Gluten Free, Leftovers, Make Ahead, Soup, Vegan, Vegetarian

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A win for used cookbooks and TVP

Posted on September 15, 2011 | 3 comments

I’ve had this bag of Bob’s Red Mill TVP (textured veg protein) in my freezer for about 4 months.  Sometimes things seem like a good idea when you purchase them only to get a product home and be at a total loss for usage.  I had this relationship with TVP until I stumbled upon a used cookbook that sparked my interest at Schuler’s Books:  Vegetarian Sandwiches from Chronical Books.  In it a recipe for Vegetarian Sloppy Joes.  I basically bought the book because 1) it has really great pictures in it and 2) it has 3 recipes for TVP inside, also with pictures.  Turns out, I had all of the other necessary ingredients at home in my pantry and from my most recent Doorganics delivery to make this magic happen.  I was both shocked and delighted by the authenticity of the texture that this recipe recreated.  It tastes very, very similar to sloppy joes with ground beef, but doesn’t have that super dense and filling aftermarket feeling.  The recipe as it was written was a little too sweet for my sloppy joe needs so I spiced it up a little, the adjustments are worked into the recipe below.  I’m so glad I made a double batch with the intent of taking some along to the next GVSU tailgate to share.  I’m anxious to see meat-eaters try ’em.

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Vegan Sloppy Joes

Filling:

  • 1 C Texturized Vegetable Protein (TVP)
  • 3/4 C boiling water
  • 1 T olive oil
  • 1/2 C coarsely chopped onion
  • 1/2 C coarsely chopped bell pepper (your choice of color)
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 4-oz can tomato sauce
  • 1/4 C water
  • 2 T tomato paste
  • 1 T packed light brown sugar
  • 2 tsp vegan Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 tsp red wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp Sriracha
  • 2 whole chipotle en adobo, chopped finely
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • 4-6 large hamburger buns or rolls or 10-12 slider buns

Directions:  To make the filling, stir the TVP and boiling water together in a medium bowl, let this stand for 5 or more minutes until the water is absorbed and the TVP is softened.

Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet (I used a wok) over medium-high heat.  Cook the onion, bell pepper and garlic through until the bell pepper is tender (8-10 minutes).

Stir the remaining sandwich filling ingredients together in a medium bowl.  Add this mix and the soft TVP to the skillet; stir until the mixture is bubbly.  Reduce the heat and cook, stirring for about 5 additional minutes.

To serve, spread filling onto a bun and enjoy.

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Posted in BBQ, Dinner, Fall Food, Fridge Finds, Make Ahead, Meat Substitutes, Quick Cooking, Recipes, Seasonal Ingredients, Vegan, Vegetarian

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Not Labor Intensive, Labor Day Chickpea Burgers

Posted on September 8, 2011 | Leave a comment

I get sick of always eating frozen veg burgers, while they are convenient, sometimes you just need something fresh.  This recipe gives you all the satisfaction of prepping burgers for the grill without the icky hamburger stuck under your nails at the end of the day.  I baked mine in the oven but you could just as easily grill these on a very hot grill…don’t mess with them too much or they will crumble apart.  Served on slider rolls, the kids didn’t miss the moo.  These would freeze nicely as well.

Chickpea Burgs

  • 2 1/2 cups canned garbanzos, drained and rinsed
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
  • 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • Grated zest of one large lemon
  • 1 cup micro sprouts, chopped (try broccoli, onion, or alfalfa sprouts – optional)
  • 1 cup toasted (whole-grain) bread crumbs
  • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil (or clarified butter)

Combine the garbanzos, eggs, and salt in a food processor. Puree until the mixture is the consistency of a very thick, slightly chunky hummus. Pour into a mixing bowl and stir in the cilantro, onion, zest, and sprouts. Add the breadcrumbs, stir, and let sit for a couple of minutes so the crumbs can absorb some of the moisture (this part is CRITICAL to your success). At this point, you should have a wet mixture that you can easily form into twelve 1 1/2-inch-thick patties.  Err on the side of moist here, you can always add more bread crumbs a bit at a time to firm up the dough if need be. Conversely, a bit of water or more egg can be used to moisten the batter.

What Adrienne did:  preheat oven to 375, put burgers onto a lightly greased, foil lined baking sheet, bake until firm turning once during cooking time so as to brown both sides of the burger.  Top with your fave burger accessories.  I ate mine with a squeeze of lemon, sprouts, tomato, and a dollop of ranch dressing.

Heidi Swanson’s directions: heat the oil in a heavy skillet over medium low, add 4 patties, cover, and cook for 7 to 10 minutes, until the bottoms begin to brown. Turn up the heat if there is no browning after 10 minutes. Flip the patties and cook the second side for 7 minutes, or until golden. Remove from the skillet and cool on a wire rack while you cook the remaining patties. Carefully cut each patty in half, insert your favorite fillings, and enjoy immediately.

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Makes 12 mini burgers.

Inspired by 101cookbooks Heidi Swanson

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Posted in BBQ, Dinner, Fall Food, Fridge Finds, Less is more, Make Ahead, Meat Substitutes, Recipes, Vegetarian

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Doing The RIGHT Thing!! Leading By Example: Cooking Day With Molly

Posted on January 2, 2011 | 1 comment

My friend Julie is crazy.  Like in all the very BEST ways, crazy.  I’m so proud of her latest post to Facebook it nearly brought me to tears, I was forced to drop everything and brag about her in this post.  But first, a little health education, as if you actually thought I could write about this topic and not go all geek on you!!

In case you have been living in a cave for oh, say 50 years.  We are in the midst of an obesity epidemic. In ancient historic times a person’s weight was the gauge of their social standing. A thin person often meant poverty and a plum family equated to the fact that they were doing well enough to have plenty to eat. This is not the case now. Our culture is producing the first generation of obese children with the highest risk factor of developing diabetes. The National Institutes of Health estimate that over sixty five percent of Americans are either overweight or obese and the number is climbing. With the rise of obesity, the diagnosis of type-2 diabetes has also been increasing.

We are a nation obsessed with all the wrong types of foods and are constantly being marketed to buy and consume copious amounts of junk and fast food. The American Diabetes Association has been expressing alarm at the fact that approximately twenty one million people have diabetes with a potential of around another fifty four million diagnosed with pre-diabetes (an increased elevation of the blood glucose levels but not at a level to be officially diagnosed as type-2 diabetes). The  are alarming.

Diabetes is a dangerous disease, however, type-2 diabetes has been related as a lifestyle disorder. This means it can start at an early age with a high fat and high sugar diet that lends to the disease progress. By the time of later adult hood, the body functions are set in place to have type-2 diabetes.

Here’s what all the fuss is about:

Over two thirds of the adults in the United States twenty or older are considered to be overweight or obese-
All adults total: 68 percent; Women: 64.1 percent. Men: 72.3 percent

About one third of the adults in the United States twenty or older are considered to be obese-
All adults total: 33.8 percent; Women: 35.5 percent. Men: 32.2 percent

5.7 percent of adults in the United States twenty or older are considered to be extremely obese.

There has been a steady increase in obesity in all ethnicities, genders, ages and education levels. The prevalence of obesity in the United States has increase from 13.4 to 35.1 percent in adults age 20 to 74. Since 2004, while the prevalence of overweight is still high among men and women. There aren’t any significant differences in documented rates from 2003, to 2004; 2005 to 2006 and 2007 to 2008. There hasn’t been any change in obesity prevalence in women from 1999 to 2008; 2009-2010 official statistics have not yet been released, but I’m predicting an increase.

The increase in obesity in children in a 2003-2006 study showed 12.4 percent of children ages 2-5 and a 17 percent of children aged 6-11 were overweight.  Most studies show that there is an increased mortality rate associated with obesity due to all sorts of preventable diseases and recently, even the National Cancer Institute links obesity to CANCER!!!!

If we as a community and a culture are going to encourage a healthy life for future generations, and change these alarming statistics, we have to stop buying prepackaged and premade products from manufacturers that really don’t care about us.  Their job is to sell us product people!  We need to pull the junk food from the schools and replace it with healthier choices (this I could talk about for hours-vending machines in schools still selling regular soda!!? It’s an outrage and a totally separate blog rant later).  We also need to begin learning to eat right and less in volume, no matter where we are.  Lastly, we need to cook at home with our kids!!!!!  I applaud you Julie ( you too Molly! ) for taking steps in the positive direction for change.  I love that you begin with a very humble and also misunderstood veggie, Brussels Sprouts.  Listed below is Julie’s note from FB, keep up the good fight gals!

(Statistics not immediately sited in text were taken from the Centers for Disease Control website:  cdc.gov).

Julie:  So, I’ve been inspired by Cooking Light Magazine and their “12 Healthy Habits of 2011” program (check out their website…it’s a pretty cool thing they’re doing!)  January is the month of adding more vegetables into your diet.  Clearly this will only benefit my effort of weight loss (and my SparkPeople program) so I went to the store today with a mission to get some veggies, try a NEW veggie, and prepare some stuff that will get me through the week.

My new veggie:  Brussels Sprouts.  Yes, Erin, I’m trying Brussel Sprouts.  (I know…you’re tearing up 🙂  I’m linking the recipe that I’m going to use.  (I’m hoping that the link works.)

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000000522381

And, Molly and I created a Three-Bean Vegetarian Chili.  It has butternut squash in it.  Which just happens to be one of my FAV veggies 🙂  Here’s that recipe.

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000001949760

It’s going to be a veggie filled month, I just know it 🙂

(If I tag you, it’s because you’re either a foodie or a diet buddy, or just b/c I adore you.)

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Posted in Fall Food, Leftovers, Less is more, Make Ahead, Recipes

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Clean Out Your Cupboard Mexican Sopa

Posted on December 15, 2010 | Leave a comment

I really, really wanted to go out and get half-off sushi at XO in downtown GR tonight, it’s just simply too cold to leave the house, really!  Typically Mr. Wonderful and I eat at XO for lunch on Tuesdays, because can you really pass up a 9 dollar stuff your face with sushi lunch?  No way.  Today however, I had a lunch and learn speaker session to attend and could not go to half-off sushi day. I was crying on the inside, really.  Instead, while listening to a charming and informative session put on by AMA West Michigan, I ate a crappy warm mixed greens salad without dressing (it looked gross), limp and flavorless “veggie pad Thai” (or my translation for the table was peanut butter spaghetti for white people-gag) and starchy, clumpy COLD rice, with a stale dinner roll.  I pushed my plate forward and covered it with my napkin for a proper burial after I ate the greens and then waited to get home to eat my leftovers from last night’s Pineapple Tofu dish.

While I am known on occasion to exaggerate (I know you are surprised by this revelation), I have to get this out of my system as I work in a catering department of a very well-known west Michigan establishment and hotelier:   food at other venues is shit compared to what we produce at my beloved place of employment.  Yes, really, shit.  I mean, I cannot emphasize enough, what an outstanding team of chefs and talented staff we have on our team.  A luncheon on our turf, would NOT leave you wishing for your leftovers at home, this I assure you.  I even passed on, are you ready for this…the Christmas sugar cookie.  The Pillsbury cut and bakes I can buy in the refrigerated section  are more desirable than the floury mess with butter frosting.  Honestly people…and you call yourselves professionals?

Sorry about that distraction, I’m still mad that while my $40.00 paid to attend the session today was in my eyes a donation to the organization, approximately $0.00 went to the food bill.  I feed my dogs better quality meals than I received at that country club, and not to the detriment of the host organization, this is all on the country club, 100% #epicfail.

On to the recipe.

As I wasn’t about to brave the cold, I took what I had and made “stone soup” or as I have dubbed it, “clean out your cupboard Mexican sopa”.  Proof you can take normal stuff from your cupboards, toss it in a pan, add some broth and have a dinner in under 20 minutes.  Mix it up people, your only limitations are what you currently have in your pantry or freezer.  Good luck!

Ingredients:

  • 3-15 ounce cans diced or whole tomatoes, zapped in the food processor to make your base
  • 3-15 ounce cans black beans drained, or 4 cups cooked black beans, one cup zapped with tomatoes above for base
  • 6 cloves garlic, zapped in food processor with first two ingredients
  • 1 large sweet onion diced
  • 1-15 ounce can whole corn kernels
  • 1 can or 2 cups great northern beans drained
  • 2T cumin, ground
  • 1T ancho chili pepper, ground or your fave chili powder blend
  • 3T chipotle en adobo, less if you don’t like spicy, play around with it beginning at 1T to taste
  • 1tsp epazote, ground
  • 4 C veggie broth or water
  • Juice of 4-5 limes

Really sophisticated directions here folks:

1.  In a dutch oven, cook onion on medium high until translucent or browned whatever you like.

2.  Dump into onion the base as described above with first 3 ingredients.

3.  Next toss in whole black beans, whole northern beans, whole kernel corn, spices, veg broth, lime juice and chipotle en adobo.

4.  Bring to boil, turn down to simmer, add salt and pepper to taste.

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Serve over baked tortilla chips or rice, sprinkle with cheese, top with avocado, sour cream, squeeze of lime, and chopped red onion.  Freezes like a champ.

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Posted in Fall Food, Leftovers, Less is more, Make Ahead, Michigan, Recipes, Soup

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Stuff An Acorn Squash, Not A Turkey

Posted on November 24, 2010 | Leave a comment

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I launched this mini “save the turkey” campaign via my Facebook page last week wherein I actually paid $20.00 to adopt a turkey, which equates to sponsoring a month of food for the poor little guy to offset what he might have sold for at the market to become someone’s dinner Thursday (yikes take a breath!).  This brought on the usual slew of “what are you gonna eat for dinner if not a turkey?” commentary from people who think that vegetarians/vegans only eat lettuce.  Oh, and for this behavior, I was basically called a Communist by one of my Republican friends.  A Communist, really?  Huh.

While Mr. Wonderful and I basked in the yum that is Chipotle tonight, chasing a Costco expedition high that ended with the purchase of more wine, cheese and bread than two people should even contemplate purchasing, we discussed what parts of Thanksgiving we liked best and it was hand’s down:  sides and desserts. Mr. Wonderful maintains that basically you eat like 2 pieces of dry turkey out of obligation and then head right for the stuffing, cranberry chutney, potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, 7-layer salad, sweet potatoes and dinner rolls.  I don’t disagree.  As long as I can remember I headed right for the scalloped potatoes, the spinach gratin, sweet potato casserole, corn pudding, and of course, the homemade yeast rolls.  Top it off with a little pumpkin pie, and…oh, I forgot to mention the endless precursors to Thanksgiving dinner, where you stuff yourself before you stuff yourself with as many gherkins that will fit in your mouth at once, black olives you wear on the tips of your fingers and nibble off that taste like the tin can they fell out of, little cubes of cheddar “fancy” cheese where the serving size is a fist-full, along with all you can eat Wheat Thins and Triscuits, I mean, seriously, this is Americana at it’s finest.  Who needs a turkey? Not us.  Oh, and keep those little wieners in bbq sauce to yourself too. Sick.  Sick.

Here is my “main dish” for Thanksgiving, it mixes a few of my fave sides all into one delish, not to mention beautiful dish.  Give it a try, I bet you will serve more of this than that Turkey Lurkey.  I have yet to go home with leftovers.  Consequently, if you do have leftovers, you can wrap these individual portions in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 2 weeks, defrost in fridge and warm back up in the oven to rehash their goodness when you need a quick bite to eat, post food coma day.

Quinoa and Wild Rice Stuffed Acorn Squash
  • 6 small acorn squash, halved and seeds removed
  • 6 cups water
  • 1 cup uncooked wild rice (), rinsed
  • 1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed
  • 2 tsp EVOO, optional
  • 4 green onions (white and pale green parts), chopped
  • 1/2 cup chopped celery
  • 1/3 cup chopped granny smith apple tossed in a bit of lemon juice to keep from browning
  • 1 T fresh sage
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries
  • 1/4 cup golden raisins
  • 1/3 cup dried apricots, chopped
  • 1/2 cup chopped and toasted pecans, walnuts, or hazelnuts
  • 1/2 to 3/4 cup fresh-squeezed tangerine or blood orange juice
  • Salt to taste
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Arrange squash halves cut side down in baking dish or roasting pan. Bake until tender, 25 to 30 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile, make filling. In large saucepan, bring 4 cups water to boil. Add wild rice and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until rice is tender, about 40 minutes. Drain if necessary.
  3. In another large saucepan, bring remaining 2 cups of water to boil. Add quinoa. Reduce heat and simmer until water is absorbed and quinoa is tender, about 12 minutes.
  4. In large, deep skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add green onions, celery, apples, and sage, and cook, stirring often, until vegetables begin to soften, about 3 minutes. Add dried fruits and nuts and cook, stirring often, until heated through. Using a fork, fluff quinoa and wild rice, then add both to skillet. Add juice and mix until heated through. Season with salt.
  5. To serve, remove squash from oven and arrange on serving platter. Spoon filling into each squash cavity and serve.

More pics to come.  This recipe adapted from Vegetarian Times, 2007.

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Fresh bread, 45 minutes, no yeast. Really. It’s yummy too!

Posted on November 8, 2010 | 122 comments

Turns out you can make bread that tastes good, without much time, yeast or overloading your very busy napping, I mean working, schedule on a Sunday afternoon.  I forget that I own this cookbook until I see that someone else has dug out a keeper of a recipe from it.  I made more potato soup this afternoon in the crock pot from basically what we had in the fridge, 6 baking potatoes, 2 small yellow onions, a handful of baby carrots, 4 dried chiles, fresh thyme, a little half and half, and some skim milk while we were busy with grading, laundry, cleaning, etc and this quick savory bread was the perfect compliment to that delish dish.

Olive Oil and Salt Quick Bread
Adapted from Mark Bittman’s How To Cook Everything Vegetarian

Ingredients:

  • 1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 cups all purpose flour (I used whole wheat flour)
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 – 1 teaspoon salt, preferably sea salt
  • 1 cup of warm water

To Do:

  1. Heat the oven to 375 and grease an oven proof dish or skillet – 8-9″ is probably best.
  2. Put the flour, baking powder, and salt in a food processor. Turn on the machine and slowly add the olive oil and most of the water.
  3. Process for 30 seconds. The dough should roll into a ball and barely sticky.  If it hasn’t come together yet, add remaining water a tablespoon at a time, processing for 5 seconds each time.  If you want to add herbs, cheese, whatever, to the dough, do it now.
  4. Put the dough into the pan and flatten it until the dough fits to the edges.  Flip and press again. Cover tightly with foil and bake.
  5. After 20 minutes, remove the foil and sprinkle the top with coarse seat salt and herbs (if you like). Bake for another 20 minutes. The top will be golden and it will spring back when touched.

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One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato, Vegan MoFo!

Posted on November 4, 2010 | Leave a comment

Confession:  I ate out tonight.  Worse yet, tomorrow I begin noshing at Restaurant Week GR, which means, the next 10 days will have more dining out than I care to admit to…however, in honor of November 2, Election Day FINALLY being behind us, I give you a recipe I will be making at some point in the next few days, as I have already baked off the potatoes in prep for it:  Baked Potato Soup. What’s the correlation to Election Day?  Well, I came across this YouTube clip of the humble potato and its rise to fame in 1992 when then VP Dan Quayle was schooled by a 6th-grader in how to spell the singular of potatoe, er, I mean potato.  Soup’s on!

Baked Potato Soup

2 T EVOO
1/4 of a large onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
4 baking potatoes (about 2-1/2 lbs.)
2/3 cup all-purpose flour (about 3 oz.)
6 cups milk (reduced fat if you prefer, or plain soy if vegan)
1 cup shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese, divided (use reduced fat if you prefer or soy if vegan)
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 cup reduced-fat sour cream (for garnish, omit if you prefer)
3/4 cup chopped green onions, divided
6 faux-bacon slices, cooked and crumbled or other meat sub that has a smoky bite to it.  I used Morningstar Ground Sausage Crumbles in a pinch tonight.
Cracked black pepper (optional)

*adapted from Cooking Light, Rachael Ray and anon on the Interwebs

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Adzuki!!

Posted on November 3, 2010 | 2 comments

Sometimes I look at recipes on veg websites, scan the list of ingredients and then set off to stump my local health food grocer.  West Michigan lacks a Whole Foods or a Trader Joe’s which typically has all of these little bulk dried treasure bins and so, after I looked for a way to get rid of a butternut squash that was going to go bad this week, I found a recipe by Heidi Swanson adapted from a vegan cookbook that uses adzuki beans as a source of protein.

Adzuki beans?  Yeah, until last year I hadn’t heard of them either.  In popular Japanese and Chinese culture, they typically sweeten them and turn them into delicious desserts.  Turns out they are a substantial little bean that hold up well in chili, soups, and stews. They take little time to cook from a dry state and store beautifully in your freezer in Ziploc bags, so you can make a bunch at a time.  Additionally, they make a great non-refridge salad to pass at potlucks or picnics in the summer in this zesty Adzuki Bean Salad recipe from Whole Foods.

Adzuki & Butternut Squash Soup

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon (dried) coriander
  • 2 teaspoons finely chopped chipotle pepper (from can, or rehydrated from dried chile)
  • 2 teaspoons fine grain sea salt
  • 2 medium-large onions
  • 6 cloves garlic, minced
  • 4 cups butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
  • 5 – 6 cups water
  • 5 whole canned tomatoes, chopped
  • 4 cups cooked or canned adzuki beans
  • cilantro drizzle (optional)*

To make adzuki beans from a dry state.  Rinse, rinse, rinse.  Pick through for any duds, toss those.  For 4 cups of cooked beans, try for 2-3 cups of dry beans.  I had 4 1/2 cups of dried beans on the shelf, so I decided, if I’m gonna cook 4 cups I may as well cook what’s in my jar; thus, came out with 13 cups of cooked beans, of which I froze the extras not needed in the recipe.  Put beans in a large pot with cold water covering over the beans about 2 inches, bring to a boil, reduce and simmer for about 30 minutes.  They don’t take too long.  The bean is perfect when it takes a little pressure to smash it against the roof of your mouth when you are testing and burning yourself 🙂  This is obviously a VERY scientific method here.

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the cinnamon, coriander, chipotle, cumin and salt and saute for a minute or two – until aromatic. Add the onions and saute another 5 minutes or so, until they start to go translucent. Add the garlic and butternut squash, stir well, and then add 5-6 cups of water. Increase the heat to bring to a boil, and once boiling, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for a few minutes, until the squash begins to soften – 5 – 10 minutes.

Once the squash has softened, use a potato masher and break up the squash pieces a bit. Add the tomatoes, and cook a couple more minutes before adding the beans. Serve drizzled with the cilantro.

Serves about 8.

* I made a cilantro drizzle by putting one bunch of cilantro leaves into my mini-chop food processor with about a tablespoon of EVOO and a pinch of salt and a pinch of red pepper flakes for good measure.

Adapted from 101cookbooks.com

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VeganMoFo, Ya Know?

Posted on November 1, 2010 | 2 comments

From one of my fave bloggers and cookbook writers, not to mention totally rad human being comes VeganMoFo: “It’s that time of year again! Time to wear down your stove and your keyboard. Time to mow people down with your shopping cart. Time to answer the age old question: do lemon and chocolate taste good together? It’s time for VeganMoFo, the Vegan Month Of Food. VeganMoFo was originally created on the Post Punk Kitchen, as an homage toNaNoWriMo. Because we do want to write novels, but sometimes cooking gets in the way. So why not combine them! 

The idea is to write as much as you can all month, about vegan food. The blog entries can be about anything food related – your love of tongs, your top secret tofu pressing techniques, the first time your mom cooked vegan for you, vegan options in Timbuktu – you get the idea, right? If not, browse around on some of our round-ups and you’ll catch on fast!

There aren’t strict guidelines for how often to write, but the idea is to shoot for every weekday, or about 20 times in the month. If you’d like inspiration or would just like to whine about how hard it is, check out the MoFo forum on the PPK message boards.

As the world catches on that vegan food really is the best choice for animals (suck it, humane meat!), the planet (bite me, melting ice caps!) and people (piss off, heart disease!) let’s show them what vegan eating is all about.”

I’m excited!  Hopefully I can get in the quota of writing.  Between this and Grand Rapids Restaurant Week…I’ve never been more excited for a November! Inspired?  Start your own Blog for the month.  Perhaps become a Vegan or Veg for a month in homage to PPK’s VeganMoFo.  You might even like it.  See you on the Veg side.  Bring it on Internets!!  🙂

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What’s in the freezer?

Posted on October 27, 2010 | 2 comments

So my plans for tonight were cancelled, believe me, I’m not complaining.  I don’t even know what happened to the month of October.  As you can see from my last post at the beginning of October, I was obviously abducted by aliens and didn’t have Wi-Fi in order to blog.

This evening, I arrived home to a growling stomach, courtesy of too much PM snacking with only caloric and fat benefits and two dogs that needed my immediate attention (i.e. let’s go for a walk) which calls off all audibles to the store to wander and create.  Took care of the dogs, fielded a few calls from frantic students with assignments due, then opened up the freezer…squash puree, black beans, soups of all kinds, blueberries (gosh, those are STILL in there?) and the usual culprits, cheese, veg burgers, etc…boooorrriiingg.  Then, the lightbulb flickers…squash burritos?  Yes…squash burritos.

Squash Burritos with Black Beans

  • 2 C black beans, cooked
  • 2 C butternut squash, pureed
  • 2 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 T chipotle en adobo (if you aren’t a fan of spicy, use 3/4 to 1 T for the smokey kick minus the tongue burn)
  • 2 tsp kosher salt
  • 2 T pineapple juice (plus more for the avocado)
  • 2 T crushed pineapple
  • grape tomatoes (a couple of handfuls)
  • 1 avocado
  • 6 reduced-fat, flour tortillas
  • 1 C finely shredded reduced-fat Mexican cheese blend (or goat cheese, yum)
  • 2 large handfuls of baby spinach
  • Chopped red onion
  • Light sour cream or my newest sour cream replacement, plain Greek fat free yogurt

Directions:  Combine beans through pineapple in list above in a medium pot, cook until warmed through.  Assemble burritos on flour tortillas with all ingredients except for sour cream.  Roll into burrito shape.  Place into 9×9 pan, put in oven covered until warmed through and moist.  Serve with sour cream and leftover avocado.  I also use plenty of Frank’s Red Hot on top with a sprinkle of extra cheese.

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Second Chances

Posted on October 4, 2010 | 1 comment

Here’s to second chances.

Recently I had the opportunity to accompany my friend Missy to Chicago with a group of gal pals for her Bachelorette Party, second chance style.  I’ll get to the food part in a minute, because it was GRAND; but first, the bride.  As a group my core contingency of friends has endured many complexities in the past two – three years.  Everything from a parent death, to domestic violence, to a handful of divorces, from first born babies to depression and back again, we faced these challenges as a group and hoped for the day where we could FINALLY celebrate a second chance.   This trip to Chicago was the first of many second chances.  Cheers to Missy and her pursuit of her happy ever after.

Back to your regularly scheduled blog post.  Speaking of cheers.  What goes best with cocktails?  Fabu food of course.  On this second chance tour, we used a pink goblet (32 oz) to procure free beverages, and a bridal veil to elicit many unique looks from passers by.  We even had a flash back to 22 when some of us made our first BIG mistake, and decided that we are glad to be in the range of 30 years old finally.  The food however, the FOOD WOW!  We did a bang up job in the dine out category.  Our visit to Opera Chicago was a really, really good choice by Fancy Nancy.  At Opera, from the veg side of the menu, we enjoyed mushroom won-tons with a green salad and miso dressing,  veggie egg rolls with a teriyake reduction, Kung Pao tofu, Malaysian vegan flat bread, and Hainanese Kaipong (cooked in a Lotus leaf which Missy tried to eat for additional fiber!!).  All beautifully plated and wonderfully light and tasty.  Asian fusion Chicago style is not to be missed at this place.  Do NOT forget to sample the pickles and spicy nut mixture they put on your table.  That was the best pre-dinner bite I’ve had in a long time.  Beware the Thai chili pepper if you are not in to spicy with the sweet.  Please visit.

For breakfast the following morning, we got up at the crack of 8:30, and made our way down to perennial fave, The Bongo Room.  The wait on a typical weekend is well into the 2 hour arena, but if you get there early, when they open at 9am, your wait is nill as I guess Chicagoans don’t like to eat before then and consequently you get a table lickity split.  We agonized over the menu and finally ordered the sweet potato black bean burrito, special eggs benedict (veggie), the breakfast burrito, chorizo omelette, and of course two very special pancakes:  red velvet and walnut with vanilla creme’ anglaise, and white chocolate, caramel and PRETZEL.  I’d honestly like to see a cracker jack, popcorn pancake soon…oh, they have a dish that our new found friends at the table next to us ordered, banana, oreo, chocolate pancakes that looked like a must try for next time.  Eat here, but drink your coffee while you wait from Starbucks across Randolph.  Caution:  The Bongo Room has lackluster coffee.  I’d opt for the fennel bloody Mary instead.  Cheers.

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Soup Season!

Posted on September 20, 2010 | Leave a comment

Fall is my favorite food season.  Tailgating and soup making are really the highlights in my humble opinion.  Mr. Wonderful did all the grocery shopping for the week after we picked out our recipes for the week over a blueberry pancake breakfast (yes, some of THOSE blueberries).  So this evening, all I had to do was pull together this easy, soul warming soup.

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Black Bean Corn Chowder

  • 1 T EVOO
  • 1 medium sweet onion, diced
  • 1 medium carrot, diced
  • 1 baking potato, peeled and diced
  • 1 package frozen corn kernels
  • 2 C black beans, cooked
  • 4 C veggie broth
  • 2 C skim milk
  • 1/4 C sweet red pepper, diced
  • 1 poblano pepper, diced
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, diced
  • 1/2 T onion powder
  • 1/2 T garlic powder
  • 1 T chili powder
  • 1 T cumin
  • 1 T fresh oregano
  • 1 tsp salt, to taste

Saute’ veggies (not corn) in EVOO, cook until soft.  Add spices, cook 1-2 more minutes, stirring.  Add liquids bring to boil.  Drop in frozen corn and beans.  Bring back to boil.  Serve hot with toppings of your choice.  We like sour cream, avocado and a squeeze of lime.

My black beans generally do not come from a can, except for when I am in a super duper hurry and haven’t done a good job of planning ahead.  Tonight I made a two pound bag of black beans before putting together the soup so that I had a few bags in the freezer ready to go for the next few weeks.  To quickly cook black beans, in a large pot, dump rinsed and picked over beans, cover with water plus 2 inches up the side of the pan and boil until al dente.  They will cook the rest of the way in whatever you cook them in, soup, tacos, etc.  Yeah, that’s it.  You don’t have to do all that soaking if you have about 45 minutes to boil the crap out of them.  This way, you save money, they taste WAAAYYYY better and the sodium content is much lower.  I then take the beans and freeze them in plastic bags.  They don’t last long, so I’m not sure how long they keep.  Hispanic food stores have the BEST deals on dried black beans.  I once bought a 10 pound bag for $4.00.  Seriously.  I just finished that bag a few weeks ago, it lasted about 6 months.

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Calling All Butternut Squash For Role In Pasta Dish

Posted on September 14, 2010 | 2 comments

I purchased 8 huge, I mean HUGE butternut squash from the orchard last week. I began processing them this weekend in an effort to eat them, or store them before they go bad.  I cut up two of the bad boys and baked them, then I pureed them to an astonishing 13 cups of golden deliciousness.  They now are secure in 1 cup measurements in the freezer ready to use in a pinch.  So awesome!

I reorganized my recipe heap, yes, heap this weekend and came across this one from an old Rachael Ray magazine-so what if it’s from 2007, I mean I’m getting to it at least!

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Penne with Squash Cream Sauce

  • 1 pound whole wheat penne pasta
  • 2T butter
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • salt & pepper
  • 2 C squash puree (butternut, pumpkin, etc)
  • 1 cup half and half
  • 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese plus more for topping
  • 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley or thyme (sage might be good here too)

Cook pasta until al dente. Drain, reserving 1 cup pasta cooking water.

In the same pot, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the onion and season with salt and pepper; cook, stirring until softened, about 6 minutes. Stir in the squash and cream and bring to a boil. Return the pasta to the pot, along with the reserved pasta water, and toss. Stir in the parmesan; season with salt & pepper.

Top pasta with herbs and more parmesan to serve.

I know that so many people have such a love/hate relationship with Rachael Ray. I admit, I don’t watch her shows, nor do I like a lot of her recipes but this one is YUM-O (okay, that was sarcastic, sorry).

Oh, I almost forgot, the side dish pictured is my fave way to eat cauliflower. Break into smallish pieces, toss with EVOO (another Rach-ism) some kosher salt and bake until browned at 400 degrees.  Here is my second fave way to eat cauliflower.

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The Afterlife

Posted on September 11, 2010 | Leave a comment

I’ve decided that IF there is an afterlife, for me, it will contain rows and rows of apple trees just like at the “other” Crane’s Orchard-Gary Crane.  All the ripe, beautiful Honeycrisp apples will only be where people that are 5’8″ and taller can reach them (this is to make up for all those short pants I had to wear before they made Tall for women, sorry “average” height girls I have to get something beside good low post position out of this frame), the trees will embrace you as you enter a row which is well organized and LABELED (so as not to get lost, this is a great idea Gary), you will hear the bees buzzing but you will not see them, nor will they sting you (bastards), there will be golf carts to shuttle you around and for when you pick more apples than you can actually carry in one trip (for me that turns out to be about 70 pounds-I almost made it to the cashier), it will be sunny and 60 degrees out all the time (so you can wear jeans and a long sleeved t-shirt all the time without pitting out), there will be Butternut squash picked, clean and available to take home for 40 cents a pound (they will however, weigh 8 pounds or more a piece), every day the stay-at-home mommies will be busy with book group or something (so I don’t have to work around your slow ass), and you will be able to eat apples until you nearly barf (this is encouraged) as you pick ’em.  Yep, that’s what my afterlife will be like.  Oh, and I will have Walt the Wonderdog and Mr. Wonderful with me there too; because then I can carry more apples.

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My Friends Cook Too! Anne P., Guest Post

Posted on September 9, 2010 | 1 comment

I get really excited when my friends make veg friendly food.  Fall is a great time for soup, and what is cheaper right now than winter squash?  Not much, so stock up and keep it in a cool dry place, it will last through the winter.  Or, as Anne mentions below, cut it open, place face down on a cookie sheet, pop into the oven at about 350 degrees until soft, scoop out the flesh (sans seeds-save those to plant in the summer next year), drop it into a freezer bag and you have most of the work done and in your freezer for pies, soups, muffins, breads etc all winter.  Great idea Anne.

Squash Soup a la Anne

Anne Porter-I got the original recipe off the Food Network website. It’s an Alton Brown recipe, but I have altered it quite a bit.

It called for butternut squash, but I used a blend of acorn and carnival squash in the batch, I have used butternut in the past.

  • 6 cups of prepared squash
  • 2 cans of fat free vegetarian vegetable broth
  • 2 T. Splenda brown sugar
  • 1 tsp. minced ginger
  • 1 can lite coconut milk (used Thai Kitchen brand)

Directions:  In a large stock pot combine squash, broth, brown sugar and ginger. Simmer and then puree with immersion blender (or in your blender, food processor, food mill). Stir in coconut milk and return to a low simmer. Season to taste w/salt, pepper and/or nutmeg.

Approximately 8 – 1 cup servings at 115 calories per serving.

My squash was in the freezer from what I had frozen last fall, so it took me less than 20 minutes to make this, so it’s super easy and so tasty!

*I just made this soup tonight-with butternut from my garden!!!  To her base recipe I added:

  • 1/2 frozen banana (out with the brown sugar)
  • 1 medium onion, saute’ with garlic
  • 4 cloves of garlic, saute’ with onion
  • 1 can garbanzo beans
  • 1 & 1/2 tsp hot curry
  • 1 tsp sweet curry
  • 1 T Frank’s Red Hot
  • 1/2 C fat free half and half

Instead of blending the whole thing, I blended 1/2 and left the other half chunky. I like texture in my soup.  It was delish served with Nantucket Baking Company Sourdough Bread.

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