New Recipe and More Fall

Last Saturday, Freddy helped me carve one of our 3 pumpkins.  He was amazed to see the seeds inside, and after we took out all the guts, he wanted to put the seeds back in the pumpkin.  I guess I should just be happy he didn't want to use the carving knife.  He loved seeing the pumpkin all lit up, and also eating the roasted, salted seeds!  I always expect pumpkins to provide tons and tons of seeds, but we ate them all in a day or two.   Oh, and - that is actually my stomach.

I've been trying to be more organized about my meal planning lately, both with the goal of cleaning out the pantry/freezer of things that traveled from Salt Lake to Baltimore and back again - a year ago (like that huge bag of red lentils).  So while this is far from a food blog - no photos and not very regular - I may post the occasional not-too-tricky recipe for your cooking enjoyment.  Well, for those of you who cook, at least.  I made this one last night, and Billy and I both thought it was REALLY good.  It does involve buying almond butter, which I like anyway on PB&Js and toast.  You could PROBABLY use peanut butter, but I'm not sure how it would taste.

By the way, it seems weird to use fettucini here, doesn't it?  But it works...although I think you could sub in rice, rice noodles, or any asian noodles (udon, etc.). This says it feeds 4, but I would say 2-3 based on how much we ate. :)

Noodles with Roast Pork and Almond Sauce
Yield:  4 servings (serving size: about 1 1/2 cups)
. 1/2  teaspoon  canola or veg oil
. 1/2  pound  pork tenderloin, trimmed
. 1/2  teaspoon  salt, divided
. 1/4  teaspoon  black pepper
. 8  ounces  uncooked fettuccine
. 1/4  cup  almond butter
. 2 1/2  tablespoons  low-sodium soy sauce
. 2  tablespoons  rice vinegar
. 1  tablespoon  minced peeled fresh ginger
. 1 1/2  teaspoons  chili garlic sauce
. 1  cup  thinly sliced green onions
. 1/3  cup  finely chopped fresh mint
Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 425°.
2. Drizzle oil in an ovenproof skillet. [we just used a pyrex] Sprinkle pork with 1/8 teaspoon salt and pepper; place pork in pan. Bake at 425° for 10 minutes. Turn pork over, and bake an additional 10 minutes or until a thermometer registers 155°. Place pork on a cutting board; let stand 10 minutes. Shred pork into small pieces. [if you can't shred it reasonably easily w/2 forks, maybe cook a little longer - but don't overcook!]
3. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain pasta in a colander over a bowl, reserving 2 tablespoons pasta water; keep pasta warm.
4. Combine almond butter, 2 tablespoons pasta water, remaining salt, soy sauce, vinegar, ginger, and chili garlic sauce. [note: the pasta water is critical for making the sauce liquid-y enough to coat everything. if you forget and toss your pasta water, try just using 2T of really hot water] 
Divide pasta evenly among 4 bowls; top evenly with sauce, pork, onions, and mint.

Caramel Apple Cookies

Gowski ladies, these are the cookies I was talking about this weekend....

Caramel Apple Cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cup flour
2¾ cup old fashioned oats not quick-cooking oatmeal
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
12 oz caramel baking bits [I’ve never seen these in SLC but figure you could also cut up those square caramels]
2 cups granny smith apples

Directions

Step 1:In a large bowl, beat the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar with an electric mixer until the mixture is fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and eggs. Beat until combined.

Step 2:Measure oatmeal into a food processor, and pulse until ground finely. In a medium-sized bowl, stir the oatmeal, flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda until combined. Set aside.

Step 3:Peel and finely chop the apple.

Step 4:Using an electric mixer, stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until combined. Stir in the caramel bits and apples. It is fun to save a few of each (the apple and the caramel) for dotting on top of the rolled cookie dough balls.

Step 5:Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour. Roll the cookie dough into golf ball-sized balls. Bake on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet in an oven preheated to 350 degrees F, for 10-12 minutes. The sheet should be placed on the upper middle rack. Cool on the pan for 4 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
Note: Dough is best the day of. In time the apples add extra moisture to the dough, causing a wider spread on the baked cookies. Alternatively, you can pre-roll the dough into balls and freeze if you aren't using it all the first day. Place the dough balls on a cookie sheet until solid, and then transfer to a labeled sealable freezer bag. Use within one month. Simply add an extra couple minutes to the baking time since the dough is frozen.

Bran Muffins. Yes, Bran.

I've been on a quest to use everything in the pantry, fridge, and freezer (at least within reason), and have been pretty proud of my efforts so far! Last night was a good example - we had some bean/corn/ground beef mixture leftover from the previous night's burritos, a little cheddar cheese, and some corn tortillas that had been hanging around for months and months. So I made a layered casserole with those ingredients and an extra can of kidney beans and some rice cooked in chicken broth. YUM! Served it with a little plain coleslaw with raisins and toasted almonds (the cabbage needed to be used and the almonds were from a breakfast dish a few days before). Ok, so it's not complicated, but it used up lots of leftovers and was a good reminder for me that you can make a casserole out of just about anything.

Last week I made two new recipes for Rio's going-away daycare party - both of them turned out great. The egg "muffins", in particular, were pretty easy and could definitely be prepped the night before. The guys LOVED them.

Baby Bran Muffin Recipe

These bran muffins are delicious hot out of the oven with a touch of butter and sprinkled with a few grains of salt. Also good cooled with a smear of cream cheese! Not nearly as dry and yucky as most healthy bran muffins are.

2 cups white whole wheat flour OR stone ground whole wheat flour VG note: I just used regular whole wheat
1 1/2 cups wheat bran
3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
2 tablespoons raw natural cane sugar OR brown sugar
2 cups full fat yogurt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup honey
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup of add-ins of your choice - raisins, chopped dried fruit, nuts, etc (optional). VG note: I used raisins only.

Preheat oven to 425F degrees, racks in the middle.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, wheat bran, salt, baking soda and sugar.

Beat together the yogurt, egg, honey, and butter in a second larger bowl. Add the dry ingredients and fold in until everything comes together. Fold in any optional add-ins, raisins, nuts, and the like. Resist overmixing.

Either grease a mini-muffin tin with butter or line the tin with small muffin papers. Fill each 3/4 full. Bake 10 -15 minutes, until muffins are golden on top and cooked through. You can also make larger muffins in a standard size muffin pan with this batter, you just need to bake them about 5 minutes longer.

Makes about two dozen tiny bran muffins or one dozen larger ones. VG note: This recipe actually made about 4 dozen mini muffins for me!

Broccoli Cheddar and Sausage Egg Muffin Pull-A-Parts

6 Pillsbury Buttermilk biscuits (from can, 8 count)
Pinches of kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper

2 Cups cooked broccoli florets, cut up into small pieces (I steamed them for 4-5 min)
1/2+ Cup cooked sausage links, cut up (more if you want)

5 eggs
4 Tablespoons milk
Pinches of kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper

1 Cup shredded cheddar cheese (more if you want)

Cholulla hot sauce

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray. Cut each biscuit into 8 triangles and place 5 into each muffin tin. Lightly sprinkle each biscuit cup with salt and pepper. You might have a biscuit left over. You could probably also make these as mini muffins or in those texas-sized muffin pans, but just adjust so you have enough filling to come about 2/3 up each muffin cup (higher for minis).

2. Sprinkle broccoli and sausage evenly over each biscuit filled muffin cup.

3. Place eggs, milk, salt and pepper into a mixing bowl. Whisk until well combined. Pour evenly over each cup. With a fork make sure eggs get to the bottom and around each piece of biscuit. Top each with sprinkles of cheddar cheese and bake for 28-32 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from center of biscuits and cheese is golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before removing from muffin cup. Remove and arrange onto serving plate. If you like it spicy serve with a nice hot sauce like Cholulla, it’s wonderful!! Pull them apart with your fingers or cut with a fork. Enjoy.

Amber's Lemon Curd Cheesecake

Here's Amber Lavin's Lemon Curd Cheesecake Recipe, for those of you who like cheesecake. Our Thanksgiving guests RAVED about it!

Lemon Curd Cheesecake

Crust
Cooking spray
¼ cup ( ½ stick) butter, melted
1 ¾ cups vanilla wafers, crushed

Filling
3 8oz packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
2 tsp grated lemon zest
2 Tbsp lemon juice
3 large eggs

Lemon Curd
1 ½ tsp grated lemon zest
6 Tbsp lemon juice
1 large egg + 1 large yolk
½ cup sugar
2 Tbsp butter, cold and cut into bits

Crust: Preheat oven to 350 and spray 9" spring form pan with cooking spray. In bowl mix crumbs and butter and toss with fork until evenly moistened. Press crumb mixture onto bottom and ½ inch up sides of pan. Bake 8-10 minutes or until the edges are lightly golden and crust is set. Let cool on rack; after cool wrap outside of pan with heavy-duty foil several times. Reduce oven temp. to 325.

Filling: In a large bowl, with electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese 2-3 minutes or until fluffy. Gradually beat in the sugar, scraping sides of bowl with spatula, until smooth. With mixer on medium speed add sour cream, lemon zest and lemon juice. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, just until incorporated. Poor into crust and filled spring form in the middle of a large roasting pan. Carefully pour enough boiling water into roasting pan to reach halfway up sides of spring form pan. Bake for 70-75 minutes until center of cheesecake is almost set, but still slightly jiggle (do not over bake ... cake will firm as it cools). Let cool in water 15 minutes then transfer spring form pan to rack and let it cool completely. Remove foil and refrigerate until chilled, at least 8 hours or overnight. Run thin knife around edge of pan and remove pan sides.

Lemon Curd: In top of a double boiler combine all ingredients except butter. Over gently simmering water, whisk ingredients until hot and frothy, about 5 minutes. Gradually whisk in butter over a time period of 7 minutes or until mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Remove from heat; let cool at least ½ hour. Spread curd over top of the cheesecake and garnish with raspberries (or raspberry jam J)

*I've found that it only takes about 2 decent sized lemons to make the filling and lemon curd and I actually don't use any rind for the lemon zest, but just use the juice and pulp b/c I think it tastes better! Even though the directions are a little long, it actually is pretty easy to make, plus it is always nice to be able to make things the day before and still have them taste great.

Turkey Day!

Well, we (reasonably) successfully hosted 14 adults and 7 kids for Thanksgiving this year, and it was so much fun! Thanks to everyone who brought dishes - we did not have one 'average' dish in the mix. I'm going to see if I can track down Eleni's stuffing recipe and stuffed french bread recipes. Everyone RAVED about Amber's lemon cheesecake (I didn't try it, as it's not my favorite, but cheesecake lovers thought it was fantastic). The turkey was perfectly cooked and carved thanks to the 2 Billys, and although they got testy here and there, none of the kids had major, unrecoverable meltdowns. I've attached Mel's sweet potato puree recipe here, for those who are interested.

Comfort Food

Sorry, gentle readers...a weekend went by without me taking new photos, so this will be a rather boring entry. Oh well. We had a great weekend, though - the weather was beautiful! We took a hike on Saturday with our neighbor's dog, Ruby (who is almost the best dog I know other than Luther, Julie & Greg's golden retriever). I learned that one should never visit Costco the Saturday before Thanksgiving, even for cheap PJs. The Utes beat BYU, securing a likely spot in a good bowl game. I survived a terrible sore throat. Freddy slept well and was 'happy Freddy' most of the weekend. We took Freddy to one of the community pools on Sunday morning (for the first time) with Greg and Charlie, and he loved it! The water was really warm, and once he got used to the noise from the fountains and echo-y room, he had a blast. Fell asleep on the way home, and didn't wake up during the transfer from car to crib, thereby skipping lunch. And Bill won his Sunday night hockey game.

I made the same casserole three times - once for us, once for our friend Idie who has a 2-week-old baby boy, Jack, and once for Julie who is due in about 2 weeks with baby Will. It's pretty basic - one of those 'how to use what you have in the fridge for an easy weeknight meal' kinds of things, but here it is, for anyone who needs an easy comfort food recipe. I should say that my other favorite chicken and rice casserole is the Chinese Chicken Casserole from Southern Living (thanks to my mom and sister for introducing me to that one!). I usually add extra mushrooms and black pepper, and sometimes some cayenne:

Creamy Chicken-and-Rice Casserole

Ingredients

• 1 (6.9-ounce) package one-third-less-salt chicken-flavored rice-and-vermicelli mix with chicken broth and herbs
• 1 tablespoon margarine
• 2 1/4 cups hot water
• Vegetable cooking spray
• 1 1/2 pounds skinned, boned chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 cup presliced fresh mushrooms
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 3/4 cup nonfat sour cream
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 (10 3/4-ounce) can reduced-fat, reduced-sodium condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
• 1/4 cup crushed multigrain crackers (about 6 crackers)
• 1 tablespoon margarine, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon poppy seeds (I usually skip these, for some reason)
  

Cook rice mix in a large nonstick skillet according to package directions, using 1 tablespoon margarine and 2 1/4 cups hot water. Remove mixture from skillet; set aside. Wipe skillet with a paper towel.

Coat the skillet with cooking spray, and place over high heat until hot. Add chicken, mushrooms, and garlic powder; sauté 6 minutes or until chicken loses its pink color. Combine rice mixture, chicken mixture, sour cream, pepper, and soup in a bowl; stir well. Spoon mixture into a 2-quart casserole coated with cooking spray. Combine cracker crumbs, margarine, and poppy seeds; stir well, and sprinkle over chicken mixture. Bake at 350° for 35 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

Make-Ahead Tips: You can assemble the casserole ahead of time, omitting the cracker-crumb mixture; cover and chill in the refrigerator or freeze (thaw frozen casserole overnight in refrigerator). Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes; top with cracker-crumb mixture, and bake as directed.

Toys, schmoys.

Apparently Freddy now knows how to stir, mix, and taste. Why hasn't he been cooking dinner, I wonder? I do try to walk him through each step when I'm making something (now I'm adding the cinnamon, cracking the shells and adding the eggs, mixing it all together...), so maybe he's figuring it out! For about 20 minutes, he sat on that baking sheet and stirred imaginary things in two different containers, occasionally raising the spoon to taste whatever fabulous dish made of air he was whipping up. It was cute AND allowed me to do the dishes. Gotta love it! When can you start involving kids in the kitchen ... and expect some kind of decent result? Maybe I should leave well enough alone if he's happy with pretend food.


P.S. - this is what I was making:

Spiced Pumpkin Bread

(Makes 2 loaves)

3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 16-ounce can solid pack pumpkin
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour two 9x5x3-inch loaf pans. Beat sugar and oil in large bowl to blend. Mix in eggs and pumpkin. Sift flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt and baking powder into another large bowl. Stir into pumpkin mixture in 2 additions. Mix in walnuts, if desired.

Divide batter equally between prepared pans. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Transfer to racks and cool 10 minutes. Using sharp knife, cut around edge of loaves. Turn loaves out onto racks and cool completely.

Who Knew You Could Make a Meal in a Rice Cooker?

Bill and I made this last week, and I forgot to post the recipe (courtesy of my friend Melanie who found it in the New York Times, I think). It was easy other than occasionally having to click the rice cooker from warm back to on when it thought it was finished cooking (like during the saute step). I skipped the chili pepper b/c I didnt' have one, but I would recommend adding a little cayenne or something if you don't have a pepper. I served it with unsalted cashews (not fried as below), raisins, and plain yogurt. YUM.

Rice Cooker Chicken Biriyani with Saffron Cream

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1 cup plain yogurt, preferably whole milk

1 1/2 teaspoons coriander powder

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 teaspoon mild chili powder

1/2 teaspoon cumin powder

1 onion cut into chunks

1 2-inch chunk fresh ginger, peeled

3 garlic cloves, peeled

1 fresh green chili pepper such as jalapeño or serrano, stemmed

3 tablespoons canola oil or ghee (clarified butter)

1 1/2 cups basmati rice, rinsed

6 cloves

6 cardamom pods

1 cinnamon stick

3 cups chicken broth (use low-sodium if canned) mixed with 1/4 teaspoon garam masala

1 teaspoon salt

Pinch saffron threads mixed with 2 tablespoons heavy cream

3 tablespoons chopped cilantro, more for garnish

3 tablespoons chopped mint

1 lime

FOR OPTIONAL GARNISHES:

Oil for frying

1 onion, thinly sliced

Big handful cashews

Big handful raisins

1. Cut chicken into bite-size chunks: 6 to 8 pieces from each thigh. In a bowl, mix yogurt and powdered spices. Add chicken, mix well to coat, and set aside.

2. In a food processor, purée onion, ginger, garlic and chili pepper together. Set aside.

3. In a rice cooker, heat oil in cooking bowl on ''cook.'' When hot, add onion paste and cook, uncovered, until some liquid has evaporated and paste begins to brown, about 15 minutes. Stir occasionally.

4. Add rice and whole spices and stir well. Smooth top and arrange marinated chicken pieces over surface.

5. Gently pour in broth and salt. Cover and let cook until rice is tender and chicken is cooked through, about 25 minutes depending on cooker.

6. When done (or when cooker switches to ''warm'' function), add saffron cream and mix, making sure to scrape and scoop up bottom layer of rice. Sprinkle chopped cilantro and mint on top and re-cover. Let steam 5 minutes more.

7. If making garnishes, heat 1 inch oil in a pot until rippling. Add onion and cook, separating rings, until golden brown. Lift out and drain. Add cashews and raisins to same oil and cook until cashews are golden brown. Lift out and drain.

8. Just before serving, squeeze lime over biriyani and mix very well, fluffing lightly. Scoop onto serving platter and garnish with chopped cilantro and fried onions, cashews and raisins.

Note: Lacking a rice cooker, biriyani can also be made in a heavy round pot with at least a 3-quart capacity. After adding broth in Step 5, raise heat to bring mixture to a simmer, then immediately reduce heat to very low. For Step 6, turn heat off.

YUM

Yummy new things:

Just found the King Arthur Flour blog...

And their website gets me thinking about holiday baking. Hmmm. When to start? Going to be a busy season.

Flourless (?) Chocolate Cake:
Made by my friend Julie for my birthday/playgroup last night. The kids had fun stuffing it into mini ice cream cones (without the ice cream). There's only a little bit ground into the cream-colored carpet in the office, and it was worth it for the YUM factor.

I don't have Julie's recipe, but here's a recipe I tried once that turned out well:

The Ultimate Flourless Chocolate Cake
Even though the cake may not look done, pull it from the oven when an instant-read thermometer registers 140 degrees. (Make sure not to let tip of thermometer hit the bottom of the pan.) It will continue to firm up as it cools. If you use a 9-inch springform pan instead of the preferred 8-inch, reduce the baking time to 18 to 20 minutes.

Ingredients
8 large eggs, cold
1 pound bittersweet chocolate or semisweet choc., coarsely chopped
½ pound unsalted butter (2 sticks), cut into ½-inch chunks
¼ cup strong coffee or liqueur
Confectioners’ sugar or cocoa powder for decoration

Instructions
1. Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Line bottom of 8-inch springform pan with parchment and grease pan sides. Cover pan underneath and along sides with sheet of heavy-duty foil and set in large roasting pan. Bring kettle of water to boil.

2. Beat eggs with hand-held mixer at high speed until volume doubles to approximately 1 quart, about 5 minutes. Alternately, beat in bowl of electric mixer fitted with wire whip attachment at medium speed (speed 6 on a KitchenAid) to achieve same result, about 5 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, melt chocolate and butter (adding coffee or liqueur, if using) in large heat-proof bowl set over pan of almost simmering water, until smooth and very warm (about 115 degrees on an instant-read thermometer), stirring once or twice. (For the microwave, melt chocolate and butter together at 50 percent power until smooth and warm, 4 to 6 minutes, stirring once or twice.) Fold 1/3 of egg foam into chocolate mixture using large rubber spatula until only a few streaks of egg are visible; fold in half of remaining foam, then last of remaining foam, until mixture is totally homogenous.

4. Scrape batter into prepared springform pan and smooth surface with rubber spatula. Set roasting pan on oven rack and pour enough boiling water to come about halfway up side of springform pan. Bake until cake has risen slightly, edges are just beginning to set, a thin glazed crust (like a brownie) has formed on surface, and an instant read thermometer inserted halfway through center of cake registers 140 degrees, 22 to 25 minutes. Remove cake pan from water bath and set on wire rack; cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate overnight to mellow (can be covered and refrigerated for up to 4 days).

5. About 30 minutes before serving, remove springform pan sides, invert cake on sheet of waxed paper, peel off parchment pan liner, and turn cake right side up on serving platter. Sieve light sprinkling of Confectioners’ sugar or unsweetened cocoa powder over cake to decorate, if desired.

Cupcakes:
Now, I'm not typically a big cake fan. I like the german chocolate cake Mom used to make for my birthday cakes, and I do like the flourless version above, but I don't really like cheesecake and wouldn't select a cake off a dessert menu. However, Brandon (my new PR guy at work) gave me two spectacular cupcakes for my b-day yesterday. He got them from Minis Cupcakes - I got "breakfast at tiffany's" (the blue one) and "the diva" (not sure if I should be worried that he chose this one). Check them out, below - how beautiful are they? They each came in a beautiful little box with the name of the cupcake on a cute label. Note to self - give these to other people. They're pretty! It almost doesn't matter whether they taste good (they do).



My staff must know I like to cook (and eat). Lacy gave me a beautiful pie dish with a lid shaped like the top of a pumpkin, and Ben gave me a gift certificate to cold stone creamery. JUST when I thought I was starting to get pretty good about what I'm eating..... Well, the pie dish will actually benefit people coming to my house for Thanksgiving, not necessarily just me, right?
xoxo