Blessed Be the Cheese Makers

Guess what I did?
I took a cheese making class. Meet My Camembert.
(I'm too busy to blog right now, but you just HAD to see my baby)

Curried Acorn Squash and Apple Soup

This simple and tasty autumn warmer was the perfect choice for last night. Not only was it a way to use up the acorn squash who's skins were damaged and therefore wouldn't survive storage, but SP and I have also been suffering the most miserable chest cold. Hot and spicy things is all that we want, and those hot toddy's are starting to lose their edge! Time to break out the curry! I based this recipe on one of Barbara Kafka's (if you don't know her go find out - we love her especially for her high temp roasting). I tweaked it my way - had to make it creamy, and of course had to overload it with curry. That's the essence of cooking - season to taste!

Ingredients
1/4 cup oil
4 tablespoons mustard seed
3 tablespoons (or more) curry
2 to 3 Acorn Squash
4 apples - don't peel, but quarter, core and cube
1 onion - diced
2 cloves garlic - crushed and minced
1 tablespoon ground fresh ginger - grated
4 cups broth
fresh cider
light cream
lime juice to taste
salt to taste

Process
1. Preheat oven 400.
2. Wash acorn squash. Cut in half lengthwise and then core seeds out.
3. Place outside up on lightly greased baking tray, and cook in oven.
4. While squash cooks, cut other vegetables.



























5. Cook squash until guts are soft enough to scrape out (outside is generally soft enough to poke through). Let cool briefly on stove top so that they are cool enough to handle.

























6. In a stock pot over medium to medium high heat, heat the oil.
7. Add the mustard seeds to the oil when hot, and stir until popping.
8. Add the curry and stir some more.
9. Add onions and garlic and cook until softened.
10. Add the ginger and stir.
11. Add the squash guts, apples, and stock and bring to a boil.
12. Boil for 10 to 20 minutes until the apples are softened.















13. Process in small batches in the blender. To each batch, add a good glug of cider and several dashes of cream. This lightens and creams the soup. See the consistency and color difference in the picture below.
















14. Return to pot over low heat. Season with lime juice and salt. Adjust as you desire.
15. Serve with crusty bread and even an extra dollop of sour cream in the middle to cut any over-spicing you might have done!

Fresh Basil Pesto

We put the garden to bed this weekend.
There was a giant purple crate full of pesto to process.
Sadly, none of the canning books we own had a recipe in it because of the cheese and pine nuts that are in it. It's not recommended to freeze pesto because of the fats and the changes in consistency. We however are not afraid of making pesto cubes in the freezer. We plow through pesto in our house. So I looked in the Joy of Cooking and found a recipe with the hearty idea of add vegetables to cook with the pasta. I'll have to try that sometime, but last night we needed to pound our the pesto fast. We settled on preparing Jamie Oliver's recipe from The Naked Chef.















I'm not even going to post a recipe in this post, because truly, what ever pesto you choose to make (we used our food processor and do like using lemon juice) you will undoubtedly tweak and add to it before serving. So, go harvest and pick your basil and find a pesto recipe today! Enjoy for longer than they tell you you can!
























Action shot!
(notice dehydrator in the back ground - had fresh dried herbs on the garlic bread with dinner)
Spread and press pesto into ice cube trays.
Cover and set in freezer.
















Once frozen through, crack the cubes out of the tray, air tight seal them in a new bag and place back in the freezer.

BLT Dip

Oh this was so NOT what I needed on day one of my new healthy eating regime!!!

All Recipes BLT Dip

Ingredients

• 1 pound bacon
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tomato - peeled, seeded and diced

Directions

1. Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain on paper towels.
2. In a medium bowl, combine mayonnaise and sour cream. Crumble bacon into the sour cream and mayonnaise mixture. Mix in tomatoes just before serving.

Corn roasted in it's husks

Try something different with your fresh corn!
Thoroughly soak your corn husks for a couple hours.
Grill in it's husks on the grill.
It adds an extra wonderful taste.
Eat as normal or cut ears off husks for use in salads.

One special pizza night!

This recipe is a standard for us. We have done it so many times, we have been able to modify the original dough recipe so that we can make it healthier and out of wheat flour. The dough is made in a bread machine, and if using wheat add about 3 or 4 tablespoons more water to make the dough work. It's family pizza night so the toppings are yours to decide!!! This pizza night was extra special too - because it was the first time that Puckstopper was almost entirely in charge of the process!

Pizza Dough
(enough to make 2 large pies)
Ingredients:
1.5 teaspoon yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
4 cups bread flour
10 oz. Luke warm water (yes his cousins name is Luke and he gave us this recipe)
1.5 teaspoon salt
2 T olive oil
corn meal

Toppings
Yours to decide

Process:
1. Put ingredients, in order, into bread maker and start on dough setting.
2. Remove dough from machine and split into three or four balls.
3. Roll out balls and toss on a well floured surface, here is what we use to get the rolled dough on the pizza paddle.






















4. Coat your paddle thoroughly in corn meal.

















5. Once it is ready, roll the edge of the dough back just a bit, and wiggle the paddle underneath it.



































6. Gently spread some oil out on your dough and then a couple of blobs of sauce on top.








































7. Go on... spread it around.






















8. Now add your toppings. This here is a picture of my pizza.
Yes, my beloved boys are hand tearing fresh basil to go on top of my caramelized onions.

















and the tween Puckstopper made sure he had to add a little bling into this photo essay.






















9. Now gently, in one fluid motion slide your pizza onto the hot pizza stone that has already been preheated in an oven, as hot as it goes.
What no picture?
Can you imagine why?
My beloved Puckstopper was using MY PIE as his test run for that fateful slide.
Many a pizza have met their death at one such moment.
Me? I was lucky.
Puckstopper was stellar.

10. Remove from oven, cool, cut and eat!

Chopped Salad with Cilantro Lime Vinagrette

 

This is the BEST recipe for hot and humid summer nights. SP was on his way home from work yesterday, asked my dinner plans, and when I said "too hot" he brilliantly picked up what we needed from the store. He even opted to keep it chill and omit the grill - keeping it vegetarian!

Refreshing to say the least...

Ingredients
SALAD:

Chicken breasts grilled (if preferred marinate them in lemon juice and cilantro first) and chopped

1 avocado chopped

2 heads romaine chopped

3 tomatoes chopped

4 ears corn, grilled and then kernels cut off ears.

I cup or less shredded cheese
DRESSING:
Ingredients
8 tablespoons oil.
6 tablespoons Lime juice
1 or 2 cloves garlic
Half a bunch of fresh cilantro
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon sugar (if dressing is too sour add more)
1 teaspoon salt

1 raw egg - optional to those who fear them.

Process

1. In a blender or vat with an immersion blender, combine the dressing ingredients. Taste. Adjust ingredients or seasons to your liking. I like mine on the limey/sour side, but you may want it creamier.
2. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and toss. Chicken and corn may be hot when put in salad. Toss with Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette.
   

Cucumber Sandwiches

Meet my favorite summer sandwich. HiHo loved making cucumber sandwiches. My kids ask for them by name. Friends want me to fax them and there is none other can compare. My making of these sandwiches has been compared to OCD and has rendered other people incapable of making sandwiches. They are so good, SP at them while mowing the lawn.

Meet the cast of characters - a simple line up.

Ingredients











1/4 to 1/2 a red onion, minced
White Bread, preferably Pepperidge Farm
Hellmann's Mayo
one cucumber (yea there's 4 in the picture but you only need one)
lemon pepper
salt and pepper to taste

Process
1. Mince your onion

















2. Fork your cucumber - yes you take a fork and drag it down the skin, cutting slits into the skin and therefore softening it and beautifying it for your future slicing.
Yes and because HiHo taught me how.

























3. Slice your cucumber thinly.
















4. Lay out your bread into an assembly line.

















5. Spread mayonnaise, salt, pepper and lemon pepper on slices of bread.


















6. Sprinkle a layer of red onion down, and then cover it with a layer of cucumbers.















7. Close your sandwich and press.















8. Cut into different shapes, and arrange on a plate.

Berry Buckle for 5

A few weeks ago, the kidlets and I went on our first, of what I hope to be many, berry picking walks in the front field. It was an adventure for us - surviving blasting heat, prickers, a run in with poison ivy, and a collapsing stone wall leaving Puckstopper breathless. From our four mighty yet easily dropped containers, we yielded 2 cups of fresh black and rasp berries. The perfect incentive to not eat the precious bounty of our picking, Berry Buckle for dessert.

We had enough for HALF a recipe. So here is a modified berry Buckle, for a family of five. I baked it in a loaf pan.

Ingredients
Fruit
2 cups berries - any variety! (only strawberries need to be cut)
A couple tablespoons of sugar (only really for tarter berries)
A dash of water if needed

Cake
1/2 stick butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/8 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
grated peel from 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
sprinkling of cinnamon

Process
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Lightly coat a shallow casserole dish with spray.
3. Combine berries, sugar and water in baking dish.

















4. Using electric mixer in another bowl, combine cake ingredients one at a time.

5. Spoon over berry mixture, leaving center uncovered.

6. Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon.

7. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out of the cake clean.

8. Remove from over and let cool a bit.































9. Serve with vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt.

Fritattas!

I'm making a Fritata tonight, and it is the first of this gardening season, so it looks like it is time to post. This is a family favorite and exceptionally handy tonight with 2 hard working men in the house who also need breakfast bright and early in the morning. This is SO SIMPLE and so versatile for breakfast lunch or dinner!!! You decide the ingredients and don't have to use cheese - or egg yolks. Very versitile and excellent for using up extra veggies from the garden!

Ingredients:
glass pie pan
2 TBS olive oil
6 eggs (lightly scrambled). Start with 6, if not enough to cover at end, make sure you have a few extra on hand.
onions
cheese (shredded, crumbled or even curds)

your choice of hard veggies:
onions, squash, broccoli, beans, etc.

your choice of soft veggies:
peppers
herbs
tomatoes

Process:

1. Preheat oven to 425o.
   
2. Slice or dice your hard veggies and layer on bottom of pan (no more than 1/2 high.) Cook for 25 to 20 min , stirring once, or until browning or caramelizing.
   
3. Remove from oven.
4. Sprinkle with 1/2 cheese, and add 1/2 the 6 eggs. Layer soft veggies on top but not to lip of pan.
   
5. Cover with remaining cheese. Pour eggs over - making sure the contents are covered (wet).
6. Bake uncovered for 20 to 30 min., until browning on edges, and center is solid and not wobbly.

Appletini

Brajole

In Marie's words, "It's spelled 'brajole' pronounced brashol." Meet Marie. There's much more to her name than that, so I'm just going to leave it at Marie. Heck, there's so much more to Marie than her name, like her cooking. It is Marie's cooking that I am now learning about, after knowing her for about the last 20 years of my life, give or take a few! Marie was up for our party last weekend, and at Bruce's request made Brajole. What a journey of cooking! It was a fun trip to the market with Marie and got most of the photos of the process that I wanted - even scoring my favorite cooking photo ever. With out further ado... here's Marie and her Brajole!
Ingredients
Flank Steak, butterflied
curly parsley, minced
fresh garlic cloves, minced
butchers twine
tomato sauce
bacon, slightly cooked
raisins
parmagiano reggiano cheese
Italian herbed bread crumbs

Process
Basically you use butterflied flank steak, stuff it with various "stuff", roll, tie tightly with twine (don't use cotton twine) and bake fry or cook in oil or gravy aka tomato sauce. (oil cooks faster than the sauce).
Options for "stuff" include grated Parmagiano Reggiano cheese (can use Parm or Romano, any brand will do), minced fresh curly parsley, Italian flavored bread crumbs, minced FRESH garlic (jarred stuff just sucks all the way around), and raisins (these are optional).


And top it with bacon. My family does it the following: slightly undercooked bacon (don't use specialty bacon...just the run of the mill)


This is my favorite picture ever - just look at the shape of her hands and the way the raisins fill the bottom corner of the picture. OK, kill me now, I am loving food photography too much.

We roll it, tie it tight and fry in a frying pan with olive oil on low with lid on part of the time (helps to cook middle without charring the outside).
















Let it cool a bit, carefully snip off twine and slice - not too thin as it will fall apart! A serrated knife works best. Sometimes it helps to slice before you take off the string. This dish takes time, patience and constant supervision.

Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

I modified this recipe from an Everyday Living recipe. Ranch dressing is a staple in this house, so I like to have it available home made as much as possible, especially since HFCS is in so many of the store bought brands.

Ingredients
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons lemon juice (and more to taste)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
a dash of fresh ground black pepper

Process
1. Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl.
2. Whisk to lighten it up a bit.
3. Serve on salads or as a dip or dressing for sandwiches.
4. Store in an air tight container in the fridge for up to one week.

Crock Pot Macaroni and Cheese

Quick, easy, and a crowd pleaser. This is a highly simple and thusly in my opinion bland mac and cheese recipe. I hopefully have another more exciting version of this dish coming soon! Double this recipe for a large crock pot.

Ingredients
8 ounces cooked macaroni
1 stick butter melted
2 eggs, beaten
1.5 cups milk
3 cups grated cheese (or more)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons oil

Process
1. In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together.
2. Pour oil in crock pot.
3. Pour mixture into crock pot.
4. Cook on low for three to four hours.

Brussels Sprout Bisque

I can't track the origin of this recipe, but I beleive it is from a Google search for mystery soup - a family tradition!
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
3 medium carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
2 pints fresh Brussels Sprouts, trimmed and halved
1 large onion, chopped
42 ounces chicken broth
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 Tablespoon (or more) Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
2 cups cream

Process
1. In a large pot over medium heat, melt the butter
2. Add the carrots and onions and saute until softer.
3. Add the broth, wine and Worcestershire stirring to combine.
4. Add the Brussels sprouts and bring to a boil.
5. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until tender (10 minutes or more).
6. Stir in spices.
7. Remove pot from heat.
8. Puree soup either with an immersion blender or using a blender (takes several batches to complete)
9. Return to pot, add cream and bring up to temp.
10. Serve in soup bowls and hope that the flavor and color make it a mystery!

Sausage Brunch Casserole

Ingredients
1 pounds ground pork sausage
1 (8 ounce) package refrigerated crescent roll dough
2 cups mozzarella cheese
6 large eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1. Place sausage in a large, deep skillet. Cook over
medium high heat until evenly brown.
2. Drain, crumble and set aside.
3. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
4. Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.
5. Lay crescent rolls flat in the bottom of the pan.
6. Cook rolls 5-10 min till just starting to brown.
7. Combine cooked sausage, cheese, eggs, milk, salt and pepper pour over
crescent rolls.
8. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, until bubbly and rolls are baked


Also good with cheddar cheese. This is a really good brunch and different from a torn bread or hash brown potato base.

Egg's benedict

I've been debating how to write this recipe out. I've decided, I am going to leave it as a photo essay to one of my favorite breakfast or brunch options ever. It is also what SP makes me for every Mother's Day. For instructions, he always uses the Joy of Cooking. So all you need is a good cookbook, and these pictures as a way of doing it! It is time consuming and laborious, but well worth your time.

Ingredients
eggs
sliced tomatoes (or bacon)
butter
vinegar
and if you don't want to make it yourself, some premade or packaged Hollandaise sauce (My ancestors just rolled over in their graves at the very mention of such a thing.)

Process
1. While you bring a large pot of water to a boil, prepare your Hollandaise sauce according to directions over a double boiler. Look closely, SP invented his own by putting a large glass bowl over a sauce pan of boiling water.




























































































































2. Very carefully breaking your egg into a spatula, poach your eggs in lightly rolling boiling water doused with a little vinegar.


































3. Toast some English muffins.

4. Plate the muffins, with sliced tomato (or if you insist bacon) and cover with the poached egg.






























5. Whisk your Hollandaise again.



























6. Liberally coat in Hollandaise.


























7. Re-coat if desired. Serve with extra Hollandaise on the side.



























I don't think I mentioned this. I love Hollandaise. I like my Eggs Benedict bathing in it. Come to think of it, I think I'd like a lot of things bathed in Hollandaise.