Gourds

Savory

Squash is not something I am very familiar with. It is not something that I grew up with, or even something I’ve experienced much as an adult. Thanks to the powers of the Internet (thank you Mr. Gore), Garrett figured out how to choose a good butternut and acorn squash. Sunday is NFL football day at our house; there are usually people over around dinnertime to watch the night game. I’ve decided that Sundays may be Soup Sundays, and when Jade comes over, Soup’n Dip Sunday. I recently acquired an emersion blender, so I’ve been searching for more recipes that I can make that require such a tool, and a squashy soup sounded like the ultimate fall meal.

This squash went through a lot to be in this soup; it was sliced opened, only to have its pulpy innards scooped out. It was then slathered in a butter and olive oil bath and laid down on a baking sheet to be roasted in a 425F oven for about an hour. As soon as they were sufficiently roasted, they were pulled out and again endured the harsh reality of the spoon to scoop out the rest of the yellow-y goodness.

Winter Squash Soup with Cheese Croutons

(adapted from various online recipes)

Soup
¼ cup butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups homemade chicken stock

1 whole large butternut squash, roasted

1 whole large acorn squash, roasted
2 cups pumpkin puree
2 teaspoons fresh thyme
2 teaspoons sage
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon ground ginger
¼ cup whipping cream

Croutons

1 large French loaf
½ cup grated cheese, any kind. I used a creamy havarti.
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
1 teaspoon minced fresh sage

For soup: Melt butter in large pot over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until clear, then cook with garlic for another few minutes. Add herbs and cook for 2 minutes. Add broth, squash and pumpkin and bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until squash is very tender, about 15 minutes. Puree soup with hand blender. Stir in cream and bring to simmer. Season with salt and pepper.

For croutons: Preheat broiler. Slide loaf. Butter 1 side of each bread slice. Arrange bread, buttered side up, on baking sheet. Broil until golden, about 1 minute. Turn over. Sprinkle cheese, then thyme and sage over. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Broil until cheese melts, about 1 minute. Ladle soup into bowls. Top each with croutons and serve.

The result was a very thick uniform soup that looked like a mango purée. The color was like the autumn trees before the winter wind forces its leaves to the ground. This soup was incredibly easy to make and relatively good for you with a minimal amount of cream. Everyone enjoyed it and I’m glad I made extra croutons.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Sweet

Pumpkin is a gourd that I am slightly familiar with. One of my first cooking experiences with pumpkin was when I attempted making pumpkin pie from scratch. At the time, I didn’t realize that for pies, one would use a sugar pumpkin, not the jack-o-lantern kind. It took me forever to cut up the pumpkin and prepare it – by boiling, for some ungodly reason – only to have the pies come out of the oven looking like pale baby food. I haven’t been brave enough to attempt it again. These days, I always have pumpkin on hand for the cat but it’s been a while since I made something with pumpkin again. I did make pumpkin cream cheese bread last year, but I wanted a recipe that didn’t require 6 (!!) eggs, so I varied this recipe that I found. And just try not to think of eggnog when you add that nutmeg.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread

(Nancy Creative, October 2010)

Filling:

1 package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2.5 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 large egg

1 teaspoon homemade vanilla extract

Bread:

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 1/4 cup(s) pumpkin puree

1/2 cup canola oil

2 eggs

1 .5 cups sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a large loaf pan with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar, flour, egg, and vanilla; beat until smooth and creamy, then set aside. In a large bowl, blend flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In another bowl, combine the pumpkin puree, canola oil, eggs and sugar; beat well. Stir the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture until combined.

Pour half of the pumpkin bread batter evenly into the loaf pans. Spread cream cheese mixture on top of the pumpkin batter and then spoon on the remaining pumpkin batter (don’t worry if you didn’t leave yourself enough pumpkin batter, once you start swirling it will be alright).

Take a knife and swirl the knife around in the layers, creating a marble effect.

Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a knife inserted in center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool bread in pan for 10 minutes; remove to a rack to cool completely.

The original recipe had a cinnamon glaze, which sounded delicious, but with already about 2 cups of sugar in the bread, I decided it wasn’t really necessary.

When I took the loaf out of the oven, I was slightly concerned that I hadn’t left enough pumpkin batter for the top; but the first bite assured me that it was just fine. The pumpkin makes the bread unbelievably moist, and the cream cheese adds a sweet, familiar tang.

Aren’t these eggs lovely? Garrett and I are making an effort to buy free-range eggs, and we’ll be making a trip very soon to Ben’s Meats on the west end to stock up on some meat. These eggs are from Rabbit River Farms in BC, and we found them at the Save-On Foods on 109^th. We live across the street from Planet Organic downtown where they have a plethora of products like this, but it’s nice to see things like this in a mainstream supermarket.

Happy gourd-ing!

(Sorry the formatting is off!)

Thanksgiving 2010 (first Thanksgiving)

With advice from our respective parents and our only cookbook, Garrett and I felt confident that cooking our first Thanksgiving dinner would be easy, or at the very least, delicious.

(Garrett concentrating very hard...)

Along with the turkey, we made stuffing (of course!), gravy, cranberry sauce (with plenty of leftovers to make cranberry muffins), broccoli, creamed corn (a la Chuck, and my favorite thing in the world).

Graham and Adam brought salad, Curtis brought buns, Kelley brought Tina fudge and homemade brownies, Peeps brought blondies, Liezl brought homemade pumpkin pie, Matt B brought apple crisp and Jesse rounded it off with a tray of cheese and meat for snacks.

Our oven runs a little hot, so we knew it probably wouldn't take as long as people recommended. We were a little concerned that the internal temperature was right even before people arrived, but an emergency phone call (thanks Sharon!) confirmed that tin foil is the greatest thing ever.


Solo celebrated Thanksgiving as well. For those who know Solo, you know he's old (15) and very thin. He got to munch on the giblets, which I think is the main reason that he's now a little bit hefty.
He also eats pumpkin regularly, so we gave him a little bit extra.

Giblet naps

All in all, Thanksgiving dinner went really well. We made a lot of turkey stock with the leftover bones and have some frozen turkey leftovers for future soup. My camera died just as people started eating, but as I type this I'm working on a roasted tomato basil soup for Sunday Night Football! Go Packers!

Fall Food

I've finally admitted that it's fall; the river valley certainly has decided that it is:


Today is my mom's 60th birthday. Last night we got together for a rib BBQ, and I provided the dessert and salad.

Chocolate Orange Dessert Risotto

This recipe, (originally courtesy of Giada, but I made a few variations) was incredibly easy to put together, it just required a bit of time and patience.

• 5 cups whole milk
• 2/3 cup Arborio rice
• 2/3 cup sugar
  
• 2 tablespoons orange zest (one medium orange)
  
• 1 tablespoon homemade vanilla extract (this is the only vanilla that I use anymore. You can really taste the difference in the end, and you have the benefit of having vanilla beans in whatever you're making)
  
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3 tablespoons orange liqueur
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

In a medium saucepan, combine the milk, rice, sugar, orange zest and vanilla. Bring the milk to a boil, stirring occasionally. Be careful not to burn the milk. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring frequently, until the rice is tender and the mixture thickens, about 30 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir the cocoa powder and orange liqueur into the mixture. Add the chocolate chips and stir until melted. Allow the mixture to cool for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Cover and refrigerate for 2 1/2 to 3 hours and up to 1 day ahead, or serve immediately.

Unfortunately I didn't snap any photos of the finished product, but it was delicious!

Fun side story: Garrett loves Nigella Lawson; I always confuse her with Giada de Laurentis for some reason (maybe because Giada likes to take pictures like this, who knows). I was very excited to tell Garrett that I'd be trying a Giada recipe, only to realize he loves Nigella instead. I finally watched a Nigella Express episode today (this one, specifically) and I too am in love with her. She says that cooking, for her, is therapeutic. In these very stressful fall times, I completely agree. I rushed to come home yesterday after work to make these 2 dishes, finish an assignment and shower, but the fact that one of these 'chores' was cooking made the time slink by, instead of quickly passing. Not that either of these are exceptionally difficult or anything...

On to the next one...

Zucchini Almond Pasta Salad


1-2 pounds zucchini, grated or thinly sliced
Generous amount parmesan or pecorino romano cheese, thinly sliced with vegetable peeler
1/2 cup slivered almonds, well-toasted and cooled
1/2 pound pasta of your choice, cooked, drained and cooled
2 tablespoons olive oil
Juice of one lemon
Freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste
Handful of cherry tomatoes

Stir zucchini, parmesan, almonds, tomatoes and pasta together. Whisk together olive oil and lemon juice, seasoning generously with black pepper and salt to taste. Toss with salad and adjust seasonings to taste.

Today, to celebrate her birthday, my mom, Garrett and I went to the 104th Street Market after she got her hair done at Blunt. We had crepes from the new crepe truck.

They were pretty good; the staff seemed quite flustered because it was so busy, but eventually we got our dessert crepes, and Garrett got his BLT crepe. Yum!

Happy Fall eating!

Root Beer Float Cupcakes/Peeps birthday

2 posts in a matter of mere days?

To celebrate my dear friend Kathleen's 24th birthday, we decided to hold a potluck! I was very impressed with everyone; finally, a potluck without bruschetta.


Peeps made a variety of things herself, which does go against the whole potluck idea, but she is always the hostess. She did up a tomato-bocconcini-basil salad, chili, her classic chocolate chips cookies and a few Indian dips. I made some Jello shots (that went over very well, but I didn't manage to snap any photos) and we tag teamed and made Root Beer Float Cupcakes, c/o Smitten Kitchen.

Cupcakes
2 cups root beer (We used good ol' A&W)
1 cup cocoa
1/2 cup salted butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs

Toppings
1 1/2 cups heavy or whipping cream
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Maraschino cherries (optional)

Make the root beer cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 28 cupcake cups with paper liners. In a small saucepan, heat the root beer, cocoa powder and butter over medium heat until the butter is melted. Add the sugars and whisk until dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool.

In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs until just beaten then whisk them into the cooled cocoa mixture until combined. Fold the liquid and flour mixtures together in the large bowl. The batter will be slightly lumpy; this is okay. If you overbeat it, it will get tough.

Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 to 3/4 full (a 1/4 cup scoop or measuring cup will filled mine perfectly) and bake cupcakes, rotating trays back to front and top to bottom halfway through, until a tester inserted into the center of each comes out clean, about 14 minutes. Remove cupcakes and cool on wire rack.

Whip whipping cream with powdered sugar and vanilla until it holds soft peaks. Once cupcakes are cool, add whipped cream as icing. Top with a cherry, if using.

Eat immediately!

If you take a look at the Smitten Kitchen link, you'll see that she used come ice cream as decoration, but in the best interest of keeping our cupcakes looking snazzy while sitting out, we opted out.

The root beer flavor wasn't super strong but you could taste it a little bit. Graham was quoted as saying 'I want a conveyor belt to put these into my mouth'. I guess that means it went over well.

It's been almost a year since I've last posted. This doesn't mean that I haven't been cooking, or even taking pictures of my creations; I've just been lazy.

I'm not usually one to write a restaurant post, but my first post back will be about my favorite culinary moment of the past year: a visit to Garde Manger in Vieux Montreal. The head chef at Garde Manger is none other than Chuck Hughes from Chuck's Day Off, my favorite Food Network Show. Unfortunately, Mr. Hughes wasn't in the restaurant when we managed to sneak into a small table (he was catering for the bands at Osheaga, which we also attended) but we were stoked nonetheless.

We started with the drink special, a strong watermelon margarita and were quickly brought fresh bread with a creamy smoked salmon whipped butter.

Being fans of the show and being slightly obsessed with going to this place, we knew about their Caesar that contained 3 ounces of vodka, homemade horseradish and of course, a giant crab leg sticking out of it. Clearly, Garrett had to order it immediately. We also ordered the fish and chips with jerk mayo. Garde Manger's menu is centered around seafood; one could order a huge seafood platter (for $100+) that would serve 4 people, or oysters by the dozen.

I ordered the seafood risotto. I make risotto all the time at home, but I like to order it when I'm out if it contains ingredients that I'm not brave enough to try. It was amazing. So creamy and flavorful, but not mushy or oversalted. Basically perfect.

Garrett ordered the duck confit with foie gras, again, something we could never do at home...yet. It was a little rich for my tastes, but Garrett enjoyed it. The menu was written on a few chalkboards posted around the restaurant, lending the idea that it changes often.

We somehow fought the urge to get dessert, knowing that we were about to head off to a party that would have a ton of yummy goodies. Overall, the whole experience was lovely, and we're very grateful that we were able to get in. Garde Manger only has two seatings a night (6pm and 9pm) and we weren't able to get reservations over the phone, so we made it down to the restaurant just before 6pm to ask if we could we squeezed in somewhere. We were able to get a small table for 2, under the condition that we were out by 8pm.



I'm going to try to post more, since I really do still do a lot of cooking and baking; I still even take pictures of these food items, so I'll just stop being such a lazy bones.

Happy eating!