Stumbling Sunday - Butternut Squash with Gorgonzola and Sage

Found this recipe on the http://www.closetcooking.blogspot.com/ blog. For November he has highlighted a bunch of recipes with pumpkin. This recipe stood out the most to me since my new food obssession is butternut squash.

Roasted Butternut Squash with Caramelized Onions, Gorgonzola and Crispy Fried Sage
(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

2 cups butternut squash (cut into 1/2 inch cubes)
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 onion (sliced)
1 clove garlic (chopped)
1 tablespoon butter
1 handful sage leaves
1/4 cup gorgonzola dolce (crumbled)

Directions:
1. Toss the butternut squash with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
2. Roast the squash in a preheated 350F oven until tender, about 30-40 minutes and set aside.
3. Meanwhile, heat the oil and melt the butter in a pan.
4. Add the onion and cook on low until caramelized, about 40-60 minutes.
5. Add the garlic and saute for a few minutes and set aside.
6. Melt the butter in a pan and let it brown.
7. Add the sage leaves and saute until crispy, about 2-3 minutes.
8. Add everything to the pan and toss in the browned butter to coat and remove from heat when the gorgonzola starts to melt.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Recipe for Sweet Potato Biscuits, Ham, Honey and Mustard

Another one of my loves about fall is sweet potatoes. If I have my choice over white potatoes or sweet potatoes, I always go with the latter. Sweet potatoes are wonderful in any form, but I especially love them roasted with a touch of olive oil and salt. No ketchup required on these baked wedges. I am not sure where I found this recipe but it caught my attention because it was sweet potatoes, mustard, honey and ham all wrapped up in a small sandwich. This would go perfect with a split pea soup.

Ingredients

1 3/4-pound red-skinned sweet potato (yam), peeled, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon (packed) dark brown sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of cayenne pepper
8 tablespoons (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes, plus 2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/3 cup chilled buttermilk
Dijon mustard
6 ounces thinly sliced country ham or Black Forest ham
Honey

Preparation

Cook sweet potato in medium saucepan of boiling salted water until tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain, cool, and mash.
Position rack in lower third of oven; preheat to 425°F. Butter bottom and sides of 9-inch cake pan with 1 1/2-inch-high sides.
Whisk flour and next 5 ingredients in large bowl. Add cubed butter to flour mixture; toss to coat and rub in with fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Whisk 3/4 cup mashed sweet potatoes and buttermilk in medium bowl. Add to flour mixture; toss with fork. Gather mixture in bowl, kneading until dough comes together. Turn dough out onto floured work surface and pat into 1-inch-thick round. Using 1 1/2-inch round biscuit cutter, cut out biscuits, flouring cutter after each cut. Gather scraps; pat into 1-inch-thick round. Cut out additional biscuits (do not reuse scraps more than once).
Arrange biscuits side by side in prepared cake pan. Brush with melted butter. Bake until puffed and golden on top and tester inserted into center biscuit comes out clean, about 22 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in pan. Turn biscuits out and gently pull them apart. Cut each biscuit in half crosswise.
Spread bottom half of each biscuit with mustard, then top each with sliced ham and second half of biscuit. Serve with honey.

Sweet Potato Biscuits
- makes 12 biscuits -Adapted from Screen Doors and Sweet Tea by Martha Hall Foose.

Ingredients

1 cup mashed baked sweet potato (about 2 medium)2/3 cup whole milk4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 2 tablespoons sugar1/2 teaspoon salt
Procedure
1. Preheat the oven to 450°F. Grease a baking sheet and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, mix the sweet potato, milk, and butter. Sift together the four, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Add to the potato mixture. Gently mix the dry ingredients into the sweet potato mixture to form a soft dough. Drop the dough by tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheet.
3. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until a deep golden orange tinged with brown. Serve warm or let cool on a wire rack.

Stumbling Sunday - Beet Chutney

I am not sure if this is "okay" in the internet world, but I have decided every Sunday to repost a post that I stumbled upon and share it with you. This post I found on one of my favorite blogs, The Bitten Word. I love the way they segway into the recipe by saying "If our Jellied Cranberry Sauce was a country club debutante, and our Nutty Cranberry Relish was the same girl with messy hair and artsy jewelry, then this Beet Chutney is that girl's wild and worldly best friend, the one who used to get drunk and dance on tables but now has shaved her head and joined an ashram." It so sounds like me, however, I didn't shave my head and join an ashram, I just got married and settled down and jumped in with feet first to raise a family, apron and all.

Check out their post at:

http://thebittenword.typepad.com/thebittenword/2009/11/thanksgiving-2009-beet-chutney.html#more

Recipe for Clyde's Chili

This time of the year one of my favorite things to eat is chili. Who doesn't like that perfect blend of beans, savory meat, and spices known as CHILI! Next week for Thanksgiving we are going to a chalet in Front Royal, VA and on Wednesday night, we are making two batches of chili. My mom is making red and I am making white. At this point in my life I have found my perfect recipe for red chili so I thought I would share it with you. It's easy to make and has less than 10 ingredients and doesn't have to be simmered and watched all day on the stove. They serve this chili at Clyde's. It is a sweet and slightly hot and has been a staple on Clyde's menu for thirty years. Liz Taylor would order it by the gallon and have it shipped to her house! The only thing to perfect this chili is an ice cold beer.

Recipe for Clyde's Chili

1 T vegetable oil
1 small diced onion
1 T minced fresh garlic
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1 15-ounce can chili beans
1 12-ounce jar chili sauce
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
2 T light chili powder*
1/4 cup dark chili powder
2 T Worcestershire sauce

Directions

1. In a heavy bottomed pot, saute the onion and garlic in the vegetable oil until golden brown.
2. Add the beef to the onions and cook until it is about medium-rare. Do not stir the beef around too much - you want to have some large clumps of beef in the finished chili.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir until it is just blended (it may seem like a lot of powder but that is why they call it chili).
4. Cook the chili over medium heat for about 10 minutes, just until the meat is fully cooked. Do not overcook it!

Tyler, Turkey and Sage

A couple of weeks ago we went to see Tyler Florence do a cooking demonstration and his theme was of course Thanksgiving. I had to pinch myself a few times because my idols are chefs and meeting Tyler was really cool. My all time meeting was with Morimoto in Boca and I would say this is close to meeting Morimoto. I have watched Tyler for years and remember him when he was the 911 chef. Getting back to Thanksgiving and Tyler, he made a Turkey that was covered in butter and sage and it smelled fantastic. I told my mom about and it and I hope she does the turkey this way this year. I am going to make a chicken this way and I'll post that later.

If you are looking for a Thanksgiving blog, go to:

http://www.bittenword.com/

This is one of my favorites and recently they posted a very informative Thanksgiving blog with everything you need for the upcoming holiday. It includes 172 recipes from 9 leading food magazines!! You can find the post here at:

http://thebittenword.typepad.com/thebittenword/2009/11/thanksgiving-guide-2009-what-the-food-magazines-are-recommending.html.

When I grow up, I want to be just like Tyler and them.

Recipe for Maroni's Spaghetti and Meatballs

I grew up on Italian food. My mother is 100% Italian, so through the years I have been blessed to learn how to cook by an Italian mother. When I was growing up, my Grandfather's wife would visit us and she did not speak much english, so we talked by using our hands. My favorite thing about her visit was she would make us fresh pasta. She would roll out the dough on the counter and then run sheets of the dough through the pasta machine, the crank kind. We would stand at the end of the counter with our arms out and she would crank the pasta and we would collect it and hang it on brooms in the garage. I remember the texture of the pasta and there is no dried pasta that compares to hers.

We don't have a recipe in our family for spaghetti sauce and meatballs. My mother always knows the right balance to create the best spaghetti and meatballs I have ever had. Because my mother is the master of making spaghetti and meatballs, I have never really perfected my own recipe because when I want them, I just call mom up and ask her to make it for us. After watching an episode of Bobby Flay Throwdown on meatballs, I decided it's time for me to adopt a recipe. I am going to try the winner's recipe which is a 100 year old recipe from his Grandmother. Since this recipe has lasted 100 years and he's built a fortune from it, don't you think that's a smart idea?

Recipe for Grandma Maroni's Spaghetti Sauce and Meatballs

Da' Sauce

6 ounces good olive oil, not extra-virgin
12 cloves garlic, finely sliced
1 large or 2 medium Spanish onions, finely diced
2 (28-ounce) cans imported crushed tomatoes
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon white or black pepper
1 large handful julienned fresh basil leaves

Directions

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add oil. Once heated add the finely sliced garlic and onions to the pan. Cook over medium heat until soft and slightly brown. Next add the canned crushed tomatoes, salt and pepper and stir. Allow the sauce to come to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the julienned basil.

Da' Meatballs

1 pound ground chuck
4 ounces dried bread crumbs
4 large eggs
4 ounces whole milk
6 ounces grated Romano
3 ounces grated Spanish onion
2 ounces finely diced fresh garlic
2 ounces finely chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
2 ounces finely chopped fresh basil leaves

Directions

Mix all ingredients thoroughly in large bowl. If mixture seems a little loose add more bread crumbs.

Roll meatballs loosely about the size of a golf ball and drop into hot spaghetti sauce and cook for 40 minutes on simmer.

Update: The meatballs were fantastic and the sauce was perfect. I highly recommend this recipe.

Sausage and Sweet Potato Soup

I have a busy day ahead of me, so I'm going to make this quick. I am dying to try this recipe and plan to make it this week. I am going to substitute smoked sausage for chorizo, but I am sure either will work just fine. Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup
Adapted from Bon Appetit

about 2 T. olive oil
about 9 oz. smoked sausage
1 medium white onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
salt and pepper to taste
1 or 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
2 large russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 32-oz. container of chicken stock
3 c. fresh spinach, cleaned and chopped into small pieces

Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Once it’s hot, add the chorizo to the pot, and use a wooden spoon to break it up into small pieces. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about five minutes, or until the sausage is mostly cooked through. Stir in the onions and cook until they’re soft and translucent, about five more minutes. Then add the garlic and cinnamon, and cook for about 30 seconds. Stir in the potatoes until they’re well coated in oil and cook for just a few minutes before adding the stock.

Stir well, bring the stock to a boil, and then lower the heat so the soup is simmering. Let it cook for at least 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Then stir in the spinach just until it’s wilted. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve.

Recipe for Enchiladas with Creamy Tomatillo Sauce

While we were away this weekend, Steven and I had dinner at Rosa Mexicano. It's by far the best mexican food I have ever had. I'm not usually big on Mexican food because I pay a price for it later, but this food is not overwhelming at all. These are my favorite enchiladas and this is the closest recipe I could find to their version of chicken enchiladas. It's topped with this wonderful tomatillo sauce.

Ingredients

3/4 pound fresh tomatillos--husked, rinsed and quartered
1/2 cup beer, such as a pale lager
2 medium canned chipotle chiles, stemmed and seeded
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for brushing
Salt
Four 6-inch corn tortillas
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (1 1/2 pounds)
Freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded (1 cup)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 200°. In a food processor, puree the tomatillos with the beer, chipotles, garlic, vinegar, sugar, oregano, 2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil and 1 teaspoon of salt.
Heat a medium skillet. Brush both sides of the tortillas with vegetable oil and cook over moderate heat, 1 at a time, turning once, until crisp, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a baking sheet and keep warm in the oven.
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and cook over moderately high heat, turning once, until golden brown on both sides and just cooked through, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
Melt the butter in the large skillet. Add the tomatillo sauce and heavy cream and cook over moderately high heat, stirring frequently, until the sauce thickens, about 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Lay a tortilla on each plate. Slice the chicken breasts and arrange on the tortillas. Sprinkle with the mozzarella, spoon the sauce on top and serve.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

Tomorrow I am hosting the weekly bible study at my house. I was going to make the yummy Harvest Loaf my mom makes, but when I read the recipe it says to let it cool for 6 hours. Since I'd like to have something to serve that comes right out of the oven, that isn't going to cut it. I decided on these Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins because there is nothing better than smelling pumpkin and cinnamon and fall spices coming from the oven. These are quick and easy to make.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Nut Muffins
Makes 12

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup pumpkin purée
1/3 cup melted butter
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup of chocolate chips

Method

1 Preheat oven to 350°F. In a medium sized bowl, sift together the flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda.
2 Mix the pumpkin, melted butter, eggs, 1/4 cup of water, and spices together, then combine with the dry ingredients, until just incorporated. Do not over-mix. Fold in the chopped nuts and chocolate chips.
3 Spoon mixture into a prepared muffin tin. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Check for doneness with a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin. If it comes out clean, it's done. Cool on a rack.

A Little Something Before the Pics are Ready

These are pictures of our dogs, Mrs. Beasley and Buster Brown. Mrs. Beasley is on top and she is a french bulldog with a lot of personality and spunk. The next picture is of our boston terrier, Buster Brown. He is more reserved and sophisticated. I am not sure what I said to him, but it's obvious he was very curious to hear what I had to say.

Recipe for Easy Roasted Potatoes

It's the last of the summer tomatoes that inspire this meal. We are down to the last of our precious tomatoes that grew so abundantly this year. Pictured is one my favorite meals of the summer. Steak, medium rare, roasted potatoes and tomato salad with mozzarella and fresh basil. Now it's time to put the garden to rest and bundle up for the cold months ahead.

I found a great way to heat the house and make the best potatoes ever. All you do is cut your potatoes to your preference and toss them with a packet of hidden valley ranch dressing and olive oil. Roast on 425 degrees for 30 minutes and serve. They are delicious and addicting. I used sweet potatoes last week and they were divine.

Steven and I are off to the Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show this weekend in DC. It's my belated birthday present to him. We bought tickets to see Tyler Florence and attend a book signing. I'm hoping to have lots of pictures and new recipes to share next week.

If you need some ideas on what to cook for Thanksgiving, check out this post from the guys at Bitten Word.

http://thebittenword.typepad.com/thebittenword/2009/11/thanksgiving-guide-2009-what-the-food-magazines-are-recommending.html#more

Have a great weekend!

Halloween 2009

Here are some of the pics from Halloween. I'm hoping Santa will bring me a nice camera so that I can be more diligent in really capturing the moment. I'm always too busy in the kitchen to take pics so I don't get the full effect. Anyway, here are just a few of the things we had this Halloween. There are only 360 day until next Halloween!! (special thanks to Aunt Cheri for sending us the beautiful cookies)

Happy Dad

Since I am still waiting for my Halloween pictures from my husband to post, I decided to do a random post. I hope to have the pictures by today or tomorrow and will post them once I get them. (hint hint)

My Dad was in the hospital again last week. This time around he had a bad infection and he had to have a catherization done. The blessing is that he is home again. However, I do find it a little odd that my father always looks happy when he's in the hospital. Wonder what's in his IV???? Uh, waiter, I'll have what he's having. In fact, make it a double.