Dinner in a pumpkin

aka - I lose my mind trying to carve a pumpkin.

Ryan's mom has this fun tradition of making dinner in a pumpkin on Halloween night.  So we have adopted the same little tradition.  The idea is super simple and pretty healthy.

This year at Belvedere Plantation, they had some super fancy pumpkins that are supposed to be amazing flavor wise.  So I got a medium sized pumpkin for our Halloween dinner.

These crazy little pumpkins are super thick - which I didn't know when I tried to quickly pop the top and fill it.  I ended up butchering the damned thing and cussing like a fighter pilot trying to break this thing open.

It is almost funny what things make you so mad you literally cuss - apparently for me it is carving pumpkins - good to know.

Dinner in a pumpkin recipe (more or less):
1 pound of ground beef
1 diced onion
2 T crushed garlic
2 T soy sauce
2 T brown sugar
1 can cream of something soup (or a white sauce - which I like better, but was in no mood today)
2 cups cooked rice
salt and pepper to taste

Brown the ground beef and onions, add garlic, soy, sugar, and cream.  Mix well and then add the rice.  Pack in a cleaned out pumpkin with a face drawn in sharpie.  Bake for about an hour at 350.  Or until the pumpkin flesh is soft.  Scoop some of the pumpkin flesh out with the rice mixture when serving.

Grilled cheese and tomato soup

The other day I made grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner.  This is a fairly common dinner for us, we have it every few weeks.  I always make the soup from scratch and it is super easy.  I just saute an onion in some olive oil until it is soft, add some garlic, lots of basil, salt, and a couple cans (or a quart of home canned) of diced tomatoes (I like the Costco brand organic ones, when I don't get around to canning my own).  I throw the whole batch into my blender, return it to the pan, bring it to a boil and add a bit of cream at the end to round out the tangy deliciousness.

I love all things southwestern so one day when we were out of bread, I decided to make a southwestern twist on our usual grilled cheese and tomato basil soup.  So we had quesadillos and southwestern tomato soup, topped with avocado and a dollop of chipotle adobo sauce (I buy cans of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce and then I puree them in the blender in the sauce and store it in the fridge, it is our favorite spicy southwestern sauce).

To make my Southwestern version of the creamy tomato soup:
1 medium onion - diced and sauteed until clear or even a bit browned in a bit of olive oil or butter
1 big spoonful of diced garlic
~2 cups of salsa (I used my homemade salsa made with fire-roasted tomatoes and loads of cilantro)
2 small cans or 1 quart of diced tomatoes
pinch of oregano
cumin to taste
sea salt to taste
some cream

I blend all of that except the cream in my blender then put it back on stove to warm up.  I add the cream right before I serve it.  It is awesome the second day.

I love it with the chipotle adobo sauce and avocado slices. Audrey had hers with avocado and fresh cilantro. This is one of the best foods I have ever made and ever consumed.  I enjoyed and savored every single bite.  The creaminess of the avocado in each bite of the spicy warm tomato soup with the cilantro and cumin in there.  So so good.

Something fishy

Yesterday Meri and I went to Costco to grab a few things and saw that they had wild caught Atlantic cod at a good price. I was hoping to find decent fish to eat at some point this week, so that seemed like a good idea.

I consulted "the Google" to find a recipe, since I have never cooked Cod.  I found a recipe for Poached Cod with Cabbage and Peas. That sounded interesting and I happened to have 1/2 a head of cabbage sitting in the fridge with no particular recipe in mind.  While the cabbage and peas were sauteing, I grabbed the package of cod and found...  a worm trying to wiggle its way out of the package.

I am not super squeamish, I worked at a salmon cannery in Alaska one summer for heaven's sake, but I am also not one for feeding my family parasites.  So once again, I consulted "the Google" and learned that the worm in the flesh just meant that it was "fresh" and was not to be worried about in the same way as a hookworm or other intestine bound worm.  I have picked tapeworms out of salmon roe (just part of roe processing), so I know what they look like.  This cod worm was not that type of worm.  So, after a good Google search, I just picked the worm out of the fish, inspected the fish well for any other interesting things, washed it, and cooked it.

The dinner was delicious!  Because of the worm, I probably over poached the fish, it was falling apart when I took it out of the liquid.  Luckily cod is a nice firm fish and the extra cooking just meant a little more time to absorb the yummy poaching liquid.  The recipe called for adding chicken broth and lemon juice to the saute pan (after you remove the cabbage and peas).  I squeezed 1/2 of a fresh lemon into a bit of chicken broth and added a bit of white wine too (a late harvest Riesling).  I served it with a bit of fresh lemon, that was nice to squeeze onto the fish and a bit of the same white wine for the adults.

Poached Cod over sauteed cabbage and peas

Cooking skills

I am fortunate. My mom taught me how to cook. It was just something she included me in for as long as I can remember. It is one of those life skills that has served me well. While I am preparing food or reading through recipes I remember instances of making those foods together or watching her cook them. (thanks mom).

There have been others who taught me a lot too. Mary taught me how to make quiche. She used to make it in France all the time. Recently Margaret gave me a jar of herbs de Provence and I remembered Mary telling me how she used it in quiche all the time.

Quiche with herbs de Provence is now one of my go to meals when I have leftover bits of meats cheeses and veggies. (tonight we are having sausage and spinach quiche)

Even with all the wonderful culinary teachers in my life I am always learning and trying new things. Tonight I made the pie crust which I don't usually do. Lately I've been baking our bread and that has been fun to learn about yeast. I have also been brewing my own kombucha. Which is quite good and easy once you get it going. And that is my personal conclusion for most homemade foods. While they may seem intimidating at first, soon they are quite easy. And they taste amazing.

Kitchen Antics

Recently, we have been eating out less and less. I love it. We eat better and healthier. Also, I have been shopping more at Wegmans because I can get a whole bunch of different veggies. The result is, our grocery bill is fairly high, but we have been eating so well.

Right now we have soup in the crockpot - white bean, sausage and kale.

Also, I am trying my hand at homemade ginger ale. It takes about 2 weeks before it is ready. Hopefully in time for New Year's Day.

Homemade

There is something so lovely about homemade things - big and small. Recently I have been doing more homemade food basics.

I made jam - 2 different types of strawberry - one with boil pectin and one with no-boil pectin. They both turned out fabulously. I dried bell peppers, we got more than we could eat from our CSA share. Then I dried some red peppers and jalopenos too (also from CSA). Last week I made pumpkin muffins and froze them to take to work.

Tomorrow I am planning on canning tomatoes (for the first time ever). And starting some vanilla extract (also a first).

I am genuinely surprised by how easy food prep actually is. Plus so far, the pay off is well worth the effort.

I have also been surprised by how little food is necessary to actually bother with preserving. The peppers are a perfect example. I only had 6 bell peppers, but I knew that was more than we would eat before they would go bad, so I washed and cut them and put them on a cookie sheet in the oven with the light on to warm it up a little. One week later, I have a jar (very small) of dried bell peppers perfect for soups, etc.

Rice Cooker - the end of a unitasker

Ryan made a delicious meal, some sort of beer gravy garlic chicken over rice.  The only problem was that we went to eat, the rice cooker never actually turned on.  

So in a hasty moment, we used a regular pan, lid and stove.  And guess what - the rice was fantastic, sticky rice.  So good-bye unitasker rice cooker.  Hello pan.  Alton Brown would be proud.

RV show

Yesterday Audrey and I drove down to the Fredricksburg RV show. It was awesome!

In addition to my favorite, airstreams, they had all kinds of RVs to meet every taste and budget. Audrey was an awesome show buddy. She was excited to explore every single RV. She was polite and said excuse me more often than not when she got in someone's way and she did exactly what I asked the first time, without fussing. It was a good day.

But even better than just being a well behaved child, she was a good friend. For example, when we saw some of the really large RVs with washer/dryer sets in them, I exclaimed, wow, look at that, a washer/dryer inside the RV. And Audrey responded, wow that is really neat mama. Seriously, she was like this the whole time. She got excited for bunk beds in the family friendly rooms and hopped onto all the couches and said things like, oh mama, this couch is really comfy, i like this one. or oh my gosh mama, a tent bed!

This was our first day on the pantry challenge (to spend $60 or less for food this month) and this is a typical place that I would end up buying crappy food at the concession area, but just ending up feeling hungry for something better and so stopping at a restaurant before heading home. Thereby spending not once, but twice for more or less the same meal.

This time however, I came prepared. Before we left, we had scrambled eggs as our mid-morning snack and I made pb&js for the show and cut up an apple and we both grabbed our water bottles. About an hour or so into the show, Audrey says she is hungry, so we go out to our car and sit in the backseat of the van, Milanya, bundled in blankets and eating our sandwhiches. It was actually a lot of fun and it reminded me of doing this exact same thing, but in our family van - Frufru - a white 68 volkswagon camper. Good times.

Using our pantry

My friend Mary just finished a month of *no* spending. Pretty impressive.

So Ryan and I are going to try our version this month. We are not cutting out all spending, because to be honest, we don't really spend much on superfluous stuff anyway. Instead we are going to try to limit our food expenditures for the entire month to $60! That will basically cover: milk, eggs and a loaf of bread or two.

We haven't done any real preparation for the month, because the point for us is mainly to use up some of the food we have stockpiled away in our pantry and freezer. I will be shocked if we are able to get through it all in one months time.

Also, lest anyone be worried that we will not be eating healthy, our CSA share starts next week and we will be getting 2 boxes of farm fresh in season produce during the course of the month. We may become vegetarians in an attempt to eat it all, but at least we will be healthy.

CSA

Last year, I missed the boat on the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) bandwagon and I was so disappointed. Luckily this year, I was able to sign up!

We are signed up with Olin-Fox Farms, which is actually a group of 10 local Virginia farms. Because they offered a payment plan, we were able to sign up for Spring, Summer, Fall and fruit deliveries. The deliveries will be every other week to a nearby place. I am planning on just picking it up on my way home from work every other Thursday. And it starts in March!!

I was hoping to do a garden this year, but until we get a fence up, we can't garden (HOA rules) and sadly, we aren't about to put a fence up. This way we get to enjoy a huge variety of locally grown food, without the work. Yay!!

If anyone else is interested, I highly recommend checking out localharvest.org.

Back to yogurt

This morning, I finally decided to take the time to make some yogurt again. It has been a while (a long while) since I last made yogurt, but I really love it, and it really doesn't take long at all. In fact, when I finished I wondered why I have not done it for so long.

Here is my method: I take ~4 cups of milk and boil them (when I am more vigilant, I try not to quite let it boil, but almost). Then I let the milk cool to 115 degree (F). At which point I pour it through a strainer into a pyrex pitcher. You don't have to strain it if you watch the milk and don't let it curdle, but I rarely watch it that closely. Then I mix in ~1/2 c. of powdered milk. I take about 1/2 c. of the strained mixture into another bowl that I whisk with the starter (this time I used a powdered starter, but most of the time I use 2-4 T of plain yogurt that I let come to room temperature). After the starter is completely dissolved, I add it back to the main mixture and stir some more. Then I pour it into little glass jars in my yogurt maker, put the lid on and wait 6 hours.

When I make it often, I already know the correct spot on my pan that is one quart and I use frozen plain yogurt starter, which is so easy, because my ice cube tray is exactly 1 T, so I just pop a couple of cubes into a bowl to thaw when I start boiling the milk. When I make it often, I also make flavored batches by adding a couple of spoonfuls of fruit and/or powdered sugar and/or brown sugar and/or maple syrup. But today, it is just plain, because that is how I like it best.

They are back!!

Yesterday Liz called me on her way into the office to see if I wanted anything from Starbux. I told her I would meet her there and off I went, thinking maybe it was an iced coffee day - but as soon as I got there and saw the sign indicating that the delicious Pumpkin Spice Latte had returned, I knew that was the drink for me. I forgot how good those drinks are. They are a little on the sweet side, so I only let myself have a drink or four a season, but each time I savor every drop. Delicious. I think I might try to do my own pumpkin spice latte at home this morning - and I am definitely adding a little cardamom and some fresh ground nutmeg. Yum, I am making my own mouth water at the very thought.

Holiday cookie swap

I love cookies! There is nothing better than a soft gooey warm out of the oven KA cookie with a tall glass of cold milk. So I am trying to organize a cookie swap with my coworkers. I am trying to decide what type of cookie I am going to make. So far my thoughts are: KA chocolate chip cookies (kick-ass is the name William's coworkers gave these delicious favorites), molasses spice crinkles, snickerdoodles, lime meltaways, sugar cookies or russian tea cakes. If you leave a comment, please include your favorite cookies.

And here is the famous Kick-Ass Cookie recipe:

2 c. butter
2 c. b. sugar
2 c. sugar
4 eggs
2 t. vanilla

4 c. flour
1 t. salt
2 1/2 t. powder
2 t. soda

5 c. oats
24 oz choco chips
handful of cocont (about 1 cup or so)
sometimes nuts

cream the top group. mix the middle group - then add to the butter mixture. add the oats and coconut. then the chocolate chips and nuts (if desired).

bake at 375 for 6-8 minutes on an ungreased cookie sheet.

the thing about these cookies is the coconut makes them amazingly moist, but they don't keep well unless you freeze them (frozen they last a very long time). a full batch makes so many cookies you could almost eat your body weight in cookies (okay maybe that's just me). also, use the real stuff (butter, vanilla, chocolate, etc) if you want amazing cookies!

Added on 11/27/2007: this link is awesome - it has hundreds of cookies at your fingertips.

Menu Planning Saturday

I know all the good blogging moms of the world do menu plan monday - but that just doesn't give me time to shop. So I am posting my menu today.

Saturday - Salmon with ginger/soy sauce, risotto and salad
Sunday - dinner with in laws
Monday - zesty crock pot chicken, rice, veggies (we'll see what looks good at the store)
Tuesday - Turkey meat loaf, mashed potatoes, veggies (see monday)
Wednesday - Chicken enchiladas w/ corn
Thursday - Spagetti, garlic bread, salad
Friday - Grilled cheese sandwhiches with roasted red pepper and tomato soup
Saturday - Misty's wedding - free dinner with gift :)

Kudos to Wendi for the menu posting ideas and for the monday recipe.

DC Exchange Q4

Are there any recipes you especially enjoy having in the Fall? Any foods that are seasonal that you especially enjoy?

I love Pumpkins and squash. So this time of year is great for making all kinds of good squash foods. I love the roasted butternut squash soups and the pumpkin pies. And we can't forget the pumpkin spice lattes - yum. Though I must admit mine is much better than Starbucks (unless you like really sweet drinks - then go for theirs).

I also really love the apples. One year an old boss of mine bet me bushels of apples over various patent law questions. It worked out really well for me. I won 5 bushels of hand picked apples from up-state NY. They were the best I have ever had in my life. It was a real challenge to eat them all before they went bad and we had almost nothing else in our fridge for about a month. But they were so yummy!

Anyone else have favorite fall foods?

Housekeeping

Today Ryan and I made a list of all the things that we wanted done in our house - cleaning, organizing, etc. Then I took the things that I felt ownership of (such as cleaning out the fridge, planning the menu, and making a grocery list) and started on those things while Ryan started on the rest of the list. We have done so many things it is fantastic and best of all I have our menu planned for a week +, which for some reason is really the key to me feeling peaceful and happy as a homemaker/mom/wife.

Along the idea of menus/meal tricks for working moms - I know the assembly dinners for the freezer are a big thing out here. I haven't ever been to one and am reluctant to try one (cost/quality issues). The Dinner Diva had an idea that I like (though I probably will use my own recipes). She offers 5 for the freezer menus based on a certain type of meat - like chicken or ground beef. I like this idea because then you can take advantage of loss-leader sales and buy in bulk with a manageable plan. So next time I see a great deal I am going to try it.

My latest food idea is to try to implement a soup night. Soups are generally really healthy, full of veggies and beans and grains, delicious (homemade of course), frugal (you can use lots of leftovers and smaller bits of meat and still have the full wonderful flavors) and best of all they freeze well. So my plan is to make soup once a week as dinner and freeze the leftovers (in portion sized containers) to take in my lunches to work. I figure since I will be doing 10 hour days and I like to eat lots of smaller meals I will need to pack much more than a typical sandwich and fruit if I am going to be a happy camper. I think soup will bridge that gap beautifully.

So tonight we are having a tomato lentil soup. Any fellow soup lovers out there?

Latte my way

It is a well established fact that I make the best coffee around. And with the contest going on, I have had to come up with a new lower calorie way to make it just as delicious. My solution has been to make it iced - still using whole milk, raw sugar and a double shot of coffee. Here it is right before I put the ice in and mix it up. I love how beautiful the colors are and the way they blend.

Banana Muffins

Audrey used to love bananas and eat at least one a day. But now the novelty of eating what she has peeled herself has worn off and we have too many bananas. So the other day I decided to make banana muffins. I decided to try a new recipe from my Cooking Light cookbook. They were the best banana muffins I have ever had. The difference was wheat germ - it gives them a fabulous flavor and texture.

The Coffee Solution

Since leaving the church, I have rediscovered (I had a two-week rebellion in France as a 13 year old where I had cafe au lait, which was included with our dinner, almost every night) the joy of a good cup o joe in the morning. William says, and I humbly agree, that I make the best cup of coffee she has ever had. In fact, she always tries to talk me into opening my own coffee shop.

William also told me about my mom giving her a taste of her coffee when she was young and how much she didn't like it. So when Audrey asked for some of my drink, which she does with everything I consume, I thought I could give her a spoonful and she would hate it and never ask for it again. Well that backfired - lil' Miss Audrey loved it and kept signing for more.

Obviously, she is far too little to drink coffee, so I have come up with a clever solution. I heat up some milk for her and stir in a spoonful of molasses. That makes it very close to the same color as my latte and Audrey is very happy with flavored milk.

Chili

I think chili is a great way to use leftovers so that they are actually delicious. Yesterday I made what was perhaps my finest chili ever, and used up all kinds of leftovers in the process. Here are the leftovers (from the freezer) that I used:
-corn
-ground turkey
-ground beef
-marbled steak
-tomato paste
-tomato sauce