If you hadn't noticed from my postings - I have a slight fascination with the Pioneer Woman. I discovered her blog a couple years ago and my life hasn't been the same sense. Reading her blog convinces me that I too want to marry a cattle rancher - that is until I talk to my mom and she points out that 1) I'm allergic to most animals with fur - including cows and horses 2) I don't do well with intense smells - like manure and 3) it's a lot of work and a lot of laundry. I usually sigh an "Oh, that's right" and I go on with my day.
Anyways - right now Pioneer Woman is entering a really wonderful time of the year. She's posting recipes good for the holidays. My eyes are always bigger than my stomach when reading during this time - and it's hard to not go out and buy every ingredient for every recipe she posts right away. Thankfully, Molly called and told me that spaghetti squash leftover from her CSA, which was the star ingredient in PW's Spaghetti Squash with Maple Syrup and Shallots.
This dish was wicked easy to make. I don't think that I have worked with spaghetti squash before, but I have to say that it was a lot of fun scraping the insides so that they turned into "spaghetti". This ends up being a sweet but savory side dish, but honestly I could eat it for breakfast on its own. It was perfect compliment to a rotisserie chicken and steamed broccoli (which we seasoned lightly with some butter and Maple Pepper*).
As we were finishing our preparations of the dish, I looked at my sister and said, "I betcha that this would be awesome with bacon bits in it". Her response, "I was thinking the same thing". So below I have the directions to make the recipe + Bacon. I still encourage you to to the Pioneer Woman's website and check out the original recipe though.
PW's Spaghetti Squash with Maple Syrup and Shallots + Bacon
Ingredients:
1 Spaghetti Squash
3-4 pieces of bacon
1 Tbsp Butter
2 Shallots - minced
1/4 cup REAL maple syrup
dash table salt
dash of nutmeg
Directions: Heat oven to 375 degrees. Stab the spaghetti squash with a fork a few times, place it on a cookie sheet, and then put that in the oven. Bake for about 1 hour. While baking the squash, mince the shallots. Once shallots are mixed, take out a frying pan and fry up the bacon on the stove. When bacon is cooked and to your favorite level of crispiness (some people like bacon crispier than other people), turn off the heat under the pan with the bacon. Remove bacon from pan and then cut it up into bacon bits. Put bacon bits to the side. Keep the bacon grease in the pan for the moment.
After the squash has been baking for an hour, check to see if it is soft by squeezing it (you should be using an oven mitt when doing this). If the squash gives into to your gentle squeezes, it's ready. Pull the squash out of the oven. Cut it in half and then pull out center part with the seeds (like a pumpkin). Once all seeds are removed, take a fork and scrape it across the insides. The squash will come away in strings like spaghetti (hence the name, go to Pioneer Woman's website to see great pictures of this process). Scrape all the squash insides into a medium size bowl.
Next, turn on med high the burner under the pan with the bacon grease. Add in a Tbsp of butter. Once butter melts, add in shallots. Cook while stirring until shallots are soft. Reduce the heat. Add in maple syrup and the bacon bits. Once they are mixed well, throw in the pinch of salt and the pinch of nutmeg (it's ok if you think John Legend and the Stephen Colbert Christmas special when you do this). Mix well. Turn off heat and then pour the contents of the pan over the spaghetti squash in the bowl. Mix until maple sauce has fully combined with the squash. Serve.
I have a feeling that this recipe will become a winter favorite of mine. It has potential to become a total comfort food dish.
* Maple Pepper is something my mom bought for my sister up in Maine this summer. It's basically ground pepper combined with crystalized maple sugar and it is GOOD STUFF. My sister puts it on almost everything. The link above will take you directly to its distributors website where you can buy it. I will probably buy some for myself.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Dessert First!
Tonight's Sister Sunday Supper featured both a fabulous spaghetti squash side dish and an Apple Tarte Tatin. I'm guessing I'm going to post my picture before my sister posts her squash recipe, so lucky for you, we're getting dessert first!
I still have about a dozen apples from my last few CSA pickups, so I decided that we should use some up by trying a recipe from the CSA weekly newsletter. Most of thier newsletter recipes are also on the Norman's Farm Market website, but this recipe they got from Famous French Desserts. I'm paraphrasing the recipe here, based on what my sister and I really did, but if you want, you can follow the link above to the original recipe.
Apple Tarte Tatin
Ingredients:
~ 3 apples, peeled and sliced into 6ths
dash of lemon juice
2/3 c. granulated sugar
3 tbsp. water
3 oz. butter (~6 tbsp) + ~1 tbsp butter, at room temperature
pre-made pie crust, stored in the refrigerator
- Preheat oven to 400 F.
- Add lemon juice to apples to keep from browning.
- Put sugar and water in a small saucepan to carmelize. How to carmelize: melt sugar into water at a very low heat. Tilt and swirl the saucepan to gently mix the dissolving sugar. Once the syrup has turned a light honey color, it's carmelized.
- Add the 3 oz. of butter to the syrup and melt. Use the remaining tbsp of butter to coat the baking dish (a round cake pan or pie dish works well).
- Pour the syrup into the buttered pie dish.
- Quickly arrange the apples on top of the syrup, and then put dish in the oven for 40-45 minutes.
- Take dish out of the oven and cool for a few minutes. Once cooled, place the pie-crust on top, tucking the edges into the dish. Put back in the oven for ~30 minutes.
- When crust is brown, remove from the oven, and let cool a few minutes. Place a serving dish on top and carefully flip so that the apples are facing up.
- Serve warm with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, etc.
Friday, November 12, 2010
A Fast Trip to the Greek Isles
A couple of weeks ago, Molly P. (or Mo as I call her) had us make a Greek Tomato, Spinach, Shirmp dish that you serve on top of rice. It was insanely delicious. We also made Bakerella's Easy Apple Cake because Mo had a plethora of apples. We ate really well that night.
I really couldn't get enough of the Greek dish, so naturally the next day I went to the grocery store and bought all the ingredients to make it. Of course, that week ended up so busy I didn't get to making it until this week.
When we made it at Mo's - we had a cookbook in front of us. I didn't have that when I made up my dish this week, and I couldn't call Mo because she was at orchestra. But I remembered the basic ingredients - Spinach, Tomatoes, Red Onion, Olive Oil, Shrimp, Lemon Juice, Oregano, Salt and Pepper, and Feta Cheese. You also had to make the rice separately which you then plated and then scooped the Greek dish over. When we made it at Mo's - there ended up being a lot of moisture in the dish due to all the fresh vegetables. Not that having a little soup at the bottom of the dish is a bad thing - if you have a fresh loaf of French bread with which to sop it up it's all good. But I have no french bread in my house right now, so I decided that instead of making this dish so you can dish it up ontop of some kind of grain - I would combine it with said grain. Taa daa - Casserole. While I originally envisioned using penne pasta, I didn't have penne pasta when I decided to make it. But I did have orzo. Orzo works great because 1) it is traditionally thought of as being a greek pasta 2) It kinda looks like rice but is loads easier to make.
Needless to say - the dish ended up fantastic. So without further ado:
Emily's Greek Inspired Casserole
Ingredients (I have a tendency to cook by feeling so measurements are approximates):
1 small red onion, minced
~2 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 or 3 medium tomatos (any type of tomato will do), chopped
~1 bag spinach
1 lb. shrimp
~1-2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
~1-2 Tbsp Oregano
Dash Salt and Pepper
~2 cup uncooked Orzo
Directions:
Thaw Shrimp. If using Frozen shrimp - rinse shrimp under cold water for about 5 minutes. Remove shells if necessary, then chop each shrimp in half. Put aside.
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Heat a big pot of water on top of stove so it boils. While waiting for boil, cut up your onion and tomato. If you are using farmstand spinach - take off the stems (because they are generally big and fiberous) and rinse leaves. If you are using bag spinach from the grocery store, just rinse off the spinach (the stems are very tiny and soft).
Heat up olive oil in a large skillet. When the water is boiling, pour in orzo and cook for about 5-6 minutes. Be sure to set a time because you want to just begin the orzo cooking, but not finish it. Meanwhile add onions to pan with oil. Cook for 2 minutes, until onions begin to soften. Then add tomatoes. Cook for another minute. Mixture will get kind of soupy. Then add Spinach. Cook until spinach is wilted. Finally, add in lemon juice, oregano, salt and pepper. Mix thouroughly.
As soon as the timer for the orzo goes off, remove orzo from heat and rinse. Transfer orzo to a large casserole dish. If you need to - finish cooking the spinach, tomato, onion mixture. It'll be really soupy, but that is ok. Pour all the mixture in with the orzo. Mix well. Then add in shrimp and mix well again. Add in half (~8 oz.) of the feta cheese and mix.
Top dish with remaining feta cheese. Place dish in oven and cook for another 20-25 minutes. Then serve.
I really couldn't get enough of the Greek dish, so naturally the next day I went to the grocery store and bought all the ingredients to make it. Of course, that week ended up so busy I didn't get to making it until this week.
When we made it at Mo's - we had a cookbook in front of us. I didn't have that when I made up my dish this week, and I couldn't call Mo because she was at orchestra. But I remembered the basic ingredients - Spinach, Tomatoes, Red Onion, Olive Oil, Shrimp, Lemon Juice, Oregano, Salt and Pepper, and Feta Cheese. You also had to make the rice separately which you then plated and then scooped the Greek dish over. When we made it at Mo's - there ended up being a lot of moisture in the dish due to all the fresh vegetables. Not that having a little soup at the bottom of the dish is a bad thing - if you have a fresh loaf of French bread with which to sop it up it's all good. But I have no french bread in my house right now, so I decided that instead of making this dish so you can dish it up ontop of some kind of grain - I would combine it with said grain. Taa daa - Casserole. While I originally envisioned using penne pasta, I didn't have penne pasta when I decided to make it. But I did have orzo. Orzo works great because 1) it is traditionally thought of as being a greek pasta 2) It kinda looks like rice but is loads easier to make.
Needless to say - the dish ended up fantastic. So without further ado:
Emily's Greek Inspired Casserole
Ingredients (I have a tendency to cook by feeling so measurements are approximates):
1 small red onion, minced
~2 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 or 3 medium tomatos (any type of tomato will do), chopped
~1 bag spinach
1 lb. shrimp
~1-2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
~1-2 Tbsp Oregano
Dash Salt and Pepper
~2 cup uncooked Orzo
Directions:
Thaw Shrimp. If using Frozen shrimp - rinse shrimp under cold water for about 5 minutes. Remove shells if necessary, then chop each shrimp in half. Put aside.
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Heat a big pot of water on top of stove so it boils. While waiting for boil, cut up your onion and tomato. If you are using farmstand spinach - take off the stems (because they are generally big and fiberous) and rinse leaves. If you are using bag spinach from the grocery store, just rinse off the spinach (the stems are very tiny and soft).
Heat up olive oil in a large skillet. When the water is boiling, pour in orzo and cook for about 5-6 minutes. Be sure to set a time because you want to just begin the orzo cooking, but not finish it. Meanwhile add onions to pan with oil. Cook for 2 minutes, until onions begin to soften. Then add tomatoes. Cook for another minute. Mixture will get kind of soupy. Then add Spinach. Cook until spinach is wilted. Finally, add in lemon juice, oregano, salt and pepper. Mix thouroughly.
As soon as the timer for the orzo goes off, remove orzo from heat and rinse. Transfer orzo to a large casserole dish. If you need to - finish cooking the spinach, tomato, onion mixture. It'll be really soupy, but that is ok. Pour all the mixture in with the orzo. Mix well. Then add in shrimp and mix well again. Add in half (~8 oz.) of the feta cheese and mix.
Top dish with remaining feta cheese. Place dish in oven and cook for another 20-25 minutes. Then serve.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
An Introduction to Molly P.
Emtifah here. In case y'all didn't notice at the bottom of the last post, the writer was Molly P. "Who is Molly P.?" you ask. Well, Molly P. is my brillant sister.
When Molly moved up to my area a couple years ago, she signed on for a crop share from a local farm. Since then, she's been experimenting with all kinds of new fruits and vegetables. She has really taken to the kitchen and it's been really fun to watch.
So remember to check the bottom of the post to see who is writing what.
Who knows, maybe we'll try get our mom involved.
When Molly moved up to my area a couple years ago, she signed on for a crop share from a local farm. Since then, she's been experimenting with all kinds of new fruits and vegetables. She has really taken to the kitchen and it's been really fun to watch.
So remember to check the bottom of the post to see who is writing what.
Who knows, maybe we'll try get our mom involved.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Hello and Goodbye!
Sadly, my first post on Vixens in the Kitchen is to announce the end of my CSA's 2010 season. Goodbye my fresh veggies, alas! It's been an interesting season and surprisingly the picks this year have been considerably different than the picks last year at this time. I didn't see any heirloom cauliflowers this year, but there were more types of squash and the tubers and apples certainly didn't disappoint (note to self: it's time to use the carnival squash!)
The happy news is that my last pick-up tonight included a veggie that I've been waiting all season for- the stalk o' Brussels sprouts! While traditionally the sprouts have a dubious reputation, I think when you get them still on the stalks they look like jingle bells, and who can really hate green jingle bells?
Therefore, for this week's Sister Sunday Supper, I think there needs to be an "Iron Chef: Brassica oleraceae" theme. We need to do something with half a head of cauliflower, a head of broccolli, and / or a stalk of sprouts. :) Any recommendations? (Bonus points if you can work a Daikon radish in there too!)
Oh, and just in case you're wondering what I did with the other half a head of cauliflower, here's a recipe I made up, that made a good dinner and follow-up left over lunch for 1 person:
Fall Sausage and Veggies:
2 small sweet potatoes, scrubbed and chopped into ~ 1 inch cubes
Florettes from 1/2 a head of cauliflower
2 tbsp vegetable oil
~1 tsp Maple pepper (a spice mix my mom picked up in Maine this summer, it includes black pepper, sea salt, and maple syrup sugar crystals)
1 package of apple chicken sausage
Set the oven to 350 F. Mix the sweet potatoes, cauliflower, oil, and spices in a bowl. Once you have the vegetables coated, spread them out on a cookie sheet in a single layer. Bake the veggies for about 12 minutes.
At the 12 minute mark, turn the veggies, then put them back in the oven. At this point, start browning the sausage in a frying pan on the stovetop (a low setting is best so that you don't burn the sausage). When the sausages look done (i.e. the skins are about to split), take them out and cut them into bite size chunks (depending on your sausage type, either quarters or thirds work). Check the veggies- the sweet potatoes should be soft enough that you can poke them easily with a fork. When the veggies are done, mix them with the sausage and serve.
The happy news is that my last pick-up tonight included a veggie that I've been waiting all season for- the stalk o' Brussels sprouts! While traditionally the sprouts have a dubious reputation, I think when you get them still on the stalks they look like jingle bells, and who can really hate green jingle bells?
Therefore, for this week's Sister Sunday Supper, I think there needs to be an "Iron Chef: Brassica oleraceae" theme. We need to do something with half a head of cauliflower, a head of broccolli, and / or a stalk of sprouts. :) Any recommendations? (Bonus points if you can work a Daikon radish in there too!)
Oh, and just in case you're wondering what I did with the other half a head of cauliflower, here's a recipe I made up, that made a good dinner and follow-up left over lunch for 1 person:
Fall Sausage and Veggies:
2 small sweet potatoes, scrubbed and chopped into ~ 1 inch cubes
Florettes from 1/2 a head of cauliflower
2 tbsp vegetable oil
~1 tsp Maple pepper (a spice mix my mom picked up in Maine this summer, it includes black pepper, sea salt, and maple syrup sugar crystals)
1 package of apple chicken sausage
Set the oven to 350 F. Mix the sweet potatoes, cauliflower, oil, and spices in a bowl. Once you have the vegetables coated, spread them out on a cookie sheet in a single layer. Bake the veggies for about 12 minutes.
At the 12 minute mark, turn the veggies, then put them back in the oven. At this point, start browning the sausage in a frying pan on the stovetop (a low setting is best so that you don't burn the sausage). When the sausages look done (i.e. the skins are about to split), take them out and cut them into bite size chunks (depending on your sausage type, either quarters or thirds work). Check the veggies- the sweet potatoes should be soft enough that you can poke them easily with a fork. When the veggies are done, mix them with the sausage and serve.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Sister Sunday Supper - Halloween 2010
Sister Sunday Supper landed on Halloween this week. We didn't want to switch to Saturday (because I was going to the Rally to Restore Sanity) - so I skipped Halloween festivities and just went to my sisters.
My sister has been getting tons of apples in her crop share (it is apple season), so we've been doing a lot of baking with apples. Before I headed out to her place - she called and asked if I could bring my rolling pin. When I asked why - she told me that we were making apple cobbler with buttermilk biscuits and we needed the roller to roll out the biscuits.
My sister got the recipe for the cobbler from Fresh Everyday: More Recipes From Foster's Market by Sara Foster. Foster's Market is this great little Southern gourmet market/cafe that is a staple in Durham, NC. Sara Foster has two cookbooks based off of recipes of Foster's Market and both my mom and sister have them. We have not found a bad recipe yet - and on top of that - most of the recipes have been super simple.
Anyways - so we both started out working on the cobbler. I peeled the apples (a task I didn't want to do at first - but got into once I started challenging myself to try to peel them in one strip) while she chopped. After that - you melt half a stick of butter in a pan and melt it. When its melted (but not browned), you add in apples, lemon zest, lemon juice, apple cider (my sister actually used pear cider because it's what she has - she buys it from her crop share people and its super delicious and refreshing), sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Once everything is mixed and apples are tender - you mix up the biscuit dough.
I must not have been feeling well - because I just skimmed the biscuit recipe and didn't really pay attention to the note that said it called for 1 cup of self-rising flour OR 1 cup regular flour plus 1 TBsp of baking powder. I just read it as flour. It wasn't until the timer went off and we checked the cobbler's status in the oven that my sister realized that the biscuits were very flat and not normal. My sister and I joked that my flat biscuits showed that I went to college up north because any true Southerner (she counts herself as one) would know how to make a biscuit right. Dispite it's flatness, the biscuit tasted pretty good - or as I said, "This tastes like apple upside down pie".
For the actual main meal - we decided to take the easy way out and made hamburger casserole. Hamburger casserole is a staple of the Midwest table. My sister told me a story that last year she brought hamburger casserole to a party and all the people from Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, etc. commented that it tasted like home - whereas the people from the West Coast and the South kept wondering how my sister thought of this deconstructed lasagna and where do she find the recipe.
Here is how you make hamburger casserole - cook up a big pot of pasta (penne, bowties, shells, macaroni shapped), brown about pound of hamburger, after meat is brown - you can add some onions and/or mushrooms to brown. When they are ready, drain pasta and pour into casserole dish. Pour meat mixture on top of that. Pour over that 1 jar of ready made spaghetti sauce and 2 cups cheese. Mix it all together. Then sprinkle another 2 cups of cheese. Pop in oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Then serve. Totally easy peasy.
We added a green salad to the casserole and that was dinner. Thinking back, it's actually something that my mom would have made on Halloween night when we were young so that we could eat quick and then go trick or treating.
My sister has been getting tons of apples in her crop share (it is apple season), so we've been doing a lot of baking with apples. Before I headed out to her place - she called and asked if I could bring my rolling pin. When I asked why - she told me that we were making apple cobbler with buttermilk biscuits and we needed the roller to roll out the biscuits.
My sister got the recipe for the cobbler from Fresh Everyday: More Recipes From Foster's Market by Sara Foster. Foster's Market is this great little Southern gourmet market/cafe that is a staple in Durham, NC. Sara Foster has two cookbooks based off of recipes of Foster's Market and both my mom and sister have them. We have not found a bad recipe yet - and on top of that - most of the recipes have been super simple.
Anyways - so we both started out working on the cobbler. I peeled the apples (a task I didn't want to do at first - but got into once I started challenging myself to try to peel them in one strip) while she chopped. After that - you melt half a stick of butter in a pan and melt it. When its melted (but not browned), you add in apples, lemon zest, lemon juice, apple cider (my sister actually used pear cider because it's what she has - she buys it from her crop share people and its super delicious and refreshing), sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Once everything is mixed and apples are tender - you mix up the biscuit dough.
I must not have been feeling well - because I just skimmed the biscuit recipe and didn't really pay attention to the note that said it called for 1 cup of self-rising flour OR 1 cup regular flour plus 1 TBsp of baking powder. I just read it as flour. It wasn't until the timer went off and we checked the cobbler's status in the oven that my sister realized that the biscuits were very flat and not normal. My sister and I joked that my flat biscuits showed that I went to college up north because any true Southerner (she counts herself as one) would know how to make a biscuit right. Dispite it's flatness, the biscuit tasted pretty good - or as I said, "This tastes like apple upside down pie".
For the actual main meal - we decided to take the easy way out and made hamburger casserole. Hamburger casserole is a staple of the Midwest table. My sister told me a story that last year she brought hamburger casserole to a party and all the people from Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, etc. commented that it tasted like home - whereas the people from the West Coast and the South kept wondering how my sister thought of this deconstructed lasagna and where do she find the recipe.
Here is how you make hamburger casserole - cook up a big pot of pasta (penne, bowties, shells, macaroni shapped), brown about pound of hamburger, after meat is brown - you can add some onions and/or mushrooms to brown. When they are ready, drain pasta and pour into casserole dish. Pour meat mixture on top of that. Pour over that 1 jar of ready made spaghetti sauce and 2 cups cheese. Mix it all together. Then sprinkle another 2 cups of cheese. Pop in oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Then serve. Totally easy peasy.
We added a green salad to the casserole and that was dinner. Thinking back, it's actually something that my mom would have made on Halloween night when we were young so that we could eat quick and then go trick or treating.
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