Tuesday Treats – Wiscuits

…or Baffles. Whichever you prefer.

Yesterday, we touched on the fact that I lack patience in some areas. Now, while I love cooking, I have a bad habit of undercooking certain items. French fries, biscuits, cookies; I keep checking on them thinking, “they must be done now” and inevitably remove them too soon. It could have more to do with my desire to eat aforementioned items than my actual lack of patience.

My parents were kind enough to get me a waffle maker some months back. I was in love with how quickly it cooked up a thick, delicious waffle. Yet, I don’t eat waffles every day, so the cool new kitchen toy spent a good amount of time in a cabinet.

That is, until I discovered that a waffle maker can be used for so much more.

For this recipe, you’ll need a waffle maker, store bought biscuits, and whatever you like to stuff inside. I used jalepeños and cream cheese for my savory baffle, and jam for the sweet wiscuit. I recommend trying variations that include bacon (of course) or Nutella.

The possibilities are endless. And delicious. Enjoy.

[Yes, this video was created by me, for you all. Music by The New Standards.]

Tuesday Treat – Slow Cooker Pork Tacos

I am celebrating the final month of the year with a lot of cleaning and organizing of the house. I’ll admit, I am not naturally the neatest person in the world. Yet, as each year passes, my desire to be that person grows, as do my cleaning frenzies.

What begins one day as a simple “let me organize the pantry” turns into a full-on attack of the kitchen; pots and pans strewn about, scrubbing tiles on my hands and knees. It’s not pretty. Well, actually, I’m not pretty, but the room is when it’s all over.

When I find myself “in the zone” having to stop and cook, dirtying dishes and breaking my stride, is the last thing I want to do. But having a floor so clean you can eat off of it is pointless if there is nothing to eat.

Enter the crock pot.

Thanks to a super special deal at Costco, I got myself a 7 quart beast to make cooking simple. Aside from making life easy, slow cooking allows you to buy inexpensive cuts of meat and turn them into deliciousness.

Also thanks to Costco, I found myself with an enormous boneless pork shoulder ($1.89/lb).  After severing it into ten large chunks and tossing them in the freezer, I started mentally preparing for what I could do with all that food.

The first place my mind went was tacos.

Now, there are probably a million different ways I could have thrown this together, and I’ll probably share them as I discover them, but this turned out great with ingredients in the house and little effort.

Also, the key to making these tacos extra delicious is topping them with this simple “slaw” rather than the myriad of taco toppings you might usually opt for. Delicious, and again, cost effective.

Slow Cooker Pork Tacos with Lime-Cilantro Slaw

1-2 pounds pork shoulder
1 can crushed tomatoes (I used the 14 ounce can – you could use the smaller can, but you may need to add a little liquid)
1 onion (yellow, vidalia or red preferable)
4 cloves garlic
1 T cumin
1/2 T sugar
2 tsp salt
pinch chili powder
Spoon garlic chili sauce (see photo)

This is spicy deliciousness. Amount used depends on your taste for heat.

Chop onion and skin garlic gloves.  Throw tomatoes, onion, garlic, pork and spices in crock pot. Cook on low setting for 10 hours (you could shorten the cooking time if cooked on high, probably 5 hours).

Pull pork apart with fork about an hour or so before serving so all the sauciness really mixes in. This isn’t necessary, but if you are able, it helps all the flavors integrate with the meaty goodness.

Lime Cilantro Slaw

Cabbage
Lime
Cilantro
Sour Cream
Salt

You’ll notice there are not measurements above. I think the slaw should be made according to your individual taste. I love lime and cilantro, so I used the juice of a whole lime and chopped a good handful of cilantro for about 1/3 head of cabbage. I tossed that with a heaping spoon of sour cream and salted to taste. Give it all a good mix (toss it in a tupperware container and shake it around for good measure) then stick it in the fridge until dinner is ready.

I used corn tortillas for mine, but you can use whatever you prefer. I recommend having a fork ready, and lots of napkins, as it can get messy. But messy is good, right?

So hungry I couldn't hold the camera straight.

More slow cooker recipes to come in the near future…

Waste Not, Want a Lot

Despite being buried in words and toddler madness, I have managed to do a few things unrelated to either of those things.

With a few days recently dipping below 80 here in “we’ll melt your face off” Florida, I’ve been in a baking mood. Unfortunately, lack of time and ingredients have left my oven empty.

Until last week.

As I cleaned the kitchen, I spotted a few hunks of crusty bread, a few days old and doomed to be sent to the bin. Not wanting to be wasteful, I decided to try my hand at bread pudding. That’s what people do with old bread, right?

I don’t generally care for bread pudding, to be honest. Other than the prevalence of raisins, which I detest in all things baked, I can quite put my finger on what I find so icky about it. But, the hubs enjoys it, so I figured it couldn’t hurt to give it a go. It would be eaten, just maybe not by me.

It seemed simple enough to gather ingredients: eggs, milk, sugar, butter, old bread. I opted  for cranberries instead of raisins, and tossed some crystallized ginger in there for a little kick.

I must admit, I am now a fan of bread pudding.

Impromptu Pudding

• Some day-old bread (I used about half a loaf of Italian)
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/8 c cranberries (more or less depending on your feeling about dried fruit)
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• generous pinch of ground ginger
• chopped crystallized ginger

Preheat the oven to 350F. Tear the bread up in bite size chunks and pile into a baking dish (I used a non-stick cake pan – be sure to spray with a little non-stick for good measure). I tossed my cranberries in at this point to make sure they were nicely distributed.

Once you’ve melted your butter pour it over the bread in the dish. Beat your eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla and spices. Once beaten, pour it into the dish, pushing the bread down if needed to be sure everything gets to soak up the the egg mixture.

Say hello to my yellow friend.

Soaking in the egg-y goodness

Toss some chopped crystallized ginger over the top and throw it in the oven. (Not literally. That would be messy.)

Pantry staple if you love ginger.

Yes, I am allowed to handle sharp objects.

Cook for about 45 minutes. It’s done when the tops get golden and it bounces back when you press the middle.

Voila!

Now, for those of you with a sweet tooth, you may wish to get a little saucy with your pudding. Again, being inexperienced in this food genre, I had to wing it. I tossed butter, a little light corn syrup, and copious amounts of sugar in a pan and stirred until I had a nice syrupy sauce. Oh, and I added a little Irish Whiskey, because, well, it was in the pantry.

And we declared that it was good.

Warm bread pudding may now make a regular appearance in our household. Who knew.

Do you have a dish you’ve altered to make it a welcome addition to your table?

[Hellos to my fellow NaNoWriMo'ers...broke 30k and headed back into hiding]

Seven Layers of Awesome

The food posts have been scarce lately, so given the Suzy Homemaker way in which I’ve started the week, I bring you FOOD!

More specifically, a seven layer dip.

This is the dip that in theory, always sounds like a good idea to me, but I never seem to actually eat at a party. Something about the unidentified “is that refried beans” layer freaks me out a bit. Not to mention the idea that I really don’t know what to expect when I dive in with a tortilla chip.

My unreasonable food fears aside, it does sound like a good idea, so I set about making my own. With some minor adjustments.

Yum.

First Layer:

2 cans black beans
1-2 bunches of green onion/scallions

After rinsing the black beans, toss them in a food processor, along with the scallions (chopped). Pulse until you have what resembles a very unattractive paste. This is the bottom layer for a reason.

Second Layer:

2 avocados
Lime

Toss avocados in the food processor (I advise cleaning the one you just used, otherwise, your avocado is going to look really gross) with some lime juice. Add a LITTLE salt to taste. Keep in mind whenever you add salt to a layer, that you may add salt again in a different layer, so don’t go crazy. Add this to the dish.

Third Layer:

2 Red Peppers, Chopped

This is easy. Chop em, lay ‘em in the dish. If you like heat, this is a good layer to chop some hotter peppers and toss them in as well. Jalapeno, Serrano…just stay away from the habenero, ok?

Fourth Layer:

1-2 C Ricotta Cheese

This layer is great…if you like ricotta. If you don’t, you could do a layer of cheddar I guess. I was going for something more filling. Spread this layer on.

Fifth Layer:

Chopped Cilantro
Chopped Parsley
Chopped Scallions

I like to say on this part, use the amount that feels right. I love cilantro, but feel somewhat “meh” about parsley. And scallions are fantastic, but they are also in the bottom layer. So proceed with caution. I went one bunch cilantro, 1/2 bunch parsley, one bunch of scallions.

Green chopped up goodness.

Sixth Layer:

2 C Sour Cream
Taco Seasoning

I think I MAY have used 1/4 of the packet. Perhaps 2 TBSP? I never measure anything. Stir in the seasoning, taste it, and add more if you want to.

Seventh Layer:

Chopped Tomatoes
Cilantro to garnish

Exactly like it sounds. Add that to the top and you are done!

Ta da!

Now, while this is traditionally served as a dip, I put a big spoonful in a tortilla and ate it like a cold veggie burrito (much tastier than it sounds). Since there was a lot of it, I cooked up ground beef with the rest of the taco seasoning and the hubs made his own burrito like creation with it.

It’s a versatile dip.

***Special Announcement – Tomorrow, Tiffany White and I launch our new blog series, Why it’s Worth a Watch Wednesday. Come back and check out our first editions – I’ll be discussing Switched at Birth (ABC Family) and Tiffany is covering Teen Wolf (MTV). Stop by the twitter hashtag (#watchwed) and visit with us about any of today’s television shows that you’d like to see discussed on our series.

Currently Listening to: Surgery in the Sky by Venus Hum

Meatless May Update

The asparagus looks like he might kill me...

I’ve been meaning to let you all know how the Meatless Month of May has been going.

I meant to do it on a Monday, but then there was the crazy dream I had to share.

And then I was feeling all inspired to work on my WIP, so I couldn’t sit here typing about food when there were characters asking to come out and do their thing.

Rather than wait until next Monday, just so I can call the post “Meatless Monday”, today I shall update you.

First off, it’s going well!  I haven’t had any meat all month and I am not finding that I miss it terribly.  I mean, don’t get me wrong, if someone offered to make me breakfast as I type this that involved copious amounts of thick cut bacon, the temptation would be great.  But for the most part, I’m not even thinking about the lack of meat.

We’ve been eating lots of quinoa, lentils, pasta with veggies – everything has been sort of thrown together at the last minute.  You know what?  It all tastes good.

Lentils?  Use the seasonings you like on meat.  No big secret there.

Veggies?  If they are fresh, a quick sautee’ with olive oil is all it takes.

In a rush and can’t cook?  Coscto carries a perfectly suitable Eggplant Parmigiana in the frozen section.  It’s not exactly calorie friendly, but I’ll get to why that doesn’t seem to matter much.

Now I know that some of you are sitting there thinking, “Will you just give us a recipe, already?”  So I did choose one item I made so far this month that I will share, since it involved more than dumping onions and garlic in a pan, followed by any other veggie in the fridge.

But first, some of the side effects of my meatless month.

I’m down five pounds, ya’ll.  (Yes, I said ya’ll…I was born in the NorthEast, but I’ve been in the South a LONG time.  Sometimes it creeps in.)

I haven’t been doing any special exercise routine.  Unless you count dancing to “The House of Tom Bombadil” with Jonas.

I have been eating ice cream and bread and the like with wild abandon.

And I am still DOWN five pounds.

I guess filling up on healthy grains and veggies agrees with me.  Enough that I can fill the spaces with Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream.

My other concern with this experiment was our budget.

Healthy eating tends to be expensive.  It sounds like it should be cheaper, but when you start looking at “fake” meat products, tofu, and the like, the grocery bill climbs VERY fast.

My solution was to primarily buy “unpackaged” foods.  Bulk lentils and grains.  Fresh produce.  Cheese.

End result?  So far, the weekly grocery bill is down considerably.  I’d say 35% cheaper.

What does this mean?  Well, aside from the fact that with the leftover weekly funds I can save for other items, like new clothes, when we are at the end of our experimental month, we can reintroduce meat back into our diet.  But now, it will be happy meat.  And only once a week (or every other week).

Any drawbacks from the experiment?  Eating out CAN be difficult.  Or eating at a friend’s home.  But there is generally a workaround available.

Ok, ok.  As promised, a recipe.

Roasted Garbanzo and Walnut Quinoa

1 can Garbanzo Beans (I used can, so I didn’t have to soak, blah blah blah)
1/2 C Walnuts
1/2 Onion (I use sweet onions, but red would be delish too)
Half to Whole Head of Garlic
1 C quinoa
Olive Oil
Lemon Chevre

Set oven to 375.  Pour garbanzos, walnuts, chopped onion and garlic cloves/head (you can leave the skins on, but if you do, stick the garlic head/cloves in the corners of the pan rather than scattered throughout) in a large ziploc bag.  Add generous amount of olive oil.  Add salt and a pinch of cumin.  Feel free to be creative with your spices.  Close bag and shake it to evenly distribute the oil and seasoning.

Dump all of that goodness onto a cookie sheet and stick it in the oven.  I probably let mine cook for about 30 minutes (welcome to the Amber school of Cooking…it’s a lot of “about” and “some”).  You want the garlic to be be softened and the garbanzos to have a nice roasted taste and color.  Don’t OVER cook – you don’t want crunchy beans.

Cook 1 C quinoa on stovetop (2 C water, bring to boil, then down to low…just like rice).  If you want more flavor, you can cook the quinoa in broth.

Slide everything off the cookie sheet into a pan.  If you left the garlic skins on, you’ll want to pop the garlic out of the skins before putting them in the pan (that’s why you stuck them in corners where you could easily find them).  Dump your finished quinoa in the pan.  Give it all a good toss.

Voila!  Top with some crumbled lemon chevre.  Or feta.  Or any nice crumbly cheese that you love.

If you want a little something extra, fry an egg and put that on the very top.  The yolk running in adds some extra goodness.

There you have it!  I may post another recipe or two before the month is over.  I meant to have a photo, but I was ravenous when it was done cooking.  Maybe next time.

Currently Listening to:  Jonas making his blocks talk and laugh at each other

Pumpkin Cupcakes

I love all things pumpkin. Pie, soup, cake, bread…whatever else you can think of, I’m a fan. So a pumpkin cupcake was bound to happen.

I used a Martha Stewart recipe, based on descriptions that it was less “muffin-like” but didn’t require any ingredients I didn’t have, like, say, cake flour and buttermilk. I actually stuck to the recipe on this one, and they turned out really nice, although for my taste, I would up the spices and maybe even the pumpkin.

The frosting was the star again – a cream cheese frosting with just a hint of maple and cinnamon. As a tasty garnish, I placed a sliver of crystallized ginger on top. I use twice as much cream cheese as the traditional recipe, to give it a little more of that tangy-ness that makes cream cheese frosting so yummy.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Makes 18 (In my case, it made a dozen regular and two dozen minis, with about a cupcake worth of batter left)

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon coarse salt
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon ground ginger
* 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
* 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
* 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
* 1 cup granulated sugar
* 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
* 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
* 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together, brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and eggs. Add dry ingredients, and whisk until smooth. Whisk in pumpkin puree. (And by whisk I mean, use your stand mixer )

Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about halfway. Bake until tops spring back when touched, and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes (for regular sized cupcakes, 12-15 for minis)

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 packages of cream cheese (12 oz)
1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)
3 cups of confectioners sugar (can be more or less depending on level of stiffness desired)
dash of cinnamon
2 T maple syrup (NOT extract)
1 T vanilla extract

Cream cheese and butter together, add syrup, then sugar one cup at a time. Add cinnamon as desired (if you like the flecked look, and the flavor, add much more than a dash)

Your Weekly Cupcake

I’ve never been much of a baker. While I have always loved to cook, there was always less occasion to bake, and it didn’t draw me like cooking. I know it has everything to do with the exacting nature of the act. Measurements needing to be just so for things to turn out, leaving little room for experimentation. Or at least that is how I saw it.

When I would bake, since I did it so infrequently, I didn’t have any of the proper tools to make it easier, so it made me dislike it even more. Some time ago, when it looked like the hubs was employed again (but turned out to be a disaster) we purchased a stand mixer. A beautiful, bright yellow stand mixer. Combine this new “toy” with a diminishing hatred for math and everything exact, and you get a new interest in baking.

The other day, I posted a Facebook status asking people what flavor cupcake, if they could have any, even if it didn’t exist. The comments came flooding in. Which inspired me to try making a new cupcake every week. It doesn’t have to be “new” (e.g. I can make red velvet if I like) but it has to be from scratch, cupcake to frosting.

Sunday, I set about making my first one using ingredients I already had in the house. Being that its actually cold in Florida right now, I really liked the idea of a spice cupcake. I love ciders and mulled wine this time of year, and I knew I had plenty of cinnamon, nutmeg and even some crystallized ginger in the pantry, so this seemed like a doable idea.

Now, I am not a big frosting person. I have a tendency to scrape it off of cake when offered a slice. I DO love cream cheese frosting, but outside of that, I don’t know of many others, so I thought this would be a really good area for experimentation. Plus, pairing a flavored frosting with the spice cake sounded like fun.

Having been sick the past week or so, I knew that we had plenty of citrus in the house, which inspired me to create an orange buttercream frosting. I love using citrus when I am mulling wine, so it seemed like it would be a good pairing.

In the end, the cupcakes were tasty, but the frosting is what really surprised me. The orange buttercream was awesome and so simple. A perfect fall treat (even if it is winter. )

Photo taken without contacts – forgive the quality

Spice Cupcake

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg and/or allspice
chopped crystallized ginger (2 T or more depending on how much you like ginger)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter or non-hydrogenated margarine, softened
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups milk

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, spices, ginger and salt. In a larger bowl, beat the butter until it’s pale and creamy. Pour in the sugar and continue to beat for 3-4 minutes, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each.

Stir the vanilla into the milk. Add about one-third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir it in by hand or with the electric mixer on low speed, just until it’s combined. Add about half the milk in the same manner, then another third of the flour, the rest of the milk, and the rest of the flour, mixing just until the batter is blended.

Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350.

Orange Buttercream Frosting

1/4 C butter
2 C confectioners sugar
orange rind (1 T)
3-4 T orange juice

Cream butter and sugar. Add rind and OJ.

Chowdah.

For the longest time, I was never a huge fan of soups. Having been in Florida for many years, the thought of pulling myself up to a bowl of piping hot broth was less than desirable 95% of the time. And I despised that tinny flavor canned soups possessed.

That changed when I moved to Seattle and moved in with two soup obsessed roomies. Soup was the perfect food for so many reasons. While it is obvious that the damp, cold winters lend themselves to warm comfort food, my roommates taught me the other values of a good homemade soup.

Like how chopping vegetables is cheap therapy after a bad day at work.

Or how you can make soup from just about any variety of leftovers and pantry staples when the grocery budget runs out early.

Or how there is always plenty leftover for lunches and dinners later in the week.

And how easily a bowl of soup transforms into a complete meal with the addition of homemade bread.

Even though I am back in Florida, and the weather often doesn’t cooperate with my new found love and appreciation of soupy goodness, sometimes I just have to crank up the A/C, throw on a sweater, and get to chopping and brewing.

Inspired by my Massachusetts office mates, I set out to make a New England Clam Chowder this week. I should warn the chowder purists out there, I probably broke all sorts of chowder rules in the making of this soup, but in my mind, that is the beauty of homemade soups/stews/chowders. The discovery of a lack of ingredients, or the sudden craving of a particular flavor can transform it into something it wasn’t meant to be, but something still equally satisfying.

I started (as I often do) with chopping therapy. The stresses of the week beautifully laid out across my chopping block. (sidenote: I love how it looks when I am preparing a mirepoix…it’s like a foodie flag, with it’s orange, green and white) For the chowder, I chopped a sweet onion and a couple stalks of celery, including the leaves.

a knife and some veggies – all the therapy I need

The onions were tossed in the pot with a generous helping of chopped bacon. When the bacon was looking sufficiently “crackly” and the onions slightly translucent, I mixed in the celery and added a bottle of clam juice, along with the the juice from the canned clams (yes, yes, I know – canned! But this is Central Florida – good fresh clams aren’t exactly available around the corner).

mmmmm…baaaacon

Now this is where I took a huge step away from what you should do when making a proper seafood chowder. In all honesty, I don’t like things that are especially fishy tasting. I didn’t have time to make a proper fish stock, and didn’t trust purchasing one from any local stores. So I used chicken broth. It’s what I had in the house. So sue me. I then tossed in three chopped up Russet Potatoes and a few sprigs of thyme and let it all simmer for about 15 minutes – enough that the potatoes were softened but far from mushy.

Once I was satisfied with the potatoes, I added some half and half (2 cups maybe? I don’t measure things…) 2 cans of clams as well as some crab meat, which probably makes this more of a seafood chowder then a clam one. That simmered very briefly and was finished off with a few splashes of cream sherry.

makes me want to drop my r’s just looking at it

As the chowder was finishing up, the house filled with the smell of a homemade loaf of Guinness bread.

what could be better than a pint of guinness and some homemade bread? this.

The soup turned out very tasty, perhaps a little oilier than it should have been (I blame it on the generous amount of bacon and the chicken stock), but delicious.

Since baking does actually require that you pay attention to things like measuring, here is the recipe I used for the bread:

1 bottle of Guinness (room temperature)
2 tbsp veg oil
3 cups flour
2 tbsp dark brown sugar
tsp salt
1 packet of active dry yeast

Thanks to a friend who was tossing stuff before a big move, I have a handy-dandy breadmaker to do the work for me on this. Toss in wet ingredients, toss in dry, turn on breadmaker. Three and half hours later, the house smells of fresh bread. Guinness bread has a pleasant bitterness to it that pairs nicely with a hearty soup, or a generous slather of butter.

Cuddled up with my chowdah and Guinness bread, I looked out the window at our yard covered in white gravel (the in-progress patio the hubs is building…more on that later) and almost felt like I was snowed in for the evening.

Almost. Sigh.

Coho Salmon and Swiss Chard

Since when did this become a food blog?

It’s not.

No. Really. I promise.

You see, the thing is, when you are working and taking care of a new baby, there isn’t much time for adult interaction. Or leaving the house. Or much of anything really.

Which leaves little to write about. The one thing that I do still find the time to do (partly, because I can’t have my family starve, and partly because its something I enjoy and falls during a time of day that Jonas usually naps) is make dinner.

It also gives me something to take pictures of…food can be pretty.

And, I didn’t want this to suddenly become an “all baby, all the time” place, so I had to either take a hiatus from the blog or find something to write about.

So here we are.
………………………………………….

I am not a huge salmon fan, or at least not an Atlantic Salmon fan. But Coho was on sale this week, so I figured a little fish in our diet was a good thing.

And I love chard. It’s so pretty.

So here it is, a very simple dinner.

Toss a couple of garnet yams in the oven in foil at 400 degrees. (So you have a filling carb on the plate) If you haven’t had garnet yams before, they are delicious. They need NOTHING. No butter, no sugar, you can even skip the salt. Not to say you shouldn’t add butter or salt (or sugar if you want them to be super sweet). Just do so in moderation.

Once you can tell these are starting to soften, throw a diced onion and a couple sliced cloves of garlic in a pan with a little olive oil (and a little butter if you don’t care about calories). Once they are translucent, you can add your chopped up chard. If you like your veggies mushy (I like them to have a bite) you can add a little water and turn the heat down to a simmer. I just cook them a little past the point of the leaves wilting.

Season your salmon with salt and pepper (you can add other spices to your taste – tonight I used a little of Emeril’s stuff). While your chard is cooking, in a separate pan, toss your salmon skin side down on it, medium to medium high heat. Two minutes on each side to give it color and then finish it off in the oven (which should only take a few more minutes – the Canadian rule is 10 minutes per inch of thickness total cooking time).

A simple dish, with simple ingredients. Simply delicious.

Listening to: Harry Connick Jr’s Red Light Blue Light CD

Pumpkin Madness

It’s fall! You wouldn’t know it based on the mid-90 degree weather and still green leaved trees, but it is autumn. I know this because Starbucks is now serving a Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Since I have been spending a lot of time indoors, between work, taking care of baby, and trying to keep my house from turning into a disaster area, I figure I may as well make it feel like fall indoors. Crank up the air and bring on the comfort food!

Inspired by J’s pumpkin pie baking last week (still enjoying the fruits of his labor…) I decided to make a pumpkin soup. And not from a Libby’s can. From the actual pumpkin.

There it is, in all its pumpkin-y glory

Since I decided to do this on somewhat of a whim, it is a very simple soup – but that’s what comfort food should be, shouldn’t it?

I have NEVER made anything from a pumpkin before. So I had to start off with the fun process of cleaning out the seeds and stringy bits, which was surprisingly therapeutic. Like being a kid playing in the mud. It is interesting to see how many different ways people go about this process to make it easier – I simply used a big knife to cut it open, and a large spoon to gut it. (“I gut you like a sheep!”)

My fancy pumpkin prepping tools

Once the pumpkin pieces had been prepped for cooking, I tossed them in a steamer pot for about a half hour, took them out, scooped the flesh into the blender, and made my puree. This collective process was the most difficult, as I have no patience and insisted on scooping the flesh before it had cooled. Ouch.

The rest was easy – diced half an onion and an apple and sauteed them in butter. Once the onions were translucent, I tossed some* vodka in the pot, let that simmer down, then added a bit of chicken broth, water, and half and half. (Basically, I tossed what I had sitting in the fridge that sounded good.)

For seasoning, a couple pinches of curry powder, chili powder, ground about a quarter nutmeg, dash of cinnamon, and some* salt.

Looks like baby food…yum?

Now the plan was to toss all of this back into a blender and make it smooth and creamy. Things did not go as planned, however, as our 9 week old had finally fallen asleep after a very difficult afternoon full of screaming, so the desire for a happy child outweighed the desire for a creamy soup.

But we still ate it. And it was still good – probably not so much for someone who isn’t a fan of texture, but the flavors were all there.

And it looked like fall. A messy, tasty fall.

Kind of like jumping in the pile of leaves your dad just raked.

I may not be pretty, but I get the job done…

* If you are reading this and thinking about following a “recipe”, you’ll notice that I say “some” a lot. Not a cup, or a tablespoon. Just some. I don’t measure things when I cook. Which is why I seldom bake. Baking is all math and science to me – cooking is art. Just slap that paint on the canvas.

Listening to: the sweet sounds of no screaming…and a song from Sondheim’s “Company”
Current Mood: autumnal. yes, I am making it a mood