Butternut Squash with Spinach and Cranberries

1 medium-sized butternut squash, cubed
1/2 lb. fresh spinach
A handful of fresh cranberries
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt and pepper to taste


1. Use a peeler to remove skin from the squash.
2. Cut in quarters, then chunks.
3. Place on roasting pan, drizzle with olive oil, season to taste and bake in preheated oven at 425 degrees for 30 - 45 minutes.

At this point you can store the roasted squash in the frig until you are ready to make the final dish.

4. Toss into cast iron skillet with some finely chopped garlic and sauté for a few minutes, until it begins to soften.
5. Add spinach and continue to saute for another minute or two, until spinach has wilted.
6. Add cranberries and toss, cooking for another minute.
7. Plate and serve.

Colorful, flavorful, simple.  Highly recommended.

Vanilla

Thanks to the inspiration of my oldest, I am beginning to think more deeply about making things from scratch.  She brought me a cute little blue bottle full of vanilla for my birthday, and I was thrilled.  A blue bottle alone would have been a great gift for me, but vanilla to boot?  Yumola.

But I haven't begun to use the extract yet for fear that it would be gone with a blink.  I comforted myself by starting my own vanilla batch.  I took an old beer bottle from an ale I found at Trader Joe's, I scraped off all the labels, and voila!  I have my vanilla bottle.

~ my bottle's brief foray into the afternoon light...it is now a prisoner of the dark ~

It is hard to even refer to this as a recipe, but here you go:

Three vanilla beans, cut open carefully so as not to spill one little vanilla bean. 

Insert into a bottle.  

Cover the beans with vodka.  

Close the bottle.  

Shove into the dark corner of the cookbook cupboard (or any dark corner will do.)  

Wait impatiently for vanilla to happen (approximately 3 months.)  

Shake the bottle every now and then.  

Enjoy!

Rehearsal dinner recipes

There were some requests for recipes from the meal at my son and daughter-in-law's rehearsal dinner last week. Here are the links and/or the recipes:

Man-Pleasing Chicken

I cannot say enough about this chicken.  It is FANTASTIC.  And easy.  And has few ingredients.  And really delicious.  Highly recommended.

Mediterranean Chicken

I love lemon, garlic and olive oil together.  So simple, so fragrant, very moist.  Yum.  Garnish with slices of lemon.

Orzo Salad  (with special thanks to the bella Valeri Harper)

1 ½ cups orzo

¾ cup olive oil (divided ¼ cup, ½ cup)

9 oz. frozen artichoke hearts, thawed

½ cup chicken broth 

1 large egg yolk

2 T white wine vinegar

1 t Dijon mustard

2 T minced fresh basil

2 oz. prosciutto minced 

2 oz parmesan, grated fresh

2 T fresh lemon juice

¼ cup minced fresh parsley leaves

4 scallions minced

In a kettle of boiling salted water, cook orzo 7-8 minutes, or until al dente. Drain in a sieve and refresh under cold water. Drain orzo well and toss it with ¼ cup olive oil in bowl. In a saucepan simmer the artichokes in chicken broth until they are tender, drain well and add them to the orzo.

In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolk, the vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper to taste. Add ½ cup olive oil in a stream, whisking, until dressing is emulsified. Whisk in the minced basil and pour the dressing over the orzo mixture.

Add prosciutto, parmesan, lemon juice, parsley, scallions and toss.

Asian Slaw

I could live on this salad.  The only thing we changed was to garnish it with peanuts.

Green salad 

Romaine lettuce

Greens from Costco

Mini cucumbers

Mini peppers

Lime Vinaigrette

Caramelized Onion Rolls (with thanks to Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day)

The general idea with these rolls is to make a standard batch of dough (I used the very basic master recipe), and then make rolls instead of a loaf.  Once the rolls have risen, you sprinkle flour over their tops, cut a "x" on the tops, then fill that top with caramelized onions.  

We caramelized the onions with the following recipe:

3 T olive oil

2 lg. onions

1 t salt

1 T white vermouth

1 t white wine vinegar

2 T brown sugar

1 t dried thyme or oregano (we used a combination)

4 T water

Heat the oil, add the other ingredients and cook until fully caramelized.  The recipe says 25 minutes, but we made such an expanded batch that it took much longer.  The fragrance of onions caramelizing is heavenly, especially with the addition of vermouth.

Cobbler in a Jar

I used the frozen berries (raspberries, blueberries, blackberries) from Costco.  We used the half-pint jars and then topped the cobbler with vanilla ice cream.  The link above is one recipe option.  We looked at several and I cannot remember which one we used.


Strawberry Lemonade
Beautiful color!

Iced Tea (using Iced Tea Syrup...not sure if this is the recipe used, but it is a good one.)
The hard working kitchen crew made this with mint, and it was fantastic.


We made as much as we could on the day before the rehearsal dinner, and then Carol and her angels took over and did the final steps and delivered a masterpiece.  I am grateful beyond words to my dear friend.  I can only hope that someday I will be able to serve her so willingly.  Carol and Curt, you are my inspiration!

The ULTIMATE Cook Book's Granola

I have a lot of cookbooks, but this is the one I use every single week.  It is my go-to source for granola and pancakes, salad dressings, soups, fancy meals and simple family fare.   They offer great options and variations on their recipes, which means I can make granola even when I don't have a specific ingredient; I can just swap one sweetener for another or use different nuts to get a different flavor.  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.  It's even on Kindle. 

A road map for The Ultimate Granola with my own variations

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
(They recommend toasting oats in the oven before mixing with other ingredients.  I skip this step.)

2) Mix one item from each of the following two lists in a small saucepan set over medium heat:

Sweetener: 2/3 cups of any of the following

Honey
Maple syrup
Cane syrup
Agave nectar

(I use mostly honey and a little maple syrup; you can also use thawed apple, grape or cranberry juice concentrate, but I haven't tried that)


Oil:  2/3 cups of any of the following

Walnut oil
Almond oil
Canola oil
Safflower oil
Grapeseed oil

The moment the sweetener/oil mixture starts to steam, take the pan off the heat.  Stir in:

1 T vanilla extract


As the liquid mixture cools, mix all of the following in a large bowl:

6 cups rolled oats (not quick cook or steel-cut)
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup light brown sugar
2 t ground cinnamon
1 t salt

Also add one item from each of the following two lists:

1/2 cup nuts, seeds or coconut

Finely chopped walnut pieces
Finely chopped pecan pieces
Chopped unsalted cashews
Sliced or slivered almonds
Unsalted shelled sunflower seeds
Shredded unsweeted coconut

(I actually use sliced almonds AND coconut)

1/2 cup fortifier

Powdered dry milk
Powdered fat-free dry milk
Powdered fat-free dry whey

(In my latest batch I used 1/2 powdered milk and 1/2 malted milk powder)

Once the dry ingredients are well stirred, add the sort of cooled sweetener/oil mixture.

Grease two large baking sheets, divide oat mixture between the two baking sheets, spreading it to the corners.  Place the trays in the top and bottom thirds of the oven and bake for 10 minutes, stirring once.

Reverse the trays and continue cooking until lightly browned and fragrant, about 10 minutes more, tossing and stirring once or twice.

Remove from oven.  At this point you may add 1/2 cup dried fruit to each baking sheet. 

(I cook this at 300 degrees and for a longer time, watching carefully that it does not burn on the edges.  I have been known to get distracted and let the granola burn (not a favorite taste for my family!) so I keep the temp lower to avoid that.  My family also really dislikes chewy granola, so I make sure I stir it well and cook it long enough for the entire batch to get crunchy.)


What are you waiting for?  Go, buy The Ultimate Cookbook.  Click the image above or this link to get to amazon.com!

St. Patrick's Day menu

Irish Soda Bread

This recipe has cheddar cheese and butter and garlic in it.  It is FANTASTIC.  FYI:  I used Kerrygold Cheddar, but I used good ol' American butter.  It was the best soda bread I have ever tasted.

Guinness Stew

The best smelling stew...make sure you can stand over the pot for awhile after you pour in the stout.  Yumola.