Pumpkin Pancakes and Whole Wheat Pancakes

Nutmeg requested this recipe and I forgot to give it to her. So now I will share it with you all. It's one of my favorites. They're so tasty that they really don't need much adorning. My favorite way to have them is just with apple butter. My husband, we'll call him Basil, is a pancake "purist" and likes it with maple syrup. Nutmeg found they were also good with a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar. I found this on Recipezaar and slightly modified it.

Pumpkin Pancakes

1 cup flour (you can do all-purpose, half whole wheat half all purpose, or all whole wheat)

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice (I don't actually have this so I make about half of this amount cinnamon and the rest I make up with whatever pumpkiny spices I have such as nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and ginger. They all give great flavor.)

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

1 cup buttermilk (I almost never have this because I would never go through it, so I put 1 tbsp of lemon juice in a measuring cup and then fill it up to a cup with low fat or skim milk.)

1/2 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)

2 eggs

1/4 cup canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

nonstick cooking spray

1. Whisk together your dry ingredients (first 5) in a bowl and set aside.

2. Whisk together wet ingredients (next 6, yes, in baking sugar is considered a "wet" ingredient).

3. Make a well in dry ingredients and pour in wet ingredients. Mix as little as possible, just until everything is wet. It will still be lumpy and that is OK! Just make sure you don't over mix it because then it will get tough.

4.  Using a 1/3 cup measuring cup, scoop batter and drop on griddle. Do not scrape out measuring cup for perfectly portioned, easy-to-flip pancakes. Cook on a griddle, if you have one, at about 250°F, using the nonstick spray as needed. Flip when pancakes are bubbly on top and puffy and dry around the edges. Only flip once!

Whole Wheat Pancakes

I've searched and searched for a good whole wheat pancake recipe that doesn't taste like warm whole wheat flour. I finally found one hiding in my handy-dandy Betty Crocker cookbook. Whodathunk? I adapted the instructions though so I'll go ahead and post it here. I think I improved on it. If you follow their instructions just to beat everything in after you've whipped up the egg, it's probably going to come out tough and then you'll run into the problem of it tasting like sawdust. Anyway, here's my adaptation of these delicious and filling pancakes:

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 large egg

3/4 cup milk (a little more for thinner pancakes, which I like so I added a couple tbsp more)

1 tbsp packed brown sugar

2 tbsp vegetable or canola oil

butter or nonstick spray

1. Whisk dry (first 3) ingredients together in one bowl, set aside.

2. Beat egg in another bowl. Add milk, sugar, and oil, mixing well.

3. Make a well in dry ingredients and pour in wet ingredients. Mix as little as possible, just until everything is wet. It will still be lumpy and that is OK! Just make sure you don't over mix it because then it will get tough. (I repeated these VERY IMPORTANT instructions in case you missed them the first time.)

4. Using a 1/3 cup measuring cup, scoop batter and drop on griddle. Do not scrape out measuring cup for perfectly portioned, easy-to-flip pancakes. Cook on a griddle, if you have one, at about 250°F, using the nonstick spray or butter as needed. Flip when pancakes are bubbly on top and puffy and dry around the edges. Only flip once! (Hey, I repeated this one too. This time because I'm lazy.)

Happy breakfast!

Rosemary

Sweet Potatoes: From moderate failure to triumphant success

So I, like most everyone, decided to make a sweet potato dish for my thanksgiving dinner last week. And, trying to be clever and make stuff up ahead of time, decided to peel, slice, coat in olive oil, and roast the sweet potatoes on Wednesday, toss it together into a casserole that night, and basically just have to heat it up on Thursday. Which I did. After slicing and roasting them for an hour or so, I tossed in some brown sugar and let them sit until I got around to them again. At which point, I added a bit of orange juice and nutmeg and tossed the potatoes again. I then made a topping with chopped walnuts, a bit of flour, some cinnamon and nutmeg, and poured some of the orange juice/olive oil liquid from the potatoes in with it, and then sprinkled all that on in a layer over the sweet potatoes. Put it in the oven with the turkey when there was about an hour or so left before lunch and then was served with dinner. Tasted great...except...the consistency of most of the sweet potatoes was a bit chewier than I would like. Only a few were actually soft, and I have no real words to describe how off they were. Everyone took a few polite bites, but they were not exactly the star of the meal.

Faced with a nearly full pan of sweet potato "casserole" I decided to get inventive with my leftovers. I tossed the potatoes (it was generally easy to separate out the nuts) into a food processor and pureed them as best I could. Then I used it to make sweet potato bread. I generally followed the recipe for pumpkin bread in the Betty Crocker cookbook, leaving out most of the spices (since the potatoes were already flavored), and trying to balance out the liquid to flour ratio. One loaf disappeared that very night and the other one made it to work but was gone by the end of the day. So I'd say that whether or not your sweet potatoes turn out right, it's pretty easy to turn your sweet potato casserole into sweet potato bread - nuts and all.

Thyme

Honey Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

This recipe came about because I had a few things in my kitchen that I needed to use up. I took an existing recipe and modified it for that purpose. They turned out even better than I had hoped. So if you happen to have these ingredients, I suggest giving this recipe a whirl. They're not very heavy on the pumpkin flavor, if you're concerned, but you can always go with unsweetened applesauce or some other fruit/veggie puree if needed. They stayed nice and soft for that day and the day after and probably would have longer, but by that time they were gone. Pardon the bad picture.

Yield: 3-4 dozen

1 cup honey
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
2 tbsp dry, powdered egg (I modified the recipe to use honey, so I had to decrease water, hence dry eggs. If you use regular, you'll have to use a lot more flour too, so I don't recommend it. Maybe a honey expert can chime in about a good way to balance this if you don't have dry eggs.)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups oats (quick or regular but not instant)
1 cup mix-ins (I used dried cranberries and butterscotch chips...a bit sweet, but still good. Any dried fruit/chip/nut will work.)

Mix together honey, butter,pumpkin, powdered egg, and vanilla. In another bowl whisk together baking soda, cinnamon, baking powder, salt, and flour. Stir wet and dry ingredients together just to combine. Throw in oats and mix-ins, again stirring only enough to combine.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto cookie sheet and bake in 365°F oven for about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on sheet for about 2 minutes, then place on rack to cool.

Rosemary

Green Chile Enchiladas

There is just nothing in the world like real New Mexico Green Chilies. They're so so yummy! The flavor is beyond anything you can get in a can. I've been fortunate enough to acquire a fairly large amount of them this year. I decided to make enchiladas and was fortunate that the two freezer bags I used were mild in heat so even my toddler could enjoy...even if he was a bit skeptical. Here's the recipe for some of the dang tastiest enchiladas you'll ever have.

Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas
makes one 9x13" pan

1-2 tbsp oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
~1 cup chopped roasted New Mexico green chilies (you can get away with about 2 cans if you like, but the flavor isn't as good, or roast and peel anaheims for something similar)
1/2 tsp or so ground cumin
2 tbsp flour
4 cups chicken stock
enough flour or corn tortillas to get the job done
3-4 cups shredded chicken
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1. Sweat onion and garlic in oil until translucent.  Throw in green chilies and cumin and cook until fragrant.

2. Add flour and cook for another minute. Stir in broth and cook until thickened.

3. Using tongs, dip tortillas in sauce (both sides) and stack on a  plate. Set aside another 1/2 cup of sauce for later.

4. Add chicken and half of cheese to remaining sauce. Then assemble enchiladas in 1 of 2 ways. 1) put filling in each tortilla, roll, and fit into pan OR 2) put a layer of tortillas on the bottom of the pan, followed by a layer of filling, a layer of tortillas, a layer of filling, and a final layer of tortillas; more like lasagna. I find the first method to be just as easy, less heavy on the use of tortillas, and more attractive, so that's my preferred method.

5. Spoon reserved sauce on top of enchiladas and sprinkle remaining cheese.

6. Bake at 350 or so until cheese is bubbly.

Rosemary

Bean and Butternut Tacos

I would dub this recipe the squash recipe for somebody who doesn't like squash. It is yet another crazy-sounding recipe that I went out on a limb and tried and then LOVED. EatingWell, you rock my world. I am so sorry for ever doubting you. For the original recipe, visit www.eatingwell.com.

Basically, you cut up a butternut squash into 1/2 inch dice, toss it with olive oil and some chili/taco type seasonings. Then bake at 400 degrees until tender and starting to brown up a bit 20-25 min. Meanwhile, take 2 cups of cooked pinto beans, drained, toss in some other chili/taco type seasoning and heat it up on a stove for about 10 minutes. Heat up some flour tortillas and throw in the beans, squash, cheese, shredded cabbage and green salsa. But I had neither cabbage nor green salsa, so I just use the picante-style salsa I had in the fridge. I thought about throwing in some thinly sliced raw bell peppers, but I knew I'd probably be the only one eating them, so I decided against it.

They were soft and delicious. They didn't taste at all "squashy". But the recipe made them very flavorful. It also gave me a chance to use the dried red chilies my husband brought back from New Mexico during a work trip.

And, as if I needed to sell this any more, even my 1-year-old seemed to like it. (Of course, he munched on a piece of raw butternut squash and didn't seem to mind that either...go figure.)

how to cook pumpkin seeds

Don't let Cayenne be in charge of the time!!!!! She burns them!

Chicken Noodle Soup

Since the days have turned nice and chilly I've decided to start cooking again. This soup is easy, fast and delicious!

Chicken Noodle Soup

3 medium carrots, diced
1 small/medium onion, chopped up
½ to 1 ½ cups celery, diced (I had let some celery languish in my fridge so I had chopped off the top 1/3 and bottom, and whatever was good I used)
1 chicken breast, cut up (this was from a…um…well endowed chicken so you might need 2 but that depends on your preference)
Noodles (see below)
Oil
1 tbsp butter
Salt
Pepper
Water
Parsley (opt)
Sage (opt)

Heat the oil in the pot. Throw the veggies into the pot with a little bit of salt. Cook until soft. Throw in the butter and the chicken. Cook for 2 or so minutes. Add water until it reaches the desired level. Then add more salt, pepper and other seasonings. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes then add noodles and cook for another 5 or so minutes. Enjoy!

Noodles
(recipe from Better Homes and Gardens “New Cookbook”)

2 ½ cups flour
1 tsp dried basil, marjoram, or sage (I chose sage)
½ tsp salt
2 beaten eggs
1/3 cup water
1 tsp oil (I used olive oil)

Mix the flour, herb of choice, salt. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture. Combine egg, water and oil. Add to dry mixture, mix well.
Knead the mixture until dough is smooth and elastic (8 to 10 minutes). Roll out the dough to the desired thickness and cut into noodles.
This made more than enough dough for the soup. I have over half of the dough leftover.

Nutmeg

Butternut Squash Pasta

I saw this recipe posted at work, and, per my usual, did it slightly differently (although I did follow it pretty darn closely - but then, it's a simple recipe, so there wasn't much I could have changed anyway).

Butternut Squash Pasta

1 butternut squash - roasted
1/2 of a medium onion - diced
about 1 clove garlic - diced
1 cup broth
1 cup light cream (half and half)
olive oil
salt and pepper
nutmeg
parmesan cheese

Roast the squash (I did this by cutting it in half and baking in the oven for a while until it was soft), scoop out the flesh and mash it. Saute the onion and garlic in olive oil until translucent and soft. You can then puree the squash and onion/garlic together if you want (which is what the original recipe had you doing, actually it also had you roast the onion with the squash first and then puree it together), or just mash it up until it has a consistency you're okay with. Add the broth, light cream, and salt and pepper and let it simmer together for a bit (depends on how thick you want it), but mostly just until it's warm and the flavors have blended. Serve it over pasta (we did fettucine and spaghetti), grate or sprinkle a bit of nutmeg

and parmesan cheese and dig in.



We only used about half the sauce the first night and so I re-purposed it the next night by mixing it with spinach, cottage cheese, parmesan cheese, and elbow macaroni, putting some bread crumbs on top and baking it at around 375 degrees for 30 minutes or so - nice little pasta bake, though not nearly as rich and yummy as the first night.

-Thyme

Cream O'Somethin' Soup Mix

Just wanted to steer you all towards this recipe for cream o'whatever-you-like soup mix. You can use it in place of a can of cream of mushroom, chicken, etc. soup in casseroles, soups, or whatever else you can think of. It's cheaper, more nutritious, lower in sodium, and to me it tastes a lot better. The recipe I've tried and liked is found at http://southernfood.about.com/od/ingredientsubstitutions/r/bl90911a3.htm . Hopefully they don't take it down any time soon.

My changes to it were omitting the marjoram (I don't have it currently) and adding about 1 tbsp of rubbed sage. The sage was an accident because I thought it called for it but it didn't really. I thought it tasted good, although you could probably get away with less than 1 tbsp. I also almost always forget the butter, but it still tastes great.

Rosemary

I decided to go ahead and show the text here for ease of finding it and in case they do take it down. But check out the link for more ideas.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups dry milk
• 3/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 cup chicken bouillon granules
• 2 tablespoons dried onion flakes, optional
• 1 teaspoon dried leaf thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried leaf basil, optional
• 1/2 teaspoon dried leaf oregano, optional
• 1/2 teaspoon ground marjoram, optional
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 2 to 3 teaspoons butter
  

Preparation:

Combine all ingredients except butter together and store in airtight container. To use, mix 1/2 cup dry soup mix with 1 1/4 cups water and cook until thick; add butter. This is equal to one can cream soup. The mix makes enough to equal 9 to 10 cans. For cream of mushroom or celery soup, add chopped sauteé mushrooms or celery along with the butter while cooking.

Borscht

I am a bad food blogger. I admit this. I never, ever, remember to pull out my camera when I'm cooking. If I'm good, I might remember to take a picture of the finished product, but any of the steps - no pictures. Which leads me to this morning. We'd gotten beets in our CSA a week or two ago, and I picked up a small head of cabbage at the store this week, and with the weather finally cooling off, I decided it was time to try borscht. So I just finished almost an hour of cutting and frying and stirring and now there's a big pot of red veggies on my stove and I came to the living room to type down what I just did so I could remember it and my husband goes - "so...you're not taking any pictures, then?" D'oh!

Borscht

3 or so medium beets (grated)
1 small head cabbage (sliced thinly)
4 medium potatoes (cut into chunks)
2 carrots (grated)
1 onion (chopped)
1 can tomato sauce (or tomato paste)
beef broth
garlic
parsley
lemon juice
salt
sour cream

I grated the beets and carrots, and chopped the onion, then sauteed them in a little bit of olive oil (and a bit of sausage grease I had left over from breakfast). One of the recipes I saw said to add about a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar to preserve color, so I did. Then I put the potatoes in the broth (four cups worth of it, about, made from bouillon cubes) and brought it to a boil. Tossed in the sliced cabbage after a few minutes, let it cook down just a touch, then added the beet mixture, as well as the garlic and parsley and tomato sauce. I tossed in a little bit extra water, pretty much just enough to kind of swish out the saute pan and can of tomato sauce. Another recipe said to let it come to a boil, then let it sit and cook in its own heat for a few hours. We'll try that and update you later with the results...

Update: The verdict is - this was good! I ended up letting it simmer for a bit, then just sitting most of the day until we got home from church, and then heating it back up for dinner. It made a lot. A lot. We had three friends over, set aside leftovers for our lunches and still had some to send home with them. Served it with sour cream. And yes, I forgot to take a picture. Even after reminding myself to take a picture, I still forgot. Oh, and let me know if there are any steps I forgot to write down - it seems to me I left something out.

Thyme

Chicken Stir-Fry with Coconut Peanut Sauce

This recipe may sound a bit crazy at first glance. Basically what happened is I started with the Tempeh Stir-Fry with Yogurt Peanut Sauce recipe in the Betty Crocker Cookbook and substituted about half of the ingredients with something else, as is my want. Like Thyme, I rarely follow a recipe. So here is what I came up with. The only problem with it was that it made inadequate leftovers. Better luck next time!

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter (I used the kind you have to stir)

1/4 cup or so canned coconut milk (I had some leftover from my latest attempt at Maharage. Thymne, I seriously want you to post that recipe.)

1 tbsp honey

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken (I used tenderloins), marinaded and cut into thin strips.

teriyaki marinade to cover chicken, reserve 3 tbsp for sauce (I made the one that is in the same cookbook and actually followed that recipe. You should be proud.)

1 medium onion, cut into thin wedges

8 oz green beans (whatever was actually left in my bag of frozen whole green beans)

1 cup cooked spaghetti squash

crushed red pepper, to taste

Marinade the chicken for at least an hour in the refrigerator, but no more than 24 hours. Or, if you're like me and never think that far in advance, I learned a cool trick. Just put the frozen chicken and the marinade in a bag together in the microwave and defrost them together. Then you don't have to do extra marinading time.

Whisk together the 3 tbsp marinade, peanut butter, coconut milk, and honey and set aside. I actually forgot to set the marinade aside, so I did this at the last minute using stuff that had been on the chicken, but it was cooked later, so we're all salmonella free here.

Perforate a spaghetti squash thoroughly and microwave 10-20 minutes, depending on the size.

While you're waiting, you can continue cooking. Once it's done, open it up, scoop out the seeds, and fluff with a fork. (You'll notice I only used about 1 cup. That's because I didn't perforate thoroughly enough. The sad results you can see for yourself. 1 cup is about what I salvaged, but it ended up being the perfect amount. Next time I'll probably double or triple the recipe anyway so I can use the whole thing and have lots of leftovers.)

If using a wok, get it as hot as you can. Add oil followed immediately by the onions and green beans. Toss as you cook. Remove when mostly cooked. Allow the pan to reheat, which won't take long. Add 1 tbsp more oil and throw in the chicken (make sure the marinade is drained off). Stir it a bit as it cooks, leaving it alone long enough to get a little bit of browning. Once the chicken is cooked, throw the onions and green beans back in as well as the spaghetti squash, the peanut sauce, and the crushed red pepper. Stir in until everything is hot again. Serve and enjoy.

If you're not using a wok, just stir-fry/saute as normal in your saute pan and follow the same order.

Rosemary

Tomato and corn pie

This week we got a massive tomato (seriously, it was like 2 lbs or so), and a few ears of corn, so I thought - hey, I just saw a recipe that uses these things. I'll just point you to the recipe at smittenkitchen.com rather than rehashing it here 'cause her pictures are so much better than I could have ever done, but here's what I did differently (because heaven forbid I follow a recipe exactly). I sliced my tomatoes in strips, rather than leaving them in whole slices, although I did seed them and let them sit in a colander for a few minutes to drain a bit more. I also added some minced garlic, and used parmesan and mozzarella cheese instead of sharp cheddar ('cause that's what we had). And I forgot to brush the butter on the crust. Oh, well, it turned out good. It was almost too tomato-ey and the lemon/mayo mixture was pretty strong, but by the time I had it for leftovers a day or two later, it was perfect. I highly recommend it.

Thyme

Pesto Potatoes

I made my first attempt at pesto this week. And even though I didn't have pine nuts (or any nuts, actually) it turned out pretty darn good.

Pesto

1 cup or so of fresh basil leaves
olive oil
parmesan cheese
garlic

Put all of that in a food processor, and pulse it until it's all mixed together. Play with the amounts of olive oil and parmesan until it seems like it's the consistency you want it. Oh...the smell...it's like heaven. The only thing I wish I'd done differently is made more

So then, here's what I did with it:

4 or 5 potatoes, sliced
1 cup swiss chard, chopped
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
pesto
mozarella cheese

I just layered all of this together and baked it in the oven for about an hour or so. Our oven is kind of screwy, so I'm not sure exactly what the temperature was or how long it was in there for (we'll guess 350ish for about an hour). Next time I'd probably boil the potatoes a bit first so that they were partially cooked which would cut down on oven time.

Thyme

Zucchini zucchini everywhere, and not a bite to eat.

Right now is perhaps my favorite time of year. The sun is out, the grass is green, I've got a bit of a tan, and zucchini is in season. I love, love, LOVE zucchini! It is, perhaps, my favorite vegetable. And for a person who has very few favorites, that is quite a high compliment.

If there's one thing about zucchini season that drives me crazy though, it's all of the people with prolific zucchini plants who bemoan their abundance and grouse about their lack of options. "How much zucchini bread can one family possibly eat? Even if we freeze it, we still have too much." Pish posh! Zucchini is a delightful and versatile vegetable.

As an enthusiastic response to some of my friends who complained thus about zucchini, I put together a 4-page handout all about zucchini. Rather than post my entire handout and risk it being plaigarized (Hey! I worked hard on that!) I'll just list my suggestions here along with a couple of recipes. Happy eating!

Twenty Ways to Eat Zucchini

1. Cut into slices and add to fajitas or stir fry.

2. Put shredded zucchini in a quiche or frittata.

3. Zucchini fritters.

4. Cut into slices, saute in extra virgin olive oil or butter with garlic, salt and pepper. Eat it as a side or on top of pasta with parmesan.

5. Ratatouille! If you don't like egg plant, you can always add more zucchini.

6. There are these cute little globe-shaped zucchini. Stuff them! Can't find them? You can stuff regular ones. They just won't be as cute.

7. Grill it. Marinade in your favorite meat marinade. Slice in half and lay directly on the grill or put large chunks on a skewer.

8. Keep a bag of frozen zucchini chunks in the freezer. Toss handufls into casseroles, soups, stews, mixed vegetables, and more!

9. Slice it up and dress it up for a cold zucchini salad. Slice more thinly for a zucchini slaw.

10. Battered and fried (or oven fried). Nothing says "indulgence" like fried zucchini sticks.

11. Add layers of thinly sliced zucchini to your next lasagna.

12. Soup it up. Make tortellini and zucchini soup or cream of zucchini soup.

13. Zucchini on pizza? Why not? Try it on a Mediterranean themed pizza with feta and tomatoes.

14. Roast with olive oil and herbs. Add other vegetables like asparagus and summer squash if you like.

15. All you need for a solid casserole is a starch (pasta, potatoes, rice), protein (tuna, chicken, ground beef, beans), a sauce (tomato, cream of chicken soup), and a vegetable. Make zucchini the star vegetable.

16. Tired of slicing bread? Make zucchini muffins instead. Vary the spices and add-ins.

17. Using a tempura batter, fry the zucchini blossoms. It's considered a delicacy.

18. Steam chunks or slices of zucchini and serve atop fettuccine for a refreshing, delectable pasta primavera.

19. Make noodles. Use a vegetable peeler to make long, thin strips of zucchini. Steam or microwave and top with your favorite pasta sauce.

20. Why make another loaf of zucchini bread? Make chocolate zucchini cake.

And if that hasn't gotten your creative juices going, here are a couple of recipes to get you going. The first I found in a cookbook compiled by women in my home town. The second is one I came up with after adapting other recipes.

Zucchini Brownies

1/2 c. melted butter or margarine

1/3 c. vegetable oil

1 3/4 c. sugar

2 eggs

2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour (you can substitute half whole wheat flour or use whole wheat pastry flour)

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

4 T. baking cocoa

1/2 c. sour milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 c. grated raw zucchini

1 c. chopped walnuts (optional)

6 oz. semi-sweet chocolat chips (not optional if you want them nice and gooey out of the oven)

Preheat oven to 350° F. Combine the butter, oil, sugar and eggs; mix well. Sift the flour, salt, baking soda and cocoa together. Add the flour mixture and sour milk 1/3 at a time to the butter mixture. Add the vanilla and zucchini; mix well. Stir in the walnuts. Pour into greased 9 x 13 pan. Sprinkle with the chocolate chips. Bake for 35 minutes or until brownies test done. Let cool, store covered in the refrigerator. Yield: 30 to 40 brownies.

Italy with Almonds

I named this dish for the great colors in it (red and green like the Italian flag) and for the Italian ingredients. For an extra special treat, use real Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.

Serves 2

1-2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper (optional)

2 cloves garlic, smashed with a large, flat blade, but still whole (you’ll take them out later)

1/3 cup sliced almonds

2-3 cups thinly sliced zucchini

1 cup diced red sweet pepper

Salt and pepper to taste

2 cups dried pasta

Parmesan cheese to taste

1. Lightly brown garlic and almonds in oil with salt and red pepper flakes. Add zucchini and peppers, adding the rest of the salt and pepper.

2. Meanwhile, cook pasta.

3. Serve hot. Spoon zucchini mix over pasta. Top with cheese.

Rosemary

In search of...

a good peanut butter cookie recipe. I know I might get shunned for this but, I don't like peanut butter cookies. They always seem dry, crumbly, hard and lacking that peanut butter goodness I think they should have. In an attempt to keep them from permanently being on my bad list I'm enlisting your help. If any of you have a good recipe and/or suggestions to make a great peanut butter cookie please share.

Nutmeg

Bruschetta

I learned something today - bruschetta refers to bread rubbed with garlic and olive oil, not just the tomato topping that I've thought it was. Apparently there's been a bit of a linguistic shift, and now both the bread and the topping can and are referred to as bruschetta, but purists would say it's just the bread part. But definitions aside, here is one heck of an appetizer, or at least my version of it.

Bread (any kind of good crusty bread/baguette will do - it works good with bread that's just a touch stale)
olive oil
fresh tomatoes
garlic
fresh basil
touch of salt

Slice the bread about 1/4 inch thick or so, brush it with olive oil and broil it for just a minute or so on each side in an oven or toaster oven until it's all browned and toasty.

Chop the tomatoes, add a glug of olive oil, some minced garlic, freshly chopped basil, and just a little bit of salt (I did like two turns or so of the salt grinder). Let the mixture sit for a bit to let all the flavors really meld, and then scoop it onto the bread and eat it.

Thyme

Gooey and Delicious Cinnamon Rolls

I never considered myself one who was big on hoarding recipes. I fancied myself quite generous actually, but suddenly I find I am reluctant to divulge my secrets...mostly just because they aren't really secrets at all and I will now be exposed as a person who can simply follow a recipe. But, that is the price we pay for having fantastic recipes around, and this is one of them. It comes from the "A Treasury of Top Secret Recipes" by Todd Wilbur, it is his recreation of the Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll. Here is what you do:

For the Rolls:

1 1/4 oz package active dry yeast (since I'm not sure exactly what that is I throw in about 2 TBS)
1 cup warm milk
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup margarine (I like butter better) melted
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour

Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk in a large bowl. Throw in everything else but the flour and mix it well. Then slowly add the flour and start getting your elbows good and dirty kneading it (this is the best part, get out all those frustrations grrr)

Put the dough into a bowl, cover and let it rise for about an hour or until it is doubled in size. Once it is you can take it out, plop it on a floured surface and roll it out to about a quarter of an inch thick. Melt or soften some butter and spread it all over then sprinkle on some brown sugar (the recipe says about a cup), and some cinnamon (about 2 1/2 TBS). I like to throw in a hint of nutmeg too.




Roll it up and using some handy dandy floss cut it into about 1-2 inch chunks. place them on a pan and let them raise another 1/2 hour or so. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Just until thy are beautifully golden brown. mmmm, making myself hungry!




Now for the BEST part. The icing.

8 TBSP margarine or butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup (2 oz) cream cheese
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp salt

Throw them all together and mix it good. When the cinnamon rolls come out let them cool slightly and then slather this rich goodness all over the top. You won't regret it. I promise.



Cayenne

Our new favorite way to eat yellow squash

Sorry, no pictures. Mostly because these have been mid-week meals, which means it's all about just getting it on the table and in our mouths. Anyway, we've gotten several yellow squash in our deliveries of late, and this is the surefire way for all of us to enjoy it.

Slice up the squash, fry it up in some butter (either the real stuff, or olive oil, I don't think margarine would give as good a flavor), toss in a chopped tomato, some basil and garlic. Add a little bit of the pasta water (you know, the water that the pasta has been cooking in) to help make it into more of a sauce. Serve it with pasta (we've liked it with the whole wheat rotini pasta) and lots of parmesan. Quick, simple, nutritious (mostly) and highly adaptable.

Thyme

Dill pickles

Okay, I don't actually like pickles. None of those weird pregnancy pickle cravings for me, thank you very much. However, we got an plethora of cucumbers from our farm delivery a couple of weeks in a row, so I had to do something. Luckily my husband and many of our friends do, so I made some pickles. These are just the refrigerator kind - I'm still trying to work up the courage to actually can something. Also, I sort of doubled the recipe, but think I put too much salt in (at least the verdict was that they were a bit too salty).

Kosher dill pickles

2 lbs cucumbers, halved or quartered
1 large bunch of dill
5 cloves or so garlic (the recipe called for whole smashed clovers, I just had the pre-minced stuff on hand)
1/3 cup kosher salt
1 c. water

Boil the water, add the salt and stir until it dissolves. Put the dill, garlic, and cucumbers in a large bowl. Pour the brine (that would be just the salt and water mixture) over the other ingredients. Add more water until it's all covered. Put a plate with some kind of weight on top of it over this, so that it keeps all the cucumbers submerged (as seen in the picture). Let it sit out on the countertop for a day or so. You can start checking for taste about four hours after you do it, but it'll take up to 48 hours for them to really be pickled. Refrigerate them in the brine, and they'll keep for a week or so (honestly, we've had them in there longer, but my sources say they're still good).

Thyme

Cinnamon Peach Frozen Yogurt

Okay, so I actually made this like a month ago. But it took me that long to get around to downloading the picture, so...my bad? Anyway, I'm pretty sure I still remember how I did it. Here goes:

Cinnamon Peach Frozen Yogurt

1 pureed peach
2 cups plain yogurt
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla, if desired
cinnamon to taste

Mix all of that together, chill it for a bit, put in the ice cream maker - yummmmmm.

Thyme

Fruit Soup and Vanilla ice Cream

There's a Spanish restaurant around here that we love and it has this incredible dessert. It's a fruit soup with scoop of cheese ice cream, sprigs of mint, and fresh berries. Well, since we have a bunch of fruit hanging around and a brand-new ice cream maker that's still crying out to be used, I decided to experiment.

Fruit Soup

1 peach
2 small red plums
1 apricot
cherries (1 c. or so)
strawberries (maybe 1/2 cup?)
blueberries (probably around 1 or 2 cups)
freshly ground nutmeg (probably came to around 1 tsp)
fresh ginger (1/2 an inch or so)
sugar
water

I had some of the medium syrup left over from trying strawberry sorbet and watermelon yogurt ice a week or so before, so I just used that, but it probably would have been about 1/2 c. sugar and a cup or so of water. Anyway, peel, core and slice the fruit (you can use this particular combination of fruit, or whatever similar ones you have on hand) as necessary and put it in the pot with the sugar, water, and spices (feel free to adjust the spices as you desire and use ground/dried if you don't have fresh stuff). Simmer for 15 or 20 minutes until the fruit has fallen apart and practically dissolved. Puree it, then strain it through a sieve. The soup from the restaurant is more like a broth - they obviously just used the strained juices, but we tossed some of the pureed fruit back in for texture (and because I only have a very tiny strainer and stuff fell over the sides). Put in the fridge to cool.

Vanilla Ice Cream

2 c. half and half or milk
1/2 c. sugar
6 egg yolks
1 c. heavy cream, more milk, or half and half
1-2 tsp vanilla

I'd found a recipe for chocolate ice cream, and basically left out the chocolate, and I'd been reading several other ice cream recipes, so I kind of mentally combined them all to make this.

Combine dairy product (we ended up using about 1 1/2 cups each of whole milk and half and half total in the recipe) of your choosing, with 1/2 c. sugar in saucepan. Heat until steam is coming off the milk but it's not boiling yet. Remove from heat.

With a whisk or mixer, combine the egg yolks with the other 1/4 c of sugar until it's all yellowy and frothy (the recipe said 2-4 minutes, but I did it just a bit longer). Temper the eggs by adding about 1/2 cup of the warm half and half slowly while mixing it up. Add the tempered eggs to the rest of the milk, and cook it over medium-low heat until it's a bit thicker. Don't boil it!

Strain it into a bowl, add the last cup of dairy product. Add more sugar if you want, and this is when I added the vanilla. Chill it in the fridge, then make it into ice cream using your ice cream machine!

Once we finally got the ice cream to freeze (I'm not sure whether our ice cream machine bowl wasn't cold enough, it was too hot, or the ice cream mixture wasn't cool enough, but it didn't set up at all the first time we tried it, so we gave it another shot the next day after everything went back into the fridge/freezer), we served it up and it was yummy! Not adding the pureed fruit back in would make it much smoother obviously, but it was good this way, too. All in all, a success!

Sorry no pictures - I would have taken one of the finished, dished-up product but my stinker of a son was having a bad night.

Thyme (Formerly known as A - see, it only took me like a month to pick a spicy nickname)

Grilled beets and yellow squash

Okay, so we did this for the fourth of July, which as you might be able to tell from the date I post this, was over a week ago. I just got around to uploading the pictures - my bad. Anyway, in addition to gobs of other good food, we grilled these veggies and they were yummy.

Grilled beets
Sliced fresh beets (about 1/4 inch thick) - I had three or four medium ones
olive oil
rosemary



Cut up the beets, coat them in olive oil, add rosemary, grill. They sat in the fridge for an hour or so before we grilled them, but that was just for time management purposes, not because they need to sit or anything. We grilled them on a piece of aluminum foil since they were kind of small and we didn't want them falling through the grill rack.

Grilled yellow squash
Four medium yellow squash - quartered (you could slice them too, if you wanted)
lemon juice
olive oil
fresh chives
fresh basil
minced garlic



I whisked together about equal parts lemon juice and olive oil, added the cut up fresh herbs and garlic, and then coated the squash in it. Let it marinate for a while (more than fifteen minutes, but probably not more than overnight - ours sat in the fridge for a couple of hours). Grill. You could do smaller chunks and put them on skewers (we did that last year with zucchini and yellow squash) but this time we just quartered them and put them directly on the grill.

End result:

Yummy and colorful!

A (I'll pick a better nickname eventually)

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies That Stay That Way

I finally found the chocolate chip cookie recipe that I've been dreaming of. The cookies come out beautifully and stay nice and chewy. I found it on RecipeZaar. Thanks LuuvBunny, whoever you are. Here's the magic potion:

3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour (I used half whole wheat in the cookies pictured and all whole wheat pastry flour in another batch. Both turned out wonderfully)
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp baking soda
8 oz chocolate chunks (approximately 1 1/2 cups) (you can substitute about 1 1/2 cups of any mix-ins you like)

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Cream together butter and sugars until creamy. (Do not skip this or just do it until they're mixed! Cream them and you will not regret it.)
3. Add egg and vanilla; blend well.
4. In another bowl combine flour, cornstarch and baking soda.
5. Add to butter mixture and then add chocolate chunks.
6. Drop by tablespoons onto a greased baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes, until golden brown around the edges. (I actually rolled them in balls. I also found that in my oven they needed 2-4 minutes longer, but that might just be my oven.)

Now, I am a dietitian, so in a lot of my recipes I will make comments about nutrition. First, to make them more nutritious, use half regular whole wheat flour or all whole wheat pastry flour and mix in dried fruit and nuts. Serve with milk.

Also note that the cookies in the picture used half whole wheat flour, half regular flour. I also used white chocolate chips and raisins instead of regular chocolate chips. They tasted wonderful, although the white chocolate was almost too sweet. Some macadamia nuts would have made them perfect.

Rosemary

Strawberry Sorbet and Watermelon Ice

My first post is kind of a cheat. I've copied and pasted it from my other blog. But I figure if anyone's looking for my recipes down the road, they'll be looking here and not there. So here it is. Enjoy!

I took a ton of pictures so that I could blog about our experiments with the ice cream maker. But I was dumb and forgot to take pictures of the finished products. So here are just a few pictures to illustrate a couple of recipes. But before I get to that, here are a few important definitions. I am quoting directly from On Cooking, a textbook written by chefs, for chefs. As a side note, I LOVE that book. Everything I have made from that book has been divine.

Ice Cream: custard that is churned during freezing. Gelato is an Italian-style ice cream. It is denser than American-style products because less air is incorporated during churning. The USDA requires that products labeled "ice cream" contain not less than 10 percent milk fat and 20 percent milk solids, and have no more than 50 percent overrun[the amount of air churned into an ice cream].

Ice Milk: refers to products that do not meet the standards for ice cream.

Frozen Yogurt: uses yogurt as its base. Although touted as a nutritious substitute for ice cream, frozen yogurt may have whole milk or cream added for richness and smoothness.

Sherbet: frozen mixture of fruit juice or fruit puree. Sherbet contains milk and/or eggs for creaminess...

Sorbet: frozen mixture of fruit juice or fruit puree...sorbet contains neither[milk and/or eggs].

Strawberry Sorbet
from On Cooking

4 oz (about 1/2 cup) granulated sugar
1 tsp pectin
8 fl oz. (1 cup) medium syrup*
1 lb strawberries, hulled and pureed (about 4 cups when cut into chunks)
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

*To make medium syrup, boil 1 1/2 parts sugar and 1 part water (by weight) for 2 minutes. Cool. When I make it from 3 cups sugar and 2 cups water, it's enough for at least 3 batches of sorbet.

1 Mix the sugar and pectin together, add the syrup and bring to a boil. Remoe from the heat and cool completely.

2 Add the pureed berries and lemon juice; strain. Adjust the flavor with additional sugar or lemon juice as needed. (We've used very ripe strawberries that taste wonderful on their own, so we haven't needed to adjust. If you use some that don't taste as good, you'll probably need more sugar.) (Hint: If you microwave lemons and limes for a few seconds, you'll get a lot more juice out with a lot less effort. Also, squeezing them upside-down can prevent seeds from getting into your dish.)

3 Pour the mixture into an ice cream/sorbet machine and process according to the manufacturer's directions. (Hint, chill mixture to at least 40° F and put ice cream maker core and paddle in the freezer to get ice cream faster and with a much better texture.)

4 You will die because this tastes so good. Or perhaps you will simply never want to buy anything labeled strawberry sorbet again because this is SO MUCH BETTER!


Watermelon Yogurt Ice
from Eating Well Magazine

1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
4 cups diced seedless watermelon (about 3 pounds with the rind)
1 cup low-fat vanilla yogurt
1 tbsp lime juice

1 Combine water and sugar in a small saucepan. Cook, stirring, over high heat until the sugar is dissolved. (FYI: This is a simple or light syrup as opposed to the medium one we used in the last recipe.) Transfer to a glass measuring cup and let cool slightly.

2 Puree watermelon in a food processor or blender, pulsing until smooth. Transfer to a large bowl. Whisk in the cooled sugar syrup, yogurt and lime juice. Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into another large bowl, whisking to release all juice. Discard pulp. Pour mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's directions.

3 Enjoy on a hot summer day or evening. It's not rich like the sorbet but it is very nice and refreshing. Best when slushy.

Rosemary

ADDITION TO THE ORIGINAL POST:
Two nights ago we made sorbet again. I only had about half the strawberries I needed, so I made up the other 8 oz. with frozen mango chunks. It was amazing! You lost a touch of the strawberriness (naturally), but it was still very strawberryish. The mango made it incredibly smooth and creamy. I didn't even strain it and it was wonderful. So take that under advisement next time you're making sorbet.

We'll call it Tomato and Beet Greens Pasta

Okay, so no one else has posted yet, but I'll go ahead and step up to the challenge. We got our latest farm delivery this week and in it was more broccoli, green onions, and making it's debut - beets! Complete with greens. Plus I had three lovely tomatoes fresh from my backyard that needed using. So here's what I came up with.

2 1/2 tomatoes (there would have been three full ones, but the ants got to them)
1 beet top with greens (I'm saving the beets for something else)
1 green onion
1 tbs or so minced garlic (I have the pre-minced stuff on hand)
red pepper flakes
olive oil
parmesan cheese
1 head broccoli
whole wheat penne pasta

I chopped the tomatoes, beet greens, and green onion and sauteed them in the olive oil with the garlic. I saved the actual green leafy part of the beets until everything else had kind of broken down, but I tossed the harder red parts in earlier. I also added a bit of oregano and some red pepper flakes for a bit of a kick. Basil would probably be good, too, but I didn't add it this time. At the end, I also added some parmesan cheese (fresh would have been much better, but I only had the fake grated kind).

While all of that deliciousness was cooking, I boiled some water and cooked about a half a box or so of whole wheat pasta, penne-shaped. When that was about 2/3 done, I added some chopped broccoli and let it cook with the pasta until done. Drain, stir in the sauce, serve and add more parmesan.

For all that we're kind of sick and no one had much of an appetite, we thought this was yummy. Plus, it was very pretty and colorful. I'd take pictures, but it's already mostly been eaten and let's face it - leftovers never look as good. Also, I'd like everyone to take note of how hard I tried to post amounts - I can't promise I'll be this good in the future. But this was pretty simple, so I managed.