Candied Squash

A couple of weeks ago I went through a butternut squash phase. It blows me away that a vegetable can be SO good just by itself. Growing up every vegetable was usually smothered in either butter, gravy or cream cheese at our household. I can bake butternut squash with just water and be perfectly happy gobbling it up straight out of the oven.

One recipe I've been waiting to try is Pasta with Butternut Parmesean Sauce from Simply Recipes. This pasta was very yummy with a very good combination of sweet and savory...so in other words, it was rich. If I made it again I think it would have to be made as a side or with something bitter on the side. This pasta is a little too rich to eat by itself...which we attempted. I was very pleased that Kellen tried this recipe because he claims he doesn't like squash...and he liked it!

Another recipe I had on the waiting list was Butternut Squash with Browned Butter and Thyme from Simply Recipes. Butternut squash AND browned butter...yes please. I made it for Thanksgiving dinner at my parents in lieu of candied yams. I really don't like candied yams and no one eats them in my family. So I followed this recipe (omitting the Thyme) and at the end I spread the squash into a ceramic dish and tossed marshmallows on top. I then "toasted" them it in the oven...I in reality charred them and advise that you don't take your eyes off them this step. It turned out to be very good and MUCH better than candied yams. My family actually ate some. I consider that an accomplishment. Also, I was surprised to find that when saved and then nuked in the coming days it was even better! I LOVE dishes like that. When you warm them in a microwave the marshmallows melt into a syrup which is incredible. Give this one a try...maybe for Christmas dinner in a couple of days?

PROCLAMATION!!! It's a Medieval Party.

        To celebrate all the Holgate birthdays in August/Early September we threw a Medieval birthday celebration. Clint and Riley really like to dress up and I kinda wanted to be over-the-top this year with this and Leah's tea party. It was so much fun!

 Introducing....Princess Leah!

King Kellen and Squire Clint

Friar Kalob and Lady Harmony...and other commoners.

Allison the Gypsy

 

Adam the Wizard

What medieval party would be any good without a feast? Our feast included goblets of juice and silver platters piled with food...and a speech from the king.

Doesn't this look like fun? We really only had enough sunlight for one of the tournament games. We jousted. This included pinning a balloon to our sides and trying to pop our opponents balloon with our Styrofoam lances with pins in the ends. It was so funny...as well as painful because we kept sticking each other! There was also a rule that we had to gallop which made it all the more ridiculous.

We also played slay the dragon with a dragon pinata. After all this I can only imagine what our new neighbors think of us. They probably think we are really into larping :)

A big thank you to everyone who celebrated with us! How cool is it that our family and friends would go out of their way to play along? And by the way...my parents were there as well....they managed to stay out of all my pictures.

P.S. I must mention this cake I made for the party....Doesn't it look incredible? Good news...it tastes as good as it looks!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Tiered Cake with a Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting and a Peanut Butter Chocolate Glaze... For REAL.

I had been day dreaming about this cake for weeks. It was a big hit and I need to share one of my favorite food blogs that brought it to my attention, Smitten Kitchen. Follow the link for this yummy recipe.

August 2008

Red Pepper Spagatti Sauce

Kellen is now vegetarian and because I've never really liked meat I'm fine with it. Our family gets to eat more of what I like and Kellen seems more adventurous. He made tofu lettuce wraps the other night and they were delicious!

Leah says that she only eats "chicken" which usually means steak and since we only eat steak once in a blue moon, she is basically a vegetarian as well and okay with it. She is going to have to learn to like fish... or we need to stop telling her it's fish before she attempts to eat it!  I think her problem with fish is that she see's her dad catch fish and has caught a few herself and so she is too sympathetic.

Back to the recipe! We can't get over this one. I made it up one week and we've made it every week since. Due to the garden producing so much summer squash...it's always served on the side all fried up..yumm. I still need to figure out how to cook summer squash another way...any ideas? I blend the onions and garlic in this sauce because I enjoy the smoothness and Leah will eat it easier but it is not necessary.

Red Pepper Sauce

Ingredients:

3 Cloves Garlic
Whole Onion
Whole Red Pepper (roasted)
16 oz Tomato Sauce
14 oz Crushed Tomato
Cayenne Pepper
(To taste)
2 cubes or teaspoons of Beef Bouillon
1 teaspoon Basil
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
Fresh Basil



1.  Dice onion and garlic roughly and saute both until translucent. Meanwhile, roast red pepper under broiler with olive oil until soft. Place onion, garlic and pepper in blender.

2.  Add 1/2 can of tomato sauce to the blender and blend until smooth. Pour blended mixture into pan. Add all of the remaining ingredients to pan (besides fresh basil) and let simmer for 30 min.

3. Add fresh basil and remove from heat.

08/02/09

Turkey Pesto Sandwiches

I'm not sure why Kellen and I get so excited about taking pictures of food. But we do. I wrote most of this blog like a year ago but never added pictures. We made these and Kellen and I had a quick photo shoot. You need to see these sandwiches to fully imagine their appeal.

With most recipes I start with someone else's recipe and morph...this is not one of those. This is my very own. This is perfection in a sandwich (if I do say so myself.) I made these once while my family was up from California and they wanted them the entire weekend... I think they forgot about them since. Maybe not for long.

INGREDIENTS:

Sourdough bread

Fresh Parmesan Cheese

Butter

Pesto (See Previous blog)

Thinly sliced turkey meat from deli counter

Cheddar Cheese

Alfalfa sprouts

1. Lightly butter or brush with olive oil two slices of bread. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese and then toast under broiler.

2. Turn bread over and spread pesto on both slices of bread. Add turkey to one slice and cheese to the other. Return to broiler until cheese is melted.

3. Add sprouts on top of the turkey side of sandwich and place cheesy half on top. Cut and enjoy!

Mmmmm!!!!!!

Me likey.

PESTO

I've been putting a lot of my recipes on Allrecipes.com. I like Allrecipes because I can easily add recipes from the site to my recipe box, add my own private recipes, organize my recipes and print them in a variety of sizes. Very handy for all the recipe clipings I find in magazines and print outs from food blogs, I just enter them into allrecipes and label them as to try. 

Unfortunately, this means that I have less motivation to document recipes on my blog. I'll try to keep it up though because I really do like taking pictures of food :) 

Pesto is something that we would like to always have on hand in our household. When basil is in season we normally make a batch a week. It is so handy and delicious. Replace pesto for mayonnaise on sandwiches or just boil some pasta and toss with pesto, wallaaa!

PESTO

Pesto is very simple to make. 

1. Start off with a bunch of basil. You can usually find a basil in the refrigiorated section of your produce department. Place as much leaves as you desire in a food processor. 

2. Add a handful of freshly graded parmesean cheese. PLEASE use fresh parmesean and not bottled Kraft, (yes, mother, I'm talking to you) and if you do not follow this advise please never admit to me. 

3. Add a handful of toasted almonds. I just grab a little bag from the baking aisle of slivered almonds...place them in a pan on high and stir so they don't burn. When they are all browned and fragrant take them out. I then put them in the freezer to cool a bit before placing them in the food processor. 

4. Add 1 or 2 cloves of garlic (your preference) and chop up ingrediants for a few seconds. Next start pouring in extra virgin olive oil while food processor is on untill it reaches your prefered consistency. 

All done! You can make pesto with just about anything...diffrent hard cheeses, nuts or fresh herbs. These are just my preferences. Also, pesto freezes well. So make a large batch!

Remember to sign up to follow my blog so your updated regularly. I plan on publishing a recipe for Turkey Pesto Sandwiches very soon.

Fruits and Veggies

To my horror our daughter does not like vegetables or fruit. Kellen loves vegtables....really...if they are available he will eat them like they are candy. I have learned to enjoy vegetables but I love fruit. Kellen will not eat fruit. Maybe Leah is just getting mixed messages. I don't know but I keep hoping that she is going to catch on that this is good stuff! I mean, really, Kellen and I make some really good vegetables and I am always eating fruit.

So I have decided to put forth a good effort to help her along. I'm going to trick her into loving both! I'm starting with fruit because it seems like it would be easier. My first attempt was fruit fondue. I cut up some fruit and gave her toothpicks to dip it in chocolate pudding. It kinda worked. She ate a few banana slices and then decided to just eat the pudding. This was a bit of success considering I can't normally get her to even eat one bite of a banana!

My second attempt has been a complete success story. Frozen banana popsicles. She gobbles them up. Who would have known? I think next time I'm going to add nuts to the outside to pack some protein with it :) If anyone has any idea for how to get her to eat veggies...PLEASE HELP!

Here's how we have been making them:

1. First I put some sugar-free fat free chocolate pudding in a bowl.

2. Next we break up some skewer sticks and stick them through the cut up banana's. I think about 3 inches of banana is a good serving for Leah.




3. We roll the banana around in the pudding. I just use my fingers. Leah tries to do it with the sick which is usually not very successful.

4. Next we put them on a wire rack on top of a cookie sheet and sprinkle with sprinkles :) This is to guarantee that she will eat them. After 2 hours of freezing I stick each individual popsicle in a sandwich bag.

EVIDENCE....

Roasted Veggies

I make these for my family whenever they are in town. My family aren't vegetable eaters, for the most part, so I get excited to make something they will eat. Everyone should know how to roast vegtables because it's just plain delicious. So this post is for my mom and Beki who always watch me make them and may appreciate online photo instructions.

My favorite roasted veggie combination is Cauliflower, Onion and Carrots. Anything will work...I think...so I encourage everyone to pick their favorite vegetables. I also roast asparagus frequently but usually by itself.

You'll need: Aluminum foil, Extra-Virgin Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper and Vegetables.

1) Cover baking sheet with aluminum foil (for easy clean-up) and preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2) Cut vegetables in chucks (I use baby carrots) and place on sheet.

3) Drizzle with olive oil. Not to much because olive oil will smoke at this temperature but not too little because you want the flavor.

4) Generously salt and pepper. Mix with your hand so that the veggies are glistening all over with oil.

5) Roast at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes until veggies look...roasted :) Be careful opening the oven...back away a little in case the oil is smoking, you don't want a face full of hot smoke.

Chicken BBQ Marinade

I am really digging posting recipes. Now I have an online recipe collection with pictures...I'll never lose my favorite recipes! Woohoo.

This marinade is kinda surprising. You don't really expect to use these ingredients for a BBQ marinade. It's no big deal but just nice to know. I don't remember where I got this recipe but I do remember that it is a fire house recipe that they use every year for a community cook-out. It doesn't really have any flavor...it just brings out the flavor of the chicken and keeps the chicken moist. You just have to try it to understand. We used it on Free Fishing Day.

2 Eggs
1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil
1 Cup of Cider Vinegar
1 1/2 Teaspoon Poultry Seasoning
1/4 Teaspoon Ground Black Pepper

Just mix these ingredients together and pour in bag then add chicken. Marinate for at least 1 hour. I recommend as long as possible :) It adds more flavor if you baste it while cooking. Enjoy.

Corn Chowder

Usually our dinners are centered around being healthy and cheap. I would like to say this is my specialty. Some may say it's impossible to have both but I usually find a way. This is even more important now that food prices have risen so high recently. I was just reading that children from homes suffering from poverty are more and more obese because their parents can't afford to eat healthy...very true. OFTEN it is more expensive to eat healthy (ex. skin-on chicken is much cheaper than skinless chicken which is much healthier) but there are some choices you can make that make a big difference. That was an odd rant leading into the thought that this is not one of those healthy choices...although it is cheap. For some reason I have to say that I am very good at making soups or chowders, it comes natural to me :) This is one of those recipes that I have made and evolved over a couple of years. I have never had a Corn Chowder outside my home so I am not sure if this is what others would taste like...but it is very yummy and a comfort food. I would consider his a semi-healthy meal that I always serve with cornbread muffins. This recipe makes one large pot of soup. We eat it for dinner...eat some leftovers for lunch and then freeze the rest for another dinner in a few weeks. If you freeze it make sure that you de-frost it in the fridge overnight. If you de-frost it other ways it will break down the potatoes.

INGREDIENTS:

4 Strips of bacon

1/2 Onion, chopped

4 Potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes

4 Cups of milk (or cream if your willing to risk the calories)
2 (11 oz) Can of cream style corn
1 Cup of frozen corn

2 Chicken breasts, boiled and cut into bite size pieces

3 Cubes chicken bouillon

3/4 Teas. Oregano

1 Teas. each of Pepper, Onion Salt, Garlic Powder

1 Tabl. corn starch

1) In a large pot over medium heat, cook the bacon until crisp. Drain off grease, leaving about 3 tabl in the pot. Place bacon aside.

2) Place onion in the pot and cook until translucent. Mix in the potatoes and cook until lightly browned on the outside. Stir in 2 cups of milk, 2 cups of water and 3 cubes of bouillon. Season with spices. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes or until potatoes are soft, stirring occasionally.

3)Pour in cream corn and whole frozen corn, crumble in bacon (or reserve for topping I like it crispy still and if you put it in the soup it will get chewy again) and add chicken. Continue to cook for 10 additional minutes.

4) Raise heat and stir in 1 cup of milk that has 1 tabl corn starch whipped in, until thickened.

Serve with cornbread. (I like to just use Betty Crockers packaged cornbread mix. I add a good amount of honey and some corn meal...almost as good as my mom's!)

Yummy Chicken- Cordon Bleu

So as a lot of you know, Kellen has been in Arizona for some shows for the last couple of days. I have been acting like he never leaves me alone at home. I was watching our local morning talk show the other day on TV and got a yummy recipe. This Chef has a cookbook based around previous prep that you freeze. I WANT it. But I did get this recipe and had a lot of fun making it. I love to cook and for some reason the thought of pounding chicken till it's thin excites me. Anyone else? ...Give this recipe a try :)

A fabulous meal that is perfect for making ahead and stashing in the freezer to save for an easy dinner down the road! Chef: Jenny Stanger

Ingredients: 1 (12 oz) bottle of Lawry’s 30 min. marinade or a homemade marinade. ( I made my own marinade...1 cup of buttermilk, which I make out of buttermilk powder...that's another story if you want to know...1 egg, 1/4 c vegi oil and spices. For me they are poultry seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper.)

6-8 Chicken Breasts, boneless, skinless: I asked the butcher to butterfly cut my breasts (chicken breasts that is for those of you who would be confused)

6-8 slices Swiss cheese (Deli)

6-8 slices of ham (Asked the deli to cut 8 slices of Honey Ham on the thicker side)

2 C. Italian flavored bread crumbs (I used regular crumbs and added spices like basil etc and still yummy!)

Yield: 8-10

Trim the fat off chicken breasts, slice chicken breasts in half (so it folds out like a heart) and slice down the center of the fold. Each breast will make 2 Chicken Cordon Bleu. (Sometimes more depending on how big your breasts are...some I got 2 and 1/2...one baby size for Leah)

Place chicken breasts in 3 large zip-top bags and pour in marinade in each bag. Marinate for 15 minutes minimum. I like to place mine the refrigerator overnight. After marinating, pound and flatten chicken breasts in the large zip top bags with a heavy pan until chicken is 1/4 inch thick (FUN PART). Lay out 2 flat plastic bowls, tooth picks, a cookie sheet and a paper towel. Melt butter in one flat bowl, pour bread crumbs in the other. Place the paper towel on the cookie sheet. Lay out 8-10 tooth picks. Open the zip top bags, spread chicken out on plastic so you can place meat and cheese on chicken breasts all at the same time. Place 1 slice of cheese and 1 slice of ham on each breast. You can slice some large chicken breasts in half to make smaller Chicken Cordon Bleu. Roll chicken and tuck sides in as much as possible. Secure with a toothpick. Dip in butter, roll in bread crumbs. Place on a paper towel and set in the freezer for 1 hour.

I place in individual bags after 1hour of freezing and then into bigger bag.

Place in a large zip top bag, label (Chicken Cordon Bleu 350 degrees 35 minutes)

To serve: Place frozen Chicken Cordon Bleu on a aluminum foil covered cookie sheet in the oven at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Serve warm with a green salad and breadsticks For more information and recipes visit: http://www.freezerdinner.com/

Harmony (sister-in-law) tried them after they were frozen and said that they were indeed yummy. I really liked them with steamed broccoli.