Ginger Buttermilk Pie

Okay, So this pie is da bomb!  No.  Really.  When I first heard of a buttermilk pie, the idea of it was strange.  The reality of it is uh-maze-ing!!  Jake has me make it for cookouts and dinner parties quite often. The only downside is I rarely get to eat as much as I'd like!

 Ingredients

2 Tbsp flour

1 Cup Sugar

3 Large eggs, beaten

4 oz. unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 Cup cultured buttermilk

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp ground ginger (I use 1 1/2 in my pies)

Premade pie crust or homemade pie crust

Preheat oven to 425° F.

 Combine sugar and remaining 2 tbsp of flour, add the eggs, melted butter, buttermilk, lemon juice, and ginger.  Mix very briefly.  Don't let it get frothy.

Pour filling into pie shell and bake for 10 minutes.  Reduce the temp to 350° F and bake about 20 minutes longer, until a fork comes out clean.  Let cool for about an hour and serve at room temp.

For some reason I didn't snap a picture of the final products.  Booooo.

Penne with Acorn Squash and Pancetta

We were given two beautiful acorn squash and new we needed to do something glorious with it.  Jake had been asking me to do something with them for a few days and honestly, I wasn't feeling very creative.  He found a great recipe online and cooked a fabulous meal.  I'm so glad my man can cook!!  Whoop! Whoop!

When I took the ingredients picture, we had set out sheeps milk cheese.  Jake initially wanted to use goats milk cheese but there wasn't any at the market, so he got the sheeps milk cheese with the hopes that it would be similiar.  It tastes a lot like feta, very salty.  After we cooked up the pancetta, it occured to us that the dish would be overly salty if we used the sheeps milk cheese so we used Parmesan.  Parmesan was the cheese that was in the recipe.  We keep a big block of it on hand.

This dish will be made again because we moaned the entire time we were eating it.  It was heavenly.  And I'm sure very fattening.  Even with the wheat pasta.  I do what I want!  And because I love food so much I am currently blowing up like a Thanksgiving blimp.  

Ingredients:

1 acorn squash

1 small head of garlic

1/2 pound penne

2 teaspoons olive oil, plus more for coating squash and garlic

1/2 pound pancetta, sliced 1/4-inch thick and diced

1/4 cup white wine

1 teaspoon chopped, fresh rosemary

1/4 cup grated Parmesan

 Preheat the oven to 400º F.

 Slice the squash in half and remove the seeds with a spoon.  Cut each half crosswise into wedges, about 1/2-inch thick.  Toss the wedges with a splash of olive oil until coated, and spread on a baking sheet.  Season with salt and pepper.

 Slice the top off of the garlic head so that the tops of the cloves are exposed.  Drizzle on a bit of olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and wrap in aluminum foil.  Place on the edge of the baking sheet with the squash.

Bake the squash and garlic for about 30 minutes, turning the squash once, until both are soft and slightly caramelized.  (Depending on how big the head of garlic is, it make take longer.  Leave it in the oven while you peel and chop the squash.)

Allow the squash to cool slightly.  In the meantime, bring a pot of water to boil (for the pasta).  Then, peel each wedge of squash and cut into large chunks.

 Heat the 2 teaspoons of olive oil over medium heat in a medium stock pot or large, wide sauce pan (you'll add the pasta to this pan at the end).  Sauté the pancetta until most of the fat is rendered and the meat is crispy, about 15 minutes.  About halfway through, cook the pasta, making sure to salt the water.

When the pancetta is finished coking, remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.  Deglaze the pan with the wine, scraping up any brown bits on the bottom.  Stir in the rosemary and about four cloves of the roasted garlic mashing them up in the liquid with the back of a spoon or spatula.

 Add the chunks of squash and pancetta to the pan.  Drain the pasta, reserving about 1/2 cup of the cooking water and add the pasta to the squash/pancetta mixture.  Toss everything to coat, then stir in the Parmesan.  Add a bit of the pasta water if the mixture seems too dry.

The Best Enchilada Sauce Youlleverhavethepleasureoftasting Recipe

This is a recipe that we found on foodnetwork.com.  It is Uh-Maz-ING!!  I make it often for I like to always have it on hand.  I use it in my Tortilla Soup recipe and on enchiladas... of course.  Jake and I have a saying that we could cook up a batch of poop and smother it in this sauce and it would taste delicious.  It will save anything.  We are hoping that our cousin's Mexican husband, Carlos, will be able to tell us how authentic it is.  They will be in town this weekend, and we are whipping up our best batch of enchiladas.  

I also think it's a lot of fun to make because there are so many ingredients.  I feel like I'm brewing up a spell.  There are many surprising ingredients in the sauce such as coffee, chocolate, and orange juice.

It doesn't really matter how good, or not good, your enchilada making skills are.  Once you got the sauce, they will be perfect.  =)

 Ingredients:

• 1 red bell pepper
• 2 cups canola oil
• 1 1/2 onions, chopped
• 10 (6-inch) corn tortillas
• 3/4 cup chili powder
• 1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons black pepper
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate
• 5 cups chicken stock
• 2 cups brewed coffee
• 1/2 cup orange juice concentrate

  Flame-roast bell pepper until skin is blistered, place in a bowl and wrap with plastic.  Allow to cool, then peel, seed, and chop.

Saute onion, bell pepper, and garlic until onions are lightly caramelized.

 Add tortillas torn into pieces.

 Add chili powder, cumin, cocoa powder, pepper and salt to release oil in the spices, about 1 minute using care not to burn the spices.

 Add chicken stock, coffee and orange juice concentrate.  Add chocolate, chopped into pieces.  Bring to a boil and simmer for about 45 minutes.  Remove from heat, carefully blend smooth in a processor or blender in batches (sauce should be smooth but still thick).  When blending hot liquids: Remove liquid from the heat and allow to cool for at least 5 minutes.  Transfer liquid to a blender or food processor and fill it no more than halfway.  If using a blender, release one corner of the lid.  This prevents the vacuum effect that creates heat explosions.  Place a towel over the top of the machine, pulse a few times then process on high speed until smooth.  Adjust the consistency with additional chicken stock if necessary.

Goat Cheese, Swiss Chard, and Bacon Quiche

I absolutely love this dish.  It is hearty and delicious at breakfast, lunch or dinner.  I made it last night, and unfortunately, the bacon I used was less than fresh.  Much less.  And I fried the swiss chard in the bacon grease.  Before I knew it, my entire quiche was infused with funkiness.  

I was thoroughly disappointed.  So many good ingredients went into the dish and were wasted.  Our fresh yard eggs, homegrown chard, and local goat cheese that we purchased at the farmers market were among the wasted goods.

But don't let that deter you from cooking this dish!  Haha.

Also, please forgive my iphone photos.  My camera batteries crapped out on me right as I was beginning to cook.  

Ingredients:

• pre-baked pie crust
• 6 large eggs
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup milk (organic whole milk is the best!!)
• 3-5oz fresh chard leaves
• 4-6 pieces of bacon (not funky)
• 3-4 oz chevre style goat cheese

I cut the chard hearts out, although they can be cut up and kept in and are quite beautiful.  Especially when you use rainbow swiss chard.

Cook bacon, and set aside to drain.  Using the same pan with bacon grease, add chard leaves over medium high heat.  Add a splash of red wine or water, and cover with pan lid.  Allow to sit for 2-3 minutes, until chard is wilted and reduced to about 1/3rd original size.  Set aside.  Dice cooked bacon into 1/4" pieces.

Whisk eggs, cream, and milk in a bowl with salt and pepper to taste.  Pour a little more than half of your mixture into your pre-baked crust.  Sprinkle bacon, kale, and small chunks of goat cheese over the top- evenly distributed.  Add remaining egg mixture.  Bake for 25-30 minutes until the quiche no longer wiggles in the middle when you shake it.  It should be puffed and beautifully golden brown.  Allow to cool 10 minutes, then slice into wedges and serve.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

1 pound shredded, cooked chicken
1 whole large peeled tomato, mashed
1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce
1 medium onion, chopped
1 jalepeno chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth or (4 cups of water and 4 chicken boullion cubes)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 hand full chopped cilantro
tortilla chips or tostadas

Directions

Place uncooked chicken, uncooked whole unpeeled, unmashed tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, jalapenos, and garlic into a slow cooker. Pour in water and or chicken broth, and season with cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Stir in cilantro. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 6 to 8 hours or on High setting for 3 to 4 hours.

After it has cooked take the chicken and tomato. Shred the chicken. Peel and mash the tomato. Put them back in the crock pot and cook remainder of time.

You can crumble the chips up and put them in the soup. I also put sour cream, cheddar cheese, and sliced avacodo in mine. It’s also recommended with a slice of lime.

It is delicious. I modified a recipe that used a lot of can goods. We like to eat fresh produce and aren’t big on canned stuff for the most part. You can use a can of mashed tomatoes. You can also use a can of green chilis instead of the jalapeno. Don’t be scared of the jalapeno though. It adds just the right amount of spice and we even leave the seeds in!!! Yummy yummy. It’s a good recipe to make earlier in the day if your not going to have time to make dinner at night.  It will make you want to lick the bowl.

Real Pesto Recipe

We eat a lot of pesto in this house.  Winona loves it on just about everything.  If she doesn't really seem to want to eat it, just add some pesto.  I love it on a juicy tomato sandwich.  And there is nothing tastier than homemade pesto.

Even better than homemade pesto is hand-chopped pesto.  Honestly, there isn't a better way to do it.  There is a great deal of flavor that is lost in all the ingredients when you put in in a food processor and pulverize the cuss out of it.  

Making pesto (and then eating it directly afterwards) is one of the things I look forward to most about Summer.  Here is how we do it.  It's really easy, just make sure you have a very sharp chopping knife.

Also I know everyone thinks pine nuts are outrageous.  We have had the same small jar for over a year.  It has gone a long way and to us its worth it.  We really like the flavor.

Ingredients

• 1 large bunch of basil, leaves only, washed and dried
• 3 medium cloves of garlic
• 1 small handful of raw pine nuts
• roughly 3/4 cup Parmesan, loosely packed and FRESHLY GRATED
• A few tablespoons of extra-virgin Olive oil

You want to chop some of the basil, add some of the pine nuts, add some of the garlic and chop, chop, chop.  Add some more basil, some more pine nuts, some more garlic and so on.  It is really important for the knife to be very sharp or you risk just bruising the basil.  Then its just slimy and ugly.

We like to keep a big block of Parmesan cheese on hand for all of our "Italian" cooking needs.  =)

Once you get everything chopped, form a nice little pesto cake.

Put it in your container and pour a few tablespoons of olive oil on top.  This wasn't supposed to be mixed for photo purposed but Jake got excited.  

It will keep in your fridge for a few days, but is best when eaten immediately.  It makes the perfect pasta sauce.  Just stir it all up and TADA.  Delish.  

Zucchini Bread

It is the season for zucchini and we have an abundance of it.  When we got back from our vacation we had four zucchinis ready to go.  What are we going to do with all of this zucchini??  EAT IT!  So I decided to make some zucchini bread today.  Honestly, it should be called zucchini cake because it is more of a cake than a bread.  It doesn't require a yeast or self rising flour.  It's really a cake batter poured into a bread pan.  

So, if you have a bunch of zucchini and do not know what to do with it all... make some bread.  This is a recipe that I slightly modified from the Joy of Cooking.  If you don't own this recipe book, go buy it.  No seriously, get up and go buy it now.

 One 9x5-inch loaf
Preheat the oven to 350ºF.  Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan.  Whisk together:

• 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

 Blend well in a large bowl:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

 Stir in the dry ingredients.  

 Blend in with a few swift strokes:

• 2 cups grated zucchini, squeezed of excess moisture

 Scrape the batter into the greased pan.  Bake until the bread pulls away from the sides of the pan, about 45 minutes.  

 Cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes before un-molding to cool completely on the rack.

Bucatini with Spinach, Tomatoes, and Goat Cheese

This is a recipe that I found online.  Karma Free Cooking has a lot of yummy recipes.  It's a recipe they adapted from the Iron and Wine Magazine February 2008 issue.  I simply doubled the recipe.
I needed to make something easy and with the ingredients that we had in the fridge.  Punched in a few ingredients and voila!  Oh how I love thee, Google.  During the Summer, we try to eat more veggies and less meat.  A nice light pasta fits the bill perfectly.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb bucatini or spagetti (although I'm pretty sure it would work with any pasta.)
• 3 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves-thinly sliced
• 16 grape tomatoes, halved (we used sun gold tomatoes because we had an abundance in the fridge)
• 3 big handfuls of baby spinach leaves
• 1/2 cup of freshly grated parmesan cheese
• a lot of crumbled goat cheese (can you ever have enough?)
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper

1. In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook the pasta until it is al dente.  Drain the pasta well, reserving 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water.
2.  Meanwhile, in a medium skillet, heat the olive oil.  Add the garlic and crushed red pepper, if using.  Cook over moderate heat until the garlic is tender, about 3 minutes.

3.  Add the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and cook over moderate heat until the tomatoes begin to release their juices, about 2 minutes.

4. Add the spinach and cook until wilted about 2 minutes.  

Serves 2

I was pleasantly surprised at how good the pasta was.  The goat cheese melted into the olive oil and created the nicest sauce.  

What are some of your easy summertime recipes?

Granola

 We go through a lot of granola at our house.  A LOT!  It is my favorite thing to eat for breakfast.  Granola with some Yogurt and milk...yum.  It is also very expensive to buy, so we make it ourselves.  I skimmed through many granola recipes and came up with a mixed variety of what we wanted to put in ours.  It was a success.  We will never buy granola again.  

Ingredients:

• 5 c. rolled oats
• 1 c. dried fruit (we used cherries)
• 1 c. nuts (we used cashews)
• 3/4 c. brown sugar
• 3/4 c. water
• 1/4 c. wheat bran
• 1/4 c. wheat germ
• 1/4 c. honey
• 1/4 c. molasses (we used blackstrap)
• 6 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

In a medium sauce pan, combine brown sugar, water, butter, honey, molasses, salt and vinegar.  While stirring, cook over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved.  Do not bring to boil.

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl and then pour the sauce mixture on top while stirring.

When it is all mixed, spoon a thin layer on cookie sheets.

Bake for 20 minutes and let sit until cooled.  Store in a airtight container.  

This recipe yeilds about 10 servings.

  

Choo Chee Pla (Fish with Curry Sauce) with a side of Flamed Spinach

     Yum.  This dish is easy and delicious.  It takes about half an hour to make.  If you can get up the guts to eat some Thai food, you won't be sorry.  Both dishes have fish sauce which is the most disgusting thing ever.  It is gross to think about and it stinks.  Just hold your nose and try not to think about it because without it, the dish is just a poor imitation.  So my advice to you is don't skimp the fish sauce.  Trust me!!!  

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of tilapia fillets
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 2 tablespoons red curry past
• 2 cups coconut milk
• 1/4 cup fish sauce
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• zest of 2 limes

Heat a large skillet and add the oil and curry paste.  Stir fry for 1 minute.

Add the coconut milk, fish sauce, sugar and the whole fish.  Cover and cook for 20 minutes, carefully turning the fish once.  Remove to a serving dish and sprinkle with the lime zest before serving.

This recipe called for swamp cabbage...whatever that is.  Honestly, I've no idea.  I've never ever seen it.  If you can find it, give it a try.  We used Spinach and it was great.  This dish is also called Pad Pak Boong Fi Daeng.  Boong?  Really?

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 lb swamp cabbage or spinach, cut into 1 in. pieces
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons black bean sauce
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 cup sliced green jalapeno pepper

Heat a large skillet until very hot; add the oil and all the remaining ingredients.  Quickly stir-fry for 30 seconds and serve. 

We left out the jalapeno pepper for Winona's dinner.  And yes, she actually ate this.  She is quite the adventurous eater.

Tada.  Isn't that beautiful?