Autumn-in-a-Bowl

Last year, we had lunch at a friend's house in Pennsylvania while visiting family for Thanksgiving.  We had grilled cheese and bacon sandwiches, on french bread with sauteed peppers and onions, and butternut squash and apple soup.  Well, *I* had the soup.  Brian dislikes butternut squash with the passion of a thousand suns.  (Good.  More for me.)  Since then, I've craved the soup but haven't found it anywhere.

So while shopping yesterday, I decided to do something about that.  I know that no one else in my house likes butternut squash.  And you know what?  I don't care.  I can freeze some, and give some away.  Sometimes when you want something you just want it.  And I really enjoy making soup, there's something quite satisfying about chopping up ingredients and simmering for hours.  Simmering for hours????  This time, I let the crockpot do it for me.

So at BJ's Wholesale, I grabbed two boxes of already-cubed butternut squash.  (butternuts are difficult to peel, so if "Green Giant" did the work for me, I was all about it!)

The ingredients.  (Not pictured, six cups of  chicken broth)

The recipe didn't call for sweating the onions in butter on the stove.  However, onions sauteed in butter is one of my absolute favorite smells in the world, and doing so doesn't take away from the recipe.  Saute away!

Everything into the crockpot, and set for 5 1/2 hours on low.  At that time, the spices go in.  I added allspice and cinnamon as the recipe called for, but didn't have cloves.  And I couldn't resist a little tinkering:  a bit of sage and a little ground ginger.

Then it was time for it to be blended together.  A stick blender is a really handy thing, especially one that can be dismantled for the dishwasher.  :)

The end result:  perfectly delicious butternut squash and apple soup!

I really need to do this again soon....perhaps pork and black bean soup next time.  (Cooks.....we're always looking ahead to the next challenge!)

Stuff from This Week

There was a lot of good things this week, but I don't want to dedicate a blog post to each one.  So...here we go!

On Thursday night, Hubby made steak tips on the cast-iron grill pan on our stove.  Just seasoned with little salt and pepper, we dipped them in steak sauce and they were awesome.  Add some pan-roasted red bliss potatoes and broccoli with a light cheese sauce, and you've got dinner.  The only thing to be sad about was that there were no leftovers for the next day.

Turns out though, that I had nothing to be sad about. On Friday, I went out to lunch with a co-worker and some people from the City.  We went to this little hole-in-the-wall place called Sweet T's.  The place was Southern cuisine and soul food.  Fantastic!  I can't really say that I've ever had soul food, but I know that I will be coming back for more.  The first thing I noticed was the big signs everywhere, proclaiming that they use peanut oil for frying, so basically don't eat there if you're allergic to peanuts.  The menu featured chicken-fried chicken, pulled pork, black-eyed peas, okra, cornbread, macaroni and cheese, mashed potato and your choice of brown or white gravy.  Everything is cooked fresh to order in the back, and was worth the wait.  I liked everything except the fried green tomatoes, which I've always wanted to try.  They reminded me of a hot jello....I wouldn't say I disliked them but I didn't like them either.  The drink choices were either sweet tea or Coca Cola.  I say "Coca-Cola" because it was no ordinary Coke.  No, this was real Coca Cola, made with sugar and served in glass bottles.  I could have easily drank two of them!

Then we get to dinner last night.  On the menu was potato-chip encrusted chicken tenders.  Here's the surprise:  it was a Cooking Light recipe!  I loved them, Hubby loved them, and the kids, well, they thought they were "allright."  Ah well.  Brian also made a "grilled" caesar salad, where one wilts the romaine leaves in a cast-iron grill pan.  This was modeled on a "grilled caesar salad" that we had at a restaurant in April.  The end result is a slightly charred romaine lettuce, with traditional Caesar dressing/cheese/crouton.  Awesome.

And now, a preview of what's to come:  We're celebrating my parent's birthdays tonight with dinner at our house.  It will feature a pork roast, potato and vegetable, cake and pie.  Stay tuned!

DIY: Iced Coffee

In the summers, I like an occasional iced coffee.  I really love the iced coffee at Dunkin' Donuts, but that is a slippery slope.  One morning of hitting the drive-thru leads to another, and that's not good for neither my wallet nor my waistline.  I do find myself on weekends wistful for a Dunkin' Run, and occasionally I give in.

When we were in Saint John last month. Brian and I stopped at this little cafe called Magnolia.  I ordered blueberry waffles and an iced coffee, and he got a pulled chicken sandwich.  The waitress asked me if I would like chocolate syrup and I said "Sure.  Why not?"  I watched her make the drink and said to myself, "Self?  That doesn't look that hard to do."

And it is not.  First thing to do is to make regular coffee.  (reg caf or decaf, your call.)  Make it double strength, I put ten cups of water into the machine but enough coffee for twenty.  Pour the coffee into a pitcher and place in the fridge for when you are ready.

 Fill a glass with ice cubes.

 I decided to go the syrup route again, because regular sugar or splenda in iced coffee doesn't tend to dissolve, and I hate chewing on the sugar.  There was a time in my life that I liked it that way, but those days are over for good. Anyway, squirt a little syrup onto the ice cubes.

 Add a little milk to the ice and syrup, to taste.

Add the coffee, and stir a little with a spoon.

The end result?  A little stronger than I'm used to, but actually pretty good!  A nice afternoon treat.

Next on the DIY list (and also from Magnolia's Cafe, St. John New Brunswick, Canada) will be homemade potato chips.  They will completely ruin you for regular chips ever again.

Do You Moo Shu?

We actually had this last week, I just forgot to comment on it.  And it was definitely worth a blog post. 

In the interest of trying something "different," we found a recipe for Chicken Moo Shu in yet another older Cooking Light cookbook.  I adore Chinese food, but it's seriously on the "No Way can you Have that!" list for now.  This is a version of takeout that you can make at home.  I love recipes that duplicate something that you could experience at a restaurant at home.  (like my lettuce wraps) 

Essentially, this was just a stir-fry, with cabbage, carrots and zucchini, chicken, ginger, garlic, hoisin.....It didn't include a recipe for the Chinese pancakes, so we substituted flour tortillas.  I have a Chinese cookbook and we looked to see if there was a recipe for the pancakes, and there is!  So next time...  It also made excellent leftovers that were healthy, delicious and better for you than the ones at our local Chinese restaurant.  :)

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery...

Tonight I went out on a limb. Usually I stick by recipes and follow them to the letter the first time I make them. If it's something worth repeating, I may change it up a little bit. Not tonight.

I adore Chili's Restaurant, I have for years. I dig the whole Tex-Mex menu and theme: skillet queso, cadillac fajitas, beans and rice, and of course, the flavored margaritas. But obviously, most of that cheesy, gooey delicious stuff tastes wonderful but isn't exactly wonderful for the state of my hips. So I've tried this appetizer a few times as a healthful alternative for dinner. It's their lettuce wraps, which is kind of a funny thing to find in a Tex-Mex place because they're more Asian than anything else. The ingredients are fairly simple; bibb lettuce, chicken, peanut sauce, sesame marinade, veggie and some rice noodles. So when I was at the farmer's market last weekend (again with the farmer's market!! You'd think they were paying me for advertising) I found some bibb lettuce and I remembered these wraps. Since they LOOK easy, I thought I'd give them a shot, just wing it and hope they come out good. Right down to the peanut sauce.

My friend Alana comes for dinner every Thursday. She plays with Will and we make dinner, and after Will goes to bed, we have girltalk and watch some TV. It's been a Thursday night ritual for a couple of years now. (Wow, has it been that long??) Anyway, I whip up something or we cook together and usually end up eating pretty well. Brian has gone to say that sometimes I cook better for her than I do for him, but really, he's just jeaous. :) No really, I cook things for her and I that he wouldn't eat even if I promised him Flyers tickets to eat it. No, he'd probably take it for the team. :)

So, in the spirit of living adventurously, I threw together some chicken marinated in sesame and apricot, julienned carrots, sliced onion, a can of mushrooms, chopped garlic and ginger paste. All things I already had on hand. (I have one hell of a pantry.) I even made peanut sauce from scratch, (from a recipe though) which was quite an accomplishment after yesterday's pesto debacle. Guess what? It was scrumptious!!!! We ate ALL of it, every bite. And I seriously can't wait to make it again.

Chili's, eat your heart out. They still make a better frozen margarita, though.