Please Donate!

I don't know about you but sometimes I take all we have for granted. Clothes, food and shelter! I pause to be thankful for my family and my friends but too often forget to say thanks for those everyday pleasures that I know I take for granted.

I was traveling on business this week and watched quite a bit of the coverage on the earthquake in Haiti. Words cannot describe the tragedy in Haiti. As a food blogger, I'd like ask all the food bloggers to donate to the relief efforts in Haiti. Skip a post and donate the money you would have spent on the food for that particular post.

Use It Up!

Sandy Gluck does a great segment on Everyday Food on Martha Stewart Living Radio called "Use It Up". She takes the ingredient(s) you have in your refrigerator and comes up with a dish to make with them.

My Use It Up for this week is Butternut Squash, Sweet Potato and Pomegranate Soup. I had butternut squash leftover from the risotto, sweet potatoes in the pantry and pomegranates on the counter. I was actually looking for something to do with my pomegranates and ran across this recipe on the POM website.

This is such an interesting combination of flavors. Would I like it or would it be a failed recipe? I loved this soup. It has the wonderful butternut squash soup flavors with sweetness added from the sweet potatoes and pomegranates. The texture is beautifully creamy and smooth. This one's a keeper!!!

Butternut Squash, Sweet Potato and Pomegranate Soup
Adapted from POM Wonderful
Serves 6

1/2 cup pomegranate juice
1/2 cup arils from 1 large pomegranate
1 1/2 lbs. butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed
1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
2 tablespoons green chiles, chopped
3 cups chicken broth (or water)
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons white pepper
1/2 cup dry sherry or other white wine
1 cup milk (nonfat or low fat)
1 cup crispy corn tortilla chips
1/2 cup sunflower seeds

Score 1 fresh pomegranate and place in a bowl of water. Break open the pomegranate underwater to free the arils (seed sacs). The arils will sink to the bottom of the bowl and the membrane will float to the top. Sieve and put the arils in a separate bowl. Reserve 1/2 cup of the arils from fruit and set aside. (Refrigerate or freeze remaining arils for another use.).

To make pomegrante juice, place arils in the blender, pulse until juiced. Strain, reserving juice.

Place butternut squash and sweet potato on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper. Roast at 400 for 30 minutes.

In a stockpot, add butternut squash, sweet potato, green chiles, chicken broth and pomegranate juice. Cook over medium heat until hot and flavors are well combined. Add salt, pepper and sherry or white wine. Remove from the heat and cool slightly. Process soup in a blender or food processor until smooth.Return soup to the stockpot, add 1/2 - 1 cup of milk and reheat. Serve in bowls with crisp corn chips, pomegranate arils and sunflower seeds.

French Toast

Alton Brown is one of my favorite Food Network chefs. French Toast is a weekend breakfast favorite at our house. Imagine my delight when looking for a new French Toast recipe to try, I found Alton's recipe. I have lots of french toast recipes that require soaking overnight, baking in the oven and consquently take quite a bit of time. I was looking to spice up a quicker version of French Toast.

I added vanilla and cinnamon to the recipe. Vanilla and cinnamon are two of my favorite flavors, especially in French Toast. Alton's recipe browns the French Toast on the stove top and then finishes it in the oven. I decided to just make it in my electric griddle and it turned out fine.

This French Toast is amazingly delicious! The addition of the honey gives it a nice sweet flavor and the half and half adds a bit of extra richness. Okay after all the holiday goodies we have eaten, did we need this richness. No, but it sure tasted good!




French Toast
Adapted from Alton Brown

1 cup half-and-half
4 large eggs
2 tablespoons honey, warmed in microwave for 20 seconds
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 (1/2-inch) slices day-old or stale country loaf, brioche or challah bread
4 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

In medium size mixing bowl, whisk together the half-and-half, eggs, honey, vanilla, cinnamon and salt. You may do this the night before. When ready to cook, pour custard mixture into a pie pan and set aside.

Preheat a stove top or electric griddle to medium heat/350 degrees. Melt the butter.

Dip bread into mixture, allow to soak for 30 seconds on each side, and then remove to a cooling rack that is sitting in a sheet pan, and allow to sit for 1 to 2 minutes.

Place slices of bread into the pan and cook until golden brown, approximately 5 minutes per side. Serve immediately with maple syrup, whipped cream or fruit.

Chocolate Pie Crust - SMS

Why doesn't pie crust like me? Maybe it's like an animal and smells my fear. Santa brought me pie weights and a pastry blender for Christmas. Like a kid on their first day of school, I was excited about making this pie dough. I didn't feel like the dough came together like it should, it seemed a little too crumbly. I added a little more water. Concerned about overworking the dough, I formed the ball and put it in the frig. After the alloted time, I cut my circle of parchment formed my crust. I sprinkled on the shiny new pie weights and in the oven it went.

Tim's favorite pie is pecan. I needed a pie for Christmas Eve dinner and Sweet Melissa's Chocolate Pecan seemed like a natural. I didn't have any maple syrup or dark corn syrup so I substituted honey and light corn syrup with a little molasses.

Unfortuntely, my crust was like all of the other pie crusts I've made over the years, hard and not flaky. The color on the pie crust was too brown and the flavor rather bland. The filling was okay but not as good as other pecan pies. All in all is was really disappointed in these recipes. I will keep trying, pie crust is one of those cooking challenges that I want to conquer.


Donna of L’Amour de Tarte chose this week's Sweet Melissa Sunday's, Chocolate Pie Crust. We could choose whatever filling we liked. Stop over to Sweet Melissa Sunday's and see some of the other baker's beautiful flaky pies.

Next week, Lemon Walnut Sour Cream Pound Cake!!

35" and Counting!!

Breaking a record can be a good thing. Not these records!! We have had 38 inches of snow so far this season and most of it is still on the ground. Our seasonal average is 30 inches.

The other record we're going to either break or tie tomorrow night is temperature. The forecast low is 24 below zero. The record is 24 below set in the 1800's.

This could be a long winter!!

Kitchen Aid Sixty Minute Dinner Rolls

Okay this is good, I am following through with one of my 2010 blogging goals, baking bread. Kitchen Aid 60 Minute Dinner Rolls, homemade bread in 60 minutes, it doesn't get much better than that! I followed the recipe I found on Erin Cooks.



KitchenAid Sixty-Minute Dinner Rolls
Makes: 24 Dinner Rolls

1/2 cup low-fat milk
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons butter
3 packages of dry active yeast or 6 3/4 teaspoons
1 1/2 cups warm water (105F – 115F)
5 – 6 cups all-purpose flour

In a small saucepan, stir milk, sugar, salt and butter together. Heat over low heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Cool until lukewarm.

Dissolve yeast in warm water in warmed mixer bowl. Add lukewarm milk mixture and 4 1/2 cups flour to yeast mixture, and using a dough hook, mix on low speed for about 1 minute. With the mixer still going, add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, and mix about 1 1/2 minutes, or until dough starts to clean the sides of the bowl. Knead on low speed for about 2 more minutes, or until dough is smooth and elastic – the dough will still be slightly sticky to the touch.

Place dough in a greased bowl, turning it to grease the top. Cover the dough with a clean, dry dish towel, and let it rise in a warm place, free from draft, for about 15minutes.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, and divide into 24 equal pieces. Form each piece into a ball, and place in a greased muffin pan. Using kitchen shears or a pizza cutter (a knife will also work), cut each ball in half, then in quarters, and place in the muffin pan. Cover the muffin pan with the dish towel, and let the dough rise for about 15 minutes.

Bake at 425ºF for 12 minutes, or until the rolls are golden brown. Remove from pans immediately, and cool on wire racks.

My notes on this recipe: I thought they could have used a little more flavor, maybe some herbs? Rosemary next time? Still this recipe makes beautiful dinner rolls in an hour.

Butternut Squash Risotto

It's a cold winter night in Nebraska. We received another 3 1/2 inches of snow overnight, making our grand total around 20 inches. Cold winter nights just beg for comfort food. Risotto is a delicious comfort food. Many people are intimidated by risotto. I took a risotto class years ago and have always had good results.

I think the most challenging thing about this risotto was chopping up the butternut squash. When is that knife skills class anyway? I thought I would never finish chopping this squash. AFTER, I finished chopping up the squash, I searched for helpful hints. There's a great post over at Simply Recipes. If only, I had read it BEFORE I chopped the squash.

I found this recipe at Bay Area Bites. The only change I made was to use shallots instead of onion. This risotto has a beautiful creamy texture and a wonderful slight cinnamon flavor. It went well with our Bourbon Apple Pork Loin.


Butternut Squash Risotto
Serves: 10-12

1/2 small butternut squash (about 1 1/2 pounds)
16 oz chicken broth
1 shallot, diced
1 small carrot, peeled and shredded
1 large garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
1 1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 cups Arborio rice
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 teaspoons honey
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
1/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano, freshly grated
Olive oil for roasting and finishing

Roast the Butternut Squash
Preheat oven to 450°F with the rack in the middle.
Microwave the entire squash for 3-4 minutes so that it's easier to cut through. Halve squash lengthwise and discard seeds.
Peel and cut into 1-inch dice. Place in a baking pan, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper.. Bake the squash, stirring the diced pieces occasionally, until tender and browned lightly, 20-25 minutes. Set aside.

In a saucepan bring broth to a simmer and keep at a bare simmer.
In a large pot melt the butter and add onion, carrot, garlic, and ginger. Cook over moderate heat, stirring, until softened. Stir in rice and let it toast a bit, stirring constantly, about 1 minute.
Add wine and cook, stirring, until absorbed. Stir in the broth ¼ cup at a time, stirring constantly, until absorbed. Keep the risotto at a simmer throughout. Continue simmering, stirring, and adding broth, letting each addition be absorbed before adding next, until about half of broth has been added. Stir in diced squash, honey, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and continue simmering and adding broth in same manner until rice is tender and creamy-looking but still slightly al dente, about 20-25 minutes. Stir in the grated Parmigiano and combine.
Spoon risotto into serving bowls and garnish with a drizzle of olive oil and a few curls of Parmigiano using a vegetable peeler.