Winter Squash Pasta

Easy, delicious, fast, rich. Those are your descriptors for this one. Enjoy.


2 Tbs butter
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup cooked squash*, blended until smooth
5 leaves of sage, minced
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup cheese (we used a combination of parmesan and white cheddar)
salt and pepper to taste (a lot of pepper)

Pasta (we used shells)

This sauce will take about as long to make as it takes for pasta to cook. Time accordingly.

Cook garlic in butter for 1 minute in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add squash and sage and cook until squash is warmed through. Reduce heat to low and add cream. I find it easiest to use a whisk here to blend the squash and cream. Add cheese and salt & pepper. Turn up the heat until the sauce is just bubbling. If the sauce is still thin, you may need to cook a little longer to reduce down a bit.


*To cook squash: We used acorn squash, but any variety of winter squash should work. Cut squash in half (please do not cut off any fingers or gouge your hand in any way). Scoop out the innards (creepy). Place face down in an oven-safe dish. Add 1/4 - 1/2 cup of water to the dish. Cook at 400 for 40 minutes, or until the flesh (creepy) is soft.

Summer vegetable pasta

This is so simple it could hardly be called a recipe. Its more like a reminder make creative use of whatever you have on hand. At the beginning of the summer, we joined a crop-share out of curiosity. That means we get a box full of vegetables once a week, and we only know about 24 hours in advance exactly what we'll be getting. We never would have made this if these ingredients hadn't been thrust upon us, but I'm glad we did.  We used beets, summer squash, and green and yellow beans to make a really light pasta dish.

Boil beets exactly as you would boil potatoes.


Slice your favorite summer squash and fry in butter or oil


Concurrently, boil noodles (we used shells). Toss in some fresh green and yellow beans with 5-7 minutes left to cook.


Drain pasta and toss everything together. Season with red wine vinegar and oil, salt and pepper.

Comment on Avocado

Everyone should be eating avocado year round. Avocado, like bananas, are one of the very few fruits that properly ripen after being removed from the plant. This means they can be transported safely and cheaply while they're still rock hard, don't need refrigeration, and have a pretty nice shelf life, as fruit goes. Their harvest period can also be staggered, so there is virtually no time when they're truly out of season. Unless you're buying your fruits and vegetables locally, you can't really do better than avocado.

Also, they're fantastically delicious and super good for you.

Curried Chickpeas

This is a slow cooker recipe that takes a very long time. It uses dry chickpeas; I have no idea how the recipe would be altered using canned, but it would drastically reduce cooking time. Like the last recipe, this is great because it's Indian food that tastes good, made at home, and you just toss everything in at the beginning. No fuss.

This recipe nearly filled a 6.5 qt slow cooker.

3 cups dried chickpeas, washed
1 medium yellow or red onion, finely chopped
1 tomato, diced (or a can)
2 inch cube ginger, grated
4 cloves garlic, minced or grated
3-5 serrano chilies (This was hot, adjust accordingly)
1 T cumin seeds
1 T ground coriander
1 T garam masala
1 T chana masala (a bit hard to find; important for authenticity)
1 T red chili powder
1 T salt
2 t tumeric
10 cups water
2 T cilantro, chopped

Everything into the slow cooker except the cilantro. Cook on high for ~12 hours, or low for 10 and high for 6 hours. Cook times vary wildly by slow cooker. Near the end of cooking, mash or puree some of the chickpeas to thicken. Garnish with sliced red onion, lime wedges, or nothing. 

Eat with basmati rice and/or naan (purchase frozen from Asian grocery).

Indian Spiced Califlower and Potatoes

This recipe and the next are from a book called The Indian Slow Cooker. Obviously, you'll need a slow cooker to make this. Carolyn had tried and failed at Indian food several times in the past. This book is fantastic because the food came out tasting great, and you just put everything in at the beginning, like a slow cooker aught to be used.

We have a 6.5 qt slow cooker, and this recipe nearly fills it.

1 large head califlower, 1 inch pieces
2-3 large potatoes, 1 inch pieces (we used russet)
1 medium yellow onion, coarsely chopped
1 tomato, diced (or a can)
2 inch cube ginger, grated
3 cloves garlic, minced or grated
3-4 serrano chilies (this dish was hot, adjust to your tastes)
1 T cumin seeds
1 T red chili powder
1 T garam masala
1-2 t salt
1 t tumeric
3 T veg/other oil
1-3 T fresh cilantro, chopped


Everything goes into the slow cooker except the cilantro. Cook for ~3 hours on low. May need to mix once about 1 hr in, to ensure nothing sticks to the cooker. Cooking times vary wildly by crock pot.

Eat with basmati rice and/or naan (buy frozen from Asian grocery--very good)

Sesame Crusted Tofu

After a long hiatus, we're back! I'm going to be honest, a lot of the reason we stopped doing the blog was due to the difficulty in coming up with clever things to say. Also, worry about getting good image of the food. So for the next little while at least, these posts are going to be recipes and little else. First up, a dish we've been eating quite a lot of, Sesame Crusted Tofu. Eat this in a salad or with stir fry; use the left over marinade to make your dressing or stir fry sauce.

Marinade:
2 T soy sauce (or Tamari soy sauce)
2 T sesame oil (love this stuff)
1 T rice vinegar
1 t chili garlic sauce
2 cloves garlic, grated
1 inch cube ginger, grated

1 block firm or extra firm tofu, drained (see our Marinated Baked Tofu recipe for how to drain properly)

Cut tofu crossways to make 2 slabs; cut each into 6.  put tofu and marinade in shallow pan or dish. Refrigerate for 20-30 minutes, turning tofu once.


2 T sesame seeds
3 T flour


Mix on a dish. Dredge each piece of tofu. Fry in a pan of 1 T sesame oil and 1 T canola (or whatever) oil on highest setting for ~5 minutes on a side. Will get golden brown. A little black isn't bad.

Garlic Knots

Yay! These rolls are easy to make, pretty, and tasty.

2 1/2 t yeast 
1 C warm water

Dissolve yeast in water, let rest 5 minutes.

1 C wheat flour 
1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
2 T olive oil
1 t salt
2 t sugar

Combine the above ingredients and add in your dissolved yeast. Knead dough 5 minutes. Let rise in a covered, lightly oiled bowl for 1 hour (or until doubled).

When dough has risen, roll it out into a 10x10 inch square and cut into 10 strips. To make a roll, tie a knot and pinch the ends in underneath.

Tie knot

Tuck ends under

Cover the rolls and let rest for 30 minutes. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes.

But you aren't done yet! Now make your garlic butter topping:

4-6 cloves garlic
2 T butter, melted
2 T olive oil
1/4 C parsley, chopped
1/2 t salt

Toss rolls in butter topping (or just pour butter over rolls to avoid burning your fingers on hot bread). Then eat.

Pretty!

Winter Tacos; In-season alternative to Tomatoes and Lettuce

What's this? Ben is posting once again? Yes, indeed, now that I have no job, I can return my attention to what's important in my life: amateurish writing about amateurish cooking in a blog that no one reads.

Carolyn and I are (amateurishly) trying to eat more seasonally, in an effort to feel superior to other people. Recently we were craving tacos in a serious way, but this being December, tomatoes are way out of season. Luckily, Carolyn came across this black bean/sweet potato taco recipe from Bitchin' Kitchen.

The recipe is a lot longer than it is complicated, and since the proper link is right up there (and since I'm lazy), I'm going to skip the work of actually typing it out. For the basics:
1) cut up sweet potato into cubes; coat with oil, lime, salt, and pepper (or red pepper flakes); bake in an oven.
2) shred cabbage; mix with 1/4 cup diced onion, cilantro, more lime juice, salt, and pepper.
3) can of black beans like usual.
4) mix yogurt with chopped or pureed chipotle peppers in adobe sauce, plus whatever spices you feel are appropriate.

This meal was fun to make and very pretty to look at, but if your craving is traditional tacos, it doesn't satisfy. That is not to say it's no good; it just doesn't cover the same ground. The soft sweet potatoes combined well with the crunch of the cabbage, and chipotle sauce is just delicious all on its own. If we hadn't started out wanting regular-old tacos, we would have been 100% happy with this meal. And now knowing what it tastes like, we will make it again, but not when we're craving fresh tomatoes, lettuce, and cheese.

Okay, so have you ever been in a sweets shop and like everything looks tasty and you get overwhelmed because you can't decide what to buy?  Maybe that's just me...any who, on my most recent visit to a cupcake shop in NY I bought a filled cupcake for like four dollars and it looked super good but then when I went to try it I was severely disappointed.  It was like WAY too sweet and somehow even though it was filled it was still dry.  AND IT WAS FOUR DOLLARS.  So that is what has led me to this post!
Double Chocolate Filled Cupcakes!

I'm not going to post a recipe for the actual cupcakes since I cheated and used Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Cake Mix©.

But here's what I used for the filling and frosting. I tend to not do a good job when I'm measuring but I will give this my best guess...
6TB unsalted butter (softened)
3TB shortening
1/2 Cup marshmallow cream
3TB cocoa
2 (ish) cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 ts vanilla

Basically all I did was beat the first three ingredients until it was smooth with no lumps. Next add the vanilla.  After that I alternated the remaining dry ingredients and cream.  I whipped all of this until it was a bit more fluffy and then put it in a pastry bag with a plain circular tip.  Shove the tip into the top (some people do bottom-right through the paper) and push about a tablespoon of filling into the cupcake.  Then frost the tops and decorate!
Mine looked like this on the inside!

Oh! On another note for a full batch of cupcakes you may need to double or even triple that frosting recipe.  I only made 6 cupcakes and I have some leftover but it's definitely not enough for 24.  Thanks guys :]

Potato Leek Soup

I don't know where potato leek soup has been all my life, but I am glad it has finally made its way into my dinner rotation. This soup is easy and so satisfying. I'm sorry to have kept it to myself for so many weeks. By the way, doesn't the roll in the picture look awesome? Recipe to come later this week. Unless I forget. Sorry in advance for forgetting.

Potato leek soup

3 leeks, cut lengthwise (I waver between cutting in half or cutting in fourths; suggest your favorite fraction in the comments) and chop
2 T butter
2 C water
2 C broth
2 lbs potatoes (4 medium? I don't know. I buy funny sized potatoes, but then I also own a kitchen scale ((brag, brag, brag)) ) peeled, 1/2 inch dice
1/4 C parsley, chopped
1/2 t thyme
dash hot sauce
salt and pepper to taste


Cook leeks in butter on low for 10 minutes. Be careful not to let the leeks brown, they'll get bitter. Add water, broth, and potatoes. Simmer 20 minutes. Blend half of the soup (or whatever amount looks good). Add spices. Eat.

A Welcome for Wendy

I know you're all wondering why the most recent post showed such a marked improvement in quality over the posts from the past 7 months. Well, I can satisfy your curiosity by announcing an addition to the Dinner Adventure team: Wendy. Welcome, Wendy. I'm so glad you'll be blogging, because I'm much to lazy to post regularly.

Chewy Chocolate Meringue Cookies

So I tried making these cookies which claimed to be chewy meringue cookies on Sunday. While they didn't taste anything like a meringue cookie ought to they did taste pretty good. I got this recipe (with great pictures) from Bakerella's website. From what I understand meringue cookies are traditionally a dry and crunchy cookie but these were soft on the inside and almost melty (I did use a lot more chocolate than the recipe called for). 

1 cup (8 fl oz / 250 ml) large egg whites – about 7
2 cups (1 lb / 500 g) sugar
5 tbsp (1 oz / 30 g) natural cocoa powder
4 oz (125 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used about 6oz)

Whisk the egg whites and sugar over a double boiler until the sugar it entirely dissolved. Next whip at high speed until stiff peaks form. Fold in cocoa and chopped chocolate. Scoop onto parchment lined baking sheets and bake in a preheated oven at 350° for about 15- 20 minutes. Rotate the pans once while baking.

This is what mine looked like about five minutes before coming out!

Annnnd up close

I didn't take a picture but mine were almost hollow on the inside with just a bit of melty chocolate. 

If anyone else makes meringue cookies (This recipe of another) let me know what temp you cook them at because I'm suspicious of 350°.  


**By the way I was told I'm supposed to introduce myself. So Hi! I'm Wendy Harvey. I'm Ben's sister. I like cooking. And cookies. And eating.  And really food in general. So there's all that.
Bye! 

Chocolate chip pretzel cookies

This is a blog hosted by librarians. As such, it's amazing that we've gotten this far without a book recommendation.Well, we're going to keep that streak going because today I have a book anti-recommendation. Namely, the worst mystery series I've ever encountered: Murder She Baked. These books are bad in every way a book can be bad (and I should know, I've read about 10 so far). Their saving grace, however is the recipes. Yes, recipes. The detective in the mysteries owns a bakery, so almost every chapter there is a recipe.We tested out chocolate chip pretzel cookies from Plum Pudding Murder because: (1) Ben loves chocolate chip cookies and requests that I make them at least once a week; (2) I'm sick of making and eating plain old chocolate chip cookies (see #1); and (3) we happened to have pretzels on hand.

everybody likes these, even Fred

Chocolate chip pretzel cookies

1 cup butter, softened (that's two sticks)
2 cups white sugar
3 Tablespoons molasses*
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
2 cups crushed pretzels (measure after crushing; to crush, put in ziplock bag and roll with rolling pin)
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (1/2 less than a whole bag)

*If you don't have molasses, you can substitute brown sugar for white. The math doesn't come out exactly right, but I'd assume that it would be fine. Actually, the math does work if you substitute half light brown sugar and half dark brown sugar, but if you're the type of person who has two kinds of brown sugar on hand you probably already own molasses.

Cream together butter, sugar, and molasses. Combine the rest of the ingredients. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Let your cookies rest on the pan for a couple minutes before moving to a cooling rack so they don't fall apart when you transfer. (I've tended to ignore that last step in the past, but I've discovered that it really does help.)

St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake

Gooey Butter Cake is a rich coffee cake that is loved by St. Louis natives, the Butter Institute of America, and Ben. There are several apocryphal stories regarding its origins, but I'll let you find them on Wikipedia. I found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen and she got it, ironically, from the New York Times. I hadn't really planned to blog this one, but Ben says this is one of the three cakes he will request for his birthday so I thought I'd better record it.

The cake is made in two stages: first you make a sweet bread dough and let it rise, then you make a custard-like topping and bake. If you have a stand mixer I recommend using it. Otherwise you will need a lot of elbow grease for this one.

3 Tablespoons milk at room temperature
2 Tablespoons warm water
1 3/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
Mix yeast into milk and water and let sit for a few minutes, yeast will form little bubbles.

6 tablespoons butter at room temperature
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Cream together.

1 egg (we've been getting extra large eggs -- recommended)
Beat in to butter and sugar mixture.

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
Alternate adding flour and milk/water/yeast mixture. Continue to stir for around 10 minutes. This is where the elbow grease comes in. Dough will form into a soft and cohesive ball. When done mixing, spread out into a 9 x 13 inch glass baking dish. Let rise at room temperature for 3 hours. Dough should double, but I find it's hard to tell when it's in the dish.

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cream together. 

1 egg
Beat in egg.

3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon light corn syrup
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Add, alternating wet ingredients and flour. Spread over risen dough. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes (baking time based on my increasingly suspect oven, take a peak after 30 or 35 minutes). 

Lentil soup

Eat more soup. Eat more lentil soup.

Here are some links to help you out:
Lentil Soup from Alton Brown
Lentil Soup from Allrecipes

The Alton Brown recipe is spicy, but not too spicy if you are spice-phobic. My mom is a big fan of this one because she likes to cook anything that allows her to break out her immersible blender. The Allrecipes soup is a classic hearty lentil soup and an old favorite from soup-or-stew Sundays (holla back, Heater).

Fred says to try them both.

Another great pasta sauce

If you ever have an urge to read a really good food blog, you should look at Smitten Kitchen. This week's pasta recipe is one I saw on Smitten Kitchen a while back and have been meaning to try (link!). It's super simple, just three ingredients. Four if you count salt. Five if you count pasta.

Tomato sauce with onion and (lots of) butter

28 ounce can whole tomatoes (I used unsalted tomatoes, but that just meant I had to add more salt at the end of cooking. Use whatever you happen to come across.)
5 Tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, pealed and halved

Heat ingredients over medium heat. Reduce to simmer and let cook for 45 minutes. Mash up tomatoes. Woman from the blog says to use a wooden spoon, but I found that a potato masher worked much better. Salt to taste. Eat.

Very simple, hearty sauce. I will definitely make this again. Ben commented that the sauce was very fresh-tasting and I would agree, although fresh is a funny way to describe something that is mostly made up of canned tomatoes. We ate this on rigatoni pasta which is a short, tubular pasta that holds sauce well.

By the way, please don't be put off by the amount of butter in the recipe. I've read that fat helps the body to absorb the nutrients found in tomatoes (but I'm not going to cite a proper source for that because I'm lazy).

Easy pasta for two

I'm sure this never happens to you, but for me it seems that the more time I have to do something the more it gets put off. I had decided at least two days ago that I was going to make spaghetti for dinner tonight. Last night I had bread dough fermenting in the refrigerator in preparation for baking bread to go with the spaghetti I was going to make for dinner tonight. All day I thought about what recipe I might try out for sauce to go on the spaghetti I was going to make for dinner tonight. So really I have no excuse for waiting until I already had water boiling for pasta before I started on a sauce.

Tomato sauce in a hurry:

Chop onion. Saute in olive oil. Mince 3 cloves garlic and toss in with onion. Add can of diced tomatoes. Sprinkle in what seasonings you like; I used basil, white pepper, black pepper, and salt. Heat until your pasta is done cooking. If you remember (and I didn't) leave your pasta a little under-done and finish cooking in the sauce. Oh, and add a generous dose of grated Parmesan cheese on top of your serving. 

I know that if I read this recipe I would be skeptical. I hadn't intended to blog this one (notice I had already started eating before getting the camera out). My usual sauce is super saucy with tomato paste and tomato sauce and an hour's cook time. But I was really pleased with how this turned out and it was a nice change of pace from my usual.

P.S. Do you see the bread? I made that. Best bread I've made so far.

Bread and Cheese

Sometimes the best snack is the simplest. Here we have slices of Carolyn's homemade bread with slices of white cheddar on top, along with a scoff at those who opt for anything more complicated to stave off hunger before dinner. Let the cutting board double as your plate to feel manly.

Marshmallow Milkshake: Banana, your fate is sealed

Listen up everybody because I'm about to speak such truth as you've never heard. Banana milkshakes are not really that great. Next time you make one, really pay attention to how it tastes. Sure, it's smooth and sweet, and ice-creamy, which is wonderful, but what does the banana really add? It gives a slight chalkiness that makes the shake less refreshing, and the flavor of banana doesn't really marry all that well with the flavor of ice-cream. Bananas are cheap, and when you blend them, they have about the same consistency as blended ice-cream; that's really the only reason they've found a place in milkshakes.

We here at Dinner Adventure have developed (read: stolen) an improved version of the milkshake you know and love by replacing the banana with, yes, you guessed it, roasted marshmallows. This shake is amazing. It will ruin all other milkshakes for you. After we made it once, Carolyn and I had to make it 3 more times in the following days just to sate our addiction. It has made me realize just how bad banana milkshakes actually are.

4 marshmallows per 8 ounce serving
vanilla ice-cream
milk
vanilla extract (or rum)

Instructions: toast your marshmallows over the stove (an electric stove on highest setting actually works very well for this) or in a toaster oven all at once (preferred method). While toasting, blend other ingredients. Add marshmallows to the blender as soon as they're off the heat. I theorize that the cooler the mallows are, the more poorly they blend.

Marshmallows make so much sense in a milkshake that it's hard to believe that everyone doesn't do this. They only increase the creaminess of the drink; they sweeten it; and most importantly, the toasty, caramelized flavor is perfectly at home with ice-cream.

Ginger tofu soup

Easy, fast, delicious soup. I don't need to say more than that. Although I probably will further down the page. Oh yes, recipe comes from this Moosewood cookbook. If you're looking for a vegetarian cookbook you should check out one of the Moosewood's (literally, check it out from your library).

Ingredients
4 cups (1 quart) vegetable broth [we use vegetable bullion]
1 cup thinly sliced celery
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup ginger, cut into matchstick-sized pieces
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 block firm or extra firm tofu, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 cup leftover cooked rice

Heat broth. Add celery, garlic, ginger, and soy sauce. Simmer 5 minutes. Add tofu and rice and cook another 5 minutes. 

Yay! Seriously, that's all there is to it. The broth develops a nice light ginger taste while the pieces of ginger add good heat and interest. If you aren't a huge fan of ginger then you could try mincing so the pieces aren't so strong; or cut really big pieces that you can avoid when you're dishing out or eating the soup.