wild butternut sausage soup

This soup was amazing! So so yummy. It's basically THIS recipe, but I made it like this:

• 1 medium butternut squash
• 1 cup wild rice
• + 1 cup water + 1 cup chicken broth
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 7 oz sausage, kielbasa, cut into small pieces
• 1 1/2 tsp olive oil
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 cup frozen corn
• salt and pep to taste
• 1/2 cup half n half

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with tinfoil. Cut the butternut squash in half. Lie cut side down and bake for 20-30 minutes.
Put wild rice + 1 cup water + 1 cup broth in rice cooker and cook it.
Get out your big soup pot and turn up the heat (med-hi), brown sausage. Add olive oil, celery and frozen corn + 1 cup broth. Simmer for 3-5 minutes.
When the squash is done, peel and cube (or scoop it out if it's soft enough) and put it in the blender, puree with 2 cups broth.
Add squash puree, wild rice, and the remaining 1 cup broth to the soup pot. Add salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 10 minutes.
Turn off heat and let cool for 1 minute. Add the half n half and stir.
PS it does thicken up quite a bit, so don't hesitate to add 1 more cup of water/broth. It just depends on how you like it.

Spatchcocked Chicken With Potatoes

I'm starting to really love this method of cooking a whole chicken.  Maybe some of you already do it, but it's pretty new to me.  It's awesome because it takes a lot less time to cook than a whole roasted chicken.

The original recipe was found here, but I made a couple of minor changes which are what I'm posting here.

Basic Spatchcocking Method:
Any pan will do. For these recipes, you can use a roasting pan or a large cast-iron or heavy skillet.
1. Place 1 whole chicken (3-4 pounds), breast side down, on a work surface.
2. Starting at the thigh end, cut along one side of backbone with kitchen shears.
3. Turn chicken around; cut along other side. Discard or save backbone for stock.
4. Flip chicken over and open it like a book. Press firmly on breastbone to flatten.

Spatchcocked Chicken With Potatoes
Ingredients:
Serves 4

whole chicken (3-4 lbs)
coarse salt
ground pepper
4 thin lemon slices
4 sprigs fresh rosemary (the original calls for thyme)
1/2 lb quartered new potatoes (I estimated the amount needed for my family and used a mix of red and Yukon gold potatoes from the garden)
1 yellow onion
2 tsp. olive oil (I used Canola)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Season spatchcocked chicken with coarse salt and ground pepper.
2. Using your fingers, loosen skin from breast meat; tuck 4 thin lemon slices and 2 sprigs rosemary between skin and meat.
3. Place chicken, breast side up, in a pan. In a bowl, toss potatoes, 1 yellow onion, cut into 8
wedges, and 2 sprigs rosemary, leaves removed from stem, with two teaspoons olive oil; season with salt and pepper.  Add to pan.
4. Roast chicken until juices run clear when pierced between breast and leg (an instant-read thermometer
should read 165-degrees when inserted in thickest part of a thigh, avoiding bone), about 30-minutes. Let rest 5-minutes before carving.

(My chicken was over 6 lbs. so it wasn't done after 30 minutes.  I put a piece of foil over the breast portion, which was browning nicely, and left the legs exposed so they would brown more.  I didn't time how much longer I cooked it.  15-20 minutes maybe?  It could have been longer.  In any case, it was in and out of the oven in at least half the time it would have taken to roast it whole.  And who couldn't love a 30-minute roast chicken dinner?)

Butternut Bisque

So So So So SOOOOOOOO yummy.

(Source: Everyday Food)

3 T. butter

1 medium onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 t. dried thyme

1/4 t. cinnamon

1/8 - 1/4 t. cayenne pepper (to taste)

coarse salt

1-2 large butternut squashes (totaling 4 lbs.) peeled, seeded and cubed

1 can (14.5 oz) reduced-sodium chicken broth

1 c. half-and-half

1. In a large saucepan, heat butter over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, thyme, cinnamon, and cayenne. Season with salt, and cook, stirring occasionally until onion is softened, 5-7 minutes.

2. Add squash, broth and 3 cups water. Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer, and cook until squash is tender, about 20 minutes.

3. Working in batches (or with a stick blender), puree until smooth. Stir in half-and-half, season with salt.

butternut squash bisque

- 1 Tbsp canola oil
- 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 cup diced carrots
- 4 cups cooked butternut squash (about 2 whole squash, or is it squashES?)
- 3 cups vegetable or chicken broth
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- Ground nutmeg to taste
- 1/4 cup cream
- 1/4 cup water + more if you want a thinner bisque.

1. Preheat over to 375. Cut butternut squash in half, remove seeds. Lay cut side down on baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes.
2. After squash is cool, cut up into small cubes, yield about 4 cups.
3. Heat the oil and melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add carrots and squash into the pot, saute for a minute or two. Pour in chicken broth, and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until vegetables are tender (about 10 minutes).
4. Put water and squash mixture in a blender or food processor and puree until nice and smooth. Add the cream at the end. Push that puree button a few more times to mix in cream and return to pot to keep warm.
Serve with a dash of nutmeg, and turkey and cranberry sandwiches, or a grilled cheese sandwich. And don't be offended if your husband says, "this reminds me of when you would make baby food." It's really delicious, promise.

fruity trifle

What you need:

• Betty Crocker Angel Food cake mix + water, baked according to directions and cooled
• 1 package of vanilla pudding + 3 cups of milk, prepared according to directions
• 1 pint fresh strawberries, sliced
• 3 bananas, sliced
• 1 pint fresh blueberries
• 12oz of cool whip / or heavy whipping cream, whipped

What you do:
Layer all the goodness: cake, pudding, strawberries, bananas, blueberries. Repeat. Top with whipped cream.

abbie's easier mediterranean-ish salad

I wanted to make THIS salad (saw it via Bloom), but I didn't have all the stuff so I made this one up and it was sooo good and so easy! and it was filling so that's all I made for dinner.

Things you need:

• 8 oz Orzo pasta
• 2 cups fresh spinach
• mozzarella cheese, shredded
• handful grape tomatoes, halved
• 1/4 cup fresh basil (I used my purple basil), finely chopped
• handful of almonds, chopped
• Olde Cape Cod Balsamic Vinaigrette

Cook orzo according to box directions and cool. Layer everything up and top with vinaigrette. Eat and then eat some more and then eat some more.

tilapia with peach salsa

My husband said, "when I saw this I didn't think it would be very good, but it is." I agree.

Make the salsa first:

• 1/2 cup chopped peaches
• 1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
• 1/4 cup (ish) fresh cilantro, chopped
  
• juice from 1 lime
• a bit of salt and black pepper
• 1 bell pepper, chopped (I used half of a purpley-redish and half of a neon green-yellow. Obviously I am an expert and know the real names of bell peppers)

Mix everything up and put in the fridge until you're ready to serve.

On to the tilapia:

• 2-4 tilapia fillets (I use frozen - still yummy and cheaper)
• 1-2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• 1/4 tsp (ish) salt
• 1/4 tsp (ish) black pepper
• cooking spray

Preheat over to 375. Spray cooking spray in baking dish. Put the fillets in the dish. Pour olive oil over the fillets; then spread garlic over the fillets; then shake the basil, salt, and pepper over the fillets. Bake for 8-12 minutes (mine are perfectly flaky at 10 min)

When the tilapia is done, top with salsa. Serve with wild rice and zucchini (not asparagus and potatoes as seen above).

Creamy Tomato & Pesto Sauce

This was a big hit with my 4 year-old tonight. And my husband. And me. Not too shabby on the fly, I must admit. =)

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. bulk sausage

1 (28 oz.) can crushed tomatoes

1/3 c. pesto

1/2 c. heavy cream

1. In a saucepan, cook and break up sausage, drain if desired.

2. After sausage is fully cooked and broken up, pour in tomatoes and pesto.

3. Simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Just prior to serving, add cream and stir, heating through.

We served it over cheese ravioli, and I can't wait to use it on lasagna!

Donut Muffins

I would be a horrible person if I didn't share this recipe with you.

These are delicious. So much so that...well...

I. Have. No. Words.

Run, don't walk, to your kitchen and whip up a batch of these babies.

My husband and I *might* have just plowed through a dozen of them in the space of about 7 minutes.

(I've taken the recipe from this website. Bless this website for so many reasons. She has some typos in her recipe--I've fixed that).

Ingredients (muffins):

1/2 c. sugar

1/4 c. butter, melted

1/4 t. ground nutmeg

1/2 c. milk

1 t. baking powder

1 c. all-purpose flour

Ingredients (coating):

1/4 c. butter, melted

1/2 c. sugar

1 t. cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease a mini-muffin tin, set aside.

2. Mix up the 1/2 c. sugar, 1/4 c. melted butter and nutmeg in a large bowl.

3. Add flour, milk, and baking soda and mix together until just combined.

4. Fill muffin tins about 3/4 full and bake for 15-17 minutes.

5. While muffins are baking, combine sugar and cinnamon into a bowl, set aside.

6. Melt 1/4 c. butter and place it in a bowl. (I just melted my butter in a skillet and left it there).

7. When muffins are done and cool enough to handle, remove them from the pan. Dip the tops of the muffins in butter and then roll the WHOLE muffin in the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Let cool and then try not to pig out too badly!!

Side note: This recipe is egg-free...so my nephew can eat them. So for all of you who have adorable nephews with egg allergies, this one's a winner!

Radish Dip

So, this is the second week of our CSA (crop share association), and this is the second week that we've had an inordinate amount of radishes in our share.

I'm not really a fan of radishes.

But my friend clued me into this dip, and I'm thrilled about it.

1 (8 oz.) pkg cream cheese
8-12 radishes, washed and chopped in half
3/4 - 1 t. salt

Optional ingredients:
dill
garlic

1. Put radishes in a food processor and pulse until radishes are in teeny-tiny pieces....think crushed candy canes...it'll look similar. =)

2. In a bowl, mix the radishes with the cream cheese and salt (and optional ingredients, if you like) with a spoon or stand mixer.

Serve with tortilla chips, celery, cucumber....really, it's all delicious.