Roasted Acorn Squash with Sauteed Tatsoi Greens

I really cherish my days off. Not only because I don't have to work, but at the end of the day I have a little extra energy to be more adventurous in the kitchen. Yesterday was another wonderful 78 degrees and sunny, which made it an even better day! I also mailed off my big grad school project, so now I wait to see if the committee passes me or gives me feedback to make changes. Yippie! I also started packing up the apartment because we move into the new house on December 3rd--and.i.cannot.wait! I can't believe we are packing up again, but this time it seems to be going a little easier, mostly because I don't think we ever settled into this place like our condo back in the 'Burg.


I had originally planned for the butternut squash dish to last us two nights, but you all know about the starving man living with me, so that just didn't work out as planned. While at the farmers market yesterday, I picked up an acorn squash because I wanted to try cooking it. I had a couple of ideas in mind, but ended up using this recipe that I found at www.simplerecipes.com :

 

Source: simplyrecipes.com via Megan on Pinterest

I served it with some sauteed tatsoi greens that I also found at the farmers market and a rice and orzo pilaf from Trader Joe's. It was another dinner full of the fresh, healthy flavors of fall.

Roasted Acorn Squash

1 acorn squash, cut in half from stem to end

1 tbsp butter

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp maple syrup

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 400.

Place the acorn halves in a baking dish and pour in about 1/4 in of water to keep the skin from burning and to help in the cooking process.

Coat the insides of the squash with butter. Add the dash of salt to each (if you use no salt butter). Sprinkle 1 tbsp of brown sugar into each half and then drizzle 1 tbsp of maple syrup over each half.  

Bake for about 1 hr.

With 20 minutes to go on the squash follow the box directions for this delicious rice/orzo pilaf:

Once you have that simmering on the stove, rinse the greens and de-stem them. Tear them into smaller pieces. On the stove, heat 1 tbsp of olive oil to medium heat in a medium skillet. Then add my no-fail-delicious-greens ingredients: cracked red pepper (2 pinches) and a whole garlic clove (you can kind of pop it open with the side of your knife first).

When the oil is hot, remove the garlic and add the greens. Cook until tender. By the time the greens finished up the pilaf and squash were ready, so I plated the three and added a dash of parsley left over from last night's meal. 

This was very filling and totally delicious. I actually would scoop out a 1/2 spoon of acorn and eat it with a 1/2 spoon of the rice--the sweet and savory combo was amazing. Those greens were great too. You can do the same with spinach or any other dark, leafy green!

Who is ready for Thanksgiving??? We are hitting the road tonight on our trip to PA with a little lay-over in VA to pick up my beautiful sis-in-law. What are your travel plans?

A Fall Famer's Market Meal

Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous. 75 and sunny in November. You just cannot complain about that. I hadn't made a trip to the State Farmer's Market for a while, so I decided it would be the perfect thing for a beautiful Sunday afternoon. I had a recipe in mind that I recently pinned over on Pinterest for Butternut Squash & Tagliatelle with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce which I found on the Cook & Be Merry blog.

Source: cookandbemerry.com via Megan on Pinterest

With the recipe in hand, I headed out on the 40, getting lost only twice before making my way to the market.

The recipe calls for 6 Thai chilis, but the pepper-lady at the market didn't have any of those. I opted for 3 Anaheim and 3 Cubanelle peppers instead for a mix of hot and sweet. I also picked up the butternut squash, a few apples, along with some parsley, arugala and totsoi.

 

When I got home I roasted up the veggies for the sauce, then sauteed the butternut squash while the pasta cooked. It looked gorgeous and carried the light fresh flavor of a fall harvest.

Okay, mine looks totally different from hers, but I did have to make a few changes. To see her original recipe click on the link above. Here is the Casita Cory version:

Butternut Squash & Papperdelle with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

 

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

3 Anaheim Peppers, seeded and sliced

3 Cubanelle Peppers, seeded and sliced

1 Red Bell Pepper, seeded and sliced

1 Red Onion, seeded and sliced

4 Cloves Garlic, whole 

1 tsp cumin (I used ground)

3 tbsp olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Place the peppers, onion and garlic on a baking sheet.
3. Drizzle with olive oil & sprinkle the cumin evenly over the veggies
4. Bake for 45 mins or until the peppers start to char, tossing the vegetables occasionally
5. While the peppers and onions are still warm, scrape them from the pan into a blender or food processor and puree until smooth. Set aside.

 Pappardelle & Butternut Squash

 1 medium butternut squash

2 bunches of fresh arugula

3 tablespoons of parsley, chopped

Zest and juice of 1/2 lemon

1 8 oz package of pappardelle pasta

1. Heat the water to cook the pasta according to package directions.
2.  Cut the  butternut squash into 1 inch cubes
3. Heat 1 tbsp of olive in a medium skillet
4. The arugula I found at the market has larger leaves than that in the original recipe and the one we most frequently find at the grocery store. It has a darker green color, which makes it gorgeous. I did tear/cut it into smaller pieces.
5. Zest the lemon and set aside.
6. Cook the butternut squash (I added some S&P) until it browns on the sides.  Then squeeze the lemon over the butternut squash and add the zest. Stir to mix.
7. After straining the pasta, return it to the pan, stir in the roasted red pepper sauce and plate that.
8. Top with the butternut squash, parsley and arugula. I stirred mine just a little bit to mix the ingredients together.

The flavors were light and very fresh, and it contains the hidden antioxidants in the peppers, along with the vitamins in the greens.

Side note: I am making some changes to the blog. I am trying to design it myself and create the html code for it, so it is a trial and error process. Please forgive me as it changes until I find what I'm really looking for!

Happy Monday and I hope you enjoy the recipe!

Winter Dinner for 2 or 4

I love a meal that requires about 20 minutes of prep and one to two hours of baking. I can spend some time getting the meal ready, but then I can sit back and relax while the oven does the work. As much as I enjoy making multi-ingredient, labor-intensive meals, the precious time I savor doing something besides sweating over the stove is something no fancy meal can replace. One of my favorite prep-and-bake meals is my famous Roast Chicken and Veggies.

Okay it isn't famous. It isn't even remotely well-known. In fact, I think I've only ever made it for Forrest. But it is a star in my recipe book. I turn to this meal frequently in the winter to get a healthy well-rounded plate using fresh ingredients--and as it fills the house with the delicious aroma of fall veggies, lemon and rosemary, I can sit back and focus on a new favorite past-time, crafting.

There are a few other things that make this meal really amazing.
1) It is really easy.
2) It is really cheap.
3) It is really delicious.

Ingredients

1 whole-roaster chicken

4 red potatoes

3 small sweet potatoes

3 medium carrots

1 large onion

1 lemon

2 sprigs rosemary

2 cloves garlic (not pictured) 

Cut up the the veggie into large chunks

Drizzle some olive oil over them and toss them with salt and pepper. In a deep 9 x 13 pan, drizzle a little bit of olive oil and place the two 2 cloves of garlic in the center (I used the side of my knife to crush it just a bit). Strategically place the veggies so that they make a little nest to put the chicken in. 

You will need to remove the gizzard and rinse the chicken and the cavity. Pat it dry with a paper towel. 

Drizzle the chicken with olive oil, and shake on some salt and pepper. Rub the olive oil and S&P over the skin and cavity of the chicken. Stuff the lemon and rosemary inside the cavity. Tie up the legs and place it over the veggies in the pan. Tuck the wings back. You have to kind of bend them back behind and hook them so they don't move.

 Bake at 425 for about 1.5 to 2 hrs. You should be able to stick your knife into the thigh and the juices should run clear. I didn't get a picture of the final roast because I always cut deeper into the thigh to make sure no blood runs. The first time I did this recipe there was just a little bit of blood in the thigh and it made me nervous.

Then, remove the chicken from the pan, cut the twine and remove the lemon and rosemary. Save one half of the lemon. Scoop out the veggies and leave the juices in the pan. Squeeze the lemon into the juices in the pan and stir them up. Strain the juices and set aside. 

Slice the breast and place slices on a plate next to the veggies. Stir up the juices and pour some over the sliced chicken. Serve with a green veggie like green beans. 

The chicken is super juicy and basically melts in your mouth. The veggies have a great flavor from cooking in the pan with the chicken and lemon juices. You will want to make this over and over again!

What are some of your favorite roast recipes?

A Weekend with the Packetts

The past two weekends have been very busy with travel, but it has been such a blessing to spend quality time with our family and friends.

Last weekend we celebrated the wedding of good friends of ours. It is always so good to see old friends and meet new people at such a joyous event! On Friday night we caught up with some of our Williamsburg friends at Bonefish, and on Saturday Forrest got in a workout with his buddy Gary while I did some work on my grad project at Aromas in City Center. We also enjoyed time with the Cory family, and I got my Plaza fix at lunch with my wonderful in-laws on Sunday!


This weekend we went back to my roots on the Packett farm and got to spend some quality with my parents, my sister and bro-in-law, and my beautiful niece Cora. Cora is just under 15 months, and her uncle Forrest and I just adore her! This weekend she started calling us by name! I am "Mimi" and Forrest (FoCo) is "GoCo." Whenever Forrest disappeared from her sight for more than 10 seconds, she would call..."GoCo" and put her hands up asking "Where is he?!"

Here are some pictures of our weekend.

MiiiiiiiMiiiiiii!

Baking Pumpkin Muffins with Mimi :)

My beautiful sister Rebekah and I got to play dress up and hit the Christmas Open Houses at the local shops!

Unfortunately I spilled a pan of these delicious Pumpkin Streusel Muffins in my mom's oven, but luckily there were still enough for all of us and a special visit from Grandmama & Atdaddy! Check out the recipe here.

A felt ruffle that got a little out of control!!! It is way too huge to wear on any garment!

Cora and Uncle GoCo playing before dinner!

Cora calls Fish...ish!

GoCo????

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend too. For me there is just nothing in the world like going home. Being with family is something I need, and being so far away from them can make that kind of tough. After this long weekend with my favorite people I feel totally refreshed and ready to tackle one week of work before a week off at Thanksgiving, and 9 days and counting until my grad project is due!!!

Pumpkin Streusel Muffins

The other day I was reading what Kait over at Mrs. DIY & The Tennis Guy has been up to recently. I saw her post about Pumpkin Streusel Muffins with Brown Sugar & Cinnamon Filling and have been dying to try them out ever since. 

I adapted the recipe from the one on her post, mostly because after filling up one muffin pan with batter, I ran out, and had a lot of steusel & cinnamon filling left over (which is fine...I plan on making some more tonight!). I actually like only making about 12 to 18 muffins because I have no self-discipline and if there were 24 in the kitchen...I'd probably eat them all!

Pumpkin Struesel Muffins (makes 12)

1 3/4 c all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1  tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 1/2 c sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

1/3 cup water

1 cup canned pumpkin

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Filling:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Streusel Topping:

3/4 c oats

1/2 tbsp flour

1/6 c brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

dash of nutmeg

3 tbsp cold butter, cut into chunks

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Fill1 muffin pan with muffin liners 

3. Combine the 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon (Brown Sugar Cinnamon Filling) in a medium bowl and set aside

4. Sift the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg into a medium bowl, mix together with a whisk

5. In an electric mixer, combine the sugar, oil, water, pumpkin, eggs and vanilla and mix on a low speed for 2 minutes.

6. Continue mixing and slowly add the flour mixture. Mix at medium-low speed for 2 minutes.

 

7. To make the streusel topping, combine the oats, flour, cinnamon nutmeg, brown sugar and cold butter. Use your hands to incorporate all of the ingredients until it is a crumbly mixture. 

8. Pour batter into the cups until they are 1/2 full. 

9. Top each with the brown sugar and cinnamon filling.

10. Fill the muffin cups all the way up and top with the streusel topping. 

 

11. Bake for 15 to 20 mins, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

The Country Church Cookbook

I have been tossing ideas around in my head about making pumpkin cupcakes for about two weeks now. On Wednesday I picked up cream cheese and butter, knowing I would probably need those for the frosting if I did decide to make some. Normally I turn to Google.com to handle most of my culinary questions, but this time I turned to a staple in the kitchen of any Baptist-raised woman I know, the Church Cookbook.

I love the church cookbook. This one is from 1990 and is filled with recipes by ladies with names like Mary Etta, Florence, Elva, Betty Laura, Esther and Eloise. These names and their recipes tell a story of a time nearly forgotten. A time and place in which I am fortunate my parents chose to plant our family, and I am glad to know still exists in the midst of the hustle and bustle of today's busy world. These ladies filled pages and pages with recipes that had been passed down to them from their mothers and to them from their mothers.

I was upset about two things while flipping through the cookbook. Primarily, Nannie didn't publish any recipes in that edition, and I am really not sure why. Secondly, my Mom published a recipe that year for Blackberry Cake, and I can't remember ever eating this amazing dessert!!! 

Anyhow, I knew within those pages I would find a recipe that would inspire me to create the perfect pumpkin cupcakes. Bernice published a recipe that year for Pumpkin Cake and Cream Cheese Frosting. I kept the cookbook open to that page for about 3 days this week mulling over how to adjust the recipe for my cupcake needs.  After my Friday Gym Date with Forrest, I came home on a mission. Those cupcakes were in the oven before our dinner was. I told Forrest it was because the pizza dough needed to sit at room temperature for 20 minutes (which is true...really)!

Pumpkin Cupcakes

"Where's Forrest?": extra points if you can find him in this picture!

Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup flour
1 tsp Pumpkin Spice
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin (save the rest and make my Jack-o-Lantern Pumpkin Pancakes)
1 tsp baking soda

(Notice the really cramped cooking space--that's it really--in our apartment kitchen and the amazing yellow mixer my parents gave me--thanks for always supporting my cooking habit!)

This is how we do it...
First, mix the sugar and eggs

it is actually spinning in this picture

Add the oil and mix at medium until it is fully incorporated. Scoop in the pumpkin and mix at a lower speed until the batter for the cupcakes is well blended.

Place cupcake shells into a cupcake or muffin pan and pour the batter in until the shells are about 2/3 full. Bake at 350 for about 15 to 20 minutes or until the cupcakes turn a light golden brown. (You can always test to be sure they are ready by sticking a toothpick into the center-most cupcake--if it comes out clean you are good to go!)

Remove and let them cool while you make the frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

1 package of cream cheese (8 oz) at room temp for about 5 mins

2 tsp vanilla

1 stick of butter, softened

1 lb confectioners sugar

Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter for about 2 minutes (You may have to scrape the mixture down off of the whisk a few times in the process). 

Add the vanilla and confectioners sugar and blend at a medium-high speed until the frosting is smooth. 

While all of this was going on in the kitchen, I finally managed to get dinner ready so I took a break and stuck the frosting in the fridge while Forrest and I enjoyed homemade pizza. Look for that recipe on the next installment of TJ Special this week!

So finally, while we were watching Bad Teacher, I sat in the dining room which is literally in our living room, smoothing that amazing frosting over these super moist cupcakes. Forrest and I enjoyed one each for dessert and they are amazing!

This makes 18 cupcakes.

Candy Corn Fun

I like following the Kitchen Magpie's blog to see what all she is cooking up each week. The other day I saw her photo for this recipe and I wanted to try it without actually reading the recipe. I like to figure things out for myself, so I picked up some ingredients at the store and tried mixing this together while some of our friends were heading over to hang out. I was so embarrassed with the final product  because things went awry. The butterscotch got clumpy really quickly, and we ended up with a strange bar of butterscotch-candycorn-stuff. I was disappointed because aside from figuring things out on my own, I also like to get things right...the first time. 


I knew it was my fault for heating the butterscotch too quickly, so this week I picked up the supplies again, determined to get it right.  Here is how it turned out:

Candy Corn Haystacks

 Ingredients
1 bag of butterscotch morsels
2/3 cup of chow mien noodles
1/2 cup of peanuts
1/2 cup of candy corn

Directions:
1) Place the butterscotch morsels in a glass bowl and microwave them at 15 to 30 sec increments
2) Stir after each heating spell
3) Keep stirring even if all of the morsels have not melted because once some of them start to melt, eventually all of them will

The butterscotch should look creamy like this

 3) Once the butterscotch is smooth, add in the other ingredients.

all of the ingredients in the bowl

4) Stir them all up together so that the butterscotch covers all of the ingredients

5) Using two spoons, scoop out chunks of the mixture onto wax paper

6) Then stick two candy corns on the top to make them look pretty 
7) Let them cool for about 15 minutes and then serve them up! 

Do you have any other cool ideas for candy corn?