Southwestern Squash Soup

I’m a self proclaimed spice addict. If there is a spice shop anywhere I’m visiting you can rest assured I’ll be going in. I love buying custom blends to remind me of the places I’ve visited – Lake Geneva Spice Blend (like Old Bay), Napa Valley Rub (the best Italian blend), and various seafood blends from Alaska are just a few in my collection. I even received from my parents RawSpiceBar’s monthly blends for a Christmas gift. I love spices. Why? Because while the initial investment can be pricey a little goes a long way and they will transform simple ingredients into something amazing. This is especially true if you use whole spices where you can and grind them up in a mortar and pestle – yes it is another dirty dish, but once you smell the difference once you will never go back.

Just look at how pretty they are…

Southwestern spices

I decided to make this to use up some butternut squash from our CSA. Our CSA is amazing and in the winter provides frozen already pureed squash which really simplifies prep. The recipe I used from TheKitchn’s Emma Christensen – http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-southwestern-butternut-squash-soup-recipes-from-the-kitchn-213095 – walks you through how to work with a whole squash. I love the freshness of that, but know that the near butchery act of deconstructing a butternut squash can be a huge deterrent in trying a dish like this. Many grocery stores have frozen squash puree. It was a staple of mine in college and would be perfect here.

I didn’t make any changes aside from starting with puree from TheKitchn’s recipe. In my experience their recipes are generally spot-on so I don’t alter them unless I’m missing an ingredient and need to do so. If I were to make this for one of my good friends who is spice adverse I’d use extra paprika instead of the cayenne. I always do that when working with the spice averse then you add flavor instead of just removing spice. I also pretty much always use greek yogurt in place of sour cream for a topper, for the most part you can’t tell the difference. I found it was perfect with just cilantro and the greek yogurt on top.

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Goat Cheese and Mixed Green Pasta

Good cooks need a few dishes they can make from memory. Things that can save the day on a busy week night when you know you have nothing at home and want to quickly walk into a store and grab what you need and go. This pasta is one of those dishes for me. The idea came from Giada de Laurentiis and I don’t think I’ve changed anything about it, but at this point I’ve made it so many times I can’t remember for sure. It is one of those dishes that can accommodate basic swaps easily, a key skill for a cook to learn. To look at a recipe and see shallot and know onion will be okay or to see spinach and know you’d prefer kale or that in a pinch swiss chard would be just fine, that’s when you go from an okay cook to a better cook. This was one of the first I did that with.  The principal is fairly simple.

Ingredients: Small pasta of your choice (I like orecchiette, which I think is what Giada used), log of goat cheese, mixed greens.

That’s it.

The steps are pretty easy too.

  1. Cook pasta according to package directions
  2. Drain, keeping a bit of the pasta water aside for making a sauce
  3. Put pasta back in warm pot you cooked it in
  4. Add the greens and use the warmth of the pan and the pasta to wilt them
  5. Add the goat cheese use the ration of about a 1/2 ounce cheese per ounce of pasta
  6. Add the pasta water just a bit at a time. This turns the goat cheese to a sauce and helps with any greens that need more wilting, stop adding it when the dish is as saucy as you want it
  7. Finally top with tons of fresh ground pepper, this is the main seasoning for the dish, so don’t be shy
  8. Ta-da lunch or dinner is served

Goat cheese pasta with mixed greens.

Other cheese can be used or other greens. I will warn you that while cubed fresh mozzarella does work it will clump together and you won’t get a saucy dish it will be a bit more like mac and cheese, which is never a terrible outcome if you ask me. It will however make cleaning your pan a task likely to ruin a sponge, so proceed with caution on that cheese substitution.

 

Bundt Cakes – Success, mistakes, and final victory

A number of years ago I made a New Years Resolution that I’d highly recommend to any cooks who claim to not be bakers – I resolved to “become a baker”. And I was successful, perhaps too successful. I conquered scones, biscuits, yeast dough, and even bread. I became the go to cake baker and found a carrot cake recipe that my dad requests for any and all events where he’s the guest of honor (Father’s Day and his birthday especially). Before that year began I made a bundt cake using the pan one of my very best friends got me as a wedding gift.

This first bundt cake was perfect –

First perfect bundt cake

And so was the second –

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That whole year of becoming a baker I made no other bundt cakes, clearly I’d already conquered it. Then last April I decided to rebel from my dad’s request and make him a root beer bundt cake. It was decidedly unperfect. It was so unperfect it had to become a trifle as no portion came out of the pan into anything that looked like a cake. And that trifle was great, nobody refuses cake chunks integrated with cream cheese frosting, or at least nobody I know.

Then, I gave up for months. The worst thing you can do in cooking or baking is follow an almost failure turned improvised success with inaction. I didn’t want another disaster on my hands.  Then for aforementioned dinner party I made another – it was okay. Not perfect, but not an epic disaster. It did not come out in one piece, but it could be salvaged and pieced back together. I was getting closer! That began a string of bundt failures as I hoped to edge closer to success. The most epic failure looked like this…

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That’s when I decided no amount of greasing or letting it rest was going to work. We needed to look at other failures and learn from their mistakes and methods. One popular method involves a combination of resting and steam. You boil water in a kettle and then you dump it all over a dish towel. The methods diverge from here some suggest draping it atop the pan and others suggest sitting the bundt on top of one – for maximum success I did both. And again it was closer, but not there yet.

That’s when I caved and ordered a fancy baking spray from Williams Sonoma. As far as I could tell this is a common bundt pan issue. The first 2-3 are perfect and then something goes awry with the coating. I was admitting semi-defeat and enlisting more professional tools. And you know what – it worked.

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The moral of the story is twofold and both are classic life lessons. 1) If at first you don’t succeed, try try again. 2) Good tools may not be everything, but they sure can help.

The Sign of a Good Dinner Party

My mom is a wonderful host. She throws parties so casually she’d sometimes make the Barefoot Contessa look flustered. Ever since my now husband and I moved into our condo I’ve aspired to be that easy going while entertaining. Now that we have a house selected carefully for its entertaining potential that aspiration has elevated. They say practice makes perfect…and I’m working on it and I’m getting there.

I’ve found the best way to practice is to have slightly more people than you can easily cook for without thinking much about it and to make sure all those people are good friends. A few weekends ago my friend inquired what I’d be doing for the season premiere for Downton Abbey. I let her know I was thinking of having my mom over and she and her husband were welcome to come for dinner before the show. And with that it was off to menu planning.

I’d just rented Rachael Ray’s “Everyone is Italian on Sunday” through the digital lending library. I know plenty of people don’t love Rachael and I can even see their points – she may or may not have used ghostwriters in the past, she is not a true “chef”, etc. But me? I love her. I can’t help it. She was one of the first cookbooks I purchased when I discovered my love for cooking on my own terms. She also makes everything look easy.

I settled on pork loin, roasted broccoli, mashed potatoes, and a salad all from her new cookbook. I also opted to make a chocolate bundt cake from a recipe I’d found online. How’d it go? I have no pictures NONE. No photos of my using all coordinated white servingware, even a gravy boat. No photos of the completed (and delicious) dishes. No photos of the nicely set table. No photographic evidence of my greeting guests who were 15 minutes early while I was in the middle of the final stages of preparation with a calm smile on my face and questions about their lives and how they were doing. And that to me is the sign of a good dinner party. I didn’t get a chance to take a quick picture because I was too busy living.

Gearing up for 2016

As we approach New Year’s Day I’m reflecting as most people do on what I’d like the coming year to look like. One of those things is to take my hobby of cooking and expand on it and share it. Maybe someone will read, maybe they won’t, but there’s only one way to find out. I hope you’ll join me in 2016 for healthy recipes, indulgent recipes, projects, fast meals, and more.

New Year’s Day Food

Cultures all over the world have traditional foods to bring luck in the new year. In the US South black eyed peas and greens are common. In Germany, sauerkraut. In Italy, lentils and sausages. Most of these traditions have to do with green vegetables bringing green (dollars, clearly) in the new year. The traditions around beans tend to be because they are a cost effective option that manages to double in size, doubling in size is something most of us would not refuse for our luck or the money in our pocketbooks. Lentils are because they look like coins, as do the sausages when cut.

I’ve never made these traditional foods on New Year’s Day for good luck. I did try making yeast cinnamon rolls once for the first time over a new year’s eve. Which is a poetic idea I like, as the beans do, so too does yeast when rise, double in size.

Along that idea I decided an Indian feast for New Year’s day was in order. My husband will eat beans or lentils, but a bowl of them would not be his idea of good luck. I perused a wide variety of cookbooks and recipe clippings to decide on the final line up. Some say a good cook doesn’t need recipes, but all cooks have to start somewhere, and me I often like to start with recipes. I may not always follow them to the letter, but it works for me.

Indian Cookbooks Laid Out

Since I had the day off, it seemed a great day for a project recipe.Homemade Onion Naan from an issue of Bon Appetit http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/onion-naan last year fit the bill. When they published that they also included a recipe for Spicy Sauteed Spinach http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/spicy-saut-ed-spinach. Good luck references and spice for my husband? I’d add that to the menu.

But I didn’t stop there. I added Red Lentil Daal from Cooking Light’s Global Kitchen, the closest recipe I can find for that is this one http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Red-Lentil-Dal-101019, also from them. If you don’t have this cookbook, but like to eat light and try new cuisines I’d highly recommend it. Last but not least I added Tandoori Shrimp from a cookbook I got called “Indian” at Five Below. What can I say, I’m a cookbook fiend, I leave no stone (or upscale dollar store) unturned.

It turned out great.

New Year's Day Indian Feast

I don’t know if it will bring us good luck, but I certainly enjoyed flexing my cooking muscles in the kitchen.

 

 

 

White Chicken Chili

Fall’s my favorite season for a variety of reasons, but among the top are that it means football and football in our home means chili. For the past two years I’ve dedicated every Bears game to trying new chili recipes. I’m pretty lax in what I allow here. I am not from Texas, so beans are fine. It does always involve meat. While I lean to a vegetarian diet when left to my own devices, my husband…let’s just say he’d not be a big fan of a bean stew masquerading as a chili. Though I do have several favorite vegetarian chili recipes, more on that some other day.

I’d love to be one of those people with a signature chili, and maybe one day I will be. Though I feel like you’d need a signature in each category: ground meat, ground meat with beans, cubed meat, chicken/turkey, and vegetarian. I guess that makes it clear why I’ve not found my signature(s) yet… too many things variables. Why perfect, when I can experiment?

This year we’ve tried all those types, including even a buffalo chicken chili, but today is the first day I’ve made anything resembling a white chili for my husband. I guess that’s not true, I’ve made a corn and potato chicken chili for him, but admitted it was basically a glorified stew. His main beef (pun on a chicken post entirely intended) with white chili is that it isn’t spicy, which is true enough, that’s the whole point. So what can I do? Find ways to make it more acceptable, because football season is long and sometimes a nice plain white chili is what you most want.

My mom has previously made Giada’s White Bean and Chicken Chili and it was delicious. Something about the ground meat made it feel more chili like than those white chili recipes with shredded turkey or chicken (which I also love, let’s be honest). You can find the recipe here http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/white-bean-and-chicken-chili-recipe.html. I did not alter this in anyway other than the tragic fact that I was a teaspoon short on cumin and had kale from our CSA and used that instead of the swiss chard. It also has chili powder which I think helps and has a stir in and infusion of red pepper flakes for the last ten minutes. The garnishes work in its favor, a little parsley and a little Parmesan with the option of extra red pepper flakes just adds to it all.

So how was it? I think if your husband eats all the chili left overs for days on end…maybe you should not force him to have white chicken chili. Even if it was delicious.

 

 

The Meatloaf Bakery

Meatloaf Cupcakes, alarmingly delicious

A Great Gimmick, and Meatloaf for All Tastes

Meatloaf doesn’t have a reputation of being the most innovative food around. Often times with foodie writers want to mock old fashioned “stale” cooking they will poke fun at the poor meatloaf. The Meatloaf Bakery is here to prove all those naysayers wrong. Not only can it be innovative, but it can be gimmicky to the point of exhaustion. Some might not appreciate 8 varieties of meatloaf that are available in mini muffin loafie size, regular cupcake size, and cake/tart/loaf size. I on the other hand do, because as stated previously, I love a good gimmick.

 Meatloaf Cupcake topped with Mashed Potato Frosting

Good gimmick no? Each variety is topped with a complimentary starchy or vegetable based “frosting”. I have to admit I had my doubts thanks to not so positive reviews on yelp. Many of which were complaining about quality or being over priced. I don’t agree with this. I ate 4 different loafies, and all of which were exactly how I like my meatloaf, and I didn’t think the price was absurd. Yes a mini cupcake size piece of meatloaf for $2.00 is not cheap, but it is a gimmick and that is the point, so you are going to pay for it. I didn’t find myself regretting the price tag, so that is a good sign.

My friend and I were able to sample a bit of the Yentil Lentil Loaf (the only vegetarian offering) and it was moist and tasty. It was a loaf made with lentils, brown rice, mixed veggies, and cheese topped with bell peppers. It also happens to be gluten free.

My friend, classic as she is tried The Mother Loaf in full size cupcake form. Their traditional offering of a blend of beef, pork, an veal mixed with onions and ketchup, topped with Yukon Smashers. She allowed me a bite, and it was also moist and tasty.

I opted for 3 loafies the A Wing and A Prayer Loaf, Omega-3 Loaf, and Chicken Shish Kaloaf. The Wing and A Prayer loaf is made with crumbled bleu cheese, ground chicken, celery, and hot sauce. It really did taste like wings in meatloaf form. The Omega-3 Loaf was a risk, a salmon meatloaf could go one of two ways, their execution was moist and the lemon, parsley, and dill in the mix added to the flavor. The salmon was topped with wasabi mashed potatoes which did not overwhelm the flavor of the meatloaf, nor mismatch the otherwise more Scandinavian flavors in the mix.  The Chicken Shish Kaloaf was the plainest of the ones I’d selected, it was tasty with mild Mediterranean flavors of lemon, parsley, red onions, and herbs topped with garlic potatoes. Of the one’s I tried it was my least favorite, but still quite tasty.

The Meatloaf Bakery is located at 2464 N. Clark St., Chicago, Illinois 60614

Overall: 4/5- I’d go back again, and each time I’m in the area I wish I was getting meatloaf cupcakes

Food:5/5- It is a great gimmick, and there is something for everyone the classic eater, the adventurous, your vegetarian friend, and the one who wants to try a bit of everything

Service:4/5- It is a small cafe type set-up but the people working (maybe also the owners) were delightful, answering questions, humoring my food network loving friend, and overall making it an enjoyable experience.

Ambiance: 4/5- null

New Year, New Food!

Happy New Year!

Starting with, Cinnamon Rolls.

I started off the New Year by finishing up a cooking project from yesterday. The fiance and I hosted one other couple for a relaxed New Year’s Eve dinner and appetizer event. Before the couple came over I decided it was time to finally get up my gumption to try to make cinnamon rolls. You see I had this bizarre compulsion to start traditions for our first Christmas in our first home. What makes a great morning tradition for Christmas? Cinnamon rolls, obviously. So I scoured a recipe from my recipe folder (yes I am old school like that I clip them from magazines and newspapers), and found a recipe for Raspberry-Swirl Sweet Rolls. However…they did not make it to Christmas morning. It turns out making Cinnamon Rolls from scratch, or any similar roll like object involves many steps, steps you don’t want to wait for on Christmas morning. So they were postponed for a good occasion…New Year’s Day.

Strawberry Swirl Breakfast Rolls

Is really what I ended up with. They turned out good, which I was thrilled about. I had never worked with active dry yeast before. I always feared the killing of it with too hot water (which I’d read about) or the overtly long kneading process (turns out not that long a process, and mildly relaxing). Something I did run into was an issue with the dough not rising as it should … too cold in our loft-y kitchen. A quick search on my friend the internet and I learned…your oven with the light turned on is just about perfect dough rising temperature of 85 degrees.

Aside from dealing with the active yeast and kneading, the most important thing I learned was…baking is not nearly as scary as my brain thinks it is. You can adapt it. If your recipe from Bon Appetit magazine says in step one to use an electric stand mixer, you don’t really need to. Maybe the proportions should change so you can search for a similar dough recipe in your Cooking Light cookbook and find one that lets you just use a spoon. The rolls probably aren’t as fluffy, but you made homemade breakfast rolls with glaze on them, complaints will not be happening regardless. And if the store has no frozen raspberries, strawberries are fine. It turns out baking has plenty more leeway than I knew. Yes measuring is still more important than in cooking and there are a few more steps, but overall might be worth learning more about. There is no need to fear baking!

Hashbrowns

.Hashbrowns in Chicago, a Great Gimmick

Five kinds of hashbrowns, including sweet potato hashbrowns

Hashbrowns is located at 731 W. Maxwell St. in Chicago. Located near UIC the parking was easily accessible, and there was no wait to get in on a Saturday around 10am.

Hashbrowns has been on my to-do list for a number of years, it has been reviewed in many places. I love a good gimmick, I mean LOVE, and five kinds of hashbrowns is exactly the kind of gimmick I am interested in.

Tasty hashbrowns, low-key brunch, classic breakfast favorites

We were seated promptly. Our waitress was prompt, but not pushy. Sadly eventually the got busier than one person can handle, and my coffee cup was not refilled until the end of our breakfast. Which was sad. Part of that was my fault, I took longer to sip than the Fiance so did not get the obligatory breakfast is served warm-up.

Looking at the menu it was clear they specialized in classics, not trendy new items. So I went with one of my breakfast classic favorites, the Veggie Omelet. Their veggie omelet is called “The Northsider” and features bell peppers, spinach, mushrooms, broccoli, and swiss cheese, and comes accompanied with sweet potato hash browns. The omelet was good, basic, but good, and reasonable sized. Sometimes omelets are cooked into oblivion to be chewy, or worse yet (in my opinion) a little gooey and undercooked, theirs was done just right. However I am fairly certain the cheese was not swiss, and if it was it was a very bland swiss. Still it was tasty. Notably, the hashbrowns were excellent as expected. They tasted like a shredded thanksgiving entree with sweet potatoes and tasty cinnamon and other spices.

The fiance ordered the 18th Street Omelet, a tribute to nearby Pilsen featuring chorizo, tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, & cilantro. He substituted the Rosemary Hashbrowns with red potatoes and fresh rosemary and garlic. Tragically for Hashbrowns we happen to live by one of the best places in Chicago for breakfast with a Mexican flair (a review for another day), this was good but not anything particularly special. The Rosemary Hashbrowns were delicious…home fries. They were cubed not shredded as is traditional/expected with hashbrowns, but the flavor was excellent.

The decor was casual, bright, and welcoming. There was a wide variety of people inside from families with younger children to an off-duty cop, his wife, and his work partner to a couple having a wedding planning meeting. The area was spacious, which is unique at brunch where people are often elbow to elbow packed in.

Overall:

Food:3/5-will I come back with my potato loving best friend when she visits, absolutely, is it especially unique beyond the hashbrowns, no

Service:4/5- our waitress was wonderful and responded quickly to requests, when she was able to come by which was not often once it got packed.

Ambiance: 4/5- I liked that it was a brunch place that wasn’t trying to take itself too seriously, but hadn’t gone to far to kitsch.