Butternut Squash: How does it end up so soft?

Tonight I had my first experience with the butternut squash. Generally I use squash alot -- yellow squash, zucchini, spaghetti squash -- but I had never cooked a butternut squash.

Let me tell you, it takes a little wrestling on the cutting board.

Mine had a long, thick neck and small, round bottom. I will admit the knives I have for my use right now are not the best, but there was a lot of splitting sounds and squash pieces on the floor as I tried to cube and peel this stingy squash.

I roasted it in the oven with some chopped onions at 425 for only about 30 minutes. Unfortunately, I am not used to this new oven I'm working with and the pieces started to burn, even though I was supposed to cook it for 40-45 minutes.

But, I must say, somehow this hard-to-handle squash had found its soft side. It was tasty and the dark brown I ended up getting it to actually kind of added to the flavor, in a caramelized sort of way.

I made Giada's Penne with Butternut Squash and Goat Cheese.

It was super tasty. The butternut squash lived up to its name, ending up as creamy as butter and really, really good.

This dish is best served as soon as you finish it. I reheated it a little later and it's already not as good. The creamy, goat cheese "sauce" sticks to the pasta and needs a little help from a bit of liquid to help it from being dry on the reheat.

Overall, I'd give this recipe a 7 out of 10 ... mostly because I didn't have that much fun fighting the squash.

Kangaroo anyone?

Not your typical Labor Day grilling menu

My dad wanted to fire up the grill for Labor Day and I insisted burgers and hot dogs were out -- we had them the weekend before!

Luckily, I had bought the Barbecue Bible for my dad a few years ago so I pulled out a recipe for the occasion -- Grilled Pizza.

This is not a recipe to mess with because the prep work takes more than THREE HOURS because you make your own dough. It's made out of a combination of yeast (of course), sugar, salt, olive oil, whole-wheat flour, fine white cornmeal and regular, white, all-purpose flour. You make it and knead it, form it into a disk/ball, cover it and leave it alone. About two hours later, you punch it down and then you leave it alone for another hour.

Here's where the process gets more intense. You spread the dough out on 9x13 cookie sheets, tugging and pushing and, eventually, stretching the dough out as far as you can (I never make it all the way to all four edges!).

Next for the toppings, I grilled three sliced roma tomatoes and some slices of two regular large tomatoes. Once a little charred, I diced the regular tomatoes but left the romas whole for one pizza.

With those ready, it was time to start the pizza-making process. Two-thirds of the grill need to be about medium high in heat and one side needs to be cool. It goes pretty quickly from here.

1. Pick up crust and place it on hot side of grill.

2. Wait for it to puff up, about one minute.


3. Use two spatulas to flip to cool side of grill.

4. Brush with olive oil then add topping, cheese first so it will melt (it suggests and I highly recommend using fontina because it melts so well). Then basil if you have it, then tomatoes, then pepperoni (or whatever else you want on yours).



5. Using two spatulas again, move crust over to hot side of the grill and cook until the cheese melts (about 3-5 minutes).

BEWARE, do not close the lid. That will burn the bottom of your pizza like nothing else. Trust me, I did it the first time I made this recipe.

The result was a very delicious, fresh tasting pizza that won over the critics who joined my Labor Day shindig. The crust is semi-thin but not crackery and definitely not anywhere near chewy. Charred edges just add to the flavors. Definitely a must for future occasions!

To add more grilling flavor, I charred a head of romaine lettuce for a caesar salad by cutting it down the middle, brushing the heart with a little olive oil and throwing on some minced garlic and then putting the heart size down on the grill until it got a nice little char to it. I just diced it up afterward, added some cheese and dressing and had a nice little side dish for my grilled pizza.

Pretty green ice cream

While guest blogger Adam was in California, he sent me a picture of this yummy treat and a little about it.



This green tea ice cream is from a Lappert's location in Sausalito, Calif.

Extra butter fat makes it "super premium."

Friendly service and LOTS of tourists (like me). Pricey, of course, but that's what you pay for "super premium."

Lots of specialty flavors: guava sorbet, Kona coffee and caramel coconut macadamia nut.

Besides that, it was all about presentation, hence the artichoke/floral arrangement.

And oh so worth it!

Holy Guacamole Sunday meets Meatless Monday

My friend Janelle encouraged me to participate in Meatless Mondays a while back and I've never remembered to do it.

Last night I bought some avocados for a salad and decided to get extras for guacamole. Then, the wheels started turning and I decided to give Meatless Mondays a try.

I made my first guacamole Sunday, and after eating it for Meatless Monday, I would say it turned out fairly well.

Photo from whatscookingamerica.net

Here's what I did:
I halved and scooped out two avocados (watch out for those seeds! Mine popped out and rolled across the kitchen floor), cutting them up and mashing them. I added one diced, homegrown tomato and about 1/2 cup of a diced purple onion. I squeezed half a lime, added cumin and a little chili powder (Well, I didn't have any cayenne pepper!), diced some jalapenos (unfortunately not fresh) and put in some freshly minced garlic.

I let it sit overnight and made a wrap with some black beans and lettuce for lunch. It was pretty good, actually.

Unfortunately, the avocados did not have as much protein as I had hoped. But, they do contain 20 vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients, like folate, fiber, vitamin E and vitamin C.

I've never loved avocados or guacamole but I enjoyed this Meatless lunch and may have to do it again.

Please share your guacamole recipes with me. I'm always looking for new ideas.

No, I didn't buy a bunch of honey buns and throw them in a baking dish!

Honey Bun Cake is one treat I remember fondly from my teenage years. It was a dessert I only had at church functions, courtesy of our pastor's wife. Until now, since I have the recipe myself!

A few months back, the boyfriend's aunt made him a delicious honey bun cake and shared the recipe with me. Until a week or so ago, the poor little recipe went unused. When a potluck was planned and it was time for me to step up with a great dish, I drew a blank. Someone mentioned a honey bun cake and I decided to take on the endeavor for the first time.

It really was a fairly painless process, easy and straightforward.



The end result was pretty delicious, and a hit among fellow potluckers. See the yummy, swirly inside? It's much better than a store-bought honey bun. Here's the recipe!

Honey Bun Cake

Ingredients
CAKE
1 box yellow Betty Crocker cake mix
3/4 cup Crisco Oil (I was told only Crisco!)
4 eggs
8 oz. sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla (get the good stuff or you can taste the difference)
1 cup brown sugar
3 teaspoons cinnamon
2/3 cup chopped pecans

Mix first 5 ingredients together. Pour half of batter into 9x13 pan sprayed with Pam (I was told to use a glass baking dish but I used one of those disposable aluminum ones for the party). Mix brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans. Sprinkle half of sugar mixture over batter. Swirl with a fork. Pour other half of batter on top. Sprinkle with remaining sugar mixture. Swirl with a fork. Bake at 325 degrees for 40 minutes.

GLAZE
2 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix ingredients together and pour over hot cake.

Here is my review on the baking process:

• First, I did not have quality vanilla and I could taste the difference. Get the good stuff.

• Second, putting half of the sugar and pecans in the middle and half on top caused my top to be uneven and bumpy. Therefore, I needed more glaze to cover and it didn't make a pretty top. I think next time I will put all of the sugary goodness in the middle. But, I think I will pour about 2/3 of the cake in first, then swirl because the swirling is hard when there's not much mix.
  

• Third, my cake took a bit longer than 40 minutes -- the middle would not cook! Don't be alarmed if you need longer as well. But, the longer cook time did not take away the moistness of the cake, probably thanks mostly to the sour cream.

Try it yourself and let me know how it turns out. But, don't blame me when you become addicted!

Saved by the Steamer Basket

Two wonderful things happened when I cooked myself dinner on Friday night -- I made my first batch of ravioli and I used my new vegetable steamer!

First, I've had this recipe from my favorite Food Network chef, Giada De Laurentiis, saved in my e-mail for months, always saying I'm going to make the Roasted Chicken Purses when I have a leftover baked chicken. Friday was my day!

Thursday night I went to one of my favorite Shreveport restaurants, Bistro Byronz, and ordered the Rosemary Chicken. Little did I realize, for lack of reading I am sure, that it was half of a chicken. Needless to say, I brought about 3/4 of it home.

For the Roasted Chicken Purses, Giada used some leftover chicken breasts she had from a rotisserie chicken. The leftover chicken was great because, as she did on the show, I shredded most of it with a fork, which made it great for the ravioli-ish mixture.

This was a very, very easy dinner, just combining the ingredients and then putting them into the wonton wrappers. I had never used wonton wrappers, let alone made my own raviolis, but now I love them!

After putting the mixture on the wrappers, you just add some egg wash and fold them up. You kind of bring all four sides up to the middle and twist to make a "purse" out of them. If you steam or boil them, they don't have to be perfect.
Now, Giada says to boil them but I read the comments from reviewers beforehand who had their wontons fall apart. I decided to take a different approach, using my new vegetable steamer.
This was uncharted territory for me and there were no instructions on how long to cook them in a steamer so I was on my own.

I put half of them in the steamer and started my experiment. First, I tested them at 5 minutes (because that was the boiling time), then at 8 and finally at 10 I took them out. Well, sort of. They stuck! So, as carefully as possible, I removed them and had to unhinge some of their bottoms from my steamer basket for round two.

This time, I put my thinking cap on and sprayed the basket with Pam! Viola!! AND, I searched the Internet, that handy dandy little thing, to see how long to steam wontons or dumplings. Some said as little as 12 minutes and some recommended 20. Since my filling was cooked, I opted for 12.

Oh, the Internet and Pam were the answer. 12 minutes was just about perfect. I sampled them and they were tasty. Even my not-a-big-fan-of-pasta father liked them. They do have a good bit of that lemon flavor so I hope you like citrus with your chicken, or else, omit the lemon zest. I found it refreshing!

I did decide to saute them in a little bit of butter afterward. I only put one tablespoon in a skillet with one sprig of thyme. Once melted, I turned off the fire, put the purses in and put a lid on it, turning them in the butter occasionally.

For a side dish, I used my wonderful steamer basket again. I put in slices of onion, bell pepper, squash and some fresh green beans, with a little Tony Chachere's of course. Those steamed almost 30 minutes because I had a lot of veggies in there.

But, my steamer basket was a ROCK STAR!

I had a great dinner and it was a very healthy option. I'm sure it would have been better without the butter, but for the amount of purses I ate, it wasn't that many ticks on the caloric calculator.
Overall, I highly recommend a steamer basket for all of your healthy vegetable needs as well as wonton wrappers for ravioli!

Now I'm ready for shrimp dumplings and wontons...the possibilities are endless.