Thanksgiving Potatoes

First of all, Molly I love that you made an entire thanksgiving dinner from scratch by yourself... sounds like fun! I made lots of stuff this thanksgiving as well, but not quite the whole meal. I promised Becca I would post my recipe for mashed sweet potatoes. This are THE BEST mashed potatoes ever, you gotta try them.

2 lbs sweet potatoes

4 tbs butter

2 tbs heavy cream

1  tbs brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

pinch of pepper

Slice the sweet potatoes so they are the same width. In a pan melt butter and heavy cream together. Add sugar, salt, pepper and potatoes. Cook on low heat stirring occasionally  until the potatoes start to fall apart. Transfer contents to a bowl and mash. 

+You can also make a delicious Indian variation by adding 1 tbs of Garam Masala with sugar and salt. After mashing add golden raisons.    

Thankgiving

Okay, so it was selfish of me to want to do Thanksgiving all by myself. But everyone else gets SO stressed out about it... And I thought it would be fun, plus, I would get to have all the recipes just the way I like it - wi th the free range, organic, antibiotic free turkey, and the organic greens, etc..... So I did it. All from scratch. You know what? I'll do it again tomorrow if you ask me. That was SO MUCH FUN! :) Who is going to give me money to start my own catering business.......?

Impulsively bought some Jubelale while I was picking up the turkey last night... Mmmm.

Mom's Onion Tart with Squash

My mom sent me a recipe for an Onion Tart she has whipped up a few weeks ago, so I decided to give it a try this past weekend. However, the acorn squash lingering in my kitchen was begging to be used, and suddenly my tart was destined to be a Squash and Onion Tart, and the results were fabulous.


Onion Filling:
3 cups slices onions
1 c. cubes of roasted squash, cooled (I think I'll use Butternut next time)
1 T. butter
1 T. olive oil
½ tsp salt
¼ cup cream
1 egg
1 T. dried sage

Pastry Crust:
1 cup flour
7 T. butter
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
about 1 T. milk or cream - I used soy milk

Brown the onions in butter and oil. Salt them. Put in a bowl to cool. Mix the cream, salt, sage and egg together, fold in the squash and set aside. Make the crust while the onions are cooling.

Mix together flour, butter and salt like a standard pie crust. Add egg and mix thoroughly. Add enough milk to make a dough that barely sticks together. Kneed a couple times and roll out into a circle and place on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.

Mix the cream and egg mixture into the onions and then spread on the circle of dough leaving the outside 1 to 1 ½ inches uncovered. Fold the outside edge over the filling, crimping the edge as you go.

Bake for 30 minutes @ 375°, or until the crust is lightly browned.

Ariel and I enjoyed it with roasted Autumn veggies and a big green salad. I can attest to the fact that the absolutely perfect dessert to this meal is posted right below...

Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

Last night I experimented with brownies and peanut butter chips...and I was pleased with the result. I used my favorite no fail brownie recipe and gave it some spice:

Brownies:

2 sticks butter

4oz bittersweet chocolate

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 cup flour

½ tsp SALT

1 bag reeses peanut butter chips

1 tablespoon milk

Melt butter and chocolate. Combine with sugar. Add eggs one at a time while mixing. Mix in remaining dry ingredients. Put in pan.

I then melted the peanut butter chips with the milk and swirled it in using a knife.  Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes.

Marble Cutter's Soup

Yummy soup. Followed recipe straight from the Splendid Table, except I added oregano. 

Vegan Sausages

Too lazy to write this post out all over again. Just go look at it in the original post. 

Creamy Tomato Rosemary Flax Pasta

Too many words for one past perhaps? In any case, this was sort of a "whatever I have in the fridge" kind of meal... plus, it didn't hurt my freshly removed wisdom holes.

Creamy Tomato Rosemary Flax Pasta

1 garlic clove, chopped

1/4 onion, chopped

1/2 can diced tomatoes

2 spoonfuls of low-fat cream cheese

rosemary, salt and pepper

flax seed pasta (Trader Joes!)

~this makes one big serving~

1. cook up the onion and garlic in a skillet, while boiling the pasta on the side.

2. pour the tomatoes and the cream cheese into the skillet, and cook until cheese has melted. 

3. spice it up with some rosemary, salt and pepper

4. simmer the sauce until it is at a desired thickness

5. serve the sauce over the pasta, and ENJOY!

**(it might also be good to throw in some fancy mushrooms and white wine!)

Not only is it delicious- it isn't as horrible for you as the standard creamy alfredo sauce! :)

Made this great soup for dinner, Cream of Sunchoke Soup. Phil and I ordered it at Lovely Hula Hands for my birthday dinner, where it was WAY better, but hey, I'm trying. (photos are all cut off, but full versions if you click I think)
Ingredients

Chop, chop chop chop chop.

Sunchokes look really weird.

Some for me, some for the soup!

Final product.

1 lb sunchokes, washed, peeled, sliced thin, and soaked in a bowl of cold water and fresh lemon juice
1 med onion, diced
2 med new potatoes, diced small
1/2 lb celariac, diced small
2 celery stalks, diced

1 tbs stone ground mustard
1 cup of dry white wine
1 cup of half and half

4 cups broth
Thyme
Rosemary
Olive oil
Salt

Pepper

Sunchoke Soup

Bring 2tbs olive oil to medium heat in a heavy bottom pot. Sautee onion, rosemary, thyme, and celery for 8 minutes, but do not brown.
Add the other vegetables and mustard, and sautee for 10 minutes.
Add white wine and increase heat, boiling off nearly all the liquid.
Add the broth and keep at a light boil for 30 minutes with no lid.
In batches, puree the soup mixture in a food processor or blender, then transfer back to pot.
Add half and half, and stir while bringing heat up to just a boil. Add salt and peper to taste. Serve hot immediately with a celery leaf to garnish.

Isn't fall beautiful?

Soups Galore

As some of you know my lil sister got her wisdom teeth yanked out on Friday. I came up to Portland to take care of her and make soup for her so she wouldn't starve. I cooked up some old favorites;  Red Pepper Coconut and Creamy Squash and Apple. I thought I would share with you lovely ladies....

Creamy Squash and Apple Soup:

5 cups chicken broth

1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed

1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed

2 cups vertically sliced onion

2 granny smith apples peeled and sliced

Salt and pepper

Cook the squash and potato in the broth until soft enough to mash. Remove from broth and mash it up, when finished return the mashed goodness to the broth. Saute onion and apples until nice and soft. Add to the broth along with salt and pepper to your liking. Heat it all up and serve :)

Chai Cupcakes

As usual, I made cupcakes. This time the special occasion wasn't just "It's Tuesday!!!" It was Ariel's birthday. I decided to make chai flavored cupcakes with a cinnamon buttercream frosting. I also found some great star-shaped cupcake tins while at the Smash Can Store with Molly. I thought that this would be a perfect combo for celebrating Paco's birthday. After looking at recipes online, I decided to make my own up, using ideas from recipes and a yellow cake as a base. So here goes:

3 eggs
2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup milk
2 black tea bags
2 chai tea bags
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon cardamom
ground cloves
nutmeg
allspice

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Put the eggs in a bowl of warm water to warm them. Heat up the milk on the stove and add the tea bags. Let the milk and tea soak at least 10 minutes, and then remove the tea bags.
2. Get out your big, new, fancy red Kitchen-Aide mixer (paco). Cream the butter and sugar until it is a pastel yellow. Add the eggs, one at a time.
3. Sift all of the dry ingredients onto a piece of wax paper. The spices are all an approximation. Add more/less to your own personal taste.
4. Add the flour mixture and milk alternately to the mixer, starting and ending with the flour. Mix until combined. Do not over mix.
5. Pour the batter into the cupcake thingies and bake for about 18 minutes.
6. Enjoy amazing cupcakes.

Aleta, can you post a birthday picture?

Just one more way to procrastinate...

I just wanted to make y'all aware of my very favorite food blog. I read the usual suspects when I get a chance, like 101 cookbooks, and smitten kitchen, but you should really check this one out too.


La Tartine Gourmande

And while you're at it, you better check this page out too. It's just photos of this woman's breakfast every morning. It sounds lame, but just wait, you'll be checking it a couple times a week here soon...

simply breakfast

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