get stuffed! (SQUASH!)

My new favourite meal is stuffed squash.

Sometime last year I had a hankering for stuffing.  I can't remember if I had come across a stuffed squash recipe first, or if I thought I was a genius, and then found out I wasn't the first.

J happens to think I make the best stuffing evar.  He's not a huge squash fan, but he raves about this!


Ingredients:

- 1 medium squash.  I used acorn, but delicata (aka sweet potato ) pepper or other squash with a good empty middle will work.  Even butternut would be fine, but you'd get a whole lot more squash.
- 2 raw sausages.  Any flavour you like.  When I make stuffing for a bird I like to use a milder flavour, but this time I used hot Italian.
- 1 apple or firm pear, cored and cubed (1 cm-ish)
- one small onion, or one leek, or a large shallot diced
- 1/4 cup pecan or walnut pieces.  Maybe even hazelnuts would work.
- 1 cup cooked rice OR 1 cup cubed bread
- stock or water if using bread and mix is dry

Method:

- Preheat oven to  350oF
- Cut squash in half
- Scoop out seeds, set aside if you want to keep them to grow or eat.
- Take casing off sausage and plop into mixing bowl
- Add in apple/pear, onion, nuts, rice/bread and smoosh with hands.
- If using bread and mixture is crumbly and not holding together add in some stock slowly until it forms a nice lump
- Divide stuffing into 2 lumps and stuff the squash. 
- Put squash in roasting pan (stuffing up), add an inch of water to bottom of tray, put lid on, or tin foil if the lid doesn't fit, or you don't have a 'proper' roasting pan.

I used purple rice!!

- Bake for um...I didn't check. (again).  Set your timer for a half hour.  Check the squash for doneness.  I found once the squash was cooked though, the sausage was also cooked.

We eat a half squash as a meal, but you could serve quarters or 8ths with other things too.

steamed up the camera!  YUM.

Smoothie majik

My friend Kate often posts about the smoothies and other delectable healthy food she makes.  One day she she said she put cilantro in her smoothie.  I was inspired.

I made a peach cilantro smoothie, and then next day, a peach, strawberry smoothie.

Peach Strawberry Cilantro Smoothie

Plug in your blender.
Plop in
a banana
6 strawberries, leaves and all.  The leaves apparently are full of vitamins too.
6 slices (or one whole, minus the pit) peach
1/2 cup of yogourt
2 tbsp OJ concentrate
a large handful  of washes cilantro
Pour coconut water half way up
full the rest of the way up, to just under where the other ingredients stop, with water

Blend!  (oh, put the lid on first)

This made about 1 litre of smoothie.


I was in smoothie heaven.  I kept saying "mmmmm" out loud.

"hunger month" soup, or apple cider squash soup

HEH?  Hunger month?  The Green Pigeon explains, and has some good suggestions on how to survive better next year.

I literally just read that post.  Right after I had finished eating my own bowl of my soup.  I had been thinking today that it would be a perfect recipe for this time of year.

Indeed.

Ingredients:
1 squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed
3 small, 2 medium or 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed
2 mall or 1 medium cooking onion, chopped
Enough stock (vegetable or chicken) to cover vegetables (that way you can use any sized squash)
1 tbsp fresh grated ginger
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp ground, or 1 stick cinnamon
2-3 tbsp apple cider vinegar (unfiltered is best, and yummiest)
2 cups apple cider
1/2-1 cup coconut milk

 -Tumble squash, sweet potato and onion into pot.  Cover with stock.

-Bring to a boil, and turn heat down to simmer.  Add cinnamon, ginger, salt and pepper, stir.

-Cook for 5 or whatever minutes.  Before the squash is soft, toss in vinegar and cider.  Turn down heat more.  To just buppa buping  (as my mommy would say)

-Stir on occasion, and turn off once squash is soft.  Don't over cook.  Take off stove and wiz up with a hand blender.  Be so careful.  Don't lift the hand blender and make it fly all over and burn yourself.  If you don't have a hand blender, let cool some and blend in blender.  Add in coconut milk and stir until blended.

-Ladle out and eat with bread and butter (I sorely miss white rye and butter with my soup!)

this weeks menu

hey!  look at what I'm planning on making this week.  Maybe J will see this and not have to ask!! 
(for some reason it *really* bugs me when J asks 'Whats for dinner?'  not sure why...any ideas?)


Monday:  Raosted pork loin and cauliflower with mushroom gravy and salad
Tuesday:  Chicken curry
Wednesday:  Chicken stew pie  Except *this* time I'm going to use the mushroom gravy instead of canned soup
Thursday:  Leftovers.  My poor manager was at work for like 13 hours and was struggling to fill all the shifts Thursday, so I volunteered to close, so that means I'll be working 2 jobs that day. 
Friday:  More leftovers?  I'm going to be rehearsing for Lunacy.  I'm a Lunacy dancer!
I'm going to have to figure something out for the weekend.  J is with Pickle for his birthday (and I'm a bad step-mom...I wasn't paying attention to the dates, so I won't be celebrating Pickles 15th!)


Interested in any of those recipes?  All of it is home made!

food and family

Today we had a party for my mom (she recently turned 60! oh...sorry mom, although you have been saying that 60 is the new 40...) and for Owen.  It's really nice seeing my family more that 3 times a year!!  This is the first time I've been around a baby since the miscarriage, and I was SO fine.  I got to hold him for a bit.  he's such a sweetie.  I didn't bring my camera, but I'm sure his grandpa will be posting photos soon!

I brought Miracle Pie and was glad everyone enjoyed it!  It's my new favourite treat.  Raw cashew cream pie.
Filling
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup coconut oil
1 cup raw cashew
sweetened to taste with agave syrup
add cocoa powder for chocolate and vanilla for...vanilla
Blend/food process until smooth

Crust
1 cup walnits
1 cup dates
blended to a constancy you like

pat down crust into pie plate (I used flat soup bowls!)
pour/glop filling in
refrigerate.
My friend Pwylla also added a layer of blueberries on the bottom and raspberries on the top, I used mango instead of rasp.


I told my Uncle Art (aka Owen's grandpa) that it is vegan, gluten and sugar free.  He made a face, and I forced him to eat it anyway.  He told me it was good!  next time I only tell the people who need to know that it's 'healthy'.

Next party is up in Peterborough at Mommy's and Cousin Sean's new house.  (separate houses!)
Sean has a pool.  huzzah!!

rainy day lasagne

I decided to make lasagne today a few days ago.  I was worried it would be too hot out and it wouldn't be a great dinner.  (warm oven hot day yuck)  Turns out it is a perfect day!

Here is the 'recipe' for " My (dutch) moms meat lasagne"

I say 'recipe' in quotes because I learned by watching her, not by anything written down.  I've also tweaked it from how she does it too...


Ingredients:

a sploosh of olive oil
one small onion, diced
several cloves of garlic, chopped/crushed/pressed/grated
half to one pack of ground beef
tsp or so dried basil, or oregano or majorim
a good sprinkle of cayenne pepper (we liked it spicy)
oh...a cup or 2 of mushrooms, sliced
one small/medium zucchini, grated
half to one green, red, yellow or orange sweet pepper chopped (I don't like peppers, so I don't add them, but my mom always made the peppers bigger so I could pick them out and put them on her plate, although with lasagne, it was hard, so I got them down ok)
can of whole, or puréed tomatoes (if whole, blend with a blender stick...my mom used to blend the garlic here, instead of chop it up)
tub of cottage cheese
one egg
pack of baby spinach, or bag of spinach, or pack of frozen spinach
9 lasagne noodles
half a big block mozzarella cheese, grated

-heat olive oil in a medium pot, medium heat, add onions and garlic, and cook a little, until fragrant
-add ground beef and spices and cook 'til done
-add mushrooms, zucchini and peppers and cook for a few minutes
-add can of tomatos
-bring to boil and turn down to second lowest to simmer until mushrooms are cooked

Meanwhile,
-boil water for noodles.  cook until el dente.
-put spinach into colander and poor noodles and cooking water on top to wilt spinach.  (my mom boiled water, and wilted the spinach separately, but this saves time and energy and water)
- pour cold water over noodles and spinach
- put cottage cheese in bowl and add egg (the egg holds it all together), stir in cooled wilted spinach.

- in a deep rectangle baking pan, put a thin layer of sauce, layer on 3 noodles
-add cottage cheese mix, and 3 more noodles
-a thick layer of sauce, and 3 more noodles
-evenly spread grated mozzarella

At this point you can refrigerate it, or if in an aluminium pan, freeze it.  Or turn the oven on to 350 let it heat up and pop it in until you feel it's done...yea, I go by smell, half an hour to an hour?  make sure the egg is cooked in the cottage cheese layer.  Turn the oven to broil and brown the top.

The most important and hardest part is LET IT SIT!  It needs to gel again.  Kinda like allowing meat to sit.

(pics to follow once it's out of the oven...I didn't think to write this post until it was too late!)

Workshop Wednesday

My new favourite meal.
It's a pie stew thing.  But with no crust...
I got the idea from a friends leek sausage pie.

With my cast I couldn't do pie crust, and I can't do wheat, so a bought crust was out of the question (and anyway, ewww)

So, turn on your oven to...oh, 350/400, and using a deep oven proof skillet, cook onions and garlic in some olive oil and butter.  I guess it's called 'sweating'.  I didn't want them brown.  Use medium heat.  Then add meat.  Sausage (whole) or chicken thighs...or pork chops!  Turn up the heat some and brown them nice.  Don't turn the heat up too much so the meat cooks a little and the onions and garlic don't burn.  Add the lid and chop your leek, add it, and flip the meat.  Cut a few baby potatoes in half and add them.  Plop on a can of Amy's mushroom soup, along with a half can of water or milk.  If you like stew pie thick mix a couple tablespoons of flour (any flour will do) with the water.   Giver a stir and bring to a boil.  Put a layer of spinach, put on the lid, and stick skillet in oven and cook until the meat and potatoes are done. 

I kinda just made that up...sorry for the vague instructions!  I cooked some brown rice and it was delish!  oooo, I wonder if I added rice to the skillet if it would work!  try it, let me know!

(Amy doesn't know who I am and no one gave me money or product, I just happen to like to use her stuff more than Campbell's or some such)

tutorial Tuesday - Kim Chi!

Tuesdays have been named Tutorial Tuesdays!
It is my hope to post a tutorial once a week.

From cooking to crafting to gardening to space travel...

today...KIM CHI!

J (the husband) took up to Korean BBQ.
Have you ever been?
It's all you can eat grilled meat and fish.  they give you sides of kim chi (kim chee, kimchi), spicy potatos, and rice.  you all sit around a grill, open flame, and grill and eat as much as you can.  I've only been once.  It was WAY to much meat for me, not enough vegetables.  But I fell in love with kim chi.  Fermented spicy cabbage.

I found some at my grocery store.  At almost $5 a short jar it was a rare treat (not to mention it went really fast and  not always stocked!).  I would eat it in a day if I let myself.

I have IBS, and I was concerned that I might be negatively effected by eating so much at once!  It turns out not!  It's really good for you and aids digestion.  No wonder Koreans eat it a lot!

I figured I'd try making it.

I used this recipe.  There are a lot of different versions, and this one seemed simplest.


ingredients:

Napa cabbage - approximately one pound
4 cups of cold water
3 tablespoons of sea salt
1 tablespoon of fresh garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon of fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 tablespoon of fresh green onions (scallions), finely chopped
1 teaspoon of dried red chili pepper flakes (more if you like things spicy, less if you don't)
1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons of sugar

First you cut the butt end off.  I forgot to take a photo, but please take note of the pretty pattern the end makes!

Rinse the leaves in cold water.
(this part sucked 'cause we keep our apartment pretty cold 'cause electricity costs so much!)
Pack 'em in a bowl and cover with cold, salted water.  Put a plate and a weight on top and stick in the fridge over night.

 

 

 

 Chop up your green onions, garlic and ginger.  I did more than the recipe called for.  I had a big cabbage.  In retrospect, I would have used less ginger and green onion.

 

 I blended all the ingredients because I don't chop very fine.  It made it much easier to spread on the leaves.

I didn't take photos of this next bit...it was too messy!   I spread a small amount of the paste on each leaf and shoved them into a big jar.  I might try chopping the cabbage first next time and just kinda tossing it around...
You don't have to put a lot on each leaf.  When it starts to ferment it all gets yummy.

I used two jars and 2/3rds of the cabbage. 

Stick the jar somewhere not cold.  Warm room temp.  (that means for my cold apartment I put it about a foot away from a heater!  The jar never got warm.)

Then you wait 3 or 4 days. 

If you have a sensitive nose...um...beware.  When you open the jar, it smells like old garbage feet.  J came home from a weekend away and exclaimed "wow!  it stinks in here!  didn't you take out the garbage?"
So, don't open it the day you have company...unless maybe they are Korean...they might enjoy the smell as much as I do...

I wasn't thrilled with the results.  I think it had a lot to do with too much ginger and green onion, and maybe not enough marinating time.  I've put it in the fridge and left it alone, and it's better.

I also made kim chi soup.  OH DIVINITY!  So good.  I used this recipe and added shitake mushrooms.  I got so excited I didn't take photos of the finished kim chi or the soup.  Next time!