Tag Archives: food

Thanksgiving 2010 | Glazed Squash and Sweet Potatoes

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“All most people really want [for Thanksgiving] is turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, [and] and cranberries.”
xxxx - Andrew Knowlton, Bon Appetit November 2010

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Ah, just another indication that me and mine are huge freaks. Our Thanksgiving table at home in Virginia changes year over year… the only staples are corn pudding, and the chocolate fudge pie from Ukrop’s. (Which was our neighborhood grocery store, now bought by the evil Martin’s. *moment of silence*)

Four years of Young Married Couple Thanksgivings has really torn up the idea of the traditional Thanksgiving menu, at least for me. I can pretty much guarantee that Brad won’t care one way or another what I make, as long as one dish has bacon, ham, or pork in it. (Done.) And not having to cook for a crowd of 12 has thoroughly released me from having to cook the standard mashed-potatoes-green-beans-stuffing line up; now I just cook whatever seasonal dishes I want for the big day. Usually I try to stick to one “starch” dish, whether it be mashed potatoes or bread, one dessert, one salad, and an entree. Then I do one or two vegetable dishes as well.

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I’ve had this recipe bookmarked for 3 years now, just waiting for the right time to break it out. The original recipe from Her Holiness of All Things Domestic calls for sweet potatoes, hubbard squash, and delicata squash. I’m not a huge fan of delicata, so I just cut that out and went with the hubbard only. When I was at the market, they were out of sweet potatoes, but they did have some gorgeous garnet yams. Just use whichever – yams or sweet potatoes – that you can find.

I think this recipe will definitely make a reappearance at my table soon, just because it was so freaking delicious. I like winter meals that take the normal pantry ingredients and twist them in new tastes and textures. Most squash recipes tend towards roasting, with or without the peel. Then you can puree the flesh or turn it into soup, or stir it into risotto, etc etc etc. But I liked the way that the squash ended up juicy and tender in this recipe; I imagine this would be a great use for squash that has been in storage for a long winter, because you infuse it with bacon and butter and chicken stock. The resulting dish is bursting with flavors just layered on top of one another… you can taste the chicken stock, the brown sugar, the wine, the butter. It’s so rich and delicious, I can’t get over it.

What side dishes are you contemplating for your Thanksgiving table?

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Glazed Squash and Sweet Potatoes

Inspired by Martha Stewart Living, November 2007
Serves 8

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For the record… I didn’t eat the squash peel. It helps to keep the squash from falling apart while cooking, though. The bacon will be easier chopped if chilled in the freezer for 30 minutes before cutting. Reserve the seeds of the squash to toast later, if you’re so inclined. And if you’re going to double this recipe, either use an additional (large) saute pan, or cook in batches.

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Gather:
6 ounces smoked bacon, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
a pinch of ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 large sweet potatoes (about 2 pounds total), sliced into 3/4 inch thick coins
1/2 Hubbard squash (about 2 pounds), de-seeded and sliced into 1 inch thick wedges
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken stock
1/2 cup white wine
salt and pepper to taste

Prepare:
Cook the squash.  Cook bacon over medium heat in a large saucepan. Cook for about 10 minutes, or until the bacon is just crispy. Do not let bacon burn. Use a slotted spoon to remove bacon from pan and deposit on a paper-towel-lined plate; reserve for later. Drain all but 2 tablespoons of bacon drippings from the pan. Add butter to pan and melt over medium-low heat. Add sugar, cloves, and red pepper flakes to pan, and cook until sugar is somewhat dissolved, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Layer squash in pan, then layer potatoes on top of squash. Slowly pour chicken stock and wine over squash and potatoes. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, until squash is tender. Remove squash from pan. Layer potatoes in the bottom of pan and let simmer for an additional 10 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are tender. (Make ahead: can be prepared up to 24 hours in advance; store squash and potatoes, covered with saran wrap, in the fridge until ready to use; reheat in a 350 degree oven until hot. Store bacon separately from squash and potatoes, in a small tupperware container or plastic bag; reheat the next day with vegetables. Remove glaze from pan and store in a jar until ready to finish cooking the next day.)

Reduce the glaze. (Reheat squash and sweet potatoes if necessary in a 350 degree oven.) Add glaze back to a large saute pan, and whisk vigorously to re-combine any separation that occurred overnight. Reduce over medium-low heat, about 7 minutes, until the glaze is thickened and syrupy. Add (reheated) vegetables and half of crispy bacon to the pan and toss to coat with glaze. Transfer to a serving dish, top with remaining bacon, and serve. (Make ahead: Can be kept warm in a warming drawer or warm oven for up to an hour; reserve second half of crispy bacon to sprinkle on right before serving.)

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Thanksgiving Menu 2010:
Autumn Salad with Apples and Spiced Pecans
Steak over Butternut Squash with Caramelized Onions
Glazed Squash and Sweet Potatoes

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Thanksgiving Background Music Recommendation of the Day – in our house, we like a constant stream of mellow background music to enjoy along with our holiday festivities. Here is a week of safe-for-childrens’-ears, no-curse-words-to-creep-out-Grandma, soft tunes to accompany your turkey and mashed potatoes. (And not one of my recommendations will be a washed-up-musician’s rendering of Christmas hits, I promise.)

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Fleet Foxes / White Winter Hymnal

This is about as close to holiday music as you can expect me to get. Look, it’s themed! It talks about winter! It’s easy to imagine snow drifts outside your window when you play this! Think of it as the updated, indie version of Mannheim Steamroller (but with more facial hair).

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Thanksgiving 2010 | Autumn Salad with Apples and Spiced Pecans

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I swear, November 1st could not come soon enough this year. I decided (waaaaaay back in early October) that I would post my Thanksgiving menu ideas the first week of November. I figured, that’s when people (who aren’t crazy overbearing foodbloggers, that is) would start thinking about what to serve at their Thanksgiving table.

But as it got to be the third week in October, by which I had already done run-throughs of half my dishes, complete with 7 am photoshoot for each, I was just ITCHING to share all of the recipes with you. Because, somehow, I figured you guys would get just as excited about holiday menu planning as I do… although I’m going to assume you’re way less nerdy about it than I am.

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I always try to serve a salad with a big meal, only because 1) it’s healthy and 2) there’s usually someone who wants salad at their meal, whether it’s because they’re on a diet or just because they like salad. It’s also a great meal enhancer because salads are usually pretty low-key, mostly just tossing together a few ingredients. Most times I just round out the meal with a bowl of mixed greens, a few chunks of goat cheese or shavings of parm, and maybe a handful of dried fruit. But this time I thought I would make a salad that really whispered “fall is here.”

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I love a good fall salad, and this is one of the tasty ones. Both radicchio and endive are cold-weather greens, so unless you’re in Hawaii, these should be easy to find at the grocery. The radicchio can be bitter depending on how long it’s in storage; icing it the day before will cut down on the bitterness. Taste your radicchio; if it’s fresh, you might not even need to ice it down at all.

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Autumn Salad with Apples and Spiced Pecans

Inspired by Bon Appetit, January 2007
Serves 6

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Make sure to pick up the “natural” seasoned rice vinegar, not the “regular style” seasoned rice vinegar (which is filled with mostly high-fructose corn syrup, among other grody preservatives.)

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Gather:
2 teaspoons unsalted butter
1 cup pecan halves
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire
scant 1/8 teaspoon cayenne

2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/4 cup olive oil

2 Braeburn or red-skinned apples, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 pound radicchio (about 2 heads)
1 pound endive

Prepare:
Prepare the spiced pecans. Melt butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Add pecans and stir 1 minute. Add sugar, Worcestershire, and cayenne; stir until coated. Remove from heat and let cool. Store in a plastic container until ready for salad assembly. (Make ahead: Can be prepared up to 2 days in advance.)

Prepare the salad dressing. Add vinegars, dijon mustard, and olive oil to an empty mason jar. Shake vigorously to combine. (Make ahead: Can be prepared up to 2 days in advance.)

Prepare the radicchio. Fill a deep bowl with ice and cold water. Submerge the radicchio in the ice water, and weigh down with a plate if necessary. Let sit in ice water for an hour. Then remove and let drain on a kitchen towel for 30 minutes. Cut in half and peel leaves off radicchio, leaving each leaf as whole as possible. Add leaves to a Ziploc bag, insert a paper/kitchen towel in the plastic bag (in this manner), and store until you’re ready to assemble the salad. (Make ahead: Can be prepared up to 24 hours in advance.)

Prepare apples and endive. Toss apples in lemon juice and store in plastic bag. Cut root end from endive leaves, and tear leaves apart. Store in plastic bag with a paper towel inserted into the bag. (Make ahead: Can be prepared up to 24 hours in advance.)

Assemble. Add radicchio leaves, endive leaves, and apple slices to the serving bowl. Drizzle with dressing and toss lightly to coat. Sprinkle pecans on top of salad and serve.

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Thanksgiving Menu 2010:
Autumn Salad with Apples and Spiced Pecans
Steak over Butternut Squash with Caramelized Onions

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Thanksgiving Background Music Recommendation of the Day – in our house, we like a constant stream of mellow background music to enjoy along with our holiday festivities. Here is a week of safe-for-childrens’-ears, no-curse-words-to-creep-out-Grandma, soft tunes to accompany your turkey and mashed potatoes. (And not one of my recommendations will be a washed-up-musician’s rendering of Christmas hits, I promise.)

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Neko Case / Middle Cyclone

My love for Neko knows no bounds… she is fierce, as Tyra would say. This is upbeat and soulful folk rock for you to sing along to while you toast pecans.

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Thanksgiving 2010 | Steak over Butternut Squash Puree

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Guys, I know you’re disappointed, because as you can see, there is no mention of turkey in the title of this post. I know, I know, it’s a crime against the American dream, how could I be so unpatriotic, blah blah blah. We just don’t DO turkey at my house.

Don’t get me wrong, my parents make turkey every year for Thanksgiving, and B’s parents do turkey at theirs. So it’s not as if we’ve never seen a overgrown winged creature on our Thanksgiving table. But when we moved to Denver (and consequently gave up going home for the holiday thanks to exponentially higher airplane tickets) we started our own Thanksgiving tradition. Namely, why on earth would we make an entire 12-pound turkey when there’s only 2 of us to feed? I mean, Brad can put away a surprising amount of food for a lanky white boy (I blame it on growing up fighting over food with 3 older brothers). But given the choice, I’d rather not spend my Thursday night in the hospital after Brad “accidentally” eats 14 pounds of poultry “because it’s just so tasty.”

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So in the interest of both our wallet and Brad’s gastro-intestinal health, we forgo the traditional $70-turkey-to-feed-12, and instead choose to spend these few years of YMC (Young Married Couple) Thanksgivings trying out fancy-pants new holiday dishes. Last year, we had salmon poached in red wine, and the year before that, it was cornish game hens. Back in 2006, our first year here in Denver, we had a totally ghetto Thanskgiving, but that’s another story for another post…

This year it’s steak. This is based on a on a dish that B and I had at a local Denver restaurant called 1515. The original dish was steak over butternut squash puree with a roasted cherry tomato confit. While it was undeniably delicious… it was also late spring here in Denver when we had this dish. When fresh cherry tomatoes are definitely NOT in season. I racked my brain trying to come up with a locally-available substitute if I were to serve this for the Thanksgiving meal. I wanted something that would still have the sweetness to play off the gamey steak, and that would have a soft, but still chewy texture, but it had to be an ingredient available in late fall. I think I found the perfect (locally-grown) complement in caramelized onions.

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This is the most amazing dish. The butternut squash puree is delicious on it’s own (perhaps a side dish if you’re making turkey for the big day?) The steak is tender, chewy, and the perfect savory complement to the butternut squash puree. The caramelized onions are sweet but not overly so, and they burst with flavor when you bite into them, just like the tomato confit did in the original dish. If you’re hosting a YMC Thanksgiving this year, consider this for your entree… or consider this for a secondary entree if you’re cooking for a huge crowd on the Big Day.

And eventually, when we make it home again for Turkey Day, we will go back to turkey… but for now, we enjoy our non-turkey holiday dishes!

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Steak over Butternut Squash Puree with Caramelized Onions

Inspired by 1515 Restaurant
Serves 6

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This recipe is easily adaptable to more or less servings – I would budget about 1/2 to 3/4 pound of beef per person (depending on if this is the main dish or a second dish to the turkey) and 1/2 an onion per person. Make the full serving of butternut squash puree because you’ll pretty much want to bathe in it, it’s so delicious.

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Gather:
1 large butternut squash, halved and seeded
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
10 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 sweet yellow onions, sliced into strips
4 pounds top sirloin steak
salt and pepper
baking sheet, cooling rack, cast iron (or oven-safe) frying pan

Prepare:
Prepare the squash. Preheat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit. Place the two halves of squash on the baking sheet and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with brown sugar, drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, and crumble the butter over the squash halves. Bake at 400 degrees for about 50 minutes or until the flesh soft, i.e. easily pierced with a knife. Scrape the inside of the squash into the bowl of a food processor/blender, and pulse until the squash is a smooth consistency. (Make ahead: can be prepared up to 2 days in advance; store in the fridge until ready to use, and reheat slowly over medium heat until hot.)

Prepare the caramelized onions. Add 4 of the remaining 8 tablespoons olive oil and the onions to a large saute pan. Toss the onions to coat with oil. Cook the onions over medium-low heat for about 90 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes or more frequently, to prevent the onions from burning to the bottom of the pan. Add a tablespoon of brown sugar if after an hour of cooking, the onions still retain some of their bite. Remove onions from heat when they are dark brown and sweet, approximately 60-90 minutes. (Make ahead: can be prepared up to 2 days in advance; store in the fridge until ready to use, and reheat slowly over medium heat until hot.)

Prepare steak and assemble. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees, and let the oven sit at 325 for at least 20 minutes before starting the beef (to let the oven get good and hot). Season both sides of the steak with salt and pepper. Place a cooling rack on top of a baking sheet, and place the seasoned steak on top of the cooking rack. Bake the steak for 10 minutes, or until the steak starts to feel rare, using the finger test.

Meanwhile, while the steak is baking, add the remaining 4 tablespoons of olive oil to the frying pan, and heat over medium-high heat. As soon as the steak is done in the oven, use tongs to transfer the steak to the hot frying pan. Cook about 2 minute on one side of the steak, then flip and cook another 1 minute on the reverse side. Refrain from moving the steak in the pan; you want to get a good sear on the steak. Remove from heat and let cool for 10 minutes, before slicing into 1/4 inch strips against the grain.

Spread the butternut squash puree down the middle of a serving dish, and place slices of beef over the top. Top with a line of hot caramelized onions down the middle of the steak. Serve.

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Thanksgiving Background Music Recommendation of the Day – in our house, we like a constant stream of mellow background music to enjoy along with our holiday festivities. Here is a week of safe-for-childrens’-ears, no-curse-words-to-creep-out-Grandma, soft tunes to accompany your turkey and mashed potatoes. (And not one of my recommendations will be a washed-up-musician’s rendering of Christmas hits, I promise.)

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James Vincent Mcmorrow / Early in the Morning

I’ve mentioned JVM before on the blog, but I really can’t get enough of his folk-ish pop rock. It won’t upset Grandma, I promise… she might even have a crush on him by the end of the night.

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NFMW 2010 Day Six: Peach Muffins with Pecan Streusel Topping

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After the “strata fail” (as Kate coined it in the comments, best. description. ever) I was bound and determined to make something that I would be willing to eat for breakfast for the rest of the week.

Enter the Foster’s Market Cookbook, which was a gift from my dear sister-in-law Amy. (Amy and I have basically come to the conclusion that we’re going to tell each other what kitchen stuff we want, and then buy them for each other under the guise of birthday/anniversary/Christmas presents. Sister-in-laws are super useful like that.) It’s pretty much food porn, bound into hardcover. And it’s got a foreword written by the Great and All Powerful Martha Stewart, High Priestess of Successful Cookbooks, so you know the recipes are clutch. I think I marked every recipe in the ENTIRE FREAKING BOOK to try. Including, but not limited to, the first recipe for streusel muffins.

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I really don’t understand why we don’t just sprinkle streusel on everything. It’s the ultimate combination of butter, sugar, and nuts! Panera has the right idea – they have that damn cinnamon streusel bagel. I misinterpreted it this entire time, though. I thought it was The Devil’s Bagel because I wanted to eat 5 at a time. I think really, we should be eating streusel-covered breakfast pastries. IT’S WHAT GOD INTENDED.

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Modifications made: I didn’t have a full 1 1/2 cups sour cream, so I used a cup of sour cream, and a 1/2 cup of ricotta cheese instead. Oops! I put the ricotta, sour cream, eggs, butter, and vanilla through my blender before I folded in the peaches… just to make sure there where no lumps from the ricotta or butter. The next time I’ll make them with all sour cream to see what the “original” texture should be like, but I doubt it really made a difference.

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Suggestions for next time: I didn’t peel the peaches before chopping them; next time I will make sure they’re peeled beforehand. The peel turned almost green around the edges in the baked muffins. It was an immediate reaction, so probably a result of the peach peel reacting to something in the batter. But definitely unsightly.

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Peach Muffins with Pecan Streusel Topping

Adapted from The Foster’s Market Cookbook
Makes 12-15 muffins

Gather:

Pecan Streusel Topping
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Muffins
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups peeled and chopped peaches (about 3 peaches)

Prepare:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners and spray the entire tin with nonstick cooking spray.

For the streusel topping, combine the pecans, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and softened butter in a medium-sized bowl, and mix until well-blended. Set aside.

Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and allspice in a medium bowl.  In a separate (large) bowl, whisk together the eggs, butter, sour cream, and vanilla. Fold in the chopped peaches.

Fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture, just until the flour is moistened. Do not overmix the batter. (Small pockets of flour are okay here.)

Spoon the battter into the prepared muffin pan. The batter should come to the top of the paper liner or pan. Spoon the streusel topping over the batter, and press lightly with the back of a spoon so that the topping adheres to the batter.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a knife inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes. Serve immediately for best crunchy topping. Otherwise, store in an airtight container.

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Jaill / New Noise

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Red, White, and Blue Potato Salad

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OH SWEET MOTHER OF ALL THAT IS HOLY MADE WITH BUTTER.

She posted about potatoes!

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I know, I know. Please contain your surprise. The world is not imploding as we speak.

Well, yeah, you may have noticed that I barely ever post about potatoes here.

It’s not because I don’t like them… it’s because I. LOVE. THEM. I mean, mashed potatoes are basically a conduit for butter and sour cream. Naturally, I can eat my weight in mashed potatoes, if given the chance. So, in order to protect myself from a spare tire that can fit a Ford F150, I try to only make potatoes when I’m entertaining.

I may have mentioned (here, here, here) that I went on vacation to the beach for Memorial Day weekend. It was glorious. All my family and friends in one place, conveniently unable to move their cars since they would lose their street parking place, and thus unable to get away from me. We cooked food, we sat out on the beach (under our precarious umbrella, suck it skin cancer!), we made sweet-tea-vodka-and-lemonades, and ate by the pool at night. I loved it.

And since there were upwards of 16 of us there (I’m not sure, I didn’t do a thorough count) there were plenty of people to eat a giant vat of potato salad (rather than the alternative, leaving it in my fridge untouched, ready to be hoovered at 11 pm on a Friday night at the end of a Friday Night Lights marathon).

This isn’t your average potato salad, doused in mayonnaise that tastes vaguely of whipped plastic. This is a tangy, just-barely-dressed potato salad, something you can eat without feeling like you’re going to die after you have a few bites. It’s not a shapeless, never-ending lumpy yellow mess; it’s a colorful salad thanks to the addition of peas, red potatoes and purple potatoes.

How handy that I thought of this dish just when spring is in full force, after keeping it in my arsenal of “Dishes to Make Immediately Or Sooner” for nearly 2 years. New potatoes (defined as “immature” potatoes harvested in the spring and summer) are just coming into season. Fingerling potatoes and other low-starch varieties would work well in this recipe, too, even if you can’t find purple potatoes or red-skinned varieties (if you can’t find baby or new potatoes, this site will help you find good substitutes). I ended up using frozen peas, but since peas are coming into season for most of the country, this might be the perfect seasonal dish for you!

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Red, White, and Blue Potato Salad

Adapted from Bon Appetit

Serves 8-10

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Gather:
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions, white and green parts, divided
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/8 cup white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 pound small red-skinned potatoes, unpeeled, scrubbed and dried
1 pound small purple or blue potatoes, peeled
1 pound small white potatoes, unpeeled, scrubbed and dried
2 cups fresh peas, or one 10-ounce package frozen peas
1/2 cup crumbled feta

Prepare:
Combine half (roughly 1/4 cup) of the green onions with the sour cream, mayonnaise, vinegar, mustard, sugar and pepper. Whisk until the dressing comes together in a smooth consistency. Cover and chill.

Bring a large pot of water to boil over high heat. Add a generous pinch of salt to the water. Add the potatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for 10 – 15 minutes. Begin testing the potatoes at 10 minutes; you will want to remove them when they can be pierced with a fork with minimum resistance, but before the potatoes are so tender that they split easily when pierced with a fork. (Note: The time it takes for each type of potato to cook may vary depending on the type of potato and size, so be aware and test the smaller potatoes early. Depending on the size of your pot, you may also choose to boil the different types of potatoes in batches to make this easier.) Remove potatoes from pot and set on a cutting board to cool to room temperature.

If using frozen peas: While the water from boiling the potatoes is still hot, add the frozen peas to the cooking water. Cook for 30 seconds, drain, and set aside.

Once cool, cut potatoes into halves or 1/2 inch slices. Add potatoes and peas to dressing, and toss gently, being careful not to mash the potatoes or peas. Season to taste with salt if necessary.

Sprinkle potato salad with remaining 1/4 cup green onions and feta.

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Now Playing: Light Pollution / Oh Ivory

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