Ypsi Cooks

Just as the Bon Apetit article promised, these french apple turnovers were light, buttery, flavorful and not overly sweet.We made the filling (with only one variety of sweet-tart apple because it's what we had) Friday night, rolled and filled the dough Saturday morning, and sat down to an amazing brunch just before noon. To go with the turnovers, Tom made scrambled eggs with scallions, spinach and garlic topped with a little cheddar. Delicious.

We took the leftovers to Tom's folks and had them for dessert with hot chocolate. Delicious #2.

Turnover note: we made 9 (it seemed silly not to) and used the extra filling to top Sunday morning's pancakes. Delicious #3.

Two weeks ago, scratch that, last October (I've had a hard time getting to back to the computer with the cookbook in hand to finish this post, but I just told a friend about one of the recipes below, so I figured I MUST finish this post now) we had some of our first squash of the season. Hearty, sweet and full of great nutrients, it's hard to go wrong. Pretty much every time we turn on the oven, we cook up a squash with whatever else is going in. It reduces energy consumption and guarantees that there is always some squash in the fridge to heat up. 1. A squash and spinach galette. 2. Cheese ravioli with squash sauce, walnuts and goat cheese. 3. Vegetarian pot pie with squash base. Oh yeah. Looking forward to making some stuffed acorn squash soon. We'll keep you posted. Read more for recipes.Squash & Spinach Galette
1 pie crust (we use 1/2 whole wheat flour or more in ours)
2-3 c. cooked squash
1 cup cooked spinach
1/2 cup ricotta
Salt & Pepper
1/2 t. nutmeg
Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350/400. Spread the rolled pie crust on a cookie sheet. Thoroughly mix the remaining ingredients EXCEPT the parmesan. Shred a fair layer of parmesan onto the center 9″ of crust. Glob the filling on top. Fold over the edges to create a freeform pie. Bake for 30-45 mins until the crust is golden. Let stand a few min before serving.

Autumn Ravioli
1 lb dried cheese ravioli
2-3 cups squash (we used 1/2 a butternut and 1/2 a buttercup. 1 small buttercup should do)
3-4 shallots, sliced
Oil for sauteing
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 oz cream cheese
1/4 c. broth

Salt and pepper
goat cheese
1/4 c walnuts
1 tbsp butter, optional
1 tbsp brown sugar

Boil ravioli in a generous amount of water. Saute the shallots until beginning to caramelize. Add chopped garlic, saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Empty pan into food processor. Put stock in pan, add cream cheese. Break up the cream cheese and stir until heated through. Add the squash if it's cold. Empty pan into food processor. Blend until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Toss sauce with drained pasta. Sprinkle with goat cheese & walnuts (melt butter & brown sugar in a pan and cook chopped walnuts for a min or two, if desired). Serve with a green salad or some broccoli. Baked apples would be a delicious dessert!

Deluxe Vegitarian Pot Pie in spired by Wynell's Pie from Sunday's at Moosewood Resturant.
Base: 2-3 cup squash, seasoned to taste (nutmeg, salt, pepper, maple syrup would all be good…). Smooth into the bottom of a large casserole dish (9×13 or a bit larger)

Filling (all veggies coarsely chopped/sliced):
1 large onion
2 carrots
1-2 med. potato
1/2 t dried basil
1/2 t dried marjoram
1 cup mushrooms
1/2 c frozen peas
1/2 c frozen corn or beans

Sauté the onions w/ some oil until soft. Add carrots, potato and herbs and cook, covered for about 10 min, stirring frequently. Stir in remaining veggies and continue to cook, covered until the carrot are just tender. Gently spoon on top of the squash.

Sauce:
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1 cup milk
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
salt & pepper

Melt butter, stir in flour until smooth and stir constantly about 3 min. Mix in milk and seasonings and continue to stir until thickened, but do not boil. Remove from heat and add cheese. Stir until melted, season with salt and pepper. Pour over the vegetables.

Crust:
1 pie crust, preferably made with at least 1/2 whole wheat flour.

Why do they call it canning when you use jars not cans?

Anyway, this week we canned a bunch of applesauce that we made up last week. We added cranberries to the mix to give it some pizazz.

Last night I tried the Stovetop Roasted chicken from the newest Cooks Illustrated. The advantage is that cooking a whole chicken (cut into pieces) gets moist chicken with crispy skin in about a half hour. The chicken was amazing, but required way more attention then a roaster in the oven.

I enjoy fire and forget cooking. It is the best kind of fast food. throw some stuff in a crockpot turn it on and 6 hours later your dinner is ready. Putting a roaster in the oven takes 5 minutes. Then you can get the kitchen cleaned, make a salad, pay the bills, and probably some other things while the chicken cooks.

I am not ruling the process out totally, the first time with a new recipe is always a little hectic. I will give it another shot before I give up on it. It delivered as advertised and is pretty simple: sear, steam, sear. It just requires more attention but less overall time. Using pre-cut chicken would save on the prep time, but I couldn't harass my wife with the chicken carcass as I cut it up (the best part is the chickens we get have necks attached) or the noise of crunching bones.

The meal was great. We had friends over for dinner. The chicken was in a lemon herb sauce, served on rotkohl (braised red cabbage). We had fresh corn and broccoli and a brown rice pilaf to round the meal out. Dessert was pumpkin dip with apples and ginger cat cookies.

So we have almost the full collection of Nigella Lawson cookbooks, and they really are full of good recipes. She has had a few cooking shows in the UK, some of which have made it across the pond, but they are so strange to watch. Sometimes she cooks in a nightgown with the lights all down low. The camera work combined with everything else makes it what can only be described as cooking porn.

While the show is strange, the books are amazing. Feast has a chocolate cake hall of fame; The Guiness Cake is amazing. For Bridgit's B-Day I made the Zucchini Cake from How to Be a Domestic Goddess. For valentines day I did a variation on Slut Red Raspberries in Chardonnay Jelly with blackberries and Muscat jelly. We often use her pancake mix recipe, which Bridgit modifies until it is unrecognizable.

Below are some clips from youtube.
What brought the topic up is a clip from This Hour Has 22 Minutes, a CBC show similar to SNL. The scary thing is that it is only barely a parody.

Here are some others:
Chicken Soup

Doughnut French Toast

Raspberry Oatmeal Swirls

Last night I made a Summer Corn Soup from BA and it was good, but not as good as corn chowder.

To go with it I made a tart (I have been craving pastry lately) with tomatoes, caramelized red onion, and zucchini. The tart was all I had hoped for. Then later in the evening I was reading the new BA and found an article all about what I had just made.

Some might say peanut butter is the food of the gods. Slather it on good bread with a little fruit preserve, mix it with some powdered sugar and dip it in chocolate and call it a “buckeye,” stir in some chilies, lime juice and a little soy sauce and toss it with rice noodles. Yup, peanut butter is delicious. In the past week we have enjoyed it in 2 delicious forms: “growing food” dip and crispy peanut butter bars.
“Growing food” is what the kids' daycare calls “healthy food.” It seems like a much more kid oriented term. Every kid wants to be “big.” In our house growing food means low sugar (especially corn syrup), and as whole as we can get it (whole grain, or better yet, sprouted grain, tomatoes not ketchup, etc.). A while ago we concocted a new dip sure to please little ones and adults alike:

Peanut butterlicious dip:
Approximately 2 parts peanut butter mixed with 1 part apple sauce (no sugar added, of course). Add a healthy dose of cinnamon, stir vigorously and you're good to go. Serve with apple slices, whole grain crackers or pretzels, or, if feeling decadent, ginger cat cookies (a cross between graham crackers and gingersnaps). This would probably be great on pancakes, waffles or french toast.

Our Labor Day celebration called for a little less “growing food” and a little more decadence. Tom's family is known for loving peanut butter and chocolate, so when I saw Nigella Lawson's peanut butter bar recipe, I knew this was for them. Then there's my soon-to-be sister-in-law who is a calorie conscientious (and fantastic) gal. How could I make it a little less calorie dense and still have all that goodness? What if I add crisp rice? As I was stirring I thought I had made a huge mistake, but the responses I got as I cut the bars and people snatched the crumbs told me it was a success.

Best natural peanut butter tip ever: store it upside down before opening; it's MUCH easier to stir in the oil!

Crispy Peanut Butter Bars (adapted from Nigella Lawson)
1 scant cup creamy peanut butter (we use the natural style)
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 c unpacked dark brown sugar
3 cups crisp rice cereal (we made it with 2 cups the second time, because that was all we had left, and it was still good)

10-12 ounces chocolate, chopped. I use dark, but a blend of dark and milk would be good if it suits your fancy.
1 tbsp butter

9×9 or 7×11 pan, buttered

Mix the peanut butter, butter & sugars until rather smooth. With a spatula “cut” the peanut butter mix into large pea sized chunks. This will make mixing in the rice MUCH easier. Cut in the rice. This will take a bit of time and care, but it's worth it. Once most of the cereal is mostly blended in, pat into the pan and press the top so it is as level as reasonable.
Melt the chocolate & butter (1 min in the microwave, stir and repeat, or in a double boiler). Spread onto the peanut butter mixture. Refridgerate. Cut into small bars (approx. 40) Let it sit out for about 5 min. for easier cutting.

Tuesday was the first day at school for all of us and I didn't feel like spending a ton of time making dinner. So after rummaging through the cupboards and listening to the suggestions of my wonderful wife, I was able to figure something out: Mini-Polenta Pizzas.

We had a log of the polenta that looks like breakfast sausage and I cut that into round slices. I then fried them (more on that later). and then topped them with some other stuff we had: leftover chicken sausage from Labor Day, zucchini, tomatoes from the garden, and some with goat cheese, others with cheddar. Finally I popped them under the broiler for a few minutes, and they were done.

Frying the polenta didn't really do what I was hoping for. I wanted the discs to become crispy, but the crispy stuff stayed in the pan and we ended up with oily polenta.

Most of the time we need dinner quick. It is hard to find a recipe, make sure you have all the ingredients, and actually make the food all before you (or more importantly, your 2-year-old) need to eat. Tonight we do what we do most nights; we made something up. Dried mushroom tortellini with on-the-fly cream sauce.

The sauce consisted of garlic sauteed in butter, then we poured in a little cream (2TBS or so), added some frozen veggies (spinach and broccoli) that we cleaned out of the freezer, then sliced fresh yellow squash, a couple chopped tomatoes from the garden, and some oregano from the jungle in the back garden. A little salt and pepper at the table finished it off. It was pretty delicious.

I happened to post my facebook status as saying I had just processed some of our kale. Who knew that would draw the most response I think I've ever gotten (both online1. Make veggie cake (see May 2009).
2. Make Quick-a-veggie-dillas (see previous post).
3. Add it to your tomato sauce in lasagna (or in your anything).
4. Stir the kale, finely chopped, in with bulgar and some other veggies and/or herbs