what to do with butternut squash, gorgonzola, and pine nuts?

make pizza!
i just had a friend request this, so i thought i'd post it here. you know the drill, make some pizza dough (i use the alice waters recipe), make some caramelized onions (easy peasy- chop them into rounds, then saute the crap out of them in olive oil and butter with some salt till they're slimy and brown), chop up and lightly steam some butternut squash, crumble some gorgonzola, toast some pine nuts, and break up some fresh or dry rosemary. roll the dough thin, place it on your already heated pizza stone (with some cracked cornmeal to prevent sticking), then top with onion layer, cheese and the rest and pop it in the oven.
another great option with these ingredients is to just roast the squash cut in half with the hole filled with gorgonzola and some chopped pecans. money. in. the. bank. no joke.

comfort food

hi sister friends!
it's been COLDY here, and that always puts me in the mood for comfort food.
so the other day when i found this recipe for butternut squash mac-n-cheese i knew i had to give it a try. i made it pretty much following the recipe, but used large macaroni noodles. i think i'd use smaller ones next time, and add a bit more cheese as it got a little dry. you really can never have too much cheese. it definitely hit a comfort food home run as butter nut squash is always a winner for me.
and then for dessert (because what is comfort food w/out dessert?) i made this free form apple tart. it was pretty tasty though i forgot to put butter on top of the apples to the top ones got a bit dry. the inside ones were nice and tender though . . . topped with ice cream it was perfecto mundo. i hope you are staying warm and cozy going into this winter! xoxo

late autumn lunch in Provence

Seven-minute eggs (a trick I just learned from fellow oeuf-buff Joe Gerhard in New Haven) on a bed of lettuce, mâche, parsley, wild dandelion greens (gathered by the spring below the village as the first snowflakes fell) and endives; dressed with a shallot-and-tapenade vinaigrette (olive oil and incomparable tapenade from my olives guy Chico in the Castellane market, of course); with jambon de sanglier (cured wild boar ham--my favorite new thing, better than bacon or regular ham) and semi-aged goat cheese from Taloire, the next village over, given to me by the shepherdess who made it in exchange for a tin whistle I brought her from the States. All served up in a stoneware bowl that's my early Christmas present from Papa Joe.

summer cookin'

hey sister ladies,
sorry i've been so slacker on posting, it doesn't mean i haven't been cooking! it's been really great to have time to cook and work in my garden and eat from my garden! so far i have a TON of greens, so i eat salad every day, almost every meal and share lots with my neighbors. a typical salad consists of:
mixed greens from the garden (buttercrunch, spinach, arugala, mesculin)
sunflower sprouts from local farm
japanese cucumber
cherry tomatoes
dulse (dried sea veggies)
avocado
gingered carrots (i made a big jar a la nourishing traditions and put them on everything)
goat cheese of some sort
and my basic dressing (1/2 cup good olive oil, 1 tlbs flax oil, 1 tsp stone ground dijon, 3 tlbs raw apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper)
so good. i usual throw a poached egg or some quinoa on there too.
also, the deconstructed sushi bowl from 'super natural cooking' is pretty great
brown rice
chopped anything! cucumber, avos, onions, steak, carrots, you name it and top with a dressing, this one has a miso citrus dressing.
and then the other day i gleaned 8 lbs of sour pie cherries from a neighbors tree and froze a bunch and made a delicious cherry cobbler from 'bakers illustrated' which involved soaking the cherries in a cup of red wine. so deliciouso especially with my friend laura's homemade ice cream.
miss you girls! wish you could come over for some salad!

Baby, it's too Darn Hot..

.. to cook anything! Haven't baked a thing in weeks, even simple hot foods like rice, or pasta, require far too much energy and effort for this Brooklyn Summer heat ( oh, and I know, the worst is yet to come..)
So I have reduced my menu to a frozen array of things to graze on throughout the day:



That's right! Frozen blueberries, bananas, Haribo Gummy-bears, grapes, and Jell-o.. Well, the Jell-o I don't freeze, but I guess I could.. Though not pictured, but a staple to this well balanced diet, a Hazelnut Ritter Sports Milk Chocolate Bar.. Tastes like frozen heaven.
Other chilled, but not frozen items I have been enjoying these days include, but are not limited to: Dill Pickles, thin sliced Turkey, celery, salsa, apples, more grapes, hard boiled eggs, and more.
Basic summer recipe: take anything you might want to eat, make it 50%-ish colder than it was originally, and enjoy- it will taste at least 95% more delicious than it would have been hot!
xo

spring time absorption pasta

one of my favorite spring foods is asparagus. mmmm mmmm crispy, fresh, crunchy, deliciouso. so when i saw THIS recipe on one of my favorite blogs to visit, i had to try it, and was not disappointed. i'm not going to post the full recipe here, since it's all on that other site, but i'll give my insights and slight changes.
the idea of absorption pasta is like risotto, you cook it by slowly adding and letting the pasta soak up the chicken broth. the result is you get a really smooth yummy light sauce. i used the last frozen quart of chicken stock i had from my great chicken butchering of last year. good thing i have two roosters in the freezer to cook up and make stock from, and one of my neighbors said he had a hen i could butcher if i wanted, homemade stock is the best.
since i live nowhere near any sort of fancy grocery store i substituted the pancetta for thick sliced bacon, and the shallots for finely chopped yellow onion.
this was such an easy, delicious meal, although the remnants didn't make the best left0vers, better to just eat is all in one meal, not hard to do since it's so tasty.p.s. note my super cool new linen table cloth i got an nevin's thrift here in town, it's a babe.

it's a rainy soup kind of day

hello dear sisters! first of all thanks for posting so i'm not the loser nerd sister. :)
we've been enjoying GLORIOUS spring weather with sunny warm days and everything drying out and greening up! i got my garden plot plowed! and i've been buying seeds and bulbs to get going on a veggie/herb/flower garden. can't wait!
however, today is gray and rainy, and while it makes me sad i can't work outside, it's sort of a nice snuggle indoors sort of day. so i wanted to share with you an alternative to the bennion classic spicey tomato soup, the super duper easy kelly brook's cream of tomato. this one take two shakes of a lamb's tail to whip up and is super yum.

• dice one small onion and saute in some butter or olive oil
• add a quart of canned/bottled tomato's, chop them up with a knife in the can before
  
• add one cup water or chickie or veggie broth
• once it's hot, add a half a package of cream cheese (or if you live in france and have easy access to yummy creme freche, knock yourself out)
• here's the tricky part, i have one of those super handy hand held blender doohickies, but if you don't you have to do this in the blender, or cuisinart: blend the cheese and soup till all mixed and one consistency. if you go the blender route remember that hot liquids get rather explosive in the blender, so do small amounts at a time.
  
• i don't really add any spices besides a bit of salt and some cracked pepper. too many spices compete with the simplicity. last time i made this i chopped fresh basil leaves that i garnished each bowl with and the fresh crunch and flavor of the basil was a perfect accent. i've also considered making a pesto slurry to drizzle in a fancy pattern in each bowl . . . but have always been too lazy, this is a quickie comfort food after all. speaking of which, a grilled cheese goes very nicely with it too.
  

alright my dears! i hope you are happy, warm and well. love you lots and lots. xoxo