Hearty Pumkin Soup

2 teaspoon olive oil
5 cloves of garlic
1 medium bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
2 cups dutch potatoes
1/3 cup dry white wine
15 ounces pureed pumpkin, canned is fine
1 14 ounce can crushed or diced tomatoes
1/2 cup cilantro
1 tablespoon tamari
About 3 cups vegetable stock (you can add more if you like a thinner soup)

Saute all of the aromatics in olive oil until tender (onion, peppers, garlic), about 2 minutes. Add the potatoes and cook for another 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the wine and cook down a bit, then add tomatoes, pumpkin puree and stock.

Reduce heat to medium and cook for about half and hour until potatoes are tender. Add chopped cilantro and tamari, along with the salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a nice crusty loaf of french bread...yum!

Butternut Squash Risotto

The crazy Louisiana heat left me very uninspired this past summer. At one point I swore off cooking anything and resorted to gazpacho, salsa and salads every night. Thankfully the weather is cooling down here and I can reacquaint myself with my stove.

For the rest of this season I will post my favorite recipes for Fall! All of my long time standbys and some newly discovered goodies. Here's a good one...

Butternut squash Risotto:

5 cups vegetable or chicken stock

1 onion, diced

1/4 cup dry white wine

1 butternut squash

1 1/2 cups Aborio rice

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp. sage

olive oil

First cut the squash open long ways and remove the seeds. Peel the squash and then cut into 1" cubes. Toss onto a cookie sheet with salt, pepper, sage and olive oil until well coated and spread into an even layer. Don't be shy with the olive oil, it will give the squash its golden caramelized color. Roast in a 425 degree oven for 20-30 minutes until golden and tender.

Bring the stock to a boil in a small saucepan. In a separate saucepan saute onion in olive oil until starting to brown slightly. Add the rice, stirring to coat with the oil. Add the wine. Stir until the wine is absorbed. Now start adding the hot stock stock 1/2 cup at a time. You will need to stick around and stir continuously for about 20 minutes. Keep adding stock 1/2 cup at a time.

When you have about 1/2 cup of stock left, add the roasted butternut squash to the rice. Stir well then add the remaining stock to finish cooking. Add the Parmesan cheese at the end. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve with a nice green salad!

Enjoy!

Pot stickers

Last night I had two little helpers making pot stickers with me. They were so delicious and so very fun to make with the boys. At one point (when I was about to kick everyone out of the kitchen and blow my cool) Avery took it upon himself to teach Emile the right way to construct and fold a pot sticker. For some reason it hadn't occurred to me that he was actually capable of learning something so precise, but Avery knew better! He stepped it up and showed me how it's done. I'm so proud of him!!! They were a bit messy but absolutely scrumptious!

You need:
1 package of won ton wrappers
1/2 cup terryaki sauce- I use Soy Vay brand
1 chopped onion
1/2 chopped bell pepper
shredded cabbage
1/2 cup of broccoli slaw
shredded zucchini
shredded carrots
baby peas
bean sprouts
green onion, chopped
hand full chopped cilantro

Saute all of your veggies until soft and add the terryaki sauce.
Boil some water in a medium sauce pan, and in a separate frying pan heat three tablespoons of canola oil.
Lay out one won ton at a time (this is best done with other people as an assembly line) place 1 tablespoon of the veggie mixture in the center of won ton, dab a bit of water around the edges and fold into a triangle then match the two bottom corners together and press to seal. Drop won tons into boiling water for about 3 minutes until clear, then place into the frying pan and let cook there until browned and crisp. Make sure not to try and remove it from the pan too soon, otherwise you will end up with lots of burnt won ton wrapper in the pan like we did our first batch. The pot sticker will actually release when it is done. Be patient and make sure your fire isn't too high.

Enjoy!!!

Black Beans and Lemon Cookies

Tonight we had black beans over rice. Nothing too exciting, but the cookies we had for dessert were certainly worth writing about! The recipe was found here on Martha Stewart's Everyday Food. I followed the recipe exactly but didn't bother making the glaze and they were still lemony and delicious. They really were the most perfect cookie, for me anyway. I'm a fruit and nut kinda gal, hold the chocolate and give me some lemon zest any day and I'll be one happy camper.


Here's my recipe for simple black beans and rice:

1 lb. black beans
enough water to cover beans

1 onion
1 red bell pepper
2 stalks celery
2 cloves of garlic
1 shredded zucchini

2 tablespoon each lime and orange juice
handful cilantro
1 tablespoon cumin
salt and pepper to taste

First soak the beans for at least eight hours. I like to use my pressure cooker to cook the beans to save on time but you can do it however you like. While the beans are cooking chop all veggies and shred zucchini. Saute onion and celery in olive oil until onion is translucent. Add pepper, garlic and zucchini and cook for a few more minutes. When beans are done add veggies and lime and orange juice, cilantro, salt, pepper and cumin. Cook altogether for about 15 more minutes or until you feel the flavors have combined enough.

A hearty helping of memories

Tonight we had shrimp stuffed mirliton with yummy crusty french bread and also curry cauliflower soup! I know, it's kind of an odd combination, but it worked. The stuffed squash was taught to me by my grandmother Too-Koo. I would go to visit her after I got married and just marvel at her domescticity. She always had a meal waiting for you when you would arrive, and could whip up a jelly roll too while you were there. I loved our visits together. I watched attentivly as she worked busily all around me. Giving me small jobs to do like chop the parsley or put ice in the glasses. It was an unspoken understanding that she was sharing somthing of infinate value and worth. She was subtly instilling a love of tradition and heritage, of simple details that often get overlooked but it's what makes what we do as mothers and grandmothers (and fathers too:)) so darn special. So here I share what I learned from her on one of my visits, although there was no written recipe to follow. You need your inner grandmother to whisper the exact amounts like I did tonight. Good Luck and enjoy!!!

Shrimp stuffed Mirliton:

1 onion

1/2 red pepper

1/2 bell pepper

1 stalk celery

1 clove of garlic

2 green onions

1/2 lbs. shrimp peeled and devieined

3/4 cup toasted bread crumbs

1 tsp. worceshire sauce

dash of tabasco

tony's or just plain salt and pepper to taste

4 Mirliton or chayote squash

Cut squash in half and place in large pot, cover with water and boil until tender (about 20 minutes) . While that is boiling chop veggies and saute in olive oil and/or butter until soft. Add shrimp and seasonings (tabasco, worc. sauce, tony's or salt and pepper) cook until shrimp turn pink then add 1/2 cup of bread crumbs. When the squash is tender using a soup spoon scoop out just the meat of the squash leaving a nice shell and add the squash meat to the shrimp. Fill the militon skin with the shrimp mixture and top with remaining bread crumbs. Bake for 25 minutes at 375 degrees until bread crumbs are lightly browned on top.

**You could use this same filling to stuff zuchinni or eggplant if the choyote squash is not available.

Mushroom Barley Soup

This soup is one of my winter time staples. It's the time I get to use the turnips Adam grows in our garden, they are so incredibly delicious, they taste like butter. And what really makes this a meal for me is the barley. It's such a hearty grain, so even if you're just eating soup you feel full and satisfied afterwards.

1onion
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 red pepper
2 turnips, diced
1 cup chopped mushrooms (I use baby bellas)
1 clove of garlic
2 carrots, diced
1/2 cup barley
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon sherry or balsamic vinegar
6 cups of water/vegetable broth
teaspoon thyme
salt and pepper to taste

So first start by sauteing the onion, celery, pepper, garlic in a bit of olive oil. Add carrots and mushrooms until mushrooms are cooked through then add the barley, tomato paste and sherry. Stir around so that all the veggies are coated then add the water/broth and spices. Allow to cook on medium heat until all the veggies are soft and the barley is completely cooked (about 1 hour).
Serve with some crusty french bread and enjoy!

Sunday- Rice and Gravy

Sunday dinners are always special, but this past Sunday was one to remember. I had the two best cooks in the world in my kitchen, that would be my mom and my dad! Teaching me how to make steak and rice and gravy -a cajun staple! Meat is not something that makes it's way onto our plate often, especially beef. Adam is a vegetarian and every time I try to cook red meat for me and the kids it turns out to be a pale, tough and chewy mess. So my dad kindly taught me how to brown meat and make a killer gravy. For Adam I pan fried some flounder filets that were pretty yummy as well!

To go along with that we had a delicious salad from our garden topped with golden raisins, toasted walnuts and gargonzola cheese with rasberry lime vinegrette. Yum!!!

Here's to family dinners!