Friday Flavor: ButterCUP squash

I don't know about you guys, but I cannot believe that Thanksgiving is just around the corner.  Next week?  What?!?  Just think of all the festivities that await - the family & friends, the delicious dinner, and all of those massive holiday sales! 

Kate the great is at it again with another delicious recipe, perfect for a T-day side dish!  And, with this one I won't have to fight with the butternut or worry about skinning my knuckles trying to peel it - yahoo!  Thanks for the recipe, Kate!  Can't wait to give it a try next week! 

the buttercup

So, Bird Day is right around the corner! Do you have your menu planned out? Or are have you been assigned a dish to bring to someone else’s house? Either way, today is less of a recipe and more of a concept. Today, I introduce you to butterCUP squash. No, that’s not a typo. It’s not butterNUT, it’s butterCUP. And, it’s delicious!

For decades now the go-to Thanksgiving squash has been the butternut. Oddly shaped, mildly flavored and downright dangerous to peel, seed and chop, this squash needs lots of doctoring with butter, salt, pepper, brown sugar, marshmallows, whatever, before it’s ready to hit the Thanksgiving table. I don’t get it? Why all the fuss when there is a far better alternative sitting right there next to it at the market? The buttercup squash on the other hand, is simple to prepare and requires only the most minimal additions to bring out its naturally sweet flavor.

Select one that feels heavy for its size, cut in half, scoop out the seeds and place on a cookie sheet, face up. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast at 425 degrees for about 45-60 minutes or until you can easily stick a knife into the flesh. Remove from oven, let cool for a bit and scoop out the flesh. Taste and add a little more salt, pepper and butter IF necessary. And there you go!
Happy Thanksgiving, Perfect Peachers!

via

Happy Friday ~ Have a lovely weekend!

Friday Flavor: Turkey Cranberry Ravioli & thank goodness for great friends!

Kate's recipe and story are completely cracking me up today.  I had totally blocked out our trials and tribulations together those first few months in Portland.  We certainly felt like we were roughing it!  And we kind of were, relative to what we were used to anyway.  Thank goodness things have changed a bit, and thank goodness we were in it together - even if we wanted to kill each other at some points!  Almost two years after we moved to Portland, Kate returned to the east coast.  So sad - I miss you, Kate!  Seriously, when are you going to move back out here?

Today’s recipe is a nod to my good friend and founder of this very blog!  Heather and I trekked out to Portland, OR recently after graduating from UConn back in 2000.  Neither one of us had any idea of what we were doing, where we were going to live or how we were going to find jobs!  We just got in our cars and drove.  The first few months were… interesting, to say the least!  We slept on the floor, never turned on the heat and survived on cheap meals made in camping cookware.  By the time Thanksgiving rolled around, we were definitely a bit homesick.  Since we didn’t exactly have the capacity to create our own Thanksgiving meal, we ended up with some leftovers from a neighbor’s turkey dinner.  SO SAD!  I wish I had known about this recipe back then.  It’s a simple way to get the flavors of Thanksgiving without wrestling with giblets and roasting pans.  So, for all of you out who will be spending an intimate Thanksgiving with just one or two other dining companions, this is for you!  Happy Thanksgiving! 

Turkey Cranberry Ravioli

¼ pound of ground turkey

2 T cranberry sauce or chutney

2 T Romano

1 T Italian style bread crumbs

1 egg

1 teaspoon rubbed sage

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½  teaspoon black pepper

20 store bought wonton wrappers

To make the ravioli: in a medium bowl, stir together the turkey, cranberry sauce, cheese, bread crumbs, egg, salt, and pepper. Place 10 wonton wrappers on a work surface. Brush lightly with water using a pastry brush. Place 1 tablespoon of the turkey mixture on each of the wonton wrappers.  Resist the temptation to overstuff! Top with another wonton wrapper. Push out any air bubbles and press the edges tightly to seal.


Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the ravioli and cook until tender but still firm to the bite and the turkey is cooked, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes.  Toss in melted butter, top with additional Romano.  

 

~images of Portland via Nick Nieto~

Thanks so much to Kate for the great recipe, and the fun times!  Love you!  Have a lovely weekend everyone!  

ps.  The holidays are coming - if you are in the Boston area and need a caterer, a personal chef, or some amazing cooking lessons, contact Kate at http://www.gathercatering.com/. 

Friday Flavor: Pumpkin gnocchi

Yahoo....it's Friday again.  I love it when this day rolls around, don't you?  I kind of wish every day was Friday...or Saturday...or Sunday.  They're so much more fun than the rest of the week!  Anyhoo...my husband and I are headed out in the morning to pick some pumpkins, carve them and have a Halloween fiesta.  The rest of the weekend will be spent totally diy style.  I am so excited!  Hope you all have a lovely weekend, too - go spend the night in a graveyard or something - it's Halloween, afterall!  

~via minipixel~

Kate has a great recipe this week. I haven't had a chance to try this one out, but am thinking I will have to pick up the ingredients this weekend so I will have a nice, quick, delicious meal ready to put on the table one night next week.  

Happy Halloween! So, of course I have to do something pumpkin today! I came up with this recipe about a year ago, on one of those nights where you come home from work and stare at the pantry hoping the ingredients will magically come together for you. It happened to be a particularly bad grocery week- meaning we had a crazy weekend and stocking up on food for the week didn't make the cut. Needless to say, I was totally shocked at what I ended up with- a delicious meal and perfect for Halloween!

What you need:
1 pound gnocchi (I had whole wheat on hand and I actually prefer it in this recipe, but it's hard to come by. You can also just use whole wheat penne too)
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 shallot, diced
4 slices bacon, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 can low-sodium chicken stock
1 can pumpkin puree (I really like Whole Foods 365 canned pumpkin the best!)
1 teaspoon rubbed sage (if it's in a jar- it's "rubbed")
1/2 teaspoon fresh nutmeg
Salt
Pepper
Grated parmesan

Cook pasta according to directions. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet. Cook the bacon until crispy. Remove, place on paper towel.

Drain off fat and wipe out the pan (although, I wish it were still 1950 and it was socially acceptable to cook with bacon fat!). Add 1 tablespoon to the pan, toss in shallots and garlic. (don't try to take a short cut and cook the bacon, shallots together. There is too much water in the shallots and it will make the bacon soggy instead of crispy!) Once shallots and garlic are fragrant, add chicken stock and pumpkin. Add nutmeg, sage, salt and pepper (take it easy on the salt- we are adding the salty bacon back in the mix soon). Let it simmer until it comes together, about 4 minutes. Add the gnocchi and the bacon and toss together. Serve in bowls topped with parmesan. Enjoy!

I hope everyone has a fabulous Halloween weekend!

Friday Flavor: Fake-caccia

Looks like I'm not the only one that has been swamped lately.  Poor Kate over at Gather Catering has been suffering from the "no time to spare" insanity as well!  Makes me feel a little less badly about my being a slacker blogger.  Misery loves company, I guess!  Or, in this case, business loves company!  :)

Anyway, this dish sounds right up my alley.  Quick, easy and delicious!  I love focaccia - so fluffy and dense at the same time - and anything that you can drench in olive oil sounds good to me.  Can't wait to give this one a try!  Happy Friday and thanks to Kate for her entry this week!

Life is crazy for me right now (hence, the lack of Friday Flavor last week!). I hired a new assistant at work and have been fervently training her for 10 hours a day in the hopes that I can actually bring her up-to-speed enough for me to get ahead. I'm going off that "a stitch in time" adage, hoping that by putting the time in now, it will save me time later! In addition to that, I also catered a big party this week and offered to bring an appetizer to my weekly "Girls' Night". Enter "Fake-caccia". I was driving home from work, wracking my brain as to what I could make to bring for an appetizer. Since expectations tend to run high when it comes to my contribution (I do actually get PAID to make peoples' mouth water), I couldn't get away with a container of pub cheese and pita chips. So, I stopped at the market, grab some pre-made pizza dough and got to it. With fingers crossed, I could only hope it turned out decent enough to bring to my friend's house.

What you need:
1 package of store bought pizza dough (usually hanging out in the refrigerated section of the bakery)
1/2 red onion, sliced
2 1/2 T olive oil, plus a little more
1 t garlic powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Begin to sautee the onion in a small frying pan with about 1/2 tablespoon of oil. Once that gets going, pour a generous amount of olive oil (about 2 tablespoons) into a 13x9 inch cookie sheet. Remove pizza dough from bag. Slowly begin to stretch with your hands into the general shape of the cookie sheet (if your hands are sticking to the dough, oil them- do not use flour here!). Once you've reached the general size of the cookie sheet, place it in. Work the dough until it just reaches the edges and it is of uniform thickness. Then, form your hands so that they are like scary claws (picture the zombies in the Thriller video) and start poking at the dough, making little divets with your finger tips. Spread the sauteed onion on top of the diveted dough. Sprinkle garlic powder, salt and pepper on top. Drizzle with about 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil. Bake for 15-18 minutes until dough is puffy and just lightly browned on the bottom. Cut into squares and serve with an oil dipping sauce, or thin slices of prosciutto or whatever you'd like!

Sorry for the absence last week! I hope you guys got out there and found some Friday Flavor of your own! Enjoy!

images via reya, musicpb

Friday flavor: Carol's Baked Apple Doughnuts

Doughnuts from Kate this week!  Doughnuts!  With that one word, I'm sold. I just told the husband that I wanted to head out to pick some apples this weekend - perfect recipe for it!  Thanks Kate!

~via Zack Klein~

Ok, I know I’ve already passed along a recipe from my mother, but this week, I am doing another tribute. I can’t help it! The woman is a fabulous cook. Plus, I truly can’t pass an apple in the market without thinking of her amazing Baked Apple Doughnuts. While these little delights are one of my favorite things about fall, I do have some mixed feelings towards the gross misnomer of the recipe title. These are not doughnuts. They are not even close. They are like a small, dense muffin, but they are amazing nonetheless. When I was a kid, friends would come over after school and my mother would tell us that she had a batch of baked apple DOUGHNUTS in the oven. As the smell of apples and cinnamon wafted through the house and thoughts of doughnuts as an after school snack danced in the minds of my friends, I would get a sinking feeling in my stomach. How could I explain to this kid that this magical creation my mother had made was not actually a doughnut, but more like a really dense muffin- muffins being a much less appealing snack to a third grader? The twenty-five minutes it took these suckers to bake was like torture for me. Once my mother pulled them out of the oven and I saw the deflated look on my friend’s face, the salesperson in me kicked in- “OK, I know it’s not a doughnut, but you HAVE to try one. They are SOOO good. I know it looks like a muffin, but TRUST me.” Somehow, I always convinced them and we sat happily at the kitchen table, munching away, with a mug of cider, warmed in the microwave with a cinnamon stick stirrer, to wash it all down.  

Over the years, I have considered changing the name of this recipe to Baked Apple Muffins, but that really doesn’t do justice to the end product. Plus, I sort of feel like I am being disloyal in changing the name. I kind of like how the title “Doughnut” can reel people in and get them excited, so that once they get over the sight of them coming out of the oven (they really aren’t that cute), they have to try them and then they’re hooked! 

~via Brainware 3000~

Carol’s Baked Apple Doughnuts
1 ½ C flour
1 ¾ t. baking powder
½ t freshly grated nutmeg (remember what I said about fresh nutmeg last week?!)
1/3 C shortening (yes, shortening. This recipe most certainly hails from Good Housekeeping, 1981)
¼ C milk
½ C melted butter
1 t cinnamon, divided into ½
½, plus 1/3 C sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 medium apple, chopped (I like Cortlands or Macouns)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 12 piece muffin tin or line with papers.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, nutmeg and ½ t of cinnamon. Cut in shortening until mealy. Add milk until just combined (don’t overmix!). You should have a pretty sticky dough at this point. Fold in the chopped apple. Fill muffin cups ¾ of the way. Bake approximately 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out from the center muffin clean.
Meantime, combine 1/3 C sugar and ½ t of cinnamon in a shallow bowl or dish. Once muffins come out of the oven, dip the top in melted butter, then in the cinnamon/sugar mixture.  Keep in an airtight container. Lasts 3 days.

~via tea and jam (you should check out all of tea & jam's photos - they are lovely!)~

I highly recommend a mug of cider to go along with these! Hope you can figure out a way to sell these to your friends, despite the confusing name!  Happy Weekend!

Friday flavor: Sticks to your ribs granola

Kate's at it again! This time with a delicious granola recipe! I am actually headed out on Sunday to enjoy the lovely weather on a hike out in the gorge. I am going to try to make a batch of this for the trip. Sounds yummy and should keep me going all day long!!  Enjoy the weekend!

Sticks to your ribs granola

I have heard more excitement this week about fall that I heard last year about Christmas and summer combined!  The blogs and Facebook are blowing up with banter about new wardrobes, cups of tea, slippers, apples and crisp sunshine.  People are totally amped for the new season!  So, this week's recipe is the perfect snack for you to take along with you as you don the fleece and head out to enjoy what the season has to offer!  Whether it's an apple picking adventure, a hike in the woods or in a lunchbox, this is a healthy, cheap and flavorful treat that beats out the grocery store version every time! 

What you need: 

2 cups rolled oats

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (buy it whole - now's the time!  It's totally worth it; you will use it all season long.  When you grate it fresh it makes all the difference!)

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon vegetable oil

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (I know the pure is more expensive, but if you can spring for it you will notice the difference.  Especially in a recipe like this where it stands out as a flavor.  Try to avoid the artificial stuff at all cost!)

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

2/3 cup slivered almonds or chopped hazelnuts or peanuts - whatever you like!

1/3 cup raisins (dark or golden - TIP: before you start the recipe, soak the raisins in hot water for 10 minutes to recharge their "plumpness")

2/3 cup dried fruit - whatever you like!  Try apples, mangoes, pineapple, cranberries, etc. 

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

In a large bowl, toss the oats with the cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.

In a medium bowl, stir together the oil, honey, brown sugar, and vanilla.  Whisk until completely combined. 

Pour the honey mixture over the oats mixture and use your hands to combine them - gather up some of the mixture in each hand and make a fist.  Repeat until all of the oats are coated with the honey mix.  

Pour onto the prepared baking sheet.  Spread out evenly, but leave a few clumps here and there for texture.  Bake for 15 minutes, add nuts and flip the granola, bake for an additional 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven and toss in the dried fruit.  Once cooled, store in an airtight container.  You will have granola for the month!  

Hope you think it is as delicious as I do!  Have a great weekend!   

Friday Flavor: Farmer's Market Risotto

It's that time of the week again!  This week's recipe from Kate is a vegetable risotto - I love that it let's you get a bit creative and incorporate your favorite fresh veggies from the farmer's market!  Out here in Portland, we have some seriously amazing farmer's markets and I can't wait to pick up some squash tomorrow and make this for dinner!  Delish - thanks Kate!

 

~Portland's PSU Farmer's Market via JAGwired's flikr photostream~

It started this week.  The crisp, chilly mornings arrived in the northeast.  Fall is here!  I love fall, but this time of year, I always feel a twinge of sadness to see the beginning of the end for all those delicious summer fruits and veggies.  I get totally caught between wanting to break out the dutch oven for some slow cooking and firing up the grill for a last hurrah.  So, this week, as you begin the hunt for the slippers you tossed under the bed back in May, I am sharing with you a way to preserve the flavors or summer while giving you the dose of comfort food you’re starting to crave.  

Risotto.  Seriously - it’s not hard.  Ignore the hype.  People love to go on and on about how much patience and time and perfection risotto takes.  Not true!  I think our attention-deficit world has really given this dish a bad rap.  When it comes down to it, it’s 30 minutes of semi-focused, active cooking time.  So get to it!  It will be worth it when you can sit down on the couch with a delicious bowl of creamy, cheesy rice and veggies!

Veggie Risotto:
3 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
2.5 cups Arborio Rice
.75 cups white wine
32 ounces Vegetable Stock
16 ounces water
About a half a pound of any veggies you want- the farmer’s markets are still on, so get creative!  Asparagus, peas, fresh tomatoes and basil, squash…
Pecorino Romano, grated (I refuse to measure cheese, it’s more of an instinct, but if I had to say, about a cup)
salt and pepper, to taste

Put on some music.  Pour a glass of wine.  Risotto always comes out better this way.  After all, you will be in the kitchen for the next 30 minutes, so settle in. 

Heat vegetable stock over low heat in stock pot. Meanwhile, heat a large skillet (12-14 inch, 2 inches deep over medium heat. Add olive oil. Add onion and sauté for about 5 minutes, or until the onion starts to look translucent. Then add garlic and cook 2-3 minutes, or until “fragrant”- until the smell of garlic takes over your house and people start wandering in, wondering what you are up to.  Add Arborio rice- you are actually “toasting” the rice at this point to give it some flavor.  Stir it around until it sort of starts to smell like popcorn (3-4 minutes). You will also notice the ends of each grain will start to get clear and there will be a solid white center- at this point, it’s ready.  Add wine and stir until it reduces just a bit (1 minute). Ladle in 1 cup of hot stock.  Let it reduce, stirring occasionally.  Then continue adding 1/2 cup of stock at a time, stirring and letting it reduce. You will know when you are ready to add more when it just barely starts to stick to the bottom of the pan.  You can sneak away at this point, but don’t leave it for more than 2 minutes.  When you have about a cup of stock remaining, taste. If rice is still crunchy, continue adding stock. At this point, also add salt and pepper to taste. Once rice is soft with just a hint of crunch, turn off heat and add your veggies and pecorino. Stir in completely.  

Grab a blanket, cuddle up on the couch and enjoy!  Happy fall!

Friday Flavor: Maine Blueberry Buckle

It's Friday - yay!  That means it is recipe day here at aperfectpeach.  I made Kate's delicious peach crostini last weekend and it was a huge success with the girlfriends!  Thanks again, Kate!  This week's receip looks delicious!  I love blueberries - and pretty much live off of flats of them in the summer - so this week's recipe is right up my alley!  Yum!

 ~image via Scott Arnold Photography~

Let's get one thing out there: I LOVE Martha Stewart. I don't just like her, I love her. My motto in life is "WWMD"? What Would Martha Do?

But this summer, I discovered she and I disagree on a major point: which blueberries are superior- wild, tart, Maine Blueberries or cultivated, plump, New Jersey Blueberries. I prefer the tart, sweet, tiny little fruits of Maine and she likes the "Jersey Berries" ("Jersey" pronounced with disdain).

While I try to get past this obvious lapse in judgment on Marty's part, I will share with you this recipe for a blueberry treat I have been eating since I was about as tiny as those dark purple berries that hang low on the bush...

Blueberry Buckle
(mini history: if you're wondering what "Buckle" means, it's just German for "single layer cake with streusel topping, kind of like a coffee cake)

1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
2 cups wild Maine blueberries
(its ok if you don't have access to them - you can use whatever you can find at the market. If you use frozen ones, toss them in a little flour before you mix them in so they don't all sink to the bottom of the batter!)

Crumb topping:
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Cream butter; add sugar and beat until light.
Add egg and beat well. Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with milk, beating until smooth.
Fold in blueberries. Pour into greased pan (9 x 9 x 2-inch).
To make crumb topping, blend butter, sugar, flour and cinnamon.
Sprinkle over cake.
Bake in preheated moderate oven (375) for about 35 minutes.
Cut into 8 pieces, or 4 if you're feeling bold.

Enjoy - Happy Labor Day weekend aperfectpeach readers!  Post a comment and let me know what you think of this one! Kate

Friday Flavor ~ Mid-Summer Peach Basil Crostini

As promised, we are featuring our first Friday Flavor recipe by Kate Riley today!  I am so excited!  Kate is the chef and owner of Gather Catering in Boston, Massachusettes.  The concept behind Gather is so simple and sweet, and is just one of the reasons that I am honored to have Kate as part of the team here at aperfectpeach.  Kate is extremely creative, uses seasonal and local ingredients, and is completely motivated by the idea of being able to inspire some of life's sweetest moments by sharing food with your family and friends.  Thanks for being here, Kate! 

Hello aperfectpeach readers!  I am so happy to be here and to be sharing the first of many recipes - Mid-Summer Peach Basil Crostini.  Here is a little info on how the recipe was inspired.  

My family has a summer house on an island in a lake in Maine, and I try to make it up a least a couple of times every summer. The lake is huge and spotted with little neighborhood sandy beaches where everyone flocks to take a dip. Each beach has a personality of sorts, and Beach #8 across from my parents’ house is known for its happy hours. Nearly every day at 5PM, neighbors start heading up from the beach to go back to their tiny little cottage kitchens and whip up a snack to share at happy hour. Everyone returns to the beach, tables are dragged from their hiding spots in the woods and everyone dives in.

This past weekend while I was there, I was caught unprepared. I hadn’t planned out my snack for happy hour! So, I poured through my mother’s kitchen to see what I could put together. I found a loaf of walnut bread and set the wheels in motion- thinking it was the perfect base for some kind of savory/sweet crostini. I grabbed a just-ripe peach from the counter and remembered the HUGE pot of basil my mother grows every year on the sunniest park of the deck. I thought “peaches are sweet… basil is sweet…” and got to work! From this was born my Mid-Summer Peach Basil Crostini!  Here’s what you need:

For the crostini base:
Half a loaf of nutty bread (It can be walnut, pecan, whatever you’ve got!). Slice into bite-sized pieces and toast.
3 tablespoons cream cheese

For the Peach Basil topping:
1 ripe peach, chopped
A handful of fresh basil, torn into small pieces
1 teaspoon of red-wine or blush vinegar
½ teaspoon sugar
A pinch of salt
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon olive oil

Spread the cream cheese onto the toasted bread. Toss the topping ingredients in a bowl. Spoon over the top of the bread, making sure to include the juices at the bottom of the bowl. Serve immediately!

Enjoy and have a great weekend! Can't wait to see you again next week!  Kate

Happy Friday, everyone - what a great way to end our first week as a blogger!  Thanks so much for reading!