Happy Harvest!!

One thing that I really love about the autumn is the harvest. Every year I load up on my favorites like big bouquets of cauliflower, giant stalks of brussels sprouts and heads of yummy greens. Today though, I decided to stray out of my culinary comfort zone and play with some harvest items that I've never cooked with: Butternut Squash and Kale.

Let's talk about kale first. I've been trying to eat lots of dark leafy greens because they are high in folic acid. I came across a blog a long time ago (I would link to it but I can't find it) where the blogger made kale chips. She raved about them and I have been meaning to make them myself since then. I saw some big beautiful heads of kale at Whole Foods a few days ago and decided to try them out.

Kale chips are super easy to make. All you do is cut away the tough stems, cut up the kale into bite sized pieces,  wash and dry in the salad spinner then put the kale on baking sheets with a little olive oil and salt on top. Bake for 15 minutes and that's it. They are so good! Super crispy and salty and you can not stop eating them.

I saw an episode of the Barefoot Contessa on Food Network a few weeks ago where Ina makes a butternut squash soup and it looked delicious so I decided to make it for dinner tonight. I have never cooked butternut squash before and I I now know the reason. It is super hard to peel. Peeling this 4lb. squash took FOREVER. I did it though and made a delicious soup with the squash, apples, onions, salt, pepper, curry and vegetable stock (recipe calls for chicken stock but I'm a vegetarian) and garnished it with cashews, scallions and a dollup of sour cream. Check out the recipe here.**One thing I want to let you know should you decide to make this soup: I used an immersion blender instead of a food mill or food processor and it was very easy and I imagine much less messy.**

What harvest vegetable should I try next?

Menu Plan Monday: January 18, 2009

I didn't make the meal that I planned for last Friday, so I am bumping that up to this week. I am also going to try to use my crock pot at least once this week because I like to relax with Mark on weeknights when he comes home and if I am cooking dinner, I usually have pots and dishes and cutting boards to clean up. I hate just leaving the stuff in the sink and I hate cleaning all night so making something in the crock pot allows me to make the mess in the morning and gives me plenty of time to have everything cleaned up by noon.

Here it is:

Monday: Penne Pasta with Sausage and Cheesy Garlic Bread

Tuesday: Baked Lemon Chicken and salad

Wednesday: Slow Cooker Pot Roast and spinach

Thursday: Progresso Corn Chowder and Grilled Cheese

Friday: Turkey Tacos and Mock Sangria

I haven't decided if I should plan for Saturdays and Sundays yet. We certainly didn't need meals to be planned this past weekend so I am thinking I won't for the time being.

Oh and check out I'm An Organizing Junkie. It's a pretty awesome blog.

~Miranda

How I Make Tomato Sauce

Since I am doing Menu Plan Monday now, I thought  that every so often I would add one of the recipes I make from the “recipe box in my head.” So I figured I would start with a basic: tomato sauce.

Before I tell you how I make my sauce let me just say that I HATE jar sauce. It is too sweet, is full of preservatives and is nutritionally not nearly as good for you as home made sauce. I will eat it if I am at someone’s house and they use it but I am usually not thrilled. When I make my sauce, I make a lot then I freeze some for later use. I never measure but I will try to estimate for blogging purposes.

WHAT YOU NEED:

a large pot, preferably with a cover

extra virgin olive oil

1 head of garlic

1 large yellow onion or 2 small yellow onions

Fresh basil (you can use dried if you want)

Red wine (optional)

1 28oz can San Marzano crushed tomatoes

Salt and Pepper

Coat the bottom of the pot with the olive oil and put over low heat. Dice the onion and add to the pot. Dice the garlic and add to the pot. Raise the heat to medium-high. Cook until the onion is soft and semi-clear but do not let the garlic burn. Add the San Marzano tomatoes. Add around 1 cup of red wine.

At this point, bring the sauce to a boil and then drop the heat back to low. Cook uncovered until the sauce is a bit thicker. Season with salt, pepper and chopped up fresh basil to taste. You can also use dried Italian seasonings if you like. Once the sauce is seasoned, simmer covered for as long as you want. The longer it cooks the better it will taste.

~Miranda