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Grilled Butternut Squash

This simple recipe for grilled butternut squash is another Padushi special, straight out of his crumbling crazy-ass diet (for new readers, the crazy-ass diet is some sort of vegan-gone-completely-over-the-edge thing that consists primarily of carrots, beets, and potatoes, and doesn’t let you combine veggies that grow above the ground with veggies that grow below the ground in the same meal. Don’t ask.)

Use the seed well to mix the oil and spice

He is, thankfully, no longer strictly on it anymore, although there are still moments of madness.

Much of what he made for the crazy-ass diet was okay eating. Some of it was just this side of edible. But this recipe, which takes the unusual step of grilling the squash, is really delicious in its own right.

Great grill marks!

It was especially handy during the power outages following Hurricane Sandy, as butternut squash, a native American squash in the Cucurbita family, is in season, doesn’t need refrigeration and the grill runs on propane, independent of nationalgrid and LIPA. We have the power back, but grilled butternut squash is delicious any time! It also has loads of vitamins (especially A) and minerals (like potassium)

Creamy inside, smoky outside!

Grilled Butternut Squash

1 butternut squash

1 tsp olive oil

1 tsp Adobo powder or salty seasoning of your preference (something curried would be nice!)

Heat the grill to high.

Slice squash in half lengthwise and clean out the seeds. Discard seeds or clean, dry and roast for a separate snack.

Pour half the oil and half the seasoning into the bowls of each squash half. Using hands, mix the oil and seasoning, then spread evenly over the entire squash, including skin.

Put on hot grill, skin side first, and close grill. Cook until a fork will easily pierce all the way through (about 30 minutes), turning onto flesh side about halfway through cooking.

Whip It Good (Make Your Own Whipped Cream in Minutes)

27 Nov

Making your own whipped cream and is easy and fun for kids.

The texture is much more velvety than store-bought and it doesn’t bring extra additives.

Whipped!

Leandro and I made an apple crisp for Thanksgiving, but we didn’t actually start eating it until a couple of days later because we were so full! Instead of ice cream, we made our very own whipped cream.

It is so simple – takes five minutes! – and the results are so satisfying.

With warm apple crisp

Whipped Cream

Before you start: put the bowl and whisk or beaters in the freezer so they are ice cold when you are ready to use. Another note – whisking can take awhile, especially when you have eager little helpers. We use a hand beater instead of a whisk, which Leandro could manage quite well (as long as he kept the beaters in the cream) and then got to lick after!

Ingredients

1 Cup heavy cream (whipping cream is actually not the best choice!)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbs confectioner’s sugar

How-To

In a large bowl, whip cream until you begin to get thick waves that threaten to peak. Beat in vanilla and sugar until peaks form. Stop there! Don’t overbeat it into buttery lumps.

You can store by lining a sieve with culinary cloth, putting the whipped cream in and then setting the sieve over a bowl, but it never lasts that long around here. You can also freeze it apparently, but I have yet to try! This makes about 16 generous tablespoons worth.

Tags: cooking with kids, dessert toppers, homemade whipped cream, how to make whipped cream, whipping cream

Comments 14 Comments
Categories baking, desserts, Food, Recipes, Thanksgiving, Vegetarian

Curried Cauliflower (Aloo Gobi without the aloo, or is it without the gobi? I forget)

29 Oct

(About to lose power! So let me post this quickly and wish us luck during Hurricane Sandy!)

I saw one of those manager’s specials at the local supermarket recently – a styrofoam and plastic wrap missile loaded with a pound cauliflower florets for about 99 cents, so I grabbed it impulsively, intentionally forgetting that cauliflower is not yet on my son’s List of Acceptable Vegetables. I can easily eat a pound of cauliflower on my own, I thought, if I don’t try to do it all in one day.

Cauliflower in the pot with spices

Then, a day or two later, there was the cauliflower, looking at me rather expectantly, mournfully, accusatory-like from its tightly wrapped package, while I prepared other vegetables from Leandro’s List of Acceptable Vegetables. We know the manager doesn’t put vegetables on special if they are at their peak of freshness, so the cauliflower needed doing before it fell off Natalia’s List of Acceptable Vegetables. Continue reading →

Tags: aloo gobi, cooking, curry, easy vegetable dishes, food, Indian-style curried cauliflower, recipes

Comments 9 Comments
Categories Asian, Food, Recipes, Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetarian

Apple Crisp (and the answer to the contraption challenge)

15 Oct

Yesterday I asked if you knew what this was:

Peel Away Peeler, Corer, and Slicer, courtesy Hatti Langsford.

And I got numerous responses, most of them correct! The hair removal comment was pretty funny! (Thanks Conor from One Man’s Meat)

It is indeed an apple corer, which can be set to peel and slice as well. Want one? Click here to shop around….

My dear friend from college (The New School, if you’d like to know), Hatti Langsford, whose recent “sustainable” wedding to Chris Moratz, was covered in these pages, gave it to Leandro when we were visiting them in the New Paltz area last fall. It has since traveled, not just home to us, but to Leandro’s school during Apple Week last year! The kids (and teachers) loved it! And it is a terrific way to get kids eating fruit and involved in the kitchen!

It is a marvelous contraption, that Hatti wants me to remind you can also be used for peeling potatoes, and it can be used for pears as well. It came in particularly handy for this simple apple crisp recipe, as the spiral slice was the perfect thickness for the dish (1/4 inch); all I had to do was slice each apple once in half from top to bottom after Ashley and Leandro had peeled, cored and spiral sliced them.

Make sure the butter is well-distributed through the dry ingredients or you’ll have dry patches. I eliminated the dry patches by covering with foil; the heat finished the topping!

I made it in two 8×8 baking dishes so that I had one to take to this month’s Single Mother’s By Choice meet-up (where it met with general approval and most people took seconds), and one to keep! You could also do one large baking dish.

Yum!

Apple Crisp (adapted very slightly from Betty Crocker!)

10 small-medium cooking apples (we used Gala this time), cored and sliced (peeling is optional)

1.5 Cups mixed brown and white sugar, packed

1 Cup all-purpose flour

1 Cup quick-cooking oats (old-fashioned can also be used)

2/3 Cups butter, softened

1.5 tsp ground cinnamon

1.5 tsp ground nutmeg

Whipped cream or ice cream, if desired

Heat oven to 375°F. Grease bottom and sides of two 8×8 or one 8×13 rimmed baking dish with shortening.

Spread apple slices in pan(s). In a large bowl, stir remaining ingredients except cream, wetting thoroughly with the butter. Spread over the apples.

Bake 30 minutes (add five minutes for glass baking dish), or until top is golden and apples are fork-tender. Serve warm with cream.

Tags: apple crisp, baking apples, cooking, cooking with kids, easy recipes, fall desserts, food, kids in the kitchen, recipes

Comments 10 Comments
Categories baking, desserts, Food, Party Snacks, Recipes, Vegetarian

Zucchini Fritters, with Manchego, Rosemary, and Thyme

1 Oct

What am I gonna do with this!?! Basta, ya! As enormous bats of zucchini continue to be a big part of our C.S.A. pick-up this summer-into-fall, we start to get desperate for different ways to prepare them. I generally grate them into salads (I dislike raw zucchini, but grated into a salad makes it much more texturally appealing for me!), my dad grills them with just a bit of oil, or we roast them.

Grated zucchini

As much as I adore absolute simplicity in food — from both a preparation and a consumption standpoint — enough is enough. One does need to mix it up a bit, and try new techniques, too. So it was time to be inspired by a recipe for zucchini fritters I saw recently at Emmy Cooks, and another one for zucchini latkes at Deborah Rivera Pittorino’s chef’s blog, Seasoned Fork (full disclosure – you will find book reviews I have written there; The Big Oyster is my favorite). Both recipes seemed simple enough, a lovely change for us over here, and as they are pan-fried, I thought I was in with a chance at getting Leandro to try veggies this way. Continue reading →

Tags: cooking, courgettes, easy recipes, food, latkes, savory pancakes, summer squash, vegetarian, what to do with zucchini, zucchini fritters

Comments 25 Comments
Categories CSA, farming, Food, gardening, lunch, Picnic, Recipes, Side Dishes, Vegetarian

Roasted Green Beans (Salvaging and Sweetening When Less than Farm Fresh)

27 Sep

We’ve had piles of green beans this season, both from Restoration Farm and from our own little beds. This means that sometimes they stay in the fridge longer than we meant them too.

Then, when the season is over, we’ll probably buy from the supermarket (ssshhhhhh – not particularly seasonally virtuous, but I am working on it) and they won’t have that snappy-sweet farm freshness that we have become used to in late summer. But now I have a new way to make them taste much, much better. Continue reading →

Tags: caramelizing beans, cooking, food, green bean recipes, haricots, improving supermarket vegetables, recipes, roasted green beans, simple food, summer food, vegetarian

Comments 3 Comments
Categories CSA, farming, Food, gardening, Recipes, salad, Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetarian

Easy Stir-Fried Rice (with the secrets for tasty, good-looking egg bits!)

25 Sep

I have always loved stir-fried rice, but as I’ve gotten older, I am less and less satisfied with the greasy stuff at the Chinese takeaway. And as I’ve gotten older, I cook more meals and therefore have more bits and bobs laying around getting ugly in the fridge. You know, half an onion here, a bit of cold rice there, some veggie bits that aren’t quite enough for one serving on their own, but make a pretty good pile if thrown together. And I always have eggs.

Just pour the lightly beaten egg in and leave it cook on medium.

Stir-fry, therefore, is perfect. It uses everything up (virtue), fulfills my veggie quota (more virtue), and gives us a vacation from my usual seasonings to go more Asian (variety). And now that I know the easy secret of how to get the egg bits looking and tasting great, well I think I am positively gourmet. It’s already vegetarian; vegans can skip the eggs and pan-sear super-firm tofu instead. Continue reading →

Tags: Asian recipes, cooking, easy Chinese, eggs, food, recipes, rice, stir-fry, using leftovers for stir fry, vegetable fried rice, what to do with leftover rice

Comments 15 Comments
Categories Asian, Chinese, eggs, Food, Recipes, Side Dishes, Stir-Fry, Vegan, Vegetarian

Party Snacks: Spanish-Style Tortilla (omelette) with leeks, potatoes, and peas

18 Sep

You say party, I say tortilla. I have loved Spanish tortillas since I tried them on my first trip to Spain a million years ago and have been making them just about as long.

Let us be clear. I am not talking about the bread-like Mexican tortillas that are used for wrapping burritos and quesadillas. I am now talking about Spain, where tortilla means a stove top egg cake, a thick omelette, a frittata. Many are vegetarian (and many are not). All of them allow you to play with ingredients!

Continue reading →

Tags: cooking, food, leeks, potatoes, recipes, small dishes of Spain, Spain, tortilla

Comments 11 Comments
Categories CSA, eggs, Food, lunch, Party Snacks, Recipes, Spanish, Tapas, Vegan, Vegetarian

Basic Home-Made Tomato Puree (freezeable!)

13 Sep

I have just done a listening exercise with my ESL students on The Marshmallow Test … a 1960s experiment that offered four-year-olds one marshmallow off the bat, but an additional marshmallow if they could just wait alone in a room for 15 minutes with that first marshmallow and not eat it.

Plunged into ice water and ready for processing into tomato sauce

Astonishingly the findings over time showed that kids who could delay gratification for longer times at four, were likely to be more successful socially, educationally and professionally when they grew up than the kids who couldn’t wait and sucked that first marshmallow down as soon as they were alone with it.

Continue reading →

Tags: cooking, easy preserving, food, freezing produce, home-made puree, no-cook preserving, recipes, summer recipes, The Marshmallow Test, tomato puree, tomato sauce

Comments 8 Comments
Categories Food, gardening, Italian, Preserving, sauce, Uncategorized, Vegan, Vegetarian

Stuffed and Roasted Patty Pan Squash (Yes, you can eat the rind!)

6 Sep

Yes! Those adorable yellow Madeleine berets next to the zucchini and yellow squash are edible! You can even eat the rind!

I really need a steamer. And after this little experiment, I also need a new strainer. it went kaput!

Pattypan squash is the single most searched for recipe on this blog, so I know many readers are out there trying to figure out whatever to do with them. I was equally mystified when we first started getting them at our weekly CSA pick-up. But a little experimenting later, now I know they are loads of fun.

Continue reading →

Tags: CSA, how to, patty pan squash, pattypan, seasonal summer, squash, stuffed squash, summer squash, vegetarian

Comments 17 Comments
Categories CSA, Food, lunch, Recipes, Side Dishes, Uncategorized, Vegetarian

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