Tag: fall

Pork Chops with Apples and Onions

My return to cooking started with a sale on pork chops. With apples in season, I decided to make Martha Stewart’s Pork Chops with Apples and Onions. You sear the pork chops first, and then saute a mixture of apples and onions. I stirred in some white wine, and then returned the pork chops to the pan to finish cooking.

Pork chops can dry out so easily, but this recipe helps prevent that. The dish also offered a nice blend of savory and sweet. I served the pork with sauteed spinach and whole wheat pasta. It was a delicious fall meal, and also made great leftovers. But just one tip: bring a steak knife in your lunch bag!

Roasted Butternut Squash, Pears, and Onions with Blue Cheese

The bushel of butternut squash is now gone. We’ve made a basic squash soup, a fancier soup with beans and ham, butternut hash, butternut butter, and a butternut squash and kale torte. With the very last squash, I decided to make Roasted Butternut Squash, Pears, and Onions with Blue Cheese.

The title pretty much says it all, but this recipe takes plain roasted vegetables up a notch. I loved the mix of squash, pears, and onions, and the strong-flavored blue cheese was a great touch. This would be good as a side dish, or perhaps accompanied by a nice spinach salad.

I am a little sad that the squash is gone, but I am ready to move on to other vegetables. It’s the end of January, and I haven’t roasted any beets yet!

Roasted Butternut Squash, Pears, and Onions with Blue Cheese

1 butternut squash, peeled, and cut into 1″ chunks
1 Bosc pear, peeled, cored, and sliced
1 Vidalia onion, peeled and sliced
2 T butter
1 T sage, chopped
1/2 t thyme
1 T mustard
1/3 c. crumbled blue cheese

Place squash, pear, and onion in a large bowl. In a small pot, melt the butter on medium heat. Add sage and thyme, and cook for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in mustard. Pour butter mixture over vegetables and toss to coat.

Place vegetables in a 13″x9″ dish. Bake at 375F for 45-50 minutes, or until tender and brown. Add cheese, and bake for an additional 5 minutes.

Butternut Squash Soup

My family made a double batch of this soup over Christmas, to freeze for busy days (and nights) ahead. Yes, we’re still working through the bushel of squash from October. (There’s just one squash left.)

The recipe is lightly adapted from Skinnytaste’s Butternut Squash Soup, but we just used basic black pepper for seasoning and added a touch of applesauce. It was a good chance to test out the new immersion blender that my Dad got for Christmas. It’s a fun gadget, and makes the soup so smooth. The soup is really simple, but has a rich flavor. I treat the containers in my freezer like gold.

Butternut Squash Soup

1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
6 c. vegetable broth
1 t minced garlic
Black Pepper
1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce

Place squash, onion, carrots, broth, and garlic in a large pot. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes, or until vegetables are very soft. Puree with an immersion blender. Season with black pepper. Stir in applesauce, and more water if the soup is too thick. Cook just until heated through.

-Adapted from Skinnytaste

Pumpkin Ginger Pecan Muffins

I said I would bake this weekend, and I did! But I didn’t make the hearty rolls I had planned; I decided to bake some treats for the freezer instead. I’ll get back to those rolls later, I promise.

I was surfing the Internet, and spotted this recipe for Ginger Pecan Pumpkin Muffins. I had crystallized ginger leftover from the Dark Chocolate Brownies with Crystallized Ginger and Sea Salt that I made this summer. I had leftover pecans from my Mom’s pantry clean out. And way up top in my cabinet I had a stash of canned pumpkin. It was destiny, right? I did change a few things from the original recipe by using some whole wheat flour, replacing a portion of the sugar with honey, and changing the spices a bit.

The muffins were quite good, and I liked the crunch of the pecans. You can only taste the ginger every few bites so if you want more of a kick, I would increase the amount of crystallized ginger to 1/3-1/2 cup, as in the original recipe. Although I know pumpkin is often enjoyed in the fall, these muffins are pretty good for January too.

Pumpkin Ginger Pecan Muffins

1 c. white flour
1 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
1 t pumpkin pie spice
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 c. pumpkin puree
1/4 c. canola oil
1/4 c. nonfat plain Greek yogurt
1/4 c. honey
1/2 t vanilla
1/2 c. chopped pecans
1/4 c. crystallized ginger pieces

In a large bowl, mix flours, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and spices. In another bowl, mix eggs, pumpkin, oil, yogurt, honey, and vanilla. Add wet ingredients to dry, and mix just until blended. Fold in pecans and ginger.

Spoon batter into 12 muffin tins coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350F for 22-28 minutes.

-Adapted from Etsy

Creamy Pumpkin Pie Bars

Thanksgiving doesn’t stop on Thursday. We have an annual extended family gathering on the Friday night after Thanksgiving that’s just as much fun as the big day itself. Usually we bring a dessert (probably because we’re almost always late!) This year, I wanted to make Joy the Baker’s Pumpkin Pie Bars.

The bars have a bottom crust made with butter, flour, oats, and pecans, and this mixture is also used for a crumble topping. The filling is a rich mixture of cream cheese, pumpkin, sugar, and spices. The recipe has all the right ingredients so we had high expectations. Sadly, we were disappointed. But don’t they look pretty?

The first problem was that the bars took significantly longer than expected to bake in the oven, and it was really difficult to tell when they were done. The recipe indicates they should be cooked until “the center no longer jiggles.” It’s pretty hard to see the filling underneath the crumble topping, so we ended up using a toothpick to help.

The recipe also indicates that the bars should be chilled prior to cutting, but even after some time in the freezer, the center was still very soft. It was difficult to cut them into nice bars. After more time in the host’s refrigerator, the bars were still messy to eat. I think this recipe would work much better as a regular cheesecake that you enjoy with a fork.

Of course, no one at the party cared that our bars weren’t up to par. There were plenty of great desserts, including another dish of pumpkin bars which were excellent. So I asked which recipe they used. “Shhhh….they’re from a box mix.”

Pumpkin Cheesecake Shooters

After Thanksgiving dinner, everyone is usually way too full for dessert. But you just can’t resist having something, right? These Pumpkin Cheesecake Shooters from Skinnytaste give you a small taste of something sweet, and they’re also adorable!

I followed the recipe as written, and was able to make the filling ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator. Of course, I had to try it out to make sure it was acceptable for our guests. The pumpkin cheesecake was really good, but next time I would increase the amount of pureed pumpkin for a more intense flavor.

A few hours before serving, I piped the filling and whipped topping into the glasses using the tried-and-true Ziploc bag with the corner snipped. We tried out a few different sized glasses including a regular shot glass, a larger cordial glass, and limoncello glasses.

You really don’t need to buy any special glasses; use whatever you have around. Just remember that if you use a really narrow glass, you also have to provide spoons that can reach the bottom!

These are a fun option for Thanksgiving dinner. And if you’re lucky enough to have a few leftover, you can feel very fancy enjoying one the next day after your turkey sandwich. 🙂

Butternut Squash Hash

When you just can’t decide what to have for dinner, there’s always “breakfast for dinner”. That’s how I enjoyed this butternut squash hash, although it would also be good for a weekend brunch. Feel free to expand the recipe to use a whole squash, I just happened to have half of one leftover from another project.

This recipe takes some patience while you brown the onion and squash, but those crispy edges taste so great! I cracked the eggs right into the same pan, mostly because I was lazy and didn’t want to take out (and then wash) another pan. But this worked out really well, and it was a fun “breakfast for dinner” meal.

Butternut Squash Hash

1/2 large butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1″ cubes
1 T olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 t paprika
3-4 eggs
1/4 c. Parmesan cheese

Place butternut squash cubes in a bowl, and cover with water. Microwave for 5-8 minutes, until starting to soften. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a large frying pan. Add onion, and cook for 5-10 minutes. When squash is drained, add to frying pan. Cook for 20-30 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Season with paprika. The onion and squash should brown, but turn down the heat if they are burning.

When the hash is ready, make 3-4 indentations in the pan. Spray bottom of pan with cooking spray if dry. Crack an egg into each space. Cover, and cook for 5 minutes. Remove cover and sprinkle Parmesan cheese over eggs. Replace cover and cook for 1-2 minutes more, until eggs are set.

Butternut Squash Butter

Everyone’s heard of pumpkin butter, but with so much butternut squash at my fingertips, I wanted to make butternut butter. I used this recipe from Eat, Live, Run as a guide. Thankfully, I also had one big assistant and one little assistant for the project!

We started by weighing the squash, because the amount of squash will drive how much of the other ingredients you need. However, I cut way back on the sugar from the original recipe – this squash is so sweet on it’s own, you just don’t need that much. This scale is truly an antique, but it still works.

My big assistant did all the peeling and slicing, and I roasted the squash in the oven. Then my little assistant helped to measure all the other ingredients and put them in the food processor along with the roasted squash.

My big and little assistants teamed up for the most exciting part – pushing the buttons on the food processor.

The original recipe called for putting the mixture on the stove to thicken, but ours was already quite thick at this point. I did put it on the stove to heat through, but then we were done and ready to put it in glass jars. The little assistant got a snack of plain yogurt with a spoonful of butternut butter, which he loved! I spread some on a piece of whole wheat toast later on, and really enjoyed this fall treat.

Butternut Squash Butter

1 (4 lb.) butternut squash, peeled and sliced thinly
1/4 c. brown sugar
2 1/2 t. pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 t. vanilla
2 T lemon juice

Place butternut squash slices in a single layer on a cookie sheet and roast at 400F for 20-25 minutes. Repeat this process until all the squash is roasted. Place squash, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla, and lemon juice in a food processor and blend until smooth. Place mixture in a pan on the stove and cook until thickened, as needed.

-Recipe adapted from Eat, Live, Run

Butternut Squash and Kale Torte

My parents recently took a drive through Rhode Island, and were stunned to see the effects of Hurricane Sandy. There are so many tragic stories related to this storm. They saw homes which were flooded, and a landscape redefined by sand which was moved with the power of the wind. But less than a mile from the beach, farmers were harvesting a large quantity of butternut squash. So they bought a bushel, which turned out to be 13 butternut squash totaling 40-45 lbs. That’s a lot of local produce!

The first butternut squash recipe to share is this Butternut Squash and Kale Torte. With squash, potatoes, kale, red onion, and tomato, this dish is packed with vegetables, and I loved them all. There’s also both Provolone and Parmesan cheese. The dish is a series of beautiful layers, and the camera does not do this justice. The recipe does take a bit of time with all the peeling and slicing, and required about 15 extra minutes in the oven, but the end result is totally worth it.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

After making two pumpkin recipes last week, I had just 1 cup of pumpkin leftover. I was saving it for these Pumpkin Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies from the ‘a hint of honey’ blog. I know, I just made Pumpkin Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies a few weeks ago, but these have even more pumpkin, and chocolate.

It seems like it’s been a long time since I’ve creamed butter and sugar, and making these cookies was really fun. I chopped a bar of good dark chocolate which was the perfect complement to the dried cranberries. And the end result is rich, chewy, and delicious. I better make these last, because I am all out of pumpkin at the moment!