Breakfast Stuff

Eggy stuff
Originally uploaded by kel h

this is an old family tradition for Christmas Morning that my dad got from one of the wives of his fellow coaches back when he coached hockey for NT back in the day

Ingredients

I lb breakfast sausage, browned

6 slices bread toasted and buttered on both sides

6 eggs beaten

1 tsp mustard

2 cups half and half

1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar

placed buttered toast in 9x13 pan

spread crumbled browned sausage over the toast

cover with cheese

mix eggs, mustard and half and half well

pour mixture over toast

refrigerate for at least 6 hours

bake 40-50 min at 350

Since I'm a vegetarian I like to use veggies instead of sausage.

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
Originally uploaded by kel h

So, today I am flying home to Buffalo for vacation, and last night I decided to cook some of the things I was concerned wouldn't keep from my CSA, including the zucchini. I've made chocolate zucchini cupcakes before, but I figured muffins would be better. The trick is not to overmix to keep them nice and soft.

This is adapted from an AllRecipes Recipe

Chocolate zucchini muffins

Ingredients
3 eggs
1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease or line two 12 cup muffin tins with paper liners.
In a large bowl beat the eggs. Beat in the sugar and oil. Add the cocoa, vanilla, zucchini and stir well.
Stir in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and chocolate chips. Mix until just moist.
Pour batter into prepared muffin tins filling 2/3 of the way full. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool on a wire rack. Store loosely covered.

southwestern butternut squash and sweet potato casserole (aka savory potato kugel)

southwestern butternut squash and sweet potato casserole (aka savory potato kugel)
Originally uploaded by kel h

I have a bunch of sweet potatoes and butternut squash from the CSA farmshare, and I've been looking at some different ideas. One of things that caught my eye was a savory sweet potato kugel. I decided to tweak it a little bit. I like the sweet potatoes with the smokiness of the chipotle peppers, but a little goes a long way.

Ingredients
1 medium butternut squash: peeled, seeded and cubed
3 med to large sweet potatoes: peeled and cubed
2 onions diced
2 cloves garlic minced
2 tbsp butter
2 eggs
1-2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce diced
1 cup shredded cheddar
bread crumbs
salt
pepper
2 tsp adobo seasoning
olive oil 1 tsp

Steam the potatoes and squash until soft
mash
sautee onions and garlic in butter
add to mashed mix
season with salt and pepper
stir in chipotle pepper and sauce
add cheese
beat eggs and stir into mix
pour into a baking dish and top with bread crumbs, sprinkle with adobo seasoning, drizzle with olive oil and bake at 350 for 45 min

Buttercup Squash stuffed with Kale and Orzo

Buttercup Squash stuffed with Kale and Orzo
Originally uploaded by kel h

so, things like this make me feel like maybe instead of this mental health counseling crap, i should have my own cooking show. I mean, if Sandra Lee, of Kwanzaa Cake fame can have one, why not someone who actually COOKS once in a while?

It would be focused on local and seasonal food and would do things like go to farmers markets and farms, and guests would include local small batch food producers. Part of the goal would be to encourage people to eat more local and seasonal food, and shop at farmers markets or get farmshares.

In the farmshare we have been getting these tiny buttercup squash. I love them because they are so much fun to stuff. We also got some kale, so I thought making Kale with Orzo, and stuffing the squash with that would be fun.

Buttercup Squash stuffed with Kale with Orzo

Cut the squash in half and remove the fibers and seeds from the middle.

Put cut sides down in a baking dish with a quarter inch water and bake for 30-45 min or until soft at 400

While it's baking, make your Orzo and Kale

based on a recipe from AllRecipes (I omitted the tomato this time)

Ingredients:
1/2 box orzo
1 tsp tumeric
1 bunch Kale stems removed and cut into 1 inch strips
1 tomato chopped
1/2 onion chopped
4 garlic cloved minced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
zest of 1/2 lemon
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper

Boil orzo in salted water with tumeric for 9 minutes

sautee onion and garlic for abt 2 minutes
add kale and tomato and sautee for 10 minutes
drain orzo, add to kale and tomato
add lemon juice and zest, nutmeg and cheese
season with salt and pepper to taste

Fill the cavity of the squash with the Kale and Orzo (it helps to cut a little bit off the side opposite the cut side so they sit flat) and then sprinkle with cheese. Put it under the broiler until the cheese gets brown and melty.

Butternut Squash Soup

Butternut Squash Soup
Originally uploaded by kel h

The farmshare has been filled with carrots, squash and potatoes lately. It's cold in New England (although STILL no snow, which seems wierd). My lungs were made of fail today. Put it all together and that spells SOUP

Based on a recipe from All Recipes

Ingredients:
1 2-3 lb butternut squash peeled and cubed
2 potatoes peeled and cubed
1 medium carrot peeled and grated
1 large onion chopped
3 cloves garlic chopped
2 ribs celery diced
2 tbsp butter
1 cup white wine
3 cups veggie or chicken stock
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp grated fresh nutmeg
1/4 cup cognac
salt and pepper to taste

melt the butter in the bottom of a large pot
cook the onions and garlic til softened
add vegetables and cook for 10 minutes
add wine and cook for 2 minutes
add broth and thyme and simmer, covered for 30 min
puree in blender or with imersion blender
add cognac, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Simmer for 10 min

Cognac (and wine) are optional, although I like the depth that the cognac adds to the soup. You could swap out the thyme for curry I suppose, but I think it's a bit much for the butternut's own flavor. Carrots are a bit more robust if you're looking for a curry soup.

Baconsgiving Cupcake

Baconsgiving Cupcake
Originally uploaded by kel h

I am going to "Baconsgiving" tonight (which is a celebration of all things bacon being hosted by friends of a friend). It's an odd thing for a vegetarian to go to a bacon festival, but it sounded like fun, and the challenge of making a bacon cupcake proved too strong to resist.

My friends Mike and Clare have gotten into making milkshakes, and I had a bacon maple whiskey milkshake at their house a long time ago. It sounded like a good departure point. Martha Stewart's maple cupcake recipe (which I found on 52 Cupcakes) seemed to have the most mapley goodness, so I used that with some modifications to make it more bacony. And I am always up for a good whiskey buttercream frosting (and this time I used angostura bitters instead of food coloring to take the whiteness down a notch, which I think added a nice flavor)
Ingredients
2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temp.
1/4 cup bacon fat
8 strips of bacon
2 cups pure maple syrup,, preferably Grade B
3 large eggs, room temp
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or seeds from 1 vanilla bean pod

Frosting

1 stick butter softented1 lb powdered sugar
1 pinch salt
1 tbsp milk
3 tbsp irish whiskey

Directions:
preheat oven to 350

Mix dry cupcake ingredients
In mixer cream butter, then add bacon fat (I broiled my bacon and poured off the fat into a measuring cup and then ran the VERY crispy bacon through the food processor to turn it into bacon crumbs)
Once its all smooth add the maple syrup
Then add eggs 1 at a time, and add vanilla
add dry ingredients and bacon and mix until combined
bake at 350 (I did mini cupcakes and it made four dozen. They cooked for around 11-12 minutes)

for the frosting
cream the butter. Add sugar. Then add milk and whiskey. Add pinch of salt and then add a bit more sugar or milk to get the right texture

The last slice of butternut squash lasagna

The last slice of butternut squash lasagna
Originally uploaded by kel h

Me and a bunch of my friends like to play trivia at a local bar on Monday nights. I usually cook dinner for me and my roommate (since we share a farmshare from Enterprise Farms). Sometimes I invite another friend who has a longer distance to travel over to have dinner with us.

Well, it has been a lot of fun to have these dinners with a bottle of wine and friends, and so I figured I would expand the invite to the whole team. It was a blast. The six of us went through the entire lasagna, a whole bunch of roasted brussel sprouts (I made converts of my roommate and another friend who both hated them before) and three bottles of wine...AND came in FIRST!

Here is a recipe for the Roasted Butternut Squash Lasagna. I reccomend using the ameretti cookies, even though it sounds odd. They taste good in the lasagna, add some body, and also...you have leftover cookies which everyone LOVED

Also, to roast brussel sprouts, cut them in half, coat with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and roast at 400 for around half an hour until they carmelize and turn brown. If you don't think you like brussel sprouts, make them this way. If you still don't like them...it's official, you don't like brussel sprouts. Most people just don't like the way they are prepared traditionally

from the Runaway Spoon
Ingredients
1 stick butter plus two tablespoons
dried rubbed sage
1 large butternut squash
1 7-8 oz container marscapone cheese
8-12 ameretti cookies (crushed to make 3/4 cup crumbs)
2 tbsp flour
2 cups milk
1/2 tsp nutmeg
no boil lasagne sheets
8-10 oz grated fontina
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400. put your whole butternut squash in the oven and roast for 1 1/2 to hours until soft. Set aside for a smidge so it is cool enough to handle
In a saucepan brown a stick of butter and add a few pinches of sage. Set aside
Once your squash has cooled a bit, slice in half, remove the seeds and fibrous part and then spoon the roasted squash into a bowl (should be super easy)
combine with half to a quarter of the marscapone, salt, pepper, a pinch of sage and the amaretti cookie crumbs.

To make bechemel sauce melt 2 tbsp butter and then cook 2 tbsp flour in the butter. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg. simmer until thickened. Then add all but 2 tbsp of the browned butter

to assemble
coat the bottom of the baking pan with the last 2 tbsp browned butter
1 layer noodles
squash mixture
noodles
fontina
noodles
squash
noodles
bechemel sauce
fontina

Bake at 400 for abt half an hour and let sit for 10 min