When your house is stocked with food like mine is, and friends are willing to contribute to the meal, ANY day can turn into a dinner party. Thanks Steve for bringing home the bacon (chicken thighs, actually) for the main course on this one...
Danielle... thanks for bringing the music!
You'll need a food processor for this one. Any kind will do, but I have this one: BAM!
Total prep/cooking time: 1 hour.
What the websites and cookbooks DON'T tell you about butternut squash soup is the following... (shh... get closer it's so freakin easy, it will make your head spin).
1. Buy a butternut squash that has no breaks in its skin - this is crucial, as the inside of a broken-skinned squash is likely rotten.Wash/scrub the outside of 1 large yam or sweet potato
2. Cut both lengthwise and put into a glass pan with 1 inch of water. Cook at 375 for like an hour.
(Dude, just poke some holes in it first and then put it in the microwave for 2 minutes, then you only have to cook it for 30 minutes)
3. Sautee 1 full, diced onion in garlic and olive oil in the bottom of a large saucepan (crisp up some bacon in here if you don't care about this remaining a vegetarian dish). Pour in 32 ounces of veggie broth (or, again chicken broth if you're a vehement carnivore) and bring to a boil.
4. Scoop out the insides of the squash (the skin you can't eat) and the sweet potato (or keep the sweet potato skin on... i did) and then cut them into 1.5-2.5 inch cubes and add these cubes to the boiling broth/onion mixture
5. Let boil, covered for approx 20-25 minutes
6. Transfer 1/4 of the mixture to the food processor at a time until all of the mixture is blended.
7. Add, to taste: cumin, cinnamon and/or finely ground cardamom. Serve with uber-crusty ciabatta bread and BAM! (too much Emeril?)
Toast the bread first.
Props to Mom for this recipe and for talking me through my mild freakout from having stupidly blended the RAW yams and squash (which, by the way, still works fine)
Chicken thighs stuffed with Spinach and AsiagoBraised chicken thighs stuffed with a basic mixture of sauteed spinach and any hard (I chose Asiago) cheese mixture. If you want the mixture to be more viscous, add some bread crumbs (retrospective recommendation).
Throw em (already stuffed) in the oven at 425-450 and cook for about 20 minutes, covered. Remove foil and put one piece of asiago atop each thigh and then broil for an additional 5 minutes to make them slightly crispy.
Side of Kale chipsThose who have read previous postings may be starting to notice a trend here. This is THE best way to make Kale, my favorite green veggie. Just add lime/lemon.
I purchased an entire Kale plant from Orchard View for $3!!
Also, so easy. Shh...
Ok- so core 6 apples, put them into a crock pot, pour in 4 cups of water and add allspice, cinnamon, ground ginger and honey to the apples while they're in there. Put the lid on, put it on high and cook for 4 hours. Or (for us working folks) cook for 8 hours on low. Vanilla ice cream goes great with it and you can use the water for a hot apple cider now!
Happy meals,
D
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