Happy Halloween!!!

Would you like some "worm pasta" for lunch today?

Or perhaps you would prefer to snack on some monster mouths??

Not that we like gross foods, but we do like to have some fun in the kitchen, and today we did have monster mouths for breakfast and worm pasta for lunch. And as weird (or gross) they may sound, they were delicious!
For the mouths it is as simple as can get, apple slices + almond butter (or pb) + mini marshmallows, quite a fun and delicious bite! (and with the exception of the marshmallows in there, also quite a nutritious snack. Nut butter + apples make a balanced snack with protein, fats and good carbs, plus all the goodness apples/fruits has to offer).
The pasta was homemade bucatini, the spaghetti-like one that has a whole in the middle and looks like a straw, and it was freshly made by the husband. It was fun making the pasta, and eating it too!
We added a bit of pumpkin puree to the pasta dough and it made the pasta incredibly delicious. You can actually taste the pumpkin, but it makes the dough soft and with a wonderful texture.
Then, being Halloween along with my obsession with pumpkin lately, we had to have a pumpkin sauce!
I made mine inspired on HEAB's pumpkin goat cheese sauce, and it turned out into a delicious Creamy Pumpkin and Goat Cheese Pasta Sauce!! I didn't follow the recipe posted by Heather, basically just got the idea from the combo of pumpkin and goat cheese, so I am posting here the way I did.
It could not be more simple or easy to make, and it was so good, I scraped every single bit of the sauce with a spatula before washing that pan. Oh, and adding a shaving of Parmesan cheese on top made this even better.
Hope you all have a great and safe Halloween! Matheus is beyond excited and can barely wait to go out tonight. At least now he has a belly full of nutritious food so a bite or two of candy won't hurt.
Happy trick or treating!
Ana

Creamy Pumpkin and Goat Cheese Pasta Sauce

2 small shallots, chopped
4 small garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 cups vegetable broth
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
ground nutmeg (I never measure this, just grind a bit on top of the sauce)
1/8 tsp ground (rubbed) sage
1 to 2 oz goat cheese (again, I didn't measure, just took a blob and added to the sauce, I believe I used about 1 oz).
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Saute garlic and shallots in a pan until soft. Add pumpkin puree, broth, cinnamon (it might sound weird the cinnamon in here, but I promise, it taste good!), nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste. Bring sauce to a boil, add goat cheese and mix to incorporate. Add your favorite shape of cooked pasta to sauce and toss, serve with grated Parmesan cheese.
(We used bucattini, but I think penne pasta would be awesome with this sauce!)

Flourless Crepes a la HEAB!

After having these for lunch two days in a row I just needed to take a good picture and post here this ridiculously easy recipe that I have been enjoying: Flourless Crepes (or egg crepes as I have been calling at home). The recipe is super easy and I learned it from Heather, from HEAB, one of my favorite blogs!

It is so simple, but turns our so good and delicious that I could not even believe my tastebuds!
After having a bright and sunny morning all for myself with no classes (fall break! yay!) and yoga with my favorite instructor, I came home with a hungry belly and ready for something delicious and quick. Couldn't be more perfect than these!

All you need are 2 eggs and a 1/4 tsp of baking powder, that's it. Whip both together and pour into your preheated (I add a bit of olive oil so it doesn't stick) pan just enough "batter" to fully coat the bottom. Cover with a lid and let it cook for one to two minutes. That's all people, there isn't even a need to flip! Remove from the pan and load your fillings.

Which brings me to the point: the filling. That's what I loved the most about these. I filled mine with chopped tomatoes, chopped avocados (both which I seasoned with salt and pepper) and goat cheese. Oh my world, the creamy filling was amazing! If you never had eggs + avocados then you need to try, it is a great combo. Add some goat cheese and it is incredibly good, soooo creamy, I love it!

I made my crepes in a 8-inch skillet, just because it is my newest one nothing is sticking to it. But you can make them bigger in a 10 or even a 12 inch. Since mine was smallish I made 4 crepes. I know, you only see three of them there, and that is because I could not resist the first one, I simply sprinkled goat cheese on it, rolled it up and went to town... goat cheese and eggs is a pair made in heaven.

I had my crepes on top of a spinach and arugula salad topped with grilled zucchini rounds, pair this with a piece of warm and toasted whole grain bread with a bit of butter and you have a delicious meal without much effort at all.

By the way, I love arugula salad, and wanted to share the way I dress my salad, I don't have real measurements, but here is the method: put arugula into a bowl, season with salt, pepper, a drizzle of olive oil, some sprinkles of white balsamic (or rice) vinegar, and a drizzle of honey! Yep, honey, that's what makes this salad taste so delicious. The sweetness of the honey pairs beautifully with the peppery flavors of the arugula, I love this salad and had it throughout the summer, never get tired of it!

Hope you guys like the Flourless Crepe idea it as much as I and Heather did!
Ana

Easy veg weeknight meal!

Sometimes all we need for a good meal is something easy to prepare and that taste good right? With all the studying and attending classes for my masters degree plus life as a stay home mom, take to school, pick up, soccer practices, playdates, and more, there are days when I don't have that much time to get dinner on the table, so the less complicated the dish the more appealing it is to me.
This is a recipe that fits perfectly for such days, easy and quick to put together, tastes delicious and makes everyone happy! Serve with a side salad, maybe some rolls or something of the like, and you are good to go! (just make sure to have your phyllo dough defrosted)
Could not be better!
I got the recipe idea from one of my favorite magazines, Vegetarian Times. I like their recipes a lot, usually pretty flavorful and uncomplicated, and vegetarian to boot, score!
Another plus of this recipe? You can adapt to whatever veggies you may have in your fridge, just make sure it is not something too moist/watery, and you are good to go! :-)
Ana

Spinach, Feta, and Tomato Quiche
(Adapted from Vegetarian Times)

8 sheets of phyllo dough
Olive oil to brush the dough
10 oz frozen spinach, thawed and water squeezed out (make sure to really squeeze this baby, they have a lot more water than you imagine) - by the way, I seasoned my spinach with salt, pepper, and garlic powder before adding it to the quiche.
1/3 cup feta cheese - I used ricotta salata since I had that at home
Cherry tomatoes to fill the top - I used a combo cherry tomatoes from the backyard and chopped roma from the CSA box as that was what I had on hand
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
dash of Salt and a few turns of freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven 350F.
Brush a pie plate/pan with olive oil and layer one sheet of the phyllo dough in it, brush dough with olive oil and repeat the layering and brushing with all other phyllo dough sheets. When done tuck in the parts of dough that are hanging around the plate (or trim if you prefer, I love the crispy borders and don't like wasting it, so I tuck it in!).
Sprinkle the crust with the cheese, top with the spinach and layer the tomatoes on top of that.
In a bowl beat the eggs with the milk, season with salt and pepper, and pour over the veggies in the prepared crust.
Bake for about 40 to 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the egg is set.

Zucchini, Goat Cheese and Herbs Savory Bread

Another one of Elvira’s delicious savory bread! This one I have made more than once, usually in the summer when the zucchini and herbs are plentiful. It is a nice dish for a quick weeknight meal, and you can even prepare ahead of time which makes it even better. Totally helpful to come home from soccer practice and have something delicious waiting for you, no?!!

Just as with the sun-dried tomatoes bread the combination of flavors here is delicious, plus tell me: what doesn’t taste good with goat cheese??? Goat cheese is one of my favorite cheeses and here it really shines with the herbs, totally delicious!

Easy and simple to make, so much so that I am even going to keep this post short so you can go ahead and make it yourself, I am sure it is going to be fast and so rewarding that just like us you will be making this over and over, for many summers to come!

Enjoy!

Ana

And, for my Brazilian friends, you can see the recipe in Portuguese over at Elvira's blog by clicking here!

Since we are back in school I also made some in fun shapes and froze to use in future lunchboxes! yum!

Zucchini, Goat Cheese and Herbs Savory Bread

(adapted from Elvira’s Bistro)

100 grams all purpose flour

100 grams whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 eggs

50 grams grated parmesan cheese

50 ml extra virgin olive oil

150 ml milk

100 grams goat cheese, chopped or crumbled into chunks

3 tablespoons chopped herbs (I used basil, parsley and oregano)

1 zucchini, grated

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour a loaf pan.

In a large bowl mix the flours, baking powder, a bit of salt (1/3 teaspoon) and pepper. Add the eggs, olive oil and the milk and mix together until you have a smooth batter. Add the grated zucchini, grated parmesan cheese, herbs and goat cheese and mix gently with a wooden spoon until all is incorporated.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake at 350F for about 40 to 45 minutes until golden, or until a toothpick (or the tip of a knife) inserted in the center comes out clean. Let it cool for about 10 minutes in the pan before unmolding. Let it cool before serving.

White Beans and Tomato Salad

First and foremost I want to apologize for the picture above; it simply doesn’t do justice to the recipe I am about to post. Especially since I couldn’t find much more to say about this recipe other than that this is an amazing white bean salad!

It is flavorful and delicious not only in taste but texture wise too. The creaminess of the beans is amazing by itself, but when paired with the chunkiness of the tomatoes and the awesome flavor of the dressing it makes a remarkable dish!

I absolutely loved this dish, and so did the husband and Matheus as well. I made the full recipe, which says serves 6, but since this was the sole source of protein of our meal we managed to polish off the entire bowl of bean salad.

I served the White Bean Salad with homemade pasta (made by the husband – I need to post his pasta creations; he’s been into the noodles lately!) and a green salad made with butter lettuce, baby spinach and arugula (a favorite combo of mine). All I have to say is that the white bean salad was the star of the meal, it was the one thing we all went for seconds (maybe even thirds…!), even the pasta was left behind, which is not a common thing to happen around here with the boys, these are two guys who really like their noodles.

It is a truly delicious recipe, everyone should try!

Ana

Notes: a closer look into my picture will reveal a few white chunks in the salad, which are cooked egg whites I had in the fridge and I incorporated in the salad. It was actually a pretty good addition, not only it tasted delicious with the dressing but I used up some leftovers and upped the protein content of the salad, all at the same time! Yum!

White Beans and Tomato Salad

(Adapted from the simply recipes blog)

1 ½ cups cooked white beans (or 1 can – 15oz)

1 ½ cups chopped tomatoes (roma, cherries, grape…)

1/3 cup chopped parsley

For the dressing:

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

3 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed

1 sprig rosemary

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

½ teaspoon kosher salt (add more if needed)

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon lemon zest

Make the dressing first: put garlic, olive oil and rosemary sprig in a saucepan and heat until the rosemary beings to sizzle. Remove from heat and set aside to let cool for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Discard the rosemary and add the oil and garlic to a blender together with the Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, lemon juice and zest. Puree all ingredients until smooth.

In a bowl mix together the beans, tomatoes and parsley. Add the dressing and toss gently until everything is coated. Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.

Serves 6 to 8

Chicken Salad in Lettuce Cups

Summer is here and I have been enjoying every single second of it! Tons of fruits and fresh veggies, farmer's markets, csa boxes, warm (ok sometimes really hot) weather, lots of homemade popsicles and ice cream, I could not be any happier than this!
It is by far my favorite season, my favorite time of the year, and with the wonderful hot weather we welcome any and all salads we can get our hands on, it is definitely cold foods season and again, I am totally enjoying!
I love salads, and as funny as this may sound, my salads rarely involve tons of leaves (which is what most people think of when talking about salads). I make salads with veggies, lots of it, a mix of colors and flavors, crunch and deliciousness tat pack a punch of nutrition to boot, something that only fresh veggies can give us in one big plate.
Zucchini, yellow squash, bell peppers, amazing summer tomatoes, grilled eggplants and other grilled veggies, avocados, sometimes fruits (watermelon + tomatoes makes an amazing salad!), all of these end up on my salad concoctions. Plus I always add some protein to make it more filling and delicious too: tofu, white beans, lentils or chickpeas (my favorites), grilled chicken, lots of possibilities here, and most of the time I add a bit of cheese too, usually goat cheese, ricotta salatta (both add some white color which make the salad more colorful!) or Parmesan shavings.
Now tell me, how can this be not good? :-)
This talk about salad brings me to this Giada Di Laurentiis recipe for Italian Chicken Salad in Lettuce Cups which I have made numerous times and absolutely love the flavors. I have made it so many times already this summer, and I love it every single time I do.
This salad is packed with good protein from the roasted chicken, crunch from toasted almonds, veggie wonders from delicious roasted peppers and a punch from capers and a delicious vinaigrette, and the best part: you can eat it in cute butter lettuce "cups", which add so much to the meal, I love the experience of playing with your food. Plus I just love butter lettuce, it truly have a "buttery" feel, it is so tender, as I said, I am not big on lettuce, but this is one of my very favorite ones! (I do love spinach salad though, really, really like it!)
You can serve this salad as an appetizer, at a dinner party, whenever you feel like. We have had it for lunch and we love it! All I make is some rice or couscous to accompany it and some more veggies (because I just eat lots of veggies) and we are set.
A refreshing summer meal that is not only filling but totally delicious!
Enjoy!
Ana

Ps: Giada's recipe makes a ton and serves 12, so divide it accordingly to how much you want to make. I usually wing the proportions to make for the three of us (or more when I served it to company), but it is easy to divide in half or in quarters if you need to serve 6 or only 3.
Anyway you decide to divide, don't worry if you have salad left, it is delicious on the next day too!
Also, Giada served it as appetizers and plated every single lettuce cups. I served it "family style", the salad in a big bowl and the lettuce cups in a platter, so each person could put their own portions together, which also ended up offering the option of just eating the salad in your plate without the lettuce if one chose to do so.


Italian Chicken Salad in Lettuce Cups
(Adapted from a recipe by Giada Di Laurentiis)

10 cups shredded cooked chicken (you can use rotisserie chicken, and need about 3 for this much)
2 cups roasted red and yellow bell peppers chopped (drain and pat dry if using
1 1/4 cups paper thin slices of red onions
3/4 cup chopped parsley leaves
3/4 cup toasted slivered almonds
1/2 cup capers, drained
About 1 1/2 cups red wine vinaigrette (recipe bellow)
Salt and pepper to taste
Butter lettuce leaves
4 ounces of Parmesan cheese, shaved with a vegetable peeler

In a large bowl toss together the chicken, bell peppers, onion, parsley, almonds, and capers with enough vinaigrette to season and moisten it. Taste and adjust the seasoning adding salt and pepper as necessary.
Spoon chicken salad into lettuce cups and arrange into plates. Sprinkle with the Parmesan shaving right before serving.

Red Wine Vinaigrette:

1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 teaspoons honey
2 teaspoons salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup olive oil

In a blender add vinegar, lemon juice, honey, salt, and pepper. Turn it on to mix and, while the machine is running, add the oil and blend until emulsified.
Yield: 1 3/4 cups

Springtime Pasta with Homemade Ricotta

I love cookbooks, I have a thing for it and always find one more that I "need" to have!
However, even though I have many cookbooks and love to read and reread the recipes on them or on my favorite cooking magazines, for most of the time I use recipes and pictures more for an inspiration rather than something to follow strictly. For the majority of the recipes I choose to make end up tweaking a bit here and there and adapting when needed with what I have on hand.
To be quite true, what I have in the fridge is usually what dictates what I am going to make for our meals. I look in the ice box, a peek in the pantry, and I am out for a search of inspiration on said cookbooks and magazines!
The pasta pictured above was a case of a "let's see what is in the fridge" day. Armed with a bunch of spring veggies and some delicious homemade ricotta (my favorite!) I created the dish you see, which turned out to be pretty good, if I do say so myself!

First I set the oven on high and put some of the veggies I had in the fridge to roast: broccoli, carrots, yellow squash and asparagus - all seasoned with salt, pepper and olive oil. Meanwhile I set a pot of water to boil and cooked some whole wheat penne.
Once the veggies were roasted and the pasta was cooked I tossed them together, added a few marinated artichoke hearts I had left in a jar and seasoned everything well with salt, pepper, and lots of delicious extra virgin olive oil. A few blobs of ricotta and grated fresh Parmesan cheese completed our one dish deliciousness of a meal! Could not have asked for more!
And this coming from someone who is not a big pasta fan. Seriously, pasta is something that I never crave or wish for, I actually never liked pasta until I tried the whole wheat variety, I find it a lot more flavorful and it has a bite to it which I grew to enjoy. (Regular pasta to me doesn't taste like anything... blech!) But I still don't eat pasta frequently, I need to be really in the mood to gobble it up.
To me this dish proved how the simplest foods end up being the most delicious and flavorful ones. Roasted veggies are just the best, and look at the bright colors! Plus there are few things that good cheese doesn't make it all the better, right?!
Enjoy!
Ana

Lentil Salad

I have been on a lentil kick this past few weeks, which is a good thing as, with all the protein, fiber and iron they have, lentils are not only delicious but also nutritious and super good for you.
Yesterday I cooked some lentils in veggie broth and a smashed garlic clove and ate a full cup of it just drizzled with olive oil and a bit of grated Parmesan on top with my lunch, boy was that delicious. So simple but awesome in flavor!

The other day though I decided to do something a bit more elaborate with my plain jane lentils and I dressed them up a little making one of the best lentil salads I have ever made or eaten. I didn't make a note of quantities as I just did it by taste, but it is so simple to make that an exact recipe is certainly not necessary.
I mixed up cooked lentils with chopped sun-dried tomatoes, fresh thyme, and fresh oregano. Then I seasoned it all with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. To complete the goodness and add a nice salty touch to it I sprinkled a few small cubes of ricotta salatta cheese on top and that was it. As simple as that, as delicious as it could be!
I absolutely loved the lentils with the sun-dried tomatoes and the balsamic, just awesome! Plus the fresh herbs made it all the better.
Just an idea for a great side dish to company meals (and leafy green salads) during the warmer months. I really like beans and lentils and during the summer I love to add them to my salads, yum!!
Enjoy!
Ana

Back and with Mushroom recipe to share!

Clearly it has been months since I my last post in the blog... gee, where does the time goes? Seriously, is it just me or this year is flying by?
Everything has been nice around here with us in the past few months. I was one happy gal going back to school, loved my classes to the last second of lectures, so much so that I decided to apply for Grad School and pursue a masters in Nutrition. Right now I am still waiting to hear from the University to see if they accepted me or not, so keeping my fingers crossed here!
And while I wait I am taking a summer nutrition class (one that counts for the masters already), this time I chose an online class since Matheus will be out of school pretty soon, but I have to tell you that taking online classes is not quite my thing. I like to go to the class, watch the lecture and interact with the teacher, I like to see and talk to people! Besides, when you are taking a class online you have to manage your own studying time, being very organized and disciplined to not miss any assignments (and man do I have many of them!).
Anyways, I am truly enjoying my nutrition class and since I am home most of the time I am also having more time to play in the kitchen. Lots of recipes being made and photographed lately, and here is one that I made that the three of us just absolutely LOVED: Mushroom Ragu
Since my favorite publication (Cooking Light) decided to entirely reformulate their magazine in the worse way possible (why, why did they do that to my favorite mag???), I had to start looking for new cooking/food mags that would present me with nutritious and delicious dishes, and luck me, I did find a great one. Besides Eating Well which I already liked a lot and have know for years, I have been very fond of a relatively new magazine lately: Clean Eating.
Man this magazine is colorful and has great recipes from a nutritional point of view, plus they have the same views/ideals in terms of food as mine: fresh foods, no refined sugars, no processed foods, dishes based on whole grains, vegetables and fruits... I could not ask for more.
I have been making many dishes from Clean Eating and we have been adoring them all. Their recipes are tasty, made with fresh and simple ingredients and easy to make - always a big plus, right?!
The one that stood out from the ones I made so far was definitely the Portobello Mushroom Ragu from the May/June 2010 issue.
The sauce was delicious, fragrant and so flavorful. Matheus loves mushrooms, he is crazy about it and he devoured this declaring the best pasta sauce ever. Even the husband (big meat eater) loved this one too and kept commenting throughout the meal on how good it tasted.
And I really liked it too! I am not one who likes canned tomatoes, for some reason I think it tastes like the can, but I let the sauce cook covered for almost hour and the flavors melded beautifully, leaving no vestiges of canned tomatoes at all. The recipe called for all portobello mushrooms but I used a mix of that and creminis, so feel free to use your favorite mushroom here. If you like mushrooms, you have to try this one!
Here is the recipe the way I made, enjoy!!
Ana

Mushroom Ragu
(adapted from Clean Eating Magazine)

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
12 oz mushrooms (I used portobello and cremini), cleaned and diced
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 (15oz) can chopped tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a large pan, sautee onions for about 3 minutes, add garlic and sautee for a minute more. Add mushrooms and thyme and continue to sautee for a few more minutes until the mushrooms start to soften. Add the tomatoes and cook until the mixture is thick. Serve over pasta or polenta.

My Note: The recipe states to cook sauce for 10 minutes, I cooked mine for about 40 to 50 minutes (while I was preparing the rest of the meal), and I found that the flavors were way better than after only 10 minutes. So feel free to adjust cooking time here to your preferences.
And if 10 minutes is all you have to cook the sauce then by all means go with that, this sauce is so delicious that even with 10 minutes of cooking I am sure you are still going to enjoy!

Pumpkin Pasta!

I bet you are wondering what I have been making with all that amazing pumpkin I got, right? Well, with work and school out of the way and two weeks of winter break ahead of us I am back to post all recipes I have been making and saving pics on the last few months. My goal is to post something everyday, and hey, you can come back and bug me until I do!
I also have some interesting and unusual product reviews I want to post.
But first, onto the recipe of the pasta pictured above. It is an easy and delicious pasta combination that fitted the bill perfectly with the mounds of pumpkin puree we had on hand.
It is actually and older Rachel Ray recipe that I had made before and was repeated a few times. Easy and tasty, truly worth of trying!
The original recipe had hot sauce added to it but I didn't think that it would go with the pumpkin and the spices used in this recipe, so I omitted that - with great success I might add, I cannot imagine this with hot sauce, really.
Don't be intimidated by that pinch of cinnamon in the recipe, it will add a touch of warmness that will complement the pumpkin beautifully, even though you won't taste it or know it was there.
Also, note that I forgot to add the sage before I took the picture, but don't forget to add it there (even though you can make it without it), because sage + pumpkin is a wonderful combo too!
So, here goes my adaptation of Pumpkin Pasta, hope you all enjoy and I will come back with more!
And how's getting ready for Christmas going? I need to wrap presents, and think about the food, can you believe I haven't done that yet? Well, still got plenty of time!
Ana










Pumpkin Pasta

1 pound of penne pasta
1 tablespoon Olive oil (more if needed)
2 shallots or half onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cups vegetable broth
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree (1 1/2 cups puree)
1/2 cup heavy cream
A pinch of cinnamon (optional)
Pepper
Salt
Fresh sage leaves (about 4 of them), chopped
Grated Parmesan Cheese

Cook pasta in boiling water until all dente.
While pasta cook saute garlic and onions (or shallots) in olive oil until softened, about 4 minutes. Add the chicken broth and pumpkin and whisk together to incorporate. Add the cinnamon and the heavy cream, mix together and add salt and pepper to taste. Turn heat to low and let it cook for a few minutes to thicken the sauce to your desired consistency, add the chopped sage and the cooked penne. Toss all together and serve with lots of grated Parmesan on top!

A recipe you must try and get ready for pumpkin recipes!

One of my dearest friends here from the US gave us a huge pumpkin the other day. An organic, healthy and plump gigantic pumpkin that she grows on her backyard (she has lots of space for growing stuff!). She first said it was a big guy she had on the back of her car, but I never expected it to be as huge as it really was. Don't believe me? Take a look for yourself:

The big baby sitting on my kitchen chair












Told ya! It was truly ginormous, as Matheus said when he first saw it!
Took me a while to tackle it, open and get the whole thing roasted and pureed for storage, but it was worth every second and effort spent. The pumpkin was amazingly delicious, the flesh was bright orange and sweet. Look at this beauty on the inside, is it pretty or what?













When I first brought it to the house we all got super excited not just because it was so fun to have a pumpkin that size but also because we LOVE pumpkin around here! And I mean really love it!
Ideas could not stop coming out of our mouths, pumpkin muffins was the first request, followed by pumpkin pie and for me it meant lots of my winter favorite: pumpkin soup!
From the humongous orange friend I got 10 cups of deliciousness in form of puree that I stashed right into the freezer plus about 8 more cups that I left in the fridge and started using right away.
I first made some of the frequently requested by the boys Pumpkin Muffins, next was my favorite Pumpkin Leek Soup, followed by a Savory Pumpkin Pie (which I didn't take pics but you can find the recipe in Portuguese here, and be warned, it is the best and easiest "Torta de Abobora" you will ever come across, I have made it many times here and we love it, Thanks Lica! Torta de Abobora da Eliana), and this weekend we had some of the most tasty Pumpkin Pies we ever made.
Seriously, this pumpkin is so tasty that every single item I made with it was amazing, oh and the puree warmed up with salt, pepper, and butter.... oh my, it was di-vi-ne!
But all the talk about the pumpkin brings me to the recipe I want to post today, and this truly is a "must try recipe". I saw Ina Garten make this on TV and immediately said to myself "have to try that", it looked and sounded so delicious, and how could roasted butternut squash + greens + cider vinaigrette not sound wonderfull?
The Roasted Squash Salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette is AMAZING! (pardon my shouting, but this is just too good....) It is fall on a plate, in salad form!
The best part of this? The Cider Vinaigrette. If you don't want to make everything then don't worry, but definitely try this vinaigrette at some point, it is to die for, it is the quintessential "fall-ish" vinaigrette, so delicious, and extremely flavorful.
The sweetness of the reduced apple cider is balanced beautifully by the acidity of the vinegar, the onioness of the shallots and the bite of the dijon mustard. Salt, pepper, and olive oil just round all the flavors out tying them together in one wonderful salad dressing. Believe me, you won't be sorry if you try this.
But so much for talking, let me post this recipe here so you can make it too!
Note that I made this salad multiple times already and the picture on the top of this post was actually made with roasted acorn squash, which was equally delicious as when I made with butternut or the pumpkin I got from my friend, which is the picture bellow:

This was the salad made with the bright orange pumpkin. On this one though the Parmesan was sprinkled on the spinach and it just disappeared when I drizzled the warm dressing, plus I didn't have the walnuts when I made this one.









However, if you do have walnuts at home make sure you use them, the salad was definitely tastier with those crunchy roasted walnut bits in contrast to the slightly wilted leaves, the warm dressing and the soft squash chunks... yum, just writing about it makes my mouth water!

I have been having fun at the kitchen making lots of pumpkin recipes and there are some that are just too good to be kept only for us and I must share, so be prepared for some more pumpkin goodness to show up here soon. Oh if you see a girl with a slightly orange skin walking around NC... there's a good chance it is me, I am afraid I will soon be looking like a walking carrot with the copious amount of wonderful beta-carotene I have been eating lately!
Ana

Here is my version of the salad, if you want to see the original one, click here

Roasted Squash Salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette
(adapted by an Ina Garten's recipe)

1 butternut or acorn squash, peeled and diced
Salt, pepper and olive oil to roast the squash
1/3 cup toasted walnut pieces
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (the good stuff!)
4 cups baby spinach leaves, or arugula, or a mix of the two
1 cup apple cider - or apple juice
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons minced shallots
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to season the dressing

Preheat your oven to 400F.
Place squash on a sheet pan lined with foil (easy clean up!), season with salt, pepper and a good dose of olive oil (it adds amazing flavor and prevent stickiness), toss all together, spread the squash cubes in one layer and roast for about 20 minutes, turning them around the 10 minutes mark to make sure they cook and brown evenly.
While the squash roast combine the apple cider, shallots, and the cider vinegar in a small pan, bring to a boil and cook until the cider is reduced to about 1/4 cup. Remove from heat and whisk in the mustard and olive oil, season with salt and pepper to taste.
(My observation: after tasting refrain from eating the vinaigrette by teaspoons... it taste that good!)
Place the spinach (or arugula) in a big plate or salad bowl, add the walnuts and Parmesan, drizzle the vinaigrette over the leaves, place the roasted squash on top of everything and serve. (you can also put the squash to the bowl with everything else then add the vinaigrette and toss it all together, I like to keep the squash on top as mine were soft and delicate, an oh so good...)

Caprese Salad

No mater how you present it, skewered in appetizer form, cut into cubes, with both tomatoes and cheese displayed in a sliced manner, Caprese Salad is one of my favorite summer dishes!
Here we had red and yellow tomatoes, both from out backyard, fresh basil leaves and the sinfully creamy and ultra delicious fresh mozzarella (I love this cheese!), all covered in great olive oil, salt, pepper and a touch of balsamic vinegar.... sooo good! I can have only this for a meal and be happy all day!
Ana

Grilled Vegetable Salad, one word: Yum!!

I am sorry I have been absent on these past few days... a sudden and unfortunate death of a dear family member just got me into a very sad state of mind and I was in no real mood to think much about anything else other than how fragile our bodies and life are. Cooking was done by a way of necessity and that's the reason I took this little break. However, life goes on, and here I am, back and with some more good food to share!
(Thanks for letting me vent a little about other aspects of my life here too!)

During the warm months our greatest culinary pleasure is being able to fire up the grill! Everything that comes out is so flavorful and delicious, plus there is no smells or much cleanup to be done inside, and the not-turning-on-the-stove/oven-on-an-absurdly-hot-day factor too!

It is a win-win situation which we truly enjoy! And one of the foods I love most done in the grill are vegetables. You can grill almost any veggie you like in there and the outcome is always tasty; it gets that "charred" flavor that you only get from the grill and there is no mystery on doing it: the easiest way is to simply cut your veggies in similar size pieces, then season them with salt, pepper and a decent amount of good olive oil and throw them in the grill. Keep an eye on them as some veggies do cook a lot faster than others, flip along the way and as both sides get those wonderful grill marks you have a healthy and flavorful meal that can be enjoyed warm or kept for later to be eaten at room temperature or even cold (grilled veggies are great cold too!).

I make grilled vegetables all the time during summer and we never get tired of it!
The ones I like the most are eggplant, red bell peppers and zucchini/yellow squash, which by the way is what I used in the salad pictured above (minus the pepper on that day though!). Corn is also delicious, as are asparagus and onions too!

For the salad I grilled some eggplant and squashes that I had from the farmer's market, to them I added some grape tomatoes from our backyard and little pieces of fresh/soft goat cheese (which I absolutely looooove!), then I topped it all with a simple Dijon mustard vinaigrette that I made by mixing roughly 2 parts rice vinegar (I find this kind of vinegar to be lighter in taste) to about 1part olive oil (a tablespoon or so), a teaspoon honey, a teaspoon Dijon mustard, and salt and pepper to taste.
It was the perfect finish to complement the salad, which we enjoyed a whole lot, the vinaigrette added at the end really gave it some extra nice flavors, a great tang to the soft veggies! (Balsamic vinegar is another way I like to dress up roasted vegetables too!)
To me there is no easier or better way to have fun with the vegetables during the summer than making salads, and a grilled one is always welcome too!
Enjoy!
Ana

Garden Muffins
First of all I have to mention that my picture doesn't do justice to the goodness of this recipe. That being said, I will only add that these muffins were very good!
The recipe came from the Cooking Light Bulletin Boards, posted by "Canice", and the cornmeal flavor combined with the veggies and Parmesan cheese created some delicious savory muffins.
We really enjoyed these, I made half recipe and they were gone in a matter of seconds!
The Parmesan cheese was my touch to improve the original recipe, so feel free to omit it if you don't like, but we liked the flavor it added a whole lot, especially to the top, where I sprinkled a tad more Parmesan on each of the muffins. As I ate mine I was even thinking about adding pieces of cheese the next time I would make them, which will probably be soon as it has been requested already!
They are very simple but flavorful as could be. Plus it is easy to make, and you could even change the veggies accordingly to what you have on hand - yellow squash instead of zucchini, adding some corn bits would enhance the cornmeal flavor, even peas would be nice here too. These are a great complement to soup or salad, just what you need to round up a light meal!
Ana










Garden Muffins
(Adapted from "The City Gardener's Cookbook" )

1 cup flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (can add more if desired!)
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup oil
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup peeled, seeded, and finely diced tomatoes
1/2 cup grated zucchini
1/2 cup grated carrot
1/4 cup chopped green onion

Preheat oven to 400F. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, Parmesan cheese, and salt and mix well. In a small bowl, beat together the egg, milk, oil, and butter. Stir in the dry ingredients. Add the tomatoes, zucchini, carrot, and green onions, blending thoroughly. Spoon the batter into greased muffin tins, filling about three-quarters full. Bake 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. Serve warm.
Makes 1 dozen muffins.