Lemon Curd

It was about a couple years ago when I first discovered Lemon Curd. It called for it in a bread/pastry recipe I was making. Trader Joe's (one of my favorite stores) fortunately carried it and I was hooked. I would try to stock up when I went every couple of months, but there would be a time when I needed it and there was no way I was driving 45 minutes one way for it. So I searched and searched recipes online till I came across one that I liked. The Joy of Cooking website seemed to have the best method and ingredients. After following it a few times, I of course had to tweak it. Who wants to do a double boiler or strain it? I have the recipe down to using one pot.

Ingredients:
3 large eggs
~1/3 cup of fresh lemon juice ( 1-2 large lemons)
3/4 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of lemon zest ( basically the zest from the lemons you use- I don't measure)
4 tablespoons of unsalted butter

Directions:
Melt the butter and sugar in a sauce pan, stir till blended. Let the mixture cool down, so when  you add the eggs they aren't cooked. Beat in one egg at a time. Next, stir in the lemon juice and zest and cook on medium heat. Keep stirring the curd till it thickens.
Makes about 1 1/2 cups. 
It will last about a week in the fridge. Use with pies, tarts, pastries, muffins, etc.

Apple Butternut Squash Soup

This is seriously one of my all time favorite soups (next to French Onion). It's a super quick and easy soup that can be done during the week. Throw in some fresh hot bread from the oven and you're all set.

Ingredients:
1 onion chopped or leeks
3 ribs of celery chopped
3 carrots chopped
1 tbsp of butter
1 butternut squash (or whatever kind you have on hand) roasted
1 apple (the tarter the better ... say that three times fast!) peeled, chopped, and cored
***You are looking for about a 3 to 1 ratio of Squash to Apple***
3 cups of chicken or veggie stock or whey (from when you make cheese)
cinnamon, nutmeg, curry powder, and salt

Directions:
Cut up the squash, place face down in a pan with some water and roast in your oven at 350F till tender (about an hour). Scoop out the flesh (once cooled) and place in a separate bowl. 
Saute the onions, celery, and carrots in butter till tender in the pot you're cooking the soup in. Add in the stock, squash, and apple. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Blend all the ingredients and add the spices to your liking.
Enjoy with some fresh hot bread and good company!

Apple Cranberry Oat Crisp

Besides apples, cranberries is one of the fruits I really look forward to in the fall. When I used to live in Westford there was this land behind the house where we hiked everyday. My landlord showed us this random spot where wild cranberries grew. I have no clue how they started there, but it was fantastic.  So for three years in a row I went out there to pick cranberries.  This also included last year when I was no longer living there and they also had "developed"  this beautiful land so my friend Amy and I had to sneak through to get to the trails. It's a bit tedious picking cranberries, but also relaxing. And no, you don't have to wade through a bog to pick them. These cranberries are much tarter than your store variety, but oh so tasty.  I would use them to make cranberry vodka or gin, cranberry apple jam, Thanksgiving stuffing, or put a twist on the classic apple crisp.


Apple Cranberry Oat Crisp

Topping
1 cup flour
1 cup oats
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup of melted butter

Filling
6 medium apples sliced, peeled, and cored
1/2 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of tapioca
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup of cranberries

Directions
Preheat your oven to 350 and butter the dish your cooking it in.
Prep your apples and place them in a bowl. Mix in the rest of the filling ingredients and place in your buttered dish.
Mix all of your dry topping ingredients together before you add in the melted butter. Crumble the topping over the apple mixture and place in your oven. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the fruit is tender.

Squash Ravioli w/ Sage Butter Cream Sauce

I know I'm a bit behind, but that wicked October snow storm knocked us out of power for five days. We are fortunate to have a wood stove so Miss Rosalie would not be too chilly.  Even without power we are stubborn enough to cook (thank you gas stove).  We made pizza and potato wedges for dinner one night.  The storm brought 18" of snow and luckily our neighbor lent us his smaller generator. Chris made a snow fridge to keep our food cold and the chest freezer remained frozen as long as our generator ran every so often.  Central, MA has been kicked around by mother nature really recently- tornadoes, hurricanes, and early snowstorms (snow days in October?), so we are overdue to purchase our own generator that can run at least our well, freezer, boiler, and a few other amenities. 
Anyway back to the recipe.

Squash Ravioli w/ Sage Butter Cream Sauce 

Ingredients:
Your favorite squash
1-2 eggs
Ricotta Cheese
Parm Cheese
Homemade Pasta
Cream
Butter
Sage
Flour/Corn Starch
Salt

Directions:
Take your favorite kind of squash (acorn, butternut, buttercup, etc..) cut it in half, scoop out the seeds (save these), place upside down on a pan w/water and roast it at 350 F until soft.  Scoop out the squash once it has cooled a bit and puree it in a food processor.
Next add in 1 or 2 eggs, 1 cup or so of Ricotta cheese, 1/2 cup of Parm, and some cream until you get a nice consistency- not too watery, not too thick.
Roll out your pasta (see pasta recipe on previous post) to nice thin sheets ( I go to number 5 on my pasta machine).
Add a teaspoon of you squash mixture onto the pasta sheets going down the line. I typically will fold it over and cut them into nice squares.
Make sure to press the pasta down around the pocket to seal in the squash. Use a fork to press around the edges. Then place the ravioli on a rack to dry (about 30 mins at least).
Get your water up to a boil (don't forget to add some salt to make it boil faster) and add in the ravioli.  Cook for about 5-10 minutes. You can see the past turning a lighter color.  Take out the pasta and place on a plate.

Sauce:
Melt about 3 tablespoons of butter in a sauce pan. Next add in some sage (about 1 teaspoon).
Pour in some cream (1- 1 1/2 cups of cream) and bring to a simmer. Add a teaspoon of flour or corn starch to a separate cup with a tablespoon of water and mix together.  Combine with the sauce and continue to cook till thickened.

Serve the pasta with cream sauce and enjoy! I'll be posting some recipes soon on making your own Ricotta and Mozzarella.
****Squash Seeds**** Take your seeds, rinse off the squash gunk and place them in a bowl. Add olive oil, salt, garlic powder, and Franks Red Hot sauce. Place on a cookie sheet and cook for about 20 minutes at 350 F until crispy. Make sure to stir every so often.

Wedding Quilts

 I have been feasting on my leftover Chicken Corn Chowder and Sourdough Bread so no new recipes for today. I've decided to post a few pictures of the recent quilts I made as wedding gifts. I am new to quilting and learning heaps as I go. It's nice to work on when it's cold and snowy outside, like today. (Seriously it's October and the plows out. ) I'm currently working on a new one for my bedroom, so I will post pictures once I get further along.

 This quilt I made for my good friends Sara and Matt.  Sara and I have known each other since grade school and remained friends after she moved to Virginia. Fortunately she married Matt who has family in New Hampshire, so we get the chance to see each other just about every year now.
I started the quilt back in January when I was pregnant with Rosalie. Even though the wedding wasn't till August, I had a feeling that I wouldn't get much accomplished with a newborn. Besides it was nice to work on when it was cold and snowy and there wasn't a whole lot of skiing I could do.  The three blocks I appliqued are a bush clover, peony, and iris. The patterns were an inspiration from a Japanese quilting book I borrowed. They were individual pieces that I brought together and repeated as the center block. I had to keep bringing the quilt out with me so I could figure out which fabrics would the borders and pull the whole thing together. Plus purple and green were her wedding colors and I wanted to incorporate them as much as possible.

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 This quilt I made in September for Ben and Jen's wedding.  I wanted the quilt to be cozy and though I loved the Cathedral Window Quilt pattern (here is the link for the pattern: http://hyena-in-petticoats.blogspot.com/2007/08/cathedral-window-quilt-tutorial.html)it wasn't a blanket you would want to curl up with. So I decided to make it into the border and use fleece on the back.  I also machined appliqued Ginkgo leaves since they symbolize love, peace, hope and longevity.

Chicken Corn Chowder

There is something about the cool fall weather that brings on the hot soups and rustic breads. Even though we just finished off our vat of French Onion Soup, Chicken Corn Chowder was calling my name.  At the end of summer I try to get a few dozen ears of corn just to freeze their tasty kernels for Corn Chowder.  It brings back thoughts of summer and adds the warmth to your kitchen. So here we go...

Ingredients:
Chicken (optional, you can make it without, but so much better with)
Bacon (once again optional, but who doesn't love bacon)
2 medium Onions chopped
3 Ribs of Celery chopped
5-6cups combo of milk and stock (whatever you have on hand and your preference)
salt and pepper (to taste)
4 large potatoes chopped
butter (seriously who cooks without it)


Directions:
Roast, grill, or fry your chicken. I had a whole chicken in the freezer so I opted to roast it.
Cook up your bacon and try not eat it all before you finish making your chowder
Reserve a couple tablespoons of bacon grease in your pan and saute your onions and celery. If you didn't have bacon, this is where you use butter instead.
Saute the onions and celery till browned, then add your milk/stock and potatoes. I used about 3 cups of  stock and 2 cups of milk
Bring to a boil and cook till the potatoes are tender
Add in the corn and cook for another 7minutes
Then break out the blender or food processor and blend the soup. I typically blend about 1/2-3/4 of the soup and leave the rest. If you want the soup to be thicker add in 2 tablespoons of flour mixed with cold water. Next add the chicken and bacon (hopefully there is some left) and Serve warm. Even better serve in a bread bowl mmm...

French Onion Soup

French Onion Soup is one of my all time favorites. It's hard to find a restaurant that can actually make a decent bowl of French Onion Soup.  Who can resist the melted, bubbly cheese over crusty bread.  The real key to French Onion is the broth. Sure you can use Beef Broth from a can, but it will no where be as good as if you make the broth from scratch.  Every year I look forward to our St. Patty's Day celebration not only because of the corned beef that I cure for 8 days, but the broth left over from boiling the corned beef and veggies. It is hands down the best broth I have ever tasted.
So yesterday I pulled out of my freezer a package of marrow bones from the farm (You can buy these at the grocery store too) for two reasons:
1. to make my dogs happy

2. to make soup stock

Soup Stock:
Roast marrow bones, carrots, onions, turnips, rutabaga, and garlic with olive oil in a pan at 350 F for 1-2 hours
Next take out your biggest stock pot and fill it up with all those roasted bones and veggies.
Throw in some celery, head of cabbage chopped up, zucchini, summer squash, 2 bay leaves, etc.
If you have some stew beef or chuck roast throw in too. 
Fill the rest up with water and let boil for 5-6  hours.
The key to a good stock is the huge combo of veggies. You might not like turnips or rutabaga or cabbage, but they really make the soup stock delicious. It might smell funny at first, but as it cooks on the smell will become amazing.
Separate the broth from all the veggies with a colander and let the remaining stock boil down till it reaches your taste. Add as much salt to taste.

Next slice up at least 8 large onions and saute them in a preferably cast iron pot with butter.
Stir them every so often so they don't stick.
Cook until they are almost caramelized.
Add the broth and you can either do 1/2 cup of white wine or 2 tablespoons of Marsala or Sherry wine. This time I had some Marsala and it did the trick.
Next you want to slice up some good crusty bread and place it over your soup an oven proof bowl.
Then you want to layer on some Swiss or Gruyere cheese and place it under the broiler for a few minutes. Stay close you do not want to burn the cheese!