White Peach and Almond Mascarpone Tart

1 - 9" pie crust
1 - 7oz box Almond Paste
8 oz Mascarpone
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp almond extract
pinch of kosher salt
2 large white peaches, pit removed and cut into thin slices
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp fresh ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375
Roll out pie crust in tart pan, pressing into bottom and sides
Roll out the almond paste into a circle big enough to line the bottom of the tart pan. Lay it over the pie crust and gently press into the pie crust.
Beat mascarpone, sugar, egg, almond extract and salt until light and fluffy and spoon evenly into tart pan.
In a bowl, toss together the peches with the brown sugar and nutmeg.
Layer the peach slices over the cheese mixture, drizzle any remaining juices over the fruit
Bake 45 mn or until the center is set and slightly puffed.
Set on wire rack to cool
Serve room temperature or chilled.

Spicy Beef & Cheddar Pie with Blue Cheese in Press In Crust

Press In Crust:
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
8 Tbsp butter cut into 1/4" pieces or grated
3-4 Tbsp Ice Water

Process flour, sugar & salt together in food processor until combined. Scatter butter over the top and pulse until incorporated. Add 2 Tbsp ice water and continue to pusle until large clumps of dough form, adding extra Tbsp of water as needed.
Place small pieces of dough evenly over bottom of pie plate and press dough evenly from middle up to the outer edges, sealing any cracks. Place in freezer until firm, about 30 mn.

Meanwhile, make the filling:
1/2 cup carmelized onion, from about 1 large onion, chopped
1 lb ground beef (I have used venison and bison as well with good results)
1 egg
2 Tbsp worcestershire
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
1 cup sharp white cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
salt & pepper to taste
1/3 c blue cheese, crumbled

Preheat oven to 375
In a saute pan, brown ground beef with salt and pepper. Drain excess fat. Add caramelized onion, worcestershire, mustard, cayenne, smoked paprika, salt and pepper to taste. Let cool slightly.
Add egg and cheddar cheese and mix well.
Fill pie shell with meat mixture and sprinkle the top with the crumbled blue cheese
Bake 45 mn or until set. Serve warm.

Kohlrabi & Apple Salad with Maple Lemon Viniagrette

Inspired by my farmers market, Cole's choices and this recipe, I made a salad for my client last night (and our family, which happens often) and am eating the rest of it today and wondering where kohlrabi has been all my life! So I NEVER forget this recipe, I'm posting now. I sliced my vegetables and apples VERY thin for presentation sake but by all means, make it a slaw - it's refreshing and wonderful!

Salad:
3 medium bulbs kohlrabi
1 granny smith apple
1 pink lady apple
1/4 cup craisins
1/4 cup roasted sunflower seeds
2 carrots, shredded (I used the rainbow variety for added color)

Dressing:
1/4 cup evoo
3 Tbsp pure maple syrup
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 2 lemons
1 garlic clove, minced

1. Combine the dressing ingredients and either mix with a hand blender or whisk together in a small jar and set aside.
2. Remove the stems and greens from the kohlrabi and peel away the tough outer green skin. The remaining vegetable should be white. Slice 1/8" - 1/4" thin.
3. Halve apples from top to bottom, remove seeds and slice 1/8" - 1/4" thin.
4. Toss vegetables with the dressing to prevent browning.
5. For presentation, I alternated the kohlrabi with the green and red apple on a platter. Top with shredded carrot, craisins & sunflower seeds, pour remaining dressing over the salad and let sit at least 15-20 mn before serving. This is infinitely better the next day although not as pretty.

Red Quinoa Tabbouleh - or something kind of close...

Cheaters Chicken Pad Thai

Called Cheaters because it's not really authentic, but it's easy, uses things easily found in my kitchen, and hit the spot. My husband isn't a huge fan of pad thai but he really liked this version (probably because the local place that makes it isn't very good and he never really ate it before we met.)

1 box (14 oz) pad thai noodles

2 Tbsp peanut oil (you can sub whatever you have)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 lb chicken breasts, sliced thin

Pad Thai sauce (recipe follows)

4 green onions, thinly sliced
1 cup bean sprouts

1/2 cup peanuts chopped (I smashed mine in a baggie since chopping tends to leave peanuts all over my floor)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro (more or less to taste)
1 lime, cut into wedges

Pad Thai Sauce:
6 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp sriracha (we added a lot more tableside but this was the perfect amount of spice for the kids)
4 Tbsp lime juice
2 Tbsp oil
4 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp fish sauce
(note that this is a starting point and you can add more of any of the ingredients to get the hot/sour/salty/sweet combo that most appeals to you)

1. Bring 6 cups water to a boil. Add noodles and let soak 8-10 mn. Drain and rinse with cold water. Set aside.
2. Heat 1 Tbsp oil in pan on med-high heat. Add eggs and scramble until set. Remove from the pan.
3. Add remaining oil and sautee the chicken until cooked through.
4. Add noodles, green onions and sauce - cook 3-4 mn, tossing as you go to coat all the noodles.
5. Add bean sprouts and egg and stir
6. Remove from heat and sprinkle with peanuts and cilantro, serve with lime wedges and extra sriracha.

Autumn!!! ...& PW's Chicken and Dumplings

It's autumn!

We had an abnormally hot September which meant that there was tons of fresh produce available at the farmers market but I had absolutely no desire to cook it.

Normally back to school time is my favorite part of the year. It's exciting for the kids, it's a new chapter for everyone. It's easy to get caught up in that excitement and make personal resolutions for all the things I'm going to get done once they're in school. I've had a list a mile long of recipes I want to try, projects I want to start (and probably never finish), cleaning I need to do before the winter blahs set in, calendars filled with new routines and ways to work out because THIS is the year I'm going lose all that baby weight...you know, the stuff that started piling on 17 years ago and kept going until 2 years ago when Ari was born...

So this week October showed it's lovely, autumnal face. It's been crisp in the mornings and warm in the afternoons. The leaves are starting to turn colors, it's beautiful. This weather makes me want to cook - comfort foods and soups and stews - things like homemade spaghetti, chili, my curried butternut soup, PW's Chicken and Dumplings, Sandwiches with crisp fresh apples tucked inside, fresh baked cranberry-apple crisp and carrot cake and apple cider with cinnamon sticks. It's simply the best part of the year.

We always talk about moving somewhere warmer - every winter that drags on endlessly, every day it's 20 below. It gets downright frigid here come February! But I don't know if I could give up my seasons...I love how the changes mean new possibilities, how exciting it is when the first snow falls - how exciting it is when you get that first day in the spring that's over 40. I love the hot summer days on the beach and the harvest that comes with the fall. It's Minnesota, baby!

Last night I made chicken and dumplings for the first time ever. I used PW's recipe which is adapted from and old Gourmet recipe and it was actually really good. I am typically NOT a dumpling fan - I think they're bland and gummy and...ish.

But these were really really good. They were light, they were tasty, they were everything I always imagined a dumpling SHOULD be, but never are. Liam even liked them, even though earlier he claimed that dumplings make him puke. Max was the only one who wasn't a fan. Max isn't a fan of very many things, so I wasn't too worried, although when he tried them he said that they tasted like "potatoes and underpants" - ha! Not sure how he knows what underpants taste like...

I posted some pictures of the boys, and the food of course and copied and pasted the recipe below :)
I Hope you enjoy as much as we did!

"Mom! Take my picture! Know what this means? I love this dinner!"

Maxi taking a bite of his potato-ey underpants-ey dumplings...

This is Ari's "smile!" face for the camera. Ridiculous but adorable :)

My Lodge pot full of yummy autumnal goodness...

Look at those perfect dumplings! Rustic and wonderful!

Oh, and here's the recipe! (copied from PW's site)

Chicken and Dumplings

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1/2 cup All-purpose Flour
• 1 whole Chicken, Cut Into Pieces (cut Up Fryer)
•  Salt And Pepper
• 1/2 cup Finely Diced Carrots
• 1/2 cup Finely Diced Celery
• 1 whole Medium Onion, Finely Diced
• 1/2 teaspoon Ground Thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon Turmeric
• 6 cups Low Sodium Chicken Broth
• 1/2 cup Apple Cider
• 1/2 cup Heavy Cream

 Dumplings:

• 1-1/2 cup All-purpose Flour
• 1/2 cup Yellow Cornmeal
• 1 Tablespoon (heaping) Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
• 1-1/2 cup Half-and-half
• 2 Tablespoons Minced Fresh Parsley (optional)
•  Salt As Needed

Preparation Instructions

Sprinkle chicken pieces with salt and pepper, then dredge both sides in flour.

Melt butter in a pot over medium-high heat. In two batches, brown chicken on both sides and remove to a clean plate.

In the same pot, add diced onion, carrots, and celery. Stir and cook for 3 to 4 minutes over medium-low heat. Stir in ground thyme and turmeric, then pour in chicken broth and apple cider. Stir to combine, then add browned chicken. Cover pot and simmer for 20 minutes.

While chicken is simmering, make the dough for the dumplings: sift together all dry ingredients, then add half-and-half, stirring gently to combine. Set aside.

Remove chicken from pot and set aside on a plate. Use two forks to remove chicken from the bone. Shred, then add chicken to the pot. Pour heavy cream into the pot and stir to combine.

Drop tablespoons of dumpling dough into the simmering pot. Add minced parsley if using. Cover pot halfway and continue to simmer for 15 minutes. Check seasonings; add salt if needed. Allow to sit for 10 minutes before serving.

*Adapted from Gourmet Magazine

Meatless Monday #1 - Roasted Acorn Squash and Couscous with Pine nuts and Craisins...

Wow. Been a while since I posted anything - blogger has gotten a little more user-friendly! Nice!

Anyway, back to the blog, as much as possible with 5 kids. I mean to keep up with this so Pipps has all my recipes some day but I have definitely skipped a LOT of them. She reminded me last night that the squash needed to go on the blog so here I am.

Last night we did our "first" meatless Monday. I say first only because we've done a ton of meatless dinners in the past but I'm trying to get a little more organized. Since A was born a year ago, my mind has been mush. There's always so much going on and I don't have a good system going. My goals are to get together a binder and try and sit down and plan as much as possible with the meals/shopping/etc. so we don't keep resorting to PB&J or popcorn/cheese/apple night. Don't get me wrong - those nights are nice sometimes, but I noticed a lot of junk food and take-out creeping into our house over the last year because it was easy, but it's expensive and not that healthy and so I'd like to phase that back out.

Pipps loves squash of pretty much any kind but especially the kind my mother makes filled with tons of butter and brown sugar and pecans. I've never been a huge fan but I started to not hate squash a couple years ago when I made this for the first time. Since then I've been a little more adventurous and have been open to trying it again so when it was on sale at the local market for .48/lb the other week, I grabbed a few different kind.

The acorn squash were the only ones that made it. The butternut squash got kicked through the kitchen after baby A pulled it onto the floor and then I didn't notice until a few days later that it had been punctured and was oozing out so I tossed it. It was probably ok but it sort of creeped me out. The other one I bought, I think a delicata? was mistaken for a pumpkin and brought to a party to get painted. That was actually sort of funny.

The 3 acorn squash that were left I roasted last night and they turned out great. I was originally going to stuff them with the couscous but we had a lot of last minute things going on last night so I ran out of time and just served it on the side and it was good. I made homemade veggie stock for the couscous because I had a bunch of veggie scraps in the freezer but you could sub a carton of veggie broth or even water, and if you don't care about being entirely meatless (I probably wouldn't), you could use chicken stock.

Roasted Acorn Squash with Garam Masala, Rosemary and Brown Sugar:
3 Acorn Squash, cut in half lengthwise and cleaned (scoop out the slime and the seeds)
3 Tbsp butter, cut into 6 pieces.
2 tsp Garam Masala
2 Tbsp fresh rosemary
6 tsp brown sugar
kosher salt
black pepper
olive oil for drizzling

Place the 6 acorn squash into a 9 x 13 pan. You have two options here...you can either mix together the rest of the ingredients together and evenly divide the mixture between the 6 halves of squash. OR...you can be lazy like I was and just stick a piece of butter adn a tsp of brown sugar into each half and then sprinkle the garam masala, rosemary, kosher salt and black pepper all over them.
Drizzle with a couple tsp of olive oil, cover with foil, and put in a 400 oven for 25 mn.
After 20 mn, remove the foil and baste the squash with the liquids. If the pan is too dry, you can add a little water to the bottom. I didn't need to do this, but you never know. Roast another 10 minutes or until the squash is soft enough to be pierced with a fork. When serving, make sure you grab a little of the juices that have accumulated on the bottom of the pan and drizzle over the squash.

Couscous Pilaf with Pine Nuts and Dried Cranberries
4 cups vegetable stock (or chicken stock or water)
3 cups couscous
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp cumin
2 Tbsp butter
1 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup dried cranberries
salt and pepper to taste

In a medium pot, melt the butter on med-high heat. Add the pine nuts and stir until they're toasted, careful not to burn the butter or the nuts. Add the stock, and spices and bring to a boil. Add the couscous and cranberries, stir, cover and remove from heat. Let rest for 15 minutes and then fluff with a fork when serving.

FYI - last night I realized halfway into this recipe that I only had about a cup of couscous. I thought I had more but that turned out to be polenta! SO - I actually started this with red quinoa and 10 mn brown rice I had (about 1/2 cup of each) and after 10 mn of simmering uncovered, added the couscous to the pot and covered and let rest. It turned out really well although my quinoa was a smide undercooked but nobody noticed except me :)

I have pictures on my phone - haven't figured out if I can integrate those somehow into here yet without searching for my usb cable...like I said before, I'm on a road to organization! It's a tough journey ;)

Enjoy!