The wonder that is Spaghetti Squash

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 I have been wanted to make a recipe with Spaghetti Squash for far too long. Don't know why it took me so long. My sis has been obsessed for awhile, so what better time to make something then when I was visiting her. We made a casserole with ricotta and spinach and it was to die for. It was such a fitting recipe with the spaghetti looking vegetable. Real simple helped us out with the recipe.

It is such an intriguing vegetable to me. Maybe the most intriguing. I don't get how/why it peels away in spaghetti like for. This was my first big thrill of shredding the inside of one!

 It is by far the best of the squashes out there. I will definitely have to have more fun with this ingredient. 

Here is the recipe:

 

Spaghetti Squash Casserole with Ricotta and Spinach

Ingredients:

- 1 spaghetti squash, roughly 3 pounds

- 1 tablespoon olive oil

- 1 15 ounce container of ricotta

- 1 large egg

- 1 box of frozen spinach (or 4 cups baby spinach chopped)

- 1 garlic clove, chopped

- 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

- salt and pepper

- 2 cups shredded mozzarella

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400° F.

2. Cut the squash in half lengthwise. Drizzle the cut sides with the oil, place cut-side down on a rimmed baking sheet, and roast until tender, 40 to 50 minutes. 

 

3. While that is baking, combine the ricotta, egg, spinach, garlic, nutmeg, 1 teaspoon salt, and ⅛ teaspoon pepper.

4. With a fork, gently scrape out the strands of flesh.

 

5. Add to the ricotta mixture and mix to combine.

6. Transfer the mixture to a casserole dish.

 

7. Sprinkle mozzarella to cover the top.

 

8. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the cheese starts to crisp.

Irish Brown Bread

 Had some Irish Brown Bread at the Burren, my fave Irish pub down the road a couple weeks ago. My food was tasty, but I couldn’t stop dreaming about that bread. I wanted to make some of my own. I had all the ingredients on hand except buttermilk, which most recipes call for. I knew that the sourness was probably crucial to getting the taste right. I stumbled upon this recipe, which helped me make homemade buttermilk, so that I could be lazy and not go to the store. The bread came out awesome!!

Here’s the recipe:

Irish Brown Bread

Ingredients:

- 3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

- 2 1/2 tsp salt

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1 tsp baking soda

- 4 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

- 1/2 cup finely ground old fashioned oats

- 1 1/3 cups milk (I used 1%)

- 1/3 cup apple-cider vinegar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Make buttermilk by mixing milk and vinegar in a small bowl, and letting it stand until thickened, about 5-10 minutes. (It is kinda of crazy watching this happen!)

3. Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl.

4. Mix in butter until it resembles coarse meal.  I find it is best to use your hands to do this.

5. Add in milk mixture.

6. Stir dough until it is roughly combined then move to a clean surface.

7. Knead dough until it combines into a nice ball.

8. Move ball to a greased cookie sheet and shapen into a round disk.

9. Cut an X into the top, 3/4 inch deep.

10. Bake for roughly an hour. 

11. Let cool on a wire rack after you have cut off one end to enjoy :)

This bread is going to be awesome all week for quick breakfast as well as on the side of the chili I made!

Candy Cane Cake Truffles

While the whole cake pop/cake truffle craze has been going on, don’t think that I haven’t thought about making some. I don’t know how I let it go this long, but I finally made some. I dreamed up a recipe of my own with the standard concept. Feast your eyes on this Christmas Treat: Candy Cane Cake Truffles.

I brought them to a Christmas party and they were a hit. All 50 were devoured!

The recipes is below. Just to warn you this is a lengthy and messy process. I make the cake the day before to space out the work. I also went along with most recipes and used store bought boxes of cake mix and frosting. Not my usually style, but I didn't object to how they came out tasting.

t had been planning on making truffles all along. (I'm not that impressed with eating things on sticks.) I feel truffles sound way more classy then pops. But my plan was to make them more like a pop using a toothpick to dip. I would then after they hardened pull out the toothpick creating perfectly circular balls. This did not go as planned. They were falling right off the toothpick. So alas, I made these messy globs I would like to call truffles. They didn't have the exact presentation I would have liked, but tasted gosh darn good. If you figure out how to make them prettier, let me know!

Candy Cane Cake Truffles

Ingredients:
- 1 box of vanilla cake mix (follow recipe)
- 1 jar of vanilla frosting
- 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1 box of candy canes crushed up
- 1 bag of white candy melts or white chocolate chips

Directions: 

1. Bake cake following directions from box.

2. Crumble cake into a large bowl. (I cut off any areas on the side top or bottom that got too hard. I figured they would ruin the shape and texture of the balls.)

3. Add peppermint extract to frosting. 

4. Combine frosting and half of the crushed candy canes with the cake crumbles.

5. Shape into 1" balls and place on cookie sheet. 

6. After all balls are made put in the freezer for about an hour.

7. Set up a make shift double boiler or use a real one if you are that cool, to melt chocolate.

8. Take out 3 balls at a time to dip. (Don't take them all out at once or they will come back to room temp and not be sturdy.

9. Use a fork to dip each cake ball and cover with chocolate. My method was to dip, roll the ball around, retrieve it with a fork, tap the fork on the side of the bowl to let some excess drip off, then coerce onto the cookie sheet.

10. Sprinkle a spoonful of crush peppermint over the top.

11. Let stand until chocolate sets.

Store them in an airtight tupperware. You can leave them out at room temp, or put them in the fridge. I prefer the fridge because it keep the inside harder.

Happy Vegetarian Day

Tomorrow, I will celebrate Thanksgiving the traditional way, but today it is a day of getting in tune with my vegetarian side. 

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I whipped up a vegetarian Sheppard's Pie with the help of this hilarious website's recipe.  My family was quite pleased with how it came out. I followed the recipe as is, but next time I think I will try making a lighter gravy from scratch. I have never been a big sauce person and the dark color of this gravy esp. freaked me out. The recipe called for Gravy Master, which I thought sounded creepy and was skeptical. Next time I will try without the master.

Here's the recipe:

Vegetarian Sheppard’s Pie

Ingredients:

For Mashed Potatoes:

- 1 1/2 lbs potatoes, peeled and quartered length-wise

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 4 Tbsp heavy cream

- 2 Tbsp butter

- 1 Tbsp milk

For Gravy:

- 4 tablespoons butter

- 3 tablespoons flour

- 1 clove minced garlic

- Handful of chopped onion

- 4 tablespoons of gravy master

- 3/4 cup vegetable broth

- Salt and pepper

For Filling: 

-1 can of red kidney beans

- 1/2 bag of frozen peas

- 1 large carrot, peeled and chopped

-1 onion, chopped

- Seasonings (I used salt, pepper, parsley, and paprika)

Directions:

1. Boil potatoes in salted water until tender and then drain.

2. Combine warm cream and melted butter with the potatoes and mash them up.

3. Lastly add milk and season them to taste. I added salt and pepper, as well as some paprika and parsley, but you do your thing.

4. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

5. Put mash aside and start the gravy by melting butter in a saucepan and adding in onion and garlic. Cook until onions are golden.

6. Stir in the flour and whisk until it makes a paste and becomes smooth.

7. Add in vegetable broth and gravy master, alternating a little bit at a time. Stir and cook until gravy is thickened.

8. Next cook the carrots and onions in a sauté pan.

9. Add in the peas and kidney beans.

10. Finally stir in gravy.

11. Transfer mixture to a casserole dish and then cover with mashed potatoes.

12. Cook for 35 minutes.

13. Enjoy!

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Caramel lovers here is one for you.

 

It has been far too long since I have made cupcakes. This recipe incorporates my new favorite apple cider cake into cute cup form and paired with, what better sweet, then caramel.

I made my apple cider bread recipe as is. The recipe yielded 22 cupcakes.

The caramel frosting I made tasted devine. Super sweet and caramel-ly, but it didn’t allow for the presentation I was hoping for. I really like to pile on frosting. This frosting had a more sticky consistency and didn’t have enough body to withstand heights. Caramel is such a sticky texture I don’ t know if this would be possible.

Here’s the recipe for the frosting:

Caramel Frosting:

Ingredients:

- 1 cup sugar

- 1/4 cup water

- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

- 2 large egg yolks

- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

- 1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt

- 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

Directions:

1. Stir sugar and 1/4 cup water in medium saucepan over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves. 

2. Increase the heat to medium-high and boil until syrup turns deep amber color. (This took a lot longer then I was expecting. Be patient.)

3. Remove from heat and add cream.

4. Put back over low heat and stir until caramel bits dissolve. 

5. In a separate bowl whisk egg yolks

6. Gradually whisk hot caramel into yolks.

7. Let this cool to room temperature.

8. Using electric mixer, beat butter and salt in large bowl until smooth. 

9. Add in caramel then powdered sugar and beat until smooth

10. Let stand for about an hour or put in the fridge to frost later.

(Frosting recipe was thanks to Bon Appetit.)

Spinach and Eggplant Lasagna

So I have been into making homemade pasta lately and as you are making it, before you cut it up into shapes you have these long strip......

Each time I make it and it is at this state, I think of how good it would be to have homemade pasta noodles in lasagna! So today I did just that. Here is my recipe for Eggplant and Spinach Lasagna:

Ingredients:

- 1 serving of homemade pasta rolled into strips

- 3/4 cups of ricotta

- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

- 1 cup shredded Asiago cheese

- 1/2 package of frozen spinach

- 1 eggplant

- salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven for 375 degrees

2. Cut up eggplant in slices, place on baking sheets, and sprinkle with salt on both sides.

3. Let them sweat for 15 minutes, then pat dry with a towel.

4. Bake for 20 minutes, flipping over half way through.

5. While eggplant is in the over, follow these directions for making homemade pasta noodles.

6. Boil water and cook noodles for 1 minute. (I did not do this, but would next time around. I thought I could get away with not cooking the noodles since fresh noodles cook so quickly. The noodles inside were done, but the top layer came out crunchy, so better to cook them to an al dente state.)

7. Set noodles aside on a drying rack.

8. Defrost spinach in the microwave as stated on package.

9. In a bowl combine ricotta, Parmesan, and seasonings.

10. Next it is time to construct your layers. In a square casserole dish, start layering ingredients: pasta, cheese mixture, eggplant, Asiago shreds, repeat. I did this three times topping finally with pasta and just shredded cheese.

 

11. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

 

I was pretty happy with how this turned out. When I have made lasagna before I have had a béchamel sauce layer in there as well. I think it was fine without, but would be even better with this included. There is always next time!

New obsession: Apple Cider Oatmeal

Ok, I have been totally obsessed with all things apple this season and just found a new apple obsession: making oatmeal with cider as the liquid. I have had it everyday for breakfast this week! It is amazing and the cider is already sweetened enough that you don't have to add anything else. So simple! I have made it on the stove and also as overnight oatmeal. Both are devine!