Yum Yum Pumpkin

Sunday afternoon I was browsing through some of the blogs I frequent, and came across this recipe for Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls on MADE. I knew I had to make them right then. Lucky for me, I had some extra cream cheese frosting waiting to be used. AND pumpkin puree in my freezer for just such an occasion.

 

Photo courtesy of Good Life eats

The recipe is originally from Good Life eats, you can find it here. They take a little bit of work and rising time, but are totally worth it.

 

Photo courtesy of MADE

I followed Dana’s tip and used some thread to cut my rolls. Much easier than using a knife!

 

Photo courtesy of MADE

Yum! Go make some. Or if you don’t have pumpkin…make PW’s!

Broccoli Cheese Soup

I made Broccoli Cheese soup last night. This has been one of our standby recipes for a while. Hits the spot every time!

I found the recipe on allrecipes.com a few years back, and just tweaked it a little to suit our taste.

My changes:

• I use fresh broccoli most of the time, though frozen works fine.
• I use butter instead of margarine. Yech!
• I leave out the onion. I started making this recipe before I really started appreciating onions, and I just can’t bear to change it now.
• I use half Velveeta, half sharp cheddar.

Tasty, comfortable and warm. Perfect now that the weather is (finally) cooling. And it gets some vegetables in Veronica, as long as the broccoli is chopped small. That alone makes it a favorite in my book.

Check out some other Tasty Tuesday recipes!

Roasted Vegetable Minestrone

Last week I made this Minestrone soup that The Pioneer Woman posted on her blog recently. The pictures lured me in, it just looked fantastic.

 

Photo by Ree Drummond

See?

And it tasted fantastic, too! I did have to add an additional 4 cups of liquid to mine. I think my zucchini and yellow squash were on the big side. I may just do one of each next time, it made A LOT of soup. I also substituted Great Northern Beans for Cannelini Beans, since that’s what I had in my pantry. I’m looking forward to making it again when the weather cools a bit!

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• 2 whole Zucchini, Halved, Cut Into Strips, Then Cubed
• 2 whole Summer Squash, Halved, Cut Into Strips, Then Cubed
• 8 ounces, weight White Mushrooms, Stems Removed And Quartered
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• Kosher Salt To Taste
• 2 Tablespoons (additional) Olive Oil
• 2 whole Carrots, Washed And Sliced (not Peeled)
• 1 whole Medium Onion, Diced
• 3 stalks Celery, Sliced (leaves Included)
• 8 cups Low Sodium Chicken Broth
• 2 cans Cannelini Beans, Rinsed
• 1 cup (heaping) Cut Green Beans, Fresh Or Frozen
• 1-½ cup Medium Or Small Pasta Shells, Uncooked
• 1 can (14.5) Diced Tomatoes With Juice
• Salt And Pepper, to taste
• ¼ teaspoons Turmeric (optional)
• Parmesan Cheese, Shaved

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

Toss cubed zucchini, squash, and mushrooms in a bowl with olive oil and a sprinkling of kosher salt. Arrange onto two sheet pans (to avoid crowding) and roast in the hot oven for 5 to 10 minutes, or until brown and black parts begin to show. Remove from oven and set aside.

In a heavy pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add carrots, onions, and celery and stir to cook for 3 minutes. Pour in broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for ten minutes.

Add cannelini beans and green beans. Cook on low for five minutes. Add pasta and cook for an additional five minutes. Add canned tomatoes, stir, and cook for an additional five minutes on low heat. Check for seasonings, adding salt, pepper, and turmeric.

Add roasted vegetables at the very end. Stir and allow to simmer and heat for a few minutes before serving. Be sure to check seasoning! Add more broth if necessary to increase liquid amount.

Serve with Parmesan shavings and crusty Italian bread.

White Chili, Green Salsa and Brownie Bites!

 

Just a quick Tasty Tuesday post on some things I made for a little baby shower this weekend.

Hearty White Chili – Great flavor and not too spicy. Quickly becoming one of my favorite chilis.

Tomatillo (green) Salsa – I used maybe a third of the cilantro at most (one whole bunch seems like waaaaay too much), removed the seeds and ribs from both halves of the jalepeno to make it a mild salsa, added 1/2 cup of diced green chiles, 1/4 cup of green onions and 1/2 tsp of THIS, and omitted the black pepper. Sooooo good!

 

Picture by Ree Drummond

Pretty Little Brownie Bites – When I saw these I knew I had to make them for the shower! It was so much fun to decorate them with all different kinds of treats. They are really good with ice cream, too.

Check out some other Tasty Tuesday recipes at City Wife, Country Life!

Home-made Pizza is Scrumptious

I meant to post this last week for Tasty Tuesday, but I got busy. So here it is!

 

When I remembered to take a picture of the pizza I made last week, this was what was left. It was the second pizza. And there were four of us – three adults and one toddler. It was so good! We all ate A LOT.

I had finally found a crust recipe that we liked, though the first time I made it we all felt it was a bit thick for our taste. So this time, I used one crust recipe to make two pizzas. Voila! Perfection! Here is the recipe:

1 (.25 oz) package active dry yeast
1 tsp white sugar
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 450. I put my pizza stone in and let it sit for a good half-hour.

2. In a medium bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in water and let stand for 10 minutes, until creamy.

3. Stir in flour, oil and salt until smooth. Let rest 5 minutes.

4. Roll out into a round (or in my case, two rounds). It then says to top and bake for 15-20 minutes…but I didn’t. First, I put the crust in by itself for a couple of minutes. Then I pulled it back out and topped it. Then I baked it for about 10 minutes. It came out perfect! And so easy.

Then…the sauce. The sauce! It was another thing I had been looking for, and now I have a great home-made sauce recipe from good(Cheap)eats. Here it is:

1/4 cup olive oil
2 tsp minced garlic
28 ounce can diced tomatoes or 7 fresh roma tomatoes, diced (Fresh is worth it…I put mine in the food processor and they came out perfect, not too chunky)
1 tbsp basil (I was out, waaaa!, so I used oregano which was also tasty)
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
6 ounce can tomato paste

In stock pot, heat olive oil until shimmering. Stir in garlic and cook until just lightly browned. Add tomatoes, basil, oregano, salt, and red pepper flakes. Simmer until juices have started to evaporate slightly, about 10 minutes. Blend in tomato paste and cook 3 minutes more. Cool slightly before using on pizza.

I actually did mine in a large frying pan, but when I make bigger batches to freeze I will probably use at least a large pot, if not a stock pot. But one batch is not too big for a frying pan.

So, great crust? Check! Awesome sauce (lol)? Check! The only thing left is toppings, and once you have a great crust and sauce, you can top with whatever you want! I used mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, black olives and prosciutto, then a little bit of cheddar over the top. So good!

Eggplant Parmigiana

(Check out some other Tasty Tuesday recipes by clicking the chef)

I ordered produce from Bountiful Baskets this week (more on that later here). Since one of the yummy things I got in my basket was an eggplant, I decided to take my favorite Chicken Parmigiana recipe and adapt it.

 

The veggie (well actually, fruit) in question.

 

Sliced, sweated and patted dry.

 

I dipped the slices in buttermilk, then dredged with a mixture of flour, breadcrumbs and salt. The breading didn’t stick as well as I’d like, so I might try egg instead of buttermilk next time.

 

I also got four fresh tomatoes in my basket, so I cut them up…

 

And pulsed a few times until they were the about the same size as the canned crushed tomatoes I was also using. Or thereabouts.

 

 

I love starting sauces with onion and garlic.

 

My special onion goggles. If I don’t wear them when working with onions – oh, the burning!

 

Tasty red wine, it smelled so good.

 

Dumped in all the tomatoes. The crushed tomatoes have tomato puree in them so they are saucier. Which is good, it kept things from getting too thin.

 

Added some sugar, salt and pepper and simmered for 30 minutes. Then I added fresh herbs, also from my basket. Flat-leaf parsley, basil, oregano and rosemary - a great blend.

 

Then I grated some of this. Mmmm.

 

I sprinkled a lot on the slices of eggplant. And then some more.

 

It smelled so good at this point, it was all I could do not to eat it right out of the skillet. It’s good that I found restraint, because I would have burned my tongue. That sauce was hot!

 

And served. On my classy chili pepper plates.

This recipe was absolutely fantastic. I liked the original from PW a lot, but this – this was heaven. It will definitely be my standard marinara sauce in the future. I think the fresh herbs really made a difference.

Try it!

Eggplant Parmigiana

Eggplant:
1 medium eggplant, sliced
kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp kosher salt
olive oil
Sauce:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 half onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup red wine
4 medium tomatoes, diced
1 can crushed tomatoes (28 oz) 
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
salt to taste
pepper to taste
2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped 
6 basil leaves, chopped
2 sprigs oregano, chopped
1 sprig rosemary, chopped
1 cup parmesan, grated

Slice eggplant and sprinkle with salt on both sides. Let sit for 30 minutes to sweat, then pat dry with a paper towel. Submerge eggplant in buttermilk, then dredge in mixture of flour, breadcrumbs and salt. Heat 1/2 inch of olive oil in large skillet on medium, then fry eggplant for several minutes on each side, until golden brown. Place eggplant on paper-towel lined plate and set aside.

Heat olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and cook for several minutes. Pour in red wine and simmer until reduced by half. Add all tomatoes, sugar, salt and pepper. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

In the meantime, boil a pot of water and cook linguine until al dente.

Stir chopped herbs into sauce. Carefully lay eggplant slices on surface of sauce, then generously sprinkle with parmesan. Reduce heat to low, cover and let simmer until cheese is melted. Serve on top of linguine and garnish with extra herbs.