Spicy Eggplant and Green Bean Curry

When Erin was home at Christmas she made us a delicious curry from memory. She makes it often at home. It was a recipe published in Bon Apetit Fast Easy Fresh. She emailed the original recipe but I changed it considerably(as Erin does, depending on what's in her fridge).    The original recipe was not spicy as advertised; actually it was rather bland but a few additions made all the difference.  I also add a protein, onions, and sweet potatoes to make this a complete, flavor packed meal.  We both serve it over Jasmine rice, which is more aromatic than white rice.

The recipe looks complicated but it's really not.  The chopping goes pretty quick.  It works up fast once you start cooking. Chop all your ingredients and have them ready before you start.  The French call this miz en place, which means "putting in place".  It's most efficient.  I start the rice and when it's cooked the curry is ready to serve.

*An important note: Thai basil makes all the difference.  Buy it in an Asian grocery.

See my extra tips below the written recipe and if you make it, leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Spicy Eggplant, Green Bean, and Sweet Potato Curry

5 Tablespoons of olive oil, divided
1 small yellow onion, chopped
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 Tablespoons of grated ginger
1 boneless chicken breast, chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
1 14-16 oz. eggplant, cut into 2 x 1/2 x 1/2-inch sticks
8 oz. of green beans, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
1 small sweet potato, chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
1 Tablespoons of grated lime peel (1 lime)
Juice of one lime
2 teaspoons of Thai green curry paste
1 cup of canned unsweetened coconut milk
1/4 cup of chopped fresh cilantro
2 Tablespoons of Thai basil
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat 4 Tablespoons of oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat.  Add the onion and cook until translucent. Add the ginger and garlic and cook for 30 seconds, stirring.  Do not let the garlic brown.  Remove the veggies to a bowl and saute the chicken until just browned (do not cook through). Add the onion mixture, along with the eggplant, potato, and green beans back into the skillet. Cook until almost tender, stirring often, (about 10 minutes).  Cover and cook for 3 minutes longer until beans are tender and the chicken is cooked through.  Transfer the skillet contents to a bowl.

Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil, lime peel, and curry paste to the skillet; stir 15 seconds.  Add the coconut milk; bring to a boil, whisking until its smooth.  Return the veggies and chicken to the skillet; toss with sauce to cover.

Mix in the Cilantro and milk and season to taste with salt and pepper.


Tips:
You can add or subtract vegetables to suit your taste and what you have in your fridge/pantry. We love the eggplant in this, but if you are not an eggplant fan just use a different veggie.

I also will steam the potatoes in the microwave for a few minutes to soften before adding them to the skillet. They take longer to cook.  I don't steam the beans because I like them a bit crisp.

You could use a combination of white potatoes, carrots, and beans.  Make this recipe your own.

 You can sub out the chicken for pork or shrimp.

This is mildly spicy.  Add more curry paste if you want it "hotter". or use red or yellow curry paste instead of green.
















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Panera Copycat Soup (Kale Cheddar)

I like Panera Bread, the chain restaurant, but there isn't one where I live so I've only eaten there while on vacation.  I do love their bread.  And while I've never tasted their Broccoli Cheddar Soup, Si of A Bountiful Kitchen, posted a copycat recipe on her blog and I was intrigued.  Si is a wonderful cook and everything I've ever made from her blog posts is delicious. You should go over and check out her site.

I can't eat broccoli, but I do eat kale and I had some in my refrigerator, along with most all of the other ingredients that I needed to make Si's copycat broccoli soup.  I wanted to use up my kale so I substituted it for the broccoli.  Have you ever cooked kale?  

Kale is a powerhouse of nutrients, a bit bitter, and it is a tough green so it takes a long cooking time to become tender. Thus, I changed the order in which the ingredients are added into the soup pot, and my soup also took a bit longer to cook. Kale stalks are so tough; I cut them out and I compost them for the garden.

 Have all of the ingredients chopped and ready to go.  The French call this mise en place.

Si suggested adding meat as an option and I just happened to have some leftover grilled chicken breasts with a mustard glaze in the fridge (this recipe was posted at the perfect time). As mustard was one of the ingredients called for, I halved Si's original amount of 1 teaspoon because of my mustard chicken.  There is such a thing as too much mustard in a recipe.  I also substituted Dijon mustard for plain yellow mustard as that's what I had on hand, and the Dijon was great in the soup.  In fact, everything about this soup was great! This recipes a keeper.  

Kale Cheddar Soup
1/2 cup of unsalted butter
1 cup of chopped yellow onion
1 cup of chopped carrots
4 cups of chopped kale
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon of paprika
2 drops of hot pepper sauce
4 cups of chicken stock
1 1/2 cups of half and half
1 teaspoon of prepared Dijon mustard
1/4 cup of cornstarch, whisked into 1/2 cup of cold water
2 cups of grated sharp cheddar cheese
2 cooked chicken breasts, chopped largely (optional)

Melt the butter in a pot.  Add the onions and cook until translucent.  Add the kale and cook until the kale is tender.  This took about 15 minutes and I added 1/2 cup of water and a lid to the pot to let it steam.  

Remove the lid and cook until there is just a bit of liquid in the pot.  Add the carrots and cook for about 5 minutes or until they are soft.  Season the pot with salt, pepper, paprika, and the hot pepper sauce.  Pour the broth and 1/2 and 1/2 into the pot. Bring to a simmer over low heat.

Meanwhile, mix the cornstarch and the 1/2 cup of cold water together and stir until the cornstarch is dissolved.  Add it to the pot with the other ingredients and stir.  Add the cheese and meat (if desired) and stir until the cheese is melted.  

Taste for seasoning and add more salt if needed.  (Sharp Cheddar is salty so be careful and judicious with your salt).

Serves 6 as a main course, 4 if you omit the meat.

Si's original recipe is over on her blog.  

Hash Brown Potatoes With Fresh Farm Eggs

If you follow along here, you may remember that I do lunch for a group of Young Single Adults from our church every month.  Last Sunday we had a baked potato bar and there were leftover baked potatoes. They had been scrubbed, rubbed in oil and salted before baking them in aluminum foil. They were begging to made into has browns.

So made them and they were delicious.  DELICIOUS I tell you!

 I also bought some Farm Fresh Eggs from Pat this week and they were in my fridge. 

So after eating these potatoes for dinner with a piece of grilled chicken, we made some for breakfast too.
They were THAT GOOD.

Can you believe that beautiful orange yolk?  You only get that color from free-range chickens.

The recipe for the hash browns is below.  Add or subtract ingredients depending on what you have in your fridge. I happened to have a teeny tiny patch of parsley growing in the herb garden so I used that in the hash browns but chives would be excellent as would any fresh herb you have on hand.

Hash Browns with a Farm Fresh Egg

4 or 5 leftover baked russet (Idaho) potatoes, cut into cubes

1/2 of one yellow onion, chopped

1/2 of a bell pepper, any color (I used red bell)

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 Tablespoons of butter/olive oil combination

Handful of chopped flat leaf Italian Parsley (chives would be good too)

Salt and Pepper to taste

6 eggs

Melt the butter and oil in a skillet.  I use a combination because butter tends to burn on its own.

Add the chopped onions and peppers and sprinkle with some salt.  Let cook until the vegetables become translucent.

Add the garlic and let cook for 30 seconds or so to coat in the oil.

Put the potatoes in and stir into the vegetables.  Add a little sprinkle of salt to the potatoes. Let them cook until they are heated through and they get a bit golden brown on the edges.  Stir frequently and gently so as not to break up the potatoes.

After the potatoes have warmed through, sprinkle with the parsley.  Taste and add more salt and some pepper as needed.

Pile on a plate and top with a fried egg.

You can also add any kind of pre-cooked meat to the potatoes.  Bacon, ham, or even corned beef would be excellent.

We just returned from a week long road trip to San Francisco and Carmel, California. We had a wonderful dinner at a restaurant in the city that we frequented years ago when we lived in a nearby neighborhood.  It was as good as we remembered, after all it's been there for 30 years and in San Francisco that makes it a dinosaur.  Restaurants don't stay open that long in SF if they're not good.  But Italian food is rich and heavy so the next night in Carmel, we ordered lighter fare.

The fish restaurant was fantastic.  My dungenous crab salad was fresh and light and delicious, but the real winner was a spinach side dish served underneath the grilled Diver's scallops Bruce ordered.  

This is my recreation of the greens and it was every bit as good as the restaurants.  We ate it immediately; we did dish it into bowls but ate it at the stove.  We didn't even wait for the main course.

This will become a staple in our house.  I have a vegetarian friend coming to dinner next week and I wanted to do a trial run on the vegetarian version, so I omitted the bacon and used vegetable broth instead of chicken.  I didn't miss them one bit.  The fact that this dish is so healthy and and good for me is just the icing on the cake.  I think I'll be serving this over warm quinoa at some point.  It was filling enough for a meatless main course.

Sautéed Greens with Cannellini Beans and Bacon 

2 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

4 slices of bacon cut into 1-inch chunks (optional)

1 cup of diced yellow onion

3 garlic cloves, sliced thinly

¼ teaspoon of dried crushed red pepper

1 large bunch of greens (spinach, kale, mustard greens, or broccoli rabe, about 1     lb.), stems removed, spinach left whole, other greens cut into 1-inch strips;

          about 10 cups packed greens in total.

1 cup (or more as needed) vegetable or chicken broth

1 15-ounce can of cannellini beans (white kidneys) rinsed slightly, and drained

1 cup of diced fresh tomato

1 teaspoon of Sherry wine vinegar, or more to taste

1 Tablespoon of soft butter or extra virgin olive oil (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil over medium heat in a non stick pan.  Add the bacon if using, and render the fat.  Reserve the crisp bacon pieces and set aside.

Add the onion to the fat and let it sweat over low heat until onions are translucent.  Add the garlic slices and crushed red pepper and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Do not brown the garlic or it will become bitter.

Add the greens by the handful, letting them wilt down before adding more, so you can get them all in the pan.  Toss them to coat with the oil.

Add some of the broth, cover and simmer until the greens are tender.  If using spinach along with other greens, add the toughest greens first.  Let them cook down a bit before adding the spinach, which will cook quickly.  Add more broth as necessary to the pan.  Cook 1 to 10 minutes, depending on the greens.  When greens are tender, add the beans and tomato.  Simmer until the tomatoes and beans are heated through and the liquid is almost absorbed, about 2 minutes.  Be careful not to break up the beans while stirring.  Add the bacon lardoons back into the vegetables if using and stir in the vinegar.  Add more vinegar if desired.  Remove from heat and put the butter or oil (if using) into the pan and toss it to coat the vegetables.  Season with salt and pepper as desired.

You can omit the bacon, and the oil or butter finish for a healthier dish.

Serves 4 to 6 as a side dish.

Red, Black and White Warm Quinoa Salad

A few weeks back, Bruce and I had dinner at a little neighborhood bistro.  It had received good reviews but we were a bit disappointed with both of our meals.  I ordered roast chicken and it was not memorable. Nothing looked very good on the menu and my thought process was, "How can you mess up roast chicken"? Well, they could and they did.

The nicest surprise for me was the tower of red quinoa served alongside my chicken.  The chef had formed it in a tall ring mold and the tall tower looked a bit odd and it was sort of an island in the chicken drippings. The red quinoa (really brown after cooking) had flecks of green and red in it. I wasn't anticipating liking it much.  I wasn't expecting it to be spectacular.  But it was.  The more I ate, the more I liked, no.... loved it!  I left the chicken on the plate but I ate every last bite of that warm quinoa.

I've been wanting to recreate that side dish.  So I made a version of the restaurant dish to go with a salmon fillet.  I had no recipe to follow but mine tasted every bit as good as the restaurant's.  I will be making this dish again and again.  The quinoa had just the right amount of "tooth" to it. This is a hearty side dish and could be a meal in itself.  I used spinach in my version because the arugula at the market did not look fresh.

Now, if you are unfamiliar with cooking quinoa, here's a big TIP:
YOU MUST RINSE THE QUINOA under cold running water until the water is no longer cloudy prior to cooking it.  Quinoa has a substance on the outside of the seed (did you know it's a seed really and not a grain?) called saponins, that is bitter if not rinsed off.  Rinse it well before cooking and make sure you rinse it in a fine mesh strainer.  The grains are little and you don't want them to fall through.  I have eaten quinoa that was a bit off-tasting and bitter and now I know why.

Best of all, quinoa is good for you.  It 's high in magnesium, phosphorus, calcium and iron, as well as being an excellent source of fiber.  It's also gluten free.  It's known as a super food.

Red, Black and White Warm Quinoa Salad

1 1/2 cups of good chicken stock or broth (unsalted or low salt)
3/4 cup of quinoa (I used a mixture of red, black and white), rinsed well with cold water
2 cups of fresh spinach or arugula leaves, washed and left damp
1/2 cup of chopped yellow onions
1/4 cup of chopped bell pepper (I used an orange one)
1 clove of fresh garlic, chopped
splash of good olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Rinse the quinoa under cold water until the water is no longer cloudy, using a fine mesh strainer.
Meanwhile, bring the stock to a boil in a saucepan.  Add the quinoa and stir.  Cover the saucepan and simmer for 20 minutes or until the quinoa is cooked through.  Take the pan off the heat and let it sit, covered, for 15 minutes while you prepare the vegetables.  The quinoa needs to steam after cooking, much like rice. After the allotted time, remove the lid and fluff the quinoa with a fork.  Keep it covered and warm for now.

While the quinoa is cooking, add a splash of olive oil to a heavy bottomed large pan.  Heat the oil to medium.  Add the bell pepper and onion and cook about 10 minutes until the veggies are wilted and golden brown.  Add the garlic clove and cook for about 30 seconds. Don't let the garlic brown or it will be bitter.

(This is an untouched photo.  Don't you love the bright green of the spinach?)
Add the spinach to the pan and saute it until it is wilted and tender.  The water droplets on the leaves will help it to steam a bit and cook down. Sprinkle the spinach with a bit of kosher salt and freshly ground pepper.

When the spinach is tender and wilted, put the vegetable mixture into a bowl and add the fluffed quinoa and stir gently to combine with the vegetables.  Adjust the salt and pepper as needed.
Serve warm.

This made about 6 servings.

When summer squash and tomatoes are in season, I think they would make a great addition to this salad.

Au Gratin Potatoes...the ultimate comfort food.

It's frigid and cold outside.  So cold your breath freezes before your face.  Time for some warm, gooey, comfort food.   In my "neck of the woods" these are commonly referred to as "funeral potatoes" because they are often served after funerals to the grieving family.  You would know these as a version of Au Gratin potatoes. 

It's the time of year for parties and this recipe is a winner.  It's rich and creamy...just like your grandma made for Christmas dinner (if you were lucky).  Now we don't indulge in this kind of food very often but it's Christmas, so here we go.

We threw a church party for 150 of our closest Young Single Adult friends so I made a roasting pan full.  Every bit got eaten, no surprise.  Here it is prior to baking.

And here's the pan I made for my freezer. 

I like to line a glass baking pan with foil, fill it with a ready to bake casserole, freeze the pan until the contents are solid, and then remove the packet from the glass pan.  Next, I wrap the whole frozen block with several layers of plastic and foil to avoid "freezer burn" and I store the labeled frozen block in my freezer.  When I need the item for a surprise dinner, I just unwrap the outer layers and pop the foil into the same pan and bake.

 The block takes up less room in my freezer and frees up my glass pan for using in the interim.  I often double a recipe and freeze half so I have a frozen item on hand for a busy day.

 Just look at the golden brown, crunchy, buttery topping after baking.  Yummmmmmmmmmmm.

 

Go on...indulge after all it's the holidays.

Au Gratin Potatoes

 6 cups of diced potatoes

1-10 ounce can of cream of chicken soup

4 ounces of butter, melted

½ cup of milk

1 cup of sour cream

2 cups of cheddar cheese, grated

¼ cup of sweet onion, grated

Salt and pepper to taste

¾ cup of Panko (Japanese bread flakes) bread crumbs

2 Tablespoons of melted butter for topping

Wash and peel potatoes.  Bake at 350º F. for 45-60 minutes until they are cooked through.  Cool and dice them.  You may substitute frozen diced potatoes if desired. 

Combine the soup, 4 ounces of butter, sour cream, milk, cheese, and onion.  Season if needed.

Mix well.  Add the potatoes and stir to combine.

Place the mixture in a 9x13-inch baking pan or a 2-3 quart casserole dish.

Mix the 2 Tablespoons of melted butter and the Panko bread crumbs.  Sprinkle the crumbs over the potatoes.

Heat the oven to 350º F.  Bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes or until the mixture is bubbly and browned. 

We took a weekend trip to Lancaster, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia.

The Market in the Historic Reading Terminal was huge and so interesting.  We had some great food there for lunch.

 Look at all of the different varieties of pickled eggs.

                                                                                                          Beautiful preserves.

 The Produce was amazing beautiful.  Too bad I couldn't bring it home in my suitcase.

This meat case was full of all kinds of Beef Jerky.  It was unbelievable.  Schmucker's Amish Meats are a bit of a legend in Reading Market.

Can you guess the weight of this gigantic pumpkin?

Saving September...Very Fresh Cream of Tomato Soup

One of my favorite soups is Cream of Tomato.   We grow plenty of tomatoes and soup is a great way to preserve them.

  Look at the beautiful stripes on the Great White Heirloom tomato variety after peeling.  The skin is actually a creamy white but I love the red strip under neath.

As you can see, I had quite a few different varieties of tomatoes on the counter to use up.  The little tomatoes are an heirloom variety called Georgia  Peach that we tried this year.  The funniest thing about them is their fuzzy skin...really it is fuzzy.  The peach tomatoes are quite tasty in spite of their strange skin and a bit off-putting if you are slicing them or eating them raw but soup was the perfect way to use them up.

Here's a real peach on the right of the Peach tomatoes.  You can see the Peach tomatoes are small.  

Cut an X in the blossom end of the tomatoes and put them in a pot of boiling water for 30 seconds.  Plunge them into ice water and the skin comes right off.

 I peeled these with my fingers.  Easy!

Even the peels are photogenic.

This is our favorite tomato soup.  I made two batches; one using just green tomatoes and one batch using the red tomatoes.  Both soups taste the same.  I swirled them together with a bit of Creme Fraiche.
The Creme Fraiche design reminds me of fall leaves just a bit.  That was a happy accident.

Update:  The green tomato soup is made with ripe green heirloom tomatoes, not unripened red ones.  I think I failed to make that clear.  

This soup is great without the swirls and different colors.  I usually just throw all colors of tomatoes in the pot and serve it with grilled cheese sandwiches.  I also often thin the soup with milk and leave out the egg.  The egg and cream add richness but the flavor of the tomatoes stands alone and the milk doesn't dilute the tomato flavor or add calories.
This soup freezes well; I add the milk (or egg if using) when I heat it up.  I have bags of it in the freezer for quick suppers.

Its a great way to Save September.

Very Fresh Cream of Tomato Soup

12 ripe tomatoes, peeled and cut up             

1 cup of chicken stock or water                            

1 cup of chopped celery                     

½ cup of onion, diced                       

¼ cup of minced fresh Italian parsley           

3 Tab. of cornstarch

3 Tab. of butter, melted

2 Tab. of brown sugar

2 tsp. of salt

2 cups of light cream

1 egg yolk, beaten

Freshly ground pepper to taste

Simmer tomatoes, water, celery, onion, and parsley for 30 minutes. Puree and strain.

Mix together butter and cornstarch.  Stir into soup and let simmer over medium heat until thickened slightly.

Add brown sugar, salt and pepper. (Freeze, if desired, at this point.) 

When you are ready to serve, stir the cream and egg into the hot soup and warm.

Makes about 2 quarts.

Sunday Dinner-Herb crusted Pork Roast

Bruce brought home a Pork Loin Roast.  He loves pork.  Pork loin is "white meat" and it can be a little dry because it is so lean.  I don't like to eat the fat, so for that reason I like to brine my pork roasts. But I didn't have time to brine the roast to retain moisture, so I made sure not to overcook it.  Pork Roast can also be a bit boring so I went into the garden to forage and came up with this...

fresh herbs from the garden, a little garlic, a little olive oil, some compound butter, kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper and we had a spectacularly flavored pork roast. It had layers of complex flavor.  I sent "doggie bags" to daughters (via the one who came home) who weren't even at the meal.

It was decided that this is one of the best flavored pork roasts to ever grace our dining room table.  There was plenty left over for sandwiches.  Bruce declared his plan to make one for dinner with the pork and my homemade blackberry jalapeno jelly.  I wish I had thought of that!

I added a fresh garden veggie saute, some garlic roasted potatoes, and my homemade applesauce on the side. This roast was so good; it will be in my permanent rotation for Sunday dinners.

Check back for a post on freezing those summer herbs so you can make this recipe all winter.

Garden Herb-Crusted Pork Loin Roast

4 or 5 pound sirloin pork roast (may be trimmed of all fat)

1 teaspoon of butter (I used a compound butter made with basil, Parmesan cheese, and salt)

2 Tablespoons of olive oil

4 cloves of fresh garlic, chopped

1 Tablespoon of fresh thyme (I used Lemon Thyme), chopped

1 Tablespoon of fresh basil, chopped

1 teaspoon of fresh Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped

1/2 teaspoon of dried rosemary (if using fresh, use 1 teaspoon)

1 Tablespoon of kosher salt

1 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper

Trim excess fat from the roast.  (You may leave a small fat cap so the roast will not dry out in place of rubbing the roast with butter).  Wash and completely dry the roast.  Rub the butter (if using) onto the top of the roast.

In a small bowl, mix the olive oil, herbs, garlic, salt and pepper together.  Pat the entire roast with the herb mixture, put on a rack in a roasting pan and cover with plastic wrap.  Let the roast set in the refrigerator for about 2 hours.

With the fat or butter side up, remove the plastic wrap and roast uncovered for 25 minutes at 475º F.  Turn the oven down to 400º F. and roast for about another 25 minutes or until a meat thermometer stuck into the middle of the roast reads 145-150º F.  Remove the roast from the oven and loosely cover with aluminum foil.  Let the roast rest for 20 minutes before slicing.  The roast will continue to cook as it rests.

Slice and serve.

Father's Day

Some of my children with their custom made glasses for Father's day.  I thought they were pretty funny.

We ate grilled salmon, garlic butter and 2-cheese smashed roasted potatoes, green beans with bacon and garden onions, and roasted brussells sprouts (dad's favorite).  It was a great day for eating out on the terrace.

Smitten...with caramelized onions.

One of my daughters gave another daughter the Smitten Kitchen cookbook for Christmas.  It has great photos and the recipes are good.  I wouldn't say really "gourmet" or difficult to make, but that's a good thing.  Not every cookbook has to have difficult recipes.  These are good for quick, easy dinners

We love caramelized onions at our house and the recipe in Deb Perelman's book is easy and good.  Probably not everyone needs a recipe to make these (they are exactly like the ones I make) but they are GOOD!  I have never put them on a grilled cheese sandwich so thanks Deb.

I made up a double recipe and put them in the fridge for later.  They were delicious on this simple grilled cheese sandwich.  I served them with my favorite lentil soup recipe.  You can find it here.  Soup and sandwiches; perfect for our chilly spring weather.

I made a few modifications on the Smitten Kitchen sandwich.  I sliced a hearty multi-grain bread and buttered the outside of the slices.  I spread a good mustard on one slice of bread.  Pile on the onions, top them with a big handful of grated Emmental cheese (or any other cheese that you like) and let the cheese melt and the bread get toasty golden brown in a medium hot skillet.   MMM....

Caramelized Onions

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 Tablespoon of butter

1 large red onion, halved and sliced thinly

2 teaspoons of brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1 Tablespoon of balsamic vinegar

freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil and butter and add the onion.  Saute for 5 minutes.  Add the brown sugar and salt, lower the heat and cook for 10 minutes more on medium heat.  Add the vinegar, and stir and simmer for another 2 minutes, or until the mixture begins to thicken.  Season with black pepper and more salt if desired.  Store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.  

Add these to sandwiches, hamburgers or egg dishes.

Peeling and Cubing Butternut Squash...a tutorial

I grow Waltham Butternut squash (a hard winter storage variety) in my garden every year.  This year I got about 15 of them.  They are so sweet and beautiful and they make great soup!

They're also easy to find in the market.  Buy ones that look like the one on the right.  The bulbous part on the bottom is where the seed cavityis located, while the long neck is solid flesh.  You get more for your money when you buy a longer necked squash.

Every year I hear friends get excited when Costco sells peeled and cubed squash in the produce refrigerator.  What they do not get excited about is the cost per pound.  Seems that some people are unfamiliar with prepping the squash and even admit to being a bit scared to try.

It's easy!  Here's what you do.

Wash your squash thoroughly.  Lay it on it's side and cut the bulbous part from the neck.  Cut off the stem and bottom ends.  Now your squash has "feet" and will be stable on your cutting board.

Stand the pieces upright and hold them still.  The flesh is starchy and a bit slippery so hang on to it, and keep your fingers out of the way of the knife blade.
Peel the skin away from top to bottom, rotating the squash and peeling it all the way around.  You may have to turn it upside down to get all the skin off.  Discard the hard skin.

Cut the two pieces in half lengthwise.  Using the bowl of a large spoon, scrape the seeds and stringy membrane from the cavity and discard them.  Wash the cavity.

Chop the quarters into evenly sized cubes.  They can be refrigerated in zip-lock bags at this point.  One squash took me about 8 minutes to completely prep.  And it was free; not $8.00 a bag.  Whole squash can often be found for .99/pound.  That's a great price.

I love this sweet squash tossed in olive oil, salt, and freshly ground pepper and roasted in a 400 degree F oven.  It's darn good tossed in butter, cinnamon, and some brown sugar and roasted in the same manner.

Prep your own and you won't need to pay high prices for that pre-cut squash  this holiday.  It's so much fresher too!

Freezer's Full!

                    Freezer's Full!