Spaghetti Squash is so good, when cooked you can eat it just like you would regular spaghetti pasta. It's delicious and very healthy, here's a comparison of 1 cup cooked spaghetti squash to 1 cup of cooked whole wheat spaghetti: (information from www.nutritiondata.self.com) SPAGHETTI SQUASH: WHOLE WHEAT SPAGHETTI: Calories- 42 Calories- 174 Total Fat- 0 g Total Fat- 1 g Total Carb- 10 g Total Carb- 37 g Protein- 1 g Protein- 7 g Sound good??? Well, here's how to cook it..... HOW TO COOK SPAGHETTI SQUASH: Preheat oven to 375 F. Cut spaghetti squash in half and scoop out seeds, place cut side up on a cookie sheet. Bake 30 minutes to 1 hour (depends on the size of the squash)
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I had a blast hanging out with Dan's super cute 3 year old niece, Ashah, on Saturday night. We colored and danced and watched some princess movies and, of course, cooked! We made some chicken soup and a giant peanut butter cookie all from scratch and she had a ball getting messy with the ingredients and taking ownership of the preparation. For the chicken soup, she peeled the onions while I chopped the carrots, celery, and then onions. I put these in a bowl and she dumped them into a pot, she then put some oil in the pot, and then I put it on a burner on the stove top to simmer the vegetables. When the vegetables were cooked she dumped in some chicken stock, and while this heated up we had so much fun ripping apart a cooked chicken carcass I had in the fridge. At first I thought she'd think it was icky but boy was I wrong! When we were finished with this we put the ripped up chicken bits in the soup (& Ashah fed Daisy some of the grosser bits:). Ashah then poured salt, pepper, a bay leaf, and torn fresh tarragon in a small bowl, I dumped these seasonings into the soup. After about 20 minutes of cook time we had yummy soup! Ashah claims she doesn't like soup but she did eat some chicken and carrots with no broth, with a cup of milk that made a healthy meal. Oh yea, but we also had some peanut butter cookie for dessert (well, Ashah had so much cookie dough before we baked the cookie that she coudn't eat any of the final product:) I took the Peanut Butter Cookie recipe straight from Better Homes & Garden Cookbook. I don't have an electric mixer but it was more fun because Ashah got to use a crank mixer and spoon so she did all of the mixing. We also decided to make one giant cookie so I cut the quantities of the recipe in half and we put all of the batter in a 9" pie pan, it turned out great this way. There's nothing seasonal about these cookies, but hey, they were good!
PEANUT BUTTER-OATMEAL ROUNDS (Preheat oven to 375F) -3/4 cup butter, softened -1/2 cup peanut butter -1 cup granulated sugar -1/2 cup packed brown sugar -1 tsp baking powder -1/2 tsp baking soda -2 eggs -1 tsp vanilla -1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour -2 cups rolled oats -1 cup chopped cocktail peanuts 1. In a large mixing bowl beat butter and peanut butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed about 30 seconds or until combined. Add granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. Stir in rolled oats and peanuts. 2. Drop dough by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a 375F oven about 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Transfer cookies to wire rack and let cool. Here's a video of some of our cooking shenanigans!.... Last night Just Food Coop had their Annual Meeting and it was a blast and a big success! Me and another JFC board member, Diane, were in charge of coordinating the event, and this year we chose to have it out at Red Barn pizza farm. We put up tables and hundreds of chairs inside their beautiful red barn that was adorned with twinkle lights everywhere. Tammy and Pat, the farmers, cooked us up over 60 pizzas in their brick pizza oven and the JFC deli made delicious salads and desserts. We had water and apple cider for beverages. There was a great bluegrass band playing inside the barn and over 300 people showed up to celebrate! It was a great turn out and sooo much fun, there were kids running around the yard everywhere and chasing the chickens, me and a couple other volunteers manned a kid's art table for awhile. It was a perfect fall evening for this event! Right now I'm over at Simple Harvest Farm, they are bringing their rabbits to be butchered tomorrow and I'm going to buy a couple but I have one dilemma. I could save some money and buy a couple alive and butcher them myself OR pay more and get buy them butchered and cleaned up. Hmmm... I think I'll end up springing for the butchered rabbits BUT I'm stiiiilll thinking about it. On another note, last week I attended a family birthday party and made a pie for the celebration. I had some fresh apples and some ground cherries that I had frozen a month ago. These two sounded like they would taste incredible together and they sure did! I couldn't find any recipes specifically for an apple-ground cherry pie but I did find a great pie crust recipe online and an apple blueberry recipe from Pillsbury, here it is, my alterations are in the parentheses: PIE CRUST I followed this recipe exactly and it came out great! (Just click on the link and it will open up the recipe on another page): Buttery Flaky Pie Crust Recipe APPLE BLUEBERRY PIE (APPLE GROUND CHERRY PIE!) Filling: 4 cups sliced peeled baking apples 2 cups fresh blueberries (2 cups frozen or fresh ground cherries) 3/4 cup granulated sugar (1/2 cup raw sugar & 1/4 cup sucanat) 1/4 cup all purpose flour 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (I omitted this) 1 Tbsp lemon juice Topping: 1 cup all purpose flour 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg 1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened (I did half the amount of topping and used whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour and butter instead of margarine) 1) Heat oven to 425 F. Place pie crust in a 9 inch pie pan. 2) In large bowl, mix filling ingredients; set aside. 3) In medium bowl, mix topping ingredients with fork until crumbly. Spoon fruit into crust-line pan. Spoon topping evenly over fruit. 4) Place pie on middle oven rack; bake 50 to 70 minutes or until apples are tender and edge is bubbly. After 20 minutes of baking, cover entire pie loosely with foil to prevent excessive browning. Cool 2 hours. Serve warm or cold. When I was out harvesting at Vasa Gardens, Terri the farm-hand described to me a simple tasty recipe that I just could not wait to make. It’s Jalepeno Poppers, he freezes them for later use and I was sold immediately, I picked over a ¼ bushel of jalepeno peppers immediately and made these the first night they were picked. I’ve made them a few times by now because they’re the perfect appetizer to make when watching a football game or going to a party. Here's a picture of the bounty that I harvested a couple of weeks ago: tomatoes, jalepeno peppers, habanero peppers, green peppers, and banana peppers: These Jalepeno Poppers are SO GOOD. And SO EASY to make. The other great thing is that they freeze GREAT. Enough said?? JALENPENO POPPERS WITH BACON -Jalepenos -Cream Cheese -Bacon (not thick cut) ***Please wear gloves when chopping up jalapenos! 1) Cut off top of jalepeno, slice in half and remove seeds. 2) Fill the cavity with cream cheese. 3) Wrap a half slice of bacon around each filled pepper 4) Place all poppers on a baking dish and bake at 400 F for about 30 minutes To preserve the poppers, simply fill them with cream cheese and place these on a baking sheet. Put in freezer, when they have frozen put them in gallon freezer bags. When you’re ready to cook them just wrap each frozen popper with a half slice of bacon and bake at 400 F for 30-45 minutes. Easy! Here's how to freeze the poppers:
Freezing green peppers is a very simple way to preserve them for the off-season. I froze mine in two different ways: chopped and whole with the top and seeds removed. The chopped ones will be great for toppings on pizza and fillings for burritos, pastas, etc. The whole ones I will use for stuffed green peppers, one of my favorite meals. I froze enough to make stuffed green peppers for 2 once a month until they're in season again. FREEZING GREEN PEPPERS -Peppers Simply chop the peppers into your desired shape for freezing (squares, strips, rings, halves, whole...). Boil water in a large pot. Add peppers and boil for 3 minutes. Immediately place boiled peppers in an ice bath to stop the cooking process. Let peppers cool to room temp and dab off any excess moisture. Place in freezer bags and into your freezer until ready to use. Here are the pictures from freezing the peppers whole with tops and seeds removed, it was the same exact process, just a different shape of pepper:
I picked a bunch of Banana Peppers from Vasa Gardens and made some quick refrigerator pickles with them. These pickled peppers are sooo good, I was only able to make 2 1/2 pints and they're almost gone already. They're great on sandwiches, in salads and with sausage... yum!
SIMPLE PICKLED BANANA PEPPERS Makes 1 pint -Banana Peppers, seeded and sliced (I'm not sure how many per pint, maybe 8-12???!) -1 cup white vinegar -1 cup water -1 garlic clove, peeled whole -1/2 tsp salt Place garlic clove and sliced banana peppers in a clean pint jar, top with the salt Mix water and vinegar in a pot and bring to a boil Pour mixture over banana peppers, seal, and refrigerate at least 24 hours before enjoying I found this recipe at "Preserving Traditions" and basically followed it exactly. For the sweet long chilis I used a combination of green bell peppers and seeded banana peppers, I also didn't use quite as much lemon juice and probably used more salt, I also added some red chili pepper flakes to give it a little heat.
SALSA: Yield is 26 pints -Tomatoes, chopped (14 Quarts) -Onions, chopped (10 cups) -Jalepenos, chopped (2 cups) -Sweet Long Chilis, chopped (6.5 cups) -Garlic, chopped (.8 cups) -Lemon Juice (4 cups) -Salt (4 Tbsp) -Black Pepper (2 Tbsp) -Cilantro, chopped (1.2 cups) 1) Mix all ingredients in a large pot and bring to a boil, then down to a simmer (basically just make sure that the salsa is HOT when putting in mason jars). Taste and add more salt, herbs, and/or spices is desired. 2) Ladle salsa into sterilized mason jars and screw on sterilized lids. Process in hot water bath for 15 minutes. ***I found my salsa to be quite "juicy" so I used a slotted spoon to ladle into the mason jars to keep my salsa less watery and more on the chunky side. What to do with lots of tomatoes??? Well, make some delicious pasta sauce! I also made plenty of salsa (& the previously posted roasted tomatoes). Salsa will be posted next! In the meantime, here’s how to make yummy simple pasta sauce: BASIC PASTA SAUCE -A lot of tomatoes -Bay leaf -Green bell peppers -Onions -Garlic -Fresh basil, thyme, and oregano -Salt and pepper ***You can experiment by adding other vegetables, ground meat, and/or add some spice to this basic recipe 1) Chop the tomatoes into chunks (if you’re using sub-par tomatoes cut off the bad parts and discard). 2) Run the chopped tomatoes through a food mill to remove the seeds and skins, this is now basic tomato sauce. 3) Put all sauce into a large pot, put on medium-low heat and boil-down to thicken the sauce (this will take several hours). Place 1-2 bay leafs in sauce to add extra flavor. While it’s boiling-down, skim off any frothy stuff on top and discard, stir occasionally. 4) In the meantime, chop up the green bell peppers and onions and set aside in one bowl. Mince the garlic and chop the thyme and oregano and place in another bowl. Chop up basil and place in a third bowl. 5) When the sauce is almost to your desired thickness add in the minced garlic and chopped oregano and thyme. Stir these in. 6) Now caramelize the chopped peppers and onions in a pan with some olive oil and then add these to the sauce. 7) Add salt and pepper to taste and continue to let sauce boil down about another hour. (At this point you should get your hot water bath canner prepared and start to boil the water). 8) When the sauce is just right add the chopped basil, stir, and allow to cook while you prepare your sterilized jars and lids for canning. 9) Ladle the hot pasta sauce into jars and screw lids on. Process in a hot water bath for 45 minutes. Making applesauce from scratch is so much more delicious than the store-bought stuff. Also, you don't need to add anything! No extra sugar or spices (although cinnamon is tasty). Did you know that the number 2 ingredient in some of the most common conventional brands of applesauce is High Fructose Corn Syrup??? Now, that's just crazy when apples are soooo sweet on their own. Making a large batch is great because then you can enjoy the taste of fall apples all year. Applesauce is delicious on it's own for a snack or dessert and I love to mix it with oatmeal, cottage cheese and yogurt. You can also make a smaller batch of applesauce to enjoy the fall goodness, making a large batch iiiis quite time consuming but it is definitely well worth it. Also, a byproduct of making a lot of applesauce is the most amazing apple juice ever! APPLESAUCE FOR CANNING -A lot of apples 1) Core the apples and cut into wedges with the skin left on. 2) Put all apple wedges in a large pot with about 3 inches of water in it. 3) Bring the water and apples to a boil and then down to medium heat and simmer until the apples are tender (this will take 30 minutes or so for a large batch). 4) Run the softened apples through a food mill to remove the skins. The result will be your applesauce. **Make sure to reserve the water at the bottom of your pot, this is tasty apple juice! I also can this apple juice for later drinking. 5) Fill hot sterilized jars with applesauce, leaving 1/4" headroom. 6) Screw sterilized lids on top of jars. 7) Place jars of hot applesauce in a boiling water bath canner for 20 minutes. Yesterday I went over to pick some more apples with Becca and her friend Danny. We then took these over to Open Hands Farm where they have an apple press that they allowed us to use for the afternoon. It's very cool because 5 families in town including Ben and Erin (the owners of Open Hands Farm) went in together to buy an apple press last season that they now share amongst themselves. Very very cool. We got about 5 1/2 gallons out of a whoooole lot of apples. After pressing apples for awhile I went over to join the SEEDS farmers for their final CSA pick-up day. I presented the Junior Farmers with their official "Junior Farmer Certificate", it was cute. Here's a photo of plenty of jack-o-lantern and pie pumpkins at the pick-up: One way that I preserved some of the tomatoes I picked last week was by slow roasting them in the oven. I then placed some of the roasted tomatoes in a mason jar and into the refrigerator and froze some in a freezer bag. They are incredible. It was hard not to eat them by the handful fresh from the oven. Oh, and they are sooooo easy to make. SLOW ROASTED ROMA TOMATOES: -A lot of roma tomatoes, cut in halves. -Olive oil -Salt 1) Heat oven to 200 F. 2) Place sliced tomatoes on a cookie sheet, cut side up. 3) Drizzle tomatoes with olive and sprinkle with salt. 4) Bake in the oven from 12-16 hours (overnight works best). 5) Either refrigerate or freeze roasted tomatoes. So what are some ways to enjoy these delicious tomatoes??? For lunch the other day I had some whole wheat crackers topped with a dollop of whole milk cottage cheese with a roasted tomato on top, yuuum. And for supper last night I made a pizza, half was topped with pesto, roasted tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, spinach, and sliced mozzarella (the other half had olive oil, carmelized onions, fresh figs, and goat cheese).
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AboutEating and living Minnesota-style, a journey into transitioning to a local diet and neighborhood economy... Archives
January 2012
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