Make it Hot Hot Hot!!

Tony is heating things up tonight! He is cooking up some hot sauce as I type this. (I'm in the kitchen right now and my eyes are watering).  He also made a few shrubs-- one made with habañero peppers. He decided to use up our extra lemons and limes and made some citrus shrubs as well.

As far as cocktails,  he's thinking some sort of pineapple vodka combination with a splash of habañero shrub would be tasty. I'm excited to try the lemon shrub with whiskey and a twist. See my previous post on shrubs to get the detailed instructions. We're still using a ratio of one to one with these (one cup vinegar per cup of produce), but Tony used white balsamic, instead of apple cider vinegar, for the habañero.

Any ideas for the lime shrub?

Cooking for Baby: Butternut Squash

Iris had her first introduction to solid foods recently. We decided to start off with butternut squash and she was a big fan.  I've given a run-through of how we cooked, served, and stored the squash here for those of you that are interested.

To Prepare: Cut the butternut squash length-wise and scoop out the seeds. Set each half on a baking sheet, flesh-side up. Cook in the oven at 350 for about an hour and a half. Check at one hour as oven times vary. Run the squash through a food mill or other food processor until the squash is completely pureed. We have an OXO Good Grips Food Mill and it worked pretty well but does have several parts to clean.

To Serve: Add some milk to the squash. This helps to make it even more mushy (easier to eat) and more appetizing to the baby as it will have a more familiar taste. We first used our fingers to give her the food, as suggested in one of our baby books, but Iris was just as willing to open up for a baby spoon. You'll note in the pictures that we were using our regular dishes. I have since purchased some plastic (non-breakable) children's bowls and spoons. She was really grabbing at the dish.

To Store: Put the remaining mashed up squash into an ice-cube tray or specialized freezer tray.  We used the Green Sprouts silicone baby food freezer tray. There was exactly enough squash to fill all the spaces. After the squash is frozen pull out the cubes out and put them in a freezer ziploc for easy retrieval. The cubes should keep in the fridge for up to 6 months.

Try This! Pumpkin Spice Waffles and Whiskey Pecans

We recently tried Trader Joe's pumpkin spice pancake and waffle mix and that stuff is AMAAAZING! We topped our waffles with some whipped cream, whiskey pecans, and maple syrup. The whiskey pecans recipe came from the October/November issue of Bust Magazine, which I purchased because Mindy Kaling was on the cover. We used the left over pecans on our salad the next night. They would probably be great on anything. I would highly recommend checking out the pumpkin spice mix...I think I'll be purchasing several boxes on my next trip as this is a seasonal item. If you try this out...omit the syrup-the Pecans and whipped cream have enough sugar on their own. 

Dried Apples

This time of year...right before the apple harvest begins, I like dried apples best. Even apples that have been in storage for a year are pretty tasty when dried :)

Garden Goodness: Sorrel Pesto

We had a delicious meal with goodies from the garden this evening. Our second crop of lettuce is finally big enough to provide a baby green salad. After a failed first planting it was so great to finally have some fresh greens on our table!

Our Sorrel has been going strong all winter. We've got two varieties. I made pesto tonight for our pasta with the lemon Sorrel.  I think I may make some big batches and freeze it. One of the plants is massive, coming almost up to my waist.

Here is the pesto recipe I developed tonight based on a few online recipes and what is available in our garden at the moment...

Sorrel Pesto:

2 cups sorrel (coarsely chopped)
2 tablespoons fresh parsley 
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup walnuts or pine nuts
1 pinch each, salt and pepper

1. Combine ingredients in a food processor and blend until you've got pesto :)

2. Toss with pasta, serve on toasted baguette with a slice of tomato, make a pizza with pesto sauce...

Creative Dinner...

We hadn't been to the grocery store in a while so I planned to pick up sandwhiches for dinner tonight.  Unfortunately, by the time I stopped by the sandwhich shop they were closed!

One of my favorite dinners when our pantry is low is "breakfast" because we always have eggs and milk and usually we have bread so I can whip up some sort of hot meal with limited supplies. 
On my drive home I decided on french toast and scrambled eggs, but when I got home I realized that we had eggs and bread but no milk.


While staring into the fridge, I realized we did have some eggnog from Golden Glen Creamery. (I would highly recommend their eggnog!)  When I took a peek at my french toast recipe I realized it has almost all of the same spices and ingredients that are already included in the eggnog.  I substituted eggnog for milk and all the other ingredients (except eggs) and the french toast turned out great!

Birthday Pig Roast

We roasted a pig for Tony's 30th Birthday party last weekend.  I wouldn't say it was easy but it was surprisingly straight-forward.

Tony did quite a bit of research in advance.  He got a lot of tips from this New York Times article. 

The weekend before the pig roast, Tony and his dad, Terry, dug a large pit by hand.  On the weekend of the pig roast, Tony started a big fire mid-day on Saturday and let it burn for about 3 1/2 hours.

The pig was prepared by rubbing a mixture of spices (paprika, kosher salt, cumin, brown sugar, garlic powder, sage, and oregano). If we did it again I would rub the pig with a sauce and maybe some molasses and beer for a little more flavor infusion in the meat.

Then we stuffed the pig with fruits and veggies (pineapple, yams, sweet potatoes, red onions, and squash). 

Once the pig was stuffed.  Tony added some hot rocks from the fire to the inside of the pig to cook it from the inside out.

Then the pig was wrapped in corn leaves and wet burlap coffee sacks. 

Then the whole package was wrapped with medium-gauge un-galvanized steel wire to hold it together through the cooking process.

 

After it was wrapped up tightly,the ends were connected to large chains so the pig could be lowered into the pit of hot coals and covered with dirt.

 

Then. 24 hours later. We ate :)

Afternoon Snack

I've never had a FRESH cucumber from the garden.  I really can't believe how lovely they are.  Especially compared with store-bought cukes!  This little plate made for a heavenly afternoon snack...

Hummus and white cheddar cheese from the farmers market. Cucumbers and tomatoes from the backyard garden.  A nice smooth white wine would have gone great with this combo.  Lucky for me there are a lot more cucumbers on their way so I'll have the opportunity to try that pairing :)

Hot Sauce!

Tony has been putting hot sauce on everything lately. He has purchased several kinds of sauce and has been going through the bottles rather quickly.  He came home with these the other day to make some hot sauce of his own.

Tony's Habañero Hot sauce*


12-20 Habañero peppers, seeded, diced
2 TBSP kosher salt
2 TBSP paprika
1 TBSP freshly ground black pepper
1 TBSP cumin
1/2+ TBSP ground coriander
5 tomatillos, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 shallots, minced
1 cup white vinegar
1 cup water
1 TBSP olive oil
gloves to protect yourself from the peppers

1. Add everything (except the vinegar) to a pot and cook on medium high for about 30 minutes or until ingredients are cooked down well.

2. Add the cooked down sauce to a food processer and puree.

3. Add vinegar to the mixture and blend in the food processor.

* Note: This recipe makes approximately 3 cups worth of hot sauce so try cutting it in half if you don't put hot sauce on everything you eat. :)  Hot sauce is very acidic so it will keep well in the fridge for a while. Tony put his hot sauce in a sterlized wine bottle and used a vaccum wine bottle stopper for the lid.

Roasted Goodness

We did a little grilling this weekend and we made one of my favorite things to grill. Roasted veggies!  We don't have any fancy grilling contraptions so we wrap the veggies up in foil packets and they always turn out perfectly!

Here is the recipe if you want to try it at home:

1) Cut up about 4 cups worth of squash, peppers, and onions into approximately 1/2" pieces. 

2) Cut up 4 tablespoons of herbs (rosemary, thyme, oregano, &/or sage)

3) Cut a 2 foot foil piece and put half of the vegetables in the middle of the second half of the foil piece.  Fold the second half over the top and fold the edges over to create a sealed packet.

4) Grill the foil packets about 5 minutes on each side until they fill with steam and get filled up like a balloon.

Open (be careful because they will be hot!) and ENJOY! :)