Cheddar Corn Spoon Bread

I don’t plan on doing a lot of posting this week, as one of my best friends is coming to visit tomorrow. Yay! But, I did promise to share my recipe for cheddar corn spoon bread, and I figured I’d better do it before Thanksgiving. The recipe is adapted from Everyday Food - I add the jalapenos and tomato to give it some color and Texas kick. Also, the part about whipping the eggs to a soft peak  really does make a difference– don’t skip it.

Cheddar Corn Spoon Bread (serves 6)

1 tbsp. butter, plus more for baking dish
2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups corn kernels
2/3 cup yellow corn meal (I use stone ground)
coarse salt (important for the soft peaks)
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 cup grated sharp white cheddar cheese
4 large eggs, separated
1/2 fresh jalapeno, chopped (seeds removed)
10 or so cherry tomatoes, quartered (remove some seeds/water if possible)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 2 qt. souffle dish and set aside. In a medium saucepan, combine butter, milk, corn, cornmeal, 1 tsp. salt and cayenne pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium and simmer, stirring frequently until mixture is slightly thickened- about 3-4 minutes. Add tomatoes and jalapenos near end of thickening process. Remove from heat and stir in cheese. Let cool about 15 minutes. Stir in egg yolks until combined.

In a clean mixing bowl, beat egg whites with a pinch of coarse salt until soft peaks form. (You must use a mixer for this step, believe me, I have tried other ways!). Stir 1/3 of the whites into the cornmeal mixture until combined, then gently fold in the remaining whites with a rubber spatula. Pour into prepared dish.

Place dish in oven. Bake until browned on top but still slightly loose in the center- about 30 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before serving.

Sorry I don’t have a picture- but I will after Turkey Day. Hope you spend yours with the ones you love.

Sewing + Cooking

Today I decided to get down to business. I cleaned. I finished my quilt top. I put the laundry away. I saw my bag of “off to goodwill” clothes and rummaged through it. I have 4 or 5 tops– the same exact top, but different colors and stripes– that are just too short from all that laundry shrinking. I’ve worn them to death and yet I was sad to put them in the bag. So I thought, what the heck, I’ll make myself a hand-me-up shirt a la Betz White.

 

I added a section of one to the bottom of another. I repeated with a second two shirts (above). It was much easier the second time. I don’t always take the time to do something twice, but lately I have been, and it’s working out for me. All I did was turn the main shirt inside out, match the raw/cut edge of the wrong side to the main shirt  wrong-side hem, sew, flip inside out, and resew the  right side bottom hem of the main shirt (encasing the raw edge). Super easy. And now I don’t have to buy new shirts, nor worry about my unintentional midriff shirts. Seriously, what’s wrong with clothing manufacturers?

 

After that, I made some chicken tikka masala.  Did you know there are no Indian food restaurants in Bozeman? And no Thai places.  And just so-so Mexican food.  So when I saw Nancy’s post, I was inpsired. But even more inspiring was finding the already made sauce in the ethnic aisle of the grocery store. It was pretty good for not having been made from scratch. Thank goodness for shortcuts.

Friday I will be posting my patchwork swap makings (I just can’t wait any more!) and also giving away a second batch of scraps, and possibly something else.  Stay tuned!

Moose Cake

This weekend we cooked dinner with some friends, so I made a pumpkin chocolate cake to bring along. My original plan was to decorate the cake to look like a pumpkin face, but I mixed the orange frosting first and forgot about yellow. Plus, it looked extra peachy. So I made the impromptu decision to make it a moose cake instead (we are in Montana, after all). All I did was press my moose-shaped cookie cutter into the cake after I’d frosted it, then outlined the design in green frosting. Easy Peasy! And it tasted good, too!

Yum.

Cooking seems to have hijacked this week’s posts. It’s not that I’m not crafting- but I’m working up a lot of submissions so I can’t really show them off. Also, I actually did that wonderful little thing called meal planning this week, which is why I actually have good food to make each night. When I actually have time to think about what I want to buy and make, this can be a good thing– because, for instance, I can use tonight’s leftover roasted asparagus in tomorrow’s quiche. Although living with Paul does mean that sometimes there are no leftovers. I asked him if he didn’t like leftovers beacause it seems like I’m the only one who eats them, and I actually try to make enough for two meals so I don’t have to eat sandwiches for lunch every day. He replied that he just usually ate everything and there were never leftovers. Men.

 

Tonight I made this tasty(& simple!) apple cranberry pie for dessert. I had asparugus and chicken baking, some cranberries on the stove (to un-dry them), a pie crust thawing and apples being peeled when I got a phone call I’ve been from someone I’d been meaning to contact myself. I must have sounded like a crazed person when I answered and hung up shortly. Hopefully I can explain tomorrow.  But back to the pie: the pie was YUM.  I overestimated the number of apples I needed, so for future reference, 1 gigantor and 1 normal apple are all it takes (& I like to mix the variety for a sweet-tart pie).

 
After dinner I worked on a little project for Halloween. Hopefully I’ll finish it this week so I can show it off.

More Fall Cooking

 

Last night we tried the zuchinni pasta recipe along with some pumpkin soup. It was delish! Paul thought we could add some sausage to zing (and meat) it up- so we might try that next time. One caveat- don’t go crazy when salting the zuchinni to release the water. I wasn’t paying attention and it ended up a little salty for my taste.

Paul shelled and crushed the pistachios while I whizzed around trying to time the soup and the pasta. It’s nice to have a helper!

The soup was yummy, too. The recipe is a favorite of mine that I usually make once or twice a year since it’s a bit of a pain. I found it in my old roommate’s InStyle mag in 2002, of all places. The acorn squash I made earlier was from the same article on Thanksgiving dinner. The recipes are below.

 

(Adding the cream is the best part!)

I really do like to cook, and since I’m only working part time (& restaurants here make me sad), I’ve actually had the time. Tomorrow I want to make roasted asparagus and lemon garlic chicken….and I plan on using the leftover asparagus in a quiche for the weekend. I’ve also got the ingredients for an apple pie, once I get to it. Mmm!

Pumpkin Soup (I halved the original, so this serves 6 generously.)1 1/2 tbsp. olive oil

2 carrots, chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
1/2 large onion, chopped
24 oz. chicken broth
15 oz. pumpkin puree
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme (I never add this)
1 cup heavy cream
Salt and pepper to taste
 
Heat oil in soup pot over medium heat. Add celery, carrots and onion, sautee 7-8 minutes or until softened. Add broth, pumpkin and thyme if using. Lower heat, simmer 15 minutes. Working in batches, puree the soup in a blender or food processor.  (VERY important!– Let the soup cool a bit and don’t over fill your blender– the soup will rush up and you’ll feel it’s heat through the lid, possibly making you stop holding the lid on. I did this once and it led to pumpkin soup everywhere! Till you get the hang of it, fill your blender about 1/3 full.) Return to soup pot. Stir in cream, simmer until heated through. Season with salt and pepper.

Baked Acorn Squash

1 large acorn squash
1/2 c. dry, plain breadcrumbs (I usually make them myself with fresh bread and a cheese grater- they’re coarse and less crunchy)
1/2 c. cornmeal (stone ground)
1 tbsp. chopped garlic (you can add garlic salt, too, since it’ll stick better)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
Salt and Pepper to taste

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Coat a baking sheet w/nonstick cooking spray or butter.  Cut squash into 1/2″ rings and scoop out seeds. (I cut the rings in half to make more fit on the sheet.)  In a medium bowl, combine bread crumbs, corn meal, garlic, salt and pepper. Place beaten eggs in a pie plate or flat bowl. Dip both sides of squash into eggs, then  dredge in bread crumb mixture. Place on baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil (don’t be shy, the oil makes it soooo tasty!). Bake 30-40 minutes, turning once, until squash is fork-tender. Season with salt.

Enjoy!

Snow Day!

We woke up Saturday morning to a big blanket of snow. I was really excited to go outside and run around in it. Although I’m sure that at some point I’ll be sick of it, I didn’t grow up in a snowy area, so snow is still somewhat magical to me. Yay!

 

There’s my shiny new bike. I guess I need some major winter gear in order to ride it when it’s cold. I need to ride it more than I have been!

I spent today working on my sister’s baby quilt. I have one more long row to do, then assembling and basting and the dreaded quilting process. I have been debating on whether to have it professionally quilted, but I’m stubborn (and poor!) and think I want to do it myself.

It’s actually oriented the other way (like if you flipped this photo on it’s side) but this is how it hangs on the wall. I am really loving it. Plus it’s a nice break from my crochet projects!

Tonight I am going to do some cooking. I’m  trying out this recipe, I’ll let you know how it goes. I’ll also post the acorn squash recipe later this week if I have a chance, since people have been asking for it (hi mom!). I ended up tossing the leftover squash and chicken with feta, butter, olive oil and pasta and it was divine!

Autumn!

It’s already Fall, which became clear to me because of the color in the trees on the way to work.  Right after I realized this, I heard on NPR that there would be snowshowers this weekend. This seemed unbelieveable as it was nearly 80 degrees on Friday. I woke up Saturday morning excited to peep out the window: nothing. There was snow in the mountains, but nothing on the ground. But later in the day, on the way back from the studio, there was snow(look closely), and more obviously, horses. They moved them to this pasture near the road, where I can see them all together.

This morning I insisted we hike, since yesterday was rainy (mostly shower, only slightly snow) and today was gorgeous. We didn’t stay long because there are always things to do, but I loved all of the colors in the leaves! I never feel like I get to observe enough, I could stand over plants and stare at horses through fences for hours.

After that, Paul went to the studio. I stayed home and cleaned up, then decided to cook him an early birthday meal (it’s tomorrow). I made baked breaded acorn squash, rosemary lemon chicken and a little spinach salad. It was delicious! And there is squash leftover. I love fall, with all of it’s oddly shaped gourds. I definitely need to make something with pumpkin soon.

P.S. If you are participating in the Patchwork Swap, you should have received an email from me by now. If you didn’t, please email me to let me know.

Packing…and Procrastinating

So lately, this has been what’s confronting me: Packing. And more importantly, sorting! In general the number of “give away” bags outnumber the “take it with you” boxes, which is good! I carted 4 trash bags full of clothing to the drop box nearest to my house on Saturday. I hope someone enjoys the handmade goodies in there. I actually like moving, because it makes me feel lighter to sort through all of the stuff that just accumulates. I mean, I love notecards, but I don’t need ten boxes of them.

Other than that I’ve just been feeling a little restless (10 more days till Paul gets here!), so I’m doing short term projects.  I made some change of address cards this week, and a little baby hat (in the right corner) for my friend. I also need to think of a project for the 4+ day drive, but I know if I start it now, I’ll finish it before I even load a box! I’m thinking of a baby blanket, but we’ll see. In the mean time, I’m trying to enjoy other things. Like sauteed pears. Yum. 

I have a recipie for chicken and pears (from Jane Doerfer’s Going Solo in the Kitchen) that I’ve never quite achieved perfection with, but it’s still fun to make. I just always forget that the chicken doesn’t take as long to cook as the pears. Maybe next time!

Simple Things

Last night I made some delicious italian panzanella from Everyday Food. It is what it looks like– cannellini beans, red onions, cucumbers, tomatoes (I substituted cherry tomatoes- which I almost always do– because they are just so good!), fresh mozzarella (another sub), olive oil, pepper, and  red wine vinegar. I added the bread and olive oil/vinegar this morning so it wouldn’t get too squishy before lunch. It was a feat of strength to not eat this last night– all the fresh smells were so enticing, and it is so simple. This is what my brother would call an assembly meal. Thanks to Shawnee for the heads up on the recipie. I subscribe to the mag, but hadn’t had a chance to sit down with it.

 

And here’s another little moment of beauty from the sidewalk. We don’t have tons of trees where I live, but I do have these lovely roses that are planted in the mini gardens outside of the buildings on my block. I always see people stopping to peep at flowers from my window. Thank you to Sanda, my super’s wife, who plants them each year.