The Twilight Zone

Yesterday it was 53 and sunny in New York City and it was snowing in Dallas.  I may have 24 years of snow experience under my belt, but I was as giddy as a little kid (or a teenager, in Joanna's case) seeing snow for the first time.  Just a hoot and a holler, this state of Texas is!

Today it's sunny and in the 40s, which is a little more normal, although still colder than NYC?  Craziness.

As promised, here is my lightning round of cooking adventures, in award show format, in honor of the awesome Beyonce and Taylor Swift, who are leading the Grammy nominations.

Best New Snack: "Baked" Apples and AB

A while ago, my mom told me how she had made her own applesauce by peeling, coring, and slicing apples and then microwaving them for 2 minutes.  I was really into it for a while, until I decided I didn't like washing the vegetable peeler.  So I figured I'd give it a shot without the peeling, and... AWESOME!  I just did a minute since I wanted the apple chunks to keep their form, and then I dug in with some TJ's almond butter on a spoon.  Perfect for the fall/winter apple season!  And even though my roommates say that our apartment is sweltering, I still (always) need to be warmed up.

Best New Oatmeal Variation: Pumpkin Oats

Hey, hey, pumpkin!  Pumpkin has been making appearances in breakfasts all over the blogosphere (here, here, and here, for example), so I thought I'd give it a shot.  I just had to wait for a week when I was working from home so that I had any chance of finishing a can of pumpkin.  And so, I began experimenting with pumpkin oats!

Rule #1: Canned pumpkin on its own is way too vegetably to just stir in.  I find that I need to sweeten a little. So this has raisins, cinnamon, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, and brown sugar in addition to the pumpkin.  Kath uses 1/3 cup of pumpkin in her mix, but I use a lot less.  It gets kinda gloppy otherwise.  But it smells outrageous!

Biggest Small Accomplishment: The Fried Egg Sandwich

Yes, I've been cooking eggs since I was 10, but for whatever reason, only my dad was allowed to make me fried egg sandwiches.  It's his thing.  He does eggs well.  And it's a good way to trick him into making me lunch, since he enjoys it so much.  So this kind of became my comfort food as a kid.  I'm kind of bad at cracking eggs, so imagine my surprise when this beauty began bubbling away on the pan.

But don't tell my dad I know how.  It's better when he makes it.  :)

Best Dinner Made From a Recipe: It's a tie!  Stuffed Acorn Squash and Cranberry Polenta Squares
Oh, Mark Bittman, you never fail me!  Check out this list if you haven't yet.  Both of these dishes came from the list, tweaked slightly.

27. Cranberry Polenta Cakes: Make polenta with half milk, half water; stir in chopped fresh or dried cranberries. When thick, pour onto a sheet tray and let cool. Cut into squares and sauté or broil until slightly crisp. Drizzle with honey. -- I don't keep regular milk in the house, and soy sounded like a less than appealing substitution, so I just used all water for the polenta and threw in a tbsp of butter instead.

And below, browned in a nonstick pan.  I tried this a few ways... cooked in olive oil, in Pam, and just straight on the pan.  The last one worked the best.  Also I'm just reading now that I was supposed to chop the cranberries.  I did not.  Might have helped keep things more topographically even.

49. Halve and seed acorn, butternut or delicata squash and roast until squash begins to soften. Meanwhile, cook bulgur, drain and toss with coarsely chopped pine nuts and currants. Add a bit of the stuffing to each squash half and sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake until squash is tender. -- I used an acorn squash, and brown rice instead of bulgur.  Perfectly fine substitution.  I didn't have currants so I used dried cranberries, which I think worked well too.  A single half was SUPER filling.

Ok, post is getting long, so I'll have to finish my dorky awards ceremony a little later.

Stay tuned... Allison will be presenting the award for best green!

Everybody Loves a Squash!

I spent the past 2 work weeks in Dallas, which meant little to no cooking, despite a $60 shopping trip at Trader Joe's?  (I bought a lot of nuts... and nut butters... and frozen shrimp!  OK, done justifying.)  But I did have a very foodie night last Sunday.  Katie, Joanna, Amanda, and I went to the 92nd Street Y to see the one and only Max Brenner speak about his and, coincidentally, my favorite topic: CHOCOLATE.  There were obviously samples, including a cocoa dusted, chocolate- and hazelnut-covered pecan and a perfect cup of hot chocolate (read: liquid chocolate).  It was actually really inspiring to hear the path he took to get where he is today, and it sort of jump-started that creative inner spark that I sometimes forget I have.  And it totally made me want to be a part of the food industry.  Still refining that plan...  "Max" (his real name is Oded, and he is Israeli and awesome) wrote a very cool, abstract cookbook, but in the interest of not spending money and not getting fat, I didn't buy it.  But it seemed like a solid piece of art.

Lest you think my friends and I were slacking off, we had a potluck dinner before the lecture.  I made a butternut squash/quinoa fiber mess, based on this recipe from one of my favorite cooking blogs.  I followed her recipe, but served it over quinoa and added some fresh baby spinach to the mix, mostly for visual pleasure.  It was a little orangey-beige for me otherwise.  And maybe a little heavy on the tahini dressing.  I think I didn't use as much squash as I could have.  Overall I really liked this, especially the quick dressing, and I would try it again, but probably without the quinoa.  Just not necessary.

Then I got a little silly.  What can I say?  I love organic fruits, like this one that I live with.

Hmm, I look a little like a monkey.

I would also like to thank two dedicated readers for giving me photos and recipes of their food creations!  I'm sorry I'm so delayed in putting them up here, but Ilene sent me the following recipe for a butternut squash lasagna (at least I think that's the one she ended up making!) and Kristen made all kinds of pumpkin fun.  That one is TOTALLY something I am making as soon as I have more than 2 ramekins in my kitchen.

First, the fruits of Ilene's labor:

And now Kristen's other pumpkin creation, a custard!  Kristen, where is the recipe from?  I think blog rules are that I can't post it unless I cite the source.  And, I mean, I'm sure my blog is being policed carefully due to the high traffic rates.  (HA.)  I can post a picture, though.

YUM!  And it's dairy free!

Time to get back to work, which is wonderfully relaxing this week, due to the fact that apparently the corporate culture of our client is to, um, take off the entire week before Thanksgiving, regardless of whether or not you have an incredibly huge deadline coming up in 2 weeks.  Hey, I'm not complaining.  Going to take advantage of it and work on my year-end review.  Happy Thanksgiving week!