Easiest way to cook a pumpkin

I'm about to make Thai Pumpkin Soup, so I cooked a pumpkin that I grew in my garden. I accidentally figured out the easiest way ever to cook a pumpkin. Just put the whole pumpkin in the oven at 350º for an hour or more. I put mine in whole, intending to take it out after half an hour or so to cut it when it was softer and more pliable. I forgot about it. An hour and a half later, I took it out, cut it in half (oh so easily), scooped out the seeds and stringy bits and discarded them, scooped up the cooked pumpkin flesh and put it in a container to await its addition to soup and baked goods.

Brussels Sprout and Mushroom Ragout with herb dumplings

Ok. How's this for an impulse buy? I was at the supermarket yesterday, and I saw these beautiful, bright green brussels sprouts, and I just had to have some. I knew I had a recipe to do that featured them, but I had no idea what else was in it. I have never cooked a brussels sprout in my life, but for reasons unknown, I had to have them.

Well as it turned out, I had everything else for the recipe in the house - sort of. We just got some gourmet "royal trumpet" mushrooms in our CSA box, so I figured those could stand in for the mushrooms called for in the recipe. I was supposed to have 3/4 pound of mushrooms for the recipe, and I only had 4 ounces of the gourmet mushrooms, so I went to my pantry and pulled out a small handful of dried porcini mushrooms. I covered them with hot water, let them soak for 15 minutes, and then drained off the mushroomy broth to use in the recipe.

For those of you who haven't made friends with brussels sprouts in your adult life - now is the time. They are delicate and delicious when not boiled into a mushy mess. This dish is warm, earthy, and satisfying. I used sweet onions which made the broth pleasantly sweet and went well with the tarragon. It took me about 40 minutes to make, but would be closer to an hour if you make the stock.

This recipe begins by asking you to make mushroom stock - which is delicious and well worth the extra time, but I happened to have some on hand from the last time I made it. Yay! (You can find the instructions for the mushroom stock here.)

This was also my first time making dumplings, which are much easier than I imagined. This meal did feature a lot of dirty dishes, but it was well worth it. There are several steps, so I'll do this more like a regular recipe.

1. Make the mushroom stock. See above.

2. While that is cooking, put on a pot of water to boil for the brussels sprouts. Rinse the brussels sprouts and cut them in half or quarters. (I cut them in half, but then they were too big to eat in one bite in the finished ragout. I think quarters is better unless your sprouts are quite small.) Set them aside to be ready when the water boils.

3. Heat 1 T. olive oil in a skillet and slice up 2 onions. I highly recommend sweet onions for this dish. Saute the onions over medium heat until nicely colored - 12 to 15 minutes.

4. While the onions saute, chop 5 T. parsley and 2 T. tarragon. Separate the herbs into 2 piles: 3 T. parsley and 1 T. tarragon will go in with the onions; the rest will go into the dumplings.

5. Mince 1 clove garlic, and the mushrooms. Use 3/4 pound white, crimini, shiitake, or a mixture. (Or whatever you have on hand.)

6. When the onions are nicely colored, stir in the herbs, garlic, and mushrooms.

7. Squeeze half a lemon over the onion and mushroom mixture. Turn up the heat and saute until the mushrooms are browned in places (5-7 minutes.) Then lower the heat to low.

8. When the water boils, add salt. Cook the brussels sprouts for 5 minutes, or until they are tender when you poke them with a fork. Drain.

9. Add the brussels sprouts and the mushroom broth to the pan with the onions and mushrooms. (I used about 2 cups of broth, but it could handle a little more than that.) Taste for seasoning.

10. Turn off the heat while you make the dumplings.

11. To make the dumplings, combine the following dry ingredients, and then stir in the wet ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 t. baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 3/4 cup milk warmed with 3 T. butter or oil
• 1 egg
• the tarragon/parsley mixture you set aside earlier

12. Return the ragout to low heat, and drop spoonfuls of batter into the warm liquid. Cover (or tent with foil if you need more room), and cook on low for 10 minutes or so. Don't add any more than 12 dumplings or it will get too bready and messy. I only used 8. You'll have leftover batter which you can fry up later.

I learned that the dumplings don't need to be down in the liquid. They can sit on top and they'll still cook if you leave the cover on.

Serve in low, flat bowls if you've got them, including 2-3 dumplings per bowl. I just used regular soup bowls, but it would be really pretty though to see all the different ingredients.

The tarragon, mushrooms, sweet onions, and brussels sprouts are really wonderful together. This would go great with some kind of winter squash as a side dish.

Things I'd do differently next time: Try the dish with more mushrooms, of the recommended variety. I'll definitely continue using the sweet onions if I have them around.

Approximate cost to prepare:

1 pound brussels sprouts - $2.00

3/4 pound mushrooms - $2.25

2 medium to large onions - $1.00

5 T. parsley, and 2 T. tarragon - $1.00

1/2 lemon - $.25

garlic, olive oil - negligible

Mushroom stock - $1.50 or so

The dumplings

1 cup flour - $.25

3/4 cup milk - $.20 (?)

parsley and tarragon (inc. above)

1 egg - $.25

salt, baking powder - negligible

TOTAL - $8.75 for 4 people

Scrambled Eggs in a Tortilla

Here's a super fast and easy supper! This is one of those things to fix on a night when your refrigerator looks a little bare. I love having eggs for supper, but as vegetarians, we have to be careful about how many eggs we eat in a week. This is still a quick hit of protein and ready in about 5 minutes - if you have sauces already made.

The recipe recommends serving this with salsa cruda with avacados (pico de gallo with chopped avocado added) and with Salsa Ranchera. I didn't have home made versions of these on hand, so I just used some salsa and green sauce I had in my refrigerator. I've made both home made sauces and they are delicious, so if you've got time to make them, they are both wonderful.

Basically, you just scramble 6 - 8 eggs in a bowl with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 2 tablespoons of water to make them fluffy. Melt 3 T. butter in a wide pan. When foaming, add the eggs and let them cook to your liking. Toward the end add a handful of feta cheese and some cilantro. (You could also use goat cheese or jack cheese.) While the eggs are cooking, warm 4 flour tortillas in a pan and wrap them in a towel to keep them warm.

Divide the eggs among the tortillas, wrap them up like a breakfast burrito, and serve. If you make ranchero sauce, you can smother it over the outside of the tortilla and top with more cheese.

I served this with hash browns (grate half a yukon gold potato per person into hot oil, season, and let it brown without moving it. When brown, flip the whole thing over and cook the other side. Cover with a lid to steam the potatoes.) I started this before starting the eggs and they were all done at the same time. I put some of the potatoes in the tortilla with my eggs and sauce.

Things I'd do differently next time: The quantities above serve 4 people. I used 3 eggs, which we divided between 3 smallish tortillas. I think next time, I'd make 4 eggs for the 2 of us and stuff our tortillas a little fuller.

Approximate cost to prepare:

6 eggs - $1.50

handful of feta - $.50

handful of cilantro - $.25

4 tortillas - $1.50

3 T. butter - negligible

Salsas - depends

TOTAL - $3.75 + sauce

Countdown to the end of the year (and this project)

Hi there foodie fans!

As most of you know, the goal of this project was to cook my way all the way through Deborah Madison's wonderful cookbook, Vegetarian Suppers, in one year's time. I began this project on January 1st and I'm still hoping to finish by December 31st.

This has been a year of change and challenge. We bought a house in the spring, we celebrated two big birthdays in the summer (my daughter turned 25 and my husband turned 60), my mother passed away, and then last week my sister-in-law passed away. I have been away from home for a variety of reasons. I have found cooking to be a great comfort and inspiration to me this year, but I haven't found it as easy to do the blogging.

Here's where I stand -

42 recipes from the cookbook cooked AND blogged about

30 recipes from the cookbook cooked, awaiting blogging

43 recipes to go, plus some sauces

Ok. That's daunting. There are only 9 weeks left in the year. That's almost 5 recipes a week, starting tomorrow! The good news is that several of them go together. I was waiting for eggplant to be in season, and then I kind of missed it in September and October. I'll have to get cracking on those. I missed a few other ingredients like heirloom tomatoes and cherry tomatoes (both of which were in my garden but got ripe while I was away. Bummer.) Amazingly, I've done very few of the recipes from the "Supper Sandwiches" section, and they are pretty quick and easy. Maybe I'll make some for lunch.

Many recipes I have cooked more than once, such as Cabbage & Leek Gratin with Mustard Cream, Black Beans with Yellow Rice, Wine Braised Lentils, Grilled Halloumi Cheese, and Labor Day Spaghetti. Several more I would like to come back to. I have also made all kinds of things that aren't in this cookbook, some of which I blogged about. It has been a delicious year so far. I hope that as I catch up on my blogging and concentrate on lots of new recipes over the next few weeks, you will get inspired to try new things in your kitchen.

Buon appetito.

Baked Butternut Squash Risotto

It has been a wild couple of months for me. I spent most of the month of September in Arizona with my sister-in-law and her partner. Although I have been cooking a lot, I haven't been blogging so now it is time to catch up. There were several summer dishes I made while I was in Arizona and at home in California, and I will add them in as I have time. For now, I have switched to fall type suppers.

Tonight I made a recipe from the Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine. It was a gorgeous fall risotto featuring butternut squash. It was fairly fast and easy, though I did get inspired to make my own vegetable stock earlier in the day. It was the best stock I have ever made, and fairly difficult to replicate, but I will tell you how I did it. I cut up an onion, about 8 stalks of celery, half a bag of baby carrots, 2 cloves of garlic, and 3 mushrooms. I sauteed them in some olive oil over high heat. I then added the trimmings (peels, ends, and seeds) from the butternut squash I was going to use for dinner. I added in some dried basil that was sitting in a basket near the stove, some seasoned pepper (Montreal Steak seasoning I think it was called) and let that brown a bit. I then dumped in about 3 quarts of water, and brought that to a boil. Since I didn't have any tomato paste, I was trying to think of what might make the stock taste a little richer. I looked in the refrigerator and decided to add in the leftover mushroom gravy from a couple nights ago. I added about 2 teaspoons of butter, just for good measure. I then let it simmer for about an hour. I tasted and added salt and pepper, and WOW. It was the best veggie stock I've ever made.

The RISOTTO:

I couldn't decide what kind of pan to use for the risotto, since I knew it was going to go on the stove top and then into the oven. The recipe called for a medium dutch oven, which I didn't have. I decided on a very large dutch oven which would be way too big. I'm glad I did because it turned out to be a fairly large dish and then I wasn't trying to cram everything in.

Since I had already peeled my butternut squash for the stock, I cut that into cubes and set it aside. I also washed 1 bunch of spinach and set that aside to add in later. The recipe called for kale, but I couldn't find kale in southern Arizona, so I settled on spinach as a replacement. The spinach worked fine, but I think kale would have a nice texture in this dish.

Also, before you begin cooking, preheat the oven to 400º. The stovetop cooking only takes about 15 minutes.

To make the risotto, I diced a small onion fairly fine, (you could also use a couple of shallots), and started sauteing that over high heat while I mined 2 garlic cloves. I added them along with a tablespoon of fresh thyme, and then cut up the butternut squash and set it aside. When the onions were soft and the garlic and thyme very fragrant, I added in 1 1/2 cups arborio rice. I let that cook about 3 minutes (until translucent) and then put in 1/2 cup white wine. I let that absorb into the rice (about 2 minutes). I then seasoned with salt and pepper, and added 4 cups veggie stock and the butternut squash. I brought that to a boil and then stirred in the washed spinach.

Then I put everything in the oven for 20 minutes. All the rice was tender and the liquid had been absorbed. The dish had these beautiful fall colors and flavors. It needed a little more salt and some parmesan cheese, but was a very rewarding, comforting, simple dish for a weeknight. And now I have LOTS more stock to get into some other dishes. I think I'll freeze some of it.

This dish was much easier than regular risotto and just as tasty. It would be good for a potluck because it would reheat fairly easily. The flavors in this are very mellow rather than big and bold. It doesn't have a real creamy sauce like some risotto, but you could stir in some freshly grated parmesan and a little hot water (or broth) at the end to make a creamy sauce for it.

Things I'd do differently next time:

I'd try using kale instead of spinach.

Approximate cost to prepare:

1 bunch spinach - $1.50

1 butternut squash (2-3 lbs) - $1.75

1 1/2 c. arborio rice - $.50

1/2 c. white wine - .50

4 cups stock - $3.25 (less if you make your own)

1 small onion - $.25

2 cloves garlic - $.15

1 T. fresh thyme (1 t. dried), olive oil, salt & pepper, a little parmesan for grating - negligible

TOTAL - $7.95 for 6- 8 servings. (Three of us ate it for supper, some having seconds, and we didn't even eat half of it.)

We had a fabulous little impromptu salad of finely shredded napa cabbage and finely diced red pepper dressed with raspberry vinaigrette. Yum.

The secret to good coleslaw

I recently watched an episode of Good Eats by Alton Brown and he talked about how to make good slaw. He claims that the secret is salting your cabbage and letting it sit for a few hours before making your slaw. This draws the moisture out and keeps your coleslaw dressing from getting watery and disgusting. Amazingly, the cabbage stays crunchy. It also allows the slaw to sit in the refrigerator for days and stay crunchy and delicious.

I decided to try it out. I adapted one of his recipes and came up with the following slaw that I really love. Using the whole head of napa cabbage gives a variety of colors, from the dark green of the outer leaves to a pale yellow in the center of the head. The carrot adds beautiful color as well.

Napa Cabbage Slaw

1 large head napa cabbage, thinly sliced

2 carrots, grated (or more if you like)

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup plain yogurt or sour cream

2 T. pickle juice (I used the juice from my zucchini relish)

2 t. dry mustard

2 T. chopped chives

• Generously salt the cabbage and put it in a colander to drain for at least 3 hours (or over night.) Rinse well with cold water.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, mayo, yogurt, pickle juice, dry mustard and chives.
• In a larger bowl, combine the cabbage, carrots and half of the dressing. Taste to see if this is enough dressing. Keep adding dressing until you like it. Save the extra dressing for adding the next day. Over time, the salad soaks up some of the dressing, so it's nice to have more on hand to add as needed.

Zucchini Relish

I got this recipe from Cooks.com, but instead of canning it, I just made some as a refrigerator pickle, i.e., I cooked it, put it in a glass jar, and stuck it in the fridge. It is really delicious and we have been using it in place of sweet relish on hamburgers and hot dogs. It made one quart, which will probably last for quite a while.

I changed the recipe just a little. Instead of using green and red bell peppers, I used these very small sweet red peppers I've been getting from my CSA box. They have a little bit of a nutty flavor and they are just wonderful in everything.

If I make this again, I think I will try cooking it a little longer to see if the sauce will thicken more.

ZUCCHINI RELISH

2 cups chopped zucchini (about 3 medium) 1 cup chopped onion (about 1 medium) 1/2 cup chopped sweet green pepper (about 1 small) 1/2 cup chopped sweet red pepper (about 1 small) 2 tablespoons salt 1 3/4 cups sugar 2 teaspoons celery seed 1 teaspoon mustard seed 1 cup cider vinegar Combine zucchini, onion, green and red peppers; sprinkle with salt; cover with cold water. Let stand 2 hours. Drain; rinse and drain thoroughly. Combine remaining ingredients in a large saucepot. Bring to a boil. Add vegetables; simmer 10 minutes. Pack hot relish into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner. Makes about 4 half-pints.