Spaghetti Squash: Prep

Spaghetti Squash with onions, peas, parsley, Parmesan and thyme.  Yum.

Spaghetti Squash, like most fall and winter squash, makes me so nervous to prep.  I think I mentioned this in my post about Butternut Squash, but I really do fear that I am going to hurt myself with a knife trying to cut it open.  Well there's a solution to avoid injury, and it couldn't be easier.

Equipment You Will Need:

• Baking/Cookie sheet large enough to hold your squash
• Knife

Ingredients:

• Spaghetti Squash, as many as you want to make and that will fit in your oven

Spaghetti (squash) and meatballs

 Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 350
• Put your Spaghetti Squash on your cookie sheet
• Finish waiting for your oven to heat...think of your grandma saying "a watch pot never boils"
• Put the squash on the cookie sheet, and then into the oven and close the door
• Let the squash bake for 45-60 minutes depending on the size, rotating it every 15 minutes or so, 16 minute rotation cycles won't ruin it
• When it feels like it's softened slightly, you can just push on it with an oven mit, it's done!  The skin will also brown a little
• Let it cool, and then slice it half length wise.  Scoop out the seeds, and fork out the "spaghetti"
• Use however your recipe calls for prepared spaghetti squash. 
• Way.  Too.  Easy.

Spaghetti Squash with pancetta, leeks and mushrooms

Perfectly Poached Egg

Would you look at the size of that egg? There were two yolks in there.  Good old organic, farmers market eggs.  I think it's good luck to get two yolks...

For whatever reason people are scared of poaching eggs.  They will scramble them, but poaching them is uncharted territory that is to remain uncharted.  Unless it involves Eggs Benedict, then  Bring.  It.  On.  I won't argue that, a little benny does a body good.

Here are some insanely easy tips and tricks that make poaching an egg easy and fool proof, every time.  Flawless, really, just like my skin was as a 9 year old.  #theglorydays (calories didn't exist then either, heaven.)

Equipment you will need:

• A small sauce pan
• A slotted spoon

This is the approximate water level, in case you don't have an idea of what 2in looks like.  Pretty sure you do though.

Ingredients:

• About two inches of water in your sauce pan
• 1-2 T of vinegar (just plain, white distilled)
• Eggs!  I usually eat 1 or 2, I wouldn't poach more than 2 at a time per small sauce pan
• Salt & Pepper (optional)

Directions:

• Bring the water (in your sauce pot) to a boil, and then turn it down to a simmer
• While the water is heating up, crack your egg into a small drinking cup, like a 6 ouncer.  See the pic...this just makes it easier when it's time to start cooking

I was multitasking...hence the olives on the cutting board, and the beets in the background

• Pour the vinegar into the simmering water, don't measure it, just give it a quick splash
• Let the water come back to a simmer

Look for small bubbles, you don't want them so big that they break up the egg white

• Pour the egg into the simmering water/vinegar (see how easy that was? thank god you put it the cup first, #fewf).  Here's a play by play:

• No touchy for two minutes.  You can set a timer for this if you want, I don't, but I should.

It just brings itself back together!  The vinegar does that.  Don't ask me why.

• Use your slotted spoon to scoop that sucker out of the water

Oh Helloooooo

• Give the spoons a few taps on the edge of the pan to shake off the excess water, and serve it up

Serving suggestions:  On toast with melted cheese. On a tortilla with a smashed half of an avocado and salsa. In soup.  On top of mixed greens.  On top of just about anything that feels almost like a complete meal, but that is still missing a little something

Beets Do NOT Taste like Dirt. Pinky Promise.

The Before.  Earthy and raw.

I saw these at the farmers market and pulled a classic Sus-move and made an impulsive purchase.  My mom made these all the time when I still lived under her roof, so I had an idea of what to do with them, but ultimately, this was a true test...and I lucked out, they are tasty and were easy to make.

Equipment you will need:

• Cookie sheet or baking pan - I used that trusty brownie pan again
• Tin Foil

Ingredients:

• Beets - however many you want!
• Garlic Cloves - half the amount of beets...6 beets = 3 garlic cloves .  Capisce?
• Drizzle of Olive Oil
• Salt

Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 325
• Cut the "top" of the beet off of the beet - not the long, tail looking side, but the flatter end where the leaves were growing from.

It's the "fat" end of the beet.  Look at those colors :)

• Peel the garlic and smash it with a knife.  Lay the cloves on a cutting board, place your knife on top of them, flat side down, blade away from you, safety first.  Hit the knife with all of your might and the cloves will crush.  Then flavors and aromatics will seep into your beets.  Yum.

Smashed.  Ready to infuse. Make those beets drunk with garlic.

• Place the beets and garlic on a sheet of tin foil
• Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt
• Wrap the goods up like a foil envelope.  It's cute and tidy. I like tidy. Put it on your baking sheet.

See?  Tidy and Compact.  Ready for action.

• Roast in the oven for 45 minutes. After removing them from the oven, leave them wrapped to cool, I would say at least an hour.  I left mine overnight.  I just got too tired to deal, meh.

Juicy, roasted and ready to be peeled.

• If you have long hair, put your it in a pony tail.  Really, you're about to stain your hands and you don't want to do the same to your face or hair.
• Peel the beets with your hands and see the magical color your fingers turn, instantly.
• Cut them into whatever size chunks you want...I did half moons.

My mom says to put as many colors on your plate as can.  Look Mom, I listened.

Serving Suggestions:  In salads.  With Goat Cheese & Walnuts drizzled with Olive Oil & Balsamic and Salt & Pepper. By themselves with your Fave Vinaigrette.  Straight out of the Fridge into Your Mouth.  #getafterit

Meet Brussels Sprouts, Your New Fave Veggie

This pan is "well loved"

I have NO idea where Brussels Sprouts got such a bad wrap.  They are the token vegetable for vegetable haters and I cannot figure out why.  They are delicious.  They cook so quickly and serve as a perfect side in the winter.  They are in season now so.....jump on it, jump jump jump on it.

I like them roasted and this is how you do it, #amazing.  Also, did you know that they are BrusselS Sprouts?  Like the city of Brussels, with an "s" at the end?  I just had my mind blown.  Learn something new everyday.

I buy mine at the Farmers Market.   I think you can see why.

Equipment you will need:

• Roasting Pan - I used a brownie pan, it's the perfect size for 1-2 servings, if you have a crowd go for a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil

Ingredients:

• Brussels Sprouts: however many you want, I eat about 8 whole ones, 16 halves. If you end up with leftovers, enjoy them.  And congratulations on the self control.  You got me beat.
• 2t olive oil.  No measuring, I beg you.  Pour for about 3 seconds
• Salt & Pepper

HUGE Sprouts

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 400
• Remove the stems/bottoms of your Brussels Sprouts and then cut them in half (quarters if they are really big like the ones in my pictures)
• Put the halves AND the stray leaves in the pan.  The leaves will fall off and you should absolutely keep them.  They get a little crispy and salty and are to die for.
• Pour the olive oil over the sprouts
• Sprinkle on some salt and pepper - a couple of twists from each grinder
• Roast in the oven for 10-15 minutes, shaking them around once or twice throughout

Post Olive Oil & Seasoning, pre-roast

Eat up.  So easy.  So tasty.  And your peers will be impressed that you are making such a trendy vegetable.  Really though, they have gotten trendy, kinda like babies.  Talk about a key accessory for the season.

See those Crunchy pieces? #getafterit

Sorry Grandma, but This is the Real Base for Chicken Soup

Every once in awhile you have a bowl of soup that just warms you up on the inside, and not just because it's hot, because there is an insane depth of flavor that just feels so good going down.  Secret:  it's the broth. #factsoflife.  I made fun of my mom for YEARS for making her own chicken broth, and then I saw the light.  If you call in sick really just to watch TV, it's too cold to go outside, you're a homebody, you're lazy, or you want to impress anyone and everyone, you should make chicken broth.  As long as you can commit to having someone at your house for 3.5 hours, you can do this.  I promise.  It's so easy, and so worth it.

Equipment you will need:

• 1-2 Large Stock Pots with Lids (these are the big guys.  Mine are medium sized, so I divided my ingredients between two of them.  I have so much broth it's heavenly.
• A Strainer and a Large bowl for separating the goods
• Hm, I guess that's it

Ingredients:

• 1 Head of Garlic, cut in half crosswise (hamburger-style, so each individual clove is cut in half) with the skin on
• 1 Onion, quartered, with the skin on
• 4 carrots, unpeeled, each broken into 3-4 pieces
• 8 Stalks of Celery, each broken into 3-4 pieces
• One Bunch of Parsley - I prefer flat leaf (also called Italian parsley) but I couldn't find it, so I got "curly."  Since you don't eat it in the broth, either is fine.
• 1 Chicken Carcass - you can rip this into pieces with your hands.  It's actually kinda fun.  I used the one from my Roasted Chicken, or you could use that of any store-bought Rotisserie Chicken, just eat the meat first...and you should maybe save some for chicken noodle soup :)
• 2t Salt and 
• 1t Pepper
• Optional: 1/2 Bunch of Thyme

See it all there?  Ready for action? Images like this are what make me love cooking :)

Carnage?  Wreckage?  Disgusting?  Flavor.  My deconstructed Carcass.

No Water.

Directions:

1.  If you have kitchen twine, you can tie the herbs (parsley & thyme) into a bunch, two bunches if you are doing two pots.  No twine?  No problem.  Just please do NOT use floss.  You will have minty fresh broth.  Disgusting.
2. Put your veggies, chicken and herbs in your big pot, dividing it evenly if you are using two pots.
3. Add salt and pepper - again divide it evenly.  I feel like you get that part now.
4. Fill the pot(s) with enough water to cover everything.  I know, it's a lot of water .
5. Put the lid on and turn the flame on Med-Medium/High to get things hot and boiling.
6. Once fully boiling, turn it down to a slow boil, a notch above a simmer, I'd say Medium/Low (High Low?  Low to high? Lo-Fi? That's a bar in SF.  I digress.)
7. With the lid on, just let it simmer away for about 3 hours, checking on it and your kitchen periodically to make sure nothing is catching on fire.
8. Clean your bathroom.  Wash your sheets, you should've done that last week anyways.
9. Your house should smell amazing about 2 hours in, and a craving for soup should be in full force.
10. After 3-3.5 hours, turn the heat off and let it cool so that you don't burn yourself when you separate the liquid.
11. Once room-temp, put your large bowl in the sink, and rest your strainer inside the bowl (see image below).  
12. Dump the pot-of-goods into the strainer to separate the veggies and chicken from the liquid.
    
    

    

    See this little set up?  Strainer inside the bowl.  Get it? So easy.

13. Discard the Veggies and Carcass (it's so overcooked) and voila! Broth! Store it in the fridge or freeze some in Tupperware so that it doesn't go to waste - then you have it handy anytime you want soup!  I probably made about 1.5 gallons...definitely freezing some!

Just finished cooking and ready for cooling.  The house smells amazing.  All 800sq ft of it.

**Note:  After it's been refrigerated, the fat will solidify more or less, and you can skim it right off the top with a fork.  #keepitlightkeepittight


Recipe for Chicken Noodle Soup is coming next!

Keep the Seeds!

Did you ever toast pumpkin seeds after you carved your pumpkins at Halloween when you were a kid?  Maybe you still do.  This is the same concept.  We are putting this whole squash to use.  Talk about a zero-waste initiative.

I know, I already used this picture in a different post.

Equipment you will need:

• Baking Sheet
• Aluminum Foil (can you tell that I love foil?)
• Metal spatula of some kind...to toss the seeds around
• Strainer

Ingredients:

• Seeds from your Squash (I have done this with Spaghetti squash, butternut squash and pumpkins so I am sure it would work with acorn, kabocha, etc)
• 1-2T Olive Oil, about a 3 second pour...enough to coat the seeds, not worth measuring
• Salt & Pepper
• Optional to add other seasonings...see the bottom of this post for other ideas

Directions:

• Rinse your seeds in the strainer, in the sink, washing off all the squash guts.  #gross
• Lay the seeds flat on a plate or in a baking dish, like the one you use for brownies (I know you have one of those) and let them air dry over night, just on the counter or the stove, as long as the stove is turned OFF

Clean seeds!  Drying out on top of my stove for the night.

• They will feel dry crispy when they are dried out.  When they feel like that, heat your oven to 375 and transfer the seeds to your foil-lined cookie sheet
• Toss with the olive oil, salt, and pepper

These have oil, salt, pepper and are about to be paprika'd.  My mom brough this paprika back from Hungary...it came with this cute little dude as the scooper

• Roast for 5-7 minutes, you will hear them start to "pop" in the oven - it literally sounds like popcorn when it first gets going
• Enjoy!

Apparently seeds polarize when you roast them?

Optional seasoning: cumin for some chili/Mexican-like spice, paprika for some smoky heat without being spicy, cayenne pepper for some spice, any meat or poultry seasoning.  What do you have in the pantry?  Get creative!

Basic Butternut Squash, Safely

I really do like the taste of butternut squash.  I really don't like wrestling with it, with a huge knife in hand, to try and prepare it.  I honestly prepare them so rarely because I'm truly afraid of hurting myself with a large knife in the process.  Problem solved.  In the easiest way possible.

Equipment you will need:

• Baking Sheet
• Aluminum Foil
• Fork
• BUTTER Knife (get it? butternut squash)

All the equipment you will need, minus the butter knife.  If you don't have a knife and fork, you have problems bigger than knowing how to safely roasting butternut squash.  Just saying.

Ingredients:

• 1 Butternut Squash - mine was probably 2-2.5, if yours is smaller, your bake time will likely be less.  You might just have to keep a closer eye on it!

This was honestly probably a foot long, and I'm not just saying that because Subway succeeded with their "Footlong" marketing campaign.  Massive.

 Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 350
• Line your cookie sheet with aluminum foil
• Poke your Butternut Squash with a fork.  Everywhere.  Really, everywhere.  I didn't do it evenly on all sides and one side was a little harder to peel.  I think that poking the holes allows air to get under the skin, so it bubbles and then peels right off without a hitch.  I'm not really sure about the physics of the "air --> bubbles --> peeling" process though.  I'm not even sure if it's physics that we are talking about.
• Put the Butternut Squash on the foil lined cookie sheet and place it in the oven
• Bake for 30 minutes to an hour.  That's a huge range, I know.  If your squash is small, 4-6inches and around a pound, closer to 30 minutes.  Big like mine was, closer to an hour.
• After about 30 minutes, poke it with a fork again - you want the fork to easily poke the flesh, and sink deeply into it.  That sounds so dirty, #woah
• Once it's soft (now everything sounds inappropriate), take it out of the oven and let it cool on the cookie sheet for about 20 minutes, or until it's cool enough to handle

Roasty, toasty with bubbled skin, #physics

• Peel the skin with your fingers (I cannot handle myself)
• Cut the squash in half length-wise, scoop out the seeds and chop the squash into whatever size chunks you want!

Don't throw the seeds away!!!

• Use in your next recipe!  I will share a few too...upcoming posts :)

The Best Thing Since Stale Bread: Homemade Croutons

I love fresh bread when it's fresh...the first day you get it from the bakery it's irrestible, the second day it's still great, you eat it on the third day, and on the fourth day it's just there and you're hungry so you eat it.  Now you have anywhere between a half to three-quarters of a loaf of bread that you will settle for, hardly inspiring.  No more!  Inspiration has arrived in the form crunchy gems of glorious-ness.

Ugh, why make croutons when you can pay under $5 for decent-tasting bites to throw in your salad and move on with your day?  Because it's just.  Not.  The Same.  I promise these will not disappoint.  Just look at them in all their glory:

Y-U-M.  Yum.  #yum.  Any way you spin it.

Impress yourself and your guests by throwing these bad boys in salads, a bowl of soup, or straight into your mouth.  Here it goes:

GARLIC CROUTONS (capitals and bold lettering are absolutely necessary)

Equipment you will need:

• Cookie sheet with the lip (so you can toss them without them flying everywhere)
• Aluminum Foil (easy clean up again!)
• Small Sauce Pan/pot - a pot with a 4-6in diameter and tall sides, no lid needed
• Spoon
• Spatula, plastic or metal
• 
  

Ingredients:

•  3-4 big cloves (not full heads) of Garlic, 6-8 if they are smaller, sliced
• 1/4 - 1/3 cup of Olive Oil
• 1/3 Stick of Butter (about 3T)
• Leftover Bread that you weren't quite sure what to do with until now
• Salt

This is not an opportunity to display your knife skills.   You just want rough slices that will maximize the surface area of the "juicy" parts of the garlic so that it really get into the oil & butter.  Maximize the surface area?  Who am I?

Melting butter and oil making the magic happen

Instructions: (this looks overwhelming, most of it is very elementary, #yougotthis)

• Preheat your oven to 300 (that's what I was aiming for with mine, not sure what it actually was)
• Add the olive oil (no need to measure, I'd say a 10 second pour) and butter to the sauce pan, and turn the heat to medium-low
• When the butter starts to melt, add the garlic into the sauce pan



Big Bubbles = Turn off the Heat




• As the butter finishes melting, the oil and and butter will start to bubble.  Count "10 Mississippi" (you know what I mean...1-Mississippi, 2-Mississippi, etc) and then turn off the heat.  If you have a gas stove, turn the flame off.  If you have an electric stove, take the pan OFF the heated burner and move it to a room temperature burner (video on my instagram)
• The oil will continue to bubble and that's fine, but what you don't want is for the garlic to burn.  It happens fast and it's gross.  Just let it sit off the heat and cool down in order to extract the garlicky flavor and infuse the butter and oil. About 20 minutes.  That sounds fancy and very professional.
• Let that concoction hang out and infuse itself while you chop the bread into bite sized cubes, see my note below
• Line your cookie sheet with foil and throw the bread on there
• Spoon the olive oil and butter, not the garlic, over the croutons
• Salt 'em up and don't be shy, you want these to be flavor bombs



Coated & ready to be Toasted.

• Roll up your sleeves and use your hands to toss the bread in the oil, butter and salt to coat evenly.  Honestly though, roll up your sleeves, oil/butter is basically impossible to get out of your clothes
• Place the cookie sheet with the buttery bread cubes in the oven for 5-7 minutes, until the oil is bubbling.  Take them out and toss with your spatula so they toast evenly on all sides
• Back in the oven for 3-5 minutes until they are browned and chewy-crispy.  Take them out and let them cool.
• Serve It.  Literally.

  

  Bring it.

*Note on Size of the Bread Cubes:  Think about it.  Do you want to eat a big piece of bread with sharp corners that will enevitably cut up your mouth like your braces did?  No, you don't.  One-half inch to three-quarters of an inch is plenty big.  Don't punish your mouth because your hands got tired. Buck up and deal, this is city-life cooking, work for it.  The cubes in the photo below are too big and will be injury-inducing, #thatsafact

2/3 the length of my finger is TOO BIG.  I have long fingers, but crouton just looks straight up painful.