Halloween is coming...

I'm leaving today for a weekend of Halloween Phish and camping in Indio, so here is the last costume clue:
Scott is "Gumbo" and I am the perfect accompaniment to him.
Good luck figuring it out! I will back Monday with a picture post of my costume =)

Pumpkin!

Is that my costume? NO! Pumpkin is the seasonal squash of choice at the moment. It is a very versatile squash, you can make both sweet and savory dishes with it, and if you use a real pumpkin you can roast the seeds for an extra treat! Although, I have to admit that I used canned pumpkin, as the recipe I was following called for it.
My first pumpkin dish I whipped up one night for Scott and some of his friends. Iced pumpkin cookies are a delicious cake-like pumpkin pie-esque treat, drizzled with my very favorite type of frosting: cream cheese. They were a hit with all the tasters, I will definitely keep his recipe and make it next year!

Iced Pumpkin Cookies Recipe
(courtesy of Gimme Some Oven, Allrecipes, and Saveur...yes, this recipe has made the rounds on the web!)

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves (**feel free to substitute 3 tsp. pumpkin pie spice instead of the cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves**)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 oz. cream cheese (I used 1/3 less fat)
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and sugars. Add pumpkin, egg, and vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by heaping tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies, then frost or drizzle with cream cheese frosting.

To Make Frosting: With an electric mixer, combine confectioners’ sugar, and cream cheese until smooth and creamy. Feel free to add in an extra teaspoon of cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice for flavor! Then you can either frost cookies with a knife, or drizzle with the help of a pastry bag and tip. (Or if you do not have a pastry bag, just fill a Ziplock bag with the frosting, squeeze out the extra air, seal, and then use scissors to snip a tiny hole in one corner, and squeeze carefully onto cookies.)

So now that you made these cookies, you have leftover pumpkin puree from the can. What to do? I got inspiration from my mom's facebook post about making a pumpkin sage soup, and decided to try that too (that and my sage plant outside was screaming: "It's fall, eat me!!"

Once again, I got my inspiration from Saveur.com. For those not familiar with Saveur, it is 1 of the 3 cooking magazines I subscribe to, thanks to my yearly xmas gift from my little brother. Saveur is not your average cooking magazine, it is full of food essays, visits to lesser known culinary hotspots (like a feature on food in Iraq), and of course, recipes. They also have a spectacular website. For those of you curious, the other food magazines I receive are Food & Wine (courtesy of my mother in law), and Food Arts (a professional industry publication, courtesy of Pam). So back to pumpkin soup, adapted from Saveur.com. This is a rich and robust soup, perfect for a fall dinner:

Pumpkin Soup with Sage
SERVES 6

For soup, almost any variety of pumpkin will do just fine—except for the common field pumpkin, or jack-o-lantern. The best ones, however, are small, sweet pumpkins like the green-and-white delicata. Butternut squash may be used as a substitute.

1 small (about 5 lbs.) pie pumpkin (or leftover pumpkin puree from cookie recipe)
4 tbsp. olive oil
6 tbsp. unsalted butter
2 medium onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
4–6 cups Chicken Stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
9 shallots, peeled and halved lengthwise
18 fresh sage leaves
2 cups vegetable oil

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Quarter and seed pumpkin. Rub flesh with olive oil and sprinkle with a few sage leaves, and bake on a baking sheet for 30 minutes. Set aside to cool. Or if using puree, put in casserole dish with a few sage leaves and roast for 30 minutes.

2. Melt 4 tbsp. of the butter in a heavy stockpot over medium heat. Cook onions and garlic in butter until translucent about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, scrape flesh from pumpkin and add to onions. Cook for about 5 minutes.

3. Add 4 cups chicken stock to pot and simmer for 30 minutes. Purée soup in a food processor until smooth, then return to pot.

4. Melt remaining 2 tbsp. butter in a small pan over medium heat, and cook shallots until golden and tender, about 15 minutes.

5. Fry sage leaves in vegetable oil until crisp. Drain on paper towels, then garnish each serving with 3 shallot halves and 3 sage leaves.

* I did not cook the shallots in all the butter, you only need a sliver if you want to make it healthier. I also did not fry the sage leaves, simply add them to the pan with the shallots at the last minute.

This article was first published in Saveur in Issue #3

******COSTUME HINT******

I'll be spicy this Halloween!

Holly Cooks...and sews!

Back when I was in high school, my mom was adamant that I take sewing lessons, and so I did, and I learned how to make scrunchies, vests, and various other clothing pieces. Basically, I learned how to use a sewing machine, and how to follow a pattern. After awhile, my mom took advantage of my new found knowledge and enlisted me to construct cushions for the patio furniture and napkins for the Christmas table (which our family still uses every year!). So, thank you mom, for making me learn how to sew, it is invaluable knowledge that I am once again using =)
Now, I haven't touched a sewing machine for over 10 years, but for the past few years I have had the desire to get back into it. I asked around the family for any old machines, and my Aunt Janet was in possession of my mother's Singer. When she moved to Ashland last year, my uncle delivered the sewing machine to my house. And there it sat, in the closet for almost a whole year, mostly because I didn't know how to begin...the machine needed a tune up, and I was scared to sew again! Finally, last week I took it into a sewing shop for a check-up. There was a broken gear, broken needle, and it needed oil. The man at the shop looked up the model number (#857) and said it was made sometime between 1968-1972, so I lovingly call it a "vintage" machine now. He said that it should run another 40 years now that it is all fixed up (I hope so, since I could have bought a cheapo machine for the price it took to repair it!)
The day I took it home, I promptly tried to thread it and test out a few stitches. Pretty easy! That's why I opted for an old machine, none of those modern bells and whistles that will confuse me (zig-zag was a new feature when my machine was made). I don't have a manual or anything, but thank goodness for the age of the Internet, where I went to find pages of the manual reminding me how to wind the bobbin. With my machine threaded, I made a quick green scarf for my Halloween costume.

Hmmm, what am I going to be for Halloween?

Next up is a hobo bag, we'll see how I do following a pattern!

Chicken 3 Ways

With fall finally here, I felt the urge to roast a chicken. So when Kelly was visiting, Scott and I made a fall roasted dinner:
Rosemary and lemon roasted Rocky Jr. chicken
Herb roasted veggies
Roasted red potatoes

Rocky Jr. chicken is sustainable poultry from a farm in Petaluma. It costs a bit more than Foster Farms, but it is worth it in taste alone (I and would much rather give my money to a sustainable farm than a huge corporate chicken farm!) Roasted chicken is such a simple dinner, but it is also one of the most homey-heartwarming meals...you have to love it!

Scott prepped the chicken while I prepped the veggies and potatoes. I cut carrots, celery, leeks, and potatoes in big chunks and mixed them with olive oil, salt, pepper, and chopped rosemary, thyme, and parsley. The veggies & potatoes in the roasting pan

Scott rubbed the chicken with olive oil and threw a few rosemary sprigs, lemon slices, and garlic cloves in the cavity. He also put some lemon wedges and chopped herbs under the skin. He seasoned the whole bird with salt and pepper, and placed in directly on top of the veggies in the baking dish. Then you bake for about 1- 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees. According to Julia Child, you know a roast chicken is done by piercing the breast with a carving fork and pressing to bring up juices, they should be clear. Also pierce the skin under the thigh, where the juice should be clear yellow. The legs should move up and down when wiggled, and the drumsticks should be tender to the touch.

Scott sliced the chicken breasts for dinner

Thanks for the wine Kelly!

Kelly shared a wonderful 2004 Mt Veeder cabernet sauvignon with us for our fall meal. We caught up on old episodes of Top Chef while we dined. What a perfect Sunday meal.
The next night, I took the leftover chicken and veggies and made a quick healthy roasted chicken salad. I made some lemon-thyme vinaigrette, and par-boiled some green beans from our CSA to add to the salad. Then I arranged lettuce on a plate and topped with the leftover bone-in chicken legs and thighs, veggies, green beans, and vinaigrette.

Roasted Chicken Salad

After 2 meals, all that remained of my chicken was the carcass. So I threw it in a pot with enough water to cover and simmered a few hours to make stock. Then I took out the chicken, picked the good meat off, and returned the chicken meat to the stock with some barley, chopped carrots, green beans, chopped sweet pepper, and a few handfuls of arugula.

Homemade chicken soup

Viola! Chicken soup, made with whatever I happened to have in my fridge and pantry! So easy and so healthy. I ate it 3 days straight (perfect timing on my part, as I came down with a sore throat at the end of the week...my soup was just what I needed).
So that is how I turned 1 beautiful chicken into 3 simple and delicious meals. For those of you who don't cook much (ahem...Katherine & Sarah), it really is all about using quality ingredients in simple ways to bring out the good flavors.
Enjoy your fall meals =)

Sunday Morning Waffles

For as long as I can remember, my family has eaten waffles for breakfast Sunday mornings...not just my immediate family, but also my grandparents and aunts & uncles. Now, to a young girl, your family is about the reach of your universe, so I assumed that Sunday morning waffles was a national tradition, much like turkey on Thanksgiving day or corn on the cob on the 4th of July. It wasn't until my first Sunday brunch in the dining hall at college that I realized my waffle-filled Sundays were merely a Vetterli tradition (I know, kinda embarrassing that I made it 18 years thinking this!!!)
After college, I stopped eating waffles religiously on Sundays, but every once in a while, I whip out the waffle iron to take me back to my childhood Sunday staple. This Sunday, with Kelly visiting, I made a batch of waffles, topped traditionally with butter and syrup. I grew up making waffles with Bisquick, but I make it now from scratch, courtesy of Joy of Cooking:

Waffles
makes about 6 waffles

Preheat waffle iron.
Whisk together in a large bowl:
1 3/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Whisk together in another bowl:
3 large eggs, well beaten
4-16 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted *
1 1/2 cups milk

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Gently whisk them together with a few strokes (the batter should have a pebbled look). ** Scoop a ladle full of batter onto the hot iron. Cook until steam no longer escapes from the iron, and the waffle is golden brown. Enjoy.
*The butter can be varied: use 4 tablespoons for a lowfat waffle, 8 tablespoons for a light and fluffy waffle, or 16 tablespoons for the "crunchiest most delicious waffle imaginable."
**You can add a variety of things to the waffle here. As a child, I loved crumbled bacon added into the batter, or you could be healthier and add some bananas, or go for chocolate chips. Usually, I don't add a thing!

What better way to end breakfast on a cold, dreary day than a soak in our new hot tub!

Kelly and Scott soak it up

Deconstructed Spaghetti Carbonara

This summer, when I actually had some free time to read, I re-discovered the local library. To get most of the current books I'm interested in reading, I have to wait on the hold list, but last week as I was leaving the library a brand new cookbook beckoned me from its prominent spot on the new book's shelf. How exciting to find a new book with no wait list! I promptly checked it out, brought it home and was amazed by the photos and recipes hidden inside.

Crillon At Home, by Jean-Francois Piege

I have never heard of this book, nor the chef, but the fact that the forwards were written by Alain Ducasse (France's culinary superstar) and Thomas Keller (America's #1), I knew the book would be worth a look.
Jean-Francois Piege's cuisine is very modern, I just love the presentations, its not your standard stacked dish (protein on bottom, and veggie/sauce/garnish stacked above), but rather artistic palettes of colorful foods and sauces.

My inspiration dish: Spaghetti Carbonara/ Breast of Pork, 2006 Version

The recipes inside are not your everyday "throw something together" type of thing. They call for ingredients such as bottle fed Limousin lamb, bourgeoise asparagus grown by Robert Blanc (where the heck would I find that?????), and pigeon trimmings. To make a dish from this book would be a labor of love. So instead of taking off on a day long cooking adventure, I decided to attempt a component of a dish: deconstructed spaghetti carbonara.
Now, deconstructed food is a very popular style of modern cooking. In fact, the Top Chef challenge 2 weeks ago was to deconstruct a traditional dish. A deconstructed dish involved taking the main ingredients of a dish, and cooking them each separately, but when the dish is eaten, it should taste similar to the original dish. Sounds confusing, like why would anyone do that? Here's an example from Top Chef:

Deconstructed Caesar Salad with chicken wing, Parmesan Gel and Brioche

The chef made a Caesar sphere atop Parmesan gelee, and when your fork pierces the Caesar sphere, the dressing oozes out atop the Parmesan gelee and pools around the brioche topped with romaine and chicken. So it tastes like Caesar salad, but doesn't look like one. Each component taken apart is re-made, often times using techniques of molecular gastronomy (like using nitrogen to freeze something not usually frozen, or agar-agar to gelatinize something).
Here is my first attempt at a deconstructed food:

Spaghetti Carbonara-Style
Spaghetti noodles tossed with bacon/Parmesan emulsion, wrapped around Parmesan compression, topped with half-cooked egg yolk rolled in chives.

This was a complete team effort of Scott and I. I am not going to post the recipe, it is kinda involved, but if you really want it, let me know in the comments and I will give it to you. All I can say is it involves making a Parmesan compression, and a bacon/Parmesan emulsion. It also requires patience to lay the noodles side by side, and a trip to the Asian store to buy agar-agar.
Now that the weather is beginning to change, maybe I will spend some weekends deconstructing more meals (hopefully no one will put a hold on my new book and force me to return it!)

Disclaimer to Aunt Janet:
I know the dish sounds outrageously unhealthy (you don't want to know how much cheese was involved in making the compression!), but we only eat a bit of it (in fact, we have a brick of Parmesan compression in our fridge still), and we don't eat like this every night, and I go to spin classes during the week...so that is how I can eat like this and I am thankfully not 300+ lbs!

Sunday Night BBQ

When we have the chance, we love to BBQ Sunday or Monday nights with our neighbors. We share a backyard with the family next door, a young family with 2 kids: Bob, Andel, Owen (2) and Ava (4). Ava asked us the other day when we're gonna BBQ again, so Sunday night we met up in the backyard to milk a little more outdoor cooking out of summer (although the dark crept up on us quickly!)

Now little Owen is obsessed with Scott. Whenever he sees Scott, Owen drops what he's doing and uncontrollably yells "Cott...Cott!" while running towards him. Owen is especially fond of starting the charcoal grill with Cott. He helps to empty the ashes, and carries armloads of charcoal.Owen preps the grill

With the grill going, I made a quick mint/parsley herb sauce for some beautiful lamb loin chops. Here's our dinner:

Grilled lamb chops with mint salsa verde, grilled rosemary baby potatoes, grilled brussel sprouts

Grilled Lamb Chops with Mint Salsa Verde
(adapted from Saveur)

4 1"thick lamb loin chops (about 1 pound)
1/2 cup olive oil, plus more for the lamb
salt, fresh ground pepper
2 cups loosely packed fresh mint, finely chopped
1/2 cup flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
1 tbsp capers, finely chopped
1/4 tsp red chili flakes
6 oil packed anchovy filets, drained and finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped

Rub lamb with a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Set aside to rest.

To make the salsa verde:
combine mint, parsley, chili flakes, anchovies, and garlic in a medium bowl. Slowly drizzle in 1/2 cup olive oil while stirring with a fork. Set aside.

Build a medium-hot fire on a charcoal grill (or set gas grill to medium-high). Add loin chops and cook, flipping once, until brown and crusty, about 6-8 minutes for medium rare. Transfer lamb to a platter. Stir sauce and drizzle over chops. Reserve some sauce to serve on the side. Enjoy!