Butternut Squash Souffle'

Fall makes me crave this recipe that has been around our family for years.  It also makes an excellent pie and there are never any leftovers around here.

I bake several butternut at the same time depending on the size.  I use Emeril's way of baking the squash and it works great.  I rub the butternut with olive oil and salt the outside and place on a cookie sheet.   I have a convection oven and set it at 375  for 75 minutes.

After it bakes I let it cool completely, sometimes over night if I bake at night.  It will look like this after baking.

I then slice the butternut in half and scoop out the seeds.  I will slice it again and peel the skin off and place in a mixing bowl.

Now we add the ingredients.  This is what I used for the amount I baked.

Preheat oven to 325..grease a 1 1/2 qt casserole dish 

1/2 stick of butter softened or melted.

3/4 c sugar or less

1/2 c milk

sea salt to your liking

cinnamon ( I don't measure, a good sprinkle)

Nutmeg grounded with my nutmeg grinder - a generous sprinkle

4-5 eggs depending on the size (my baby chicks eggs are much smaller than the old hens)

vanilla or almond extract - a good heaping teaspoon

Combine all the ingredients together with your mixer til combined

Pour into the casserole dish and bake for 75 minutes or until set.

Tomato Jam and Jalapeno Spinach Frittata

This morning as I picked the garden I couldn't stop thinking about a tomato jam so off to the kitchen to experiment.

I looked up several recipes and then decided to combine two into a delicious Tomato Jalapeno Jam

Tomato Jalapeno Jam

Romas - My guess somewhere between 3 and 5 lbs (I used what I picked in picture)
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar 2 tsp Kosher salt
2 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
3 jalapenos seeded and chopped

Quarter the tomatoes and put in a stock pot.  Add al the remaining ingredients and bring to a rolling boil.  Reduce and simmer for about 2 hours.  Pour into sterile jelly jars and water bath for 10 minutes.

Spinach Jalapeno Frittatas

2 potatoes 

3 large jalapenos

7 eggs

1/2 c shredded cheddar

4 oz of feta crumbled

3 oz fresh spinach or more

Cook the potatoes wrapped n baggie for 10 minutes - cool, peel and mash

Add all the remaining ingredients 

Spread in a lightly greased baking dish 

Bake 30 minutes at 350.

Serve with Tomato Jam

My boys loved this!

Mini Taco Salads

Preheat oven to 325

Large Tortillas   -  Use a lid or bowl to cut out 12 4 inch round circles from tortillas

In a small bowl.... melt 2 tblsp of butter and mix a few pinches of garlic salt and cumin
Brush both side of tortillas and place in a 12 cup muffin pan pressing to form cups.   Bake for 18-20 minutes until crisp.

Mix
1/4 salsa
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tblsp of fresh cilantro
cover and refrigerate

In medium skillet brown 1 lb of ground chuck, drain and add 1 small can of diced tomatoes with chilies,  minced garlic, 1/2 tsp paprika, salt and pepper

When tortillas are cooled off add the beef to the cups, top with shredded cheddar, chopped lettuce, salsa mixture and diced avocado.  Enjoy

Smoothies

I recently got on a smoothie kick and love these two recipes.  We use these as a meal sometimes.

Mango/Strawberry/Banana Smoothie for 3

Peel and cut up two mangoes and place in blender
Add 1/2 cup of grapefruit juice
Juice of half a lime
some ice and blend til smooth

Equally pour into 3 glasses, rinse blender

Add 2 bananas  to blender
Add 10-15 strawberries
juice of 1/2 a lime
some ice and blend until smooth

Pour on top of the mango into the 3 glasses and enjoy.  Makes a very pretty drink.



Green Smoothie

Place a bunch of grapes into the blender
1/4 lime with peel
3 dates
A bunch of spinach
Add ice and blend

The sweetness from the grapes and dates make this go down smooth.

Love aroma of GARLIC

I haven't posted on my blog in months and months it seems.  We have been way to busy working on the farm and trying to get caught up in the gardens and landscape.  We got 310 garlic gloves up this year and they are hanging in the barn ready to start processing. It smells great when I pass by to the garden.

After the garlic dry in open barn we will peel most of the cloves and place in olive oil and refrigerate.

Chicken Parmesean Bake

5 boneless skinless chicken breast
1 c italian bread crumbs
2 eggs
1/4 c flour
parmesean cheese
couple tablespoons of olive oil
1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce
mozzerella cheese ( I also used some local sundried tomato, garlic herb yogurt cheese from the farmers market)
kosher salt, red pepper flakes and ground pepper


Put the flour in a bowl, beat the eggs and put in a seperate bowl, combine the bread crumbs and parmesean in another bowl
Salt and pepper the chicken
Coat the chicken in the flour, dip in the egg mxture, coat with the bread crumbs and parmesean.
Add olive oil to frying poan and heat on medium, add the chicken to the pan and brown on boths sides for a few minutes.
Pour the marinara in a 9x13 baking dish, add the browned chicken breast, cover with mozzerrella and your favorite cheese.  Bake at 375 for 30 minutes........yumm  Serve with your favorite pasta as a side, garlic bread and salad

Doggie Treats

Jazzy couldn't get enough!  Bella got the big bones.

Peanut Butter and Oat biscuits

1cups water(add more water later if required) 

1 cup oil

2 eggs 

3 tablespoons peanut butter

2 tsp. vanilla 

2 cups flour 

1 cup cornmeal 

1 cup oats

Blend wet ingredients together. Whisk dry ingredients together and mix into wet mixture to form a ball of dough. Roll out and use cookie cutters to make whatever shape you want.  Put onto a non-stick cookie tray or lightly greased one. Cook 20 minutes at 400 F. Turn off oven and allow the biscuits to cool in oven until crisp and hard. 

Making Candy

This one is simple if you are looking to make a sweet treat that goes a long way.  I made these for Christmas this year.

Chocolate covered nuts

1 pkg of vanilla almond bark
1 pkg of chocolte almond bark
1 small bag of giradelli 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate chips
2 lbs of gourmet nuts with sea salt or nuts of your choice

Place the choc chips in bottom of crockpot, cover with nuts and almond bark.  Turn on low for 3 hours and leave the lid on. After 3 hours take the lid off and stir.  Drop by spoonful on parchment paper and cool.

Nutella Turnovers

Nothing sweet all week so I am craving some chocolate. Looked in the pantry and found these ingredients and searched recipes til I found one. Yummy.

1 sheet of puffed pastry thawed & divided into 2 layed on a floured surface and cut into little squares.
1 bag of giradelli choc chips
1 c nutella
1 egg
1 tblsp water
slivered almonds 1 tblsp butter

Preheat oven to 400
stir nutella and 3/4 bag of chips together
Wisk the egg with water and brush the ends of the pastry dough that you are folding together
Place a heaping spoonful of choc mix in each square
Fold over and make triangles and place on parchment lined cookie sheet
Brush rest of egg mixture on top of pastries and sprinkle almonds on top
Bake for 15 minutes
Cool and eat

Favorite Egg Casserole

8 eggs slightly wisked
12 oz container of cottage cheese
1 c bisquick
1 stick of melted butter or 1/2 c melted margerine
1 c milk
2 c of shredded cheddar
bacon cooked crisp and broken up to your liking
salt and pepper - you can add red pepper flakes or parsley


Preheat to 350
Combine all ingredients and pour into a 9 x 13 sprayed baking dish
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes   ENJOY


My son loves this hot or cold

Homemade Bread with Sunflower Seeds

I am so excited about how my bread turned out.  It is delicious... no kneading.  My La Cloche arrived the other day and I am definately going to get my money back with the use of it.  I didn't photograph the process because I was uncertain the first time.  I will post the steps next blog.

Here's the results

BELLA ROMA

We just have all kinds of unusual tomatoes growing this year so we have had fun staging the Roma's while we get down to some serious aroma flowing through the house.

ROASTING ROMA'S AND GARLIC

Slice the roma's in half and place on parchment lined cookie sheets.  Be sure to fill the pan.  If you have fresh garlic, peel some cloves and set in there as well.

Sprinkle kosher salt, fresh basil, oregano or parsley

Drizzle olive oil on top.

Place in a preheated oven at 225 and bake for 4 or 5 hours.

I put mine in a convection setting at 325 because I needed to bake in less time.

These can be put in freezer bags and stored n the freezer for later use on pizza's or pasta.........if they last that long!!!

Baked Roma's with garlic and mozzerella

Our tomatoes are coming in and we had a beautiful crop of garlic this year.  I am a garlic lover and these were delicious.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper
Slice your Roma's in half lengthwise, scoopout the center with a spoon and place on cookie sheet
Peel your garlic
Place the garlic in a bowl and pour enough olive oil to coat well
Add some basil to the mix
Place one garlic in each roma drizzling some oil on as well
I used pearl mozzerella and placed one pearl in each Roma
Bake at 375 for about 45 minutes

Apple Poppies

We thawed out some frozen apples from last years crop and usually I will just heat these up and serve them warm.  Keith had a friend over and they wanted some pie.  I had some frozen puff pastry sheets and came up with this.  Keith wants to call them Apple Poppies.

1 pkg of frozen puff pastry
1 quart of chopped cooked apples.
dash of cinnamon
dash of fresh ground nutmeg
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
2 tbsp butter

Thaw out the puff pastry - this shouldn't take long (if you thaw it too much, you can't work with it)
Heat your apples in a saucepan for about 10 minutes and let cool to room temp. Cook a little longer if you are using fresh picked.
I put the butter in a microwaveable bowl with the pecans and add the cinnamon and nutmeg.  Microwave about a minute stirring halfway.

Drain the apples, saving some juice
Roll out the pastry and cut into 4 equal squares on each sheet
spoon apples onto pastry sheet
spoon some pecan mix on top and take pastry ends diagonally and press all sides together
Place on cookie sheet and brush some juice on top.

Bake at 400 for about 20 minutes until light golden brown.

Happy 4th of July Yummy Breakfast

Good Morning America...Happy 4th of July

We enjoyed the fireworks last night in downtown Asheville

Shelby came over after she ran the 5 K in Weaverville this morning.  Keith was just wanting french toast.  I looked in the bread box and only had french bread so I thought OK baked french toast but then I remembered that I usually let that set in the fridge overnight,  after searching the net I had the ingredients to come up with this yummy recipe.

1 loaf of whole grain french bread cut into about 20 pieces

4 oz of whipped cream cheese

1/2 c finely chopped pecans

4 large eggs

1/4 c heavy whipping cream

1/4 c water

3 tblsp butter

canola spray

Mix the eggs, cream and water in a bowl to dip bread in.  Spread cream cheese on one side of 10 slices, top with finely chopped pecans.  Use the other 10 slices to cover and make little sandwiches.  

Spray your skillet and then add butter on med low heat until melted.  Dip the sandwiches in the cream mix (be sure to coat both sides)and put in skillet for about 8 minutes. Turn over for a few minutes.  Both sides should be golden brown. I sprinkled some fresh ground nutmeg and cinnamon on top. 

 Top with maple syrup and enjoy!  I think you could substitute pecans with strawberry jam and it would also be good.

Peanut Butter Granola Balls

I have learned with a teenager in the house to have healthy snacks on hand at all times.  Mostly it has been fruit in my house since my son is a fruitaholic..he can't get enough.  I'm not complaining, better than junk food.  I just can't keep the fruit on hand.  He eats it as fast as I buy it.  Here's a good filling treat that will stick and give you the sweet fix as well

1 c powdered sugar
1 c creamy peanut butter
1/3 c milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 c quaker oats
1 c granola cereal of your choice
1 1/4 c peanut butter and choc chip morsels

Combine powdered sugar, peanut butter, milk and vanilla extract in large bowl.

Stir in the oats, granola and peanut butter and choc chip morsels.  Mix until completely coated.

You can put in the refrigerator to harden up before you start rolling your balls.  Roll into 1 inch balls and place on wax paper. Then store in an airtight container in freezer.  Take out as wanted.  Great snack.

How do you want your eggs today?

There's nothing better then farm fresh eggs.  We have Brahma and Araucana hens.  It is a highlight of the day to see how many eggs we get for the day.  We only have 4 hens. ( they produce 2 - 4 eggs a day)

This morning a did a take on a recipe I saved.

10 eggs wisked together.
red, green and yellow peppers chopped
onion chopped -   I cheated and used the frozen stir fry peppers and onions in the freezer.
Saute the peppers and onion with some olive oil
Season with sea salt and crushed pepper along with crushed red pepper
Add the pepper & onion to the whisked egg and pour into muffin tins  (spray the muffin tin first)
Top with grated parmesean cheese and bake at 350 for 12-15 min depending on your oven.  Egg needs to be set.  Serve with salsa

It would be fun to add different veggies in and have little omelet muffins.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mothers Day!  I slept in which means 8 am, my husband made me breakfast and decided he would vacuum the house (this is a first, trust me)  I had to take a picture.

We enjoyed the warm weather outside and Keith stayed in with allergies acting up again.  This year has been bad for allergies here.  Could have went out for dinner but wanted to try making my own burgers the way a friend showed me last week.  She purchased a boneless rump rust on sale and cut off the fat, cut it into chunks and grinded/ chopped  it in the food processor. I used my burger press and formed nice patties and seasoned with sea salt and fresh ground pepper and a little Worcestershire sauce. On the grill and they were great.  We had this with roasted butternut squash, garlic, onion and seasoned with some fresh ground nutmeg, sea salt and pepper and drizzled with olive oil.  Yukon Gold simple potato salad.    YUM..this was good for me. KC cooked the burgers just right and such an easy day!

Yukon Gold Simple Potato Salad

6 Yukon Gold potatoes peeled and cut into chunks for salad
Onion and celery chopped to your liking
2 boiled eggs chopped up
Miracle Whip  - just enough to make it real moist

Ended with a beautiful sunset.........

Now it's back to the normal routine on Monday.  Work, Work and more Work........