recipes and things

[cornerofmadness]

i can't remember if i thanked winged_sandals for the virtual polar bear but thanks! he's cute.

I did manage to get all the winter and summer clothes changed around. Did manage to have an allergy attack doing it.

Got some holiday gifts wrapped. Have NO time to get to COlumbus like I want. I have no idea how to finish off these gifts. I might just give up on COlumbus and get the stuff back in PA and the gifts will just be late. We're all adults. My friends will understand. hope they understand if it was a book, I read it first and if it's a dvd I watched...well not the Supernatural ones. i'm not that bored yet.

There have been requests for some of my recipes. I don't have the curried butternut squash soup but I did include one of my versions sans curry. I use wine instead. (i use lots of wine in the kitchen. Some even ends up in the food)


Butternut Squash Soup

¼ cup ( ½ stick) of butter
½ large sweet onion chopped (can substitute 1 large shallot)
6 cloves of garlic chopped
1 large butternut squash, peeled, sealed and chopped into chunks OR (and this way is much much easier) two boxes of frozen butternut squash puree (might be called ‘winter squash’)
½ cup white wine
½ cup orange marmalade (sugar free can be used)
3 sprigs fresh tarragon (or dried to taste)
6 cups veggie stock (or chicken)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup heavy cream

If you’re going with the actual peeling of the squash, use this recipe: melt butter in large stock pot over med. Heat. Add onion and garlic, cook 4-6 min. until soft (be careful not to burn the garlic). Add in squash, wine, marmalade and tarragon. Cook 3 minutes. Add stock and cook @ 10-15 minutes until squash is soft. Transfer to food processor in small batches and blend until smooth (or use immersion blender for same result). Return to pot, add salt and pepper. Stir in heavy cream and heat through (do not boil) and serve.

If you’re going with the butternut puree, defrost puree in microwave. Cook onions and garlic the same way. Add in puree, wine, marmalade and tarragon and cook until heated through. Add in stock and slowly let it cook about 7-10 minutes to let flavors blend. add salt and pepper. Stir in heavy cream and heat through (do not boil) and serve.

Either way – you can swirl crème fraiche through it for prettiness.
Serving size, 6. Calories? – who are you kidding? If you’re eating this, you’re not caring.




Spiced Apricot Couscous
1 ½ cups low-fat milk
2/3 cup dried whole wheat couscous (4 oz)
1/3 cup refrigerated/frozen egg product or 1 egg plus 1 egg white lightly beaten
¼ cup coarsely snipped dried apricots
1 Tablespoon honey
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
¼ tsp ground ginger
Pinch ground nutmeg
¼ cup chopped pecans

in a small saucepan, whisk together milk, couscous, egg, apricots, honey, cinnamon, salt, ginger and the nutmeg. Cook and stir over medium heat for about 10 minutes or until couscous is very tender and the mixture thickens. Remove from heat. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Stir in pecans just before serving.

NOTE- these spice amounts were in the original recipe. I usually triple or quadruple them. Couscous, like rice, is bland and at those levels the spice is barely tastable. Go nuts. spice to your heart's content I say.