Stuffed Squash

This week was one of those weeks where I had an odd assortment of food leftover at the end of the week.  There wasn't enough of any one item to make a meal for all of us. There was leftover soup, about a pound of ground turkey, 3 small acorn squash, 1/2 a bag of green beans and a small bit of frozen spinach.  The resulting dinner - stuffed squash with a cup of soup.

The stuffed squash was wonderful.  I usually think of squash as just a side dish, but this made the perfect fall meal, plus it was quick and easy.  This is one of those fillings that is easily adjustable based on what you have available.  I had spinach on hand that I wanted to use up, but I also debated using apples which I think would be super yummy as well and give it even more Fall flavor.

Stuffed Squash
Printer Ready

3 Acorn Squash
¼ c. Brown Sugar
1 small Onion, diced
1 lb. Ground Turkey
10 oz. Chopped frozen Spinach, thawed
1 Tbs. Curry Powder
¼ c. Flour
¼ c. Milk
Parmesan cheese


Directions:
Preheat oven 350 degrees.

Cut squash in half remove seeds, place in baking dish and season with salt and pepper.  Evenly divide brown sugar between squash halves.  Bake for 20-30 minutes or until tender.

While squash is cooking prepare filling.  Over medium heat saute onion in olive oil until opaque.   Add ground turkey, cook until brown and cooked through.  Add curry powder, salt and pepper and chopped spinach.  Cook 3-5 minutes or until spinach is combined with turkey.  Sprinkle mixture with flour, cook for another 5 minutes, stirring to combine.  Slowly add milk, cook mixture thickens.  

Remove squash from oven.  Divide turkey mixture between squash halves.  Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.  Return to oven bake for 10 minutes.

Cereal and Star Wars

This summer General Mills sent me a variety of cereals to sample.  Some of the cereals we received where types I normally wouldn't purchase, like Lucky Charms and Trix.  Other samples, like Cheerios and Chex are household favorites.  Ever since I received these samples I have been thinking about and noticing cereals more often and I have come to the conclusion my family eats a lot of cereal.

We don't just eat cereal for breakfast.  I throw it in the kids lunch, there is often a baggie full of cereal in my bag for snacks, sometimes there is even a box of it floating around the car.  Plus I love cooking with it, it has become one of my favorite breading items.  You can really change up a boring piece of chicken just by varying you cereal choice.

I know our cereal uses aren't unusual but I never realized just how much cereal we use and for some reason I am fascinated by this.  I think General Mills somehow secretly sensed this fascination and decided to mess with me even more by sending me yet another amazing package.  This time they sent full sized boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Lucky Charms.  That alone would have been great - they are all great snacking and cooking cereal - but it got better when the three boxes are put together you get this.

Again this was great I was happy with the cereal my kids had a great time with the boxes, but they also included a $25 gift card to Walmart, which will be used not for something practical, but to buy the full Star Wars collection.  Our discs are very scratched up and no longer watchable.  My Star Wars obessessed children find this very frustrating and will be very happy on Christmas morning when they find the new collection under the tree.  Now if Santa will just bring us a Blue-ray player to go with it we will all be happy.

General Mills and MyBlogSpark have generously offered to send one of my readers this same prize pack.  You will receive:

• One box of each of the following cereals to form their own Star Wars panoramic poster:
• Honey Nut Cheerios
• Cinnamon Toast Crunch
• Lucky Charms
• $25 Walmart gift card

Leave a comment letting me know your favorite way to enjoy cereal or your favorite Star Wars character.  On October 27th I will pick a winner.

SRC - Simply Cooked

Chicken and peanut butter is one of my favorite combinations.  I could eat it every day and never grow tired of it, so when I saw Sarah over at Simply Cooked had a recipe for Bang Bang Chicken I new what I would be trying this month for the Secret Recipe Club.

As always the SRC club introduced me to another wonderful site.  Sarah has a great assortment of recipes, a lot of the recipes are vegetarian, but there are options for the carnivore lover as well.  In addition to her recipes Sarah also has some fabulous book reviews from her Kitchen Reader book club.  I spent just as much time reading these posts as I did her recipes, so not only did my recipes to make list grow, but so did my books to read list.

Sarah's recipe for Bang Bang Chicken is wonderfully simple.  It is a great dish to have in your repertoire as it can be prepared ahead of time and is just as yummy cold as hot.  I actually prefer to it cold, the flavors are much more enhanced.

 I followed Sarah's recipe pretty much exactly, but did add some carrots for a little added crunch.

Bang Bang Chicken 
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Recipe from Simply Cooked and adapted from A Little Taste of China

Make this with leftover roasted or poached chicken. Or poach the chicken at the beginning of the recipe, then use the same cooking water for the noodles.

1 1/2 cucumbers
1 t salt
30 g Rice vermicelli
1 t toasted sesame oil
2 c. Cooked chicken, shredded
2 scallions (spring onions), sliced

for the dressing:
1/4 c (peanut butter
1 t soy sauce
4 t sugar
3 T rice wine vinegar
1 T toasted sesame oil
1 scallion (spring onion), sliced
1 T minced ginger
1 t chilli paste
1/4 c (60 ml) chicken stock or water

Slice the cucumbers into sticks. Toss with the salt and set aside in a bowl for 20 minutes.

Make the dressing by whisking together all the dressing ingredients.

Cook the noodles according to the packet directions; this will only take a few minutes. Drain and rinse in cold water so they cool to room temperature.
Combine the cucumbers, noodles, sesame oil, and chicken. Pour the dressing over and toss to combine. Sprinkle with the scallions.

As always there are lots of great recipes to check out with this month's SRC. You can check them out here and be sure to visit the Secret Recipe Club site throughout the month for more recipe reveals.

Strawberry Shortcake

My daughter just celebrated her 5th birthday and requested a Strawberry Shortcake themed birthday party.  She also requested to have a moonbounce, which made the party super simple, even though the weather was absolutely miserable.

I had planned on setting everything up outside, but the cold temperatures and rain made that impossible, so we move all the food inside.  I am not good at decorating so the decorations consisted of red, green and pink balloons.  I kept the table simple with a green table cloth and served everything in red bowls.  A couple of years ago I bought a red tiered server from Pottery barn, it was on clearance when I got it and it has been one of my best purchases ever.  I have decided that red is a great option for serving ware and have become a little obsessed with collecting it.  It is perfect for Christmas, 4th of July, Valentines Day and of course Strawberry Shortcake parties, plus it is a great accent piece for many other occasions.

Enough of my red obsession, back to the party.  As I said the table was simple and so was the food.  We had "Fancy" Strawberry and Cream Cheese Sandwich Pockets, pizza muffins, apples and caramel and strawberries and chocolate.  We also served Strawberry Milk and Strawberry Lemonade.  Very simple, but enjoyed by both the kids and the adults who stuck around.  I apologize that I don't have a picture of the spread, but I somehow forgot to take any pictures, but as I said it was simple and not very exciting to look at, so you aren't missing out on much.

The cake was fun to make.  Again, it was pretty simple and wasn't overly Strawberry Shortcake in appearance.  I don't like putting people or faces on cakes, it creeps me out to cut the cakes and eat them, but that is my own personal problem, so even though Maggie loved the Wilton cake, I just couldn't do it.  I found some great ideas on-line and this was the final product.

I was pretty happy with it, but by the time I went to serve it it had started to bow out.  A friend thought I had designed the cake that way on purpose to mimic the characters hat, which it kind of did.  I am not sure what caused the cake to bulge out.  The cake wasn't sliding so I am thinking that some of the icing from the top of the cake started to slide down, although the icing was still smooth on all sides.  If you have any ideas what might have happened or know what would cause this I would love to find out.

Birthday Cake

I had a last minute request for a birthday cake.  There was no design request, which is one of those things that I love and hate.  It is nice not having to live up to any preconceived idea of what the cake will look like, but it is a little stressful having to come up with something that will appeal to the recipient without any guidelines.  This is the final product

Very simple, but it gave me the opportunity to practice some basic cake making skills, like getting the icing smooth which I still struggle with.

Also in the works is a Strawberry Shortcake birthday cake for my daughter who is turning 5.  I tried to convince her to go with an owl cake.  I have been thinking about an owl cake since July when Louise posted this cake from her sons's birthday party, plus I have been seeing so many cute owl projects that I want to make, but she is standing her ground and Strawberry Shortcake it is.  Which I am happy about since I loved the Strawberry Shortcake gang as a kid and it is nice to see they are still around.

On a side note has anybody tried any of the new products from Wilton?  When I went to Michael's to pick up some supplies I was amazed by all the products.  Sheets of fondant/gumpaste, tons of different cutters and molds.  Has anybody found anything that is really great?

Cookies or Cake

This month was the last month the Cake Slice bakers were baking with Lauren Chattman's book "Cake Keeper Cakes."  We didn't vote on a cake this month as in previous months, instead we could choose any cake in the book.  There were a couple of cakes I had been eyeing and looking forward to making,  unfortunately I didn't get around to making one of her cakes.

My husband's birthday was earlier this week.  Mike isn't a cake guy, he is a cookie, pie, tart kind of guy, so this year I told him I wasn't making a cake.  He could choose anything else, but I wasn't doing a cake.  He chose Oatmeal Raisin Cookies and I was all set to make them.  But then I turned on him, the idea of not having a cake for his birthday just didn't seem right.  I think everyone should have a cake on their birthday, so he got an Oatmeal Raisin Cake for his birthday.

When thinking of this type of cake it didn't sound right to me.  I don't know why, but it sounded like it would have an odd mouth feel. I was completely wrong and this was a delicious cake.  My son kept on insisting it was a carrot cake, as the flavors are very similar.  I topped the cake with a browned butter icing which was a nice accompaniment.  This is a great cake for the fall and  is also great for a birthday celebration that you don't need a cake for, but want to make one anyway.

Oatmeal Raisin Cake
Printer Ready

1 cup Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats
1 cup Golden Raisins
1 ½  cups boiling Water
2 Tbs. Rum
1 ½  cups sifted Flour
1 tsp. Baking soda
1 tsp. Cinnamon
½  tsp. Nutmeg
¼  tsp. Cloves
½ cup Butter
1 cup Sugar
½ cup Brown Sugar
2 large Eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla

Preheat oven to 375°F.  Butter and flour an 8x12 inch baking pan.
Combine oats and raisins, add boiling water and stir until combined.  Allow to cool to room temperature.  
Sift the flour with the baking soda and spices, set aside.  In large mixing bowl cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla; beat until until well mixed.
Add sifted flour mixture alternating with the cooled oatmeal, starting and ending with the dry ingredients.  Mix until combined.
Pour into prepared pan.  
Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in center of cake comes out clean.
Cool completely and top with Brown Butter Icing.  

Brown Butter Icing
Printer Ready

4 tablespoons Unsalted butter
2 tablespoons Cream Cheese
1 ½  cup sifted confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons milk

In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat until nut-brown in color, about 10 minutes. Remove pan from heat, and pour butter into a bowl of electric mixer, leaving any burned sediment behind.   Add ½ cup sugar and mix until combined.  Add cream cheese and mix until smooth.  Continue adding sugar mixing until smooth.  Add vanilla and 1 tablespoon milk.  Add remaining tablespoon a little at a time until consistency is spreadable.  

Buffalo Chicken Wings

I love buffalo chicken wings.  Messy spicy sauce with cool blue cheese dressing - yumm!  I remember my Dad making them for parties when they were a new fad food.  In college my roommates and I started many evenings out at a local bar that served the best wings, we would often finish the night here as well.  I am constantly searching for a place that comes close to The Monopole, but I still haven't found it.

Despite my love for wings I have never tried to make them. Last weekend I decided to finally give it a try, maybe I could make wings that could compare to what I remembered from college.  The result - a total flop.  Now I am just craving wings even more.  The sauce never stuck and the result was a boring wing with no flavor.  We still managed to eat them all, but that was because of the blue cheese dressing which was very yummy.

I am so sad about this flop, it had the makings of a perfect Fall afternoon feast.

I think wings are best when fried, but I know they can also be good when just baked.  So what happened?  Here is the recipe I used.  I forget exactly where I found it, but it is comparable to many others I looked at.  Any suggestions on why these were such a flop?  Anybody have a good no fail recipe to share?


Buffalo Chicken Wings

3 lbs Chicken Wings
1/2 c. Butter, melted
1/2 c. Franks Red Hot Sauce
2 1/2 tsp. Tabasco Sauce
1 1/2 Tbs. Chili Powder


Place wings in single layer on baking sheet.  In 375 degree oven bake until wings are cooked through and slightly crispy.

While wings are cooking combine remaining ingredients in large bowl.  Add cooked wings and toss to coat thoroughly.  Return coated wings to baking sheet.  Lower oven temperature to 300 and bake wings for an additional 10 to 15 minutes.

Blue Cheese Dressing

2 oz. Blue Cheese, crumbled
1/4 c. Buttermilk
1/4 c. Sour Cream
1/4. c. Mayonnaise
Juice of 1/4 lemon
Salt and Pepper to taste

In small bowl combine all ingredients.

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