We have been so busy at our house lately that I have not had much time to eat, let alone cook. We are working a lot of overtime on the weekends because we are trying to finish part of our basement so that Sam, our 13 year old, has a place to go to hang with his friends away from his lame old parents. I feel that we are really quite young, but to a 13 year old, anyone over the age of 20 seems old.
These are some items I worked on a couple of weekends ago, I think. It may actually have been last weekend.
Oven Roasted Cherry and Grape Tomato Pesto
Ingredients:
-garden fresh cherry and grape tomatoes
-Italian seasoning
-a couple cloves of garlic (minced)
-kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper (to taste)
-1/2 c. chopped walnuts
-extra virgin olive oil
Cut tomatoes in half, place on oiled, parchment paper covered cookie sheet. Season tomatoes with Italian seasoning, garlic, and salt and pepper. Roast tomatoes in 200°-225° oven for 2 ½ -3 hrs. Place roasted tomatoes in food processor with walnuts. Process tomatoes and walnuts while drizzling olive oil until desired consistency is reached. Eat immediately or refrigerate.
Next Time I will use fresh herbs, and drizzle tomatoes with a little balsamic vinegar before roasting. Also, tomatoes are so flavorful use garlic, seasonings, and vinegar very sparingly!
White Cheddar Harvest Chowder
Ingredients:
-1 large butternut squash (halved)
-2 large red potatoes (quartered)
-1 med. Sweet onion chopped
-1/2 c chopped carrots
-1/2 c. chopped celery
-4 Tbsp. butter
-1Tbsp. olive oil
-3 c water
-1 Tbsp chicken base
-1 c half and half
-16 oz. grated med. White cheddar
-Fresh ground black pepper (to taste)
-4 oz. sharp yellow cheddar
Place potatoes and squash oiled cookie sheet roast in 400° oven for 40-50 minutes. In a large stockpot, sauté onions, carrots, and celery in butter and oil until slightly soft. Add water and chicken base to vegetables, simmer on med heat until vegetables are very soft (about 20min). Puree vegetables and water mixture in blender. Pour back into hot stockpot. Add half/half reduce heat to med-low. Stir in white cheddar until melted, keep warm on low heat.
While still warm, remove skin and seeds with pulp from butternut squash. Dice squash and potatoes into ~1 in. cubes. I left the skin on the potatoes. Add the potatoes and squash to the chowder base, warm through. Serve up chowder. Garnish with sharp yellow cheddar.
End.
I have to write about the fall for a moment. I really think that it is my favorite season, especially when it comes to food. I absolutely love fall and winter food magazines. I am sure that I buy dozens of them from the end of September to the middle of December. I could call this blog 1,000,001 fall/winter food magazines. My husband always asks me why I do not just subscribe to them. I describe to him the boring, unattractive January “diet” magazines. Then there is the spring. What in the world are we supposed to cook in the spring? Boiled eggs and ham? But then summer comes back around again, finally! We can start fresh. We clean out all of our dank dark cupboards. Shake the dust out of our red gingham picnic table cloths. We stop dieting and start grilling again! Summer food is just the beginning. It is a teaser, for the limitless bounty and possibilities of fall and winter. Do not get me wrong, I do love summer eating, and I do not mind eating in the spring either. But fall and winter I dream about, scheme about, and plan ahead for.
When I think of winter I picture mittened hands cupped around an over sized cup of hot chocolate (laced with smoked chipotle and sweet anchio) piled high with fluffy homemade marshmallow squares.
Decadent, creamy, robust, bountiful, chunky, thick, rich, dense, harvest, reap, bake, stew, chowder, casserole, whole bird, roast, butternut, acorn, apple. These are only a petite ration of my favorite fall/winter food words.