Amazing Baked Acorn Squash

This is THEE all time best acorn squash recipe in the world. Seriously. Even if you don't care for acorn squash as a rule, this recipe will change your mind. It is super easy, realitvely quick and super yummy. Even your pickiest eater will eat it willingly.

First off if you are like me and buy your squash at the grocery store you will want to wash it well before you cut it because you are going to want to eat the skin on the recipe. I put a tiny dab of dish washing liquid on my hand and rub it well over the skin, rincing well when you are done. I do this earlier in the day so that I can leave it to air dry. You don't want to try and cut it while it is damp. Cuting an acorn squash is hard enough so you don't want to chance accidently lopping off a digit. So be forewarned! Better safe than sorry.

First preheat your oven to 400 degrees then... using a strong-long knife and cut your squash lenthwise, from stem to bottom. Remove the seeds, reserving the seeds if you like to toast roast seeds, which I do, then cut the halves in half. Once you have done that cut the halves into 1/2 inch slices like this:

Toss the slices in a large bowl along with 4 TBS of an oil of your choice. I like the clean flavor of canola but this is entirely up to you. Once you have tossed them around to make sure they are all coated, set them aside for a second while you grab a small cereal sized bowl. 

In your small bowl add: 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 cup dry parmesean cheese and 1 tsp garlic powder. If you only have garlic salt no worries. Just omit the salt and you will be fine. Optional add-ins are, 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, or 1TBS cracked black pepper corn. I do one or the other but not both in the recipe.

Stir all the powdered ingredients together then poor it over your squash, tossing to coat. Shake the bowl a little to settle the crumbs tot he bottom of the bowl. Carfully lay out your squash in a single layer on to a cookie pan. With your fingers add the crumbs from the bowl to any pieces that might need a little extra. Use it all... you don't want to miss out on any yummy goodness. Place on the middle oven rack for approximately 40 minutes. I turn them over at 30 min and watch them closely so they don't burn, taking them out at about 40. 

They will be crispy on the outside, soft on the inside and chewy on the crust. This is so good you will wish you bought more than one squash!

Ingredient recap:

1 acorn squash

4 TBS oil

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup dry or shredded parmesean cheese

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 cup sunflower seeds or 1 TBS cracked black peper corn (optional)

As always let me know what you think. I'd love to hear your variations.

Enjoy!

Kerri Downey

Vegetable stock

Did you save all your vegetable ends and pieces when you were prepareing for your holiday feast? Shame on you if you didn't. Okay, I'll take a bit of the blame for not getting this out BEFORE Thanksgiving but you can start now and be prepared for after Christmas or New Years which ever. (cheezy grin)

Vegetable Stock - Vegetable Broth, dosn't matter what you call it, it is the same. YUM!

As a general rule I keep a large empty butter tub, marked for compost on the counter. When it is full or I deem it stinky, I send it out with hubby to be added to the big bin we keep out back. However, not everything I cut or trim off my veggies is destined for the bin. I keep gallon sized baggies that I fill over a period of time and then turn into stock when I have 4-5 hours to kill. HA! That sounded funny even to me. Maybe I should rephrase that into, stove-top hours; because you can be cleaning house, doing laundry, or even watching tv while it is simmering and not bother with it... except maybe to stir it ocassionally when you pass through.

Here are they types of things I toss in: (washed and somewhat dried of course)

potatoe skins

onion peels

onion ends, yep the root part

green onion ends that are to fiberous to add to a dish

wilted, non edible carrots

carrot ends

wilted, non edible: lettuce, kale, chard, colards - ends too! Just cut or scrub off the dirt.

celery ends and tops

brussel leaves that you have paired the bussels themselves

brussel tree leaves if you don't intend to eat them (which I do!)

skins of just about any squash

cabbage

Use your imagination. You can put just about an veggie in your stock. Set it to simmer and walk away. I choose NOT to put tomatoe unless its a few tops because so many of the dishes I use the stock for whould not pair well with tomatoe. I make a totally seperate tomatoe base that I can pull from if I need or want tomatoe. For this though I just want veggies. DO NOT SALT your stock. You can do that when the time to use it up arrives. For now, be satisfied that your stock is all natural veggies that you family uses and loves on a regular basis.

Recipe:

*Place your frozen vegetable ends in a stock pot. 

*Cover with water to with in 2 inches of the top of pot.

*Set to simmer. 

*Stir ocassionally, ocassionally addiing water if needed.

*Simmer 1.5 - 2 hours. Cover and let cool so you can touch the pan with out getting burned.         Today I left mine about 3 hours before I started the next process.

*Using cheese cloth over a colander poor cooled broth through into a clean pan to remove all the veggies. 

*Cooled stock is placed in quart sized freezer baggies. 4-cups each.

*Label bag and place in freezer.

As a side note, I have my favorite lazy boy chair. I read, write, watch tv, needlepoint and craft in this chair. I also DARE anyone to sit in it on penelty of death. One of my cats, Gracie, could care less how I feel about the chair. Infact, I believe she feels the same on a different level about me sitting in HER chair. I no sooner get out of the chair than she is in it for a quick cat-nap. Today while catching up on laundry and dishes and then starting my current batch of yummy stock, Gracie took over the chair. When asked to vacate so I could work on this post; I got the "look."  Repeated tries only got me more of the same. I finally had to pick her up and move her to a new location which she quicky vacated because it was not as comfy. lol! Here she is the lazy butt! 

                                                                           

Enjoy!

Kerri Downey

Stuffed Poblano Peppers

Sadly my garden is coming to a halt... another growing season is almost over. We still have a few stragglers to put up... a few miscelaneous tomatoes still on the vine, a greenbean here and there.. and those lovely green pablanos that finally turned red. Yum! I pulled nine yesterday and there are a few more to turn so I'm patiently waiting. lol... I love this time of year. I LOVE all the goodies. I eat some, save some and share some.

I dried my chieves... (I didn't get enough this year) did up another batch of tomato stock and began working on my pablanos. Man! I love me a good stuffed pablano! It kind-of depends on my mood weather I stuff them with cheese or meat. It's been so long since I had a bunch of them that I was dreaming of the meat version. My husband and I have personally never grown them so we were excited to experiment. I've watched this plant, and watched this plant, and finally decided yesterday was the day.  Look how beautiful they turned out!

I almost didn't want to eat them... (I said ALMOST) they were so beautiful. The ones you get at the farmers market or the supermarket are not so cute... just saying! So the recipe I use is in my head. lol.. It took me a little longer to put this together because I measured things for you and committed  everything to paper, including taking pictures. HA! but the entire process of this meal really is very short. Maybe and hour or and hour and a half tops if you don't stop to admire your pablanos every few minutes. :-)

Pre-heat your oven to 425

Rinse, chop the top off your pablano, de-seed, reserving the top portion minus the green stem. Set your peppers aside... save a just a few of the seeds to toss into your mixture later.

~ 2 cups medium sized diced potatoes

~ 1 cup of bell pepper ( I mixed mine, Red, Green and Yellow)

~ 1 large onion chopped (approximately 1 cup)

~ 2 large tomatoes (skin removed)

~ 1/2 lb ground beef

~ 1 small can of tomato paste

~ 1/2 can or about 5 ounces of Rotel

~ Salt, Pepper, Garlic and Cayenne Pepper to taste

~ 1 cup of greens (like kale or chard) optional

~ 1/4 cup of chicken stock or cooking wine to use for deglazing your skillet

~ 16 ounce bag of mozzzerella cheese

1) Start by frying your hamburger. You may season your hamburger a little now if you are like me and can't stand the smell of cooking hamburger. Nasty! I toss in salt, pepper and garlic to mask the smell and it makes it taste yummy! Do not drain! Yep, leave all those hamburger drippings in the skillet it adds flavor to the dish. Deglaze your skilet by adding a splash of whatever you have in the fridge and work your spoon over the bottom to get up all the "yumminess" (is that a word?) off the bottom. I used Chicken stock because it was open and handy, 

2) Right on top of your cooked hamburger add your potatoe, onion, bell pepper, chopped tomatoes, and tomatoe paste. Give it a good stir to incorporate everything. Let it simmer until the potatoes start to soften. I don't like to let my potatoes get completely soft because I want a little bite to them. Besides you will be finishing this in the oven so you definately don't want to over cook them... Before you walk away from your skillet to let it do it's thing. Taste. Here is where you want to add your Salt, Pepper, Garlic, Cayenne Pepper and a few seeds from your Pablano if you dare. Remember that your potatoes will absorb some of your salt so you may need to add a tad more before you stuff the peppers but also remember to go as sparingly as you can. I wouldn't want you to have blood pressure problems from something so GOOD!

3) When your potatoes are done how you like, turn off the heat, stir in your greens and begin stuffing your peppers. I start by spooning the mixture in but sometimes because of the shape of the pepper I need to help it reach the bottom by using my fingers or sometimes the back of a spoon.  Lay your peppers side by side in a 9X13 glass dish, leaving a little room around them to fill in with all the extra filling you will have. I usually can fit 9-10 peppers in a 9X13.

4) Fill in around your peppers with the left over filling and top with as much or as little cheese as you like. I like a lot of cheese so I use the entire bag.

5) Bake at 425 until golden brown... about 25 minutes. Check occasionally, burnt cheese is not yummy. 

Served with corn from the garden and warm tortillas... YUM! Couldn't ask for better. Talk about Heaven!!! My husband and I neither one were chatting it up. It was all quite contemplation while we were eating except for an ocassional hum from my husband...lol! You just KNOW when it is good. I hope you enjoy making this as much as I do. Let me know what you think!

Enjoy!

Kerri Downey

Ms. D's Honey BBQ Chicken

BBQ Chicken.... Yum! How about making it yourself? Even yummier! I made this last weekend when I was on my cooking tri-athalon. I have other things to put in order this weekend. Tops on the list will be more tomatoes out of the garden, but first things first.... catching up on my blog. 

If you haven't yet dedicded on what to fix for your weekend get together with your family... or you need just one more thing for the "carry-in" this is it! It's one of those easy throw together and leave it to do it on thing, kind of thing. lol...! Here's what you need:

~ set your crock pot to HIGH

~ Catchup

~ about a 1/2 cup or so of honey

~ salt and pepper to taste

~ Cinnamon, dash

~ Ground Ginger, dash

~ Paprika, dash

~ 1/4 - 1/2 cup of Brown Sugar

~ 1/2 of a large Onion, rough chopped

~ 3 or 4 Cloves of minced Garlic

~ Cayenne Pepper, dash (optional)

~ 3 or 4 medium Chicken Breasts thawed and cut into strips or chunks

In a 2-quart sized crock pot add all of the above ingredients minus the chicken. Stir and taste. Add a dash more of your ingredients to bring it to a taste you are happy with. I have made this so many times that I KNOW the taste I am after. I just start adding a little of this and a little more of that until I arrive at that PERFECT taste. Go sparingly with the cinnamon. I say that and then in the video below, I accidentally added the cinnamon twice. Oh well, all is good... I added the Cayenne Pepper and of course that makes everything all right! Can I get an AMEN?! lol... I LOVE-LOVE-LOVE the sweet/hot combo.

When you are satisfied with your BBQ, drop in your chicken, making sure your crock pot is on High and walk away. Since you are making a relativly small amount in a smaller crock pot the cook time is not quite as long. 2 /12 to 3 hours the chicken is usuall done. In this video by the time we got around to eating it, it was closer to 4 hours and it was WELL done.

* As a side note... the kids at school this year are calling me Ms. D. I thought naming one of my recipes for them would be a nice tribute. Hugs to all my Elwood Haynes buddies!

http://youtu.be/PS5zdkK_lXU

Enjoy!

Kerri Downey

Freezing Apples

 I have to admit I have an addiction. Yep, I have a problem when it comes to driving by perfectly good things people have thrown out. My husband and I affectionately call it "Alley-Shopping." We have found some pretty good stuff too. Especially, baby stuff. The things we cart home are generally in the slightly used category and I am usually THRILLED with the find. We have a farmers market stand that we frequent and by some chance we hit on the fact that they sometimes leave produce sitting out at the end of the day. Yep, they close up and go home - leaving miscellaneous fruits and veggies for whomever is willing to mess with produce that has been sitting out all day. Enter Jeff and Kerri! This summer we have carted home backseat and trunks full of this and that. Our latest find... last night was apples. Yes, the apples were a tad soft but my plan was to freeze them and turn them into pies and crisps sometime down the road. The ladies and gentlemen at Joy Fellowship won't know the difference; neither, will my family! So, this morning was filled with coring, peeling and chopping. All you need to freeze apples other than the apple itself is a little salt, and some basic equipment like: freezer bags, a knife, corer and a large bowl.

~ 1/4 cup salt diluted in 1 gallon of water. (place into a large bowl)

~ Core, peel and chop apple into desired chunks or wedges and toss in bowl of water (The brine keeps the apple from turning... and no, your thawed apples will not taste salty.)

~ Drain your apples for a few minutes to get as much water off as possible then...

~ Bag your apples into a freezer type bag, remembering to date and label your bag.

 

All done! Now wasn't that easy?! Today we did 7-gallon bags of apples and the bushel that is left we are taking to a friend that wants to freeze some too! So easy! And, this winter we will be blessing those venders for leaving their day old produce, over and over again. Actually, we already are... lol!

Enjoy!

Kerri

Home Grown Horseradish (planting, grinding and storing)

It's that time of year again. Horseradish! Yum! It makes me do the happy dance. Harvested in early Spring after the last frost or late fall after the first 'hard' frost, home grown can't get any better than this. I'm telling you... just the word 'horseradish' makes my mouth water.

Doesn't matter what you are putting it on: potatoes, veggies, sandwiches, meats of any kind, adding it to mayo or mustard, drying it or sneaking a smidgen out of the jar in the fridge to just taste, this is one of those things that is just BEST made at home. Now there are a few tricks and that's what we are here today to discuss.

Growing horseradish is the easy part. It practically grows itself.. and honestly it is a very pretty plant. If you are lucky enough to know someone who grows it themselves and you can get a few starts, do that. Two or three healthy starts will give you more than enough for yourself and a friend or two. If not, order a few starts off line. I recommend that you do not buy starts from an in-store package deal. The few I have seen have looked too old and dried up to do anything. I can't for the life of me understand why someone would want to waste their money on them.

My husband and I mentioned to my dad when he was still alive that we wanted to add horseradish to our "backyard garden" and he took us to a neighbor friend of his, who gladly donated three starts. Dad helped us dig them up and we planted them along the side of our garage. We waited a year and a half before we harvested the first time, hoping to give the plants plenty of time to grow... and boy did they!

Once they were cleaned we had around 12 pounds of root off of only two of the plants. We left the third plant to do in the spring. In the end, after grinding we had 17 (very full) quart bags. Let me tell you just how MUCH that is. It is now spring and time to harvest the one we left and I'm thinking.... ummmm... we just might wait until the fall. Given that we gave oodles away at Christmas time and we still have oodles in the freezer. Happy-Happy-Happy! (We also planted 3-more starts. Ohhh such a scary thought! lolol...)

So, here is the scoop.  Learned the hard way, since most of the articles we read on line were very vague and didn't give enough information.

Planting and Harvesting:

1. When planting your horseradish start. Dig a nice BIG hole. Six to eight inches deeper that the length of the root.
2. Plant your starts about 18 inches apart.
3. Once you placed your start, surround it with nice rich nutrient soil, from your compost bin if possible. Loosely fill in the dirt around and over your start and keep it damp, not soaked, until it breaks the soil. 
4. It will grow to be about 4 to 4/2 foot tall with some very lush, beautiful broad leaves.
5. Do not cut the first year.
6. After harvesting, place a part of the root. (6-8 inch piece) back into the ground, pointy end down.
7. If you have multiple plants, harvest in a every other or every two year pattern for multiple plants. That way you have fresh horseradish every year. 

Cleaning:

1. Initially use a hose in the yard to remove the largest part of the dirt. We used a scrub brush, the stiff kind you wash your car tires with, to help with the removal process. It worked great!
2. In the kitchen sink use a combination of running water, vegetable peeler and a stainless steel scrubber to remove the bark type dirty skin off the outside of the horseradish. There are spots you will not be able to reach that hold dirt. I use a very sharp pairing knife to slice these areas away.
3. Using a Cook Knife or a Santoku Knife and a wooden cutting board, cut/break through the root and cut into smaller pieces.  (The picture on the right is the first cutting, we didn't know that it really needed to be smaller than that.)

Grinding and Storing:

1. We used a meat grinder to grind the horseradish. (I'm not sure we will do that again. But, I'm not at all sure how else to approach it. I am SURE that there is other ways to grind it other than what we did. The root itself is very fibrous and hard to work with. HOWEVER, never fear, we accidentally hit on a solution!) 
2. Cover your cut up horseradish in white vinegar and allow to set over night before grinding. (Every thing we read said that the vinegar stopped the heat process. I'm sure to a certain extent it does. However, everything we are still opening is HOT! Yummy-hot... and we froze it in the vinegar.) 
3. After grinding place 2 cups in each Ziploc freezer bag, removing all the air as you seal it, lay it flat and freeze. 
   
4. Don't forget to date and label all your bags of horseradish. They should last about a year in the deep freeze.
5. A plastic Ziploc container or a recycled glass jar with a screw on lid works great in the fridge. This also makes awesome gifts! Everyone loves horseradish and homegrown is the BEST!

My husband Jeff would like for me to remind you to have a box of Kleenex handy. Your eyes and sinus we will be in overload. We cried like we have never cried before. It was actually kind of funny seeing as how it burned your eyes but in a different way than onions. We smelled horseradish for days after... I actually think it was IN our sinuses. 

We also tried drying the root. Jeff read on line somewhere where it could be done. And while we are AVID dehydrators I was a little skeptical. Jeff was somewhat pleased with his lil-experiment. He started with it in the house and we quickly decided that was NOT the way to go. He took it to the front porch, while it's enclosed it will is far enough away and closed off to not bother us... (to much)

I made some Quark cheese (also known as Farmers cheese) not to long after and we tried it in a small portion of the cheese. I wasn't sold on it but Jeff thought it was great.  I love having quantities of horseradish at my disposal, I swear before we got into the home grown horseradish business we probably needed to buy stock in someones company because we used a TON!

Let me know how your experience goes. I would love to know. Also.... if you know a better way of grinding PLEASE let me know ASAP! We are soon to do another batch and if there is another way I NEED to know. lolol....

Enjoy!

Kerri Downey

 

Pan Fried Chicken Tacos

If you are looking for an easy pan-fried chicken taco - Look No More! Taco's can't get any easier. This is one of those things we make LOTS of extras of so that we can eat left overs for a couple of meals. And in respect to the many left overs, it is a relatively cheap meal.

Mise en place:
3 - 4 medium sized chicken breasts (cut into very small pieces)
1 medium to large onion
1 TBS cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
1 8 ounce can Rotel Tomatoes
1/2 to 3/4 cup chopped hot pepper (Any kind, with or without the seeds - depending on how hot you like.)
1/2 - 2 cups of chicken broth (as needed)



In this video I used 3 medium sized breasts and 1 uber-large breast. I swear the chicken that this one came from must have been nick named Hercules! A weight lifter among chickens! Jeesh!

We ended up with 38 tacos! Yum! Also as a side note. After much trial and tribulation we have only decided to use the MISSION brand of yellow corn tortillas. They hold up through the frying process and they have a good flavor, even on day three. AND, we are able to purchase them at all of the grocery stores we frequent.

Enjoy!

Kerri Downey