Thanksgiving Turkey

When we decided to host Thanksgiving this year, we knew we would have to cook a turkey. Maybe because of its shear size or the fact it is the centerpiece of the holiday meal, the turkey can be an intimidating thing to cook! Growing up, my family used to pass an external turkey roaster around between the three families that hosted Thanksgiving, and while it may have been from 1950 and looked as though it could have easily started a fire at any moment, the turkey always came out well! While we do not have this same roaster today, in order to keep our small oven open for other dishes, Nick and I ordered a roaster online.

Stuffed Turkey!

Fresh Striped Bass on the Grill

When you spend the day fishing in the Boston Harbor and you come back with loads of fresh striped bass, you better hope you like fish! Luckily, Captain Scott was able to give us a couple of ideas on how to prepare the fish. Turns out, with a great starting ingredient it's pretty easy.

Ready for the grill

Homemade Ricotta - Deliciously Easy

For some reason, not having anything to do with the amazing ricotta from Cinquecento, Nick really wanted to whip up some homemade ricotta. Its one of those things you have seen done a bunch on TV and seems like no big deal, but actually deciding to do it requires a little more inspiration. Finally, when faced with bringing an appetizer to a family get-together, Nick decided this was the time to give it a go. Using his favorite Ina Garten's recipe as a guide, he set to work. Not to give away the ending, but if you don't try making your own ricotta ASAP, you are missing out!

Ricotta

Cranberry, Caramelized Onion & Cheese Spread

For me, coming up with a delicious appetizer can be difficult, especially when that is the one thing you are in charge of bringing to a dinner.  There are times when I enjoy the appetizers more than the meal itself!  Digging into his binder of recipes that he collected, Nick pulled out a few appetizers that sounded yummy and would travel well.  Simple enough, right?  My go-to of nice cheeses just was not going to cut it.

Dip!

This was something we had to bring for a meal in the late fall, and we happened to have some cranberries on hand from our CSA in the freezer, so that made the decision for which appetizer to bring a little easier.  To begin, Nick caramelized some onions nice and slowly.  Caramelized onions done the right way always have such a lovely golden color - definitely not something you can rush.

Designer Grilled Cheese Night

After a busy day of Apple Picking and whipping up some Apple and Pear Crisp, we knew that some unpleasent weather was on its way.  Rather than venturing out in the rain to a restaurant, we stopped in at Savenor's before the weather turned and got the supplies for an evening of designer grilled cheeses!

Grilled Cheese!

Since there is an impressive cheese selection at Savenor's, we chose a variety of hard cheese from both cows and goats.

Frozen Banana Goodness

Like most everyone these days, I have a bit of a Pinterest obsession.  There are so many great ideas for food and everything else under the sun!  Most recently, one of the "pins" that inspired me was for Banana Ice Cream, a really healthy dessert that looked almost too good to be true.  I had to put it to the test and figured if it even came close it would be a perfect summertime snack or dessert.

The Necessities...

• Loads of Bananas!!  (we used about 6 for 3 or 4 servings)

Bananas

Slow Cooker Asian-Style Short Ribs

One of the big gifts we received for our wedding was a slow cooker - a cooking tool I am not familiar with in the least!  From what I have heard, however, it can become an indispensable tool.  Luckily, when we were checking out in one of our many trips to Williams-Sonoma, we spotted this slow cooker cookbook at the checkout and thought it would be a helpful tool - not that we really needed another cookbook in our small apartment.

When looking at the recipes there were loads of delicious sounding ones, but when we stumbled across the Asian-Style Short Ribs, it seemed too good not to try.  One thing we quickly learned - short ribs are pricey!  The 6lbs required for the 6 servings (lunches that week) was about $45!  That is a lot of money for us to spend on a single ingredient, but we figured we could give it a shot just this once.

Short Ribs

To begin, Nick rubbed salt, pepper, and 5-spice powder into the ribs and brown all sides of them in the broiler - about 10 minutes on each side.  Meanwhile, he stirred together hoisin sauce, ketchup, vinegar, soy sauce, fish sauce, honey, onion, ginger and garlic in the bottom of the slow cooker.  

Best Party Salsa!

Whenever Nick and I have people over we don't have sit-down dinners due to size constrictions in our apartment.  Also, the fact that we have no dining room table might have something to do with it!  Therefore, all of our parties are more of a cocktail style where you can help yourself to a variety of food and drink options.  One staple we always have, no matter the party, is chips and salsa.  My friend L brought over a dressed-up salsa once and we were hooked.  So when it was Super Bowl time, this salsa was obviously something we wanted to serve.

Salsa!

I believe the recipe comes from Green Mountain Gringo.  The Necessities (with the proportions adapted for our tastes)....

Pumpkin and Sausage Pasta

Nick was in charge of making dinner last week, which is great for two reasons: 1) I can relax, watch TV and blog a bit, and 2) he is a good cook!  Nick wanted to capitalize on the available fall flavors, and after a bit of searching came across an Autumn Pasta with Pumpkin and Sausage that sounded delicious.  So, while I was lounging, Nick got to work!

Dinner is Served!

Shepard's Pie...ish

This recipe goes back aways - back to when we had fresh corn and onions on a weekly basis.  I mean, its only been two weeks and I am really missing our CSA goodie bag!  Having received so much corn and potatoes for a number of weeks in a row, we really were looking for meals that utilized these ingredients.  Nick decided to take the lead in the kitchen on this night and wing a recipe.  While not really a traditional shephard's pie in any way, the same flavor profile was there.

The Necessities...

• bunches of red onion
• the kernals from 1 or 2 ears of corn
• potatoes
• Johnsonville chicken sausages

To begin, Nick cut up loads of onions and put them in a saute pan with some olive oil and kept them heating low and slow for quite some time to get them fully caramelized.

Caramelizing onions....

Using the special corn trick, Nick cut the kernels off of the ears of corn.

Spaghetti Squash Dinner

In the final weeks of our CSA we were getting tons of squashes, one of which was spaghetti squash, the flesh of which basically turns into spaghetti when you start scraping it out.  With this, I let Nick be the guinea pig and figure out how to make this squash into a meal.  Using the ever popular Gojee, Nick found a recipe for "Mexi Squash" from the Sprouted Kitchen.

To being, Nick cut the squash in half, pulled out the seeds, placed the halves face down on a baking sheet and put it in a 375 degree oven for about 50 minutes.  Once tender, he allowed the squash to cool a bit.

Cooling Roasted Squash

While the squash was resting, Nick combined the juice of two limes, olive oil, 2 teaspoons of minced garlic, 1/2 teaspoon of cumin, a sprinkle of red pepper flakes, and some coriander in a small bowl.

Dressing!

Using a fork, Nick scraped out all the spaghetti goodnesss from the cooled squash into a large bowl.

Scraping out the spaghetti

Nick then added the sauce and a handful of feta crumbles to the bowl with the squash and combined.  You could also use a mexican cheese here, but since they didn't have any at the store that night, the recipe said feta would work just as well.

Dressed Squash

To beef up this dinner, Nick seasoned some chicken with the zest from the 2 limes, salt and pepper and put it on the Foreman Grill to cook through...

Some Seasoned Raw Chicken

...and then topped the mexi squash with the grilled chicken.

Dinner is ready!

Spaghetti squash is a really fun vegetable (well, technically, a really fun fruit,!) that offers the same concepts of a pasta but is way healthier.  With a crunchier texture, I liked the change up, but I will say, sometimes there really is no substitute for straight up pasta!

A Rustic Potato and Onion Tartlet

Like I said, we have been getting tons of potatoes in our CSA, and rather than just making mashed potatoes over and over again (even though they are so good!) we have been trying to be creative.  When Nick said he found a recipe for a Rustic Potato and Caramelized Onion Tart I was completely sold and could not wait for dinner!

Dinner is served!

This recipe had a lot of moving parts going on...

Tomatillos!

The same week we got our crazy ground cherries, we also got something a bit more traditional: tomatillos.  We took the obvious approach and decided on making a tomatillo sauce (salsa verde) as part of a little taco bar for dinner.  Lucky for me, Nick decided to take this on!  Turning to Google for some inspiration and a way to deal with the crazy husk and other surprises, Nick found a good starting recipe, whipping up some salsa verde.

Tomatillos

Kohlrabi Fritters

As I've mentioned before, we have been getting a lot kohlrabi in our CSA, and coming up with new and interesting things to do with this odd veggie is tough to do!  After our fresh mozzarella and roasted kohlrabi crostinis, thinking of something else took a little researching. 

Kohlrabi

Nick ended up finding a recipe from A Hungry Bear for kohlrabi fritters, which totally looked worth trying.  To begin, Nick collected the following ingredients:

• 1 Kohlrabi
• 1 onion
• 1 egg
• some breadcrumbs (a couple of tablespoons)
• garlic powder
• 1 green onion
• olive oil

To begin, Nick peeled and grated the kohlrabi using a cheese grater.  You need to be sure to squeeze all the water out of the grated kohlrabi so that it is good and dry.  Otherwise, it will be tough to form a nice patty.  There was a surprising amount of liquid in this one bulb!

all grated

Next he chopped up the red onion finely that we got from the CSA that week (love these!).

Fresh Red Currant Scones

For a couple of weeks we received fresh red currants in our CSA and short of mixing it with some vodka (which, of course I did!) I was not really sure what to do with them since most recipes call for dried ones.  However, Nick did some digging and found a recipe from a blog on gardening.  So, on a recent Saturday morning I was treated to fresh scones - not a bad deal!

Fresh out of the oven!

To be honest, I was not even sure what the berries were - they looked like the poisonous ones on the bushes in the woods.  The second time we got them I thought it was time to put the gorgeous berries to some good use. 

Fresh Currants

Fresh Mozzarella and Roasted Kohlrabi Crostini

We have been getting our CSA share for three weeks now, and each week we have gotten kohlrabi (German turnip).  Having never seen this veggie before both Nick and I were at a bit of a loss as to what to do with it!  While we have read that you can eat it raw (and tried it, in coleslaw) we wanted to do something a bit more with it.  Nick looked around on Gojee and found a recipe that sounded too good not to try!

Kohlrabi - so Bizarre!

Ina's Szechuan Noodles with Snap Peas

Another meatless Monday means attempting to come up with a tasty meal to make us forget that it is indeed meatless!  This time Nick was in charge and he naturally went to Ina Garten for help and found Szechuan Noodles.  Sounding delicious, he went for it.  It involved a lot of ingredients but luckily we had a lot of them on hand, and the recipe couldn't have been easier to pull together.

The Necessities....

• 6 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup tahini (sesame paste)
• 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1/2 cup good soy sauce
• 1/4 cup dry sherry
• 1/4 cup sherry vinegar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 teaspoon hot chili oil
• 2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 1 pound spaghetti
• 1 red bell pepper, julienned - since I hate peppers Nick swapped this one out for peas
• 1 yellow bell pepper, julienned
• 4 scallions, sliced diagonally (white and green parts)

The Ingredients

Honeyed Prawns & Polenta - Bringing the South up North

We realized this week that it had been awhile since we really cooked a "real" meal ourselves, so when it came time to select a recipe I was at a loss.  However, when we were in Savannah we became obsessed with the delicious honey from the Savannah Bee Company so of course we bought some souvenirs.  This was as good a place as any for some inspiration.

Honey!

"Panzanella" Salad - a great weekday go-to for any season

Panzanella Salad is something that Nick got me into when he and I started dating.  When we would make a salad to go with dinner at home, every time the meal ended and we were just sitting and talking we always picked around the lettuce and went straight for the croutons, carrots and cucumbers (who needs dessert?!)  After awhile, Nick enlightened me by introducing me to salads made without lettuce - who knew?  Turns out, he was well versed in the Panzanella salad universe because he made these quite a bit in college.  Overtime, this has become one of our go-to dishes when we want a light but satisfying meal.

Almost Ready!

Traditional Panzanella salad has stale bread soaked in water and squeezed dry, tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper - if the Italians were feeling crazy they would add onions and basil.  I've also seen recipes with raw bell peppers.  Not being a fan of a lot of these ingredients, we just basically took the idea of stale bread and a lettuce-free salad and ran with it!

Ricotta-Spinach Tacos - A Taco of a Different Color

Marathon Meatless Monday was upon us, and since I unfortunately do not get the day off, Nick was willing to step in and find a new recipe, shop and cook all on his day off - I am a lucky girl!  Meatless Mondays can be tough just because it really does force you to look outside your comfort zone for meals.  Not really having a go-to meat or fish protein to serve as the base of your meal makes it difficult to narrow down where to even start!  Luckily, Nick keeps a giant binder of recipes that he's either printed out online or found in old magazines.  Inside, he found a recipe for Ricotta Spinach Tacos from an old Food Network Magazine, so we were good to go.

The Necessities...

• 8 ounces of ricotta
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 white onion sliced into 1/2 inch thick rings
• 2 4-ounce cans sliced green chile peppers, drained
• 2 bunches of fresh spinach (about 1 pound) stemmed
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 8-12 corn tortillas
• Kosher Salt
• Salsa Verde for serving

First step (as always in the In and Around Town household), the ingredients were prepped.

Sliced onion