Pumkin, cousin to the Pumpkin

I've been try to catch up with Rachel over at The Traveling Spoon and got a kick out of her "Pumpkin of Shame". 

Plus look at how beautiful this is:

Man, that mum is looking a little sad.

For all the delicious fall recipes that require pumpkin puree you have to pretty much start the same way, so that's what we're going to start with, getting the pumpkin without the can!

Apparently I got the biggest pumpkin in the world. It's sort of like cutting down a Christmas tree, they always seem small until you get them in the living room.

Anywho, start by cutting the pumpkin in half (the best way you can...)

This is looking a little Halloweenish!

I just love the smell of a pumpkin. It's so mmmm mmmm refreshing!

Scrape out the stringy gooey stuff, but seperate the seeds.

Much better!

I had to go back to my exhausting cake decorating days to find a pan to fit the pumpkin in. Fill with an inch or so of water.

Tehehe, they grow pumkin's in TN...related to, but not to be confused with the Pumpkin

Lay the pumpkin, cut side down, in the pan and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes to an hour. After about 30 minutes test every once in a while with a fork to see how tender it is. When the fork goes in easily, you're ready.

Let them rest for 15 or 20 minutes or so to cool a bit.

Then scoop out the deliciousness!

Put in the blender/food processor and blend until it's puree. This pumpkin made an enormous amount of puree, luckily it freezes well!

Now we'll use this base to go wild and pumpkin crazy!

Review: Neely's Bar-B-Que

I heart the Food Network.
I think those Neely's are cute as little buttons!

We ran across their BBQ joint a few weeks ago when we went to StrongBonds. We didn't have time that day, but it made the short list of things to do in Nashville, TN real fast.

So this past weekend when we went meandering through the Music City this past weekend we decided to try it out.

It's real easy to miss. It's just tucked back into a very quiet and unassuming strip mall and is really almost hidden...except for all the cars in the parking lot.

Sorry about the picture quality, I took it on my phone.

I kind of expected something fancy for a couple of Food Network stars, but it was a BBQ joint.

Wood floors, writing on the walls and smoke in the air. It was fantastic, the place that makes you think you're going to get great food.

You step right up to the counter and order. They don't have a huge menu with lots of complicated things. It's just down home bbq-esque food and fixin's.

Research and Development went with the Rib Tips, BBQ Beans and *gasp* BBQ Spaghetti.

He loved them. (which was rather evident when he shoved an entire one in his mouth...). The meat was extra tender, and the sauce is fantastic. The beans were delicious and I am totally intrigued by this BBQ Spaghetti concept.

It was great. It was rather strange to have BBQ sauce and noodles but it's a fantastic idea.

I had a brisket sandwich and fries. I ordered mac and cheese but ended up with fries, I really wish I had said something and got the mac and cheese.

BUT the brisket was amazing. No kidding, it was one of the best things I've ever put in my mouth. I must admit that this is the first time I've had anything Memphis style, and one of the few times I've had brisket. It was a Hallelujah singing moment for me. The meat was so tender and tasty. The sauce was outrageous. Sweet, but not too sweet. Not too tangy and just a teeny bit of heat.

I will soooo be going back.

Thinking outside the box

I must be honest with you hear folks...I L.O.V.E. Velvetta Shells and Cheese. I cannot help myself. I just love it. I like to put a little extra salt and just go to town. That is why I rarely buy it. Because I just almost cannot sleep at night knowing that those delicious little shells are in my cabinet just waiting to be scarfed. This is the only side dish/horrible for you food that I consider to be a vegetable. (As in you MUST have one main and two veggies with dinner).
I must confess that I had never before made real live mac and cheese with real live cheese! So, thanks to some inspiration from pinterest.com I finally made the venture with these:

Cheese and Spinach Muffins!!

I modified this recipe.

Here's what you'll need:

1 box of cooked whole wheat pasta

2 cups of shredded cheese (I used a combination of sharp cheddar and colby...I'll use Gruyere next time and maybe Havarti)

1 cup of milk

2 cloves of minced garlic

1 egg white & 1 egg

1 lb bag of frozen spinach thawed and drained

1 tbsp of flour

1tbsp of butter (Apparently I forgot to include the butter and flour and the spinach in the picture)

*Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Melt your butter in a saucepan.

Add your tbsp of flour to your melted butter to make a roux:

Here we have the Roux...this is in fact my very first roux ever, it was fun...you should try it!

Next add your butter and minced garlic. Allow mixture to heat until just before the boiling point

Slowly stir in your cheese.

Your mixture will start to thicken nicely until it looks like:

At this point you will slowly whisk in your egg and egg white. SLOWLY. This did not work out very well for me as I didn't SLOWLY enough. BUT, the eggs act as a binding agent. If you aren't going to bake these in the muffin tin, I'd leave them out.

Add cheese mixture to spinach *Side note, I happen to LOVE spinach. I added a whole pound of the good leafy green stuff. If you are not a fan you might want to ease off*

Add noodles. (I didn't have any elbows so I went with the rotini's)

Isn't it beautiful. I love things that have bright colors and the cheese with that spinach is great!

If you're going to make the muffin cups then spray your pan and ice cream scoop it in.

If you are making the muffins, you will need to wait a few before digging in to let everything cool and settle. I however, did no such thing! Pairs nicely with an "everything in the fridge" quesadilla.

This mac and cheese is delicious. The spinach was so great in it. I didn't feel the need to over salt this because it had so much flavor. The cheese that I picked did just.ok. Next time I'll pick a gooier variety. I happen to like Havarti and Gruyere. I think that the pasta turned out to be a great choice (just by accident). I don't think the elbow's would have been able to withstand a whole pound of spinach. The rotini also did an excellent job of holding onto the cheese sauce.

Overall, this recipe will be going into the keeper stack! I'm pretty excited about my very first roux and home-made mac and cheese in the same recipe!

Olive Garden Favorite

This past week at PWOC we did a funny little ice breaker. We did a speed friending. We got 30 seconds per person and then flipped to the next. I got to 4 people before we were done. All 4 people said that Olive Garden was their favorite place to eat.

My favorite thing to eat at Olive Garden is the Zuppa Toscana. Finally today I decided to try my hand at it.

What you need:

1 lb of Chorizo

1 1/2 tsp of crushed red pepper

1 large diced onion

2 cloves of garlic

1 shallot

2 1/2 chicken broth

7 1/2 cups of water

3 tbsp of chicken boullion

2 lbs sliced potatoes

1 cup of heavy cream

1/2 bunch of kale

Cut the chorizo down the middle to split open.

Remove the sausage from the casing and brown.

When browned, drain and put to the side.

Saute onion, garlic and shallot until translucent.

Here's my last container of home-made chicken stock!

Add whatever equals to 10 cups of water and boullion. My boullion called for 1 tsp of boullion per cup of liquid.

To the onions and liquid add sliced potatoes and cook until the potatoes are tender.

Be sure to either cut or tear the kale into bite sized pieces. After the potatoes are tender add your cup of heavy cream and the chorizo and bite sized kale.

Let it boiled for a while to let all the juices converge. About 15 minutes or so.

Ohhhhh, so delicious!

So full of flavor, much more flavor than Olive Garden.

I like the chorizo, but would add a little more crushed red pepper next time.



Hey, Do you have anymore of those things?

Tonight I feel like I've taken a trip and I'm pretty sure I've offended 3 countries...Here's how!

We're having Zuppa Toscana and Potato Pierogies!!

Only I used Chorizo in both recipes! So we have a little Spain, a little Italy and a little Germany!

Here's my version of Potato and Chorizo Pierogi!

This recipe makes a TON of piergi, I'm going to make a bunch and freeze them for delicious lunch!

For the dough:

¾ cups Mashed Potato

4 cups Flour

¾ cups Butter, Softened

4 whole Egg Yolks

1 teaspoon Salt

¼ cups Sour Cream Plus Extra For Serving

½ cups Water

Cut them into "Hunky Taters" (that's what my aunt calls them)...

...and boil them for a while with some salt until they are soft enough to mush.

I am a fan of the skin on the potatoes, so I left them. I smushed them all up (no milk, cream or butter!)

Here we have the flour, smushed up potatoes, egg yolks, salt and butter.

Add sour cream.

Add the water a little at a time, you're not going to need all of it. I used less than a 1/4 cup.

Mix well, but it should be a little sticky.

Wrap it up in cling wrap and stick it in the fridge. Dough is always easier to work with if it's chilled a little.

While it's chilling, start on the filling!

Filling:

1 1/2 cups of smushed potatos

1 link of chorizo sausage

1 whole onion

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 shallot

Chop, chop! Saute with the chorizo.

Remove the Chorizo from the casing and brown.

When you brown it, drain and set to the side.

Chop and saute the onion in the same pan.

Mix the potatoes, sausage and onions. Mix, mix, mix!

Let it cool!

Roll out the dough into 1/8 inch thick and then cut using a biscuit cutter.

Fill with potato mixture and pinch together. (I forgot to take a picture of that part!)

Put the pierogi into a pot of boiling water. Just a few at a time to give them room to dance around. When they float up to the top, they are ready for the next step.

From the hot tub into the pan!

In a little olive oil just fry enough to brown both sides.

Serve with a dollop of Daisy!

This is so delicious. It's so creamy and tasty. The sour cream is a great addition. The dough was so surprisingly delicious. I am super excited about this!

Research and Development said, "Hey, do you have anymore of those little things?"