I'm Smitten.

I am completely in love with Smitten Kitchen.

Since I am no longer working out in the world, I have taken on a lot more responsibility in our home for cooking, especially dinners. This week, our friend is here from the Bay area visiting, giving me the perfect excuse to make elaborate tasty meals each night.

I planned my meals for this week over a week ago, shopped to buy the perfect ingredients and then jumped in.

On Tuesday, I decided to make a meal that would bring together ingredients I love with other ingredients I have previously disliked- this nights specific challenge: lentils. I know, you are probably thinking "WHAT!? You don't like lentils!?" I have tried and tried many times to love them, and finally decided that what I needed to do was be the one to cook them in a recipe that sounded good to me so I could learn to love them like everyone else in the world, especially since they are such a healthy legume to take in. That is when I found a recipe for spicy squash salad with lentils and goat cheese.

The photos are what really drew me in- beautiful soft roasted squash mixed with creamy cheese and studded with lentils- it felt like something I could get into. Of course, being me, I changed it up a bit.

For one, I used a Kabocha squash instead of the butternut or sugar pumpkin it called for, knowing it would be just as wonderful because it still has a sweet taste.

After peeling, seeding and cubing it and tossing it with the oil and spices, it went into the over for a while to roast.

Next up was the lentils- I used green lentils instead of black because that is what I had on hand, and Grant says they are a bit more mild in their "dirt" taste (as I call it) than the black would be. First I soaked them....

.... then I cooked them until they were tender.

Her recipe called for greens that she didn't use, but I decided to amp up this salad by adding not just the arugula but a mix that also contained spinach. Goat cheese is pretty expensive, so I substituted feta.


The final result was better than I could have hoped for- drizzled with balsamic vinegar (instead of red wine vinegar) and olive oil, it was absolute squashy lentil perfection.

I had the leftover for lunch today, and it was just as awesome.



Last night, I ventured into a new squashy delight with roasted acorn squash and poblano quesadillas.

Now I can roast squash no problem, and absolutely love to- acorn squash looks like beautiful ridged flower petals on the baking sheet to me. I sliced up the squash, seeded it and roasted it on an oiled baking sheet.

While it was in the oven, I had a fun new adventure in roasting a poblano pepper. I have never roasted a pepper before, but by the pictures on the Smitten Kitchen blog, it looked as if she just held it over the flame, so I gave it a try.

 I have to say, this was crazy fun!!! Peppers make a popping sounds as you roast them, the skin cracking and softening to be peeled afterward.

I didn't do a very good job peeling them afterward, I probably could have roasted them a little longer to make it easier, but they came out good just the same. 


All the yummy roasted stuff got cut up, or sliced in the poblano's case, and tossed in a pan to cook with the onion, garlic and serrano pepper until it was hot and soft and ready to be used to make the quesadillas.


I used thin slices of muenster cheese along with the squash spread inside my tortillas. I wanted to use the Pacqui pumpkin tortillas, but the Coop was out of them when I shopped, so instead used regular flour tortillas. The quesadillas came out beautifully! Served with refried black beans, salsa and sour cream- they were so good I forgot to take a photo of them before I scarfed them down. Next time I make them I will use those pumpkin tortillas if I can get them and will try to remember the final photo.


This all leads me to today- I had the desire to finally make the cast iron pan pineapple upside down cake my husband loves, so I went on a search for a good recipe. I googled it and found a bunch of recipes I couldn't hang with- one called for shortening. No way. I don't do shortening. Another called for "yellow cake mix". I am sorry, it's not really cooking if it came from a box. Finally, I found one in the search list and was pleasantly surprised to find out- it was from Smitten Kitchen!


This recipe made me especially happy, calling for all the ingredients I have and the main special ingredient I love in a pineapple upside down cake- rum!


This really is the perfect cake.



Perhaps one of the best parts of this cake is the cast iron pan. I am not sure it would turn out as well if it was made in any other type of pan. This cake is also lots of fun to make, starting with the caramel topping. The recipe called for light brown sugar,  but I used dark because I love it for this cake. That mixed with butter stirred constantly over a medium heat. I tossed a bit of rum in at that point just because I am rum-happy which caused a bunch of sizzling, very nice!  After my caramel was done, I added the pineapple and homemade maraschino cherries Grant's mom made to cover it.

It was so beautiful, I almost didn't want to cover it in batter, but alas, it wouldn't be much of a cake if I didn't. On to making the batter!

More sugar, butter, eggs, pineapple juice, flour, vanilla and rum- all beaten together.

Butter, sugar and eggs, oh my!

I discovered in the process that Alchemy was unhappy with the sound of the beater until I brought her over to the kitchen to see what it was. Then she became my baking helper.

Finally the batter was ready! In went the cake and we played a bunch while attempting to patiently await it. I decided it would be fun to play with the rum during the wait as well, taking my photo for the new 30 day photo challenge- today's challenge was Reflection.

Day 3 challenge photo: Reflection

I love LOVE Kraken rum! 

When the cake came out of the oven, I was speechless. I have never seen such a beautiful cake, ever.

 

I excitedly sprinkled it with a good amount of rum, and wa-la! It was done. The hard part since has been not tearing into it before Grant got home, then sprinkling the crumbs around Alchemy to blame her for it. 

 

She would have looked totally angelic and innocent anyways- helping baking is a tiring job.

Three fabulous things, all from Smitten Kitchen. I am super excited to see what I end up making next week.

Adventures in Spanish Rice Casserole land (For Lucy) & the New Year is under way!

First blog post for the New Year- I am happy that the little blog undertaking I took up shortly before Alchemy's birth actually turned into 29 blog posts from August to December, and 1000 page views. Not bad for a blog in its newborn stage at all! :) Here's to hoping folks will begin to follow this (thanks to all two of you that do) and I will have many more post and views in the year to come.

With that in mind- every year I tell myself that I should make resolutions. I have a ridiculous obsession with list making & take pleasure in crossing things off lists, most especially to-do lists. I have been known to add things to a list I have already done but forgot to write, just so I could cross it off (yes, I am that woman... seriously bad habit, I know). This year I thought about resolutions again, but realized that the reason I rarely keep them is because I make too many of them. My solution to this is to have a handful only. I think my list looks a little something like this:

Resolutions for 2012

1. Be the best wife and mom I can be as I take care of my family

2. Work hard to reduce our debt, be smarter with money and work well with our budget

3. Take care of my body- more exercise and healthy eating

4. Be more creative each day- art, blogging, gardening- anything that feeds my soul

 and lastly-

5. Enjoy life each day- they go by so fast and nothing measures it like watching your baby grow, so I am gonna get out there and live it to the fullest!

Not such a bad list right? So, this leads me to what I wanted this post to be about- my cooking adventures. I have become the main food shopper and cook in the house since taking on my new job as house-mom. It has made me far more aware of what we are putting into our bodies and how healthily we are (or are not) eating. I love to cook, but have never had to be the one cooking almost 7 days a week, so this is a new fun adventure for me. I have been found sitting with a cup of tea amongst a pile of cookbooks with little post-it tabs for all the recipes I love or at the computer digging through my favorite food blogs searching for new awesome recipes to try.

http://smittenkitchen.com/

http://www.101cookbooks.com/

Not long ago, I found a recipe in an old cookbook of Grant's to make that we both love- Spanish Rice Casserole. While I cook most things the way they come the first time I make them, I tend to change it up quite a bit over time to morph it into my own version of a recipe. I have promised this recipe to my friend Lucy, so here it is in a blog post version.

Spanish Rice Casserole 

adapted from Flavors of the Southwest Vegetarian Style by Robert Oser, original recipe in italics.

Yields 4 servings 

Ingredients:

2 cups long grained brown rice

4 cups of veggie stock or water (we use Veggie Better than Builion paste)

1 onion chopped ( I use way less than that)

1 sweet bell pepper, diced (or any sweet peppers)

3 to 4 tomatoes chopped (I often use canned diced tomatoes, drained a bit in a pinch)

mild or hot chiles to taste (hell yes! Bring on the serranos or the hatch chiles!)

2-3 cloves of garlic, minced (the more the better)

1 tablespoon of chilli powder

1 teaspoon of cumin

2 tablespoons of cilantro, chopped (I never add this, I don't like cilantro)

1/2 cup of Monterey Jack cheese (which is yummy, but use whatever you have on hand shredded. I want to try pepper jack one day)

For the meat lover that may be in you- this recipe is awesome with some browned ground beef in it, that is the way I love it best.

Preheat oven to 350* F (I question this temperature- more on this later)

In a large bowl, mix everything except the cheese.

He intends for all this to go in a large casserole dish to bake, but I don't have one. I tend to use a smaller sized dutch oven (oven safe with a lid) pot, which I start on the stove with my water to heat up so I can add the veggie schmoo (what we call the bullion paste) to it. I often also add the rice to this and let it sit while I chop all the other stuff into a bowl. Use what you have as long as this fits in it well and can be baked with a lid. 

Brown your meat if you are adding any and have it ready to go in the pot as well. 

Pour into a large casserole dish, cover and bake 45-50 minutes. 

This is where I think he is either crazy or a damn liar, or perhaps he got his temperature wrong.  I started with 50 minutes. 

In that time, I managed to contemplate this blog, organize in the kitchen, play with the baby a bit. I photographed my cat Oscar for a 30 Day Photo Challenge I am a part of.

50 minutes are up, and this stuff looks like it hasn't been in the over at all. Add another 30 minutes.

In those 30 minutes I played on Facebook, downloaded more photos, then decided to photograph the sunset out my back window just for the hell of it. It was an absolutely beautiful view through the trees.

30 minutes are up- it looks better, but still no. Add 20 minutes. Then add another 20 minutes. Still NOT READY! Dang brown rice takes FOREVER to cook, but the plus side is this dish is just soaking up all those tasty spices as the rice cooks slooooooooowly. Finally, at an hour and 40 minutes, it is ready to add the dang cheese- having almost no liquid left in it but the rice still looks damp and is nice and fluffy.

Remove lid and sprinkle top with cheese. 

 Here is where I divert again because I am a cheese-a-holic. I added 1/2 cup that I stirred into it, then another 1/2 cup sprinkled on top. 

Bake another 5-10 minutes until cheese is melted on top, hot and bubbly. 

That I can certainly agree with! Finally after an hour and 45 minutes from in the oven to out, this dish was ready. (all the prep took me an additional 45- an hour before it hit the oven)

So, you are potentially thinking that I must be some sort of incompetent cook, or perhaps wondering if it was all worth it? My answers to those questions are well maybe, and hell yes it was.

It came out looking wonderful like this-

I am drooling just to see it again. The recipe suggests serving it with hot tortillas and frijoles, but we decided to break out the salty yummy tortilla chips that we used to scoop it up and shovel it into our mouths, as well as a tasty beer (which I deserved after that 3 hour ordeal!).

I wonder whether raising the temperature would cook this faster, or just burn the hell out of it. I am too afraid to try it after the time it takes to prep, so I just accept that on the days I am making this awesome dish for us to eat, I need to start cooking about 3 hours before we intend to eat. I would suggest it as a weekend meal. Also, that whole "yields 4 servings" suggestion seems wrong as well. We always have TONS of leftovers that we pack up for lunches, and it is still just as amazingly yummy reheated. 

Lucy- I hope you enjoy this should you decide to give it a go. Let me know how it goes if you do. 

Tonight we haven't really had much of a dinner, Grant is not feeling all that well. (No, I didn't poison him with my Spanish Rice Casserole, just so you know.) Alchemy has been a bit grumpy but is finally asleep in her Ergo carrier while I type this. I am enjoying another beer just because I can and contemplating the next few photos I have left to take for the 30 day challenge. Today was day 25- Something Pink. Pink is not a color I desire to interact with much, ironic since having a baby girl, everyone seems to want to drown us in it. I walked through the house looking for something pink that I love and found Gloomy!

He is so cute and cuddly. I hope Alchemy loves him when she is older. (Om nom nom, children are tasty!)  

Even though this photo challenge I found online is about to be over, a friend and I decided to keep it going by making our own list of 30 things which we are posting in a few days to all the friends who have joined us this past time. I am hoping many of them will continue on with us. I was really concerned that I wouldn't keep up with the challenge, but instead I really got into it and have had a blast. It has allowed me to connect in with my creativity even on the hard days where life keeps trying to get in the way. Most days I shot with my Canon Rebel T2i that I got as a wedding present from Grant- I have been trying to learn how to use it better, so this has been great practice. Some days I took shots with my phone's camera, but even those came out well. I was also challenged by the shots that seemed impossible- clouds on a yucky overcast day. Sunset on a day where the sun never came out at all. The next list we made up is going to be even more challenging and fun I am hoping. Once this first set of 30 days comes to an end, I will blog to recap it all and share out the images. I will also post the new list here in case any of you want to join in!