Happy New Year, 2017!

It's that time of year again--a New Year and a new resolution for me. I don't usually make resolutions as such. I think about wanting to make some new lifestyle habits, but it seems to me that New Year's resolutions don't tend to "stick" for many (including me).

Fireworks photo by U.S. Department of State

This year, however, I am making a resolution. My resolution is to post to this blog more often. My big goal is to post at least once a month; that's pretty ambitious for someone who goes 6 months or more between posts.  For that reason, my smaller goal is to post at least every other month.  This current post doesn't count since it's just about my plans for the year.

The reason for this resolution was that a couple of my friends asked very sincerely that I resume my blog on a regular basis. They've even agreed to help out by writing guest posts or contributing recipes for me to try. My friend, James, is going to have a cookbook party this month where guests bring something made from a cookbook recipe--NOT a recipe found online, but one from an actual cookbook.  This can be a favorite or a new recipe they are trying.  I'm hoping James will do a guest post about the party and the recipes that were tried. *hint hint  I've also been promised a fine-tuned Sloppy Joe recipe from friends K & M.

I will be making turkey vegetable soup tonight when I get home from work. After Thanksgiving I froze the turkey carcass and a bunch of leftover turkey meat so I could use it to make soup. I took everything out of the freezer last night and put it in the fridge.  I'll be including celery, carrots, onions, and maybe some potatoes. What other vegetables would be good in this soup?  Leave me suggestions in the comments.

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!

This is Fall!

Fall may be winding down, but with tonight's dinner, I feel like I'm still right smack in the middle of the season.  A few weeks ago my Mom sent me an email with a link to a recipe titled Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good.  Reading the list of ingredients I started drooling, but I didn't make it right away.  I had a small pumpkin from when I visited the pumpkin patch in October, but I hadn't decided what to do with it since I didn't carve it into a jack-o-lantern at Halloween.

So tonight, I pulled out that pumpkin and grabbed all of the ingredients and put it all together in a pretty short amount of time.  The thing that took the longest was scraping the innards out of the pumpkin.  After about an hour in the oven, the fantastic scent of garlic, cheese, pumpkin, and herbs was wafting out, scenting the air with its deliciousness.  It smelled incredible.  I removed the top of the pumpkin and let the filling brown on top for about 15 minutes.

I took a bunch of pictures but had some trouble since everything came out kind of yellow.  It looks so much better in person, and the taste is out of this world.

I'm not sure what kind of pumpkin this is, but since the recipe doesn't specify a variety, I think you could use any kind of pumpkin.  The flesh is very yellow and the textured kind of like spaghetti squash but more starchy.  It balances the richness of the filling well.  This was a very easy recipe but looks so cool when you cut into the pumpkin and that delicious filling spills out.

I hope I don't wait another 5 months before posting again.  It's that time of year again where lots of baking and cooking are a bit part of my days.  I love it!  Thanks for reading.

Soup's On

     I made soup tonight. The only soup I'd made before was ham & bean, and I'd only made that a couple of times. Making soup is kind of a long process, and you end up with this huge amount of soup. When you live alone, you can end up eating soup for days and still have a bunch to freeze. A few weeks ago, I got an email from Borders saying they were giving me free $10 in Borders bucks, but the offer expired just a few days later. I ended up using it to buy a copy of The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook. It's a fun book, full of recipes for food mentioned in the books and also some typical and traditional British dishes. There are recipes for cauldron cakes, pumpkin pasties, pork pies, and even homemade marshmallows.

     As I was looking through the book, I came across a recipe for Scotch Broth. My mom used to love Campbell's Scotch Broth, but they stopped carrying it in any of the local grocery stores. When I saw the recipe, I thought that it might be a treat for her if I made it. I made it the first time on Thanksgiving. My mom had to work, and so I went over to the hospital at lunchtime and had turkey dinner with her. I knew she'd be hungry when she got home and though soup would be good for dinner. It turned out really well. My mom really liked it, though she said it didn't taste like the one made by Campbell's.

     This is one recipe I followed strictly. As I mentioned, I don't have much experience making soup, so I wanted to make sure I followed the recipe (that way if it didn't turn out, I could blame the recipe, lol). The recipe calls for lamb or beef chuck, but it's traditionally made with lamb or mutton, and since we like lamb in our family, I deboned some lamb chops and cubed the meat. Also in the recipe are barley, onions, carrots, celery, turnip, leeks, garlic, cabbage, and fresh parsley. The base is chicken broth. The process was to brown the lamb on high heat then remove it to a plate, and then cook the onions in the same pan. Then you add the broth, barley, salt, and add the meat back in. That has to cook for an hour and a half. Then you add the vegetables (except for the cabbage and parsley) and the garlic and simmer for another hour. Finally, add the cabbage and parsley and cook for an additional 30 minutes. This is not a quick soup. Cooking time alone is 3+ hours, and that doesn't count the initial prep of the meat (I think the deboning took me almost half an hour.) and onions. The rest of the veggies can be prepped during the first stage of cooking.

     However, all the work is worth it. The soup turns out thick and creamy with a great mix of vegetable flavors. The barley adds an interesting texture and helps thicken the soup, and the meat ends up fork tender. The first time I made it, I made some biscuits to go along with it. They didn't turn out so well. They didn't taste bad, but I think my baking powder is old because they didn't rise; they ended up pretty flat. My mom suggested letting them rise on the baking sheet for a while before baking them. I think I'll try that next time. I don't really have a biscuit recipe I regularly use. In the past, I've mostly used Bisquick. If anyone has a good biscuit recipe, let me know. Thanks.

     Sorry for the long delay between the last post and this one. I have been cooking, but not a whole lot, and nothing too exciting--mostly things I've mentioned before in the blog or on facebook posts. Over the next several days, though, I'll be making some new dishes. I got a copy of the Raley's 75th anniversary cookbook, which had some tasty-looking recipes. I'll be making a winter squash gratin and a quinoa salad as well as blackened fish, which is a favorite of my mom and me.

Calling all Cooks

So I was thinking about Thanksgiving today and they types of dishes we've traditionally made for family Thanksgiving dinners. Reading recent magazine issues and watching Food TV, I see that families have very different takes on Thanksgiving sides. Pretty much the turkey part is similar enough, but those sides can be completely foreign to me. Some sound delish while others sound vile.

So, I'm calling all cooks to post about your favorite Thanksgiving side dishes (with or without recipe), either traditional family ones or new ones you have added to the tradition. Post your contribution using the comment box below. Thanks!