butternut squash love

Posted in pasta, vegetarian by

Lasagna is a wonderful winter meal. It’s hardy, it’s versatile, and most importantly it heats up brilliantly.  What more could you ask for on a cold February night?

I’m a huge fan of all things squash so when I found this recipe for butternut squash lasagna I could not resist.

You start by peeling and cubing the squash and then simmering it in water until it is soft enough to puree.  Then season with salt and pepper.

Then you make a bechamel sauce which I found kind of intimidating at first, though I can assure you it is quite easy.  You just heat up butter and flour and then whisk in milk until it boils.  For this recipe you also grate in some nutmeg and finally blend with fresh basil.

Then you start to build your layers.  Bechamel sauce followed by noodles followed by butternut squash puree…

…followed by cheese and then repeat twice more.  I made the lasagna for my dad’s birthday party last weekend and got so busy chatting with family that I forgot to take an after picture!  Oops…

Butternut Squash Lasagna (recipe origin unknown– I tore it out of a magazine years ago and my Google-ing proved unsuccessful…)

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and diced (about 2 ½ lbs)
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 4 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • ¼ cup all-purpose flour
  • 3 ½ cups milk
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • ¾ cup lightly packed fresh basil leaves
  • 2 ½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
  • 1 box (8 oz.) oven-ready lasagna noodles
  • 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

In large skilled heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add squash and toss to coat. Add ½ cup water. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes or until tender. Cool slightly. Puree squash in food processor. Season with salt and pepper.

In medium saucepan melt butter over medium heat. Add flour, whisking for 1 minute. Increase heat to high and gradually whisk in milk. Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes, or until slightly thickened. Whisk in nutmeg and cinnamon. Let cool slightly. Pour half the white sauce into a blender add the basil and blend until smooth. Return basil sauce to saucepan and combine with rest of white sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

pinterest digressions and spicy curry noodle soup

Posted in poultry, soup by

I have a confession to make: I think I have a Pinterest problem.

For those of you unfamiliar with Pinterest it is essentially a virtual cork board.  Remember cork boards?  You probably had one on your wall in middle school with pictures of Salt N’ Pepa, INXS, and the Fresh Prince of Bel Air on it.  (Or maybe that was just me…)

Anyhow, I have become almost obsessed with finding cool images of food/signs/flowers/home interiors, etc. on Pinterest and last night found myself up until almost midnight (aka waaaaay past my weeknight bedtime) pinning pretty images to my boards.  (If you’re already on Pinterest or are persuaded to join after reading this and care to follow me, my username is baxterandmain.  Little plug.)

All of this is leading me to a blog-related point or two.  1) I need to step my food photography game up, big time.  2) I need to get a real logo/header because I am tired of the up-close brownie shot.  Real tired of it.  Point 1 can be aided with natural sunlight (which should be more plentiful in Wisconsin in the next month or so, fingers crossed) and more thought put into the mise en scene of my pictures (and maybe a proper camera at a later date.)  As for point 2 I am real lucky to have a talented friend who has volunteered to help in this endeavor which brings me full circle as I have been looking for inspirational images on Pinterest to give to her to create some artwork for this here site.  So there we go.

And now the food!  I made some wonderful sweet potato chicken curry noodle soup to go along with the Thai iced tea for you!

Vegetarians please note that this dish could easily be made with tofu instead of chicken and sub vegetable broth for chicken broth and I bet it’d still be as amazing.

It’s spicy, a little sweet, and incredibly flavorful.  You will love it!  Unless spicy and curry is not your thing.  In that case stay tuned for butternut squash lasagne in my next post!

Spicy Curry Noodle Soup with Chicken and Sweet Potato (by Mai Pham from Bon Appetit magazine)

  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 3 tablespoons chopped shallots
  • 3 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons minced fresh lemongrass* (from bottom 4 inches of about 3 stalks, tough outer leaves discarded; NOTE: if you can only find dried lemongrass in your grocery store you will only need about 1 tablespoon as it is more potent in dried form)
  • 2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
  • 2 tablespoons Thai yellow curry paste*
  • 2 tablespoons curry powder
  • 1 teaspoon hot chili paste (such as sambal oelek)*
  • 2 13.5- to 14-ounce cans unsweetened coconut milk,* divided
  • 5 cups low-salt chicken broth
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce (such as nam pla or nuoc nam)*
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 3 cups snow peas, trimmed
  • 2 cups 1/2-inch cubes peeled red-skinned sweet potato (yam; from about 1 large)
  • 1 pound dried rice vermicelli noodles or rice stick noodles*
  • 3/4 pound skinless boneless chicken thighs, thinly sliced
  • 1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion
  • 1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
  • 3 red Thai bird chiles or 2 red jalapeño chiles, thinly sliced with seeds
  • 1 lime, cut into 6 wedges

Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add next 4 ingredients; stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Reduce heat to medium-low. Stir in curry paste, curry powder, and chili paste. Add 1/2 cup coconut milk (scooped from thick liquid at top of can). Stir until thick and fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add remaining coconut milk, broth, fish sauce, and sugar; bring broth to boil. Keep warm. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Refrigerate until cold, then cover and keep chilled.

Cook snow peas in large pot of boiling salted water until bright green, about 20 seconds. Using strainer, remove peas from pot; rinse under cold water to cool. Place peas in medium bowl. Bring water in same pot back to boil. Add sweet potato and cook until tender, about 7 minutes. Using strainer, remove sweet potato from pot and rinse under cold water to cool. Place in small bowl. Bring water in same pot back to boil and cook noodles until just tender but still firm to bite, about 6 minutes. Drain; rinse under cold water to cool. Transfer to microwave-safe bowl. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 hour ahead. Let stand at room temperature.

Bring broth to simmer. Add chicken; simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes. Add sweet potato; stir to heat through, about 1 minute. Heat noodles in microwave in 30-second intervals to rewarm. Cut noodles with scissors if too long. Divide noodles among bowls. Divide snow peas and hot soup among bowls. Scatter red onion, green onions, cilantro, and chiles over soup. Garnish with lime wedges and serve.

thai iced tea

Posted in drink by

Sometimes I bargain with myself.  You know: “if I’m really good about paying down my bills this month then next month I can reward myself with a little fun shopping,” or “if I go running three days this week I can pick up a blueberry turnover at the (amazing ) local bakery for breakfast on Friday.”  Another of my standard internal conversations goes like this: “if I get up early on Saturday and go to Pilates/yoga and get all my errands out of the way I can treat myself to Thai food for lunch.”

I love Thai food.  (I love it more than a friend.)  One of my favorite things to order at Thai restaurants is Thai iced tea.  It’s sweet, it’s creamy, it’s a little smokey, it’s orange, and it’s so easy to make.

I tracked down some Thai tea leaves at a local Asian grocery store though if those aren’t easily accessible where you are I’m sure it can be easily found and purchased on the interweb.  Get on it.

Thai Iced Tea

  • 6 cups water
  • 1 cup Thai tea leaves
  • ¾ to 1 cup sugar, depending on sweetness preference
  • ¾ cup half and half

Bring water to a boil.  Stir in tea leaves, remove from heat, cover with lid, and let steep for five minutes.  Strain tea through fine mesh sieve into pitcher.  Stir in sugar until it dissolves.  Put pitcher in fridge for two hours to chill.  Serve over ice with a splash of half and half.

cherry cobbler

Man am I glad I bought a big ol’ tub of frozen cherries at the farmer’s market at the end of the summer last year. That was some major forward-thinking on my part. There’s just something about baking with cherries that screams summer even if it’s only the beginning of February.

Speaking of February: I heard on the news this morning that the local groundhog didn’t see his shadow so it’s supposed to be an early spring. Fingers crossed on that one…

Anyhow I decided to thaw out some of those beautiful Door County cherries to make a cobbler. Cobblers are SO easy. Even people who say they can’t bake can totally make cobblers. Trust me on this one.

I wanted to break out this awesome vintage baking dish that my Aunt Sarah gave to me for Christmas only I didn’t take into account that it was smaller than what the recipe called for so the cobbler was more like a full-on crust. No matter. It tasted wonderful just the same!

While I have made cobblers in the past, this recipe was very light and made me feel like it was almost good for me. And I guess if it made me happy thinking of summer in February then it was!

Cherry Cobbler (adapted from “How to Cook Everything” by Mark Bittman)

  • 4 to 6 cups cherries or other fruit, washed and well dried
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits, plus some for greasing pan
  • ½ cup all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • Pinch salt
  • 1 egg
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Toss the fruit with half the sugar, and spread it in a lightly butter 8-inch square or 9-inch round baking pan.

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and remaining sugar in the container of a food processor and pulse once or twice. Add the butter and process for 10 seconds, until the mixture is well blended. By hand, beat in the egg and vanilla.

Drop the mixture onto the fruit by tablespoonfuls; do not spread it out. Bake until golden-yellow and just starting to brown, 35 to 45 minutes. Serve immediately.

sweet potato and carrot bisque

Posted in soup, vegetable, vegetarian by

Last weekend was a total soup weekend. It was cold, it snowed like six inches on top of the six we already had, and I was in no mood to venture out to grocery shop so instead decided to shop my pantry. I had sweet potatoes. I had carrots. I had onions. I had vegetable stock. Done and done and done and done.

With baking you have to stick pretty close to actual recipes but with cooking you can be more free and soup is an especially easy arena in which to experiment. Some of my favorite soups (and salads for that matter) have been a result of the mix of ingredients I happened to have on hand at that moment that all worked together to create something better than the sum of their parts.

This soup is full of orange vegetables– you know, the kind that make you see further and help prevent cancer. Totally awesome. Added bonus: it tastes good too.

Don’t fret if you don’t have an immersion blender, (though I highly recommend investing in one) you can puree this soup in batches in a blender or a food processor. Or you could even leave it chunky– that would be great too. Totally up to you. Experiment!

Sweet Potato and Carrot Bisque

  • 4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into quarter-inch rounds
  • 1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into ½-inch chunks
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 ½ tablespoons tomato paste
  • 5 cups vegetable or chicken broth
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Melt the butter in a large pot. Add the onion, cover and cook over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, until softened. Add the carrots and sweet potatoes, cover and cook, stirring once, until the vegetables are just beginning to soften, about 2 minutes. Add the tomato paste and vegetable or chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover pot and allow to simmer for approximately 30 minutes or until vegetables are softened. Using an immersion blender, puree soup until smooth. If you do not have an immersion blender, transfer soup to blender or food processor in batches and puree until smooth.