Butternut!

Hello again!

The best season of all is here, and the best soup of all is here:

Curried Butternut Squash

I think butternut squash soup is this decade's Italian marinara sauce... everyone has their own recipe and swears it's superior to all others. Well, here is my recipe, and yep, I think it's awesome. You can agree or disagree, and I'll still share! Curry and cinnamon give it warmth and sweetness. We enjoyed this batch over a French film rented from the library.

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

• 1 sweet onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 butternut squash, peeled and chopped (~3 cups)
• 3 apples, peeled and chopped
• 1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped
• 1 quart vegetable broth
• 1 15-oz can coconut milk
• ½ tablespoon cinnamon
• ½ tablespoon curry powder
• ½ tablespoon salt
• Black pepper, to taste
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

Directions:

Heat a large pot over medium heat. Add olive oil and saute onion for 5 minutes. Add garlic, saute for 2 minutes. Add squash, apples, sweet potatoes, vegetable broth, coconut milk, cinnamon, curry, pepper, and cayenne. Cover, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes or until squash is soft. Let stand 10-15 minutes to cool slightly. Puree with immersion blender. Bring back to a simmer, adding salt and pepper to taste. 

Serve with a dollop of Greek yogurt, swirl of pumpkinseed oil, and maybe some toasted coconut!

A new favorite seasonal recipe we've been into recently is my pumpkin smoothie. Mark even said, and I quote, "This is as good as pumpkin pie." (Did you know one of his top-5 favorite foods is pumpkin pie?) Now whip this up:

Pumpkin Power Smoothie

• 1/2 banana, frozen in slices
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 tbsp cashew butter
• 1 scoop vanilla protein powder (alternatively, 1/2 cup plain yogurt and a tsp of stevia or honey)
• 1 cup unsweetened almondmilk
• Lots of cinnamon
• Pinch of nutmeg

Blend. Eat!

I can't believe we will be celebrating our 1-year anniversary next weekend! We are off to upstate New York for a long weekend to enjoy the gorgeous season.

Until next time, eat well!

Sweet Sweet Sweet Potato

Isn't it just darling to find new ways to cook well-loved foods? I am talking about the sweetest potato I know.  

(Sweet potato or yam? In the US we use the terms interchangeably. Botanically, they are two different tubers. But most of what we enjoy here in the States are true sweet potatoes! Google it.)

Three sweet potatoes. Two new recipes. One tasty and beta carotene-filled day!

My excuses for cooking up Sweet Potato Blueberry Muffins and Spiced Mashed Sweet Potatoes are both internship-related.

First, the muffins. Another intern and I are testing recipes we will make for a breakfast event in Keene honoring Champions in the area. Champions are individuals and organizations who have pledged to help make Keene the healthiest community in the country by the year 2020. (Also known as Vision 2020.) The breakfast is in March. We'll prepare food for about 50 people, and then give a short presentation on how to make the most out of breakfast. So far we know we will make homemade granola bars, mini-quiches, and muffins. We are also able to serve yogurt, fruit, and coffee... making it a complete meal. I like this recipe because it is so different, wholesome, and kind of fun! (I mean, a sweet potato muffin? Really? I still get a kick out of it!)

This recipe was adapted from chef Mark Bittman's Sweet Potato Muffins, created for Runner's World Magazine. If you look at his recipe, you'll notice I added 1/2 cup frozen blueberries, tossed in a bit of flour. I also substituted some brown sugar for the white, and next time may even use a bit of maple syrup too (you just do that in New Hampshire.) These treats are the perfect, perfect pre-workout fuel... and a delightful afternoon snack.

*Update* The second time I baked these, I reduced the total amount of regular whole wheat flour from 2 1/2 down to 2 cups. The muffins came out a bit lighter and even better! I imagine if you used whole wheat pastry, 2 1/2 would still be fine, but it can be hard to find.

"Make me! Eat me!"

The other sweet (potato) dish we whipped up (literally) is a mashed sweet potato with some uncommon flavors. Let me explain. A fellow intern and I are doing a lunch 'n' learn presentation at a local senior center. Since seniors are often told what they can't eat, (goodbye saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, vitamin K perhaps...) we are going to talk to them about how to make what they do eat even better. With spices! Did you know... 1 tsp of cinnamon contains the antioxidant equivalent of 1/2 cup of blueberries? Dried spices are essentially concentrated forms of fruits and vegetables. No, that doesn't mean we can replace vegetables with spices in our diets, but it does mean we can maximize the nutrient punch by adding spice.

These spices are some of the most powerful:

• Cloves 
• Cinnamon 
• Oregano 
• Turmeric 
• Curry 
• Thyme
• Ginger
• Cumin
• Black pepper

To start off the session with our seniors, we'll have them taste our Spiced Mashed Sweet Potatoes and guess what spices we added to the dish. Much of our research for the topic, as well as the recipe, came from McCormick.

Recipe: Spiced Mashed Sweet Potatoes.

1. Cook 2 lbs sweet potatoes. (Microwave, boil, bake, whatever your heart desires. We microwaved!) 
2. Mash.
3. Add 2 tbsp butter, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tsp ground ginger, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp dried thyme.

Thanks McCormick for the photo... I promise it looked like this when I made it too!

I think you will find this dish intriguing. The vanilla suggests sweetness, but the thyme keeps it savory. And the ginger does its own thing. It's good, I promise. One taste-tester exclaimed... This is confusing!

Keep it interesting! Happy cooking!

The Making of a Bagel Snob

Last weekend I took a very necessary get-away to one of my favorite local resorts... the home of my favorite New Hampshire residents- Reuben, Karen, and Josie. R & K are my brother and sister-in-law's best friends from college, and now they are my "fam away from fam" here in New England. These two are quite the foodies, with Reuben co-owning a happenin' burrito joint, and Karen roasting her own coffee, baking homemade breads, and canning food like it's going out of style. Spending time with Reuben, Karen, and their 6-month-old, Josie, is always relaxing and delicious, and this past weekend was no exception.

"I wish I had teeth so I could eat bagels!"

 Karen decided to wow me once again with her baking skills... she made homemade bagels! (Who does that?!) Lots of commercial bagels are nothing more than circular bread, and there really isn't anything exciting about that. True bagels are boiled before they are baked in the oven, creating that nice, shiny, chewy outside. Karen followed this recipe, which I will highlight below...

All of the hard work was already done... just like magic!

Because Karen is awesome, two days prior to my arrival, she made the homemade dough and let these bagel beauties rise. (I honestly don't know exactly what she did to make the dough, and I don't really care to know, because leaving it a mystery is much more intriguing.) So the bagel dough lying neatly on this tray is what I saw on Saturday morning, ready to go! Next, we boiled them in a magical potion for a minute!

Boil the bagels in water and baking soda. Because it's magic.

During boiling, the bagels puffed up a little, and then we pulled 'em outta the water and topped them with fun things... like kosher salt, cinnamon and sugar, and a great grainy mix. Dog Moose (one of the Top Three Best Dogs in the World) wanted in on the action, too...

Even Moose was excited for Bagel Saturday!

"Seriously, give me a bagel. Staring and smelling is just annoying."

 After we topped them, we stuck them in the oven for about 10 minutes. That's it. And when that oven door opened, out came the most fantastically chewy, tender, flavorful bagels I've ever tasted! I LOVED THESE BAGELS! Our unanimous favorite flavor was topped with cinnamon, sugar and salt... and we spread them with some homemade cream cheese. It tasted a bit like a yogurt. (Serious points to Reub and Karen for attempting a homemade cheesy spread of their very own!)

I don't want you anymore, Panera. Not with these in town.

So, it's official... I'm now a bagel snob. I will never again eat another bagel unless it is freshly boiled and baked minutes prior to me eating it. Don't waste my time, Panera... I don't need you!
I really can't say I will try this recipe on my own... I worry it might be too challenging for a baking non-enthusiast to do alone (without Karen) and it just won't be as good... so this bagel moment remains a delicious memory. A chewy, sweet, salty, warm memory. I'm okay with keeping it that way!