Gnocchi with Butternut Squash and Spinach

Well today officially kicked off fall and I decided to celebrate with cooking butternut squash. I love butternut squash. It just screams fall to me. It can be done in hundreds of preparations but I thought I would try out my new culinary creativeness and do something different. So I saw a recipe for butternut squash and gnocchi and I modified it. I dont like kale so I used spinach and I also added some other herbs as well. Be warned that while this dish is perfectly fine, its not the best it could be. I had this dilemma when coming up with my Italian Wedding Soup recipe. I had to make it a couple of times with different things in it before making sure it was perfect. Although I do remember Alex loving it the way it was and being upset with me for adding some other things to my soup, but he enjoyed the final product much more than the original. So I guess its okay to change good recipes so they can be the best they can be. So if you try this and do something different than I did, I would love to hear it. I will add my own notes and notations on the dish after I have told you about it.

Recipe:
1 butternut squash
1 pkg dehydrated gnocchi (I used whole wheat)
1 bunch baby spinach or other green, roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
1 1/4c chicken broth (the recipe stated or water but I used water since my chicken broth was frozen and I would have preferred broth)
salt
pepper
cayenne
sage
1/4-1/2c grated parmesan


Take your butternut squash and lets break it down. Some of you may not have used fresh squash and may not know the best way to do this. Here is my own personal method. I cut the squash in half around its waist. Then I take the bottom half, the part with the seeds, and cut that in half lengthways. Scoop out the seeds using a spoon. I prefer to use a peeler but other people prefer to use a knife, so its your choice here. Peel or cut the skin off the squash. .

Then cut into long strips and then cubes. If you plan on cooking your squash by boiling or using in soups later then you can freeze anything leftover in plastic containers or freezer bags

Once you have cubed your squash place on a baking sheet lined with foil. Drizzle some olive oil, salt, pepper, chili flakes, and some thyme or sage. Roast at 400 degrees for 15 minues or until soft.

In a large oven proof skillet heat some olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and cook until they become slightly browned. Add in your cooked squash and stir together. If the squash starts to stick to your pan, add some more olive oil or butter.

Add in 1 1/4c chicken broth, gnocchi, and spinach. Add a little more salt and pepper to taste. Also add in 1/4t cayenne and some chopped sage. (I tend to really like sage and use a lot but if you dont like that much, then dont add a whole lot.) Bring to a light boil and reduce heat until pan is gently simmering. Stir continually to make sure everything is mixed together well in the pan. Mixture will get a little goopy and soupy looking, but do not fret, it will work itself out in the end.

*Gnocchi (ne-oki) should have the conistency of a soft dumpling. Not too soft and fall apart but not too dense and dry. For more info check out this site.

Once the gnocchi is cooked add 1/2 of the parmesan and stir into the squash mixture. Add the other 1/2 of the parmesan to the top of the dish and place in a preheated oven on broil. Cook in the oven for 5-10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and slightly browned. Remove from oven and let it cool down slightly before serving.

Spoon onto plates and serve with some crusty bread.

So what is the review on it? Well Alex liked it. He didn't think it was too sweet. I on the other hand thought it was a little too sweet. I think maybe I should have used a kale or other bitter green instead of the milder spinach. The dish was overall too sweet and needed the bitter element to balance it out. I also believe it needed the chicken stock instead of the water. So next time I will use the broth. It adds a salty savory element to the dish that water does not supply. This also would have helped to cut down on the sweet factor. I also did not have fresh sage and for some reason didn't even think of my dried sage. Once I did think of it I added a little bit to the top of my dish. It helped, but fresh and cooked with the meal would've made a huge difference as well. I also wonder if a little lemon zest would help to brighten the entire dish. But overall it wasn't bad. If you do decide to try this, make sure and not make my mistakes!

Slump

Well I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later, but I have fallen into a food slump! Ever since getting to Florida my cooking creativity has considerably fallen off. And I am not really sure why. Sure I have made some stuff, but nothing really note worthy. It seems that lately I have been pulling out meat and then not knowing AT ALL what I am going to make until 1 minute before I make it. I keep asking Alex what to make with the meat I have pulled out. And hes just as lost as I am. And he's suggesting things that are not really inside my culinary range. They are in fact below my culinary range. And I do not mean to sound egotistical or anything, but I like to make food that challenges me. I like to take my time in the kitchen and have fun with flavors and textures and colors. And right now I am making things like: Hamburger patties cooked and served with mashed potatoes and gravy. Or simple chicken tacos. And thats just not exciting to me anymore. I need things like Bahn Mi and Thai meatballs and homemade ravioli to get me going. But even those things have become a sort of norm. So I am running low on inspiration.

That being said I was talking to Alex last night about it when I got an email from the Bertolli company. They were asking if I would like to do a giveaway to promote their new line of frozen soups. So I thought about it and why not? It kinda got me excited about food again to be honest with you. So what is this giveaway? Well they are introducing 4 new flavors of frozen soups made for 2 people to share. The varieties include Chicken and Rotini Pasta, Tomato Florentine and Tortellini with Chihcken, Chicken Minestrone, and Tuscan Beef and Vegetables. For more information and photos click here.

So I will be coming up with some sort of contest to see who can fairly win the giveaway. I will be giving away a stainless steel soup ladle and 4 tasting coupons. I can assume from my interaction with these companies that it will be good for a free one in each variety or I suppose 4 free of one variety or however you prefer. But I am very excited to be chosen to do this. I'm sure it didnt mean as much as I think it meant, but Im still excited. So this is just a little taster for my giveaway in a few days. I hope that all of yall will keep reading and posting comments and feedback. I hear around that I have people who read this that I do not know. And I am flattered. So bear with me and I will start posting my food journal again. But hopefully this is the spark to ignite my culinary creative juices again! So stay tuned for my Bertolli giveaway coming soon!!

Hogg and Greens Soup

Well it has been some time since I have been on here and writing about my food. But there is a good reason I assure you. We moved from West Coast in Las Vegas to the East Coast of Fort Walton Beach, Florida. We had been trying to get out of there for some years now and finally succeeded. And you wouldn't believe how hard it is to get out of that base! And I know some of you think we are crazy for wanting to leave a place like Las Vegas, but we missed home. We missed the normalcy of being in the South. And with two kids, its not a real family friendly place. And when you want to go out on dates things dont start until 11p and when you have kids that get up at 6:30 its not ideal. So here we are. And for the last couple of weeks we have been watching seasons of Top Chef until our satellite got hooked up. And let me tell you, I LOVE Top Chef. Well while watching Season 6 in Las Vegas I was curious about a contestants restaurant in Atlanta. The name is The Woodfire Grill. I decided to look up his menu and see what he was offering. And he has a soup that looked like something I could do. And I am sure he has a little more refinement to his dish, but let me tell you...mine was pretty tasty. The original dish says "local pink eye peas, fresh sweet corn, collard greens, smoked pork broth, green onions" I mean how simple does that seem??

So I went to the store and started gathering ingredients to make this dish. I found smoked pork neckbones and decided that would be great to make my broth out of. I had some fresh shelled lady peas from Montgomery. AL. I had some fresh corn in the fridge I had bought earlier in the week. And I found a large bag of collard greens already shredded. I had hoped to find mustard greens, me and Alex like them better, but sometimes you just use what you have. I also grabbed some nice whole grain bread...I mean whats soup without bread??

Broth Recipe:
1 pkg smoked pork necks (or other smoked pork part you like)
water
2 bay leaves
white whole peppercorns
1-2 carrots
1/2 onion
salt

Place smoked bones in a large stock pot and fill 3/4 way up the pot with regular water. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 4-6 hours. Taste the broth periodically to adjust seasonings. Once the broth tastes ready pour contents of the pot through a strainer to get rid of the large pieces and then run through a fine mesh strainer, cheesecloth, or pantyhose to get rid of the small debris lingering in your broth. If you are not immediately using your broth place in containers and let cool before placing in refrigerator or freezer. Otherwise place strained broth in a large soup pot.

Take pork necks and shred the meat off the bones and place in a container for later use.

Soup Recipe:
smoked pork broth
shredded smoked pork
1-2c fresh shelled lady peas (or other fresh pea you like)
1-2 ears of corn, de-cobbed
1-2c fresh shredded collards (or mustard greens)
1/2c sliced green onions

Place collards in a large pot with some water and cook with salt and chili pepper if you like them spicy. Cook until tender 30-45 minutes. Drain.

Meanwhile place lady peas in a small pot and cook in some water until tender, about 30 minutes. Drain.

Bring pot of smoked pork broth up to a boil and reduce to simmer. Add fresh corn, cooked peas, shredded pork, and cooked collards. Bring to a boil and simmer 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Ladle soup into bowls and garnish wish sliced green onions. Serve with warm bread.

We thoroughly enjoyed this meal. It may not have looked like the Top Chef contestants, but it tasted good and thats all thats important. Besides, I'm not cooking fancy meals for fancy people. It was just me and Alex eating dinner. But it had all the things that make good southern food. And things that you cannot always get in other places of the country. So for getting back to the South and getting fresh local produce and enjoying it all, this was a fabulous dinner. I highly recommend trying this one.....even in the heat of summer!!

Homemade Ravioli: Chicken, Mushroom, Spinach, and Cheese

This is part two of my previous post. I made two different raviolis and sauces and thought it best to break them into two different posts and recipe links. So if you did not read the last post on butternut squash you may want to since I am not retyping out the recipe and steps to making the pasta sheets. Maybe this is lazy, maybe it's just a ruse to get you to read more of my posts and become addicted to my food! Muahaha! Whatever the reasons, go back a post or look in the recipe link for Butternut Squash Ravioli and then come back for the rest of the steps.

Chicken, Mushroom, Spinach, and Cheese Ravioli:
1/2 recipe for butternut squash dough or regular pasta dough
3-4 chicken tenders, can be leftovers previously cooked
1/2c chopped mushrooms
3/4c frozen spinach, thawed
1/2c mozzarella cheese, shredded
4 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper
olive oil

If chicken is not already cooked, season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder and cook until golden brown and done. Cool slightly. Dice cooked chicken and set aside. In a large skillet heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil and add garlic and mushrooms. Cook for 2 minutes until mushrooms are soft. Add back the chicken and the thawed spinach. Heat through and turn off heat. Place mixture in a bowl and combine with cheese. Set aside until ready to fill ravioli.

Go through the steps of rolling out your dough through a pasta machine. Once you get all of your sheets rolled and cut in half begin filling the sheets. Using your fingers here works best. Smush together a small ball of chicken mixture and carefully place onto sheet. These will be slightly taller and thicker than the squash ravioli. So make sure your top sheet of pasta will fit over and seal onto the bottom sheet of dough.

Then seal the edges between ravioli and cut the ravioli into individual pieces. And again using your fingers or a fork seal the edges and place on a floured baking sheet until ready to cook.

I believe we had a few scraps of pasta dough remaining and some more filling so somebody made an enormous almost calzone like ravioli filled with the remainder of the filling. I do not recommend doing them all like that, but it could be fun for the man of the house to eat!

Once all of your pasta is ready, get a large pot of water boiling on the stove and start your sauce.

Garlic Cream Sauce:
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1c heavy whipping cream
salt and pepper to taste

Heat 1t olive oil in a large skillet on medium. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the cream and whisk to keep garlic from sticking to the bottom of the skillet. Reduce heat to low and bring to a simmer. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the sauce thickens. If the sauce is thickened and you are not done cooking pasta turn the heat off and keep on stove to keep warm. Stir to keep a film from developing on the top of sauce.

Meanwhile cook pasta for 2-3 minutes or until the pasta is cooked through. As with the squash pasta you will need to play around and see how long that is for you. I found it easier to cook pasta and scoop out with a skimmer or slotted spoon and place in a large pasta bowl. Then spoon over some cream sauce to keep from sticking until all the pasta was cooked.

I cooked the calzone-like ravioli last in case it exploded. However we were all pleasantly suprised to find it did not.

Serve at the table with freshly grated parmesan.

This one was just as delicious as the butternut squash ravioli. They are completely different though. But everyone agreed it was a fun time learning to make and then eat our homemade pasta.

One thing I want to tell yall before finishing this post is that I didnt' stop with the ravioli. The two ladies who came over for dinner have been on me for years to make them cannoli. And for some reason I have yet to do it. It is a pain in the butt to make and I only do it about once a year. And I realized this might be my last chance to make them before we moved to Florida. So after dinner we rolled out the dough and fried the shells and filled them with the ricotta filling I had made earlier in the day. And we had homemade cannoli. But since this recipe is from my husbands grandmother and while it's probably no secret.....what's like without a little mystery and intrigue. So it is something I am not willing to share with the general public just yet. But for teasing purposes I will show you a picture of our grand masterpiece. And if you are ever near me, perhaps you can convince me to make a batch of them for you!

Homemade Ravioli: Butternut Squash

So I have been going through my freezer and found some butternut squash I had prepped this winter and frozen. I dont know about you, but I LOVE butternut squash. I make all kinds of things with butternut squash. My most popular is I think my butternut squash and leek soup. But I think after that is my butternut squash ravioli. I have only made it once, but my neighbor Amy adored it and told me we had to make it again before we left and moved. So I finally relented. And when you see the long process you will understand. But....in the end it is worth all the effort. But then I told another friend what I was making and she wanted some too. So she and her two kids came along with my neighbor and her youngest two kids. So it was a pasta making party. Which, if you are making homemade pasta is how it should be I think! It's a lot like tamales. You never want to make tamales by yourself because of the time and intensity of the process.

So I decided today I would make two different types of ravioli. I was going to make a basic dough but use butternut squash in the pasta instead of my liquid. The first one was a butternut squash, ricotta, and sage filling with a brown butter sage sauce. Then in case people didn't like the butternut squash I would make a chicken, mushroom, spinach, and mozzarella ravioli with a light garlic cream sauce.

So I suppose lets start with the pasta dough.

Recipe:
1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cubed.
3c flour
1 egg, beaten

Once your squash is peeled and cubed it can be frozen and used later or used fresh. But place cubes in a large pot of salted boiling water and cook about 10 minutes or until soft, like making mashed potatoes. Drain off the water and place squash in a food processor. Blend until completely smooth.

In a large bowl place flour. Add about 2/3 to 3/4 of the cooked squash mixture to the flour along with the egg. Mix together well. If dough is sticky and too wet, add some flour until dough is not sticky anymore. Knead dough to get all the pieces to come together. Form into a ball and place in greased bowl. Place a towel of the top of the dough to keep it from drying out and let it sit at least 15 minutes before making pasta.

Using a pasta machine to make the dough. I am going to explain the steps to you, but if you have a pasta machine or decide to start dabbling in homemade pasta it will come with a set of instructions. But take your dough and cut or pull into small baseball sized balls. Cut those in half. If the dough is still too much to handle, cut in half again. Make sure you have plenty of flour around you. Flour the board, the machine, your hands and your rolling pin. Also have some baking sheets at your work station and flour those as well. If you are making a lot of ravioli, like we did last night, it is a good idea to have some parchment or wax paper next to you as well so when you fill up the bottom portion of your baking dish you can place some paper of the top and keep making more ravioli.

Take a small piece of dough, whatever you are not using immediately make sure you keep covered with a towel so it doesnt dry out, and lightly roll out the dough with your rolling pin. It doesn't have to be too thin....that's what the pasta machine is for. Once you get it about a half inch thick you can start with your machine. It is easier to have two sets of hands, but one can work...just take your time.

 Place your pasta machine on its highest setting. Mine happens to be 7. Run your dough through the machine once. Then to make sure you have it evenly I like to run it through one more time on 7. At this point you can go by two's on your machine. So I place mine at 5 and roll it through the machine again. Then go down to 3 and roll through once more. This is where I stop. Any further down and the dough is too thin and hard to work with. Lay your newly rolled out piece of dough on a baking sheet lined with flour. If the strip is too long to fit your sheet, cut in half. Continue to roll out dough until you either finish your dough or have enough that you want to stop.

*If you have lots of people over to help you, you can give the other people the dough strip and continue rolling out dough while they fill, cut, and pinch. If you are alone, place on the baking sheet and cover with a towel until you are ready to fill them.


Butternut Squash Ravioli:
2c ricotta cheese
3T chopped fresh sage
remainder of your butternut squash, about 1/2c
salt and pepper

In a medium bowl combine cheese, squash, sage and salt and pepper. Set aside until ready to use.

Now you must be ready to start the filling process. I find that the one strip of rolled out dough is a little too big for ravioli. So we take a ravioli cutter or pastry cutter or a sharp knife and cut the dough in half. Place your ricotta filling inside a piping bag or if you don't have a piping bag, a ziploc bag with the end cut off works just as well. Squeeze out your filling onto your dough in small circles all along the dough. Leave about 1/2-1 inch in between circles.

Now carefully place your other half a strip of dough over your filled side of dough. Carefully stretch top piece if it is too short to match up with the bottom piece. Gently press together the dough seams between the filling. Taking your ravioli cutter, cut the end off the ravioli and in between each blob of filling creating single pieces of ravioli. Then using a fork or your fingers press together the edges of the ravioli so they don't come undone in the pasta water when cooking.

Place individual ravioli on a floured baking dish and do not cover with a towel unless you are making this solo. It makes for easier cooking if they are dried out a little. Set aside until all ravioli are made and you are ready to cook.

Brown Butter Sage Sauce:
1-2 sticks of butter
1T chopped fresh sage
pepper and salt to taste
2-3T olive oil

Place one stick of butter in a skillet over medium heat. Melt butter and continue cooking. Add the sage and salt and pepper. Butter will foam up. Once the foam dies down the butter starts browning. Let the butter brown for about a minute or two. To stop the browning process, add 2-3T of olive oil to the butter. Cook on very low heat to keep warm.

Meanwhile fill a large pot with salted water and bring to a boil. Gently add a few ravioli at a time into the water. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until the pasta is cooked through and tender. This is hard to tell how to do. You will have to practice looking at the color of the pasta and the consistency to know when is best for you to pull them out of the water. Using a slotted spoon or skimmer, pull pasta out of boiling water and let the water drain briefly. Place immediately into the brown butter sauce and cook another minute or two, making sure to get sauce on both sides of the ravioli. Pull gently out of sauce and into a warm platter or bowl for serving. Continue to cook pasta and sauce them until there is no more.

If your butter sauce is almost gone, use the second stick of butter and repeat the sauce process.

Top hot pasta with freshly grated parmesan. If you are being fancy you can even flash fry whole leaves of sage and use as edible garnish.

These little things tasted like heaven. They were delicious. But of course you need to like butternut squash to enjoy them. Everyone at my house enjoyed them. Even some of the kids! They were worth all of the effort once you got one that just melted into your mouth.

Black Eyed Pea and Turkey Soup

So I have not posted much on food I have made, mostly because I have not been making much food. Also because I am making simple food. But I am going through my freezers and pantry to try and get rid of food before our move to Florida next month. This meal was put together at the last minute with several items from within my freezer. I used leftover rice from this weekend, leftover turkey meat from Easter, frozen black eyed peas from New Years, carrots, rosemary, frozen spinach leftover from making Italian Wedding Soup, and homemade chicken stock. Now while I do think myself a pretty good cook, I think my best event is soup making. We love soup in our house and I can whip up a tasty one in no time flat. So hopefully yall like this as much as we did last night!

Recipe:
1lb chicken, cut up (or leftover pre cooked turkey or chicken)
3 carrots, sliced
1c pre cooked white rice or 1/2c uncooked rice
16oz frozen black eyed peas
4c chicken stock
2c water
1/2-1c frozen spinach
salt and pepper to taste
2T fresh chopped rosemary

Heat some olive oil in a large pot on medium heat. Add the uncooked chicken and season with salt and pepper. Cook 6-8 minutes or until golden. Remove from pan. Add the carrots, rice, peas, rosemary, and lightly season with more salt and pepper. Cook scraping up any brown bits for 1 minute, then stir in chicken stock and 2 cups water. Bring to a simmer over high then lovwer the heat and simmer until the rice and beans are tender, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile shred chicken. Add to the soup along with spinach and cook for 5 minutes.

*If you want to use leftovers like me. Saute your carrots with the rosemary and salt and pepper. Add in your chicken stock and bring stock and water to a boil and reduce to simmer. Add your chopped cooked chicken, black eyed peas, and cooked rice. Cook for 10 minutes until flavors begin to meld together. Add spinach  and cook an extra 5 minutes until spinach is warm. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

This was a super easy and tasty meal. It might have been close to 100 degrees today, but the soup was warm and comforting and made you forget your troubles. Although I suppose if you want to fancy this up, there are countless ways. This is just the simple base to allow you to expand to suit your tastes. Or a base to help you clean out your freezers!! Enjoy!!

Spicy Pasta Salad

So last night I was racking my brain trying to decide what to eat with our blackened fish and I stumbled upon a recipe for spicy pasta salad. So I thought why not. I asked Alex and all he asked was that I not use orzo pasta like the recipe called for. So I used ditalini instead. For those who are not familiar with it, it is a tubular pasta with a hole in the middle. Resembles a tiny donut. I use it a lot in my Italian Wedding Soup.

Recipe:
1/2 box small pasta
1 can whole kernel corn, preferably no salt added, drained
12 cherry tomatoes, quartered
3 green onions, sliced
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/4c buttermilk
3T fresh chopped cilantro
3T lime juice
2T sour cream
2T mayo
1t chili powder
1/2t salt
1/4t black pepper
1/4t cayenne
2 cloves garlic, minced

Cook pasta according to directions. Drain. Place pasta, corn, tomatoes, green onions, and black beans in a large bowl. Toss.

Combine buttermilk, 2T cilantro, lime juice, sour cream, mayo, chili powder, salt, pepper, cayenne, and garlic in a small bowl. Stir well with a whisk. Drizzle over pasta mixture. Top with remaining cilantro.

It wasn't all that spicy after mixing it together. But then again I didnt have chili powder in my cabinet and I improvised. But since we ate the pasta salad with a blackened mahi mahi, the spice off the fish got onto the edges of the salad and made it delicious. So I aboslutely recommend making your pasta salad spicy. I think I am going to make this for some family members one day. It has a feel of a southwestern dish. Mostly because of the corn and black beans.

I did eat some leftover for lunch today and while I did not like it cold, I did not heat it up. I put some on a plate and microwaved it for about 15 seconds. This got the cold chill off of it from the fridge without making it hot. And I like it that way. And this is a nice thing to make when you want to try something a little different from your normal pasta salads. Hope yall enjoy it!! (PS....Dad you will be trying this very soon!!)