Butternut Squash and Potato Soup

I got this recipe online at http://allrecipes.com/recipe/butternut-squash-soup-ii/ ...  it's super tasty, easy, and is more satiating than a full on squash soup. 

Ingredients

•  2 tablespoons butter
•  1 small onion, chopped
•  1 stalk celery, chopped
•  1 medium carrot, chopped
•  2 medium potatoes, cubed
•  1 medium butternut squash - peeled, seeded, and cubed
•  1 (32 fluid ounce) container chicken stock
•  salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Melt the butter in a large pot, and cook the onion, celery, carrot, potatoes, and squash until lightly browned. I found this took around 15 minutes and went quicker if I stirred less.
2. Pour in enough of the chicken stock to cover vegetables. 
3. Bring to a boil.
4. Reduce heat to low, cover pot, and simmer 40 minutes, or until all vegetables are tender.
5. Transfer the soup to a blender, and blend until smooth. Return to pot. Or, use a hand blender and blend in the pot.
6. Mix in any remaining stock to attain desired consistency. 
7. Season with salt and pepper.

Serves: 4ish

Peach, Arugula, Prosciutto, Goat cheese salad

This recipe is a slightly tweaked version of PEACH, ARUGULA & GOAT CHEESE SALAD

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup plus 2 tbs. balsamic vinegar
• 2 firm, ripe peaches
• 2 bunches arugula (about 2 cups), tough stems removed
• 2 tbs. grapeseed oil
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• Goat cheese, crumbled
• 5-6 slices of prosciutto, torn into bit sized pieces

To make:

1. In a saucepan over medium-high heat, bring the vinegar to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the vinegar is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Let cool.
2. Cut the peaches in half and remove and discard the pits. Cut each half into 6 wedges.
3. Place the wedges in a shallow dish, sprinkle with the brown sugar and drizzle with 2 Tbs. vinegar.
4. In another saucepan over medium-high heat sear the peaches on each side, around 1-2 minutes per side.
5. Turn off the heat to the pan of peaches and add the prosciutto, allowing the prosciutto to warm.
6. In a large serving bowl, combine the arugula, oil, a taste of salt and pepper, and toss to coat.
7. Arrange the grilled peaches and prosciutto on top of the arugula.
8. Drizzle with the reduced balsamic vinegar and sprinkle with the goat cheese.
9. Serve immediately.

Tip: be sparing when drizzling the balsamic vinegar. It could overwhelm the salad easily. You can add more later if desired.

Roasted Veggies

The following is an edited version of this recipe: Roasted Vegetables

Ingredients:

• beets
• zucchini
• baby hawaiian potatoes (or some sort of white potatoes)
• baby carrots
• yellow onion
• (sometimes I add shiitake mushrooms, kept whole.)

Seasoning:

• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
• 1/4 cup grapeseed oil, add more as needed to coat veggies thoroughly.
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

To make:

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees F
2. Chop and boil beets until 1/2 way cooked, remove from water and when they've cooled enough to where you can take their skins off with your hands, do so. Peel with potato peeler if not cooked enough to peel with hands.
3. Chop veggies. You can leave baby carrots and potatoes as whole if they're small enough, just aim to make all veggies similar sized and place in a bowl.
4. Assemble seasoning in a small cup and whip them together well with a fork.
5. Toss seasoning with the veggies to coat. **Make sure veggies are coated on all sides so they don't stick to the pan**
6. Put the veggies on a pan covered with foil (much easier to clean!) and cook for around 20mins or until done, stirring them around once or twice.

Vermicelli Grilled Chicken

This is a recipe that I found online at http://www.vietnamese-recipes.com/vietnamese-recipes/rice-noodles/vermicelli-grilled-chicken.php. The whole site seems to be full of authentic Vietnamese food! Yay :)

Below's a copy of the recipe in case the site ever changes:

600 g 1 kg 100 g Marinade 2 stalks 1 teaspoon 1/4 teaspoon 1 teaspoon 1 tablespoon 1 1 Garnishing 1 tablespoon 2-3 sprigs 100 g 75 g 1

Chicken fillet, thinly sliced Dried rice vermicelli Peanuts (groundnuts), roasted and crushed Mixed fish sauce Lemon grass, bulbous portions only, finely chopped Garlic, finely chopped Ground white pepper Sugar Fish sauce Chicken seasoning powder Red chili, finely chopped Pickled carrot and radish Thai basil leaves Bean sprouts Lettuce, julienned Cucumber, julienned

Method : Combine marinade ingredients and marinate pork for 5 minutes. Soak rice vermicelli in cold water for 20 minutes then place into boiling water and cook for 5 minutes. Rinse under cold water, drain and set aside. Grill chicken in medium charcoal flame until golden brown. To serve, divide garnish equally into 6 serving bowls. Top with rice vermicelli and grilled chicken. Sprinkle with peanuts and mixed fish sauce. Toss well before eating.

I could not find pickled carrots or radishes, so I used uncooked ones instead. I think it was still tasty and gave the dish something fresh to ground the flavors.

Instead of "chicken powder", I used a tablespoon of chicken marinade that I got at the local Asian market.

I also marinated for 30 minutes, not 5. Perhaps there's a difference in saturation, though the chicken was cut pretty small and I can imagine it soaking up marinade quickly.

For the sauce to go over the Vermicelli, you can use this recipe: Nuoc Cham Dipping Sauce Recipe

Beet, Carrot and Apple Salad with Lime Mango Dressing

I took a recipe from Vegetarians in Paradise called Red Baron Salad #1 and adapted it for what I had available.

Serves 2-3 people.
Takes around 20 minutes to put everything together.

Salad Ingredients:

• 6 leaves from romaine heart of lettuce, torn and sans middle veins
• 2 carrots, pealed and shredded with a cheese grater
• 1 package of steamed and pealed baby beets from trader joe's (5-6 small beets), diced
• 1 large sweet apple, cored and diced
• 1/2 cup pistachios

Mango Lime Dressing Ingredients:

• 1 large mango, flesh only. Tip: to get out mango flesh, stand the mango up vertically and cut from top to bottom on either side of the pit. Then scoop out the flesh with a spoon.
• juice from 1 large lime, squeezed (2 tbsp lime juice)
• 1/2 cup water
• 8 pitted dates (to make dressing sweeter, add more as desired)
  
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

To make:

1. Place lettuce on large plates and set to the side.
2. Combine carrots, beets, apples and pistachios into a salad bowl and toss.
   
3. In a blender, combine all dressing ingredients and blend until smooth.
4. Add dressing into the salad bowl and toss ingredients until evenly mixed. (I eyeballed how much dressing I thought I'd like with the salad and did not use all of the dressing.)
   
5. Spoon contents of bowl over lettuce.

Left over salad keeps about three days. Left over dressing keeps about one week

Facts about romaine lettuce

Seared Ahi Tuna with Asparagus and Brown Rice

My friend Sue came over a little while ago and we tried this recipe for Ahi Tuna

It was delicious! We served it with asparagus and brown rice medley from Trader Joe's.

Remember, as the Ahi takes a whopping 6 minutes to cook, start the rice first. (The rice takes 35 minutes to cook.) About 20 minutes through, start asparagus.* Sue was in charge of this part and it turned out killer. I should have paid more attention to how she prepared them. In general, she boiled them for a few minutes to get them soft on the inside, then pan fried them on a non stick pan. Simple, but the texture was just right. We sprinkled salt and pepper to taste.

*To kill the time between the 20 minutes and asparagus starting, I suggest opening a nice bottle of red wine and chatting with your friend in your living room.

Fruit Trifle

Trifles were introduced to me by my Nana. Every blue moon she makes them, and mostly during a Christmas. I hear she used to cook a lot when she was my age and when my mom was a child. Though, as time progressed, she stopped. There are two reasons I wish she would have continued to cook. 1. Childhood would have been tastier. 2. The stories my mom tells me about her cooking make me want to recreate the dishes, but Nana cannot remember the recipes anymore. This Christmas I asked for her trifle recipe. As she cooks from her head and doesn't really measure anything but goes by feel, this recipe is a little rough. I'll update it after making my own first trifle.

Ingredients:

• a nice bowl
• sponge cake or lady fingers
• 1 red jelly packet
• 1 custard or vanilla pudding packet
• fruit - peaches sliced (she used canned)
• sherry
  
• whip cream
• almonds
• maraschino cherries

To make:

1. Soak lady fingers in sherry.
2. Make jelly packet and pudding packet.
3. Layer lady fingers, jelly, custard and fruit.
4. Drizzle with sherry.
5. Layer again and repeat until the bowl is filled.
6. Top with whip cream, almonds and cherries.
7. Chill in fridge until ready to serve.