Guest Blogger: My Mom (Roasted Acorn Squash)

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I'd like to welcome my mom as the first of (hopefully) many guest blogger appearances.  She made Guy Fieri's Roasted Acorn Squash recipe and highly recommends the dish and also offers tips to make this meal a success!

For my birthday this year, my beautiful daughter Lauren gave me the new cookbook called "Guy Fieri Food, Cookin' It, Livin' It, Lovin' It".  I was very excited to try a recipe from Guy's book.  I am a big fan of his show "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" and decided this past weekend to tackle a recipe. The book has beautiful pictures which I love and after much reading I decided to make Roasted Acorn Squash with Turkey Sausage, Peppers and Goat Cheese. It sounded delicious, easy and somewhat healthy. All was true but I had a few mishaps on the way.  

My first challenge was cutting the acorn squash. Lesson here is to make sure you have very sharp knives something I do not have unfortunately! After struggling with that the next step was to clean out the seeds from the squash and save them to roasted in the oven. Guy suggests to rinse the seeds well which I did and dry them with a paper towel. Sounds easy except the seeds stick to the paper towel and were difficult to get the off the paper towel. The next step was finding the correct pan so the squash could in and a pan for the seeds to get roasted in. Again sounds easy except if you have a small oven as I do. After much juggling I finally was able to get everything to fit and start the cooking of the squash for 35 to 40 minutes. The next step of preparing the vegetable and turkey went smooth again probably better if I had that sharp knife but I did succeed! 

The results of my first recipe from Guy's book was great. Both my husband and I enjoyed it and I would make it again. In fact, I will probably make it for Lauren on her next visit home. Best part is the recipe had leftovers so guess what we will have the following night...which is just fine by me. Bon Appetit!

 Thanks Mom!!

Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce

Over the past few months, I've been making a very conscious effort to cut back on my meat intake so, as a result, beans have become my new best friend.  I'll admit that I still crave meat but not nearly as often as I used to, and it hasn't been completely eliminated simply because I'm still training myself on how to have a complete meal without it.  As a distance runner, I fear low iron levels, etc so hopefully more research and education will make the transition easier.

Anyway, this baked bean dish isn't entirely vegetarian as it has bacon which, in my opinion, adds immense and much needed flavor.  (This is an example of my lack of knowledge on swapping out this for that - how does one make a solid baked bean dish sans bacon?).  The dish is very filling and serves as a meal, and the measurements themselves makes a TON so be prepared for eating beans for dinner...beans for lunch...and so on. 

Roasted Vegetable Quiche

The Roasted Vegetable Quiche is the round dish in the bottom left.

I've made this roasted vegetable quiche on two separate occasions:  the first for a "Long Run Sweaty Brunch" with my track team here in DC, and the second just a few weeks ago for a tea party with friends.  So, it goes without saying that this quiche recipe was good enough to make not only once, but twice, over a year apart. 

I think what makes this dish just delicious is the roasted veggies - the crispness against the soft egg fill is nicely balanced and the blue cheese, well, that speaks for itself. However, keep in mind that when chopping the vegetables, it's going to seem like way too much to fit into the pie crust.  However, trust that it works out fine in the end.

Coconut and Chickpea Stew over Quinoa

Over the past few years I've seen many recipes calling for coconut milk and I never understood the hype.  It reminded me of the days when my mom and I would make virgin pina colodas before watching TGIF, and of course, 20/20 with Hugh Downes and Barbara Walters.  Turns out that the drink calls for the classic Coco Lopez Cream of Coconut while the popular food dishes call for coconut milk.  My bad.

Anyway, I found this recipe on The Kitchn and adapted it to what I had in my actual kitchen and with items I could quickly pick up from the grocery store (i.e. coconut milk).  The result was a somewhat spicy, flavorful meal that yielded several servings that got better over time. 

Veggie Lovers Soup

A couple days ago, I went to Whole Foods without a shopping list.  I don't consider myself a very organized person - I'm totally that person who only picks up clothes off the floor when guests are visiting - but I'm truly committed to planning out my meals for the week and buying only what is needed.  This is necessary for managing my time but also prevents me from buying gourmet cheeses, desserts, and other temptations at Whole Foods.

Anyway, I went a little crazy in the produce section and ended up with a ton of veggies.  Because this was unplanned, I had that "oh sh*t" buyer's remorse moment when I had no idea how I'd consume so many of them.  Luckily I had a few staple items in the kitchen, such as vegetable broth and canned tomatoes, and realized that I could make a pretty dynamite soup without having to make another (unplanned) trip to the store.

The other cool thing is I've made enough soups to not have to follow a recipe this time around...ahhh...progress.

Just a small portion of what I was working with...

Can't forget these guys!

Pasta with Basil Avocado Pesto and Julienne Vegetables

Not too long ago, the idea of making a pesto seemed complicated and almost foreign.  I'd only known it to come either in a jar or in specialty packages from Whole Foods, almost as if the difficulty of making such a flavor encouraged the simplicity of buying pre-made.  Looking back, I probably should have just opened a cookbook to see that pesto is simple to make yet can have such a complex range of flavors - just like this creamy avocado pesto I made this evening.  And, true to form, this dish has complex flavor but only took about 30 minutes from the chopping board to table top.  Sounds good to me :)

Pumpkin Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Dressing (A White House Recipe)

This pumpkin cake recipe is straight out of the White House Pastry Kitchen - how lucky am I?  This dessert followed the Beef Bourguinon I made for dinner on Christmas Day.  I can only hope that Barack, Michelle, Sasha, and Malia were enjoying this cake while on their Christmas vacation in Hawaii.

Anyway, as you can imagine, this cake is legit and might become a family tradition for years to come.  If you decide to make it, I'd recommend checking the cake while it cooks to ensure it's not over cooking.  While the recipe calls for baking for an hour at 340 degrees, mine was a bit over cooked.  I'm sure it has to do with the oven, and of course it still tasted wonderful, but I think it can be improved over time.