Roasted Acorn Squash with Wild Rice Stuffing

November 4, 2012 by Mackenzie

Libby got some acorn squash a few weeks ago and we’ve been wanting to make something with them. She found this recipe and so we tried it on Friday night and it was so good! It’s a perfect fall meal!

Roasted Acorn Squash with Wild Rice Stuffing
Makes 6 servings
Recipe from chow

The wild rice mixture can be made up to 2 days ahead; keep it refrigerated in an airtight container.
You can make the stuffing up to 6 hours ahead; keep it covered in the refrigerator.

INGREDIENTS

3 medium acorn squash (about 1 1/2 pounds each), halved lengthwise and seeds removed
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon packed dark brown sugar
1/2 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
2 medium shallots, finely chopped
4 celery stalks, finely chopped
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme leaves
2 cups cooked wild rice mix
2/3 cup pecans, toasted and finely chopped
1/4 cup dried cranberries, finely chopped
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more as needed
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more as needed

INSTRUCTIONS

Heat the oven to 450°F and arrange a rack in the middle.
Place the squash cut-side up on a baking sheet, brush 1 tablespoon of the melted butter over the tops and insides of the squash halves, sprinkle with the brown sugar, and season with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven until just fork tender, about 25 to 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, place 1 tablespoon of the melted butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. When it foams, add the onion, shallots, and celery, season with salt and pepper, and stir to coat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until just softened, about 6 minutes. Stir in the thyme and cook until just fragrant, about 1 minute.
Remove from the heat and stir in the rice, pecans, cranberries, and measured salt and pepper.
Divide the rice filling among the roasted squash halves (about 1/2 cup for each) and drizzle the remaining tablespoon of butter over top. Continue roasting until the squash is completely fork tender, the edges have started to brown, and the filling is heated through, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Libby’s Cranberry Pecan Muffins

November 2, 2012 by Mackenzie

These are the muffins Libby made for our breakfast with our families. They were fantastic!!!

Libby’s Cranberry Pecan Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

If fresh cranberries aren’t available, substitute frozen: Microwave them in a bowl until they’re partially but not fully thawed, 30 to 45 seconds.

INGREDIENTS

STREUSEL TOPPING

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter , cut into 1/2-inch pieces, softened
Pinch salt
1/2 cup pecan halves

MUFFINS

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups pecan halves, toasted and cooled
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 large eggs
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/2 cup whole milk
2 cups fresh cranberries
1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

1. FOR THE STREUSEL: Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Process flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, butter, and salt in food processor until mixture resembles coarse sand, 4 to 5 pulses. Add pecans and process until pecans are coarsely chopped, about 4 pulses. Transfer to small bowl; set aside.
2. FOR THE MUFFINS: Spray 12-cup muffin tin with baking spray with flour. Whisk flour, baking powder, ¾ teaspoon salt together in bowl; set aside.
3. Process toasted pecans and granulated sugar until mixture resembles coarse sand, 10 to 15 seconds. Transfer to large bowl and whisk in eggs, butter, and milk until combined. Whisk flour mixture into egg mixture until just moistened and no streaks of flour remain. Set batter aside 30 minutes to thicken.
4. Pulse cranberries, remaining ¼ teaspoon salt, and confectioners’ sugar in food processor until very coarsely chopped, 4 to 5 pulses. Using rubber spatula, fold cranberries into batter. Use ice cream scoop or large spoon to divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups, slightly mounding in middle. Evenly sprinkle streusel topping over muffins, gently pressing into batter to adhere. Bake until muffin tops are golden and just firm, 17 to 18 minutes, rotating muffin tin from front to back halfway through baking time. Cool muffins in muffin tin on wire rack, 10 minutes. Remove muffins from tin and cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Chocolate, Raspberry, Walnut Breakfast Quinoa

October 31, 2012 by Mackenzie

Libby bought an induction stove for our suite this weekend 😀 It is so great! We can make so many things now – including basically every kind of meal! Now that we have a world of opportunities… I returned to some of the pinterest recipes that I had thought I’d need to “save for later” (when I had access to a stove). This was the first thing I decided to try! I had made a similar dish this summer, except with strawberries and almonds I think but this one looked great too! And it turned out really great!!!

Photo Curtesy of Once Upon a Cutting Board – This is made with cherries and almonds.

Chocolate, Raspberry, Walnut Breakfast Quinoa
Serves 1 (easily doubled)
Recipe adapted from Once Upon A Cutting Board

1/2 cup vanilla almond milk (or unsweetened milk + sweetener of choice)
1/4 cup quinoa, rinsed
1/2 cup raspberries
2 Tablespoons chopped walnuts
1 Tablespoon chocolate chips

Bring milk to a boil in a small saucepan. Add quinoa, cover, reduce to a low simmer and cook for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, toast almonds in a dry skillet over medium heat until golden brown and fragrant – should only take a few minutes.

Remove quinoa from heat, keep covered, and let sit for 5 minutes, until milk is absorbed. If using unsweetened milk, you may wish to add a bit of sweetener at this point (to taste, you could use honey, agave nectar or brown sugar), then recover and let sit 5 minutes.

Add raspberries, almonds, and chocoalte chips to the quinoa, stir and serve warm!

Substitutions:
The original recipe called for cherries instead of raspberries and almonds instead of walnuts. I used raspberries and walnuts because I had them and they sounded good 🙂 Any fruit or nut would work great in this!

‘Blown Away’ Blueberry Muffins

September 21, 2012 by Mackenzie

I saw the recipe for these on pinterest earlier this week and have been CRAVING them ever since. I was actually in a really bad mood on Tuesday because I knew I wouldn’t have any time to bake them until Friday (today!).

Well, with my calculus exam behind me and a fun weekend ahead of me – I figured it was time to make these 🙂 And they more than fulfiled my expectations!!

Definitely give these a shot for breakfast some morning – you won’t be disappointed!

Blueberry Muffins

Recipe Adapted from Gourmet

Makes 12 Muffins (seriously! It makes an even dozen! when does a recipe ever make an even dozen???)

For Muffins:

1 cup All purpose flour

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. grated lemon zest

1 large egg

1/2 cup nonfat milk

5 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries (about 7 ounces)

For topping:

1 tsp. turbinado sugar

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

-Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter muffin pan or use paper liners.

-Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl, then whisk in zest.

-Whisk egg in another bowl, then whisk in milk and butter. Add to dry ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined (batter will be dense). Fold in blueberries. Divide batter amount muffin cups.

-Stir together sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over batter in cups.

– Bake until a wooden pick inserted into center of muffins comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Serve at warm or room temp.

Pumpkin Pie Dip

September 3, 2012 by Mackenzie

This dip is REALLY good! And it’s healthy too! I whipped this up last night in our suite (so easy too because it doesn’t require any cooking and so I can do the whole thing in my room!) and now it is going to be a great little treat to have in the fridge all week. Eat it with apples, pita bread, carrots, crackers… anything!

Pumpkin Pie Dip
Recipe from Six Sisters’ Stuff
Makes about 6 cups (12 servings). Mine made two of the tupperwares in the picture above.

Ingredients:

15 oz can pumpkin
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
6 oz. fat free Greek yogurt
8 oz. Cool Whip (fat-free)
apples, bananas, crackers, cookies…

Mix pumpkin with brown sugar, vanilla and spices, blend well. Mix in yogurt. Fold in coolwhip and chill in refrigerator until ready to eat.

Snickerdoodle Cake!

September 1, 2012 by Mackenzie

This cake was awesome! It was our first baking attempt of the year – it’s definitely going to be interesting with no easily accessible kitchen! We made up the batter in our room and then ran it down to the kitchen next door to bake it… worked just fine! I see a lot of “no bake” items in our future though!

Okay so this Snickerdoodle cake is from pinterest and the picture looked incredible! So when we were trying to figure out what to make – I kept returning to that recipe and… well pretty soon it was in progress!

Ours wasn’t nearly as pretty as the one in the original link – but it sure tasted fantastic!!!

Snickerdoodle Cake
Makes 1 9/13 or 2 round cakes (to layer)
Recipe from foodwithfamily

For the cake:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cake flour (we substituted with 1 1/3 cups AP flour and 1/4 cup cornstarch)
1 Tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. ground cinnamon
2 sticks butter, softened to room temp.
1 3/4 cups fine or superfine sugar (we just used regular)
4 large eggs, room temp.
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups whole milk, warmed to room temp.

For the buttercream: (we made this up because we didn’t have enough butter but it was still really good so i’ll share it with you. Find the directions to the original recipe in the link above)
1 stick of butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/2 Tbs ground cinnamon
1/2 cup milk
These are REALLY rough estimates. We really just eyeballed it until it tasted/looked good 🙂

To Bake the Cake:

Preheat the oven to 235. Butter and flour your pan(s) (tip is to use the butter wrappers from the butter you’re about to use!)

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy and pale in color.

Beat the eggs in one at a time, fully incorporating each egg and scraping down the bowl in between each addition. Beat in vanilla.

Add about 1/3 of the milk, beat to incorporate, then 1/3 of the flour mixture, again beating to incorporate.

Repeat this process, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until all of the milk and flour are mixed in evenly – starting and ending with the dry ingredients.

Pour the batter into the bans and bake, rotating midway through, for about 35 minutes (we did 40) or until it tests done.

Let the cakes cool in the pan on a rack for 5 minutes before turning onto the racks to finish cooling.

To Make the Buttercream:

Beat together butter, brown sugar and cinnamon until fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and beat. Add milk to desired consistency.

Frost and you’re good to go!