Ever since we got a couple of adorable little pie pumpkins in our farm share back in October, I’ve planned on making this dish.  Sure, it’s two months after that, but thanks to the wonders of living in a 150 year old brick house that doesn’t retain heat very well, the pumpkins were still good and ready to go.

Like most of my…life in general, I didn’t really have a plan, more a set of guidelines: fill pumpkin, bake.  I happened to have some hot Italian sausage I picked up from Steinhauser Farms at the Lunasa market a while back.  I thawed it out to use in a pasta dish earlier this week and wanted to use up the rest of it and this seemed like a good way to do that.  I also had some extra sharp white cheddar and thanks to a stocking-up trip to the store, I got mushrooms and arugula as well.  That’s it.  That’s all there is to this recipe–five main ingredients and some seasonings and olive oil.  You put it together, you let it do its thing in the oven and you have these adorable little self contained meals. Continue reading →

“Like awesome! Oh, wow!  Like totally freak me out.  I mean, right on!  Tamales sure are number one!”

Oh come on.  I know that every single one of you use cheers from Bring It On in your daily life.

But we have more important things to discuss than Kirsten Dunst’s witty, razor-sharp cheer-snark.  We have tamales.

This is going to be a long post.  If you need to use the bathroom, I suggest taking your laptop with you.

THIS GOT STARTED BECAUSE…

…I’m not really sure why.  At some point months ago, Chase and I were discussing tamales, probably as part of a larger discussion about Pilar’s tamale cart and street food in general.  We decided, “You know what?  We should totally make our own tamales sometime!”  It was just like that, only pretend we sound more sophisticated about it.  Flash forward to a short time later and I brought up the idea to Paul, who was like, “Yeah, I used to do that with my grandmother.”  Light bulb!  The three of us agreed, yes, we would have to do this.  We’d use Paul’s experience and his grandmother’s recipe and my kitchen and an entire Saturday and just get. it. done!

FOUR OR FIVE MONTHS LATER… Continue reading →

It’s official, folks.  Halloween has come and gone.  There’s frost on the ground overnight.  Today was a high of 51F.  Starbucks has switched to its Christmas cups.  Yep.  It’s begun.  The Wintering.  And with the Wintering comes the Colding, the Freezing and the inevitable Wanting to Hibernate.

But never fear, Random Internet Person.  All is not lost.  I mean sure, it’s mostly lost for about the next oh, seven months or so (I do live in Michigan), but there are a few hardy, rugged things that will help you get through the winter.

1. A bearskin rug.  Just looking at it will make you feel warmer.  Even better if the bear is still attached.  I mean, hey, nothing warms you up like cardio, right?  Run faster!

2. Comfort foods–lasagna, chili, stew, pulled pork, short ribs, cookies fresh from the oven—warm foods to heat your insides…and after all, after all that exercise running away from the bear, clearly what you need most is high-carb, high-fat, heavy foods to gently gel your insides into organ butter.

3. A heater.  Really people, pay your heating bills.

4. Hot sauce!  Hot sauce can go on anything.  Eggs, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, pastas, ice cream…and sure, there are fifty gazilliion different hot sauces out there you can buy but if you were going to do that, then why bother reading this recipe blog?  It surely can’t be just my witty repartee.  Clearly you have the desire to create.  So go ahead.  Satisfy your inner primal human nature and build fire…in your belly.  With hot sauce. Continue reading →

This was a most excellent weekend.  A busy, exhausting one, but most excellent indeed.  Let’s recap, shall we?

First, Josh and I had breakfast with my friend Jessica and her mom at Beezy’s in Ypsilanti, which is my favorite restaurant in the entire city, I’m pretty sure.  We stopped at the Depot Town Farmer’s Market to do a bit of shopping and to pick up our farm share with Needle Lane Farm.  I love this share so much.  It’s ending soon and I know from last year, I’m going to miss it so much over the winter.  Plus, I love the people at the farm, so I’ll miss seeing them.  But anyway, we picked up our share and got some good peppers and cabbage and beans and a big bag of tomatoes.  Remember that, because it’s going to come up again later.  And you will be tested.   Anyway, after the market, we wandered up to Beezy’s for some delicious breakfast food with which to celebrate Jessica’s passing out on the bar…exam.  (Love you, Jess :-))  I am convinced that Beezy’s has the best breakfast sandwiches in Washtenaw County at the very least.  I got the breakfast eggel—-asiago bagel with scrambled eggs, ham and provolone cheese.  And a hot chocolate.  Which, by the way, was not a cup of hot water or milk with powdered mix thrown in.  Or syrup.  Oh no.  This was Calder Dairy chocolate milk that was steamed and frothed.  It was amazing.  I live three blocks from Beezy’s.  I think it’s safe to say that if you can’t find me this winter, it’s because I’m down there, face-down in a cup of their hot chocolate, trying to make it through the winter. Continue reading →

That headline’s a reference to Spaceballs, by the way, if you didn’t recognize it.  And if you didn’t recognize it, shame on you.  Your penance shall be sitting down immediately and watching this national treasure of a film—while you’re waiting for this jam to cook down, that is.

So I’ll be up front here.  I am not a domestic goddess of any sort.  I’m barely a domestic imp.  I don’t sew–I can, but I don’t and I don’t have any desire to.  I clean but not nearly as much as I should.  I don’t really decorate.  My gardening skills and interests are minimal.  I don’t can.  (That sentence looks so wrong, by the way.)  I don’t bake my own bread.  And I know those things seem kind of odd, seeing as how I do cook a great deal and I’ll even make my own candy, chocolate, oreos and now I’m working on Snickers bars.  But I dunno.  Canning doesn’t really appeal to me and seems like quite a bit of work for an end result that’s not chocolate.  But I do like jam, and I like it minimally processed (as I prefer all foods to be, except Taco Bell, which gets an exception because it’s not really food anyway).  I don’t like jelly though.  I guess you could say that I’m not ready for this jelly. (No?  No good?  Well they can’t all be winners).  But I do love jam, especially stirred into some plain Greek yogurt with some chocolate chips and walnuts—that’s a winning breakfast right there, my friends.  Raspberry jam is awesome.  But strawberry jam is awesomer still.  Because I love strawberries so, so much.  It’s my second favorite flavor next to chocolate, and right before “barbecue.”  And it’s June!  Fresh strawberries abound cheaply.  Take advantage of it. Continue reading →

You know, I could wax on at length about this dinner and how it was all inspired by this recipe find of spinach artichoke hummus from Gimme Some Oven.  I could tell you how I needed an end-of-the-week pick-me-up, healthy yet tasty, and how the mention of pork chops at work (which happens a lot more than you’d think) made me think I could combine my love of pork with my love of spinach, artichokes and hummus and sure it would be weird but it would also be awesome.  I could tell you how easy this meal was to pull together, even though I had absolutely no idea what to do with the potatoes even as they were cooking; I just knew that I wanted them.  I could tell you how fantastic thick center-cut pork chops are and how they’re even better stuffed with wedges of Cordobes sheep’s milk cheese, or how good potatoes are with meat drippings poured over them, or how surprisingly well spinach-artichoke-hummus can be smothered over said porkchops, cheese and potatoes.

I could do all of those things.  But I will let the pictures speak for themselves: Continue reading →

Imagine a scenario, if you will, in which you need to feed a few people.  Like, oh, I don’t know, 5000 people or so.  On a beach.  Near Bethsaida.  And like, these people are really hungry, right, because it’s late and this is way back a couple thousand years before the invention of segways and nobody wants to walk back to town on an empty stomach.  And it’s okay, because you’ve got the food to feed these people, you’ve got…five loaves of bread and two fish.  It’s like an embarrassment of…what?  You don’t think it’s enough?  Dude, it’ll be totally fine, just add one more thing to this meal and the people will be sated.  All you need is…

no, not love.  This is a recipe post, not a Beatles soundtrack.  All you need is this roasted red pepper and cannellini bean dip—and the people will rejoice. Continue reading →

It was a busy weekend.  On Friday I baked several pies for a charity bake sale.  And on Saturday, well…

We needed to cut down a line of small trees by our driveway, as several were dead and falling down already.  My mom and step-dad took the wood.  As the trees were a fair-height and there were about 8 of them, Josh enlisted my step-dad’s help in the project, as well as our friend Brian.  We also invited another coworker and his family to come watch the festivities.  It was truly a feat and I’m sure that all the guys are duly sore now with all the lifting—luckily, no human limbs, dogs, fences, vehicles or power lines were harmed during the making of this blog entry.

tree in motion

To reward everyone for their help, I planned out a big work-party feast, which, I admit, was partially inspired by a trip to Costco.  Ah, Costco–is there nothing it can’t do?

And I’m totally serious on this one.  Josh and I were doing our monthly bulk-shopping trip when we stumbled upon the deal of a lifetime in the meat department—14 pounds of pork shoulder.  For $20.  14 pounds.  Twenty dollars.  And lo, the Heavenly Choirs of Angels did exclaim in one voice: “Holy s***!  That is a great deal!”  (They probably didn’t say that—but they would, if angels ate regular food…or shopped at Costco.) Continue reading →

A simple rub for a simple gal…I used this rub on some flank steak for fajitas tonight and it was really pretty good.  Interesting flavor, nice spice level that just hits you at the back of the throat, and simple to make.  Just throw it together, rub it on your favorite type of meat and let it sit and marinate for a couple of hours.

What’s the mix?

1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp ground ancho chiles
1 tbsp ground chipotle chiles
1 tbsp kosher salt

Mix ingredients together.  Spread on meat.  Cook meat.  Be happy.

You: Is that it?
Me: Is that what?
You: Is that all?
Me: That’s all she wrote, chief.
You: Who’s she?
Me: Me.  I wrote it.  You read it.
You: When?
Me: Just now.

You: Right on.

I’m so terribly sorry.  I’ve been neglecting you, I know.  You want to read about food, I want to eat that food, but sadly, the past couple of weeks have not been conducive to deliciousness.  There was illness, dental surgery and the tedious anxiety and paperwork of attempting to buy our first house.  In the meantime, recipe ideas have just been piling up one after another.  It’s a culinary tragedy.

But never fear.  Slowly, the art of food is making its way back to the foreground of the landscape that is my life (poetic, aren’t I?).  I thought I’d ease back into things with something simple but effective.  A nice mix on an old standby.  Something to bring some sunlight and vitamin C into your day.  Maybe you’re a pirate suffering from a terrible case of scurvy and running out of ingredients for your morning hardtack.  Well look no further, matey, I have exactly what you need.

Citrus Flavored Salt
1/4 c. sea salt
the zest of one large orange
the zest of one large lemon

Lay the zest from both fruits out on a paper towel for about 5 minutes to dry out a bit.  Mix and mash into the salt, stirring thoroughly.  Store in an airtight container and use as a finisher for fish, pork, chicken and well..anything you want :-).

Wasn’t that easy?  It’s like your very own flavor-based Easy button.

Despite the variety of pumpkin dishes that I have made, some recently, I am actually not that big a fan of pumpkin.  Josh is.  There is, however, one pumpkin thing that I adore: the seeds.  In fact, ever since I was a little kid, one of my favorite things about Halloween was carving my pumpkin and roasting the seeds.  We did it every year, even after I got too told to trick-or-treat, and it’s a tradition I carry on now.  I mean, sure I could do this anytime of year just by buying some raw pumpkin seeds from the store but that’s not nearly as fun.  I mean, if you’re going to carve pumpkins for Halloween anyway, why let all those delicious seedy innards go to waste?  No, no, that’s precious currency right there.  However, it has come to my attention–namely through my husband Josh, who, before meeting me, had never roasted pumpkin seeds before–that there are actually people in the world that have never roasted pumpkin seeds before. And this sort of injustice cannot stand.  How can I just ignore the sad, desperate pleas echoing out of the darkness from those who’ve never experienced the crunchy, salty, buttery goodness of a freshly roasted bowl of pepitos? Continue reading →