Category Archives: meat

International Identity Crisis Spaghetti Squash “Lasagna”

Chorizo and Feta Spaghetti Squash “Lasagna”

Does the title make better sense now? This “lasagna” is composed of Mexican chorizo, goat feta, and a basic Italian marinara. You could easily resolve this identity crisis by doing a more standard italian sausage and mozzarella, but I really enjoy this flavor combination.

Spaghetti Squash Lasagna

Ingredients:

1 spaghetti squash

1 batch basic marinara

3/4 lb mexican chorizo (or sausage/meat of your choice)

6 oz. feta (or mozzarella)

tomato

olive oil

salt

pepper

oregano

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 400. Cut squash in half lengthwise, remove seeds, and place flesh down on parchment lined pan. Bake at 400 until shell gives slightly under pressure (between 40 minutes and and hour, depending on the size of your squash). Remove pan from oven. With forks or spoon, scraping/scooping width-wise across the squash, remove the strand like flesh into a strainer. Lightly salt and pepper squash strands and leave to drain.

In large pan over medium high heat, brown meat. Pour off excess oil when complete, then add 1.5 cups marinara sauce to pan. Cook meat and sauce together for approx. 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

In hollowed shell, place and press down a small amount of squash. To this base add one quarter of the meat mixture to each. Top with one quarter of cheese. Now distribute one quarter of remaining squash strands and press firmly to create a tight package. Repeat process, ending with next layer of squash. Top with sliced tomatoes, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with oregano. Return to oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until juices are bubbly and tomatoes are coloring. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.

Hot Wings and the State of Things

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Hello again. It has been awhile, but this time I make no apologies. We have been busy: working, nesting, living, grieving. We are now firmly planted in our new apartment, and loving it more every day. We’ve built bookshelves, sold furniture, scouted Craigslist in vain for a sofa small enough to fit up the staircase, enjoyed evening strolls around the neighborhood, and Saturday mornings at the farmers market. We lost a very dear friend to the darkness of PTSD. In the aftermath we have spent time enjoying one another, making the most of every moment we are blessed to have together. We have been reminded to appreciate our friends and family, and to invest in those relationships more intentionally.

The transition from winter to warmth, combined with the hectic and the sad, has brought inventive cooking to a standstill. I have again fallen back to the well known, the easy to produce, comfortable in familiarity. Though it isn’t earth shattering, I thought I would take a moment to share one of those easy everyday recipes with you, something you can throw together when all you really want is time to enjoy the people around you, while providing a good meal.

I served these wings with Toasted Millet Salad with Arugula, Quick Pickled Onion and Goat Cheese by Sara Forte as seen at My New Roots

If you are already familiar with processing chicken wings, feel free to skip down to the recipe. For the rest of you, we are venturing back into the somewhat scary territory of poultry here, but stay with me. In this post about Herbes de Provence Roasted Chicken we addressed some of the concerns sometimes felt about working with meat and poultry. If you are new to cooking meat, wings can be far less daunting than a whole bird. Many stores offer the wings already cut up into two segments, and if time or knife skills are a concern, go for these. But the whole wings are really easy to process and usually a good bit less expensive. Here’s what you do:

First, find the joint between the lower wing and the wing tip (the pointy bit with no meat on it). Find the point where the joint flexes and cut in between. It may take a few tries, but you will know you’ve found the right angle when the knife doesn’t meet much bone resistance. Now, same with the upper wing and lower wing. Flex the joint between the two. Start cutting through the flap of skin, aiming down toward the knob at the bottom of the upper wing (the part that looks like a miniature drum stick). Once you’ve gotten there, you will see the elbow joint, a rounded white knuckle of bone. Cut under that. Now, practice! Heck, if you don’t get it right with the first full batch (or five), the things are still edible. Just make sure you don’t have any little bone fragments attached to your cut pieces. Rinse, if necessary, and pat dry.

Hot Wings

Ingredients

garlic powder

cayenne pepper

olive oil

chicken wings (I made about 20 full wings here)

butter

hot sauce (like Franks, Red Hot, etc.)

Directions

Preheat oven to 425.

Line large baking pan with parchment; do not use foil because the meat will stick and tear. Dust prepared wings with cayenne and garlic powder. Drizzle with olive oil. Place in oven and bake for 15 minutes. Turn oven down to 375; bake for an additional 20 minutes. Check for doneness (no pink).

Meanwhile place 1/2 cup hot sauce and 1.5 tablespoons of butter in a large pan. Heat over low to melt butter and combine. Remove wings from oven and transfer to pan. Toss (or carefully turn) in sauce to coat. Heat until sauce is slightly thickened and wings are fully coated. Serve with lots of napkins!

I’d love to know: What is your favorite meal to share with family and friends? Tell us about it in the comments below.

Brown Butter Cookies, Q, and a Merry Christmas to You!

This Is How They Do It Down Under: Aussie Burgers

Maple-roasted Pumpkin and Crispy Bacon Risotto

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Here in mid-November, dark night falls at 5:30 pm. The quality of the sunlight has changed to a pale, mellow, slanting light from the harsh glare of summer. Christmas songs keep floating through my mind, to be fought off until the end of Thanksgiving. I want to cherish each moment, not rush blindly through the holiday season, only to feel exhausted and disenchanted by New Year’s Eve.

In that vein of slowing and savoring, I offer you a warm, cozy meal that combines many of the flavors I associate with the late fall-come winter season. This maple roasted pumpkin and crispy bacon risotto is fabulously rich and creamy and meaty tasting. It is so luscious, indeed, that I recommend serving it with a bright salad (perhaps with orange slices and a pomegranate vinaigrette) to help clear you palate, allowing you to fully luxuriate in each delicious bite. The colors of all the different elements of this dish are beautiful. Take a few minutes to appreciate the beauty of what you are cooking (you have to look at it anyway, so you might as well enjoy it!).

If this is your first risotto, and you feel a bit nervous, check out this post where I talk about some of the hows and wherefores of making a basic risotto and why it really isn’t that intimidating. So, I implore you to try this, in a hearty bowl before the fire, at a small dinner with friends, or maybe even as a new side for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. Trust me, your taste buds and sun-starved soul (for those of us in the dark lands) will thank you! Not sure what to do with left over pumpkin? Try throwing it in with your morning oatmeal along with some pecans, or pureeing it to add to yogurt or your favorite pumpkin bread recipe. This really is the meal that keeps on giving!

Maple- roasted Pumpkin and Crispy Bacon Risotto

inspired by Donal Skehan

makes 4-6 (or 7) mains, or many, many sides!

Ingredients

1 small pumpkin, halved, seeds removed (and saved for roasting!), peeled and cubed- this recipe will use roughly 2-2.5 cups of roasted cubes

2 tsp maple syrup

6-8 pieces of bacon

olive oil

4 1/2 cup low sodium chicken stock

1 cup of white wine

3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

4 sage leaves

1 small to medium red onion, small dice

2 cups Arborio rice

3 tsp butter

3/4 to1 cup parmigiano reggiano, finely grated

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. On a large pan, lined with parchment, toss pumpkin cubes with maple syrup. Roast in oven until beginning to carmelize and soften, but not mushy. Check at 20 minutes. When done, remove from oven, transfer pumpkin to clean plate and place bacon on parchment. Return to oven and bake until crisp (even if you are a soft bacon person. the crispness makes it easier to crumble in the final stage).

In a small pan bring stock to a simmer. Heat wine separately. In a large pan over medium heat add one tablespoon of olive oil, and sautee onion, garlic, and sage until onion just begins to soften. Add pumpkin, and continue to cook until onions are soft and translucent. Return all ingredients to pumpkin plate. Return pan to stove; add more oil if necessary. Add rice, and stir to coat each grain with the fat. Over medium heat sautee rice until it begins to become translucent and give off a warm, toasty fragrance, roughly five minutes. Add pumpkin and onion mix back to the pan, and continue cooking for about two minutes, then add heated wine (if the wine is cold it will shock the rice causing the outside surface to flake while the inside remains hard).

When the wine has evaporated, increase the heat to medium high and begin to gradually add the simmering stock,one ladle at a time, stirring constantly from this point on. Before the liquid has completely absorbed add more stock. Continue the cycle of stock and stir for 15 to 20 minutes until four cups of the stock have been absorbed. Taste to see if the risotto has reached a desired level of doneness. If you like yours a bit less al dente, add and cook down remaining 1/4 to1/2 cup of stock. Remove from heat; add butter and parm. regg. and stir till smooth and creamy. Plate, crumble bacon over each portion, and serve immediately.