Kabocha and Venison

Fall is here! The leaves are changing and life is rocketing at high speed toward thanksgoving and Christmas. Somehow I find myself busier in the fall than I am all summer long. The kids are in school and doing extra-curricular stuff almost every weekday and that results in mom's taxi service working overtime. Who has time for fancy time consuming dinners? Not this chick. Enter the crock pot superhero!! Today, I've filled it with a delicious, highly nutritious Asian squash and a couple of pounds of ground up venison. 

Ingredients:

1/4 C Soy Sauce

1/4 C Mirin

2 T kaffir lime leaves

1 T brown sugar

1 t ground ginger

1/4 t cayenne

2 lb ground venison or stew meat, browned

7 lb peeled, cubed, kabocha squash

1 small onion, sliced extra thin

Directions: 

Mix all of the liquids and spices into the bottom of the crock pot and taste to make sure the spice level is where you want it. 

Place ground venison in crock pot and cover with Kabocha then onion. 

Cook on high 4 hours or low 8 hours and serve over rice

Over cooking will result in your squash becoming extra tender or mushy. I personally prefer mine mushy but you may enjoy food with actual texture. 

So what exactly is Kabocha, you ask? The best answer I have for the flavor is something like a cross between an acron squash and a pumpkin with a texture like butternut squash.  All of them have that same orangey flesh I so adore. 

Kabocha has a beautiful dark green skin around orange flesh with seeds like a pumpkin. This particular kabocha was enormous so I chose to peel the skin but on a smaller squash the skin is smooth, thinner, and edible if you don't mind a little extra fiber with your nutrients. 

This is how my crock pot looks right before I stick a lid on it and walk away. If you don't have an enormous family like I do, or if you'd rather not have a lot left over to freeze, dialing back the amount of squash is totally an option. My family just loves this stuff though so we may not even have any left to freeze. 

Happy Cooking!! 
 

 

Peanut Butter - Banana Ice Cream

I stepped outside my comfort zone this evening and went for the frozen dessert. I'm sure you've seen the beautiful frozen treats all over Pinterest all summer long just like I have, but maybe you're like me, and you haven't made any. Well, I'm here to tell you that any recipe that starts with a frozen banana is a winner! Just look at how pretty this stuff is. It's super creamy too and unlike the grocery store ice cream that leaves me wanting more after a small bowl this stuff packs a nutritious and very satisfying amount of frozen goodness into a super small serving. 

Peanut Butter-Banana Ice Cream

Ingredients:

4 frozen bananas

1/2 to 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1 Cup soy milk

Directions: 

Stick everything in your blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Scrape sides as needed. Serve immediately. 

 

Lazy Lasagna

Easy, cheesy, done is how I like my lasagna. Ok, that's perhaps a bit of an exaggeration simply because I just like lasagna, any way I can get it. The other day I decided lasagna didn't need to be so very challenging as to require long, delicate noodles arranged perfectly. It just needed to be noodle-y, and saucy, and cheesy. So I came up with lazy lasagna! 

See the cheesy goodness? 

Ingredients:

1 Package of wide egg noodles cooked 

1 egg

1 16 oz carton of cottage cheese

16 oz shredded mozzarella

1/4 cup dried parsley 

1 lb browned ground beef or Italian sausage

6-8 cups spaghetti sauce

12 oz shredded Colby Jack cheese

Directions:

While cooking noodles according to package directions, combine first two cheeses with the egg and the parsley. 

Combine meat with spaghetti sauce, drain noodles, and spray two or three foil pans with oil. 

Preheat oven to 350*F if you plan on baking one now. 

Spread a little spaghetti sauce on the bottom of each pan, cover with a single layer of noodles, crumble cheese mixture over noodles, and cover with sauce. 

Repeat layers until your pans are full then top with shredded Colby jack cheese. 

Stick one in the oven uncovered for 30-45 minutes or until bubbly around the edges and cover the other(s) with aluminum foil, label, and freeze. 

I used extra wide egg noodles but you can really use just about any sort of noodle successfully

There's the leftover spaghetti sauce from my last batch. 

The perfect cheese mixture has plenty of parsley in it in my opinion. 

Three round cake pans is what I happened to have lying around
 

All layered up!  
 

The shredded cheese on the top makes it perfectly stringy and wonderful! 

Remember to label the freezer lasaganas!

There they are! All perfect and chilling next to the teeeeny baby ice cream. 

Cheesy, cheesy goodness!!! 

I really do hope you enjoy this wonderful way to make lasagna! 

Beefy Spaghetti Sauce

There was a time when, if I wanted spaghetti I would go to the store, find the pasta aisle, and grab a jar of sauce and some noodles and hurry home to eat. I've learned a lot since that time and how to make some BOMB sauce is one of them. 

I share with you now the home made spaghetti sauce!! 

 

Disclaimer, this IS the sauce I made but I needed to blend it for texture purposes. My stick blender did a great job yet again! 

Ingredients:

2 lbs ground beef or sausage, browned and drained

1 onion, chopped

2 T garlic, minced

2 stalks of celery, diced

2 carrots, peeled and diced

1 head of broccoli, chopped (optional)

2 28oz cans of diced tomatoes

1 4oz can of tomato paste

2 T Italian seasoning

2 T dried parsley

Directions:

Put everything in the crock pot with one cup of water and stir until tomato paste is broken up, cover and cook on low for 10 hours or high for 4 hours. 

Stirring occasionally is optional but it will circulate the delicious smell of spaghetti ALL over your house. 

Serve over cooked spaghetti noodles, or any other dish calling for Spaghetti sauce and enjoy!! 

Winter Squash Soup From Scratch

Well, hi! After the Cherry pie saga I needed to take a breather. It's been a super busy breather and I feel like blogging would have helped me feel calmer through it but here we are filling in the recipe blanks after much too long! Let's start with:

 

Winter Squash Soup

Ingredients: 

2 medium sized butternut squash-peeled, seeded, and cubed

6-8 cups water

1/2 t salt

1/4 t black pepper 

2 T chicken stock paste

1 t poultry seasoning

1/2 t each: cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice

1/4 t chili powder

1/2 cup milk or heavy cream

Directions:

Bring squash and water to a boil in a medium sauce pan. Reduce heat to medium low, add all of the spices, and simmer 20 minutes or until squash is very tender. 

Remove from heat and blend, using an immersion blender until completely smooth. 

Stir in milk, and serve immediately. Leftovers keep very well in the freezer if you have any. 

The broth looks odd and murky at the simmering point but I promise it pays off!

I am not compensated by any company to endorse their products but I must say, the stick blender is a super handy tool! 

 Can you see how smooth and wonderful the soup looks even before adding the milk? I almost made this a dairy free recipe because the taste test went so well. 

The milk mixing into the soup is probably my favorite part of the process to watch. I like the swirls the best! 

This is a perfect fall side dish or in my case simple and delicious meal. I've also been known to feed it to my babies when they were first starting out with food. Their favorite part was smearing it in their hair! I hope you enjoy this delicious soup!!

 
 

 

The Pie Saga Reaches it's Dramatic End

You thought I forgot about the cherry pie, didn't you? Well I did not! I know I didn't fulfill my promise of making cherry pie when I said I would and for that I apologize, but wasn't the suspense wonderful? I really should have made it sooner. It's sooooo pretty! Do not be dismayed by the lattice crust either, I will be walking you through the steps and if I can do it, you can do it! 

❤️❤️PIE❤️❤️

 

Ingredients: 

Crust: 

2 C all purpose flour

1t salt

1 1/2 sticks butter, chilled and cubed

4-5 T apple Brandy 

Filling: 

2-3 21oz cans of prepared pie filling

Instructions:

Crust:

1. Combine dry ingredients well in a bowl. 

2. Cut in butter until thoroughly incorporated or the size of peas. 

3. Sprinkle 4T Brandy across the butter flour mixture and lift with a fork to allow the Brandy to mix in. If the dough is still very crumbly sprinkle another Tablespoon of Brandy over it and work it into the dough. When you can form a ball out of it without having it fall apart stop working it. 

4. Divide dough in half and form into disks. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least an hour or over night. 

Don't forget your coffee if this is a morning project. 
 

5. Preheat oven to 450* F. Dust a clean work surface with flour and roll dough from the center to the edges into a circle about 10-11 inches across. 

6. Gently roll pie crust over your rolling pin as you remove it from the work surface. Gently unroll pie crust into pie pan. 

7. Lift the edges of the dough until the crust sits completely touching all of the corners in the pie pan and overlaps the lip. Patch any tears with a bit from the edge. Dust with flour or brush with egg wash to prevent crust from becoming soggy. 

8. Repeat rolling process with second half of dough then fill pie. Cut second crust into 1/2 inch strips. 

9. Lay first piece of lattice across one edge of the pie then lay a piece straight down the center perpendicular to the first.

10. Fold left side of first lattice piece up and lay the third piece about 3/4 inch away from the second piece and lay first piece straight across again. Repeat process on the right side. 

11. Lay strips five and six 3/4 inch away from strips three and four then gently fold back strips three and four. Place strip seven about 3/4 inch away from strip one and replace strips three and four over it. 

There's even pieces of three children in this shot! They were so excited!
 

12. Fold back strips two, five, and six and place strip eight 3/4 inch from strip seven then straighten folded strips. 

13. Repeat process for strips nine and ten then gently crimp edges. 

I trimmed the crust close to the edge of the plate so it would be easier to work with

14. Brush crust with egg wash and sprinkle with white sugar or decorators sugar. 

15. Bake at 450* for 10 minutes then cover outer rim of pie shell with either a pie shield or aluminum foil to prevent it from burning and reduce heat to 350* F and bake another 40 min or until golden brown. 

I don't have a fancy pie shield so foil is my friend. 

I hope you have a great time making and eating your own pies!! 

 

Honey Ginger Chicken Stir-Fry

Guys, this is one of my favorites. It's a quick easy go to when we have been out and about in the afternoon and all my people are hungry. I particularly like this dish because it freezes well and reheats even better than the first day. 

Ingredients: 

3 T sesame oil divided

2 chicken breasts sliced into strips

1 softball sized onion chopped thinly 

2 cups bite sized broccoli florets

1/2 t ground ginger

1/2 t dried lemon peel

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 T honey

2 T corn starch

1. Preheat your wok and 1 T sesame oil over high heat. Chop your onion and when oil is fragrant add onion. Stir fry 3-4 minutes until translucent. Remove to separate bowl. 

2. Make sure broccoli florets are bite sized. Heat 1T sesame oil in wok and stir fry broccoli 1-2 minutes then add 1T soy sauce to steam broccoli another minute. 

Remove to onion bowl

3. Coat chicken in spices. Heat 1T sesame oil in wok and add chicken. Stir fry until no longer pink then add broccoli and onions back to the wok. Mix together remaining soy sauce, honey, and corn starch until no lumps remain. 

4. Add soy sauce mixture to wok and stir constantly until sauce thickens and clings to mead and veggies. 

5. Serve over short grain rice

This onion is enormous and quite potent. It made my eyes burn so I'm thrilled that it was a quick chop job! 

I bought pre-cut broccoli in a bag and it worked out really well. I Onlu needed to chop a couple florets in half before they were ready for the wok. 

There it is, the chicken, frying away all seasoned and making everyone's mouth water. 

You can see how beautifully translucent the onions are as well as the lightly soy sauce coated broccoli. I couldhappily eat   just this for dinner and I can neither confirm nor deny whether or not I have in the past. 

The sauce is perfectly thickened and clinging to the chicken and veggies! 

Don't forget the rice!! If you don't have a swanky rice cooker like mine you'll need to cook it on the stove top while you're prepping everything else. 

This is usually where I have a plated dish and I talk about how delicious it is but today the family (including myself) was so hungry that I completely forgot to take one. 

Just s heads up, I made the dough for my cherry pie this afternoon. The pies is the truth! 

Comfort Food Japanese Style

Do you have a favorite meal that just makes you feel happy as soon as you think about eating it? As an American standard comfort foods are Pizza, Mac n Cheese, Chicken Soup, Cookies and Ice Cream, and so on. I promise I love all of those things, but today I just needed Japanese breakfast. I'm sure once you give it a try you'll decide that it's comfort food for you too. 

Eggs and Rice❤️

Ingredients:

1/2 C cooked short grain rice

1t sesame oil

1 egg

1t Natto

1 pinch Dried fish flakes (optional)

Bell peppers or veggie of your choice

Bulldog sauce

Kewpie mayonnaise

Instructions:

1. Preheat your frying pan over medium low heat and add sesame oil. When oil is fragrant add your egg. 

2. Remove sauce packets and plastic from natto package and defrost in microwave for 40sec. Mix contents of sauce packets into natto. 

3. Flip your egg and add your veggies to your frying pan. 

4. Put cooked rice into your bowl and top with furikake and fish flakes. Pour some bulldog sauce and some kewpie mayo over your rice. 

5. Remove egg from frying pan to bowl and stir. Place some natto next to the egg and scoop veggies into your bowl. 

6. Eat!! 
 

So you're probably wondering where to get all these exotic ingredients. Short answer is your local Asian market. Just make a list, take it with you and find the first person who works there to guide you to all of your tasty ingredients. I promise they're very common. 

Bulldog Sauce on the left is like Japan's answer to America's ketchup and it's versatility will blow you away. Kewpie mayonnaise is slightly different from what you're used to but it's worth a try and you may even discover that it's amazing on a BLT. 

Next, and totally valid, question is what on earth is Natto, right? Well, this is Natto. Fermented soy beans. They are beautiful, and sticky, and full of iron, and they act as a blood thinner as well so don't eat two packages at one time. Space it out, your body and your mouth will thank you. 

Furikake is like seasoning for rice. It comes in a wide variety of flavors but today I used the black sesame and sugar flavor. Fish flakes come in MANY different textures. My personal favorite is this one here that curls in delicate ultra thin beauty as soon as it's placed on steaming food. Yum! 
 

Can you smell the fragrant sesame oil and gently spicy bell pepper frying away with the egg? It's really one of my favorite smells ever. 

Enjoy your big delicious bowl of comfort food immediately. Seriously, do not let it get cold and eat all of it. The egg yolk and the natto mix into the rice with the mayo and create this creamy savory bliss that is incomparable. I hope you enjoy this meal as much as I do! 
 
 

 

Half a Head of Cabbage.....

What a strange title! It was absolutely the elephant in my fridge though.  I know you have something like that too. I also needed to go grocery shopping but had zero intention of exposing myself to double coupon senior discount day at the grocery store so I was stuck trying to figure out what to do with my elephant, I mean, cabbage......

After scrounging in the pantry I found some canned goods and I remembered some leftover frozen ground beef and the last onion in the drawer. Telling myself this would all work out just fine I set to cooking and created a super tasty Beefy Cabbage Stew. 

Ingredients:

1T olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1-1 1/2 lbs ground beef

1 head of garlic, minced

2-3 carrots

1 24oz can diced tomatoes

1 10oz can sweet corn, drained

1/2t salt

1/2 t ground black pepper

1/2 t celery salt

1-2 hand fulls dry parsley.  

1/8 t chili flakes or to taste 

1T basil

1/4 t Rosemary, crushed

1 bay leaf

2 C water

Directions:

1. In a large soup pot heat 1 T olive oil. Chop onion, peel and chop carrots, and dice garlic. When the pot is hot add onion and sauté until translucent. 

2. Add ground beef to pot and brown. While beef is browning chop the cabbage into bite sized chunks. If your beef is  very fatty drain off the fat. 

3. Add everything else to the pot and bring to a boil over high heat, taste test and adjust spices to your liking, reduce heat and simmer 20-30 minutes or until carrots are tender. 

4. Serve with crusty bread like sourdough or French bread. 

These are the canned goods I mentioned. Highly economical and just as yummy. The giant cup of coffee is mandatory. 
 

When buying spices I prefer to get as much in bulk as I can particularly for things like parsley, basil, and oregano. I am not compensated by McCormic or Tone's 

This was so good that the kids asked for seconds and the best part is that it freezes well and reheats beautifully if you have any left. 

Ps. 

I haven't forgotten about the cherry pie. It's still on my list, now where is my child labor?