Bacon Jalapeno Winter Squash Soup

Woah. Posting two days in a row! WHAT?!

I have good reason...

Last night we resumed our Village Gardens Cooking Collective at the Village Market store. I met with five eager community members to cook and share a delightful winter meal together. In spite of some serious language barriers, we produced a beautiful blood orange kale salad and lots of winter squash soup.

The soup was stupid good. So I'm sharing the recipe with you because I'm nice like that. And I wrote this recipe, so I'm feeling proud of it.

Bacon Jalapeno Winter Squash Soup

Ingredients

• 2-3lbs Winter squash (acorn, butternut, hubbard)
• 6 strips uncured bacon, cut into 1/2inch pieces (be sure to save the fat after cooking)
• 2 jalapeno, deseeded and diced
• 1 sweet onion, minced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 apple, cored and chopped
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. pepper
• 1 quart chicken stock
• 1 cup heavy cream or full-fat coconut milk

 

Directions

·       Preheat oven to 400F. While oven is preheating, prep all ingredients.

·       In a large soup pot, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp.

·       While bacon is cooking, halve and remove innards from squash. Cut into quarters.

·       When bacon is finished, remove and set aside. Carefully pour remaining fat into small bowl to use later in recipe.

·       Add two tablespoons of rendered bacon fat back to soup pot. Add sliced squash and stir well to coat.

·       Dump oiled squash onto a large rimmed baking sheet and place in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. Cook until fork tender and browned on top.

·       Add remaining fat to soup pan and sauté the onions, jalapeno, and carrots over medium heat until onions are translucent and carrots begin to soften. Stir frequently so not to burn.

·       Add garlic and remaining spices, stir to coat and cook for another 1-2 minutes, until fragrant.

·       Reduce heat to low and add diced apple and chicken stock and cover pot.

·       Remove squash from oven. Let stand for a few minutes to cool then carefully remove skins from squash.

·       Add squash to soup pot and bring to contents to a  boil 

·        Once boiling, reduce heat and let simmer 10-15 minutes for flavors to meld and squash to get squishy.

·       Using an immersion blender, puree soup until smooth

·       Slowly pour in coconut milk or heavy cream and stir to incorporate.

·       Serve soup with crumbled bacon pieces on top!

January Recipe RoundUp

One of my 2014 goals is to be more adventurous in my cooking, so I've challenged myself to try one new recipe a week. Doesn't sound like a lot right?

Maybe not, but coming home after a long day the thought of cracking open the cook book or pulling something off the interwebs and HOPING it turns out well is not exactly the ideal evening for me these days.

Will it actually only take thirty minutes? 

Does it secretly require six hours of prep? 

Will this really be the best pork roast of my life?

Is this a Pinterest fail in the making?

There's still a cheesecake brownie incident I am trying to live down....

But in spite of some hesitations, I stuck to it and attempted some altogether delightful recipes this month.

To kick the month off, I made a Mexican Braised Beef in the slow cooker for our new year's goals party. This was a combination of my Mom's recipe advice and a solid recipe from The Kitchn. Follow her recipe, it'll surely be awesome. Or take my mom's advice and sub out the diced tomatoes for stewed tomatoes and create something MAGICAL. 

Mexican Braised Beef with roasted cauliflower and kale

Next up, I took some solid advice from PaleOMG and made her Almost Five Ingredient Spaghetti Pie. This was really, really good. Like really good. Like go make this right now. I added mushrooms, parsnips and extra sauce to mine because I can't leave anything alone.

Courtesy of PaleOMG (hers is prettier looking than mine)

I have to say this was almost a fail.  I fell victim to not reading the recipe all the way through first.... I'd assembled this delicious casserole, looked at the next step "Bake at 400 for about an hour." So, my own fault, but dinner was at 9 that night. Worth it.

Tonight, the Village Gardens Cooking Group starts up again and I'm preparing two new recipes. The first, a play on my favorite salad: kale, blood orange and avocado salad with a blood orange vinaigrette. I'm a big fan of raw kale salads and I'm excited to try out a new vinaigrette to mix things up! Hopefully my participants will be equally jazzed about the ease and awesomeness of making homemade salad dressing.

September's Cooking Group hard at work

We are also making a roasted jalapeno and bacon winter squash soup. Sounds tasty right? I hope so! The Food Works farm provided us with some beautiful delicata, acorn and pumpkin squash that we will roast to perfection for our soup! Love sourcing local produce!


My new recipe challenge continues and thanks to my lovely soon-to-be-sister-in-law, I am the proud new owner of Beyond Bacon: Paleo Recipes that Respect the Whole Hog. This book is brilliant and the recipe photos are just absolutely gorgeous. Go check it out! Your eyes and stomach will thank me.

Not your mother's green bean casserole

Fall has hit. I know I already dedicated a whole post to my excitement. But just in case you missed the memo. ITS HERE! Portland won't be dry again until next July.

With fall comes comfort food. As a kid this was usually in the form of my mother's clam chowder, chicken bake or the ultimate friday during lent tradition--- tuna noodle casserole.

Our family abstained from the cornflake topping or whatever you crazies would put on top. No our dish was warm and delicious and ultimately simple; literally three ingredients: bow tie pasta, canned tuna, Campbell's cream of mushroom soup.

We all grew up on Campbell's soup concentrates. I mean, tell me you can't hear the noise in your head of the mystery mix coming out of the can in one gelatinous slhhhlahhpp.

Now, call me snotty, call me informed, but I don't bake with campbell's soup anymore. And well we'll just blame my glutardness, but the noodle part of tuna noodle is right out.

So I'm just left with tuna, not as comforting.

But my lovely fiance grew up with a different mushroom soup casserole, a holiday favorite of many, but totally new to me: Green Bean Casserole.

Refusing to make the campbells soup/french onion version ( I know I'm so mean), I promised I'd make him a better version from scratch.

He scrunched up his nose as if to say "Yeah, good luck with that."

Well I finally delivered on that promise yesterday.
I made some awesomely tasty green bean casserole. (Sans, as of course was pointed out to me, the fried onions)

Ingredients

• 2 tbl bacon fat, divided.
• 1 pound mushrooms(crimini or white), sliced thinly
• 1 large leek, green stems removed, quartered and diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 8 ounces heavy cream
• 1/4 cup chicken stock
• 1 tsp arrowroot powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 pound fresh green beans, stems removed, cut into 1 inch pieces

Preheat oven to 400F.
In a large saucepan, warm 1 tbl bacon fat over medium heat. Add diced leek and mushroom, and saute for 5 minutes, until leeks soften and mushrooms start to release moisture. Add garlic to the mushrooms and increase heat, cooking for 3-4 more minutes. Add chicken stock, salt and pepper Scrape bottom of pan and mix to incorporate. Cook on high for 5-7 minutes, letting the liquid reduce. Add the heavy cream and reduce heat to medium.  Lightly dust the arrowroot powder over the dish and mix well to incorporate (you dont want lumps!). Let simmer and thicken for 5-10 minutes on medium-low heat.
While mushroom sauce is cooking, spread the remaining tbls of bacon fat on the bottom of a small casserole dish and layer cut green beans on top. Pour mushroom sauce over the top of green beans and cover dish with foil.
Bake at 400F for 20 minutes.


*Note, if dairy is on your no-no list, you could replace the cream with full fat coconut milk. The flavor profile will be slightly different. But it could be worth a shot!

Its the great pumpkin!

I love fall. LOVE IT. 

Portland is in a major monsoon right now and I am giddily staring out the window, soul quenched from the sideways rain and wind beating against our sadly single paned windows. My roommate, who hails from the sunshineyland of Los Angeles, is less than impressed with the blustery, wet.
But I've fully embraced the season. Fires roaring, tea kettle whistling and the smell cinnamon, ginger and cloves wafting through the air, life is good.

Along with fall comes the great pumpkin kick. Decorations, pies, pastries, curries, charlie brown tv specials and dont get me started on that crack of a sauce starbucks uses....

PaleOmg has not helped this obsession--- she's been on what seems to be an equally aggressive pumpkin kick. Favorite thing she's posted so far is her Paleo Pumpkin Granola.

Holy Ballz. This stuff was DELIGHTFUL. My house smelled like Christmas for hours. 

I loosely followed her recipe, based on what I had in my cupboards, replacing the dates with raisins, pecans with cashews, etc. etc. 

Pumpkining continued last night along with the rain storm. I made a batch of paleo Pumpkin Banana Spice Cookies while Shane and Ted zoned in front of batman cartoons (my life has gotten weirdly domestic). 

The cookies were okay, shockingly had the Shane stamp of approval--- "Can I eat these when I'm being good (ie eating healthy)." They were far more like bites of banana bread than what I was expecting. I think next time, I'd replace the banana and use all pumpkin. They are also vegan, which is pretty cool for all my veg folks. 

Next up on the pumpkin list this week is this awesome pumpkin pudding from Grass Fed Girl . Its not vegan (good ol' gelatin), but I'm excited to try it out and perhaps top it with some of PaleOmg's delicious pumpkin granola. 

Ginger hitchin' + the kitchen expands.

So. Its been SOME TIME since my last bloggy blog. But life has been CAHRAZY. Like crazy. 

Like CHECK THIS OUT

YEAH UKELELES!?! 

Pretty cool....

BUT

AlSO

SERIOUSLY

WE'RE GETTIN' HITCHED BITCHES!

So yes, my best friend and partner in crime proposed two weeks ago and it was just absolutely the happiest day. The next year is going to be an absolute PARTY. 

We've even started CAKE TASTING!

 Yes cake. 

Thanks to lovely folks at Pentunias Pies & Pastries for these delicious GLUTEN-FREE treats. 

Yeah beezies. I said it.  

gluten-free. 

Shane couldn't even tell, so no whiners at the wedding please.

My lovely friend (AND BRIDESMAID) Jenn introduced me to this bakery. 

It spews cuteness and glitter. Seriously. There was glitter all over the cupcakes.

If you're in Portland, you should check them out. 

Other than being up to my ears in wedding business (woooooo), I am happy to say I am now working with Kitchen Commons and Village Gardens  on a Collective Cooking Group, as the cooking group coordinator. We are focused on bringing families back into the kitchen, emphasizing healthy cooking, budgeting time and money, and building community. Once a month, our group will be getting together to cook and share a meal. I'll be sharing our recipes and doing a recap of each meeting via this blog! I am super excited to help facillitate this program in my neighborhood. 

I even bought this awesome CRAZY FOR KALE cookbook as a fun recipe source....

I may just be crazy at this point...

Kombuchin' like kombitches

There has not been a dull moment since Britt and I have been reunited under the same roof.

If you missed the memo, her house burned down two weeks ago and she has relocated to a twin size air mattress in my living room. Living the dream here folks. Read about that and other crazy happenings in Danielle and Britt's lives on TwoEvilActors. 

Anyway. We have been doing awesome things like making badass music, cuddling with copious cats, and adventuring down Alberta, experiencing all Portland has to offer....

 Like beer cozies and sexy ladies

Tasty treats like Salt and Straw Ice Cream

Photo courtesy of Salt & Straw's FB

And of course..... fresh brewed KOMBUCHA on tap at Townshend Tea House

 

Yes. Those are growlers of Kombucha... 64 fluid ounces of fermented deliciousness. 

#tarotcards #Lifecolors #soportlandithurts

Our growlers have left our side, nary a moment since we purchased them. Portlandia, you are missing out on some great ideas here. In fact, I think Britt and I need our own reality tv show. Mr. Shakespeare* himself once said "This shit writes itself" Can't argue with that....



*he probably didn't say that, but Britt wore a shirt that said that... so I'm going with it. 

Anyway, whilst the rain beat down upon the earth, Britt and I swigged buch straight from the jug and made insightful revelations about our lives. Let me translate: It was raining, we were stuck inside, so we read tarot cards and drank too much kombucha. **

**we do this when its sunny too...



"Too much kombucha you say? No such thing!" Ah readers... unfortunately there is.... Drink a growler in 48 hours and see what that shit does to you... shit being the operative word. I'll spare the details.

Alas, three days later we were back in Townshend, refilling our growlers.

Please note the crazed look...

I should mention that while Kombucha is fermented, it is for all intents and purposes, non-alcoholic. It has TRACE amounts of alcohol in it, but I think you stand a better chance of getting buzzed off a tablespoon of Robitussin. Britt and I are just this crazy, naturally.

For those of you who aren't living an episode of Portlandia, Kombucha is a lightly carbonated or effervescent(bonus points for THAT word),  tart, fermented tea drink. Its packed with enzymes, aids in digestion and gut health, and contains glucosamines for joint health. And like lots of other fermented foods, it likes to power-punch that immune system into action.

While it is really fun to drink Kombucha out of a growler, a much more economical approach to buch-swigging, is to brew your own at home.

Its super, super simple, requires zero special equipment-- just the desire to brew and the ability to handle a SCOBY.

SCOBY, not to be confused with Scooby, is a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast. Its this squishy mushroomy thing you put in the sweet tea to make it magically transform into Kombucha.
Sounds yummy right?

I have no idea who this woman is, but she is holding a SCOBY. 

Scooby

If you can handle the thought of that, then you are well on your way to home-brewing your own Buch!
Congratulations.
If you keep reading below, you'll have the instructions too... WOW. WHAT A DAY FOR YOU!

Food for Thought and Comfort.

Shane and I have developed this unspoken open door policy at our house, which I absolutely love. We love to entertain and we love to take care of our friends. So impromptu dinner parties are the norm and our guests, the usual suspects (B, theSuz, Kdough), have each designated their own spot at our dining room table.

The table in our dining room is the one I grew up at.  I used to wake up in the middle of the night and eat cereal with my oldest brother when he got off the late shift. Our family hosted Christmas and Easter, and crammed sometimes 25 people around the table as our family grew.  I watched the upholstery on the chairs wear down and get replaced numerous times before it made its way to my first Portland house six years ago. Since then its been subjected to a variety of drinking games that has worn the finish nearly all away, adorned with new water rings and the evidence of numerous games of quarters has been carved into its surface. But in spite of the flaking finish and squeaky legs, it still serves as a gathering place for friends and family.

Mark's Daily Apple posted last week about the benefits of cooking your own food. He notes that some anthropological interpretation of surviving evidence shows rituals surrounding food preparation started tens of thousands of years ago. This has evolved within cultures into rich and varied traditions. Food preparation and ceremony have long been tied. Unfortunately, as the American diet becomes more and more processed and the emphasis has become solely on quick, easy and cheap, this ritual has been sacrificed.

In an effort to reverse this trend and bring the focus back to simple, healthy meals, my neighborhood is in the process of teaming up with Kitchen Commons and creating a collective cooking group. This is going to be a phenomenal opportunity to not only learn crafty kitchen skills to apply at home, but also provides a chance to gather with neighbors and share our diverse cultural traditions over a communal meal.

This weekend, we had a fuller house than normal (normal being 5 adults and four animals...sigh).
At two am Saturday morning, I woke up to a phone call from my friend Britt who was standing in front of her north Portland house as it was engulfed in flames. An hour later, we had impromptu beds made up in our living room and played hotel for her and her roommates. The next morning we gathered around the table as family and ate stacks of french toast, bacon, sweet potatoes and fruit. Chattering over coffee and food about the previous evenings events, we were giving thanks that no one was hurt.  I felt like I was channeling my parents, who managed to make never-ending stacks of hot cakes or french toast for all the kids, plus friends who randomly appeared (especially in high school). 

I've always enjoyed cooking for people, as evidenced simply by this blog. The usual suspects gathered around the table again last night (loaves and fishes people, no idea how this happens) for an absurdly late (or European style!) dinner, providing comfort and relief from a stressful and emotionally taxing weekend all around. Now more than ever I've been reminded how therapeutic cooking and sharing a meal with friends and family can be and how thankful I am to be surround by such incredible people.