Pumpkin Tarts

These cuties are inspired by Bakerella's blog. We had a bake sale at work to raise money for a local group called Classroom Central. I thought these were perfect for that. The only variation I made was I used pumpkin mix as opposed to plain pumpkin and adding spices. It made it a little easier but really I only did that because apparently there was a shortage of plain pumpkin around Charlotte this week.

Farfalle Surprise

This meal is one that Chris and I have been cooking together for a few years. It's quick and simple and we usually have the majority of the ingredients in the pantry/ freezer. The recipe is from one of Giada's cookbooks- the first one I believe. The original recipe name is pretty much a list of the ingredients: Farfalle, sausage, peas, and mushrooms- or something close to that. It did not seem like much of a recipe name to us so I just started calling it farfalle surprise to shorten it up. It's delicious and best of all quick and easy. Occassionally I leave out the mushrooms if I do not have them on hand and I am looking for something quick to make. Other than that all the ingredients are pretty much staples for us.

Chicken and Herbed Dumplings

I have been craving chicken and dumplings for quite sometime. While flipping through the 2009 Cookinglight book I came across a recipe for chicken and herbed dumplings. Obviously I knew since this was in Cookinglight it was in no way going to resemble my Nannie's (grandma) chicken and dumplings which is what I wanted but I figured hey why not I will give it a try. Overall I would have to say, it was decent. It actually was a pretty solid chicken soup recipe. The dumplings contained parsley which I was not huge on but the texture seemed close to right. But the whole thing together was just not my Nannie's chicken and dumplings. I have decided since I am fortunate and she is still around in one of the next few weekends coming up I am going to see her and learn how to do this correctly and not half way.

After having these Chris and I had a big discussion about Dumplings versus Pastry. His grandma makes chicken and pastry; which I believe is just the same dough rolled out and cut into noodles instead of dropped and more like biscuits in the broth. Since he is used to pastry that is his preference and he thinks I should do that instead- I responded with a good luck with that. If I am making it, I am making dumplings.

Herb Roasted Chicken

We love roast chicken. I am often reminded of a Barefoot Contessa episode when we have roasted chicken. Ina mentioned that she makes roasted chicken every Friday night for her husband. At the time I remember thinking that is amazing but not practical for the average person. I still consider it a little impractical but it's not as bad as I once thought. I mean it's really not that difficult. The time can be a little bit of an issue because by the time you prep it, cook it and then let it rest you have taken up about an hour, but it really is worth that hour. This particular chicken was an herb roasted chicken out of the William Sonoma cookbook. It was pretty decent but no match for TK's salt crusted chicken. I do wish that I had trussed her- she kind of looks like she is flailing around.

There is a tapas restaurant here in Charlotte that we love; Las Ramblas. The quality of food is excellent and they have a nice wine selection. My favorite tapas there is patatas bravas. They are amazing; whenever we go there with other people we always get more than one plate. After some research I decided they are not the traditional patatas bravas so I have been trying to recreate the recipe. A little on the unsuccessful side. I know the key to the amazingly smokey taste is the pimenton, a Spanish smoked paprika. I know my first two attempts were incorrect because according to the menu the potatoes are fried. I have been trying to bake mine- it's easier and healthier but I suppose the taste is obviously suffering. Either way these were a decent attempt at the recreation. Next time I guess I am going to have to try frying them.

Chili

I love chili in the fall and warming. It's so easy to make and a good hardy meal. I make mine from scratch - it's very easy and should not be done any other way. It's a one pot meal - brown the ground beef, drain, add back along with tomatoes, kidney beans, onions, green peppers, and lots of chili powder.

Lamb Shank

These sweet potato oven fries are a great side dish or snack. They are from one of the Barefoot Contessa's books and are very simple. You just cut up the sweet potato and then drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper, and brown sugar. The salt, pepper, and brown sugar give a really interesting mix of sweet and savory. We had them once or twice last year but now that I am getting a lot of sweet potatoes in from the CSA all I want is these. In addition to a side dish with the lamb shank below we also had them the other day as a football game snack. It made me feel a lot better about myself than the usual potato skins that I like to eat.


I got two lamb shanks a while back at the Bloom. They were on sale and although it was still a bit warm for something so hardy at the time I decided to get them and stick them in the freezer. I found this recipe on Epicurious- braised lamb shanks with caramelized onions and shallots. It sounded exactly like what I had in mind for these two beauties. The end result was really delicious and good quality comfort food for a fall day.

Praying Mantis

I almost completely overlooked this bug. He was blending in very nicely on the burning bush. I had to go back inside to get a better lense before taking his picture. There was no way I was getting close to him because he looks so creepy. I know he won't hurt me but I still did not want to be up close and personal.

Catepillar

This picture was taken two weeks ago. I fear now that it is unexpectedly cold I am not sure where he and his friends have gone. Yes I said friends, on one little parsley plant there were three. Its funny because a while back I was on 66 Square Feet where she was having a similar problem with her parsley. I guess caterpillars really enjoy parsley. Chris said I should kill them but I decided just to leave them since in a few weeks the parsley would probably be gone due to the cold. This week the parsley is still doing fine and I have not seen anymore caterpillars. I did see another interesting bug today that I will have to post. I almost didn't see him but when I did I had to go in for the camera.

Spicy Noodles

This month Cooking Light has a couple of different noodle bowl options. I enjoy a good noodle bowl. I think this love probably dates back to pre- Sushi obsession. I used to hate sushi!! Could not stand it. Then suddenly one day I was in love with it. Simply cannot get enough of it. We were at Sushi 101 here in Charlotte for lunch. They have a good lunch special and this is what Chris gets whenever we go for lunch. Basically its whatever they want to give everyone for the day on the cheap. This particular day there was something involving shrimp and Chris was all like you really really need to try this. The shrimp is cooked after all. From that day on I was a sushi convert. Even sashimi. I am weird like that I suppose. It's strange how you can spend so long disliking something and then one good experience can change your whole opinion. I have a brussel sprout story along these lines but I am going to save it for a different ramble.

Anyways, Char Siu over Sesame Noodles is the noodle bowl we tried. I really enjoyed the sauce. This particular one did not come out as soupy as their picture but I followed the directions- who knows. I also cut down the chile paste because that stuff will light your fire. It's a little much for me. Chris of course slathered his in it as soon as he sat down, but what he does with his taste buds is his perogative.

Salt Crusted Chicken

We cooked Thomas Keller's Salt Crusted chicken for my dad and Gloria while they were in town. Steven my brother and his family also joined us. I really love this particular roasted chicken from Bouchon, the skin gets nice and crispy and is very salty. The breast is a piece of heaven. We also did some Dirty Risotto which is from Giada's Family Dinners. It's the Italian version of dirty rice.

Paella

Paella is super easy to make and so delicious especially if you are a seafood fan. I use the recipe out of the Williams and Sonoma Cookbook. I usually make a few changes and use seafood stock instead of clam juice and I like to use andouille sausage as opposed to chorizo. This time I used clams instead of mussels because they did not have any mussels at the grocery store. Pretty much you can just put whatever seafood you like in the pot. It all works.

Usually by the end we just kind of sit around the pan and dig out our favorite pieces.

Sea bass in parchment paper

I was watching a little Food Network last week and saw Rachel Ray do a sea bass recipe. I really enjoy sea bass. It's a tad pricey but it probably is my favorite fish. It just has such a sweet yummy flavor. This particular recipe peaked my interest because one of my favorite sea bass meals is prepared by a restaurant here in Charlotte, Upstream. They do sort of an Asian flare and so did this. Lots of shitakes ginger and garlic. The end result was ok. I could not decide exactly what I did not like. I thought it was a tad vinegar heavy but Chris said he thought I was tasting the ginger.

Either way the recipe called for rice wine vinegar. I had rice wine and rice vinegar not rice wine vinegar. Chris said I should use the rice vinegar- in the end I think I would have been happier with the rice wine since it is sweeter. If I do decide to make this again I will definitely go with the rice wine.

Eggplant Parmesan

The eggplant continues. This week Chris wanted to give eggplant parmesan a try. I am not alway a huge fan of eggplant parmesan, at most restaurants it is never that good. Since Chris wanted it and I was uncertain about it, I put him in charge of cooking. He looked up a few recipes and then basically winged it. He breaded and fried the eggplant. From there he stacked layers of eggplant, marinara, and mozzarella and then baked the stacks. We were both very happy with the outcome. I ate until I could not eat anymore. It was so amazing. It lacked the sogginess that you tend to see with eggplant parmesan and it was just so good I am officially sold on all things eggplant.

French Onion Soup

It took me a few days to get this posted, ok so pretty much a week. Last week was a busy week and then my dad and Gloria( my step mom) came down this weekend to see Victoria (my new niece who is two weeks old today). So there was lots of busy family time this weekend.

Along with the chicken pot pie last weekend I really wanted french onion soup. Part of this was due to while in Charleston we visited the Le Crueset store and I bought the beautiful red bowls pictured below.

Well the crazies that we are we decided on Thomas Keller's french onion soup from Bouchon. It definitely did not let us down in the flavor category. It was amazing. Probably the best french onion I have ever had. But in typical Thomas Keller style it took a really long time. The onions took about 5 hours to cook down. We made the beef stock at the same time so that helped in time savings.

I made Chris do all the chopping as you can see that's a lot of onions. We did half the recipe and this was about 4 pounds.

Here is one of the pictures as the onions start to cook down. It was amazing to me how much liquid is in onions. Every time I thought there could be no more liquid released, I would go to stir and there would be more.

This was the final onions before we added the broth. The smell was amazing. We added the broth and let that cook down and that was the stopping point for Sunday.

Then Monday night's dinner was a breeze because all we had to do was reheat the soup, pour the soup into bowls, make the croutons, top the soup with croutons and cheese and then stick it under the broil. The finished product was pure bliss.