winter salad: roasted acorn squash, apples & blue cheese

After all the Thanksgiving dinners, I can only think about salads (and running 6 miles a day every day this week to make up for the pumpkin brownies my Gramma made). This is adapted from December 2008 Bon Appetit, which originally called for butternut squash but I substituted acorn. (Also note, this is half the original recipe -the original serves 10.)

Grocery list: (dressing) 1 T balsamic, 1 T lemon juice, 3 T good quality olive oil; (salad) 2 T balsamic, 1 tsp brown sugar, 1 2-pound butternut or acorn squash, 2 heads belgian endive, 1 fuji apple, 4 oz crumbled blue cheese, 1/4 c dried cranberries.



Start by roasting the squash. Cut the squash in half lengthwise, and scoop out the seeds. Peel and slice crosswise into 1/4 inch pieces. Arrange on a lined baking sheet and brush each piece with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 5 minutes at 400 degrees. Whisk the balsamic and brown sugar together, then brush each piece of squash; return to the oven and roast for an additional 5 minutes.



Flip squash pieces and brush with remaining vinegar-sugar combination. Continue to roast until squash is fork-tender, about another 15 minutes. Allow to cool.

Trim the root ends of endive and arrange leaves on plates - about 5-6 leaves per plate, for 4 plates. Core the apple and cut into thin strips, and evenly distribute across plates. Place squash strips in center of each plate, and top with cheese and cranberries.

For the dressing, whisk the balsamic, lemon juice and olive oil with salt and pepper. Drizzle dressing over each salad and serve. This would also be nice with a few pieces of toasted walnuts too...

swiss chard with goat cheese walnuts & cranberries

I've been serving swiss chard with slivered garlic, fresh lemon juice and a drizzle of olive oil for a while, and wanted to mix it up. Turns out you can use a popular salad combination of goat cheese, walnuts and dried cranberries - who knew?

Grocery list: rainbow or red swiss chard, goat cheese, handful of chopped walnuts, handful of dried cranberries, olive oil.



Chop and toast the walnuts over medium flame, stirring frequently to prevent burning, for a few minutes. Remove from heat.



Remove the stems from the chard and cut into bite size pieces. Saute in olive oil over medium high heat until they just begin to soften, then add the cranberries.



Chop the chard leaves then add to the pan with about 1/4 cup water (pan will be overflowing, but the chard will cook down significantly). Keep moving the chard around so the uncooked leaves on top get moved to the bottom. The water will evaporate as well.



Sprinkle a little fresh goat cheese on top, followed by the toasted walnuts, then stir to mix. Season with salt and pepper.

bacon cheddar quick bread

I've never had a desire to bake my own bread, but I guess that's the next step in my adoption of the "slow food" trend. When I saw this recipe for a bacon and cheddar quick bread in the October 2008 issue of Bon Appetit, it was time to bite the bullet. It only took a few minutes to put together, and made a great breakfast. This would be a great bread to throw together if you have house guests - impressive but very hands-off.

Grocery list: 5 slices bacon, 6 oz cheddar, 1/2 cup dried fruit (original recipe called for dried pears; I used dried cranberries), 1/3 cup walnuts, 1 T fresh sage (minced), 1 3/4 cup AP flour, 1 T baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp ground black pepper, 3 eggs, 1/3 cup whole milk, 1/3 cup olive oil.



First, chop up 5 slices of bacon and crisp it in a pan, then drain over paper towels.



Mix your "wet" ingredients - whisk 3 eggs and the milk and olive oil together.



Stir your dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, pepper) together in a large bowl. Pour the egg mixture into the flour, and stir just enough to combine (don't overwork the batter, it's good if it's chunky).



The recipe called for 1 cup grated cheddar plus 1/2 cup of 1/4 inch cubes of cheese. For color more than anything, I used yellow extra-sharp cheddar for the grated 1 cup of cheese, and then cubed some seaside extra sharp white cheddar to make the extra 1/2 cup. Fold the cheese, dried fruit, walnuts (toasted and chopped), sage, and bacon pieces into the dough.



Grease the sides and bottom of a one pound loaf pan (8.5" x 4.5" x 2.5"), and spoon the dough in. Bake at 350 degrees on the center oven rack, until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. The recipe said 55 minutes (an exact number, which I interpreted as authoritative - should have checked it at 45-50 minutes, as it turned out a touch drier than I would have liked). Cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Loosen the sides of the loaf from the pan with a knife, then invert on a rack and allow to cool to desired temperature.

sauteed spinach

There's a similar recipe for this in the Moosewood cookbook, but I've adapted it from its original (which was a wilted spinach salad with pecans) to more of a fully-cooked sauteed version.

Grocery list: 1 9 or 10-oz bag of fresh baby spinach, 2-3 cloves garlic, handful of walnuts, handful of dried cranberries.

Start by mincing the garlic and heating 1-2 T of olive oil in a large saute pan. Cook the garlic for about 2 minutes, then add the bag of spinach. Keep rotating the spinach around so it cooks -- it will look like a LOT of spinach but will quickly cook down into 2 servings. After the spinach has wilted, add the cranberries, walnuts, salt and pepper to taste, and continue to cook for another few minutes. That's all there is to it.