Butternut Squash Tartlettes

As I have already mentioned once, twice, or perhaps a few hundred times on this blog, I adore autumn. The flavors, colors, coolness, sense of newness and the beginning of all sorts of possibilities. One of my favorites of the season is the butternut squash. I love it in soup, in ravioli, roasted.... we'll you get the idea. I stumbled across a method of preparing this glorious vegetable described in Deborah Madison's vegetarian cooking for everyone - wrapping up a delicious combination of onion, sage, roasted garlic and butternut squash in a rustic olive oils yeast-raised gallete dough wrapper. It sounded absolutely fabulous, and I was not disappointed.

Butternut Squash Tartlettes

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

1 large butternut squash

1 head of garlic cloves separated but not peeled

1 Tbs olive oil and extra for brushing squash

1 onion, diced

1 tsp dried sage

1/2 c freshly grated pecorino or parmesan

salt and pepper

1 egg, beaten

Make dough (instructions listed below). Preheat oven to 375. Cut squash in half, scrape out seeds, brush the surface with oil. Stuff garlic into cavities and place face down on a baking sheet. Bake until flesh is tender- about 40 minutes. When cooled, scroop out squash and squeeze garlic cloves. Mash together until fairly smooth - leaving some texture.

Warm 1 Tbs oil in skillet over medium heat. Add onion and sage and cook until onion is soft and begining to color -about 12 min. Add it to teh squash along with cheese and salt and pepper to taste.

Roll out dough into one large tart or 6 small tartlettes ( I did the latter). Spread filling over it, leaving about 2'' around the edges. Pleat dough over filling, brush edges with egg. Bake until crust is golden about 25 min.

Yeasted Olive Oil Tart Dough

2 tsp active dry yeat

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 c warm water

3 Tbs olive oil

1 egg

3/8 tsp salt

1 3/4 c flour, as needed

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the water in a meduim bowl and let stand until bubbly or 10 min. Add oil, egg, salt then stir in the flour. Knead with hands when mixture is too thick for a spoon. Knead until smooth and elastic or about 4 min. Place in oiled bowl and allow to rise, covered, until doubled in size - about 45 min. Turn out and roll out if making one large tart, or break into 6 equal pieces and allow to sit for 15 min.

Honey Cake

This was pure pleasure to bake. Sure, it's always a bit of an adventure to coax out the sticky, syrupy honey and molasses 1. out of their containers and 2. into a measuring cup and 3. back out of said measuring cup. That said, after all the mixing was done, the whole house filled with the deliciously aromatic scents of ginger, clove, nutmeg and molasses. And yes, it does taste even better than it smells. And I haven't even let it sit the overnight you are supposed to to get the 'real' flavor of the honey cake. I can't wait till breakfast...

Honey Cake

Chocolate and Zucchini cookbook

2 tsp olive oil for oiling pan

2/3 c good-quality honey

1/3 c mild-tasting dark molasses

1 c all-purpose flour

1 c whole wheat flour

1 1/2 c milk

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp each of: ground clove, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger ( I used fresh ginger to delicious results)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease loaf pan with olive oil use parchment paper to line bottom if desired.

Heat milk, honey and molasses in saucepan on med-low heat until dissolved. Set aside to cool. Mix together dry ingredients. Form well in dry ingredients and pour wet ingredients into well. Slowly whisk in a circular motion staring from the center until all the flour has been incorporated. The batter will be very thin.

Pour into prepared loaf pan and bake for 40-50 min. until the surface is brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool for 20 minutes then loosen with a knife around the edges and invert onto plate. Let cool completely, wrap in foil and let rest at room temp. until the next day (or if you are impatient like me, mouth watering from the delicious smell of the bread filling the apt. for the last 40 minutes, slice yourself a delicious warm slice and wrap up the rest of the bread for breakfast;).

Homemade Yogurt and Granola

Though the economists tell us that we're on our way out of the recession that has been plaguing us, it seems like it's always a good time to save a little money. When saving money can mean eating better - if with a bit more work, I'm all for it. It's been great making my own bread and the pennies saved have definitely added up. So, I thought I'd venutre into other suprisingly easily homemade staples - yogurt and granola.

Homemade Yogurt

from Mirelle Gulliano's FWDGF

2 c milk (2% is my preference)

1-2 Tbs plain, good quality yogurt

Place milk in saucepan and heat until slightly foaming around the edges and steaming. Allow to cool to between 110-115 F (or when you can leave your finger in the mixture comfortably for 20 seconds). Take small amount of milk and mix into a seperate bowl with the plain yogurt. Add yogurt mixture to milk in thirds, making sure to mix thuroughly after each addition. Cover milk mixture tightly with a clean cloth. If you have a gas stove, allow it to sit in a warm place near the pilot light for 6-8 hours. If you have an electric stove, boil some water and place it in a pan in the oven, then set the milk in the oven for 6-8 hours. Once set, refrigerate for an additional 8 hours. Then enjoy!

French Chocolate Granola

from orangette

3 cups rolled oats

½ cup raw almonds, chopped

½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut

2 Tbsp. granulated sugar

Pinch of salt

6 Tbsp. mild honey

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

½ cup, or more, finely chopped bittersweet chocolate

Preheat the oven to 300°F.In a large bowl, combine the oats, almonds, coconut, sugar, and salt. Stir well to blend.In a small saucepan, warm the honey and oil over low heat, whisking occasionally – watch out! the oil will want to splash - until the honey is loose. Pour over the dry ingredients, and stir to combine well.

Spread the mixture evenly on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden. Set a timer to go off halfway through the baking time, so that you can give the granola a good stir; this helps it to cook evenly. When it’s ready, remove the pan from the oven, stir well – this will keep it from cooling into a hard, solid sheet – and cool completely.

When cool, transfer the granola to a large bowl, storage jar, or zipper-lock plastic bag. Add the chocolate, and stir (or shake, if using a jar or bag) to mix. Store in an airtight container.

Baked Sweet Potato Falafel

Falafel is one of my favorite street foods. I still have dreams sometimes about the particularly delicious spinach falafel I had in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Alexandria, Egypt. There seem to be limitless variations each bringing something new and delicious to the classic chic pea-based falafel. I also happen to love sweet potatoes, and when I came across a recipie that included both (and also did NOT include deep frying) I couldn't pass up trying it out for myself.

Baked Sweet Potato Falafel

from 101 cookbooks

2 medium sweet potatoes (orange inside), around 700g or 1 1/2 pounds in total

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 small cloves of garlic, chopped

1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander

2 big handfuls of fresh cilantro/coriander, chopped

Juice of half a lemon

a scant cup (120g) gram /chickpea flour (can't find any? buy some dry chic peas and grind them in your food processor)

a splash of olive oil

a sprinkling of sesame seeds

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 425F degrees (220C) and roast the sweet potatoes whole until just tender - 45 minutes to 1 hour. Turn off the oven, leave the potatoes to cool, then peel.

Put the sweet potatoes, cumin, garlic, ground and fresh coriander, lemon juice and gram/chickpea flour into a large bowl. Season well, and mash until smooth with no large chunks. Stick in the fridge to firm up for an hour, or the freezer for 20-30 minutes. When you take it out, your mix should be sticky rather than really wet. You can add a tablespoon or so more of chickpea flour if necessary (the water content of sweet potatoes varies enormously).

Reheat the oven to 400F/200C. Using a couple of soup spoons (put a well-heaped spoonful of mix in one spoon and use the concave side of the other to shape the sides) or a falafel scoop if you have one, make the mixture into falafelly looking things and put them on an oiled tray. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top and bake in the oven for around 15 minutes, until the bases are golden brown.

Makes about 18 falafel, enough for 4 - 6. I enjoyed it on it's own but was especially tasty with a tzadziki sauce or a yogurt garlic sauce (yogurt, garlic and salt and pepper mixed to taste) with some toasty warm pita and sprouts.

Bread with a good story

DC is a strange town. It's a town of contradictions, controversy, conflict and confluence. And occasionally little, tiny, adorable bread makers. With a good stories. It's not every town that has some of the world's best brains coming through, trying their darndest to make their mark on teh world. The Mr. happens to work in a place were such said brains congregate to try to find solutions to the worlds trickier problems. One of his favorite colleagues' stay was cut short by an urgent call home - just some trifling thing about prosecuting one of the Balkans' bloodiest tyrants, and needed to move quickly. He ended up giving just about everything of his away to his colleagues and lucky Mr. P came home with a itsy, bitsy, teeny, weeny bread machine. Shoved into some dark cabinet and forgotten for years, a fortuitous search for matching tupperware lids uncovered the little bread-making gem. I was instantly smitten and haven't bought sandwhich bread in weeks!

Now, don't get me wrong, I love a good handmade bread. The whole process is remarkably fufilling and cathartic for me. However, in this crazy life, sadly, there is not always time to make bread this way. And so, turning out adorable, delicious loaves of bread in 45 minutes isn't such a terrible alternative. This recipie is scaled for this particular itty, bitty machine, but can be scaled up to other grown-up-sized breadmakers.

Spelt Bread

1/2 c warm water
1 Tbs butter
1/2 c spelt flour
3/4 c bread flour
1 1/2 Tbs agave or honey
1 Tbs dry milk
1/4-1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp rapid-rise yeast

Place in order in bread machine. Set to "wheat" bread setting and begin baking cycle. Makes particularly amazing toast when well jammed and/or buttered.

for scale

Pulla - Finnish Cardamom Bread

Pulla. I used to love to come home after school to a house warm and smelling of fresh baked cinnamon rolls. A sure sign my Aiti, my father's mother, who spend a good part of the year with us, had a very productive afternoon. At Christmas, she would make little bread men with them, using currants for eyes and buttons, sometimes adding a little simple frosting. I have fondly sticky memories of sharing pulla and my grandmother's homemade raspberry freezer jam, chest puffed out in pride at having helped my grandmother make the jam, at my elementary school's Heritage Day. Although, admittedly, I grew rather tired of hearing "You're Finnish? Finn-ished? So you're done, right?" by the end of the day.

My grandmother passed away a few years ago, sadly, never writing down her own recipe for her cardamom bread. My dad has his own technique for making it (he's successfully adapted the dough-making portion for the bread machine!) and I've tried to recreate it as best I can, giving it my own spin of course. I always make multiple batches at once, as each batch is quite the labor of love. I do love the process of making it though - it always makes me feel closer to my grandmother - a woman who had a very large part in raising us but was no longer able to do much cooking by the time I was getting really interested in it. It also helps me feel a bit closer to my Finnish heritage - though only half of my ethnic makeup, is certainly a formative half. In our flawed but never-the-less melting pot of a society, it feels good to have something solid to hold onto when it comes to tradition and roots. Making pulla is a very grounding thing, especially when preparing it for your pulla-loving family. I don't think I've quite achieved her mastery, but I like to think that she's watching and nodding approvingly.

Bread

2 c milk

1/2 c brown sugar

1/2 c white sugar

1 Tbs. crushed cardamom seeds

2 pkgs. dry yeast (or 2 Tbs)

6 c unbleached white flou

2-3 c whole wheat flour

2/3 c butter1 tsp salt

Topping

1 egg yolk

1 Tbs waterplus about

1/4 c Turbinado sugar

Optional for Cinnamon Rolls:

2 Tbs melted butter

1/4 c white sugar

1/2 brown sugar

3 Tbs cinnamon

1. Scald milk with cardamom and 2 Tbs of sugar from 1/2 c of white sugar

2. Cool to lukewarm, and add yeast. let sit for 5 minutes or until doubled

3. In seperate bowl, add remaining white sugar and brown sugar, salt and 1 1/2 c white and 1 1/2c wheat flours

4. combine melted butter cooled to lukewarm, egg and milk/yeast mixture

5. add wet mixture to dry, adding remaining flour as necessary

6. knead for 10 minutes, then allow to rise about 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in greased bowl covered in a damp dish towel.

7. Shape into braids (2-3 depending on size) or rolls*, cover with dish towel and allow to rise 45 mins or until doubled8. For braids, brush with egg mixture and sprinkle with turbinado sugar9. bake in 350 degree oven for 15-25 minutes

*rolls option: roll dough flat into a rectangle to about 1/4" thick, spread melted butter till covered and sprinkle sugar mixture evenly accross it. Roll into a log and cut into 1/2-1" slices and place in buttered cake pan (round or rectangular). Allow to rise as mentioned above and then bake as described.

Blueberry Scones

I confess, I was right there with many young girls in the world when it came to tea parties. My sister and I were queens of them - and believe me, it took serious mastery to engender regency to mudpie making (and yes, I mean literal mud). Once we were old enough to be entrusted with slightly battered but shabbily elegant tea set from the thrift store, our parents were hard pressed not to find us taking tea when they came home from work. I'm sure the sticky remnants of cinnamon sugar toast only made our exuberant embraces of them all that more special - if perhaps contributing to increases in dry cleaning bills.

When I reached 5th grade, we once had the very special priveledge of taking high tea at the Four Seasons. Even now, I can perfectly recall the sheer delight at living out one of our favorite girlhood fantasies - the deep puice color and tangy flavor of the black currant tea I ordered (each of us got our own pot, amazing!) and the scones decadently smeared with Deveonshire Cream and topped with fresh strawberries. Oh! I'm salivating at the mere memory!

To this day, scones always taste a bit of wonder and evoke a sprinkling of that magic of childhood and imagination.

Blueberry and Lemon Scones
inspired by orangette

½ c half and half
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 Tbs unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
3 Tbs sugar
1/4-1/2 c frozen blueberries
2 tsp lemon zest

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Beat together the milk and the egg and then set aside. In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt. Rub the butter into the flour mixture, working until you have no lumps bigger than a pea. Add the sugar blueberries and zest.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry. Bring dough together gently with a wooden spoon.Turn dough out onto a lightly floured counter and knead it no more than 12 times. Pat dough into a round approximately ½-inch thick, and cut into 8 or 12 wedges. Place on an ungreased baking sheet or a Silpat, if you have one. Using a pastry brush, glaze wedges with a little extra half and half. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a rack.