Category Archives: Fall

December 11, 2012 · 7:36 pm

Drunken Fig and Pear Pockets

Is this not the perfect name for a holiday appetizer?

In addition to the parties lined up over the coming weeks, I’m happily anticipating the conclusion of my final semester of graduate school. In the middle of all the chaos of finals, prepping for the clinical rotations, and holiday travel, I also just ran my first 5k race. There’s plenty to celebrate.

Screen shot 2012-12-11 at 6.08.27 PMMy first 5K was the Winter Classic in Cambridge, MA, and it was a blast. Although I run consistently for fun, I’d never tackled a road race, so I was a little nervous going in to it. At a little over 3.1 miles, I was confident I’d be able to handle the distance, but it was the mass start and the drive to constantly push myself. I finished in just over 23 minutes, which I was excited about. I’m already looking forward to signing up for more. You definitely get bitten by the bug after your first one.

So, back to the drunken pears. As someone whose name starts at the beginning of the alphabet, I always get assigned to the appetizer group for potlucks, and I sometimes struggle figuring out what to bring. I came up with this recipe a few weeks ago when I thought the November Recipe Redux challenge was for holiday appetizers. It ended up that the real challenge was for vintage appetizers (or remakes of childhood favorites), but oh well. I’m glad I made this, and I’m looking forward to the next chance to make this again.

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Filed under Appetizer, Baking, Fall, Healthy, Holiday, Quick & Easy, Snacks & Party Food, Vegetarian, Winter

November 21, 2012 · 8:04 pm

Lighter Potato Gratin

I make two potato dishes every year for Thanksgiving: some kind of white potato (usually mashed) and sweet potatoes (often, also mashed). Potatoes are one of (if not my all-time favorite) foods, and back home, my mother used to make scalloped potatoes for us when we were little. So, for this month’s Recipe Redux challenge (vintage side dishes), I thought I would present you with a pairing of potato sides: a potato gratin to mirror the layered dish of my childhood and the other, a potato galette, an experiment I made for my family last year at Christmas.

The first dish, the gratin pictured above (and recipe below) came on the heels of a delicious filet Mignon David cooked for me awhile back. The steak was a special treat, and it was bathed in a luscious cream and peppercorn sauce based on a recipe from Cook’s Illustrated. But at the end of the night, with the steak all gone, we were left with a hefty portion of the cream sauce leftover. So I took the extra and poured it over thinly sliced potato layers and turned it into a baked gratin.

Doesn’t that also embody the spirit of healthy home cooking? I know this has a bit of heavy cream in the ingredients list, but making the most of leftovers is something that I think helps home cooks keep cooking at home, rather than picking up some quick and easy take-out.

Then I have this potato galette with onions and caraway, which adorned our Christmas table last year. It was such a fun idea and translated well into a composed, elegant holiday dish (in case you’re still hunting for ideas for tomorrow… if not, it’s fabulous at Christmas, too).

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Filed under Baking, Fall, Holiday, Winter

October 21, 2012 · 7:37 pm

Spaghetti Squash with Roasted Garlic and Parmesan

Spaghetti squash is something I’ve known about for awhile, have always wanted to try, but I never got around to making it. I think it had something to do with the fact that squashes are heavy, and I carry all my groceries home on foot. It’s always easier to opt to buy the bag of potatoes right in the neighborhood than it is to lug a winter squash home from the Trader Joe’s next to work. But this month’s Recipe Redux challenge (cooking with the orange colors of fall) provided me with the perfect opportunity to try to cook an ingredient I’d always been curious about.

After a leisurely hour and 15 minutes in the oven, my experiment was ready. I’d roasted whole garlic cloves right alongside the squash, and complement the dish with some Parmesan cheese. I know a lot of recipes out there use spaghetti squash as a substitute for pasta, but I really wanted the flavor of the squash to come through. That way, it’s easier to know what you’re working with, and if you go on to make dishes in which it substitutes for pasta, you know what it tastes like and can expect something ever so slightly different than real spaghetti.

Overall, the dish came out great. I liked the combination of squash, roasted garlic, and Parmesan lightly seasoned with salt and pepper. The process of pulling out the strands of spaghetti was also easy. What surprised me, though, was how difficult the seeds were to get out (pulling a large amount of spaghetti-shaped strands with each seed… oh well) and how squarely this recipe fits into the autumnal side dish category. I’d originally made it as a Saturday afternoon snack, but I feel it really needs a dish of substance alongside it to really satisfy.

Spaghetti Squash with Roasted Garlic and Parmesan Cheese

Ingredients
1 medium spaghetti squash
5 cloves garlic, unpeeled with the papery skin still on
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
salt & pepper, to taste

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with tin foil and roast the spaghetti squash for 1 hour and 15 minutes. With 20 minutes left in the cooking time, rub a generous amount of olive oil into the garlic cloves and place them on the same baking sheet as the squash and roast for 20 minutes.

2. Remove the squash and garlic from the oven. Peel the garlic and squeeze the soft, roasted garlic insides into a small bowl. When the squash is cool enough to handle, slice it in half and use a large spoon to remove the seeds. Then use the spoon to pull the squash flesh off the sides. It should come off in ribbons resembling spaghetti.

3. Mix the squash, garlic, Parmesan, salt & pepper together in a bowl. Serve as a side to any fall main course.



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Filed under Fall, Healthy, Seasonal, Vegetarian

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September 30, 2012 · 10:26 pm

Sliced Tomato Salad

September and August have been enveloped by two of the most expensive and time-consuming tasks I’ve ever taken on: wedding planning and graduate school. It’s been fun and challenging, and it’s so exciting to think about how different my life might be in a year from now, but it doesn’t leave a lot of time for cooking,  no matter how well-intentioned my weekends are.

Luckily, the fall lends itself to easily prepared lunches, snacks, and dinners. I’ve relied heavily on afternoon noshes of this simple tomato salad and multiple batches of homemade guacamole on the weekend. I’ve bought a bundle of tomatoes from the grocery store, slice them, de-seed them (if necessary), and drizzle them with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, basil, and salt. It’s so easy, there really isn’t an accompanying recipe. It’s just the clean, fresh flavors of the season, simply prepared, and eaten in the middle of a Saturday study session or in between researching vendors.

Happily, I’ve got the first exam of the semester under my belt, and we’ve squared away contracts with most of the key vendors involved in our wedding. It feels great to get so much accomplished, but at the same time, I can’t wait to get back into more cooking. Hearty, flavorful pasta dishes, warming soups, and roasted vegetables will all hopefully be on the table (and on this blog) in the progressively cooler months to come. Undoubtedly, I’ll focus on some make-ahead meals that I’ve been taking to lunch and some weeknight favorites that have been quick and inexpensive to make (as we’re now solidly in saving mode). But for now, I’ll leave you with the best of summer’s last produce, to enjoy while it lasts.

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Filed under Appetizer, Fall, Healthy, Quick & Easy, Salads, Seasonal, Summer, Vegetarian