Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin

Just a quick note with a short preface: It's definitely autumn.  Alex and I went to the Elysian's Great Pumpkin Beer Festival (which was AMAZING!) last Saturday.  Then on Sunday, Alex was still high on pumpkin and got inspired to buy a gigantic Cinderella pumpkin, stating that he wanted to put pumpkin in everything from now on.  So I roasted the pumpkin on Monday, and since then we've been adding roasted-pumpkin mush to everything we cook.  This has naturally lead to some really interesting flavor combinations, but my favorite is what I just made for dinner.  I was fully expecting it to be absolutely disgusting, because what I was craving and pumpkin is something I've never even remotely seen, and I honestly couldn't quite imagine how it would taste.  I just made a stir-fry, but here is the brilliant flavor combination that happened:

Cilantro + Lime + Cumin + Soy Sauce + Pumpkin

It's mostly cilantro, lime, and pumpkin, with a sprinkle of cumin and just enough soy sauce to add another dimension of complexity.  I love the way food totally surprises you sometimes!

Photo taken from the Ballard Farmers Market Blog

...that might actually be the pumpkin we bought on the left, from Nature's Last Stand.

The Mac And Cheese

I have to give my friend, Sarah Richardson, some credit for the creation of this dish. She made a mac 'n cheese with butternut squash a few weeks ago that filled my soul with squishy delicious comfort, joy, and inspiration - the best kind of comfort food! So I took Sarah's idea and ran with it... here is my mac 'n cheese in the making.

From left to right, top to bottom, here's what's goin' on: sauteed chanterelles and baked delicata squash, onions pepper and sausage frying in a liberal amount of butter, cheddar cheese, and pasta. I made a cream sauce with all that butter plus some flour and milk, then added the cheese and everything. Topped it all of with some breadcrumbs under the boiler and here's the finished product.

IMPORTANT EDIT: I totally failed to remember the most brilliant part about Sarah's Squash-Mac-n-Cheese! She actually substituted the squash puree for the roux! More squash means less carbo-coma!

Clandestine Self Indulgence

When Alex isn't home and I'm craving that sinful self indulgent personal time alone at home, I sneak into the kitchen and open the fridge. In the back of the vegetable drawer is my own personal stash of the most adorable little brussel sprouts I've ever seen. I buy them from Stony Plains farm at the farmers market and when I'm home alone, I'll grab a handful, and cut them each in half as a pan of bacon grease is heating up. When the grease is good and hot, I throw in the brussel sprouts so they sizzle wildly, frying them until they're gorgeous golden brown and just perfectly cooked. Sometimes I sprinkle a little salt and pepper on them, and sometimes I eat them as they are, straight out of the pan, with my fingers.

A Picture Post!

I have all these pictures of food that I've made in the past year and it's time I organize and catalog their existence here. Without further ado, in chronological order:

Last fall I started seriously experimenting with our local fungi and made these deliciously fluffy Sparassis Souffles ...Sparassis (Sparassis brevapis) is latin for Cauliflower Mushroom - they look like a brain, or coral, and have a very delicate flavor with a surprisingly crisp texture.

Then there were whole wheat mini croissants; entirely made from scratch and by hand - it was quite the process/work out. I still dream of Phil's pastries at Harmony Bakery in the Bay Area, or Santa Cruz, or wherever he has ended up. Anyway, I attempted to make something like the mini whole wheat croissnats Phil made.

As winter creaped up on us, I did a survey of winter squash. The verdict: Delicata is by far the best!(bottom right). Delicata has incredible flavorful, almost reminds me of something between a butternut and a spagetthi squash but with the smoothest texture of any squash I've ever had! All the other squashes in this picture had very mild, simple stereotypical "squash" flavors.

This picture illustrates the colorful bounty of winter - all locally grown Washington vegetables in the dead of winter! yay purple! (left to right: Onions, Garlic, Three types of Carrots, Potatoes, Kale, Chioga Beets, Red Beets, and some thyme)

This is my self-portrait. And one of Alex too. Made out of buckwheat pancake batter - a Fischer Family classic.

As if pancake portraits were not enough, we topped some pancakes with homemade blueberry syrup, my own cardamom-butterscotch ice cream, and bacon (the essential ingredient).

Finally, I would like to introduce one of my best friends, the waffle iron. I got this one at a garage sale for $10, it's from the 1940's and has reversible cast-iron plates - it makes my favorite waffles

The End!