Will blog soon!

No, I haven't been hiding under a rock...well maybe a metaphorical one. Life has just been filled with...thoughts and things...and I promise to blog soon! I have ideas and pictures ready!

Abbie

Rockin' the Risotto

I enjoy risotto. I've eaten it in restaurants, made it in the microwave from a box, but never before had I made it at home from scratch. Once again I was digging through the The Gluten-Free Bible and came across a recipe for Asparagus Parmesan Risotto and I knew I needed to try it out.

As I cooked, I had Tom Colicchio's final advice to Tre Wilcox in Top Chef: All-Stars ringing in my ears. "When you put a risotto on the plate, it needs to spread."

Well, my risotto may not have spread enough for Tom, but it did  spread and it was quite tasty. I've included the risotto recipes at the end of this post if you decide you'd like to try them out. Risotto isn't a quick dish to make, but if you have the time and the desire it's definitely worth it!


While this dish was very good, and became my lunch for the next week at school, it wasn't until I used the risotto recipe in conjunction with a Bon Appetit recipe for Farro with Acorn Squash and Kale that I fell into complete Risotto Love. Never have I eaten a dish day after day and actually thought it was even better than the day before. Tomorrow will be my last of the six servings and I am mourning it's loss already.

Acorn Squash and Kale Risotto

I couldn't make the farro dish as it's a grain in the wheat family, and so I wasn't quite sure how to adapt the recipe as it had a lot of steps and oven roasting and so forth. I ended up putting both recipes side by side and combining forces to make the dish from arborio rice instead. Kurt called it my "faux-farro" dish :).

What is especially delicious about using kale is that it always remains slightly more tough than spinach would, and gives a crunchy texture to a dish that is otherwise creamy. The acorn squash is roasted in the oven so it has it's own crunchy/creamy combination that's a fabulous compliment.

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                                                         Kale & Acorn Squash Risotto
                           
                Pre-heat the oven to 375.
Squash:

                Halve, peel and seed an acorn squash into small cubes. ( I found it very hard to peel with a peeler, so I used my sharpest knife to cut close to the skin and clean it that way.)
 
                Melt a tbs. of unsalted butter in a saucepan (I used my wok) and add the squash, sprinkle with salt and pepper to coat.  Then, roast the squash in the oven for 35 minutes, turning (or at least mixing up) the squash every ten minutes or so.

Kale:

           
             1/2 bunch of kale, removed from stem and cut into smaller strips.
 
            Cook the kale in a large pot of boiling water (the recipe said salted water...mine wasn't) for about 2 minutes or until wilted. Remove kale to a bowl of ice water to cool, and then drain and dry.

Risotto:  (I'll try to include either recipe mix here. one was with the squash and kale. the other--peas and asparagus)

1.) Melt 3 tbs. unsalted butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add a small chopped onion and stir until tender about 2-3 minutes. (I used the white parts of a leek instead in the asparagus one, and a red onion for the squash one)

Stir in 2 cups of uncooked arborio rice, and cook for another 2 minutes until rice is covered completely.

Add 2/3 cup of wine, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid is absorbed.  ( I used tomato wine from Pioneer Valley Vineyard)

2.) Heat 5 1/2 cups vegetable broth to a simmer over medium high heat, then reduce the heat to low. ( I used 3 vegetable bouillon cubes)

3.) Add 1 1/2 cups hot broth to rice mixture, cook and stir 7 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed. (simmer, don't boil)

Add 2 more cups broth and vegetable (kale or chopped asparagus depending which version you're making) Simmer and stir another 7 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed.

Add remaining 2 cups broth and cook 5-6 minutes stirring until most of the liquid is absorbed. (In one recipe, here is also where you would add 2/3 cup frozen peas)

4.) Remove from heat; stir in another Tbsp. of unsalted butter and 1 Cup grated Parmesan cheese until melted. (Here is also where I mixed in the roasted acorn squash)

5.) Garnish with Parmesan, serve (hope it spreads!) and ENJOY :)

Mine made 6 servings. Each serving of  the Asparagus Risotto was 14 points plus* and each serving of the Kale Risotto was 12 pp.

** side note on that** Weight loss to date is 37 lbs!


          

Thought of the day...

We have faith because He is faithful.

(derived from Hebrews 11:11)


It was Saturday. It was finally beautiful out. I awakened in my Mom's house because we had gone to see Rent at the Exit 7 Players Theater on Friday evening. (It was amazing!). After a week of rain, the weather was cool and felt like fall again. I had pulled out my back the night before so I felt a little grumpy, and I didn't have my sunglasses which didn't help the migraine starting to brew in my brain.

So, we set out for a fall adventure day and made some pit stops to remedy the grumpiness. A pumpkin spice cappuccino (thank you Cumberland Farms) and some Dollar Tree sunglasses paired with Aleve made my body feel comfortable once again. We drove through Hadley and stopped at Swarovski Farm in Sunderland where I purchased brussel sprouts, kale, onions, and acorn squash for $5 total. Oh, how I love farm stands!

We then circled around into Hatfield to take our 2nd annual fall visit to the Pioneer Valley Vineyard for their free wine tastings. They bottled their Blackberry wine in big bottles this year and had a new Golden Raspberry wine and a smooth Frontenac. It was there, when I went to pay that I realized my wallet was missing.

I wish this were the part of the story where I calmly had faith that God is in control. Where I retraced my steps and knew somewhere deep in my heart that it would all be OK. I wish...except wishing doesn't make it so. This is actually where, after weeks of clinging to God, sharing wisdom, talking to my girls about His faithfulness, that I lost my ever-loving mind. I cried. I even yelled. I explained to my mother over and over the process of identity theft that was going to ruin life as I knew it.

This is the part of the story where my Mom let me do these things, and then calmly repeated that everything would be OK. I, of course, in all my faithfulness, told her this was not the case. That the world was a mess, and people stole things, and who knows what else. She calmly repeated the fact that there were honest people in the world, didn't I know.

As we retraced our steps and went back to each store, walking along parking lots, the real truth came out. This must be it, I thought. After weeks of things being OK with Jesus, here was the spiritual attack I had been waiting for. The shoe was dropping.I know I had already been fighting physical pain, but this was the proverbial straw that was going to break this camel's back.

We had no luck. We headed back to Belchertown and I began looking up my credit card companies information on my phone. The phone wouldn't show me the number so with a loud noise of exasperation I went up to use her computer. Now, this isn't even my own home, but there was a message light blinking on the answering machine so I hit play for a distraction. And there it is....a message for me, at a place I don't even live, from AAA telling me someone called and had found my wallet in a parking lot and it was at Peter's Nails in Hadley. My dad always buys me my AAA membership each year because I forget to so my contact info is at their house!

I began laughing and crying at the same time. For a long time.

My mother just looked at me and said, "You see, o ye of little faith."

Yep. Just when we think we've got it down...we up and fail the test.

I am so glad God is faithful. Even when I'm not.

God,
Please bless the sweet person who found my wallet and went through all the trouble of figuring out how to get it back to me. May they have days filled with unspeakable joy. Thank you for a mom who loves you and exemplifies grace under pressure. Who loves me even in my crazy. Thank you for you. May I have more faith today than yesterday.
In Jesus' Name,
Amen.

Fall Frenzy

A few weeks back, I was itching to dig into fall's harvest. I was dogsitting for my parents and so I had access to my mother's amazing kitchen. Gas stove, kitchen island, and wide open counter spaces. My parents also happen to live two minutes from the UMass Cold Springs Orchard so I drove down there to stock up on fresh apples, cider, and local honey before heading back up to the grocery store to aquire the rest of menu items.

I started with acorn squash, washing and scooping out the seeds to roast for school snacks. I cooked them upside down for about 40 minutes in just a tiny layer of water, but flipped them over for the last 20 and added just a little bit of maple syrup for flavor.

Roasted Acorn Squash Seeds with Cinnamon & Salt

Meanwhile, I started in on the Sausage and Apple Stuffing. I got the recipe from my favorite new cookbook as of late The Gluten-Free Bible. I made a few adaptations for ease and preference such as not pairing it with turkey as I don't even really like turkey on Thanksgiving, and I used Jimmy Dean reduced-fat breakfast sausage for ease of cooking. Also, I had bought leeks for the soup I also made so I used that instead of onion. I aslo traded walnuts for hazelnuts.

All you do is cook up the leeks (or onion) and cut up celery in a pan with the breakfast sausage. Then you add a cubed up Granny Smith apple, and the nuts. You then transfer the mixture to a baking pan and bake at 325 for 40 minutes.

I then dished out the sausage into the four acorn squashes for delicious lunches for the week!

The Final Result! (7points plus)

After I was done with that course, I started in on the Honey-Spice Cake, a recipe I had seen while logging my points on the Weight Watchers website. To get the recipe for yourself, click on this link. I obviously traded the regular flour for gluten free flour. My mother has Domata Living Flour which is really great because it already has the xanthum gum mixed in with it. Randall's in Ludlow used to be the place where we could buy it, but after this last batch we just bought, they are discontinuing it there. :(

Honey Spice Cake. It's more bread-like than cakey and only slightly sweet. A prefect accompaniment to soup!

While the oven was still hot, I made another fun recipe from the Gluten-Free Bible of Cocoa Bottom Banana Nut Bars. They were similar to banana bread with a slightly chocolate taste. I made them because I had bananas that were past their prime on the counter and I wanted to try something new! Leave me a message if you'd like the recipe. I'd be happy to share. :)

Cocoa-bottom Banana Nut Bars (3 points plus)

Then, to finish off the cooking frenzy. ( I seriously cooked/baked for 6 hours straight!) I made butternut squash and apple soup. It was your basic recipe of softened and hand-blended butternut squash, chicken stock, carrots, and a Shamrock apple (from Cold Springs) but what made it really fun was the cider cream I added to it, paired with toasted bacon bits. It added just enough tang to offset the salt which went nicely with the sweet of the soup. I would add a picture but I forgot to take one!

Cider Cream: Boil 1/4 cup of apple cider until it is reduced by half. Take it off the heat, let it cool, and then mix it with 1/2 cup of sour cream.

Toasted Bacon Bits: I just bought Hormel's already cooked bacon bits and toasted them again in a pan until they were nice and crispy. All it takes is a little pinch of them to add flavor to the soup.

I also baked gluten-filled chocolate chip cookies for my parents return, and some apple chips! Fabulous fall food in a frenzy!

Apple Chips sprinkled with Cinnamon & Sugar

Amherst Farm Winery

The curiosity began one day last Spring when my cousin claimed she saw a large foot in the back of a building while driving up Rt. 9 in Amherst. I was driving at the time so I didn't think much else about it besides it being a perfect reason to tease her about "seeing things". Later, that same building had a large barrel placed out front, and I could feel my winery loving self growing excited. After all-- what do feet and barrels have in common? Wine!

...turns out I was right. A few weeks ago my mom called me to let me know that she'd been driving past and saw a new sign for the Amherst Farm Winery. It said there were wine tastings from 11am-5pm.

The winery is newly opened. So new, in fact, that the orchard adjacent to it is filled with baby trees that will grow into tomorrow's wine producers. For now, they are getting their fruit from other local orchards.

Their wine selection was lovely, with many sweet and fruity choices. Among them: blueberry, raspberry, strawberry, apple, pear, and peach. There were also red and white options mostly named after local things, which made me happy, Amherst being my college town and all that. They also had a limited time availabilty of a Diva wine (proceeds to breast cancer) that is chocolate raspberry. It tastes even better than it sounds!

 The atmosphere is very Western Massachusetts placed inside a large barn with natural sunlight. There is a store with wine products on the other side of the wine wall and it looks like eventually there will be an open window bottling room, and upstairs may be a private tasting area.

So...if you get a chance, take a trip and check it out! The tastings are the local standard of  $5 to try 6 wines and the glass is complementary. I know this won't be my only visit!

Summer Restaurants in Review

So, I have determined that I have been a terrible blogger in the last few months...I have had lots of adventure, ate at a myriad of delicious places and cooked some dishes. But, I figure it's better late than never to share some restaurant loves and places that I ate at and can't quite say the same about.

Loves:





The Night Kitchen

           The Night Kitchen, Montague, MA

Nestled in the same mill that houses the Book Mill and the Lady Killigrew Cafe, is this quaint late week/weekend restaurant. With an open kitchen to compliment it's high beamed ceilings, it was a delight to eat alongside a window open to let in the mid summer breeze and the soothing sound of the rushing river. The dining began with lobster cobb salad, with just a little bit of lobster to enhance to sweet and tangy flavors that usually define cobb salad. The meal was a delicately cut pork with a fig center, highlighted with cherries. The dining joy ended with the Heart of Darkness Flourless Chocolate torte...with a swirl of mango puree. A wonderful place to have lovely conversation and enjoy a relaxed yet scintillating meal.

Heart of Darkness Flourless Chocolate Torte

Thai Garden, Keene, NH



It wasn't until I went to figure out the name of the delicious Thai food place we wandered into while sauntering along the streets of Keene, that I realized it's part of the same group as my favorite place in Northampton, MA that has the same name. I chose the pad thai as usual, but opted for the vegetarian option and I'm so glad I did. Bright with colors and freshness, it was by far the best pad thai I've tasted since my Chicago neighborhood favorite (The Spice). If I recall correctly, Kurt ate scallops with mango curry, and not only was his not too spicy or sweet to the taste, it came with a little flame. Who can argue with that?




Vegetarian Pad Thai



What especially amuses me about this picture is the lanternesque quality of this dish contrasting with the slightly obscured Green Lantern shirt of its consumer :).

Savin Hill Bar and Kitchen, Dorchester, MA

I had the delight of eating in this local gathering place in my friend Amy's neighborhood in Boston. If life were actually a movie, then I think subtle piano tinklings of "where everybody knows your name" would have begun playing as small groups of friends would stand gathered mid-dining room and chat away. We went in shortly before the dinner rush, and we both ordered the seared scallops with grilled local corn risotto, summer vegetables, and bacon buerre blanc. To be honest, I don't know what that all means but I do know that it was amazing. I actually think about this meal about once a week and wish that I could eat it all over again. There is something about a seared scallop (done well) that transports the senses. Paired with creamy risotto and crunchy corn, it was a perfect meal to catch up over. 

Hope and Olive, Greenfield, MA

I wish I had remembered to take a picture of my most recent savoring joy as there were pumpkins lining the ramp, adding fallish fun to the already adorable exterior. The place was busy as places tend to be on Saturday evenings, but I loved that the set-up was open enough that it never felt crowded. I ate tequilla lime chicken, which was a pleasant combination of textures with the chicken, soft doughy arepa (which I believe is a polenta-like mix made from chick-peas), soft tomatillo salsa, crispy corn chips and just right black beans. The staff was wonderful, kind and accommodating. I am looking forward to another trip in the near future.

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Really Wanted to Love but Didn't:

MC Perkins Cove, Ogunquit, ME

I was so looking forward to eating at this restaurant owned by the same chefs as Arrows, which is absolutely phenomenal as restaurants go. I finally convinced my mom to give it a try regardless of the price and so we headed inside to what I was sure would be a culinary treat. Since we had no reservation, we sat further away from the window, but pretty much anywhere you sit in the restaurant lets you look out beautiful windows designed to look like modern picture frames that overlook the backside of the harbor. Aside from the serene setting, I began to feel uncomfortable pretty early on into the experience. The waitstaff in their efforts to be attentive to all their customers, wait directly behind the table so that you can hardly pull out your chair without hitting them. I have spacial issues anyway, so that made for an awkward experience. I said as much to my mother, and shortly thereafter the waitstaff magically moved to the stairs a little further back. I was thankful at this move, but I felt it a case-in-point move. You would not hear my softly stated comment if you were not in my "space bubble" as it were...just sayin'. My appetizer was lovely-- a watermelon salad, delightful to the eye and the tongue. It was the main meal where I felt a disappointment plummet. I ordered bacon wrapped cod. In order to have a vegetable side, one has to pay $5 or more, and so you have a choice of  list of starches. Since my waitress didn't really have a clear understanding of what was gluten free aside from the white rice, I went with that from lack of options. I ordered  Chef Mark's tarragon sauce ( although the waitress recommended the aioli), and it turned out to be the saving grace of the meal itself. The thing about bacon wrapped fish is this--bacon is greasy and fish absorbs moisture. When the moisture happens to be grease, what you are left with is an extremely oily fish that tastes like not much else. The little worm I found in there didn't help either. :( So, I had tasteless oil, with tasteless white rice, although the tarragon sauce was just tangy enough to drown the other things in. I still love Arrows and want to someday visit the Summer Winter restaurant  but I don't think I'll be returning to MC Perkins anytime soon.

It's pretty and geometric...that's an upside...:)

Gluten Free Strawberry Rhubarb Deliciousness

As promised, I finally did end up making my invented strawberry rhubarb concoction. Even though strawberry season in western Massachusetts has come and gone, those Californians still seem to be growing some sweet perfection. Yes, yes, I understand that this may not be all that green and earth friendly but I can't just pass these juicy beauties by in the store. They call out to me...

1. I started by chopping up the strawberries and rhubarb. I cut the strawberries into bigger pieces because I was pretty sure they might liquify in the oven, and I don't know if it's the right thing to do or not, but I peeled most of the red coating off of the rhubarb.

2. I mixed a tablespoon of sugar and a a tsp. of pure vanilla extract into my chopped up fruits.

3. I then melted a stick and a half of butter in a saucepan and then added 1/2 cup of Stevia in the raw, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 Cup of Garbanzo bean flour ( I used this flour to add a bit of protein but I'm sure other GF flours would work just as well), and one egg (be careful to mix this in fast so it doesn't cook). Mix all the ingredients together so they make a nice gooey texture that can be poured.

4.  I placed the strawberries and rhubarb in a baking pan, and poured the garbanzo bean mixture evenly over the top.

5. It baked for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.

It tasted even better than it looks!