Garden Fresh Salsa

Oh me.

Oh my.

Has it been since THANKSGIVING since I posted anything on the cooking page?!?

How in the world did that happen?

Good thing y'all don't depend on me to be your Martha Stewart or anything. I'm sorely lacking in recipe posts these days.

These months.

This YEAR.

And after all this time, I come to you with... Salsa? Of all things? It's like one of the easiest things to make on the planet!

Well, I'll let you in on a little secret... I'm not all that ambitious when it comes to this cooking page. (You might have surmised this.) It's more of a place for me to put my favorite recipes, so that I can find them when I need them. Sometimes I spend a little time tweaking recipes just to my liking, and once I do, I want to be able to make them again. And I figure, why not take pretty pictures and share?

So here's my salsa recipe.

I start off with about four cups of coarsely chopped tomatoes...

In case you're not familiar with... me... I'm kind of a tomato fanatic. I planted fifteen different varieties this year. Hence the multi-colored tomatoes in the bowl. And these are but the beginning of the tomato crop for this year.

The nice thing about making salsa is, you can use up a bunch of little cherry tomatoes, if you have a lot of them. For spaghetti sauce, it is just way too time consuming to mess with the little ones, because you have to remove the skins. But for salsa, however, the fresh and flavor-packed cherry tomatoes work like a charm.

To the 4 cups of tomatoes, add...

...3 coarsely chopped scallions (a.k.a. green  onions)...

...1/2 a jalapeno...

(or less jalapeno if you like it less spicy; or no jalapeno if you don't like jalapeno; or a whole jalapenos if you like it really spicy... you get the picture... I prefer half of one for this particular recipe, which has a mild/medium heat)

...zest of half a lime...

...juice of half a lime...

...and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Then put it all in the food processor...

...give it a whirl...

...und voila! Fresh salsa!

I actually made this batch to freeze, as I made a batch last week that we ate, and I'm learning that there are only so many fresh cherry tomatoes and fresh salsa that one can eat in a week.

I have the heart burn to prove it.

But I did keep a little out, in this jar, so we can enjoy it fresh for a few days...

Oh yeah, baby. Come to mama.

Menu Planning for Thanksgiving

After some hemming and hawing, we decided that we are going to spend Thanksgiving day here at home. Since relaxing days with all of us here at home are hard to come by, it was just too appealing. I have extended invites out to a couple of guests, who may or may not come, but we're keeping it casual, so I'm good either way.

And, the great thing about Thanksgiving is, there's always enough food to feed an army.

Today, I realized, in order to have a relaxing day on Thanksgiving, I need to figure out my end game (the menu) so that I can have a successful pre-game preparation.

And speaking of 'game', since I'm not a huge turkey fan, I was contemplating making a duck. I just hate wrastling that big bird. However, last night, when I asked Mr. Blue Eyes what his favorite Thanksgiving dish was, his response was...

Turkey.

How can we have been together for over twelve years, and I didn't know his favorite Thanksgiving dish was the turkey?

I feel as though I've failed him as a wife somehow.

I plan to rectify that situation this year by making the best darn tootin' turkey I can figure out how to make. I'm thinking something involving maple... I'll let you know how it turns out. And since I'm probably going to spend the next five days or so scheming as to how I'm going to make the turkey, it's even more important that I get the other dishes figured out today.

First off, I think I'm going to make these...

Scalloped Sweet Potatoes. Recipe (and above photo) courtesy of Tasty Kitchen. Amy of She Wears Many Hats gave them a test drive and wrote about it on the TK blog a couple weeks ago, and I have been drooling at the thought of them ever since. Call me crazy, but I'm going to forgo both the mashed potatoes and the traditional candied sweet potatoes, and make these in their stead.

I do think I am going to stay with tradition and make green bean casserole. I think my kids would really like that. And I'm also going to make a pretty traditional stuffing. A couple years ago I made this stuffing and added an extra cup of broth and an extra stick of butter.

That's right. I added an extra stick of butter.

Thanksgiving is no time to practice restraint, people. No time at all.

And with stuffing, I must always have gravy. Oh yes, there will be gravy. Is it wrong that gravy may be my favorite Thanksgiving food?

I may or may not make some sort of cranberry dish, depending on whether or not my mom comes (one of the invited guests), as she makes a delicious cranberry relish.

For an appetizer, I'm going with a yummy spinach artichoke spread that I concocted a couple of Thanksgivings back, served with bread or crackers. I have the recipe written down, but have yet to take pictures of it, but I probably will finally get around to this on Thanksgiving, so you may want to keep your eyes peeled for the recipe in the days following. It could be a yummy appetizer for Christmas too!

And for dessert... This one has been in my recipe file for years, just waiting to be tried...

Eggnog Cranberry Pie. I printed this recipe back in 2007, but for the past three years have forgotten about it during the holidays. Then I usually run across it when I'm thumbing through recipes in June, and kick myself because I've forgotten to make it yet again. I'm really, really excited that I remembered this year!

I know that eggnog is more Christmas-ish, but I say it's never too early to break out the eggnog. And if it turns out well, I may make it again for Christmas.

In addition, if time allows, I may work up a blueberry-cranberry-orange pie that I made a rendition of last year. It was from a recipe, and it was very good, but I felt it needed tweaking. I'm determined to make that pie all it can be.

And there may be a pumpkin pie. After all, I did grow some pumpkins this year.

I'll repeat it again... Thanksgiving is no time for restraint.

I think that sums it up! My game plan is to make the pies and brine the turkey the day before (if indeed I do brine the turkey) and do a little prep for the side dishes, then on Thanksgiving morning, get the turkey in the oven and put the side dishes and appetizer together.

Oh! And I almost forgot... Thanksgiving morning... Caramel rolls! Mr. Blue Eyes begs for these on a daily basis. Between these and a turkey, I'm going to be getting back rubs for a week.

Wish me luck!

Rosemary and Red Wine Braised Beef Roast (a.k.a Man Meat)

I'm on a bit of a 'man' kick these days. I would tell you to rush to your kitchen and make this for your man, someone else's man, any man, really, now. But I know that hardly ever happens. And you probably don't have a beef roast on hand, and/or the other ingredients, so me bossing you to make this now would really just be futile.

Instead, I will only bid you this: Gaze.

Gase upon this beefy, mushroomy goodness, and look into your future. A future of eating this.

I'm actually looking at a past of eating this. I made it last week. And it was gone within seconds.

Okay, maybe I exaggerate a bit. But when I presented my husband with this for supper, he was nothin' but happy. It's just the kind of wife I am. The kind who likes to have supper waiting on the table for her man. What can I say?

When my husband reads this, this will be about the time where he clears his throat, looks at me with a twinkle in his eye, and says...

Nothing.

He knows this is the best way to improve the ratio of evenings when he actually does arrive home to supper waiting to the evenings when he does not. He doesn't bite the hand that feeds him.

But back to the beef roast...

I was feeling the need for something braised, savory and dark, so I concocted this little recipe. And let me tell you, I was not disappointed. I served it simply with a side of toasted brown rice and squash, because it has a pretty bold flavor, and I didn't want the sides to clash.

Ingredient List...

• ~ 5# Beef Roast (arm or chuck recommended)
• 1 tsp. Dried Rosemary
• 3 tsp. Salt, divided
• 1/8 tsp. Pepper
• 2 tsp. Brown Sugar
• 1 Tbsp. Flour
• 3 Tbsp. Butter
• 1 and 3/4 Cups Red Wine, divided (red zin or cabernet recommended)
• 1 and 3/4 Cups Beef STOCK (not broth), divided
• 1 Medium Yellow Onion
• ~ 8 oz. Mushrooms (I used cremini), rinsed or wiped clean

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pat your roast dry. Mix together the rosemary, 2 teaspoons salt, pepper, brown sugar and flour in a little bowl, and rub it all over the roast.

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium / medium-high heat until it just starts to bubble. Place the roast in the pan and sear for about a minute on all sides.

While the roast is searing, go ahead and slice up the onion.

You don't need to separate the rings... This will happen all on its own in the next step.

When the roast is seared, removed it from the pan to a casserole dish and surround it with the mushrooms...

At this point I have to confess a couple of things...

1) I am a naughty mushroom washer. I know you're not supposed to. I know you're just supposed to wipe them clean with a damp paper towel or something, otherwise they supposedly get rubbery. But who has the time? All I'm sayin' is, I just want to be honest. You do your thing with your mushrooms, and I'll do mine.

2) I ended up transferring everything from this casserole dish to another one because this one wasn't quite big enough by the time it was ready to go into the oven. So just a note to self and a note to you... Use a casserole dish that allows you a little room.

Moving on...

As soon as you removed the roast from the skillet, deglaze the pan with a 1/4 cup of red wine and a 1/4 cup of beef stock, then add the onions.

Allow the mixture to simmer until a lot of the liquid has evaporated or absorbed into the onions. Then add in a 1/2 tsp. salt, another 1/4 cup of red wine, and another cup of beef stock. Again, allow to simmer until it has cooked down.

And then... Do it one more time! 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/4 cup red wine, 1/4 beef stock. Simmer down. You will end up with this...

Layers upon layers of savory flavor. You could whip up some onions in just this way and throw them on a burger. Oh yeah, you totally could.

Now, pour the onion and all the juices over the top of your roast, and add in one more cup of wine and one more cup of stock...

Cover and cook in the oven for about 3 and 1/2 hours, or until your meat is tender and falls apart. About halfway through, your house will take on a lovely, savory aroma.

When you plate it and take it outside to take photographs for your blog because that is where the best natural light is (just pretend along with me that you do this too), your dogs will draw near and look at you lovingly...

Just trust me... Make this for any male -- man, child or dog -- in your world, and he will be happy to know ya'.

Squashing the Competition

There's been a bit of a heated debate going on around here, within my mind only, about which kind of squash I like best. Since I grew my own garden this year and all, and was gifted several types of squash in the past, I've had access to a lot of squash.

After careful consideration and taste testing, I have narrowed it down to my top three...

1) ButterNUT. Why? Because it's buttery. And it's nutty. And I love nuts and butter. I'm a very complex individual.

Butternuts are so classic, like me. And a little more round on the bottom, like me. And they photograph well, like me. I identify strongly with butternuts.

Not only do I talk to my vegetables, I identify with them personally as well.

I may need to get off the farm more.

2) Carnival. Didn't grow any this year, but I know I love them. I did use them to illustrate how I like to roast squash back in the early days of my blog. And I roasted their seeds. And I made a bisque out of them.

Why do I write about squash so much?

I'm a very complex individual.

3) Delicata. These were new to me this year. They really didn't grow very well, and after unwillingly surrendering some to the varmints in our garden, and giving a few away, I actually ended up with only one to roast myself. I was pleased with the flavor. I think their flavor is more clean and, well, delicate. They are the oval-shaped squash in the photo above.

So there you have it! If you didn't end up here by following the link on my site, I'm sure you came via the 'Trending Now' section on Yahoo. My decisions on this matter are of great interest.

Now I'm off to discuss global warming with my carrots. I'll let you know what we decide.

Orange Days

The garden... It's... It's...

It's dying.

But that's okay! It's time. The first light frost zapped all the pumpkin and sweet potato vines into oblivion. What was recently standing so strong and full is now wilting and withered.

It's the circle of life.

And I stand in awe of my garden. The rapid, blooming growth. The triumph of the vegetables over the weeds (with a little help from me and my hubby). The abundant harvest.

So, aside for a couple tomato plants that are still hanging in there and the parsnips still gestating in the ground (do vegetables gestate?), the garden is pretty much done for. And I find myself trying to wrangle the last of its bounty, primarily the carrots, pumpkins, squash and sweet potatoes.

 With the carrots, I've been carrying out the following process...

1) Soak in water and scrub all the dirt off.

2) Peel.

3) Chop.

4) Blanch in boiling water for three minutes.

5) Cool on a cookie sheet. (I should be dunking them in an ice bath at this point, but I'm not. Ice baths are such a pain in the behind. But we shall see if my slacker ways will come back to bite me later...)

6) Scoop into a freezer bag -- the kind that you can suck the air out of. Suck out the air, then freeze!

I don't know that a lot of people freeze their carrots like I do, but I did it last year and l.o.v.e.d. the carrots that we had throughout the winter, so I'm stickin' to it. Plus, leaving things to chance in our fruit cellar just doesn't sit well with me. When it's in the freezer, I know it's not going to go bad.

Here we have some sweet potatoes. I'm making an attempt to freeze them also. Not sure if I have a solid method to my madness here, but it's fun to experiment a little. The next round I may process a little differently.

Aren't they pretty? A little blurry in this photo (sorry... sometimes really orange things don't like to photograph well) but pretty. And they are yummy too. And so healthy. Too bad I corrupt them with butter and brown sugar. What can I say? I'm a bad influence.

And last, but not least, the punkins and the squash. I think I love them most of all. (In addition to the tomatoes. And the carrots. And the beets. And the sweet corn.) To see how I process these, just look here for the pumpkins, and here for the squash. My methods for the two are pretty much the same, yet I managed to conjure up different posts for both. And while I'm at it, I should mention that there is a yummy recipe for roasted squash bisque (mmmmm... I need to make this), another recipe here for pumpkin pie, and another one here for roasted squash/pumpkin seeds, which is my next order of business for the day, just as soon as I'm done jibber-jabbering here.

Which I think I am.