Sweet Corn and Butternut Squash Succotash

 

This is SUCH a nice side dish for this Maple Sugar Time of Year ! We had this with roasted baby potatoes and grilled lamb chops this evening.  It was a bit of springtime before the actual seasonal warm up. 

The Little House Cooking Club - Cornbread and Soup

 

It all starts with a good cornbread recipe. Corn ... the staple of farmers for their animals and for their families. Corn ! Fresh and dried, soaked in lye to make hominy, pounded in various gritty grindings to make flour, grits, and coarse polenta. Boiled and buttered when its fresh off the stalk, grilled and cut from the cob to add to salads and custards. It's such a versatile grain !

As I embark with dozens of other fans of The Little House on the Prairie books and television series on this journey with The Little House Cooking Club, our first cooking challenge is to make a cornbread in homage to Ma Ingalls. I took my recipe from Melissa Gilbert's cookbook that honored her days on the series. 'Half pint' has grown up and moved on, but she still credits the series with giving her a firm foundation in home cooking and she's gathered some fine recipes together to honor the series and farm cooking.

Chicken and Cheese Quesadilla Pie

 

What started off as a nimble way using up small bunches of ingredients in the fridge turned into a real revelation.  Meet Chicken and Cheese Quesadilla Pie ! Slide these out of their pie pans and right onto the plate. They hold their shape beautifully ! Side them with baked sweet potatoes.  Have small bowls of sour cream and spicy hot salsa for dolloping on bites of the pie and you have a really delicious meal !

Hokumpoke Creamy Corn Pasta with Peas and Basil

This past week I made my way over to Hancock, New Hampshire to a start-up CSA called Hokumpoke Farm. Isn't that an awesome name ? First of all, it's just plain fun to say and second it is not a name to be forgotten, so it's easy to toot it to my friends. Anyway, I was drawn there because Colleen had the brilliant idea to market the CSA to more folks by offering a weekly opt in/opt out share program. Now, SB and I have our own vegetable garden, but we also are pretty basic in what we grow. My herbs are sketchy this year, we never grow leeks or kohlrabi or fennel or heirloom tomatoes or cabbage ... and guess what? Hokumpoke Farm does! You can guess what weeks I'll be trotting over to pick up a bag of produce!

Two Words ... Crispy Waffles

Our friends and family in Florida are laughing this morning ...

Florida Citrus

Turkey and Corn Meatballs with a Roasted Red Pepper Dipping Sauce

These were so freakin' good, but they were work! Of course, I made them on the hottest day of the summer and refused to use the oven or a fry pan for anything more than frying the meatballs, so I had to stand over the grill on the terrace rather than heat the house more than necessary. I had to have these little bites, though. The recipe comes from a Yotam Ottolenghi cookbook - his first one.

You know how Ottolenghi has a million ingredients and a bunch of nit-picky steps? Yeah. You gotta follow them to get the little tweeks of flavour that YO is known for. If you don't want to step up to the plate, then tell some of your foodie friends and maybe they'll make these little guys for you. If, however, you buy into the idea fiddling with blackened corn and its smoky flavour, roasted red peppers, sliced and diced garlic and herbs, some chili spice in there and a nice roasty sauce of red peppers and herbs, then have at it!

Cajun Style Eggs in Purgatory with Cheesy Polenta

Sunday night and an easy cozy dinner is called for ... it was cooler today. Fall has arrived!

Cheesy Corn Scones

Dinner last evening ... corn chowder, cheesy corn scones, and  fresh garden salad ... every bite was savored, as we won't have fresh corn, tomatoes, and cucumbers for much longer ... sigh. The times, they are a changin' ! Soon we'll be making all those cozy dishes and lamenting the cost of fresh vegetables at the market.

Virtual Supper Club's Homage to Wine Country

When you think about wine country, images of France, California, Australia, Germany, or Italy may come to mind. For me, it's always Italy that comes to mind first. I love Italian cuisine and this meal is one of my all time Fall favorites. I play with the concept of saltimbocca and a side of delicious seasonal polenta for this month's Virtual Supper Club theme. Jerry has asked the club members to dish up a tribute to wine country and we have all done our best! While I am having this polenta with pork saltimbocca, Jerry has made a gorgeous Roasted Breast of Chicken with Pinot Noir Sauce. I think my pumpkin sage polenta will complement ! Let's see what else is on the menu!

Creamy Polenta with Broccoli and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

We're getting really beautiful broccoli from the garden right now! The other day, we picked a head that was as large as a bridal bouquet ... so lovely with nice tight florets and brilliant green stems with that lovely velvety look. Golly, I love the summertime produce!

Virtual Supper Club ... A Jump on Summer Indulgence

May's Virtual Supper Club theme asks us to contemplate 'our favorite indulgence' ... and I am here to tell you that come May, my favorite indulgence is jumping the season to grab onto summertime seafood, fresh summertime vegetables, corn that I have stockpiled from last summer and placed in the deep freeze, and light citrus zest and juice to make a tribute to what's coming full speed in the next few months!

One More Bowl of Soup, Please!

Here's a soup for a cold raw day ... one that went really well with a plate of cheesy nachos and a cold beer. Everyone here in Fitzwilliam is crabbing about another snow storm that is threatening southwestern New Hampshire. There's a severe case of cabin fever going around the grey cottage ... wishing for a thaw and hoping that we get a long warm snap so that the drifts melt and the stone walls reappear! We are ready to see some forsythia and crocus blooms! Until then, though, the first paperwhite blossoms have poked their faces out to say, "Hello!".

Come on Springtime!

Dinner With The Recipe Club

A little light reading with cookies included ...

Tamal Azteca

It was a dark and stormy night ... and supper needed to be hearty and filling. Enough sweeping and shoveling snow! We made up the fires, dried out the mittens, put on the warm slippers and heavy sweaters and dipped into a steaming vegetable casserole with the biggest serving spoon in the drawer.

Bowls of Tamal Azteca and balloons of deep red Rioja - that's all. Until we were full and happily warmed from the inside as nicely as we were by the woodstove fires. Sunday suppers should be that warming on a snowy winter night, don't you think?

IHCC - Ottolenghi's Asparagus with Polenta

Here is a star side dish for you ! My new friend Yotam has kindly shared his recipe for Asparagus with Polenta in The Guardian. Everything about this dish is pleasing to me at this time of the year - the bright colors of the polenta and asparagus, the lemon zest brightness that's added as a hint in the polenta and a flash of citrus to the garnish, the nutty crunch that comes with each bite.  It's Spring on a plate for me.

Deceptively Easy Gourmet - A Ham, Corn and Cheese Soufflé

Flower colors mimic food colors ... what a coincidence! Happy Spring!

It's always fun to roll out a gourmet recipe when guests come to share a meal, but it can be stressful if said recipe is a 'time drain' that takes you away from your guests or has to be worked up at the last minute. I have always been intimidated by the idea of  'The Soufflé' - the idea of a huge puffy mass of eggs dependent on proper folding, the perfect oven environment, and perfect timing when planning the actual serving. All these issues kept me from trying to make a soufflé.

Corn and Crabmeat Chowder

The past weekend took us up the Connecticut River Valley to leaf peep and collect pumpkins and the last of the sweet corn to be found. Our drive out and about was a warm, humid affair. Dark clouds hovered and it threatened rain all day  - the weather was kind of spooky. It was like summer and fall were fighting over the space. Finally, last evening the rains passed through and a cool front has settled over New Hampshire. Looks like fall won the battle; we have a fire in the stove today to take the chill off and I have made a warm soup.

Wild Mushroom Stew on Creamy Polenta

This meal has all the Fall colors ... golden polenta, deep red sauce, smoky brown mushrooms and stew vegetables, deep green kale, and crispy brown bread for dipping.

Corn Pudding ... Ina's Way

It's funny. I have never been a real fan of corn pudding, as I find it bland and mushy. It's also funny that Ina Garten starts her commentary on this Sagaponack Corn Pudding recipe with the same sentiment. After making her recipe, however, I'm a new convert. This was NOT a bland and mushy corn pudding! Granted, I am making this at the height of the fresh corn season here in New England and not in the dead of winter with frozen corn. I also used the sharpest zingiest cheese I could find and I sprinkled the top of the pudding with really hot cayenne pepper to really add heat.

Incidentally? It's still mushy, but I'm past that.

Here's the back story ...

Power Foods! - Green Bean, Corn, and Tomato Salad

Don't you just love summer salads ? It's Meatless Monday here and we're really trying to keep to a few meatless meals a week. I'd love to say that we succeeded this evening, but I had such a hankering for a pork tenderloin and a couple good sides. Soooo... I will be doing meatless later in the week.