The Top 10 Things I make with Squash and Sweet Potatoes

 Fall is in the air and as I'm gathering all my gorgeous squash and sweet potatoes from our local farmer's market! Here are my top 10 favorite things to make with squash and sweet potatoes during the Fall season. Beautiful organic squash is just too stinkin' beautiful to just lob off the back of a truck during a zombie appocolypse...but it would work for that too. Just saying...it might even confuse the zombies for a minute if the middle looks enough like brains...right? I digress.

 I know there are many more things to make, but these give me a variety of sweet and savory applications that we just love around here.

#1. Spiced Acorn Squash. This is a method of filling the squash with maple syrup or just a dot of butter with some sweet spices. Baked, it is heaven...and totally easy to make!

2.Apple Sausage and Wild Rice Stuffed Acorn Squash has been a great freezer meal to have on hand for wonderful weeknight meals, as well as a simple grab-n-go to take to work. I think it has just the right amount of wild rice and the sweet hints from the apple add nice depth.

#3. Danish Sausage Stuffed Buttercup Squash  with mushrooms and dried cranberries was served at my Dad's birthday event. It was amazing and was probably one of the most memorable events as far as squash is concerned.  Dad grew this beautiful buttercup squash and we baked it whole with the stuffing inside. Sliced open at service, it made a really nice presentation. It would also work for Halloween...but I'm not going ot explain that application. Use your imagination.

#4. Savory Pizza Stuffed Zucchini is a go-to around here. It is saucy, meaty, cheesy and well...awesome! Oh...and it freezes beautifully too!

Now for Sweet Potatoes:

Moment of silence for the beautiful sweet potatoes of freakish-glory. I should not love them as much as I do. Yet...here they are.

#5 Fall Edible Decorative Sweet Potato Bread this is a full tutorial on how to turn those beautiful sweet potatoes into a gorgeous loaf of edible joy. The perfect centerpiece for Fall! Wait until you see how easy it is!

#6 Red Corn, Sweet Potato and Roasted Green Chile Skillet

The fresh red corn, sweet potatoes and roasted chilies are in perfect balance in this fast skillet meal! What a great weeknight dinner or midnight snack!

 #7  Sweet Potato Biscuits with Turkey Sausage Chipotle Gravy
I made a friend over this recipe! One of my readers named Heather wrote about a dish she'd had and I wanted to make the delicate sweet potato biscuits sing! So this is my original recipe based on an e-mail...and yes, Heather is still a darling friend on Facebook. Love that lady!

 #8Cuban Grilled Sweet Potato Salad with Pineapple and Jicama

A light and fresh twist on the classic potato salad can be found with this divine salad. The sweet potatoes and pineapple are grilled then tossed in a sweet and savory dressing that is low fat and still remarkably flavorful. Brace yourself for a totally amazing experience!

#9 Pepper Cardamom Rubbed Pot Roast with Balsamic-Glazed Sweet Potatoes
I'm not going to lie...I love pot roast. The savory lemony rub coupled with the tangy-sweet balsamic glazed sweet potatoes was an instant classic around here. I can almost taste it!

#10 Sweet Spiced Sweet Potato Tamales with Chocolate Sauce  Admittedly I used pumpkin in this last one, but I use mashed sweet potato in place of the pumpkin in these and it is really an amazing dessert!

There you go! Ten great ideas for using squash and sweet potatoes!

Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess

Top 10 Delicious Things to Make with Zucchini that You'll Love!

 Sure. We read how great it is. Blah. Blah. Blah.
We plant it in our gardens and see it come in so small and innocent. Gently. Kind. Angelic. One can almost see magic fairies living underneath the leaves and bathing in the morning dew that gathers on the stems. 

Then the Zucchini-rebel-alliance takes hold of the yard and plans world domination. You're gone for a day and someone has filled its head with delusions of grandeur. 

Zucchini comes into girth and forms that are as big as the Death Star. 

Be honest. If you're dropping bags of zucchini off at your neighbor's house, lighting it on fire, and running away...maybe you need to figure out more constructive things to do with your bounty. I of course, come from the lovely state of Utah where 2 months out of the year, I would never leave my car windows unrolled overnight. No. Not because cats would sneak into my car. Good guess. I didn't want the mystery bags of zucchini that would arrive on my passenger seat. It is an odd phenomenon. If they had been bags of chocolate, I would have left the windows open and the keys in the car (maybe even a fat Visa gift-card and a thank-you note). 

 The zucchini ditching must end! It must end! Succumb to the squash. 

Ironically this year... I am suffering from a perfect shortage of squash since I had such a bad experience with the evil squash bugs a while back in my garden. Yes. That is a pathetic plea for anyone to zucchini-ditch at my house. Please don't light them on fire first though. I have a sick obsessive love-affair with zucchini most of the time.   For that reason, today I'm giving you some grand ideas of things to do with your squash. Once you've made them into something fabulous and delectable...feel free to ditch them. They will have a much finer chance of being adopted into a family if you dress them up in nice clothes first (and cover them in chocolate). 

Here are Ten Delicious Things to Make with Zucchini:

#1. My favorite zucchini bread. Orange-Brandy Zucchini Bread. Add chocolate chips. It won't hurt your cause.

#2. My Mother's Zucchini Casserole. This is perhaps my all time favorite thing to make with zucchini. It is my mother's recipe. She has had zucchini in her garden all my natural-born life and still makes this one, not because it is choked down and endured, but because it is really amazing! Don't add chocolate chips this time. It will make you a sick-o. 

#3. Meatloaf Stuffed Zucchini. Cut out the seeds and insides of a really large zucchini. Fill it with your favorite meatloaf recipe. Close it up. Bake it until the internal temperature is 170 degrees. Meatloaf will be moist, delicious, and come with a beautiful squash case. Plus...It looks really cool on your dinner plate!

#4. Pizza Stuffed Zucchini. This is just evil. Italian-American meets over-grown garden. It is actually a beautiful vortex of happiness. 

#5. Back to School Lunchbox Ideas include using grilled marinated zucchini in sandwiches in place of meat. It is delicious!

#6.Zucchini String Salad

Using zucchini cut with a julienne shredder to replace part of the pasta in a salad gives fun texture, reduces the amount of carbohydrates in pasta salad...and is just cool to eat! This is a great one for kids!

#7. Zucchini-Bread Pancakes!  These are made taking whole grains, soaking the grain overnight and then putting the grain in your blender! You add the shredded zucchini at the end of the blend and you have whole grain zucchini-bread pancakes that taste really amazing. Yes. I do drizzle them with strawberry syrup and chocolate chunks. I know I'm an evil influence. 

#8. Dehydrated Zucchini chips. Slice your zucchini thin and place them in an air dehydrator. Dry until crisp and thin. They taste remarkably like a potato chip and have very few calories! Dip them in melted chocolate if you feel too badly about eating healthy.

9. Zucchini Cobbler! Mom says, "eat your veggies..."that tastes like apples!" Yes. You can disguise them to look like apples. Who will know (unless they read my blog)? I really like this Zucchini Cobbler recipe from allrecipes.com. It is delicious!

INGREDIENTS
8 cups peeled, chopped zucchini
2/3 cup lemon juice
1 cup white sugar (or 1/2 cup honey)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups butter, chilled
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
DIRECTIONS: In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook and stir zucchini and lemon juice until zucchini is tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and nutmeg and cook one minute more. Remove from heat and set aside. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 10x15 inch baking dish. In a large bowl, combine flour and 2 cups sugar. Cut in butter with pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir 1/2 cup of butter mixture into zucchini mixture. Press half of the remaining butter mixture into bottom of prepared pan. Spread zucchini mixture over top of the crust, and sprinkle remaining butter mixture over zucchini. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Bake 35 to 40 minutes, or until top is golden. Serve warm or cold.

#10. Citrus-Mustard Grilled Zucchini and Purslane Salad. Amazing! Get the recipe: Here. You'll be surprised at the latest trend in garden greens!

There you go! Get rid of Share some zucchini! Xoxo! I wasn't kidding about bringing me some either. Really. I love the stuff (especially with chocolate). 

Always My Very Best,

Your Friend Chef Tess

Apple, Sausage and Wild Rice stuffed Acorn Squash (Freezer Friday)

It's Freezer Meal Friday once again. Never mind that it's "black Friday". My children have been obsessing lately with zombies. No. Not the Grinch. Do not ask me why they are worried about getting their brains sucked by half-living-leg-dragging freaks. I have no one to blame but my husband Ace ...who apparently loves old weird sci-fi movies from the 70's. Yup. I have one of those guys who thinks "Omega Man" was cool. I was not impressed...but he has certainly gleaned priceless information to compile a big "game plan" for total survival should that become a real-world scenario. Yes. The army of undead walking brain suckers might actually happen. Dude...Look...I never claimed to be married to the brightest bulb on the tree. Should that ever "really" happen, I'm taking these frozen squash-bad-boys out of the freezer an hurling them down the street at the angry mob of brain eating troglodytes. Behold my awesome power you freaks! I'm certain it would buy us enough time to light explosives...and gas cans and crap. Now there's a visual certain to haunt you the rest of your days. Sorry about that.

On the more practical side, it does give me ammo for dinner most nights of the week. It's a powerful thing to be able to triumphantly raise a frozen squash over your head and pronounce, "Prepare to worship me! For behold, I hold the power of the squash!" That may not really happen either. More recently, this recipe has been a great use for those acorn squash we've been collecting in droves from the garden. I'm pretty sure that they are not alien egg pods. I'm wearing foil on my head just in case though. Relax. Alas, they are just food for my hungry family of zombies. I will not mention how I lose my brain cells just thinking about motherhood. Wait...I mentioned it just now huh? Sucking the brain cell (singular) out right now in fact...as I post this blog entry...

Apple Sausage and Wild Rice Stuffed Acorn Squash

You will need:


3 medium acorn squash, cut in half and seeds removed.

Stuffing:
1/2 cup cooked maple sausage (about 6 oz), 1/2 cup chopped granny smith apple,
1 1/2 cup cooked wild rice (well seasoned with Chef Tess All Purpose Seasoning )
1/2 cup condensed soup of your choice, I use my Homemade cream of condensed soup replacement , 1/2 cup cooked carrots, 1/4 cup chopped red onion, 2T minced fresh parsley, 1/4 cup mashed roasted garlic,

Combine well.

Sprinkle the squash with Chef Tess All Purpose Seasoning and stuff squash with 1/3-1/2 cup filling.

To cook in oven, place in an oven safe dutch oven or covered casserole. Bake 350 degrees 35-40 minutes, until squash is tender. I had to use both of my dutch ovens for all six halves.

To cook in microwave: Place in covered microwave safe container and cook on high 7 minutes, turning half way through cooking.

Allow to cool 5 minutes before cutting into squash. Serve immediately or make into a freezer meal.

To Freeze. place one half stuffed squash into a quart size freezer bag and remove as much air as possible. Put in the fridge until well chilled and transfer to the freezer. To serve, remove from bag and microwave on high from frozen 5-7 minutes. To heat in the oven, remove from freezer bag. Place in covered casserole and bake 350 degrees 35-40 minutes if defrosted, or 45-50 minutes from frozen. May cover with cheese the last 10 minutes of baking or just before microwaving.

There you go. Freaks.

The Real Man's Dinner

I showcased the dessert of the birthday guy, but I thought we should just briefly show the main course. It was amazing. My dad should get the feast of a king for his birthday right? Prime rib. We don't see much of this around here so we wanted it to be perfect. I think it was cooked to supreme perfection, seasoned and given the full magnitude of the gardener's bounty. Starting with his own grown onions, herbs and spices.

We used the recipe from Food Network's Guy Fieri for Dry Aged Prime Rib Roast (www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/guy-fieri/) for the dry aging process as well as the seasoning his directions are superb!. Adding of course some of our own tweaks. To the spice blend we added 1T of fresh ground fennel seed to the rub as well as using 2T of fresh thyme instead of the dry. In the Au Jus, we used 1/3 cup tomato paste in place of the wine, as we don't cook with wine here.

One of my father's specialities, is fresh grown corn. It wasn't until my adulthood that I really came to a full appreciation of the fact that as a child I could just walk out the back door and pull a fresh ear of corn right from the field, husk it and plunge it into boiling water. It couldn't be more sweet and perfect! Mom preserved an immense amount of the bounty from this summer in freezer bags. So I was giddy to use some in a homemade corn pudding. My recipe:

8 cups fresh or frozen corn, off the cob

1 cup heavy cream

2T fresh chopped thyme

1 tsp crushed garlic

1T flour

1 package Boursin garlic and fines herb cheese

1 tsp fresh ground pepper

1 tsp fresh sea salt.

Combine all ingredients and bake 375 degrees, 45 minutes in a 9 inch by 13 inch casserole, covered.

Dad grew a huge amount of buttercup squash this summer. Not to be confused with a butter-nut squash. This is a different breed. They are the size of a medium pumpkin, but fully ripe are green. Pumpkin could probably be used for this recipe. This one was about 3 lbs. In the Fall they harvested so many of these squash that he took a large amount to the food bank. Mom had to winkle this information out of him. He's just that way. He knew that our family wouldn't use the full amount and he wanted to give back.
I wanted to make an amazing "something with this home grown squash. So we used my mom's homemade Danish Medisterpolse. I'm having a problem getting the computer to do links today, but she makes this at Thanksgiving and then freezes it in mass. I have her recipe here on my blog in November. To 1 lb of her sausage we added 1 granny smith apple, cored and chopped, 3T bell pepper, 1tsp fresh thyme 1/2 lb fresh crimini mushrooms, chopped, 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Saute 10-15 minutes.

Stuff the sausage stuffing in the buttercup squash. This squash is roughly the size of a basketball. No dribbling this...except I dribble spittle when I drool. Wrap the whole thing in heavy foil and place on a sheet pan. Bake 375 degrees 2 hours.

At service, remove the foil. Place it on your head to avoid alien mind control. Or, just throw the foil in the trash. Cut the squash down the sides about 3/4 the way with the filling just staying piled in the middle. It's an amazingly dramatic presentation.

Yes...the kids will eat it too. The Mini Professor thought it was heaven.

There you go.