Fall Favorites: Butternut Squash and Apples

I love butternut squash.  Along with apple, it's one of my favorite fall flavors.  Colby and I just went to the farmers market this morning to pick up some (amazing) bacon from Peach Creek Farms, sourdough from Texas French Bread, and some butternut squash because I can't get enough of it.

I know that I've posted two other butternut squash soup recipes, but this one combines techniques from both recipes and comes out tasting rich and flavorful.

roasted butternut squash and apple soup

2 lbs butternut squash
1 large carrot, diced
1 large celery, diced
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
1/4 c pine nuts
1 lb apples, peeled and diced (I used a SweeTango, but any sweet apple would do well)
32 oz stock (I used chicken stock, but vegetable stock also works)
1 t ground ginger or 1/2 t nutmeg
1 T brown sugar
1/2 t soy sauce
salt+pepper
extra virgin olive oil

Peel and cube the butternut squash, toss with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in a 400 F oven until the squash is easily pierced.  Depending on how small the cubes are, this can take anywhere from 20-40ish minutes.  Just keep checking.  I usually do this the day before I make the soup and put the squash the oven while I'm cooking other things.

In a large stock pot or dutch oven, heat a couple tbsps of evoo.  I kind of just eyeball it.  Add in the celery, carrots, and onions along with a big pinch of salt and saute until everything is softened. (Usually 5-10 minutes).  I tend to brown the onions to add an extra layer of flavor.

Make a well in the center of the pot and add in the pine nuts, careful to stir the nuts around so that they don't burn, but brown a bit.  (Usually a few minutes, but just watch it.)

Add in the apples and ginger and mix everything up.  Let the apples soften, but not turn to mush.  (~5 minutes)

Add in squash, chicken stock, brown sugar, and soy sauce and emulsify everything in the pot until smooth.

Taste for seasoning and adjust levels of salt and pepper.

The soup ends up tasting of both apples and butternut squash since the apples aren't cooked to mush.  The soy sauce helps with depth of flavor and is a really sneaky tasty way to adjust the seasoning. This is a great soup to make ahead of time because the flavors mesh together in the fridge.

Babymoon Part 1: Port Aransas Brewing Company

On our babymoon to Corpus Christi, we spent a half day in Port Aransas.  The first order of business was to eat lunch.  I was happy that we were out of town that particular weekend because Michigan State was playing U of M in football and my stress levels always shoot through the roof on a rivalry weekend.  We stopped by the Port Aransas Brewing Company and, lo and behold, the game was on.  There was a lot of screaming from my end and a lot of "OMG BE QUIET" from Colby's, but Michigan State won (Go Green!) and so did we because the food was fantastic.

Colby ordered the shrimp basket and I got a shrimp po' boy.  Both came with tasty seasoned waffle fries.  Also shrimp.  These were probably the best breaded/fried shrimp I've ever had.  The only complaint I have is that the cocktail sauce could have stood to have a bit more horseradish because it was lacking zip.  Otherwise, the bun was buttery with a crispy exterior and the shrimp were perfectly cooked, with a breading that actually stayed on without being overwhelming.  I forgot until to take a picture until I was about halfway through my sandwich, but Colby's half eaten shrimp basket is a lot more appetizing.

Unfortunately we didn't try any of the beer because it was like 11 AM and also because this was a babymoon, and no matter how much I enjoy a good beer, I'm pretty sure the fetus* doesn't.  We had such an excellent time in Port A that I want to go back next year with some friends and a baby in tow.  I think the better plan would be to rent a condo or cottage and bring food to cook instead of going out to eat the entire time.  Stay tuned for more pictures and restaurants!

*We found out the fetus is a girl.  I'm excited but now we're duking it out over the name.  I'm pretty sure that once it has a name I'm going to start calling it a baby.  Also "she", unless it keeps kicking me in the bladder whenever I try to go to sleep.

Chicken and Broccoli Mac'n'Cheese

Sometimes meals are works of art.  This one definitely isn't, but it's pretty tasty.

1 lb whole wheat pasta, cooked
1 bunch broccoli, florets chopped and blanched
1/2 yellow onion, diced and sauteed until brown
2 chicken breasts, cooked and pulled

2 c milk
2 T butter
2 T AP flour
1 tsp kosher salt
2 c cheddar cheese, shredded
s+p

In a small sauce pan, melt butter.  Whisk in the flour.  Keep whisking until the butter+flour mixture becomes golden and nutty (at least a minute, but longer if you can stand it).  Add in salt and then whisk in milk.  Keep stirring and bring to a simmer to thicken.  Add in 1.5 c cheese and stir.  In a large casserole, toss together the noodles, shredded chicken, broccoli, onions, and cheese sauce.  Add in salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle the top with shredded cheese and bake in a 350 F oven for ~10 minutes if the ingredients were just cooked or closer to 30 minutes if everything was refrigerated.

This is actually really versatile.  We just happened to have broccoli, but everything else is basically a pantry staple.  Using leftover vegetables and chicken makes this come together even easier.

Farmers' Market Tomatoes and BAT Sandwiches

We're going to Nerd Nite tonight, which is going to be all about food.  It's going to be great and I'm stoked.  In an effort to speed up dinner, I made butternut squash and apple soup last night, but by this morning, realized that it probably wasn't enough to make a legitimate dinner.  I'm planning on tinkering with the recipe a bit, but I'll likely post one for it once I've adjusted the spices/flavors.

I put out a call to twitter this morning about what to eat with it.  The suggestions were pork tenderloin with arugula and BLT sandwiches.  The tenderloin was out because I wouldn't have had time to make it, also I'm still getting over my porkphobia but the BLT seemed plausible.  I made a trip to the Triangle Farmers' Market this afternoon and for dinner, we'll be having butternut squash and apple soup with BAT sandwiches (in which the A stands for arugula.)

And here's a picture of tomatoes.  Om nom nom.

NaBloPoMo Take 6

Hey look, it's that time of year again... you know, the month where I try to blog for every day and inevitably fail around day 17 or so.  Some of the Austin Food Blogger Alliance members decided to participate for this month, so I thought I'd give it a try. It looks like I've attempted this about 5 times, so perhaps the sixth time is a charm.  Given that I usually post menus every week and that posting every day is hard, I'm going to pre-admit defeat and not try to make every post about food.  I'll tag the food posts as food, though, so I can make sure that I've written about it at least twice this month.

I've been sort of upset with google lately.  Though the abandonment of buzz was sad but predictable, I was a lot more surprised that they took away the share functionality of Google Reader.  I've been using Reader as my feed reader for a couple years now and I look forward to reading may of the shared items from some of my friends.  I guess now the idea is to +1 everything to google plus, but it seems silly that I can't read the +1 items from my friends in reader.  With that in mind, here are some articles that I would have shared.  And to keep with the spirit of being annoyed, most of these articles are about things that I find disconcerting, irritating, or horrifying.  It's like halloween, but real and actually scary minus the candy.  So kind of not like halloween at all.

Slavery Footprint of Your Kitchen - I've read about the plight of tomato pickers in Florida, and we've tried to limit my consumption of out of season tomatoes, but it's still hard.  I've also read a bit about the child labor that goes into most halloween chocolate candy as well, and I've mostly avoided that this year.  What I didn't realize was that there are so many more areas beyond food in which to be concerned.  Definitley food for thought.

Gay Man in Texas Viciously Attacked - I don't even have words for this.

After Soldier's Death a Chinatown Family Seeks Answers - A young soldier was either murdered or committed suicide, but the military won't really talk to the family.  Oh and he was Chinese.  And he was subjected to racist attacks.  I sort of wonder how my (Korean) brother is going to fare in the Marines.

Asian American Students Are the Most Bullied in Schools - Again with the bigotry against Asians.  This isn't so surprising, considering my experiences in grade school, but this is in stark contrast to students of other races.

comings and goings and eatings

i *heart* Cupprimo

The past week has been beyond crazy.  Chris came out to visit and we worked on a program that will help me shave months off of my thesis.  In addition, we ate at some tasty restaurants, made some delicious dinners, and generally hung out all over Austin.  And while normally, a visitor isn't cause for that much chaos, my brother-in-law moved in with us on Wednesday.  Colby got him a job at his company and he started today, so this weekend was filled with rearranging the house, sacrificing our guest bedroom, and trying to fit in some Halloween activities as well.  Colby and I dressed up as Juno MacGuff and Paulie Bleeker, since the only thing I needed to buy to complete my outfit was a bottle of Sunny D.  By the way, Sunny D is disgusting.  Six year old me had some pretty terrible taste in beverages.  Colby got some sweet yellow gym shorts out of the deal, which I've been wearing since Saturday night since they're actually way too short for him. ;)

confituras apple butter fresh from the farmers market

Monday:
Pan sausage, potatoes, and eggs with toast+Confituras apple butter

Tuesday:
Butternut squash+apple soup, roasted brussels sprouts

Wednesday:
Lasagna from Central Market, salad

Thursday:
Mac'n'cheese chicken casserole (recipe to come, if it turns out okay)

Friday:
Chicken and 20 cloves (We got 4 pieces of chicken thighs instead of cutting up a whole chicken), roasted brussels sprouts + butternut squash

Oh hai

Hello old friends,

Welcome back from the dark recesses of my closet. It's been far too long.

Love,

Julie