All Stuffed Everything: Mushrooms and Winter Squash with Kale Apple Sausage Stuffing

It's time for the things that you reach for when you want something hot and filling and savory, and if you're like me, you have ALL THIS SQUASH. For the rest? Clear out your fridge! The key elements here are the greens (which are chewy and slightly bitter), the apples (which are soft and sweet), the meat/cheese/mushrooms (which are substantial and savory), and the starch, which adds bulk. With those parameters, play around with whatever you've got!

Ingredients: 

• 4-5 small squash or 1-2 large squash. Any kind with a large cavity will do - acorn, delicata, dumpling, or even pumpkin, why not?
• 2 leeks or 2 onions, or one of each.
• 1 bunch kale
• 2 large apples or 3 small ones
• 1 package whole button mushrooms
• 1 cup dried fruit. I used raisins.
• 2 stale sandwich rolls or 1 cup dried-up takeout rice
• 1 egg
• about 3 tbsp worth of savory cheese. Almost any kind will work. Blue is nice.
• optional: 2 sausages

Directions:

Cut your squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Save them - you'll use them in a different recipe.

Cook your squash. If you really really want to, you can roast them, but it's much less trouble and time to simply turn them cut side down in a microwave safe dish and cook it on high for five minutes. Prod it with a fork and see if it needs more time. It probably will. They're done when you can sink a fork into the flesh without much resistance.

While that's going on, core and chop the apples. Chop the tough upper leaves off the leek, and mince the rest up nice and fine. Put a little fat in a skillet and start frying the apples and leeks together.

Next step you can do in the same skillet if you want, but I decided to keep the two separate so I could have some vegetarian stuffed squash in the mix. Henceforth the meat skillet will be Skillet 2, and the apple skillet Skillet 1.

For Skillet 2, pull out the stems of the mushrooms and mince them. Mince the second leek or onion. Begin frying the sausage in Skillet 2, breaking it up as it cooks. Add the mushrooms and onions and cook them all until the onions are caramelized.

 Chop your kale finely and add it to Skillet 1. Add the dried fruit. Cook until the kale is wilted; you may need to add a splash of water to the skillet to help it along.

I have some old stale sandwich rolls in the freezer that had no conceivable use other than as bread crumbs. If you have something similar, crumble one roll into each skillet. You can use basically any starch for this. I've used uninspiring takeout rice. You could use couscous or quinoa. Either way, about half a cup per skillet.

Add an egg and about a tablespoon and a half of savory cheese to each skillet. You're using the cheese for flavor, not for bulk, so the stronger the better. Stir it all together and shut off the heat.

Pack your mixtures into the mushroom caps and the squash halves, and put them in a 350 oven for about half an hour. Check on the mushrooms after 10 minutes. The squash may need more time, depending on how well you nuked them beforehand.

These will keep very nicely in the fridge and make a great ready-made meal during the week, when you can't be bothered to come up with something else. Stick one of these beside a cup of soup, and you are good for Fall. 

Cherry Upside Down Cake

I had a desire to bake and wanted to use fruit. I had cherries around the house. I settled, eventually, on cherry upside down cake, because that was the right amount of cherries I had left. I am used to pineapple upside down cakes, with canned pineapple and maraschino cherries. And that is tasty! But this tastes like fresh fruit and is exceptionally delicious.

Cherries, amaretto, very simple cake. You could replace the cherries with any fruit. And the amaretto is totally optional, I am just a huge fan of amaretto mixed with stone fruit.

A word of warning about this cake: it is a very thick batter and needs to be spread out over the fruit. It also comes out a little dry, adding whipped cream was delightful.

Upside Down Cherry Cake

yields one nine inch cake

Topping (or the bottom?)

1 cup of fruit

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup amaretto (optional)

Cake

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon amaretto or vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9 inch round cake pan.

Melt the butter and brown sugar together. I melted them in the microwave, you can use a stove if you are averse to microwaves. Mix in the amaretto. Stir in the fruit, and pour into prepared cake pan.

Cream butter and sugar. Mix in amaretto/vanilla, then eggs. Add in dry ingredients.

Pour over fruit and glaze mixture.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. The brown sugar mixture will caramelize and bubble up the sides. Let cool in pan. Loosen the sides with a knife and invert onto a plate, bringing the caramelized glaze and cherries on the top.

Black Sesame Breakfast Bread

So like all y'all, I'm trying to eat less sugar, refined grains, and processed food. But sometimes you've just got to say "Whatever! Time for a quick bread!" Like if you've got a little kid that you're teaching to cook! This bread is great for that! It's super-fun to mix in each of the ingredients and watch the different ways that they behave: stirring in the eggs till their yolks break, watching the oil pool on top of everything until it's stirred in, and all throughout the little black dots of the sesame seeds. The batter is also very tasty, though if you get salmonella it wasn't me who told you to lick the spoon.

If this recipe looks suspiciously familiar to you, it's because it started out life as a poppyseed bread recipe. You know what I couldn't find cheaply at stores here? Poppyseeds! You know what I had on hand? Black sesame seeds! And my goodness, it changes the whole character of the bread. I made a few other changes to the sugar and the flour as well - the result is a bread that's mildly sweet and robustly flavorful. I don't post recipes unless I think they're unusually delicious or unusually useful or both. So seriously, try this bread. Play dates with your grandkids will never be the same.

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup oil (use a light-tasting oil. Peanut would work too, with the nuttiness of the bread.)
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 tsp almond extract (I have eliminated this on occasion)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp black sesame seeds
• 1 1/2 cups milk

Instructions
Combine sugar, oil, eggs, and extracts, and beat until smooth. Stir in the sesame seeds.

Add the dry ingredients (flours and baking powder) alternately with the milk. I usually do this in three sets - flour then milk.

Grease two bread pans (these are the 8x4 ones) and divide the batter evenly between them. Bake in a 350 oven for about an hour.

If you want to get extra fancy, take 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar. Mix it with just enough lemon juice or orange juice to make a paste slightly thinner than toothpaste. Frost the top of your bread with this. Let your bread cool to room temperature before you try, otherwise it will run all over everywhere.

Price
Ugh, trying to price out a baked good! This is pretty cheap. The expensive stuff is the eggs and the milk. I don't have to tell you to buy the black sesame in an international supermarket, right? If you are still buying your spices from McCormick or whatever your standard grocery aisle brand is I will smack you and smack you. What is this, the 1600s? Spices do not turn the world economy and fuel colonial expansion, so stop paying if they did.

Blueberry Muffins

Blueberry muffins are my favorite kind of muffin. As summer slowly approaches and cheap fruit is all over stores, making blueberry muffins for a weekend breakfast. I love this recipe with the nutty taste of browned butter and the crumb topping. The berries ooze and it's a delicious treat.

Blueberry Muffins
Adapted from Joy the Baker
yields 12 muffins

For the muffin batter
7 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup flour
3/4 cups sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups washed blueberries

For the crumb topping
1/2 cup flour
3 1/2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons of cold butter, cut in small cubes

Preheat oven to 375 and line muffin tin with wrappers.

Put butter in saucepan and cook on medium heat until it starts to turn brown, occasionally swirling the pot. Keep an eye on the butter, as it's easy to burn it. Remove from heat.

Whisk together the milk, eggs, and vanilla. Whisk in browned butter, being careful to mix the whole time so the eggs don't scramble from the heat. Whisk in dry ingredients. Fold in blueberries.

Fill all muffin tins with batter.

Mix together butter and sugar. Cut cold butter in, using a pastry cutter or two knives, until very fine. Pour over top of muffins.

Bake 18-20 minutes, then let sit in the pan for 15 minutes. They are delicious warm or cold.

Onion Pie

 I hesitated on this post at first, because first, I'm not great with pies, and second, the volume of butter of required for their crust usually puts them out of consideration for an economical dish. But then there was a ten-pounds-of-onion-for three bucks special at one of the area produce markets, and I obtained a pie crust through mysterious means, (COUGH FREEZER COUGH) so I figured I might as well give this pie a shot.

Fruit pies are, obviously, best made in the summer (or possibly fall) when there is more that fruit than you know what to do with. An onion pie, on the other hand, is entirely suitable to winter or early spring, when nothing is growing so nothing is cheap and there's nothing to do but twiddle your thumbs, have Lent, and wait for things to sprout.

Ingredients

6lbs of onions (yes, really.)

A pie crust (and you're not getting a recipe out of me, go ask someone who's better at it)

3tbsp oil (I used bacon grease, thus disqualifying this from being as vegetarian as it would otherwise be)

A sprinkle of a savory herb (I used thyme)

Get your largest and heaviest pan and start heating the oil in it. Meanwhile, start chopping the onions (medium dice) and throwing them into the oil. Do you need to look as if you have suffered a devastating tragedy, without the trouble and bother of suffering a devastating tragedy. Make this pie.

You're going to be caramelizing all six pounds of onions. Dang.

This means keeping the heat on medium (you'll want to err on the side of lower rather higher). As you add them, stir them well to get them coated with the oil. Then keep stirring them - not frantically, but regularly. This will take at least 30 minutes, but you will have the satisfaction of watching your stew pot full of more onions than you think anyone could possibly eat turn to a rich soft caramel just right for your pie crust. 

Once the whole mixture is as brown as you like, and you can no longer distinguish individual onion pieces, pour it in. You can sprinkle something savory on top to contrast with the rich sweetness of the onions. I tried thyme; you could try parmesan cheese maybe.

Oh, right. The pie crust. Do what you do with pie crusts. Here I got all fancy with it, because why not. It still stuck to the pan. Take my advice on onions. Don't take my advice on pie crusts.

(Except this one prize-winning crust I made this one time with ground walnuts, which come to think of it would go really well with this pie.)

Cost:

Onions: $1.50

Crust: (depends, say $1.50 too?)

Serves: 6-8, but works best accompanied with something. A nice sharp green salad, for instance. 

Blackberry Cobbler

My cooking is often seasonally inspired. I am easy. It gets warm, and I want to cook with fruit. So after work on Friday I went to Haymarket, Boston's fabulous open air produce market with produce so inexpensive you wonder if you're buying things that "fell off a truck." Really, it just is so ripe you have to use it in a day or it goes bad, so too ripe to go to grocery stores. And I bought blackberries to bake with and raspberries to inhale for breakfast.

This is a recipe I got from a friend, and it is very possibly the easiest thing I have ever baked. It was warm and ooey and fruity and delicious, and should be eaten with vanilla ice cream.

Blackberry Cobbler

from Martin

serves four

4 cups blackberries

1/2 c flour

1/2 c sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 c cold butter

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375.

Wash berries and put in 8x8 baking pan. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in butter. I threw it all in the food processor and mixed for less than a minute; if you don't have a food processor, cut the butter in with a pastry cutter or forks or however you do such things. Mix until the butter is in coarse crumbles.

Beat egg and vanilla extract and mix into the butter mixture.

Drop pieces of batter over the berries.

Bake for half an hour to 45 minutes, until it's golden brown.

Lemon Rose Bars

In an attempt to aggressively assert that it's spring, I decided citrus was the order of the day. And rosewater is the magic trick to make everything taste a little more special. Always be careful with rosewater, a little goes a long way, and it turns into perfume very easily. Lemon bars, it turns out, are super easy and fast and so delicious.

Rosewater Lemon Bars

Adapted from Joy the Baker

Yields about 24 bars, this recipe is easily halved

Ingredients

For crust

2 sticks of butter

1 cup granulated sugar

2 cups flour

For filling

4 eggs

1 1/2 cup sugar

3/8 cup flour (6 tablespoons)

1/2 cup lemon juice (about two lemons

1 tablespoon rosewater

zest from two lemons

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 13x9 baking pan, line with parchment paper, and grease the parchment paper.

Cream the butter, add sugar, and beat until fluffy. Add flour and mix.

Press into prepared pan and bake for 15 minutes, until lightly golden.

While the crust is baking, whisk together all the filling ingredients. Pour prepared filling over crust and bake for 15-20 minutes, until no longer jiggling in the center, and lightly browned. Cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Lift out of pan by parchment paper and cut into squares. Store in a covered container.

Waffles of Substance

I've tried these a couple times now, and I have to say, the best way to make these is with a Belgian waffle iron. Honestly, why don't you have a Belgian waffle iron already? Kitchen appliances are one of the easiest things to get used - people are forever giving away the kitchen things they don't know what to do with. Hold out for a Belgian waffle iron; this recipe yields a tender and substantial waffle that stands up well to the heavy demands of the Belgian format.

I don't have a Belgian waffle iron. I have the old waffle iron my brother left me when he moved across country. It's all right, but I haven't yet found the perfect waffle recipe for it - the one that will thread the thin line between crispness and tenderness, that will be substantial without being heavy, and light without being burned. This is a good recipe, but in a standard waffle iron like the one I'm using, it can run to the soggy unless it is fresh, fresh, fresh! So get the family around to gobble these up as soon as they come off the iron. If you don't have a family, invite your friends over. Waffle day! Now, I believe that these should stand in for a meal, not for dessert, and these will do admirably.

- 3 eggs, separated
- 2 1/4 c plain yogurt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 1/3 c quick-cooking oats
- 1/3 c cornmeal (you can add other things here. In my case, I ground golden flaxseeds and did half-and-half with cornmeal)
- 1/3 c butter, melted, or vegetable oil.
- 1 c unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp salt (optional)

Directions

- Combine the egg yolks, yogurt, soda, and honey in a large bowl. Beat with a wire whisk.- Stir in the oats and cornmeal, then add the butter and stir again.- Sift in the flour, baking powder, and optional salt. Beat well, then cover the bowl and let the mixture sit for 15 minutes.- Beat the egg whites until stiff, then fold them into the mixture. If the batter is too thick, add 1-2 Tbsp milk or water (I used water if I've used full-fat yogurt, otherwise milk)

Yield: 8 (10-inch) waffles

The Second-Best Cookies in the World

Look, I'll admit it right off. The best cookies in the world are undoubtedly the nutella-stuffed brown butter cookies. These cookies, however, are a solid silver medalist.

Now, I believe firmly that if you are having treats, you should have treats. None of this half-measures nonsense, none of these attempts to pretend that these treats are anything other than glorious explosions of sugar and butter. Make 'em rare and make 'em count, that's what I say. Just reading the recipe, these cookies can seem like pointless effusions of excess, but I am here to assure you that what seems like simple overplus actually comes together in beautiful harmony. The light meringue over the rich brown-sugary base, the richness of the chocolate and coconut complemented by the crunchiness of the almond - it's a lot, but it all works.

Without further ado, Almond Meringue Coconut Chocolate Chip Bars. I learned this recipe, like most of my best recipes, from my mother, and I present it in her format.

¾ cup butter                         
2 cups flour                          
 1 cup chocolate chips

½ cup sugar                          
1 tsp baking powder          
 1 cup coconut

½ cup brown sugar             
 ¼ tsp baking soda               
 1 cup almonds, chopped

1 tsp vanilla                          
¼ tsp salt                            

3 egg yolks                           

For Meringue:  3 egg whites

                        1 cup brown sugar  


Cream butter, sugars, & vanilla.  Beat in egg yolks.  Add dry ingredients.  Press dough in greased 13 x 9 pan.  Sprinkle with chocolate chips, coconut, and ½ cup almonds.  Beat egg whites until foamy; beat in brown sugar slowly, until stiff.  Spread over mixture in pan and sprinkle with remaining almonds.  Bake 35 minutes at 350 º.

                       

Grasshopper Pie

Today is pie day, and so Bess and I decided we needed to put up a post about pie. Grasshopper pie is the pie that, to me, tastes like childhood birthday parties. We didn't really cook with booze generally, except for this pie. I don't know at what point it was that I learned that it was actually based on a cocktail. Chocolate. Mint. Whipped cream, marshmallows, Oreos. What could be better? And you don't even need to do a pie crust. (I tend to avoid pie crusts whenever possible. I have been known to throw fits involving throwing pot holders across the room due to burnt pie crusts.)

I tend to decorate the top with Oreos. My sister has done the top with Andes mints.

Ingredients
For the filling:
32 large marshmallows or 3 c mini marshmallows
½ c milk
¼ c crème de menthe (white works, but green is dramatic)
3 Tbp white crème d cacao (doesn't have to be white, but it's prettier)
1 ½ c whipping cream
green food colouring (optional)
For the Crust:
1 1/2 rows of Oreos, crushed
4 Tbps. melted butter

Melt marshmallows and milk over medium heat, stirring constantly. When marshmallows are melted, remove from heat, and let cool until thick (in a cold kitchen with a granite counter, this took about an hour and a half).

Meanwhile, assemble the crust. I crush oreos in a food processor, then put them in the crust with the melted butter and pat into the pie pan.

Blend liqueurs into the marshmallows. This can be tricky, since the marshmallow has basically resolidified. If you have an immersion blender, it's hugely helpful.

Whip the cream, then fold into the marshmallow mixture. Pour into prepared crust, and decorate with oreos, if you want. (I actually prefer the inside cream to the crust and oreos, but it's prettier this way.) 

Put in freezer, and freeze for at least 4 hours.

Nutella Stuffed Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have, over the years, made tons of chocolate chip cookies. It used to be, I was a strict adherent to the Nestle Tollhouse cookies, and, really if you want a delicious and uncomplicated chocolate chip cookie, go with that one. (Just use better chocolate chips.)

But recently, I have learned the magic of browned butter in cookies. I don't know who started this idea, but whoever it was was a brilliant person. The browned butter adds a complex nutty flavor. And, what isn't made better with Nutella? These are a bit more complicated to make than basic cookies, and your hands get super messy, but they are totally worth it.

You know you want to eat these.

Nutella Stuffed Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

adapted from The Ambitious Kitchen
makes 3 dozen cookies

1 c (2 sticks) butter
1 1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c white sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 c flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 ounces chocolate chips; I use Ghiardelli milk chocolate chips
1 jar of Nutella, refrigerated until hard (you won't use the whole jar)
Course ground sea salt for sprinkling on top

Melt butter on stove, and watch it foam. Twirl the pan and watch the bottom start to turn brown. Remove from the heat when it is copper colored and put in the bottom of your mixing bowl. It is very important to remove the butter from the pan as it will keep cooking and burn. Allow to cool for about fifteen minutes. Mix in both sugars until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth.

Add dry ingredients and mix. Add in chocolate chips.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Using a large spoon, measure approximately 1 tablespoon of batter and form into a ball. Then flatten between the palms of your hand so you have a disk. Spoon approximately 1 teaspoon of Nutella into the disk, then pull the sides up to reform the ball. Repeat for all cookies.

Bake at 350 for ten minutes. They are going to come out of the oven looking a little raw, but you're not going to take them off of the tray right away, so they'll continue to cook. Sprinkle with sea salt immediately after taking them out of the oven.

Chocolate Cream Pie Brownies

While Bess writes up careful, healthy, frugal recipes, the things I have fun with are bonkers awesome baked goods. And so I'm starting off with a Not Your Grandma's Kitchen recipe, for bad ass amazingly decadant brownies.

Chocolate. Pudding. Whipped Cream. This took two trips to the grocery store (the first time, they were out of cocoa powder), it was an all day cooking adventure with a nap in the middle and made so many dishes. But each step is easy, brownies are easy, the pudding part in the middle was easy, and whipped cream is simple. The layers compliment each other well, getting progressively lighter and sweeter.


My rules for brownies are simple: use good ingredients. Get good chocolate, get at least decent butter. I used Ghiardelli chocolate for these and Cabot butter. If you use egg yolks? Save the whites, make meringues later, unless you get yolk in them. And always, always, add extra vanilla extract; measure it out, dump more in.

These are special occasion brownies, or at least lazy Saturday brownies.

Chocolate Cream Pie Brownies

Ingredients

Brownies:

2 sticks butter, melted

2 cups white sugar

2 cups cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 eggs
1 cup flour

Pudding:
2 tablespoons butter
5 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped (or chips, if you want)
1/2 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 egg yolks
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 cups milk

Whipped cream:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Brownies

Preheat oven to 325, and line a 13x9 baking pan with tin foil.

Mix sugar, cocoa powder, and salt into melted butter. Stir until combined. This gets a bit stiff, but you're about to add more liquid. Add the vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing each one in until it's well combined before adding the next one. Add flour, stir. Pour into pan.

Bake for 25 minutes, or until tester comes out clean.

Let the brownies cool to room temperature, then chill in the fridge.

Pudding

Break up chocolate and butter, set aside.

In medium saucepan, whisk together sugar, cocoa powder, cornstarch, and sugar. Gradually whisk in half a cup of whipping cream. Whisk in the egg yolks, then the remaining whipping cream and milk. While whisking constantly, heat over medium while it thickens. Boil it for a minute, then remove from heat, and whisk in broken chocolate and utter.

Strain into a bowl. This step is important, if you skip it, you might get coddled egg yolk in your pudding, and that would just be gross. Then pour over the brownies, cover in saran wrap, and refrigerate for at least two hours.

Whipped Cream

Pour whipped cream in mixer, whip for a bit, add powdered sugar and vanilla. Stop when it reaches soft peaks. Spread gently over brownies and pudding.

Yields: well, really however many decadent brownies you feel like cutting this into; it's a 13x9 pan, you can figure it out. Keep it in the fridge, it's full of whipped cream and semi-cooked eggs.