Christmas Vacation!
- At December 24, 2010
- By megan
- In Uncategorized
0
Happy Holidays! I am heading to New Orleans for Christmas Eve, and then doing a nice loop of the south, stopping in Birmingham, Nashville, Memphis, and back to New Orleans for New Year’s Eve!
I’ll do my best to blog about some great food if I get the chance, but no promises. It is a vacation, after all!
-Megan
Our Harry and David Gift Box
I know it is Christmas time when a Harry and David package arrives on my doorstep. As a “picky” eater (I prefer knowledgeable, but, you might call me picky) I prefer not to eat foods with ingredients such as maltodextrin, dextrose, modified stuff, BHA, BHT, natural or artificial colors or flavors, or anything else I can’t easily pronounce. So, I often give away half of my gift basket. When Harry and David improve their recipes, I will gladly indulge in their sugary sweets.
But, they do some stuff right! Like smoked salmon, Oregon cheeses, olive oil crackers, and their famous Oregon pears. Those simple ingredients made for a fast, deliciously Oregonian snack.
This is one of the only years since moving to Colorado that we will not be heading out to Oregon for the holidays, so it was fun to eat like an Oregonian for a night with wild caught smoked salmon, some Tillamook white cheddar cheese (which we had at home, as usual), some Touvelle cheese from the Rogue Creamery (which I had never tried but will now look for in Whole Foods), olive oil crackers, and Oregon pears. Harry and David included something new in our box this year- some lightly candied walnuts with an ingredient list I could have made at home. They were a fantastic addition to olive oil crackers and the two cheeses. Yum!
So, though I’d like to see some higher quality baked goods and pre-prepared foods come out of Harry and David, I understand that they are concerned more about shelf-life than a healthy-life. I get it. But, they would be such a cool company if they took out some of those junky ingredients and made things more small-batch, crafty-style. Just an idea… take it or leave it. Either way, I enjoyed what I ate.
Roasted Pumpkin Peanut Curry Soup
- At December 22, 2010
- By megan
- In curry, favorites, peanuts, pumpkin, Savory Spice Shop, Soup, Vita-Mix
- 0
I love pumpkins, peanuts, and curry, and, I think they combine perfectly for a hearty, healthy, flavorful soup. I enjoy making a pumpkin peanut curry soup at least once each fall. There is something about it that brings me back to a small cafe in Siem Reap, Cambodia, where I specifically recall tasting a pumpkin-peanut curry soup for the first time. After the first spoonful I remember thinking I had stumbled upon a flavor gold-mine. So, if you’re skeptical, give it a try. Let me know what you think.
But, first things first- my recipe:
Ingredients:
- one pie pumpkin
- 1 cup unsalted peanuts
- peanut oil
- 2 yellow onions
- 2-3 cups water
- 2 TB soy sauce
- 3-4 TB maple syrup
- 1-2 TB Vietnamese Sweet Lemongrass Curry (a Savory Spice Shop blend)
Start by roasting a pie pumpkin. I like to cut them in half and drizzle them with something good, like peanut oil for this recipe. Put the pumpkin cut-side-down in a baking dish with the peeled and quartered onions and a little water. Roast this at 400 for 30 minutes or so until you can pierce it easily with a fork or knife.
I roasted a cup of peanuts, so it might be a good idea to spread them on a baking tray and roast them for 5-10 minutes while the oven is heating up. As long as you’re paying attention, this way of roasting peanuts will work just fine. However, if you’re even the least bit scatter-brained in the kitchen, you just might forget about the peanuts and they’ll burn (I’m guilty of this!). So, you decide if you’d prefer to roast the peanuts separately at 250 until golden brown.
Then, into the Vita-Mix go the peanuts to make fresh peanut butter. I know what some people are thinking: “But wait. Why can’t I just use peanut butter?” That’s fine too. I always like to do things the long way, and ever since buying my Vita-Mix, I don’t purchase nut butters since I easily make them at home. So, the next step is to make peanut butter.
Then, add the cooked pumpkin flesh to the vita-mix with a couple cups of water, soy sauce, maple syrup, and blend, starting on low and slowly moving up to high, until it is a smooth puree. Add a little more water if it is too thick.
Transfer the soup to a stock pot and cook until heated through. Add the Vietnamese Sweet Lemongrass Curry from nowhere other than Savory Spice Shop. Mix well.
I had some cooked kale ready to go, so I gave it a coarse chop and added it to my bowl. De-li-cious.
Chocolate en Fuego
I asked my friend Evan Faber, the illustrious Beverage Director at Boulder’s now-famous SALT the Bistro (and master-mind behind The Cocktail Element), for a must-try holiday cocktail recipe. Evan gave me a recipe for one of his favorites, and, I must say- he has good taste. This is definitely a seasonal beverage that I’ll be enjoying throughout the winter, not just over the holidays.
Ingredients:
- 1.5 oz Reposado Tequila
- .5 oz Peppermint Schnapps or Rumple Minze
- a cup of rich hot chocolate
- dash of cayenne
When I first read this recipe I was a little unsure of the tequila-peppermint combination. It didn’t sound like it intuitively went together, and, though I didn’t doubt Evan per se, I didn’t exactly rush out to buy Rumple Minze right away. But, I should have! I could have been enjoying this now for a couple weeks!
I used some Savory Spice Shop hot chocolate, which is a rich, smooth, and chocolately hot chocolate. I’ll need to stock up on cocoa because “Chocolate en Fuego” is officially my new favorite winter-time drink… after Maple Scotch, of course!
Cheers!
Let’s get Social