Papa DeC's Ham & Bean Soup

This is another childhood favorite of mine. I remember my dad doing most of the cooking, and his specialty was crockpot meals. This was one I would wait ALL day for, and when it was ready, I'd devour bowl after bowl.  I loved the big chunks of ham and the creamy limas.  It's thicker and tastier the 2nd day, too!

Yes, it's good, but it's also CHEAP and EASY.

• 1 meaty ham hock
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 8 cups water
• 1 bag of Goya Large Lima beans
• kosher salt / cracked black pepper

Combine all in a crockpot and cook on low for at least 8 hours. Remove ham hock and separate the meat from the bone, returning the meat to the crock. Season with salt and pepper. Careful with the salt, since the ham is already salty.

Enjoy this childhood fave of mine!

Silky Pumpkin Bread

I have been on a huge pumpkin kick. Can you blame me? It's FALL! I even stopped by Fennario's today and had the barista conjure me up a Pumpkin Latte. It was heaven!

But, back to the bread. I'm not a huge pumpkin pie fan, plus I wasn't into the idea of scarfing down all those calories. So, I searched for the perfect bread recipe, and I think I found it! This one is adapted from a recipe on AllRecipes.com. It's SO moist, and full of flavor. Try it with some apple butter, or melted butter.

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup water
• 3 cups sugar
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 small bag of chopped walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F .  Grease and flour 5 mini loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the greased pans.
3. About 10 minutes in, top with walnuts if desired.
4. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Homemade Peanut Butter Kandy Kakes!

As far as I know, Tastykakes are a tri-state thing. At least they were. Maybe it's expanded to an East Coast thing. Either way, it's a crime that the whole world doesn't have access to these things. For me, they were a childhood favorite, and some GENIUS came up with a homemade version without all the preservatives, chemicals, and hydrogenated oils! I heart YOU, whoever you are!

Recipe:

1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, beaten well
1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp. butter, melted
2 tsp. baking powder
2 cups flour
12 oz. MILK chocolate chips

2 tbsp Crisco
1 Jar Creamy Peanut butter

Grease 2 cookie sheets. Beat eggs, butter and sugar together. Stir milk and vanilla together. Mix with eggs. Add dry ingredients and mix til blended. Pour into greased cookie sheets and level evenly. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 - 20 minutes on top level. Spread with peanut butter while still warm, then refrigerate at least 1/2 hour. When cool, melt 12 ounce chocolate chips and the Crisco in the microwave and spread on top of the peanut butter. Cut into serving sizes before chocolate cools completely.

I freeze these and pop one into Lilly's lunches each day as a small, portion-controlled dessert. Makes a LOT, so these are nice for parties.

Glazed Butternut Squash

When I tell you I could not stop eating this when it came out of the oven, it's an understatement.  Nothing says FALL like some butternut squash!

• 1 butternut squash (serves 3-4 as a side dish)
• 3 TB melted butter
• 1/8 cup light brown sugar
  
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp cracked black pepper

Oven 400.

Slice off both end of the squash. With a potato peeler, peel the outer skin of the squash. Slice in half longways, and scoop out the seeds. Cut into 1-inch cubes and place in a 9x13 baking pan.

Add the rest of the ingredients and toss to coat. Roast for 40-50 mins, tossing every so often.

Ask me if I have leftovers.

Recognition :D

Did you see? The founders of Laptop Lunches featured my Halloween Lunch on their blog yesterday!

http://laptoplunch.blogspot.com/2009/10/ghoulish-halloween-lunch.html

How exciting!

Halloween Laptop Lunch!

So I'm back from my slump and thought I'd share a cute lunch I made for Lilly today...

• Witchy fingers (recipe from Recipegirl.com) with gummi tarantula
  
  
• Apples with scary marshmallow teeth!
  
  
• Ghostly egg salad sandwiches with eyes made with black food marker
  
  
• Babybel cheese moon with bat ring (over baby carrots)
  
  
  
  
  For more Laptop Lunch ideas, see my Flickr set!
  
  
  
  

Making Homemade Pasta

Got a pasta crank sitting around? If not, this can be done with a rolling pin, too. Making homemade pasta couldn't be simpler, and it's the perfect thing to do on a Sunday. 3 ingredients, an hour of your time, and you could be eating pasta YOU made yourself. How gratifying! There is nothing like eating the real deal. Much lighter than any box pasta! I got this recipe from Lidia Bastianich's Family Table.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 3 eggs + 1 yolk
• 2 TB olive oil

Beat the eggs and the oil together in a small bowl. In a large bowl, add the flour. Add the egg mixture to the flour and mix with a fork until clumped. Make a ball of dough with your hands. On a floured working surface, start kneading your dough until it gets dense and shiny. It should not be sticky, if it is, add more flour.

Your dough should look like this. Wrap it in plastic wrap, and let rest for 30 minutes at room temp.

After resting, cut the dough into fourths. Take one piece and wrap the rest so it doesn't dry out.

Make a work surface, complete with pasta crank, bowl of flour for sprinkling, kitchen towels for layering, and a floured baking sheet for your pasta nests. It's good to do this while the dough is resting.

 

Pass the dough quarter through the pasta crank on the widest setting (#5). Pass thru once, and fold into thirds. Turn, and pass through again. Do this about 8x, continuously folding and turning the dough.

Turn the crank down 2 notches, to setting #3. Pass through once more.

Turn pasta crank to setting #1, thinnest setting. Pass through once more.

You'll have beautiful, long, thin sheets, keep them nicely floured, and continue with the rest of the dough. Layer the strips between kitchen towels, being careful not to let any pasta touch each other. The dough will get drier and easy to work with.

Once you have all your strips ready, move the crank to the pasta setting of your choice. I chose wide pasta - like fettuccine. Crank your strips through, catching the pasta strands on the other side.

Start piling up "pasta nests", sprinkling liberally with flour.

Beautiful pasta!

 

Boil some water, add pasta. Only takes a minute til it's ready!

Plate and serve with your favorite Sunday sauce.

More Laptop Lunches...totally obsessed.

I love this thing so much, I bought one for myself. Lilly gets excited to see what is under the lid each day! Here are some lunches you may have missed...

Lilly's lunch:

Meatball/mozz skewers, homemade granola bar, corn on the cob, edemame, bear-shaped egg,
organic vanilla yogurt with colored sprinkles!

My lunch:

Turkey chili (with cheese), corn on the cob, edemame,
bear-shaped egg, arugula salad, homemade granola bar.

 

Lilly's lunch:

tri-color letter pasta, meatball/mozz skewers, bunny-shaped egg,

edemame/carrots, vanilla yogurt with chocolate sprinkles.

 

My lunch:
chicken salad w grapes, TJ's organic vanilla yogurt with homemade granola,
pita chips with hummus, bunny-shaped egg, edemame, tomatoes.

For more Laptop Lunch ideas, see my Flickr set!

What's in YOUR fridge? I'll show you mine if you show me yours!

I'm putting it out there today and offering you a glimpse of my fridge. I am always interested to see what people eat and buy. It's fascinating to me! I always get new ideas, too. So...I thought I'd make this a fun one and call it a meme.

I am tagging some of my favorite peeps because I wanna know what's in their fridges! No obligations, just a chance for fun! If I haven't tagged you and you want to show your goodies, by all means!

Enjoy!

Some items on the top shelf: TJ's Organic Wheat Bread, TJ's organic vanilla yogurt, mozz balls in brine, free-range chicken broth, ciabatta bread, 1/2 a lemon

2nd shelf down: Bota Box Wine pinot grigio, fresh mint and thyme, TJ's tuscan pane bread, TJ's whole wheat pitas, organic strawberries, organic milk.

 

3rd shelf down: Brita, light sour cream, light cottage cheese, Lindenhof Farm ground turkey, organic rotisserie chicken, TJ's tilapia, farm fresh eggs.

Drawer #1: Fresh basil. Babybel cheese, yogurts, cheeses
Drawer #2:  Fruits, limes, lemons, waters for lunches.
Drawer #3 (not shown): All my fresh greens - lettuce, cukes, peppers, cilantro, parsley, arugula, baby spinach

So...I wanna see these fridges:

Pam - For the Love of Cooking
Chris - Nibble Me This
WWW - Words Words Words
Lori - The Recipe Girl
Blonde Goddess - The Blonde Goddess
Eric - SubEWL
Dr. Zibbs - That Blue Yak

I am looking forward to peeking in YOUR fridge!

Laptop Lunches!

My new favorite thing! What a great idea...bento lunches for kids (and adults)...and if you are conscious, you can make them completely litter-free, helping to reduce the amount of cafeteria waste. You can get SO creative with these! I've had this thing for 2 days, and I can't wait to get up in the morning and start making lunch :)

Organic Vanilla Yogurt from TJs (with sprinkles), Organic red grapes, homemade whole-wheat zucchini bread, gummy penguins from TJs, Whole wheat Goldfish, rabbit and bear-shaped bologna & cheese on TJ's Organic Wheat bread, and organic chocolate milk. Almost totally organic and litter-free!

 Heart-shaped bologna & cheese, cheez-its, fresh pasta with olive oil, cheese wheel, apple slices with peanut butter, baby carrots.

To get your own laptop lunchbox, go where I go: The Healthy Cottage

For more Laptop Lunch ideas, see my Flickr set!