Food In Many Forms

I couldn't keep up with the weekly posts, but this week seemed like a good week to get back into it. I had winter squash accumulated from multiple weeks - butternut squash, acorn squash, delicata squash, and 2 different types of pumpkin - and I just got a new Blendtec blender, so it seemed good timing to do a squash soup. I halved the pumpkin, delicata and acorn squash and roasted them in the oven at 350 degrees, taking them out one-by-one as they softened up.  All my blanching and freezing these past few months paid off when I had celery and onions, but not carrots. Luckily, I had carrots from August all sliced up in my freezer. I sauteed them in a stockpot with olive oil, until they just started to caramelize.  In the blender, I put 2 cups of chicken broth, the squash, and 1-2 cups of mirepoix. The squash was still hot from the oven, and after 90 seconds of blending it was ready to eat! It was surprisingly sweet, so I may have to add a little cayenne pepper or something to g...

Back in 2015, I adapted a curry chicken salad recipe to my own specifications. I left myself a note for the next time that, "it would be interesting to substitute some of the sour cream or mayonnaise for Greek yogurt." So yesterday, I tried out the recipe with Greek yogurt, and twice as many almonds. Still hits the spot! Ingredients 1 1/4 pounds Chicken, cooked and diced 4 whole ribs of organic celery, chopped 1/2 cup sliced almonds 3 Tbsp mayonnaise 3 Tbsp 2% fage greek yogurt 1/3 cup Nut Pods coconut almond milk creamer 1 Tbsp curry powder Salt & pepper, to taste Directions Mix together mayonnaise, Greek yogurt, almond milk creamer, curry powder, salt and pepper until well combined. Combine chicken, celery, and almonds in a large bowl, Pour curry dressing over the top. Fold together with a rubber spatula. Make sure it's all combined, then add more of whatever it needs. Chill for several hours. Serve on lettuce, or with juicy grapes on the s...

Some of my best memories involve sharing a meal, a drink or a sweet. But it is funny how foods that are not memorable at the time become a source of nostalgia later on. For example, when I was studying at the school of public health, the daily grind had curry chicken salad sandwiches for sale. I ate them, just like I ate many things on-the-go, in between classes or to get me through a study session. At the time, it was just a sandwich, but now I have fond memories of eating them. So today, I embraced that nostalgia, and made me some chicken salad... a heavily adapted version of the Pioneer Woman's recipe. Ingredients: 1 1/4 pounds Chicken, cooked and diced 4 whole ribs of celery, chopped 1/4 cup sliced almonds 3 Tbsp light mayonnaise 3 Tbsp light sour cream 1/3 cup So Delicious almond milk creamer 1 Tbsp curry powder Salt & pepper, to taste Directions: Mix together mayonnaise, sour cream, almond milk creamer, and curry powder until well combined....

It's a tradition in my family to celebrate holidays at our convenience . Jewish holidays? Ehh, Saturday works better with my schedule. Christmas? I can wait til the weekend to see that side of the family. Valentine's Day? As long as it's in the same week...   I feel the same way about St. Patrick's Day . So although it was on Sunday this year, we made Irish food Friday night and ate green bagels Saturday before going on a mini pub crawl :)  Looking at traditional Irish recipes got me pretty discouraged, since I wasn't going to take 4 hours to make corn beef and cabbage, Irish stew, or shepherd's pie . But some how this equally long-winded recipe did not have the same effect, probably because of the beer :) But seriously, it did take four hours to make.  In fact, we had to break out the extra Irish cheddar and crackers to balance out the wine we were drinking. I kept telling myself that it was only about 45 minutes per serving - and t...

My mom always makes the best stuffing at Thanksgiving and Christmas - just celery, onion, butter and Pepperidge Farm stuffing . She would always make twice as much and leave half of it uncooked in the refrigerator. Everyday I would have a small bowl as a snack or as part of the meal, and at the end of the week, the flavors have all marinated together and the stuffing is absolutely delicious . I had a bunch of leftover oatmeal bread that was going to go bad, so I bought some celery today and made homemade stuffing.  All the recipes I found said to use poultry seasoning , a mixture of thyme, sage, marjoram, rosemary, black pepper and nutmeg, but it just didn't smell the same as my mom's. Some recipes said to use parsley , and some suggested garlic or garlic powder, but any recipe with sausage or apples or cranberries is just overly extravagant. It's definitely going to take a couple tries to get this right. Celery and Onion Stuffing Ingredients 1/2 loaf sl...