Patty Pan Squash Soup

Patty Pan Squash Soup


2 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small hot Jalapeno pepper, seeds removed and chopped
2 ribs celery, strings removed and chopped
2 medium (12-14 ounces) gold potatoes, peeled and cut into small dice
2 pounds small yellow squash, chopped (or young zucchini)
1 pinch white pepper
4 cups vegetable broth
1 teaspoon dry oregano
1 teaspoon of dry thyme
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon of curry
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon turmeric (optional)
1 tablespoon tahini (optional)
1 tablespoon juice from lemon(optional)
salt and white pepper, to taste (optional)

Garnish: slivers of red bell pepper or fresh cilantro

Heat a large non-stick or enamel-coated pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, reduce the heat to medium, and cook, covered but stirring every minute or so, until it begins to brown, about 5 minutes (add a little water if it tends to stick). Add the garlic and hot pepper and cook for another minute.

Add all remaining ingredients except the optional ones. Cover and cook until the potatoes are completely tender (about 25-40 minutes).
Remove half of the soup and put it into a blender* and puree at high speed until completely smooth. (Be careful--hot liquids can erupt from your blender; I always remove the center cup from the lid and cover the opening with a kitchen towel.) Once it's blended, pour the soup into another pot. Add the remaining soup to the blender, along with any optional ingredients you choose to use, and blend well. Add to the other half of the soup, and simmer for about 5 minutes. Ladle into bowls, garnish with slices of red bell pepper or cilantro, and serve. Great with a Baguette!
Note: you can use any type of summer squash for this soup.

Gardening pickings

Bruschetta with Tomato & Avocado

Bruschetta with Tomato & Avocado

Ingredients

• 1/2 loaf whole-grain French, or other thin loaf bread
• 3 Tbsp / 45 ml extra virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 cup / 240 ml fresh tomatoes, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, passed through a garlic press
• 1/2 tsp / 5 ml sea salt
• 1/2 tsp / 5 ml freshly ground black pepper
• 1 handful fresh arugula leaves, finely chopped
• 1 handful fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
• 1 Tbsp best quality balsamic vinegar
• 2 fresh avocados
• Juice of 1/2 fresh lemon

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 375º F / 190 ºC. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Slice bread into thin, 1/2-inch slices on the diagonal. Arrange slices on baking sheet. Don’t overlap. Use another baking sheet if necessary.
3. Use a baking brush to lightly coat each piece of bread with olive oil. Bake for several minutes or until lightly toasted. Remove from oven. Set aside.
4. In a medium-sized oven-safe mixing bowl combine tomato, remaining olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Place in hot oven and bake for 10 minutes or until tomatoes are soft. Remove from heat.
5. Transfer cooked tomatoes to new mixing bowl. Add chopped arugula, basil and balsamic vinegar. Mix gently to combine. Set aside.
6. Peel avocados. Cut in half and remove pits. Dice avocado and toss with lemon juice.
7. Top each piece of bread with tomato mixture. Top with avocado. Serve.

Slightly Flattened Herbed Chicken

Serves 4
The reason why I say “ slightly flatten” is because I didn’t take out the spine. I only cut up along one side of the chicken’s spine. The term to flatten a chicken is to Butterfly or spatchcock. It's really easy! You make a cut along both sides of the spine. (take out the backbone and it can later be used for stock). You will need poultry shears or a very sharp knife for this task. Then after you’ve cut out the back bone, you turn the chicken over and press down on it to flatten it. Chose the way you prefer to flatten your chicken. As a result of this technique, the chicken cooks more quickly and more evenly.
You will need:
1 whole 3-4 pound chicken, trimmed of excess fat and spatchcocked/butterflied/slightly flatten.
A big shallow baking pan to fit the chicken.
Preheat oven at 350 F.

2 onions each cut in 4 pieces
1 lemon quartered
Place pieces of onion and lemon underneath chicken

Rub mixture:
1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary leaves
1 tablespoon of fresh cilantro
1 tablspoon of fresh basil
1-2 tablespoon coarsely chopped garlic
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Juice of half a lemon
1. Mix all rub ingredients in a bowl. Pour over chicken a bit at a time and rub all over.
2. Place chicken in preheated oven.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes per pound. A 3 to 4 pound chicken will cook in 2 to 2 ½ hours.
4. Let rest for 10 minutes before serving.
I served my chicken with rice and salad. Serve with your favourite side dish. Enjoy!

Banana Bread

Banana Bread
Ingredients
1 cup white sugar
½ cup veg oil
2 eggs, beaten
3 ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ cup of orange juice

Beat sugar and oil together in a large bowl.
Add eggs and mashed bananas; beat well.
Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt
Together; add to banana mixture and blend well.
Mix in orange juice, combining well. Pour into
a greased and floured 9x5x2 ½ “ loaf pan. Bake
at 350*F about 1 hour 15 min. Or until cake
tester inserted in center comes out clean.
Turn out and cool on cake rack. You can
Slice this bread very thin. Enjoy!

Spinach and Black Bean Lasagna

Spinach and Black Bean Lasagna
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 container, ricotta cheese
1 package, frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1/4 tsp. salt
2 C Mozzarella and cheddar, shredded
about 2 cups cooked black beans (or 1 large can rinsed and drained) I used can.
3-4 cups spaghetti sauce (I used homemade) with lots of veggies - onions, mushrooms, carrots, tomatoes, celery and Yves meatless ground, which gives it good texture and good protein.
9 lasagna original noodles (follow instruction on pkg) I didn’t fully cook mine, approx. 8- 9 min.
1. Prepare your spaghetti sauce. I used my homemade sauce from my freezer. Add black beans.
2. In a separate bowl, combine egg, ricotta cheese, spinach, salt and ¼ cup of shredded cheese.
3. Start with lightly spreading about 1/3 of your sauce/bean mixture on the bottom of a 9x13 bakeware dish.
4. Cover with noodles and then cheese mixture.
5. Repeat layers, finishing with sauce/bean mixture
6. Cover with remaining shredded cheese.
7. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes with foil over top at 350 degrees. Remove foil and bake for an additional 15 minutes until cheese gets nicely brown.

Enjoy with a Caesar salad, French or garlic bread.

Makes 10 servings. This lasagna makes great leftovers and freezes very well for future use.

Garden Goodies!

Yes, I know! We are still having snow! I'm done with winter! Aren't you?
I thought I would post some of our "Garden Goodies" from last year...as I am getting anxious to get started this year. We had three types of tomatoes. The low acid, "Golden Girl". The big "Viva Italia". The small "Romas" tomatoes very flavourful, but as you can see..very small! The tomatoes and potatoes didn't do well last year, due to too much rain. My patti pan squash did very well...kept producing and producing. We had so many. The one plant we had must have produced over 100. This is our second year, and we have had great success each time. We will definitely be growing them again this year. The color is amazing! Not only do they come in this vibrant yellow, they come in white and green. The flavour is mild and sweet!
We love to grill them on the BBQ...yummy! Recipe soon to come!

Valentine's Day Dessert (Raspberry Cheese Cake)

For Valentine's day, I prepared lovely Indian dishes. Along with that was a devine, raspberry cheese cake. I will display the Indian dishes at a later time.
Here is my simple delicious raspberry cheese cake recipe

Graham Crust

1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs
3 Tbl. spoon unsalted butter
1 ½ Tbl. spoon white sugar

Filling

4 pkg (8oz) of cream cheese (philadelphia)
1 ½ cups white sugar
4 eggs
2 Tbl.spoon lemon juice
1 tsp Vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat oven 375 degrees F
Mix graham cracker crumbs with butter
and sugar. Mix well. Press onto bottom
of 9 inch spring form pan. Bake for 7 minutes.
Set aside to cool.
Raise oven to 425 degrees F.
In large mixing bowl with electric mixer, combine
cream cheese and sugar. Beat until light and
creamy. Then add eggs, on at a time. Mix well
after each egg. Add lemon juice and vanilla.
Pour mixture over graham crust. Bake for 12 min.
Reduce oven temp. To 200 degrees F. And bake
for 1 hour. Transfer cake to cooling rack and let
Cool completely. Refrigerate for about 3 hours
before serving. To serve; top with cherry filling or
the fruit topping of your choice. I chose raspberry
for mine. Blueberry is a nice mild sweetness also.
Now your ready to cut and serve. Enjoy!
If you wanted to give your cheese cake a citrus
flavour, add zest from 1 lemon and 1 orange
to your filling.

Old Fashioned Oatmeal With Apple

Old Fashioned Oatmeal with Apple Recipe
Old Fashioned Oatmeal Banana Walnut Recipe

I decided to use old fashioned oatmeal
instead of instant because I like the heartier
and chewy texture. It only takes 4 minutes
longer than instant. Well worth it!
Can be served with milk and any topping like
brown sugar, molasses or maple syrup.

Old Fashioned Oatmeal with Apple
(For 2 servings)
2 cups of water
Pinch of salt
1 cup of old-fashioned oats
1 cup of chopped apples
Dash of cinnamon
In saucepan, heat water and salt until almost boiling
Add oats and cook, stirring occasionally, for about
3 min. Add chopped apples. Take pot off the heat
and let sit for 2 to 5 minutes, depending what thickness
you like. I let it sit for 5 min. I prefer mine thick.

Old fashioned Oatmeal Banana Walnut
(For 2 servings)
2 cups of water
Pinch of salt
1 cup of old-fashioned oats
1 banana
¼ of chopped walnuts
In saucepan, heat water and salt until almost boiling
Add oats and cook, stirring occasionally, for about
5 min. Take the pot off the heat and add sliced or mashed
banana and walnuts. Enjoy!

Sweet and Sour Indian Vegetable Stew

This recipe comes from the February issue of Chatelaine.
I love to try new recipes and this one caught my eye due to
the fact it has curry and balsamic vinegar, one of the two
things I always have in my cupboard.
It is a wonderful easy recipe with big flavour. The recipe says
you can add meat or fish, if you wish. I did not. I used the
chickpeas instead of the lentils, which was filling enough.

Ingredients
1 small head of cauliflower
400 g pkg pre-cut butternut squash, about 3 cups (I used fresh)
1 small eggplant (I used a medium size)
1 onion (I used 2)
2 tbsp (30ml) Indian curry paste
680 ml can of tomato sauce
2 tbsp (30ml) balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp (30ml) brown sugar
19-oz (540ml) can lentils or chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
1 handful cilantro, chopped (optional)

Chop cauliflower into small florets,
chop squash into bite-sized
pieces, and slice eggplant into bite
sized pieces. Coarsely chop onions.
Lightly oil a large pot and set over medium heat.
When hot, add onion and sauté until tender, 3 to 4 min.
Stir curry paste into pot and cook until fragrant, 1 min.
Add tomato sauce, ½ cup water, vinegar, sugar and veggies.
Cover and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to medium-low.
Simmer, covered, stirring occasionally until vegetables
are tender, 25 to 30 min.
Add lentils for the last 5 min. of cooking.
Sprinkle with cilantro. Delicious over rice and with a dollop of plain yogurt.

PIZZA SOUP

This first recipe I am submitting came from the cooking diary of my sister Lise.
(a favorite to many)

Ingredients

* 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
* 1/2 cup fresh sliced mushrooms
* 1 onion, chopped
* 1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
* 1 (28 oz/ 796) cans stewed tomatoes
* 8 ounces sliced pepperoni sausage
* 1 1/2 cup beef stock
* 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
* 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir-fry onions, mushrooms, and green pepper until soft but not brown.
2. Add tomatoes, stock, pepperoni ,and basil. Cook until heated through.
3. Sprinkle cheese over each bowl, and broil to melt.

Cooking tip: Use pepperoni that needs to be cut up (cut in small size bites or sliced thin). Do not use the pepperoni that is in package already cut thinly, as it has more grease and will grease up your soup…yuk!
If you wanted to reduce the calories in this recipe, use skim mozzarella cheese and put less pepperoni. I would cut pepperoni in very small pieces which makes it look like more. Trick to the eye. I also always add more green and red pepper, about 1/2 cup or more, instead of 1/4 cup. I like this soup chunky. I also us Primo Herbs & Spices Diced Tomatoes instead of Stewed tomatoes, which adds more flavour. Enjoy!