Red Salsa

Saturday we met up with some fellow Texas grads to watch the Longhorn game. While the results of the game were disappointing, we at least ate well! Our hostess made two delicious versions of enchiladas with charro beans and spanish rice. She also whipped up some guacamole and queso (a Texas football staple).  I brought over a batch of Roasted Tomatillo Salsa and this Red Salsa, and for dessert, my husband made a classic Texas Sheet Cake from the Homesick Texan cookbook. Even though we're many miles from Texas, we felt right at home. So without further ado, here's how I make my red salsa, based on another Homesick Texan recipe. Just beware. It's addictive!

Ingredients

1 28 oz can whole tomatoes

1/2 yellow onion, cut into two wedges

2 cloves garlic

2 serrano peppers

3/4 cup cilantro (or more -- we like lots of cilantro)

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp salt

pinch of sugar

2 Tb lime juice

Directions

Set the broiler to High. Line a baking sheet with foil, and spray with cooking spray or drizzle with oil.

Place the onion wedges, unpeeled garlic cloves, and serrano peppers onto the baking sheet and under the broiler.

 Let broil for about 5 minutes, until things are beginning to char. Turn the onions, garlic, and peppers such that the blackened sides are facing downward, and broil for another 5 minutes.

Remove from the oven and place the peppers in a plastic sandwich bag to steam (this helps with peeling off the skin). Once cool, peel the garlic cloves and roughly chop. Clean away the blackened skin from the peppers, chop off and discard the stem, and remove the seeds (or leave the seeds in for a spicier salsa); then roughly chop the peppers.

Add tomatoes (with the juice), onion, garlic, serranos, cilantro, spices, and lime juice into the bowl of a large food processor. Pulse a few times and then puree until smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings to taste.

Note that salsa is best when made at least a day in advance. Store it in the refrigerator, and it should last about a week.

Bronwyn

Last  Friday afternoon, when my husband and I were leaving work we made a spontaneous decision to go out for a dinner date. Pretty crazy for people who like to plan their calendar at least two weeks in advance! So we set our course for Somerville's Union Square to finally try the much-talked-about German fare from Bronwyn. It's owned by chef Tim Wiechmann's who we're already a big fan of thanks to his first restaurant, T.W. Food. 

Outside a cold wind was blowing, but inside their heavy wooden front door it was warm and cozy. We were seated in their dining room at a table with fantastic throne-like chairs. We'll wait for a warmer day to enjoy their outdoor biergarten!

(Photo from Boston Eater, by Chris Coe)

We started with the Giant Haus Bretzel and mugs of German beer. The pretzel is appropriately named as it's quite giant (and quite delicious). It's served with sharp and pungent horseradish mustard -- probably great for horseradish lovers but a bit too much for me. 

For the main course, I got the jagerschnitzel and my husband got the sauerbraten. The schnitzel was two perfectly fried pork cutlets, crispy and buttery, topped with a celery root cream sauce, walnuts, and chanterelle mushrooms. It was fantastic, but the sauerbraten really stole the show. It's brisket braised in a vinegar sauce until it's fall apart tender, perfect for a cold evening!

It was a great date night and a great way to kick-off the three day weekend. I'm already looking forward to returning to try more German beers, their homemade wurst, and pretty much everything else on the menu.

Rib Knit Cowl

It's knitting season again! I may hate the winter, but I love an excuse to get my needlework out. I'll happily sit curled up on the couch for hours, work spread over my lap and watching re-runs of Friends. Throw in a mug of hot tea, and you've got yourself a fine afternoon. I'm such a little old lady at heart. 

At last season's Medford Winter Farmers Market, I picked up a skein of this lovely hand-spun yarn from Natural Specialties. Finally, I came across the perfect project for it: a ribbed knit cowl pattern from Tentenknits. It looked so pretty and warm. 

So I got out my yarn, my needles, and my knitting bowl and got started. It's a simple pattern that I was able to finish over the weekend. Here's how I made mine using straight needles rather than circular needles, as the original pattern calls for. (Someday I nee to learn how to use those).

Materials

Size 8 Straight Knitting Needles (I used 14")

Skein of yarn

Yarn needle

Pattern

Cast on 64 stitches (starting with a yarn tail of ~32 in)

*Knit 4, Purl 4, *repeat the pattern until row is complete.

Continue until you have about 12"-13" inches completed (~50 rows).

Bind off. 

Cut the yarn free from the yarn ball, leaving a tail that's around 1.5 ft long. 

Thread the tail through a yarn needle, and use a whip stitch (similar to this method) to stitch up the sides of the rectangle, forming a long tube.

Once stitched up, cut off any of the remaining yarn tail.

Ta da! Simply pull it over your head in place of a scarf to keep yourself cozy and warm all winter. I've been using mine for a couple of days now, and I love it. 

Pumpkin and Kale Pasta with Lemon Goat Cheese Sauce

This weekend I cooked some of my Halloween decorations -- the cute little sugar pumpkin sitting in my entry way turned into a delicious dinner! I tweaked this recipe from Serious Eats, opting for tangy and bright goat cheese, a little extra lemon, and a splash of white wine to liven things up. It's a hearty and comforting dish that satisfies my cold weather cravings while still including plenty of vegetables (this time of year, I tend to only want to eat things involving lots of cheese, carbs, and cream of mushroom soup). In other news, we had our first snow yesterday. I'm not ready for that yet!

Serves 5-6

Ingredients

2 Tb olive oil

2 lb sugar pumpkin, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1" cubes

1 shallot, thinly sliced

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

1 garlic clove, minced

4 cups chicken stock (or vegetable stock)

~1/2 cup dry vermouth (or white wine)

12 oz farfalle pasta

1 large bunch of kale, stemmed and roughly chopped

2 Tb lemon juice

2 oz goat cheese

salt and pepper

Directions

Heat a dutch oven (or soup pot) over medium high heat. Pour in olive oil, and once hot, add in the pumpkin. Season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes. The pumpkin should begin to soften a bit.

Push the pumpkin to the sides of the pot, exposing the bottom of the pan. Add the shallots and the crushed red pepper to the center of the pan, and let them cook for about one minute before stirring to combine. Next, add the garlic, and cook for 30 seconds, or until fragrant.

Stir in the stock and vermouth, scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen any browned bits. Raise the heat to high, add another pinch of salt to the liquid, and then stir in the pasta. 

Once the liquid comes to a boil, partially cover and let cook until the pasta is about 4 minutes away from being done (the box called for 10 minutes for al dente, so I let it cook for about 6 minutes), stirring occasionally to prevent pasta from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

At this point, begin adding in the kale a handful at a time, stirring it into the liquid so it will begin to wilt. Once all of the kale is wilted down and the pasta is done, turn the heat down to medium low. 

Stir in the lemon juice and goat cheese. The goat cheese will combine with the remaining liquid to make a creamy sauce. Taste, and feel free to add a little extra goat cheese or lemon if desired.

Serve and enjoy!

Pumpkin Carving Party

Last weekend we hosted our very first pumpkin carving party. With our friends Kevin and Andrea, we celebrated all things fall -- warm comforting stew, pumpkin beers, football, mulled apple cider, carving pumpkins, and roasted pumpkin seeds! This post is pretty belated since it's no longer the season for carving pumpkins, but hey, at least it's still the season for everything else!

For dinner, I set the table with fall linens (when you get married in October, all of the linens you receive are in fall colors) and a bowl of apples that we picked for a centerpiece. My husband was the chef for the evening, and he whipped up a delicious Pork and Green Chile Stew (Chile Verde) to serve with homemade flour tortillas (homemade tortillas require a little extra effort, but man are they good!). It was warm and hearty, perfect for a chilly evening.

After dinner, it was time for the UT game.  And since you can't watch football without beer, we decided to sample pumpkin beers, serving mostly local options: Southern Tier Pumpking (our favorite), Cambridge Brewing Company Great Pumpkin Ale, Sam Adams Harvest Pumpkin Ale, Sam Adams Oktoberfest (not a pumpkin beer but it's Fall-ish!), Cisco Brewing Pumple Drumkin (we didn't care for this one).

I also put on a pot of mulled apple cider right before our guests arrived. I have a super simple recipe that I use, and it can sit and simmer until you're ready to serve it.

Mulled Apple Cider

In a slow cooker, pour in 1 gallon of plain apple cider and stir in 1/4 cup brown sugar. Then put 4 cinnamon sticks, 3 tsp whole cloves, 2 pods of star anise, ~1/2 inch of ginger, thinly sliced, all onto a piece of cheesecloth, and tie it up with a piece of kitchen twine. Add the bag of spices and slices from one orange into the slow cooker. Heat on Low for at least a couple of hours before serving. (And while delicious on its own, it's also good with about 1 oz of bourbon stirred into each mug!)

Around halftime, the Longhorn game had a rain delay, a perfect opportunity to start carving pumpkins. I spread out a big table cloth in the living room, and we put a few pieces of newspaper under our pumpkins to keep the innards from seeping through the table cloth and onto our rug. Using tools and patterns from grocery store carving kits, we got to work! (It's also a good idea to put out a few bowls for pumpkin innards and paper towels and/or kitchen towels for wiping hands).

It was so much fun, and everyone's pumpkins turned out great! I tried out the engraving technique, which was fun but disappointing because it didn't glow like it was supposed to when I put a candle inside. I guess I didn't scrape away enough of the pumpkin.  Everyone else went with traditional jack-o-lanterns. Here's the line-up:

And here they are after the official lighting ceremony! :)

With the pumpkins done, I poured everyone a mug of cider, and we served the delicious homemade cookies and ice cream that our friends brought for dessert. And finally, before they headed home, I roasted some of the pumpkin seeds leftover from carving.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Preheat oven to 300°F. Scoop out the seeds and then clean by rinsing them in a colander and removing any remaining pumpkin flesh. Dry the seeds by dumping them onto a towel and patting dry.  Once dry, pour the seeds into a bowl. Add in olive oil, salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, and chili powder. For seeds from one pumpkin I used  a couple teaspoons of oil, a couple good pinches of salt, pepper from a few twists of my grinder, 1/4 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp paprika, and 1/8 tsp chili powder. Place the seeds on a foil-lined baking tray and spread them out in a single layer, and place the baking sheet into the oven. Roast for about 20 to 25 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so, until the seeds just begin to brown. 

It was such a fun evening -- a great excuse to get together with friends who we don't see nearly enough! We put our pumpkins out on the front porch to greet trick-or-treaters on Halloween. And now, somehow it's already November with Thanksgiving right around the corner. Where is the fall going?