More Week 25: More Spaghetti Squash

I've been in my kitchen a lot more than usual lately. I think part of it is the autumn-y, cool weather that makes me want to make warm, comforting food. Last week spaghetti squash was on sale, so I picked one up. I made a yummy dish consisting of spaghetti squash, cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, etc. It was pretty good, but not photo-worthy.

Every time I've made spaghetti squash I've been amazed by it. It is just such a cool phenomenon! I DID get some pictures of that...

Week 25.5: Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Last week, a sweet friend invited me over for chili for our semi-regular Wednesday dinner. I was deciding what to bring, and it occurred to me that the only reasonable choice would be cinnamon rolls. I don't know WHY cinnamon rolls go so naturally with chili, but the fact that this is how the school cafeteria always served it must make it right.

I was feeling (perhaps overly-) ambitious, and I decided that I would not get a can of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls, but rather I would make them from SCRATCH. Unless using a bread machine to make the dough doesn't count as scratch...

It took longer than planned, but they turned out to be SO yummy. I enjoyed snacking on microwaved leftovers for days!

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup warm water
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 package instant vanilla pudding mix
1 cup warm milk
1 egg, room temperature
1 tablespoon white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cups bread flour
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 cup chopped pecans (I left these out because some people just don't like nuts, okay?)

1/2 package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons milk

DIRECTIONS
In the pan of your bread machine, combine water, melted butter, vanilla pudding, warm milk, egg, 1 tablespoon sugar, salt, bread flour, and yeast. Set machine to dough cycle; press START.

When dough cycle has finished, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll into a 17x10 inch rectangle. Spread with softened butter. In a small bowl, stir together brown sugar, cinnamon, and pecans. Sprinkle brown sugar mixture over dough.

Roll up dough, beginning with long side. Slice into 16 1-inch slices and place in 9x13 buttered pan. Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes. While rolls bake, stir together cream cheese, softened butter, confectioner's sugar, vanilla, and milk. Remove rolls from oven and top with frosting.

Week 25: P.F. Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Sometimes I just don't know what do cook. And it's weird. Because most of the time, I find myself reading through all of my food blogs, drooling over all of their kitchen creations, and itching to make some of my own. But when it comes time for me to actually choose something to make for my weekly dinner date with Abby, I find myself drawing a blank. That happened this week, and a special friend gave me the great idea to make lettuce wraps. Perfect!

INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons oil
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup water chestnuts
2/3 cup mushroom
3 tablespoons chopped onions
1 teaspoon minced garlic
leaves of iceberg lettuce

Special Sauce
1/4 cup sugar (we used Splenda!)
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon sesame oil (I didn't find this...so I didn't use it!)
1 tablespoon hot mustard
2 teaspoons water
1-2 teaspoons garlic and red chili paste

Stir Fry Sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon rice wine vinegar

DIRECTIONS

Make the special sauce by dissolving the sugar in water in a small bowl.

Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, lemon juice, and sesame oil.

Mix well and refrigerate this sauce until you're ready to serve.

Combine the hot water with the hot mustard and set this aside as well.

Eventually add your desired measurement of mustard and garlic chili sauce to the special sauce mixture to pour over the wraps.

Bring oil to high heat in a wok or large frying pan.

Saute chicken breasts for 4-5 minutes per side or done.

Remove chicken from the pan and cool.

Keep oil in the pan, and keep it hot.

As the chicken cools, mince water chestnuts and mushrooms to about the size of small peas.

Prepare the stir fry sauce by mixing the soy sauce, brown sugar, and rice vinegar together in a small bowl.

When chicken is cool, mince it as the mushrooms and water chestnuts are.

With the pan still on high heat, add another tablespoon of vegetable oil

Add chicken, garlic, onions, water chestnuts, and mushrooms to the pan.

Add the stir fry sauce to the pan and saute the mixture for a couple minutes then serve it in the lettuce "cups."

Top with the Special Sauce.

Week 24: Butternut Squash Soup

Have I mentioned how great Abby is at not only finding foods that we don't have experience cooking, but also choosing foods that we haven't EATEN? She sure is.

This week she showed up with some beautiful butternut squash, and I was so excited to hear that we were making butternut squash soup!

INGREDIENTS
6 tablespoons chopped onion (we probably used more than this, knowing us)
4 tablespoons butter
6 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash
3 cups water
4 cubes chicken bouillon
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese

DIRECTIONS
In a large saucepan, saute onions in the butter until tender. Add squash, water, bouillon, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. Bring to a boil. Cook 20 minutes, or until squash is tender.

Puree squash and cream cheese in a blender or food processor in batches until smooth. Return to the saucepan, and heat through. Do not allow to boil.

Week 23: Buffalo Chicken Calzones

This week Abby and I were also planning on making cupcakes for Bunco, which I was hosting this week, so I wanted our dinner to be something semi-easy. When I stumbled across a recipe for buffalo chicken calzones on one of my food blogs that I follow, it seemed like the obvious choice. I love calzones. I love buffalo chicken. And refrigerated pizza dough makes everything easier.

I loved this easy, yummy recipe so much that I made mini versions for Bunco a couple of nights later. Abby and I dipped ours in ranch instead of the usual blue cheese dressing. Next time I might try to stick some veggies in there... (Also, please note how lovely and perfectly-shaped Abby's calzone is. Mine is the blog of dough next to it.)

INGREDIENTS

1 lb pizza dough

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast, diced

2 tsp plus 1/2 cup hot pepper sauce, divided

2 tbsp butter

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup pizza sauce

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Melt butter in a hot skillet and cook chicken thoroughly until opaque throughout and no pink remains.

In a bowl, mix together pizza sauce and 2 tsp hot pepper sauce; set aside.

When chicken is cooked through, reduce heat and add 1/2 cup hot pepper sauce, tossing to coat.

Let simmer for 10 minutes. Drain chicken if necessary.

Divide dough in half and roll out into circles.

Place half of pizza sauce mixture, chicken, and mozzarella cheese into each calzone, close, and seal edges by pinching the dough.

This wasn't in the original recipe, but Abby and I brushed some egg whites on top of each calzone, and we sprinkled them with coarse salt, fresh ground pepper, and a little grated Parmesan cheese. This made them prettier and added some good flavor to the bread.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until dough is browned. Serve with dip.

**A sad reality: Typing these recipes often makes me realize that I didn't do a very good job of following directions. For example, I put the pizza sauce/pepper sauce mixture in the skillet with the chicken instead of just pepper sauce. Both times I made them. With the previously mentioned cupcakes, I erroniously completely omitted the egg yolks that it called for. It's possible that my reading comprehension isn't as good as it should be...

Week 22: Snow Family Mac 'n' Cheese

I didn't know what recipe Abby was going to bring with her this week when she showed up for our "Year of Yum" date, but man was I excited when walked in the door with all of the fixings for mac and cheese. Cheesy pasta...comfort food at its best.

I don't know who the Sara Snow chick is (though Abby assures me that if I knew her, I would like her), but she sure does make a mean mac 'n' cheese. Everything in the recipe called for organic, but Abby and I used non-organic butter and cheese. We also used some crazy gluten-free pasta that we were a little nervous about, but it ended up being delicious.

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups elbow macaroni
3 tablespoons organic butter
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups organic milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
dash pepper
2 cups grated organic cheddar cheese
2-4 organic roma tomatoes, sliced
1 cup breadcrumbs

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Cook pasta until firm.
Melt butter. Blend in flour. Whisk in milk.
Cook at medium until thick.
Add salt and pepper and 1 1/2 cups cheese.
Stir to melt.
Place cooked macaroni in greased baking dish.
Pour sauce in. Top with sliced tomatoes. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and breadcrumbs.
Bake for about 35-40 minutes. Start with the lid on and then take it off for about the last 20 minutes so the top gets nice and toasty.

Week 21: Grilled Pizza

This week we attempted something we've been wanting to try for a while now; grilled pizza! Sounds slightly bizarre, I know. If you're anything like me, you are thinking, "However does the raw pizza dough not go through the grate of the grill?!" Answer: it must be sheer magic of deliciousness.

Here's what we did:

We formed the dough (we tried three different types of dough, but Pillsbury in the roll from the refrigerated section was probably my favorite) into personal-sized crusts. Plop it in on a pretty hot grill for a couple of minutes. You can tell from the pictures that we didn't worry at all about how our crusts looked...we were going for the rustic look. Make sure to watch it, because I definitely burned a couple of pizzas.

After a couple of minutes, we flipped the crust over and added our toppings of choice. We had all of the usual suspects, plus some chicken, onions, and peppers that we had just grilled.

Now it was time to close the grill so the toppings could get all hot and melty while the other side of the crust was grilling.

During the cooking process, it was mentioned how much more work this was than just ordering a pizza from the hut. But after trying our grilled pizzas, there was really no comparing them with a greasy, lame-toppinged delivery pizza.

I can't wait to do this again!