Recipe: Stuffed Summer Squash

It's that time of year again.  The time of year when you lock your car at church to make sure it doesn't get filled with zucchini!

Our neighbor has a glut of these really pretty round yellow summer squash and brought us a boatload of them.  They are round like pumpkins, so I thought I'd try stuffing them like pumpkins.  They turned out wonderful!

Stuffed Summer Squash

8 round yellow squash (but you could really use any over-active similar produce.)
2 boxes Stove-top Stuffing
1 lb cooked crumbled bacon
2 lb grated Mexican style cheese (mix of monterey jack and cheddar will work)
2 heaping Tablespoons of minced Garlic
2 cans condensed milk
1 C sour cream
1 tsp Cumin
2 eggs



1.  Cut the tops off of the squash.  If using regular crookneck or zucchini, cut in half long way.  Scoop out & discard the innards.

2.  Mix the stuffing, garlic, cheese, and bacon together.

3.  Stuff the dry mix into your vegi bowls.  They should be pretty full.















4.  Mix the milk, sour cream, cumin & eggs together.  Carefully pour this mix into the dry mix in the bowls.
5.  Bake 350 for less than one hour.  You want the summer squash to be soft but not mushy.

These are cool looking when served whole, but can be cut into wedges too.

Recipe: Breakfast Burritos

BREAKFAST BURRITOS (40 burritos)

• 40 med. tortillas, the fresher the better
• 1 lb. hot sausage, cooked & drained 
• 1 lb regular sausage, cooked & drained (not brown sugar flavor.  Can cook both sausages together.  Use the leftover drippings to make gravy for tomorrows breakfast.)
• 24 eggs, scrambled (can cook in oven/turkey roaster*)
• 2 bags O’Brien potatoes, cooked in oven until firm
• 1 1/2 lb. shredded cheese (mix of cheddar & Monterey jack)
• 1 lg. can green enchilada sauce
• 1 box Velveeta type cheese, grated
• 40 Foil wrappers
• Box of gallon zip-lock bags to store the wrapped burritos in (can use tortilla sacks)

Mix sausage, eggs, potatoes, cheeses, and enchilada sauce in a big bowl.  All the cooking and mixing can be done a day ahead.

Fill & roll tortillas.  Wrap with foil. Freeze.  To eat, unwrap from foil, microwave approximately 2 minutes from frozen.  The foil can be saved to use again.

*To cook eggs in turkey roaster:  spray turkey roaster with non-stick spray. Scramble eggs in a bowl; add 2 C milk, stir.  Pour all into turkey roaster at 350.  Stir every 1/2 hour until done.  Expect it to take about 1 1/2 hours.

Chrissy Ellsworth's Panang Curry Recipe

In Relief Society (church women's group) meeting about a year ago, Chrissy Ellsworth taught us how to make Panang Curry.  Back then, I had no idea who Chrissy was.  Now she's my wonderful neighbor.  This recipe turns out soooo good and can be made mild for wimps like me.

Panang Curry

• 1 Can Coconut Milk
• 1 tsp Panang Curry Paste (any brand - will keep in fridge for 2 years)
• 5 shredded lime leaves* (roll them all up together, then shred cut them.  They are tough and won't dissolve.)
• 1 heaping tsp coriander (Chrissy uses baked coriander seeds.  She cooks them with out oil on the stove top, until brown like sesame seeds.  I was lazy & just dumped in ground coriander.)
• 3 T Sugar
• 3 tsp Fish Sauce
• 1/4 C Water (optional)
• 1 Chicken breast, raw, cut into chunks
• Assorted chopped Vegis (whatever you like and/or is in season.  Such as: carrot, colored peppers, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, broccoli, zucchini, bok choy, mushrooms, green beans, peas)
• 1/3 C Fresh Basil, chopped
• Jasmine rice, cooked

Pour half the milk in a pot and bring to boil.  Add in Panang Curry paste, mix well & return to boil.  Add lime leaves, coriander, sugar, fish sauce, the rest of the milk and water (optional) and return to boil.  Add raw meat & let cook into the broth.  Once the meat is near done, add veggies.  Then add basil.  Lightly boil until meat is fully cooked.  Serve over rice.

Chrissy says that the goal of Thai food is to obtain a nice balance of sweet, sour, salty, and spicy heat.  Adjust sugar (sweet), fish sauce (salty), lime (sour), and add chili peppers (hot) to your liking.

*About this point, ya'll are wondering, where do I find lime leaves?!  At Asia Oriental Market 2408 Meridian St., of course.  This is my favorite oriental grocery store in Bellingham.  They have great prices on fresh basil, cilantro, etc.  Seriously, like $1 for a nice sized bunch that would cost $5 at the grocery store.  Asia Oriental Market is a crowded little store with hand baskets instead of carts.  The owners speak decent English and are very nice.  They'll answer questions and help you pick out what you need.  Once, when I was getting things to make Pad Thai, they noticed that I hadn't purchased the noodles and reminded me.  I really appreciated not having to make a second trip. There are two oriental grocery stores in this area of town.  The one you are looking for is the one right next to Creative Dancewear.    

Dinner Redo: Black Bean & Lime Soup/Clean Out the Fridge Burritos

I love leftovers!  I like to cook, but often get busy with other things.  Leftovers make my life so much easier.  However, my family will start to complain if they have to eat leftovers too often. So, I've started trying to create two meals from one time cooking. The idea comes from Cook Once, Eat Twice.   The following recipes, however, don't come from that book.  I'm not really in love with the recipes in it.


Day one: Black Bean & Lime Soup. I have no idea where I got this recipe from originally.  I've changed it so that it can be made entirely with food storage items.  But, the truth is that I usually use fresh items, except for the beans.  I'm usually too cheap to buy canned beans.   


Black Bean & Lime Soup

Work time: 10 minutes 
Cooking time: 2 hours  
Must soak beans overnight

2 C (1lb) dry black beans
4 tsp chicken bullion
1/2 C dry onions
1 Tbsp garlic powder - I will often chop fresh onions & garlic, then saute them before making the soup
3 C salsa (1 to 2 16-oz jars, to taste)
3 Tbsp lime juice
4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp dry red pepper
1 C dry sour cream mix (optional) - I use fresh sour cream
Corn chips (optional) 

Cilantro, fresh (optional, but really nummy)

SOAK beans overnight.  

DRAIN, then cover beans with fresh water and bring to a boil.  Boil for 5 minutes, turn heat down to simmer.  Cover and simmer until soft (about one hour) stirring occasionally.

ADD remaining ingredients (except for sour cream, corn chips, and cilantro) to the beans.  Cook 25-30 minutes, until dry onions are soft.  I will usually make this up in the morning & let it simmer most of the day so that the beans get really soft.

MIX dry sour cream mix with 6 Tbsp water and allow to sit while soup finishes.

GARNISH each bowl of soup with sour cream and corn chips.  (And cilantro, if you have it.)

8 Servings 

(Nutritional content without garnish:  101.1 Calories, 0.9 grams Fat, 0.0 mg Cholesterol, 704.5 mg Sodium, 423.9 mg Potassium, 19.5 g Total Carbohydrate, 5.7g Dietary Fiber, 0.3 g Sugars, P5.6 g Protein.  --  Daily Values based on a 2000 calorie diet:  12.5% Vitamin A, 10.6% Vitamin B-6, 27.1% Vitamin C, 3.1% Vitamin E, 5.6% Calcium, 21.0% Copper, 20.8% Folate, 14.5% Iron, 12.3% Magnesium, 17.7% Magnanese, 5.5% Niacin, 2.7% Pantothenic Acid, 10.1% Phosphorus, 3.8% Riboflavin, 2.1% Selenium, 11.0% Thiamin, 5.6% Zinc.)

Day two: Clean Out the Fridge Black Bean Burritos

Minimum ingredients:

Leftover Black Bean & Lime Soup

Tortillas

Clean out the fridge ingredients at our house have included:  

Leftover cooked Rice

Leftover sauted onions

Grated cheese

Cilantro

Avacado

Tomato (leftover from hamburgers)

Sour Cream

Lettuce or Spinach
Salsa
Peppers
and, my favorite:  Hidden Valley Spicy Ranch dressing


To take this up a notch, I've made the following chicken to go in the Burritos as well. Cooking the meat kind of defeats the idea of only cooking once, but I can marinate the chicken the day before, and it really doesn't take long to cook if I don't have to make the full meal.  

The chicken recipe is my take on Applebee's Tequila Lime Chicken from Low-Fat Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilber.  

Lime Chicken

Marinade

1 C water

1 C teriyaki sauce

2 T lime juice

2 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp liquid smoke

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground ginger

4 skinless chicken breast fillets (I use frozen straight from the bag, and I don't defrost them first.)

Mix up marinade, pour over chicken.  Chill for 2-3 hours.  Cook in your preferred way (grill, saute, bake....)  I  usually throw these on the George Forman.  To use in tacos:  When the chicken is done, I remove the meat & boil down the marinade (partly to kill any bacterial from the meat & partly to make it thicker.)  Meanwhile I chop up the meat.  When the marinade is thick, I stir the meat back in.

Book Review: Lemon Tart

Lemon Tart is a sweet little mystery for fans of the "cozy" sub-genre of mysteries.  Widowed Sadie Hoffmiller is a baking, cooking, and housekeeping whiz who takes a young, single mom under her wing.  Sadie is also a bit of a neighborhood busybody, a like-able one, but a busybody none-the-less.  When the young mother is found dead & her toddler son missing,  Sadie can't help but run into clues.  Along the way, Sadie learns more about her fiancée, her family, and the neighborhood cops than she wants to know.

In the tradition of good "cozies", this story is a light read.  There's a bit of romance, some good cooking (along with recipes), and some mild tension.  While published by Deseret Book, there is no mention of religion, faith or God.  Lemon Tart should appeal to any "cozy" fan, not just LDS readers.

I appreciate that there is no profanity, no sex scenes, and no gore.  An extra-marital affair plays an important role in the plot, but the characters express regret and admit it was a mistake.  Sadie isn't perfect.  She makes mistakes, but also tries to make amends.  This is a book that even a conservative Mom can safely share with her teen-aged daughter without worry.