Whenever I think of the fall, I think of winter squash, more specifically butternut squash, sweet potatoes and turkey.  We received butternut squash in our co-op box this week.  We love fresh vegetables and we can not eat them fast enough before they go bad; therefore we freeze most of  the ones we receive.  Below is how you do a step by step on how to freeze butternut squash.

1. Turn your oven on to 350F.

2. Cut the stem off of the butternut squash.

3. Cut down the center of the squash.

4. Take a tablespoon and scoop out all of the seeds and pulp.

5. Place on a cookie sheet.

6. Place the cookie sheet into the oven for one hour.

7. Take cookie sheet out of oven, let the squash cool off

8. If you want to puree, take a spoon and scoop out squash into blender and puree (I placed in a food processor).  Then place into ziploc bags and freeze

9. If you want to keep in chunks, take a knife, cut squash into sections, peel off skin, and place back onto the cookie sheet.  Once onto the cookie sheet, place into freeze, freeze chunks.  After a while, place the frozen chunks into a ziploc bag, label and place back into the freezer.  This will allow you to have frozen chunks of butternut squash without them being stuck together.

I loved RED SKIN POTATOES!  I do not know how to put it any other way.  Growing up my mom would slice them into pieces, place a whole bunch of spices on them and bake them in the oven.  It was the most delicious stuff every and a great break from other vegetables (even though red skin potatoes are mostly starch)!  For my version of the oven roasted red skin potatoes I took two pounds of potatoes, washed, cut and placed into a gallon ziploc bag.  I then added the following:

- 1 package of dry onion soup mix

- 1 teaspoon of Cajun seasoning

- 1/3 cup of olive oil

I mixed all of the ingredients together and placed into a 9 by 13 glass baking dish.  I cooked for 20 minutes and then took a spoon and turned over the potatoes.  I placed the dish back into the oven and cook for an additional twenty minutes.    Finally the potatoes are done and ready to eat!

Note: Next time I will probably not add so much olive oil and use a little bit of Pam Cooking Spray instead! (Man, I feel like an ad!)

I know, I know. Fries could never be healthy, but these aren’t actually too bad for you.  The hubby and I are part of a co-op type program with a local farmer, where we receive produce on a weekly basis.  A week or so ago, we received sweet potatoes.  One of my most FAVORITE things in the world are sweet potato fries, so of course, I had to make them myself.

I first preheated the oven to 475 degrees. Then, I cleaned and cut two medium sized sweet potatoes into strips.  Afterward, I placed them into a bowl, mixed with a tablespoon of olive oil, which is way too much, sprinkled garlic powder, rosemary and crushed red pepper into the bowl.  Next, I mixed all of the ingredients together.  Lastly, I placed the fries on top of a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and placed the pan in the oven.  I baked the fries for 13 minutes, flipped them over and baked for another 13 minutes.

Voila!  They are done.  To add some substance, I paired the fries with a small salad.  It was delicious!

Ever year the wives or girlfriends of my husband’s co-workers will bake dessert to give out at his work.  This year I baked two types of cookies.  They were white chocolate chip and butterscotch cookies and peanut butter round up cookies.  Each type of cookie I have made through the year and they love them, so I decided to make them this year.  It was relatively easy.

Here is what the process looks like:

And the end product:

Recipes:

White Chocolate Chip & Butterscotch Cookies

Same Recipe I used on February 20, 2009, except that I used one cup of white chocolate chips & one cup of butterscotch chips.

Peanut Butter Round Up Cookies (makes 6 dozen)

1cup soften stick butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 or 1.5 cups natural peanut butter ( I used about 1.25 cups of creamy peanut butter)
2 cups sifted flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup pecans (I didn’t put these in, obviously)
1 cup chocolate chips

Beat butter and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and peanut; beat well. Sift together flour, baking soda & salt in a separate bowl. Add to creamed mixture. Stir in oats, chips and pecans. Shape dough into 1 inch balls (I couldn’t do this, so I dropped about a tablespoon of dough onto the cookie sheet). Place on greased or parchment lined cookie sheet. Press tines of for to make a criss cross on each cookie. (I did not do the last step either)

Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 8-10 mins ( I baked 10 mins in our gas stove).

Hope you Enjoy!

Sausage Balls!  I don’t know if this is a southern thing or not, but both my family and the hubby’s family make these for the Holidays.  The hubby’s family makes them at almost every holiday or special event, but mine only makes them for Christmas.  The hubby asked me to make them this week because he had a special craving for them.  His special indigent is that he uses Bass Farms sausage (my mom uses Jimmy Dean).  I don’t think it makes a difference, but it does in his mind.  So of course, I made them just like he likes them.

Recipe:

1/2 pound sharp cheddar cheese

1 pound sausage

3 cups Bisquick

Bring cheese and sausage to room temperature.  Mix with Bisquick. Make into balls.  Bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes or until brown.

Outcome:

They came out wonderful.  Even better than I remembered.  I did heat the mixture up for about 15 seconds to melt the cheese and make into better round shapes.  The hubby liked them too!

Sweet Potatoes are one of my favorite foods, along with biscuits.  However with Thanksgiving, everyone generally makes sweet potato casserole.  I’m not a big fan.  Too many nuts, too much sugar.  So this time of year, I makes these for either my or the hubby’s co workers.

Recipes:

Ingredients:

2 to 3 medium sweet potatoes (about 1.5 pounds)

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into chunks

2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar

2 tablespoons white sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Heat oven to 400.  Scrub sweet potatoes, prick them in several places with a fork, and microwave them until tender, at least 10 minutes. Carefully slice them in half, scoop the hot flesh from the skins, and add to a mixing bowl along with the butter.  Using an electric mixer, whip together potatoes and butter until well combined, about 2 minutes.  Beat in sugars, salt and spices.  Let the mixture cool for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile stir together flour and baking powder in medium bowl with a fork.  Add flour mixture to potato mixture and use the fork to combine well.  You may have to knead the dough by hand a bit at the end.  On a floured surface, roll out or pat the dough into an 8 by 8 inch square about 3/4 inch thick.  With a sharp knife or square biscuit cutter dipped in flour, cut out 2 inch square biscuits. (Making them square means you can use all the dough in one go, rather than rerolling it.)

Place the dough squares 2 inches apart on a baking sheet that has been greased or lined with parchment paper.  Bake until they’re golden brown on the bottom and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Outcome:

I used a the top rim of a glass instead; however, I still used all of the dough.  The only other thing is that I made them a little too thin, still soft in the middle, but I will definitely make them thicker next go round.

With Thanksgiving in mind last week, I did a lot of cooking, some for work, some for home, and some just to make the hubby happy.  A friend from work gave me a recipe for sour cream biscuits.  Biscuits are one of my favorite things to eat and make.  So of course, I just had to try it.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup self rising flour

Mix all together and drop mixture into a mini muffin pan.  Bake at 325 for about 20 minutes until golden brown on top.  Recipe will make 12 mini muffins.

Outcome:

I will definitely half the butter next time I make them.  They were so greasy, it went through four sheets of paper towels, and the grease made me a little sick.  The friend from work said she usually adds a little more flour if the mixture looks too “wet.”

A few weeks ago, I found a recipe online for Banana Peanut Butter  Bread.  I LOVED the idea since I love bananas and peanut butter, but I don’t like nuts.  It was a fairly easy recipe to fix; however, it did make quite a mess!  It was well worth it!  I found the recipe at Lickable Spoon.   She has tons of other wonderful recipes, but this is the only one I have tried so far.

Here is how it turned out!

Last year, I had spaghetti squash for the first time.  I had it at a restaurant and LOVED it!  I literally thought that it was mashed up squash made into noodles.  I didn’t realize it until I went to work and was asking all of my co-workers where to find it that it was actually a squash.  Yes, sometimes I am not very smart.  (And only lately have I became interested in all of the “domestic” stuff like cooking, sewing and crafting).  I found a recipe online for lasagna made from spaghetti squash and zucchini and I just had to try it.  It was not only looked and sounded good, but it created vegetables in a whole new way.

Here is the final result:

I loved it!  It was perfect for me; however, the hubby thought that the spaghetti squash just tasted like not cooked enough pasta.  (I think the next time I make the spaghetti squash, I will have to bake it a little longer)

The recipe is from here: Green Lite Bites.

Hope you enjoy!

I made a whole cake, including icing, from scratch. This is a pretty big accomplishment for me, since I have never done it before!   I saw a recipe online on how to make a Blue Velvet Cake and I had to make it!

I found the recipe on the Food Network‘s website. The only problem with it is that it called for 2 fluid ounces of blue food coloring and I had 0.25; therefore, it ended up looking a blue moldy color instead of the actual blue it is suppose to be. It was very good or at least I think so! Below are pictures:

As you can tell, I’m not a very good icer.

What do you think?

(By the way, sorry for the small photos. Apparently flickr is doing something weird and I can’t copy the larger picture’s location.)