Slow Cooker Butternut Squash with Ginger & Dried Fruit Recipe ♥ Recipe

Today's Thanksgiving recipe: A plain-looking but anything-but-plain tasting butternut squash side dish, bright with ginger and slightly sweet with orange and dried fruit. It's cooked in a slow cooker, oh-so easy and oh-so good.

On Saturday, I stood in the detergent aisle at the Walmart, already confounded by too many choices only to be blasted by a perky Jingle Bell Rock from the sound system. As if the detergent decision wasn't enough, to hear, you know, Christmas music in September, I could have melted into an anything-but-red-and-green puddle right then and there.

But an early Thanksgiving? Bring it on! American Thanksgiving is early this year, which actually makes the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas almost manageable. But the Canadians are even more sensible with an October Thanksgiving, this year a week early too, on October 8. Most years, I cook a turkey for Canadian Thanksgiving, a sort of prelude to the big family gathering in November: not so this year, I fear.

But this is an easy, oh-so-tasty side dish for Thanksgiving, especially since it's cooked in a slow cooker because we all know how quickly the oven gets overloaded cooking that big meal.
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Pennsylvania Dutch Green Beans with Bacon ♥

Today's vegetable recipe: A hearty late-summer or fall side dish. (Thanksgiving? Yes that too, especially Canadian Thanksgiving which falls in mid October when it's often still quite warm.) The beans are topped with a sweet 'n' sour sauce, crispy bacon and a chopped egg.

Cookbooks are always welcome gifts but The Farm: Rustic Recipes for a Year of Incredible Food by Ian Knauer was an inspired choice. For starters, these inscriptions were penned by two of my favorite cook's grandchildren. Yes, they brought tears:

Dear PopPop, I like gardening with you. Teach me how to cook from the garden. I love you, A.J.
Dear Grandpa, I like your garden! Here's a book on how to cook with it! Love, E.

Two days later, "PopPop" aka Grandpa and the kids selected recipes from the cookbook, shopped for groceries and set up to cook dinner. What a feast! A venison loin rubbed with mustard, oil and fresh herbs. Homemade biscuits, light as air! Green beans topped with a sweet-sour sauce, bacon and a chopped egg. "How are the green beans?" I asked at the table. "Fantastic!" murmured E., reaching for another bite.

Twas grand.
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Swiss Chard Skillet Supper Recipe ♥ with Tomatoes, Corn, Feta, Fresh Dill & Toasted Walnuts

<< Today's vegetarian supper recipe: A quick 'n' easy way to cook Swiss chard with other vegetables, here, tomatoes and corn. One of the best vegetarian dishes I've made all year! Low carb, low fat, and just Weight Watchers 3 points. Healthy and delicious, no beating that combination! >>

Call me late to this party, the online project that health-conscious food bloggers launched while I was off for awhile this summer. The idea is to explore a new "power food" every week following the list from Power Foods: 150 Delicious Recipes with the 38 Healthiest Ingredients. I'm arriving near the tail end of the vegetables, these are the ones the book identifies as "power food" vegetables: artichokes, asparagus, avocados, beets, bell peppers, broccoli, brussels sprouts, carrots, kale, mushrooms, spinach, sweet potatoes, swiss chard, tomatoes, winter squash. Of all these? The one I have the least connection with is Swiss chard so after all, the timing is excellent.
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Mighty Perfect Cabbage & Broccoli Coleslaw ♥ Recipe

Today's healthy coleslaw recipe, a mix of colorful fresh cabbage and broccoli, cooked a little - just a little - in the microwave before adding a low-calorie vinaigrette. It's a slaw recipe with ambition, eager to please. Pretty green broccoli slaw? Yep. Low carb slaw? You bet! Weight Watchers-friendly slaw? Of course! Plus not just vegan, "Vegan Done Real".

So let's talk straight about all the things that can go wrong with a coleslaw recipe, the things that so easily and all too often do go wrong with a coleslaw recipe, turning out cole slaw like this:

Too soggy, too watery. (How many coleslaw recipes are victims of this?)
Too raw and well, cabbage-y.
Too bland and unseasoned. (Such a waste of good cabbage, these coleslaw recipes!)
Too much dressing which translates into "too many calories". (How many coleslaw recipes turn out to be complete disasters, calorie-wise?)
Like a plain-jane slaw with not enough going on, but some times, a cole slaw that just tries too hard, with too much going on. (Poor sad things, these coleslaw recipes.)

This coleslaw recipe fixes all those cole slaw problems! (Maybe we should put the Cooks Illustrated folks onto the European debt crisis.) This recipe is all about technique. (You could even apply the steps to your own favorite recipe.) There are two extra steps:
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Buttermilk Chronicles Part 1: Buttermilk Peach Smoothie

On my way to breakfast at Lynn's house yesterday - buttermilk biscuits, eggs, sausage gravy and fruit - I bought buttermilk for the biscuits. A quart. Why doesn't buttermilk come in pints and half-pints as it did in my childhood so I don't end up with left-over buttermilk? There are a lot of uses for buttermilk, but none of them were on my menus for the upcoming week. All I remember about buttermilk from my childhood is that my dad loved drinking it straight (with a little black pepper) and, as a child, I hated the taste. I had consigned myself to using powdered buttermilk for spur-of-the-moment biscuits ("Buttermilk Biscuits") when I had neither buttermilk nor milk (to transform into a substitute with lemon juice or vinegar).

Why I continued to hold this childhood prejudice against buttermilk I don't know. I love yogurt - the tangy-er the better. I make my own yogurt on the tangy side. Lynn talked me into taking the remainder home and I vowed to use it. This morning I made a buttermilk peach smoothie and I pronounce it... DELICIOUS! Will I buy buttermilk just for smoothies? YES!

I don't use ice in my breakfast smoothies because I think it dilutes the flavors. If all of the ingredients are frosty cold right from the refrigerator, or the fruit is frozen, it's absolutely chilled enough for me.

RECIPE: PEACH BUTTERMILK SMOOTHIE WITH NUTMEG AND LIME

Serves: 1
 - The lime and nutmeg were fun but this would be delicious on its own. I'd may even skip the agave syrup the next time.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium peach (any sweet juicy fruit will do, about 3/4 to 1 cup total)
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon agave syrup (optional)
• 1 squeeze lime juice (optional)
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional)
• 1 small pinch kosher salt

Preparation:

• Wash the peach, remove the pit and chop (with peel) into a large dice. If desired, place in a bowl and freeze for 15-30 minutes. Go ahead and stick the serving glass in there as well.
• Add the all of the ingredients to a blender and puree for 1 minute. Serve in a chilled glass.

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Summer's Best Corn Chowder ♥ Recipe

A simple corn chowder recipe, packed with our favorite fresh summer vegetables like onion, carrot, red pepper, potato and sweet potato and of course, the soup's real star, kernels of sweet corn. As bright and colorful as crates of fresh vegetables lined up at the farmstand. Perfect for CSA members because the corn chowder recipe uses so many fresh vegetables, all at once.

In winter, big pots of simmering soup are a given, hearty bowls to warm us from the inside out. But what about summer soup, do you make summer soup? Summer soups are just different, aren't they? Lighter and livelier, more likely to be all about the fresh vegetables that are so alluring during these heady summer months.

For me, summer just isn't summer without at least two must-make summer soup recipes, Tomato Gazpacho, the chilled tomato summer soup that turned me into a seasonal eater, and this corn chowder recipe, bits of summer vegetables and sweet kernels of corn in a milky broth. It's takes a little chopping, we do love to cut vegetables, don't we? :-)

I like this corn chowder served warm, not hot, the better to really taste the individual vegetables, bite by bite. It's similar to Finnish Summer Soup, one of my very oldest recipes. Add shrimp and scallops and bits of fresh tomato for Summer Seafood Chowder, another summer chowder.

All fans of summer soup will definitely want to check out my collection of Favorite Summer Soup Recipes, some chilled, some warm, all filled with summer vegetables (and fruit too!) and summer color.
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Saturday Breakfast: Mashed Potato Pancakes

Ours weren't quite as fluffy as we expected them to be, but then I realized that 'somebody' (ahem, me) only beat the egg whites to 'soft' instead of 'stiff' peaks. Still, they tasted marvelous.

Who says you can't go home again? Taste memories are sometimes hard to recreate because what you remember tasting can be tied up with other kinds of memories: time, places, and people can all affect how you remember taste. Lynn, my co-cooking compatriot wanted to recreate the potato pancakes of her childhood from (long closed) "Farmer John's Pancake House" in Bakersfield, CA, formerly located at the corner of Union Ave and Golden State Hwy (Route 99). "Farmer John's" was a roadside diner and any of us who grew up in the U.S. prior to the 1970's can remember them well. They still exist, but largely they have disappeared, some have become regional chains and a very few are national or global chains.

Photos are reproduced with kind permission by Roadside Peek

These weren't the kind of potato pancakes like latkes that start off with shredded potatoes but American-style pancakes made with leftover mashed potatoes.

We modified the recipe from Aroostook on Food.com in that we did not add the sugar and added about 1 1/2 tablespoons of finely minced shallot. That amount of shallot was perfect - just a hint that didn't overwhelm.

Whether an exact re-creation or not, Lynn loved (as did I) how these turned out.

RECIPE: MASHED POTATO PANCAKES

Adapted from: Aroostook on Food .com
Makes  approximately 12 pancakes (1/4 cup batter for each pancake)


Ingredients:

• 1 cup mashed potatoes - leftovers are preferred.
• 2 eggs at room temperature, separated (see note below the instructions on beating egg whites)
  
• 1 1/2 tablespoons finely minced shallot
  
• 1 1/4 cups whole milk
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Butter for the pan
• Your topping of choice. We used maple syrup. The real stuff, otherwise it's not maple syrup, right?
  

Preparation:

• Beat the egg yolks, the mashed potato, shallots, milk and butter. Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and combine but do not over mix. Heat a griddle on low heat.
  
• Beat the room-temperature egg whites until stiff peaks form. Turn the  heat on the griddle up to medium. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter. Fold the remainder of the beaten whites into the batter and fold until just combined and there are no streaks of egg white.
• The amount of butter you'll need for the griddle depends on your griddle size. Our griddle could cook 3 pancakes (a scant 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake) and we added 2 teaspoons of butter for the first batch - and none thereafter. 
• Cook the pancakes on the first side until the top shows bubbles and the edges start to look a little dry. At that point lift up the edge and peek. Turn when they're golden brown and cook on the second side until they're golden brown - about a couple of minutes. 
• Serve as they're ready with the toppings of your choice. If you're cooking for a crowd, place an oven-proof platter in a very low oven (180 F) and place the finished pancakes on the platter until you're ready to serve.

NOTES ON BEATING EGG WHITES

• Prepare the egg whites right before you're ready to use them
• Your bowl and whisk (or electric beater) should be clean, completely dry and free of any grease. Even a tiny spot of oil or egg yolk will cause the process to fail.
• Fresh eggs are best.
• It's easier to separate eggs while they're cold, but you want your whites at room temperature when you beat them - about 30 minutes will do.
• The safest way to separate your eggs is to have three bowls: two small-ish and one larger bowl (the one in which you'll beat the whites). Crack an egg into the first bowl. Separate the egg in your hand placing the yolk in bowl #2 and pouring the white into bowl #3 (the egg white beating bowl). Repeat. This way if a yolk breaks, you've only lost one egg.
• Start out on low speed (if using an electric beater) to help break up the whites for a few seconds and then move the speed up to medium-high.
• Once you've started, don't stop - this may destabilize the mixture.
• "Soft Peaks":  When you lift your whisk or beater out of the bowl, the peaks flop over.
• "Stiff Peaks":  When you lift your whisk or beater out of the bowl, the peaks stand up straight.

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