Almost pumpkin

I know its pumpkin week, but unfortunately California didn't get the memo. While it is easy to pick up canned pumpkin year round, its more difficult to find actual pumpkins. This means that sometimes when I want to make a pumpkin dish, I get stuck using a substitute like butternut squash. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE butternut squash but how likely do you think it is that Starbucks will be coming up with a Butternut Squash latte anytime soon?

I very close cousin to the pumpkin, butternut squash has a natural sweetness that works really well in both savory and sweet dishes. It's exceptional for roasting and serving as a side, but its equally as tasty in tarts, pies, and baked like apples!

For a total twist on Apple Pie a la Mode, try making it with butternut squash. And with a little sopapilla instead of a crust, its a very fancy alternative!

Butternut Squash Sopapillas with Cream

1 cup and 2 Tbsp AP flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 large egg, lightly beaten
2 cups and 3 1/2 Tbsp ice water
1 1/2 tsp white vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
3 large egg yolks
1 cup crema mexicana
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup seeded, peeled, and cubed butternut squash
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
4 Tsp molasses
1 strip of orange peel
1 cinnamon stick
1 chile de arbol, seeded
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
vegetable oil

1) Whisk flour and salt in bowl.
2) Add butter. Using fingertips, rub butter into flour mixture until coarse meal forms.
3) Whisk egg, 2 1/2 Tbsp water and vinegar in small bowl. Drizzle over flour mixture. Stir with fork until just incorporated. Knead on floured surface until dough comes together. Form into disk, wrap in plastic and chill 1 hour.
4) Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 1/8 in. thick round. Using 4-in. round cookie cutter, cut into 6 rounds.
5) Whisk 1/2 cup sugar and ground cinnamon in bowl. Pour oil into heavy large saucepan to depth of 4 inches. Heat oil. Place dough rounds in oil and submerge until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Transfer to paper towels. Repeat with remaining rounds. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
6) Place 1/4 cup sugar, egg yolks, and 1 Tbsp water in double boiler. Whisk constantly about three minutes.
7) Whisk in Crema. Cool completely.
8) Beat whipping cream in Kitchenaid until peaks form. Fold whipped cream into cooled crema. Cover. Freeze until firm, 4 hours.
9) Place 2 cups water and butternut squash, brown sugar, molasses, orange peel, cinnamon stick, and chile in large saucepan. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until squash is just tender, about 15 minutes. Strain syrup; transfer squash to medium bowl. Return cooking syrup and spices to saucepan. Simmer until reduced to 1/4 cup, about 5 minutes. Cool. Pour syrup over squash.
10) Place 1 sopapilla on each plate and divide squash among them. Spoon 1 scoop frozen cream over each, drizzle with remaining syrup, and serve.

Serves 6.
Each serving has:

Calories		503.5
Total Fat		21.5 g
Cholesterol		181.6 mg
Sodium		309.8 mg
Potassium		304.3 mg
Total Carbohydrate		75.1 g
Protein		5.0 g

Be True to Your School

I didn't want to go to UCLA. It wasn't my first, second, or third choice, however I firmly believe everything happens for a reason. So as soon as it became clear I'd be attending I became fiercely loyal. UCLA is known as having more school spirit than any most other schools in the country. Just take a stroll through campus and you'll see more UCLA shirts/hats/sweats than a typical football game. And of course, its easy to be loyal to a great school. UCLA students have so much to be proud of! The sports, the academics, the students, and of course - Diddy Riese.

Diddy Riese is a UCLA institution. Sure some may discount it as "that cookie store" but for any UCLA student the mere mention of the name can cause a misty faroff look in the eyes. I have a friend who credits Diddy Riese with bringing together her and her now husband. It's powerful stuff. So powerful in fact, that students from "the other school" would venture out of their gated fortress, through gang territory, just to stand in line for 15-30 minutes (longer on a Saturday) just for "a cookie."

Diddy Riese had two specialties: the cookies, and the ice cream sandwiches. When I was at school there, cookies were $.25 each and sandwiches were $1.00. I believe the price has gone up to $.35 and $1.50 respectively, which is still nothing to knock at. The ice cream sandwiches were a floor favorite for me and my friends. Consisting of a giant scoop of ice cream between two fresh cookies, this was a mess to hold and eat, but worth the sticky hands. My personal favorite was strawberry ice cream between two white chocolate academia nut cookies.

It's been a couple months since my last trip up to Westwood, and I was craving some nostaliga. I had picked up some molasses cookies at the store and thought that I would recreate a favorite treat for Jon and I. I decided to make pumpkin ice cream, since it is pumpkin week after all. This was a very good idea. The ice cream was beyond excellent. Jon made two telling comments.
1) This tastes like its really good for me! It must be healthy.
2) This is the best pumpkin ice cream I've ever had.

Pumpkin Ice Cream

1 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup caramel
1 cinnamon stick
6 large egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 tsp vanilla

1) Bring milk, cream, caramel, and cinnamon stick to a simmer in saucepan over medium heat, stirring often. Remove from heat, cover, and let sit 30 minutes.
2) Return to a simmer over medium-high heat. Remove from heat, discard cinnamon stick.
3) Put yolks and sugar in bowl and beat with electric mixer using the whisk attachment on medium high speed for 4 minutes.
4) With machine running. Add hot milk mixture in slow, steady stream. Add pumpkin and vanilla. Beat till combined.
5) Put in ice cream maker according to directions.

Serves 8.
Each Serving has:

8 Servings
Amount Per Serving
Calories		132.3
Total Fat		8.9 g
Cholesterol		174.6 mg
Sodium		28.3 mg
Potassium		107.6 mg
Total Carbohydrate		9.9 g
Protein		3.5 g

Pumpkin Week!

Some would say its the wrong time of year for pumpkin food goods. To them I say "Neiner Neiner" (which, for those of you who don't know is a technical legal term used by counsel when opposing counsel loses an argument). I love pumpkin year round, and nothing cheers me up more than having some pumpkin-y goodness. So I have designated this week as Pumpkin Week! That's a weeks worth of pumpkin recipes you've got coming for you. I know, you can hardly contain your excitement.

A while back, Diane got me a bag of pumpkin seeds to cheer me up. They've been sitting in my pantry, unopened, ever since. My pantry is a mess. There's too much stuff and its definitely on my list of "things Kate needs to organize." However, organizing is so much easier when there's less in there too organize.

Jon won't eat pumpkin seeds for two reasons
1) They're too healthy
2) They're too chewy

So here's a little trick to get him to help me put these suckers away. Coat them in sugar. Yup. He'll eat just about anything coated in sugar. And brittle is the perfect way to counteract chewiness. I like this because its a lot less salty that its peanutty cousin. Jon liked this because, well, did you see what I said about coating things in sugar?

Pumpkin Brittle

1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 cup lightly roasted pumpkin seeds.

1) Butter rimmed baking sheet. Melt remaining butter in small saucepan over medium heat.
2) Stir in sugar and honey. Bring to a boil. Cook without stirring about 6 minutes.
3) Stir in pumpkin seeds. Cook about 2 minutes. Pour onto prepared baking sheet. Let cool completely. Break into pieces.

Serves 6.
Each serving has:

Calories		227.3
Total Fat		9.7 g
Cholesterol		20.7 mg
Sodium		70.1 mg
Potassium		171.3 mg
Total Carbohydrate		35.2 g
Protein		2.1 g

Platinum Chef is BACK

I mentioned I had taken a brief hiatus from blogging events, well I'm not the only one! One of my favorite events had also taken a break. Since it coincided with me taking the bar, I'd like to think it was put on hold for me, but in truth, I'm not the only one who was busy.

But now Platinum Chef is back, and better than ever. Okay, so maybe it hasn't changed at all, but you know that old saying "if it ain't broke....."

This round's five ingredients for the challenge are:
barley
butternut squash
chickpeas
cumin
vanilla

Now when I think of barley, only one thing comes to mind. Soup! I love barley in my soup and I know it has other uses, but again, "if it ain't broke...." I also love butternut squash soup, so it seemed like a given to add the barley into the soup. Except when I told my husband his response was "Barley goes in BROTH soups." I didn't realize there were soup rules or that he was the referee, but as luck would have it, I had a recipe for pumpkin and mushroom broth I was dying to try anyway. Take THAT Jon! It would be oh so easy to adapt this recipe by substituting butternut squash for the pumpkin and adding barley to the finished product. Cumin brings out the natural sweetness of squash so I thought adding it to the roasting would add to the fresh herbs that were being roasted alongside. Vanilla would complement the broth and the spice of the cumin. The only issue was the chickpeas.

I had an idea to make a sort of beernut out of the chickpeas by roasting them with some spices. In an ideal world these would have floated to the top for a lovely photo op. This is not an ideal world. Those suckers sunk to the bottom just like little anchors. Oh well, I knew they were there.

Butternut Broth with Barley

2 cups butternut squash, peeled and cubed
6 oz shitake mushrooms
4 medium leeks, trimmed and sliced
5 Tbsp EVOO
salt
pepper
garlic salt
cayenne pepper
12 sprigs thyme
10 sage leaves
6 garlic cloves (unpeeled!)
1 tsp cumin
1 Tbsp vanilla
shallots, thinly sliced
6 sprigs parsley
bay leaf
1/2 cup barley
1 can chick peas

1) Preheat oven to 375. Place butternut squash on rimmed baking sheet. Reserve a couple cubes.
2) Remove stems from 2 mushrooms, thinly slice the caps and set with reserved squash. Place stems and remaining mushrooms on baking sheet.
3) Julienne two large slices of the leek and place with sliced mushroom and squash.
4) Drizzle squash and mushrooms on baking sheet with 3 Tbsp oil, 1/2 tsp salt, and cumin. Toss to coat. Add thyme, sage, and garlic to sheet and toss to combine. Bake until squash is lightly browned, about 25 minutes.
5) Turn oven up to 450 and transfer roasted vegetable to large stockpot. Place hot baking sheet on stove burner over medium heat and add 1 cup water, scraping browned bits with wooden spoon. Add deglazed liquid to pot.
6) Add leeks, shallots, parsley, bay leaf, 12 cups of water, and vanilla. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, partially covered for 45 minutes. Uncover, and raise heat to medium. Cook 15 minutes more. Pour through fine sieve into medium saucepan, discard solids.
7) Add reserved leek, mushroom, squash, and barley to saucepan and season with salt. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook until barley is cooked, about 40 minutes.
8) While soup is cooking, blot chickpeas with paper towels and toss with 2 Tbsp olive oil, salt, garlic salt, and cayenne. Spread on baking sheet and bake for 30-35 minutes, until browned.
9) Season soup with salt and pepper and top with roasted chickpeas.

4 Servings Each serving has:
Calories		326.0
Total Fat		18.4 g
Cholesterol		0.0 mg
Sodium		345.4 mg
Potassium		649.6 mg
Total Carbohydrate		39.2 g
Protein		5.0 g

Homegrown Gourmet - finally

It is time to get back to blogging events. I have been away far too long and I really do love events because they give me an excuse/reason to try something new. I really love homegrown gourmet since I'm not a native Californian, so it gives me the opportunity to play with local cuisine. Especially since this is the home of the year round farmer's markets.

This round we're doing breakfast. The most important meal of the day! I was trying to think about what I should use as my staple "homegrown" ingredient on our way up to Yosemite by reading all the "produce for sale" signs by the side of the road. Now anyone who has ever driven the 5 north from Los Angeles is no doubt aware that central California is known for a very specific fruit. Signs advertising "Date Shakes" can be seen every few miles for a very long stretch of time. Dates are one of those native fruits that really can't be found many places, and most Californians have date palms growing in their back yards (though many don't know it, because really - are you going to climb a tree when you can get it just as fresh from the market?)

I wanted to incorporate dates in breakfast, and really its easy. Chopped dates are great in yogurts, but what kind of recipe would that be? (Open yogurt. Put in dates.) So I thought a pound cake would be more appropriate. I came across a recipe for a couscous cake and since I associate both couscous and dates with the same part of the world, thought that dates would be a welcome addition. Now, please don't get excited about Cake for breakfast. This cake is more like a corn bread. Grainy, with a hint of sweetness that's not overwhelming. The cream on top is the perfect addition for moisture and in truth, most of the sweetness comes from those dates which are like little pieces of honey. Yum!

Couscous Cake with Dates

1 cup AP flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup uncooked couscous

3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp EVOO

1/4 cup Muscat

6 large egg yolks

3 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1 Tbsp finely grated orange peel

1 cup chilled heavy cream

1/4 cup creme fraiche

12 dates, pitted, thinly sliced

1) Preheat oven to 375. Brush 9 inch cake pan with olive oil. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper and brush parchment with olive oil. Place flour, baking powder, salt in food processor and pulse a couple of times.

2) Stir flour and couscous in medium bowl.

3) Whisk olive oil and Muscat in separate medium bowl.

4) Beat egg yolks, eggs, and sugar on high speed about 7 minutes. Stir in orange peel. sing rubber spatula, gently fold in flour mixture alternately with olive oil mixture in 4 additions each.

5) Transfer batter to prepared pan, tap lightly to eliminate air bubbles. Bake care until dark brown, about 40 minutes. Transfer cake to rack and cool in pan at least 30 minutes.

6) Beat cream and creme fraiche in kitchenaid until soft peaks form. Spoon whipped cream over cake and sprinkle with dates.

8 Servings
Each Serving has:

Calories 409.9
Total Fat 21.6 g
Cholesterol 274.1 mg
Sodium 340.8 mg
Potassium 99.4 mg
Total Carbohydrate 46.7 g
Protein 7.8 g

My Girls!

Today was the big day. All the training, all the blood, sweat and tears, and all the hard work finally came to a head with the LA Marathon. 26.2 miles. No, I didn't run this race, but I'd be a terrible friend if I didn't go support those who did. After all, they gave so much of themselves!

And I wasn't the only one. A group of us in Orange County decided to go together and meet another group from LA to form one large cheering crowd. The Orange County contingency met at the train station for a ride up to Los Angeles.
We met up with our LA tour guides who were waiting to take us to lunch. What a large cheerful looking group we were! Special shout out to our fabulous photog, Jon who tested our his new camera and skills on this day trip.

Our illustrious tour guide, WeezerMonkey took the lead and we headed to one of her fave spots, Phillippe's for their famous sandwiches. She does a great review here, so I'll let her words to the talking.

Jon and I each got a turkey sandwich and split some macaroni salad, which Jon swears might be the best he's ever eaten. There were so many of us, we headed to the rooms upstairs. "It's like a mental institution" WeezerMonkey informed us. But in truth, it was more like a school cafeteria complete with long tables and miniature stools. It was all I could do not to instigate a food fight.
We were tracking my girls on our cell phones, and after lunch it was about time to head to our cheering area because they'd be getting there soon. So WeezerMonkey led us over to the subway and we rode over to the marathon. Because of the large crowds, we ended up splitting into two groups so that we could all have front row views and our signs could be seen. Here's the view from our cheering section of the other cheering section.
After a bit of a wait, the first of the pack arrived. Diane (purple) and Andrea (pink). We knew they'd be first and we were ready. We yelled, we screamed, we waved. By this time they had already ran 26 miles!!!
We anxiously awaited the next group, Kim and Cat. We saw Kim first. But at this point the camera started being weird, so I apologize for the blurriness. I promise it's Kim. Even though, when did her hair get so blonde?

Kim was smiling and laughing, but where was Cat? We started to worry a bit only because we had talked to Cat's husband a little earlier and he said she was really hurting around mile 19. We were 7 miles past that. Around this time Diane and Andrea had made their way over to us. They didn't look like they'd run 26 miles. In fact, both looked better than they did after the half marathon.
It felt like forever before we saw Cat's husband run out and scoop her off her feet in a huge hug. This time the camera got a bit overexposed, so you'll have to trust me again.
Now, we had all been warned/were experienced that Jessica was not a fast runner. She reminded us almost daily about her frustrations at not being as fast as the other girls. The girls from Orange County began glancing at their watches nervously because we wanted to catch our train back and not be stuck in LA till 9:00 PM. I called WeezerMonkey who assured us that based on their tracking, Jessica and Aline were only 5-10 minutes away. We didn't believe her. I mean, Cat had JUST passed us, and the other girls complain of being so slow. As soon as I turned to give the pronouncement we SAW THEM! HOLY CRAP! None of us were expecting to see them so soon. They were right on Cat's tail!
Meanwhile - how fricking skinny does Jessica look in this picture?

The one waving is Aline, you know, the one who didn't think she could run a 6 mile? Here she .2 miles away from the finish!!!!!

After the race, the LA girls headed to my girls' hotel to give them goody bags and hear the details, while the OC girls headed to catch their train back. The fabulous Wan acted as our guide on the scary subway.
And then we were on our own, waiting for our train back to the bubble.
It was a great day, and I'd like to say I'm proud of my friends, but why should I get any credit for their hard work? They're the ones that should be proud. I'm just lucky to call each of these amazing women my friends and I'm bursting at the seams with excitement for them. After all, I knew they could do it all along.

Sit right here and drink another beer in Mexico....

Upon finding out about my new job, C immediately emailed me and asked when we were going out to celebrate. I sighed and looked at my overbooked, overcrowded schedule and told her I thought I was free the first weekend in March.

We went back and forth trying to figure out the wheres, whens, and whos. I remembered the Marathon on Sunday, but Saturday seemed to work out for everyone. Final decision was a Mexican restaurant in Irvine Saturday night, girls and husbands. On Sunday, Jon gets a call from Bill.

Jon: Bill called me, he wants to know if we want to go to Rosarito on Saturday.
Me: Bill's confused. We're going to MEXICAN on Saturday, not MEXICO.
Jon: mmmmm, I don't know about that.......

Sure enough, the next day I get a call from Liz to see if we're in. We went back and forth over the details including the whens and hows, ensuring that C and her husband, H were also include. At 6 PM on Friday 2 carloads of peoples and puppies pulled up outside my office so we could begin our caravan into Mexico!

Initially, I was a little concerned about the trip. It was a last minute, fly by the seat of your pants kind of trip...which makes me anxious. We had just got back from a trip, which makes me tired. And I'm cheering in the marathon Sunday, which made me wonder if this trip would really be worth it, or if I would just be heading down to turn around. But once we got there, I realized - this was exactly what I needed. A nice relaxing evening with some fun and beer.

We stayed at Liz's parents' place. A beautiful home that was literally right on the water.
I'm spoiled. I can never go back to Mexico and not stay in a home. The convenience and comfort are unmatched by any hotel (and I do love a nice hotel).

We got in late due to some unforseen incident at the Border which had traffic backed up for hours. While the boys went for food, the girls unpacked cars, got the dogs set up, and started on the beers. By the time the food showed up, we were starving! The boys went to Taco Manuel and brought back quesadillas. They were hot, they were spicy, they were exactly what we needed.
We proceeded to spend the rest of the night huddled round the table telling funny stories to make each other laugh. We didn't even realize how much time had passed, until it was already the next morning and definitely bedtime.

We got up Saturday morning and the sun was shining on the patio overlooking the ocean. So it was breakfast, showers, and lying around doing more talking.
When the clouds rolled in, chilling the air we decided to head into Rosarito for lunch. We ate at a place called El Nido which was like stepping into the aviary of a zoo. There were floor to ceiling bird cages separating the rooms, dark wood, and lots of jungly trees, hanging over the table. The food was excellent and it was fun that everyone got something different. At our table we had tacos, burritos, enchiladas, tamales......Everyone definitely enjoyed! I had the beef tamales which were filled with beef and black onions. Jon had the beef tacos, with juicy chunks of meat.

After lunch we packed up and headed out to wait to cross back to the US. Border waits are always long and painful. Today was no different. We came home and watched a movie while we enjoyed the rest of our relaxing day.

Thanks C for knowing I needed a break, and thank you to our wonderful host and hostess for planning the whole trip! It was just what I needed and exactly when I needed it!