Acorn Squash Bisque

My Coworker came in with tons and tons of acorn squash as a result of a gardening accident. I had made this bisque last year with butternut squash and it was fabulous so I decided to give it a go with the acorn squash. I know something is a hit when my husband tells me I should open a restaurant while eating. Shhhhh....I think he thinks I make these recipes up. We'll let him continue to ponder how amazing I am.

Acorn Squash Bisque
Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
1 T. olive oil
1 T. butter
1/2 cup diced onion
3/4 cup diced carrots
2 acorn squash
3 cups vegetable stock
salt and pepper to taste
ground nutmeg to taste
1/2 cup cream (used light)

Directions:

1. Cut acorn squash in half and remove the seeds. Bake at 350 degrees for 60 min or until soft. Scoop out squash and place aside.

2. Heat the oil and melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Cook and stir the onion in the butter and oil under tender.

3. Mix the carrots and squash into the pot. Pour in vegetable stock, and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until vegetables are tender.

4. In a blender or food processor, puree the soup mixture until smooth. ( I skipped this part and instead used a potato masher to break up any chunks.) Return to the pot, and stir in the heavy cream. Heat through, but do not boil. Serve warm with a dash of nutmeg.

Blueberry Crisp

Warning: The following recipe may be hard to understand and could cause random feelings of nauseousness. I beg you to believe that I would never steer you wrong!


So I had some blueberries in the fridge and wanted to make some dessert. I searched through allrecipes looking through recipes for cobblers and crisps until I found one that appeared to be simple enough. Blueberries, sugar, flour, mayonaise, cinna....WHAT? Mayonaise? What kind of freak would put mayonaise in a blueberry crisp!? So I read through the reviews and reviewer after reviewer gave the recipe 4-5 stars and proclaimed that the mayonaise was unrecognizable in the crisp. I felt intrigued.

Now I'm not a mayonaise lover to begin with. If I ever went on one of those reality shows where you had to eat giraffe testicles or mayonaise straight from the jar, I'm fairly certain I'd pick the testicles. Even mixing the ingredients together was a bit difficult for me. I figured I'd make the husband try it first and see what he said.

Then I realized that mayonaise is really just oil and eggs. Most cake recipes call for both of those ingredients anyway, right?

So the verdict is..... it was good! It tasted like any other blueberry crisp I've had. AND it only took 3 minutes to prep. Can't beat that!

Blueberry Crisp
AllRecipes.com

Ingredients:

4 cups fresh blueberries
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup mayonnaise

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. Place the blueberries into an 8 inch square baking dish. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, and cinnamon. Stir in the mayonnaise until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over the top of the berries.

3. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven, until the top is lightly browned.

**Serve warm with vanilla ice cream**

Zucchini Pancakes

It seems like everyone and their mother has a garden these days. Except for me. Luckily, I have enough friends and family overproducing to keep me stocked with fruits and vegetables up until...eh....2012. I had some zucchini in the fridge that I wanted to use up and my husband was out with his friend scoping out deer hunting spots. Doesn't that sound grand? It gave me a great chance to make something that would be fun for dinner but wouldn't be enough for his monster appetite if he was joining me.

This recipe is from my favorite blog The Pioneer Woman Cooks . They were delicious! The recipe from PW is a little vague in ingredients so I used my own measurements to make things simplistic for you all. You can thank me in the form of cookies.

Zucchini Cakes (I say pancakes because zucchini cake makes me think of dessert)

Ingredients:

2 cups shredded zucchini (2 whole zucchinis in my case)
1/2 bread crumbs
1/2 cup italian cheese blend (I used romano/parmesan)
2 eggs
1 T. minced garlic (about 4-5 cloves and that made it very garlicy but it kept the vampires away)
olive oil (enough to make a nice frying layer in the pan)
salt and pepper (to taste)

Directions:

1. Shred zucchini using a cheese grater. Take towels and pat shredded zucchini to remove majority of water. (There's a lot of water in those suckas!)

2. Mix together zucchini, bread crumbs, cheese, garlic, salt, and pepper. Heat olive oil in a frying pan to medium heat. Drop in small globs of zucchini into heated olive and press down with fork to flatten. Cook 2-3 minutes on each side or until golden brown.

Serve with ranch dressing or other dipping sauces!

Chicken Vino Bianco

I'm not gonna lie. I love the Olive Garden! With those breadsticks and that salad and all those carby entrees. I usually go into carb-shock within minutes of paying the check. The downsides are the wait is always at least an hour. (Seeeee all you OG haters! There are more of me!) So I decided to try to find a copycat recipe of my favorite entree that I get each and every time I go to the Olive Garden. This is the second time I've tried a "copycat" recipe for this dish and this one was right on!

Chicken Vino Bianco

Source: Recipezaar.com

Ingredients:

4 pieces boneless skinless chicken breasts; pounded thin

4 T olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped green onions
1/2 cup small diced tomato
1/2 cup red onion, sliced
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 tablespoon chopped fresh garlic
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, divided (cut to 5 T. No one needs that much butter)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 lb uncooked linguine (I used spaghetti because thats what I had and cut it back to 3/4 lb. because I like my pasta wet with the wine sauce)
seasoned flour (for dusting)

FOR SEASONED FLOUR (this was way too much! I'd suggest cutting in half)
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Heat oil in large saute' pan. Dust chicken in seasoned flour. Cook chicken on both sides until golden brown and internal temperature reaches 165 degrees. Remove chicken from pan and set aside.

2. Add 2 Tbsp butter to pan. Add green onion, diced tomato, red onion, mushrooms, garlic, chopped parsley, crushed red pepper, black pepper and salt to pan. Let saute' for three minutes, stirring constantly.

3. Add chicken back to pan. Add white wine, lemon juice and the remainder of the butter.
Allow to come to a boil. Cook pasta according to directions. Add drained cooked pasta to the pan and toss together and serve.