Ginger-Maple Baked Delicata Squash

Something about fall and Thanksgiving always makes me think of traditional New England foods (even though New England foods cover all four seasons) -- maybe it's the huge spread at Thanksgiving, complete with roast turkey, squash, turnips, and pumpkin pie. So when a re-jacketed review copy of New England Home Cooking came in the mail a few weeks, it couldn't have been timed better.

I paged through the book, checking out New England favorites, many of which were immediately familiar to me -- like Crispy Fried Ipswich Clams, Thick and Creamy Boston Clam Chowder, Boston Baked Beans Durgin Park Style, Classic New England Boiled Dinner, Polly's Pancake Parlor Cornmeal Buttermilk Pancakes, Classic Parker House Rolls, and Boston Cream Pie.

In addition to these very New England-sounding recipes, the book covers all sorts of recipes with Portuguese, Greek, Italian, Polish, and other influences. Because people from all over arrived in New England bringing their food traditions with them, you'll also find recipes for Athena Diner Avgolemono, Irish Shepherd's Pie, North End Penne with Chicken and Broccoli, Pierogi with Several Fillings, and Hungarian Egg Dumplings.

Along with the recipes, there are stories and anecdotes, and I spent a lot of time reading through the book learning little tidbits about New England. If I hadn't already been convinced, I knew the book was a keeper when I came upon a note titled, "Connecticut: The Pizza State," which proposed that Connecticut (where I grew up) should be re-nicknamed "The Pizza State" based on the acclaim of Pepe's in New Haven and touting the praises of New Haven pizzerias (which I miss very dearly now that I'm in Boston).

After I got over my nostalgia for New Haven pizza, I picked out a recipe to try from the book: Ginger-Maple Baked Delicata Squash. I've often roasted squash with brown sugar and maple syrup or lots of butter and sage, but I've never added ginger, and I was intrigued.

I halved the recipe except for the butter (there's nothing wrong with extra butter) and was so happy with the warm, sweet, spicy outcome.

Ginger-Maple Baked Delicata Squash (adapted from New England Home Cooking)

Ingredients

1 delicata squash
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
Salt and pepper

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cut squash in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds, and place cut side up in a baking dish.

Divide butter, maple syrup, and ginger between cavities, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Pour about 1/2 inch of hot water in bottom of dish, and cover squash with foil.

Bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and brush squash flesh with melted filling.

Continue to bake, uncovered, until squash is easily pierced with a fork and tops are lightly glazed, 10 to 20 minutes. Serve hot.

I simply scooped the squash out of its skin and ate it, but if you wanted to plate the squash for serving at, say, Thanksgiving dinner, you could pour the melted filling into a small bowl, slice the squash, plate it, and pour the filling on top. Your guests will love the sweet-spicy contrast between the maple syrup and fresh ginger.

What are your favorite New England foods?

The Perfect Sunday Roast

How many of you spend your Sundays in the kitchen, making extravagant meals or meals that are bound to yield leftovers for the week? If that sounds like you, then you'll want to check out Sunday Roasts. I recently got a review copy of this cookbook, which is dedicated to the Sunday evening meal and full of ideas for roasts from simple to extravagant, and I couldn't wait for a free Sunday to try out a recipe from it.

The chapters in the book are divided by the type of meat and range from beef, pork, and lamb and veal to poultry, seafood, sides, and extras. At the end there's a helpful roast directory that classifies all the recipes by how much time they take, how economical they are, and which ones are perfect for special occasions.

While so many recipes got my attention (from Mini Wellingtons to Pork Loin with a Blue Cheese Stuffing and Roasted Pears), I decided my first recipe from the book would be a typical roast, The Perfect Sunday Roast. The main part of this dish is a 4-pound top sirloin roast, which is studded with garlic slivers and accompanied by roasted onions and mushrooms. It would make an amazing dinner for company, but it also provides incredible leftovers if you're just serving two.

The Perfect Sunday Roast (adapted from Sunday Roasts)

Ingredients

1 (4-pound) boneless top sirloin roast
5 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced thin
2 teaspoons dried thyme leaves
Kosher salt and pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil plus 1/2 cup, plus more for pans
3 red onions
10 ounces mushrooms, cleaned and halved or quartered if large
1 1/2 cups beef broth
3/4 cup dry red wine
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Preparation

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Pat the roast dry with paper towels. using a sharp paring knife, make slits over the entire surface of the roast and insert the garlic slivers into the slits.

In a small bowl, mix together the thyme, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and 3 tablespoons oil. Brush this mixture all over the roast.

Oil the bottom of a roasting pan, and stand the roast in the pan fat-side up. Roast for 15 minutes.

While meat is roasting, prepare the onions and mushrooms. Oil a large, rimmed baking sheet. Peel the onions, and cut them into wedges, keeping root ends intact.

Arrange the onions on one half of the baking sheet and the mushrooms on the other half. Drizzle remaining 1/2 cup olive oil over the mushrooms and onions. Season with salt and pepper, and toss to coat well.

After the meat has roasted for 15 minutes, reduce heat to 350 degrees. Place pan with vegetables on the lower shelf.

Roast the meat until a thermometer inserted in center of roast registers 130 to 135 degrees, or about 50 to 60 minutes.

Roast the vegetables, stirring every 15 minutes, until slightly browned and charred around edges, 50 to 60 minutes.

When done, transfer roast to cutting board and let rest for 20 minutes.

Skim off and discard any fat in the roasting pan. Place the pan over medium-high heat, and add the broth and wine. Whisk the mixture, scraping up any brown bits on the pan and incorporating them. Bring the mixture to a simmer, and reduce by half. Then whisk in the butter. Season with salt and pepper.

Cut the roast crosswise, against the grain, into 1/4-inch-thick slices.

Serve with onions, mushrooms, and sauce.

I was so incredibly pleased with how well this meal came out. The meat was a bit pricey, and I kept worrying that I would overcook it and ruin it, but I simply followed the directions in the recipe, used my oven's probe thermometer, and it worked just perfectly.

I loved the roasted onions and mushrooms on the side. They were so simple to make and added their own flavors to pair with the garlicky meat. And I also made some garlic mashed potatoes, you know, just to make sure we had plenty of garlic that night.

What's your favorite Sunday meal?

Chicken Salad Sandwiches

I am slowly and steadily making my way through the stack of cookbooks I've been sent to review over the past few months. One of those cookbooks is The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches, written by food blogger Susan Russo of Food Blogga.

The book is small (with lots of small type) but chock-full of information. The sandwiches run the gamut from A to Z and range from those so simple I wouldn't even bother to use a recipe to make them (hello, BLT, grilled cheese, and PB&J) to more complex recipes with many steps (I'm looking at you, pulled pork sandwich). Every sandwich is pictured, which I really like, and accompanied by some sort of history or trivia. If you're curious about the difference between a hoagie, a hero, and a grinder, you'll want to read this cookbook.

I know I'll be making many of the sandwiches in this book, but I opted for a fairly simple sandwich for my first one: the chicken salad sandwich. I'd like to say I followed the recipe exactly, but I learned I'm not so disciplined when it comes to following a recipe for a sandwich. By nature, sandwiches call for ease and simplicity, so I did a lot more estimating than measuring.

I also ended up cutting back on a lot of the ingredients, and I still had enough chicken salad to make four sandwiches, which is the original yield. I can't imagine how big the sandwiches were supposed to be! Below is my scaled-down version. (Note that I used this recipe to cook the chicken to give it more flavor.) The chicken salad is sweet and tangy and definitely worth making.

Chicken Salad Sandwiches (adapted from The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches)
Makes 4 sandwiches

Ingredients

8 ounces poached, shredded chicken (from about two boneless, skinless breasts)
2 tablespoons finely diced celery
2 tablespoons relish
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
3 tablespoons dried cranberries
1 tablespoon finely diced Vidalia onion
Salt and pepper
4 slices cheddar cheese
8 slices whole-grain bread or bread of your choice (toasted if desired)

Preparation

Combine chicken salad ingredients in a bowl. If desired, cover and refrigerate 2 hours to let flavors meld (I didn't do this).

For each sandwich, top a piece of toast or bread with a slice of cheddar and one-fourth of the chicken salad.

Then top the sandwich with another piece of toast or bread, and serve.

"It's nothing fancy -- just a simple, delicious meal between bread." - Susan Russo

What's your favorite sandwich?

Butternut Squash Soup

Don't you just love a bowl of soup in the wintertime? After braving the outdoors, trudging through snow, and getting blown around by frosty winds, it's nice to come in and ladle up some comforting, warming soup. And not only is this particular soup comforting and warming, it's also easy -- so easy I made it while I was cooking us something else for dinner one night. (Squash is one of the many vegetables I can't get Jeff to touch, so I made the soup to take for lunch for the week.)

This is another recipe from The French Women Don't Get Fat Cookbook. I decided to try it because my favorite butternut squash soup is one my dad makes, and it has squash and apples in it just like this one. The soup was reminiscent of the one I've had at home. The main flavor is the squash, which is followed by a hint of onion and a glimpse of carrot and herbs. The original recipe calls for nutmeg, but I don't like my soup to taste like pie, so I left it out.

Butternut Squash Soup (adapted from The French Women Don't Get Fat Cookbook)
(Printable version)

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 medium yellow onion, roughly chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 sprigs fresh thyme

3 fresh sage leaves, plus more for garnish

1 medium (2 to 2 1/2 pounds) butternut squash, peeled, halved, seeds and strings discarded, and cut into 1-inch pieces (I used frozen, partially roasted squash I had leftover from another recipe)

6 baby carrots, roughly chopped
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and chopped
4 to 5 cups chicken broth
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Preparation

In a large pot, heat the oil and butter over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute until softened, about 4 minutes.

Add the thyme and sage, and cook for another minute.

Add the squash, carrots, apple, and 4 cups of chicken broth.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Remove thyme sprigs and sage.

Pour the soup into a food processor, and process until smooth.

I found the soup consistency to be just right, but the recipe recommends adding the final cup of broth if you want to thin it out.

Season to taste, garnish with fried sage leaves (if desired), and serve hot.

The soup is so luxurious, almost creamy, without the addition of any cream. I really enjoyed it and loved it best with the fried sage leaves on top. And while it's not the healthiest thing to do, after I fried some sage leaves to top off some leftover soup, I rewarmed the soup in the same pot, mixing in all of that nutty brown butter. This was fabulous!

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What's your favorite winter soup?

Chicken En Croute Fiona Style

In The French Women Don't Get Fat Cookbook, Mireille Giuliano writes, "...the lighter my dinner is, the better I sleep, and the better I feel the next day." You can see her affinity for light dinners throughout the dinner chapter of the cookbook, but just because the dinners are light, that doesn't mean you have to worry about going to bed hungry.

I made her chicken en croute Fiona style for Jeff and I one evening and paired the light, citrusy chicken with a little bit of spinach and pasta to make a complete meal. There would also be plenty to eat if you served the chicken with some salad greens as Giuliano suggests.

Chicken En Croute Fiona Style (adapted from The French Women Don't Get Fat Cookbook)

I cut the recipe to serve two.

Ingredients

Zest of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 orange
1 garlic clove, minced
3 tablespoons fresh parsley
2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1 teaspoon olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 egg
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded to 1/3-inch thickness

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

In a shallow bowl (or fancy-schmancy breading tray), combine zests, garlic, parsley, rosemary, Parmesan, and olive, and season to tastes with salt and pepper.

In another shallow bowl (or fancy-schmancy breading tray), whisk the egg.

Dip each chicken breast in the egg, and allow the excess to drip off. And then dip the chicken into the herb-Parmesan mixture, pressing and flipping to coat each side.

Place the chicken on the prepared baking sheet, and bake for about 20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.

Serve immediately.

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I usually coat chicken with bread crumbs and loved this citrusy crust as an alternative. How do you add flavor and texture to plain old, boneless, skinless chicken breasts?

"The greatest and deepest pleasure in food exists in the first three bites. So eat with all of your senses and then let your brain kick in after three bites." - Mireille Giuliano

The French Women Don't Get Fat Cookbook And Quinoa For Breakfast

I was sent a review copy of Mireille Guiliano's The French Women Don't Get Fat Cookbook from Atria Books eons ago, and I am just getting around to reviewing it. It's kind of weird that it's taken me this long to write about it because I really do like the book.

I've never read the French Women Don't Get Fat books, and while I would like to check them out, I don't think it's necessary to have read them to appreciate the cookbook. Giuliano is an informative, lighthearted storyteller. You learn about why she suggests the recipes she does as well as about her own life. While I am not the healthiest eater, I did find myself nodding along as I read and being inspired to try some less calorie-rich dishes. I also found Giuliano to have a fun attitude about food in general. I like best how she describes her own cookbook and cooking:

"In the end, this is a cookbook, after all; this is a recipe book. So, head to the kitchen and cook a few things. It is the best way to understand what you put into your body and is an act filled with pleasures."

I did want to try the magical breakfast cream, a recipe which Giuliano devotes three pages to describing and then provides two versions of, before reviewing the book, but I haven't been able to get my hands on some flaxseed oil. (Does anyone know where to find this?) The magical breakfast cream is a family recipe for weight loss, which Giuliano learned from her aunt. I am a little skeptical of the weight-loss benefits of the magical breakfast cream, but it is merely a mixture of yogurt, flaxseed oil, lemon juice, honey, sugar-free cereal, and walnuts, so I could see how eating it every morning for a week could cause someone to drop a few pounds when also eating a sensible lunch and dinner. It seems very low in calories and very high in fiber.

Because I couldn't try the magical breakfast cream, I decided to try another breakfast recipe: quinoa with almonds, hazelnuts, and apricots (except I left out the dried apricots and added some chopped apple instead).

Before making this breakfast, which Giuliano aptly classifies as comfort food, I had only ever had quinoa in savory dishes. But it's not too far-fetched to think of protein-rich quinoa as a good substitute for oatmeal. Usually, we eat oatmeal in the morning to help us stay full until lunch time, and quinoa also has the ability to keep one full for hours.

Quinoa With Almonds, Hazelnuts, And Apple Chunks (adapted from The French Women Don't Get Fat Cookbook)

The recipe makes 4 servings, so I suggest making it and dividing it up to eat throughout the week, adding fresh apple chunks (or any fruit you like) each day.

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon butter
1/3 cup milk
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoon finely chopped almonds
1 tablespoon finely chopped hazelnuts
1 to 4 apples, cut in chunks (depending if you're serving 4 or portioning to eat throughout the week)

Preparation

Rinse quinoa in a fine-mesh sieve, drain, and transfer to a medium pot. Add 2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until water is absorbed, 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside, covered, for 5 minutes. Uncover, and fluff  with a fork.

Stir honey, lemon juice, butter, milk, and salt into the cooked quinoa, and place over medium-low heat and cook for another minute.

Divide the quinoa between bowls, and garnish with nuts and apples.

I definitely agree with Giuliano that this is comfort food, and yet, at the same time I felt I was eating something good for me. I really think the honey is the key ingredient here. It sweetens the quinoa just enough, making it the perfect breakfast dish.

Be sure to stop back because I'll be featuring more recipes from the cookbook.

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Have you ever had a breakfast quinoa dish? Have you checked out The French Women Don't Get Fat Cookbook?


"Cooking is respecting the seasons and appreciating the fleeting moment of the short availability of cherries, apricots, asparagus, clementines, and much more." -Mireille Guiliano