Butternut Squash Quesadilla Birthday Dinner!

First, I gotta say something super important:

Happy Birthday to my dear brother, Bryan! 

I really do hope you had a great birthday today and wish that I was there to celebrate with you. 

Welp, we made it through the holiday and now just have New Year's to get through.  Maybe I'm alone in this thought, but I'll sure be glad when life is a little more back to normal.  I'm such a scrooge sometimes!   

We spent Christmas with Tommy's family.  It was really nice.  His sister went ALL out and made a fabulous Christmas dinner.  If you're reading this, Thank You, Ann!! - for cooking, for being a gracious host and for making it a-okay for us to roll around in our pajamas all day long!! 

We had a Mexican feast one night and "someone" had a few too many margaritas!  The next evening, we went to a family holiday party and "someone" had a few too many margaritas, again!  OK...maybe not too many - just the right number!  Ole!

I am totally hooked up with baking things now!  I got some new bundt pans, new mini-bundt pans, new cupcake pans, a new apron, as well as a new cookbook, "I Like Big Bundts" that I have been wanting and almost bought for myself about 2 months ago!  I have so many thank yous to dole out!

It was great seeing everyone and just having a chance to enjoy family time (although I really miss my Oklahoma family!), but I do have to say that it is nice to be home in my own living room, the dog sleeping at my feet, the cats curled up together on a blanket and the TV remote control 100% under my influence.  Ah. 

Tonight's dinner was inspired by my brother's birthday and a recent visit to a local Portland restaurant, The Casa Del Matador, where I had a splendid Butternut Squash Quesadilla.  I loved it so much that I wanted to try my hand at making it myself.  Butternut squash has such a nice, slightly sweet flavor.  Together with caramelized onions and goat cheese...  Uhmmm uhmmm good. 

Here's what you need:

For the Caramelized Onions:
2 Tablespoons butter
A drizzle of olive oil
2 large yellow onions
salt and pepper
1 teaspoon sugar

1 Butternut Squash
2 Tablespoons butter
salt and pepper

Flour tortillas
Goat cheese
Monterey Jack cheese

First, in large skillet, melt butter over medium high heat; add oil.  Chop onions like so:

and put them in the skillet, add salt, pepper and sugar.  Toss, put lid on the skillet and stir periodically. Once the onions start to brown, stir them more frequently so as to avoid burning.  It'll take about 20 minutes or so for them to fully caramelize. 

While the onions are cooking, heat your butternut squash in the microwave for about 2-3 minutes to soften it slightly and make it easier to handle.  Cut off each end of the squash and then peel the skin off.  If you have a good, sharp vegetable peeler, you can use that.  Mine was dull, so I used a knife. Cut the neck off from the round bottom, then split the bottom part and remove the seeds.

Cube the squash into about 1" pieces. 

Heat the butter in a skillet over medium heat; add squash, salt and pepper.  Cook the squash as if you were frying potatoes.  Flip them every once in a while, cooking them until slightly browned and softened. 

Now we're ready to start building our quesadilla.  First, heat a griddle or skillet.  Place flour tortilla down and put as much or as little as you prefer of each ingredient.  I started with a lot (you might want a little less) of caramelized onions.  See how nice and browned they are? 

Then I added the squash and some crumbled goat cheese.  This is my favorite picture of the whole meal. 

Next, sprinkle just a little bit of monterey jack cheese, then fold over the tortilla and brown on both sides while letting the cheese melt.  Serve with avocado slices and sour cream. 

I tried several times to take a picture of what it looks like inside and just couldn't get a good one, so what see is what you get. 

I loved this, but I also love butternut squash.  Actually, I just love squash, period.  When I make it next time, I'm going to maybe use a little teeny tiny bit of nutmeg while cooking the squash, and just maybe even a pinch of ground cayenne pepper.  Otherwise, I wouldn't change a thing. 

At the time of this post, I've not yet made dessert.  I'm thinking to try a new recipe, and I'm still figuring out the details of the recipe itself.  I'm leaning towards miniature chocolate bundt cakes with a vanilla bean glaze.  Once I get that figured out, I'll be sure and let you know!

Until then, Enjoy!

"With the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible."- Julia Child

A Coupla More Cookie Recipes

Well, the holiday is fast upon us, ready or not.  I'm wrapping up today with some final baking, as I was "assigned" cookies for my part in the dinner that Tommy's family will be having.  I made the traditional Sugar Cookies (Cut Outs) with Royal Icing which was a first for me.  I have very limited cookie cutters, so we are having some Christmas ducks and Christmas hearts.

You'll notice I even made two Christmas bone-shaped cookies - one with Bender's name on it, and one with his Cousin Gert's name on it.  Not for their consumption, but just for fun.  Oh, and how sweet and I that I put Tommy's name on one of the Christmas hearts?  The Christmas ducks have green and yellow sprinkles on them, since Tommy's Dad is an Oregon Ducks fan.  Tommy (a Beaver fan) will appreciate that... 

Anyhow...  the Royal Icing was interesting to make.  If you use the recipe, be sure to beat the egg whites for long enough - that's really the key secret to this icing being successful. 

In addition, I made another new recipe that is DELICIOUS.  Uhm... let me say it again:  DELICIOUS.  It's a recipe straight from Hershey's - German Chocolate Sandwich Cookies .  Very, very good.  Two little cookies with a coconut and pecan filling in the middle.  I would rate this as a "Highly Recommend You Try It" cookie. 



They're small cookies, so these are just the right size.  I'll be mentioning these again... 


Then, lastly, in the spirit of Christmas, I made some Peppermint Bark .  Talk about a super easy but very pretty and tasty...  Although I've given you the link to the recipe, this is all ya gotta do to make this:

Put 24 peppermint candies into a zip lock bag (double bag it).  Crush them with a rolling pin or something similar.  I have a little wooden hammer thingy that I use. 

Melt 1 bag of white chips in the microwave (Heat for 1 minute; stir.  Heat for 30 seconds; stir.  Repeat heating for 30 seconds and stirring until mostly melted, and then stir well until smooth.

Using a mesh strainer that is positioned over the melted chips, pour the crushed peppermint candies into the strainer and shake out the small particles into the melted chips.  Reserve the larger pieces of candy. 

Stir the chips and peppermint dust.  Line a cookie sheet with wax paper; pour mixture onto wax paper.  Sprinkle with the reserved larger pieces of candy and press them slightly into the melted chips.  Let sit until set.  I put mine in the fridge, just so speed things up.  Break into pieces, like this:

And, voila!, this is what you get!

Pretty!

That's it for me, folks!  Now, I just gotta contain Bender.  He received a couple of presents, one from his girlfriend, Roxy, and another from a school buddy, Louie.  Bender always knows which presents are his, so I have to put them up where he can't get into them.  And, I might add, this happens every single year. 

And please disregard that annoying single, upside down flip flop.  Our house is filled with flip flops that have no matching partner these days, thanks to the rotten dog pictured above. 

I hope you all have a very wonderful holiday weekend!

Enjoy!

"With the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible."- Julia Child

Brown Bag Hunger Brigade and The Cookie Factory

In the true spirit of giving and helping fellow human beings, some amazing friends of Tommy and mine have developed an initiative to collect food and other hygiene and basic care products to hand out to the hungry and homeless folks in the Vancouver, WA and Portland, OR areas.  Anyone familiar with Portland knows that there is a large number of people that live on the streets.  It is disheartening that seeing someone sleeping in the doorway of a business office on the sidewalk or stairs in their sleeping bag has become so common of a sight that it can go virtually unnoticed. 

Rob (aka Hobz) and Heather are currently collecting the following items to include in their 72 bags for distribution on Christmas Day:

• MREs
• Bottled water
• Fresh fruit
• Granola
• Cookies
• Socks
• Gloves
• Dental hygiene products such as toothbrush, small tubes of toothpaste, dental floss, etc

I think that for this run, most of the donation needs have been met, but if you are interested in learning more or helping in the future, because I am certain there will be more donation drives to come, they have a new blog, The Brown Bag Hunger Brigade that you can visit. 

In an effort to help support this very worthy, very selfless effort, tonight, I baked approximately 260 oatmeal raisin cookies.  My house smells good, and I didn't have to run the heater all evening.  When I first started the baking, I nearly panicked because I could not locate my very favorite oatmeal raisin cookie recipe.  The good news is not only did I find it, but I now know it by heart.  Seriously.

And because I'm quite tired, I'm going to post the recipe right here:

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon (generous) cinnamon
1 1/2 cups flour
3 cups oatmeal
1 cup raisins

Heat oven to 340.  (The original recipe calls for 350 degrees, but I found 340 to work perfect for these.) 

Cream together butter, brown sugar and sugar.
Add eggs and vanilla and combine well.
Add baking soda and cinnamon, mix until combined.
Mix in flour.
Stir in oatmeal and raisins.

Place by teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet about 3 inches apart.  Bake at 340 for about 9 minutes or until just starts to turn golden in color.  (The key to soft cookies is not to overbake - but to maybe even underbake them oh, so slightly!)

Let cool on cookie sheet for about 2 minutes then transfer to wire cooling rack to cool completely. (If you move to the wire rack too soon, they'll be so soft that they'll fall apart through the wire.)

 I honestly have no idea if most recipes call for cinnamon, but to me, it makes all the difference in the world!

I hope you enjoy the recipe, and I hope you'll keep the BBHB in mind should you feel compelled to help out. 

To Rob & Heather and their awesome brigade, I hope that your storming of Vancouver and Portland to search out and destroy hunger with extreme prejudice is an incredible success! 

~Peace and blessings~

A Special Day for Bender

Today was a day that had a little chunk of it focused solely on Mr. Bender.  Every year, we celebrate Bender's birthday by buying him a new "baby" and doing special things with him.  This year, his birthday happened amidst some chaotic moments, so Bender and I had a little birthday day for him.

First, it started with going for a ride in the car.  You say "ride" and Bender is happy to "go" - the sooner the better as far as he is concerned. 

As part of the ride, we went to "the puppy store" which, when just mentioned gets Bender so excited that he starts whimpering.  He loves going there, even if we just walk through and buy nothing.  Tonight, though, we bought two "babies" for Bender and some cookies.  We only buy babies for his birthday and Christmas because he instantly destroys them. 

Here he is, back home, with Baby number 1, looking pretty happy:

And here he is with Baby number 2, rolling around in the living room, celebrating and loving life:



I think that one is pretty cute. 

Then, of course, not long after these pictures, Baby number 1 was de-stuffed and de-squeeked.  Here is a picture containing evidence of said squeeker and the culprit that did the de-squeeking:

I didn't have much to say tonight, I just thought I would share Bender's special day with everyone else.  Happy late birthday celebration, Bender Bentz! 

Just Feel Like Chatting

Today was the company Christmas party.  The folks that put it together did such a fabulous job of coordinating and planning out activities.  I am so impressed and appreciative.  We did a white elephant gift exchange, which was funny and actually ended on an interesting note.  I ended up with this lovely jewel:

Yep.  It is a pig soap dispenser that oinks (or grunts, really) when pressure is applied to the pig, and, yes, it is missing the pump.  Just call me lucky!  And, truth be known, I actually am thrilled with this little token because it is quite special in its own way.  I think that karma is giving me grief because me, Ms. New Vegetarian, ate several bacon-wrapped dates at the party.  Duh'oh! 

I took my new favorite cookie to the party, the Oatmeal Gingersnaps.  I am happy to have a few leftover, because I really like the spice of these.  I had kept a small baggie of them when I made them for Tommy to take to work, but we recently got a new washer and dryer, and I gave the left over cookies I had kept to the delivery guys.  I am happy to have some back in my stash again! 

Also, speaking of baking, back in November in my "Whip It" post, I mentioned a baking contest.  Unfortunately, because of the timing of some family events, I wasn't able to participate in the bake off.  I have to say, though, from the pictures that were shared of the contestants and their entries, I work with several very accomplished bakers!!  I would love to start a bakery some day, and if I do, I know several people that might be great business partners!  For the contest, I had planned to bake a German Chocolate Cake - and I still may do it this weekend.  Once I do, I'll post pictures and the recipe. 

In the meantime, here is a recipe for a treat that I made not too long ago.  I took them to work and also sent some to some friends.  Everyone that ate them loved them.  I like caramel, but I like chocolate better - just my own personal preference.  But I made these for the caramel eaters in my life.  These are Caramel Pecan Bars.

The original recipe comes from Southern Living's Holiday edition.  I was afraid they would be too hard and difficult on the teeth, but ended up that they were just the right amount of chewy and were a popular treat. 

And my post just wouldn't feel complete tonight without a Bender story.  Recently, in a rash "hurry up and clean the house, we have visitors coming over" moment, a small bag of cat toys came to the attention of Bender.  He repeatedly was darting into the living room with a little mouse, or a catnip ball, or some other tiny toy.  I wouldn't care so much, but they're just small enough that I'm afraid he might choke on them if he accidentally swallows one of them.  In a game of chase (while I was stripping beds and washing every potentially dirty piece of laundry with my new washer!), I finally snapped a shot of Mr. Naughty Dog dashing under the bed in true "you can't catch me" fashion.  Sorry for the blur, but it was, after all, an action shot!

Since this, I have found where the bag of cat toys are and have put them where Bender can no longer reach them.  Being a doggy mom is a full time job.  *whew*

Enjoy!!

"With the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible."- Julia Child

Christmas Is In The Air

It's late.  I'm sitting here watching the Game Show Network with Tommy, and the $25,000 Pyramid is on.  Oh, yeah, we're old school like that.  Bender is playing in the living room with a tennis ball that he found somewhere now that I'm done baking.  When he sees me put my apron on or hears the oven click on, he immediately wants outside or he goes to the back bedroom and hides out.  Poor silly pup. 

The other day, when I wasn't paying close enough attention, he was being very, very quiet.  When I finally noticed what was going on, there was quite a mess.  He was shredding "his" flip flop.  I don't know, but I think he looks pretty happy with his work.

Then, later that evening, I was looking for the cats.  I found Shasta, but looked everywhere for Pepper.  He likes to play "Where's Waldo" apparently.

We haven't gotten our tree yet - so our presents were just stacked up off in the corner.  The stack toppled over, but Pepper was digging it. 

So, I'm up late tonight because at about 7:30 this evening, Tommy asks me about making cookies for him to take to work tomorrow.  It's just not in my nature to say no to a baking opportunity!!  So I made the Chai Tea Cookies with Eggnog Frosting again (I told you they're my favorite right now!).  I also made a new recipe, Oatmeal Gingersnaps and they are gooooood!  The original recipe came from the Taste of Home website. 

I've never made gingersnaps from scratch before, but I have always liked store-bought ones, and I especially like them when they have a slight bite to them.  Yum!!! 

The actual recipe is pretty simple, quick and easy.  I really like these a lot, and will have to be sure to keep molasses on hand just so I can make these on a whim.  That's the kind of cookies these are - the kind you make when you just want to bake something to have in the cookie jar.  So, once you get the dough mixed, you roll it into balls and roll the balls into some sugar. 

 Place them on a cookie sheet and flatten them with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar.

 They bake quick - I think I baked each cookie sheet for about 8 minutes.  In the end, you have a really nice pile o' spicy cookies.  Where's the milk?? 

Again, the recipe can be found by clicking here. 

I'm going to head to bed now.  Since I've started writing, Tommy has given up on the game shows, turned the TV off and has gone to bed, and Bender has abandoned his tennis ball, and last I saw, he was trotting down the hall with "his" flip flop heading to the bedroom.  So I think I'll cut this short tonight and follow suite and head that way myself. 

Goodnight, and enjoy!!

"With the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible."- Julia Child

Honor, Pets and the Beginning of Christmas Cookies

This past Friday, December 9th, my husband's mother passed away.  It has been a difficult and emotional week, but there is a feeling of calm, too, knowing that she is in a long-sought place of peace.  I won't go into detail about this, because I want to respect the privacy of Tommy and his family, but I do want to say how impressed I am with the sense of love of family that I witnessed and felt.  The support each person showed for the other was amazing, beautiful, and honorable. 

Because of the recent family events, Bender spent some time with Lyn and Roxy again.  Even though I *know* how naughty my little dog can be, Lyn has assured me that she enjoys having him there.  He is a certified thief, and he has eagerly demonstrated this talent to Lyn by stealing her socks, slippers, or other items that he deems of value, and then makes sure that he is seen with said treasure in the grips of his cute little mouth before dashing off in hopes that a chase will ensue.  It really is cute when he does this, but it can also be panic-inducing if he has something of real value.

When I stopped to pick him up tonight, I was greeted very enthusiastically - licks, jumps, more licks - and it made me feel good to be missed.  While I was sitting on the couch talking to Lyn, I commented how I have to keep my purses zipped closed because Bender will put his whole head in there, root around until he finds something exciting, then off he goes with whatever it is.  No sooner do I say this, and Bender jumps on the couch next to me with something poking out of his mouth before dashing up the stairs.  What did he have?  Well, although I am careful to zip my purse, I left a little tiny side pocket unzipped, which had my chapstick in it, and Bender got his little snoot down in there and dug it out, ran upstairs and chewed it up so much that it looked like it had been run over by a car.  And, still, I missed him!!! 

While driving home tonight over the I-5 bridge that goes over the Columbia River, I saw the Christmas boats floating around out on the water.  It's a pretty cool sight to see and if there was a place to pull over on the bridge, I would have done so, even as tired as I was.  Click here to learn more about the Christmas boats being a long-time Portland tradition.  And seeing this made me think that maybe it is time, finally, to post a few Christmas cookie recipes and pictures!! 

The first cookie I am going to share is Chai Tea Cookie with Eggnog Frosting.  This is currently my very favorite cookie.  It has such a nice soft texture and a perfect eggnog and spice flavor.  Love them!!  If you like eggnog, you're going to enjoy these immensely, as the eggnog flavor is surprisingly distinct. 

I also want to share these delicious drop cookies.  If you like coconut, you have to try these out.  The nieces really liked these.  White Chocolate Oatmeal Coconut Cookies are easy to make and have a very nice, fresh coconut flavor to them.  Tommy does not like coconut (he claims to be allergic to it, although I know for a fact he is not!), but these were a hit with everyone else that appreciates the fine taste of coconut. 

Also on the list are Strawberry Jammer Cookies, a nice pastry cookie that is filled with fruit jam and then sprinkled with powdered sugar after baking.  These are beautiful, delicate cookies that can be made with any flavor fruit jam you'd prefer and will add a lovely look to any cookie tray. 

Do not worry, my friends! This is not the end of the list... I have more scrumptious cookie recipes up my sleeve that I am just itching to share!  For this posting, though, I'm hoping that these three fabulous cookies have us off to a good start! 

Enjoy!

"With the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible."- Julia Child