A little extra time on my hands...

*Reality Alert:  Soooo...I must confess to some changes in my "real/non-blog" life. Due to "organizational restructuring," I actually was laid off from my job about a week & a half ago.  You know the saying:  when one door closes, another one opens.  I'm a bigggggg believer in that and for now am enjoying the time to relax and get ready before starting a HUGE new chapter in our lives that I couldn't be happier for!

So, the reason for my confession?  Because there is no way in HELL I wanted you to believe that the dinner I whipped up yesterday was one I would EVER attempt on a random TuesdayJ hahahahhahaha  In fact, I spent almost the ENTIRE day in the kitchen yesterday prepping a bunch of stuff and working on our 'fancy' dinner for the evening:  Squash & Cheese Souffle! 

November's Cooking Light magazine had a whole section devoted to ways to cook up different winter squash and I was hooked!  Mainly because, before reading the article, I had kinda thought these squash were purely for decorative purposesJ...

Who  knew that not only was this "Sweet Dumpling Squash" not just for your Fall centerpiece, but actually had edible flesh AND skin!  No need to peel or scoop out the flesh...just slice, 'de-seed' and you're ready to go! 

To make the souffle:  First, you place a small roasting pan in a 450 degree oven.  Once the oven is preheated, you remove the pan and add 1 tablespoon of butter to melt...

Next to the pan you add:

• 4 cups of diced sweet dumpling squash (or 2 medium sized squash)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons diced fresh thyme
• 1 shallot, diced into 6 pieces

 Stir around and roast for 20 minutes until the squash is tender (flipping once).  Set squash aside to cool.

Once the squash is cool, toss everything into a food processor and pulse until smooth... 

Meanwhile, add 1/3 cup of flour & a dash of salt to a saucepan placed over medium heat.  Whisk in about 1 & 1/4 cups of milk and stir constantly.  Bring to boil and let cook for 1 minute or until thick and bubbly... 

Let the milk/flour mixture cool for 5 minutes before adding in the cheese (I used 3/4 cups of shredded Gouda...but try any FLAVORFUL cheese you have on hand)... 

Next to the milk, add the pureed squash along with 3 egg yolks.  I wish I had some sort of tip to make separating eggs easier, but I just did it the old fashioned way:  with 2 egg shell halves and 2 bowls to catch everythingJ 

While the squash/milk/egg yolk mixture sits, toss the 3 whites along with 2 MORE egg whites (those cartons of JUST egg whites are awesome for these types of things!) to a mixer and whip on high speed until medium peaks form.  You can tell they're ready when the eggs have doubled in volume... 

Next comes the part where you'll need a little finesse:  Carefully fold in 1/4 of the egg yolks and allow them to mix with the squash/milk completely.  After the 1/4 is blended completely, add the remaining eggs and fold.

Warm a cookie sheet in the oven at 425 degrees.  While the pan is warming, spray 3-4 ramekins with non-stick spray and coat with bread crumbs....

Divide the squash mixture among the ramekins and sharply tap the dishes on your counter 2-3 times to level out the mixture.  Place the ramekins on the preheated pan and pop in the oven... 

Immediately lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 45 minutes until the souffles are puffed & golden brown.

How bout these beauties???   (ps-and how funny is Penny's silhouette in the background?? J)

This souffle is actually REALLY easy....it's just time consuming.  You need time to roast the squash and bake the dish, but tossing everything together takes about 20 minutes! If you prep the squash on the weekends, you probably COULD make an easy weeknight souffle any dayJ

OH...and you MUST serve these immediately!  In the time it took us to add dressing to our side salads, our beautiful, poofy souffles had already 'deflated' a bitJ   

But that didn't take away from the flavor.  The roasted squash, fresh herbs & cheese made for a smooth and creamy souffle.  This was SUCH a nice & light dinner!  And I loved that it TASTED really decadent but without hardly any butter, olive oil or cream in the mix.  Plus who doesn't love to say they had 'souffle' for dinner??  It feels so 'oh-la-la!'J hahahhahahaha

The rest of my day was spent boiling up & bagging some more of my farmer's market veggies that looked like they were just about to 'turn' and I knew I wasn't going to get around to using them this week... 

Leeks were an easy 'save.'  I just diced them up, washed them THOROUGHLY (leeks hide a LOT of dirt within the stems!!) and dried them completely before bagging em up and tossing em in the freezer... 

Our freezer is now STOCKED!  I'm trying to base all of our meals for next week around all of the gems we have hiding out in thereJ

I also spent the day whipping up my holiday dessert...here's a previewJ 

...as well as our special *I have a little extra time on my hands* Thanksgiving morning breakfastJ  And here's a surprise:  It ALSO involves a recipe from the Cooking Light "Squash section" J   Any guesses??

I shall reveal all in timeJ  Mwahahaha!

Hope you guys have a GREAT WEDNESDAY!  I have a fun day planned with some good eats!  I should be back tonight to share before our Thanksgiving feast beginsJ 

Enjoy your pre-holiday day!

Made with L-O-V-E...

So yesterday was spent continuing a tradition that goes back way before I was born thirty-two years ago.  I've alluded to how my Mom makes HOMEMADE raviolis every Christmas & Easter...and TODAY, my lucky readers, I'm going to let you in on a little 'behind the scenes' action!

It's funny because my Grandmother's love of cooking completely skipped a generation and smacked onto me, as I was always the one sitting with my elbows in flour helping her roll our dough & form Christmas cookies when I was a kid.  My Mom was NEVER big into cooking, but ask her now to whip up one of my Grandmother's traditional recipes (such as these raviolis, her Easter sweet bread or Pastia) and she has just got the KNACK!  It was like my Grandmom passed on the 'torch' at just the right time♥.

Sooooooo we STILL get help from my Grandmom though, in the form of her recipe book... 

Tell me this isn't THE MOST PRICELESS THING A PERSON CAN HAVE!!!!!!

All of her recipes written down in HER handwriting...complete with scratch outs, corrections & LOTS of notes in the margins... 

Adorable, right?? 

So, the first step in making raviolis is to make the filing.  Since it's only a TWICE a year occurrence, my Mom always goes all out and buys all of the fresh ricotta & mozzarella from the import store.  It just makes all the differenceJ

We load up the ricotta with eggs, parsley, grated cheese, diced fresh mozzarella & black pepper.  I could tell you measurements, but ya know, some things have to remain a secretJ 

ALTHOUGH I would be lying if I said we followed exact measurements anywaysJ  Ya gotta go by taste!

Next up was the dough, made of just flour, eggs & water...

Lots of kneading & adding a pinch of flour here and a splash of water there goes into making fresh dough... 

...you just have to *know* when it's ready to roll out! 

My Grandmom always had this way of rolling out ravioli dough where she would have it literally WHIP around the rolling pin and FLAP onto the board in order to get that dough reallllllly thin.  My Mom, yet again, inherited this OUT OF NOWHERE! hahahahaha...a little 'divine intervention' in the works, don't cha think??J

Once the dough is rolled to the desired thickness (my Grandmom made it SUPER thin and filled them just enough, where my Mom keeps the dough a little thicker and REALLY packs these babies with cheese!), you add your filling... 

Fold the dough over and shape with your hands (sorry for the blurry picture...it IS an action shot, after all!) 

Then it's time to cut out your ravs'... 

This purple aluminum cup is just as much of a tradition as making the raviolis themselves!  We just WILL NOT use anything else to form themJ  That cup is probably twice my ageJ hehehehehe...

And my job, that I've had since I was a little kid, still remains to crimp the raviolis with a fork to seal in all the edgesJ hahahahhhahahaha.... I got off easy, wouldn't you say?J

We had relegated my Aunt to keeping track of how many raviolis we made (75 by the end of the day!), but she couldn't help "crimping" the few raviolis I helped cranked outJ hahahahahhahaa....too cute, right???

We lay them out on cornmeal coated tins, which my Mom will freeze until the raviolis are frozen solid, before throwing them in a bag and keeping them frozen until Christmas Day!  Wohoooooooo...the tradition continues!!!  *Here's a little side story:  I don't think I actually ATE raviolis till I was 10 or 11.  I didn't like ricotta as a kid and my Grandmom always made me spaghetti instead.  Was I a goofball or what?????????

Anyway...so there's even a BONUS ROUND to our afternoon of pasta making, as my Mom had used up ALL of the ricotta, but still had leftover dough.  Soooooooooooo she rolled it out and made it into regular noodles for me! 

Scott & I had another dinner planned for the night, but there was NO WAY I could pass up SUPER FRESH, HOMEMADE pasta (seesh...between Italy & Joe's Maplewood, I'm gonna be spoiled on homemade pasta soon!) 

I had let the noodles sit out to dry until it was dinnertime, where I dropped them in a salted pot of boiling water for about 3 minutes.  They cook up FAST! 

And I had planned on coming home and making a quick gravy, but the thought of REALLLLLLLLLLY showcasing the flavor of the fresh noodles by just using simple garlic & olive oil just won me over... 

Garlic + olive oil + a little butter + grated cheese = BLISS! 

No seriously, how can you say this dinner was anything but THE BESTEST?????? 

And ya know why??? Cause you can taste the LOVE that can only go into homemade food! J There in lies the secret ingredient, my friends!  

So I hoped you guys enjoyed a little peek into my family's holiday traditions!  Before we know it, I'll be showing you the 'final dishes' from Christmas night...hehehehehehhee....

Have a great Tuesday everyone!  

Whirlwind Weekend recap...

Morning everyone!  Hope you guys had a great weekend.  Somehow mine turned into a whirlwindJ  One minute I was at the Farmer's Market bright & early on Saturday morning... 

...and in an instant it was Sunday night!  Although, there was lots of good eats that were had in betweenJ

Starting with a "ladies breakfast" at The Pop Shop.  My Mom had been wanting to go to the Collingswood Farmer's Market since July and thankfully we FINALLY got there...albeit, on the LAST market of the season!  So after gathering up our goodies, we headed in for a cozy breakfast.

We also brought along my best friend and her Mom/my "second Mom" to join in on the funJ 

I decided to go the 'savory route' for breakfast and try out their biscuits with sausage gravy.  This totally hit the carb spot with the fluffy biscuits & creamy/salty sausage gravy.  (Thankfully, my friend let me 'balance out' with a spot of sweet from a slice of her cinnamon bun french toast =best of both worldsJ) 

When we came home, I promptly unpacked all my loot... 

...and even a few "appropraite" treats for Penny!  (how cute are these??)

And I was EXTRA pleased when I came home and realized I had gotten all of those fresh veggies & fruit, apple cider, 2 loaves of treats bread from Great Harvest and Penny's Thanksgiving treats all for under $35!  Again I repeat = ALWAYS BUY "IN SEASON" when you can!  It can save you a bundle.

And the way to make your dollar stretch even MORE?  Cook & store!  When I came home, I promptly diced up the 2 huge heads of swiss chard and boiled em up to tenderize them... 

...and once they were drained & cooled, I tossed 2 containers worth in the freezer for easy use later on. 

This took me about 20 minutes and I now have 2 servings of swiss chard at the ready all for under $2.50.  Not bad, right?? 

So anyways...back to the foodJ  After a particular decadent & delicious dinner and Sugar + Sunshine cupcake for my best friend's birthday on Saturday night... 

...we wanted to make Sunday a bit of a "restart day" for the week.  Although...Sunday morning breakfast does NOT count and we had to indulge a bit in a slice of the little Pumpkin Chocolate Chip loaf from Great Harvest. 

At least I DID manage to keep it to this one little slice! Normal portion = no guilt!

And after a strawberry smoothie lunch, it was time to bust out the BIG GUNS in the veggie department.  I knew it wouldn't be long before we tried out ANOTHER 'stuffed potato' recipe and this one was made almost entirely of the produce we bought from the market! 

Into an olive oil drizzled pan went: 

• 1 diced onion
• 1/2 bunch of boiled, drained & diced Swiss chard
• 1 tsp. crushed garlic
• 3 diced strips bacon  (not necessary, but I thought the smoky taste would work well with the greens)

Once all of the veggies were cooked & heated, I mixed them into the flesh of 2 baked & scooped out sweet potatoes... 

...re-stuffed the skins, topped em with a handful of cheese (Pepper jack for him/Gouda for her) and broiled em up till they were gooey and toasty... 

Just like the "pizza potatoes," we couldn't believe how good & FILLING these babies were!  Stuffed potatoes may be my new 'catch all' for random ingredients.  Everything just blended together so well (and I must say...I loved the smoke from the baconJ)  These were super tasty and VEGGIE PACKED!  Gotta love that...especially when you FEEL like your indulging in something decadent but WITHOUT the caloriesJ 

And speaking of "feeling decadent":  we served up our dinner with a side of KALE CHIPS!  (yes..more greeneryJ)   

The TRUE key to making the ultimate in 'potato chip' like kale chips is to REALLLLLLY cook them until they are just about BURNT.  I know it seems odds, but the near-burnt kale becomes the most crunchy & 'chip-like.'  It satisfies all of the salty, crunchy cravings...and if you closed your eyes on the 'greenage,' you wouldn't even be able to tell them apart from normal chipsJ  Bonus!

Well that about wraps up my 'food portion' of my weekend post.  And now onto my workout schedule from the week:

Wednesday:  1 hour Yoga for the Warrior (SOOOOOOOOOO proud I can still get through this one...even if I skipped the 3 minute ab section & the "awkward airplanes."  I hate that move SOOO MUCH that I'm giving myself a 9 month reprieve of it!  The baby doesn't need to be subjected to such thingsJ)

Friday:  1 hour of dance/jogs/2 rounds of weights + 45 minute walk

Saturday:  Bethenny yoga (40 minutes) + weights + "Booty Blast"

Sunday:  45 minute walk

Last week was one where I wasn't able to sneak in a little (20-30 minutes a day) exercise each day, so instead I tried to get a bigger workout in on the days where I could.  Some weeks just go that way and that's A-OK!  This week is going to be another since I don't know how many 'downward dogs' are going to be done when there is a parade & turkey to be had! hahahhahahahahhaa....

Which brings me to:  Wohooooooooooooo!  Thanksgiving WEEK!!!!!!!!!!  One I look forward to allllll year, and I can already tell you I'm going to have some fun things to show you this week....all culminated with that DELIGHTFUL DINNER & FA LA LA LA LAAAA on FRIDAY! 

Enjoy your Monday everyone!  (You have my permission to pretend it's Wednesday already! J) hahahahaha