The weather has taken a quick turn to winter again it seems and I had a squash hanging out on the counter asking when I was going to use it (food doesn’t talk to you? Hmm, you should have that looked into).

To be quite honest, I like this squashy fondue better than traditional fondue. Plus, you have the added benefit of the nutritional veggie base. You can keep it vegetarian by using vegetable broth and you can keep it low fat by using nonfat broth and Neufchatel cheese.

The hot sauce and paprika don’t make the dish hot or even spicy but they definitely add depth to the flavor, that something you can’t quite put your tongue on. It will still be good if you leave it out, they weren’t in the first version.

Adapted from Pillsbury Doughboy Slow Cooker Recipes.

Butternut Squash Fondue/Soup

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 large onion, diced or 3 Tbsp. dried

2 cloves garlic, diced or 1 Tbsp. dried

Salt

2 cups chicken stock

1 2 ½ – 3 pound butternut squash

½ tsp. dried basil

¼ tsp. paprika

Black pepper

1 8 oz. package cream cheese, cubed

Dash nutmeg

Dash hot sauce

Heat oil in a nonstick pan, add onion and garlic. Season with salt and cook until the onion is translucent.

In a slow cooker, combine onion mixture and all remaining ingredients except cream cheese.

Cover and cook 4-6 hours on high.

Remove squash mixture to a food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Return mixture to the slow cooker.

Stir cream cheese into squash mixture. Cover and cook an additional 20-30 minutes until cheese is melted and the mixture is smooth.

Toss the salad gently as chive blossoms can fall apart. They are compound flower, rather l a dandelion seed head and fall apart easily. Their color can range from crayon purple to lilac. I think mine need to

be repotted and are blooming a bit lighter than usual this year.

Chives are an easy plant to grow. Give them a decent size pot, good soil, and a spot in the sun and they will be quite happy on your porch or balcony.

Have you used chive blossoms before? How did you use them? I’ve been considering battering and frying them. Has anyone had them that way?

Perhaps it’s getting used to the new job and hours, maybe it’s the allergies, maybe it’s because I actually did fall down and go scrape on the concrete and it still hurts like heck, or maybe it’s PMS. Maybe it’s all just excuses for why I have not only not felt like cooking but not firing up the computer to post. I’m not on the computer as much since I got my shiny new phone. I guess I am on the computer, probably much more, it’s just much smaller.

Whatever it is, here is my peace offering for being away. I fell in love with edamame (soy beans) at the sushi restaurant. Steamed edamame is an appetizer and snack in Japanese cuisine. The little bowl of fuzzy pods are cracked open and consumed in no time at our table. Once I knew what to do with them I bought a bag of frozen beans for at home. A quick boil and voila! Snack time. If I’m craving something salty I’ll use a couple dashes of soy sauce on them, soy on soy action. That is what gave me the idea for this salad dressing.

It’s really pretty simple and lovely and easy, which is exactly what one needs to crawl back on to the salad wagon.

Edamame Salad

1 Tbsp. toasted sesame oil
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
12 oz. edamame, cooked and at room temperature
4 cups shredded cabbage
1 cup shredded carrots
1-2 green onion sliced thinly
2-3 Tbsp. sesame seeds

In a small bowl, whisk together the soy sauce and sesame oil. Place the rest of the ingredients in a salad bowl and pour the soy sauce dressing over the salad. Toss gently. Enjoy!

Elephant garlic is not just giant garlic although it is closely related. It has a really mild garlic taste so it’s okay to use a lot of it. You do not want to use regular garlic in a straight across swap unless you are really into garlic (like me!).

Use the best bacon you can find (like there’s bad bacon, ha!). I used Trader Joe’s Black Forest bacon which is one of the best bacon’s I’ve had. They seem to have tried to follow the real Black Forest method which you can read about here. Be careful when cooking it, it cooks fast and must have a high sugar content as it burns fast.

This is a total fake for one of those all day kind of recipes, it doesn’t take very long at all. You could serve it as a side by I frequently it as an entrée with some toast.

Quick Bacon & Green Beans

3 strips bacon
1/3 cup diced onion
1 elephant garlic clove or 2-3 garlic cloves, diced
Seasoned salt
14.5 oz. can cut green beans, drained
2 oz. jar diced pimentos, drained

Fry the bacon, remove it from the pan and let it drain and cool. Drain most of the bacon fat from the pan and add the onion and garlic, sprinkle with the seasoned salt. Sauté the onion and garlic until soft. Meanwhile, chop the cooked bacon.

Add the bacon, green beans, and pimentos to the onions. Only let it cook long enough to heat all ingredients through. Enjoy!

By the way, I did not lick the browned butter out of the pan when the scallops were done. It was tempting but I resisted. Instead I wiped it up with crusty bread and then toasted the bread. I highly recommend this! So yummy.

Seared Scallops with Strawberry Balsamic Reduction

Serves 1

1 cup chopped strawberries
1 ½ Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
Salt
Pepper
Granulated garlic
Butter
¼ pound sea scallops
1 ½ tsp. sliced fresh basil
1-2 handfuls fresh spinach

In a small sauce pan, combine the strawberries and balsamic vinegar with a pinch of salt and pepper. Simmer over medium low heat until the strawberries begin to breakdown and form a sauce with the vinegar, 20-30 minutes. Add the basil about ¾ of the way through cooking.

Arrange the spinach on your dinner plate.

About ten minutes before the strawberries are done, wash and thoroughly dry the scallops. Season them with salt, pepper, and the granulated garlic. Melt a pat of butter in a small frying pan over medium high heat. When the butter is melted and the pan is hot, add the scallops. Let them cook for 2-3 minutes or until a golden crust has developed on the pan side of the scallop then turn them and repeat on the other side. If they don’t seem cooked all the way through once they are seared, turn the heat down to medium and cover the pan for a minute or two.

Remove the scallops from the pan and arrange them over the spinach. Dress the scallops and spinach with the strawberry reduction. Enjoy!

Twenty some years later a coworker offered me his salad that he wasn’t going to eat. Kale and I had met a few times at the store and farmer’s market but there had been no real introduction. This kale looked different and it didn’t seem to smell, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to go there. But this coworker had pretty good taste and the salad had sesame and ginger in it. You can sell me just about anything if it’s been coated in sesame and ginger. It was love at first bite and kale and I have been spending a lot of quality time together since. It’s even managed to introduce me to some of its other leafy friends like sorrel, mustard, and beet. A gate opened and suddenly there was a whole new leafy world available!

This is my ode to that life changing salad.

Sesame Ginger Kale Salad

½ Tbsp. shredded fresh ginger
¼ cup seasoned rice vinegar
dash salt
dash pepper
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 ½ Tbsp. toasted sesame oil
4-5 cups finely chopped kale
1 cup shredded carrot
½ cup diced red onion
1 Tbsp. sesame seeds

Combine the ginger, vinegar, salt, pepper, garlic, and sesame oil in a closed container and shake to mix or in a small bowl and whisk together.

Add the kale, carrot, and onion to a salad bowl. Add the dressing and sesame seeds and toss the salad to combine all ingredients. Enjoy!

Everyday my dog gets a cookie (also called biscuit). Usually this happens when I’m leaving the house. Yes, this started as a blatant bribe due to the guilt inducing forlorn look I received because I was cruel enough to leave without him. I tried explaining that I had to go earn his kibble, but no dice. Over the years I have discovered that it also helps keep his dog breath in check so now he gets one every day whether I leave or not.

My dog has junk food taste. I’ve tried feeding him expensive dog food he won’t have any of it. I tried getting the more expensive cookies, the kind that actually smell like food, but he doesn’t like them. It got to the point where he would not accept the bribe or not eat it. I’d come home and the cookie was there on the floor. He likes the kind that on sale are $4 for a 3 pound bag and smell kinda like sawdust. Seriously?! It’s better for my pocket book but I wonder about the ingredients. I finally decided to try making my own.

The first time I tried the recipe I had to leave as soon as I turned off the oven. I came back to an extraordinary savory smell filling the house. It made my mouth water. I mentioned how good it smelled to some friends and they urged me to eat one (I’m really glad I wasn’t friends with them as a kid, who knows what I would’ve tried eating!). It was a small batch and I’d already put them in his cookie jar. They’re also hard enough I didn’t want to try my teeth on them. The second batch was much bigger and I snagged one out of the oven before they were hard. Not bad, needs salt for my taste but I’ve had worse biscuits/crackers. They might be pretty good with a spread.

Regardless of how I feel about the cookies, the dog loves them. Success! Cookies that he eats and that I can live with the ingredient list and price. As an added bonus, they don’t take long to make and last quite a while.

The next batch I will be doing away with the wheat germ and substituting ground flax seed. I already buy flax seed but don’t usually use wheat germ. As mentioned above, the 90 minutes is a minimum. I left the first time and took them out when I got back. The second time I watched a movie. Make sure your pans are well greased; they tend to stick if they aren’t. Also, if you’re not using homemade chicken stock than make sure you buy the salt free kind. Our vet is not a fan of store bought broth and was only okay with me feeding the pets broth if it was home made. I’m sure you could use any kind of stock; you could even use vegetable stock for vegan cookies.

Recipe adapted from Healthy Doggie Biscuits, China Bayles’ Book of Days
by Susan Wittig Albert. If you’re into herbs and reading, you might check out the China Bayles series. It’s a fictional mystery series by Susan Wittig Albert about the owner of an herb store. I’m not into mysteries but I’ve enjoyed the series.

Dog Cookies

Makes 40-45 cookies

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup wheat germ
½ cup nutritional yeast
1 cup shredded carrot
1 ½ Tbsp. minced parsley
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 cup chicken stock
½ cup olive oil
¼ cup chicken stock

Preheat oven to 400° and grease two cookie sheets.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients except for the ¼ cup chickens tock and mix.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 2 minutes. Roll dough out to about ¼ inch thickness and cut into desired shapes. Transfer cookies to cookie sheets.

Bake for 10 minutes. Baste the cookies with the remaining chicken stock and turn the cookie sheets. Bake for another 10 minutes. At the end of the second 10 minutes, turn off the oven but leave the cookies in the closed oven for at least 90 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to completely cool and then store in a sealed container. Enjoy…err…Fido enjoy!

The first strawberries call for something simple, I’ve waited all year to taste fresh strawberries, I want to taste the strawberry. So I settled for a classic, which is all I could handle through allergy fog anyway. I used raw almonds, if you use salted almonds I would leave the salt out.

Strawberry & Spinach Salad

Serves 1

2 handfuls spinach
7-8 strawberries, halved
7-8 almonds, rough chopped
Thin drizzle olive oil
Thin drizzle balsamic vinegar
Sprinkle coarse salt
Sprinkle course pepper

Layer each ingredient onto a plate, enjoy!

What to make for one of the greatest writers that ever lived? Since I’m a history geek of course I instantly decided that it should be something he would have recognized. Problem is the food we eat has changed a great deal since his time. Shakespeare lived during an exciting time. The cross cultural food exchange that began with the “finding” of the “New World” was just getting underway. And while turkey was readily accepted, “Tastes like swan, try it!” many other now popular foods did not.  I finally decided on shepherd’s pie, which is basically a casserole of mashed potatoes over stew. He’d recognize the dish if not all the ingredients in it. In his day they would have used mashed parsnips or turnips instead of potatoes and of course no tomato sauce or corn. I’m not sure how much garlic they used in England at the time either.

The next thing I decided is that I had to go big. The bard strikes me as someone who liked the good life and liked to live large. He might not have been able to live it very often, writers then and now struggle to make a living, but something over the top seemed appropriate. I added every think I like in mashed potatoes.

Some people get all picky about shepherd’s pie and claim it’s not the real thing if it’s not made with lamb. I say phooey. Shepherd’s pie is a peasant dish and I’m pretty sure they made it out of whatever they could catch to put in the pot. Besides, my farmer was out of ground lamb. Make it out of whatever kind of red meat you can catch. I would stay away from poultry as it wouldn’t have the right texture for the stew.

Be careful of it under the broiler, it browns fast. This may have been the first time I’ve used the broiler in this oven and I set the broiler on high. Luckily the topping caramelizes before it actually burns so if it’s a bit “browner” than you would like it might still be okay. The recipe doesn’t call for parsley but that’s because I forgot to add it. I had just spread the mashed potatoes over the stew when I realized the parsley was still sitting on the counter. I would totally add it next time. If you use fresh parsley add it when you take the stew off the heat and before the mashed potatoes. You could also add it to the potatoes; chives would be another good addition to them.

The Bard’s Pie

1 ½ pounds potatoes
3 strips bacon
1 onion, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 cup sliced carrots
1 pound ground or chopped red meat
1 Tbsp. Italian seasoning
2 Tbsp. flour
3 oz. tomato paste
1 cup water
1 bulb roasted garlic, peeled
1 cup milk
1 stick butter
½ cup finely grated parmesan
1/3 cup yogurt or sour cream
1/3 cup shredded cheese

Preheat oven to 350°. Set the potatoes to boil and boil until fork tender.

In a large cast iron or other oven proof pan, fry the bacon strips. Remove the bacon from the pan let drain and cool on paper towels. Drain most but not all of the bacon fat from the pan. Add the onions and a sprinkle of salt and pepper and cook over medium-low heat until about halfway to soft. Add the garlic a couple of minutes after the onion.

When the onions and garlic are about halfway to the soft stage, add the carrots, meat, and Italian seasoning. Cook until the meat is almost done (some pink is okay), about 10-15 minutes.

Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and stir in completely. Cook for a couple of minutes.

Stir in the tomato paste and water. Make sure the mixture returns to a rapid simmer and let cook for a few minutes. Remove from the heat, taste to see if it needs more salt and pepper and set aside.

Crumble the reserved bacon. Combine the drained boiled potatoes, milk, butter, parmesan, yogurt, roasted garlic, bacon, some salt and pepper, and mash (a hand mixer is helpful but be sure not to over work the potatoes).

Spread the mashed potatoes over the meat mixture. Sprinkle with the shredded cheese and bake for 30 minutes, then under the broiler for 3-5 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy!

This salad is supper yummy and filling. It has tons of crunch and the cranberries give it just the right amount of sweet. Poppy seed dressing (at least Annie’s brand) is pretty sweet as well. This is the only salad I use it with so far. The broccoli can take all that sweetness in stride and still be tasty broccoli.

Broccoli Salad

1 pound broccoli, chopped or shredded
2 oz. dried cranberries (about 1/3 cup)
½ cup cashews
4 oz. poppy seed dressing

Combine all ingredients in a salad bowl and toss. Enjoy!