A Squashy Dinner

On Monday Brad and I went all fall for our dinner. Brad hadn't ever had butternut squash, so I told him to get one while he was at the Dane Co. Farmer's market, and he brought it with him here to Lexington. We followed this recipe from My Kitchen Addiction. We didn't take the time to puree the soup in a blender though, cause that gets messy, so we just simmered it until we thought everything was soft enough to mash. We had plenty of beta carotene this evening.

Brad brought me these great fall colored flowers!

The butternut squash soup simmering away

Meanwhile, we separated the butternut squash seeds from the pulp and coated them with a little olive oil and put them on 300 degrees for about 10 minutes. Then we sprinkled them with some course salt. They are sooo good! and smell and taste almost like popcorn.

This soup is really filling, and healthy too! (If you want you can garnish this soup with some fresh herbs and parmesean cheese!)

Over the years, I have come to appreciate homemade pies more and more. I have actually begun to attempt a few renditions. The following pie is straight from the can of pumpkin at the Co-Op in Lexington... I strongly recommend this store or any Co-Op if you haven't been to one! Anyway, growing up, none of my family were huge fans of pumpkin (except for my mothers dad). This means that no one ever bothered to cook the real thing and most were store bought! With that being said, we decided to attempt this recipe as a primer for the real thing around Halloween...

While the soup was cooking I made a pie crust from scratch and Brad made up some pumpkin pie filling. This recipe off the can uses condensed milk, which was different than I've had before. The pie was really good and is so much better than what you buy ready made! I really like the graphics on the can too, and I really like my skeleton oven mitt I got when I was at Madison!

Homemade pumpkin pie (the canned pumpkin puree isn't homemade, but that'll come soon)

I should note that we used the dough recipe from the Apple Pie recipe posted a few days before this one. We halved the recipe to account for not having the pie crust top and still had some left over. We added a decorative pumpkin and leave to the top. If you do the decoration, add it to the top about half way through the baking process. If the pie isn't firm enough, the dough will just sink!

Being the pumpkin pie buff, I had to add some whipped cream for garnish. Albeit, I actually cut back on what I usually put on the pie.

Fall

Signs of fall are beginning to appear in Kentucky (even though these few days have been quite warm!) I made this wreath to hang on the door for some festive decor

Potato Leek Soup and some Good Will

I came back to Lexington this weekend to visit Katrina and brought with me some fresh farmer's market vegetables from the Dane County Farmer's Market in Madison, WII.  Talk about your interstate vegetables!  I had made some potato leek soup earlier in the month and wanted to try it again with a little twist.  It is a fairly simple recipe... I can't stress that enough.  Katrina and I teamed up in the kitchen to make this fast so we could watch a movie and enjoy a beer or two.  I strongly recommend pairing this with the Flying Dog Raging Bitch IPA or the Blue Moon Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale.  

It's been a long time since I've had some potato soup, but I was amazed at how few ingredients are in this soup and how flavorful it is too. My mom came and had some with us and really thought it was good too. The weather here in Kentucky has really changed these pass couple of days, from sunny and pretty warm to cloudy, a little rainy, and quite cold compared to all the heat we just had! This is a good soup to bring in the fall season. I imagine I'll be making this again. We watched the movie Good Will Hunting which Brad really liked and I hadn't seen before. 

Potato Leek Soup

Ingredients

1 lb Leeks, thinly sliced

3 lbs Red Potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 Tsp. Olive Oil

1/2 Tsp. Salt

1/4 Tsp. Ground Black Pepper

2 Cups Vegetable Broth

1/2 Cup Heavy Cream

Water

Heat the Olive Oil in a medium frying pan.  Add the Leeks and cook until they start to brown slightly.  Add the Leeks, Potatoes, Salt, Black Pepper, Vegetable Broth, and Cream to a large pot.  Add enough water to the mixture to cover the ingredients.  

The peelers I got when I was in Madison a few weeks ago made peeling the potatoes (and apples for the pie) super easy!

Bring the mixture to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cover.  Cook for about 30 minutes or until the potatoes can be easily pierced with a fork.  Take a potato masher and mash the ingredients until it has reached a creamy consistency.  You can serve with some corn bread and sprinkle with your favorite fresh herbs. 

Brad in the final stage mashing everything up to make the soup

My vintage enamel pot (a find of the Sturgis Antique Mall) is perfect for making this soup!

Unfortunately, at this point in the process we were too hungry to remember to take a picture of our finished product all garnished and ready to serve.  You will just have to take our word that this dish was as visually pleasing as it was tasty!

Wisconsin Tour: Taliesin

Day Four Itinerary (08.20.10):

Taliesin Highlights Tour

Dinner at Old Feed Mill in Mazomanie, WI

Movie: 'Bedknobs & Broomsticks'

Our last day trip was to Taliesin...which we had been wanting to go to for a long time! We had planned to go over spring break, but we found out it wasn't open then. But coming this time of the year was a lot prettier!...even though we spent half the time in a rain storm!

Taliesin is located in Spring Green, WI which is west of Madison about an hour away. It is where Frank Lloyd Wright built his Taliesin East architecture school and his home. It is located on land his family had owned for a long time. Part of the site is still located on the original home and farm.

Taliesin is comprised of many different sections which surprised me. There is the guest center and restaurant (which was designed by Wright at a later time), the architecture school (which is still exists even today), Wright's home, the original farm house, a small chapel, the windmills, the barn, the pond, lots of land, and couple of guest homes which is where some Taliesin trust members live. When I heard of Taliesin, I really thought it was just one building!

The architecture school holds a theater (which used to be a gym at some point), the studios, gallery space, and other rooms such as the dining hall and social space.

This is the architecture school. Taliesin was really only built as an experiment and a lot of it has been damaged by weather and just hasn't held up! This means a lot of $$ to keep this place open!

This is the back part of the house where later in the house's existence, cars were directed to park. Right now it is being re-roofed with wood shingles.

Wright didn't like his entrances to be noticeable

Wright's home was built into the side of a hill, instead of on top of it. The design of the building allows a courtyard that was really pretty!

Wright actually designed this barn that was used for building equipment and some farming tools. The men who first studied at Taliesin worked for their stay!

A pond was formed when Wright had part of a stream damed. However, it has many problems with it since it's not really a natural area.

There are two windmills on site called Romeo & Juliet. Wright called them that because he said one couldn't stand without the other. When they were built, no one thought they would ever last the weather here!

Taliesin is surrounded by lots of land. A large part of it is flat, and then meets up to some knobs. A lot of it is lawn grass, and other parts of it prairie

This is a small room attached to the barn and silo. There is a house attached to the barn as well where someone lives. However, a lot of it looked in bad shape!

Wright's home from a distance

The Unity Chapel was used by the Wrights for services. It is still used today but more as a social space for the members of the preservation trust. This place was kind of creepy, but then again, it seems like most of Wright's places I've been to are.

This is Wright's 'grave' even though it isn't really where he's buried

The gift shop had a lot of nice and expensive things in it...I hope Brad & I can build something like this one day!

Fast Times and Apple Pie

Last weekend, Kat and I decided to take a stab at the typical American Apple Pie Recipe, but also make it our own by blending a few recipes we had found, one at Annies Eats and from the William's Sonoma Baking Cookbook (a recommended book for anything to bake!) This is truly our first attempt at customizing a recipe... and really my first time baking anything like this, but the results were amazing. A truly classic apple pie!

Apple Pie

Ingredients:
For the crust:
3 cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp. salt
6 oz. butter (1 ½ sticks), chilled and diced
6-8 Tbs. cold water

For the filling:
2 lbs. peeled, cored and thinly sliced cooking apples (I used Gala)
1/4 cups brown sugar
2 Tbs. butter (melted)
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. all spice

For the topping:
1 egg beaten
1/8 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Add the butter. Cut the butter into the flour or rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture is crumb-like. Sprinkle 6 tablespoons of water over the mixture. With a fork, toss gently to mix and moisten it. Press the dough into a ball. If it is too dry to form a dough, add the remaining water. Wrap the ball of dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes.

At this point you can start to make the filling. To make the filling, add the peeled and apples to a mixing bowl. Mix the spices (cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, & all spice) with the brown sugar in a separate bowl. Toss the apples in the melted butter. Add the spice/sugar mix and coat evenly.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let warm up a bit if necessary. Preheat oven to 375°.

Cut the dough in half. On a floured surface, roll out one half into a 12-inch round, about 1/8 inch thick. Try to keep the dough as round as possible. Transfer the rolled-out pastry to a 9-inch pie dish. Put in the filling and smooth so the top is level. Roll out the pastry for the top crust and cut it into strips about 1/2 inch wide. This will be used to create the typical lattice top of the classic apple pie.

Use the longer pastry strips near the center of the pie and the shorter ones near the edges. Cross the two longest strips over the center of the filled pie. Place a second long strip over the top cross strip. Fold back every other strip onto itself and lay a cross strip in place, then return folded-back strips to their original position.Continue weaving in this fashion, working from the center of the pie toward the edges. Trim and flute the edges decoratively with your thumb or with a fork.

At this point, beat an egg to create an egg wash and brush it evenly over the entire pie. This will give it that nice shimmering finish once it is done. Also, mix the brown sugar and cinnamon to create a sprinkle to put over the top. You can add other spices here to create your own unique flavor...

Place this exquisite creation into the oven. Bake for 45 minutes or until pastry is golden brown and the fruit is tender. Cool on a rack. Serves 8. Garnish with some ice cream or whipped cream!



While the pie was baking, we watched Fast Times at Ridgemont High in the continuation of our dinner and a movie tradition. I had seen segments of the film before, but had never really seen the whole thing. It just seemed like the right thing to watch, a classic movie paired with a classic recipe! With that being said, both the pie and the movie were the ultimate treat. I couldn't stop laughing at the crudeness of the comedy. Being a huge fan of Sean Penn and seeing him in a early break-through role was awesome as well... I can say that I recommend this to anyone who grew up in the 1980s!


Katrina Says...
I was surprised when Brad called me and asked if I would make a homemade apple pie! I said I would, even though I had just been to the grocery. So off I went to the Coop to get some organic apples and then to Kroger for some butter (butter is so much more expensive in KY than WI! probably a good thing...), which turned into a disaster...( I was harassed in the parking lot, and then I accidently got the 1lb block of butter instead of sticks!) But....everything turned out just fine...including this pie!

The apples were mixed with some butter and spices. Definitely not what you get when you open a can of apple pie filling! There is a lot less sugar and a lot more apple. I even used my garage sale find of the day...a neat handmade glazed bowl.

The lattice isn't perfect, but what else would you want with a homemade pie!

I used pink lady apples, which gave the pie a little more tartness than sweetness. I think next time I'll use a bit more sugar and spice

Wisconsin Tour: Old World Wisconsin

Day Two Itinerary (08.18.10):

Old World Wisconsin

All you can eat seafood buffet at OYSY Sushi & Seafood Buffet

Movie at Home: 'North by Northwest'

The first of our day trips was to Old World Wisconsin in Eagle, WI. A few months earlier, a tornado (a tornado in WI!?) swept right through this place and pretty much destroyed their parking lot and lots of trees. However, it completely missed any of the houses! amazing...

Old World WI is pretty much a museum of Wisconsin buildings. They were actually all taken from around the state, and brought here, where they were rebuilt or settled down into a realistic setting. It is actually a pretty big place and they have done so to keep each building its own separate settlement. It is such a neat place and maintained really well (and isn't one of those corny attractions!) It kind of reminded me a little of Shakertown back in Lexington.

Old World even raises their own farm animals and makes food from their products, and does crafts just like the real settlers did back in the day. It's really on its own really functional.

I had actually heard about Old World Wisconsin from several people in the UW-Madison Department of Landscape Architecture. Janet Gilmore, Arnie Alanen, and William Tischler have all made great comments about the place, so I told Katrina that we had to go. The place is a great showcase of later immigrant culture of Wisconsin. It shows various time periods and a variety of cultures.

We finally took the tram that was offered after walking through the wooded areas (around a pond). We were attacked by hundreds of mosquitoes!

This is an old school house in Strawberry, where we were in the Apostle Islands!

The craftsmanship of the homes and some of the barns was very interesting! It was hard to imagine that most of this stuff was cataloged, disassembled, and rebuilt piece by piece in place at Old World Wisconsin.

We even tried some of the games they had in the schoolhouse building

This was one of the first churches in Milwaukee

This was a really fun day trip toward the end of our journey around WI. However, this was an amazing place. If you are a huge fan of history and culture, you will really enjoy visiting Old World Wisconsin.