October is Foodie Month

I don't know why, but I am practically addicted to cooking in the month of October. Perhaps it's the coolness of the air that persuades me to go indoors for something warm, or perhaps it's the feeling that since Autumn is finally here that I can cook roasts and things that smell like cinnamon.

Being pregnant is definitely raining on my parade. :( However, I have managed to make some very hearty chicken quesadillas and a rather disappointing peanutty Thai noodle dish that almost made me throw up.

I'm looking forward to apple pies, Harvest Pork and sweet potato casserole.

Dip

So two of the girls in Amanda's (my sister's) ward threw her a baby shower (thanks, Melissas!), and one of them made the following VERY VERY good dip:

2 cans artichoke hearts in water
Drain, Squeeze, chop up
1 tsp minced garlic (I actually use a little less and just go with the powdered kind)
2 C Parmesan cheese
1 C mayo
8 oz cream cheese

mix together well, bake 15 minutes at 375 degrees.

Look! No "cream-of x's"!

Soup!

We had a cool rainy day yesterday, and, as James loves soup, I gave NBR's tortilla soup a try. Oh wow it's good. You take chicken broth,infuse it with cilantro, onion, and garlic, add shredded chicken, some pepper jack, some sour cream, and some avocado, and some home-made tortilla strips. Good stuff.
Did you know we have an entire crisper drawer dedicated to cheese? I think having a variety of cheeses handy is essential for seriously killer cooking. Kinda like frosting a cake-- you can eat a cake sans frosting, and it's still good, but it's FANTASTIC if you frost it. Our standard stock:
Sharp cheddar
EXTRA sharp cheddar (usually beechers)
Parmesan
Romano
No Woman
A jack of some sort
Havarti
Mozzarella
Cream cheese
Bergenost
Feta

We don't have all these all the time, but they're pretty familiar friends around here.

Crazy About Basil

I came home from our trip and my garden is overflowing, especially my basil plants! So, I've been eating tons of basil on everything and I'm not getting tired of it at all. I finally understand why people are always lauding the virtues of fresh herbs!

For lunch today, I had a bowl of grape tomatoes with whole leaves of basil tossed with a drizzle of olive oil, a couple gratings of parmesan cheese and a dash of salt and pepper. Oh. my. goodness. The girls sat with their nasty PB&Js and I savored the tastes of summer. It was a delectable paradise.

And tonight for dinner we're having pizza. In the sauce I have some freshly picked oregano and thyme, and for toppings we're going plain cheese with mounds of sliced sweet baby onions and then I'll top it with more whole leaves of basil when it comes out of the oven. Oh, this is going to be so good.

I'm growing three different varieties of basil this year--Lime, Genovese and Queen Siam/Thai. I'm not a fan of the lime variety, it's just a little weird...until I find what it goes well with, right? The Genovese is my plain leaf favorite and I've yet to sample the Thai because I want to showcase it in Thai food.

I have definitely got to get cuttings and keep them going over the winter.

Breakfast (again)

Waffles out of the New Best Recipe-- involves a whipped egg white and cream of tartar and MAN they come out good. Probably even better with buttermilk, but as I didn't have any... it's nice that they put variations in there. And James invented this raspberry/blueberry/cherry sauce to go on top of it (my Mom's Jamesian request is stuffed french toast with a raspberry sauce, so he's experimenting). I'm still waiting for it to get cool enough to make that onion balsamic marmalade...

Garlic Mayonnaise

I meant to write about it in last night's post--the recipe for garlic mayonnaise in Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone is utterly fantastic! I'm NOT a mayonnaise fan, but I love having that garlic mayonnaise on so many things!

(We had breakfast at Carl's Jr. this morning, as per our Pioneer Day parade-watching tradition...Michael would never let me put feta cheese anywhere near the eggs...I think I'm battling a losing battle in that my kids don't like good food and neither does my husband.)

Breakfast this morning

Was eggs scrambled with a little grilled chicken, feta, and mild salsa. I was going to include some spinach, but:

spinach = gone bad = very yes

so no vegetables, which disappointed me, believe it or not. I've discovered I have a serious infatuation with vegetables as long as they're not raw. If they're raw they all taste faintly like grass to me, but cooked.... aaaaaaaahhh. Yet another bonus point for Vegetarian Cooking for Everybody is that it doesn't just do the trendy raw food/minimal intervention bit. Deborah Madison cooks. Oh so good.

Side note: Did I ever tell you about Ah Sa Wan? It was this Chinese restaurant up in Fairbanks (I have no idea if it's still there). And their commercials always used to end the same way: Ah Sa Wan, Ah So Good. I have the HARDEST time not tacking that on every time I say "oh so good". Which is unfortunate, as only interior Alaskans know what the heck I'm talking about.