Sola Christus

Autumn on a Plate

This weekend there has been snow, wind, hail, and rain.

Winter is officially here. But, I thought I would try one last autumn recipe.

Looking for something to do with those leftover pumpkins that you see on sale or that you used for decoration on Thanksgiving? Then you HAVE to make this. I heard the recipe on NPR, and thought this rustic French dish was a must! I modified it by adding apples and pecans, which made it even better I think!

 

Stuffed Pumpkin

Makes 4 very generous servings

1 pumpkin, about 3-5 pounds

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1/4 pound stale bread, thinly sliced and cut into 1/2-inch chunks

1/4 pound cheese, such as Gruyere, Emmenthal, cheddar, or a combination, cut into 1/2-inch chunks

2–4 garlic cloves (to taste), split, germ removed, and coarsely chopped

4 strips bacon, cooked until crisp, drained, and chopped

1-2 tart apples, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces

1/2 c. of pecan halves, squeeze the halves to break them roughly

About 1/4 cup snipped fresh chives or sliced scallions

1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme

1/3 cup heavy cream

Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 350/176. Line a baking sheet with paper.

2. Cut a hole around the stem that is large enough to reach in to the center of the pumpkin.

Take out the seeds and the string.

3. Season the inside with salt and pepper.

4. In a large bowl mix bread, cheese, apples, garlic, cooked bacon and herbs together. Season with salt and pepper, you may need to taste it. The bacon will be salty, so make sure you don't add too much.

 5. Pack the pumpkin with the filling. Pack all the way to the top.

6. Add nutmeg and a little more salt and pepper to the cream. Depending on the size of the pumpkin, you may need more cream. Then, pour the cream with the spices into the pumpkin. You want the ingredients to be moistened, but not too wet.

7. Place the cap on the pumpkin, and place the pumpkin on the paper lining in the casserole dish. Bake for two hours. After about 90 minutes, poke the outside of the pumpkin with a fork. It should be getting tender. I poked the apples, and they were soft; the cheese should be melted. For the last twenty minutes, take the cap off to brown the stuffing a little bit and dry up any excess liquid. Once cooked, carefully bring the pumpkin to the table. The skin will be quite soft, so that it can be sliced and served on the plate. My pumpkin was plenty for three, and we had quite a few leftovers. This would be great as a side dish, or as the main dish.

Then, enjoy this oey goey goodness! This was an amazing dish!

The best turkey you have ever had. Promise.

Last night, my flatmate and I had 20 people (18 adults and 2 wee ones) over for Thanksgiving. Because I live in a small Scottish town, I couldn't find a whole turkey that would be large enough to feed all of the guests (a 18-19 lb one would work). So, since Southern women are never caught having a party without enough food, I decided to go a different route. I bought a 14 lb. whole turkey and something called a turkey "crown." A turkey crown is a whole bird without the legs, or so the BBC tells me. The crown that I bought, and named Tom, Jr., was a little over 4 lbs. I had never cooked anything but a whole bird, so I started looking for recipes.

I found one on Martha Stewart's website for a grilled turkey breast, and I decided to modify it. THIS was the best turkey I have ever had. You really should try this recipe.

 

Brined Roasted Turkey Breast

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups coarse salt (Kosher salt, for example)

2 cups packed dark brown sugar

1 1/2 cups of orange juice (I actually used orange and clementine, but I think any orange based juice would work)

sage 

salt and pepper 

1. Depending on the size of the turkey breast/crown and the size of your pot, you may have to halve the recipe. I had a pot that could only hold half of this amount of water, but it worked fine.

2. Make sure you have thawed the breast if it was frozen, depending on the weight this could take over a day.

3. In a large stockpot, dissolve salt and 1 cup of sugar in 1 gallon cool water. If your pot will only hold half as much water, make sure that you use half as much salt. Place turkey, bone side up, in brine and cover the pot with a lid or plate. Refrigerate 6 to 8 hours. I had to leave it in the fridge overnight and most of the day, so if you leave it for longer it will be fine.

4. Rinse turkey thoroughly under cool water.

5. Place turkey bone down in a roasting pan. Dissolve the rest of the sugar in the juice. Poor liberally over the turkey. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and sage over the turkey.The juice should give it enough liquid on the bottom to keep it from burning.

6. Roast at 350/175 until the internal temperature reaches at least 165/74 (about 1 1/2 hours). If you are used to roasting a whole turkey while basting and buttering the outside, this tukey might look a little different. The skin won't reach that nice browned look, but it should still be done. Also, the USDA says that turkey may still look a little pink near the bone even when it has reached the right temp.

Enjoy your turkey! Not to brag, but this is the most moist and flavorful turkey I have ever had. Promise, you will like it!

comfort food is always in season

Here is another recipe for you try. And try it. I mean this week. You will love it; I promise.

I am discovering that I love certain foods. I love them just for being them.

Savoy cabbage is one of those foods. I love this little green head. Each leaf has a beautiful texture, with intricate patterns etched on the leaves. It is generally in season in the Autumn.So, when I found a lovely head in the grocery, I decided to buy it and then look for the recipe.

This soup is easy and filling, but best of all it is amazingly good

Potato and Savoy Cabbage Soup

Ingredients:

1 onion

1 or 2 carrots

2 garlic cloves

some olive oil

4 or 5 small potatoes, peeled, cut into small pieces.

1 liter of chicken stock (one cube prepared)

8 pieces (or so) of cooked bacon

1. Chop the onion, carrot, celery and garlic in a food processor. Heat the oil over a medium heat in a large saucepan. Add the vegetables and potatoes, season well with salt and pepper. If you have some dry mustard seeds, add some to the pan. Reduce the heat and cover the pan. Gently cook for about 5 mins until starting to soften, then add the stock, turn up the heat and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 mins more, or until all the vegetables are tender.

2. While the soup is cooking, grill or fry the bacon until crisp, then cut into strips. Shred the cabbage, discarding the core.This is the important part, make sure you cut the cabbage up into very small pieces.

3. Whizz the soup with a hand blender until smooth, then return to the pan and add the cabbage. Simmer for a few mins until the cabbage is just tender, then season to taste and serve scattered with the bacon.

 You'll like it, I promise.

 

 

Measuring

As a woman I struggle with diets and body image. Who doesn't?

I have walked with friends through anorexia and bulimia. I have seen one whither away and one grieve over the lasting damage that she did to her own body.

I absorb images of what I am supposed to look like, knowing I will never look like that. My fundamentalist background whispers that I shouldn't even think about it; thinking about it makes me vain. But with all of the shouting pictures that I see, how can I not think about it? So, I have finally decided, it is what I do with those thoughts that really matters.

Rarely is this societal problem discussed in a balanced way. Conversations seem to careen between narcissistic fascination and blithe ignorance.

Here is an excerpt of a beautiful poem that at least begins to look at the problem in an honest and balanced way.

 

June 1st, 1942: 927 calories, 63° Fahrenheit

by Meredith Kathryn-Case Gipson Hoogendam

what is it like, to measure time
in calories, each moment a caloric collection
of seconds, each month a record
of how many grapefruit eaten, how many
pieces of cake or slices of cheese denied,
days upon days stretching into the absence
of every fat gram you did not eat,
every desire you did not pursue,
every dream you did not have.

Go here to read the rest of the poem.

Free Apples--an excuse for making muffins!

In my recent cooking spree, I discovered these amazing muffins. They are quite easy to make and (best of all) easy to double (or triple) the recipe. I modified this recipe from the book, Muffins Galore. It is a British Recipe, so you might need to convert some things, but give these a try, you won't be sorry! The recipe actually calls for sultanas, but I took them out. You can add them back in if you have a love of sultanas.

Apple Streusal Muffins

Ingredients:

250g plain flour

2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. Pumpkin Pie spice (this was my own improvation, because I didn't have cinnamon. It made them even better.)

a pinch of nutmeg

1/2 tsp. salt

1 egg, beaten

150g caster sugar (this is regular sugar in the States)

150ml milk

6 tbl vegetable oil

3 apples (pick the tartest ones you can find), peel, core, and dice

 

For the topping:

50g plain flour, 40g butter, 2 tbl light brown sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F.

2. For the topping, sift the flour into the bowl. Cut the butter into small parts, and rub into the flour until it looks coarse. Stir in sugar. Shape the mixure into a ball. Place the bowl into the fridge to keep it cool.

2. Sift flour into large bowl mix in the dry ingredients. In a seperate bowl, mix the egg, oil, millk, and apples. Add the wet ingredients into the dry and stir briefly until mixed.

3. Divide the mixture into the muffin cups. Take the topping out of the fridge and scrape some off the ball of dough with a spoon. Spoon the pieces onto the tops of the muffins. This will look like crumble topping. 

4. Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick put in the middle comes out clean. Cool in the tin for about 10 minutes. These are best warm with a cup of tea! Enjoy!

 

Wait and cook a little

Sometimes life is made up of waiting periods. I am in one of those periods right now; everything in my life seems to be made up of waiting. Waiting on job openings. Waiting to hear if I have teaching this term. Waiting on friends to make decisions. Waiting on very ill family members to get better or pass on. Waiting on a publication proposal. Waiting on friends who are pregnant to deliver a new life into the world. Of course, all of this waiting happens while I continue performing life with all of the perpetual responsibilities.

Most of the time being single is fun, liberating, full of freedom. I can take a job anywhere I want--I don't have to make plans for anyone else but myself.

But, in these waiting periods, being single becomes more painful, sharper. There is no one there to talk you down off the worry cliff, to discourage you from saying, "Hang academia! I want to be a florist!" No one to sit with you on the couch, in silence while you wait for that dreaded phone call.

Don't worry, I won't jump.

But, I will pray.

And cook.

I have always enjoyed cooking, but for some reason, living in Scotland has made me more adventurous, more curious about how food comes together.

So, while I wait, I am taking great pleasure in bringing together good, simple things to make something better, something wonderful. Kneading dough, cutting fruit, blending butter and flour are all calming--soothing my anxious waiting heart. Even if I don't get to eat my creation, at least I can share it with others. I can give them something that they don't have to wait on. Suddenly, I don't feel useless, helpless, and out of control anymore, because at least I can do something that gives someone else pleasure.

In the last few days, I have made two batches of rice krispy treats (with real American marshmallows, I'll have you know!), banana walnut chocolate chip muffins, steak and asparagus with a garlic butter sauce, apple pie (with a homemade crust of course), apple streusal muffins, a wonderful dish that has Moroccan roots, apple and blackberry crumble, and finally homemade crepes with berries and cream.

Just in case you are waiting too dear reader, I will share one of my new creations with you.

 

 

The Moroccan dish:

I had something like this at my friend Chera's house for supper last week. It was warm, comforting, and filling. She was nice enough to tell me the recipe, but I didn't remember it. So in true dumping* fashion, I decided to experiment.

Everything goes in one pan, so make sure that you use a pot/pan deep enough.

Ingredients:

half an onion

3 cloves of garlic

1 can of stewed tomatoes

4 or 5 fresh plum tomatoes

1 can of chickpeas

1 vegetable or chicken bouillon cube

1 zucchini (or courgette as they say in Britain)

2 or 3 carrots (if you like)

Couscous

Spices to taste:

sugar, salt, pepper, a pinch of crushed red pepper, mild chili powder, cumin, rosemary, thyme, oregano

 

Heat some olive oil in the pan. Dice the garlic and onions, then throw them in the pot with the olive oil. Heat them just until they start to warm and release the fragrance (about 3-5 min. over low to med. heat). Chop the fresh tomatoes into quarters, dump in the pot. Simmer for about 5 minutes or so, until they start to get soft. While that is cooking, place bouillon cube in about a pint of warm water. Dump can of tomatoes into the pan, add water, carrots, and drained and washed chickpeas. Add spices and stir well. Simmer for about 15-20 minutes. Add zucchini at the end. I don't like it to be too soft, so I only cook it until it is "al dente." Prepare couscous separately and serve warm. Perfect for a winter day!

 

 *dumping=what a cook does when she views a recipe as a suggestion.