Pumpkin Lasagna

Yes. 


You read that right. 


Did your jaw drop open when you read that, like mine did?


Because mine totally did. 


Like whoa. 


People. It's pumpkin season. The bestest of all the seasons. It's time for ALL THE PUMPKIN THINGS. I read a blog on Tumblr about a pumpkin shortage on the east coast and I was all "HA! Stupid east coast. They can't get anything right. WEST COAST IS THE BEST COAST, BITCHEZ!!". And then I went and bought every single ingredient for this except the pumpkin and only then found out that there is NO canned pumpkin to be found. None. Zero. Wtf. 


In a time of food crisis, I did what any logical person would do. I called my mother. Ok I called my dad. Whatever. My mother's pantry is the like the Room of Requirement in Harry Potter. It possesses just the thing that YOU need. I needed pumpkin. She had it. Epic win. Major perk of working with daddy-o is he gets to be my delivery man for leftovers, random baking experiment goodies, and canned goods. Lucky guy!


So. Let's get to it. 

Recipe is here. 

Ingredients

• 1 cup pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie mix)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 4 to 6 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 pound spicy Italian sausage, casings removed
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1 28-ounce can tomato sauce
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 16-ounce box lasagna noodles
• 1 large egg
• 2 1/2 cups ricotta cheese (I tried non-fat. I'm not a big supporter of non-fat-things-that-are-supposed-to-be-fat things, but it was in the size that I wanted and cheaper. So there. It worked just fine.)
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (I used soy cheese in an attempt to not totally kill my stomach with ALL THA CHEEZ. They didn't have just soy mozzarella, though, so I got a blend.)
• 1/2 cup shredded romano cheese (There is no soy romano. FYI)
• 1 large zucchini, very thinly sliced (I used the slicer side of my shredder tower. Perfect.)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the pumpkin puree in a fine sieve over a bowl; set aside to drain while you make the sauce.  (Maybe pumpkin puree isn't the same as plain canned pumpkin? I don't know, but my pumpkin wasn't juicy and I don't know what a sieve is....so I skipped this.)

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until translucent, 6 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, 2 more minutes. Add the sausage and cook until brown, breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Pour in the wine and cook until reduced by half. Stir in the tomato sauce and herbs and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Season with salt and pepper, cover and reduce the heat to low. Simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.


Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the lasagna noodles and cook as the label directs. Drain and toss with the remaining 1/2 tablespoon olive oil. (APPARENTLY I got the no-boil noodles from Trader Joes. Accidental win! I just put them in the dish dry and they turned out great.)


Mix the strained pumpkin puree with the egg in a bowl (gross) and season with salt and pepper. In a separate bowl, mix the ricotta, 1 cup mozzarella and the romano.


Build your lasagna in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish (I used an 8x8 dish beeeeecause that's the only dish I own. I attempted to adjust the portions accordingly): Start with a layer of sauce, then top with a layer of noodles. Evenly spread half of the pumpkin filling, then half of the zucchini, over the noodles. Top with half of the cheese mixture and cover with some of the sauce. Repeat the layers, finishing with noodles and sauce; sprinkle with the remaining 1 cup mozzarella. Bake, uncovered, 35 to 40 minutes, or until bubbly. Let cool 15 minutes before slicing.


This was GOOD. Good good. I felt like it maybe had too much sausage, because the spicy sausage flavor sort of overpowered the pumpkin flavor. LeGreg suggested just using regular sausage instead of spicy next time. I'll play with it. That's what she said. 


ANYWAY. I, of course, didn't exactly adjust the portions just right, so it was to the brim. The pic on the website is way prettier than mine, natch, but whatever yo. 


Moral of the story is that when canned pumpkin is available again I'm buying 97 cans to secure my spot on Hoarders and making this 100 more times. 


Pumpkin on.

Grillin'

I want to grill stuff. Mostly meat. But I can't have a bbq on my apartment balcony, which is probably for the best.

So I bought a grill pan.

Most of the options were non-stick and it seemed like a non-stick grill pan wouldn't give food nice grill marks. Not that I actually really know, but whatever.

I got a cast iron pan because cast iron is bad ass. It's heavy as all hell and is supposed to last 483 years and I can knock the daylights out of a home intruder with it.

So I got and found out how much WORK cast iron involves. I saw that it was pre-seasoned. Pre-seasoned? With, like, all-spice? Oh wait, I have to rub it down with veggie oil before AND after every time I use it? Ugh. So I followed the exact instructions for "before use" and, when it was all dry, it was RUSTY. The hell?

I was pissed.

I was taking that shit back.

I told a woman I work with and she was all "oh yeah, that's normal. That's why you have to oil it down, so it doesn't do that anymore".

Oh.

Oops.

Fast forward a month to now, when I finally bought veggie oil and am ready to use the damn thing.

Another coworker gave me some killer looking zucchinis. Perfect.


I sliced one up and let it sit in some balsamic vinaigrette and tossed it on the hot grill.

I brushed on some extra vinaigrette because I'm pretty sure you're supposed to brush stuff on things you're grilling? Right?

Whatever.

End result: SUCCESS. Tasted grilled and was cooked perfectly. Can't wait to actually try meat on it!

Juicin'

My new "thing".

I bought a juicer and am diggin it.

Boyfriend showed me this movie, which I HIGHLY recommend. It was pretty awesome.

On that same website are a few recipes and I've tried 3 so far. This has been my favorite!

Apple-Beet-Carrot

1 Apple
2 Beets
3 Large Carrots
1 Piece Ginger (thumb sized)
Spinach / Kale – (optional) (I used spinach)

I'll definitely try more of them out. One thing I've learned is that my juicer is NOT a fan of kale. Cripes, you'd think I threw in a handful of nails.

Green Monster

I stumbled across Oh She Glows somewhere, sometime. I like the concept of "finding your glow again". I just haven't been feeling...GOOD...lately. You know? I saw her mention her green monster smoothies a few times and decided to give it a whirl. I wish I could have a smoothie every morning, but my neighbors would probably be at my door with a pitchfork if I ran my blender on high at 5:30am every day. 


I started with a spiffed up version of her basic smoothie:

• 2 cups organic spinach
• 1-1.25 cups milk (your choice of cow’s milk, soy, hemp, almond, rice, etc) (I use almond milk)
• 1 tablespoon flax (optional) (yep, used it. Make sure it's ground up, unless you have a killer blender that will break the seeds)
• 1 banana
• ice

Directions:
Hi there, Are you a Green Monster first-timer? Have no fear! This recipe is fool proof. Even the biggest skeptic will love this one. Place the ingredients into the blender in the following order: 1) Flax (I also added a scoop of "green" powder), 2) spinach, 3) banana, 4) milk. The reason for this order is so the heavier ingredients weigh down the flax and spinach and keep it from flying up around the blender and sticking to the side. Blend everything on the highest setting for 1 minute or so. Finally, add ice (I added a few frozen strawberries and a dollop of almond butter) and blend on the ice setting. Pour into a large, fancy glass. Sit back, gulp it down, and be prepared to have endless energy!

It was actually really good. And really dark green. And really BIG. I was stuffed when I was done. I'm going to try these out for a while and see how it goes....or glows....I'll post pics later today and also what green stuff I used. You know, when I'm actually home and not blogging at work.... :x

Buttermilk Baked Chicken

Apparently this is from Down Home With the Neely's. I've never seen the show and I have no idea how I stumbled across this recipe. But stumble I did, and THANK GOD.

Ingredients

• 2 cups buttermilk (I used the low fat buttermilk from Trader Joe's)
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tablespoon hot sauce
• 1/2 yellow onion, sliced
• 5 sprigs fresh thyme
• 3 cloves garlic, smashed
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 (3 pound) chicken cut into 8 pieces, rinsed and patted dry (I used a package of boneless/skinless thighs)
• 2 cups crushed corn flakes
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (forgot to buy, so didn't use)
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Fit a sheet tray with a wire rack and spray with nonstick cooking spray. (Ok, I just saw this. I did NOT spray with non-stick cooking spray and REALLY wish I had. Not that the result was disastrous or anything, but a whole bunch of the coating stuck to the wire)

Mix together buttermilk, lemon juice, hot sauce, onion, thyme, garlic, salt, and pepper to a large bowl. Add chicken and coat with mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 3 hours or up 12 hours. (I put this crap together at 5am and it sat in the fridge alllllll day until dinner time)


Mix corn flakes, Parmesan cheese, and thyme together. Season with salt and pepper.

Remove chicken from the marinade, letting the excess drip off, and dredge through the corn flake-Parmesan mixture, pressing to help it adhere. 


Place on the wire rack-fitted sheet tray and bake for 45 minutes until golden and crisp. 


Cook's Note: Remove the skin to save calories. Soaking chicken in buttermilk leaves the chicken incredibly moist with a delicious flavor. 

I wasn't feeling great on Friday, when I made this, so I didn't actually have any. LeGreg took one bite and said "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO THIS CHICKEN???". It was GOOD. Super good. So moist that he was cutting it with his fork. Other than taking the time to let it sit, it was actually pretty simple and easy to make! Saturday morning he said "I can't wait til lunch, so I can have the rest of that chicken". This, the day after my zucchini bread success!! Look at me go!!

I served the chicken with fried red potatoes with rosemary and a tomato/avocado/italian dressing salad thing. This shall be filed under WIN. 

Zucchini Bread

LeGreg has a newly planted veggie garden at his place. When I was up last weekend, there was a pile of giant zucchinis on the table and I was told that I wasn't leaving without some. Arm: twisted.

My plan was to make zucchini bread. And it was an epic journey.

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 1/4 cups white sugar
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (No. Gross)

Directions

1. Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
4. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.  

So. Here's the thing. I assume that, like my parents kitchen, MY kitchen will ALWAYS be stocked with the essentials. You know, flour, sugar, vanilla, etc. I mean, I've baked like twice before, so I'm sure I'm good and stocked up. 

 

I was not good and stocked up. 

 

And I was NOT going back to the effing store. 

 

Loaf pan? Didn't have. Used an 8x8 glass dish. 

 

White sugar? Didn't have. Used light brown sugar. 

 

Veggie oil? Didn't have. Stole some from Nic. (Hey Nic, I stole a cup of oil. SORRY FOR PARTYING). 

 

Vanilla? Didn't have. Used honey, because it was the only sweet thing I had. Even though vanilla isnt necessarily sweet.  

 

Baking soda? Didn't have. Didn't use. 

 

 So I basically didn't have or subbed half the ingredients. Given my track record in the past, the chances of this succeeding was...0%. But I was already balls deep and committed, so I continued on.

 

I thought that maybe it would cook faster, since it was shallower, so I set the timer for 45 mins. 45 mins later it was a dark wobbly mess. Ok, this isn't going well. I set the timer for another 15 mins. Stuck a knife in and it was covered in goo. About 30 mins LATER, the knife was finally clean! Cripes! 

 

I tasted a little bite when it cooled....and it was GOOD! Miracles happen, people. And they taste so good. It even has a nice crunchy crust along the top. I think that's from the brown sugar.

 

 I brought some in for "team food" at work, and it got a resounding THUMBS UP. 

 

I should just stop now, while I'm ahead.  

Spinach and White Bean Dip

Another dip from that Real Simple article!!

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 15.5-ounce can cannellini beans, rinsed
• 2 1/2 cups spinach
• 1/4 cup fresh dill sprigs (...I used dried. SO KILL ME)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• kosher salt and black pepper
• crostini, for serving

Directions

1. In a small saucepan, heat the oil with the garlic over medium heat until fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes; let cool.
2. In a food processor, combine the garlic oil, beans, spinach, dill, and lemon juice. Season with ¾ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper and puree until smooth. Serve with the crostini. 

Ok. This dip. SO GOOD. And really? Pretty healthy!! Took just a few mins. I ate mine with some flax tortilla chip things I had from Trader Joes, rather than crostini. Bottom line? SUCCESS!