Pumpkin alfredo

For my pumpkin loving husband! It's that time of year again...

Pumpkin Alfredo

From the files of: Healthy Cooking magazine

Ingredients:
25 Ounces Frozen Cheese Ravioli (or make your own, I'll do that some day)
3 Tbsp Flour
2 cups Fat-Free Milk
15 Ounces Reduced-Sodium Chicken Broth
3 Garlic Cloves, minced
2 Tbsp Butter
½ cup Shredded Parmesan Cheese
½ cup Pumpkin puree
¼ cup Minced Fresh Parsley
1-½ tsp Minced Fresh Sage
Dash Ground Nutmeg
¼ cup Pine Nuts, toasted
¼ cup Chopped Walnuts, toasted

Directions:
Cook ravioli according to package directions.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, saute garlic in butter until tender. Stir in flour slowly until well combined. Add milk slowly, whisking all the time, until well blended (the slower the process, the less likely you'll have lumps). Stir in the chicken broth, cheese, pumpkin, parsley, sage and nutmeg. Cook, uncovered, over medium heat for 10-15 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally.

Drain ravioli and stir into sauce. Sprinkle with nuts. Yield: 6 servings.

Nutrition Facts: 1 cup equals 420 calories, 16 g fat (6 g saturated fat), 29 mg cholesterol, 662 mg sodium, 50 g carbohydrate, 4 g fiber, 19 g protein.

Pecan and cranberry crusted rockfish

I was after sole at the store today, but the rockfish fillets were on sale so I decided to give that a try instead. When I make sole I wrap it around bacon and asparagus and poach it in white wine, but rockfish is really different. So I worked with what I had, and this is what we got. We liked it. Rockfish apparentely doesn't have much flavor and I think this might work better with whitefish, but we did enjoy it quite a bit.

Pecan and cranberry crusted rockfish

Origin: me
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Servings: 3-4

Ingredients
• 1 lb rockfish fillets
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp milk
• salt and pepper
• flour
• 1 cup fresh cranberries
• 1 cup pecans
• olive oil
• butter

Directions
1. Combine egg and oil in a shallow bowl. Beat lightly.
2. Combine pecans and cranberries in food processor and pulse until finely chopped.
3. Mix flour, salt, and pepper to a third shallow bowl.
4. Dredge fish in flour, then egg, then cranberry and nut mixture until well coated.
5. Heat oil and butter in a pan over medium high heat. Fry fish 4 minutes to a side until browned on the outside and opaque on the inside.

I served it with lightly steamed asparagus over wild rice, a lemon wedge, and pomegranate seeds. It makes a pretty Christmas meal.

Gestoofde Runderlappen (Dutch stewed/spiced beef)

Our main dish for Sinterklaasavond.

Gestoofde Runderlappen (Dutch stewed/spiced beef)

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 4-8 hours in a slow cooker
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:
  ● 3 lbs round steak, cut into six pieces
  ● 1/2 cup butter or bacon drippings
  ● 3 medium onions, sliced
  ● 1 cup water or dark beer
  ● 3 tbsp vinegar
  ● 1/2 tbsp mustard
  ● 1 bay leaf
  ● 1/2 tsp whole cloves
  ● 5 peppercorn

Directions (my version):
0. To get bacon drippings, I fry the bacon that I'll offer at dinner as topping for the soup, salad, and potatoes, then remove it from then pan, drain, and let cool before I crumble it and set it aside. Now I have bacon drippings.
1. Pound meat and rub each piece with salt and pepper. Heat bacon drippings (or butter) in skillet until very hot. Brown meat thoroughly on both sides.
2. Remove meat and place in slow cooker.
3. To drippings add onions and fry lightly, then remove to slow cooker.
4. To slow cooker add water or beer, vinegar, mustard, bay leaf, cloves, and peppercorns. Cover meat and cook on low for 8 hours, medium for 6 hours, or high for 4 hours.

Summer salad with black eyed peas

I'm always looking for fun vegetarian meals to eat in the summer. In the winter we gobble up all kinds of vegetarian soups, stews, and casseroles, but that's not really summery, is it? So I did a few searches and found a few options, melded some, alterred others, and now I have a whole file of summer style veggie entrees. It looks like salad is the way to go! That makes sense to me, and the less time I can spend over a hot stove, or with the oven heating my already warm house, the better.

This recipe is a combo from several others scattered around the web. Some changes I'd make: next time I'd like to try the sun dried tomatoes not packed in oil, or maybe even fresh ones.

Summer Salad with black eyed peas

Serves 8-10

Ingredients:
  ● 2 cups dry black-eyed peas (or about 2 cans)
  ● feta cheese, about 1 cup, crumbled
  ● 1 jar of sun-dried tomatoes in oil, about 8 ounces
  ● 1 cup Kalamata olives
  ● 2 green onions, chopped
  ● 1 garlic clove, minced
  ● 1 large bunch of spinach, washed, dried, and torn
  ● 1 lemon, both zest and juice

Directions:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add the black-eyed peas and turn heat down to below a simmer. Cook uncovered until done, about 45 minutes. When done, pour into a colander and  wash with cold water to stop the cooking and cool.

2 In a large bowl combine spinach, feta, olives, onion, tomatoes, lemon zest, and garlic, and cooled peas. Toss to mix well. Squeeze lemon over top, to taste, right before serving.

Stuffed Italian pork tenderloin

I almost called this Italian stuffed pork tenderloin, but I'm neither stuffing Italians with pork tenderloin nor pork tenderloin with Italians, so I switched the order. It still doesn't sound right, but really it's better than the other way around. Calvin and I made this one together today. He helped me pound out the tenderloin (his favorite part, of course), spread the cream cheese, cut the peppers, crumble the bacon, and spread all the toppings.

Stuffed pork tenderloin, Italian style

Ingredients:
  ● 2 pounds pork tenderloin
  ● 6 oz neufchatel cheese, softened
  ● Italian seasoning, salt and pepper, to taste
  ● ~1 cup fresh arugula
  ● 4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
  ● ~8 oz roasted red pepper (home roasted or from a jar, drained), chopped
  ● Olive oil

Directions:
1. Cut pork loins down the center without cutting all the way through, then open as though opening a book. Use smooth side of tenderizer to pound meat to an even thickness.
2. Spread cheese evenly over pork. Sprinkle with seasonings to taste. Top with arugula, crumbled bacon, and roasted red peppers.
3. Roll pork back up into original shap (leaving seam along long side). Tie closed with string where needed. Brush with olive oil to keep moist.
4. Place pork, seam side down, In baking dish. Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes or until 150 degrees. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting to serve.

I served this with tender thin green beens, sauted in olive oil and garlic and tossed with almond slivers, and with wild rice tossed with cherries.