Recipe

A Warm Fall Cocktail thats Great for a Crowd

This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

I’m getting a little behind on the times here.

I have a cocktail recipe that I have wanted to share all
fall long, and now I’m running out of time. I came up with it in college after
an apple picking trip with my roommates. It was frigid and we wanted a warm cocktail to help us get into the baking mood.

Sigh, I miss those days and those girls. I don’t ever get to
see them enough. We had so much fun living together. The nights that we stayed
in and ate cheese, fruit and full boxes of wine for dinner were easily some of
my best memories.

Spiked Warm Mulled Cider

½ gallon of fresh cider

4 cinnamon sticks

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp whole cloves

1 ½ cups of spiced
rum

1 apple sliced thin

In a large sauce pan add the cider and spices bring to a
simmer and cook for 5-10 minutes, or until fragrant. Be careful not to let it boil.
Reduce the heat to low and add the rum. Serve warm with apple slice garnish. If
you are bringing it to a large party you may want to strain it first for ease
of serving.

Greek Style Pasta Bake

By Jessica

This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

In our house lamb is something of a delicacy, its expensive
and sometimes hard to find. The favored way to prepare it is in a classic Irish
Sheppard’s pie. I swear if Chuck could
eat Sheppard’s Pie every day of his life he would without question, but I on
the other hand get bored very quickly. So recently when lamb was on sale I thought
it was the perfect time to try out some new recipes.

This particular one I have made before with regular old
ground beef, and it has always been good, but the addition of the lamb takes it
to a whole new level. It is amazing! I love the way the cinnamon really
elevates the dish to something other than a humdrum tomato based sauce, as well
as showcasing the flavors of the lamb.

I think this same dish could also be stretched a bit with
addition of more vegetables, some carrots, celery, or zucchini would make a
great healthy addition that would stretch it out for closer to 10 people. This
is defiantly something that I would serve to a large party, its clean, a little different,
and delicious!

Greek Style Pasta Bake

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, minced

½ lb lean ground beef

½ lb ground lamb

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp dried oregano

2 cans low sodium diced tomatoes

2-3 cups fresh baby spinach

1 lb whole wheat pasta cooked according to package
instructions

6 oz feta cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large skillet heat oil and
sauté onion until it begins to soften 1-2 minutes. Add garlic and cook for an
additional minute. Stir in ground beef and lamb, breaking it up while it cooks.
Once the meat has browned discard extra grease and stir in cinnamon, oregano
and tomatoes Cover and cook for 15-20 minutes or until the sauce has thickened.
Add spinach to the pan and gently stir until it has begun to wilt 1-2 minutes.
Transfer to a prepared baking dish and toss with pasta. Crumble or cube feta
over the top and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the feta begins to crisp on
top. (Serves 8)

Roast Vegetable Tossed Salad

By Jessica

This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

It’s the time of year when everyone gets all excited for
roasting vegetables. Everywhere I turn there is another roasted vegetable
recipe. I never got into it in the past. I mean I like my roasted veggie sides
but that was about the extent of it.

This year however things are different. This year I have
been making a valiant effort to bring vegetables to the forefront of our meals,
make them the star’s as opposed to the meat and starch that is typical of the American
diet. You can find evidence of this here, here, and here just to name a few.

I decided to jump on this roasted vegetables as a meal kick
and see what it’s all about, and I’m glad I did. This meal came out fabulous, and
Chuck didn’t mind the lack of meat and pile of starch. I was even given
permission to make it again.

It’s a pretty basic recipe that can be easily altered to accommodate
anyone, just add or drop the veggies you like/have on hand. The more veggies
the better in a meal like this, so experiment away. A dressing isn’t necessary for
this since there’s plenty of liquid and herbs in the veggie mixture, but I was craving something creamy so I topped it with my Creamy Pesto Dressing. It
was a wise choice.

Roasted Vegetable Tossed Salad

1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped

1 red onion sliced

1 large carrot, peeled & chopped

1 clove garlic, remove the top

Extra virgin olive oil

1 pint grape tomatoes, halved

1 can butter beans, drained and rinsed

1 tsp herbs de province

½ a lemon

1 ½ cup arugala

1 ½ cup spinach

Preheat the oven to 350. On a large sheet tray toss the
sweet potato, onion, and carrot with oil. Arrange the vegetables on half of the
tray. Place the garlic on the tray and drizzle with oil. Place in the oven and
roast for 25-30 minutes. Half way through the roasting time remove the tray and
re-toss the vegetables. On the free half of the tray add the tomatoes also
tossed in oil and finish cooking. In a large bowl toss together the beans, herbs
and roasted vegetables. Squeeze the lemon over the top before adding and toss
again. Set each plate with a ½ a cup of arugula and ½ a cup of spinach, top
with roasted vegetables and serve. (Serves 3)

For the Love of Minestrone Soup

By Jessica

This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Everyone is sick.

Chuck, my dad, work folk, and even I’m fighting off something.

Work is nuttier than squirrel turds right now. Seriously there is so much going on I can just feel the stress pile on every time I walk through the door. I just need to get through the next 3 weeks and it will be smooth-er sailing.

When I am stressed or sick I almost always crave a blanket, my slippers and soup. I love soup so much. The only problem is that I rarely feel like making soup when I’m stressed or sick, and canned soup is not an option. Call me a snob if you want, but I firmly believe that real homemade soup is better by a LONG shot. The flavor, the health benefits, and the love. Oh the Love. How can you make soup and not put some love in it? I don’t think it’s possible. Maybe that’s why I like it so much.

This particular day I was not anticipating wanting soup so I had no chicken, no ham or anything else ready to go that meant it had to be vegetarian. It brought me back to my high school days of working at a local Italian restaurant after school, and practice. I loved it there. I only wish I could have stayed, and that they didn’t eventually retire. It was like my home away from home. They opened their arms and treated me like family. They even had a family meal every night, and I was expected to sit down and eat with them. Even if I had to answer phones or toss wings between courses.

One of the things I remember most is the minestrone. I swear Nona made it every. Single. Night. I mean she made it from scratch every night, not just made a bunch and served it all week. She said it tasted better that way, because that how it was supposed to be made. I learned how to make it from watching her, and her deft hands as they chopped, tossed, and stirred. It was so good, and filled with love; the perfect thing to pull me out of my funk, and nurture poor Chuck.

For the Love of Minestrone Soup

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 40 mins

Serves: 4 Servings

Ingredients

2 TBSP EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL
1 LARGE ONION, DICED
4 CLOVES OF GARLIC, MINCED
1 STALK CELERY, CHOPPED
2 LARGE CARROTS, CHOPPED
1 TSP DRIED OREGANO
1 TSP DRIED BASIL
1 28 OUNCE CAN DICED TOMATOES
6 CUPS LOW SODIUM VEGETABLE BROTH
1 CAN LOW SODIUM KIDNEY BEANS
2 CUPS FRESH BABY SPINACH
2 CUPS COOKED DITALINI (OR SMALL PASTA)
PARMESAN CHEESE FOR GARNISH
2 TBSP CHOPPED FRESH BASIL

Instructions

IN A LARGE THICK BOTTOMED SAUCE PAN HEAT OIL, AND SAUTE THE ONION FOR ABOUT 3 MINUTES, OR UNTIL IT BECOMES TRANSLUCENT.
ADD GARLIC, THEN CELERY, CARROT, OREGANO AND BASIL, AND COOK FOR 6-7 MINUTES.
STIR IN THE TOMATOES, AND BROTH, AND BRING THE POT UP TO A BOIL.
REDUCE THE HEAT AND ALLOW IT TO SIMMER FOR ABOUT 15 MINUTES BEFORE ADDING THE SPINACH, KIDNEY BEANS AND PASTA.
COOK FOR ANOTHER 5 TO 10 MINUTES TO ALLOW THE SPINACH TO WILT.
ADJUST THE SEASONINGS AND SERVE WARM WITH PARMESAN CHEESE, AND BASIL FOR GARNISH.

Apple Spice Cake

By Jessica

This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Anyone else feel this overwhelming rush toward the holidays?

I know that people get excited for them to come and start
pulling out decorations the day after Halloween, but I simply cannot do that.

I love fall! And thanksgiving should not be lumped in with Christmas.
It is its own holiday, with its own meaning and I want to celebrate it on its
own damnet!

So I’m keeping it fall themed around here and sharing my
Apple Spice Cake Recipe.

You see every first Friday of the month someone brings a
cake into work. November 1st was my day, and after some googling I came
across this recipe from Martha Stewart. You see I am not really the baker type.
I like to stir things while they cook. I also like to fiddle with recipes (surprised?)
but you can’t really do a whole lot of that with baking, or you get a huge
mess.

In other words I followed
the recipe pretty closely, except my lazy butt is not about to dirty so many
dishes so I changed around the method, oh and added a pinch of nutmeg, because I
just felt like it was needed. Oh and I used store baught caramel because I have yet to make a caramel that even touches the wonder that is Vermont Candy Dish (sorry I douldnt find their website, but I’ve seen them at a number of farmers markets). One day maybe I’ll find some patience and figure it out.

Apple Spice Cake

1 1/3 Cups vegetable oil

2 Cups Sugar

3 Large Eggs

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 pinch of nutmeg

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

3 cups all purpose flour

3-4 tart apples, cored, peeled and cut into ½ inch pieces

1 tsp vanilla extract

One container prepared caramel sauce

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Blend together oil, sugar,
and eggs. Add cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt, mixing well. Slowly add
in the flour while continuously mixing the batter. Gently stir in the vanilla
and apples. Pour batter into a large, greased bunt pan and bake for 75 minutes.
Remove from oven and let cool for 10- 20 minutes before inverting onto a serving
tray and drizzling with caramel sauce. Serve warm.

Recipe

Footer