Baked Parmesan Tomatoes

Hi everyone, we've all been on a long hiatus but I'm trying to revive the blog now! I'll start with these baked cheesy tomatoes I made the other day, which I originally came across on Pinterest. I used a shredded cheddar blend because I had that on hand and I wanted to use it up, but I bet any cheese would be good. I'm trying to eat healthy these days and I like that you can put as much or little cheese as you want. Also I used a tomato I got in my first CSA box! These are so simple and really tasty, I will definitely be making them again.

Southwestern Filled Acorn Squash

So I had a big acorn squash leftover from my CSA, and wanted to do something interesting with it. I found this recipe for Southwestern Filled Acorn Squash on Eating Well.

I don't generally like sausage, so I omitted the meat and made this vegetarian. I also only made one squash and not 3, so I had eyeball some of the amounts

. Let me tell you, this was fantastic! Really nice flavors and quite impressive looking. I think this might go into our regular fall lineup. It's very filling. I am actually eating the leftovers right now!

Spinach and Chickpeas

I have fallen in love with the Smitten Kitchen blog. Deb Perelman's recipes are just really elegant, the photography is outstanding, and she makes food I might actually want to eat.

Last night I made Spinach with Chickpeas or as she likes to say espinacas con garbanzos. It was slightly more labor intensive, because it involved transferring bread cubes from a fry pan to a blender, and then back into the fry pan. The chickpeas take on a delicious flavor and it's very filling. I served it with couscous.

I definitely recommend this.
*Image courtesy of Deb Perelman.

Cooking Club: Porkchops with Mushroom Bourbon Cream Sauce

I was searching through recipes I had bookmarked for myself, looking for something to make for dinner tonight, when I came across this recipe for Porkchops with Mushroom Bourbon Cream Sauce. I made this for cooking club just a few weeks ago and had meant to share it with you guys! The sauce is delish! I chose to bake the pork chops the entire time so they took a bit longer to cook than I anticipated. Overall, I don't love pork chops, but I'd make the sauce again and serve it as a side!

Photo credit to Simply Recipes - but mine looked the same.

Chipotle Chicken & Rice

The combo of seeing Louisa this weekend at Maura & Christopher's wedding and having a less than fabulous moment in the kitchen tonight prompted me to post here! I decided to make the recipe for Chipotle Chicken and Rice in the July / August 2009 issue of Everyday Food magazine. All was going well (and I was thinking about how this is such a great dish to make b/c while it takes a long time - most of the time is hands off and leaves you with time to do other things - I did 2 loads of laundry and cleaned my apt a bit!) until the last 5 minutes. It seems there wasn't enough water in my pot during the last step, so all of the water absorbed about 5 minutes earlier than the estimated time and burned the bottom layer of rice. When I was putting the rice in, it didn't feel like enough, so I actually added more then - but still not enough! Thankfully, I could tell something was up and managed to save the bulk of it. It tastes great and I have plenty of leftovers for lunch this week! Definitely worth making again!

ps- photo credit to Everyday Food magazine - but mine pretty much looks the same if you discard the bottom layer!

Cooking Club: Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

A friend of mine started a Cooking Club and last night was our first meeting. Our Cooking Club is going to meet once a month and the basic premise is that each month we'll have a theme, selected by the person hosting. The host makes a main dish and everyone else has to make an appetizer, side, or dessert to go with the theme. Also, we each need to make something we've never made before. It can be a dish you've made before, but it at least needs to be a new recipe.

Last night's theme was Mexican, so I made the Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies found in the April 2010 Everyday Food Magazine. The picture is theirs, but mine looked pretty good! They were super easy to make and everyone seemed to love them.

I'm hosting next month - so we'll see what I come up with as far as a theme and a main dish!

Rhubarb Cake

Every spring, this giant plant of rhubarb springs up from besides the garage. This is the only plant that I can harvest from on our rental property, and it gives loads and loads of rhubarb.

I've made strawberry rhubarb jam and pie and crumble, but i wanted to try something new. So, here's the recipe for rhubarb cake. (Modified from this recipe)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 cup milk
• 2-4 cups coarsely chopped fresh rhubarb (I used 4)
  
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preparation:

In a large mixing bowl with electric hand-held mixer, cream the butter until it is light and fluffy. Add the brown sugar slowly, continuing to beat, until the mixture is well blended and fluffy. Beat the egg and vanilla into the creamed mixture until well-blended.

In a separate bowl sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Combine the lemon juice and milk; add it alternately with the flour mixture to the creamed mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Beat after each addition, just enough to blend. Gently fold the chopped rhubarb into the batter; spoon into a greased 9x13x2-inch pan, spreading evenly.

Dash the cinnamon on top of the batter. Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 50-60 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan at least 25 minutes, then cut into squares and serve.