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Happy Halloween!

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Who carved . . . → Read More: Happy Halloween!

WCC 33: Coq au Vin with Autumn Vegetables

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Whew! Right in under the 10/31 deadline! Confessions of an Apron Queen is hosting this month’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge and the theme is Fall Vegetables. This is a great theme as far as I am concerned as I do love the Fall vegetables. This recipe is from the Williams Sonoma cookbook, Autumn. I believe I’ve drawn inspiration from it before for WCC.

This Coq au Vin does indeed have Fall vegetables — carrots, rutabaga, purple potatoes, and parsnips. It was also supposed to have a turnip but I was trying to hurry and get dinner ready (hungry!) and I didn’t feel like prepping that one. So sad. However, I think Mr. Turnip will show up in a soup shortly.

This recipe has many parts, many bowls, lots of steps (a lot of ins and outs) but only 1 pot. It’s a good Sunday night meal. Probably not a realistic . . . → Read More: WCC 33: Coq au Vin with Autumn Vegetables

The Attack of the Spider Cookies

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This recipe is from The Secret Life of Food by Clare Crespo. I actually saw these this recipe about two years ago but, I kid you not, the last two Halloweens I have had colds. And thus, didn’t really want to bake things. This year? Germ-free, baby!

These are what I made for the Halloween Baking contest at work. Pretty much followed the recipe except I used dots of red tubed frosting for the eyes (instead of red hot candies) and I used a silicone basting brush to coat the cookies with chocolate. So much less wasteful than pouring it, imho. You will also use less chocolate to begin with. I started with a half of a bag of chips and 1 tablespoon of oil, figuring I could always melt more up if I needed more. Also, try to get a larger tub of the chocolate sprinkles. The 10 . . . → Read More: The Attack of the Spider Cookies

Split Pea Soup with Rosemary & Bacon

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Okay, once again it’s time for split pea soup. Although, today (Sunday) it was beautiful here — about 69 degrees and sunny. We had our windows and front door open! Maybe I was a little too quick with putting flannel sheets on the bed last weekend?

Anyway, here’s the soup! It’s from Bon Appétit. Oh, I reduced the original’s 4 slices of bacon to two. Yay me.

I know that I’ve made split pea soup before. It’s just so good I can’t help myself from trying different variations…

Split Pea Soup with Rosemary & Bacon
2 bacon slices, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 medium leek (white and pale green parts only), sliced
1 large carrot, peeled, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 14 1/2-ounce cans 7 cups low-salt chicken broth
1 1/4 cups green split peas, rinsed
2 bay leaves
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
Garnish: Sour cream, crème fraîche or plain yogurt & more rosemary

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Sauté bacon . . . → Read More: Split Pea Soup with Rosemary & Bacon

BBQ Mahi Mahi with Cilantro & Yellow Pepper Pesto

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First off, can I just say that I am looking forward (I think!) to Nov 5th? I am getting sick of having to obsessively check wonkette, fivethirtyeight and google news > elections like 50 times per day.

::sigh::

Anywho, this recipe is from Food & Wine, via Bobby Flay, and it was super good. I changed some things so I’m going to say that I adapted it from Bobby Flay. We like the Mahi Mahi as you can find it at Trader Joe’s, frozen, for about $6-something a pound. Woo-hoo! I’ve seen it both plain and marinated in a chimichurri-type marinade. This was that variety — I just wiped off the extra marinade after defrosting it.

If you have leftover pesto it is excellent with pasta, chicken or, uh, a spoon.

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2 tbsp smoked Spanish paprika
1 tbsp chile powder blend
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp dark brown sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
1 . . . → Read More: BBQ Mahi Mahi with Cilantro & Yellow Pepper Pesto