Seasonal Views - Winter I

I love taking pictures during the winter/holiday season. The colors, foods, and weather really inspire me. I thought I would post a few of my favorite photographs from this season so far...Enjoy!

What's In My Fridge?

I find myself in this situation often: didn't make it to the grocery store, used up one of the ingredients that I planned to use for dinner, or somehow left myself with a bunch of random ingredients in the kitchen. On days like these, I have a new goal - takeout! Kidding...the plan is to challenge myself to make something delicious from what I have available - which serves a few purposes: (1) it allows me to be lazy and not go to the store on cold winter days, (2) I use up odds and ends of things in my kitchen, which makes me feel good :) and (3) produces great new recipes!

I had one of these days last week, or maybe two weeks ago. I had nothing in the refrigerator - mostly Thanksgiving leftovers. My mom's garlic smashed potatoes were staring at me - they are so good, but I was just sick of mashed potatoes after 3 full days of Thanksgiving food. I also had some leftover phyllo dough and to me, phyllo dough screams appetizer. So, from my kitchen that night, Garlic & Caramelized Onion Potato Parmesan Triangles were created! And no, I could not think of a shorter title.

The recipe will be a bit difficult to follow as I used my mom's garlic smashed potatoes, but this recipe is so forgiving, that you could really flavor your potatoes with anything (herbs, butter, chicken stock, garlic, etc.). Mashed sweet potatoes would be delicious as well. My husband and I ate these as an appetizer with our dinner and they were excellent! I will definitely be making these again, maybe for my holiday party this year.

Garlic & Caramelized Onion Potato Parmesan Triangles

Note: the amounts really do not matter, as it depends on how many you would like to make and what size you make them; this recipe is for approximately 12 medium-sized triangles

Ingredients

~ 2 cups prepared garlic smashed potatoes

1.5 - 2 cups sliced sweet onion

Fresh Parmesan cheese, grated

1 roll phyllo dough, thawed

Few tablespoons of melted butter (I used smart balance)

Olive oil

Cooking spray

Salt/Pepper

Steps

1. Caramelize sliced onions in olive oil (about 1 tablespoon or one turn of the pan - your discretion based on how many onions you have) over low heat until they are soft and have a nice light brown color.

2. Add onions to potatoes and combine. Add Parmesan cheese and freshly ground pepper to taste. Set aside. Note: I added approximately 1/2 cup, but tasted it as I went along, so use as much you like!

3. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

4. Prepare phyllo dough - lay one sheet out and brush with melted butter. Sprinkle with a bit of kosher salt and pepper. Lay 2nd sheet of dough on top of the first sheet and brush lightly with melted butter. Top with final sheet. Cut the dough into 3 or 4 strips (strips should be cut the short way, not the long way). The size of the strip will determine how many triangles you get per layered square of phyllo.

5. Add a small scoop of filling to one corner of each strip and fold each like a flag. You should end up with a small flap at the end that folds over. I usually put the end piece on the bottom of the baking tray so that the triangle stays closed. You can also brush it with butter or a bit of water to make it stay closed.

6. Place each triangle on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Lightly spray with cooking spray and sprinkle Parmesan cheese on the top of each one. Bake until golden brown and a bit crispy.

Enjoy! They were so good, we ate all of ours in one night! Hey, at least we got rid of the leftovers....

Eco-friendly holidays

Growing up we always had a fake tree for Christmas, but now that I'm married, my husband likes to get a real tree and I'm happy to go along with that tradition. We go and cut it down locally - its really fun and gets you in the holiday spirit. I'll be sure to post some pictures of our adventures this year.

I'm hoping to have a few posts on the topic of eco-friendly holiday ideas throughout the month, but I just wanted to quickly post an article this morning regarding the most "eco-friendly" type of Christmas tree - real or fake?

Check it out here! Happy Holidays!

but...I don't like macaroni & cheese!

I swear I don't...or didn't until tonight. I have a few so-called "weird" food dislikes (and likes, for that matter :). I don't like most chocolate, I'm sure that my dislike for most condiments has also been mentioned before, but not until today have I mentioned that I really don't like melted cheese. I think its a consistency thing. Before you judge me, let me say also that I am also not a fan of coffee.

Had enough confessions for one day? I'll attempt to get on with it - the point of the story is that I was never one of those people who ran and went crazy over macaroni & cheese. I just thought of it as food from a box and I never understood what people loved about it (especially in college - people went crazy for the stuff!).

This leads us to a few weeks ago. Tim & I were having dinner at a local restaurant with our friends, one of whom suggested we try out a "fancy" macaroni & cheese on the menu. I figured that I would let them eat it, but for some reason, I gave it a quick try. This was no shells & cheese! Maybe I had to give real macaroni & cheese another chance? I mean, what could be so bad, right?

Tonight, I did. What.was.I.waiting.for.

I reviewed several different recipes to figure out the best cheeses to use and the correct proportion of milk to cheese. I ended up tweaking the ratios from a Rachael Ray recipe and using most of the ingredients from this recipe by Ina Garten.

If you want to give it a try, check out those two recipes and then, my notes on the changes that I made:

• I used an 8x8 pan and used the milk/butter/flour measures provided in the RR recipe.
• I used a combination of Gruyere (~2 cups), white cheddar (~2 cups) and Parmesan cheeses (handful). I have to say that while it was cheesy, it was not dripping in cheese, so if you prefer a super-cheesy mac & cheese, you might consider adding more.
• We try to keep it on the lighter side in our house - since this recipe uses so much cheese, I did not use real butter but Smart Balance; (which worked out great); I also used skim milk instead of whole milk and we really did not miss it.
• The tomatoes and topping in the Ina Garten recipe makes the whole dish - make sure to use real breadcrumbs!
• I added chopped grilled chicken to the mixture before baking - it was perfect and made the dish even more satisfying.

It was the perfect meal for our first snowy day. Definitely psyched for leftovers (although usually I don't like those either....)

Apple Guide

I picked up this great pamphlet at my local farm market last week - it explains the best uses (cooking, baking, eating) for many apple varieties. I know that the time for picking has passed but we will be inundated with hoards of apples until that bright green grass starts to peek its way out of the ground next spring (or at least that is the case for this part of the country!).

I have embedded the guide into this post as a pdf, so hopefully you will be able to scroll & zoom to be able to see all of it. If you would like me to email you the guide, just drop me a line or leave a comment with your email address.