Pumpkin Risotto

My fellow Modern Baker, Phyl, who happens to be the founder/organizer of the Modern Baker group, decided to do a Pumpkin Round-up over at his blog Of Cabbages and King Cakes. I volunteered to make a Pumpkin Risotto, and as has become the case with me on many occasions lately, I left it until the eleventh hour to whip it up. We had an unusually chaotic couple of weeks, making it impossible to experiment in the kitchen until tonight.

I've never actually had Pumpkin Risotto but I've heard about it on several occasions and figured it would be relatively easy to incorporate some pumpkin puree into my basic go-to risotto recipe. I also decided to add some fresh nutmeg and finish it with a dash of truffle oil, but if you don't have truffle oil, it's definitely not necessary. (Although it really added a great element of flavour!)

When I did my 'research', via google, for recipes, I couldn't find one that used canned pumpkin. I did have some leftover pumpkin puree in my fridge though, and was eager to use it up. I was a little skeptical about taking this shortcut, but, given my time constraints, there was simply no way I could roast fresh pumpkin and make a puree so it was going to have to do.

I was pleasantly surprised at how amazing this risotto turned out. The pumpkin, while noticeable, was pleasantly subtle but it added a gorgeous hue of orange. I loved how the nutmeg complemented this dish. Even my husband, who is not a fan of risotto, really liked this. This is a wonderful fall side dish, when you want to try something new.

So, without further ado, here's the recipe.

Pumpkin Risotto

(Source: A Tease-spoon of Sugar creation)

1 small onion, diced

2 Tbsp. butter

1 cup arborio rice

1 cup of white wine

4 cups of warmed chicken stock

3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling)

1 cup finely grated parmesan cheese

1 tsp. kosher salt

freshly grated pepper to taste

freshly grated nutmeg to taste

1 tsp. truffle oil (optional)

2 Tbsp. toasted pine nuts for garnish (optional)

Melt 2 Tbsp. of butter in large skillet. Add onion and sautee until soft. Add arborio rice and allow to absorb some of the butter (about 1 to 2 minutes). Add wine and cook until evaporated. Add 1/2 cup of the warmed chicken stock. (I simply pour all the stock into a large pyrex measuring cup and heat it in the microwave, and add it by using a soup ladle.) Allow to cook slowly, and continue to add more stock 1/2 cup at a time, as it is absorbed by the rice. Once you have about 1 cup of stock remaining, add the pumpkin, salt and parmesan cheese. Mix until incorporated on the heat. Add the remaining stock, and seasonings, along with the truffle oil (if using). Cook until the rice has the right consistency (should spread on your plate like thick lava); and until the rice is tender to your liking. 

Ladle onto your plates and finish with the pine nuts and a final sprinkling of parmesan cheese. Enjoy!

Bacon Jam

The stars aligned, the weather cooperated, the kids played happily (and quietly enough to dodge bed time several times). Even the dogs got along. And in the midst of all this, a dinner party was enjoyed. Outside. On a deck. Cold beers, plenty of wine, Raspberry Vodka infused girly drinks. Animated conversations amongst friends, lots of laughing, but the best part? Bacon jam, served on crostinis with brie. Yeah. Bacon. In jam form. Enough said.

Recipe for Bacon Jam

Source: adapted from Dinner with Julie
1 lb good-quality bacon
1 small onion, chopped
4-5 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup coffee
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar 
1 Tbsp. dijon mustard

Chop the bacon and cook it in a heavy pot until nicely browned and crisp (or to your liking). Transfer to a paper towel lined plate and drain, set aside. Pour off all but about one tablespoon of the rendered bacon fat. Saute the onion and garlic in the remaining fat for about 5 minutes, until softened and golden brown. Return the bacon to the pot, add the brown sugar, coffee, maple syrup, vinegar and mustard and cook over medium heat until thickened to the consistency of sticky jam (about 10 to 15 minutes). Refrigerate until ready to use. The jam will stiffen once chilled, and is best served at room temperature.

Roasted Tomato and Jalapeno Salsa AND Roasted Tomato and Jalapeno Salsa With Baked Goat Cheese

There's something so much more special about a salsa made with roasted tomatoes, jalapenos, onions and garlic. I love the black flecks of the charred skins from the vegetables in this salsa. Just seems so rustic. It also adds another layer of flavor - a smokiness that sets this apart from regular salsa. 

If you're not careful, this salsa could knock your socks off. I de-seed two of the jalapenos and leave the seeds in the third. As you know, the seeds are where the 'venom' from the jalapeno hides, the heat that you either love or hate. If you're a hater, you could either de-seed all of the jalapenos, or leave them out altogether. Substitute a different, milder pepper if you like. But we like it hot, and even with only one of the three jalapenos left with the seeds, this salsa has a good amount of heat. The noticeable kind - but it's not overwhelming. 

This salsa is definitely good enough to stand alone. It doesn't need anything more. Make this for your guests and you're sure to impress. But if you want to take it one step further and 'wow' them, you can bake your salsa with a goat cheese center. It's heaven. And the creaminess of the cheese helps to balance out the heat, so there's that. Whichever way you go, you must try this one. It's not nearly as labour-intensive as it sounds. And it's worth every second of it.  Plus, it holds longer than a regular salsa, you can make it the day before and it's only going to get better.

Recipe for Roasted Salsa 
Adapted from: Chaos in the Kitchen

1 1/2 pounds tomatoes (about 10 medium roma tomatoes, or 6 vine-ripened tomatoes)
1 to 3 fresh jalapeño peppers (1 to 1 1/2 ounces), stemmed
Half of a small white onion, sliced into 1/4 inch thick rings
6 garlic cloves, peeled
juice of 2 limes (or to taste)
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro, loosely packed
1 to 1 1/2 generous teaspoons kosher salt (or to taste)

Heat the broiler. Cut your tomatoes in half and core them. Cut your jalapenos in half, leaving the seeds in as many as you like, depending on your tolerance for heat. Place cut tomatoes and jalapeños on a broiler pan or baking sheet, cut side down.

Broil for about 6 to 8 minutes, until skins have blistered and have blackened spots. Allow to cool.

Set the oven to 425 degrees F. On a separate pan or baking sheet, combine the onions and garlic.

Roast in the oven, stirring occasionally, until browned and soft, about 15 to 20 minutes. Allow to cool.

Add jalapeños, onions, and garlic to a food processor and pulse to desired consistency. Scoop out into a bowl. Add tomatoes to the processor and pulse to a rough puree.

Pour tomatoes into the bowl with jalapeño mixture and stir. Add lime juice, cilantro and salt to taste.

Now, are you still with me? Cause it only gets better from here.

Recipe for Roasted Salsa with Baked Goat Cheese

Adapted from: Chaos in the Kitchen
4 oz goat cheese, softened

8 oz cream cheese, softened

salt, to taste

2 cups Roasted Tomato and Jalapeno Salsa (recipe above)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In the bowl of your food processor, pulse the goat cheese and cream cheese until combined. Add salt to taste. Scrape the cheese out of the bowl and form a disk. Place the disk of cheese into the center of a baking dish. Scoop the salsa around the cheese. Bake until warmed through, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve with tortilla chips.

Green Goddess Pasta Salad

For Mother's Day this year, my sweet hubby supplied the breakfast. And by 'supplied', I mean he drove to A&W and bought me a Bacon 'n Egger. Yup, we're keeping it classy over here. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. It was good and the clean up was fast. Which was also good because I spent the rest of the day in the kitchen cooking for the Mother's Day dinner for 12 that we had at our house.

I made this pasta salad as part of the meal. It wasn't even on the original menu, but I saw a version of it here and became inspired. Pasta salad is the perfect side dish for a BBQ, particularly when you want to ensure that you have enough food and variety for a large group of people. The problem is, most of the pasta salads I've had are dry and bland. The Green Goddess dressing used in this salad is far from bland and can be used to dress a variety of greens. It was perfect for this salad too - creamy and fresh, and packed full of flavor. Although it is mayonnaise-based, trust me when I say it is far from a typical mayonnaise-based pasta salad.

This salad is so versatile, you can add whatever vegetables you want, and I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier, but bacon would have been a welcomed addition too. I like to sautee my vegetables before adding them to the salad, I prefer them to be slightly cooked - but still crunchy - instead of raw. Plus they have more flavor after they've been sauteed in a tiny bit of oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. Even if you're not a fan of pasta salad - you have got to try this Green Goddess Dressing!

Green Goddess Pasta Salad

1 lb of pasta, cooked to your preferred tenderness (unless making ahead, then stop cooking about 1 minute earlier to retain a little bite (I used Scoobi Doo pasta - have no idea why it's called that!)

1 lb of asparagus spears, cut into bite size pieces

1 red pepper, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp. oil

1 - 2 cups of crumbled feta

2 cups (or more) of Green Goddess dressing (recipe below)


Cook the pasta to desired tenderness. Rinse thoroughly under cold water to stop it freom cooking further. Put the cooked pasta in a large mixing bowl and then dress with enough dressing to coat the pasta. 

Chop your vegetables (whatever you have on hand) to bite-sized pieces. 

Sautee vegetables (in this case asparagus and red peppers) in a pan with a Tablespoon of oil, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. (Don't over cook the vegetables, just cook them till they've softened slightly but still retain their crispness.) Add vegetables to the pasta and dressing. Sprinkle with feta and mix. Taste and add more seasoning if required. (I didn't add anything.) Refrigerate until ready to serve. This can be made a day ahead. Be sure to taste your salad again after it's been chilled, and add a bit more dressing if required. (I added a little more so it was extra creamy.)

Basil Green Goddess Salad Dressing
(adapted from Chaos in the Kitchen, who adapted in from Barefoot Contessa)

1 cup basil leaves 

1 cup mayonnaise 

7 green onions

1 avocado

1/4 cup lemon juice 

2 cloves garlic 

2 tsp salt 

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 cup sour cream 

Combine mayo, basil, green onions, avocado, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper in a food processor. Blend until smooth and creamy. Add sour cream to the blender and blend just until combined. Chill dressing until serving.

Bourbon Glazed Baby Back Ribs

This one gets filed under my new "Weeknight Dinners" category, my long-overdue and very neglected project for the New Year. 

Bear with me. 

So, these ribs are fantastic. IF you like bourbon. Now, you don't have to like bourbon enough to drink it in order to appreciate these ribs. I would never be able to drink a glass of it.  But flavor my dessert with it? Use it in a marinade for chicken or a glaze for ribs? Sign me up - I'm totally in. I don't know what it is about bourbon when it's used with meat, but I'm a fan. Having said that, you could always cut the bourbon in half if you want it to be a little more subtle. Nothing wrong with that - subtle is good too.

Recipe for Bourbon-Glaze

(adapted from Bon Appetit)

-makes enough for 2 to 4 racks of ribs - depending on saucy you like your ribs-

1/2 cup, plus 2 Tbsp. honey

1/4 cup bourbon 

3 Tbsp. hoisin sauce

2 Tbsp. dijon mustard

2 Tbsp. plum sauce

1 Tbsp. molasses

1 Tbsp. soy sauce

1 Tbsp. Worchestershire sauce

1 tsp. sambal oelek (hot chili paste found in Asian isle)

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper to taste

2 to 4 racks of ribs

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup of unsweetened pineapple juice

For the glaze: Whisk the first 13 ingredients together and set aside. Can be made 1 day ahead, cover and refrigerate.

For the ribs: Preheat oven to 275 degrees F. Remove the silver skin from the back of the ribs. Season generously with Hy's seasoning salt and pepper. (Regular kosher salt is fine too.) Place ribs in a shallow roasting. Pour 1 cup of pineapple juice over the ribs. Cover with foil. Bake for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until the meat is tender.

Remove from oven. Generously slather the ribs with the glaze. Finish on the barbeque on medium heat, basting the ribs with the glaze, and allowing the glaze to bake into the ribs, creating a crust (10 to 15 minutes). Serve.

Sweet 'n Crunchy Mix

I'm not sure if the following treat could be classified as 'baking'. No offense to the contestant who submitted it to the Taste of Homes cooking contest. It's just that it's soooo simple. I can't believe that I didn't think of it myself. Again, no offense intended. Really. 

These are highly addictive. I made them "for the kids". And the kids loved them - and so did I. So simple, and nut free for my little kiddo with the nut allergy. 

You can tweak this to include any of your favorite cereal or munchie-type snack. I'm thinking plain goldfish crackers would be good in there...some more salt to counter-balance the sweet. The options are endless. I started with a mixture of mini pretzels, multi-grain Cheerios, Crispex, Teddy Grahams and Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

The original recipes says to simply add the sugar to melted butter but I thought it would be grainy if I didn't cook it into a syrup first. So that's what I did.

The original recipe also calls for 4 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon but I thought that was overkill. Plus I only had 2 teaspoons left, which incidentally was a good thing. Pour the syrup over the cereal.

Then bake it for 20 minutes at 275 degrees F. Give it a good mix half way through.

When you first take it out, the Teddy Grahams seem soggy, but once they cool off they become crispy again. It's not rocket science for sure (no offense), but it's yummy. 

Recipe for Sweet 'n Crunchy Mix
(Source: Taste of Home- Special 2011 Collectors Edition)
2 1/2 cups Crispex (or Chex)
2 cups Mulit-grain Cheerios
1 package of honey bear shaped cookies
1 1/2 cups mini pretzels
1 cup Cinnamon Toast Crunch
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
Melt butter, sugar and cinnamon in a medium sized pot. Bring to boil and let cook for about 2 minutes, or until the sugar is dissolved. Pour over your mixed dry ingredients and incorporate thoroughly. Spread onto a rimmed cookie sheet and bake at 275 degrees F. for 20 minutes, stirring it thoroughly halfway through cooking time. Allow to cool before digging in. 

Petit Croque Monsieurs

Happy New Year! Remember me? I'd like to say I've been busy post holidays but I haven't. Not really. Lazy is a word that comes to mind. It should be a verb. I do lazy a lot lately.


Since we're all sick of holiday cookies and cakes, I'm posting a savory appetizer that I made for New Year's Eve. It's true, sometimes I make things without sugar. 


I concocted this little appetizer in my head one night when I was up late watching a movie wherein Meryl Streep made a Croque Monsieur sandwich for Steve Martin. I hate when I watch TV late at night and they eat food that I suddenly must have. Annoyed and very hungry, I became inspired. I googled Croque Monsieur and found a recipe by Ina Garten. Since she does everything right, and I love her food, I felt no need to look any further. I based this on her recipe but I assembled them into bite-size appetizers and instead of a sandwich, I skipped the second piece of bread and made it open-faced.  


They were delicious. Perfect with a glass of white wine while we waited for the kids to go to bed so we could eat dinner. Here's the step by step. 


I used Country Italian bread for the base.

 Cut it with a round cookie cutter

 buttered both sides to ensure it was flavourful and would brown nicely

 and then toasted in the oven at 350 degrees, until it felt firm and crisp. It didn't turn the golden brown I was expecting but it was crispy enough so I pulled it out. This can be done several hours ahead of time and left out at room temperature until you're ready to assemble.

 For the Bechamel sauce, I melted 2 Tablespoons of butter,

 added 3 Tablespoons of flour

 and cooked until golden brown, about 2 or 3 minutes.

Whisk the milk in slowly,

 and cook until thickened.  

 Once thick, remove from heat and add the gruyere and parmesan cheeses. Once melted, add the spices and set aside.

 For the ham, I used a Tuscan Rosemary ham and I cut it with a cookie cutter that was one size smaller than the one I used for the bread. I'm not sure why, it just felt right at the time. Do what you want.

 Spread dijon mustard on the already toasted bread. I'm not a huge fan of mustard and I wasn't sure I'd like it, figuring it might be too strong. So I made some without mustard and was surprised to discover that the ones with the mustard tasted better. 

 Place a slice of ham on the bread with the mustard,

 spread a dollop of the Bechamel sauce on top,

 and then add a healthy sprinkling of grated gruyere.

 Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 2 minutes then turn your broiler on and broil for another minute or two, or until the cheese is melted and bubbly and a golden brown. Watch closely though - they'll burn quickly. You didn't need me to tell you that - it's the mother in me. Sorry.

Remove from oven and try your hardest to allow to cool for a minute before taking a bite. Alternatively, you can go ahead and throw one in your mouth while still bubbling. It will hurt though, don't say I didn't warn you.

Recipe for Croque Monsieur

(adapted from Ina Garten)

Yield: Approximately 40-50 depending on the size

2 tablespoons of butter

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups hot milk
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Pinch nutmeg
12 ounces Gruyere, grated (5 cups)
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
16 slices white sandwich bread, crusts removed
Dijon mustard
8 ounces baked Virginia ham, sliced but not paper thin

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cut bread into small circular pieces using a cookie cutter. Lightly butter and place on a baking sheet and bake for 5-10  minutes or until slightly crispy. Set aside. (Can be made several hours ahead and stored at room temperature.)

To make the Bechamel:

Melt the butter over low heat in a small saucepan and add the flour all at once, stirring with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes. Slowly pour the hot milk into the butter–flour mixture and cook, whisking constantly, until the sauce is thickened. Off the heat add the salt, pepper, nutmeg, 1/2 cup grated Gruyere, and the Parmesan and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Lightly brush the toasted breads with mustard, add a slice of ham to each, and spread about a generous spoonful of sauce on top. Sprinkle with grated gruyere and bake for 2 to 3 minutes. Turn on the broiler and broil for 2 to 3 minutes until bubbly and lightly browned. Serve hot.