Green Bean Ham Potato Casserole

Fair warning.  This picture doesn't look like much and in real life, it's not exactly breath taking either.  It is, after all, a casserole.  But, it is a tasty dish and is something I wouldn't hesitate to serve with say, Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner because it has that homey comforting goodness to it.  What this casserole has going for it is that it doesn't use cream of ___ condensed soup so fear not!


Green Bean Ham Potato Casserole

Ingredients

• 3/8 cup of butter
• 3/8 cup of flour
• 3 cups milk
• 1 1/2 cup grated Cheddar or American cheese
• 4 cups of cooked green beans
• 4 medium, diced, cooked potatoes
• 3 cups diced cooked ham
• Bread crumbs (optional)

Directions

1. Melt butter and stir in flour.  Add milk, stirring constantly, until thickened.  Remove from heat, add cheese and stir until melted.  
2. Arrange potatoes in a buttered casserole dish and cover with green beans,  Pour half of cheese sauce over the green beans.  Add ham and remaining cheese sauce.  Top with buttered bread crumbs if desired.  
3. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes.

Source: Cedarmore CSA Newsletter

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

I wrote the following post as a guest on Alicia's blog Culinary Bliss.   She is busily loving on her new bundle of joy Eleanor so blogging isn't exactly at the top of her list of "to-dos" right now.  When she posted a request to a cooking message board that we both frequent looking for folks to help out, I figured why not.  This is the post that I decided to share with all of her readers.

Congratulations Alicia!

PS: Would you like to guest post on my blog?  Even if you don't *have* a blog but maybe want to have a creative outlet, please post a comment and let me know.  You can be featured on my blog!

Why oh why was I ever intimidated by butternut squash?  The skin of this squash was much softer than I expected and the shape, once you prepare the ends of the squash, didn't make it difficult to cut either.  I was extremely excited to see this butternut squash show up in my weekly CSA share last week because I knew that meant that I'd have no choice but to face my fear and make something with it.  Even better was it allowed me the opportunity to check another item off my 23 Things in 2011 list.  Double win!

To get the most delicious combination of flavors I decided that I wanted to combine aspects of two different recipes.  I knew that roasting the squash first would bring out its delicious natural flavors better than boiling would.  I also thought that adding apple could bring a new dimension of flavor (and nutrition) to the soup.  Cayenne pepper would bring an unexpected small kick of heat.  And finally, real butter is infinitely better than margarine and a touch of low fat cream cheese would literally smooth out the flavor and texture.  The result?  PERFECTION.  I simply could not get enough of this soup!

I love the flavor and texture of butternut squash and am so excited that I am no longer intimidated by the preparation of it because now the possibilities are endless.  Do you have other recipes to share featuring this lovely squash?  If so I'd love to try them!

Two Years Ago: Chili - This recipe is adapted from my mother-in-law and currently entered in a chili contest at Nicole's blog, Prevention RD.  Check out what she had to say about it here!

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Yields: 6 servings

Ingredients

• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 green apple, peeled, cored, and diced
• 4 Tbsp butter
• 1 medium (2 pounds) butternut squash
• 3 cups reduced sodium chicken broth (substitute vegetable broth to make it vegetarian)
• 1/2 tsp dried marjoram
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 2 oz low-fat cream cheese
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400F.  Cut both ends off the squash then cut it in half and scoop out the seeds.  Place squash on a large baking sheet flesh side up and roast in oven for 45 minutes to an hour or until soft.  Peel and chop the squash.  Set aside.
2. While the squash is roasting, in a large sauce pan, boil onions and apples in broth with marjoram and cayenne pepper.  Simmer for 20 minutes or until soft.
3. Add chopped squash and low fat cream cheese to the sauce pan and puree all ingredients using an immersion blender.  If you do not have an immersion blender, transfer the contents of the sauce pan and squash into a blender and puree until smooth then return to sauce pan to heat through.  Do not allow to boil.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  If desired, add more water or chicken broth to thin the soup until it reaches your preferred consistency.  Serve hot.

Source: Adapted using a combination of Use Real Butter and All Recipes.

Brown Sugar Spice Cutout Cookies with Maple Icing

I have to say that I've been spoiling my co-workers this week.  I brought in these delicious fall-flavored cookies AND Pumpkin Pecan Loaf both in a single week.  While I enjoy sharing the goodies I bake (because it's less for me to eat) I hope they're not thinking this will be a regular thing ;).

I made this cookie dough so that I could make large round cut-outs for my Wilton cake decorating class.  I only needed 6 cookies and so the rest of them I used a pretty biscuit cutter and decided it would pair nicely with a maple frosting or icing.  After much debate on whether I should go light and fluffy or hard and shiny with this cookie, I decided to ask for advice on my facebook page where one of my fans Brenda said to go hard and shiny.  So, away I went and I couldn't have been happier with the results.

This cookie has the texture of a butter shortbread and a flavor that just screams Fall.  The spices and use of brown sugar instead of regular breathe new life into traditional sugar cookies.  And, the maple glaze (Thanks Delia for the maple syrup!) perfectly ties everything together.  I'm adding this cookie to my holiday rotation for sure.  Though, I would have liked to decorate the cookie with more colors but didn't have the time.  See Annie's Eats for some great fall decorating ideas!


Brown Sugar Spice Cutout Cookies with Maple Icing

Yields: Varies depending on the size of your cookie cutter but I made approximately three dozen 2.5" diameter cookies

Ingredients

For the Cookies:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp. ground ginger
• 1/8 tsp. grated nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp. allspice
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the Maple Icing:

• 1 cup of powdered sugar (plus more if needed)
• 3 Tablespoons of real maple syrup (plus more if needed)

Directions

1. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and spices in a medium bowl; whisk to blend.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the sugar, brown sugar and butter.  Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.  Blend in the egg and vanilla.  With the mixer on low speed, mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated.  Form the dough into a ball or disk and wrap tightly in plastic wrap.  Chill until firm, at least 30-60 minutes.
2. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.  On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to about ¼-inch thickness.  Use cookie cutters to form desired shapes and transfer to the prepared baking sheets.  Bake 10-12 minutes.  Let cool on the baking sheet a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.   
3. To make the maple icing, stir together powdered sugar and maple syrup.  Mixture should not have lumps of powdered sugar and be thick but spreadable like frosting.  You may need to adjust the thickness by adding more powdered sugar (to thicken) or maple syrup (to thin).  Using a small round cake decorating tip or ziplock bag with the corner cut off, pipe a border of the thick sugar maple syrup mixture on the outline of your cookie.  Repeat until all cookies are outlined.  Then, take the mixture and slowly add additional maple syrup to thin.  You'll have reach the desired consistency when the icing melts back into itself when you lift a fork or spoon from the mixture and allow it to drizzle back into the bowl.  Flood the center of each cookie using the icing and use a toothpick to spread the icing all the way to the edges.  Allow icing to dry overnight.

Source: Cookie originally from Bake at 350 as seen on and barely adapted by Annie's Eats.  Icing recipe based on Everyday Occasions by Jenny Steffans Hobick.