Chicken liver roasted butternut squash pate

After having some amazing pate at the nearby wine bar I decided that I should try my hand at it. This was also nice since it incorporated the butternut squash which lightened it up a bit and made good use of the abundance of butternut squash that we had from our CSA. This was a hit at one of the Halloween parties that we attended this weekend, I brought wee toasts and some crackers to serve as the pate vessel, however I observed most people dunking pretzels in it. What can I say we are nothing but classy. If you want the recipe check it out here.

Product Review- MimicCreme

Now, I don't normally do reviews but I figured why not.

A few weeks ago I was doing my normal shopping at the Co-op and we needed evaporated milk for a creamy soup. Turns out they were out of it and I really did not want to cave and go for the full-fat cream monty. I get enough milk fats from cheese and whatnot, I can skip it in a soup that I will not miss it in. We ended up stumbling upon a product called MimicCreme non-dairy milk section. It is non-dairy, soy-free, and gluten free. The ingredients are simply Purified Water, Almonds, Cashews, Sodium Bicarbonate, Rice Starch, and Non-Iodized Salt. I was a little apprehensive and concerned that it would be a watery gross mess. It was not the case at all, creamy nice looking, and worked like a dream in our soup. It even fared well when the soup was frozen and then reheated. MimicCreme gets a firm thumbs up from our household and and is a nice healthy/different option for cooking. We have totally made repeat purchases of the product. My only complaint is that the unsweetened comes in a 32 oz container and sometimes it is a bit more than we need, but I just end up using it in coffee or in other projects.

super oatmeal

Again, I will spare you a photo of one of they most unphotogenic foods, oatmeal. To be honest I pretty much hated oatmeal unless it was in cookie form until I was well out of college. It was slimy, gross, and generally unsatisfying. Especially unsatisfying when in a lame-ass wee packet that served as a sugar delivery system. I also grew up in a cream of wheat household, my mother hated oatmeal and never offered it as a breakfast option. That brings me to about the age of 24-ish, I realised that I should give oatmeal another try, its good for you relatively easy, and relatively cheap.

Enter steel-cut oats. These little suckers are a whole different animal. Nutty, a bit chewy, and minimally processed. The major drawback to steel-cut oats is the cooking time, if made traditionally it takes about 40 minutes of ACTIVE cooking and stirring. Yes, you can make a bunch all at once but there is nothing more boring than standing over your stove top just stirring oatmeal. Watching paint dry or counting paperclips come to mind.

I have since perfected the lazy steel-cut oat preparation- the steamer/rice cooker. I have one that I rescued from my parents house years ago it is very similar to this one. This is also the only way I prepare rice. I have only successfully ruined pots while cooking rice on the stove. Note- this oatmeal making process is no faster it is just hands free. 1/2 cup steel cut oats to 2 cups water in the little rice cooker dish, fill the water reservoir to the high line and set it for one hour. When it dings you have two hearty servings of oats that will improve immensely if they are left to chill overnight in the fridge then reheated in the morning.

Okay, back to the super oatmeal. I have tried numerous mix-ins for oatmeal and for the most part they are totally up to you and your preferences. However this morning I stumbled upon a real winner. After the oats were done in the steamer I split them in to two containers added a spoonful of chia seeds, a squeeze of hazelnut agave, and a spoonful of cashew butter. This all got mixed together then put in the fridge to wait till morning. The chia and cashew butter gave it a bit more body and staying power for the tummy, plus some healthy fat and a fiber boost. Breakfast Win!

Wow, this is an awful lot of talk about oatmeal....

Bacon Jam

I generally leave all of the bacon experiments to Mr. Dave, however when I happened upon Not Quite Nigella's bacon jam I knew I needed to try it. Wow, just wow. First off it makes your house smell awesome, second it got me out of some of my ceiling painting shift when the Hubbs took over so that I could tend to the jam. I am pretty eager to give this a-go with some soft cooked eggs in the near future.
Not gonna lie it looks pretty gross while its cooking, like strange bacon soup.

After it improves slightly, mostly because you get to eat it.

corn fritters aka I forgot that I really dislike frying things

We have been a bit backlogged on eating our farm share, we went out of town for a weekend and really got behind, leaving our household of two with eight ears of corn. To dispense with four of those ears I tried my hand at some corn fritters. They turned out pretty tasty plated up with some wilted tat soi and some ginger garlic chutney for the Hubbs. And I was quickly reminded how much I dislike frying. eating fried sure, making it no.

Savory Ricotta Kale Pancakes

Holy yummy breakfast. I found some super fancy ricotta on sale at the coop and bought it with no real plan for it. I have been intrigued by the concept of ricotta pancakes, mostly cause it packs a bit more protein than regular pancakes. In my world pancakes are kind of a waste, they just make me more hungry.

I based the pancakes on a recipe that I found here, I omitted the sugar and added a touch more than a pinch of salt. Once that was all together I added one bunch of kale that I had wilted with a chopped onion and a bit of garlic. They turned our fluffy and wonderful.

One finished and one half-way there.

home made cheese and a giant sandwich

I recently made the kitchen foray into making cheese. I can honestly say it was pretty cool and way easier that I would have thought. It was like a science experiment that suddenly results in cheese. Specifically a shiny wonderful ball of mozzarella.

Although the poor tomatoes in the northeast are being sadly taken out by blight, the few that have made it have been amazingly tasty and worth the hearty price tag. At the Troy Farmers Market I picked up some delicious tomato beauties from Slack Hollow Farm. Those tomatoes were begging for a tryst with my fresh mozzarella, thus the giant sandwich was born. I found a nice looking loaf of ciabatta at the Coop, sliced it the long way and went to town caprese style.

Giant sandwich=awesome

side note- I was talking to my sister yesterday and she commented that her husband was making cheese, and I had to respond "oh I made some cheese this morning" Random.