Barefoot Bloggers - Herb Roasted Onions

Bless you Kelly (of Baking with the Boys) for selecting such a delicious and, most importantly, easy recipe for us today! I don't know about the rest of you, but I am just flying by the seat of my pants right now because time is moving at light speed (I know, I know - scientifically, that makes no sense, but you know what I mean). So, of course, I just prepared this dish last night at 8 pm knowing full well I wasn't going to really enjoy them until the next day. But, enjoy them I will. The husband is coming home tonight from a business trip and will be here by dinner - I am planning on preparing a wonderful steak and serving these roasted onions on the side. I can hardly wait, the aroma these made while roasting was just amazing and the small sample I tried right after they were done was really delicious.

I halved this recipe and only made one substitution - I used dried thyme instead of fresh (the selection at Meijer was terrible!)

Herb Roasted Onions
from Barefoot Contessa at Home
2 red onions
1 yellow onion
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 tablespoon minced fresh thyme leaves
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup good olive oil
1/2 tablespoon minced fresh parsley leaves

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Remove the stem end of each onion and carefully slice off the brown part of the root end, leaving the root intact. Peel the onion. Stand each onion root end up on a cutting board and cut the onion in wedges through the root. Place the wedges in a bowl.

For the dressing, combine the lemon juice, mustard, garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Slowly whisk in the olive oil. Pour the dressing over the onions and toss well.
With a slotted spoon, transfer the onions to a sheet pan, reserving the vinaigrette that remains in the bowl. Bake the onions for 30 to 45 minutes, until tender and browned. Toss the onions once during cooking. Remove from the oven, and drizzle with the reserved dressing. Sprinkle with parsley, season to taste and serve warm or at room temperature.


Again, great choice Kelly! Be sure to check out the other Barefoot Bloggers here.

Coming up for November 27th is Mexican Chicken Soup. Yep, Mexican soup on Thanksgiving - go figure (and no, of course I won't be serving it that day - I'll be making it well before then and just posting it that day).

Barefoot Bloggers - Risotto

Well fellow Barefoot Bloggers, I owe you all an apology. I really did want to make this by following the recipe exactly as written because a. I love risotto and b. thought the butternut squash version would be fantastic. Things however, don't always work out as they ought.

It has been an absolutely crazy last two weeks for me and in hindsight, I wish I had waited to join BB until November when my commitments would ease off some and I could devote the proper amount of time and energy to the group. Not that I'm trying to make excuses or anything...but in addition, my whole family has been sick over the last week and while I fervently hoped I wouldn't come down with it, by Tuesday afternoon it had gotten to me too (okay, I guess I am making excuses).

Anyway, I did join Barefoot Bloggers, and this being only the second time to post with you all, I figured I needed to do something. I fully intended on making the risotto with butternut squash but I apparently had a total brain freeze when I went to the grocery store this past Tuesday and completely forgot to buy the ingredients for this recipe (I had a copy of it in my purse) - somehow I managed to buy $150 worth of other stuff, but alas....no squash, no Arborio rice, no shallots, no pancetta, no saffron, no fancy Parmesan. Sigh.

So, yesterday morning I decided I would make risotto anyway (in some shape or form) and post whatever I ended up with, figuring that making risotto from stuff you've already got in your pantry might provide someone out there in internet-land with the inspiration to try making it. So I had regular white rice, chicken broth, onions, white wine, grated parmesan cheese (yes, in the plastic container...sigh), and canned pumpkin. ::cringe:: Oh, I hope Ina never reads this.....

Before I ruined my batch of risotto with the canned pumpkin, I mixed a small amount on the side and taste-tested first.

In spite of everything, it actually came out alright and the two littlest ones and I had it for lunch. I know how vastly superior this would have tasted had I used the correct ingredients (especially roasted butternut squash and freshly grated Parmesano Reggiano cheese!) and I will try it again soon. The original, perfectly fantastic Ina Garten recipe is on Foodnetwork.com - but here's my mangled version (I only made half of this):

Butternut Squash Pumpkin Risotto

1 butternut squash (2 pounds) 1 15 oz. can pumpkin
2 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade chicken broth
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
2 ounces pancetta, diced
1/2 cup minced shallots (2 large) minced onion
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice (10 ounces) white rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon saffron threads
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan (Kraft parmesan works)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Peel the butternut squash, remove the seeds, and cut it into 3/4-inch cubes. You should have about 6 cups. Place the squash on a sheet pan and toss it with the olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Roast for 25 to 30 minutes, tossing once, until very tender. Set aside.

Meanwhile, heat the chicken stock broth in a small covered saucepan. Leave it on low heat to simmer.

In a heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven, melt the butter and saute the pancetta and shallots onions on medium-low heat for 10 minutes, until the onions are translucent but not browned. Add the rice and stir to coat the grains with butter. Add the wine and cook for 2 minutes. Add 2 full ladles of stock to the rice plus the saffron, 1 teaspoon salt (if your broth is salty, you might want to omit this, I did), and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Stir, and simmer until the stock is absorbed, 5 to 10 minutes. Continue to add the stock, 2 ladles at a time, stirring every few minutes. Each time, cook until the mixture seems a little dry, then add more stock. Continue until the rice is cooked through, but still al dente, about 30 minutes total. Off the heat, add the roasted squash cubes canned pumpkin and Parmesan. Mix well and serve.

Check out the Barefoot Bloggers blogroll here to see how this recipe is done right and to see some truly fantastic photos. And I hereby solemnly promise to do better on the next recipe - Vegetable Pot Pie!

Update: My apologies to Rachel of Rachel Likes to Cook for not giving her the credit for selecting this fantastic recipe! I will do it justice someday Rachel, I promise!

The French connection, part duex

So, the rest of the meal from last Saturday was really very simple too. For the green beans, with some help from my lovely assistant Little Miss K, we just snapped the ends off and steamed them whole. After they were done (and when I say done, I mean somewhere in-between the almost raw of fancy restaurant fare and overcooked to the point of gray-green stringy mush of Golden Corral) maybe after 5 minutes or so, toss with a little butter and salt. That's it, side dish number one, done.

For the Pommes Frites Campagnard (a.k.a. potato wedges) I actually cut up the potatoes a couple of hours in advance. I had heard that if you place cut potatoes in a bowl of cold, salted water the won't turn brown on you. Well, I'm happy to report that this is absolutely true. I couldn't believe how great they looked! Didn't even have to put 'em in the fridge.

About an hour before I wanted them done, I layed them out on a paper-towel lined baking sheet and let them dry off a little. Thirty minutes later I tossed them with olive oil, garlic powder (yes, between the chicken and potatoes, we were going to have stinky breath that night, but at least it was going to affect all of us), dried thyme, salt and freshly ground pepper. This recipe is slightly modified from one I found in the September issue of Everyday Food. After the chicken was out of the oven resting comfortably and covered in foil, I popped the potatoes in a 475 ° (thank you so much Dershana and Matt for teaching me know how to do this!!!) oven for 20 to 25 minutes. At the end of this time, the potatoes were done, but they weren't as brown as I wanted so I turned the oven up to broil and toasted them for a couple minutes. Perfection!

I'll post about the best part of the meal tomorrow: the galette!

The Main Course

From Saturday's dinner, that is. Here is the recipe for the delish Flank Steak Marinade from my brother-in-law Dave (but it's called Julie's - how confusing?!)

Julie’s Flank Steak Marinade

6 cloves garlic minced
3 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1.5 tbsp ground pepper. (I didn't use this much - maybe 2 tsp or so)
½ cup soy sauce
½ cup olive oil
5 tbsp honey (maybe a bit more)

Optional:
Shredded ginger
Green onions




I used this recipe for about 3 pounds of flank steak and, in hind sight, I should have doubled it (but I didn't have enough honey or soy sauce for that). I put the steaks and marinade, sans optional stuff, into a gallon sized ziploc bag and parked it in the fridge for about six hours. The flavor was great and not over-powering in the least. I guess if you let it sit overnight, the flavors would be stronger, but that's definitely not necessary.

Unfortunately, our grill is on it's last legs and we can only cook on half of the surface. They took a realllllly long time to cook and weren't ready when our guests arrived. Luckily, I knew they'd be forgiving :-) I handed them each a glass of wine and we listened to the ever-effervescent Katherine while we waited - luckily, they only took about 10 minutes more (this is after being on the grill for 20 already - painfully slow!).



Fortunately for us, I think we will be inheriting a really nice, almost brand new grill from my sister-in-law Karen and her husband Richard (did I marry into a great family or what - recipes, grills and so much more!). We just aren't sure when they'll be able to deliver it (or when we might be able to get it) - but I suppose I've got all fall and winter to get it here before the next grilling season strikes up again.

As for the side items for our meal, we had Three Cheese Garlic Scalloped Potatoes and Strawberry Spinach Salad. (didja see? didja see? I figured out how to link within the text!!!!! You can click on those and they'll take you to the recipes!)

For the potatoes, I doubled the recipe which I baked in a 13x9 casserole. Other changes: I only used two cheeses (cheddar and parmesan) and after reading some tips in the comments section, I substituted 1 cup of low-fat milk and 1 cup of low-fat sour cream for the heavy cream (if only making one recipe, use 1/2 cup each).


The proper tool for this job: a mandolin or food processor). I honestly don't think I'd ever make scalloped potatoes without one, they make the cutting potatoes job go so fast! It also works great for apple pie.



Oh, and completely ignore the times on there. Mine took 2 hours to cook and it really needed to sit for 20 minutes or so to set up.

This was taken at 1 and a half hours in, definitely needs more time. I was kind of worried about how soupy they looked, but after a few minutes on the table, they were much more solid.




These were fabulous and everyone (and I mean even the kids) wanted seconds, so make plenty!