roasted vegetables with pecans and goat cheese

Koselig.  What does it mean?  Well, there's no direct translation to English. Koselig (pronounced "kush-lee") is a unique Norwegian word that describe a cozy, warm, cheerfulness that comes from enjoying the winter season.

SAY WHAAA???!!  That's right, Alaskans.  Those of us that complain about the cold, the dark, the shoveling, the ice, the endless shelves of holiday items popping up in stores in October (for the love of all that's holy), need to scale back our sniveling and start embracing the cozy days of winter.  Time to light a fire in the fireplace, sip hot cocoa, don festive Norwegian sweaters, and not merely endure winter...but EMBRACE it!

The actual fire we built at Marika's house.  Super koselig!!

I only learned about this word recently, and just saw a friend post this article on Facebook that aptly summarizes the Norwegian culture surrounding the winter season.  So in that spirit, I lit a fire in the fireplace, pulled on my cozy wool socks, and set down to cooking this lovely koselig-esque winter dish.  A medley of winter vegetables - roasted carrots, parsnips, butternut squash, and onions - with a touch of balsamic vinegar, toasted pecans, and creamy goat cheese.  It may not be traditional Norwegian fare, but it's downright delicious!  I made this alongside roast chicken for a weeknight meal, but it's also perfect for an unexpected side dish at your holiday table.  

Happy koselig season, Alaska! xoxo h

(p.s. Here's the link to the story on KTUU Channel 2!)

Roasted Winter Vegetables with Pecans and Goat Cheese

1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed into 3/4 inch pieces
2 medium parsnips, peeled and chopped into roughly 3/4 inch pieces
2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped into roughly 3/4 inch pieces
1/2 of a medium onion, chopped in 3/4 inch pieces
2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
freshly ground pepper
1-2 tablespoons of good balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup pecans
2 oz. goat cheese

(1) Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

(2) Place pecans on a baking sheet and bake for 4-5 minutes. Take out, let cool, and roughly chop.  Set aside.

(3) In a large bowl, toss the vegetables with 2- 3 tablespoons of olive oil, kosher salt, and several grinds of black pepper. 

(4) Scatter the vegetables on two baking sheets and bake for 30-40 minutes, tossing the vegetables with a spatula at least once, and rotating the baking sheets once.

(5) Remove the veggies from the oven and place back in the large bowl.  Toss with 1-2 tablespoons of the balsamic vinegar (to taste).  Place on a serving platter, crumble top with goat cheese, and top with toasted pecans.

Enjoy!

maple and rosemary roasted sweet potatoes & squash (and a story about a turkey)

Ah, Thanksgiving.  A time for friends and family to gather around the table in love and friendship, so that we may all sit down, say grace, and stuff our faces full of delicious foods drenched in butter and cream. 

 

Thanksgiving: the greatest holiday of them all.

 

At this point, what I really should tell you about is this delectable little recipe I am sharing with you for your holiday table.  Perfect for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or any time during this chilly winter season.  Acorn squash and sweet potatoes mingle together with maple syrup and a hint of rosemary for a fantastic, comforting side dish.

 

But what I really want to tell you about is how I'm getting a turkey on a plane for Thanksgiving.

 

HUH?!

 

You see, I'm not one for simple, pain-free holidays.  They're just too easy.  I like complex, anxiety-inducing holidays that require multiple phone calls, web searches, a Facebook blast, and pleading for favors from family and friends.  This all started because my bleeding, YUP-i-fied heart has watched far too many documentaries and read far too many books about the horrors of commercial poultry factories.  To ease the burden on my conscience, I thought I would simply buy a local turkey for the Big Day.  Easy-peasy, right?

 

WRONG, PEOPLE.  Soooo wrong.  Buying a local turkey in Alaska is about as easy as ordering ice cream in the middle of the desert.  Local turkey purveyors Triple D Farms, made (in)famous in this fantastic gem of a video by She Who Shall Not Be Named, closed down in 2011.  A fairly extensive search on the web and several phone calls around the Anchorage/Mat-Su Valley area turned up ZERO turkeys for my table. 

 

I told myself, "Heidi, suck it up.  Just be like everyone else and go to the store and buy a damn turkey."  I mean, they're perfectly decent turkeys!  I grew up with them, and loved my turkey dinner at every Thanksgiving table.  So I went to my favorite wholesale store (need a turkey and a generator and your tires rotated?), picked up an "organic" turkey, placed it in my cart and felt a little better.  As I made my way to the front of the store, however, panic overcame me.

 

How exactly were these turkeys raised?  Did they live a good life, running around with their brothers and sisters, left to roam free on grassy fields?  A Google search of the company brand turned up exactly what I suspected: it was wholly-owned by one of the big, bad corporate poultry factories.  My heart began to bleed again.  I turned my cart around, traveled back to the cooler, and placed the frozen bird back into its resting place. 

 

Having already given up on my local turkey, I called a locally-owned market that sells farm-raised turkeys for $85,700.00/pound.  From the way they pitch it, these pasture-raised, spa-treated, college educated birds had a life in California better than most of us ever dreamed of.  I swallowed the price tag and placed my order.

AND THEN IT HAPPENED.

My friend Renee texted me later that same day to tell me a friend of hers raises turkeys in Kenai for his family.  And he had a SPARE he was willing to sell me.  I was elated!  The only hitch?

It's in Kenai.  And I'm in Anchorage.  A 150 mile problem.

A few texts, a Facebook blast, and a couple phone calls later, I learn that my friend Mike is flying home from Kenai TODAY.  I called him and simply asked if he'd do me a favor.

Mike: "Sure.  What's up?"

Me: "Uh.  This might sound a little weird.  Can you bring something home for me on the plane?"

Mike:  "I think so, if it fits in my carry-on.  What is it?"

I paused.

Me: "A frozen, 20-pound turkey."

Mike: "A FROZEN TWENTY POUND TURKEY?!?!?!"

When he said it like that, it really did sound a little crazy.

Luckily, Mike loves me.  And my crazy antics. 

 

So in about two hours, Mike is going to board a plane with a frozen 20-pound, Alaska-raised turkey.  YIPEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How in the world am I going to top this next year? :)

 

 

Maple and Rosemary Roasted Sweet Potatoes & Squash

(Serves 4-6)

 

1 acorn squash, halved and seeds scooped, and sliced into 10-12 wedges (leaving the skin on- it’s edible!)

1 sweet potato, sliced crosswise and into 8-10 wedges

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt

Several grinds of fresh pepper

2 tablespoons real maple syrup

1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary

2 tablespoons butter

 

(1)    Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

 

(2)    Place the squash and potatoes on a shallow baking sheet.  Toss with the olive oil, salt, pepper, syrup, and rosemary.  Arrange in a single layer.

 

(3)    Dollop the veggies with the butter (either by breaking it up with your fingers or sliced into small cubes with a knife).

 

(4)    Bake for 30-40 minutes, flipping once halfway through, until golden brown. 

Enjoy!
xo H

 

squash mac & cheese

I LOVE THIS DISH.  But I seriously fretted about what to call it.  Because it's a lighter mac & cheese, but calling it "light mac & cheese" is such a culinary turnoff.  Might as well tell folks to chew on some saw dust, eh?  "A slimmer mac & cheese" sounds even worse.  "Healthy mac & cheese" means zero people will want to make it, much less eat it.  "Mac & cheese that is just as delicious as regular mac & cheese and you can't even tell it has squash in it!" was just getting pathetic.  I felt desperate.  So I settled on owning up to exactly what it is.  And exactly the right (read: wrong) person called me as soon as I'd typed the title of my post. 

 

Meagan.  My beloved friend who abandoned me for Washington, D.C. several years ago and who I've been attempting to coax back home ever since.  She called to catch me up on her weekly goings on, as we do most weekends. 

 

"What are you doing?" she asks.

 

"I'm working on a new post," I respond.

 

"Oooh!" (She's a Chena Girl cheerleader. LOVE her.) "What's the recipe?" she asks.

 

(SUPER.  Here we go...) "Um...squash mac & cheese???"  I cautiously utter.

 

"EWWW!  Gross.  Who would make that?"

 

SEE?!  SEE WHY I FRETTED ABOUT THE NAME OF THIS RECIPE??!!  Because of the Meagans in the world.



You see, the Meagans of the world don't understand that just because you sneak a little squash in a recipe does NOT meant the recipe is ruined!  I wish I could explain to everyone JUST HOW INCREDIBLY DELICIOUS THIS MACARONI AND CHEESE IS!  Seriously, you can't even taste the squash, and yet it adds a velvety richness to the dish and allows you to cut out nearly half the butter and cheese.  I served it to friends at a dinner party once without telling them it's healthy little secret until they'd devoured the entire casserole.  The proof is in the eating.
 

I take my blog recipes very seriously.  (Ok, I don't take myself very seriously, but I'm totally serious about my food.  Ask anyone who has ever met me, like, ever.)  I only post my favorite recipes here, and this mac & cheese fits the bill.  What I love about it is that you can serve it two ways.  It's perfect right from the stove top (my nieces demolished it when I served it to them, more than any alien orange-y box mac & cheese concoction-- a seriously proud Auntie moment).  Or bake it in a casserole dish topped with buttery breadcrumbs and bake until bubbly and golden.  

So to the Meagans of the world, I say this:  broaden your horizons, and embrace the squash. 

(And to one Meagan in particular:  remember when you totally hated Brussels sprouts?  And I told you that you hadn't had them cooked the right way and you need to try them roasted?  And when you did you loved them and it like totally changed your life forever?

 Yup.  It's like that.)

Squash Mac & Cheese

adapted from Barefoot Contessa

1 pound cavatappi or elbow macaroni

4 cups 2% milk

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter

1/4 cup flour

2 cups shredded gruyere cheese

1 cup shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese

one 12 ounce package cooked frozen squash, thawed

1 pinch nutmeg (scant 1/4 teaspoon)

1 tablespoon of kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

1 1/2 cups panko breadcrumbs, plus 2 tablespoons butter or olive oil

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Bring a large pot of water to boil.  Add salt to the water (a heavy 5-finger pinch) and a drizzle of vegetable oil.  Add the pasta and cook until al dente (or until there's a little bite to it- just don't cook it to mush).  Drain the pasta.

Heat the milk in a saucepan, but don't boil it.  Melt the butter in a large pot, add the flour, and stir for 2 minutes with a whisk over medium heat.  Add the milk, turn the heat down to medium-low, and whisk until thick and smooth, about 10 minutes (it takes a little longer because you're using less flour and butter).   Be careful to whisk often or the milk can burn on the bottom of the pot.  Once thickened, remove from the heat.

 

Add the cheese, 1 tablespoon of salt, pepper, nutmeg, squash, and macaroni.  Stir until combined.  At this point, it's ready to serve as is!  Or...

 

Butter a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish.  Pour the mixture into the casserole dish.  Melt 2 tablespoons of butter (or substitute 2 tablespoons of olive oil if you prefer) and combine it with the panko breadcrumbs.  Top the mac and cheese with the breadcrumbs.  Bake for 30-35 minutes until bubbly and browned.

 

Enjoy!

xo H
 

Barley "Risotto" with Pesto and Summer Squash

This weekend, the girls and I had a good ol' fashioned roadtrip. Meagan, Jenna and I piled into my Jeep and headed along the gorgeous Glenn Highway to our friend Kate's wedding near Valdez. The adventure was full of laughter, tears (of laughter), hilarious stories, getting lost, cursing at slow Canadian RV's, and almost running out of gas. No joke. I had to stare at this for roughly five miles:

We almost had to resort to hitchhiking to get to the wedding.  Along the way, we dined on such delicacies as Twizzlers, cheesy puffs, Oreos, sunflower seeds, and Gardetto's (I ate the rye crisps, Meagan ate the rest).  If we hadn't made it to the gas station in the nick of time, and they had found my car abandoned along the side of the road, they would have thought we were a car full of frat boys (I imagine this scene playing out ala Into The Wild, where Jenna, Meagan and I would have left the car behind to live our lives in and of the wilderness, picking berries and spearing fish to survive.  We wouldn't have made it 15 minutes.)

So, when I post a recipe as healthy as this, its important that you know I have a well-balanced nutritional diet.  Balanced in that I eat a healthy dose of junk along with my barley and veggies.

I had a barley risotto at one of my favorite restaurants, Maxine's Fireweed Bistro, not too long ago and I've been itching to try my hand at it ever since.  My friend Marika told me about this delicious pesto risotto she found on her favorite vegan food blog, ThePPK.com, and I decided to adapt it using barley instead.  Often my little "experiments" turn into utter disasters (need I remind anyone about the pork roast debacle of 2008?) but I'm pleased to announce that this one turned out fantastic!  The nuttiness of the barley paired perfectly with the buttery roasted squash and flavorful pesto, and the toasted pine nuts add the right amount of texture to balance out the meal.  Plus it utilizes store-bought pesto and the multitude of squash and zucchini found in every garden in Alaska right now.  It takes a little time for the risotto to cook, but it's easy and the patience pays off!



Barley "Risotto" with Pesto and Squash

Adapted from ThePPK.com

3 small yellow squash, or 2 small zucchini, sliced into thick half moons

6 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth

1 T. olive oil, plus 1-2 t. for the squash

1 T. butter

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2-3 garlic cloves, minced

2 c. pearl barley, rinsed and drained

3/4 c. store-bought pesto (unless you're feeling particularly industrious, which I wasn't)

salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

toasted pine nuts

Preheat the oven to 400. 

Bring chicken broth to a simmer in a medium sauce pan, then reduce heat to low to keep warm.  Melt the butter and a tablespoon or so of olive oil in a large, heavy saucepan over medium heat.  Add onion and saute for 5-6 minutes, until transluscent and soft.  (You should add salt at this time, and should season the barley with salt and pepper throughout the cooking process unless your pesto is particularly salty, which mine was, so I didn't even need to add salt.)  Add garlic and saute for 1 minute, until just golden.  Add the barley and stir for 1-2 minutes.

In the meantime, toss squash with a drizzle of olive oil, kosher salt, and ground pepper on a baking sheet.  Bake for 15 minutes or so, turning once, until golden brown.

Ladel about 1 cup of broth to the barley, and stir often until the broth is fully absorbed.  Keep repeating this process until about half of the broth is absorbed.  Then, add half of the pesto and stir.  Continue adding the broth and stirring until the barley is tender but still has a little bite to it.  Once the barley is creamy and tastes to your liking, add the rest of the pesto.  You may not need all of the broth.  Stir in the roasted squash.

Before the risotto is finished, toast the pine nuts in the 400 degree oven on a baking sheet for 5 minutes, or until golden brown.

Top with toasted pine nuts and serve.

Enjoy! xo H