Butternut Squash-Carrot Bisque with Oatmeal Walnut Soda Bread

This meal was essentially convenience food--the bisque was a package of chopped veggies and herbs from Hy-Vee that you throw in the slow cooker with chicken broth, then puree and add milk. I added some leftover roasted carrots to make it squash-carrot bisque. And I wanted bread to go with the soup, but didn't have time to run to the store, and didn't have the time to make a yeast bread, so I made this recipe. I didn't have cake flour, so I just used another half-cup of regular flour. I think it turned out fine. I'd use this bread recipe again as a go-to quick bread.

Results:
Me: I've had better squash bisques, but for convenience, this was pretty easy.
Jeff: Liked it, got excited about the bread ("This is like the bread I'd get at the shop in Ireland!")
Charlotte: Proclaimed the soup "mmm...yummy!" but only ate two bites. Ate about the same amount of bread, too.

Verdict: A mixed bag.

Spaghetti Squash Casserole (with a side of humble pie)

I've been really bad about posting here, and I have a lot of catching up to do. I'll try to post a few new meals here over the weekend to do so. My apologies! If you've been losing sleep wondering what the Tigs are eating, or if we're eating at all, worry not. I'm seven months pregnant, remember? No chance I'm not eating.

So, sometime last week I made Spaghetti Squash Casserole. I got the recipe from a cookbook I've had for years, but it's pretty similar to this one, with the addition of a can of diced tomatoes. It's a very easy recipe, made even easier by the fact that I didn't saute the veggies, just chopped them and mixed them in with the squash. Cheater! I didn't feel like washing another pan, okay? It turned out fine, although the onions were a little crunchier than they would have been had I precooked them.

Results:
Me: Yum. Great especially with the multi-grain baguette I served it with.
Jeff: He's a fan, too.
Charlotte: Ate the mushrooms, panned the rest. I quote: "I don't LIKE spaghetti squash. I think it is yucky."

Verdict:
A mixed bag.

Pumpkin Polenta with Chicken Sausages--with guests!

This is a Rachel Ray recipe from a cookbook I got in a family Christmas exchange. It's lucky I got this cookbook that way, because I never would have purchased it myself due to my vague dislike of R. Ray. I find her a bit abrasive. Even the way her recipes are written is annoying. But I have found some really good, quick recipes in here that I've turned to again and again.

The recipe isn't on her website, but it's pretty simple. You make quick-cooking polenta using chicken stock and milk as the liquids, and then add a can of pumpkin puree and a half-cup of asiago cheese when the polenta thickens up. Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper. The sausages are the packeged, pre-cooked flavored chicken sausages you can get in the meat section. I made a variety: sweet apple maple, italian with peppers, and sundried tomato basil.

I also served this with a basic romaine salad and some leftover garlic bread.

Results:
Me: I know I like this recipe. Pumpkin in anything=good. I'd make it again.
Jeff: Ditto. Loves the sausages especially.
Charlotte: Not a fan of anything like polenta or mashed potatoes, so she skipped that part. Loved the sausage, and as always is a big fan of salad.
AND THE GUESTS:
Mom Deur: I won a battle getting her to try polenta. She was reluctant, and reserved in her praise, but managed to choke it down. :)
Dad Deur: Liked the Italian-style sausages the best. I don't think he ate much polenta.

Verdict:
Make it again for the Tigs, but probably not for the Deur family.

Pot Roast!

This week, something just felt "off." I was wiping my countertops and felt I just wasn't getting them clean enough, so I used my clorox bleach pen to whiten around the sink area and tidy up a couple of coffee stained spots. I folded and refolded my daughter's tiny underpants so they would all "face the same way." I used a lint roller to remove fuzzies from the back of the couch.

Then, it dawned on me. I just wasn't feeling domestic enough! So, for the first time ever, I made a pot roast. I felt quite housewifely asking the butcher dude at Hy-Vee for "a pot roast, about three pounds please." Then I felt vaguely repulsed when he handed me what seemed like a giant slab of meat wrapped in brown paper. What can I say...I went through a brief vegetarian phase and sometimes enormous cuts of animal are still weird.

But that repulsion quickly went away, because, people, I have a message for you: pot roast is delicious. In fact, I think I may need to take a break from writing this to go downstairs and have a bit of the leftovers (turns out three pounds is a very generous cut for two adults and a toddler, fyi).

I'd link to my pot roast recipe but I sort of cobbled it together from a couple different sources, as I am wont to do. It basically started off as one recipe, from my mom's low-carb slow-cooker cookbook, and then took on attributes of my own crockpot recipe, and then I just started throwing things in the slow cooker. Here's a brief version: dump almost all of a bottle of beer (we had a can of Foster's in the fridge, so I used that) into the bottom of the slowcooker. Add a beef bouillon cube, a package of dry onion soup mix, a slosh of steak sauce, and some black pepper. Stir. Meanwhile, brown the pot roast on all sides in a pan. Don't get all nuts or anything...just make the outside not pink. Then pick the giant slab of meat up (not with your hands or anything--perhaps some tongs) and put it in the slowcooker on top of the beer mixture. Then flip it over so both sides get the sauce. Also, before you turn the heat off under your pan you browned the roast in, throw the remaining couple of ounces of beer in there. Slosh it around and dump that on top of the roast. I believe the french call this "deglacing" or something.

According to both of my recipes, this is it. Turn the slowcooker on high for five hours. But I wanted veggies in there, too, so I chucked in a quartered onion, some roughly chopped (two-inch lengths) celery, baby carrots (as is) and mushrooms (halved). I just randomly threw those things in, tossed on the lid, and then turned on the slowcooker. Then I left for school.

When I got home five hours later, I walked in on Jeff and Charlotte hunkered over the slowcooker like lions over a wildebeest, surreptitiously sneaking bits of mushroom (Charlotte) and meat (Jeff, of course). "Busted!" Jeff said sheepishly. I shooed them out of the kitchen and made mashed potatoes. Then we all feasted.

Results:
Me: Yep, it was good. Next time, I'll get a smaller roast and throw in more mushrooms.
Jeff: I think he felt like a real man after eating this meal.
Charlotte: Also felt like a real man. And boy does this kid love mushrooms. She also ate a few of the carrots and some meat, but declared "mashed potatoes are yucky." Beg pardon? Are you my child?

Verdict: Make it again!