Blueberry yam casserole

You read it here first.  Talk about an anti-oxidant, Vit A punch!

It is still in the oven so I cannot say if it is a success.

I found the recipe on the can of yams I bought around Thanksgiving.  Very easy:

Two cans of blueberry pie filling
Can of yams
Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes
Top with brown sugar and walnuts.

However, I used "fresh frozen" blueberries, thawed, with 3/4 c of sugar, 3 T of cornstarch, 3 T of water, half T of lemon juice, 1/2 t each of cinnamon and nutmeg for the blueberries.

Also, my two bags of brown sugar (unopened!) were rocks so I threw them out and luckily had tiny marshmallows in the pantry.  Along with lots of walnuts.

So, we shall see....

Five Easy Pieces I

A few weeks ago I realized I was 5 recipes behind.  I thought "The title sure fits; I'll find 5 easy meals and I'll be caught up."

That was a few weeks ago.

Regardless, I will make five really easy new things in succession to get myself back on track with a few weeks ago, at least.  I'm shameless.

Here is today's first recipe taken from the NY Times "The Minimalist" recipes.  The author had 101 salad recipes.  Can you see where this is heading...?  As a bonus, I've included some before and after photos.

13. A red salad: Combine tomato wedges with halved strawberries, basil leaves, shaved Parmesan and balsamic vinegar.

That's so easy, even I can do that!

I added a handful of walnuts and used very aged balsamic vinegar (brought home from Italy a few years ago). 

It was really, really fresh and the aged BV had a nice bite to it.  I forgot how much I like basil. 

I am starting to enjoy this process and even more so when I make easy things like the above and realize I have yet another go-to meal.  Less aimless wandering around Wegmans - now I know I can toss strawberries and tomatoes - who knew.  Today's Wegmans visit had a purpose, I had at least 4 different recipes for which to purchase and it was very gratifying to see how full my cart was of simple, fresh ingredients, most of which were from the produce section.  No potato chips.  No junk food (I do not consider Triscuits to be junk food because there is no HFCS in them!).  No chocolate, although when I reached the spice counter I was fascinated by a "new spice" jarred and labeled "cocoa with chile powder".  Ok, ok, I'll pick that up, you never know what I could use it for... 

Yum.

(NUMBER ELEVEN in 2010)

Rustic Apple Tart

Two new recipes in one week. Will I hit 52 new meals this year?  It will only be my third attempt, after all.

Last night I bought the ingredients for the below.  The Waldorf Salad (that I did not know I was making until later) was such a hit I decided to look for more apple and walnut recipes.  I found this one (link and recipe from the site, below).

Tonight, I made it.  I didn't root around looking for thyme, that may have made a little difference.  I also cheated and used refrigerated pie crust. 

Ingredients

1 Pâte Brisée (tart dough) for a 10-inch tart (see all butter crust recipe) or 1 packaged, flat pie crust
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1/4 cup crumbled gorgonzola cheese (or blue cheese)
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped, or 1/2 teaspoon dried
2 Tbsp maple syrup
2 large granny smith apples (or other good cooking apples such as jonagold or fuji), peeled, cored, chopped
1 teaspoon of lemon juice (optional)

Method

Toss the walnuts, gorgonzola, thyme, chopped apples, and maple syrup together in a medium size bowl. As you are working with the apples (chopping them, mixing them in with the other ingredients), if you want, you can squeeze a little lemon juice on them to help keep them from discoloring. Cover the mixture with plastic wrap while you prepare the crust.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Roll out pastry dough to 13-inches, at an 1/8 of an inch thickness. Place pastry dough on a rimmed baking sheet. (Rimmed because the pastry will leak butter during the cooking process.) Mound the filling in the middle of the rolled out dough, and spread out evenly to 1 1/2 inches to 2 inches from the edge of the dough. Pleat the edges of the dough over the filling.

Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, until crust is nicely browned. If at any time it looks like the walnuts are getting a little burnt, you can lightly tent a piece of aluminum foil over the center.

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/apple_walnut_gorgonzola_rustic_tart/

(NUMBER SEVEN in 2010)

Creamy Gorgonzola Fettuccine

Cows near Heiligenblut
Originally uploaded by Skyhawk Flyer

Friday afternoon, half an hour before I leave work: what do I want to eat tonight? For some reason the first thing that came to mind was pasta in a creamy gorgonzola/walnut sauce. I googled the words and the below recipe came up. This recipe was in Cooking Light in 2000. Below is the recipe and far below is what I actually did. Why do I have a photo of cows, you ask? Well, Gorgonzola is a cheese from cows.

Creamy Gorgonzola Fettuccine
8 ounces uncooked fettuccine
3 cups (1-inch) diagonally sliced asparagus (about 10 ounces)
2 teaspoons butter or stick margarine
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups fat-free milk
1/4 cup (2 ounces)
1/3-less-fat cream cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (2 ounces) Gorgonzola or other blue cheese, crumbled
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts, toasted
Freshly ground black pepper (optional)

Cook pasta in boiling water 6 minutes, omitting salt and fat. Add asparagus, and cook 2 minutes or until tender.

While pasta is cooking, melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add garlic, and cook for 3 minutes. Add flour; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Gradually add milk, stirring well with a whisk. Stir in cream cheese and salt; cook 3 minutes or until thick, stirring constantly.

Drain pasta and asparagus; place in a large bowl. Add sauce; tossing to coat. Serve with Gorgonzola and walnuts, and sprinkle with pepper, if desired.

What I did:

For starters, I bought asparagus (Spargel! white asparagus) and maybe the first clue should have been that buying it in October isn't likely to yield high quality. The first thing I did was to start to prep it, and after cutting roughly 1/4 of the bunch I tasted a few slices and literally spit them out. Too bitter! I wasn't about to gamble on all this food and cook them anyway in the hopes that they would taste better after cooking. In the garbage they went. It is a shame...

Because the fettucine was 12 oz and not 8 I decided to enlarge the sauce ingredients slightly. 3T of butter, for instance. 2T of flour, maybe even a little more. 1.5 cups of milk - 2%. 3 oz of cream cheese (the only thing that was light in this entire recipe!). 3/4 of a cup of gorgonzola cheese. I also stirred the cheese directly into the milk/butter/cream cheese combo which was cooking. I didn't think merely crumbling it on top would be the same effect - I wanted sauce! I didn't toast the walnuts. That may be a good idea.

I now have an entire 2 cup container of gorgonzola sauce in the fridge, even after having my meal last night. It was very good, and scratched my itch. (Now what am I going to do with all that sauce??)