The other day I talked about what to do with tons of fall veggies! Today there is more. As soon as the weather starts to get cooler I start thinking about roasted root veggies, it is kind of like my signature fall dish. There is just something so satisfying about the caramelization that happens when these beautiful veggies, glistening with olive oil, go in a hot oven together. I could live off different combinations of these veggies all autumn and winter long, and often do. This time I served the roasted veggies with Maple-Sage glazed pork chops and the rest of the greens.

The other thing I love to make when the weather turns cold are squash or pumpkin soups. This delicious pumpkin soup I made from the leftovers of those lovely jack-o-lanterns that we made for Halloween based on a the recipe from Creamy Vermont Winter Pumpkin Soup from Dishing Up Vermont.

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This recipe is horribly old. It is back from around the time right after we got married in May. But this is part of the promise to myself to get these old posts up and out of the “pending” folder! Plus as you will see if you read this post, there are several good reasons for posting it now.

This Quiche is my entry for Ley’s Baking for Breast Cancer Awareness Event ! It is being hosted over on one of my favorite blogs, Cilanto & Lime. It is Ley’s first blog event and I encourage everyone to participate. Last month we participated in Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, here on The Leftover Queen Blog . I feel that it is vitally important to spread awareness about all these diseases!!!

Thankfully, up until this year I have not personally known anyone with this terrible disease. But with the expanding of my horizons through the food blogosphere, I heard about Bri, from Figs with Bri , during last June’s Click Event. Bri is been battling this terrible disease for the second time. My heart and prayers go out to her and her family. I don’t personally know Bri, but I feel like she is part of my foodie family anyway, so this is dedicated to her and all the other women and men who suffer from this disease and their loved ones.

Breast Cancer Statistic: Excluding cancers of the skin, breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed among U.S. women, accounting for more than 1 in 4 cancers. For more, see this website.

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I have never been a fan of apples. For me, when people got all excited in the fall for apple season, I hunker down, square my shoulders and get ready for all the apple treats I have to consume out of politeness during this season. I can’t really explain what it is about apples I don’t like. I like crunch, so it isn’t that. I just think the flavor of them is either too sweet or too tart for me to ever really like. I lived in Apple Country, New England for years, and I have tried many different types, I have been to many an apple festival, but there were never any that really “applealed” to me. The only things apple-y that I can tolerate are apple cider donuts, or apples that are paired with something savory. For example, apples in squash soup, a piece of apple pie with cheddar cheese or this latest recipe, Apple Chard Quiche. I decided to post this in honor of the fact that we are heading off on our yearly New England trip next week, and heading right into apple country!!! To read about last year’s trip, click here(the articles are on both the first and second pages).

Anyway, while we had family here over the time of the wedding, apples were purchased, because some of the guests liked them. But when they left, there were several remaining apples. Horror of horrors! What was I supposed to do with these, these, things???? Being the Leftover Queen that I am, I couldn’t even think about throwing them away, even though I don’t like them. I thought about throwing them outside for the animals, but thought I really should challenge myself instead. So I knew I had come upon one of my greatest culinary challenges. I had to come up with something tolerable, that I could pass off even as good, for two apple-haters. Yep, Roberto is not a friend to the apple either. Imagine that.

I came across this recipe I had saved from a Vegetarian Times Magazine years ago. I think I was intrigued by the combination of flavors. So, I tweaked it to our liking. The amazing thing is, we both really genuinely loved it. It was really weird, but we could have eaten the whole quiche in one sitting. We actually had to restrain ourselves , even in our bewilderment. So the crazy thing is, that I for the first time in my life, I am happy it is apple season, so I can enjoy this quiche at the height of their season. Who would have thought?
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As many of you know, I spent some time living on the Navajo (Dine, meaning “The People” ) Reservation, at Black Mesa/ Big Mountain many years ago.

It was a very transformation period in my life, educationally, personally and spiritually. I always look back on this time fondly, not only because of my own personal development, but because of the people I met, the bits of language I learned and especially how these people who really don’t have much, made delicious food based on the foods that are around and the plants and animals their people have raised for generations. If it were not for their sheep (and other livestock) and their gardens, many would be on the verge of hunger all the time, or relegated to eating foods full of preservatives and chemicals from the government. The people I lived with tried to feed the government cheese to their dogs, and they wouldn’t touch it.

Perhaps the most important food in the Dine’ culture (besides sheep) are the Three Sisters: corn, squash and beans. These three crops form the foundation of their diet and are planted together in mounds – corn in the middle and squash and beans surrounding it. The corn is planted first, once it has grown some, it provides a structure for the beans to climb, eliminating the need for poles. The beans provide necessary nitrogen to the soil that the other plants need to grow and the squash spreads along the ground, using up most of the sunlight, preventing weeds. The squash leaves also act as a “living mulch,” that retains moisture in the soil, while the prickly hairs of the vine deter pests.

Pretty cool, huh?

Well, what is just as cool, is Valli and Ivy‘s food blogging event based on, World Food Day held by The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Their goal is to raise awareness through the blogosphere for “World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy.” Something that I felt driven to participate in.

Since the Dine’ are environmentalists at the core of their culture and many of them don’t even have electricity or running water where they live, I felt food that reflects their culture and relationship to the Earth and the planet would be appropriate here. For Val and Ivy’s event they are asking that we submit a recipe which represents our country (these are the first Americans) that would feed at least 6 people (check). They are looking especially for family favourites, regional favourites that uses local and perhaps seasonal ingredients (check again!)

So in order to honor the time I spent with the Dine’ I really wanted to make a dish that incorporates the Three Sisters and serve it with some fry bread. Fry bread is a necessary part of all Dine’ meals. Sometimes there is corn bread (some of the best corn bread is made with blue corn meal), but fry bread is the most common. I know that with the family I stayed with, it was made first thing in the morning – each loaf was kneaded and then fried in a cast iron skillet. Usually enough was made to last the whole day. It took me quite a long time to get it halfway decent- as I am not a kneader by nature. Everyone always knew when the billigana (“white girl”) made the fry bread as it was usually not as soft and always oddly shaped…still is…

This time, I also tried to make the fry bread a tinsy bit healthier by using some whole wheat flour as well!

Hope you enjoy this Native American inspired meal! Great for the fall, especially….click through to meet our newest family member…

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I have been hearing about Pomodori e Riso (tomatoes and rice) for the past two years. This is one of Roberto’s favorite dishes that he misses the most since moving from Rome to the US. Like his mom’s Involtini, tortellini soup, and roasted potatoes from the Rosticceria, he mentions pomodori e riso often with a dreamy faraway look in his eyes. Pomodori e riso, roasted potatoes and roasted chickens are on offering in many a Rosticceria in Rome. I have been hearing about how great the food is from these places, that when I finally make it to the Eternal City, I imagine that they will be built of gold and marble. Not only this, but I really want to do my best to replicate Roberto’s favorite dishes and give him a sense of home. But Roman cuisine is all uncharted territory for me, as my Italian ancestors are from much farther South and therefore the cuisine is an entirely different animal! But I am always up for a good challenge in the kitchen!

My attempts at making the tortellini soup went over pretty big a few years ago (before I had this blog), so when we found ginormous tomatoes at the Farmer’s Market last week, and he got the pomodori e riso bug, I was all for it. I put on my proverbial chef hat, and my geeky researcher glasses and in a very Food 911 fashion, I asked a lot of questions about how it was supposed to taste and why his past attempts just didn’t do it for him.

Here were the problems with his past attempts:

1) The tomatoes and potatoes were too hard – the ideal texture is soft on the inside, but crispy on the top of the tomatoes and the outsides of the potatoes from sitting in the rosticceria all day getting nice and slowly cooked.

2) The tomatoes were too small and therefore not up to par

3) The sauce needed some help – it had been too bland in the past

4) Rice was not the right texture

So I thought about how to improve on the recipe, and came up with these solutions:

1) I have perfected roasted potatoes. So I knew how I was going to cook them (see recipe method), as for the tomatoes, they needed to be cooked a little ahead of time to get them to the right texture and then but under the broiler (with a little grated parm) at the end to get the crispy top.

2) Use the season’s bounty of beautiful big tomatoes (I don’t think these kinds of tomatoes grow very much in New England)

3) I made the sauce by using the insides of the tomatoes, some Pomi tomato sauce, fresh basil, fresh garlic and salt, sugar, balsamic and pepper to make a delicious and fresh tasting sauce

4) I used arborio rice and pre-cooked it, but added a little extra water so that when it was baked inside the tomatoes, it wouldn’t get hard

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So as many of you know, in the Leftover Queen household there is an unending quest for good pizza.

I have written about it on my travel blog here, here, here and here , as well as attempting it at home, on the grill last summer when we were at my mom’s.

We have tried other, not so successful pizza making attempts at home that certainly weren’t worth blogging about. But still on this bread revolution kick, I decided to use my new favorite cookbook, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day to try my hand at a new recipe for pizza dough.

I decided to go with the Olive Oil Dough, but I modified it a little to get some whole wheat flour in there. I have heard the low down on all WW pizza dough from my good friend Helen’s blog, Food Stories, and so I didn’t want to make the same mistake (thanks Helen for being the guinea pig!).

This dough was amazing! It was easy to work with, lifted right off the cookie sheet with no trouble and a perfect golden brown. We topped our pizza with Ciliengini (small fresh mozzarella balls), sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts and anchovies with capers. It was the perfect combination of flavors and they texture of the crust was perfect – thin, crunchy on the outside, with a soft give inside. The flavor of the olive oil in the dough really gave it a whole level of deliciousness. The fruitier the olive oil, the better!

We enjoyed this pizza while watching The Spiderwick Chronicles when my mom was visiting. Now Roberto is insisting we have this pizza at least once a week!
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In my quest to find healthy alternatives, eat my veggies and cut down on food costs, I have started trying to make pre-made foods that we enjoy at home, from scratch. One of those things are veggie burgers. We really love a good veggie burger in this house. It is a quick, easy meal that you can feel good about – and eat with oven baked fries!

Don’t get me wrong, we love the meat versions as well. But there is something lighter about veggie burgers, that we sometimes crave. They can be pretty expensive when you buy them at the grocery store and in keeping a balanced budget, we decided that store bought veggie burgers just weren’t going to make the cut. But that didn’t mean they had to be off the menu! Plus, finding a veggie burger at the store without soy products is becoming virtually impossible. Not to mention it is getting harder and harder to find veggie burgers with out a lot of additives these days as vegetarian food is also becoming industrialized at a frightening rate. So I got a crazy idea in my mind. I decided to do a veggie burger experiment. Try a few variations, using different beans, legumes and grains, until we got it right.

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On a recent trip to the Farmers Market we stopped at one of our favorite organic produce stands. They were selling some nice pea shoots and the biggest, fattest, firmest portabella mushrooms I had the pleasure of seeing. I really wasn’t in the market for mushrooms on this occasion, but forgive me, it was like that moment in The Fellowship of the Rings when the hobbitses find the mushrooms and get so excited they trip over themselves and start rolling down the hill yelling Mushrooooooms!
Luckily for me there were no hills involved…

I brought them home and knew we had to eat them right away. I didn’t want to lose any of those fabulous fresh flavors or the perfect meaty texture. So I decided to really celebrate my veggie finds: mushrooms, pea shoots, arugala and eggplant. I broiled the portabellas and eggplant (remember I have no grill and can’t get one) and paired them with chevre and roasted garlic and topped with really good balsamic vinegar. This was a wonderful main course salad, perfect for all that summer weather we have been experiencing. Served with a nice crisp glass of white wine and life is good.

I served the salad with caramelized onion pumpernickel dinner rolls – a recipe which I adapted from the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day book that has revolutionized my life.

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Here is a quickie for you guys today! These are two great and really fast dishes to prepare that make a wonderful main meal together, with some fresh bread and a salad, or great side dishes for a summer BBQ. They are both simple to prepare and there is a lot of ingredient carry-over, making it all the better. Plus they look beautiful and smell mouth watering. Looking for something quick and easy? These are perfect. They speak for themselves.

Mozzarella Stuffed Portabellas

INGREDIENTS:

6 large portabella mushrooms, stems and gills removed
4 TBS extra virgin olive oil
2 TBS balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper
3/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
2 TBS fresh chopped parsley
2 TBS fresh chopped basil
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

METHOD:

Heat oven to 425 F. In a large bowl, toss mushrooms with olive oil, balsamic and salt and pepper. Be sure to coat them well. Arrange mushrooms on a cookie sheet and bake about 10 minutes or until soft.

Meanwhile, mix breadcrumbs, parm, parsley and basil. Divide Mozzarella and spread evenly over all mushrooms, then spoon equal amounts of bread crumb mixture over top. Bake another 7-10 minutes or until cheese is melted and bread crumbs are browned.

Tomatoes au Gratin

INGREDIENTS:

4 large Roma tomatoes
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup cheese of choice (we used cheddar)
2 TBS butter

METHOD:

Cut tomatoes in half crosswise. Place cut side up in a small baking dish. Sprinkle all cut sides with salt, breadcrumbs and cheese. Dot with butter. Cook in the oven at 425 F for 5-7 minutes and then place under the broiler for about 5 minutes, until cheese is melted. Serve immediately!