January 26, 2015

Cheddar ham and broccoli quinoa casserole

Casserole on the baking dish with a serving spoon.

This is a total comfort food dinner for a cold evening. This dish is something we've eaten multiple times, mostly with ham, but occasionally with chicken. 

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It's a versatile dish that you could use different add-ins for, but I love the broccoli + ham combination with cheddar. I originally came up with the recipe when I was cleaning out the cupboard and found some quinoa that needed to be used up, plus we had some leftover ham and frozen broccoli. I threw it all together and it was a winner. 

So I've tweaked it a bit and measured out the ingredients so I could share it with all of you. This casserole is sure to be a hit. 

It should serve about four people. It's a complete meal in itself, but a side salad is a nice addition.

Serving spoon scooping cheddar ham and broccoli quinoa casserole.

January 22, 2015

Old-fashioned oatmeal pancakes with butter-molasses sauce

Stack of oatmeal pancakes topped with butter molasses sauce.

I came across a recipe for Hardscrabble Oatmeal Pancakes in this old Colonial Cookbook recently. Since I love pancakes so much, I had to give them a try - plus I was intrigued by the molasses sauce. 

January 12, 2015

Butternut squash macaroni and cheese with hazelnut crumble

Baking dish of butternut squash macaroni and cheese.

The wind chills and snow are hitting us hard lately here in western NY! I actually had a snow day from my regular job this past Friday. That means it's time for comfort foods that warm up your belly and soul.

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Butternut squash mac n' cheese is something that I used to make rather frequently, then I didn't make it for a couple of years (not sure why - maybe because I was making so many other kinds like this and this and this). Surprisingly, it never ended up on the blog until now. To make it even more delicious, I've added a hazelnut crumble topping.  

We do like to go out and snowshoe, hike, and birdwatch in the winter, but lately it's been just too cold and so bitterly windy that we have been laying low in our free time. 

That means warm blankets, knitting, too much Netflix, steaming mugs of tea, and warming comfort food. When I make mac n' cheese, it's usually the main course for our meal. A side salad helps round it out a lot. This dish will serve about four to six people as a main dish. 

Also, I recently got a smartphone (for the first time ever!) and am finally on Instagram - it would be awesome if you would follow me (and I'll try to follow you back). You can also find me on Facebook and Pinterest

Top view of finished dish of Butternut squash macaroni and cheese with hazelnut crumble.

January 6, 2015

Chinese kabocha squash and sesame pancakes

Stack of kabocha squash and sesame pancakes.

It's already Week 10 of 12 Weeks of Winter Squash! I have been trying to get a recipe posted for every week of the event because we have so many winter squash in the basement and a variety of kinds. This event helps me to not only use them up, but makes me come up with new ways to use them because I already have a lot of winter squash recipes posted. So far I've been successful in getting a new recipe ready for each week.

This recipe is inspired by this one that I've been interested in trying. After several unsuccessful tries to find glutinous rice flour at a few different stores, I found sweet rice flour at an Asian market around the corner. It worked and they were delicious! We ate these as an appetizer to orange chicken and rice. I did not make these as sweet as the couple of recipes I read. They were still plenty sweet, especially with a drizzle of honey. They'd also be a fun dessert. They are crunchy on the outside and creamy and sweet in the middle. Kabocha is one of my favorite winter squash - it's so colorful, sweet, and dense.

Side view of a stack of Chinese kabocha squash and sesame panckaes.

January 1, 2015

Three cheese-garlic pizza on pumpkin pizza dough

Finished baked pizza on a pizza baking stone.

Well, here is my first post of 2015! I can't believe it's January again already. Winter time is a good time for pizzas (actually we eat pizza pretty regularly around here - homemade pizza is a common Friday/Saturday dinner!) 

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Ever since I saw this Pumpkin Pizza Dough recipe, I've been very intrigued by the idea of incorporating winter squash puree into a pizza dough. I was surprised by how nice the pizza dough turned out - I thought the puree would make it too wet or difficult to work with, but that wasn't the case at all! It turned out perfectly. 

You can't really taste the pumpkin/squash flavor in it, but it adds a depth of savory flavor to the crust. For a first try, I stuck with a cheese pizza to see how the crust tasted, but now I think you could put pretty much any pizza toppings on it that you'd like. 

This dough recipe will make two 10-11 inch pizzas. The pizza recipe is also for making two pizzas. I think the dough would also make terrific breadsticks or dinner rolls - something I will likely try in the future. Also, you can use pretty much any cooked and pureed winter squash in this dough. 

I used Long Island Cheese Pumpkin because we have so many, but others like butternut, regular pumpkin, hubbard, etc. would work as well. I used homemade pumpkin puree, but canned is perfectly fine.

Ball of pumpkin pizza dough.