Autumn Cookings!
I realized that I’ve done a lot of baking and cooking recently and haven’t put it on LJ in picture form! Here’s two things I’ve made rather recently:

caramelized butternut squash with ground clove, cinnamon, and brown sugar...
...quinoa cooked with olive oil, sunflower seeds, raisins, fresh chopped rosemary sprigs, and coarse sea salt
Recipe:
For the quinoa, follow the instructions on whatever quinoa you are using as to how to cook it (usually it is a 1:2 quinoa:water ratio). Into the water after it is boiling, add all the ingredients and cover after reducing temperature. I added rosemary, seasalt, olive oil, and raisins directly into the water so it cooked *into* the quinoa. You can add them after, though, too! The taste just may not be as infused. There is no measurement, it is simply to-taste.
For the squash,
MMMMMMMM!!!!
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caramelized butternut squash with ground clove, cinnamon, and brown sugar...
...quinoa cooked with olive oil, sunflower seeds, raisins, fresh chopped rosemary sprigs, and coarse sea salt
Recipe:
For the quinoa, follow the instructions on whatever quinoa you are using as to how to cook it (usually it is a 1:2 quinoa:water ratio). Into the water after it is boiling, add all the ingredients and cover after reducing temperature. I added rosemary, seasalt, olive oil, and raisins directly into the water so it cooked *into* the quinoa. You can add them after, though, too! The taste just may not be as infused. There is no measurement, it is simply to-taste.
For the squash,
- First preheat your oven to about 350.
- Line a baking sheet with tinfoil as to save from mess.
- Create a "sauce" out of really really soft / quasi-melted "butter" (earthbalance, margarine, etc. - about 3tbsp), brown sugar (about 1/2 cup), and whichever spices you'd like (I used cloves and cinnamon and a little nutmeg - add to taste) by first mixing butter and brown sugar together, then adding spices. Add coarse sea salt to add a little flavor differentiation. Taste the "sauce" (it's more like a paste) to make sure you like the flavors!
- Peel one butternut squash and cut it length-wise.
- Scoop out the seeds and either save them for baking or discard into your compost.
- Cut each half of the butternut squash into 1 inch / 1.5 inch "cubes" (as uniform as possible...it's tough with a weird shaped fruit), and then mix into the brown-sugar sauce in a large bowl.
- After all the squash "cubes" are covered in the sauce, spoon them onto the cookie tray and spread them out as evenly as possible (it's easier if you double the recipe because then you have a more "full" tray).
- Place tray on the middle oven rack, or if you're feeling ambitious, place on the top rack and switch to bottom rack (and then vice versa) every ten minutes (this creates a more "broiled" look on the squash; a little more browned edges).
- Check on the squash frequently with your oven light and don't be afraid to stir the cubes around in their sauce while cooking. The more marinated they are, the better!
- Remove from oven when they are the desired tenderness you like; for me this was about 40 minutes.
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