Welcome to My Kitchen

There's something about the feel of fall in the air

that sends me running for my kitchen.

When we're not on the road, I love to spend time creating delicious dishes for those that I care about.  I focus on healthy, life-promoting cooking that will keep us on that travel track for many years to come.

So I've been busy cooking this week.  I made home-made chicken stock ~ it really does make such a difference over store bought, there is just no comparison.
I use whichever I have on hand, but I much prefer home-made stock because it adds so much depth of flavor to my dishes. 
  
I believe this makes it official, though, I need a bigger stockpot! 

And I tried my hand at pumpkin-soup-in-the-pumpkin.  

Pretty nifty!  

 It starts like this.

And it's mixed and baked and served all in the same container ~ 

the baby pumpkin itself.

And it ends up like this ~ a beautiful presentation.

And this, I say with deep pride, is my little herb garden.  What a hearty soul to have survived and thrived in my neglectful absence for weeks and months at a time.  What spirit!    

But with colder weather approaching, it's time to harvest the herbs.

In addition to using them in the chicken stock 

and the pumpkin soup, 

I'm going to make and freeze the balance as herb butters, 

which can be sliced off  "as-needed"

to top off our fresh dinner veggies all winter long.

This is a great way to use the balance of store-bought herbs, too.  You know, the dill you bought because you just needed a couple of tablespoons for a specific recipe?   Try this with the balance instead of pitching the rest.  (Well, if you're like me, let's be honest ~ I'm too frugal to throw them out straight-away.  No, I carefully re-seal the package and put them back in my produce drawer and let them languish until they go bad.....and then I throw them out ~ but they're really too expensive to waste!)

The ratio is 1/2 C fresh chopped herbs to 1 C (2 sticks) of room temperature butter.  Just whip it (lightly) with your mixer.  

Then plunk it onto a piece of saran wrap and form it into a log.

Twist the ends like a candy wrapper, like this.  

It will keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks, and if you pop it in the freezer, it will keep for 2-3 months.   

 

So far I have thyme butter, oregano butter, parsley butter and sage butter.  They are cute enough that I want to give them names,  don't you think???  Still puzzling what to do with my mint leaves, though.  Maybe mint lemonade?  

My favorite herb butter though, calls for a couple of extra ingredients.  I use this one all the time, on crostini's, which I serve with raw veggies (like fresh radishes) on a bed of sea salt; and on cooked veggies, like green beans.

Here's the recipe (It's Ina Garten's):
1 T minced scallion, white and green parts
1 T minced fresh dill
1 T minced flat fresh flat parsley
4 T room temperature butter
1/2 t freshly ground pepper

Mix it all in a bowl, and enjoy on fresh veggies or toasted bread.

Try this and let me know what you think!   

And happy fall cooking!!