Yet another night of Autumn Beer Drinking...#4

So there are only a few more weeks of Autumn/Pumpkin beer tasting...and if you all recall I still have not tried Pumking....:(. I better get a move on it too because I am about to leave for a week long business trip, AND I am already seeing the Winter Flavors in the stores. I guess that just means plenty of tastings over Thanksgiving. Now that's something to be thankful for!

Our most recent tasting was for Blue Moon Harvest. Erin had tried this flavor previously and did not seem to care for it. So there it sat in the fridge...five unopened Blue Moon Harvests just waiting to be...harvested up! It didn't take much to encourage her to give it another try. I just told her that sometimes the harvest gets better with time. Okay enough puns already.



I really liked this one. It had an amber color and a definite pumpkin flavoring with little to no bitterness. I was thinking it would be like a blue moon, with pumpkin...and it sorta was.
To be honest they all seem to be welding together in my head. I would have to say that i would buy this again!
And just to clear it up...erin liked it the 2nd time around too!

First Meal in the New Apartment...

Could it be anything other than Mexican?! erin and i have spent the last two weeks moving into our new apartment. We have have painting, carrying, decorating and unpacking for two weeks straight and we were in dire need of normalcy. Last night i really wanted to cook in my new kitchen...but i knew that my exhaustion called for something quick and delicious...HOMEMADE NACHOS!!

Our friends Molly and Nick introduced us to how simple it is to make your own nachos. you don't have to use that liquid cheese... or drizzle it on if you like! You simply add chips, whatever topping your heart desires and bake at 375 degrees until the cheese is melted. Normally erin and i each choose different chips. I love the Guiltless Gourmet chips but erin not so much. She is also a huge fan of jalapenos (I use maybe 2) and I love to add sauteed peppers and onions to my side!

We start off with a cookie sheet covered in foil (no pans to wash!) add our chips (i found a bag of Lays Light Rest. style tortilla chips that I have wanted to try), then we add 99% fat free vegetarian chili. We use to use turkey chili but for some reason it had a sweetness to it that erin didn't really care for, the veggie kinda was more to her liking. We added some canned seasoned tomatoes (they were seasoned with green chilies and mexican spices) added our own toppings and finish it off with reduced fat mexican cheese. Unlike fat free cheese the reduce fat actually melts rather well! Molly and nick make layers with theirs so that you get toppings through out the whole pile. we were far too hungry to be that careful!

They only took about 10-15 mins to melt up and we devoured them in approximately the same amount of time :).

Pumpkin Puree 101

I love using pumpkin in recipes, but I always forget to cook the pumpkin, as they make for lovely decorations, and before you know it...rotten :(. This year I made a point to buy a smaller pumpkin so i could cut it up and freeze puree to use in a homemade pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving! I also have a great recipe for squash bread where you can use any squash that you'd like!

One day while getting ready for work I thought: if a pumpkin takes an hour to cook and I take an hour to get ready...why not both get "ready" at the same time! I started by cutting the pumpkin into fourths and then scooping out the stringy insides and pulling out the seeds (for a later roasting job). I then lined a pan with foil and threw them all in the oven on 400 for 45 mins. The pumpkin ended up cooking over an hour before the flesh felt soft enough to take out (it should be soft to the touch). I later read on alot of blogs/sites that you can also season the pumpkin prior to cooking it (salt and pepper was the popular season of choice).

Once I took it out and let it cool for about thirty mins. I started pulling the skin off. It was really simple and the pumpkin just easily fell off. I recently read that many skins of fruits and veggies that we all throw away are actually edible and good for you. Most of us shy away from it due to the texture (can you imagine biting into a banana without peeling it :(. BUT I thought I would try the pumpkin skin because I have eaten acorn squash with the skin and I loved it. It was similar to that experience. No harm done, don't know if I would make a recipe on it. As you can see here there was plenty of skin that did not land in my mouth.

I had to rush off to work so I threw the pumpkin in a container and into the freezer it went...right now it's currently defrosting so that I can puree for use in about a week!!!

Countdown to cooking bonanza!

Bluegrass and Brews fest!

Erin and I recently (and by recent I literally mean this past weekend) signed for a new apartment. We are really excited about the move and what makes it even more exciting is one of our favorite discoveries since moving back to New England is located just five mins. away.

The Nashoba Valley Winery!

This past weekend they held a bluegrass and brews festival. Although they are are winery they also have a micro-brewery as well. We tasted some of their beer earlier this summer when we discovered the place and we vowed to make it back for this festival. It did not disappoint. I thought it was only appropriate with all the beer tasting we have been doing to add this to the blog!

When we came for the winery tour we were also offered taste of their beers for free!

Um..yes please!!! Erin strongly remembered like their Wattaquadock Wheat and I of course wanted to sample their seasonal brew, Oakotberfest! The darker of the two is the Oakotberfest. I really loved how light it was for being such an ambered colored beer. They were both really really good!

We went back for 2nds and decided to get another Wheat and a Bolt 117 Lager this time. I made erin drink most of these because I was driving! (that's my oakotberfest on the far left still not finished...I milked it!)

The day was amazing! The weather was warm but crisp and although I never thought I would like Bluegrass music it completely fit with the crowd and vibe of the festival. Erin and I were able to snag a great tall table on the winery porch which made for great people watching. I can't wait for more of their festivals!

Third Round of Pumpkin beer tasting...

So for our third pumpkin beer tasting (1st-Shipyard Pumpkin, 2nd-Smuttynose Pumpkin) we decided to try DogFish Pumpkin Ale. I have been wanting to try Pumking (brewed by Southern Tier Brewing Company,) for the longest time because I have heard great things about it...sadly our local amazing liquor store is always out!! (I guess that just proves how amazing it is).

There are so many seasonal/pumpkin beers to choose from that i assume not all of them are as tasty as the rest. One of our trips to the store a gentlemen felt highly compelled to let us know that DogFish Pumpkin was "the best pumpkin beer out there". We were familiar with this one as I often saw it in NYC on trips to WholeFoods. It comes in a four-pack and typically runs the same price as six-packs...hence why we normally skipped over that selection. Needless to say after attempting to find Pumking again, and failing, we opted to try the DogFish. (the picture is quite literal to that sentance!) I wasn't a huge fan (although obviously in the picture I am fine taking a big gulp :). It was good, and definitely had spice in it, but more of a fall spice than a pumpkin flavor. Erin agreed. She liked it as well but thought it was a bit "heavier" than some of the previous tries.

We drink our fair share of beer and always love to try new ones! I also believe "to each his own". what may taste like pumpkin to me may taste like fall foliage to erin...who knows.

Honestly...keep your fingers crossed we get to try pumking soon! Even BeerAdvocate rated it #1 pumpkin beer, who can argue with a beer advocate? :)

Butternut Bowties (or spirals) with a side of Pumpkin Cookie

So on my lovely Columbus Monday off I was lying in bed catching some Rachael ray and she featured a recipe called Butternut Bowties! I love her recipes because they are rather simple to create and always have alot of possible substitutions should someone be looking to cut down on calories and fat. On top of that she toted this one as a "healthy mac n cheese" alternative, and i love me some mac and cheese! Erin was even up to try it so I thought it was a must make.


I still had two butternut squashes leftover from our apple picking trip and I needed to do something quick with them before they rot! (funny fact: i read that squash can stay good for up to three weeks in a dark space...not so much for these ones I suppose. they already have a few questionable spots on them...). Since roasting the squash can take awhile I opted to do that on Monday morning and then have the squash puree needed for the recipe for whatever day of the week we wanted. It baked while I went running! When I returned i took it out and the skin peeled right off nicely. Prep work done.


Here is the recipe: Butternut Bowties


You can follow that link to see exactly how Rachael puts everything together. I wanted to list the ingredients so that I could offer my substitutions:

Ingredients
1 butternut squash, halved and seeds removed
1 tablespoon EVOO - Extra Virgin Olive Oil (skipped, just used cooking spray)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 box of bowtie pasta (I used whole wheat spirals)
2 tablespoons butter (nope)
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk (I switched to Fat Free Chicken broth which was a tip Rachael gave during the show)
A pinch of nutmeg
A pinch of cinnamon
5 to 6 sage leaves, thinly sliced (i only had dried on hand)
1 cup grated cheddar cheese (I used fat free cheese...more on that below)
1 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano (i used shaker parm, not as good but ALOT cheaper :)
A handful toasted almonds, to garnish (optional) (omitted, although I would probably love that)


Now a few words on my prep...I made the casserole ahead of time so that I could just pop it into the oven before we wanted to have dinner. It made a huge pan of pasta and I also added fresh broccoli to the dish to bulk it up (not that it needed it). I love fresh veggies so this was a no brainer. I think you could have add alot of different options.


So...sometimes I go a bit overboard with the substitutions and things just don't quite work out. In this case it was the cheese. Let me start by saying I really liked the dish, but the cheese didn't really melt that well which happens when the their is no fat!! I put the casserole in the oven for about twenty mins and when I checked on it the cheese looked as solid as can be! Another fifteen mins and when I took it out i realized that it was cooked through, the cheese just didn't melt all that well. Erin still said it was good but we both agreed that adding regular cheese would definitely make a difference!





Moving on to the dessert of pumpkin cookies. I made these last year after finding them on Eating Well. They are so moist and a mix of cookie/muffin consistency. I omit the oil and use applesauce and I would definitely recommend using the cake flour I think it makes a difference. Also I added the raisins but you could of course leave those out or add other things instead (cranberries, nuts: all sorts!). I used a tablespoon when scooping these to see if the recipe really made 3 1/2 dozen cookies...it did! exactly 42! They are little so feel free to indulge in several (erin and I did)!

Apple picking, autumn harvest and the first apple pie

Since October is such a short month i have already booked every weekend to maximize all that New England has to offer in the fall! I am sure you can you tell that I love apples?!! So Erin found this amazing apple picking farm call Honey Pot Orchards. It was a "must visit" on our To Do list for October. It was such a nice brisk fall day, sun shining and perfect for some apple picking fun. This farm also had homemade cider donuts, cider, pumpkin patches, animals (erin's favorite feature), hedge maze (that was actually quite tricky) and apple picking! We concluded our day picking apples because we knew that we wouldn't want to truck that bag around the farm. I also picked up some squash varieties to use later on in cooking.(i love squash as much as I love apples).
As soon as we got home I quickly took a little photo of our autumn harvest buys:
Those apples of course just represent two of the many in our bag!

Although I am known to cook healthy and substitute all fat out of my recipes, there are some that I just don't think I could bring myself to change...i.e. my mom's Apple Pie. Now I call it my mom's because growing up she is the one person who always made the apple pie at any function that called for it! Her pie crust is famous in my family...I kid you not! My mom can do alot of things well, and this is just one more on the list. This is one of the recipes, for whatever reason, that my mom and I now make together. I must say though I have yet to put out a crust that I think even comes close to hers...in looks and taste! She literally makes pies that should be shown in a magazine...mine...well you will see below :)!

Although I will always consider it my mom's recipe, some may also call it Betty Crockers Recipe. Whatever. I don't really have to follow the book anymore I pretty much know how its done. I went to work peeling, slicing, cinnamon and sugaring the apples...then the difficult crust. It always starts out so promising, and everyone has their own tricks they use, but it just seems I can't quite get it right. The dough always seems to split, or stick to the counter if I don't use enough flour. Ah well...like my mom says it taste the same going down!

One pointer that she sticks to is to try and not restart rolling alot. The more you handle it the easier it is to start crumbling or splitting.

Here's mine from pre-bake to cooked: (marked with an E for...erin of course!)

Do you like my piece it together edge there?

Now for one pointer of my own (also given to me by my mother :) If you can't do the fun wavy crust like the pros then you can cover the edge of your pie with tin foil until about 10-15 mins. are left to cook. That way the thinnest part of the crust doesn't burn and it all stays golden brown.

It was good going down...no matter what it looked like.