Categories
Cookies Dessert

Sugar cookies had me at ‘Jell-O’

Jell-O sugar cookies with Jell-O frosting can be made in every color of the rainbow.
Jell-O sugar cookies with Jell-O frosting can be made in every color of the rainbow.

A few months ago, Joey and I moved into a new house, and I must confess that my pantry is still an absolute mess.

I often reference my pantry in this column, but up until we moved, my “pantry” has always been a large, open bookshelf in my kitchen, so a lot of my food items are tucked into containers and baskets to give it all the semblance of organization.

Now I have an entire, floor-to-ceiling cabinet, and I haven’t quite figured out how to get it into a state I’m proud of yet.

While digging for some rarely used Christmas spices, I came across a stash of gelatin, which I totally forgot existed. I added it to another stack of Jell-O I already had, wondering how and why I had so many boxes of the stuff, when I don’t really use it all that often.

(If someone understands the finer points of gelatin reproduction, you might enlighten me.)

But, in following with my new resolve to rid my pantry of its overabundance, I found a recipe that let me use up two whole boxes of gelatin, which I was pretty excited about.

I found a cookie recipe on the blog “Family Cookie Recipes.” You can find it at https://familycookierecipes.com/jello-sugar-cookies/ .The author suggests a frosting recipe, too, but I decided to go a different direction. The frosting recipe I used came from “Little Delights Cakes.” You can find that one at http://littledelightscakes.com/jello-frosting/. The recipe author notes that sugar-free Jell-O shouldn’t be used for making this. My only changes were to add a bit more vanilla to the frosting and bring these two great recipes together.

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Jell-O Sugar Cookies

Jell-O sugar cookies with Jell-O frosting can be made in every color of the rainbow.
Course Dessert
Keyword colorful, cookies, frosting, gelatin, Jell-O

Ingredients

Cookie Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 ounces Jell-O any flavor
  • 3 eggs
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Frosting Ingredients

  • 3 ounces Jell-O any flavor
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 egg white
  • 1/2 cup boiling water

Instructions

  • For the cookies, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
  • Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth, and then beat in the Jell-O.
  • Beat the eggs in until the mixture is smooth, and then finish out by beating in the dry ingredients.
  • When everything is well-incorporated, scoop the dough by the tablespoon onto a prepared cookie sheet, spacing them about two inches apart.
  • Bake for 8 minutes or until the edges just start to brown.
  • Let the cookies cool completely before frosting them.
  • For the frosting, combine the Jell-O, sugar, vanilla and egg white in a mixing bowl and beat together until they’re well combined.
  • Add in the boiling water and beat the mixture for about 7 minutes to get the frosting nice and fluffy. To make it easier to spread on the cookies, refrigerate it for about 30 minutes to let it set up a bit.
  • Spread or pipe the frosting onto the finished cookies and store them in an airtight container. (Fair warning: this frosting is more like a whipped cream, so it won’t harden, and you won’t be able to stack the finished cookies.)

These were really good. I had an overabundance of strawberry gelatin, so that’s what I used for both the cookies and the frosting, but you could use any flavor combination that sounds good to you.

I also wondered if you could make two different colors and swirl the dough together to get a fun look.

It felt nice to get a couple items cleaned out of the pantry, but I’m still going to need to get to work on my food organization. There may be even more surprises just waiting to be discovered.

This piece first appeared in print on Jan. 2, 2020.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Dessert Microwave Snack

This no-bake recipe is just ‘mint’ to be

Andes mint baking chips are the star of these easy, no-bake bars.
Andes mint baking chips are the star of these easy, no-bake bars.

I suspect that one of my New Year’s resolutions this year is not quite compatible with most everyone else’s, mostly because it involves some treat making.

Joey pointed out that our freezer was starting to get a little ridiculously full of random ingredients I planned on using at a later date, so I started digging items out and realized he was definitely correct.

My pantry isn’t much better.

So one of my resolutions will be to actually use up the extra ingredients I have laying around and free up some space in the kitchen.

With that being said, if your resolution is to lose weight or eat better, you might want to avoid my column for a little while.

The first thing I decided to use up was a glut of Andes mint baking chips, and I found a great no-bake recipe to use them in.

I found this recipe on the blog “Inside BruCrew Life.” You can find the original at https://insidebrucrewlife.com/andes-mint-cookie-dough-truffle-bars/. I added extra vanilla in my version.

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Andes Mint Cookie Dough Truffle Bars

Andes mint baking chips are the star of these easy, no-bake bars.
Course Dessert, Snack
Keyword Andes mint, chocolate, cookie dough, no bake, truffle

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter softened
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon milk
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2, 10- ounce bags Andes mint baking chips divided
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons shortening

Instructions

  • Start by greasing an 8-by-8-inch baking dish and set it aside.
  • In a mixing bowl, beat the butter, sugars, vanilla and milk until the mixture is smooth.
  • Add the flour, cocoa powder and salt and beat until everything is well combined. It takes a little bit to get it completely mixed together. Mine started out looking really dry at first, and I was afraid I messed it up. Just keep mixing.
  • Set aside one cup of the Andes mint chips and fold the rest into the mixture. Press the mixture into your prepared pan.
  • In a microwave-safe bowl, combine the cup of mint chips and the shortening and microwave for 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between, until it is melted and smooth.
  • Spread it out over the top of the mixture in the pan and place the bars in the freezer to set up.
  • Once the topping hardens, cut into bars and serve.

The recipe’s author said she used to make this recipe but roll it into balls and dip it in chocolate. Making it in bar form instead made the process go a lot more quickly. I’d recommend putting these in your “I need to make treats but have no time to make treats” section of your recipe box.

These were a huge hit with my family and would be a great recipe for beginning cooks to tackle. I’m a massive fan of Andes mints, so I was extremely fond of these and had to try to stay away from them long enough to share them.

And now my freezer is two bags of baking chips lighter. I figure getting a head start on my New Year’s resolution in December isn’t a bad way to go. I’ll just have to get used to the fitness fanatics in my life avoiding me for a few months.

This piece first appeared in print on Dec. 26, 2019.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Side Dish

You’ll be sweet on these roasted potatoes

Roasted sweet potatoes have just the right amount of sweetness to be a nice addition to dinner.
Roasted sweet potatoes have just the right amount of sweetness to be a nice addition to dinner.

Despite it being the week before Christmas, I have yet to make my normal pile of sweets.

I generally bake at least a double batch of peppernuts, and there’s often something that requires melting almond bark in my double boiler and spreading waxed paper on every open counter space.

I actually have a variety of baking chips and some nuts already sitting out, ready to be mixed into some delicious treats, but I just haven’t gotten into my Christmas baking spirit yet.

But I did have some nice sweet potatoes sitting on my counter that I decided needed to be part of dinner this past week, which I suppose loosely counts as holiday cooking.

I wanted to make them as a side dish, and while I was a little nervous that the brown sugar in the recipe I chose would produce something more dessert-like, I was pleasantly surprised. It had just enough sweetness to highlight the flavor of the potatoes but not enough to make you feel like adding some whipped cream on top.

I found this recipe on the blog “Wine and Glue.” It’s by Lisa Longley. You can find it at https://www.wineandglue.com/brown-sugar-roasted-sweet-potatoes. This was such a simple, straight-forward recipe that I didn’t change it from her original. Also, don’t let the cayenne pepper make you nervous, it just enhances the flavors rather than making the overall dish spicy.

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Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Roasted sweet potatoes have just the right amount of sweetness to be a nice addition to dinner.
Course Side Dish
Keyword brown sugar, cayenne, cinnamon, roasted, sweet potatoes

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons butter or margarine melted
  • 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • salt to taste
  • 2 large sweet potatoes peeled and cut in half-inch cubes

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 450 and line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil for easy cleanup.
  • Dump the cubed potatoes and all the ingredients onto the pan and mix together with a spoon or your hands until the potatoes are evenly coated.
  • Spread the potatoes out evenly and bake about 20 minutes, stirring halfway through, until the potatoes are fork tender.

The caramelization on these sweet potatoes was really pretty, and while I rarely peel any kind of potatoes for recipes, I think that was a good step in this case.

We ate these alongside some perfectly cooked steaks, and it was a fantastic dinner. There were also leftovers that reheated well out of the fridge for a later meal.

I’m sure I’ll find myself mixing up plenty of sugar-filled treats sometime in the next few days, filling my plastic containers with all kinds of goodies to share.

The smell of anise, cloves and cinnamon filling the house is one of my favorite parts of the holidays. I wish you luck with your own holiday baking (and eating) and a very, merry Christmas.

This piece first appeared in print on Dec. 19, 2019.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Dessert Salad Side Dish

Recipe traditions can provide a ‘berry’ Christmas

This simple combination of ingredients is a beautiful addition to the family table for the holidays.
This simple combination of ingredients is a beautiful addition to the family table for the holidays.

This is the first year of major holidays our family will celebrate without my maternal grandparents. Thanksgiving was a tough transition to the new normal, and I know Christmas will be even more difficult.

When my paternal grandmother passed away several years ago, I began taking solace in using her pie pans every holiday season. Bringing them out of my cupboard always makes me feel close to her.

I employed the same strategy this Thanksgiving, baking pies in her pans, and then pulling out the handwritten recipe for cranberry sauce I asked my maternal grandma for only a year before.

In typical Grandma fashion, there were no measurements—although, to her credit, she wrote it down for me from memory while we sat chatting after dinner—but as I tentatively walked the aisles of my grocery store, wondering if I’d be able to decipher what she meant by a “tuna-sized” can of crushed pineapple, I discovered that her instructions were perfect.

She had given me just what I needed to recreate the cranberry sauce that graced her Thanksgiving and Christmas tables alike throughout my childhood.

So I wanted to share it with you this week. I added the measurements for the ingredients now that I have them figured out.

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Lola’s Cranberry Sauce

This simple combination of ingredients is a beautiful addition to the family table for the holidays.
Course Dessert, Salad, Side Dish
Keyword Christmas, cranberry, pineapple, Thanksgiving

Ingredients

  • 6- ounce package cherry gelatin
  • 8 ounces crushed pineapple
  • 14 ounces jellied cranberry
  • 1 cup diced celery

Instructions

  • Prepare the cherry gelatin according to package instructions. Once it is set up, proceed with the next step.
  • Drain the crushed pineapple well.
  • In a serving bowl, stir together all the ingredients. (It’s kind of fun to mess up a whole batch of perfectly set gelatin.)
  • Once everything is well-combined, serve or refrigerate covered overnight.

This has always been one of my favorite side dishes at our family get togethers. It’s certainly nothing fancy, and I don’t think it would win any culinary awards, unlike many of my grandma’s other recipes, but it tastes like the holidays to me.

My favorite way to eat it growing up (and I confess I may still employ this strategy), was to put a spoonful into the middle of a dinner roll and enjoy it like jelly.

I will warn you that the gelatin and jellied cranberry break down pretty quickly if you leave this sitting in the refrigerator for a few days, so it’s best to either stir it up the same day you plan to enjoy it or the night before.

I chopped my celery and mixed up the gelatin the night before so it was simple to throw together right before our meal.

And if you get some especially green celery, you’ll get perfect Christmas colors to add to the holiday table.

I’m still working on perfecting recipes from both of my grandmothers without the benefit of their help these days. It always makes me feel connected to them, even if I’m not always the best at recreating each dish.

Celebrating the holidays without loved ones is tough, but just like my grandma’s handwritten notes for cranberry sauce, the people we’ve lost often give us just what we need to keep going—whether we realize it or not.

This piece first appeared in print on Dec. 12, 2019.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish Soup

Leftovers may necessi’tater’ cooking some soup

Leftover mashed potatoes can be easily transformed into a creamy, filling soup.
Leftover mashed potatoes can be easily transformed into a creamy, filling soup.

Well, I can officially say I survived my first experience with hosting Thanksgiving dinner. 

I floated the idea a little over a week out from the big day to my mother-in-law, not wanting to step on her toes but also knowing she’s been extremely busy at work lately and could likely use a break from cooking all day—especially with family coming from out of state to stay with them.

And she took me up on my offer, which meant I took a deep breath, made an overly detailed list, and got to work.

The meal was a little late, since I wasn’t very good at timing out my side dishes on my first attempt, but everyone walked away full and seemingly happy, and it’s already been announced that the Young Family Thanksgiving meal is mine for the foreseeable future.

And while hosting is definitely an exhausting experience, it does have its benefits, namely: leftovers. While that’s arguably one of the best parts of Thanksgiving, it also gets tough to get creative with eating the same meal again and again over the next week, so I have an option for you if you, like I, had plenty of leftover mashed potatoes.

This is from the website “Thrifty Fun.” You can find the original post at https://www.thriftyfun.com/Leftover-Mashed-Potato-Soup-1.html. I added more seasoning to my version, but remember to take the amount of seasoning you did to your mashed potatoes originally into account when adding spices. I normally season my potatoes pretty simply with salt, pepper, milk and butter only. The amount of each of the ingredients depends on how much leftover mashed potatoes you have, but your rule of thumb is to add the amounts listed in the directions for evert two cups of potatoes. In my case, I had four cups leftover, so I doubled all those amounts as I made my batch of soup.

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Leftover Mashed Potato Soup

Leftover mashed potatoes can be easily transformed into a creamy, filling soup.
Course Main Course
Keyword bacon, leftovers, mashed potatoes, soup

Ingredients

  • Mashed potatoes
  • Milk I used skim
  • Chicken broth or vegetable stock
  • Butter or margarine
  • Celery salt
  • Garlic powder
  • Onion powder
  • Salt and pepper
  • Shredded cheese
  • Cooked crumbled bacon

Instructions

  • You will add the following ingredients to every two cups of mashed potatoes you have—do so in a large cooking pot—1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup broth, 4 tablespoons butter, 1 teaspoon celery salt, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon onion powder, salt and pepper to taste.
  • Place the mixture over medium heat, stirring regularly, until the soup is hot and creamy.
  • Serve with shredded cheese and crumbled bacon on top. (Cook up about a strip of bacon per bowl of soup you’re serving.)

This was a great belly warmer for a cold day’s dinner, especially paired with some leftover Thanksgiving cornbread.

And, ironically, if you have leftover soup, it reheats nicely, too, which is a nice bonus.

I’ll probably be making another batch of this soup in the coming weeks, since I, for some reason, made enough potatoes to feed the family four times over.

Cooking for Thanksgiving made me extremely thankful for all of the wonderful cooks who have provided that same spread for me over the years. It’s a lot of work, but seeing family enjoying themselves around the table makes the sore back and aching feet seem worth it.

This piece first appeared in print on Dec. 5, 2019.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Side Dish

Sometimes speed is what cooking is all a’sprout’

Caramelized sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts are a flavorful and colorful side dish.
Caramelized sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts are a flavorful and colorful side dish.

I recently found myself going on a whirlwind trip through the grocery store, quickly grabbing something to make for dinner on my way home from work.

Joey and I were all geared up to watch a basketball game, and I (of course) ended up getting caught in the office far later than I wanted. And (of course) I’d already volunteered to be the chef for the night.

I started in the meat section and found some amazing, thick pork chops, and then I hurried over to the produce area to try to come up with a side dish.

I normally avoid already prepared vegetables—mostly because I’m cheap, but I took a look anyway since I was in a hurry. I found a marked-down bag of already-washed Brussels sprouts and already-cubed sweet potatoes.

I pulled out my phone and quickly searched online for a “Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes” side dish and was thankful that the Internet is always at my fingertips, making it easy for me to know that a recipe was readily available when I got home.

The one I found came from the website “My Recipes” and was written by Robert Wiedmaier. You can find it at https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/caramelized-sweet-potatoes-brussels-sprouts. I added more garlic and changed up the instructions a bit.

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Caramelized Sweet Potatoes and Brussels Sprouts

Caramelized sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts are a flavorful and colorful side dish.
Course Side Dish
Keyword Brussels sprouts, garlic, sweet potatoes

Ingredients

  • 2 sweet potatoes peeled and diced
  • 1 pound Brussels sprouts halved
  • 6-8 cloves garlic minced
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 4 tablespoons melted butter
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil for easy clean up.
  • Combine all the ingredients on the baking sheet and mix with your hands to fully coat the vegetables in oil, butter and seasonings. Spread the vegetables out into as much of a single layer as you can.
  • Place in the oven for 25 minutes (or until they reach your preferred level of tenderness), stirring the vegetables halfway through.
  • Serve right away.

My vegetables ended up staying in the oven for about 10 minutes longer than the listed time, just because I tend to really like tender sprouts, but it was such an easy side dish to just toss in the oven while I was cooking my pork chops.

The original recipe calls for spreading them out on two rimmed sheets, which would probably make the cooking go a bit more quickly, but they weren’t very crowded on my single pan, so I didn’t bother with a second.

And I did end up not getting to see a bit of the first half of basketball while I was in the kitchen, but thanks to some quick, prepared veggies, I didn’t have to miss much, our guys sealed the victory, and we had a great dinner.

I’d call that a win.

This piece first appeared in print on Nov. 28, 2019.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Dessert

Baking pumpkin cake easier than pie

A pumpkin pie cake has all the flavors of a traditional pie with very little effort.
A pumpkin pie cake has all the flavors of a traditional pie with very little effort.

For the week before Thanksgiving, some friends of ours invited us to their house for a “Friendsgiving,” where we’ll all enjoy a big potluck meal together with a large group. This is the second year for the tradition, and we’re really looking forward to spending time with everyone while eating a great meal.

I will be taking pie this year, and it led to a discussion on the best Thanksgiving pies between Joey and myself.

Joey is a big advocate of pecan pie above all others. I tend to be one of those folks who will try a sliver of everything on the dessert table.

But one thing is certain, and that is that baking pies can get labor intensive pretty quickly. Although I’m a big fan of the process, I would guess I’m in the minority, so I decided to try a new recipe this week that might help those of you who want to bake something at home but don’t want to have to fiddle with pie crust this Thanksgiving.

This recipe came from the blog “The Country Cook.” You can find the original at https://www.thecountrycook.net/pumpkin-pie-cake/. I used just pureed pumpkin instead of pumpkin pie filling in my version and added extra spices.

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Pumpkin Pie Cake

A pumpkin pie cake has all the flavors of a traditional pie with very little effort.
Course Dessert
Keyword cake, cake mix, pie, pumpkin

Ingredients

  • 30 ounces pumpkin puree
  • 4 eggs
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon cloves
  • 1 box spice cake mix
  • 1 cup butter melted
  • 1 container vanilla frosting

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 9×13-inch baking pan by spraying the bottom with cooking spray and set aside.
  • In a mixing bowl, beat together the pumpkin, eggs, salt and spices until the mixture is smooth.
  • Beat in the cake mix and butter for two minutes until well combined, and then spread the mixture into the prepared pan.
  • Bake for 45 minutes or until the center doesn’t jiggle. (Don’t use the toothpick method. Since it’s a little pie-like, it won’t be a good indicator.)
  • Once the cake is cooled, spread the frosting on top and serve.

My entire house smelled just like I baked a fresh pie in my oven, which was a nice way to get in the mood for Thanksgiving, and it was an extremely easy recipe to complete. 

I’m still planning on making a pie for Friendsgiving this week, but this cake would fit in perfectly on any Thanksgiving dessert table without making anyone too disappointed.

Well, anyone but Joey, who would wonder why you bothered with making a pumpkin pie version of cake instead of figuring out how to do the same thing with pecans.

This piece first appeared in print on Nov. 21, 2019.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish Soup

Chicken mushroom soup is ‘chowder’ this world

Creamy chicken mushroom chowder is a hearty soup for a cold night's dinner.
Creamy chicken mushroom chowder is a hearty soup for a cold night’s dinner.

Thanks to this column, I’m constantly on the lookout for recipes I have never tried. If you look at a lot of food blogs and recipe books like I do, you’ll find several common words and phrases in the titles of recipes.

There are quite a few that include the descriptor “Amish” in the title, and while I’m not necessarily qualified to say what makes a recipe particularly Amish or not, there are some I wouldn’t peg as particularly authentic.

And, of course, people love making recipes that claim to be like “crack.” I’ve also always found that one strange, considering that the bios of most of these online chefs don’t seem to indicate drug problems on their end.

But this week, Joey and I ended up trying to figure out what makes a “chowder” a “chowder,” and after searching online quite a bit, I’m not sure if that isn’t just another random adjective cooks use. The only official explanation that seemed to show up more often than not was that a chowder must be cream based, but folks differed on that rule, too.

I found this recipe on the blog “The Chunky Chef.” You can find the original post at https://www.thechunkychef.com/creamy-chicken-mushroom-chowder/. I changed the amounts of some of the ingredients in my version. I also actually doubled the recipe below to give me some leftovers for the freezer.

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Creamy Chicken Mushroom Chowder

Creamy chicken mushroom chowder is a hearty soup for a cold night's dinner.
Course Main Course
Keyword chicken, chowder, mushrooms, potatoes, soup

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 small yellow onion diced
  • 3 carrots peeled and diced
  • 3 stalks celery diced
  • 8 ounces mushrooms sliced (I used baby bellas, but use what you like)
  • 6-8 cloves garlic minced
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 teaspoon thyme
  • 1/4- cup flour
  • 4 cups chicken stock or broth
  • 5 medium-sized red potatoes diced
  • 3 cups shredded or cubed chicken cooked
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2/3 cup heavy cream or half and half

Instructions

  • Heat the olive oil and butter over medium heat in a large pot.
  • Add the onions, carrots and celery and saute until they’re soft (about five minutes). Add the mushrooms and garlic and stir, cooking for about two more minutes.
  • Add the salt and pepper, thyme and flour and stir to soak up any liquid in the pan. Let the flour cook for about one minute.
  • Stir in the stock, making sure the scrape the bottom of the pot.
  • Add the potatoes, chicken and bay leaf and bring the soup to a very low boil. Let it cook for about 15 minutes or until the potatoes are to your desired tenderness, stirring occasionally.
  • Add the cream and let the soup simmer until it’s hot again.
  • Serve.

I went about this a little differently by boiling my chicken in the broth to cook it to start and making my veggies in a saute pan on the side. I did all the steps up to adding the broth in the saute pan and then dumped my veggies in with my cooked chicken that was already boiling in the stock pot.

If you do it that way, you will probably need to add a little water or more broth to the pot.

And while the recipe is called a chowder and does meet a lot of the definitions of what a chowder should be, I’m still not sure if everyone would agree.

What I can tell you is that I’m pretty sure it’s not Amish, it certainly doesn’t mirror any drugs I’m aware of, and it’s an extremely satisfying, good soup, especially when served with a thick slice of crusty bread.

I may never figure out what a chowder is, but it won’t stop me from eating seconds until I figure it out.

This piece first appeared in print on Nov. 14, 2019.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish

Be ready to fall for a casserole with autumn flavors

Fall casserole has squash, potatoes and spinach in addition to cheese and plenty of great herbs.
Fall casserole has squash, potatoes and spinach in addition to cheese and plenty of great herbs.

As the leaves began falling off the trees recently, I got the chance to spend some time with my now two-year-old niece.

She’s in love with being in the backyard, so we went outside for awhile, and she showed me the crunchy leaves laying in the grass.

She would carefully pick up each one she found, hold it where the two of us could both hear and then roll it in her hand, saying, “Crumple, crumple, crumple.”

Fall is my favorite time of year, especially when it comes to the squash and cinnamon and other warm flavors it immediately becomes in vogue to cook with.

In that vein, I found the perfect fall recipe by Andi Gleeson, which comes from the blog “The Weary Chef.” You can find the original at https://wearychef.com/fall-potluck-casserole-with-turkey-and-squash/. I changed up the spices and the amounts of some of the ingredients.

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Fall Casserole

Fall casserole has squash, potatoes and spinach in addition to cheese and plenty of great herbs.
Course Main Course
Keyword butternut squash, cheese, ground turkey, potatoes, spinach

Ingredients

  • 1.5 pounds butternut squash diced
  • 12 ounces frozen spinach thawed and drained
  • 1 1/2 rounded cup of frozen hashbrowns shredded or diced
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 small yellow onion diced
  • 1 pound ground turkey
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 6-8 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon dried basil
  • 1 teaspoon dried sage
  • 1 teaspoon dried parsley
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 1-1/2 cup milk I used skim
  • 1 cup shredded parmesan cheese divided

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
  • Prepare a 9×13-inch baking pan by coating it in cooking spray and set it aside.
  • Cut up the vegetables and make sure you squeeze all of the excess moisture out of the spinach. Combine the squash, spinach, and hashbrowns in a large mixing bowl and set aside.
  • In a skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat and saute the onions until they’re soft. Add the ground turkey and salt and pepper and cook through, crumbling it as you go. Add the garlic, oregano, basil, sage and parsley and saute for another couple of minutes.
  • Sprinkle on the flour and stir. Let it cook for about a minute to get rid of the flour taste and then add the milk, stirring to bring up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
  • Let the mixture simmer, stirring often, until it thickens into a gravy-like consistency.
  • Remove the turkey mixture from the heat and add it and one-half cup of parmesan cheese to the mixing bowl. Stir to combine all the ingredients and dump it into the prepared pan.
  • Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes.
  • Remove the foil and bake for another 20 minutes or until the squash can be pierced easily with a fork.
  • Spread the remaining cheese on the top and bake for about five more minutes to melt it, and then serve.

This was an amazing dinner, and as we were eating, we discussed how good it would be with a runny fried egg on top as well, which is how we ended up enjoying the leftovers the next morning for breakfast.

It would also be a great side dish on a Thanksgiving table, if you’re looking for something new.

And I’d especially recommend making this for dinner on a night when you can go outside and crumple leaves with a two year old.

It beats raking any day.

This piece first appeared in print on Nov. 7, 2019.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Dessert Snack

‘Hummus’ give a strange combination a try

Banana bread hummus is a surprising twist on the normally savory dip made with chickpeas.
Banana bread hummus is a surprising twist on the normally savory dip made with chickpeas.

When I’m searching for recipes, I sometimes stumble across ideas that seem so weird that I’m completely compelled to try them.

This week’s recipe is one of those: banana bread hummus.

I have made hummus quite a number of times, and it’s a favorite for us, especially when we’re setting up a snack table for guests.

Our normal recipe is a traditional one with tahini, olive oil and tons of garlic, served with carrots and pita bread, so the thought of a sweet hummus recipe threw me for a loop, but I also knew I had to give it a try if for no other reason to just say that I did.

So if you’re like me and enjoy trying weird, new ideas, this is the recipe for you.

This comes from the blog “Make the Best of Everything.” You can find the original post at https://makethebestofeverything.com/2015/09/banana-bread-hummus/. I added extra cinnamon and vanilla and left a hint in the recipe to sweeten the hummus up, if necessary.

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Banana Bread Hummus

Banana bread hummus is a surprising twist on the normally savory dip made with chickpeas.
Course Dessert, Snack
Keyword banana, chickpeas, cinnamon, hummus

Ingredients

  • 15.5- ounce can of chickpeas rinsed and drained
  • 2 tablespoons coconut oil
  • 2 ripe bananas
  • 3/4 cup walnuts roughly chopped, plus more for topping
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Instructions

  • Combine all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until it’s smooth. If the mixture isn’t quite smooth enough, add a little more coconut oil to get it to the consistency you like.
  • Also, I’d recommend taste testing this, and if your bananas weren’t quite sweet enough, you might add a little powdered sugar or a sugar substitute to sweeten it to your liking (I wouldn’t recommend regular sugar, since that might make it taste a bit grainy).
  • Top with some more walnuts and serve with vanilla wafers or animal crackers for dipping.

Truth be told, I don’t think banana bread hummus is going to be on my regular rotation for snacks, but we enjoyed it at a game night with friends. Also, any time I can get ahold of a reason to eat more vanilla wafers, I’m in.

It was a bit tough to get past the idea of eating a sweet dip made with chickpeas, I thought.

It also would be a good snack for someone looking for a wheat-free, egg-free option to enjoy the flavors of banana bread, especially if you can find a good gluten-free cookie to go with it.

I won’t be ready to give up on the classic garlic-y hummus any time soon, but it’s fun to go outside of your comfort zone with ingredients and see what you can do.

Sometimes, the results can be surprising.

This piece first appeared in print on Oct. 31, 2019.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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